Jacob Ridley

Jacob Ridley

Managing Editor, Hardware

Jacob earned his first byline writing for his own tech blog. From there, he graduated to professionally breaking things as hardware writer at PCGamesN, where he was one half of a popular weekly YouTube show. He would go on to run the team as hardware editor before joining PC Gamer's world-class staff as senior hardware editor. Today, he's managing editor of the hardware team, and you'll find him spending his days reporting on the latest developments in the technology and gaming industries. He's found reporting from floors, benches, and, if he's lucky, plush press rooms at the biggest tech shows, such as Computex and CES. But more often than not he's hunched over the office test bench evaluating the newest PC components.

When he's not writing about GPUs and CPUs, you'll find Jacob trying to get as far away from the modern world as possible by wild camping.

Latest articles by Jacob Ridley

Two PC cases on a grey background with the PC Gamer recommends badge in the upper right corner.

The best PC cases in 2025: These are the chassis I'd use for my next gaming build

By Jacob Ridley last updated

Best Case You'll want the best PC case if you're building your perfect gaming PC.

Best Case
A collage of M.2 SSDs from Lexar and Western Digital against a gradient blue background, with a PC Gamer Recommended logo in the corner

Best M.2 SSDs for gaming in 2025: my top picks for blazing fast storage

By Jeremy Laird last updated

High speed Our choices for the best NVMe M.2 SSDs give you blisteringly fast load times.

High speed
Two webcams pictured on a blue gradient background with a PC Gamer Recommended badge.

Best webcams in 2025: the 1080p and 4K webcams I recommend for gamers and streamers

By Jacob Ridley last updated

Look Your Best These are the best webcams for streaming and video calls.

Look Your Best
A college of video capture cards against a gradient blue background with a PC Gamer Recommended logo in the corner

Best capture cards for PC gaming in 2025: whether it's streaming, recording, 1080p or the big 4K, these cards have you covered

By Jacob Ridley last updated

Broadcast Show off your greatest gaming moments with the best capture cards.

Broadcast
US President Donald Trump holds a chart as he delivers remarks on reciprocal tariffs during an event in the Rose Garden entitled "Make America Wealthy Again" at the White House in Washington, DC, on April 2, 2025.

Semiconductors are exempt from Trump's massive 32% tariff on Taiwan though PC gamers will still feel the heat

By Jacob Ridley published

News President Trump says TSMC is "one of the great companies of the world" as he praises the chipmaker for investing in the US. But other companies are not so lucky.

News
A collage of gaming desks from Ikea and Secretlab against a gradient green background, with a PC Gamer Recommended logo in the corner

Best gaming desk in 2025: my top picks for standing, sitting and everything in between

By Dave James last updated

Top Desks We've chosen the best gaming desks based on hours of playing on both sitting and standing desks just to see which is worth your money.

Top Desks
A gaming PC sat on a desk with purple RGB lighting on the fans and light bar enabled.

This nearly budget gaming PC build made me realise availability is just as important as affordability when building a cheap machine

By Jacob Ridley published

Budget-ish A budget part is only as good as its price on the shelf.

Budget-ish
A Gigabyte RTX 5070 Ti Eagle OC Ice on a desk and installed in a gaming PC.

Gigabyte RTX 5070 Ti Eagle OC Ice review

By Jacob Ridley published

Spenny With a huge price premium over MSRP models, I'm struggling to see why you'd spend so much on this RTX 5070 Ti Eagle OC Ice.

Spenny
An MSI RTX 5080 in white installed in a gaming PC.

MSI GeForce RTX 5080 Ventus 3X OC White review

By Jacob Ridley published

Price problem Can you look past a price tag?

Price problem
Amazon Prime Day deals scattered on a blue background.

Best Spring Prime Day PC gaming deals in the UK

By Dave James last updated

Prime Day Deals Amazon's Spring Deal Days are kicking off tomorrow, but there are deals everywhere right now.

Prime Day Deals
Secretlab NeueChair and Office Star ProGrid gaming chairs on a grey background with PC Gamer recommended logo

Best office chairs for gaming in 2025: The top seats for work and gaming that I've tried and tested

By Dave James last updated

Take a seat Take care of your spine with the best office chairs for gaming.

Take a seat
Packaging for Intel Core i5 13400F and AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D on a green background with a PC Gamer Recommended logo

Best CPU for gaming in 2025: these are the chips I recommend for gaming, productivity, and peace of mind

By Jacob Ridley last updated

Happy Cores Fire up your rig with the best CPU for gaming. More cores, more clocks, more of everything that matters.

Happy Cores
A collection of wireless gaming mice from Logitech, Razer, and Turtle Beach against a green gradient background, with a PC Gamer recommended logo in the corner

Best wireless gaming mouse in 2025: These are the rodents I love getting my mitts on

By Dave James last updated

Unbound Let go of the tethers and embrace the freedom of living life cable-free.

Unbound
Razer DeathAdder V3 HyperSpeed and Logitech G502 X on colourful background

Best gaming mouse in 2025: I've tested the very best mice and these are my top picks

By Dave James last updated

Pinpoint The best gaming mouse for every game, budget, grip, and size.

Pinpoint
Asus ROG Strix Scope II 96 Wireless and Keychron Q3 Max on grey background

Best gaming keyboards in 2025: the fastest, smoothest and loveliest boards I've tested

By Jacob Ridley last updated

Keyed in The best gaming keyboards have it all: style, ergonomics, and of course, the most satisfying clickity clacks.

Keyed in
Sennheiser HD 550 on a white box.

Sennheiser says it 'will not become a gaming brand' but its new HD 550 are a good excuse to use audiophile headphones for gaming

By Jacob Ridley published

News The only issue is the price… of the HD 650.

News
The best wireless gaming keyboards

Best wireless gaming keyboard in 2025: my top picks for cable-free typing delights

By Jacob Ridley last updated

Freedom Cut the cord with the best wireless gaming keyboards.

Freedom
Screenshots from Half-Life 2 RTX, showing the various new effects delivered by full ray tracing and enhanced assets.

The Half-Life 2 RTX demo is out now and well worth a go… if your graphics card can take it

By Jacob Ridley published

News Two levels are available to play in Half-Life RTX right now: Ravenholm and Nova Prospekt.

News
Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro earbuds on a black desk with various handheld gaming PCs.

Soundcore Liberty 4 Pro earbud review

By Jacob Ridley published

Budding Massively customisable, tiny earbuds.

Budding
Screenshots from Half-Life 2 RTX, showing the various new effects delivered by full ray tracing and enhanced assets.

I just played Half-Life 2 RTX, a fully ray-traced overhaul of the original, and its meaty headcrabs have me hankering for more

By Jacob Ridley published

Gordon's back It's time to dust off the ol' crowbar.

Gordon's back
Recently appointed Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan.

Here comes Intel's new CEO: a semiconductor veteran that won the same prestigious award as Jensen Huang and Lisa Su

By Jacob Ridley published

News Lip-Bu Tan has a degree in physics, a masters in nuclear engineering, and won the semiconductor industry's top award, the Robert N. Noyce award.

News
An air cooler from Noctua and a liquid cooler from Arctic on a blue background with the PC Gamer Recommended badge in the upper right.

Best CPU coolers in 2025: I've loaded liquid and air coolers onto today's top processors and these are my favorites

By Jacob Ridley last updated

Cool Breeze Our picks for the best CPU coolers will have your processor running cool with air or liquid during the hottest gaming sessions.

Cool Breeze
Be Quiet and Noctua CPU air coolers on an orange background with the PC Gamer Recommends badge in the upper right hand side.

Best air cooler for CPUs in 2025: keep your processor chilled with one of these budget-friendly and capable coolers

By Jacob Ridley last updated

Air dried Quiet, reliable and affordable—why not consider a CPU air cooler in 2025?

Air dried
An Elgato Key Light Neo and Govee Strip Light 2 Pro on a grey background with the PC Gamer recommended logo in the top right.

The best desk lighting in 2025: my recommendations for key lights and lightstrips to illuminate your gaming set-up

By Jacob Ridley last updated

Light it up! Whether making your Twitch stream more professional or aiming for an ambient office environment, I've got the best lighting kits for your PC covered.

Light it up!
RTX 4070 Super and RTX 5070 graphics card, with another graphics card in the foreground

After a run of RTX 50-series launches with seemingly little availability and mega price tags, I'm left wondering 'is that it?'

By Jacob Ridley published

If this is what a GeForce GPU launch is meant to look like from here on out, it's tough to get too excited about new products.

Graphics Cards
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