Boosting security

Keeping your PC secure has never been more important

Welcome to the May issue of PC Advisor. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think too hard about PC security these days. I run anti-virus on all my PCs and rarely hear from it, unless it needs a major version update. However, as you’ll read on page 64, the landscape has changed radically from when viruses were the main threat. Security should be at the forefront of your mind more than ever, because these days it’s your personal information that’s at risk, not just the files on your hard drive. Modern internet security suites do a whole lot more than blocking viruses, and you’d do well to read the reviews and decide if your current protection is good enough.

This month we’ve also put a bunch of the latest budget graphics cards through their paces to find out whether you really need to spend the equivalent of a new Xbox or PlayStation to play 3D games on your PC. And the good news is you don’t. For less than £100, you can upgrade your PC with an AMD or nVidia card that will cope with the latest titles – perhaps not at their maximum quality – but far better than your current graphics card. Plus, since most take their power from the slot on your motherboard, you shouldn’t need to upgrade anything else. Turn to page 70 to find out which card to buy.

We’ve also been busy – as ever – reviewing the latest PCs, laptops, smartphones and tablets, plus all the gadgets that go along with them, including the best all-in-one inkjet printers, so if your printer needs replacing, turn to page 60 to see what’s on offer for under £100.

Among the great tutorials starting on page 108, you’ll find our guide to streaming content from your PC to a TV, so you can watch videos and photo slideshows from your hard drive or online. If you want to play PC games on your TV there’s a solution to that, too, in the form of NZXT’s new Doko streaming box: you’ll find the full review on page 45.