
Nick Evanson
Nick, gaming, and computers all first met in 1981, with the love affair starting on a Sinclair ZX81 in kit form and a book on ZX Basic. He ended up becoming a physics and IT teacher, but by the late 1990s decided it was time to cut his teeth writing for a long defunct UK tech site. He went on to do the same at Madonion, helping to write the help files for 3DMark and PCMark. After a short stint working at Beyond3D.com, Nick joined Futuremark (MadOnion rebranded) full-time, as editor-in-chief for its gaming and hardware section, YouGamers. After the site shutdown, he became an engineering and computing lecturer for many years, but missed the writing bug. Cue four years at TechSpot.com and over 100 long articles on anything and everything. He freely admits to being far too obsessed with GPUs and open world grindy RPGs, but who isn't these days?
Latest articles by Nick Evanson

Best Amazon Prime Day PC gaming deals in the UK
By Jacob Fox last updated
Deals Amazon Prime Day 2025 is kicking off soon, and other retailers are sure to join the party with discounts of their own.

Doom: The Dark Ages gets path tracing for even better graphics but unless you've got an RTX 50 graphics card, it's not worth using
By Nick Evanson published
Pretty path pains The new built-in benchmarks are pretty neat, though.

Best SSD for gaming in 2025: the speediest SSDs I personally recommend
By Jeremy Laird last updated
Speedy storage Give your gaming PC a serious speed boost with the best SSD for gaming.

Windows Recall gets an export feature to let non-Microsoft websites and apps use your Copilot PC's snapshots
By Nick Evanson published
News But only if you live in the European Economic Area.

Latest beta version of Windows 11 gets the AI agent that Microsoft promised it would add: A search tool that works
By Nick Evanson published
News Just for Snapdragon X PCs at the moment, though.

The new Windows 11 Insider release has a weird bug where it plays the Windows Vista start-up music instead of the current one
By Nick Evanson published
News Cue memes along the lines of 'But why Vista?'

Stutters and hitches in Unreal Engine 5 games should become rarer over time due to Epic's continuous updates, but we'll still see them for a while because of the way games are made
By Nick Evanson published
News Yes, I know I sound like a stuck record here, but it's really not the engine that's at fault.

'225,000,000,000 attacks per day': Computer users and gamers are significantly more at risk of cybercrime than at any other time in the past
By Nick Evanson published
Cyber risk Fortunately, gaming companies and you, the humble PC gamer, can do plenty to help.

Best CPU coolers in 2025: I've tested the latest liquid coolers and air coolers to find the very best for your CPU
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.

I think it's a safe bet The Witcher 4 will run just as well as its tech demo after talking with UE5 devs and analyzing Unreal Fest tech data
By Nick Evanson published
That unreal witcher The devil is in the details. The Nanite-shaped, Lumen-lit devil in this particular case.

Best PC controllers in 2025: the pads I recommend for PC gamers
By Dave James last updated
Total control Grab one of the best PC controllers for when your keyboard and mouse simply won't do.

Best external hard drives in 2025: the storage media I'd take on my own gaming adventures
By Nick Evanson last updated
TB on the go Grab one of the best external hard drives to increase your storage space or backup your PC.

Best liquid cooler for CPUs in 2025: I've tried all the best AIO coolers and these are my top picks
By Jacob Ridley last updated
Wetware These are the best liquid chip chillers to suit all budgets, form factors, and processors.

8BitDo Ultimate 2 Wireless Controller Review
By Nick Evanson published
Almost ultimate 8BitDo's ultimate Ulimate controller isn't quite as ultimate as it could be, but it's pretty close.

Kinesis mWave ergonomic keyboard review
By Nick Evanson published
Ergo introduction The affordable and mechanical alternative to Microsoft and Logitech's ergonomic keyboards.

The best left-handed mouse for gaming in 2025: The top ambidextrous and mirrored rodents for the southpaw PC gamer
By Dave James last updated
Lefties Shopping for the best left-handed mouse for gaming doesn't have to mean wading through right-handed options that might just work.

It's not an April Fool's joke anymore: Zotac goes ahead with its 'gamer fragrance' perfume, for a limited few, for a limited time
By Nick Evanson published
News Clean, woody, and aquatic. Doesn't shout 'gamer' to me.

'MSI Afterburner is a bit PowerColor Afterburner now' as the dev had to buy another manufacturer's GPU to build support for AMD's RDNA 4 graphics cards into the next beta
By Nick Evanson published
News No MSI RDNA 4 cards means no MSI RDNA 4 hardware for the Afterburner dev.

Lian Li's new Hydroshift AIO cooler doesn't work properly on some motherboards but it will send you a replacement part if you can't get around the issue in the BIOS
By Nick Evanson published
News The key detail here is that not all motherboard fan headers are the same.

Switch 2 teardown shows that Nintendo hasn't learned a single lesson from the OG Switch when it comes to repairing it
By Nick Evanson published
News Glue and stickers akimbo, with too many bits soldered directly to the main motherboard.

The Witcher 4's leafy glory is all down to Epic's Nanite Foliage, and largely so is the fact it can run ray-traced at 60 fps on a lowly PS5
By Nick Evanson published
That level of performance on an aging console suggests good things for the PC version.

A graphical history of id Tech: Three decades of cutting-edge graphics and game engine technologies
By Nick Evanson published
30 year tech It's not just about Doom. Okay, it's mostly about Doom.

Elden Ring Nightreign PC performance analysis: A bare-bones console port with glitches a-plenty
By Nick Evanson published
Bare bones Elden Ring's back. So is the 60 fps cap, GPU underutilisation, and random stuttering.
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