MaximumPC 2005 06

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IN THE

MASSIVELY MULTIREADER

JU LY ISSUE OF

COMING

MAXIMUMPC

In/Out

THE ULTIMATE DO-IT-

YOURSELF SUPER ISSUE!

If you’ve ever wondered how

to do it, chances are you’ll find

it in our biggest How-To issue

ever. Access the “hidden”

Internet using specialized search

engines... throttle up your mobile

web browsing... turn your USB

key into a life-saving travel kit...

discover the application that

power users rely on to remove

the most tenacious of spyware...

wall-mount your LCD... fix a bent

CPU pin with a common house-

hold gadget—and oodles more!

If you pass up this issue,

you’re not getting the most out

of your PC; in fact, you might as

well be using a Mac!

GAMING NOTEBOOK ROUNDUP
We asked the biggest names in notebook
computers to heave their biggest, bad-
dest, and brawniest game rigs in our
direction. Can these top-shelf portables
chew through top-shelf games like
Half-Life 2 as easily as they can crunch
numbers? Come back next month for the
benchmarks and the official verdicts.

64-BIT WINDOWS FAQ
Guess who’s got the answers to your
questions about the mighty era of 64-bit
computing? You betcha—we do, and
we’re spilling the beans on the hardware,
the software, the privileges, and the
pitfalls of the desktop revolution that’s
almost upon us.

NEXT MONTH

app to compact our Registry. For

that reason, we usually recom-

mend that readers purchase

stand-alone versions of the utili-

ties they need.

SLOW DOWN, WILL YA?

With regard to your Quick

Start story “nVidia Opts

out of Incremental Upgrade

Cycle” [April 2005], I

think that’s a long-awaited

happening. Nothing

aggravates me more than

going out and buying a new

product that’s rated to be

the best performer available,

and returning home from

the store to discover that

its replacement was just

released, and the product

I just bought is no longer

the best available. With

Intel introducing a whole

new crop of CPUs that

aren’t compatible with the

motherboard chipsets it only

just recently shipped, the

tech industry is rendering

the entire notion of

upgradeability a myth.

—JOE ZINSKIE

OVERCLOCKING AIN’T

ALWAYS COOL

In the “Chill Out with Water

Cooling” article in the

May issue, you compared

four internal water-cooling

solutions based on their

cooling performance, ease

of installation, overclocking

potential, and noise level.

Corsair’s COOL water-cooling

kit scored the highest in

cooling performance, was the

second-easiest to install, and

gave reasonable noise output.

Being the most efficient

water-cooling solution in this

roundup, we are disappointed

that the overclocking

potential was not fully

unleashed. The degree of

CPU overclocking is directly

proportional to the degree

of cooling achieved. The

overclocking results should

perhaps be re-evaluated. It is

hard to understand how the

coolest solution can be the

least-impressive overclocker.

—VIVIAN CHEN

PARTNER DEVELOPMENT

MANAGER

CORSAIR MEMORY

ASSOCIATE EDITOR JOSH

NOREM RESPONDS: We were

surprised enough by the results

during our testing that we dou-

ble-checked them on the spot. In

theory, the temperatures afford-

ed by the water-cooling kits

should have a direct correlation

with overclocking potential,

but in the real world this isn’t

always the case. Because the

correlation between CPU tem-

peratures and overclocking suc-

cess fluctuated quite a bit, we

decided to weigh other factors

more heavily than the overclock-

ing success when rendering our

final overall verdicts. ■

FOOLIN’ WITH WATER COOLIN’

Your water-cooling feature in the May issue

(“Chill Out with Water Cooling”) raised

two questions for me: First, the distilled-

water additives used in many of the kits

sound a lot like the coolant

that’s used in automobiles.

I have a Zalman Thermal

1, which is manufactured

from aluminum, copper,

brass, and who knows

what else. I was thinking

of replacing my distilled

water with a mixture of H2O

and Prestone. What do you

think? Second, I’m in the

process of installing water

blocks for both the north

and south bridge chipsets.

Which direction should the

water flow? Downhill is always a safe bet,

but should it flow to the CPU first, and

then to the north and south bridges, or

should I pump it in the other direction?

—CHRIS KAUFMAN

ASSOCIATE EDITOR JOSH NOREM RESPONDS:

Yes, the additive used in water-cooling kits

is very similar to automotive coolant—it’s

anti-corrosive and might also improve the heat-

exchange properties of distilled water. Although

we haven’t tested any kits with Prestone, per

say, based on the information presented on the

Prestone website, its 50/50 product sounds like

just the ticket: It consists of 50 percent anti-cor-

rosion coolant and 50 percent distilled water.

Never, ever use regular tap

water, because it contains

minerals and chemicals

that will leave deposits

in the water-cooling

circuit, limiting the kit’s

performance and overall

lifespan. Always use dis-

tilled water (also called

de-mineralized water).

As for your second

question, you should send

the coolest water to the

hottest component first,

and then have it flow to

the next-hottest component, preferably in a

downhill fashion to aid in water flow. If you’re

going to cool both your CPU and your core logic

(although we don’t think the chipset generates

enough heat to warrant the time, money, and

effort), you should route the coolant directly

from the radiator to the CPU, from the CPU to

the north bridge, from the north bridge to the

south bridge, and from the south bridge back

to the pump.

10 MA XIMUMPC JUNE 2005