Maximum PC - USA (2022-02)

AIR SUPREMACY
NO CASE FOR
MAXIMUM AIRFLOW.

Continuing with the
not -so-traditional
builds, we have
the Air Supremacy
machine. This wasn’ t
the most glamorous
build we have done,
but it wa s certainly
cool, in both senses of
the word.
What could possibly
be more efficient at
cooling than liquid
cooling? How about
an open machine with no
external case—this thing
breathes and feels alive.
However , if you are in a hot
room, you will still need an
actual cooler, so h elping out
further with the cooling duties
is the Noctua NH-L9i cooler,
which keeps everything nicely
under control.
Probably one of the best
thing s about this from a
builder ’s point of view was

$300 BUILD CHALLENGE

NO MONEY, NO PROBLEMS.

We don’t always splash the

cash —our builds are tailored

for all sorts of scenarios. Yes,

a fully -specced monster PC

will always have a market,

but how about a machine

that cost s less than a single

CPU? I n March 2017, it was

team Intel vs team AMD, and

though we broke the

initial $300 budget,

a respectable

$341 is still an

achievement.

No, i t won’t

blow your socks

off but t he best

thing is that

you can always

interchange

DREAM MACHINE ‘02
A SPEEDY DREAM MACHINE
CREATED WITH AUTOMOTIVE
INSPIRATION IN MIND.

There are many different
reasons why we build
certain PCs. There may be
performance targets to hit,
new parts to test out, budgets
to com e in under, or we may
simply have taken inspiration
from outside the PC universe.
The 2002 dream machine
ticks the performance box,
but it also draws inspiration
from the automotive industry,
specifically from one of the
automotive giants, BMW.
This 2002 speedy dream
machine seemed like a perfect
match to draw its inspiration
from the equally speedy
BMW 2002 Turbo, one of the
company’s most timeless
models. This stunning car
was finished in BMW’s Polaris
silver paint with the iconic M
Sport stripes to contrast and
we paint matched our dream
machine to this exact spec.
It’s fair to say that the Cooler

DREAM MACHINE ‘06

BOLD PERFORMANCE

WITH A BOLD PAINT JOB.

Custom paint jobs were a

big part of our builds and

throughout the years, we

have had quite a collecti on

to choose from. While every

dream machine is precious,

there’s just something

about th is one from 2006

that does it for us. Courtesy

of Smooth Creations, the

combination of orange, white

and black creates a bold

build and striking touch to the

Silverstone TJ09 chassis.

The case has a pretty

interesting solution to help

with the airflow. In the lower

portion, there is a large

ventilation chamber. Stick

a fan at the entrance and it

will suck cool air through the

chamber and into the side

vent , providing cooling lower

portions of the build.

The rest of the build is

equally impressive, and it

showcased the introduction

of a new Intel chip that aimed

to take back the throne from

team AMD back in the day.

Specifically, Intel’s then-new

Core 2 Extreme X6800, aka

“Conroe”. This 2.93GHz chip

swamped the Athlon 64 FX-62

on all the benchmarks and

was a real powerhouse chip

back then. As if the chip wasn’t

powerful enough, two XFX

GeForce 7900 GTXs in the

nForce 590 SLI Intel Edition

motherboard round ed off a

pretty speedy system. Paired

with that beautiful case, it

makes for an awesome rig.

Master ATC110 case came out

perfectly and paid a fitting

homage to the BMW classic.

Aesthetically it looks great,

but it wasn’t all about the

looks , and this beast certainly

had the performance to match.

An Intel Pentium 4 processor

that was overclocked to

2.8GHz and an ATI Radeon

9700 128MB card helped to

power this elegant beast.

With great inspiration and an

impressive power plant under

the chassis, what’s not to like

about this dream machine?

parts and upgrade down the

line. C onsist ing of a dual-core

Pentium G440 processor,

8GB’s of DDR4 @2400MHz,

and 275GB of SSD, it goes to

show you what you can achieve

under a tight budget.

Starting modestly also

provid es you with experience

of putting together a PC–and

once you start, you won’t stop.

how easy it was to piece

together. We all know the

struggles that come from a

small case, fiddly components,

and dropping screws into the

eternal pit of doom inside the

case. However, with no case,

this problem is eradicated.

Helping power this beast is

a respectable Intel i5-10600K

and Zotac GeForce 2080 Super.

Not only does it look epic, but

it runs pretty well too.

OCTOBER 2020

MARCH 2017

SEPTEMBER 2002

SEPTEMBER 2006

FEB 2022 MAXIMU MPC 55