Maximum PC - USA (2022-06)

PSU

NZXT C

80+GOLD

PSU

WWW.NZXT.COM

CASE

CORSAIR ICUE

5000T RGB MID-

TOWER ATX

WWW.CORSAIR.COM

STORAGE

XPG GAMMIX

S70 2TB M.

PCIE 4.0 SSD

WWW.XPG.COM

MEMORY

32GB (2X16GB)

CORSAIR

VENGEANCE

DDR5-

WWW.CORSAIR.COM

GPU

ASUS ROG

STRIX

GEFORCE RTX

3080 OC 10GB

WWW.ASUS.COM

CPU

INTEL

CORE

I9-12900K

WWW.INTEL.COM

MOTHERBOARD

MSI MEG Z

UNIFY GAMING

MOTHERBOARD

ATX

WWW.MSI.COM

CASE LIGHTS

CORSAIR

ICUE LC

CASE

ACCENT

LIGHTING

PA N E L S

STARTER KIT

WWW.CORSAIR.COM

To keep all this power under

control, we have NZXTs C

PSU to add to our build. This

850W 80+Gold power supply

is an efficient unit to maintain

all of the high-performance

components we have, plus

the liquid cooling reservoir

and pump combo. With a

modular design and plenty of

connections around the back,

it’s a well-rounded PSU.

• RRP: $ 129


• Street price: $

Go big or go home? Well, let’s

just say we didn’t go home.

When liquid cooling for the

first time, the more room the

better. This Corsair 5000T

case has more than enough

room for efficient airflow,

heat dissipation, and space

to maneuver inside. It does

all this without looking like a

slab. The case features iCUE

lighting strips around and

in the white color scheme, it

should pair up nicely with our

water cooling gear.

• RRP: $ 399


• Street price: $

For our primary storage,

we’ve chosen XPG’s super

speedy GAMMIX S70 SSD,

specifically the 2TB version.

This has great sequential

performance and a quad-lane

PCIe 4.0 interface making it

a more than capable storage

hub for this liquid-cooled PC.

In hindsight, we should have

opted for the blade variant

without the pre-installed

heatsink, but it’s ok!

• RRP: $ 329


• Street price: $ 239

Visually, not much has

changed from DDR4 to DDR5,

but is that such a bad thing?

We’ re excited about the

potential the new generation

has to offer. These Corsair

Vengeance sticks can reach

speeds of up to 5200MHz and

32GB, making it a powerful

kit of RAM to add to the build.

• RRP: $


• Street price: $

With prices falling on

GPUs, it’s a better time

to pick one up. This OC

variant of Asus’s RTX

3080 is a very powerful

graphics card that will be

more than enough to push

this machine to gaming

excellence. It features

10GB of GDDR6X and in

OC mode it has speeds

of 1935 MHz. The GPU

also has an impressive

heatsink, although we’ll be

upgrading this via liquid

cooling.

• RRP: $


• Street price: $1,

The 12900K is a mighty

speedy chip and features

a big architectural change

for Intel. With a hybrid

form containing 16 cores

equally split between

performance-oriented

foreground cores and

background efficiency

cores, it aims to achieve

the best of both worlds.

The chip includes out-

of-the-box, one-click

overclocking that can

achieve frequencies of up

to 5.2 gigahertz and is a

super-solid processor to

fit into our build.

• RRP: $


• Street price: $

MSI’s monster ATX mobo

has a plethora of top-end

connectivity. With lightning

Gen 5 PCIe, DDR5 support,

and five M.2 connectors,

you can spec this board up

to extreme levels. If you’re

going for a 12th gen Intel chip

and you’ re switching from

DDR4 to DDR5, this mobo

make s a great choice for

futureproofing.

• RRP: $


• Street price: $

To finish things off in the

case, we’re trying out

Corsair’s new iCUE LC

accent lights. These

magnetic modular panels

stick together and connect

to the SATA cable from

the PSU. You can create

3D shapes or mold them

around your case to add a

bit more glow to your build.

• RRP: $


• Street price: $

watercooling

18 MAXIMU MPC JUN 2022