BRUCE LEE PROBABLY wasn’t referring
to liquid cooling when he made his
famous water quote above, but this
issue of Maximum PC makes a strong
case for water’s merits in PC cooling. I
have to admit, water cooling was a bit
of a blind spot for me personally, having
only ventured into AIO CPU coolers
rather than creating any custom loops.
So when Zak Storey, previously of this
parish (and now of Corsair), offered
the Maximum PC team a water cooling
hands-on tutorial using the company’s
XH303i kit, I jumped at the chance.
Thanks to Zak’s excellent tuition,
I soon realized there was nothing to
be afraid of. While I may not yet be
the most accurate at tube bending,
I was rigging up reservoirs to radiators
and flushing water around the system
in no time. Sam, who went on to build
the final PC for this month’s cover build,
had a full system up and running a
day and a half later. Not only that, but
it looks fantastic and is deathly quiet,
even under load. You too can create your
own water-cooled system by following
our guide on page 16. I do hope that, like
me, you end up giving it a go.
Alongside Sam, I was building a
machine of my own, this one made up
of MSI’s latest and greatest PC tech.
I’d spoken to the company about some
of their latest products, including the
Sakira 100R case (reviewed on page
89) and its first SSD, the Spatium
M480 Play. The manufacturer was
offering so much of its 2022 PC
component lineup that I decided to
try an all-MSI Build It for this issue.
I now have more MSI gear than even
its own sponsored eSports teams.
So, was it easier to build with just one
manufacturer? Find out on page 66.
Also this month, I’ve been poring
over more spreadsheets than even the
biggest accounting nerds, thanks to
Jarred Walton’s epic GPU feature onpage 26. Jarred has compiled specs
and benchmarks of all the major
graphics cards released in the past
eight years, not only to demonstrate
how far Nvidia and AMD have come,
but also to make sure you get the
right card, no matter the price point.
It’s the most meticulously researched
feature I’ve seen in my many years as
an editor, and full of the sort of insight
you only get when you’ve dedicated your
professional life to all things graphics
tech, as Jarred has.
Meanwhile, Jeremy Laird reviews
a new Alienware OLED this issue (is it
worth upgrading from an LCD? Find out
on page 78). This leads nicely onto his
feature on page 48, covering the current
state of the monitor market. Most of
us have moved on to high refresh rate
displays, but should we be looking
at new screen tech, wider formats,
more pixels, improved connectivity,
or anything else? Jeremy breaks it all
down and tells you what you should be
looking for in your next screen.
Finally, I love getting your feedback
(good or bad), so please send your
thoughts to [email protected].
Each issue, I pick a few choice queries
and answer them as best I can, so turn
to page 94 to see if yours has been
selected. I’m also keen to get your tech
questions answered by our resident
expert, so if you’re encountering bugs,
suffering from a slowdown, or need a
problem solving, get in touch with us at
[email protected].
Enjoy the issue!BE WATER, MY FRIEND
Guy
Cocker
↘ submit your questions to: [email protected]
Guy is Maximum PC’s Editor-in-Chief.
He built his first gaming PC in 1997 to
play Tomb Raider on 3dfx, and has been
obsessed with all things PC ever since.a thing or two about a thing or twoJUN 2022 MAXIMU MPC 7
editorial
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