Guy
Cocker
THE TIME OF OUR LIVES
Guy is Maximum PC’s new 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.↘ submit your questions to: [email protected]
AS PC ENTHUSIASTS, we’ve never had it
so good. I know, that’s a bold statement
for a new editor to make after two
years of component shortages, inflated
graphics card prices, and general
stagnation in CPUs. “The new guy is
crazy! Burn the heretic!” I hear you cry.
But allow me to explain...
First of all, there’s finally some
genuine competition in the CPU
space. Intel’s 12th generation chips,
particularly the i5-12400, offer
incredible price-to-performance
and bring real competition to AMD’s
dominance in the low-to-mid-range.
Look out for our next issue when we’ll
be building an amazing system around
this chip, redefining the mid-range
gaming desktop in the process.
Not to be outdone, AMD looks set to
build on its momentum in the laptop
sector with new Zen 3+ chips featuring
RDNA2 graphics. If successful, these
chips promise to redefine what laptops
can do without discrete graphics,
delivering decent gaming performance
at 1080p. We examine how the two
major chip manufacturers compare
with their 2022 portable efforts in our
news section on page 8.
Then there are early signs of GPU
demand returning to some sense of
normality, thanks to budget cards, such
as the RTX 3050, and scalpers enjoying
less of the ridiculous premiums they
once were. We’ll have a full review of
the RTX 3050 in the next issue, with
AMD’s equivalents also arriving in our
labs soon. Hopefully later this year,
Intel should also have something to say
in the graphics space, and for the first
time in years, we might have a three-
horse race in this market.
Back in the here and now, my
excitement also stems from having
overseen a hell of a first issue. We set
our writer Sam Lewis a particularly
demanding task for the cover feature—build a great PC for under $600. Not
only did he rise to the challenge, but he
also did it in style, creating a PC that
chews through everyday tasks—and
looks great while doing it.
I also read Neil Mohr’s Home Theater
feature this month with a mixture of
intrigue and despair. Intrigue, because
it covers all the projectors, screens, and
automation tools you need to beat your
local multiplex, but despair because it
put my own lockdown project of wall-
mounting an OLED to shame.
I’ve only been here for a month, but
I’ve already read plenty of letters from
readers who love our future-gazing
pieces. If that’s you, check out Jeremy
Laird’s fascinating feature on Moore’s
Law. It felt as though chip makers
had been falling behind the famous
computing law of late, but Jeremy finds
it’s quite the opposite. And that’s before
we even get into Quantum Computing.
One of the more shocking events
in the industry this year is the rate
of consolidation. We’re only a few
months into the year, and already tens
of billions have been spent acquiring
games companies in deals that have
rocked the industry. While console
owners might rightly be concerned by
the Microsoft-Activision deal, I think
it’s a good thing in the short term for
PC gamers, especially if you’re a Game
Pass subscriber. Read our breakdown
and what it all means on page 10.
As I said, there’s never been a better
time to be into all things PC. Thanks for
joining us for the ride! All the best,a thing or two about a thing or twoMAR 2022 MAXIMU MPC 7
editorial
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EDITORIAL
Editor-in-Chief: Guy Cocker
Staff Writers: Christian Guyton, Sam Lewis
Contributing Writers: Jeremy Laird, Chris Lloyd, Ian Evenden,
Jarred Walton, Nick Peers, Neil Mohr, John Knight
Production Editor: Jon Crampin
Editor Emeritus: Andrew Sanchez
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