BE WATER, MY FRIEND

BRUCE LEE PROBABLY wasn’t referring to liquid cooling when he made his famous water quote above, but this issue of MaximumPC 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 MaximumPC 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 on page 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 editor@maximumpc.com. 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 doctor@maximumpc.com.

Enjoy the issue!

Guy is Maximum PC’ s Editor-in-Chief. He built his first gaming PC in 1997 to play Tomb Raider on 3d fx, and has been obsessed with all things PC ever since.