STATISTICAL NUMBER CRUNCHING

THERE’S NOTHING WE like more at MaximumPC than being presented with a challenge—a concept, a build idea, something grand that requires us to think a little more outside of the box than usual, and over the last few weeks we’ve received two interesting queries from the likes of Vincent Thompson and Tali Kadosh with exactly that. Just how do you go about building a good system for a data scientist or someone interested in statistical analysis? Well this issue I set Christian to task to build exactly that, looking at the parts and process required to build the perfect number-crunching rig for all of your athome, stat-based desires. We originally set out to build this PC for a price point of around $3,000 to $4,000, but we’ve overshot that somewhat, so we’re also recommending where exactly you can save some cash with the build, and just how that might affect performance.

For our second system of the month, we’ve gone with something a bit “different.” This is a system I’ve wanted to build for some time, and it’s based around a tiny little ITX case (if you can call it a case) from a small company called Hydra in Italy. Now this is a single sheet of folded and powdercoated steel, with aluminum feet and an incredibly simplistic design. It comes in at just under $111 without tax and shipping, and honestly is one of the most interesting cases we’ve had in for a long while. In fact it’s very much an open-air chassis, designed for aircooling first and foremost. For this build we’ve gone with a fairly mid to highend gaming spec; it features an Intel Core i5-10600K, 16GB of DDR4, and a 2TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus. However, the GPU powering it is an Nvidia RTX 2080 Super, making it ideal for anyone looking to dive into those pixelated worlds in their spare time. That said, it’s a super-easy build, and if you’re looking to craft something for a home office that looks epic, and you’re not interested in the graphical horsepower or vast quantities of storage that this build has, simply remove the GPU and downgrade the SSD to a 500GB Samsung 970 Evo to save you $1,074 from the overall price (for a total of $1,342), and that’ll still leave you with a super-fast, easy-toclean, well-equipped desktop machine.

For our other features this issue, first up we’re delving into the extreme world of exotic overclocking, with a deep-dive into how you can become a world-record breaker yourself, and push your silicon to the absolute limits of its performance with the help of some liquid nitrogen. We’ve also recruited Neil Mohr of LinuxFormat fame to divulge all of his worldly knowledge on why exactly Apple has ditched Intel for ARM, and what that might mean for us PC desktop enthusiasts in the future.

We also have an extensive swathe of reviews and tutorials, including the third installment of our WordPress series, and a fully updated blueprints section. I do hope you enjoy the latest issue of MaximumPC! And as always, stay safe out there.

ZakStoreyis Maximum PC’s editor and longtime staff member. He’ s been building PCs since he was 10, and is more than capable of butting heads with the biggest names in tech.