Mayhem's interview: Taking the water-cooling world by storm

Mayhem's Interview: Taking the water-cooling world by storm

One of our favourite sub-industries in the world of performance PCs is water-cooling. In many ways it's still in its infancy, having only just a few years ago, broken away from the home-built systems of the 90s and naughties, and become a treasure trove of off-the-shelf waterblocks, pumps, radiators and all-manner of other sexy hardware.

It's still possible to get into this niche area for not too much of an outlay either, which means adding some unique water-cooling to your modding project to match details or colour schemes is more popular today than ever. As far as colour goes, there's one area that's in the spotlight at the moment - coolant - and one company in particular is grabbing all the headlines.


Mayhem's is a UK-based cooling manufacturer run by Michael Wood, a modder and water-cooling enthusiast who has projects such as Cmacc's 2 to his name. The company has grown from strength to strength in recent years and its range of coolants are simply the most awesome-looking products to hit the water-cooling market in years.

We caught up with Michael to get an insight into the company, its development, current range and future product plans.

Bit-tech: So Michael, we met you for the first time at the London International Technology show last year– and Mayhem’s was just starting to make a real name for itself. How have things gone since then?

Mayhem's: I’ve been working on Mayhem’s for four years now, pretty much since I finished my Cmacc’s 2 scratchbuild, during which I started experimenting with dyes. Things have gone pretty well since I made my first investment of about £5, and sold some dyes to fellow forum users. It basically snowballed and we now hold around £75,000 worth of dyes and other products in stock.

Bit-tech: So have you been into watercooling for a long time then?

Mayhem's: Yeah I’ve been doing it for ages. I think my first PC I ever tried to water cooling was a Pentium II with disastrous results. However that didn't faze me and my first real retail kit was actually bought from my partner Steve Verity who owns www.over-clock.co.uk and was a Danger Den block and Thermochill rad and Ehiem pump. This is also how me and Steve became good friends.


Bit-tech: We remember www.over-clock.co.uk very well indeed. So what got you started in creating your own dyes – did you have any previous experience with chemicals and the like? Was it purely the fact that off the shelf dyes weren’t what you needed?

Mayhem's: Nope, no experience whatsoever. That’s exactly it – I couldn’t find what I wanted for my modding projects so I decided to learn how to make my own dyes. I spent about three weeks researching and talking to chemists, building a knowledge base for myself and finding out how they made coolants for other industries. I’ve now built up a vast knowledge of information that I’ve used to create the Mayhem’s products you see today.