Readers Drives - Project Violet

Posted at: Monday 30th March 2009 by Ben Lipscombe

Ben Lipscombe needed to update his PC to play the latest games, but what started as a simple graphics card upgrade became a much bigger project.

I would like to thank Adrian at Specialtech for all his help and advice, and my other half for putting up with me cutting aluminium until 3am with my Dremel.

System specifications:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 overclocked to 3.47GHz
Motherboard: Asus P5K PRO
Memory: 2GB OCZ FLEX DDR2
Graphics: Zotac GeForce 9800GTX+ AMP! Edition
Hard Disks: WD Raptor 74GB, 320GB Samsung SpinPoint F1
DVD Drive: NEC Optiarc DVD-RAM
PSU: OCZ 700W
Case: Modified Cooler Master Stacker 830
Audio: Creative X-Fi 24-bit sound card
Cooling Loop: 1- D-Tek Fuzion waterblock, Quad injector nozzles, Thermochill PA120.2 Radiator, Black Ice GTS240 Radiator, Swiftech MC30 waterblock; Loop 2 - Asus 3A MOSFET waterblock, Swiftech MCP350 Pump, Black Ice GTS120 Radiator