Reader's Drives - Clockwork Orange

Posted at: Monday 24th November 2008 by John Burton

Project Koen was inspired by one of the world's fastest sports cars, but progress was slow, especially as John Burton changed his mind about the mod - twice.

I started working on Project Koen roughly two years ago, at around the same time I became interested in overclocking and modding my PC. My aim was to build a computer I'd be proud of, both in appearance and functionality. I took inspiration from a breathtaking image of an orange Koenigsegg CCR super car, and wanted to give my PC a similar appearance, hence the name Koen.

Shortly after I started the project, the loss of my close friend Grant Embling, known as Ge007 on www.cpcff.co.uk, halted the work I was doing. It was a few months before I could muster up any enthusiasm to resume working on it.

When I returned to Koen, I decided to change my original plans. Not only would I paint the case a striking shade of orange, but I would also overclock my AMD Opteron 165 chip and add a water-cooling loop to the case. My knowledge of water-cooling components was limited at the time, but I didn't want to take the easy option of buying an all-in-one kit. With some helpful advice from a friend, I bought a Danger Den TDX 939 CPU block, a 120.2 radiator and all the piping and coolant I needed.

My original case was a Chieftech Bravo BX. The exterior was a dull grey, with a greenish metal inside. I stripped out the components, took the case to pieces and cut holes in it. Then I painted the interior of the case black and the exterior bright orange - the closest shade I could find to the colour used on the Koenigsegg.

Having progressed this far, the project was halted again, this time by impending exams. After taking these, I joined the world of work, which meant I had even less time to work on the PC. However, the best thing about being employed is the first pay packet, which I used to buy a new set of computer parts.

I replaced my aging AMD setup with Intel hardware and bought a new water-cooling loop. This was the hardware I fitted into the semi-built Koen. By now, the PC was in a working state, so I used it as my main gaming PC for the next six months, even though I didn't have time to finish the mod.

I started a new job in April, and decided to purchase a Cooler Master Cosmos S case to house my main gaming machine. Koen would become a secondary PC. The leftover AMD components from my old rig were at the back of the cupboard but still in working order, so I proceeded to install them in Koen for the second time.

I decided to use Koen as a server, as I was learning how useful they can be with a home network. My parents wanted a machine to use for backups, as they were using an old portable hard disk at the time, and I was nervous about relying on a single 1TB drive for my own personal files. I also wanted to learn networking skills so that Koen could host an email server and domain controller, plus share printers. It could also run a Folding@home client, and do all this while wearing a bright orange jacket.

Unfortunately, the project hit yet another snag when my original DFI SLI-D motherboard blew up after I incorrectly wired the power cables, taking the PSU with it. Another friend helped me to replace these with second-hand parts, including an almost identical motherboard.