Vadim Fusion LQX Intel-775G2

Manufacturer: Vadim.co.uk
UK Price (as reviewed): £4,300 (inc. VAT)

I suspect you may have taken a second look at the front page today, or perhaps it's just my overzealous imagination that readers will have rubbed their eyes in a cartoon-esq fashion at the airbrushed image on the side of Vadim's new case.

We're covering it not because we're about to launch a lurid sex-centric "chicks bits" side to our site, even though we miss you dearly, Claire. Instead it's to demonstrate a new airbrushing technique (among other things) on offer from boutique PC retailer, Vadim.

I won't be offended if you just stare at the pictures without reading all my hard work I slaved away typing up. It's okay, I understand you're slightly confused about her "proportions" as well. Like the airbrushed finish and because we're dedicated to the detail of hardware, it invoked a lot of studying, I can tell you.

For those not working out how to bring one home (we're not talking logistically here - more in the field of "justifying it with the missus without getting your ass handed to you on a plate") and are instead cringing inside from the sight of something oh-so-typical of the seedy nerd-porn association, then don't worry this is merely an example of the finish and artwork capable, rather than the only product style you can buy.

It's been some six months since we looked at the Cepheus Q80 so it's time to have a look at another machine from Vadim. This one includes his new BlastFlow waterblock, which we looked at last weekend, as well as an overclocked Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 stepping processor.

What's in the box?

• Silverstone TJ07 case with custom airbrushing
  
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 stepping at 388x9 - 3,492MHz (overclocked from 2,400MHz)
  
• Asus Blitz Formula P35 Motherboard
  
• 2GB OCZ FlexXLC 9200 DDR2 5-5-5-18-2T
  
• Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX
  
• Two Western Digital 150GB Raptor hard drives in RAID 0 and one 400GB Western Digital Caviar RE2 drive
  
• Watercooling including the BlastFlow Siberian 8800 GTX block, Swiftech Apogee, Swiftech MCP655 pump, 2x120mm and 3x120mm radiators and tube reservoir
  
• Enermax Infiniti 720W Modular PSU
  
• Sony/NEC SATA DVDRW
  
• Creative X-Fi ExtremeGamer Fatal1ty FPS
  
• Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit

As we've come to expect it's another incredible bit of kit, with a stable 1GHz overclock from a Q6600 G0. Sure, 388MHz front side bus is quite tame compared to the 500+MHz that's featured in a few places across the net, and even in our own testing we regularly get to 450+MHz. However this is a PC you can buy pre-overclocked, so not having to performance tune it yourself you're less equipped to troubleshoot should the overclock fail, which is more likely the higher the bus is pushed.