Project: Redstone

Gundog48

Gundog48

Gundog48

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Joined
13 Sep 2009
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1,612
Location
Maidstone, Kent
Wall Of Text- Into

I've been looking at cases for a few years now and have struggled to find a case that suits my taste. I like a high quality metal construction with refined looks, but I also want it to look special and have a large side window. There are also many other little features I like such as a removable motherboard tray which is more of a bonus than a necessity. I eventually found that such a case did not exist and that I would have to mod to achieve my goals, so I embarked on Project: Steel Beast which was a HAF 932. As the project went on I grew somewhat tired of the HAF's looks and standard build quality (probably a matter of changing taste due to my age, I'm 15 now :) ) and soon gave up. The most annoying thing about that case and other modern cases is the plastic bezel and thin metal. So I had to look elsewhere.

I soon found the case I was looking for, it had everything I needed but would require a little modding to get the looks and cooling performance I wanted- the TJ07.

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I know what you are thinking, another TJ07 mod! Well, yes, but I hope to make this one quite special. I have a few unique things I plan to do with it such as gunmetal grey, a glossy red exterior and turning the case from a wathercoolers dream into a great aircooling case.

After much searching I finally managed to get a second hand TJ07 from Speed on these forums who kindly agreed to part-ex it with some RAM and I ended up getting it for £115 inc + some RAM which I was extremely happy with! When the case arrived it was everything I expected, the quality of this case is simply outstanding- no wonder it has stood the test of time. There were a few marks which are to be expected and can be easily dealt with. The only one that bothers me is a scratch on the right side panel, is there a way to polish them out of brushed aluminium? It doesn't really matter as that side will be going against a wall anyway.

I really like the side window on the TJ07, too many companies do a half-arsed effort by putting in a tiny window that doesn't let you see anything, or put a big one in and make it look aweful. Silverstone is the only manufacturer I know that has put a big window in and made it work so well.

The Cunning Plan

The plan is pretty simple- to take the TJ07 and turn it into a fantastic looking case with better aircooling capabilities while maintaining the refined appearance of the TJ07 and keeping it quiet. My secondary goal was to create something unique as every man and his dog has done a TJ07 mod, so this one is going to be a little different! Here are the main objectives I am aiming to achieve:

  • Paint the unibody panel and side grills glossy red
  • Add a 240mm rad grill to the midplate for added cooling to keep the GPU and motherboard chilly
  • Paint the internals a matte gunmetal colour, this will look unique and retain the lighter metallic look while giving it a more finished appearance than bare metal
  • A lot of cable braiding!
  • Swap the internal fans for quieter units that shift more air
  • Paint the blades of the new fans red
  • Possibly paint the PCI slot covers red
  • Mod the PSU (thinking a CF exterior with a red fan)
  • Improve cable management- I have a set of Corsair grommets I may use
  • Make a new PSU mounting bracket so that the PSU can be mounted horizontally so that the fans will fit
  • Look into lighting, I will probably backlight the bottom compartment with red but I want to keep the main portion a lighter colour
  • Possibly mod the heatsink of my old 9800GTX with CF of paint to use as a PhysX card (depends on how nVidia are feeling in regards to ATI/nVidia PhysX drivers)

The Components

At the moment I do not plan on making a special rig for the case. I will be upgrading to SB soon after I finish reviewing a pile of PSUs so the blue motherboard (which has given me no end of problems as it is) will be going and will be replaced with a black one, or if I'm lucky a ROG board. So once I have upgraded this will probably be a 2500K build, but here are the current specs:

CPU: AMD Phenom II x6 1055T
Mobo: Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2x2Gb
Cooling: Xigmatek Thor's Hammer
GPU: XFX 6950
Storage: Hitachi Deskstar 500Gb
PSU: Antec Truepower New TP-750

By the end of the build, it should be looking more like this:

CPU: Intel i5 2500K
Mobo: Gigabyte Z68X-UD4
RAM: G.Skill RipJawsX 2x4GB
Cooling: Xigmatek Thor's Hammer
GPU: XFX 6950
Storage: 128Gb Kingston SSD + 2Tb Storage HDD
PSU: Modded Antec Truepower New TP-750

So, without further ado, let's get on with the modding!
 
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Update 1- Cutting!

So to get started, I needed to do a little cutting. To make the case suitable for air cooling, I plan to install 2x120mm fans in the midplate to draw cool air from the grills and push them over the GPU and the rest of the motherboard area. The 2x92mm fans should be able to cool the CPU area nicely and the two top 120mm fans will be removing all the hot air, this is not something I have seen done before but I am pretty confident that it will work as expected.

To install these fans I am going to put a 240mm rad grill on the midplate which I managed to get from OCUK for £2.49 :). At first I was going to make a midplate cover and cut that, however I soon realised that the holes for cable management/watercooling were almost perfect (I thought they were too big) so instead I marked out and cut the midplate:

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The cutting was difficult as there was very little leeway, so I had to be very careful. Fortunately, the band saw made easy work of it. Once again, the quality construction of the case made my job easier as thin metal found on many other cases would have rattled about and would have been aweful to cut. I also had to make sure there was room for drilling the holes to mount the grill, which will have to be done with two bolts at each end as the existing holes was too wide for placing a bolt on each corner.

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The midplate along with the rest of the internals is now ready to be sprayed gunmetal grey which I will be doing myself. The reason I am going for gunmetal is that I like the silvery internal look of the TJ07 and that most black cases are too dark inside. This colour should still allow it to look nice inside while also looking finished and covering up any marks in the metal. While this was being done, I had sent away the unibody panel and side grills to the powdercoaters...
 
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Update 2- Exterior paint

I'd been away for a week on an Army cadet camp before which I had taken the unibody frame and side grills away to the powdercoaters and was greeted with this package when I got back:

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I was really excited to take a look so enthusiastically but extremely carefully unwrapped it with my knife. I was really pleased with what I found inside:

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I can't wait to see it compared to the black of the rest of the case. I may put a few bits on tomorrow to give you a bit of a preview, but all the internals still need painting so you won't be able to see it all assembled for a while. Basically, the side panels, top grill and drive bay covers will all remain black and should go with the red front and grills.

The gloss was done exactly how I wanted it, although the paint was a little closer to orange than I'd have liked. Still dead impressed with the job the sprayer did, you just can't get that kind of quality yourself! I was a bit worried about the effect the texture of the metal would have on the paint, but it was really negligible and he also managed to preserve all the holes which I was also over the moon about. Could do with a little polish though! I was more suprised with how well he did the grills, it must have taken a lot of skill to do it without filling in any of the holes and to give it a nice gloss.

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I was also pleased to find out that everything was all still nice and flexible, so flexing the unibody panel or grills would not crack the paint! It may be a while until the next update as I have a massive stack of PSUs to review as well as a 30min action film I made with my friends to edit. Next is to order the spray cans, braiding and everything else! Still haven't decided on fans either!
 
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Brilliant! Looks like candy lol :p.

Starting to look really unique in a world of generic samey TJ07s (nothing wrong with samey, but nice to see something different). Looking fowards to it. What cooler you going to use? Thinking that the red pipes on a Frio would look great with your paintjob.

EDIT: nvm should have read the OP properly. Nice looking cooler :).
 
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Yeah, I had the CoolIT Vantage for a while but didn't like it so I sold it and bought another Thor's Hammer (I sold my old one). I love the shape of the cooler and the semi-reflective surface should look good with and LEDs I decide to put in.

I'm thinking about the fans and lighting at the moment because I plan to have red fans but haven't decided on whether they will be LED ones or not. For the lighting I am thinking of white LED strips as I think red lighting looks a bit dark and won't have the effect I'm looking for.

Thanks for the comments! The main aims of this was to make something unique but refined and functional- hopefully I can achieve that!
 
Gundog48 said:
Yeah, I had the CoolIT Vantage for a while but didn't like it so I sold it and bought another Thor's Hammer (I sold my old one). I love the shape of the cooler and the semi-reflective surface should look good with and LEDs I decide to put in.

I'm thinking about the fans and lighting at the moment because I plan to have red fans but haven't decided on whether they will be LED ones or not. For the lighting I am thinking of white LED strips as I think red lighting looks a bit dark and won't have the effect I'm looking for.

Thanks for the comments! The main aims of this was to make something unique but refined and functional- hopefully I can achieve that!
Click to expand...

Looking good, love these cases!

I know this is off topic, what army cadet detachment are you with? cap badge? what camp did you go on? have you been to barry buddon in scotland?

Seems like 20 q's lol
 
Thanks for the support- I'm really looking forward to it too! One question, I would like to achieve a matte gunmetal finish, like the one shown below, any idea on how I can do that with a spray can and which colour code I should look for?

I'm in the MGS CCF Contingent with 36 Engineers in Maidstone. Never been there, we tend to do most of our stuff in and around Wales because it is the closest place that is good for AT- we went to Nescliff this year and Penally the year before. I assume you are in it then, where abouts are you based?

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nice project.

re the gun metal effect. the shhen of the paint whether it be matte or gloss or somewher in between is determined by the type of paint itself.

you can by silver type paints retailed as alloy wheel paint halfords and the like. however your best bet is to find a colour you like from a factory fit alloy and then talk to a main delaer to get the colour code. you may even be able to paint direct from them but i doubt it. expect to pay lots of££££.

you're gonna need at least 3 cans of top coat for a case that size. i recommend getting 4 to be safe
 
Thanks for the advice! I'm going to have a chat with Kent Paints (I know the owners) and get they should be able to sort me out what I'm looking for. They do custom 500ml aerosols for £12 which is pretty nice too! I'll bring a picture and see what they reckon.
 
Got the paint but not sure when I'll have time to actually spray it! Got a big drive to get it done after your comments and seeing what it's going to look like!

A few questions, first of all, lighting. What would you recommend? I want to keep the interior nice and light but I want to avoid red LEDs as they make it look rather dark and heavy, do you think white one's would go well? If so, how do you think I should light it, CCFLs, LED strips etc? Secondly, I am on the look out for some very quiet but effective fans to fill the case that need to be available in 92mm sized, any suggestions?
 
I've got some 92mm gentle typhoons fitted to the rear of my TJ-07 & they shift a decent amount of air & best of all the are quiet.I bought them in january this year but they seem to be like rocking horse poo to find now.
 
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