Project: TJ uh-oh

Greboth · 3 May 2011 at 20:49

Hello to all.

Welcome to my project thread. Firstly thank you for looking and not being put off by the frankly rubbish name. The name is a mix on the build will be in a TJ07 (original eh?) and uh oh because I will be using power tools at some points. Secondly please be patient with me this is the first time doing a pc project this big and I have download festival and a holiday coming up to delay me working on it and delaying the purchase of a few big things (case mainly) but enough chitta chatter.

Specification at the moment:
Coolermaster HAF 932
AMD PhenomII 1090T @ 3.8 Ghz
Nvidia GTX 470
8GB Corsair XMS3
Corsair AX 850 W PSU
Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H 890GX
60Gb OCZ SSD
2 x 1TB Samsung HDDs

Cooled with
Black Ice SR-1 360 rad
3 x Akasa Vipers
Laing D5 + EK Top
EK GTX 470 full cover block
EK HF Supreme CPU block
Masterkleer UV Red 1/2 ID 3/4 OD Tubing
Aqua Computer Aquatube bay res
Scythe Kaza Master 4 Channel fan controller

This cools and runs everything I want perfectly and I love my case and set up at the moment but I was going to switch to a windowed side panel to show off the hardware. I then thought about braiding cables, making fans colour coded etc until I remembered the inside is silver and riveted together so more work than I wanted to paint it internally so it snowballed and I am now switching to a TJ07.

Purchased so far:
Lian Li 5.25 drive bay converter for 3 hdd's
8 x 120mm Yate loons (medium)
2x 92mm Gelid Silent 9
4m XSPC White 1/2 ID 3/4 OD tubing (so bendy compared to the masterkleer)
Blue flex lights
Bitspower compressions fittings
2 x Bitspower pass through
Pulse Modding blank TJ07 midplate
MDPC White, Blue and Black braid (not delivered yet

)
24pin extension
8 pin extension
2 x 6 pin extensions

Still to purchase
120.2 mm Black Ice SR-1 (might be EK depends on funds)
2 x Rad stands
TJ07
Some more lighting
Switches for lighting
White Sata cables

Also at some point I am hoping to go sli / xfire hence adding the extra cooling into the loop. Though as of yet this isn't a certainty and I don't know which way I will be going either.

The plan so far is to dis-assemble the case, paint the inside satin black. Have all fans black housing and blue blades. White tubing with some subtle blue lighting finally topped off with all cables being braiding white, blue or black. Cable braiding plan as of now is 24 pin and 8 pin white, gpu 2x6pins blue, fan cables black. For any cable possible I will cheating slightly and braiding extensions to keep psu cables etc original incase I need to sell them.

Now definately enough chit chat, onto what you really want to see - pictures. Excuse the quality they are from my phone as slr is flat but will make sure it charged for all the important pictures.

Forgot to take a pic before so shamelessly stolen off google this is what I have, though the nickel plated res not a blue one

As the case will be black, painted the bay mount, keeping contrast with the nickel res

Nice delivery of stuff

Primings the fans (4 of the yate loons)

And the 92mm finished

Next steps
Paint the 4 yate loons blue, get some more white primer to do the other 4 and then paint them blue. Hopefully all my MDPC braiding will be arriving thursday so will get on with that then too.

Feel free to leave all comments, criticisms and tips.

Greboth.

joxang · 3 May 2011 at 21:16

Very nice! Looking forward to seeing your braiding and wire soldering after all those posts

. You checked out the murdermod TJ07 builds?

Greboth · 3 May 2011 at 21:31

Shhhhhh wasn't that many posts

after you said how good the mdpc braid is I am hoping I can just braid the extensions in the second picture but I know where I can easily get the right gauge white wire from if I need to

First time braiding so I can see it being a disaster

I think when choosing on where to take this project, I have looked up and read every tj07 project log out there lol.

SeraphX · 3 May 2011 at 21:42

looks good so far, that is one seriously sexy drive bay reservoir

joxang · 3 May 2011 at 21:59

Those cables will be fine - won't show under the MDPC white as long as you stretch the braid. My wires are the same multicoloured ones and I'm not using any masking tape.

First time braiding so I can see it being a disaster

Make sure you take a good hard look at the MDPC sleeving guide that'll come with the braid. Also, might be helpful

:

ATX pin removal (and avoiding breakages)
Familarise yourself with how the pin is structured, and the two 'prongs' which hold the pins in place. Don't bother with staples or paperclips - in my experience they only work on certain psus.
Two of the best ATX tools I've used are the ones you get from MDPC, and the Frozen CPU branded atx tool. It's not a problem removing pins, but technique is extremely important.
1) You must hold the tool completely parallel to the pin.
2) Insert the ATX tool into the right position, making sure it's still parallel.
3) With the ATX tool in place, pull on the cable really hard, then push it all the way in again. As you push it all the way in, also push the ATX tool in as far as it will go (but KEEP IT PARALLEL!).
4) Now with the ATX tool pushed all the way in, give the cable a massive tug. It should come flying out.
5) If it doesn't work the first time, take the tool out and repeat from step one.
It will take some practice to get your hands right such that you're holding the tool in the right position. I've found the best way to do this is to wind the relevant cable in a loop around a finger. If you use the tool properly, there's zero chance it will break. Breakages occur because you're bending the tool or wiggling it from side to side.
If all else fails, the Frozen CPU tool has a single attachment at one end you can use to insert into one side of a pin and force the 'prong' into its hole. You'll need a scapel to get the prong out again though.

A few sleeving tips
(1) If you're sleeving lots of wires of the same length, cut your first length of braid out, pop it on the wire to check it's the right length, then cut the rest of the braiding you need using the first piece as a template. It's a lot faster, and end result is a lot neater.
(2) When you cut any length of braiding, use a lighter to burn the ends until all the plastic bits are melted into each other. Don't be afraid to melt a lot of it, it really needs to be totally fused. Reasons for this are a) so that it doesn't fray, even when you open the braid up for big bunches of cables and b) so the heatshrink stays on the braid and won't slip off. Biggest reason for heatshrink slipping off your braiding is that it's started to fray on the inside. Make sure all your ends are melted .
(3) Before you manipulated sleeved wires let the heatshrink cool down. When it's still warm the braiding will still be able to move a bit inside it. Nothing worse than rush sleeving a SATA cable, then bending it round to connect to a HD, and having the braiding pop out of the heatshrink.

Greboth · 3 May 2011 at 23:18

Seraph said:
looks good so far, that is one seriously sexy drive bay reservoir

They are nice reservoirs

Somehow I ended up with 2 cracked reservoirs so wanted a metal one and was the only one that fitted the bill. They are pretty unique as don't see too many builds with them which I like, only downside is the cost of them as res is about £60 and about £20 for the bay holder.

joxang said:
Those cables will be fine - won't show under the MDPC white as long as you stretch the braid. My wires are the same multicoloured ones and I'm not using any masking tape.

I keep meaning to ask how did you stretch your braid and attached the heatshrink on the other end? The way I see it, I attach the braid at one end and then when it comes to the other end, stretch the braid and attach with the shrink. I will probably use some sort of clamp as it should make it easier but I see it that the only way to do this is to clamp the braid stretced but having the bit under the second end braid unstretched. See the pic I think is easiest. Is this the way you did it or is there another way?

Guitarman0 · 3 May 2011 at 23:39

Am looking forward to this one

Looks promising!

joxang · 4 May 2011 at 00:33

Greboth said:
I keep meaning to ask how did you stretch your braid and attached the heatshrink on the other end? The way I see it, I attach the braid at one end and then when it comes to the other end, stretch the braid and attach with the shrink. I will probably use some sort of clamp as it should make it easier but I see it that the only way to do this is to clamp the braid stretced but having the bit under the second end braid unstretched.

Pretty much like that but you can just clamp with your fingers. Heatshrink one end, clamp with your fingers just under where you heatshrinked and stretch it. You can then clamp somewhere near the middle with your other hand, and stretch again, and then hold it near the end and heatshrink on. IT doesn't matter if a bit is 'unstretched' as per your diagram, as it all evens out afterwards. Also, even with less than say 70% stretch, the white stuff will still be pretty much opaque

. You'll see how nice it is when you get it.

Once you get the braiding you'll get the hang of it in no time.

Ben Harrison · 4 May 2011 at 08:46

I love TJ07 builds, this one sounds promising.

Greboth · 5 May 2011 at 20:47

Small update here. I have finished painting the fans now they just need to finish drying and then I will put them together for a group photo.

Also to show off what arrive

Also a proper picture to show off my res

joxang · 5 May 2011 at 22:16

LOL you got a shark! I got a small bearded man with an umbrella. For some reason...

Nice quality isn't it

.

Greboth · 6 May 2011 at 09:06

I don't know why I got a shark and a little fishy, or why I was the little fishy but ok lol.

The braiding is really nice though, I can see why people recommend it so highly. Changed plans slightly and braiding alternating white and blue. Few problems so far, managed to snap a pin so will have to pick some new ones up

first couple of cables were a pain to get back into the connector but I think I am getting the hang of it, 6 cables done 46 cables to go.

I should be able to get photo's of the fans up tonight and will get the cable photos up as and when I complete them.

Greboth · 6 May 2011 at 20:57

Small update and some bad news

small update, all fans finished and cables braided. Such a small step but the first step complete.

And the bad news: Got the male ends of my 6 pin out easy, pulling out one of the females though as the pin came out sliced my index finger but soldiered on until the next one impaled itself in my thumb :mad:

So project on hold until my thumb at least stitches itself back together.

joxang · 6 May 2011 at 21:03

Gruesome pics please :O!

PS: do you think your choice of build log name might have jinxed things

.

Greboth · 6 May 2011 at 21:36

Just for you jogang

http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff397/Greboth/PC Mods/DSC_0692.jpg

It doesn't look to bad on that photo actually, the thumb though has been properly taped up. Saturated two plasters with blood until it stopped bleeding and I don't fancy opening it up again haha. Still along way from taking the tip of my finger off though, I don't want to do that again.

Jinxed? No, Appropriately named? Yes. lol.

joxang · 6 May 2011 at 22:21

Yeh I believe you, those finger injuries bleed like heck. Once gave myself a needlestick through a finger tip and had blood dripping off my elbow before I knew what was going on.

Hope it gets better soon anyhow

.

Greboth · 10 May 2011 at 22:45

Ba bump

Fingers healed enough for me to carry on this little project. Can't finish off the 24 pin yet as waiting for Mr Postman to deliver me some pins (hoepfully tomorrow) as I accidently pulled one off removing the wires but I want to show my braid cherry popping to you all haha.

Not perfect heat shrink line up but not bad for a first time I don't think. I am going to carry on but if I have any braid/heat shrink left at the end will come back and neaten a few up.

Couple arty shots, lighting isn't the best as hard to find natural light at half 10 but meh, my first braid!

Greboth · 12 May 2011 at 21:01

Another update on the braiding front. Spare pins came today so been able to finish the 24 pin, also managed to finish off all the others.

Pictures

24 pin finished

2 6 pin cables

24 pin, 2 6 pins and 8 pin together

Put the yate loons into my rig now with the intention of selling the vipers that I am using now (painted red previously so wont go in this project) but they make some clicking noise so I am going to be taking a look at them see if I can do anything about it. Though thinking about just forgetting about it and doing it prorperly like I was going to do in the first place and and order new vipers and paint them blue. Cheapest I can find them though is just over £11 each but free postage makes up for a bit

joxang · 16 May 2011 at 17:20

That is neat braiding lol...way neater than mine. Your heatshrink is actually all in line

!!

Did you use a heatgun? Last time I tried to do white heatshrink with a lighter it turned it dark gray

.

Greboth · 16 May 2011 at 19:29

Haha, not that perfect but it will do for now. If I was doing it again I think I would cut the heat shrink longer than I wanted and then use a craft knife / razer blade to trim to all be equal lengths. I am generally a messy person until it comes to details like this where I get to almost OCD levels of perfectionism.

I used a lighter initially, and you can see on the first picture, the 3rd white from the left I have burnt the heatshrink though its on the underside obscured by the other cables. Keep sparking a lighter made the tip of my thumb sore so switched to using the long nose BBQ lighter thing.

This project is slightly on hold now anyway, the place I was going to order the case from has got eta on stock end of this month which falls almost perfectly (and annoyingly) to when I am going away for just over 3 weeks then birthday weekend so I will picking this project back up end of June now

Though flipside of it is that I have had time to muse over my plan. I was originally planning to put the pump in the bottom of the case next to my triple rad, however fitting the tubing to it would have been a pain so now the plan is to run the pump in the motherboard section and just rads and psu in the bottom. As there will be room, budget and stock allowing, I will sell my 360 and use a 480 and 240 in the bottom which should be able to cool every rig I will ever build.

Edit: Forgot to add on a small side note, probably upgrading my 2 1tb drive to 2 2tb's as running out of room which will eat into my shiney shiney watercooling goodness lol.

Edit 2: Ignore some of the above haha, just bought the second hand one from MM