Project: TJ uh-oh

[Greboth]

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.

 

[Greboth]

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.

 

[Greboth]

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.

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?

 

[Greboth]

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

 

[Greboth]

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]

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

 

[Greboth]

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.

 

[Greboth]

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]

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

 

[Greboth]

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

 

[Greboth]

Just noticed this log, Shall be following it to see where my case ends up

On a side note, If I knew what you looked like I may bump into you at download fest

Yup this is where your tj07 is ending up Mod wise to your case will be a solid mid plate and might put the holes back in for the 2 92mm fans. The paint looks good on your pic but might take a look at it and paint the missing part or repaint it completely.

SLightly OT, but where do you get the braiding from? I use it a lot in RC helis, but it's not cheap from the RC stores.

As above, its the MDPC-X sleeve and it isn't too cheap at 8 Euro's per 10m and for me to the UK 8 or 9 Euro's shipping. On the other hand though it is a quality product, colours I want and for that I am willing to pay for it.

 

[Greboth]

Just noticed this log, Shall be following it to see where my case ends up

On a side note, If I knew what you looked like I may bump into you at download fest

Oh noes! You know my address and now you want to know what I look like! I think it is time to dial 0845 restraining order haha. Here you go though Normal ish looking meCrazier looking me

As for your case, see below

i love the colour or your cables

I love them too


Anyway update time Thanks to unworthybean selling his tj07 at pretty much the right time look what got delivered Tuesday morning

Then braided the internal wires (sorry for the blurry shot) I will be braiding the USB cables as well but run out of blue braid

Then dismantled the case and working out what to do with the solid midplate I ordered

And the reason for dismantling the case was some bits weren't painted and I want a completely black case so:

5.25" drive bay being primed

The other 5.25" being painted black

The back of the motherboard tray wasn't painted but I have primed and painted that but forgot to take some pictures though I will when it is all done. Taped up the painted parts so I could prime the back of the it though

Hopefully I can fit it all in to get the case fully painted and put back together before going away so when I come back I can start building in it.

 

[Greboth]

Small update again Probably going to be last one now before download and hols so see you in 3 weeks

As the bottom will be full of rads the psu cables will need to be into the top part and I don't like the cables on view so the only option is to put them behind the motherboard. Drilled a row of holes in the area behind the mother tray runner.

This was then cut and filed to make it just wide enough for psu plugs to fit through. I am not sure it is big enough hole but want the hole as small as possible to keep the cables nicely bunched.

Finished painting the case too and put it all back together to see what it will look like. I need 3 pci slots so not bothered about painting the silver ones. I can't decide on whether to paint the 5.25" HDD holder though,with the window on it is hard to see but I think it stands out with the side off - Opinions? Also you can see here I have mounted the xeon tray thingy (I don't actually know what it is for) the wrong way round and painted it black to help cover up some of the gaping hole in the motherboard tray.

Finally who doesn't like boxes of shiney things Some of the fittings are from the first post but some are new. The rads are a SR-1 480 and XSPC RX 240 (the sr 1 240 was out of stock ) I had a test with the with silver 90 fittings and I think boths rads will fit in the bottom of the case but it is going to be very very tight. Also forgot to add in this pic, there was a couple of 120mm rad stands too

Picture showing how tight for space it will be with the rads. I think it will all fit down there thought I don't know if it will with the little tabs on the side panels. I can think of a couple of solutions if they wont fit, the xspc is low fpi rad so should be able to get away with some slim fans or even running it passive with 4 fans on the 480. The other solution, though I don't really know how effective it would be is to run no fans on the 240, but duct it to the 480 somehow so the fans on the 480 are pulling air through both rads, it would mean warmer air over the 480 but better airflow for the 240 (above just passive) so I don't think temps would be effected too much.

Ordered some Lian li vented drive bay covers to go over the hdd so the fan can still pull in ambient air. Hopefully they will arrive sometime next week. I also need to order some sata sleeve and some 90 bitspower fittings then I should have everything I need to actually build this thing.

Decided with the fans, I will build it with the yate loons at first. It wont be perfect but after ordering all of this, I cant justify spending £80 on replacement fans at the moment. Though hopefully wont be too far into the future I change them for apaches, depends how long my sanity lasts with the noise from the yate loons.

 

[Greboth]

Very small update (whoo) no pictures though (booo). Emailed Silverstone about getting the older style motherboard tray as the solid one is much better IMO. Asked for my address to work out shipping and now I am waiting for a response Hopefully the price wont be too ridiculous but I can imagine shipping being quite a bit.

ah, the case of champions.

superb work. going to be interesting seeing how you sort the radiators out in the bottom section of the case.
i had the 480/240 combo setup in mine for a bit and it was a massive pain to fit right with my thermochills. looking forward to seeing your results.

TJ07's have been done to death but playing around with this one it is a nice case I don't know if they both will fit with fans, if they don't it will only be a small amount over so if I don't have fans on the double it give me plenty of room. Marking up the bottom of the case for the stands and trying to formulate a plan on how to get them both in tubed up. If it is a lot of trouble, I might add some quick disconnets in the tubing so I can take one or both rads out on it's own.

Quality looks great. Love the braiding, influencing me to do it for my next build

I have ordered the extra braid I need so I can braid my sata cables for this build as well as re braid the ones I messed up on the ones I have done already. If you want solid colour cables then it would be much easier and a little cheaper to buy the pre braided ones (bitfenix, nzxt etc) but I like my alternating colours Some people have done some really nice combinations also, it is all up to you. I keep seeing them sat on my desk too which gives me the satisfaction of "I did that " which is another bonus of doing it yourself.

 

[Greboth]

Regarding the reversed atx for me the plus point is the window is on the other side which the pc is on my left so window will be for me to see. I do prefer the normal layout though so some plus some negatives really.

I had a reply about it and while I want a solid one its cost vs looks as it isn't too noticeable with the back cover on. Still weighing it up.

Little update too, the 5.25" Lian Li bay covers came and put two in place, the third needs cutting to get it in place though so something to work on. I haven't decided what colour to paint the back of the hdd cage the front needs to go black so it isn't visible.

I also cut off the braid and started again to male sure heat shrink is as good as can be. Slight colour change too to get some black braid into the mix. The missing wires will be blue but waiting on a delivery of some braid for me to do the blue ones.

 

[Greboth]

don't worry about the other covers they will be removed for res, blu ray and res so the only covers will be the vented ones

Edit: Oops, I mean res, blu ray and fan controller

 

[Greboth]

I have had to stop working on this for a few weeks but time for an update I am going to try and complete this as soon as possible so I can get my rig transferred into it as no computer makes me sad.

First Little update, I have finished rebraiding my 24 pin extension, still got to re do my 8 pin and 2 x 6 pins though. I think you will agree it is much better than the first ones above though still a couple of heat shrinks that aren't perfect.

I knew I wanted the front of my 5.25" HDD cage black so it didn't stand out behind the mesh but I finally decided I wanted the rest white to contrast the black case so painted it up Went down the local car shop for some paint but couldn't find a white I liked as they all seemed to be tinted slightly when I wanted a perfect white. In the end I bought some 'appliance white' paint which gave me the perfect white

I also painted the hdd trays that slot in even though you wont see them

Mr Postman then brought me a nice box but what could it be .....

A nice shiney new horrible hole free motherboard tray

As perfect and beautifully hole free it was it needed to be cut So out came the dremel and I masacred some holes into for cable management. The bottom right is for my 8 pin, bottom left 24 pin, top left for sata and front panel and top is for my usb headers. Not perfect cuts but I made sure that they are behind the motherboard tray so will only be seen when the back panel is off which once built should be never. I forgot to take a picture before i painted it so here is one of the paint drying Sorry about the quality it was getting dark so bit grainy.

While the paint was drying on the motherboard tray, I got my 480 rad set up in the case. This was just a test run to make the holes in the bottom of the case and make sure the side panel slot tab things didn't foul the fans - hence only 2 fans on the rad.

I also marked up and test fitted the 240 too I think the blue paint for the fans is a good choice too, light enough to contrast well against black but not too light.

Now the rads are mocked up, I can see the challenge ahead of me. How to get tubing to these rads in such a small amount of space.

Not in any particular order, the rest of my to do list:
-Finish painting the motherboard tray
-Rivet it back together
-Find something to raise the rads up about 5mm so the fans are more in the middle of
the mesh. Also gives me access to take them off so I can swap them out for the
akasa vipers once I have them painted.
-Cut up the mesh 5.25" covers for the hdd holder
-Braid my sata cables and rebraid my 8 pin, 2 x 6 pins, fan controller, pump power
-Mount the rads finally with tubing in place
-Work out the mounting position for the pump
-Put the case back together to mark up where I need my bulkhead pass throughs in the
mid plate.
-Find somewhere to mount my ssd as I am going to try to keep my drive bay hdd's as
my 2 x 2 Tb and 1 x 1tb. This is a bit play it be ear though.
-Re work the spacing on the sata power cable and braid it
-Build the rest of the loop in the case

Think that is everything, I will keep you all updated as I cross things off the list

 

[Greboth]

Thanks for the comments

Haha no not that much left to do, but then I am on 2 weeks leave so should give me plenty of time to do it all. Hmm my braiding skills are not all that lol. You are right though braiding is horribly annoying and horribly addictive. Since the update I have rebraided the 8 pin and 1 of my 6 pins so nearly done it all.

@ Duesix: I used an XSPC Universal radiator mount You can see it on the first picture of the 480.

 

[Greboth]

Biffa: Reading other people's build I saw most people didn't use 2 think rads but I worked it out that they would fit and who doesn't like a challenge haha. Also I couldn't find any slim low fpi rads so I have had to go with thick ones.

Update time again

I have re-braided my 8 pin and one of my 6 pin's but no pictures yet until I find the time to braid the remaining 6 pin.

I am using a solid midplate so the existing bit needed to go as it will be in the way come tubing so begone foul midplate thingy.

I have also finished painting the motherboard tray and got it riveted back together. Even with my horribly cut holes I think it looks better than having the big holes of the now standard one, even with my grubby fingerprints all over it haha.

Annoyingly though, I can't get 2 of the rivets back in as I can't get my rivet gun into the corner Anyone got any tips? It isn't the end of the world though there is still 1 of that line in, 4 on the end and the brackets at the top and bottom so it is secure enough.

I also managed to get my sleeving braided up too. I did them to match but now they are done I love the look of them too. This braiding business it taking over my life

All my sata cables together

As these are the red sata cables posted above, I used electrical tape on them. I couldn't get any blue though so used black under the blue braid and white under the white braid.

Now onto another box of goodies that got delivered earlier today Can you guess what it's there

Opening the box to find green bags of air

Oh wait there is something under that, any more guesses before the big reveal?

Thats right Akasa viper 120mm fans. Well 9 of them to be exact So much fanny goodness (Oh Matron! )

While I love the vipers as fans the yellow really doesn't fit my design so the first one has been masking taped up and given a coat of primer. Just 8 more to go

 

[Greboth]

Haha thanks zoomee but there are much better project around than mine.

I have this log on a couple of fourms which I know some of you are on too, one I can't mention because it's a competitor and the other I just can't mention (the first rule of fight club is you're not allowed to talk about fight club - ok that's 1 tv and 2 film references I have made on this forum tonight, I will stop now) Usually I try to keep each one updated to the same level but differently but as my rig is down I am posted this on an old (old old old old) athlon 3200+ with a huge 1gb of ram rig which struggles to cope with a forum and photobucket open so while this is an update (yey!) it is a simple copy paste job from another form (boo!)

Haha well if people haven't heard of them then that could explain the lack of use. Well let me spread the word of the vipers to the family then

Time for my another update
Firstly a proper shot of the fans, I finally managed to get a picture that captures the metallic / flakes that are in the paint in this one. Still haven't found the time to do the others though they can be done one by one once the system is built as I would rather have a built system running yellow fans than blue fans but no rig.

It was then time to take apart the current loop and drain it. By this photo I had taken out everything I could and the loop wad draining away.

I took the oppurtunity while the loop was apart to check over my waterblocks due to EK's nickel plating problems. I didn't think there was any problems with mine but better to be safe than sorry. Checking block over it is all nice and shiney still

This picture doesn't really show much but it is the first piece of tubing going in Feels like I am getting somewhere with it all now.

I worked out where I would need the pass throughs for the midplate, so away I went and cut the holes into the solid midplate I had. Feeling happy about my manly drilling skills I came to install the pass throughs are realised that the standard midplate got in the way. Using my trusted pink pencil I marked where the overlap was

I then preceeded to forget to take a progress picture of the dremeled piece

The next step was to carry on installing the tubing in the bottom for the rads I took out the 480 rad to gain access to the 240 so I could do up the compression fitting at the front of the case.

And tubing in place

The next should have been to put the 480 rad back into the case and screw it to the rad mounts. However while the xspc rad mounts perfectly fit the xspc rad it didn't like being screwed to BlackIce rad. It seemed the problem was that the black ice rad mounting holes are slightly concave so the actual threaded part is too far away for the short screws to reach and properly grip. I knew the fans mounted via M4 screws so quick trip to the local hardware store and I returned with some 18mm M4 screws, while 18mm is short it is waaaaaaaaaaaaay to long for what I needed, so a quick mark up and back to the dremel and ta-da shortened screws.

These were then used to properly attach the 480 rad into place, due to the 240 rad being in the way I can only use three of the 4 mount points but it is enough to hold the rad in place.

Skipped a couple steps here again due to me forgetting to take pictures and it was just me fitting the last piece of tubing.

This should complete all the work I need to do in the lower part of the case but it doesn't, more on that in a minute.

The last picture I want to show you is a simple idea I had for a pump mod. I saw the bitspower pump case which looks beautiful but from everything I read about it you can't fit the ek pump top as well so it ruled out me using it. This left my with an ugly back of the pump showing with a big silver sticker on with pump information. Solution - a strip of black paper wrapped round and selotaped into place. Not particularly fancy but it looks 10x better than standard and blends well with the rest of the case

Now onto the problems of today

Firstly, as all the rads and tubing was in place I thought I might as well fit my PSU into place - wrong! When I worked out whether I could fit my psu and a thick rad in the bottom (which you can) I did not realise due to the uprights at the back of the case move the psu in towards the middle. This means that while my psu does fit in the bottom I can't screw it into place.

There is no particular reason for the psu to be screw into place and as I don't move my pc around there shouldn't be any problems with leaving it loose for now. If the psu vibrates too much though I will either place it on a foam mat to insulate it from the case of make an adapter place to I can screw it to the case.

Problem 2:
As a quick sneak peak for myself I plugged the cables into the my motherboard and put it into place and hit a problem. No pictures though as I don't want to reveal to early the 'completed' rig. The problem is that the holes in the midplate have to be in the middle to fit between the two rads so I mounted the pump as close to the motherbraid tray rail as I could to keep the tubing in the same plane as it would look better. The problem is the pump then sits exactly where my 24 pin wires come round from behind the motherboard tray to plug in. My initial thought was to move it away from the motherboard tray and closer to the drive bays but the it would cover the hole I cut for the sata cables to pass through, so the only solution I have is to move the pump forwards (away from the motherboard tray) so that the 24 pin can sit freely behind the pump. Not the ideal solution but I have no where else to mount the pump. I will take some photo's once it is back in place. This also means that I have to take the midplate out to drill new mounting holes meaning I have to take the fittings off that connect to the underside of the midplate

Problem 3: This is only a minor problem but still a PITA as I didn't see it coming. Due to the case being inverted atx now the cpu is really close to the midplate which means every possible idea I had for fittings from cpu block to midplate don't work. The two solutions to this I have thought of is using a 45 degree fittings with a 45 degree compression fitting on the the end as this extends away from the board and almost inline with the hole for the midplate, downside of this is that it will leave me with only about 25mm of tubing between the fittings which is going to be really really difficult to fit. The other option is use some extensions and a 90 degree fitting as it will almost get it inline with the midplate hole but give me more tubing to play with. Either way I have order bother the extension and 45 fitting so I can see which is best.

Finally, problem 4. My nice braided sata cables don't fit! Being a tight fit with the pump where it is going the hole for the sata cables to go under the midplate had to be close to the drive bays. Turns out it is too close for the straight ended sata cables to curve and go through so I have ordered some sata cables with one end being 90 degrees which will fix this problem. I will have to re-tape the sata cables which is a pain but luckily I should be able to cut of the heat shrink of the current cables and re-use it on the 90 degree sata cables as I don't have enough sata braid to do 5 more.