Project "Waited so Long"

Craterloads

Craterloads

Craterloads

Soldato
Joined
26 Dec 2009
Posts
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Location
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Alright guys, super exited about getting this log going, not done one in a while but this one ive wanted to do for years. Been after this case for the best part of a year, simply none about since they ceased production along time ago and not many sold at the time given the price. Literally as rare as hens teeth until last week when one turned up but looked extremely dodgy so held off. Almost gave up hope but shock horror one turned up yesterday, phoned seller and seemed like a decent guy. Dropped everything and on my way for a 300mile round trip! Old fella must have been in his late fifties, took me to his shed a behold covered in dust and dirt, stored away for the last 5 years their she sat. Thankfully it's all just surface dirt and is pretty much mint underneath, not a dent scratch on the thing.

This will be a slowish project as there's a lot a planning, research and sourcing to be done.

Anyhow ill get some pics up later today before and after cleanup.

For now will leave you with a clue, case model number begins with "TNN". Sure one of you old schoolers will know what case it is :p

Edit - For those who haven't figured it out yet. Zalman TNN-500AF

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cases/display/zalman-tnn500af.html

Specs/Aim

Must be 100% passively cooled, no fans what so ever.

  • CPU - Intel i7 4770K Haswell - Upto 130w will be fine
  • Motherboard - MSI Z87 (Blue Ones) Motherboard or Asus Z87 Pro (Gold ones) (Leaning toward MSI as I think the colour match will be better)
  • RAM - 16/32GB Corsair Vengeance Gold
  • GPU - GTX 760 / 670 (around the 200w mark type GPUS) Perhaps higher - Looking into various ways to up the stock 75w cooling capacity. Whether that be getting a new better quality copper block made with more heat pipes fitted or trying to integrate the stock case cooling along with an additional passive card cooler. Not sure yet.
  • PSU - Either re-use 400w stock PSU or switch/mod a Seasnoic 520w Platinum PSU. Full braided and must be internal.
  • HDD - 12TB Mechanical hard drives / Hitachi 4TB Drives (already have 2)
  • SSD - 2 x 256GB or 2 x 512GB drives. Leaning towards the cheaper OCZ drives as are only like £140 a pop. Doubt ill notice the difference.






 
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Haha, spot on.

He said he got fed up with noise, was into his PC's before switching to Macs! Still queued up on his hardware though, knows his Haswell's from his IvyBridges, which was a pleasant surprise. Bad for me he knew what he had was worth some money, rather than trash 99% would have thought. Charged me a pretty penny too.
 
Mate I have literally no idea what case your talking about, but I've subbed anyway just out of for pure interest. Looking forward to seeing the pictures as I've no idea what to expect... I'll be watching this space for sure ;)
 
Craterloads said:
For now will leave you with a clue, case model number begins with "TNN". Sure one of you old schoolers will know what case it is :p
Click to expand...

Oooooh it's one of those. Weren't these like £1k at release?

Edit: Hmmm, it's not got as many gubbins as I remember. Was there another one like this at some point? Similar idea but more thingies EVERYWHERE?

Do all modern parts fit ok with it? Just with those being where they are I'm not how well they'd line up with a modern board.


I hope I kept that suitably vague for those not in the know.

:D
 
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Well all I can tell is that it must have been a very big itch you had seen as you did on large round trip to get it.

I will be watching out for this thread see as it will be one very cool build.
 
Ahh glad there's a few you who know there stuff from the no compromise era.

Mercutio said:
Oooooh it's one of those. Weren't these like £1k at release?

Edit: Hmmm, it's not got as many gubbins as I remember. Was there another one like this at some point? Similar idea but more thingies EVERYWHERE?

Do all modern parts fit ok with it? Just with those being where they are I'm not how well they'd line up with a modern board.


I hope I kept that suitably vague for those not in the know.

:D
Click to expand...

Yea that's a £1000 in 1994, imagine what it would cost today with inflation, labour, and price of aluminium.

Loads of gubbins and heatsink things :p

It will fit 1155/1156 therefore also 1150 Haswell which I'm planning to use, well within the TDP. 2011/X79 not sure about fitment and TDP is 130w. Cooling can handle upto 100w so Haswell is perfect. Possibly may able to cool a 4930K at stock undervolted but will be pushing it.

Main issue I have is with the GPU as the cooling is only rated to 70w or so i think, but need to check. I am primarily use for gaming and HTPC stuff, so minimum power i need would be a GTX 760. May have to hold off till 22nm stuff appears or do some modding/custom stuff.

Secondly the PSU, Haswell requires a modern PSU so that's something i have to look into also.

Great thing CPU wise these were designed to cool power hungry 100w 90nm stuff, with modern 22nm frugal Intel chips, should be a breeze.
 
Its a shame ####a# use to make such nice cases. They where at the front of pc enthusiast development. Now they have turned into a budget, run of the mill company. I'm really looking forward to seeing this project.
 
Ok some quick pics, here's how I received it. Not in the best of condition. But I do intend on fully restoring before progressing.

Was hoping the fade/purple was just grime, but is actually the anodizing fading, luckily is only the front door so need to get that sent off. Thinking of possibly doing it in zalman blue!!



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As you can see caked in thermal grease, not just 1 type as well. Looks like someones ran out half way through and has started mixing ceramic stuff with the light grey stuff and some darker Arctic Silver type stuff!! Cant imagine that's going to help with thermals

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Digging the old ram heatsink colour combo, will deffo be going gold myself or may try salvages the covers off these. Saying that cheekily, since two sticks were faulty, I requested an RMA with crucial and they have accepted :D Lifetime warranty after all.

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One caster completely seized and rusted, which is an annoyance as is set to lock so cant move the thing about on the wheels. Luckily a quick Google and found an identical replacement. Footmaster GD-40s, same model as the ones used on the case. £22 delivered.

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