SovietKitsch's Murdermod TJ07

[SovietKitsch]

SovietKitsch's
MurderMod Spyder TJ07

Updated: August 12th, 2010


Case: Silverstone Silver TJ07 powder coated matte black.
PSU: Silverstone ST1000
Motherboard: EVGA Classified E759
CPU: Core i7 920 D0
Memory: Corsair Dominator GT 1600mhz
HDD: 5.5TB (1x Seagate 1TB 7200.12, 3x Seagate 1.5TB 7200.11)
Graphics Cards: EVGA SC+ GTX 480 in SLI.

Water Cooling:
CPU: EK Supreme Cu HF Nickel
Graphic Cards: 2x AquagraFX for GTX 480 (Nickel)
Pump: DangerDen D5 Pump with EK R2 Top.
Radiator: HardwareLabs SR1-480
Reservoir EK Multi-Res V2
Fittings: Bitspower G1/4" 1/2 inch silver plated barb x8
Fittings: Bitspower G1/4" 1/2 inch matte black barb x6
Fittings: Bitspower G1/4" 45º shiny silver adapter
Fittings: Bitspower G1/4" D-Plug mini x2
Fittings: Bitspower G1/4" T-Block
Coolant: Distilled
Fans: Silverstone FM121 x4
Sleeving: Sleeving MDPC-X



Backstory

Long story short, I saw Charles' Murderbox here last summer, and knew I had to have one. I bought a TJ07 on here only to have it destroyed in transit by UPS. Ont op of that, I was ripped off when it came time to getting a refund. After several months, disputes, and wrangling with credit card companies I was off and ready to go. I found another TJ07 in mint condition thought a forum that turned out to be perfect. After migrating my new I7 parts over, the 5970 was finally released, and was snatched up quickly.

However, this didn't sit well with my 700W Tagan PS. Shortly after, it managed to fry my main HDDs. 2TB of data later and 3 bricked HDDs later, I upgraded the power supply, and bought 3 1.5TB HDDs during Black Friday for $80 a piece.

I do apologize for the varying levels of quality in the pictures. I hardly have time to remember my name right now! I'm working on it though, honest!

October 2009:




STEP ONE:
The first steps were to drill out the back panel, flip the mobo tray, and touch a few things up. The plan was to fit everything in the case, fire it up, and run with it for a week or two before sending it off to get painted.

I will note that this is the first TJ07 work log where the 5970's length actually obscures the ideal placement/size of the res. I couldn't fit anything bigger than 150mm comfortably with my old motherboard.

MORE HORRIBLE PICTURES!













January 2010
The next step was installing the watercooling kit. Even though I always wanted to in the past, it was my first time messing with water.

I also cut two circles to fit my PCI-E cables and my ATX mobo cables.

Enough talking, here's the pictures for stage 2!





March 2010
First step tonight was cutting the side window. All measured up and ready to go.



Point of no return!



Hole is cut!





After moving back inside the house, I was attacked with a florescent bulb that shattered upon hitting my back. OW.



Post light attack, I put everything in the case. The black mesh will cover the back of the HDDs. I wanted a slotted design for better airflow, and to help separate the case. I wanted the main focus to be on the motherboard/GPU/watercooling setup, or the heart of the computer, and not the back of my HDDs and a few messy SATA cables. Throw in a few lights behind it, and this will REALLY be near. In addition, the tan/brown thing on the midplate is my white acrylic for my RGB light box. This will really, really make the case pop. If I can pull it off right.





Front view. This will be a special area tomorrow!



Top view looking down!



Rear view. I'm so close...yet so far away!



That's it for tonight. I'll be sure to give a complete list of parts used, better pictures, and an overall better work log over the next few days. I'm new to xtreme and would love any feedback. Thanks for looking!

[Update - May 28th, 2010]
I did intend to update this a little more, however college full time + work full time = no time for anything else.

However college is off for the summer and work let up, so back to modding!

I just made my deadline, however the PC was sub par for my standards.

A few images were taken during the rush to get it built for a LAN I was heading to just 1 day after doing a quick spray painting job on the case:



Truth be told, I got to the LAN one day late, and hid everything. I hated the way it looked and was rushed. The paint chipped during installation of the parts, and I was overall dissatisfied.

This is one of the only pictures taken of the then "completed" case:


In actuality, the case looked alright. I won first place in the Case Mod contest over what I believed to be a better mod. The admins said it was so close, that only one thing tipped in my favor to win: A side window that wasn't actually a window. So I owe my first place to everyone who called me out on that ugly siding and ditching the window for that weekend.

I've acculturated parts over the past few weeks and now I'm attempting to do this "right".

A few of the upgrades:
Swiftech 3x120 QP-Rad to SR1-480.
The finish on the RAD is insane, and after only being able to put two fans on the Swiftech one, the four I have installed on the SR1 should really help cool things down.

Apogee GTZ to EK Supreme HF.
Hands down the GTZ rocked, but I heard nothing but great things for the EK block. I will say the mounting method was a lot better for the GTZ, but the look and feel of the EK just blows me away.

EK X-Top R2 for D5 pump.
It made my taped in sideways half assed pump mod completely obsolete and just blows me away in terms of both looks and how much easier it makes planning my loop out.

I'm planing on getting the case powder coated as intended before, and actually seeing it through this time. You won't see the case until it's done.

As for now, a teaser of things to come...

[Anemic]

Massive amout of storage, I like it ; )

[dreamaxx]

That rubber lining is REVOLTING!

Sorry it had to be said.

Rest looks great. Get rid of rubber lining and carefully sand the edges of your cut back.

[ohms]

That rubber lining is REVOLTING!

Sorry it had to be said.

Rest looks great. Get rid of rubber lining and carefully sand the edges of your cut back.

I agree, just sand the edges down then drill some holes around the hole and pop in some rivets to hold down the window

But nice work on everything else, looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

[dreamaxx]

Don't even put in rivets, use double sided tape, it is strong enough to hold acrylic on without a problem. Plus if you are shaking your case around enough to make it pop off using double sided tape then worse things are gonna pop!

[Liderc]

Yeah double sided tape, works amazing. It takes some time to sand the edges, either with files or sand paper, but it's not very hard and will look 100x better.

[SovietKitsch]

I did intend to update this a little more, however college full time + work full time = no time for anything else.

However college is off for the summer and work let up, so back to modding!

I just made my deadline, however the PC was sub par for my standards.

A few images were taken during the rush to get it built for a LAN I was heading to just 1 day after doing a quick spray painting job on the case:



Truth be told, I got to the LAN one day late, and hid everything. I hated the way it looked and was rushed. The paint chipped during installation of the parts, and I was overall dissatisfied.

This is one of the only pictures taken of the then "completed" case:


In actuality, the case looked alright. I won first place in the Case Mod contest over what I believed to be a better mod. The admins said it was so close, that only one thing tipped in my favor to win: A side window that wasn't actually a window. So I owe my first place to everyone who called me out on that ugly siding and ditching the window for that weekend.

I've acculturated parts over the past few weeks and now I'm attempting to do this "right".

A few of the upgrades:
Swiftech 3x120 QP-Rad to SR1-480.
The finish on the RAD is insane, and after only being able to put two fans on the Swiftech one, the four I have installed on the SR1 should really help cool things down.

Apogee GTZ to EK Supreme HF.
Hands down the GTZ rocked, but I heard nothing but great things for the EK block. I will say the mounting method was a lot better for the GTZ, but the look and feel of the EK just blows me away.

EK X-Top R2 for D5 pump.
It made my taped in sideways half assed pump mod completely obsolete and just blows me away in terms of both looks and how much easier it makes planning my loop out.

I'm planing on getting the case powder coated as intended before, and actually seeing it through this time. You won't see the case until it's done.

As for now, a teaser of things to come...

[SovietKitsch]

I'm planing on getting the case powder coated as intended before, and actually seeing it through this time. You won't see the case until it's done.

I lied.



Dropped it off this afternoon. Going with a matte black/Solar black finish. Can't wait.

[masik]

Pozdravlyau with progress, I got the same case,, looking forward to your advances.. I made a my own midplate cover with led lights.

[xdarthveganx]

Where did you get that midplate with no holes in it? I am looking for something EXACTLY like that. If you had it custom made, what type of shop did that for you?

[SovietKitsch]

Thats a great CPU block isn't it Soviet? When I got mine in the mail I was just staring at it for like 5 minutes thinking "wooooo, shiny".

I really couldn't get over how heavy it was, but being full Cu i'm not surprised at all.

What plate did you end up using?

I was having buyers remorse thinking I should have purchased the nickle version but when I opened the gold I had the same reaction you did! It's really heavy, but so much nicer than my GTZ. I haven't decided on a plate yet, I just got it today and had to RMA my motherboard. I'm hoping I get it before June 12th, but I know I'm pushing it.

Where did you get that midplate with no holes in it? I am looking for something EXACTLY like that. If you had it custom made, what type of shop did that for you?

I went with estreetplastics. They custom cut to size and are pretty affordable. Remember to have the top lip hang over the midplate, it looks really cool!

[xdarthveganx]

I went with estreetplastics. They custom cut to size and are pretty affordable. Remember to have the top lip hang over the midplate, it looks really cool!

Wait this is plastic?

[masik]

Home depot or Lowes sells acrylic sheets. Buy 1/8" thick sheet, cut 7" wide and about 14.5" long, use a dremel to fit one corners with the cut out. paint any color if you want.. I also bought 1/4" thick square rods as long from tap plastics and glued them to make feet and fit the lights under.

[ohms]

Thats a great CPU block isn't it Soviet? When I got mine in the mail I was just staring at it for like 5 minutes thinking "wooooo, shiny".

I really couldn't get over how heavy it was, but being full Cu i'm not surprised at all.

What plate did you end up using?

[SovietKitsch]

My bad, I thought you meant my midplate with the lights. I got a sheet of steel at Home Depo and cut it to size. Fits in well, but it needs to be painted or else it rusts super quickly!

[xdarthveganx]

My bad, I thought you meant my midplate with the lights. I got a sheet of steel at Home Depo and cut it to size. Fits in well, but it needs to be painted or else it rusts super quickly!

my case is getting powder coated so that is perfect thanx!

[xdarthveganx]

Two more questions I apologize....

How did you mount the hard drives in the 5.25 bays, and whatever brackets you used would it be possible to turn it so that the hard drives would be mounted vertically? (similar to murderbox) thanx ahead of time.

[SovietKitsch]

I used these: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ef=oss_product

I could see mounting them sideways, however they weigh a ton. Also, they get very hot. (They didn't leave much space in between drives) What is normally done is take the HDD bays of the regular TJ07 and turn them sideways. The only reason I didn't go this route was I had 4 HDDs and the cage only supported 3.

The ones in the picture above have been scrapped. I really liked them, however I'm now planing on trying to do something like Charles did with the floating SSD bays, only for 3.5 inch HDDs. I'll be documenting that here as well, but you probably won't see that any time soon.

[xdarthveganx]

You are ing awesome. Thanx for all the help.

That will work perfect as I have 4HD's but two are SSD's in an adapter that lets me put 2 SSD's in one HD slot.

So the TJ07 ones should work perfectly, thanx again.

P.S. the bananas are HILARIOUS.

[jellyrole]

How much does that cost to get powder coated?

[SovietKitsch]

I honestly haven't a clue. It's been over a week and still no case. My LAN is this weekend...so...time to make do with whatever I can throw together...



Yes, it's SUPPOSE to look that horrible. Everything is taped in and covered with the caution tape, so no scratches/tape marks. I'm really bumped about my case not getting done, they won't return emails or phonecalls either. It's a reputable place, but I have to drag this ^ along this weekend instead of my Murdermod.

[malkiewicz]

I honestly haven't a clue. It's been over a week and still no case. My LAN is this weekend...so...time to make do with whatever I can throw together...

http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/9683/img0067.jpg

Yes, it's SUPPOSE to look that horrible. Everything is taped in and covered with the caution tape, so no scratches/tape marks. I'm really bumped about my case not getting done, they won't return emails or phonecalls either. It's a reputable place, but I have to drag this ^ along this weekend instead of my Murdermod.

Now this is a nice case....

[SovietKitsch]

A little setback. The powder place called today, nearly two weeks after I dropped it off. The conversation went like this;


Powder Coaters: How much did we quote you for online?
Me: Around $50
Powder Coaters: It's going to be a lot more than that.
Me: How much?
Powder Coaters: Around $200.
Me: I'm going to have to call you back.

Are they ripping me off? I have the main case U, the DVD side bays, mid plate, mobo tray, and I threw in a few little pieces. It seems crazy to think they want $200. Is it just a company ripping off a young person with a PC trying to milk as much money as they can out of me, or did I ask too much of them?

[shazza]

Seems expensive to me from what I've seen others say they've paid. It does look like you've a lot of odds and ends in that box, so not sure how much that adds to it. Maybe they are factoring in a lot of prep work as well?

Given all the bits and pieces, it may not be that crazy - but only if they do an absolute top notch job. Some of the less expensive powder coating jobs we've seen haven't turned out all that well ...

[malkiewicz]

The fact that it took 2 weeks for them to call you back could mean that they wont be too eager to fix any issues later without a fee... I'd find someone else unless you have no other choices.