The Pepperpot (Old School TJ07)

[salty_pepperpot]

Hello everyone- whoever is left here

A quick bit of history,

I've lurked on here since... 2009? You guys got me into computers. Particularly, the Holy Grail of computer case modding through Charles Harwood and his MillionDollarPC TJ07 builds. Ah so beautiful! So shiny! I bought my TJ07 from the now defunct ChilledPC, with the view to get it watercooled and all fancy like the big boy MuderMods. Obviously I'm a little late, because that was back in 2010 and its still dry as a bone. But not for long! Welcome to my first ever build log!

I've posted on a couple of other forums, but I thought it would be rude not to put this on xtremeSystems. This place was the best back in the day, certainly the most interesting build logs, which is where I used to lurk. Even if nobody sees it here, at least I've contributed.

So the plan is to * finally* re-create my very own MurderMod- style TJ07. I'm not going to lie, there's not going to be much originality here as a thousand better modders have been here before and done it all (and better). Then again, it's been so long that everyone might have forgotten what a TJ07 is..... and anyway, if nothing else this log will been in homage to all the amazing work from the MurderBox guys, MillionDollarPC, xForma, and everyone else who did a sick build in this case. Hopefully there will be some useful information for someone to find in this post- most of the xtremeSystem builds have been lost to Photobucket failures, and even my carefully collected bookmarks folder of builds on Overclocked has been nuked by the forum upgrade. Dying build logs about a long ago case.... maybe i should call this build the Coffin instead

So here is a quick catch-up of what I've posted elsewhere, some of it might not be 100% relevant anymore because of.... reasons (you'll see)- but its content isn't it! Soon there will be new shiny updates.

Firstly, what I've got to work with:



What a beauty! I'm currently running a Ryzen 5 3400g/GTX 1080/32Gb on a mini ITX board because my X99/6850k system motherboard decided to stop booting, so it looks extra tiny in this case. Check out my awesome orange Xigmatek fans! 10 years old and still going strong



Theres some mods been done to this by ChilledPC as well. I got the internals powdercoated, a new window cut, inverted ATX layout as i think it looks so much better in a TJ07, and a quad radiator bracket. I did a couple of tiny mods too, replacing the front bay USB ports with a little 3.5" fan controller and I also changed the front Status LED's to orange ones. Because orange is the best colour. There's a terrible hacksawed cable routing hole along the rear midplate that needs cleaning up too.



I'll be grabbing some parts from ColdZero, and maybe a midplate from MartaMod. Surprisingly, the aftermarket parts scene for this case is still going strong. A testament to how awesome this case is!




I apologise for the obvious neglect �� Ill make it up to you TJ07 I promise! First things first, need to move existing hardware to a new case and start the TJ07 healing process X



This buildlog is sponsored by Pepper, Financial Advisor & General Assistant, MD, BSc (Hons) She is ready to begin.



Sythe Himuro's might get reused as they are so cool. We shall see.





Unfortunately these guys wont. Enjoy your retirement, I will always be your biggest... fan.....




Venerable GTX 1080. Might end up using it for another year at this rate, if Nvidia don't pull their finger out. Maybe pigs will become airbourne and AMD will produce a competitive high end GPU! We need the competition that's for sure!




Wanted to picture this as its a very cool feature of the case. The whole tray slides out the back so you can work on it with loads of access!




Safe and sound in another decent case- a H440 I think it is.



So much room for activities! I will take it apart completely as its 99% screws (not rivets) and give it a very good clean. Very simple to take apart. Maybe that's why the aftermarket parts scene is so decent for this case?



Pepper is very sad and has been relegated to the sofa after discovering she doesn't have opposable thumbs and is therefore quite useless as an assistant. Good work Pepper.

Here's what I've rendered for the design. I found a fantastic sketchup model for the case. Everything else is from TuboSquid free files. I've modelled some little bits here and there.






Yeah I know, nothing too ground-breaking, but why change 10 years worth of good ideas?

Here's the (out of date now) hardware: I will update this but until HW prices return to the land of sanity, these are workable placeholders.



CPU : Ryzen 5800

GPU: RTX 3080

RAM: 32/64GB Corsair 3200

MOBO: X570 ROG Strix-E

PSU: Silverstone Strider 1000w



Storage (If anyone cares):



O/S: 512Mb NVMe

Games: 1Tb NVMe

Media: 8Tb HDD

Projects: 4Tb HDD

Projects Backup: 4TB HDD

Adobe Projects: 1TB SSD



All I need to buy is the Games NVMe, the rest has been collected over the years. I really like having separate storage for separate things.


Here's a list of watercooling bits:



CPU Block Quantum Momentum X570-E
Reservoir EK RES X4 250 (R2.0)
Radiator EK Coolstream 480
Radiator EK Coolsteam 240
Pump Aquacomputer D5 Next
GPU Block Heatkiller 3080 (if it looks nice)
GPU Backplate Heatkiller 3080 Backplate
Coolant Mayhem's Dye & Distilled Water

All kinds of 3/8-5/8 (16mm) fittings and tubes also. And a few tools to get them bent etc etc etc.


I decided I have far too much money so I'm going to sleeve my own cables. Cablemod was pretty expensive anyway so why not go whole hog? I got a little test package the other day from MDPCx with a few items. Sample sleeves & shrink for size and colour, 15AWG wire and various crimps, connectors and terminals. Thanks to the sample bits I've decided on the sizes of sleeve and colours.

Introducing the ghetto studio for crap-tacular pictures.




So this was an unexpected contender. Stripey sleeve! I think it looks really cool, and I'd love to use it but it just wont fit into the theme for this one. Maybe next time.




After playing for a little while I've come up with



From left to right: Shade 19, Papaya Orange, and Oxide Orange. Snazzy.



I've decided to use Small XTC with transparent heatshrink. I'm going to do Lutro's heatshrinkless method. I actually decided on 17 AWG wire as I thought 15 AWG was really tricky to get into the connector when it had been sleeved. Subsequent practice has made me realise this is not the case, I was just doing it tily. Never mind. The difference is very slight. I'm going to use white wire for the oranges and black for the Shade19 sleeve. (The right backing colour makes a huge difference. I was really surprised to see how much better the colours look on the appropriate background). Im using small XTC sleeve as it fits nicer and I like the tighter weave.



I have also received a Silverstone ST-1000 PTS. I've had one of these running for the last 10 years and it's been flawless. I was actually debating weather to keep it going for this build too, but the matter was decided for me when my other half decided to short some pins to test the Ryzen System when it was getting built. Magic Purple Smoke, goodbye PSU






So this is the same thing as my old one, except its shorter now! It's not amazingly high rated on the PSU lists but I trust them. Also, it's a 1:1 pinout with only one split cable on the ATX 24pin, so sleeving is going to be so easy compared to others! (I hope). Anyhoo, a few days after this, a package turned up from the home of wise eldars of PC modding...



As is tradition.



It's Sleeving!




So many goodies in here. As I've mentioned above, I've decided to use Small XTC with transparent heatshrink, on 17 AWG black/white wire.



This stuff looks amazing!




My personal favourite colour- Papaya Orange.




This is an absolute beast! Its made my crimping so much easier. Can't recommend it enough.





With its baby brother awwww bless.





A whole host of connectors, crimps, terminals, p-clips. I've been practicing some crimping and after about 30 wasted ATX pins I think I've worked it out





I've started making a shorty cable. The Silverstone pinout is super simple. One split cable and after looking into it, I don't think I even need to include the double one at the back there.



How's my Crimping? Apologies this is the best macro shot I can do without a lens. This is through a magnifying glass ahah.



Heatshrinkless! It's not difficult at all. (With some practice....)





17AWG on the left, 15AWG on the right.



I got another package from Germany too!




Pepper approves!

[salty_pepperpot]

Another package.


Author
Posted October 27, 2020
Another package.




These arrived much sooner than I expected! This afternoon I've had a play around with all the Aquacomputer stuff.






Sweet holy jeebus. What a total cabling nightmare! One Aquero, one Farbwerk, 3 Splitty4's, 6 Corsair QL120's and a whole load of spaghetti. At least I don't have to cook tonight! Unfortunately, the Farbwerk can only support 90 LED's per channel. As the QL-Series fans have 34 LED's each, this means 2 fans max per channel. I'm having to use one Splitty4 per 2 fans, and I've used one Farbwerk channel for LED Strips. Not included in this setup is the three in-line water temp monitors I want to include, the pump, a flow monitor and air temp sensors. I'm definitely going to have to work out how to shorten and sleeve the majority of this stuff. It's all going to have to fit in the bottom of the TJ07... somehow.... I'm going to have to build some kind of mounting setup

As for the Aquasuite software, it's exactly what I need. no nonsense, no fancy graphics or bull OTT interfaces. (Looking at you, thermaltake)



So neat! So tidy! Individually addressable LED's with any effect and copy/pasting. Yes Please.


I didn't take into account all this Aquaero stuff in my original Sketchup file. I've also got a D5 instead of a DDC, so new pump placements required.



The DDC is already really squished in there! I spent a while throwing about the Aquacomputer parts in this section but there's no chance they're going to fit.



Design MKII- The D5 is too big to fit in-between the rads, and there needs to be space for the cables to run too. This new layout keeps the buttons on the D5 easy to reach and I can get a wider 240mm rad now if I want! This hasnt solved the Aquero stuff needing a home though, sooooo...






Before & after ^^ - I've moved the Himuro Drive days to a vertical config. I've and created a little mount for the monitoring stuff which is going to be super simple to knock up!





It will be super easy to access through the front panel.



Moving the Himuro Drives to a vertical config makes the inside of the case look nicer too! They fill the space almost perfectly, and give me loads more room- the space between the GPU/RES/Himuro has gone from about 5mm to 5cm. Should make life easier all round. As long as all my measurement are correct.... still has to pass the IRL test

[salty_pepperpot]

The TJ07 has the power button and status LED's mounted on this little PCB on the front of the case. A popular mod is to encase this in a little box so it looks all neat & tidy, so that's what I'm doing today.





Looks like I was lazy and only mounted it with 2 at some point in the past....



Standoffs/Power button hole.





The PCB off the case. A lot of people replace the power button with a Anti-Vandal style switch but I think the stock one looks super clean, so I'm leaving it alone. I have a vague memory of there being a reset switch, so something must've happened to it at some point.... I have replaced the blue LED's with orange ones (of course), so no edits needed there.






This is the box, it's a Hammond Box. Specifically, a Hammond 1591ABK - 100x50x25mm.




I've drilled holes for the PWR, LED & standoffs. The standoffs that come with the case for mounting the PCB are a few millimetres shorter on the threaded screw part compared than a regular motherboard standoff. I'm using the standoffs to hold the Hammond Box in place so swapping them out with regular motherboard ones makes up for the difference in thickness. Lucky because I didn't think about it at all. =D




Mounted in the case. Cut a little hole in the side for the cables.





How much better is that! The cables will be lengthened & sleeved when I know how long the replacements need to be.




I couldn't get these out of the connector here, so i just had to cut and solder them.



Lovely. As for the Aquero mounting solution:




Blu-tack'd the bits to the plate and drew some drilling marks. Be warned this is not going to be pretty. (I have a second piece for the final version of this when I know everything I'll need on it).






Test fit, looks pretty good.





Drilled the holes.







Had to drill and hacksaw some cable routing holes. I plan to run some P-clips on the back to manage the cables.




Looking pretty good! Much better than the spaghetti madness. I need to make custom length cables for the fans when I know how long they need to be.

---------------------------------------

Ok, so that's the end of the updates from the past.... exciting new developments to come. Soon(ish)

[salty_pepperpot]

So, new exciting updates incoming. Firstly, I got a new toy, which will be replacing the TJ07. But what could possibly replace the Best Case Ever? Tis madness! I hear you shout. Fret not- It's the Best Case Ever v2.0, a TJ07 on steroids and protein powder. Originally totally out of my budget, I found it for a slightly less eye-watering price and I mean, it would be rude not to really. It's an xForma, a completely custom TJ07 from Charles Harwood, the dude who created MDPCx, and Million Dollar PC, which I first saw through this forum. He basically took a TJ07 and rebuilt it from the ground up, with almost all of the parts changed in some manner. It's super cool to have a piece of PC-Modding history, especially from the guy who kinda made popular a lot of the things we take for granted these days (sleeving, etc). Hopefully I'll do it some justice!



I've been playing with some new camera gear so probably got a bit carried away. ��



I think it looks super-sweet. Here's some bits I think are interesting.




The finish is totally sick.



Orange LED strip in the front panel.





Only 250! Anyone fancy trading me for no.008? ��





Internal storage bays, 3x HDD & 3x SSD.



They plug into a custom PCB.



All the power for the drives feeds through here.



Pepper giving me evils. I think she's jealous.








Still got the removable motherboard tray! This thing is like, 14mm thick solid aluminium. It weighs a TON.



Even the screws are fancy hex-head.



Drive mounts. They're push fit and the drives connect straight to the PCB. Trying to make the photos a bit more interesting too! This one is... gold...



Adorable!



The case came with so much stuff. Including like, 200 screws, washers and even a tiny screwdriver!



Loads more stuff to dig through. Yay content!



I've been doing quite a lot of work for the build in the last month or two, so at least there will be a bit more content as I faff around with everything. Updates to follow. Cheers!

There's also this video from Linus if you're interested in this case.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRHG1E42QBE&t=6s

[salty_pepperpot]

Update time.



I'm working on the fans today. Here's the lower radiator bracket that came with the case.






The whole thing is aluminium. The top section holds the fans, and it slides onto the bottom section.







The little rubber grommits slide through the channel there and clips in.






The bottom section screws into the case.







And run a 4 way fan splitter cable through the bottom there.






My fan cables are way too long! Every extra cm is just going to pile up in a mass of spaghetti in the bottom of this case, and there will be a LOT of cabling down here. So I'm going to shorten the RBG and PWM to fit. I'm going to make an RGB extension cable to match the 4-way fan splitter cable.






I've picked up a 26-AWG stripper for these RGB/PWM cables, they are so tiny! Along with the compatible Corsair RGB headers and male/female crimp terminals. A bit tricky to find, so if anyone comes across this in the future, here's the relevant parts for the UK.



Female Connector: (Molex 50-57-9404) https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/wire-...-plugs/6783161

Male Connector: (Molex 70107-0003) https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/wire-...-plugs/6795978

Female Crimp Terminal: (Molex 22AWG 16-02-0102) https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/crimp-contacts/6794742

Male Crimp Terminal: (Molex 22AWG 16-02-0114) https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/crimp-contacts/6794742



These crimp terminals are designed for 22AWG, but the actual wires are closer to 26. The crimping can be really fiddly. Here's how to do it.



Step 1: Take a piece of Tape to remember which way round the wires connect before you cut it!



Wires cut and stripped.





Crimped.




Gardeners fingers hah. The terminals are so damn tiny, it can be really fiddly. I found crimping the terminal to the plastic first, then the terminal to the stripped wire as separate operations with the crimping tool to be most effective.




Back in the connector. Took bloomin ages actually, but I've done 4/6 RGB cables.... then all the PWM ones to go 😞 Totally worth it for those tidy cables though right?





Finished RGB vs regular PWM. Hope you enjoy the orange background, I'm getting bored of white lightboxes hah



More to come soon!









12.jpg

[salty_pepperpot]

Build log tangent- Was looking at cable combs today the question is, silver or black?... which prompted a journey down a rabbit hole of aesthetic choices that need to be actually decided. At the moment, the colour scheme is:

Black case.
Orange lights.
Orange/Dark Grey Cables like so:



And I'm going with some Mayhems orange dye. Not the Pastel stuff either, as I've seen some horror stories. The ideal result with look like centre glass here:




But there isn't much in the way of "accent colours". And the Cable combs should match the fittings right?

So here we have the face-off. Fittings and general water-cooling stuff, Black vs. Aluminium/Silver. I made some giant image boards to help me decide, but it's not helped, its just made me more indecisive.





I guess click them to get the full impression.

Silver looks great. Black looks great too! I think with the right lighting the silver will "pop" more, and all those nice specular highlights off the metal and transparent tube/liquid. In particular the bottom right/left of the silver group.

But black is pretty badass. Look at that Heatkiller GPU block. The contrast works better with a pastel fluid though.

Hummmm. Thoughts?

Ugh, I'm probably going to have to buy a few of each and have a look IRL. Those that don't make the cut can be hidden in the bottom of the case if needs be. xD

Tangent over (for now) Sleeving update tomorrow!