[Build Log] - Old School TJ07

[Salty_Pepperpot]

17 hours ago, mouacyk said:

Can't wait to see the transformation. I've been going sff for primary desktop, but I do have a server to overhaul someday.

 

I can't wait either- I still need to buy the hardware & the watercooling stuff. Trying to be sensible and wait until black friday, see if there's anything good on offer. Still waiting to see what the Heatkiller IV for the 3080 looks like. -And there's no chance of getting a 3080 anytime soon - and I'm waiting for the 6800 benchmarks! All this waiting is killing me hah 

 

I've built a couple of PCs in the Silverstone SG05 for people. Love that case. It looks hilariously small next to the TJ07! I had a photo  of them somewhere but I can't find it....

 

Get that server build log going

 

16 hours ago, Bastiaan_NL said:

That's a neat way to hide that PCB, looks clean!

Did you manage to get the pins out of the connector?

 

Cheers! I've seen it done on a few TJ07 buildlogs so I had to give it a go. Haven't tried getting the pins out yet, but thanks for the advice, I'll give it a go soon

[Salty_Pepperpot]

@Bastiaan_NL No luck with the PCB de-pinning. I can lift the white tab but it refuses to come out  I'm not sure what's stopping it but I cant see how its connected to the PCB. Might be soldered onto the pin? Either way I think ill have to either de-solder the connector off the PCB or cut and solder the cables. Bugger! Any suggestions?

[Bastiaan_NL]

That's a bugger indeed... 

After a good search I think I found why, the pins are soldered directly to the pcb with the plastic "connector" only as a cover and spacer. To remove them you'll have to unsolder the whole connector from the pcb. 

 

[Search for J.S.T. SJN connector for what seems to be almost the same connector]

[Salty_Pepperpot]

@Bastiaan_NL I found a million different JST plugs but I never saw the SJN variety- which is exactly what it is.   I'm going to get you on a tech support retainer =D I've started to cut & solder the cables, so it will all be fine in the end, just a bit more faff.

 

Cheers

[Bastiaan_NL]

Thanks to google and a bit of luck I stumbled upon it by accident  
I'm sure I would have gone the same route with no other "easy" option.

[Salty_Pepperpot]

Hi everyone, small update! 

 

 

I've remade the PCB cables by cutting them off completely and soldering new lengths then sleeved the lot as one cable. Lots of extra length on the cables so I can cut them to the right length when I know the measurements.

 

Next up, a quick recap- I'm building a mount for all this Aquacomputer stuff to stop the spaghetti mayhem. 

 

 

This was the design. I've bought a piece of 3mm  aluminium cut to fit 5.25" bays, and some of this mounting hardware.

 

 

 

 

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.

 

Hardware mounted! I've had to find some standoffs and tiny M3 nuts and bolts to be able to mount all this lot. I took a chance on these nylon ones, turns out they're actually amazing quality, would recommend!

 

 

 

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

 

 

Luckily the case has some handy routing holes that will make everything easier!

 

 

Looking pretty good! Much better than the spaghetti madness. Apart from the fans, this is everything I need to have plugged in!  I need to make custom length cables  for the when I know how long they need to be. 

 

That's all for now.... I wanted to be buying the hardware this weekend but we all know it's impossible to get a hold of at the moment, so the waiting continues! 

 

Edited February 9, 2022 by Salty_Pepperpot
Fixin' Pictures

[Diffident]

I like the idea of the mounting plate for the splitty's..I'll have to steal that....but those holes...

[Salty_Pepperpot]

17 hours ago, Diffident said:

I like the idea of the mounting plate for the splitty's.. I'll have to steal that....but those holes...

 

Hahah fear not, I have a duplicate piece of aluminium and a new set of hole cutting drill bits- version 2 will be much more professional

[Bastiaan_NL]

Nice update, I do like the idea of mounting all those controllers on a panel. 
Good way to hide it and make it easy to work on if needed. I can't wait to see more

[Salty_Pepperpot]

Welp, been a while huh... lets continue like nothing at all has happened to preoccupy the global population for almost two years shall we?

 

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. 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!

 

 

Obligatory Cat Tax.

 

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!

 

Edited February 12, 2022 by Salty_Pepperpot

[Salty_Pepperpot]

Oh, I was going to link this video from Linus about the case if anyone's interested in it. 

 

 

[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-housings-plugs/6783161

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

 

More to come soon!

 

Edited February 15, 2022 by Salty_Pepperpot

[Avacado]

Your pictures are amazing. Solid build guide! Very impressed.

[ArchStanton]

May we see your crimper of choice?  That is some quality work .

[Salty_Pepperpot]

15 hours ago, Avacado said:

Your pictures are amazing. Solid build guide! Very impressed.

 

Thankyou!

 

3 hours ago, ArchStanton said:

May we see your crimper of choice?  That is some quality work .

 

Cheers. I'm getting the hang of it- slowly. These smaller ones are much more of a faff than the regular 22AWG PSU ones. It's the MDPC Crimper. To get the right crimp on the 26AWG I'm using the thinner side of the lowest set in the picture.

 

 

 

[ArchStanton]

37 minutes ago, Salty_Pepperpot said:

I'm getting the hang of it- slowly.

To me, your crimps look factory, which isn't easy on something as small as 26AWG (for me at least).  Hence, why I was curious to see your particular crimper.  I use something very similar, but I don't normally have to contend with anything smaller than 18AWG regularly.  Again, bravo on both your craftsmanship and photography skills .

[Salty_Pepperpot]

3 minutes ago, ArchStanton said:

To me, your crimps look factory, which isn't easy on something as small as 26AWG (for me at least).  

 

 

Ah cheers  It's reassuring to get some good feedback that's for sure!

[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

 

Tangent over (for now) Sleeving update tomorrow!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Supercrumpet]

On 16/02/2022 at 19:36, Salty_Pepperpot said:

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

 

Tangent over (for now) Sleeving update tomorrow!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Personally I prefer the look of pastel coolant, but if you're not going that route, I think silver fittings and matte black blocks that would match the case would look really nice. A full nickel blocks might be a bit much but that depends on GPU mounting and how visible everything ends up being. Looks awesome so far!

Edited February 18, 2022 by Supercrumpet

[Salty_Pepperpot]

On 18/02/2022 at 05:36, Supercrumpet said:

 

Personally I prefer the look of pastel coolant, but if you're not going that route, I think silver fittings and matte black blocks that would match the case would look really nice. A full nickel blocks might be a bit much but that depends on GPU mounting and how visible everything ends up being. Looks awesome so far!

 

I've seen too many horror stories of pastel coolant, and I'm trying to avoid as much potential staining as possible, so a couple of drops of dye in distilled is the way for me. 

 

I'm leaning toward the full nickel, the GPU will be standard inverted TJ07 style. If I do go nickel tho it will be nickel fittings too. 

 

Silver fittings and black blocks, I haven't really thought about I'll go find someones build log who's done it and see the pics

[Bastiaan_NL]

Awesome pictures!
Congrats on the unique case, great find and I totally understand why you went with that one
 

[Salty_Pepperpot]

On 20/02/2022 at 14:30, Bastiaan_NL said:

Awesome pictures!
Congrats on the unique case, great find and I totally understand why you went with that one
 

 

Thanks man