TJ Maxx

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
So begins the build log of Sprocket's new home.

The case finally arrived.
In the most ginormous box I've ever seen for a PC case.
Which is odd as the case itself is actually slightly smaller than the Stacker, but it was actually a good thing- UPS had done it's best to destroy the contents- the excessive airspace around the TJ saved it from damage though.

Did I mention it is heavy?
It is.

Despite the late hour (it showed up near 10PM) I had to rip it open and see what I had gotten- I'd never beheld one in person.

I was not disappointed...I think it's beautiful.
The main structure of the case is the thick u-shaped panel that forms the roof, front and floor- all in one continuous piece. It has a matte black finish that is satiny to the touch.
The interior panels are all bare aluminum.
Everything is screwed together, there are only four rivets in the entire unit (I'll get to those later), which makes this a case modder's dream.

Prior to purchasing the case I had PMed owners on various fora to inquire about the possibility of converting the layout to pseudo BTX. This is my preferred arrangement and studying the pictures at Newegg lead me to think it was easily possible.
No one responded so it was with some bit of trepidation that I examined the TJ to see how difficult it was going to be.

To my amazement it looked like Silverstone had already done most of the work for me.
The removable motherboard tray/backplane slides into runners- one on the subfloor (held by four rivets...the only rivets in the case) and the upper screwed into the thick roof panel. There were corresponding (unused) holes already in place on the opposite side.
I immediately started to pull things apart to test feasability.


Naturally, it wasn't as simple as it first appeared.
Flipping the tray assembly and trying to place it the case (sans runners) uncovered the first issue...the case roof fans fouled the support bracket in the corner of the tray/backplane assembly.
In fact, the roof fans were going to get in the way of the PCI slots (now located at the top rather than the bottom of the motherboard).
So out they came (this presents another issue that I'll detail later) and the motherboard tray was temporarily screwed in. All the (eight) mounting holes lined up perfectly on the back and the unit was acceptably rigid despite the lack of the locating runners.
But I kind of wanted to use the runners if possible.
At least the bottom one (which was originally the top one as delivered).
So I mocked it into place and test assembled again.
All it needed was to be spaced up off the subfloor by 3/16" to fit perfectly.
This was actually a blessing as I had planned on skinning the subfloor with plexi anyway, so I cut and fitted a piece and drilled two holes to mount the floorskin and runner. These two holes are the only modification to the case necessary so far...the whole process could be reversed and the case returned to stock with minimal visual evidence.

*Rereading this section I can see how it would be confusing to someone who doesn't have the case in front of them...it's difficult to explain some of the issues/procedures without extensive photo support.
My photographic skills are (obviously) minimal and I have bandwidth concerns as well.
This is not a "how-to" manual with step-by-step instructions anyway- I simply don't have the time (nor the inclination) to write such a thing up- rather, I'll just be showing the end results and highlighting the major issues.
If there are specific areas of interest just let me know, I'll try to accomodate.*

So now we are here...

The motherboard flipped and totally installed into the case.

Phase One- the only part I had major concerns about- finished.

There will be four major phases to this assembly.
I think.
I have a pretty good general idea of where I want to end up but it's difficult to plan ahead without the physical components at hand and anyway I've always preferred to let serendipity lead me as it will.
Sometimes the best ideas are the result of sheer chance or the accidental juxtaposition of apparently unrelated objects.

Phase Two takes us into the case's nether regions, home of the PSU (which should arrive today), the radiator and the pump.

Three deals with the 5 1/4" bay area and Four is paint/cosmetics.

Welcome to the journey.

Today I started to layout some of the major components that will go into the build.
Especially when watercooling pre-planning is critical, and it's important to remember that there will be tubes running all over the place so what appears as empty space might not be so empty later on.

I don't really have many options where the PSU and radiator will go so the real design option is the reservoir...and even that is somewhat constrained.
First I need to mock in a big space eater on the motherboard- the Fragtek mosfet/RAM cooling bracket. .

This is being customized further by swapping out the supplied 40mm fans for a triad of dual-blade, counter-rotating AVC's.
Overkill is the name of the game here.

Now I can play with the reservoir location...

...without worrying about hitting the Fragtek setup.
The rez is going to be slightly modified but that will happen later.

Also visible in this pic are the Hiper 580w modular PSU and the Cooling Works triple radiator.
Not shown is the waterpump- a MCP350 (18w) with a modified Alphacool top- mainly because it's in use in my current rig and won't be needed for a while yet.

On my next days off- Sunday and Monday- I plan on mounting the radiator and beginning the modifications to the PSU wiring.
I also have a set of these Lian-li custom black casters that will be mounted at some point, whenever the case is stripped out and it's convenient to drill and tap the holes.

More to come...

great job man .. i just sold my fragtek setup .. wouldnt work with wut i was running on the cpu

Progress has been made.
Not that you'll be able to tell...It's weird how several hours of tedius work can make such a small visual impact.
Kinda depressing actually.

Anyway, much of the drudgework is finished.
All of the drilling/tapping/holesawing etc. that needed to be done before paint was begun is completed and the interior panels are done as well.
The necessary "pass through holes"- motherboard wiring, reservoir outlet and CPU inlet tube- were laid out and cut.

The reservoir needed a bit of customization.
Originally, both the inlet and outlet barbs were perpendicular to the rez body itself.
This is fine for the return from the GPU but not so good for the outlet to the pump.
That outlet barb needed to go straight down, through the floor and right into the pump top.
I also needed to drill two mounting holes to fasten the rez to the subfloor- I wanted the unit to appear free standing.
Some drilling and tapping produces this:

The intake (with the internal seperator tube) is original while the old outlet now sports a fashionable plug and the new outlet is the barb on the bottom.

A word about the paint...
The TJ's exterior finish is a velvety matte black- very striking but easy to overdo.
I wanted a finish that would compliment the matte but add a bit of pizazz so I went with Hammertone "hammered" black.
This finish has a bit more sheen and also some texture, not to mention it's far more durable than my other favorite color, straight satin black.

Here is the painted case assembled with the mirrored subfloor panel and rez installed...

While the case was stripped I also installed the black Lian-li caster set and replaced the power switch with a Bulgin ring lit switch (the LED will indicate HDD activity).
Neither of those show up well in this pic but they will be featured when I get to the relevant areas of the case.
Now that the rez has been mounted I can locate the pump mount and also install the radiator and PSU.
The new DD NV-78 GPU block arrived today so the loop is all on hand.

Also in the mail was my much anticipated Nixie clock.
I'm kinda wondering if I can incorporate into this build somehow...

Looks nice so far. Cool clock, btw.

the black knight always triumphs!

The lower compartment has had it's mirrored floorpanel cut and installed so the PSU and rad can be test fitted.

**pic specifically composed to include the black LL casters thus satisfying Lynx's unnatural craving to see them ahead of time. Sorry but the Bulgin switch will remain a mystery for now...
As more components are added it gets increasingly difficult to avoid conflicts/interference and sure enough, I've run into two issues.
The first, and easiest to deal with, concerns the rad.
*gratuitous shot of rad with Sythe S-Flex fans installed*

I had hoped to center it between the casefloor and the subfloor, unfortunately this almost completely obscures the passthrough hole in the subfloor where the motherboard wiring will go.
So far I've resisted the urge to drill holes in the original case structure...the entire case could be restored to stock condition (even the paint could be removed, I suppose) without visible evidence of my alterations.
This means working within the holes that Silverstone provides in the subfloor and that inconveniently leads to this conflict.
I've decided to mount the rad directly on the floor which leaves about 1" clearance for the cabling and (hopefully) will have minimal impact on airflow.

The second issue is similar but I'm responsible for the screw up.
When I transferred the location of the passthrough hole that the rad>CPU tube needs I made two errors...the first was not accounting for the width of my t-square base.
This rookie mistake offset the tube 3/8" from the actual center of the CPU socket...a visual boo-boo and probably only noticable to me.
I could live with this but it gets worse.

When I originally mocked the PSU into place to check clearances, I did not have the modular cables screwed in.
The Hiper's "stereo plug" type connectors are quite long and not flexible so the effective length of the PSU is considerably longer than just the casing itself, a fact I did not take into account at the time.

Well, I have to deal with it now because the tube will not clear the thicket of PSU connectors.
Either this tube run will have to be routed differently or possibly I can make a custom bulkhead fitting to solve the issue.
I'm pondering options now.

Hard drive mounts and cooling:




Since the stock Silverstone HDD racks had to be removed to accomodate the rad and pump I needed a way to mount the drives in upper bay area.
I've found these finned 3.5 to 5.25" adaptors to be very effective isolating/mounting the Raptors so I'm using them in this build.

In the past I've cooled the drives by mounting fans in front of them in the bezel but I have other plans for the front this time, so different arrangements needed to be made. Fortunately, I just happened to have a pair of adaptors from some Aerocool 140mm fans and they were perfect for this application. Intended to mount the 140mm fans to a standard 120mm hole, the adaptors work perfectly to affix a 120mm fan to the drive mounts- no modifications necessary. My casual and decidedly unscientific testing with a laser thermometer tells me that the hottest areas on a hard drive are the spindle/motor area and the controller PCB (definitely not the sides of the casing as commonly held) and this bottom mounted fan addresses both areas.

Serendipity is a wonderful thing.

Do the heatsinks on the sides of the HDD really help it much? And if so, where did you find those?

Sweet ideas going into the mod, and it'll be interesting to see it all come together!

yeah those are nice hd coolers .. prolly only worth using on raptors

MasterOfTheHat said:

Do the heatsinks on the sides of the HDD really help it much? And if so, where did you find those?

Click to expand...

IMO, no...as heatsinks they are useless, that's why the fans are there.

The mounts are very nice as isolators however- the rubber block mounts lessen the seek noise of the Raptors considerably so they are worth the $10 (a pair) just for that. I got these at CompUSA but I've seen them several places.

First up is visual evidence of what I spent most of my weekend doing...

Getting my current Sprocket set up to triple boot.
I'm operating out of XP 64 bit now (mainly because I have everything installed that I need to manipulate photos- although it's hard to tell given the crappy pics I take... ) and I already miss the visual gloss of Vista.
I guess I'm just a sucker for the eye candy.

The major project on the TJ was to get the radiator installed.
I could think of several ways to do it but I'm trying not to make any permanent changes to the case itself and that is becoming increasingly constraining.
After wandering around my favorite hardware store I finally came up with a plan.
The main attachment is going to be Velcro- two patches applied to the bottom edge of the rad and affixed to the mirrored floorskin.
Then, as a safety measure, two springs, sandwiched between shouldered rubber washers which apply tension from the middle case floor.
Like so...

Surprisingly (and gratifyingly) sturdy, the rad is in position seems quite stable.
No holes were drilled and no animals harmed during the install- what more could you ask for?

Next I got sidetracked a bit.
Every time I look at the Fragtek fan bracket I think "It sure would be nice if that extended to the floor and to left as well...cover up some wiring it would"

Apparently I was channeling Yoda for a while.

So I remade the bracket to do just that.
It was tits...just what I wanted.
Except it was black.
Now black is elegant and all, but too much gets boring and I was losing the cool reflections from the mirrored floor.
So I made another one, this time out of a medium smoked grey piece I had laying around.
While I was at it I decided to replace the two 60mm fans over the DIMM slots with a single 120mm.
Oh yeah baby, now we're talkin.

I also decided it was a good time to make the beauty panel for the front bay area...cover up all those messy holes and slots.
I have a Lian-li v-series sidepanel that I've been planning on using as external filler panels (primarily the front bezel where all the bay covers are) and it is large enough to make this piece as well.
The color and graining of the LL anodised finish is a nice compiment to the Silverstone exterior and I was even able to incorporate the nice scalloped edge on the two visible sides.
Which brings us to here...

The panel screws into some motherboard standoffs that in turn are screwed through stock bay holes and retained with nuts. Remove four screws and the panel lifts away for access to the opticals and HDD mounting screws.
Another (this time with flash) shot...

Now I can begin the wiring.

Whew.
What a hectic weekend.

I've been teetering on the verge of stripping Sprocket down for the final buildup...trying to get as much done as possible beforehand but the fateful moment finally arrived and she was put to sleep, hopefully to awaken in her cozy new home.
About half of the wiring had already been done, the remainder needed the components in place to get the correct lengths.
All of the waterloop was in place (rez, pump and rad) but hose routing was only theoretical till the blocks could be mounted.
The front bay/bezel mesh was ready for the DVD-RW and the twin Raptors.

So down she went...long live the Queen.

The only new electronic component in this tranformation is the DFI Expert motherboard which I purchased used from the classifieds.
Although I've had it for nearly a month I had no way to test it so that became my highest priority.
With my CPU, RAM and vid card finally freed from the running PC, I was able to POST successfully...a major hurdle overcome.
Also new to this build are the chipset waterblock (Swiftech) and the vid card block (DD NV-78) so I set about mounting them to the motherboard.
Having a completely removable motherboard/backplane sure made this easy...



The loop ends up going like so:
reservoir>pump>radiator>CPU>chipset>video>reservoir.
Since I'm assuming that the sensor readings from the Expert board will differ from those on the SLI-DR, none of my old data will be directly comparable...it'll be interesting to see how this loop is reported to work.

With the motherboard prepped it was time to begin what I hope will be the final case assembly.
Here is a shot of the front of the case showing the new switchgear and mesh bay cover...

Depending on how the Raptor cooling works there may be a phase 2 to the front panel but I'm waiting to see.
If I decide it's possible, the second step can be installed without disassembly (thank Jeebus!) so it's not a major hassle.

Now we're here...

Although it doesn't look it, she's about 90% finished at this point.
There is one more bit of fabrication to finish before the PSU is installed and then it'll go quite quickly.
I hope to have her leak testing by Wednesday night.

There is light at the end of the tunnel.

wow, keep up the good work

Looks great, but I hate the Lian Li wheels (thats just me).

Good luck.

Like most of the other mods, the LL casters are removable without a trace.
I'm not sure I really like them myself but they sure do make moving the TJ around a lot easier...it's getting quite heavy (and the PSU and coolant aren't in yet!) and the rounded front corners are difficult to grab onto.
I'll reevaluate the look after she's done and see how I feel then.

Another question- Quietness?

Im guessing, the 40mm fans , and the sheer number of 120mm fans (3xRad, 1x mobo, 1xPSU, 2x HD's) will result in a loud computer?

Can I have a pic of the bulgin switch too? Looks a little bent on the angle .

Noni said:

Another question- Quietness?
The 40mm fans, which are actually stacked, counter-rotating monsters, do in fact make an unholy racket at 12v. Ratcheted down to 5v or so they are near silent.

Im guessing, the 40mm fans , and the sheer number of 120mm fans (3xRad, 1x mobo, 1xPSU, 2x HD's) will result in a loud computer?
Actually, the S-Flex fans on the rad are extremely quiet and the remaining Silverstone fans are not too bad either. All fans are hooked to a Sunbeam rheobus and can be turned completely off if not needed.
Admittedly I have not yet heard the entire system as installed in the case so I don't really know how quiet it will be under normal conditions.

Can I have a pic of the bulgin switch too? Looks a little bent on the angle .

Click to expand...

I'll have to take another shot of the switchgear but I can assure you it is not bent or crooked.

Hey there.

Your work never stops impressing me. That is looking just great!

This current incarnation of sprocket out to be loving her new home.

It will be interesting to hear that thing the first time you fire it up...turn all those fans up full blast and try to watch TV in the same room...bet you can't...especially with those 3 C-R fans at full blast.

Hey Reef, the CR 40mms didn't quite make the cut, too noisy and not terribly effective compared to a single 120mm fan...
Round two of the TJ Maxx project has been completed.
There were a few loose ends that I had left from last time and a few changes that grew out of my last week's usage, so I just bit the bullit and dove in again.

From the top (actually, the bottom)...

The mirrored Plexi bottom floor skin with the radiator in place.

PSU and Sunbeam rheobus installed.

A side view with a better shot of the fan conroller in position.

The roof vent with twin fillports installed (one for filling and the second is an airbleed).

Fillports connected to the new nikhsub1 Delrin reservoir ( a custom made all-Delrin copy of the AC rez).

Beauty shot of the exterior upper quadrant showing the fillports and the new rez. Reservoir is mounted in a new bezel panel cut from a Lian-li v-2000 sidepanel whose color and graining is a nice match for the Silverstone TJ finish.

The entire backplane with mobo tray installed. The red switch in the fan hole mesh is a "Clear CMOS" switch...very handy when you screw up as often as I.

A side shot of the entire loop.
It's the same spec as before, only the tubing has been changed to Tygon R-3400 ( basically the black version of R-3603).

The biggest hardware change concerns the HDDs.
Gone are the twin Raptors, replaced by a 250GB WD SATA3 drive (Newegg had 'em on a one day sale for $75) enclosed in a Nexus Drive-A-Way
caddy.
There were two reasons for this change.
The primary cause was a quest for a quieter PC (the secondary reason was cash...someone wanted the Raptors more than I and had the money to prove it). Playing with Vista and it's "always on" indexing feature made me realize how noisy the Raptors really were. Small and irrational as my i-RAM might be, one has to admire the dead silence it provides. This Nexus caddy was well reviewed at SPCR so I decided to try it out.
Sumbitch...the drive is completely inaudible although it does run hotter than an open air mounting would allow. With a room ambient right around 30C the drive reports a temp of 42C...not great, but not worrisome either.
A fair tradeoff for the silence, methinks.
Here's a (crap) shot of it in place...


Since the i-RAM was unpowered for nearly two days it lost all it's data...I'm just now back up and running.
Everything seems fine so far, now to configure the new Crystalfontz display.


But first, some RnR...


Toodles.

sexy

Now it is your turn to "get out of my head"...that Clear CMOS switch was being mulled over between my ears this very morning as I drove to work.

I haven't been here to visit in weeks and there it is, staring out at me right through the fan mesh...

I need to discuss that switch with you. I'll send you a PM.

Lookin great man. I'm a sucker for black tubing, massive overkill airflow, and Silverstone.

I saw one of the Silver TJ-07's at QuakeCon and it was dang nice. Bet the black one is nicer, let alone all the work you've put into it.

Thank you, thank you very much.[/channeling Elvis]

Sprocket is ready (almost) for the next major round of upgrades.
In the cooling department she'll be getting a new Radiical acetal Turbo-top for the pump, The rad gets replaced with a Thermochill PA 120.3, the Apogee goes and a Storm rev.2 goes in and the northbridge block gets ditched in favor of a Thermalright HR-05.
Tubing changes to 7/16".
I'm still debating whether or not to get a shroud for the PA and I have 6 Yate Loons to deploy as well.

The biggest change will be the TJ's sidepanels.
This is the one major shortcoming of the case and I've decided to remedy it by grafting on a set of Lian-li v2k panels suitably windowed and covered with mesh.
The subfloor is also going to be majorly cut away and meshed.
The CoolFontz display will be moved into the spot now filled with USB ports and the HDDs (Raptor and WD 250) will be mounted in a CoolerMaster 4 into 3 module.
The Nexus drive-a-way caddy will become an external drive enclosure.

I have all the parts with the exception of the LL panels which are apparently being shipped by porpoise from China. Hank from Performance-pcs assures me they will arrive....someday.
The LL caster set may go as well but I haven't decided what to do about that yet.

Over the past several weeks I've been embroiled in a Harry Homeowner project specifically for Sprocket's benefit.
I framed in and enclosed my lower rear patio and will be moving my PC operations into this new space. This gives me direct access to outside air via windows I installed and I hope to try a external passive waterloop at some point.
Just for sh*ts and giggles really.
The initial plan is to just duct outside air directly to the r/h sidepanel (hence the meshed windows) and see what happens.

How close are the Lian li side panels to fitting? Is it gonna take much to make them work?

They are larger than the TJ's so will have to be cut down.
I intend to keep the finished, scalloped edge on the back and trim the other three sides.
The LL panel thickness is absolutely a perfect match for the TJ so the panels will fit flush.
I'll probably have to screw them on but the exact details will have to wait till the project is further on.