Project: I'm gonna try to make my case look kinda nice...I hope

Here's the deal. My project doens't have a name, nor do I really consider it a project the way some of you guys do with all the modding. I started this thread because I was posting my progress in the TJ09 gallery when really that should be left alone for finished cases. So I have some pics so I thought i'd detail my progress and post some if anyone is interested. I don't claim to be some sort of huge expert or someone with extreme modding skills, or anything like that. Just a regular guy wanting a nice rig that I can be proud that I built.

There won't be many mods to the case, I want everything pretty much stock, but my main goal is to have a nice looking case.

This is only my second full build. I did my first rig 3 years ago and then upgraded some components of it along the way. I pass my older computers on to my family members so they can get some use out of them. I mean, there's really nothing wrong with the older ones, right? They can still do pretty much everything fine except for the heavy handed tasks like gaming and video editing etc.

Here's the specs I decided on:

Silverstone TJ09 Case
Corsair 620hx Power Supply
Intel Q6600 Processor
Asus P5K Premium Motherboard
Corsair 6400C4 2x1GB RAM
EVGA 8800 Ultra Video Card
2x Seagate 500GB HHD
Pioneer 18X DVD Drive
D-Link 10/100 Router
Vista Ultimate 64bit
Klipsch Promedia 2.1 Speakers
Gateway 21" LCD (already had)
Yate Loon 120mm Fans
Silverstone Bay Converter
Silverstone 3 Port Fan Controller
Thermalright 120 Ultra CPU Heatsink with Scyth S-Flex Fan

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Here's a stock pic of the case:



I had seen that nvusgt painted his mobo tray and pilars black in the TJ09 thread so I decided I was goin to do the same. Mobo was going to be black, everything else was black, might be nice to have some colour continuity in the case instead of the bright aluminum.

I know you can spend hours detailing and sanding and painting, but I figured a bit of sanding for the primer to better adhere and then wipe it down with some paint thinners was all I needed before painting.




I just used some simple hardware store metal primer and heat paint. One coat of primer and two of flat black and I was set.







Whilst taking the case apart I decided to get rid of the silverstone GPU fan and replace it with a yate loon. I have no idea how you guys with everything already in the case got that fan out. It wasn't a huge pain in the ass, but trying to do it with all the components in it just makes it even more difficult.

Saw this in the TJ09 area (I'm an owner and fan too!) and liked it. Good work, I'll be watching with interest.

Next I was kind of messing around to see how I will arrange things with the dvd and the 120mm fan/bay converter. I think I like this set up better than having the dvd drive on top.



I installed the 3 fan controller in the 3.5" floppy drive bay and will use that for:

1: Bay converter intake
2. GPU Fan
3. HHD fan

The bay converter can hold 4 hard drives. Right now in this rig I have room for 10 hard drives which is insane. I have 2 500gig seagates and wasn't entirely sure where I would put them. Either in their normal spot under the fan controller where there is a separate fan bracket for them, or in the bay converter.



I decided on the hard drives in their normal spot so I could leave the bay converter solely for intake.

What I did want to do on the drives was flip them so I could run the cables at the back, not across the gpu fan in the front. So I marked out a couple holes and drilled and countersunk them. Didn't want to leave it with just 1 screw on either side, even though they fit nice and tight in the cage with the weather stripping.



Nice and clean on the windowed side


back side

Power supply was next just to get it in there.



And then started work on the mobo tray.



Didn't really take many pictures of my adventures with the mobo, but I probably screwed that thing down and took it back off 8 or so times because I found something I wanted to do each time after I had screwed it down that required it to be unscrewed.

Took me a little while to get the placement of fan wires and such under the mobo, and the one thing i didn't realize is that the thermalright 120 required the backplate to go underneath the mobo, so that required me to unscrew the whole thing again and unplug everything to get that on there. The last after market heatsink I installed was on an AMD 3500+ and that just clipped onto the top side. So thats how I was thinking it would go in my head, but I really should have looked first. This is actually a much better way to do it rather than trying to force that clip down being afraid you're going to slip and smash a hole through the mobo.

I installed the CPU heatsink while the tray was in the case because I had heard some people could fit and some couldn't, so I didn't really want to do the whole thing outside the case and then have to take it off again.

Here you can see the top of the case where I ran the 8 pin power and the top 2 case fans and the rear case fan. The 8 pin has just enough slack from the corsair 620 to go behind the mobo tray. I would like to kind of tidy up the fan wires, but I think it looks pretty decent. With the window on you probably wouldn't notice.



And with that all done I plugged in the SATA cables for the hard drives. I have to wait a while for the black ones I ordered, but the red look kind of cool there. Not sure why I didn't plug one in for the SATA DVD drive.

Video card is like a brick and the EVGA lettering on the side won't stay on. Maybe when it gets hot they'll stick.



I kind of plugged everything in to see the amount of wires i'd have in there. Not that big of a deal. I can run most of them behind the gpu fan because of the way I oriented things, which is nice. Should really only have the one main 24 pin power and the vid card power running up the case where it's visible. All the rest will go right behind. (I know the USB is in the wrong plug. Not sure why i put it there, just to see if it would reach that general area. Not sure if they all will fit nicely. Will have to wait and see)



With most everything installed i'll just tidy up the cabling and wait for my sata cables to come in and it should be good to go. Maybe load up the OS this weekend and see what she can do.



I'll post pics when shes all wrapped up.

awsome man, again thanks for the name drop.

If your lookin to hide the vid card power cables, hit me up....or i guess the easier thing would be to peek at my pics but eh whatever's easier.

also i wouldn't recommend lengthening the front audio cable, less you de-pin it, extend the wires and rep-in the new wires (which lookin back i shoulda done)....cause its a bitch. I thought "hey i know how to solder, lengthen and neatly heat shrink." But what i didnt know is that shits like HD audio and got some stuff i've never messed with when soldering wires together.

So i may, or may not have effed my front audio panel but hey, its routed behind the mobo now . After having dealt with that lil problem i decided to leave the blue usb one aloooone lol

Finished her up on Friday for the most part. Waiting for the black SATA cables to some in so I can get rid of the red. Pretty happy with the way it turned out. Will tidy up a bit more when i'm doing the SATA and also will hook up the front USB/Audio ports. Didn't realize there was an extension in the box because the wires themselves are not long enough to reach the mobo the way I want to route them, so I left them off.

Haven't had much time to tweak it at all, but Vista is working out fine for the most part. MOH Airborne and Bioshock look great with everything maxed in the demos.

Good work - looks really nice.

kinda nice?
I think it looks REALLY nice! Good work.

Great work. Nice and clean.

Thanks for the positive comments guys. I actually just today finished tidying everything up and wired it up in my room. Desk is still a little messy, but this should give you an idea of the setup:







The book with the swastica is "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich". I'm not a neo nazi fyi. Just interested in history.

Nice setup. I have that EXACT same desk. Bought it from Staples.

officermartinez said:

Nice setup. I have that EXACT same desk. Bought it from Staples.

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Except he can put his case AND his monitor on his desk!


Nice choice on painting the interior, makes it look a LOT better. The only thing I would do is getcha some snazzy fans. Nothing too extreme, just something to add what what you have. A 120x38 fan does wonders on the Ultra 120s, might wanna thing about that too.

Tacens, which are extremely hard to find due to them mostly being in Europe, makes some sweet looking white LEDs that look great in TJ-09s. The big TJ-09 thread has them on page 25-35(somewhere in there).

I just thing those fans look kinda plain and take away from all the work you did cleaning up the wiring.

Good work.

ninty said:

The book with the swastica is "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich". I'm not a neo nazi fyi. Just interested in history.

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O rly? I have an interest in the Germans as well (current and WWII), my main interest is their WWII technology... for example, the MG42 ( i actually got to fire an M53 (exact copy of an MG42, they freakin rule).

rsgunter said:

Except he can put his case AND his monitor on his desk!


Nice choice on painting the interior, makes it look a LOT better. The only thing I would do is getcha some snazzy fans. Nothing too extreme, just something to add what what you have. A 120x38 fan does wonders on the Ultra 120s, might wanna thing about that too.

Tacens, which are extremely hard to find due to them mostly being in Europe, makes some sweet looking white LEDs that look great in TJ-09s. The big TJ-09 thread has them on page 25-35(somewhere in there).

I just thing those fans look kinda plain and take away from all the work you did cleaning up the wiring.

Good work.

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Yeah, that desk came from staples as well.

I have seen the tacens in that thread and I agree, they doo look amazing. I didn't really want as much flash on this rig. My last one was all blue led fans, so I ust decided to tone it down a bit. If the tacens do end up in North America, I will look at swapping some out.

aye tis nice.
BTW< never read Hitler, by allan bullock, especially the unabridged version...AP euro kills. Last year was hell. but i got an A- muahaa

awesome job. gratz on such beautiful setup.