SugarJ's "Nemesis Reborn" or just another TJ07 build

[SugarJ]

Background: The Nemesis, or "Time Waster" as my wife calls it, began it's life as a E8400/P35DS3L build in an Antec 900, with aircooling and a 8800GT. Enter watercooling. Enter a 4870, then a Cosmos S, then a i7 920 on a EVGA X58, then a GTX260, stepped up to a GTX285. Oh yeah, and somewhere in there I upgraded the drive to a WD Black 640gb.

So, last weekend, 3.0Charlie mentions he's looking for a fullsize case. I graciously offer up my powdercoated Cosmos S (for a reasonable price). He accepts, kind of to my surprise. Oops. :haha: Good thing the TJ07B-W was on sale at NCIX last week. I've been wanting one of these cases ever since Charles_H showed off his first Murderbox, and so now, here we go:

Oh, and if you haven't seen any of Charles's builds, hit up murderbox.com or murdermod.com. He's an artist that just happens to work modding computers.

The box the case comes in is absolutely massive. I won't be shipping this one to Laval:

However, the box is mostly air, to protect your spanky new case. Best case packaging I've ever seen:

The unpackaged case on the work bench. Ignore the mess please, and the brain lubricant on the left side :biggrin::

Side cover off. The removeable mobo tray is chrome plated steel, unlike the aluminum construction of the rest of the case. I guess aluminum is too soft for the standoffs, along with being hard to spell:

Both sides off, mobo tray out, HD trays out:

How the machine ran for a few days, while I was "thinking":

I had thought about powdercoating right away, but decided I had spent enough money on Nemesis for a month, and decided to put it together. More to follow.

 

[Eagle Eye]

She hasn't seen the CC bill yet has she?

Any thoughts about of having it anodized instead? Not sure how much that might cost compared to powercoating, my thought was it would keep the look more consistent with the outside of the case.

I know there are companies that do it in BC, you might explore that as an option.

Regards,

EE

 

[3.0charlie]

Sorry if I'm the one that got you in this mess, but I'm pretty sure you will enjoy your build as much as will enjoy mine.

But that won't happen until I receive Chilly's chips. Which he was supposed to ship out tonight. Anyone seen him?

 

[SugarJ]

So, took the loop apart for the 11ty-eth time, and started mounting parts. I replaced the SilverStone 90mm fans with some red and black Yate Loons from NCIX. All the screw holes on the mobo take #6-32 screws, so the rad mount was easy. Note the fingerprints on the tray. Good thing this will be powdercoated eventually.

I had to get rid of the SilverStone fans after hearing the 90mm ones. I put some LED Yates from Petra's up top for now:

The rad sitting in approximately the right spot. It will float for now, with some foam wedged in there, until I can get some Hammond boxes.

Meet my new friend, the p-clip:

Found the p-clips at Home Depot, BTW. I love them. Much nicer than blocks and zip-ties.


The plumbing is mostly done here. Sorry for the flash glare in these pics, I'm not that good a photographer. I'm usually on the other side of the camera, doing something stupid. :biggrin:

And from the back side in the bottom compartment. Guess what's missing from this picture:

That's right, the power supply. This arrangement won't work now, I've got to flip the rad end for end. I tried putting some 45's on, but the tubing collapses when it's pushed up against the PSU. Oh, and my pump is plumbed right, it's sitting on it's back so that the inlet faces up.

The current state of being:

I had to get it going, I get twitchy when I'm losing PPD for F@H.

List of to-do's:
Spin the rad so the barbs are on the other end. I get to drain the loop again.:clap:
Mount power extension. I use low-speed fans, so a splitter works fine for me. No fan controller.
Get sleeving from Murdermods. I've got to sleeve those bloody blue cables, and I'm going to do the single-wire type sleeving on the PSU runs.
Powdercoat.
This build will eventually get a Murdermods faceplate and top grill when Charles does another batch.
Compression fittings.
Heatkiller.
Full cover block.
Change power/HDD LED's to red.

Needless to say, there's a lot more money to be spent. Updates as I do things.

 

[SugarJ]

She hasn't seen the CC bill yet has she?

Any thoughts about of having it anodized instead? Not sure how much that might cost compared to powercoating, my thought was it would keep the look more consistent with the outside of the case.

I know there are companies that do it in BC, you might explore that as an option.

Regards,

EE

I have looked into anodizing before. I found it very expensive compared to powdercoating, and not as scratch resistant. Charles gave up that he uses "Solar Black" in one of his build logs, as it has a slight fleck that matches the exterior finish.

And the secret is to pay off the CC before the bill comes. And also to do the case swap while she's visiting friends in Michigan.:haha:

Sorry if I'm the one that got you in this mess, but I'm pretty sure you will enjoy your build as much as will enjoy mine.

John, there's no problems on my end at all. It was time for a new project. Selling the Cosmos was just the trigger. I'd been looking at doing this for months. Thank you.

 

[Arinoth]

John, there's no problems on my end at all. It was time for a new project. Selling the Cosmos was just the trigger. I'd been looking at doing this for months. Thank you.

Good luck with this build, this looks to be an interesting one, and is there anything i can buy to help you into another project? lol

 

[SugarJ]

It would be nice to be able to afford to buy one of the Murdermods cases, but I have a lot of fun tinkering. For instance, I had to drill new holes in my 3.5-5.25" adapter so the HDD would sit far enough forward to miss the res. Spent a fun 1/2 hour with my drill press Saturday morning. It ain't no CNC router, but it works great.

But yes, my HTPC may end up being sacrificed to fund some parts. We'll see. I'm sure it would fold like the wind for you.:haha:

 

[Bapadaboopy]

Looks very good Gord! I envy your enthusiasm.. i've had my tj-07 for over a month now and its still sitting under my desk with nothing in it.. ;(

 

[SugarJ]

You grabbed that black and white painted one, didn't you? I was tempted, but wasn't sure about stripping it to powdercoat it. After seeing how good my last case turned out, I'm done with painting.

One thing I forgot to mention. The only rivets on this case hold the mobo tray to the backplate. Everything else is screwed together, so easy assembly/disassembly, unlike the Cosmos with 78 rivets. But who's counting?

 

[Bapadaboopy]

yeah i did.. I'm debating taking it in to get powder coated.. but i' haven't found a place yet. BTW, how are you planning on mounting your rads?