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02-07-2010, 11:05 AM
Wezly

oooooooh new ram blocks.....
tempting...
02-07-2010, 11:49 AM
nigelke

i love it :up::up:

Pure art in the making ^^
And the more i look at it the more i want one :rofl:
02-07-2010, 02:42 PM
taters mcgee

love the 5970's/blocks, if fermi/blocks don't really trip my trigger, i have the feeling a pair may be in my future :up:
02-07-2010, 03:46 PM
dingdong555

Awesome man, interesting RAM blocks :-)
02-07-2010, 07:11 PM
Xion X2

Check this out, guys. :)

First, I began removing all the red connectors from the board that could be removed easily.

I began with the floppy connector. What high-end board needs a floppy connector these days, anyway?

http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/258/dsc10970001.jpg

Then, the USB connectors. I'll be replacing these with black ones.

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/8126/dsc10990001.jpg

These were both easy and just slid right off. Just be careful with the floppy, if you attempt this, because the pins can bend easily. The USB pins were more sturdy.

Here's a shot of the board with the connectors removed.

http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/627/dsc11010001.jpg

Looking better, already.

Now for the good part. :)

I've found an easy, safe solution for clean capacitors. I've found that polishing them with a metal polish and polishing cloth works great for taking off the ugly ink/paint to give you a clean, painted look.

Check out the difference.

http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/1954/dsc11030001.jpg

And now, with 3 polished.

http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/5695/dsc11050001.jpg

Slowly but surely, we're getting rid of all the red.

3 caps down.. only 55 to go...

Yes, there are 58 caps on the board. Luckily, the polish makes quick work of them. Takes less than 5 minutes for each one. But if you multiply that by 58, I could be spending almost five hours just polishing caps.
02-07-2010, 07:44 PM
shazza

Quote:

Takes less than 5 minutes for each one. But if you multiply that by 58, I could be spending almost five hours just polishing caps.

Well, I've spent 58 hours studying your work log, so fair is fair :) Nice job on the board clean-up.

Edit - oops, I meant I've spent 5+ hours :rofl:
02-07-2010, 08:21 PM
CptDreadFlint

Great idea, Xion!
Didn't quite go the radical way of fhantastic's grinding/sanding situation but yours seems to be a safer route.

This certainly beats my nail polish remover (doesn't work) and magic marker (works suprisingly well) method.

So you are using metal polish polish as in the Brasso-type stuff? or like sorta the paint stripping/polish kinda stuff? (and stuff.)

Had to get another "stuff" in there.
02-07-2010, 08:38 PM
Mabyboi

Love the motherboard man, makes me think of my bloodrage and how happy i am with it.

I would have never thought about removing the paint on the capacitors, nice touch.... or polishing.. again nice touch.... or removing the red brackets.. i dont need to say it again...

and i agree, who the hell needs a floppy connector on an x58 mobo? (dont mean to offend anyone :D)

beautiful build man, cant wait to see the end result for this puppy.
02-07-2010, 09:19 PM
Wezly

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xion X2

Check this out, guys. :)

I began with the floppy connector. What high-end board needs a floppy connector these days, anyway?

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaByBoI

and i agree, who the hell needs a floppy connector on an x58 mobo? (dont mean to offend anyone :D)

I run MS-DOS :shakes:
02-07-2010, 09:21 PM
aka_GK

hmm, I didn't even think that they can be removed that easy by just pulling out :shrug: :D

enjoyed watching your pics :up:
02-07-2010, 09:30 PM
Xion X2

Quote:

Originally Posted by shazza

Well, I've spent 58 hours studying your work log, so fair is fair :) Nice job on the board clean-up.

Edit - oops, I meant I've spent 5+ hours :rofl:

:D

Good thing. If it'd been 58, I might've started to worry. :eek:

Quote:

Originally Posted by CptDreadFlint

Great idea, Xion!
Didn't quite go the radical way of fhantastic's grinding/sanding situation but yours seems to be a safer route.

This certainly beats my nail polish remover (doesn't work) and magic marker (works suprisingly well) method.

So you are using metal polish polish as in the Brasso-type stuff? or like sorta the paint stripping/polish kinda stuff? (and stuff.)

Had to get another "stuff" in there.

Thanks, Flint. :up:

This is the stuff that I'm using. With the help of Lamptron, I've discovered that caps have a very thin aluminum casing. So what better to polish them down than aluminum polish from Mother's:

http://www.amazon.com/Mothers-5100-A.../dp/B00068GEJM

I've taken things a bit further with even better results, so see below. ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaByBoI

Love the motherboard man, makes me think of my bloodrage and how happy i am with it.

I would have never thought about removing the paint on the capacitors, nice touch.... or polishing.. again nice touch.... or removing the red brackets.. i dont need to say it again...

and i agree, who the hell needs a floppy connector on an x58 mobo? (dont mean to offend anyone :D)

beautiful build man, cant wait to see the end result for this puppy.

Thanks, bud! :up:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wezly

I run MS-DOS :shakes:

Join us here in the 21st century, Wezly... :cool:

Here it is, guys. Even better than painted caps are mirrored caps:

http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/6751/dsc11080001.jpg

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/293/dsc11190001.jpg

I've taken things a bit further to get down to the pure aluminum surface under the paint with the same aluminum polish but using my dremel and a soft polishing wheel, instead. You just have to be careful not to apply much pressure and be aware of the other components/circuitries that are in the area.

This looks so much better than that ugly red paint and should go great with my theme. :up:

Now I just have to figure out a way to rid the board of those red connectors. I plan to practice on some junk mobos to see if I can remove them successfully without breaking anything and replace them with new connectors that better mesh with my color scheme, like a black.
02-07-2010, 09:38 PM
Mabyboi

whyyyyyy would you ruin the red?! its soooo beautiful! my bloodrage was the center of my build! i bought the motherboard, and then built a red and black theme outwards!! you sir are crazy! :D

and also the reflective polished caps look amazing!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wezly

I run MS-DOS :shakes:

well sir... im not quite sure what to say... same thing i said to an old customer of mine.. had a ms-dos computer and was buying a vista computer... he was afraid the stuff he had on his old hard drive (in the ms-dos computer) was too much for the new one... figured there wasnt enough space, and that the info on his floppy disks would fill the hard drive... i was slightly stunned... but i didnt critisize!
02-07-2010, 09:42 PM
Xion X2

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaByBoI

whyyyyyy would you ruin the red?! its soooo beautiful! my bloodrage was the center of my build! i bought the motherboard, and then built a red and black theme outwards!! you sir are crazy! :D

Bud, red just doesn't fit refleXion, sorry. My color scheme is nickel, black and a small splash of purple. ;)

I'll save red for later.
02-07-2010, 09:54 PM
Edward88

You should use another mother instead :p

Nice work, i love the cosmos s case
02-07-2010, 09:57 PM
Xion X2

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edward88

You should use another mother instead :p

Nice work, i love the cosmos s case

Thanks. Yeah, but I already had this one. It was running in an i7 machine for a few months, already, and I didn't want to spend money on a new one.

Besides.. every motherboard has those stupid colored PCI-e and DIMM slots everywhere that often clash with your color scheme, so I probably would've ended up doing some of this same work, anyway.
02-07-2010, 10:30 PM
snoro

too bad the asus sabertooth mobo is for p55 platform, cause this one could have been a bit more easier to blend in with your project.
02-08-2010, 07:40 AM
Mabyboi

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xion X2

Bud, red just doesn't fit refleXion, sorry. My color scheme is nickel, black and a small splash of purple. ;)

I'll save red for later.

okay ill let you off the hook this time... just because you have a valid reason :D
02-08-2010, 09:34 AM
Wezly

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaByBoI

well sir... im not quite sure what to say... same thing i said to an old customer of mine.. had a ms-dos computer and was buying a vista computer... he was afraid the stuff he had on his old hard drive (in the ms-dos computer) was too much for the new one... figured there wasnt enough space, and that the info on his floppy disks would fill the hard drive... i was slightly stunned... but i didnt critisize!

Don't worry, I have Win7 on my main rigs and I'm trying to get openfiler on my x48-dq6 backup server. I feel sorry for that customer haha. From old, out-dated DOS, to new, out-dated vista....

And Xion, have you considered contacting any motherboard manufacturers for assistance in this matter?
02-08-2010, 11:53 AM
Red-5

The rad grills and RAM blocks look great. Excellent additions to your build and think they will fit in well.
I didn't realise the motherboard connectors were as easy to remove as that either. By the way those polished caps look stunning.
02-08-2010, 03:01 PM
Pado

If you manage to find a way to replace the ram/pci-e slots, I will love you for life.
I need to replace mine for my black/white build.
02-08-2010, 04:18 PM
Xion X2

Quote:

Originally Posted by Red-5

The rad grills and RAM blocks look great. Excellent additions to your build and think they will fit in well.
I didn't realise the motherboard connectors were as easy to remove as that either. By the way those polished caps look stunning.

Thanks, Red. :)

Well guys, it looks like the PCI-e slots are irreplaceable.. at least by my little workshop. There are 164 pins underneath that slot.

http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/5...xconnector.gif

:rofl:

http://www.interfacebus.com/Design_C...I_Express.html

No thanks. The floppy was only ~20 pins and two of them bent pulling straight up on the connector. I can't even imagine the nightmare of a task like this. It'd be like searching for a needle in a haystack if just one was out of alignment with the rest of them, preventing you from getting the connector on.

I'm going to look into maybe fabricating some kind of covers for them, along with the DIMM slots. Still looking into what appear to be very limited options.
02-08-2010, 07:05 PM
nlancaster

Very carefully paint them?

I have the same board and I bought because of the red and black. I can totally understand not wanting to buy new components just for the new case.
02-08-2010, 08:10 PM
Wezly

Put a junk card in all the slots that you need to paint, tape everything else off, and spray away?

That way you'd keep paint out of the inside of the slot and everything else, but the outside of the slot would be painted.

Too lazy to make more sense out of that, as I have toasted-pulled-pork-sandwich-itis.
02-09-2010, 05:59 AM
noeru

hi Xion X2:)
Your work is wonderful! Very polite and nice job! Wonderful:clap:
02-09-2010, 10:48 AM
Vinas

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xion X2

http://www.interfacebus.com/Design_C...I_Express.html

No thanks. The floppy was only ~20 pins and two of them bent pulling straight up on the connector. I can't even imagine the nightmare of a task like this. It'd be like searching for a needle in a haystack if just one was out of alignment with the rest of them, preventing you from getting the connector on.

I'm going to look into maybe fabricating some kind of covers for them, along with the DIMM slots. Still looking into what appear to be very limited options.

If it were easy, everyone would be doing it!

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