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Originally Posted by 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.

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Originally Posted by 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.

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Thanks for the suggestions, guys. Yeah, I think I'm going to tape the board tonight/tomorrow and try just painting those slots. I'll lightly sand them first.

There are crevices within the connectors/retention tabs that a cover just wouldn't be able to hide, so this seems to be the most practical solution at the moment. I'll let you know how it goes.

First, though, I plan to finish polishing all the caps (this goes much faster w/ my dremel) and then testing the board to make sure this hasn't damaged it in some way. I'm confident that it hasn't, but I just want to confirm before I go through the trouble of painting it.

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Originally Posted by noeru

hi Xion X2:)
Your work is wonderful! Very polite and nice job! Wonderful:clap:

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Thank you, noeru! :)

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Originally Posted by Vinas

If it were easy, everyone would be doing it!

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True. But I'm hard-headed and always like to look for solutions to what seem impossible barriers. Sometimes, you get lucky.

Finished polishing all of the caps last night. My motherboard looks like it's wearing jewelry now. They sparkle. :D

I'll upload some photos tonight. It will be painting 101 for the next two nights as I experiment with spraying those red connectors black.

cant wait to see..might have to do the same to my LE board. would look good since i have a black/silver theme going on.

Does anyone have any experience with liquid tape? A guy on another forum is recommending that I use that instead of paint for blackening the PCI-e and DIMM slots.

One disadvantage I can think of is that it would go on thicker than paint and not be able to hit the crevices in the retention tabs.

You may want to dab some clear lacquer on those caps, aluminum has a way of loosing it's sheen with time and heat. Just a suggestion...

As for the liquid tape, I have no idea mate.
I did a quick google but couldn't really find any info on it.
Ask him for a link on it.

Sounds a lot like this "glue" I keep hearing about....
Is that how it's spelled? :P

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Originally Posted by Weevil

You may want to dab some clear lacquer on those caps, aluminum has a way of loosing it's sheen with time and heat. Just a suggestion...

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Yeah. It's a good idea to put something on them. I have some clear coat that I can use.

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Originally Posted by kgtiger

As for the liquid tape, I have no idea mate.
I did a quick google but couldn't really find any info on it.
Ask him for a link on it.

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I looked it up on the net, and it seems to do a good job with wiring. It's like spray-on heatshrink, basically. I doubt I'll use it for the connectors, but it could come in handy down the road for a part of the project I'll be working on later.

Bling-bling. (UPDATE 2/18: Board in pictures has been tested after this procedure and is operating normally!)


http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/8135/dsc11260001.jpg

http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/5417/dsc11370001.jpg

MMMmmm. Polished caps and CPU socket. This took a while and a lot of care, but I think that it turned out very well. There are still a couple that I can't get to so easily that I'll have to polish by hand. I used my dremel and a polishing wheel for most of the work on these, along with some aluminum polish.

A few more shots.

http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/1411/dsc11320001.jpg

http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/5863/dsc11380001.jpg

The polish goes on in a paste, then dries. So when buffing it off it created a lot of dust. So I used a combination of compressed air, paper towels and isopropyl alcohol to clean off all the excess from the PCB.

Tonight I picked up some painting supplies, as I'll be tackling those red connectors in the next day or two.

http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/2...11390001bg.jpg

I'll cover the pcb with that plastic sheeting and tape it all down with masking tape before spraying.

I couldn't believe my luck, but I found some spray paint made for acrylic and plastic, with no sanding or priming required! :)

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/5436/dsc11400001.jpg

Music to my ears.

More to come.

Good luck.

I've seen spray-painting of motherboards turn out fantastically, or worse than you could imagine...

Wow, those caps look SWEET! Suits "reflection" so well.

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Originally Posted by Wezly

Good luck.

I've seen spray-painting of motherboards turn out fantastically, or worse than you could imagine...

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Yeah, I'll be careful. Going to test this paint on a few plastic connectors that I have laying around, first.

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Originally Posted by dingdong555

Wow, those caps look SWEET! Suits "reflection" so well.

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Thanks, ding. :)

They should blend in well with the build.. especially with the nickel-plated RAM blocks that are on the way.


Teaser.

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/8689/dsc11530001.jpg

Nice work on the caps Xion, very shinny. :up:

I am interested in seeing how the painting of the PCI-e slots works out too, might need to add that to my list. :rolleyes:

thats just sweet
i mean :drool: ^^

This is my favorite build on the interwebs!

the heat of the motherboard won't affect the paint? :confused:

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Originally Posted by Seu

the heat of the motherboard won't affect the paint? :confused:

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I hope not, if it does there is something wrong with the board. Paint usually has a high temp rating.

you've raised the bar with these shiny caps! :clap:

You could try Vinyl Dye since it seeps into the plastic instead of just coating it. Won't scratch or flake off.

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Originally Posted by kgtiger

Nice work on the caps Xion, very shinny. :up:

I am interested in seeing how the painting of the PCI-e slots works out too, might need to add that to my list. :rolleyes:

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Thanks, KG!

The PCI-e slots will be a real pain. There are small pin-openings all along the top ridge of the slot, and unfortunately, this ridge still shows even with my ginormous 5970 sitting in it (these cards are a foot long, it's crazy.)

The DIMM slots should look very good painted as the RAM fits right on top of that top ridge of the slot, so you can't see any color underneath. Not so with the PCI-e, unfortunately.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. I've done some painting tonight that's gone so-so. I may end up going with an all black evga board that I have my eye on right now if I can't get rid of the red. It just looks really out of place in this build.

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Originally Posted by nigelke

thats just sweet
i mean :drool: ^^

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Thanks, nigel!

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Originally Posted by NoGuru

This is my favorite build on the interwebs!

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Thanks, NoGuru! Good to see you over here. :D

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Originally Posted by Seu

the heat of the motherboard won't affect the paint? :confused:

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Watercooled mobos don't get that hot. ;)

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Originally Posted by Vinas

you've raised the bar with these shiny caps! :clap:

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Thanks, Vinas! Glad you like.

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Originally Posted by Pado

You could try Vinyl Dye since it seeps into the plastic instead of just coating it. Won't scratch or flake off.

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Hmmm. Not familiar with it. I'll have to give it a look.

Well, aside from painting, I've began reassembling the case with the Zero Gravity Chamber installed to see how everything looks. Luckily, everything is fitting pretty exact to the original measurements that were taken when I was constructing the chamber. Huge sigh of relief on that one.

I took several shots tonight of the assembly in action. This one turned out the best. Hope you enjoy.

http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/5653/dsc11800001.jpg

Woohooo, finally, a full case shot! :D sweeeet!

I tried looking for vinyl dye before, but could never get appropriate search results.
Could someone post a link if they find it? I am definitely interested in it....

This worked well on the fan blades ... it's available at Auto Parts stores and other places that carry the Dupli-Color paints.


http://shazza53.smugmug.com/Computer...U7afj-XL-2.jpg

Whats your plans for the CD ROM?

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Originally Posted by shazza

This worked well on the fan blades ... it's available at Auto Parts stores and other places that carry the Dupli-Color paints.


http://shazza53.smugmug.com/Computer...U7afj-XL-2.jpg

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Dupli-color and VHT are the only brands that I can think of. Some brands like Krylon have vinyl sprays but not vinyl dye. So stick with the prior two if you decide to go ahead with it.
Just read that a lot of people swear by a brand called SEM
http://www.tcpglobal.com/autobodydep...FQYwpAod5CHXYQ

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Originally Posted by Weevil

Whats your plans for the CD ROM?

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External USB.