--- r e f l e X i o n ---

[Xion X2]

I've been waiting for this picture for months! Looks awesome!

Thanks, weston! And thanks for following along with the project all this time.

RAM coolers came in today from Performance-PCs. They look really good.



They're not all pictured, but there's 3 of them for 3 DDR-3 sticks that I'm running in triple channel.

I wanted to see what they looked like installed on the motherboard. Since it's necessary to remove the heat spreaders from the RAM first before installing them, that's what I began to do.



The heat spreaders came off quite easily. These were the OCZ Gold sticks that I'm using.

A shot of the RAM cooler from the top.



I'll be running Bitspower rotaries into these since they'll be stacked so close together on the board.

Here's a shot of the entire heat spreader removed from the RAM.



The coolers come with thermal pads, but the ones they shipped are too thick to use with double-sided memory, so I'll have to see if I can pick up some thinner pads tomorrow.

And it's snowing again here. Can't believe it. It's snowed 4 times in the past 1.5 months. That's unheard of for this area.

Night, all.

[InCredible]

ive been wanting to take my heat spreaders off but im nervous to do so..i heard OCZ's are hard to do and a lot of times the memory comes off with the heat spreader...can you explain what you did..i have the same sticks ..thanks..looks great btw

[aka_GK]

nice RAM coolers, drooling and looking forward

[nigelke]

i love this project ^^

love the polished caps

[Xion X2]

ive been wanting to take my heat spreaders off but im nervous to do so..i heard OCZ's are hard to do and a lot of times the memory comes off with the heat spreader...can you explain what you did..i have the same sticks ..thanks..looks great btw

Thanks, man.

If you have the OCZ Gold, then the heat spreaders should come off really easy. First remove the outer frame of the heat spreader that has the "Z" on it. This will make it easier to remove the gold mesh since the mesh bends easily. Once the frame is off, take the corner of the gold mesh and bend outward very slowly until it starts to separate from the memory chip. Peel it off slowly and at an angle like you were peeling off tape; don't pull straight up on the memory chip.

Takes a little finesse, but they should come right off.

nice RAM coolers, drooling and looking forward

Thanks, GK!

i love this project ^^

love the polished caps

Thanks, nigel! Yes, the polished caps are nice.

Everyone, I've decided to go with this eVGA SLI board to replace the Foxconn with. I just don't feel comfortable in painting so much of this motherboard like I would have to do. Yeah, it may turn out well, but then again it may not. It could kill the board, and then I'd be stuck with a broken motherboard with no warranty, and I'd probably worry a lot about the paint flaking or chipping.

May sound picky, but that's me in a nutshell. This is the board that I just picked up to replace the Flaming Blade with:



Will fit the color scheme much, much better. Also, the sata ports are side mounted on the board which will make it easier to hide the SATA cables.

If anyone is interested in a Flaming Blade for cheap, then PM me. I'll be putting it up in the For Sale section soon.

[aka_GK]

Everyone, I've decided to go with this eVGA SLI board to replace the Foxconn with. I just don't feel comfortable in painting so much of this motherboard like I would have to do. Yeah, it may turn out well, but then again it may not. It could kill the board, and then I'd be stuck with a broken motherboard with no warranty, and I'd probably worry a lot about the paint flaking or chipping.

May sound picky, but that's me in a nutshell. This is the board that I just picked up to replace the Flaming Blade with:



Will fit the color scheme much, much better. Also, the sata ports are side mounted on the board which will make it easier to hide the SATA cables.

If anyone is interested in a Flaming Blade for cheap, then PM me. I'll be putting it up in the For Sale section soon.

Very nice choice!
I've thought of changing my mobo to evga SLI or FTW (P55) too - it's cool looking all black and allows to install my current CPU block, but decided that I'll do it some time later

And you forgot to mention, you're selling flaming blade with polished caps: +$50 to the price

[InCredible]

thats the same mobo i have it does look very good..i was also thinking of polishing the caps after seeing urs with this board..almost started last night but then i fell asleep hehe..

EDIT: i went ahead and did the surgery on the RAM and came out with all three sticks still working so thats good news...i didnt put any sinks back on i have a pretty much all black with some silver ...if i can get the right tool imma work on polishing the caps today..if this gets completed ill post a pic so you know what to expect

[nigelke]

hmm all that work on those caps and now you can do it all again (wel i hope you do ^^ )

[Xion X2]

Very nice choice!
I've thought of changing my mobo to evga SLI or FTW (P55) too - it's cool looking all black and allows to install my current CPU block, but decided that I'll do it some time later

And you forgot to mention, you're selling flaming blade with polished caps: +$50 to the price

Yeah, I'll call it the "Mirror Caps Edition"...

thats the same mobo i have it does look very good..i was also thinking of polishing the caps after seeing urs with this board..almost started last night but then i fell asleep hehe..

EDIT: i went ahead and did the surgery on the RAM and came out with all three sticks still working so thats good news...i didnt put any sinks back on i have a pretty much all black with some silver ...if i can get the right tool imma work on polishing the caps today..if this gets completed ill post a pic so you know what to expect

You may want to wait until I can test the board to make sure that this didn't damage anything. I really don't believe that it would if you're careful (as I was), but I would feel bad if some of you broke your boards trying this after seeing me do it. If you want to go ahead anyway, then be sure that you don't use any polishing wheels that have abrasives in them. I used the included dremel cloth polishing wheels with aluminum polishing paste and set the dremel anywhere from 5k - 10k rpm.

I'll test the board out today and report back tonight on if it still functions ok. If it does, then I'll likely do the same mod on the eVGA board.

hmm all that work on those caps and now you can do it all again (wel i hope you do ^^ )

I likely will once I've verified it didn't harm the Foxconn.

[vistageek92]

ahhh i was wondering if polishing those caps might damage it. Interested in finding out whether its ok or not. I might do it for my current HAF build. I got rid of my UD3R and got a Asus P6X58D PREMIUM.



I would love to polish its caps, i think they look stunning!

[InCredible]

appreciate the concern..
i really dont think anything bad would happen as long as you're careful doing it..i did a couple with just sand paper on a mobo i had lying around to see what i thought about that..cause im not sure if id rather see the polished look..which does look very good..or just the standard look with the blue removed..since the actual color of my case is the brushed aluminum....still debating and will practice on a mobo before i jump into the eVGA LE board..especially since it has quite a few caps on it(i believe ~65)

[InCredible]

one other thing Xion...looking at ur ram pics...was there any adhesive between the IC's and the heatsink?..when ur pulling urs off it doesn't appear to be..mine came off well but not as smooth as yours seems to be? just curious

[Wezly]

Glad you're playing it safe.
I could only imagine what setbacks might appear if the painting went awry.

But don't you think you should paint the slots purple now? >.>

[Xion X2]

I would love to polish its caps, i think they look stunning!

Thanks, vistageek!

one other thing Xion...looking at ur ram pics...was there any adhesive between the IC's and the heatsink?..when ur pulling urs off it doesn't appear to be..mine came off well but not as smooth as yours seems to be? just curious

There was some adhesive, but most of it stayed on the heat spreader as I peeled it away very slowly. The RAM also hadn't been used, so it was cool to the touch.

If there's still adhesive on the chip, it should come off easily with some goo gone or isopropyl alcohol.

But don't you think you should paint the slots purple now? >.>

Lord, no. No more painting for awhile.

Painting is the one thing I just don't seem to be good at. It should be so simple, it seems, but something stupid always happens whenever I attempt it. Even on the small USB connectors, they were sticking to the cardboard that I was painting on and ripping the paint off when I went to go pick them up. I just don't seem to have a knack for it.

The black slots on this eVGA board will suit the colors just fine. You'll see purple surface elsewhere.

[InCredible]

yea the adhesive came off just fine but there was some left and yours there wasn't so i was curious.
also just a suggestion which im doing myself on the LE board..is the headers on the bottom of the board are red/white...i took spare mobo that happened to use black instead of the red/white and replaced them so they dont stand out...just something you might want to consider yourself..no paint needed

[Xion X2]

yea the adhesive came off just fine but there was some left and yours there wasn't so i was curious.
also just a suggestion which im doing myself on the LE board..is the headers on the bottom of the board are red/white...i took spare mobo that happened to use black instead of the red/white and replaced them so they dont stand out...just something you might want to consider yourself..no paint needed

Yep, I saw those and will probably do something to them.

[ShArKo]

Xion thoose Koolance block looks beautiful... and that rams looks great

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

Ghost post!

Xion I just wanted to give you a tip for painting, suspend each part as minimally attached as you can before you paint, I like to use wire wrapped in a secure position around the part. The will let you avoid paint ripping off parts as your described above. Painting on cardboard can be done effectively but it takes too long IMO.

Great work on this project man, it really stands out. I wish you the best of luck in finishing it off in the most spectacular, creative way you can think of!

-Ian

[Wezly]

Lord, no.

Haha, I couldn't resist.

Can't wait to see how those ram blocks work out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Xion X2]

Xion thoose Koolance block looks beautiful... and that rams looks great

Thanks, Sharko.

Ghost post!

Xion I just wanted to give you a tip for painting, suspend each part as minimally attached as you can before you paint, I like to use wire wrapped in a secure position around the part. The will let you avoid paint ripping off parts as your described above. Painting on cardboard can be done effectively but it takes too long IMO.

Great work on this project man, it really stands out. I wish you the best of luck in finishing it off in the most spectacular, creative way you can think of!

-Ian

Great to see you, Ian! Thanks for the advice on the painting. You know, as soon as I read your reply I was reminded of Petra's last build log where he had his parts suspended by hangars. I wish that I had the workspace to do this as just about everything that's been shown to date has been done out of my kitchen. I live in a small apartment and have absolutely no workspace to speak of. If I decide to attempt again I will keep this in mind, though. Wish it had hit me sooner.

I appreciate the kind words as they come from someone who I truly respect as a modder as you've been very inspirational to my work with "Flow." So thank you.

Haha, I couldn't resist.

Can't wait to see how those ram blocks work out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks, Wezly.

refleXion will make its film debut shortly. The eVGA board is on its way--along with another nice surprise that I'll reveal soon. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have the parts and can finish shooting the preliminary project video that I've been working on. I wanted to wait until all my parts came in first.

[Wezly]

I want the surprise!

(pretend that's in all caps, because for whatever reason it auto-edits "shouting" even though that is my implied meaning)

[Xion X2]

I want the surprise!

(pretend that's in all caps, because for whatever reason it auto-edits "shouting" even though that is my implied meaning)

The surprise will come soon.


For now, another teaser.

[nigelke]

Let us now if the polished caps are good Because i would do the same in my build just to have the bling bling effect

And you made my day with that teaser!

[Xion X2]

Let us now if the polished caps are good Because i would do the same in my build just to have the bling bling effect

And you made my day with that teaser!

Will do, nigelke. I know I keep saying it, but I plan to test the Foxconn tomorrow to ensure it's still fully operational.

I'll report back once I've tested it.

[dingdong555]

I freaking hate you X, I wish I never looked @ that picture because I'm toooo eager now :-)