Painting chipsets?

[Zephik]

Is it possible to paint chipsets like GPU's, Mobo's, and RAM?

-SnowFire

[Ronyx]

it depends on what parts you paint over and what type of paint you use. The paint might burn under the heat, screwing up your components.

[AJ@PR]

The paint will act as a quasi-insulator...
Maybe if you try a thin coat of paint...

[Silenced_Coyote]

Ummm, do you mean painting the PCB?

Card painting (http://www.metku.net/index.html?path=mods/cardpainting/index_eng)
UV Drawing (http://www.metku.net/index.html?path=mods/uv_drawing/index_eng)

[DRece]

Ummm, do you mean painting the PCB?

Card painting (http://www.metku.net/index.html?path=mods/cardpainting/index_eng)
UV Drawing (http://www.metku.net/index.html?path=mods/uv_drawing/index_eng)

Oh my ...! That is really modded to it, I think I will do that, some day.

But, what lacuer is made for circuit boards?

[AKA_RA]

Ummm, do you mean painting the PCB?

Card painting (http://www.metku.net/index.html?path=mods/cardpainting/index_eng)
UV Drawing (http://www.metku.net/index.html?path=mods/uv_drawing/index_eng)

I remember when I painted the traces of my new 9500pro with UV paint. The result wasn't nearly enoguh for me, so i ended up covering the resistors and the tops of the cap's as well. it turned out very nice.

as for rattle can spraying the whole board. why? i thought that was the point of having a window, is to see the parts inside, now stair as a blank slat of color sticking out of a bigger slat of color

EDIT: it would be like turning your pc into a real life low quality sketch-it rendering. not bad if thats what you were going for though

[DaveW]

EDIT: it would be like turning your pc into a real life low quality sketch-it rendering. not bad if thats what you were going for though

lol...who aims to make their computer into a low-quality sketchit render?

-Dave

[AKA_RA]

i dunno, but that sounds like one hell of a mod, dont it. and of course, i meant sketch up, dunno where "it" came from, lol

[Cevinzol]

Dupicolor sells a paint called metalcast (http://www.duplicolor.com/products/metalcast.html)
its heat resistant to 500 degrees F. You could also look into doping compounds, the kind model airplanes use (not the hindenberg kind).

I agree with AJ@PR. painting components can add to the items heat load by reducing the rate of disipation. but then so does a good layer of dust. If your machine is well ventilated the effect should be negligable.

if you do paint components, make sure the paint is non-conductive. be especialy wary of the metalic colors like gold, silver or copper. It would stink to short out a part by accident

[Baer]

I strongly recommend that you do not add any paint or coatings to the Printed Wireing Board. The solder mask is a very complex epoxy/acrilyc material which has been formulated for specific dielectric properties, leakage, capacitence, SIR, Etc. Why do you think that most PWB's are green? It is because the green dye systems are most stable and inert, why do most not use red? because there is a little iron in most red dyes. Yes you can formulate and design around that but unless you are a polymer chemest with all the necessary equipment you are not going to be successful. Paint companies do not think about things such as leakage, thermals Etc.
The other comments such as thermal profiles Etc are also good reasons to not do this. You may never see a problem but if it is an assembly that incorporates some high frequency circuiots and uses a high layer count controlled impedence board you just might eventually have a nasty suprise.

[Redundant]

Is it possible to paint chipsets like GPU's, Mobo's, and RAM?

-SnowFire

I'd say that as long as you use old components, you know, the kind of components that are so old they don't even get warm :D , and as long as the pins are not painted, it souldn't be a problem. :think: As for painting mobos, I would go along with the general clamor as the paint might be conductive; the spray paint I've seen says to not sand it because it contains lead so it might conduct electricity...

I also suggest that you take a clear picture or write down the numbers on the chips just in case you need them.

[Commando]

Dude,

You can paint anything you want. It will look awesome but might not work. Chipsets and circuit boards have tons of exposed circuits. That's how stuff like CPUs work, is tiny layers of metal suspended in silicone. Huh, I said silicone. I like other things suspended with silicone too.

There are a ton of circuits exposed on the surface of components. Bad idea for paint. CPUs and stuff rely on metal on metal or metal on air for heat distribution also. Metal to paint to air is not good for heat distribution.

[GT40_GearHead]

Baer has a VERY GOOD point (+rep for that mate)

there are so many things taken into acount, that such a stunt could realy mess up you'r stuff
and there are other things like you dont know how the paint will react to the board, it may start do disolve the layers, it may mess up the caps, it may start to oxidise the terminals ( though i'm not that shure )

now lets say it will work...
lets not forget the paint will realy mess up heat transfer(as all the other have sayd), put you'r hand on a system board(lets say a vid card) notice how the pcb is warm, that means it is pasing heat to the air around it, but paint sucks when it comes to heat conductiviti, so this brings me to my final argument, lets say a avrege video card has, what, 400square cm, by painting it you loose 400 square cm of heat desipating surface

[DaveW]

Something that hasn't been mentioned is that chipboards are in fact coated in an insulator. This means that when dust particles settle on the board they don't cause shorts. The only parts that aren't usually coated in dye are the solder points, so it should be safe to draw up to them, but not on them.

Good luck!

-Dave