Gratz on the weekly spotlight, well deserved on this awesome build !!!
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Gratz on the weekly spotlight, well deserved on this awesome build !!!
MNPCT do some awesome modding bits, congrats getting them to sponsor you :), I learned some good tips from bills video tutorials particulary how to use a dremal properly and the fact he said if you can do good circles, particulary small ones you could do any design.
Congrats on the weekly spotlight :).
Wow, even polishing parts on the actual motherboard, all these little features will add up to greatness when it all comes together, keep it up mate :) :up:.
Thanks, SXR!Quote:
Originally Posted by SXRguyinMA
Thanks very much, cellsite!Quote:
Originally Posted by cellsite60
Thanks, Waynio! Bill is a Jedi-Master as far as I'm concerned. His skill over the workbench is unmatched by most that I've seen in this hobby.Quote:
Originally Posted by Waynio
And now I'd like to announce another big sponsor who's come on board to partner with me on refleXion. :)
PPCs will be sponsoring me with three of their nickel-plated RAM waterblocks, the RAM-33:
The staggered inlet/outlet design of these allow you to stack as many of them together as you like:
Each one has a carved path for the coolant to travel so that it comes in contact with every memory chip.
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...ducts_id=25760
Given the mirror-like finish of these, they should go great in refleXion and help keep my three DDR-3 sticks nice and cool. Aside from that, they just look great and fit the theme well.
Thanks to Performance-PCs for their support in helping mold refleXion into its final form!
Hey, guys. Another short update.
So, still looking at making the mobo as neat as possible.
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?
Then, the USB connectors. I'll be replacing these with black ones.
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.
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.
And now, with 3 polished.
Slowly but surely, we're getting rid of all the red.
3 caps down.. only 55 to go! :eek:
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.
Here it is, guys. Even better than painted caps are mirrored caps:
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.
Very nice work with the caps; I love the new mirrored look. It should be theoretically possible to swap out the RAM slots...though without a hot air soldering station, it'll be quite difficult, I would think.
Man, I could have sworn I had subscribed to this thread early but I guess I must have encountered either a browser error or an error in my memory. Unbelievable work you're doing here, I'd never realized that the USB and IDE connectors could be removed easily. The ZGC is unreal in the execution and I think there's a pool of drool on my desk from the TWO 5970s and those gorgeous waterblocks. Keep up the phenomenal work!
You could tell this guy's a pro....look at how clean his workshop is! even his watch is scratch-free!!! oh....great mod, man!!! +rep!
Thanks, x88x. The more I research, the less and less it looks feasible for me to remove either the DIMMs or the PCI-e slots. The PCI-e slot has 164 pins under the 16x slots.Quote:
Originally Posted by x88x
So now, it seems I'm down to either painting them or finding some way to fabricate pieces that will fit over them and still look neat while doing it. If any of you have any ideas, please let me know. I'm stewing on this one right now.
Thanks very much, Main!Quote:
Originally Posted by TheMainMan
I'm afraid there's a hair scratch or two on the face of the watch. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by el_magnifico
Thanks!
With the precision you've shown throughout this mod I doubt painting the connectors will prove a daunting task. You know the drill, get some of the quick drying acrylic paint, a small brush, breathing exercises and another couple of hours and it will be superb.
Later congrats on the new sponsor! Hahaha, been awhile. College applications and what not. Absolutely love the polished caps. Looks sweet. ^_^ Can't wait to see this beauty together.
You might also want to lightly sand all the surfaces, especially the large, smooth parts.Quote:
Originally Posted by Datech
Hey, guys! This sure is a sexy motherboard that's sitting here beside me. All the caps are now polished, and it looks like my mobo is wearing jewelry. :D
It really does make a difference. Very pleased with the look... now to make sure that she still works! :eek:
But.. I'm confident she does. I'll test her out tomorrow just to confirm, but I was very careful.
Onto your comments!
Thanks, Datech. :up: I think I'm just a little wary because my last time out with paint was a disaster. But this is much easier work than what I attempted before, and I'm hoping that my skills have improved a little sense then.Quote:
Originally Posted by Datech
Welcome back, Couch! Glad to see that you're still around and enjoying the build. :up: Thanks as always for the compliments!Quote:
Originally Posted by Couch3ater
Yep, I was thinking the same thing. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by x88x
I'll upload some pictures of the mobo tomorrow to show off the caps and the polished CPU socket. :D
Thanks, everyone!
Bling-bling.
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.
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.
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! :)
Music to my ears.
More to come.
That Krylon stuff has worked well for me, but it still doesn't hurt to sand it just a little.
Looks very nice so far. One thing I would caution you on while painting though. Since you're spraying it, make sure you put something in the slots to protect the contacts from the paint. If they get painted over, you'll just have a very expensive, shiny paperweight.
There is no way I would do this, I need my warranties to be functional, I'm not loaded, it 's why I don't mod my psu's or mod my monitor, if I was loaded or the parts were near end of warranty or got them 2nd hand I'd go for it like you are doing, but not with expensive shiny new hardware so the only +rep I could do for the shiny caps and painted slots would be for being loaded and being able to do this lol :D:up:.
Yeah. I'm going to test it tonight on some spare connectors that I have laying around and may try one sanded and one not sanded. The highest grit paper I have is 1000 (I may have some 1500 but I'll have to look,) and I want these to have a smooth texture in appearance.Quote:
Originally Posted by Datech
Yep, I'm using masking tape over the pins so as not to paint them. But thanks for the warning.Quote:
Originally Posted by x88x
Ah c'mon, Waynio. Give me the +rep for no compromises. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Waynio
There will be no stickers, bar codes, brand labels or ugly ink anywhere in refleXion. It just can't be that way.
:D True :up:. I know I'd do the same if I was well off enough :).Quote:
Originally Posted by Xion X2
Lol, even as you're taking a "no holds barred" kind of approach, I certainly wouldn't have the stones to do it. >_< Good on ya' mate.
lol if ur gunna sit down and take sooo much time polishing cap i would suggest lappin ur cpu :)
lookin good
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOQuote:
Originally Posted by LiTHiUM0XiD3
lol... thats just scary...
Too late to lap the CPU, I'm afraid. The CPU block would also have to be lapped, and I just had it nickel plated. So if I lap it now it will ruin the nickel finish on the base.Quote:
Originally Posted by LiTHiUM0XiD3
Painting is going so-so thus far. I have my eye on an all black eVGA board that I may go with if I can't get this Foxconn looking the way that I want it to.
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.
Have you thought about finding screw plugs to fill the holes on the SSD's that face the windows?
I'm experimenting with a few different ideas at the moment. Set screws, rubber inserts, etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by Datech
Any ideas?
a tad of body filler, sand it down, tape off the top and bottom and paint it black? it'd make it look like theres not even a hole there :D
I would prefer rubber inserts over filling it, that way you can use that side again if need be.
Both good ideas, thanks. Although I've leaned towards not using body filler for the reason Datech mentioned in that it'd allow me to use those holes again if I ever needed them.
I've had difficulty finding rubber inserts that small, though.
Maybe black nylon screws with the heads chopped off? You could always drill out the center and reverse them out later if you want them out.
Xion I had a long sleep so my thoughts are as clear as can be :).
I think someone mentioned this on your bit-tech log for getting your memory and expansion slots black, a permanent black marker, it would be the safest option, it is what I would do if I wanted them black, you could even test it out on 1 of the pieces you removed where it wouldn't be seen just to see what you think, worth a try.
I think spraying a motherboard could be too risky unless you do a 100% awesome job of masking around and filling the slots so nothing gets in, I suppose you could use thin rolls of blue tack lay over the slots, I think it is doable if you really take care to cover everything except the bits that you want painting.
Oh yeah & I wouldn't worry about the mounting holes as all drives have them and they will look cool enough with them looking as if they are floating :up:.
I've tried this method already, actually, on another SSD that the screws got stripped in. It's not exactly easy to back the screws out on these, so I'm hesitant about inserting any screws in there like this.Quote:
Originally Posted by x88x
Hey, Waynio. Thanks for the suggestion, bud, but I'm afraid that I've already tried that with a sharpie (permanent blank ink) and it hasn't worked out too well. It's just not thick enough and leaves spots where the red still shows through along with 'brush strokes' that make the connectors look messy.Quote:
Originally Posted by Waynio
I've decided to try and sell this board and replace it with an all black eVGA, so if anyone is interested in it for 120$ shipped within the U.S., let me know. I'll ship it internationally for $145.
I've been reading through this worklog all day... on my phone haha, I liked it so much that I put up with slow loads and a very tiny screen. Ill def. Be keeping an eye on this and must compliment you on your attention to detail.
EDIT: As a fellow photog(and D40 user) I must ask, what have you been lighting with? Seems like a softbox but in some of the reflections it looks like you could just be using a white bed sheet as a flash diffuser or maybe thats just the bg, either way great photos!
Thank you for the kind feedback, Jake. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Jake2k
I have two softboxes for lighting. I've been shooting for around 6 months now, and I've found lately that I prefer a more dramatic look with my photos instead of all the glare that I get from both boxes lit. So most of the shots lately have been with one softbox on its lowest, or next to lowest, output. Each one has 4 bulbs that are individually lit.
Teaser.
Damn, now I have to clean the drool out of my keyboard again! Starting to see more and more reflexions evident throughout. +rep
Thanks, Main!
Still waiting on the next round of parts to arrive. This is what I'll be receiving:
- eVGA X58 SLI LE motherboard
- EK X58 SLI LE black acetal mosfet/NB/SB chipset block
- 2x Cross-SLI GPU fittings for parallel flow
- New thermal pads for Koolance ram blocks
- 6-32 Black oxide set screws for SSD holes
And, most importantly, I FINALLY, after four months into this project, have a workspace! Today I reserved a 10x20ft. storage unit with electrical for all the fab work that's left to do on refleXion. This will help speed the project along (much needed, right!?) so that it should be completed soon.
-- Babble. Drool. --
'Nuff said. Very nice. Still impressed, as per usual. =D
amazing... just amazing... if you're looking for a way to make those holes look nice you could use these, they are beautiful. From the other components i would probably assume that it wouldnt be a big issue for you for the shipping cost
http://en.mdpc-x.com/mdpc-mounting/s...utton-head.htm
Hmm, I hadn't thought of button heads...maybe you could even fill in the holes in the heads with a soft plastic that you could scrape out if/when you want to take them out?
Xion X2; if you're in the US, boltdepot.com is great (and cheaper, I think..at least in shipping).
mcmaster carr is nice too :up:
