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

[cellsite60]

Gratz on the weekly spotlight, well deserved on this awesome build !!!

[Waynio]

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 .

[Xion X2]

looking good!

Thanks, SXR!

Gratz on the weekly spotlight, well deserved on this awesome build !!!

Thanks very much, cellsite!

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 .

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.

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!

[Xion X2]

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!

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.

[Xion X2]

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.

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.

[x88x]

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.

[TheMainMan]

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!

[el_magnifico]

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!

[Xion X2]

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.

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.

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.

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!

Thanks very much, Main!

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!

I'm afraid there's a hair scratch or two on the face of the watch.

Thanks!

[Datech]

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.