Why Not Paint your Video Card??
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2016-05-06
·
1,526 words · ~7 min read
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wow you guys did not like that video
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that I did on the creation of my DIY
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paint booth a little while ago but what I hope and based on the reaction on
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social media this seems to be the case is that you will at least like my first
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creation that has come out of it welcome to my guide on how to paint your
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graphics
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card
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the GTX 980 TI VR Edition from EVGA
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provides an industry-leading Graphics experience as well as a 5 and 1/4 in Bay
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with easy access inputs for your VR device learn more at the link in the
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video description after putting a couple of
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finishing touches on the DIY paint booth including finally attaching the fan and
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putting a shroud of Tuck tape around it as well as taping the drop sheet on the
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floor to the plastic walls around the outside it was time to disassemble the
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card now the objective here is to take it down as far as we can to its bare
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components because the objective is not
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to just coat the entire thing in a in a layer of orange paint I'm actually only
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looking to change the Blasted aluminum parts so I end up with this sick LTT
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black and orange color scheme now this procedure and this is kind of cool can
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be used for painting like what I'm doing but it can also be used for cleaning out
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the cooler of many reference NVIDIA graphics cards from the last couple of
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generations so uh make sure you're paying close attention if your GPU
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starts overheating to begin with you'll need a number one Phillips a number 0000
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Philips a size 1 and 1/2 hex and a size 2 hex as well as a little bit of
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patience Begin by removing the reference cooler from the PCB all the screws on
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the back and the screws along with the hex shap AP DVI retention sockets need
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to come out pull the graphics card
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itself away from the cooler we were lucky and all our thermal pads stayed in
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one place making reassembly easy later but if they don't make sure you put them
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back somewhere safe then remove the two power connectors for the fan and the
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illuminated GeForce logo and put the video card somewhere safe we won't need
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it until it's time to put the entire assembly back together now we remove the
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screws for the top top and bottom aluminum fascia pieces one of them has a
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little bit of adhesive so be careful not to bend it while you're pulling it off
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the cooler from here it's basically an exercise and find the screws and remove
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them so we took out the screws holding in the Plexi window and the one securing
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the black shroud that sits around the fan giving us a great look at the dark
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nickel plated Vapor chamber heat sink that invisia uses on the 980 TI then we
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worked our way towards the back of the card all the black pieces will be put
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aside since we'll be keeping the factory finish and the aluminum pieces the last
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of which we get access to by removing these four screws that were exposed are
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taken into the paint booth for Preparation the one screw that we didn't
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remove was the one holding in the cooling fan on the underside of the
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unisync that has all these thermal pads on it there is no need to take this off
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and I don't recommend painting a fan as it can ruin its balance making it louder
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and potentially less reliable step one prep solvent I mean we aren't working
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with car parts that have been driving around on muddy roads so it's probably
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not necessary but it can't hurt step two
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is sanding so we actually took a wet sand run at it with 600 grit I'm not
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sure if the anodized finish on these components would have interfered with
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paint adhesion but I'm going to play it better safe than sorry and remove it
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anyway then we wet sand with 1,000 grit
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to ensure that our finished surface will be sefic by the end dry the parts off and
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it's time to set about priming here we went with three light to medium coats
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waiting about 10 minutes in between them with the experience I gained from this
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project I would have gone back and done this with white primer but gray was what
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I had at the time and it ended up working out not too bad now our ambient
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temperature was a little on the low side so I actually ended up having to leave
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the primed parts in the office over overnight to cure before I could sand
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off the dust and Imperfections with a very light 600 grit wet sand dry them
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again and then move on to my favorite part applying the base coat for the
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color I chose a Lamborghini orange that looked dazzling on the web and actually
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did not disappoint in person the first
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coat actually very mediocre it had kind of a yellow cast to it but as I applied
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more coats the vibrancy of the color really started to come through I ended
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up using five coats then once we reached
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the clear coating stage I actually made a very unexpected decision normally I
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would want to apply my four to five clear coats and then wait 24 hours and
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use rubbing compound to bring the clear coat to that glassy smooth finish but
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with the wrinkle powder coat finish of the black components I find I actually
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prefer the subtle Orange Peel texture of the parts without any further finishing
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and I understand normally this is a very
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undesirable effect in a paint job and considered the mark of a slap Dash job
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but you know what YOLO I like it and I
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am sticking with it which leaves reassembly as the only remaining step
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basically do everything you just did while you took the card apart but in
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reverse order and you should have yourself an absolutely sick looking
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reference graphics card now for those of
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you concerned about warranty on a mod like this that is a very valid concern
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but I was pleasantly surprised to find
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that on this EVGA card anyway I actually
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didn't need to remove any warranty stickers to complete the project and so
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if you were to use plasty dip instead of car paint you could easily take it back
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apart and peel off the plasty dip reassemble it and send it back for
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repairs no no big deal so happy painting then guys thanks to this guide you can
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either clean your NVIDIA reference video card or save yourself the small loan of
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about $4,000 that it would take to get your hands on a multicolored reference
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card out of the box and we're back with another drop
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this time it's the OnePlus Two Mass drop
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is the platform that allows the community to say hey we want to deal on
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like you know this knife or that keyboard board or this like cool piece
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of hiking equipment or in this case this cool smartphone can you go to the
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manufacturer and say hey if we can sell a whole bunch of these then can you give
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us a lower price and that is exactly what happened so the OnePlus 2 is a 5 1
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12 in 1080P smartphone with a Snapdragon 810 processor and adreno 430 GPU it runs
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Android 5.1 and has a USB type-c port for charging and it's available for a
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limited time only on mass drop so all you got to do is head over to draw drops
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SL lt-1 plus don't worry if that's complicated it's linked in the video
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description and check it out and while you're over there they've got lots of
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other cool stuff too so thanks for
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watching guys if this video sucked well you know what to do but if it was
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awesome get subscribed hit that like button or even consider supporting us
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freaking awesome now that you're done doing all that stuff you're probably wondering oh gee what should I watch
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next well how about this video right here I guarantee you it's awesome and if
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it's not then uh you know LMG takes no responsibility for any guarantees made
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by their host and about the awesomeness of before mentioned videos and see you
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later