Decided to mod my MSI Gaming 980 Ti, master race style!

[Arct1c0n]

My 980Ti from MSI has been a great card that I upgraded last year from my Asus 980 in "DarkWind II" for feeding my new 1440P monitor.

 

 

 

 

And keeping my framerates up for games like Witcher 3, Elite Dangerous and other demanding games

 

 

 

 

But the card is like all other MSI's cards out there. It's not bad looking...

 

 

 

 

But its just....boring to look out, especially in my ASUS ROG themed build. Time to fix that!

 

 

 

 

Easy enough initial disassembly, 4 screws and the fan cover comes off. Didn't even need to touch the HSF unit!

 

 

 

 

Removing the LED was more of a pain as I couldn't unplug the fan under the heatfins without removing the heatsink and I was all out of thermal paste. So I finally just snipped a small groove to allow the wiring to pass through and GENTLY removed the double sided tape behind the LED

 

 

 

Next I needed GENTLY pry away the melted in place red ribbing parts

 

 

 

 

And with some gentle effort, they popped off

 

 

 

 

After less then an hour, teardown is done

 

 

 

 

A proper cleaning with alchohol to remove any dirt, dust and finger prints

 

 

 

 

Again, using my old RC painting technique via warming a spray can in hot hot water for a minute will not only raise internal pressure for a strong spray, but it will also make the paint particles finer and the spray more even. Try it!

 

 

 

 

Ok, lets start with the primer...

 

 

 

 

Hell, looks better already and were only halfway there...

 

 

 

 

2 days of painting and drying, we are done. Lets reassemble and see how she turned out!

 

 

 

 

Wooo! Wow!  I think the result speaks for itself!  Mission successfull!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dr_Pleeper]

*Drools*

 

That looks so good! 

[Josephdalepi]

what case is that?

[Arct1c0n]

2 minutes ago, Josephdalepi said:

what case is that?

 

CoolerMaster HAF XB Evo

 

http://www.coolermaster.com/case/lan-box-haf-series/haf-xb-evo/

[DildorTheDecent]

That looks amazing. 

 

White and red should be more of a thing. 

[DocSwag]

That looks epic man!

[HannibalBurgers]

if you want to add a backplate to that soundcard check this out 

 

[Arct1c0n]

46 minutes ago, HannibalBurgers said:

if you want to add a backplate to that soundcard check this out 

 

 

 

Damn, I want one of those! What material is that to prevent static charge?

[Arct1c0n]

I'll be showing this to MSI later this week at a LAN party as they are a sponsor, so ill let you know what they think

[leonard_sun]

Looks Good!! That's one fine looking machine right there. 

[Arct1c0n]

2 hours ago, leonard_sun said:

Looks Good!! That's one fine looking machine right there. 

 

I think you wanna unquote all my pictures there bud, peeps tend to get mad when that happens heh...

[leonard_sun]

Looks Good!! That's one fine looking machine right there. 

17 minutes ago, Arct1c0n said:

 

I think you wanna unquote all my pictures there bud, peeps tend to get mad when that happens heh...

 

Thanks. it didn't occur to me I pressed the Quote button, it's too ingrained in my head that it's the reply button.

[paps511]

thats pretty sweet looking

[AnyWhereButHere]

On 2/10/2016 at 11:14 AM, DildorTheDecent said:

That looks amazing. 

 

White and red should be more of a thing. 

 

On 2/10/2016 at 11:01 AM, Arct1c0n said:

My 980Ti from MSI has been a great card that I upgraded last year from my Asus 980 in "DarkWind II" for feeding my new 1440P monitor.

 

 

 

 

And keeping my framerates up for games like Witcher 3, Elite Dangerous and other demanding games

 

 

 

 

But the card is like all other MSI's cards out there. It's not bad looking...

 

 

 

 

But its just....boring to look out, especially in my ASUS ROG themed build. Time to fix that!

 

 

 

 

Easy enough initial disassembly, 4 screws and the fan cover comes off. Didn't even need to touch the HSF unit!

 

 

 

 

Removing the LED was more of a pain as I couldn't unplug the fan under the heatfins without removing the heatsink and I was all out of thermal paste. So I finally just snipped a small groove to allow the wiring to pass through and GENTLY removed the double sided tape behind the LED

 

 

 

Next I needed GENTLY pry away the melted in place red ribbing parts

 

 

 

 

And with some gentle effort, they popped off

 

 

 

 

After less then an hour, teardown is done

 

 

 

 

A proper cleaning with alchohol to remove any dirt, dust and finger prints

 

 

 

 

Again, using my old RC painting technique via warming a spray can in hot hot water for a minute will not only raise internal pressure for a strong spray, but it will also make the paint particles finer and the spray more even. Try it!

 

 

 

 

Ok, lets start with the primer...

 

 

 

 

Hell, looks better already and were only halfway there...

 

 

 

 

2 days of painting and drying, we are done. Lets reassemble and see how she turned out!

 

 

 

 

Wooo! Wow!  I think the result speaks for itself!  Mission successfull!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wow!!! its sexy as shit. I think that card would be killer in the z170x gigabyte motherboards. 

[JdSpoel]

that looks great! adds some nice contrast to the whole rig