Taking my computer apart advice please!

[JukeFactory]

Hello guys! Well I finished my build and have been running my PC for about a month or two. But want to finish doing some of the things i wanted to do Such as painting top of heat sinks and the back IO rgb shield.. This requires me to take the heat sinks off the motherboard and the back io RGB cover on the motherboard. Can i just take everything out, unplug everything then take motherboard out, then unscrew heat sinks and back io rgb cover on the motherboard? I was planning on leaving the CPU and Ram and M.2 SSD on the motherboard as these will not be in the way.

 

Since this is my first build I just want to make sure I can do this and then plug everything back in without screwing something up. 

[8-Bit Ninja]

painting heat sinks isn't easy, they are there for heat dissipation, and slapping a thick layer of paint over the top really wont help with that 

[JukeFactory]

Just now, 8-Bit Ninja said:

painting heat sinks isn't easy, they are there for heat dissipation, and slapping a thick layer of paint over the top really wont help with that 

I know but I've been doing some research on it and my plan is to do a light coat over the top part onlydon't need the whole thing painted so maybe that will also avoid possible heat issues.

[Sauron]

You can, but as @8-Bit Ninja said it's a bad idea

[Lurick]

You'll need to clean the thermal paste on the CPU and heatsink and then reapply when you put it back on.

Other than that just unplug it, the opposite of how you put it together

[JukeFactory]

2 minutes ago, 8-Bit Ninja said:

painting heat sinks isn't easy, they are there for heat dissipation, and slapping a thick layer of paint over the top really wont help with that 

by top part i mean the one faceing out towards the glass panel.

[JukeFactory]

2 minutes ago, Lurick said:

You'll need to clean the thermal paste on the CPU and heatsink and then reapply when you put it back on.

Other than that just unplug it, the opposite of how you put it together

thanks! Is there thermal pads or paste under heatsinks?

[Bananasplit_00]

sure, just make sure you get the thermal pads out fine or you will have to buy new ones. you can leave all that stuff in the motherboard no problem

[Lurick]

4 minutes ago, JukeFactory said:

thanks! Is there thermal pads or paste under heatsinks?

Wait, you want to paint all the motherboard heat sinks or just the CPU heat sink?

If it's just the top of the CPU heatsink then you're fine, just have to clean the thermalpaste beneath it on the heatsink and CPU.

If you're talking about the other heatsinks on the motherboard, that's not recommended at all as it's going to severely hamper thermal performance. Those have thermal pads btw.

[MikeSK]

When you fry your motherboard and or other components by painting heat sinks, can you post your results?  Uploading pictures would be great?  The icing on the cake would be to list the cost of the components fried followed by their list price of their replacements.  

[dcgreen2k]

17 minutes ago, MikeSK said:

When you fry your motherboard and or other components by painting heat sinks, can you post your results?  Uploading pictures would be great?  The icing on the cake would be to list the cost of the components fried followed by their list price of their replacements.  

That's not how electronics get fried btw.

 

He wants to paint the side of the heatsink that faces the side panel, not the entire thing.

 

There will be thermal paste on the CPU, so you'll need to replace it. Painting the top of the heatsink won't hurt anything, just don't get the paint inside it.

 

I really wouldn't recommend painting smaller heatsinks, because then they'll have less surface area to dissipate heat.

[MikeSK]

5 minutes ago, thegreengamers said:

Painting the top of the heatsink won't hurt anything,

Until I see empirical proof, I am not convinced.  Do manufactures significantly over design their heatsink implementations to compensate for the lose of cooling surface area?  To maintain aesthetics, the paint has to be able to survive temperatures from room to load temperatures.  

Since the discussion has already lead to removing and re-installing the heatsinks, how about replacing the heatsinks with superior after market heatsinks in a desired color?  

[W-L]

2 hours ago, JukeFactory said:

Hello guys! Well I finished my build and have been running my PC for about a month or two. But want to finish doing some of the things i wanted to do Such as painting top of heat sinks and the back IO rgb shield.. This requires me to take the heat sinks off the motherboard and the back io RGB cover on the motherboard. Can i just take everything out, unplug everything then take motherboard out, then unscrew heat sinks and back io rgb cover on the motherboard? I was planning on leaving the CPU and Ram and M.2 SSD on the motherboard as these will not be in the way.

 

Since this is my first build I just want to make sure I can do this and then plug everything back in without screwing something up. 

You can paint the motherboard VRM heatsinks if you like it will affect heat transfer marginally but nothing that will be of a real worry at all. If you do decide to paint it it would be a best to mask off the bottom to ensure the thermal pad makes direct contact stil with the heatsinks. 

 

I’ve personally vinyl wrapped the top accent of my VRM heatsinks with no affect.

[dcgreen2k]

2 hours ago, MikeSK said:

Until I see empirical proof, I am not convinced.  Do manufactures significantly over design their heatsink implementations to compensate for the lose of cooling surface area?

By "the top", I mean at most, the top plate of the cooler. Even if you completely get rid of a couple fins, that won't cause the CPU to overheat. 

[JukeFactory]

9 hours ago, W-L said:

You can paint the motherboard VRM heatsinks if you like it will affect heat transfer marginally but nothing that will be of a real worry at all. If you do decide to paint it it would be a best to mask off the bottom to ensure the thermal pad makes direct contact stil with the heatsinks. 

 

I’ve personally vinyl wrapped the top accent of my VRM heatsinks with no affect.

never thought of vinyl wrapping the top. Do you have pics and a link to the wrap you used?