Gigabyte gtx 970 G1 LED color swap mod

jonathan13 · April 6, 2016

[DISCLAIMER: THIS CAN DAMAGE YOUR CARD IF YOU MESS SOMETHING UP. I HAVE ALSO NOTED THAT THERE ARE TWO DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF THE GTX 970 G1, AND PROBABLY MORE THAN ONE VERSION OF THE OTHER G1 CARDS. THIS MOD WAS DONE ON THE NEWEST VERSION OF THE GTX 970. I CANNOT CONFIRM THAT THIS WILL WORK ON THE ORIGINAL VERSION. I CANNOT CONFIRM THAT YOUR CARD WILL BE EXACTLY LIKE MINE, AND TAKE THIS MOD WITHOUT ISSUE. CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN RISK. I ACCEPT NO LIABILITY FOR ANY DAMAGE THAT MAY RESULT FROM DOING THIS MOD!!!]

I completed a mod tonight and took some photos along the way so that I could share it with everyone in case someone else would like to do the same to their G1 card. The build theme on my new rig is red, white, and black. As we all know, the LED on the G1 line of cards is blue. Very nice blue, but nevertheless it's blue, which definitely does not jive well with anything red. Here is what I did...

I purchased this (the equivalent to this at Walmart):

http://www.amazon.com/SUPERNIGHT-16-4ft-Waterproof-Flexible-Multifunctional/dp/B00BMHP960

1. Remove the LED strip from the card. This is done by removing the two TINY screws on the front on either side of the Windforce logo, and sliding the assembly up and out.

This is what it looks like once removed. It is actually two pieces- the logo itself and a backplate that it sits inside of.

This is a few pictures of the LED strips I purchased. Yours may vary slightly, but what you are looking for is 12 volt, two wire, color of your choice, able to be cut to length(this is key), and as thin as possible. The thinness will allow you to be able to slide it back in place. If it is too thick, it will not fit between the heatsink and the metal frame that holds the logo.

2. Next you will carefully remove the LED modules from the backside of the logo. They are connected to a thin strip that the wire runs into. This strip is held with adhesive to the logo, but is very easy to remove. Once completed, it will look like this.

At this point I previewed what my results would look like by placing the logo over the new LED strip and turning it on. Not too bad, although I will say that the light is not as evenly distributed as I would like. If you look closely, you can tell that the F is a bit brighter than the rest. This can vary depending on the strip you buy. The closer together the LEDs the better, but again, make sure the strip can be cut to length!!

3. Cut to length and make sure that you do so along one of the lines that designates where it is able to be cut. Also, cut the end of wire going to the LED so that you have 2 bare wires. It should look something like this once that is done.

4. You will now cut the plug off of the blue LED strip that you removed from the Windforce logo. This is the point of no return, or at least the point of no warranty. lol. You will then wire the plug to the LED strip. PAY CLOSE ATTENTION to the polarity of the plug before cutting it off. I would suggest doing one wire at a time as to not get them confused. On the back of where the wires come into the original strip, it has the polarity marked. You want to make sure you match this with the polarity on the new LED strip that you purchased. Most of the time this is labeled on the front of the strip (same side the LEDs are on).

5. You will now remove the 3m tape from the back of the new strip. You remove the tape as well as the backing of the tape. This is done to make it thinner, and because you don't actually need the tape because the strip will wedge between the metal shroud and your heatsink and stay in place on its own.

Once done, it should look like this.

6. Step 6 will only apply to certain LED strips. I had to add electrical tape to the ends of mine because the strip itself was white which I did not want to be able to see, and because it was a little longer than I needed it to be and I did not want to see any light bleed on the ends.

7. Finally, you will put it all back together. You will not reuse the backplate that originally held the logo in place. I suggest you put the original LED strip back in this backplate and run a strip of electrical tape around it. Put the tiny screws back in the backplate as well, and store this in your original box in case you want to use it again later, or if you decide to sell your card. This also might be your only saving grace if you have to send your card in for a warranty claim, but even this may not save you from the warranty being denied if they look at your card close enough.

Once completed it should look something like this. Special thanks to Tom. I met Tom about a week ago. He had soldered in red LEDs to the original strips on his SLI 970 G1 setup, but had recently switched to watercooling, and was no longer using his logos. He was nice enough to send me his red modded logo in exchange for my factory blue one. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, his logo would not power on when plugged into my card, which is what led me to doing this mod. Thanks Tom!!

Good luck guys!! Don't be afraid! Dive in and make it your own!