Wondering how hard would be to make a motherboard "armor"?

[snowPT]

Hi!

 

I'm atm getting my hands on a custom case project that is mainly black & white themed and i'm about to get a motherboard for it, the problem is that the motherboard it's not black or either white.. It's blue, fully blue and white. I tought on painting the heatsinks, that would fix 30% of the problem, but I still had to cover the PCB of the whole motherboard. Since i don't really don't want to paint the entire motherboard i was thinking on 3d printing a cover like the "Asus TUF Armor kit" for the Sabertooth Z77 but for the motheboard that i will use, the x58A-UD3R.

 

But i'm wondering now, how? It's that hard? I have acess to a 3d printer so that part is done. Any lights on how i can do this?

 

Thanks!

 

 

[W-L]

2 minutes ago, snowPT said:

-SNIP-

With a 3D printer it's very doable but will require a lot of measurements and such to model the cover. Another option is to use acrylic sheets and standoffs to keep them above the PCB with cutouts around PCI-E slots, heatsinks and such.

[OddsCrazyStuff]

A build log for inspiration: http://community.coolermaster.com/topic/12381-cosmos-ii-mark-ii-by-seinron/

[snowPT]

4 minutes ago, W-L said:

With a 3D printer it's very doable but will require a lot of measurements and such to model the cover. Another option is to use acrylic sheets and standoffs to keep them above the PCB with cutouts around PCI-E slots, heatsinks and such.

Acrylic was another option that i had in mind, maybe it would look better indeed..

 

2 minutes ago, OddsCrazyStuff said:

A build log for inspiration: http://community.coolermaster.com/topic/12381-cosmos-ii-mark-ii-by-seinron/

wow, that looks pretty awesome, thanks mate!

[SQZY98]

I made a DIY armor for my Z97 Gryphon (mATX). I started measuring all of the important dimensions. Such width, height and distance from the edge of the motherboard to RAM slots etc. I then used these measurements to create a model in Sketchup. Printed the model and cut it to a 1:1 size cardboard mockup. I then looked at how it fits the MB and noted where improvements had to be done. I did this about 5 times until I was (somewhat) certain that it was going to fit. 

 

I then got it cut by some guy on ebay with a CNC. The material here is acrylic. After ~1 month of constant usage I haven't experienced any problems at all if you are concerned about overheating or the acrylic bending itself. For Installation I used a 7mm acetal standoffs that screw right ontop of the motherboard standoffs of the case.

It's by far not as precise as the metal one previously mentioned but it fits

 

Spoiler

 

[snowPT]

3 hours ago, SQZY98 said:

I made a DIY armor for my Z97 Gryphon (mATX). I started measuring all of the important dimensions. Such width, height and distance from the edge of the motherboard to RAM slots etc. I then used these measurements to create a model in Sketchup. Printed the model and cut it to a 1:1 size cardboard mockup. I then looked at how it fits the MB and noted where improvements had to be done. I did this about 5 times until I was (somewhat) certain that it was going to fit. 

 

I then got it cut by some guy on ebay with a CNC. The material here is acrylic. After ~1 month of constant usage I haven't experienced any problems at all if you are concerned about overheating or the acrylic bending itself. For Installation I used a 7mm acetal standoffs that screw right ontop of the motherboard standoffs of the case.

It's by far not as precise as the metal one previously mentioned but it fits

 

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Well i took some time to watch your profile pics of the build with this armor for the motheboard and damn, pretty cool build you have there!

 

Indeed i was thinking on using acrylic since I've a shop that is well know in the modding section here in my country and and for sure they will help me up with cutting part since i know how to use Sketchup myself. By the way, thanks for describing all the steps that you needed to make this armor, i will make sure to follow them and made the changes that i need!

 

Once again, thanks!