I dunno if this has been talked about or not, but would spray-painting your MB be just as effective as using de-electric grease?
Bad idea, spray paint is conductive, plus it is damn near impossible to remove if you needed to. If your concerned about condensation, I would actually suggest seeing if you can find some liquid latex, then masking up the parts you wish to not have covered, and dip the board in the latex. Or, if you don't fancy having the whole board covered, then you could just set up a little corale around the parts you need insulated, and then pour the latex inside the corale. My 2¢ worth.
i dont think latex is a good idea what is normally used is conformal coating its used for water proofing pcb's so should be perfect can be found in any good electronics shop, but all this does is stop water touching the board it doesnt stop condensation forming, for that you need neoprene or similar close celled foam which acts as a barrier to the air and therefour the moisture it contains.
Agreed. After fitting, the entire area around the chip under the copper plate would need to be sealed using some type of expanding insulation. This won't prevent condensation entirely, but will protect the important areas from getting it.
I put the vote for Conformal coating, which would make coat the board and in theory at least make it water prrof, but some type of foam is usually the best way to keep condensation from ever starting
Sounds as a bad idea. Latex probably involves heating the latex, which might result in melting the soldering But if you are looking to cover/conceal your motherboard. Why don't you just make a cover out of a sheet of wood/aluminum and paint that ? Might look just as cool But good luck with the project, and get some pictures if/when you succeed
well this is where i got the idea.... http://www.overclockers.com/tips1029/ and uv spray paint isnt conductive
When your trying to prevent condensation, the best way to go is to stop it from forming at all with insulation foam or something of that sort. The liquid latex might work but would be frustrating to put on and remove and has questionable insulating properties. Spraypaint does not insulate at all and at most might prevent some damage from the water forming on the motherboard. It is posible to spraypaint a motherboard, and in another thread, someone managed to do so with great looking results. But that will not prevent the condensation from occuring. You should use some non conducting closed cell foam, like the kind used for insulating water pipes. Then mount that as close to the motherboard as posible so no water vapor can get inbetween them and condense. This will prevent a cool surface being exposed to the air so condensation has no place to form. Edit: Almost forgot to mention the most important fact about the closed cell foam. If you ever change your mind about cooling your motherboard, or build a evaporator block that is a different size (assuming you are using phase change cooling), Then it would be reativly easy to remove the foam and cut out different shaped pieces. Imagine trying to chip away that that liquid latex or hardend expanding foam to do the same thing.
There was a motherboard spraypainting project on here and it was concluded that most spraypaints are not conductive.... search for it if you don't believe me. You may want to check this guide out over at metku's, using a product similar to that latex stuff, and you can find cans of this in home depot.... but I'm not sure they have the clear color there. http://www.metku.net/index.html?sect=view&n=1&path=mods/supergrip/index_eng also this guy seems to have the largest selection I've found on ebay if you would rather go that direction. According to the manufacturer, it can be used for different types of electrical coating/protection. - http://www.plastidip.com/uselisting.pdf
