3D printing a motherboard cover.

Auburn_Tigers

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 16, 2013
Messages
432
Does anyone here know what 3d printer will make a board cover. My son wants the fallout for cover
for his motherboard that nzxt makes, but not buying a cheap ass nzxt board to make it happen.

Or, if someone here can do it, then let me know how much?
 
they are made for specific boards. youd have to design your own and then print it.
 
they are made for specific boards. youd have to design your own and then print it.

That would be a custom print with a couple colors, and the orientation you'd use to allow for the nice color transition is going to mean it's printed vertically, alternatively you use a multiple extruder setup and deal with the ugly stringing you get because you'd have to use petg which strings like crazy because nobody in their right mind uses ABS anymore and PLA will just warp with all the heat around the cpu socket and gpu. And dammit I quoted the wrong person.
 
I have yet to begin to drink.

seriously, one of the primary things I am after printing on my [still virtual ] prusa is ducting for my [under construction] threadripper box.
cooling ducts for the board mounted M2 drives sounds like they would fit in this thread.
 
Those covers look to be all metal with only minimal plastic. 3d printing one wouldn't necessarily be the best option. Either it would be in multiple pieces, or need a good amount of thickness to keep ridged.

I would think some tin snips, a hunk of cheap sheet metal, and a vinyl print would do well. Get a 1:1 image of the motherboard. Make a template, cut out, deburr, apply vinyl, and cut out the holes.

Ex:

Though, as I am flipping through some youtube videos, some folk are using acrylic so maybe a 3d print would work. Certainly one complete solid chunk would be bigger than a standard ender rig like I have.. well, unless it's a small motherboard. Ha!
 
whyever would not a cover be designed to act as a duct for a cooling fan or two ?

At best, trying to use the duct method with some small, loud ass fan only serves to mitigate the heat insulating effect of motherboard coverings.
 
At best, trying to use the duct method with some small, loud ass fan only serves to mitigate the heat insulating effect of motherboard coverings.

creating a still air pocket close above the motherboard using an aluminium sheet IR mirror does sound rather silly.
a forced draft flow guide made of IR absorbing material however, that generates air flow much closer to the motherboard, seems, to me, to not be a bad cooling strategy.
neither the 60mm nor the 40mm Noctua fans I use seem to be noticably Loud Ass Fans, (didn't cardi b just do a song on that ?)
 
Fwiw, the sabertooth mb covers were definitely not metal, and had no metalic coating or other material underneath iirc.

Also, the one I had seemed to be pretty ineffective at cooling, but that may be just because the oe fans were so narrow and were super loud unless ran under 30% or so.

Might not be as pretty, but on a ATX or eATX board you could probably put a noctua (or other) 80/92x15 fan under the cover with some slats over it to protect the blades, and it would move plenty of air at minimal rpm.
 
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