Niche in the market?

bJN

bJN

bJN

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I believe it's safe to say that nowadays, the "computer modding" is an audience widely targeted by component manufacturers. With that in mind, what do you define as modding? And how do you find it different to a "computer enthusiast"? In my mind, a "modder" is someone that will quite literally dismantle everything in a PC to build it up to look different and perform better. Enthusiasts are those that buy what pleases them without having too much work to do - i.e. not cutting huge holes in cases etc.

There seems to be more and more products available nowadays, from cathode and LED light strips, to custom "powder-coating" and paint-jobs, heck even pre-braided cables have had a great success considering how much of a short time they've been on the market (in the UK at least).

But one thing I've noticed seems to be lacking a little bit, and it's to do with colours...

There are several build logs going around where people have built a PC from scratch and tried to stick to a colour scheme (blue seems quite common occurrence). There are some quickfire solutions to some of the problems, for example the thread about the Corsair PSU's and the different coloured stickers that someone made (brilliant idea by the way); but also some not-quite-so-good ones as well, such as painting an entire motherboard to fit in with the scheme.

Now recently I've been toying with the idea of starting a colour-schemed build once the funds become available to me. I, like many other people no doubt, like to do things slightly differently compared to the "majority", and in this case I don't want to just build a typical "enthusiast" computer with some white or blue cathodes thrown in. I'm after red. It looks great, especially when lit up, and certainly isn't common. Unfortunately, it seems this isn't a great colour to choose, because if I wanted a motherboard to match the colour scheme, well then I'd be looking at the ASUS Republic of Gamers series (Crosshair, Maximus, and Rampage) which, lets be honest, are a fair bit into the "pricey" category.

Now to the point of this whole thread - why is it that there aren't any "motherboard replacements" for modders/enthusiasts? And by replacements I mean things like the DIMM slots - surely they'd be inexpensive to make in a variety of colours, and quite easy to replace on an existing motherboard? I mean if this were to happen, I could save myself close to £100 on a motherboard and get the desired effect? Has this sort of thing ever been done before or even considered? Any thoughts on it?
 
Because the simple fact is that you really will not be able to change the DIMM slots, processor slots, or anything similar. The way they are manufactured makes it virtually impossible to remove that one component (not even mentioning not damaging anything else in process!) You can buy covers for unused slots etc, but the actual changing of it? Forget it!
 
bJN said:
Now to the point of this whole thread - why is it that there aren't any "motherboard replacements" for modders/enthusiasts? And by replacements I mean things like the DIMM slots - surely they'd be inexpensive to make in a variety of colours, and quite easy to replace on an existing motherboard? I mean if this were to happen, I could save myself close to £100 on a motherboard and get the desired effect? Has this sort of thing ever been done before or even considered? Any thoughts on it?
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Because most people don't have godlike soldering skills?
 
Then surely the niche is still there? A motherboard where anything plastic can be replaced, that's what I was trying to get at in the first place :P
 
However the "plastic" is part of the socket and not intended to be removed without also removing the contacts (the plastic holds the contacts at the correct spacing etc), when buying the DIMM socket it'll almost certainly be as a complete unit, plastic with contact already fitted at the factory that makes the socket.

Remove the plastic covering of the DIMM socket and you'll have a heck of a time getting the new plastic covering in place in a way that leaves you with a working socket:)
At best you might be able to, as mentioned get a push fit cover to go over the socket.
 
I suppose the manufacturer could do a limited run of a board with a different colour scheme but it would cost a fair deal extra and might not be worth the company's while.
 
Surely for at least some of the sockets they could put produce them so that the slot remains, but requires another outer layer to support it e.g. on the pci-e slots having a thinner pci-e slot which doesn't meet the full dimension (albeit with the same connection) and then sell coloured covers for those which bring the thickness back to normal?

Possible, but it seems like far too small a niche for manufacturers to be bothered about it.
 
There really isnt enough of a market, and redesigning sockets purely for cosmetic purposes is long winded, costs too much for no gain at all! If the price was an extra tenner for the option of buying different coloured sockets, why bother?

Just use enamel model paint!
 
Lights, cable braiding etc stands out. Component slots on the motherboard would require you to really look into the case to notice. As someone said above manufacturers would never make it because hardly anyone would go for them also the extra costs involved in making them.

As PhillyDee suggested, best option is enamel paint and a thin paint brush with steady hands. It's probably your best bet to save breaking the motherboard.
 
if you want a totally color coordinated setup you have to accept that you're gonna pay over the odds 4 it.

that means you just have to buy the expensive mobo...
 
Try desoldering a DIMM socket and you will soon realise how this idea is a non-starter. It is very easy to damage the pin holes and stuff the motherboard.
 
Ksanti said:
Surely for at least some of the sockets they could put produce them so that the slot remains, but requires another outer layer to support it e.g. on the pci-e slots having a thinner pci-e slot which doesn't meet the full dimension (albeit with the same connection) and then sell coloured covers for those which bring the thickness back to normal?

Possible, but it seems like far too small a niche for manufacturers to be bothered about it.
Click to expand...

And add yet more chance for poor connections, noise and other anomalies?
 
Personally I like the idea of painting the whole mobo:p. And why not everything else while you're at it? Imagining Mr Bean's room painting technique on a smaller scale (small firework perhaps) inside a PC case... yeah - could work.
 
Justintime said:
And add yet more chance for poor connections, noise and other anomalies?
Click to expand...

Aye, one of the big design considerations for the sockets is the mechanical strength of them (increasingly important with modern videocards for example), and I suspect no manufacturer will willingly go for a weaker design that might rely on users fitting a secondary part correctly without a very good reason.

And that's assuming they can leave enough space for a user to fit the coloured part securely to the weaker socket, without damaging anything else, or without compromising the design/layout of the components (things like memory sockets have their positions at least partly decided by the length of the solder tracks to secondary components/memory controller etc).
 
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