Who's Coating?! Worth the Hassle!
 

Hey all, I was skimming through the posts and saw a few people talking about how they had lost everything to water leakage... which easily could have been prevented with a little coating of your boards. It's a minor hassle, doesn't take too much time, depending on the coating material that you want etc... I did it the ghetto way, as usual... went to meijers, bout some $2 Spray enamel, almost poisoned myself by spraying a mass of it in to a beaker, then added some acetone. Mixed, wait couple seconds, then painted all of my cards and mobo. Stuff dries in like 1min. Coated a couple times everything is clear, you can't even tell it's on there, but I feel a 100% better now about not having to worry about a leak or the deadly unnoticed splash from filling, which could short out something et cetera...

There are other coating options like; Silicone RTV diluted with WP Naphtha or Tolune (CAREFUL that stuff is highly poisonous if no properly vented away!) or Lacquer+thinner or Plexiglass diluted in florinate (or something like that)

I think everyone should take the time to coat, but, hey, gambling is fun right?! :evilaugh: :evilaugh: :evilaugh:

Good idea but if water gets into the PCI or AGP slots, it will not really matter. Not really much you can do about that aside from some kind of caulk or sealant which would be a PITA when taking cards out.

BTW, most cards and mobos have a clear sealer on them from the factory.

except the pins, they are solder masked from the shiney laminate that the companies put on. So basically, the card is sealed, but none of the electrical conductive solder points are :mad:

pci and agp slots can be ealsy protected, just put a little vasoline in the slot, then plug in your cards. and whipe away the stuff the gets squished out. Totally water proof.

Or use a spray-on PCB sealant (I think Joe used it in one article...), that stuff is made for securing satelite dish pcb's and stuff like that so it should hold :)

Thanks for replying all... I hate to put it like this, but you are a plain FOOL if you don't coat your boards and cards... That's kinda like saying; "Hey I've never been in a driving accident, so I barely need to wear my seat belt...?!" That's plain retarded and doesn't help you out 1 bit. I've NEVER had a leak and NEVER been in a auto accident that involved me needing my seat belt... but I will ALWAYS take precaution, cause that ONE TIME, you never know when you might either end up in a wheel chair, dead or have MOST of your expensive circuits FRIED... but a little planning ahead and thinking could prevent a total lossage, maybe you might loose some, but it's damn well better than losing EVERYTHING you have b/c of pure laziness and an arrogant attitude toward prevention... same goes for wearing yer um, con DUMBS... HAHA good OC'ing folks :dome:

I wouldn't use Vaseline its petroleum based and will eventually eat your plastic parts.