Minor updates to this ongoing build (theres still plenty to come yet).
Heres the top switch plate courtesy of Marcus. Had a couple of minor niggles arise that will be sorted next time I have the case in pieces. First off the reason why theres only 2 bolts in the top, turns out the to get bolts through the front I need to drill about 3-4mm of the actual chassis away, obviously a little more to account for the actual nut... it's not a big deal, 5 minutes with a dremel, but it wasn't something I could do at the time with the HDD's and fan controller in the bays at the same time.
The other minor kinks are the fact I need to order 4 more red bolts to match the rad grill and the led on the reset (right hand side) switch isn't blinking away anymore... hopefully it's just a wiring issue and not a dead switch (not like I ever use the reset switch anyways):
And my new (*cough*b-grade*cough*) Rampage Formula in all it's glory. Had more bumps in the road here aswell. When I opened it up one of the thin aluminum heatsink fins and the clear CMOS button were loose in the anti-static bag, there doesn't seem to be any damage to either side of the board or any of the slots, but i'm still anxious to see whether or not she powers on.
The other snag here was replacing the stock Asus TIM with some lovely MX2. Getting the NB/SB cooler off was easy as pie, removed the screws on the NB sink and unplugged the pushpins on the SB and it came off without any force. Why? Well it turned out the TIM that was in between had almost entirely solidified, there was literally only a tiny moist patch on the X48 IHS and almost nothing on the SB.... it was almost as if someone had just put a small dollop of generic tim on over the old hardened stuff. :S
Anyways, took a good hour with some ArctiClean, a Stanly blade and some fine grit sandpaper to get the bases clean and smooth again (it was practically a bodge lapping job, so I truly hope I dont have to send the board off, they might wonder why the black paint has been sanded away from the southbridge sink :S).
How it looked when it came off.... As you can see, barely nothing acting as a interface *shakes head*
After giving the chips a well deserved clean up.
And the menacing glow she gives off in the night: