[BLOG] An old X850 and a lot of patience - Part 2
In Part 1, I announced my intentions to take my once $600 Radeon X850 to the max.
I've had some time to do a bit of homework, and it won't be an easy feat. Modding the cooling on the card is not what concerns me. I've had quite a bit of experience in that regard. What most concerns me is the volt modding. My soldering skills are awfully weak. I don't have much experience. Quite a few of my friends and family are actually quite skilled with an iron, but I've decided to pass on offers to do the work for me and embark on an educational journey. I want to do this myself--and that is final.
Our good friends at TechPowerUp! have the definitive X850 hard-modding guide up circa 2005. There is lots of great information there and some good macro shots of what I'll need to do.
Now, the big problem of course is that I do not want to learn to solder on the X850. I know for a fact that I'll butcher the card and it'll be toast almost instantaneously. After staring at those macro shots for a while, I lost sight of how tiny those solder points actually are. I also took out my old soldering iron to discover that it definitely doesn't have a fine enough tip and is probably way too powerful for what I want to do.
After doing some research, I've decided to go out and buy some new soldering gear that is better suited for the operation at hand (and hopefully use it for some future volt mods as well). Buying a tool is almost never a waste in my opinion. I know that if I don't have the right tools to do this job, I'll frustrate myself immensely and will probably put myself off of any future volt mods. I've determined that I'll need the following:
I found a couple of electronics retailers not too far from me that should carry the above. Aside from the tools and supplies listed above, I'll need the following electronic components:
For wiring, I found some old CD-ROM audio cables that have some uber-thin insulated wire within. The trim-pots I'll have to purchase.
Now, having the right tools and hardware is great, but I'll need to learn how to solder these tiny points. To do that, I've got a dead S478 board that I'll be practicing on. I'll be soldering leads to all kinds of tiny components to try to get some practice.
Can't wait to get this show on the road!
..So, the good old X850 is going to be the center of a multi-part overclocking blog series. I've been itching to overclock something. Not 24/7 happy overclocking—I'm talking ludicrous, flaming video card overclocking.
I've had some time to do a bit of homework, and it won't be an easy feat. Modding the cooling on the card is not what concerns me. I've had quite a bit of experience in that regard. What most concerns me is the volt modding. My soldering skills are awfully weak. I don't have much experience. Quite a few of my friends and family are actually quite skilled with an iron, but I've decided to pass on offers to do the work for me and embark on an educational journey. I want to do this myself--and that is final.
Our good friends at TechPowerUp! have the definitive X850 hard-modding guide up circa 2005. There is lots of great information there and some good macro shots of what I'll need to do.
Now, the big problem of course is that I do not want to learn to solder on the X850. I know for a fact that I'll butcher the card and it'll be toast almost instantaneously. After staring at those macro shots for a while, I lost sight of how tiny those solder points actually are. I also took out my old soldering iron to discover that it definitely doesn't have a fine enough tip and is probably way too powerful for what I want to do.
After doing some research, I've decided to go out and buy some new soldering gear that is better suited for the operation at hand (and hopefully use it for some future volt mods as well). Buying a tool is almost never a waste in my opinion. I know that if I don't have the right tools to do this job, I'll frustrate myself immensely and will probably put myself off of any future volt mods. I've determined that I'll need the following:
- A very fine-point 25W soldering iron (no more than 25W)
- Very thin rosin core solder
- Solder flux
- Magnifying glass (on a clamp-on swivel stand hopefully)
I found a couple of electronics retailers not too far from me that should carry the above. Aside from the tools and supplies listed above, I'll need the following electronic components:
- 1x 10K variable resistor (multi-turn) for VGPU mod
- 2x 20K variable resistors (multi-turn) for VDD and VDDQ mods
- 1x 250K variable resistor (multi-turn) for IGPU mod (If I want to exceed 1.8V)
- Some very thin wire that I can use.
For wiring, I found some old CD-ROM audio cables that have some uber-thin insulated wire within. The trim-pots I'll have to purchase.
Now, having the right tools and hardware is great, but I'll need to learn how to solder these tiny points. To do that, I've got a dead S478 board that I'll be practicing on. I'll be soldering leads to all kinds of tiny components to try to get some practice.
Can't wait to get this show on the road!
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