[BLOG] An old X850 and a lot of patience - Part 5
In Part 4, I ran some baseline benchmarks and managed to squeeze into the top 10 with some high-end air cooling. Not too shabby! Last night, I warmed up the iron and started practicing.
I used an old ATI Rage 128 AGP graphics card to practice on. Seemed like the perfect testing platform as it had many small solder pads and some ICs similar to the X850. To my shock—it wasn't very hard to do at all. By my third attempt, I was able to make a really clean joint. It is amazing how easy it can be to learn a new trade if you have the right tools for the job. The fine point top on my new Weller iron made it really easy and the liquid flux kept the joints nice and clean.
So, after about two hours of practice, I was confident enough to start the VGPU mod on the X850. I took my time, and was able to solder the two leads without an issue. I then used hot glue to make sure it didn't bend or come loose. I found the correct pins on the variable resistor using my multimeter. Only two of the three pins have a variable resistance. I soldered the leads to those two, set the resistance to maximum and I was ready to test my first vmod.
When I fired up the system, I did a quick VGPU measurement and was pleased to see 1.48V right off the bat with ~10KOhm resistance. My initial measurements were around 1.43V. To my frustration, I could not get the VR to dial in any change in VGPU. I tried everything I could think of, but the voltage never moved beyond 1.48V. I had no choice but to inspect my mod and potentially redo it.
I couldn't see anything wrong, so I decided to remove the hot glue and try again. Unfortunately, tragedy struck and f-bombs were dropped. One of the solder pads pulled right out of the card and pulled up a trace. I didn't even pull on the glue very hard. Such are the risks of vmodding and I learned a valuable lesson—never hot glue your joints until you have completely tested your mod. I thought that if I would screw up a vmod, it would have been with a sloppy soldering job, not this way!
I haven't had a chance to test the card since then, but I suspect that it will still run fine. I've totally botched my chances of doing that particular VGPU mod again, but I think the card will be okay.
All is not lost. I direct your attention to page three of the TechPowerUp vmod guide. There are some VID mods that can be done to 'dial in' specific voltages at 0.05V increments. With any luck, I can substantially increase the VGPU without a variable resistor. There are, of course, still the VDD mods as well as the Vapochill still to come!
Stay tuned.
I used an old ATI Rage 128 AGP graphics card to practice on. Seemed like the perfect testing platform as it had many small solder pads and some ICs similar to the X850. To my shock—it wasn't very hard to do at all. By my third attempt, I was able to make a really clean joint. It is amazing how easy it can be to learn a new trade if you have the right tools for the job. The fine point top on my new Weller iron made it really easy and the liquid flux kept the joints nice and clean.
So, after about two hours of practice, I was confident enough to start the VGPU mod on the X850. I took my time, and was able to solder the two leads without an issue. I then used hot glue to make sure it didn't bend or come loose. I found the correct pins on the variable resistor using my multimeter. Only two of the three pins have a variable resistance. I soldered the leads to those two, set the resistance to maximum and I was ready to test my first vmod.
When I fired up the system, I did a quick VGPU measurement and was pleased to see 1.48V right off the bat with ~10KOhm resistance. My initial measurements were around 1.43V. To my frustration, I could not get the VR to dial in any change in VGPU. I tried everything I could think of, but the voltage never moved beyond 1.48V. I had no choice but to inspect my mod and potentially redo it.
I couldn't see anything wrong, so I decided to remove the hot glue and try again. Unfortunately, tragedy struck and f-bombs were dropped. One of the solder pads pulled right out of the card and pulled up a trace. I didn't even pull on the glue very hard. Such are the risks of vmodding and I learned a valuable lesson—never hot glue your joints until you have completely tested your mod. I thought that if I would screw up a vmod, it would have been with a sloppy soldering job, not this way!
I haven't had a chance to test the card since then, but I suspect that it will still run fine. I've totally botched my chances of doing that particular VGPU mod again, but I think the card will be okay.
All is not lost. I direct your attention to page three of the TechPowerUp vmod guide. There are some VID mods that can be done to 'dial in' specific voltages at 0.05V increments. With any luck, I can substantially increase the VGPU without a variable resistor. There are, of course, still the VDD mods as well as the Vapochill still to come!
Stay tuned.
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