wombatman

I'm considering doing this (given that I have to set the VCore at about 1.55 to get 1.45 or so under load), but I was wondering if anyone here has performed this mod on their boards, and if they had, whether they could offer advice and/or pictures. I can find pictures for P4P800 and P4C800 boards, but I want to be absolutely certain I'm doing this stuff right.

Dilbert1234567

do you not have access to the voltage in bios?

and are you saying that the voltage drops by a tenth of a volt under load, that sounds like a power supply issue.

__________________
Donate Blood!

"Love is not finding the perfect person, but learning to see an imperfect person perfectly." -Sam Keen

wombatman

I'm saying the voltage drops by 1/10 of a volt when put under load. This is a known issue with some of the Asus boards. It's not a power supply issue (I actually bought a new one).

The main reason I'm even thinking about doing this mod is that to deal with the major voltage drop. I've got the processor overclocked from 3.2 to about 3.7, and I should only need to set the voltage to about 1.46 or 1.47 (not exactly certain). To actually accomplish this under load, though, I have to set the VCore much higher in the BIOS to account for the voltage drop. This tends to cause higher temperatures than are necessary (although they only get to about 62 degrees Celsius or so, which is well within operation spec).

jujueye

Have you ever soldered something that small? If you have not, consider practicing on something far less costly. Hand soldering surface mount parts takes more than tools, it takes experience (well, and skill too!). I have built some headphone amps and such and can honestly say that working on sm was rather difficult. The pins are really close and one tiny drop of solder can easily bridge connections.

If you really want to do it, grab a 5x maginifier for working through, then a 10x to check your connections. It's a rush when it works, but a pain in the ass if your hand moves too far one way loaded with solder....!

wombatman

Yeah, I figured I should practice on something. Is there anything you can recommend as good practice that might be lying around? Also, do I need any of those metal wires I see used sometimes, or is that welding? I know sometimes they're used as heatsinks so nearby electronics don't get melted down, but will that be necessary here? And finally, will I be melting the end of the wires from the resistor to make the connection or will I need some other metal wire to do this? You seem pretty knowledgable with this, so I suspect you can advise on all of these questions.

MikeSty

Pay someone leet to do it for you.

jujueye

Dang. Sorry to leave you hanging. I need to follow up on my threads more often.

With your experience in mind, you need to seek out someone to do it for you, wombatman. Yeah, your machine will be down for a few days, but that's better than it getting cooked.

If you want to gain some experience, try some basic kits online. Maybe something like this Dual Dice Kit from Jameco would be a good place to start. It has some surface mount stuff and some basic resistors, etc.

Dice Kit

You will also need a solder iron and some really tiny tips, plus some solder. Try a basic Weller WLC100 iron from Mouser WLC100

I imagine it will be around $50 for the solder station, $15 for the kit, maybe $5 for the tips and another $5 for the solder.

You will also need to grab a multimeter to check your work before you fire up the board. That's another $25-$250...

Now, it's all gettin a bit pricey, right? To be honest, I'm trying to steer you away form doing this. Unless you are willing to risk the motherboard or have a spare, I really would rather have you pay someone $25 bucks to have an experienced person do it. After re-reading your post that you will generate extra heat, why not just get a better cooling system and skip this micro-soldering part.

Not trying to wimp out on ya, I just think this mod is technically pretty challenging.

wombatman

Blast from the past!

Actually, thank you very much for following up with this. I actually just decided to not bother with the mod. I suspect my dad actually has many of the needed tools (probably soldering iron, definitely multimeter), but as I got new parts for Christmas, the computer with the board was relegated to home while the new one came to college with me. So, at this point anyway, I don't see myself attempting the mod any time soon.

Martian

Yeah, I hate to say it, but that's probably the better choice. It sounds like you haven't really done any soldering for yourself and those little connections are a bitch to get right. One twitch at the wrong moment and you can easily fry your board.

Soldering small components like that takes a steady hand and lots (and lots and lots and lots) of practice.

__________________
I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept
I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept
I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head
I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said

- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame

irseg

I know 62 Celsius is OK-ish by AMD's specs, but IMO that's primarily so they can cheap out on the stock cooling and turn people away who complain by saying it's supposed to run that hot.

My Athlon XP 2700+ used to run from 55-70C with the stock heatsink/fan, and even if I barely overclocked it, it'd crash all the time. I installed a good aftermarket copper heatsink with a much larger fan. I was able to OC it far more, and I have yet to see it exceed 48C.

So my advice would be to get a better cooler, crank up the voltage by an extra tenth in the BIOS, and call it a day.

I've done lots of soldering on various smallish electronic parts, but I'd be hesitant to mess with a motherboard. I did once to bridge a trace that had been broken by a protruding tab on a cheap case, and it was not easy at all.