Jimbo Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 So, If I want to learn how to solder well enough to volt mod my GPUs (desktop and laptop), where should I start? I have used a soldering iron 3-4 times, never on anything near this fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svl7 Posted September 20, 2011 Author Share Posted September 20, 2011 Just start with some parts which are easy to solder (non-SMT). Resistors,capacitors, whatever you can get. You can scavenge parts for practicing from a defective PCB or from an electronic device which you don't use anymore. Easiest method to desolder parts is using a heatgun. Heating up the board and removing the parts is a quick process and will give you a lot of parts to practice with. (Or buy the parts, resistors and capacitors are really cheap) Get a perfboard from a hobby electronic shop and solder on the parts, this will give you a lot of practice and you'll learn what amount of solder you need, how long you have to heat up a component etc. For through-hole components I usually use 1mm solder wire with a flux core. This works for surface-mounted devices too, but sometimes a 0.5mm wire is needed. Once you're confident with through-hole components you can start with SMT parts, there are cheap SMT prototyping PCBs available which allow you to solder on the most common SMT parts, this is very neat for practicing. No need to repeat all the theory about soldering here, the web is full of guides I think there were some nice soldering tutorials at hackaday a while ago, take a look at them, and I'm sure there are tons of soldering vids on youtube... but you'll get the feeling for it after a while, just make sure you know the most basic stuff, no need to read hundreds of pages. In case you know someone who's confident with tiny soldering let him show you some tricks. In the end it's all about having a steady hand, enough patience to learn it and experience. Anyway, for such a mod you'll definitely need to have access to a very fine solder tip and a good soldering iron station which is able to keep the temperature at a constant level (unlike the cheap $20 stuff). The finest tip I have is a 0.4mm, but sometimes it's even easier to solder with a 1mm tip (imo). Also necessary is a magnifying glass, tweezers, multimeter, thin wire, maybe some additional flux, good lighting and I highly recommend an ESD-mat and wristband. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 Thanks, I will do some reading then get practicing. I'm a half-decent welder, hopefully at least the steady hands will transfer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iloveb00bs Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 this is sooo AWESOME!!!!! you are my hero svl!!!!! maybe have to send you my 6990 to test out. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw86 Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 This is the best thing since sliced bread... 1.25v holy what were temps... lol any burns on your system lol wow... 1.25v should get 1ghz core if cooled good enough like dice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svl7 Posted September 20, 2011 Author Share Posted September 20, 2011 Well, I was doing this with dice... no idea how fast it'd shutdown without, hahahaah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw86 Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 so my guess is 1.5v could be good for 920-935 core? like on the 5870m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svl7 Posted September 20, 2011 Author Share Posted September 20, 2011 I assume you mean 1.15V, 1.5V would be pretty insane... The stock 3d voltage of the 6970m is 1.1V, and increase of 0.5V to 1.15V could allow 915-935MHz, but it really depends on the card, as always when it comes to overclocking. If you have a great sample you can do crazy stuff. DR650SE was able to run his 5870m CF setup at 1010MHz (!!!) with 1.15V (= 0.1V overvolt)... more than 300MHz above the stock cloks. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Founder Brian Posted September 20, 2011 Founder Share Posted September 20, 2011 svl7: this tutorial would make for a great front page article 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svl7 Posted September 20, 2011 Author Share Posted September 20, 2011 svl7: this tutorial would make for a great front page article Thanks, I'll see what I can do. The term just started again, hope I can do it during the next couple of days, otherwise I'll be swamped with work. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw86 Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 I assume you mean 1.15V, 1.5V would be pretty insane... The stock 3d voltage of the 6970m is 1.1V, and increase of 0.5V to 1.15V could allow 915-935MHz, but it really depends on the card, as always when it comes to overclocking. If you have a great sample you can do crazy stuff. DR650SE was able to run his 5870m CF setup at 1010MHz (!!!) with 1.15V (= 0.1V overvolt)... more than 300MHz above the stock cloks. Yeah you knew what I meant. Wow this is incredible how much could a budget soldering station cost that could accomplish this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svl7 Posted September 21, 2011 Author Share Posted September 21, 2011 Don't know exactly, there are so many soldering stations available... as long as you can exchange the tip and regulate the temperature you should be fine.A microprocessor controlled station is very nice to work with since the temperature of the tips stays at a constant level, but they're usually rather expensive. Maybe you can find someone who has a proper soldering station, or check ebay for used units. I bought a cheap hot-air station from a Chinese manufacturer, they also sell soldering stations on ebay. The hot-air station did a good job so far, though I have no idea how long it will last... But there are also cheap Chinese soldering stations, should probably do the job, e.g. something like this: AOYUE 936 Anti-static Soldering Station soldering tool | eBayIt seems that there is also a vast variety of tips available for this station... check ebay for details and similar stations.I also highly recommend to use a grounded ESD-mat and a wristband. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw86 Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 Thank you SVL7 when I can afford the materials I may do it to my current cards at only 1.15v Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw86 Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 I have a basic one to practice with till then.. know of any good soldering guides... good for teaching begginner basics... i can use old parts i have laying around like you suggested in the past. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svl7 Posted September 22, 2011 Author Share Posted September 22, 2011 Here's a little article about lead-free soldering, if possible you should use lead-free solder since the parts on the video card have been soldered on with lead free solder as well. It's a lot harder to work with than with standard tin solder, at least in my opinion, but you can get used to it after a while. I recommend starting with normal tin/lead solder before going to lead-free, it's easier to get the feeling. That's a pretty good video tutorial (unlike a lot of the solder vids you find on youtube): 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw86 Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 That has educated me o soldering 100% wow... thanks now i just need to start practicing... guess its going to take a bit to get a nice soldering station and i'll definitely use lead free thanks for that SVL7. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo Posted September 27, 2011 Share Posted September 27, 2011 Okies, decided that for me to learn soldering would take too long, so I've found someone willing to undertake the soldering for me. To go ahead, do I need anything other than - 2 x 500Ω or 1kΩ potentiometers Wire (what gauge? Or does some other measurement get used?) Multimeter (anything in particular I need to look for here?) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svl7 Posted September 27, 2011 Author Share Posted September 27, 2011 1x 500Ω or 1x 1kΩ will work, I'd recommend using 500Ω, it'll be easier for fine tuning. I recommend a potentiometer with a big rotation angle, for better control. The thing you need is actually called trim poti (or trimmer potentiometer, if this is the correct English word).I can't say for sure whether you have the same resistance between VSEN and ground, I recommend measuring this before doing the mod, but as long as it's approximately the same as mine you'll be fine with 500Ω.About the wire... 1mm will work fine for the ground and for the voltage measuring point, but it's almost too thick for the wire other wire which leads to VSEN, if possible get 0.5mm or even a bit thinner if you can find such wire.Multimeter... I'm using a pretty cheap one, it's nowhere as accurate as the professional stuff, but it doesn't cost an arm and a leg, and for this it doesn't matter if there's a +/- 5 or 10% measuring error.Make sure it has very fine measuring tips, otherwise you won't be able to check the soldering or measure the resistance before doing the mod. Most of them should display the measured value in 4 digits, that's enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo Posted September 27, 2011 Share Posted September 27, 2011 Wire selection, looks pretty good, what do you think would be ideal? - https://secure.vividcluster.crox.net.au/jaycar2005/productResults.asp?MID=1&SSUBID=796&SUBCATID=995&keyform=CAT2#1(I think) Potentiometer? https://secure.vividcluster.crox.net.au/jaycar2005/productView.asp?ID=RP3502&keywords=potentiometer+500ohm&form=KEYWORD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svl7 Posted September 27, 2011 Author Share Posted September 27, 2011 You'll need insulated wire, this seems to be pure copper wire, won't work. I recommend getting a trim poti instead of this monster potentiometer, it's much easier to adjust (you can use a little screw driver for fine tuning). With the one in your link you have no fine control of the resistance. Check out these pics, the black one is the one I'm using for the 6970m mod, the other would work as well. Also make sure you don't get one of the flat trim potis, they're not meant to be adjusted all the time and are not easy to tune. A good trim poti should have a recess which allows to adjust it's value with a screw driver, also less than 20% tolerance is preferable imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ichime Posted September 28, 2011 Share Posted September 28, 2011 Awesome job Marco! Wish I visited this site more but for whatever reason, Firefox doesn't like this site (minor freezes and certificate errors). BTW 1.15v would open the 6970M to about 950-960mhz core and 1.17v should allow for 1000mhz core. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svl7 Posted September 28, 2011 Author Share Posted September 28, 2011 Awesome job Marco! Wish I visited this site more but for whatever reason, Firefox doesn't like this site (minor freezes and certificate errors). BTW 1.15v would open the 6970M to about 950-960mhz core and 1.17v should allow for 1000mhz core. Thanks Ichime! You know, there's still Chrome... Never had issues with firefox and this site though. I think 950MHz is a bit much for 1.15V, my card gets to 860MHz with 1.1V, but of course every card is different... just increasing the voltage won't guarantee you that you can clock higher, even though that's usually how it works. As I said, the voltage supply for the GPU isn't sufficient in the M15x, looking forward to seeing this in a r3. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw86 Posted September 30, 2011 Share Posted September 30, 2011 Lucky Jimbo ... here wishing I knew a pro solderer... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ichime Posted October 1, 2011 Share Posted October 1, 2011 Actually I went to Firefox because of Chrome, which nuked my SSD and slowed my HDD because of the excessive cache writing and it seems as Firefox is doing the same thing, though to a lesser degree. I probably have to edit a few settings to force it to write to my RAM instead. But those figures I mentioned are just ballpark figures based on the desktop variants. If a M17x-R3 or M18x provides optimal cooling, it could help such a modded card reach those clocks with some level of stability. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw86 Posted October 1, 2011 Share Posted October 1, 2011 True Ichime and have you tried a ramdisk for the browser files and temp folder? you would see browser reaction time increase by double atleast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts