Vmod supplies

[Dawgdoc]

Ok, so I have read up and done my homework. I am going to be Vmodding some GPUs this weekend for practice.

Ill be first practicing my soldering on an old, POS mobo, then moving up to cheap/several year old GPUs, and finally, my actual GPUs that I use and bench with.

I am going to RadioShack today to get some supplies, but have a few questions.

1. Will I likely find what I need at Radioshack or is there a better place?

2. Solder iron with a sharp tip rated approx 25W. Correct?

3. Does it matter what type of solder I get?

4. What type of variable resistors do I need? What rating/etc? Im brand new and really only know what I have read, but havnt found EXACTLY what type of VRs to purchase. I will EVENTUALLY be modding an 8800 GTX, 7600 GT, 8600 GT (256), as well as a variety of older cards.....FX5200.....and.....I cant remember the other types of cards...Does it matter what cards Im modding with regard to what type/size/rating/ resistor?

5. Any other supplies that I need? I allready have a DMM, although need alot more practice/experience learning how to use it, hence the mobo soldering trials and the $20/2-3yr old GPUs for practice.

Thanks in advance!

[saaya]

dont know how well rohs and normal solder mixes...
all modern hardware should be rohs compliant... well not sure actually if hardware outside of europe is rohs compliant as well? :confused:

[Johnny Bravo]

dont know how well rohs and normal solder mixes...
all modern hardware should be rohs compliant... well not sure actually if hardware outside of europe is rohs compliant as well? :confused:

it doesn't. The older solder melted at a lower temperature than the newer RoHS solder and because of the different composition hey tend not to mix well (though eventually do after enough heat)

RoHS compliancy is a gray area at best :confused: afaik all new hardware MUST be RoHS but old stock can still be sold....check out the fine print

[Fujimitsu]

1. Will I likely find what I need at Radioshack or is there a better place?

2. Solder iron with a sharp tip rated approx 25W. Correct?

3. Does it matter what type of solder I get?

4. What type of variable resistors do I need? What rating/etc? Im brand new and really only know what I have read, but havnt found EXACTLY what type of VRs to purchase. I will EVENTUALLY be modding an 8800 GTX, 7600 GT, 8600 GT (256), as well as a variety of older cards.....FX5200.....and.....I cant remember the other types of cards...Does it matter what cards Im modding with regard to what type/size/rating/ resistor?

5. Any other supplies that I need? I allready have a DMM, although need alot more practice/experience learning how to use it, hence the mobo soldering trials and the $20/2-3yr old GPUs for practice.


1. Radioshack most likely won't sell the resistors you're looking for, if they sell any resistors at all they'll be fixed. You'll have better luck online at digi-key or mouser.

2. Yeah, get as fine a tip as possible for our applications, and the $15 30w radioshack iron should be ok.

3. Shouldn't matter, anything you get from radioshack is fine.. all that's gonna matter is the diameter of the solder. Thinner is probably gonna be easier to work with for you.

4. Yes, it matters a lot. With your level of experience just look through this forum for mods for your specific cards. Most posters will tell you exactly what resistor you need and where to put it. It is possible to determine this yourself, but you're probably not going to want to attempt that right away.

5. Desoldering bulb or braid is helpful, but not manditory. If you're working near chips or components that are damaged by heat, a heatsink can be handy but again not totally necessary. If you're going to be making permanent mods, a little hot glue and/or liquid electrical tape can be handy to fasten the wires and resistors to the PCB. A lot of people will also install an old molex connector to quickly read voltages, I included a picture of what I'm talking about below. Only other accesories I can think of would be workspace stuff (magnifying glass that mounts to the desk, alligator clips that do the same).

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/T_M/G92-8800GTS-vMods2.jpg
^this is what I was referring to, notice the resistor is glued on to the PCB. They also added a molex connector, so they just have to insert the DMM probe into that to get voltage measurements, rather than press it against a tiny contact point on the card. All credit goes to T_M for the pic.