790i reference board volt mods (UNCONFIRMED mods) >> work in progress

[3oh6]

alright, took the afternoon for some quality time with the EVGA 790i and can confirm the vdroop mod on the first page Dinos posted is correct and working with a 50kΩ VR. i believe a smaller VR could be used because the 50kΩ VR needs to be tuned waaaay down before vCORE starts to raise under load to what it is at idle. just don't blame me if you have problems using a 20KΩ VR, i am just speculating.

being typical me, i forgot to write down what the resistance is across the resistor without the mod but i thought it was 2382Ω. with the 50kΩ VR soldered across the resistor and the VR tuned to 50kΩ, the resistance is 2272Ω. i found the vCORE to start raising under load at around 1750Ω and to receive close to a flat line for vCORE, resistance of the circuit needed to be down to 600Ω. after that vCORE starts going up at idle and load.

i don't know what the value of the VR is at that point because i don't feel like de-soldering a lead and re-soldering it but at some point i might. either way, here are the quick 10 minute before and after charts from OCCT...

before:


after:


and of course, a couple photos of the mod:





of course, this doesn't eliminate vdrop where what you set in the BIOS equates to about 0.035v less for actual voltage so don't complain that you are still getting vdroop after the mod...droop is simply difference between idle and load...nothing to do with what is set in the BIOS

i will mention that this mod is quite tricky unless you have very thin wires. i always use floppy cable strands as it is single stranded and easy to work with. unfortunately the insulation is rather thick and this posed a problem with this mod because the width of the resistor is so small that the two wires were quite a bit wider. notice how the insulation on the two wires are almost sitting on top of each other? i don't like to come from the top because they you can't insulate over it, so i always come from the side. if i had to do it again, i would simply separate the two wires further back and come from a different angle on one side of the resistor.

i forgot to bring home my tools from work on friday so i did this the old fashioned way, no magnifiers, proper tweezers, or picks. i would have also grabbed some wire wrap wire had i known it was this tight for the mod...it would have been a lot easier with the correct tools and wire.

in addition to the mod, i also took a whole set of photos of the board as well as changed out the stock cooling. while i was at it, i found a few more voltage read points and will post those soon enough. just have to get some work done before i goof around any more today