solderless vmods...a ghetto guide

[s e t h]

I have setup this guide to illustrate an altenrative to traditional soldered mods. This method requires no soldering tools or skills & is completely removable. All that is required is time & a steady hand For this example I have used the mod on one of my graphics card, but keep in mind you could use the same application anywhere & I have seen it succesfully used for mobo mods as well.

tools are listed & shown in the image below:
1. multi-turn variable resistors
2. duct tape or insulation tape - note: my duct tape adheres FAR better than the insulation tape!
3. internal audio cable for cd-rom to audio card / mobo... You get one with every cd-rom / dvd-rom you buy.
4. a good pair of scissors
5. a razor blade
6. RS Components adhesive silver conductive paint (code 186-3593)... their global website > here <...available in many many countries
7. tools for applying the paint & pressing the tape into small grooves





The graphics card is my asus 8800gts 320mb. I will be doing vcore & vddr mods as well as read point for both. keep in mind that the stock cooler is not going to let you go much further no matter what your voltage, I simply upgraded the fans for a few more mhz. Ok, on with the mod:

I started by prepping the cables, you will need 3 of them here. Pull the 'jumper' from the one end of two of them & both ends of the 3rd one. Carefully use the razor blade to cut the full length of the shroud, remove the plastic shroud & the earth which should be wrapped around 2 cables. On the 2 cables that you kept the 'jumper' in place, this should leave you with the crimped cable on one end & the 'jumper' on the other, remove the crimped ends to three of the cables & join one cable to the crimped end, this should leave you with one crimped end with 2 cables attached & 2 exposed ends. We will use those for the vcore & vddr. With the last cable we only need crimped cables to one end & exposed wire on the other, these will be used for vcore & vddr reads.

Next I fitted the multi-turn vr's to the cd-rom 'jumpers'. To make my life a little easier I always install the vr's in the same way whenever i do mods, it just means you are always turning the same way to raise lower volts. As you look at the cd-rom cable 'jumper' with the exposed crimped areas facing you, make sure that the 2 cables are fitted to the left most points, thats 2 fitted on the left & 2 open on the right. Now the vr's only have 3 pins, I install so that the left & centre pin fit into the 2 cabled points on the 'jumper', the 3rd pin of the vr simply fits into an empty socket of the jumper. Make sure that your vr's are turned all the way to max resistance before turning anything on!

You should end up with this:


Next i started on the card. the areas that we will be working with:

vcore


vddr


vcore & vddr reads


So start of by carefully masking the areas out with tape, cutting small strips to get into tricky areas. The idea is that you are left with ONLY the indicated end of the resistor still visible. Make sure you push the tape down around the resistor so no paint seeps in, the adhesive paint is quite thick so this is unlikely, but lets rather be safe. Cut the shroud on the cable so that only the very tip (like 1mm) of cable is exposed, tape the cable up to the associated resistor point & make that 1mm exposed piece of the cable just touch the resistor, then tape again so that the cable is not moving anywhere. Once you are happy that everything is in place drop a pin head of paint at the resistor / cable contact point to bridge & hold the cable & resistor. Make sure not to contact any neighbouring points, if you have done the masking correctly this should not happen. The de-mister type conductive paint will NOT work here, its too thin & will bleed under the masked areas.

You should end up with this:

vcore


vddr


vcore & vddr reads


Finally tape the remaining slack on the cables down & you should end up with a card looking like this:


Once the card is installed you will need to push the read from you dmm into the crimped ends of the read points & tape up, this will give you live voltage reads, very handy.

When you are done with the mods & want a clean card again just use nailvarnish remover on a q-tip to dissolve the conductive paint and clean up.

my team ghetto benching partner TraX did most of the hard work for this thread

---------

This is what my rig looked like once complete:




And then some bench results for those that want to stay on air:

asus 8800gts 320mb - vcore & vddr + modified stock cooler
dfi 965 -s
2gb team extreme
e6700
tuniq tower 120
raptor 150gb
antec NeoHE 500w

2001 = 69112
gpu @ 701 / 1008 / 1620 / 1.46v
cpu @ 510x8 / 1.68v


2003 = 42023
gpu @ 701 / 1008 / 1588 / 1.48v
cpu @ 505x8 / 1.68v


2006 = 12224
gpu @ 701 / 1008 / 1620 / 1.48v
cpu @ 505x8 / 1.68v


Under ICE the results are pretty good with the core going as high as 820



asus 8800gts 320mb - vcore & vddr
dfi 965 -s
2gb team extreme
e6700
raptor 150gb
aopen 700w
dryice to cpu & card - ghetto pots

2001 = 77497
gpu @ 820 / 1100
cpu @ 466x10


2003 = 45948
gpu @ 790 / 1050
cpu @ 443x10


2006 = 13775
gpu @ 820 / 1100
cpu @ 448x10


have fun with the ghetto vmods & thanks for reading

[Morais]

very nice mods! Thanks for sharing

[ibby]

good going
but i still feel better with solder mods

[trans am]

I'm bringing your guide to radio shack and will try this weekend. Thanks man.

[comment]

Good work, flytek!

Just did a small article on this guide for the XS front page. Hopefully it'll be up soon.

[DFI pit bull]

Great guide, very usefull to me as my soldering skills are pathetic.

Thanks!!

[comment]

Okay, this guide just hit the XS front page. flytek!

[I34z1k]

Wooot Marc Nice stuff

[TraX]

the paint works well for all kinds of applications where solder or non-adhesive paints may have been used, including cpu pinmods & mods like the 7900 vgpu, it enables guys with no desire to solder to get into extreme cooling & benching territories:

7900gt vgpu


1333 fsb mod - by kunaak > here <


We've been using this method for years & love it

@ I34z1k, thanks, but seth put this guide up

[I34z1k]

@Trax :P Whatever You confused me with your wife this morning... UNLESS :|

[andyddr]

Conductive paint reminds me of Athlon L1 bridge days. Thanks for the great guide, I for one will be using it.

[hausner]

Great job !

[trans am]

You should make a ghetto-container guide next.

[comment]

Originally Posted by trans am

You should make a ghetto-container guide next.

[maxwolfie]

Nice work mate, I'll give it a shot later today.

Can I just confirm that this will also work, instead of the RS stuff?

[maxwolfie]

Originally Posted by maxwolfie

Nice work mate, I'll give it a shot later today.

Can I just confirm that this will also work, instead of the RS stuff?

Card fried

The fluid somehow got under the tape and completely made a mess of everything


Oh well

[s e t h]

yeah one has to be very very carefull that only the right point is contacted...sorry for your loss

[maxwolfie]

Originally Posted by flytek

yeah one has to be very very carefull that only the right point is contacted...sorry for your loss

Not your fault, I'm sure it's an still an easier method compared to soldering!

[natedog420]

Originally Posted by maxwolfie

Card fried

The fluid somehow got under the tape and completely made a mess of everything


Oh well

dont use the pen to apply it if you did witch is what it sounds like to me. take a bottle cap or something like that and put a little bit of the conductive ink in there then use a tooth pick or something similar and just take ur time and do little by little. little dabs at a time and eventually it will work and NOT fry anything. that sucks but you learn from your mistakes so remember this one.

[metro.cl]

Great guide i really like it.

What do you use so the cables wont move? just tape? and the silver ink makes the cable "solder" to the resistor? is it strong?.

[natedog420]

if its taped good and close to were your connecting the wire the conductive ink will hold it. you can always put a drop of super glue right before the spot your connecting to holding the wire in place. super glue comes off pretty easy. never had any problems with getting it off the pcb.

[s e t h]

the silver conductive paint from RS is thick liquid.
it doesn't run anywhere and it dries in a few minutes max.
the tape is the primary means of holding the wire...obviously a glue gun will work too.
the paint does make a bond with the contact point and the wire but it cannot be considered strong.
using the thinnest wire you can is the best as then it doesn't have much strength itself and the paint will then hold best.

[maxwolfie]

I've sent off the card to RMA - Hopefully I'll get a new one back within a month or so

Then I can try again

[Jumba]

Hey gents (flytek, Trax, I34z1k, andyddr) - thanks for posting the guide up here! Chances are I'll give this a go on my 8800GT.

[Lestat]

nice mod Fly but i hate to say this but your scores suck big hairy a$$.
i mean seriously you have that 8800GTS cranked to hell and all you got was 13k in 3dmark 06 ?

maybe im looking at something wrong here but that 320mb card should be getting way higher scores.


my 8800GTX gets 15k and all its running is stock air cooler @ 615/1000 which is only a small bit over stock.

maybe i just havent paid attention to the 320mb cards... :\