Sexy Hardware Close-Up Pic Clubhouse.

[[Ion]]

mine is the 1.6ghz Atom version

Oh, OK

Still damn impressive, a 50% OC on a tiny cooler with no fan

 

[sneekypeet]

Potentially I would have needed one, but with the limited bios options thats where mine quit.

 

[[Ion]]

That's just awesome...now you're making me want to get an ION setup

More than before, I mean

 

[sneekypeet]

Some old pics i found of it. All I could find of mine quickly.

 

[[Ion]]

Some old pics i found of it. All I could find of mine quickly.

Thanks, that looks really cool

 

[btarunr]

 

[Ross211]

Spoiler

I did it ! I successfully removed the original stock JRC NJM4556 opamp and replaced it with the famous LM4562. I'm a complete noob at soldering believe it or not, I obtained almost all of my parts for this from Radioshack. The only things not obtained from the shack for this mod would be the LM4562 opamps and the X-acto knife I used to cut the original stock opamp off the PCB. I got LM4562 samples from National Semiconductor after getting the wrong LM4562 opamp from an eBay seller (don't get opamps off eBay BTW, don't make dumb mistakes like me).

I spent over a month carefully reading through this thread and the guide, and practiced removing and soldering SMD's on dead motherboards. I didn't even own a soldering iron when I considered attempting this mod. I saw many comments in this thread related to how hard and difficult it is to replace the opamp... I've gotta be real honest here, it's not as hard as it is made out to be or appears to be.

As a result of my noob soldering skills I accidentally scolded some of my X-Fi's Jamicon capacitors with my iron while performing the mod, oh noes :doh:. After performing the mod, I put the card in my rig having great doubts, fired on my system, booted into the OS and I was jumping like crazy when I heard the Windows login sound occur... so stoked :thumb:

I am amazed that I didn't ruin my card. I couldn't be any happier about the turnout. There truly is more dynamic range and some of my music is like hearing it for the first time again. It's like getting a new toy, putting it away and forgetting about it, and coming back to it in a few years and its even better.

All clean and ready to be tinned for that LM4562 goodness.

LM4562 soldered down and chillin', but fuuuuuuuuuuu what about that cap there captain ? My card is still working great, sounds even better, lol

Not bad for my first solder job ? Please let me know.

LM4562 straight from National Semiconductor, thank you for these samples.

Jammin' from foobar2000 mon

This is the poor man's tool kit for the X-Fi LM4562 opamp mod. You can have your own for ~$20

from http://www.overclock.net/sound-cards-computer-audio/185072-incredible-x-fi-mod-will-void-94.html

 

[Wile E]

Wow. Very, VERY good solder job.

 

[(FIH) The Don]

holy shiznit that is pro style right there

 

[Cold Storm]

looks good. When I had my xtremeMusic I had the opamp mod, & all the caps replaced. Their both nice sweet mods that make that card sound.. OMFGBBQ..

 

[Ross211]

Thanks guys, here is what rollemup from overclock.net has to say about my first solder job -

Your soldering appears to have either poor wetting, and/or a lack of solder. You should see nice "fillets" leading up from the pad to the foot. Easy to touch up with a bit of extra flux. Just compare it to the others and see for yourself how it's supposed to look. For a first attempt though it works and you didn't destroy it so bravo. You should always have extra flux around for this type of work, it makes life easy.

I'm probably going to touch up on the pads with some thin rosin core solder. If I do decide to do this I'll take some more photos

looks good. When I had my xtremeMusic I had the opamp mod, & all the caps replaced. Their both nice sweet mods that make that card sound.. OMFGBBQ..

Is it true that replacing the caps is way harder than replacing the opamps? I'm considering replacing the necessary caps and also the caps I scolded with my iron :shadedshu

 

[Cold Storm]

Is it true that replacing the caps is way harder than replacing the opamps? I'm considering replacing the necessary caps and also the caps I scolded with my iron :shadedshu

If you don't have a steady hand, and a solder sucker, it's A PITA.. the best part about doing it is that you know the caps are well off afterwards..

just don't do the cap mod of connecting the caps.. That's a sure fire way of killing it.. fixed it by adding the caps back, but both times couldn't do that mod that others have.

 

[Wile E]

Thanks guys, here is what rollemup from overclock.net has to say about my first solder job -


I'm probably going to touch up on the pads with some thin rosin core solder. If I do decide to do this I'll take some more photos



Is it true that replacing the caps is way harder than replacing the opamps? I'm considering replacing the necessary caps and also the caps I scolded with my iron :shadedshu

Granted, but that is very good work for a first shot at it. It's not like the component moves a lot and is in danger of falling off.

 

[Cold Storm]

That is true Wile. Very good work. I had to have RM do mine since I knew I'd flop it up!.

All it can do is better the card. The mods are sweet for that one card..

wish I had pictures still of the 3 that was done to mine.. I guess Photobucket, or I, moved them from my account...

 

[(FIH) The Don]

when you thought the packing didnt get smaller

you were wrong haha

little song to describe the words that came on my mind when i saw the board
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WybiA263bw&ob=av2e

 

[aCid888*]

We need new pictures, Don, not reposts man!


snap snap snap!

 

[(FIH) The Don]

shhhhhh

have shite camera

 

[TotalChaos]

 

[TotalChaos]

 

[(FIH) The Don]

case looks nice chaos

 

[TotalChaos]

thanks bro

 

[(FIH) The Don]

but i reall dont know what to say about the 460 lol, lets say its exotic

 

[Athlonite]

it's the Queen of easy clean

 

[Ross211]

This is becoming my favorite TPU thread.. I wanted to get some practice removing caps for when I replace my caps on my X-Fi, so...

I had this old OEM NVIDIA Geforce FX5200 AGP card lying around. Years back it came out of a customer's Dell Dimension. Their PC was having random crashes, reboots, BSODS, all that sorts of stuff. I tried different display drivers first and then resorted to replacing the card at the time. At that point I knew the NVIDIA display driver was reporting that it was crashing. Then, I see the caps on this AGP card after opening the burly Dell case. I should have looked for bad caps sooner :shadedshu

List of Bad Cap Manufacturers - They speak the truth

I got these pads all the way through and got all the solder out.

Anyone have recommendations for getting the remainder out of these pads ? I think I will find a way, I'm sure there is a more ideal way though

Skywell SHT, renowned for being doo doo, I mean shit.

If you have any board with these caps they've probably failed horribly already, lol.

 

[(FIH) The Don]