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GeForce 210 x16 to x1 mod

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***NOTE: DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK. TECHPOWERUP, ME, AND THE REST OF THE PLANET ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR DAMAGES OR DEATH CAUSED BY YOUR EPIC FAILURE AT DOING THIS MOD.***


Hey guys,

I got my GeForce 210 back today from another TPU user that borrowed it while waiting for their HD 5770. Since my 790FX board only has 2 PCIe x16 (occupied) and 2 PCIe x1 slots (1 available, 1 blocked), and I wanted to use the 210 as a 3rd card for more F@H, I decided to take the risk of cutting off the gold fingers from lanes 2-16. I used a cheap 12" hacksaw with an unknown blade type to cut off all the fingers up until the 7 x1 fingers, and then used a non-serrated pocket knife to clean up the edges and remove any loose traces that could short out. After finishing the work (took maybe 15 minutes), I bravely removed the other graphics cards, stuck this in my first open x1 slot of my $200 motherboard, and turned on the power, to have the card WORK! I then popped in my 2 9800 GTs, booted up Windows and now I have 3 cards running! :D

Yes, I know that the mod looks kind of badly done, but I only did it with a hacksaw and pocket knife (I don't have cool tools such as a Dremel.)

GPU-Z screenie:



Before (stole this pic from my mini-review of the card 2 months ago):




After:




 
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Pics added.

Maybe I will benchmark this sooner or later to see how much it is bottlenecked (if much at all) by the PCIe 2.0 x1 slot.
 
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It has a very nice looking cooler.

How well does it perform?
 

troyrae360

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WOW!!! Who would have thought, Thats amazing!
 

ktr

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Nice mod, but wouldn't it be easier and less risky just to notch the 1x pci-e slot?
 
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Nice mod, but wouldn't it be easier and less risky just to notch the 1x pci-e slot?

In this case, the video card is roughly $50, while my motherboard (ASUS Crosshair III Formula) is worth $200. Plus, it would void my motherboard's warranty. The graphics card itself I wouldn't care about.
 
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In this case, the video card is roughly $50, while my motherboard (ASUS Crosshair III Formula) is worth $200. Plus, it would void my motherboard's warranty. The graphics card itself I wouldn't care about.
Just tape the damn thing also works :p
 
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JrRacinFan

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Is overclocking dampered at all due to the lack of power? :p Sorry i had to ask.
 

SummerDays

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Would I be the only person wondering if that was a picture that had been cut and pasted?

Anyways, good application of technical PCIx theory to a real life problem.
 
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Is overclocking dampered at all due to the lack of power? :p Sorry i had to ask.

I actually just tested it with OCCT GPU and at stock clocks it got about 8FPS and when I overclocked it to 700/1700/550 it went up to around 11FPS. I guess 500MB/s is fair enough for this card.

Would I be the only person wondering if that was a picture that had been cut and pasted?

Anyways, good application of technical PCIx theory to a real life problem.

Copy and pasted in what way? Do I need to prove, just for you, my identity and that I actually modified the card? Does my cell phone's 3.2MP camera make things look fake? :confused:

The only picture I copied was the card in it's original form, from my review that I created here on TPU on October 5th, 2009 (The day that I purchased the card at my local Best Buy). The other pictures were generated yesterday evening, when I began this thread.)
 
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Cheers for video card mutilation ! :toast:

I've a HD4350 that I sawed off a while ago :rockout:
 

brandonwh64

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wassnt there another thread on this same process? if anybody knows were that is, please link me :)
 
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Really bad idea...:shadedshu

What you should have done is cut the 1x or 4x pci-e slot open so you could fit the card without cutting it.

See the link
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/249291-30-card

That is more the proper , safer & faster way of doing it ;)
 
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Not to mention if done right ASUS wouldn't care.

None the less man, good job on it. I am considering doing that to a 7300GS I have. :p
 
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Really bad idea...:shadedshu

What you should have done is cut the 1x or 4x pci-e slot open so you could fit the card without cutting it.

See the link
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/249291-30-card

That is more the proper , safer & faster way of doing it ;)

Heh, still working today except for the dying fan. All of the power business happens in the first lobe of the slot, the part that I sawed off was just PCIe links 2-16, no harm done. The card barely saturates a PCIe 2.0 x1 link anyway, so I didn't mind permanently cutting the connector off. Plus, it was much cheaper than my motherboard.
 

aCid888*

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Don't worry about all these hating people.....they are just pissy you had the balls to cut up a card and they didn't, also, cutting the board is the LAST thing I'd do. :)


On a note of the mod....worth while if you can find a use for it and have the nuts in the first place to do such a thing...good to see modding is still a strong force in this community. :toast:
 
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Don't worry about all these hating people.....they are just pissy you had the balls to cut up a card and they didn't, also, cutting the board is the LAST thing I'd do. :)


On a note of the mod....worth while if you can find a use for it and have the nuts in the first place to do such a thing...good to see modding is still a strong force in this community. :toast:

Thanks. :toast:

I need to fix the cooling solution, because the little 40mm sleeve-bearing fan is dying, and motor oil didn't really quiet it down much. Maybe I can run it passively without the plastic sheath, and just put a fan near it to provide a bit of ambient airflow.
 
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Thanks. :toast:

I need to fix the cooling solution, because the little 40mm sleeve-bearing fan is dying, and motor oil didn't really quiet it down much. Maybe I can run it passively without the plastic sheath, and just put a fan near it to provide a bit of ambient airflow.

Pull that fan off and give me the #s.

I have a 40mm that is EXACTLY like that... :-\ Under 12hrs of use on it too. lolz.

Its currently on a bricked X1650XT though. I tried to flash it and failed.. :-(

The card is still good... just needs to be reflashed with BIOS. lolz. Also, PCIe lanes 8-16 are shot to crap.
 
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im really like people who do crazy modding
 

wolf

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Excellent mod, been looking at doing something similar for some time now.
 
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