What the F***K are these guys doing to these cards?!?!?!?

[Koda]

I have been working as a PC tech for over 6 years now, been into computers for a lot longer but have never seen anything like this in my life...

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...s-thread/page2
Keep scrolling down and you'll notice them

I see extra capacitors and wires poking out of these cards all over the place. Probably some over voltage ultra overclocking mod or something but I'm baffled by this. Can any1 give me some more info on this thing???

[PCBONEZ]

Re: What the F***K are these guys doing to these cards?!?!?!?

That's what R&D boards end up looking like.
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Anyone remember what that rubbery black glue/coating stuff is called?
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[mariushm]

Re: What the F***K are these guys doing to these cards?!?!?!?

Don't think they're R&D cards... I think those would have extra pads for metal needles to test various parts and they'd have additional connectors like those for Crossfire/SLI on top.

I see voltage regulator mods - they kill the hardwired maximum voltage setting and enable some higher voltages which would kill the gpu chip without proper cooling in a few minutes.

Connected to the wires are micro potentiometers, for fine tuning the voltage output of the switching power supply on the video card

Other than that, I see larger chokes (inductors) and extra capacitors for the extra power consumption.

The black stuff... epoxy or liquid electrical tape like this one?

[PCBONEZ]

Re: What the F***K are these guys doing to these cards?!?!?!?

So experimenting isn't Research?
Could have fooled me....
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No that stuff isn't it.
I guess neither is the stuff in the photo because what I'm thinking of isn't shinny and is for EMI.
It looks more like the black undercoating on a car.
I first ran across it on a $30,000 card [in 1980's dollars] when I was in the Navy and I've never known the name of it.
.

[severach]

Re: What the F***K are these guys doing to these cards?!?!?!?

More capacitors means more stable voltages which can result in better overclocking. The capacitors must be close so the engineers pepper the area right behind the chips. There isn't much room so they use as big of ceramics as they can get to fit. The experimenters find the caps with the largest ripple and add big ones to stabilize.

What the experimenters don't know is that a half inch of lead or more renders the addon cap useless.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: What the F***K are these guys doing to these cards?!?!?!?

What the experimenters don't know is that a half inch of lead or more renders the addon cap useless.

Not totally useless but it does raise ESR.
I measured a .010 to .020 ohm rise [worsening] at 3/4" on an assortment of caps.
Didn't matter what kind or brand of cap.
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[PCBONEZ]

Re: What the F***K are these guys doing to these cards?!?!?!?

The trimmer pots are there to tweak voltages.
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The kind of electronics I worked on had those things everywhere.
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I'M A TWEAKER!
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[Koda]

Re: What the F***K are these guys doing to these cards?!?!?!?

I would never do this to a card... I would kill to get a single 5870 and they are killing them all over the place. I bet those cards don't last for very long. Found some stuff about motherboard volt modding after I posted the topic here. I even saw one of them using car polish instead of thermal paste on the next page, I wonder how well that works.

[b700029]

Re: What the F***K are these guys doing to these cards?!?!?!?

Those electrolytics glued on with the black goop look like GP and not low ESR... although I see a few Panasonics there.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: What the F***K are these guys doing to these cards?!?!?!?

When I pointed out they are experimenting I didn't mean to imply they aren't clueless.
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They appear to be the average gamer type that knows just enough about electronics to be dangerous.
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[gerg]

Re: What the F***K are these guys doing to these cards?!?!?!?

I have done these kind of mods to cards but not in many years. now that i a married and older with a kid i just don't have the money to burn if i kill a high end card anymore. So I understand it but will not jump into it again

[pentium]

Re: What the F***K are these guys doing to these cards?!?!?!?

Jesus Christ....

[gerg]

Re: What the F***K are these guys doing to these cards?!?!?!?

thats a couple of dollars worth laying on that bench. I would rather drive a nice car then have a fast computer that i barely utilize the power on.

[Newbie2]

Re: What the F***K are these guys doing to these cards?!?!?!?

That looks like heaven to me, but if I had all those high-end graphics cards I'd have them all in anti-static bags to keep them safe.

[pentium]

Re: What the F***K are these guys doing to these cards?!?!?!?

That looks like heaven to me, but if I had all those high-end graphics cards I'd have them all in anti-static bags to keep them safe.

I'll put money on that theya re all probably dead.
I know someone who swims in money because he's IT and goes through high-end cards like cheap matches because he's always screwing up the overclocking and burning them out.