Successful Caps Mod !!!

[3DFlyer]

:clap:

My signature rig now has the caps mod added to it, and works perfectly. I got the CPU unworkable message I had been rwading about, and reset the CMOS, and went back and put all my settings back in the BIOS, and she works like a charm. The voltage seems more stable, the PWM temps are definitely cooler, and I even reduced the vCore just to see what would happen and low and behold the thing runs stable at a lower vCore. I still have to prove that with Prime testing, but I ran a few bencxhmarks that caused reboots at lower voltages, and it's running fine, so that's a good sign. I'm gonna play with it some more tonight, but right now pizza is calling my name! :)

I'll try to get some pictures when I take the system back down to do the Vdroop, and Vofs mods. I'm also doing some case changes, but I'm gonna post about that in the Cases and power Supplies forum. :)

[four4875]

what caps did you replace? what'd ya replace them with? pics are good :-D

[3DFlyer]

what caps did you replace? what'd ya replace them with? pics are good :-D

I didn't replace any. I added caps to the PWM section. The mod I did is at the link below. It's actually a wouteral mod, but there are a few differences from wouteral's mod. On wouteral's mod he used the IC7 max III, on the G model the caps are a little different.

Caps and Droop mods for IC7-G (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=371872&highlight=IC7-G+Caps+Mod)

[xTrEmEoVrClOcKr]

Did you get 4ghz outta your 3.2e yet? Im at 4.14 @ 1.49V, you gotta catch up there 3DFlyer. :)

[3DFlyer]

Did you get 4ghz outta your 3.2e yet? Im at 4.14 @ 1.49V, you gotta catch up there 3DFlyer. :)

I've had 4.0GHz for awhile, almost since when I joined here. The temps just didn't sit real well with me, but it was stable. I'm pretty sure I got a real good CPU and board, and that's why I'm being real careful with it. I'm working on the electrical first to stabilize the voltage (vCore) in hopes I can lower it which will help in both stability and keeping it cooler.

I did reduce the voltage two notches, but it wasn't stable, so I went back up a notch. It looks like it's gonna be stable now. I've run it through PCM04, SuperPi, and will do Prime tonight. I really wanna get the vDroop, and vOfs on there before I push things again.

It took me longer than I thought it would to position all those caps, bend and cut the terminals, glue them, and solder them. It turned out real nice though. I'll get pics of the mods when I get them all done. I might try the other two mods tomorrow, but I'll have to see what's going on around here first

[four4875]

now isee what you did. couldnt you have replaced the caps on the board with ones of alarger capacity? or did you not wantto bother with unsoldering them and pulling them out of the holes? i need to rip my board out some time and figure out what it will take for a vcore mod, unless i could edit the bios to let me get more Vs out of it, which sounds harder than a hardware mod.. haha...

[SolidxSnake]

now isee what you did. couldnt you have replaced the caps on the board with ones of alarger capacity? or did you not wantto bother with unsoldering them and pulling them out of the holes? i need to rip my board out some time and figure out what it will take for a vcore mod, unless i could edit the bios to let me get more Vs out of it, which sounds harder than a hardware mod.. haha...


Well, even if he did just replace the caps with higher capacity ones, it still wouldn't be enough caps.

[four4875]

? if he were to replace them with ones of double the capacity (since he used ones like were already on the board, he pretty much doubled it up) what would be any different? its still doubling the capacitance, and as long as he used ones wit hthe same discharge rating, i dont see what woud be different.

id like to see bigger inductors put on and see how tht affects the voltage / stability. from my understanding they are what do th mot leveling of the power from being low/high they hold it in the middle, fro mtheir magnetic fields dissipating into themselves producing current when there isnt any, and taking in current to charge the field when power applied. so making bigger would give it more capacity to hold even with a lower dudty cycle... or i could be totally wrong.

[speed bump]

No what they did is added more cap of the same size on the back of the Mobo. Useing the same soldering points as the other caps.

[four4875]

yeah i noticed that ater the pics, im jsut pondering on what could be done so there isnt the stuff on the back of the board requiring modification to the mobo tray. if the original caps were just replaced, you only have to worry about them being physically bigger and not fitting together or hitting new stuff.

and the inductors thing, was just me pondering how that would afect the regulation circuits

[3DFlyer]

Yes, what I did was parallel the caps. I've read that doubling is a little better from a heat standpoint. The theory is, 2 smaller caps will dissipate more heat than 1 big one. Also, paralleling caps is supposed to help mitigate the variance in capacitors. I still don't fully understand it all as the articles were very detailed, and complex. I am still studying all of this, but I had enough understanding of what was going on to undertake the task, and basically know what was going on. Most of these articles are written from an EE standpoint, and these people have a high degree of knowledge, so there are lots of little fine points you have to study up on.

On the motherboard tray mods, I actually want to mod my tray, as it will give me access to later install rear fans to help cool the back of the board. In fact, I am also working on making up templates to cut the tray out precisely. This will also give me access if I later want to water cool. Mounting the blocks requires removal of the mobo in most cases, and with the tray modded you can mount a CPU block easily and have access to everything to keep a watchful eye on it. As you guys already know, when you get into the higher OC's you have to watch things more and test stuff. I like things to be easy to work on.

Many thanks must go to wouteral who did all of the EE work, and looking up the numbers on the chips and the caps in his threads on these mods. His work has been invaluable to many with the IC7-G, and it really helps the boards stability when going over the 3.9GHz mark with a Prescott CPU. I wish he was here to thank him personally, but unfortunately I have been unable to contact him. I suspect he may be taking a sabbatical for awhile.

[3DFlyer]

Here is a link to the original wouteral caps mod.

wouteral Caps Mod (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?p=3208570#post3208570)

This is for the IC7-Max III. The microfarad values are different on the IC7-G. While the larger caps from the Max III will work. There has been discussion on other forums if it's really needed or warranted.

Personally I stuck with the same values and paralleled them. :)

[four4875]

i see the reasoning with the heat dissipation, i just wouldnt want to chop up my mobo tray haha. although i was considering taking out the unused areas between mounting holes, to save weight, but where i am at now that wouldnt make a oticable difference. i really need to get my oscilloscope out of the storage and find somewhere to fit it in here, then get some views on jsut how clean the power comin out of the regulators is, then do some experaments with the inductors and caps and see how it goes. im thinking ill use this board i have now as a guinnea pig, since it sucks so bad. but thankfully my Vcore is rock solid, i jsut cant set it above 1.6 Vs. and i also want to do a ram mod, try to get it above stock speeds.