***Volt Mod's For AsRock SataII***

[persivore]

jonspd, before i do any of these mods, I wanna find out what resistor gives what, because i dont like VR's, they are not reliable and prone to accidental high voltage.
I would just install a single resistor for fixed voltatge, or build me a little variable resistor board to adjust the ohm.


Edit:
jonspd,
jame asked me in "new asrock" thread so posted there.
But basically: I replaced the 890 ohm "droop mod" w/ 1k and vcore fluctuation is still there but not as much. before the 1K I had tried 2.42 K but no post. Next I am using a 1.5K. all fixed resistors(NO VR for me).
Now I am building me a pin socket w/ resistors as a homemade VR.
I tore off IDE socket from an old mobo and am soldering resistors w/ different values to the pins extruded in the backside. some are in series and some independent. also have 100 ohms for decimal final values. with this I use a jumper (or 2-3 together) to short the pins and get the resistor value I want. sort of works like a VR, but much safer and steady/accurate reading.

For the Vdroop mod, you need to use a variable resistor. The value resistor that you need to use will depend on the Vcore you are running, the speed the CPU is running at, and even the temperature to some extent. There's no problem with using variable resistors for the mods, as long as you use high quality components, make sure the mod is done well and properly insulated against short-circuiting.
Replacing the stock Vdroop resistor with a higher value will increase the voltage drop under load. At stock, the board I've got here tends to increase Vcore under load, which is why I said to replace the resistor with a variable resistor, instead of connecting one in parallel with the existing one (which would only have the effect of being able to decrease droop). The stock value of the Vdroop resistor on my board was 1.2k, which could be why it overvolts, if yours is 890ohms. My board is rev 1.04 (iirc), if that makes any difference

Vcore will also increase as you increase the Vdroop resistors value. Using a 2.4k fixed resistor was probably sending the Vcore regulator into either overcurrent protection or overvoltage protection.

When you have done the mod, you will need to check the ammount of droop with a DMM. Software readings aren't accurate enough to be able to show the ammount of droop properly. I'll try to get a picture showing where to read Vcore from later today

If anyone has any questions about any of the mods here, feel free to PM me here or at xtremesystems

 

[ochungry]

persivore,
thank you for responding here,
The reason I don’t like VR's is because I have tested a couple and after several tries, it shorted. I bought the first one from Radioshack and the 2nd from fry's. both did short.
The resistor I took out was either 890 or 06B, the "B" did look more like 8 so I figured it must be 890. what # does yours show?
there are several places in the backside right behind, the big brown caps(6.3v, 3300uF)
If I check those w/ vmeter they don’t show any droop and are ~.025-.035 volts less than what cpuz shows.
Everest does not fluctuate as much as cpuz.
So I am thinking it must be cpuz flaw.
About LTD, what voltage is good and what if I just use a fix resistor if I knew what value it should be. If you have done yours w/ VR, would you tell me @ what setting you get what vldt?
Thanks.
PS: there is another electronic store and am going to check and see if they sell any good quality VR and then test it.

 

[ochungry]

Jonspd, you might want to ad the link below regarding the resistor's law, ohm law and so on.
Polygon tried to explain it when was asked, but was kind of confusing. I guess his electrical engineering mind seems easy for him to understand but not for average person. so here it goes:
If planning to do any mod but not willing to remove any existing resistor because of hassle and danger of messing up and breaking off the trace, you can solder the new resistor in parallel on top of the existing.
The parallel law is (R1*R2)/(R1+R2)=newR
In this formula, R1 is existing and R2 is what you need to buy and end up w/ new value (Rnew)
Since you know what newR value you want, then your formula will be written as
R2=(Rnew*R1)/(R1-Rnew)
Example: if you want to solder a resistor on top of the 2.1K vdimm resistor (R1), and you want to have a final value of 200ohm (Rnew)
you do: (200*2100)/(2100-200)=420000/1900=221ohm,R2 you buy.
testing the answer: (R1*R2)/(R1+R2)=(2100*221)/(2100+221)=199.95,new valueR which is same as 200ohm because I rounded off the first part of the calculation.
just remember Rnew=(R1*R2)/(R1+R2)
and if you know final value for the resistor to change to (Rnew), and know existing(R1), you will look for R2 (what to buy) this way:
R2=(Rnew*R1)/(R1-Rnew).
I know I am repeating myself, but I had to read polygon's explanation several times to understand what he was saying.

http://www.satcure-focus.com/tutor/page2.htm
Edit: found another valuable PDF file about SMD's
http://www.fpga4fun.com/external/SMD/smdman.pdf
http://www.fpga4fun.com/external/SMD/SMDProc.pdf
http://xanadu.ece.ucsb.edu/~long/ece145a/SMSoldering.pdf

 

[>HyperlogiK<]

how succesful is the vdroop mod at increasing stability?

 

[jonspd]

I dunno personally I havn't done it and dont plan to. My vcore measured with a MM goes from 1.46-1.48. I'am planing on doing the vdd mod to both the SB and NB soon. Will post result's but I have to get some good 310 fsb ram 1st.

 

[snakeskinner]

I got these Gskill 2X512 stick of DDR600 at newegg for 199.00. On my asrock board I got them up to 325HTT at 3-4-4-8 2T at 1.7v. With some more voltage, maybe 1.9 I think I could get 325HTT and stock timings of 2.5-4-4-8 2T. Sandra bandwith was over 7000 so I was happy. When I get my DFI board tonight I will be able to up the voltage some and see where they max out at.


Marlon

 

[>HyperlogiK<]

Just done the vdimm and vcore mods (techpowerup) and installed phase change and water, and amazingly somehow everything is working (every other time I have done this many things i have managed to kill something). I'm going to try the vdroop when i can steal an extra soldering iron from somewhere.

 

[ochungry]

OK Jonspd,
Might want to ad my vcore mod to your data file.
As I said before, I found a way similar to OCW vcore mod to max the regulator vcore.
Reading the PDF file on 617 regulator you will see that VID5 has "0" and "1" binary calls. "1" is floating and "0" is shorted (connected to SGRND). If VID5 is set to "0", bios will give an extra 25mv vcore setting to max @ 1.575v (Hammer DAC). OCW mod shorted VID3,4, and 2 to give us that 1.55v we all have seen. However, never mentioned that VID5 can be shorted the same way and squeeze another 25mv out of vcore setting. Well, I have been wondering about this ever since the mod was introduced. I took the liberty and w/ no fear (but hands and legs trembling like getting out of a frozen lake), and modded VID5. Now, without any resistor, just shorting the VID's (solder or conductive pen/paint) vcore can be as high as 1.575v (1.58-1.585v actual).
Now to answer your Q about just having 1.5v, you can just short VID5 and go as high as 1.475 (1.49v actual), or do what I did as shown below and just use lower settings. The beauty of VID3+VID5 mod is that 1.375to 1.45v are not affected (just a 25mv increase) and if system falls back to default, you are withing the CPU spec+25mv.

below shows the mod and vcore set @ 1.325v
Image1
And the highest when setting vcore to 1.350v
Image2

 

[jonspd]

added plz LMK if you plan to remove pix.


Thread updated with a few more link's.

 

[]-[itman]

OK Jonspd,
Might want to ad my vcore mod to your data file.
As I said before, I found a way similar to OCW vcore mod to max the regulator vcore.
Reading the PDF file on 617 regulator you will see that VID5 has "0" and "1" binary calls. "1" is floating and "0" is shorted (connected to SGRND). If VID5 is set to "0", bios will give an extra 25mv vcore setting to max @ 1.575v (Hammer DAC). OCW mod shorted VID3,4, and 2 to give us that 1.55v we all have seen. However, never mentioned that VID5 can be shorted the same way and squeeze another 25mv out of vcore setting. Well, I have been wondering about this ever since the mod was introduced. I took the liberty and w/ no fear (but hands and legs trembling like getting out of a frozen lake), and modded VID5. Now, without any resistor, just shorting the VID's (solder or conductive pen/paint) vcore can be as high as 1.575v (1.58-1.585v actual).
Now to answer your Q about just having 1.5v, you can just short VID5 and go as high as 1.475 (1.49v actual), or do what I did as shown below and just use lower settings. The beauty of VID3+VID5 mod is that 1.375to 1.45v are not affected (just a 25mv increase) and if system falls back to default, you are withing the CPU spec+25mv.

below shows the mod and vcore set @ 1.325v
Image1
And the highest when setting vcore to 1.350v
Image2

So, I can use the vid4 + vid 5 mod (i've already done vid4) to get 5.8v, I just have to be careful in selecting voltages, correct?

 

[jonspd]

Did the vdd mod and found the max of my vcore once again along with the max of my board. Board top's @ 294 ish and cpu max @ 2.76 with stock 1.45.

The max 1:1 with 1T 2.5 4 4 10 I was able to get was around 266 fsb. Sandra was nice but superpi is better with 5:6 and low timing's. To far away from my 2.76 stable cpu setting.

Wounldn't have been able to get above 254 1:1 with 1T with out the vdd mod.

 

[ochungry]

So, I can use the vid4 + vid 5 mod (i've already done vid4) to get 5.8v, I just have to be careful in selecting voltages, correct?

Yes you can do VID4 w/ VID5. the max is at around 1.58-1.585v and sometimes jumps to 1.6 while stress testing. there shouldn’t be any danger w/ any settings w/ this mod, since the max stays below 1.6 (bios shows 1.59v @ post), and averaging to 1.58v.
With resistor mod by Rebel's, yes, you have to be careful not to set it too high. And this voltage regulator is only for CPU usage, and no other mobo component(s) such as drivers, (as is suspected by some).
I removed the Rebel's mod and am staying w/ this one. So far so good, and am able to squeeze more out Venice 3000.
I RMA'd the Opteron 146, because I noticed a gap between PCB and IHS, and some rubber like material was visible right at the gap. I think I did get a dud 146, even though the stepping was good(CAB2E 0546 FPMW) and was able to go as high as 2.85 passing Prime and 2.98ghz passing Superpi but failing prime.
Finally, I believe 1.58-1.59v is as high as I want to take any CPU's, and shy away from resistor vcore mod. Shorting VID5and VID3(or VID4) is best vcore mod, IMHO, and not willing to take any other chance(s).

 

[ochungry]

Did the vdd mod and found the max of my vcore once again along with the max of my board. Board top's @ 294 ish and cpu max @ 2.76 with stock 1.45.

The max 1:1 with 1T 2.5 4 4 10 I was able to get was around 266 fsb. Sandra was nice but superpi is better with 5:6 and low timing's. To far away from my 2.76 stable cpu setting.

Wounldn't have been able to get above 254 1:1 with 1T with out the vdd mod.

Jonspd,
great. can you write down few #'s for us. basically I am interested to know
the voltage increase of several resistance. for example: I like to know
what increase @ 10K, 9K,8K, etc...
Because I would like to pick a fixed voltage and just ad a small surface mounting resistor there are be done w/ it. I think this Image shows the nearest ground location. I can just set the SMD on top of the existing, connect it to same ground and the opposite side to the vdd pin.
I wish I knew the value of existing resistor, so that I could mound another right on to that gives me the desired resultant (using resistor's law).
I don’t know what 01B stands for or is it 810 ohm?
If you can find out, I would much appreciate it.

 

[jonspd]

I could but I have to take out agp and gpu cooler I have in pci slot to be able to see also I'am @ about 2.08 vdd stock is 2.01 for me. I wouldn't be able to do this untill next weekend. I really perfer not to sence it took me almost 6 hour's to get vdd/vddim set where 273fsb 1:1 with 1T @ 2.5 4 4 10 got no error's (memtest) but cant boot into windows above 271. Not stable till around 266ish.

Also it would be great to know if a conductive pen or window repair kit is easier to remove. I dont want to do the vcore with solder and I have already tried placing a wire between them using thermal tape (didn't work). I really need a way to get vcore around 1.52 or so.

 

[snakeskinner]

I could but I have to take out agp and gpu cooler I have in pci slot to be able to see also I'am @ about 2.08 vdd stock is 2.01 for me. I wouldn't be able to do this untill next weekend. I really perfer not to sence it took me almost 6 hour's to get vdd/vddim set where 273fsb 1:1 with 1T @ 2.5 4 4 10 got no error's (memtest) but cant boot into windows above 271. Not stable till around 266ish.

Also it would be great to know if a conductive pen or window repair kit is easier to remove. I dont want to do the vcore with solder and I have already tried placing a wire between them using thermal tape (didn't work). I really need a way to get vcore around 1.52 or so.

I removed the vcore mod I did on my board with the rear window defogger repair kit easy as pie. I also did the vdimm with same metallic paint and removed it easy as well. I used a small pen knife and carefully scraped it off, and you can't even tell that it used to be there.


Marlon

 

[ochungry]

Ok jonspd,
here is another link I found that shows resistor's values that are marked by number and letter. The 01B resistor I was asking what the value was, is a 1K ohm according to the table , link below. Asrock mobo has a lot of resistors marked w/ letter instead of the standard (102=1K) designation.
http://www.niccomp.com/nrc06e96a.html-ssi

 

[THE JEW (RaVeN)]

Excellent thread. I guess a handful of resistors will make this a true enthusiast board (well, on a budget, anyways).

 

[]-[itman]

I removed the vcore mod I did on my board with the rear window defogger repair kit easy as pie. I also did the vdimm with same metallic paint and removed it easy as well. I used a small pen knife and carefully scraped it off, and you can't even tell that it used to be there.


Marlon

How did you do the vdimm mod with the paint and what voltages did it give you?

 

[jonspd]

I would guess paint from red box to arrow with vddim on it would give you 3.2 according to the link I posted about the vddim mod done @ techpowerup.

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/130/images/vdimm1.jpg

 

[jonspd]

Snake skinner in the rear deffoger repair kit did you just use the little copper paint bottle or did you add the activator with it?