Sell my radeon 8500 and buy a Geforce4 Ti?

[Gurm]

Ok ok CALM DOWN.

1. I'm not abandoning Matrox. I still have one (only one) G400 left. *sigh* And people who don't play games I still tell them to buy G450's and G550's. But let's face it - Wolf3d is pretty much unplayable on the G400. Sad, but true. Even if you can suffer with the framerates, you don't get the pretty colors. *sigh*

2. I can handle a soldering iron as well as the next guy. Thankfully, however, the recent mod-chip addition to my PlayStation2 was pretty simple (5 wires, all easy points) since the "better" (but substantially more difficult - 40 tight solders) chips all got confiscated by Sony.

3. If you clip the caps, they won't cause you any more trouble. But yeah, soldering is probably the better option. But I'm gonna try this today. That way if I **** it up I can just return the board - like the underpaid overworked Best Buy technician is going to notice missing caps.

- Gurm

[Greebe]

So, do you think Anands suggestion of clipping the cap´s with pliers - thereby irrevocably destroying them - is more responsible?

This forum isn't Anandhack

[Wombat]

If I were to do work like that, I might intentionally clip the caps anyway. It's better to destroy the caps than the pads. Half a cap only has one pad, and that's easier to remove. If you're really putting enough heat into the caps to heat both pads, I wouldn't plan on reusing that component anyway. You'd want a notched iron tip to do that, or be good with solder wick.

[Greebe]

Naw just use a wetted broad soldering tip and it'll lift off both pads and stick to the tip... takes less than a second... then use a non solderable metal anything to wipe the cap from the tip... part can be reused if done in under 10 seconds.

[KvHagedorn]

Guys, does it really matter if you destroy those caps? How long do you plan on keeping the card anyhow? Why would there ever be a reason to resolder them back in?

are there any loyal matrox users left????????

Yes, I am one.. only by momentum though. Bought a $250 video card 2 1/2 years ago and still works fine. Picture quality is awesome too. Tribes2 was barely playable, true.. and if I get any newer games I will probably just build a gaming box. That would have a GF4 in it if I was building it now. Maybe that's what Matrox should call their next derivative piece of crap.. the Matrox Momentum.. The G400Max is still their best effort ever.

[Greebe]

It's not so much a matter of soldering them back in Chuck but making the card appear as if they were never there in the first place... crushing them would attract attention (would me) if it ever needed to be sent in for warranty

[Technoid]

Great!

The MX versions dont have programmable GPU's

[Wombat]

Naw just use a wetted broad soldering tip and it'll lift off both pads and stick to the tip

I guess that would work. Around here that much space is a luxury we usually don't have. We've got some handy dandy wedge bits, but the board is usually too crowded to use them.

[Greebe]

That's because you HP boyz are spoiled and can spend whatever on the right tool for the job... I have yet to see circuit density that I can't do with the tips I have with my ordinary soldering station

[Wombat]

You bet we're spoiled. I do all of my soldering on a Metcal MX-500-P11 :P

[Jon P. Inghram]

Bah, if you're gonna remove SMT parts you gotta use the right tools.



Actually, anyone ever noticed the VERY small SMT components that are on the G400 card? Especially near the core on both sides of board, there are some of the smallest parts I've seen, quite a bit smaller than your "average" component on other cards I've seen.

[KvHagedorn]

A lovely precision instrument that is, Jon.. but it seems a bit expensive. Why not just pop out the offending doodad with a leather punch and impact hammer:



the resulting hole would make it quite impossible to tell that there should be a component there.

[Greebe]

My tool of preference would be a die grinder... can't beat those pretty sparks!

[PeTe]

Btw, i thought that those GOOD GF4's werent ready for release yet ? Only the REALLY sucky GF4MX's are released just now and you can buy the Ti versions in about 1.5-2 months and by that time you might expect something new from ATI too ?

Well still liking my Radeon 8500LE. No problems and running 285/295.

PeTe

[PeTe]

Oh, forget to tell when i saw these "power tools", there was a guy in the Rage3d forums that TRIED to remove his fan of Radon8500.. used a screwdriver + hammer.

Ok, this guy hammered away and after a while wondered why doesnt the heatsink+fan come of.. checks the place where he was hitting.. the screwdriver wasnt aimed between the core/heatsink--- it was eating its way into the core.

PeTe