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Currently I have a gtx 1060 3gb. I was wondering if I were to obtain 6gb memory modules and desolder and replace my current vram would this result in a functional upgraded system or would this be a waste of time?

I've been looking for a new cordless soldering iron. I've had the same $30 Adafruit soldering iron for 3 or so years now, works great, but I'm sick of the cord. Hakko Soldering Irons are generally considered some of the best(from what I've seen based on the community) but they're corded and I'm looking for something a little less tethered. Here and there I have seen all sorts of cordless soldering irons whether they be rechargeable by usb-c or micro usb, but I'm unsure of the quality. There have been complaints about not reaching the specified temps the soldering irons claim or the batteries dying far too quickly. If anyone has any recommendations from personal experience, I'm all ears.

Howdy LTT, I've recently been overhauling an old Razer BlackWidow keyboard as a side project. i got it all soldered up, but now it looks like its missing a PCB trace. im happy to grab whatever i can to repair this, but i dont know how or where to get started. id love any tips, thanks gang!

Hello So first of all i have an 9900K former running 5ghz allcore on manual vcore 1,35v llc 6 @ ~80° celcius max on Cinebench R20 on an Asus Maximus XI Extreme with 2x G.Skill Trident Z 16 GB 3600mhz CL16 with 1.2 vccio and 1.2 vccsa Powersupply is Corsair HX 1000 and i have 2 seperated water loops. 1 for CPU and 1 for GPU. Radiators per loop = 2x Nemesis Blackice GTX 560, with an EK D5 240mm RGB res combo. Waterblock CPU= AC XPX Acryl with rgb frame Waterblock GPU= EKWB 1080ti FTW3 Acryl+ BP So i changed my 1080ti to an 6900xt (with an AC GPX Acryl Waterblock) and i changed from push to push pull on all radiators with Noctua AF 140 pwm fans (was only push with noctua ones) Since then my 9900k thermal throttle like hell. Even in stock config 4,7ghz allcore 1,25v reaching around 90° what i tryed: Reapply WLP = no help Reseat Waterblock = no help Changed pressure on Waterblock mounting= no help so then i took a look at the cpu it self= for me it looks like the pcb (exactly where the DIE is) is a little bit "bend" in the direction of the socket. not much but i think it does. than i tryed to lap the IHS a bit (so u cant read 9900k on ihs anymore, wanted to make it more flat) = no help my guess is that cause of the bend the contact to the indium solder is not that great anymore. So what can i do? i thought about deliding, get rid of the indium with liquid metal and than reapply liquid metal to cleaned die and a new copper IHS. or... cause of the solder temp of the smd´s (220° celcius) and the indium solder melting temperature (156,7°) would it be possible to heat the cpu up to the indium solder temp so the indium could regain good contact? What would u do? (Except get rid of it) Thanks in advance for your time and help with this special problem.

So you're probably wondering why I want a laptop CPU Long story short I want to upgrade my laptops CPU I am aware of the diffuicult of the task and I have done all the required reseach for compadability and support. The only issues I will have is the inability to overclock due to the BIOS, which I am okay with as I want the higher binned CPU anyway and further down the line I might decide to find a way around it. For now though all I'll be doing is usoldering the old CPU (i7 9750H) and soldering on the new one (i9 9980HK). I'll probably even get a professional to do it for me For those who are wondering what the laptop in question is; its a Dell G7 17 (7790), i7 9750H, RTX 2060, 16 GB Corsair Vengence RAM

I was changing the touch screen on my Switch and the red wire for the left speaker got disconnected right at the solder, how can I fix this? I tried googling it but no luck. I just bought a solder iron to fix a xbox controller but didn't try anything yet, just watched some videos on how to do it, the very basics. Would just placing the iron in the right solder circle in the speaker and then connecting the red wire be enough? The cable is very thin, not sure how I'd remove the red cover if I need to.

Could you do a demo of unsoldering ram in either a macbook, lenova, or microsoft computer. Pick any brand or any computer with soldered ram. I'd like to see the process and where you resource your parts and the final outcome. Let's see how you guys do. If it works or fails either way, I'd like to see someone try. I'm sure you can do it.

Hi guys, I was cleaning my 1080 and installing new thermal pads when I accidently broke off a capacitor during disassembly. My question is, does anyone have experience resoldering SMD capacitors on GPUs and if so what solder do you use and what type of hot tweezers work best (required wattage)? In the picture I've attached you can see there is some copper showing so I think my best bet would be to remove the older solder with copper wicking, tin the copper contacts and then resolder the capacitor. Any advice for resoldering SMD components would be appreciated.

Hi everyone, first post and it's been a crappy day so please be kind. I'm in the middle of doing some PC upgrades and decided to switch my gpu over to water cooling. Unfortunately, the worst case scenario happened and I accidentally knocked a cap off the board while getting the air cooler off. I had the equipment so I tried to resolder it after watching some YouTube tutorials but it didn't seem to go as good as they made it seem it should. The initial bond seemed to happen but as soon as the solder sunk in it got really sticky and just won't leave a smooth surface because it seems to be wicking the heat away too fast. I tried a few temperatures but I'm a bit nervous going any higher that the 800F I stopped at. I'm... fairly certain those solder joints are bonded to the circuit board but it just won't leave a nice surface typical of a good solder joint. Do you think this is going to be okay?

I recently got a cheap PC which I'm using as a budget gaming PC, everything is going great so far, except for the fan that is located in the power supply, the one it has is making a loud bearing noise and I disassembled it to add some lubricant to it but it is still making noise. I ordered a new fan from Noctua which has the same specs as the one on the power supply but the only problem is the connector, both fans have a 4 pin connector but the one on the PSU is like a CRJ Micro 4 pin connector, totally smaller than the one on the new fan and the new one doesn't fit... I was wondering if it'd be ok to just cut the old fan connector and solder it to the new fan? have you guys done this before? will it be ok? Thank you

Hello, I'm new to LTT forums. I was cleaning & repasting my gpu the other day (which is a pre-owned Powercolor RX 580 probably ex mining, bought for about 75 USD converted) And I noticed some vacant solder points for other display ports supported by the card model. (Below is a reference photo of a Powercolor RX 580 PCB) ) Apparently this card I have only has a single DVI D port, but in Powercolor's site, all of their listed RX 580 variants support 3x DP, 1 HDMI, and 1 DVI-D. (Below is the photo of my actual card before cleaning) Disregarding how risky it would be, I was just wondering what would happen is someone were to miraculously solder some Displayport or an HDMI port into the PCB, would it work as an extra display output? or is it bad to even think about it.

I have a VERY old craftsman-sears soldering gun. still turns on and stuff. but the tip that has been in it since the 50's finally rusted out and broke, anyone know of one that would fit it? Preferably cheap, 10 or so dollars with shipping. Pics:

Hopefully someone can help me out. I'm trying to make an extension of the SD card reader so I may put it inside of another device and move the port to another location. Before anything, I tested the card port and it reads my SD card just fine. I removed the SD port from the board and soldered extension wires to each point on the SD port and extended that back to their individual points on the board. When I plug in the USB stick, the LED activates and blinks in sequences as if it is waiting in standby for an SD card to be inserted. I place the SD card in its port and nothing happens (with or without force). I plugged a microSD card into the other port that was still attached to the board and the computer can detect it just fine. My guess is that when I added wires to the port, I added latency to the signal due to the wire length and therefor can't reach the card. Perhaps using a 3.0 card reader with higher voltage could fix this? Here is the card reader I brought: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/insignia-usb-2-0-sd-mmc-memory-card-reader-black/3602009.p?skuId=3602009 I check all my soldering points and made sure they are all properly in place. What am I missing?..

so I'm soldering PSU wires to shorten them but the only thing i'm worried about is the fact that the wires aren't copper they're silver in color (I'm sure they're not silver) will this matter? Am I fine just using 60/40 (tin/lead) electric solder? any help would be much appreciated!

Hey Guys, I just want to show you my solution for a very cheap, silent and energy efficent nas. At first I´m a student so money is the biggest factor in this build and sorry for my english I´m from germany. I wanted to have a full 64bit Linux Box to play arround with and a reliable place to backup my photos. Furthermore streaming videos and Live TV in my network and run my online photography website. Looking at Synology, i really liked the small size, but the software is to restricted for all my needs and it is very expensiv So i got myself a Dell Thin Client used from ebay for 30 Dollars. It runs a AMD 1,5Ghz Cpu with 4 threads,has Gigabit Lan and two USB3.0 Ports. Putting in 2*4GB Ram and 2*2,5 Sata 4TB drives it has become the perfect solution for me. I´m running ESXI with Xpenology for Backup and Streaming Video, Ubuntu Server with my website on nigix and small debian with tvheadend. Esxi is running of the 16GB Flash Card and the two drives are in raid for security. Getting the two drives in this small case was a real challenge. I put a mini-pci Sata Card in there to get the Sata Ports. Then i solderd in 12V, GND and 5V connected to a molex port to get power for the drives. For getting more space i flexed of some heatsink fins, like Linus always does The Thin client is in bios configured to boot as soon as it gets power. Its now running for 2 weeks non stop, no thermal problems so far and completly silent as there ar no fans in there. Coasts so far: -Thin Client 30$ -Ram ist out of broken notebooks from the scrapyard, so for free -pci sata card 10$ -cables are from the scrapyard and out of old pc`s -Seagate Barracuda 2*4TB 240$ I think for people with soldering skills and tight budget this should be considerd as an option. Best regards, LS

So i was delidding my old cpus i have lying around today, for practicing cpu die deprocessing. I was working on a brisbane athlon 64 x2 4000+ ( 2.1ghz, 65nm) and noticed that the lid was popping off way too easily ( i was expecting it to stay on after cutting through the gasket with a blade, but it fell off pretty much on its own). Usually, a soldered cpu requires to be heated in order for the lid to pop off. Up until now, i was under the impression that all intel cpus before sandy bridge and basically all amd chips were soldered. As it turns out, the practice is way older, as this chip dates back to 2006. The chip is fairly small, at 118mm2, which would explain this. I'm still pretty sure am2 compatible cpus, such as the k10-based cpus are soldered, and I'm not sure how many native am2 dies were used.

So I had an Asus Z170-A motherboard, and it was great. It did everything I need and more, but sadly I killed it. I snagged the 8-pin EPS connector for the cpu and it ripped the socket off my motherboard. The plastic slot is okay, it fits back into place. However, the 4 ground pins were torn off. I have already filed an RMA request with Asus, and they won't replace it due to "physical damage not being covered" Is there any way to repair it? I've done very little soldering before, so any help would be appreciated.

This is probably a stupid questiom but, what exactly is the difference between solder and TIM on a processor? Why is it a big deal that Intel doesn't use solder?

So i bought a rgb led strip. And i already have 4 green led fans. So i thought about soldering the wire of the green leds from my fan to the rgb strip so i could sync the brightness. What do you guys think, will it work or will it be complete shit?

I have two dead Opteron 6276 laying around that were recently replaced with two 6172's as twin 16 cores lead to some system instability with my board of choice. So i had been looking around on the internet about how delid and seeing if it is worth it as i have a 7600k that is surprisingly warm even compared to my old fx-8320. So that got me thinking about these huge Socket G34 Operons, quick google search and in images, i could not find a single slide from AMD on the bare die of this particular cpu family let alone anyone who has taken off the IHS which is soldered on, never could find any information on that either. After finding out that i could not fit a razor blade between the glue on the IHS and PCB i took it to a vise to get a blade in. After cutting all around and knowing i was all the way in, i had to use a lighter to undo the soldering and boom the IHS just pretty much slid off. One of the little transistors or whatever those are around the silicon did break off, but its all fine since it was dead. For my first Delid i guess it went well? let me know what you guys think.

I have a problem, I know I do but just hear me out. I currently am running 16 GB of ram and overload it on a daily basis and have been stewing while I wait for my computer to open task manager and become responsive again for a while now, and for a couple of weeks I have been thinking about ways around this issue when I had some ideas come to mind. The first one was that I don't have a case on my computer so space is not an issue for me what if I could get a ram card that was just 20 cm tall with a ton of chips on it and I found Asus's double capacity RAM but I don't have an Asus board that supports that and that's still more then I can afford for a glorious 128 or 256 GB setup. Then I learned that you could replace the RAM chip on a MacBook with some soldering tools and practice and that got me thinking could I just design a gigantic ram stick in Autodesk Eagle, get some PCBs from China, and solder on my own chips. https://www.ebay.com/itm/4x-MICRON-MT47H64M16HR-3-E-IC-1GB-64MX16-DDR2-DRAM-0-45ns-PBGA-84/172307185049?epid=1622463313&hash=item281e4efd99:g:m9gAAOSwYmZXMerT I know this seems excessive but I am gonna do it anyway so if you have information that can help me I would greatly appreciate it. Also, LTT staff, if you're out there I would love you to explore modding ram or custom ram.

Ok, so I'm looking for a sold station preferably. I would only use it for things like xbox controllers, Nintendo 3ds' ect. So small boards, with small connections. I have found some for around 40 with temp control a few tips ect. Also have found them cheaper on sale. Can anyone recommend one that is 20 bucks? And actually works, with temp control? Led indicator would be nice, I have saw some almost that cheap, and one for 20 but cannot relocate it. Would those cheaper ones on Amazon for 35 bucks, some are even a two in one, with a heat gun and station and Led indicator, worth it? I mean the Hakko and other well received brands are not that much more. Also those cheap tips, without a brand, or a brand you can find any info on, has anyone used any before? I saw 5 tips, that were equal to some Hakko tip, and they were about 2 bucks. I wouldn't mind building my own with parts from China, I mean a whole station is just a little stand/holder, a AC supply, with a box with a dial to controll the heat, hopefully with an LED. If anyone has ever done this I would be interested in how it turned out, and what was used. Alibaba has all the stuff seperate to make fully loaded stations for cheap as heck, you could even make it a brand and make profit, nd that's exactly what most of those off brand or no brand cheap ones are. I saw one one with tips Led temp display, dial, sponge ect, idk the watts but it was higher than I needed by about 20 I remember, they had some off brand station that came with everything for 25 and there gone or I cannot find it, it was on there site, I saw one 9n Walmarts site as well for about 8 bucks more, sadly I dont remember what it was called or can find it. Would it be smart to buy a used Hakko or trusted Station, say one thats usually 65 to 80 bucks maybe 100, if it was "slightly used" or "works like new" and priced at 20 bucks or so? I would rather not use just a pen that plugs in the wall, and be able to see the temp, there is one pen with temp displayed on the actual pen it self with a small dip or buttons. This was a Chinese brand on Amazon, and very cheap, would that get the job done, and be good for someone with little experience? I've used stations a few times, not in a while, have used a torch to solder Jewlery more lol and that's a bit different, but close lol the small movements and needing to get it perfect, in fact now thinking it's probably harder with a full blown torch and doing just as small solders.

I know a decent amount about mechanical keyboard switches, but I need some help. I have a K70 mk1 with Cherry MX Reds. I can't stand typing on it anymore but I can't return it because I purchased it awhile ago. I'm looking to purchase new switches so that I can desolder the current switches and put in new ones. What kind of switches will fit and will all switches work with the iCue software? I was looking at the Kailh Box Royal switches from NovelKeys but their page says that only work with SMD lighting. What does that mean and are they compatible with the K70 pcb?

I made a thread nearly a week ago regarding the heatsink mount that separated from the motherboard in my MSI GT70 2PC. I tried epoxy, which failed to resolved the issue. My other option now is to attempt to solder it back to the board, which judging by the other mounts for the CPU and GPU, is closer to how they were originally attached. The thing is, I'm clueless as to how to tackle this, as this would be my first time soldering. I bought a soldering iron to practice on other electronics with before I mess with my laptop. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

So I've been dealing with a glitchy volume knob on my G933s for a while. When you try to turn the volume knob in either direction, it tends to "freak out" and turn the volume up all the way. The only way to get the volume to go back down is to gently turn the volume knob down as slowly and delicately as possible. Though that didn't always work. My final solution was to do some surgery. Here is that experience: What I needed: Tiny philips screw driver (P1 I think it's called. A littler larger than any jewelers screw driver) Replacement incremental encoder EC05E1220401 (volume control) found here: Alps Alpine Incremental Encoder, Buy from Mouser Patience Taking apart the headset is pretty straight forward. After taking off the cushion (just slips off), it's just a few philips screws and the speaker will come right off. BE VERY CAREFUL NOT TO BREAK THE SPEAKER WIRE. The buttons and power switch plate will be loose so take that off next. Un-latch the ribbon cable to the button array board. Removing the volume knob and button array board can take some convincing but take your time, it'll come out. The speaker will travel with the board as you work with it so be aware of that. The volume knob will still be attached to the board. Once the board is out, just pop it off with a little tug. At this point, you're ready to replace the incremental encoder (fancy terms for volume control). Before you attempt to remove the encoder, put some aluminum tape against the nearest tactile switch (button) so you don't melt it (just a good precaution). I didn't take a picture of with the aluminum tape on so here's an example with some mediocre photo shop. To remove it, I put the board in a clamp (there are components on the bottom of the board directly beneath the encoder so don't let anything touch those while you're working). Then use just a touch of flux on each joint (you really don't need much) and a heat gun at about 400-450F (~220C). Since the solder is lead-free it requires that extra heat. KEEP THE HEAT GUN MOVING AROUND THE COMPONENT SO YOU DON'T MELT SOMETHING IMPORTANT. Once you start seeing the solder liquefying, grab the component with tweezers and give it just a light tug as you continue to heat. It should pop right off. TRY TO KEEP HEAT ON THE PADS AFTER YOU REMOVE IT. KEEP THE HEAT GUN MOVING. Grab a new encoder and while the solder is still liquid, place the new one on the board. It should set right in the solder without too much effort (there's also centering pegs on the component that sit into holes on the board to help straighten it out. Keep pressure on the component. Remove the heat and it should solidify nicely. If it doesn't, you can use a soldering iron and add just a bit of solder to each joint. Clean the entire area with isopropyl alcohol. Sit back and admire your handy work. Assembly is the reverse of disassembly but make sure the power switch is seated correctly. SMD/SMT components can be a bit intimidating and even soldering in general but I find it helpful to do a dry run and go through all the motions before proceeding to make sure you have a rhythm down. Just know that when I did it, I had an electronics manufacturing facility and some very knowledgeable people to work with (it's where I work. Though I don't solder stuff too often. I'm in charge of machine programming so I'm at a computer most of the time). Also when I did it, I used solder paste instead of flux and didn't keep the heat on through removal and replacement of the component so I was left with cold solder joints for one of my co-workers to touch up for me. Certainly not ideal but I'm lucky to be around these resources and people. You may not be so lucky. I'm sure some of you might ask "why don't you just replace the headset?". It should be fairly obvious as to why but for those of you that want more info on the subject, I largely value the experience. Trying new things and honing an existing "skill" is something that I really enjoy. If I have the knowledge, the ability, and time to repair this stuff, I'm going to. Also the headset was $200 when I bought it ?.