Ghetto Mods

[Papahyooie]

Not worth improving upon that design. If I wanted to do it right I'd make a system capable of withstanding high pressure and use R134-a refrigerant instead of alcohol.

Fair enough. I was an HVAC technician in a past life, so I would probably do it lol.

I'm not sure R134-a would work without a compressor in the mix though.

(edit: After some looking around, it seems it R134-a CAN work passively, but it wouldn't do any better than the alcohol.)

 

[DR4G00N]

It will, it just needs the right pressure to raise the evaporation point to around 30C. In which it will stay as a liquid until enough heat is applied to the base to make it evaporate into the condenser. Then it condenses from the cooler ambient air and returns to the base.
Basically a high power heatpipe.

 

[Papahyooie]

It will, it just needs the right pressure to raise the evaporation point to around 30C. In which it will stay as a liquid until enough heat is applied to the base to make it evaporate into the condenser. Then it condenses from the cooler ambient air and returns to the base.
Basically a high power heatpipe.

760 Torr is sea level pressure. R134a evaps at -15C at that pressure. To get to 30C you'd need 15k Torr, or about 300psi. That's one heck of a cooler lol.

 

[DR4G00N]

760 Torr is sea level pressure. R134a evaps at -15C at that pressure. To get to 30C you'd need 15k Torr, or about 300psi. That's one heck of a cooler lol.

I don't think it's quite that much pressure. I believe Akasa used r134-a in their Revo AK-925 cooler, though it could be something else.

 

[Papahyooie]

I don't think it's quite that much pressure. I believe Akasa used r134-a in their Revo AK-925 cooler, though it could be something else.

Well, you are right about one thing... my calc was wrong. I substituted -15F for -15C. The actual boiling point of R134A at sea level pressure is -26.3C.

So... redo the calculation, and in order to get the boiling point of R134A to 30C you'd need... 37214 Torr... or about 720PSI.

 

[jboydgolfer]

"New" GTX1070 had flimsy thermal pads under the Heatsink. Long ago, i learned to save RAM heatsinks , since underneath, they often have thermal pads, which if you need & dont have any, can be a real PITA. so........(if youve ever installed after market RAM in a Dell optiplexSFF, you'll know why the HS on RAM is a pita & why you might end up removing them)

opened the 1070 & saw this.....

which are this after the slightest touch

Went into my PC "junk" box, and got these..theres usually one on each side

& this is the finshed product, as well as a decent idle & loaded Temp drop...Win/Win

 

[micropage7]

"New" GTX1070 had flimsy thermal pads under the Heatsink. Long ago, i learned to save RAM heatsinks , since underneath, they often have thermal pads, which if you need & dont have any, can be a real PITA. so........(if youve ever installed after market RAM in a Dell optiplexSFF, you'll know why the HS on RAM is a pita & why you might end up removing them)

opened the 1070 & saw this.....

which are this after the slightest touch

Went into my PC "junk" box, and got these..theres usually one on each side

& this is the finshed product, as well as a decent idle & loaded Temp drop...Win/Win

i used to use a little bit smaller thermal pad coz after squeezed it will fully cover the chip
btw there's discolor on the thermal pad?

 

[lexluthermiester]

& this is the finished product, as well as a decent idle & loaded Temp drop...Win/Win

Well nice that. The original thermal pads looked ghetto nasty. Your mod looks almost factory professional.

 

[natr0n]

I'm using this high cfm fan in my psu.It had a 4 pin molex that wasnt ideal had to wiggle it to make contact. I got a donor 2 pin psu fan header and 3 pin fan header made a cable. The thing is the psu 2 pin power is based on psu load barely moved air. I used the 3 pin direct to mobo works well ice cold even under stress. I left the 2 pin on there tucked away in case I want to use it on something else down the road.

 

[witkazy]

My big ol' cat wrecked audio line out on my tiny asrock ab350m pro4

with heavy heart had to perform full frontall moddity on my recent build
Before :

After:

Keep telling myself that its temporary solution but its working great so im afraid it will be a while before ill redo it.

 

[silkstone]

My big ol' cat wrecked audio line out on my tiny asrock ab350m pro4
View attachment 111743
with heavy heart had to perform full frontall moddity on my recent build
Before :
View attachment 111744
After:
View attachment 111745
Keep telling myself that its temporary solution but its working great so im afraid it will be a while before ill redo it.

That is pretty damn Ghetto. You could tidy it up a little by doing a lineman's splice and getting a little heatshrink.

 

[witkazy]

That is pretty damn Ghetto. You could tidy it up a little by doing a lineman's splice and getting a little heatshrink.

coulda,woulda,shoulda....

 

[silentbogo]

Got this ghetto-laptop in a trade for a small repair (pretty much free).
I'm not the one who did this stuff, but I guess now I'm the one who has to deal with it.
It's a Dell Vostro V131 in its base configuration, but has some optional stuff like fingerprint scanner. There is a typical flaw in V131 and Latitude 3330 (along with few dozen newer 6th and 7th gen DELLs) where LCD hinges break off the LCD cover. A previous owner or someone before him (since this is definitely a re-refurbished unit from somewhere in Norway, judging by the keyboard layout) wasn't really generous on repair budget, so the original red LCD cover was replaced with silver one. Also, a bottom RAM/HDD cover became silver at some point of its life.
Once this wondorous device moved from EU to Ukraine, both hinges finally gave out. Some genius decided to mount one side with a bunch of epoxy (which looks more like fine-grained cement), and for some even weirder reason attach the other side with hot glue...

I don't wanna spend too much money on this thing (LCD cover is like $35 in China, and they only have silver ones left), so tomorrow I'm gonna start fixing it with whatever I have in my workshop. I'm even thinking about spray-painting both covers to be of a matching color. Maybe add some fancy masking tape art

 

[witkazy]

Got this ghetto-laptop in a trade for a small repair (pretty much free).
I'm not the one who did this stuff, but I guess now I'm the one who has to deal with it.
It's a Dell Vostro V131 in its base configuration, but has some optional stuff like fingerprint scanner. There is a typical flaw in V131 and Latitude 3330 (along with few dozen newer 6th and 7th gen DELLs) where LCD hinges break off the LCD cover. A previous owner or someone before him (since this is definitely a re-refurbished unit from somewhere in Norway, judging by the keyboard layout) wasn't really generous on repair budget, so the original red LCD cover was replaced with silver one. Also, a bottom RAM/HDD cover became silver at some point of its life.
Once this wondorous device moved from EU to Ukraine, both hinges finally gave out. Some genius decided to mount one side with a bunch of epoxy (which looks more like fine-grained cement), and for some even weirder reason attach the other side with hot glue...
View attachment 111864
I don't wanna spend too much money on this thing (LCD cover is like $35 in China, and they only have silver ones left), so tomorrow I'm gonna start fixing it with whatever I have in my workshop. I'm even thinking about spray-painting both covers to be of a matching color. Maybe add some fancy masking tape art

In duct tape we trust

 

[micropage7]

One solution for ink refill without put out the catridge
Just drill it
Not recommended

 

[silentbogo]

One solution for ink refill without put out the catridge
Just drill it

Back in college we used to do it on old Canon inkjet printers all the time. They had no page counter for locking the cartridge, and good italian ink was cheap as hell.

 

[witkazy]

1 dvd cover + 1 cd cover + duct tape = 1 lcd
enclosure for 5" portable display

 

[Ruru]

Snapped the VRM part from the original Windforce cooler, just snapped the heatpipes. It does it job just fine.

 

[Mac2580]

Struggled with stutter for a while with fx 8300 and trash mobo. Decided to do something about it by cooling vrm, with stock amd fan suspended in mid air using speaker wire. It worked perfectly and stutter dissappeared. Have since replaced with heatsink.

 

[Komshija]

I have a big problems with in-ear earphones. Always the same problem, always the right earphone stops working.

I had probably 20 or more of them, price range from 5 € to 90 €, brands like Sony, Shure, Pioneer, Shennheiser, Beats, Creative, TDK, Philips Sharkoon... you name it. Needless to say that not even one of them managed to last 1 full year. The problem is always in the connection wires near the jack because they are specifically designed to break after a while so that you have to buy new ones. It's capitalism at its finest.

Just to note that I have old Sony earphones from mid 80's and despite serious wear and tear they still work like a charm, something that no modern post 2000 earphones will ever manage to achieve, regardless if they cost 5 € or 500 €. Because of that, I don't like anymore to spend more that 10 € on earphones, because I know 110% that they will not last more than a year.

So, to give them a slightly better endurance, I wrapped the whole area with some medical tape. At least it provides some extra protection and they manage to outlast 8 months, something that's unachiveable for 99% of modern earphones with everyday use. It's not that I deliberately tear them and don't care about them, but I also don't keep them under the glass bell.

 

[Supercrit]

I have a big problems with in-ear earphones. Always the same problem, always the right earphone stops working.

I had probably 20 or more of them, price range from 5 € to 90 €, brands like Sony, Shure, Pioneer, Shennheiser, Beats, Creative, TDK, Philips Sharkoon... you name it. Needless to say that not even one of them managed to last 1 full year. The problem is always in the connection wires near the jack because they are specifically designed to break after a while so that you have to buy new ones. It's capitalism at its finest.

Just to note that I have old Sony earphones from mid 80's and despite serious wear and tear they still work like a charm, something that no modern post 2000 earphones will ever manage to achieve, regardless if they cost 5 € or 500 €. Because of that, I don't like anymore to spend more that 10 € on earphones, because I know 110% that they will not last more than a year.

So, to give them a slightly better endurance, I wrapped the whole area with some medical tape. At least it provides some extra protection and they manage to outlast 8 months, something that's unachiveable for 99% of modern earphones with everyday use. It's not that I deliberately tear them and don't care about them, but I also don't keep them under the glass bell.
View attachment 113911

I avoid straight plug heardphones/earphones at all cost, they break way too quickly due to no way to soften the strain by rotating in the jack. Always make sure to purchase those with L plug.

 

[PLAfiller]

The patient: Asus Dual RX480.
The problem: The replacement fan that I ordered from Aliexpress was female connector instead of a male. I didn't check beforehand to be honest.
The solution: I spliced the things together They both spin now. I also ended up changing the TIM and thermal pads on the VRM.

 

[storm-chaser]

Video card cooling mod (still going strong 3+ years later)

 

[Papahyooie]

Video card cooling mod (still going strong 3+ years later)

I once strapped an intel stock cooler to a geforce 8500gt with zipe ties and nearly doubled the core clock speed if I recall correctly. Wish I had pictures.

 

[micropage7]

The patient: Asus Dual RX480.
The problem: The replacement fan that I ordered from Aliexpress was female connector instead of a male. I didn't check beforehand to be honest.
The solution: I spliced the things together They both spin now. I also ended up changing the TIM and thermal pads on the VRM.

View attachment 113912

View attachment 113913

View attachment 113914

View attachment 113915

View attachment 113916

View attachment 113917

View attachment 113918

But it's pretty neat