Can I do this?? Experts needed~~~ and I mean it. *EXPERT*

[evanichka]

well it would be a lot better than having a "dead" board if it didnt work... no guarantee that it will work fine after you put back the old one... but what is life without risk, hell i would do the soldiering if possble, have lots of other mobos lying around

 

[Budman]

At least selling it is 1 sure way to get some cash back.

Try soldering & mess it up then you wasted your board + the cash you paid for the other chipset.

It's a lot easier to just sell it,this way it's not a total loss.

 

[pm]

I suppose that I qualify as a quasi-expert in this subject.

Could this work? Assuming that you could swap the chips... maybe. You'd need to check the datasheets for the two chips and make absolutely certain that they are pin for pin compatible. For certain you want to make sure that some guy didn't swap VDD and GND (power and ground) pins around - otherwise you could nuke both your board and your power supply and possibly other components on the board. The datasheets may be hard to get a hold off, but I'd check first since the consequences could be serious otherwise. I'd find it exceedingly unlikely that they will be exactly pin for pin compatible. At the minimum pin loading usually changes so you might need to add, remove, or (most likely) change caps and resistors on the motherboard

But I don't think that you can swap the chips. You said that they aren't soldered, but they probably are. Most chipsets nowadays are starting to use BGA/Flip-chip style packaging. You have a ton of really small solder balls on the bottom of the chipset package and you carefully line these up with a bunch of solder points on the motherboard and then you flash heat the two to make the solder bumps melt (but not the chipset or the PCB) and they fuse. Practically speaking it is possible to desolder a BGA chip connection, but it requires practical experience and a lot of expensive equipment and even then it's not a sure-fire thing.

Unless they are totally pin and voltage compatible and they are in swappable sockets (like the BIOS usually is), this is not worth the effort or the risk.

 

[Sugadaddy]

I have to agree with Budman, sell your board and get a new one, it won't cost you that much. I would never take the chance of ruining a $150 mobo to save like $20... (especially when the chances of your surgery working is probably around 1%)

 

[j@cko]

KT7-RAID selling for CDN$230?? It's the same price as KT7 (without RAID).
Or should it be lower? CDN$200??

 

[Budman]

There's about 20$ diff here in Canada for the 2 boards.

 

[LXi]

If swapping chipsets are possible, it will be better than selling.

 

[j@cko]

so, can you guys give me a PRICE that you think people will be interested??

 

[Budman]

Wouldnt it be nice if there was a generic board design & we would just replace chipset's cpu & bios & stuff all on socket's .

Board getting old ? just pop in a new cpu & chipset then flash your bios & your off .

 

[j@cko]

any one?? the price??

 

[Sugadaddy]

You can probably get 200$ CAN for it. BTW, 133mhz fsb cpu's aren't out yet, and if you plan on getting one, why not go for DDR? (at least you'll see a bigger difference)

 

[j@cko]

you mean $200 for a RAID?? really?

 

[j@cko]

so... no one? need a suggested price for used KT7-RAID

 

[pm]

Just go to pricewatch, find a good price (not the lowest, but among the lower ones), and charge 20% less than that price not including shipping. Heck, the restocking fee at a lot of online places is 15% - and that's for stuff that's supposedly new. You might be able to do better, but this way it should sell quickly and the buyer will have the opinion that they got a pretty good deal.

Or list it on E*Bay and see what the auction ends up.

 

[j@cko]

I think this is what I am going to do. (Assume I can get the KT133A chip alone, which I think I can.)
Rip the original chip off the board, which I will not need any more, then clear out the solder iron or whatever it might be in the connection holes, then put the new chip in. There you go, I think this will work.

 

[Zorba]

jack: You sound like you've never done anything like this before. If I am right about that, I can tell you right now you will kill your board. If you can afford to risk killing possibly everything in your computer, then go for it. If you can't just buy a new motherboard.

 

[dafinster]

This will not work, the BIOS will not support the new northbridge. This is just a guess, but if you are asking about something like this than you do not have the surface mounting skills necissary to remove the old chip let alone put the new one in without damaging the board. Last, it would be IMPOSSIBLE to obtain a lone KT133A chip.

 

[j@cko]

perhaps, I am too naive.

 

[AmdEmAll]

That is the crazyest thing ive ever heard. If you have the money then try it, I would like to see how it goes, and take pictures. I highly doubt it would work though. I think you would need special tools to do this.

 

[dafinster]

That idea about the open motherboard design would be awesome, everything on the MObo, just upgrade by replacing single chips. Want 133, buy the chip, want DDR, buy the chip, want ATA 133RAID, buy the freaking chip. What an idea! Some company has got to be shooting this around.

 

[j@cko]

sounds like I am a genus.. (did I spell it right?)

 

[Grminalac]

Well hey while you are at it, you might as well solder a couple PIII's all over the place. I'm sure someone with your skills could figure out how to have the first 10 processor equipped motherboard, also do not forget to solder some ddr memory on your geforce too, hey i get a one gigger geforce would run well.

 

[Budman]

I think he was thinking about my ideal.

your ideal of replacing the chip by soldering will never work.

Is it really that cold in Smiths Falls tonight?

Brain freeze?

 

[j@cko]

how do you know if you never try it?
You know what, I might just bring my board to Abit's headquarter, and ask them to do it for me... hehe.. :disgust::frown:

 

[j@cko]

ya... but it's kinda hot in my room, so, I think you meant FRIED BRAIN