I took a saw to a video card... and it still works! (Pix)

[Eug]

Here are the gory pictures.

 

[FoBoT]

uh
i think they make smaller cards
that is cool that it still works, but its surprising

 

[Powermoloch]

:Q

 

[Ika]

Surprising that nothing broke.

 

[fs5]

you sawed through a connecter. the traces you went through are for whatever plugs into those pins. I bet that connecter don't work any mo.

 

[everman]

This also works for converting a PCI-E into an AGP card.

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
uh
i think they make smaller cards
that is cool that it still works, but its surprising

Yeah, the Radeon 9200 I ordered should be smaller. Plus it should not be as hot as the GeForce 2 MX. They're both fanless, but the GeForce 2 MX gets very hot to the touch.

Consider me just as surprised it works. What made me try it is a few of things.

1) It's a PC card, flashed to work on a Mac. That header in the pic is non-existent on the Mac cards.
2) The traces are only to that header, which isn't used anyway with the Mac firmware AFAIK.
3) I have no other use for this card. If I didn't do this, I'd probably just give it away (or even throw it away).
4) OS X without OpenGL GUI acceleration was driving me crazy, and the card I ordered won't arrive for several weeks.

 

[chuckywang]

Originally posted by: everman
This also works for converting a PCI-E into an AGP card.

Really?

 

[Ricemarine]

I thought this would be related to that person that tried to fit a video card even though the interfaces were incompatible...

Forgot if it was AGP -> PCI-E or vice versa... It was funny .

 

[Eug]

Somebody seriously did that? If true, then I guess I don't win the braindead hack award.

 

[Journer]

interesting....i probably wouldnt have hacked it

 

[mugs]

Try cutting a section out of the middle and see how it works.

 

[ForumMaster]

Originally posted by: Ricemarine
I thought this would be related to that person that tried to fit a video card even though the interfaces were incompatible...

Forgot if it was AGP -> PCI-E or vice versa... It was funny .

it was worse: a PCI-E 7800 something into an old dell that only had PCI slots. $300 went down the drain for that.

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: mugs
Try cutting a section out of the middle and see how it works.

Heh. The video card gods were with me on this one. I suspect that there wasn't much of importance at the periphery where I cut.

Originally posted by: ForumMaster

Originally posted by: Ricemarine
I thought this would be related to that person that tried to fit a video card even though the interfaces were incompatible...

Forgot if it was AGP -> PCI-E or vice versa... It was funny .

it was worse: a PCI-E 7800 something into an old dell that only had PCI slots. $300 went down the drain for that.

Link?

 

[RichUK]

Originally posted by: chuckywang

Originally posted by: everman
This also works for converting a PCI-E into an AGP card.

Really?

lol

 

[quakefiend420]

Originally posted by: ForumMaster

Originally posted by: Ricemarine
I thought this would be related to that person that tried to fit a video card even though the interfaces were incompatible...

Forgot if it was AGP -> PCI-E or vice versa... It was funny .

it was worse: a PCI-E 7800 something into an old dell that only had PCI slots. $300 went down the drain for that.

fvcking idiots...link?

 

[Cutterhead]

Originally posted by: quakefiend420

Originally posted by: ForumMaster

Originally posted by: Ricemarine
I thought this would be related to that person that tried to fit a video card even though the interfaces were incompatible...

Forgot if it was AGP -> PCI-E or vice versa... It was funny .

it was worse: a PCI-E 7800 something into an old dell that only had PCI slots. $300 went down the drain for that.

fvcking idiots...link?

I remember that thread. He had pictures of it, too... probably a year or more ago though, so it is long burried somewhere.

 

[dullard]

I've done that before with a PCB. Although, I never cut any traces. The thing worked quite well.

 

[AdamK47]

Woah, talk about low end hardware.

 

[SaltBoy]

GeForce 2 MX? Radeon 9200?

What is this computer used for?!

 

[Philippine Mango]

Originally posted by: Cutterhead

Originally posted by: quakefiend420

Originally posted by: ForumMaster

Originally posted by: Ricemarine
I thought this would be related to that person that tried to fit a video card even though the interfaces were incompatible...

Forgot if it was AGP -> PCI-E or vice versa... It was funny .

it was worse: a PCI-E 7800 something into an old dell that only had PCI slots. $300 went down the drain for that.

fvcking idiots...link?

I remember that thread. He had pictures of it, too... probably a year or more ago though, so it is long burried somewhere.

I have pics if you're interested.

 

[Savij]

I don't see what the problem is. those traces weren't going anywhere. Anyone actually use those pins on the vid card? ever?

 

[Alex]

Originally posted by: Aflac
Surprising that nothing broke.

nice job!

i was expecting somehtig more extreme like sawing the card in half or something but good job dude youre one brave soul

 

[acemcmac]

G4 cube, haven't seen one of those in <years>

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: Savij
I don't see what the problem is. those traces weren't going anywhere. Anyone actually use those pins on the vid card? ever?

I don't even know what those pins do. In fact, with the Mac firmware those pins may be totally dead, cuz the Mac version of the card has no such pins. (This is a PC GeForce 2 MX which was flashed with a Mac firmware.)

As for the what the problem is, I've been told by someone else that even you see zero traces on the surface there's still a possibility of shorting the power layer of the card. Obviously I got lucky, but as I said this was essentially a useless card for me otherwise anyway, and it's temporary.

Originally posted by: SaltBoy
GeForce 2 MX? Radeon 9200?

What is this computer used for?!

Right now, this Cube is doing pretty much nothing except surfing and playing some 480p H.264 videos. I have it hooked up to an LCD TV in my den. (My main machine is a 24" 2.33 GHz iMac Core 2 Duo with 7600 GT.) In fact I wouldn't have even bothered replacing the ATI Rage 128 Pro in the Cube except it seems that Apple needs OpenGL in "Quartz Extreme" even just for showing video. Without a card that supports QE, lowly 480p H.264 will stutter. It means I can't even watch current movie trailers on this machine with the Rage card, which obviously is extremely irritating even just for a surfing machine.