caps and replacing parts on boards - Page 2

looks like 'comp1 and comp2' would be your mod points based on the data sheet.. for the ISL and vMEM. *Volterra is all NDA.. so there is not much to find on them..though I would probe around and see what you can find on the PCB

caps you can get online at a couple places for cheap.. i think Pizza has a place he has ordered from that carries good Q stuff.

*As for VR's .. i order mine online from Radioshack. They ship right to my house and discounted for bulk purchases last time I ordered like 30 - 1500k's 

i would get a few of the following though to stock:

50k VR

100k VR

20k VR

16v 400-1800uf

6.3v 400-600uf

2.5v 250-600uf

those seem to be the ones I go through the quickest.

100uf aint gonna 'make you' or 'break you' ... 'uf' is related to the amount of current energy that the cap can store ..

*if your GPU has good voltage and little droop - adding caps will likely be just to improve power ripple filtering. - in this case a higher Q cap would be more beneficial than having a large 'uf' value.

*if your GPU has 'OK' voltage and a larger vdroop under load - adding caps will help in stabilizing the current. - in this case a larger 'uf' value would be more beneficial; as well as increased voltage range over stock [like 2.5v stock cap = add 4v or 6.3v in its place to hold more current at the location for supply].

I keep the high uf caps for cheap gpu's that needs all the current supply they can get.. both 16v on the input and 2.5-4v on the output. I always use 6.3v caps for vmem.. used to need it with older GDDR2/3 voltage levels.. now with GDDR5 i dont thinks its as necessary to have that much voltage buffer. Good 4v caps would be sufficient.

*Im not an electrical engineer. I cant tell you what the circuit "should" have. I can tell you from experience that its always good to have at least a 2v 'buffer' in voltage tolerance for caps, though its not necessary. The mods we do are not necessary either though ... so its a way of preparing for overkill. Low-end cards will have weaker power designs and need more capacitance/current supply as well as filtering [so both high 'uf' and High Quality solid-type caps would be beneficial]. High-end GPU's will have good capacitance for core and weaker supply for vmem [filtering quality for core will help core OC and additional capacitance/current supply for vmem will help mem OC].