32m spi on epoxy chip

I have a K6-2+ 533 ACZ that's been collecting dust, so why not try it and see?
Thought I'd show a photo of how I decap: I rotate it and keep my fingers clear, doing each corner like that. That's an anti static mat that's grounded. Right now it's running at 550 @2.1 volts, no issue so far.

I'm running Prime95 right now just to make sure, but it completed 3D Mark 2000 with no issue. I've proven that it can be done with a soldering iron (not that great of one at that) but the photogenic results that some have achieved when doing this require probably at least a heat gun. Maybe Sphere is on to something - reinstalling the IHS both protects the core, and hides less than pretty work.

So far so good.

Tetrium wrote on 2022-03-06, 10:31:

There was never an incentive to try, as for the longest time there were plentiful K6-2+ and K6-3+ to be found. K6-3+ only ran ou […]
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Repo Man11 wrote on 2022-03-06, 01:43:

Congratulations to Sphere for pursuing this. I mostly didn't think it was possible because I was sure that if it were, it would have been discovered decades ago.

There was never an incentive to try, as for the longest time there were plentiful K6-2+ and K6-3+ to be found. K6-3+ only ran out some years ago and prices are not low anymore, so now there's incentive to try out mods like these.

Iirc a somewhat similar cache mod is possible with some of the sA Athlon XPs, but I never ended up trying it (it involved something with those bridges).

I have wondered for a longer time if a similar mod could be possible on s370 CPUs btw, that could make things very interesting if this were the case.

In 2001 I was broke as hell so my upgrade from a Biostar VX board to an Asus P55T2P4 with a K6-2+ (after reading about it on Tom's Hardware) would have been even better could I have done a mod to the K6-2+ 475 that I bought for I think just under $50.00 from Tiger Direct. Back then K6-3+ were hard to find and generally about twice the price.

Congrats!

533 added to OP list

Repo Man11 wrote on 2022-03-14, 03:51:

I'm running Prime95 right now just to make sure, but it completed 3D Mark 2000 with no issue. I've proven that it can be done with a soldering iron (not that great of one at that) but the photogenic results that some have achieved when doing this require probably at least a heat gun. Maybe Sphere is on to something - reinstalling the IHS both protects the core, and hides less than pretty work.

I’m happy to report basically a perfect result by switching to thermally conductive epoxy for the core and corners. (Although purists, may want to continue the search for the original stuff used, I think thermally conducting hard setting epoxy works very well for this.)

Not only does it look good, it functions good and I am now fully recommending it for everyone doing the mod.

Manipulating the heatsink, pulling the heatsink off while paste was suctioning to it, and thermal tests are all looking good. It’s on there very well.

Prepare the chip and IHS by removing all oils/residues with acetone, and be sure it’s fully dry and clean of all original adhesive.

If you are unfamiliar with epoxy, try it out on some stuff first. It is very important that you mix it very very very well, and quickly! I used a small flat head screw driver as a applicator and mixer.

Fully cover the *TOP* of the core, (don’t just dab the middle and trust it to spread) but also don’t make it thick. (See pics from page 13 with the polyurethane)

The only catch is you must have some acetone ready while doing the mod also, in case it goes on wrong (oozes out the side, looks bad), so you have to get the amounts right, and you have to be quick! It sets up fast.

But yeah, I encourage everyone who has done this mod to order that epoxy and reinstall the IHS post haste. We have a winner. Let’s save those cores. 😀

Any advice about where to get this thermal epoxy? It seems available in US only :\

Nemo1985 wrote on 2022-03-14, 06:06:

Any advice about where to get this thermal epoxy? It seems available in US only :\

I got mine from ebay.

Is that where you looked?

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-03-14, 05:46:

Congrats! […]
Show full quote

Congrats!

533 added to OP list

Repo Man11 wrote on 2022-03-14, 03:51:

I'm running Prime95 right now just to make sure, but it completed 3D Mark 2000 with no issue. I've proven that it can be done with a soldering iron (not that great of one at that) but the photogenic results that some have achieved when doing this require probably at least a heat gun. Maybe Sphere is on to something - reinstalling the IHS both protects the core, and hides less than pretty work.

I’m happy to report basically a perfect result by switching to epoxy for the core and corners.

Not only does it look good, it functions good and I am now fully recommending it for everyone doing the mod.

The only catch is you must have some acetone ready in case it goes on wrong, you have to get the amounts right, and you have to be quick.it sets up fast.

But yeah, I encourage everyone who has done this mod to order that epoxy and reinstall the ihs post haste. We have a winner.

But, if using the thermal epoxy, there will be no way out of opening it up again to revert the work, right? (in case someone would like to preserve their original 2+) 😀

H3nrik V! wrote on 2022-03-14, 06:32:

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-03-14, 05:46:

Congrats! […]
Show full quote

Congrats!

533 added to OP list

Repo Man11 wrote on 2022-03-14, 03:51:

I'm running Prime95 right now just to make sure, but it completed 3D Mark 2000 with no issue. I've proven that it can be done with a soldering iron (not that great of one at that) but the photogenic results that some have achieved when doing this require probably at least a heat gun. Maybe Sphere is on to something - reinstalling the IHS both protects the core, and hides less than pretty work.

I’m happy to report basically a perfect result by switching to epoxy for the core and corners.

Not only does it look good, it functions good and I am now fully recommending it for everyone doing the mod.

The only catch is you must have some acetone ready in case it goes on wrong, you have to get the amounts right, and you have to be quick.it sets up fast.

But yeah, I encourage everyone who has done this mod to order that epoxy and reinstall the ihs post haste. We have a winner.

But, if using the thermal epoxy, there will be no way out of opening it up again to revert the work, right? (in case someone would like to preserve their original 2+) 😀

It is assumed that would be correct.

It is encouraged that this mod be done to k6-2+ 570 chips. And not to the other models. For these reasons:

-The 570s are available by the thousands. Are not rare and are so far unlocking with 100% success rate.

-The other plus chips are rare. We shouldn’t modify them. And doing so hurts their value.

-Anyone with non 570 chips can sell them to collectors and basically get the money to buy a (3) 570(s). Which is a better chip and will clock higher and have a higher success chance.

-If you mess it up, you can get another 570 and not feel bad.

-on a 570 it could be considered a pretty good bet that you can safely skip the testing with no ihs installed. And still be confident of a good result. Avoiding the risk of chipping the core

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-03-14, 06:28:

Nemo1985 wrote on 2022-03-14, 06:06:

Any advice about where to get this thermal epoxy? It seems available in US only :\

I got mine from ebay.

Is that where you looked?

I just watched on ebay (before I searched with google and mouser said it was possible to buy it only if I were living in US.

Same for ebay, I just checked now, it's sold in US only (apparently they can ship abroad).

Nemo1985 wrote on 2022-03-14, 07:02:

Sphere478 wrote on 2022-03-14, 06:28:

Nemo1985 wrote on 2022-03-14, 06:06:

Any advice about where to get this thermal epoxy? It seems available in US only :\

I got mine from ebay.

Is that where you looked?

I just watched on ebay (before I searched with google and mouser said it was possible to buy it only if I were living in US.

Same for ebay, I just checked now, it's sold in US only (apparently they can ship abroad).

Good. I’m understanding it says they can ship to you? If issues, pm seller?

Another suggestion,

There are going to be people buying these tubes to do only one cpu, and will have a mostly full tube remaining which won’t store forever (the hardener goes bad eventually) perhaps people could report location and availability and pass it around?

Personally, I expect to find use for the rest of mine though. But just a thought.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2022-03-14, 04:45:

Tetrium wrote on 2022-03-06, 10:31:

There was never an incentive to try, as for the longest time there were plentiful K6-2+ and K6-3+ to be found. K6-3+ only ran ou […]
Show full quote

Repo Man11 wrote on 2022-03-06, 01:43:

Congratulations to Sphere for pursuing this. I mostly didn't think it was possible because I was sure that if it were, it would have been discovered decades ago.

There was never an incentive to try, as for the longest time there were plentiful K6-2+ and K6-3+ to be found. K6-3+ only ran out some years ago and prices are not low anymore, so now there's incentive to try out mods like these.

Iirc a somewhat similar cache mod is possible with some of the sA Athlon XPs, but I never ended up trying it (it involved something with those bridges).

I have wondered for a longer time if a similar mod could be possible on s370 CPUs btw, that could make things very interesting if this were the case.

In 2001 I was broke as hell so my upgrade from a Biostar VX board to an Asus P55T2P4 with a K6-2+ (after reading about it on Tom's Hardware) would have been even better could I have done a mod to the K6-2+ 475 that I bought for I think just under $50.00 from Tiger Direct. Back then K6-3+ were hard to find and generally about twice the price.

Yes. I could have specified this a bit more detailed.
Usually it would take a while before an item sold as new or as fairly recent before prices would basically collapse.
I bought my K6-3+ chips when they were cheapest and that seller seemed to have an endless supply of these chips.
it's always a price curve which usually starts out high, then at some point decreases until at some point it sits at a lowest spot at which it will eventually increase again.

I've been watching K6-x prices on and off since 1999, though I've had the complication that they need to ship to Canada, in general it always seemed K6-III 2+ and 3+ in 400Mhz and faster were always over $50 or out of stock. Plenty of times I saw them listed at $30 or less, but gone when I tried to order. Anyway, in the time period where the performance was still useful, up to about 2005 before you needed a ghz plus in your office/surfer the 2+ didn't seem far behind the 3+ price wise, so I guess if we had known about this back then, it would be $60 on a maybe vs $70 on a sure thing. Not sure when the lowest low for these was, I might haven been "uninterested" through those years (maybe 2008 thru 2012 I wasn't paying much attention to older stuff)

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-03-14, 16:56:

I've been watching K6-x prices on and off since 1999, though I've had the complication that they need to ship to Canada, in general it always seemed K6-III 2+ and 3+ in 400Mhz and faster were always over $50 or out of stock. Plenty of times I saw them listed at $30 or less, but gone when I tried to order. Anyway, in the time period where the performance was still useful, up to about 2005 before you needed a ghz plus in your office/surfer the 2+ didn't seem far behind the 3+ price wise, so I guess if we had known about this back then, it would be $60 on a maybe vs $70 on a sure thing. Not sure when the lowest low for these was, I might haven been "uninterested" through those years (maybe 2008 thru 2012 I wasn't paying much attention to older stuff)

Tbh, I'm not sure when exactly I bought my K6-3+ chips. I'm kinda sure it was a seller located in Germany though (but still not 100% positive, I may be mixing this guy up with the guy I got my 233MMX chips from?) as I remember seeing him sell to only within Germany (I'm located in The Netherlands which literally borders Germany, just mentioning for anyone who happens to not know) and eventually I either asked him if he could send the chips to one of my relatives living over there at the time or if I could pay extra for him to ship to The Netherlands directly. In the end he ended up selling to me directly partially because I bought quite a few chips from him (life long supply for private use secured! 😜). He had thousands iirc and no way I would have bought as many chips as I did if they were like €30 each, they must have been much cheaper than that. If you were active at the time you must have known about this particular seller, he was as well known to vogoners as this one K6-2+ seller is today. Someone else here must know about who I'm referring to.
So even though I'm only fairly sure about the location of this one seller (Germany), I'm 100% positive about the price because I know for sure I would have only bought 1 or 2 chips from him if price for an individual chip was close to €20 or more.

Would be great if someone else here knowing this one 400ATZ seller from back then would chime in 😁

But anyway, after I got my chips, prices only rose slowly and even before the K6-3+/400 ATZ guy sold out, I remember feeling kinda sorry for the ones who were paying x-fold more for a single chip and this price was still wayyy lower than what prices of today are.

Here goes another,
I’m getting pretty good at this.

I can confirm that the epoxy can be considered quite permanent. Inspection of extra mixed material from previous cpu reveals a material with properties similar to something between glass and plastic.

This time around I used a iron and hot air for the resistor, I moved the resistor and pressed it down before adding the flux. Was kinda concerned about adding cold flux to a hot cpu, might not do that again. But looks good.

I’m testing on my tyan, it maxes out at 66fsb. I’ll test 600mhz later. I’m sure it will do fine though. The rest have.

I know it may seem redundant to keep posting about 570 chips but it helps get a larger data set for the OP

I have to say, @Sphere478, when you first mentioned the possibility of modding a K6-2+ to a K6-3+, I kinda laughed it off, thinking that something like this would've been discovered a long time ago.
Of course, in hindsight, it does make sense that such an option was never explored in the past.
All in all, kudos for pursuing this with so much zeal! 😀

Anyway, I also modded one of my K6-2+ 570 CPUs to a K6-3+ 570.

My steps:
1. As you suggested, I used an old traditional thin razor to remove the heatsink (pretty straightforward, took me < 5 minutes).
2. Then I installed the CPU on the first Socket 7 MB that I could find, to make the cleanup process easier (I don't have a vise in my house).
3. The wife enjoyed the whole process as well, and helped me with cleaning up the old epoxy/silicone (I actually filmed this very "special" procedure 🤣), which was surprisingly easy for her... nails.
4. Switching the resistor to the other pad was the easiest part, it took me 30 seconds with the hot air station (I do have quite a bit of soldering experience, though).
5. After that, I applied some Arctic MX-2 paste on the die, mixed a bit of standard transparent "Bison" epoxy that I had lying around, and applied 4 small drops on all four corners. I used the MX-2 paste, because I don't want this to be a permanent thing (+ I don't have any thermal epoxy, anyway).
6. Immediately after that, very carefully, I installed the CPU on a motherboard (Gigabyte GA-5AA rev 3.2), and mounted a beefy cooler on top (which puts a nice even pressure on the heatsink, until the epoxy cures).

And... succes! The CPU works flawlessly at the exact same frequency that I had it running before on this MB (110 x 5.5 = 605 MHz). It passed a couple of hours of Prime 95 (small FFTs) without a hiccup.
Also, I've gotta say, the performance difference after modding it to a K6-3+ really surprised me (especially the 3DMark99 scores):

BENCHMARK RESULTS BEFORE MOD:
3DMark99 default: 4836 3DMarks / 8418 CPU Marks
3DMark2000 default: 4328 3DMarks / 267 CPU Marks

BENCHMARK RESULTS AFTER MOD:
3DMark99 default: 5412 3DMarks / 9282 CPU Marks
3DMark2000 default: 4872 3DMarks / 307 CPU Marks

Some pics:

bloodem wrote on 2022-03-16, 11:14:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGPTfty8pvI

Is... is this delidding ASMR? 😂

Doornkaat wrote on 2022-03-16, 13:00:

Is... is this delidding ASMR? 😂

It could very well be, yeah 🤣

bloodem wrote on 2022-03-16, 11:14:

I have to say, @Sphere478, when you first mentioned the possibility of modding a K6-2+ to a K6-3+, I kinda laughed it off, think […]
Show full quote

I have to say, @Sphere478, when you first mentioned the possibility of modding a K6-2+ to a K6-3+, I kinda laughed it off, thinking that something like this would've been discovered a long time ago.
Of course, in hindsight, it does make sense that such an option was never explored in the past.
All in all, kudos for pursuing this with so much zeal! 😀

Anyway, I also modded one of my K6-2+ 570 CPUs to a K6-3+ 570.

My steps:
1. As you suggested, I used an old traditional thin razor to remove the heatsink (pretty straightforward, took me < 5 minutes).
2. Then I installed the CPU on the first Socket 7 MB that I could find, to make the cleanup process easier (I don't have a vise in my house).
3. The wife enjoyed the whole process as well, and helped me with cleaning up the old epoxy/silicone (I actually filmed this very "special" procedure 🤣), which was surprisingly easy for her... nails.
4. Switching the resistor to the other pad was the easiest part, it took me 30 seconds with the hot air station (I do have quite a bit of soldering experience, though).
5. After that, I applied some Arctic MX-2 paste on the die, mixed a bit of standard transparent "Bison" epoxy that I had lying around, and applied 4 small drops on all four corners. I used the MX-2 paste, because I don't want this to be a permanent thing (+ I don't have any thermal epoxy, anyway).
6. Immediately after that, very carefully, I installed the CPU on a motherboard (Gigabyte GA-5AA rev 3.2), and mounted a beefy cooler on top (which puts a nice even pressure on the heatsink, until the epoxy cures).

And... succes! The CPU works flawlessly at the exact same frequency that I had it running before on this MB (110 x 5.5 = 605 MHz). It passed a couple of hours of Prime 95 (small FFTs) without a hiccup.
Also, I've gotta say, the performance difference after modding it to a K6-3+ really surprised me (especially the 3DMark99 scores):

BENCHMARK RESULTS BEFORE MOD:
3DMark99 default: 4836 3DMarks / 8418 CPU Marks
3DMark2000 default: 4328 3DMarks / 267 CPU Marks

BENCHMARK RESULTS AFTER MOD:
3DMark99 default: 5412 3DMarks / 9282 CPU Marks
3DMark2000 default: 4872 3DMarks / 307 CPU Marks

Some pics:

Thanks for the kind words 😀

I’ve been expecting someone to use paste on the core for a while now. And it should work fine.

Personally, I encourage people to use a permanent solution for the die once the mod is done, provided it’s a 570, I don’t expect anyone will have a reason to take it off again. Many years from now someone may clean the cpu not knowing what was done and it may cause issues if paste was used, or the paste may dry out. I think you did a wonderful job however. And am only sharing my thoughts. Good job!

I’ve added your result to OP for documentation.