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: