Hotrodding the X-Fi: A Layman's Guide (No 56k) - Page 15

Sure, the problem could well be me. It's my first time at soldering I appreciate all your feedback.

I do think that a 50W iron is a good idea for what cotdt is describing though. When I touch the solder directly to the tip of my 25W iron, it still takes a few seconds before it melts. Also, I've not been able to get solder to melt onto a copper wick. The temperature is just too low for indirect heating. If I heat the opamps legs only, the temp won't be enough to melt the solder.

The solder I'm using is a 0.8mm by Antex (2.5% silver). Is this considered thin enough? Or do I need another one?

Are you using a damp sponge?

If you get blobs,just get rid of them or wipe tip in a damp sponge.

You might want to try appling a touch of solder to the tip then wiping it in a damp sponge then apply a little more solder to the tip.It's easier if you have a touch of solder on the tip.

Then put tip on joint for a couple of seconds and apply a touch more solder.

Maybe your iron is not up to the job but try this first.

Thanks for the tip. I'll try that when doing the opamp. I have a damp sponge - only used it at the end to clean the tip. Am I supposed to use it more frequently? This is a brand new tip by the way, not much residue on it yet.

How do you get just a little solder on the tip? When I melt the solder, it tends not to break off onto the tip, but rather still sticks to the rest of the solder - forming a larger and larger blob at the end. When it finally separates off, I find I have a huge blob.

I agree with RichyRich that is probably just inexperience and not your iron that is giving you some trouble. Unless your iron is just not working properly. I used a 25W iron with no problem.

As for using a sponge and such, what you want to do is tin the tip of the soldering iron right before you go to solder. Put a good amount all around the tip, then wipe it off on a damp sponge and then immediately go to solder. Otherwise the tip of the iron will oxidize and it will not transfer heat very well. Some people also like to add just a little more solder to the tip right after cleaning it off. It's not necessary but you may find it helps a bit. If you are taking particularly long time on something, re-tin the tip of the iron. When working on the opamp I did it once for each side and I was moving quickly on each side.

The black gate is huge. I cannot afford to lose a pci slot, should I still do this mod? I only have 2 pci slots, 1 for my sound card and the other for my betwork card. My card has a heatsink

Sorry, bad advice if your using a pointy tip,mine's got a little bevel for this to work.

Just tin regular and use the sponge often,like before and after each application or every 30 seconds if its taking you a while.

does the front panel have its own OPAMP for the X-Fi Platinum btw

wow this looks really interesting..

All reports say the front panel degrades the sound by a noticeable amount (including review sites that are nowhere near hifi/headfi experienced)

mmm so should i get an extension from the back to the front?

How tall is the blackgate anyways? I might be able to fit it if I move my sound card to the last slot

For the dimensions, look here:
http://www.hificollective.co.uk/comp...dard_type.html

The height are:

2200uF 16V 31.5mm
1000uF 16V 25mm
220uF 16V 20mm

Note that height doesn't decrease much with the smaller capacitors - it's mainly diameter that gets smaller. But really, you can bend the capacitor over the X-Fi, like cotdt. Or you can bend it to the right. Or you can bend it upwards. In fact, you can even mount the capacitor on the reverse side of the card. There's many choices.

The reason I posted those pictures showing the capacitor size is so that you can plan properly how you want to position it. If you make the legs too short like me, you won't have much scope for adjustment. But there's really a lot of ways to make it fit within 1 PCI slot.