We are finalizing the video card. By file

We all heard the anectic about men who dopilivali files to files in the motherboard climbed, more than once pleased us this joke in different variations ... However, it took me here at leisure something to count (zhestkach full, but this is another story) - in the motherboard I have 3 pieces of PCI-E x16 (and 2 x1), but the bottom 2 ones are in such a way that only one card can be put there (double slot), no matter how cool you are. But you need 3 - for two to count, and for the third so that the desktop does not slow down.

Then my gaze fell on an old man who rescued me more than once - nVidia 8400GS (as I remember, they wanted to sell me 8500GT, because faster, but I was stable :-)), it remains to take a file, and try to shove in x1 slot ...

On Habré there was already an article (about how a slot is cut through the slot and the card is inserted) - but my chipset with a radiator wouldn’t let go so easily (also there wasn’t a problem with the definition of a BIOS card) ... So I decided to go only the right way is not to kill the motherboard, but to cut the connector off the card :-) Let's go!
')
Diamond disks from a well-known store come to the rescue - textolite cuts like butter and is quite clean. I do not recommend cutting "against wool" - the tatters of copper layers will hang and may short out. (Do not forget the glasses - if the disk breaks and in the eye - it will not seem).

When I was cutting - there was such a feeling of surrealism - there was still some kind of trepidation in front of complex electronics, even after all that I already did with it, and then I sit, cut the video card into pieces, everything is in dust ...

On the cut visible vias. Next, you need to chamfer the ribs into 45 'so that the inner layers do not short out - it will be more convenient to file (or the corresponding Dremel attachment, I have no idea what it is called), strictly “on wool” (board at least 4 layers). Carefully we look, if the tatters of copper hang where ...

Checked, turn on ... Bios does not see the card. Then I started to get upset - however, it would not be surprising - well, this is like a lobotomy - slashed with an ice pick, and we’ve watched it work or not :-)

It turned out that the card tells the chipset what kind of PCI-E bus it has by closing the corresponding wiring - for x16, x8, x4 and x1 it is its own. The card itself tried to short the wire for x16, which we cut off at the root. Do not worry, we look at the directory where there is for x1, and neatly solder the wire. The wire is immediately fixed with a drop of glue - in order not to accidentally tear off along with the track.
Accordingly, the other end of the wire (marked the blue pin to which to solder - I soldered a little higher from the connector along the track).
Done, everything works - the speed reduction is not noticeable, the video, the desktop, even Team Fortress works :-) By the way, a rare example of the unification of Gigabyte and ASUS (the card was initially passive and constantly overheated, the fan from the first photo did not work, because the connector was not powered as it turned out) :-)

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