Modifying the ASUS P2B-B

or any mainboard that uses the HIP6019 voltage controller to manually selectable core voltage.



This mainboard (P2B) is a cool piece of hardware , highly overclockable up to 150Mhz FSB , and it works perfectly nice @ 150Mhz too. I have 2 of them, one have been modified a month ago , and runs a old  P2 350 @ 525Mhz    (3.5x150Mhz) core=2,3Volt   , It can recompress movies to DivX , and that's a badass test that proves the system are stable (more that a Quake3 test does) ,    Recompressing video keeps the CPU at 100% load over 6 hours.

Now another P2B mainboard I have another P2B , with a P3 800 Mhz @ 920Mhz  SCode SL457 ,   and have been unable to run it higher than 920Mhz , no matter what cooling , in fact , the SL457 runs just fine at 920 with the original voltage and fan.    Even a Alpha Cooler + peltier element  that got it to -6 deg. Celsius , didn't help .... Core voltage had to be raised to got over 920Mhz .

I found the Voltage regulator on board ., it is a HIP6019BCB (from Intersil) , it's datasheet shows the options very well, but they are controlled by CPU , ...

 

1.3v to 2.1v ... in 0.05volt  increments  ,  and 2.1v to 3.5v in 0.1v increments , is pretty cool  

So , I need to intercept the five lines from processor to voltage regulator IC , so I desoldered the pins from the PCB

Now , each signal from the CPU should go to a jumper block , so each HIP6019B pin can be put HIGH or LOW or "Default" (as the CPU says) 10 thin wires had to be soldered on the MB-PCB and IC , and all 10 to the jumper-board.   Plus additional wires , one thru a 4.7K pull-up resistor to +5V the  other to GND.

And everything had to be secured with epoxy ,(a bad connection here could result in a fried P3 800)

 

here's a more colorful picture , showing the 10+2 thin wires

, And here is a bad drawing that shows the options , each voltage signal can be put "high" or "low" (deciding the voltage be looking it up in the table above) , or horizontally , allowing the CPU decide the voltage , useful for new , unknown CPU's , when I'm unsure about what they default are

 

Use at own risk , if your brand new P3 800 burn up , your  goldfish drawn , or your car crash  -  don't blame me.