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Are 4790k's all different?

BluD

BluD

BluD

Soldato
Joined
6 Jan 2013
Posts
3,774
Location
Yorkshire
Hello, I recently damaged my 4790k by knocking off a few what look like resistors on the front by rushing whilst delidding (was late for a wow raid :D ), instead of binning it i took a look on ebay first and found a guy selling a dead CPU for parts, i figured theyre all the same so i would just steal the resistors i knocked off from that one.

When i opened this cpu i found its completely different under there, its got about 1/3 the amount of resistors and theyre all layed out very differently and are different colours from mine, and even the core size is about 1mm longer and wider.

Firstly is it normal for the CPU layout to be so different, and secondly does anyone know what they are on the front of the CPU, cause my multi meter isnt picking up any resistance.

CHeers.
 
they are capacitors not resistors, if your on about the little squares ? They smooth the power delivery. you could get some from RS components if you get the right value.
 
Ah cool, cheers, i guess ill need to go get a capacitor meter then, i have no idea what the values are . All i can see is the ones i need are dark brown and the ones on the cpu i bought for parts are all lighter coloured so i guess theyre no good.
 
Is the one you have bought definitely a 4970K? As those extra capacitors are to smooth out the power delivery and are only found on the K Versions of the CPUs.
 
Yeah says 4790k on the Lid, also the back of this CPU is a very different layout with a lot less capacitors.

Im a bit suspicious cause the heat spreader was a lot easier to get off this one than it was my other one also, i was thinking maybe he just took his heat spreader off his and sold me a an old dead cpu, thats why i was wondering if theyre suppose to be so different or if anyone else has noticed this.
 
You will probably find they will work, the capacity may well be different however in the same package size its unlikely to be massive given its the same chip. Worst case they are a lower capacity = slightly dirtier supply = slightly less overclock.

Personally i would fit one and see if the chip boots at stock speeds. If it does then worry about getting the right capacity. The voltage should be the same and that the important part to get to to actually work.

If you can imagine the capacitor is just a small store of energy so if the voltage creeps around it has the small store to smooth it out so the cou does not see it.
 
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do NOT bridge the connections! That will create a short!!

It'as very likely these caps are all 100nF anyway, it's a standard value for what we call 'decoupling' on supplies.
 
BluD said:
Im a bit suspicious cause the heat spreader was a lot easier to get off this one than it was my other one also, i was thinking maybe he just took his heat spreader off his and sold me a an old dead cpu, thats why i was wondering if theyre suppose to be so different or if anyone else has noticed this.
Click to expand...

You should be suspicious. If I were you the first thing I'd do is boot the new one up and see what it identifies as. Unless you got it for really cheap that is (comparable to the cost of new caps, which is all you want it for anyway).
 
im guessing he cant boot the one he bought for spares due to it being dead. I would not be surprised if Intel change the design slightly over the course of a CPU's life. this could include the power part of the cpu. have you tried contacting intel ? I found them super helpful and im sure they will tell you the value of the cap so you can buy another one.
 
I might do that, for now ive just banged on the nearest matching colour ones from the CPU i got for spares, i havent got very steady hands, and ive got a 15 year old soldering iron and an ancient multimeter. So i dont think i should be hacking away the this CPU too much as i will proberbly do more harm than good.

I cant see any voltages fluctuating atm, but i guess if i overheated some of the capacitors with my clunky old soldering iron i might start to see some unstable clocks. Saying that i started it up and forgot to reset bios to remove my overclocks and it seems stable enough, i guess ill have to run some games and benchamrks to find out.

I think if i do find the capacitors are the wrong value i might look for someone with some professional soldering gear and a better set of eyes to swap them over for me.
 
I would imagine the 4790ks from mid 2013 are literally just binned 4770k's, and the 4970k from some point after 2014 have the additional stuff added on, coupled that with slight changes over the product life and I wouldn't be surprised to see a subtle differences between them.
 
Given their size (0402s or 0201's) it's unlikely you can actually put the 'wrong' value. Each cap is there to help filter out a frequency corresponding to it's value, so it can't /hurt/ for decoupling not to have the right value, and at that size they don't make 'big' caps anyway.

My guess would be 100nF X7R's. Probably a couple of quid for 100 of them at farnell or equivalent.

But yes, don't do that if you don't feel confident about soldering these kind of things
 
Ah thats good to know, tbh the ones i took from the dead cpu looks pretty similar, theyre all the same size (about 0.5mm x 0.7mm at a guess), they were just a slightly lighter shade of brown. It seems like they have done the trick. I wish i had come on here and asked where i could buy them first though rather than buying another CPU from Auction site, the only reason i did that is cause i couldnt find any forums giving me any info about the components on the CPUs, so i figured ide just do a straight swap from one CPU to another.

If i had known one CPU could be so completely different from another form the same range i wouldnt have bothered.
 
Might be the case, the same guy has sold a couple of CPUs dead recently, maybe hes buying them hoping that they work. Either that or hes just really unlucky overclocking and keeps killing them.

The capacitors i stole from it seem to be working so i aint fussed now. If i ever need spare parts again im gonna try contacting intel or which ever manufacturer the part is from, maybe they will be more helpful than i thought. I figured i would just get some guy in a call center telling me if i void the warranty then its tough luck.
 
Such a shame that you have to delid theese to get the best out of them. Just imagine how good both ivybridge and haswell could have been with a proper soldered ihs.
 
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