What is this component?

lopkinfop · 8 Mar 2008 at 20:17

i've just taken apart an old dell system, it was a socket 423 P4

the component is on the pci/agp slots, the center of the image is the slot it goes in

Any ideas?

mk17 · 8 Mar 2008 at 20:44

given the large heatsink, I'd guess at a graphics card ?!!

lopkinfop · 8 Mar 2008 at 20:46

its not, the agp slot had the graphics card in

besides there are no I/O ports on it

Grimley · 8 Mar 2008 at 20:49

Rambus

wannabedamned · 8 Mar 2008 at 20:51

Does it not have a model number or something you could google, Cos to be honest, I've not idea.

lopkinfop · 8 Mar 2008 at 21:02

here is a closer picture

the socket 423 cpu is top left, with a socket 478 for comparison.

a stick of rambus is in the middle and the mistery component is on the right

lopkinfop · 8 Mar 2008 at 21:04

wannabedamned said:
Does it not have a model number or something you could google, Cos to be honest, I've not idea.

i have typed in all the numbers on there and nothing comes up

Justintime · 8 Mar 2008 at 21:25

looks like a Voltage regulator module (VRM).

Edit:

http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=Dell+VRM&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

Inferno99 · 8 Mar 2008 at 21:35

Physx Card \o

eggnoodle · 8 Mar 2008 at 21:40

It is a VRM

lopkinfop · 8 Mar 2008 at 22:01

Thank you

why would it have been an external card for it?

Justintime · 8 Mar 2008 at 22:32

Senses and regulates voltage to the cpu, the majority of those are built into boards though. Not sure why its a modular design on that board, may be the fact that it might be an early 423 design and voltage requirements for PIV cpus might not have been standardised so they made it modular for future proofing?