Do you mod your hardware?
So, i "m not skilled enough to dismantle a mouse or a controller (or rather, i'm skiled enough to dismantle it, but not to repair it afterwards.) So i basically try regularly new stuff until i find the one that is the most approproate for my usage. Hope you will have more luck with other users.!
But i must say even if i'm not skilled enough, i like to read you!
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Often there are only a few finishing touches necessary. I modded a controller lately where the rubber of the left thumb stick was eaten away by playing Hades extensively. The rubber caps cost pennies and saved the device from becoming e-waste.
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That's awesome, and this gives the controller a very special look :)
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Do you have any tips to deal with stick drifting? It killed a few of my controllers and my psp (on which I tried to replace one of the sticks, but that didn't do much :/) and the latest controller I bought is already starting to get plagued by this horror (even though it's not even 2 years old and it cost me 60€) -_-
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Oh my, there you opened a terrible can of worms. The only 100% reliable method would be to replace the sticks with Hall effect ones to my knowledge. Re-calibrating might work in some cases but I've no experience in this matter. My advice would be watch some how-to videos and pick your poison (e.g. the method you think is most promising).
I bought a Microsoft Elite v2 recently as a fetish to scare away this menace :)
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Wow I didn't know about Hall effect sticks, makes me wonder why it's not the industry standard considering how widespread drifting is. I tried recalibrating and friendzoning the stick to the max made the issue more bearable, although it's still noticeable :/
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The controller market has an estimated worth of 20 billion. Controllers will fall victim to stick drift sooner or later leading to more sales down the line worth billions = kind of planned obsolescence.
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Something tells me that if you saw the state in which one of my controllers currently is you'd feel deeply disappointed. The rubber of both thumbsticks is gone, the battery was bulging slightly (enough to crack the back of the case) so I took it out and now use it exclusively with the cable, and I accidentally broke the connection of one of the cables inside while reassembling it and can't be asked to re-solder it (partially because I don't remember where the point solder is) so one of the vibration motors doesn't work anymore, also the membrane on one of the buttons is about to disintegrate.
Yet I still keep it around despite having two other controllers in much better condition simply because that's the controller I used while clocking hundreds of hours into Rocket League and I'm awful at that game when using anything else, damn you muscle memory. I really need to find another one of these and buy it someday.
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so one of the vibration motors doesn't work anymore
Pros are playing without vibration motors and after hundreds of hours in Rocket League battle scars are to be expected.
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I'm actually thankful that at least one of the motors still works because I'm very much used to the feedback from the vibration to know when I've actually triggered that double jump or if I was the one to hit the ball or the other player, the visual feedback can get drowned by all the on-screen chaos sometimes.
But yeah, for almost any other game that controller is very much retired after about a decade of service... replaced by an even older controller that is somehow in almost mint condition to this day, I legit don't know what that thing is made of that it outlasted every other controller I've ever owned.
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I don't usually mod new things. But I will go to great lengths to repair stuff.
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I don't usually mod new things.
Quite understandable as modding always has a risk of failure and damage.
But I will go to great lengths to repair stuff.
Same, gives you a feeling of accomplishment fixing something. I recently replaced a dead wifi module in my laptop with a better wifi 6E one which killed two birds with one stone as it was a repair and an upgrade.
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I don't think I really mod things other than overclocking or undervolting to make it perform as good as possible.
My PC case had honey comb grille patterns over all the case fans and I felt like it was too restrictive so I just grabbed some snips and cut the grilles off. I could have done it cleaner with a different cutting too, but I didn't want to have to take the computer apart to not get metal shavings in it, so I just snipped it all off. Left it all jagged and sharp because I don't really care what it looks like, just the performance. I also taped over all the other case fan spots and any other small holes to seal everything up and cut a filter for a window AC unit to fit over the front intake to stop it from filling with dust.
I mostly just open my mouse after so many years when it stops working because the wires start to break and I need to cut the cord and reconnect them or when it starts to not click or randomly double click because the switch is corroded on the inside. I've had to get a needle and inject a salt and vinegar solution inside the switches and then flush it out with alcohol 3 or 4 times over the years to get them working properly again. I also snipped the LED off when I was in there once because I can't stand extra lights on stuff at night. I even keep the little LED on my monitor power button turned off, I used to tape over it on my old monitor that didn't have the option to turn it off.
I use an old membrane keyboard because I game on the arrow keys and it is the only one I can find that has a certain key layout around the arrow keys that makes it better for gaming. I opened it up and greased all the keys to make it much quieter.
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I used to tape over it on my old monitor that didn't have the option to turn it off.
Did it on a Panasonic tv which had a red standby LED which was bright enough to give me eye cancer.
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I may one day clean this mess and paint It gray. Aerocool DS Cube materials suck. I only bought It on the used market because the guy was selling a Bitfenix Prodigy that I couldnt get in time and offered me the cube. One of the few horizontal motherboard trays. Never used It, I was even gonna sell It until I took It off the box again and holy crap...
I would be really glad with the black Bitfenix Prodigy and the finish would probably be intact. Bad luck I guess.
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You know I kinda like this case with its rounded transition from top to front. You could always do a Vinyl wrap to change appearance.
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Thanks, I've never considered that option, I just Google It and found some wood vinyl wrap mods that look kinda cool.
Yeah, the DS Cube has a nice design but every single case must be like this by now.
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I'd say aquarium style cases like Lian Li O11 or Hyte 60/70 and their knock offs are all the rage right now.
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The Lian Li 011 Air Mini looks decent but the aquarium ones are really awful, the Hyte 60/70 gets the price. I thought RGB was kinda bad but that Hyte makes the DS Cube in It's actual condition look good.
I miss my NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black and white). It was cheap and well built.
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As far as build quality goes I agree but NZXT cases were notorious for poor airflow. Finally NZXT saw the light and came out with H7 Flow. You can get it with and without glass side panel afaik.
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Not bad. Not a fan of glass side panels already tbh. They're useful to check if something is not working right but I preffer the good old speaker.
Thanks again for letting me know about the H7. I'm gonna stop bumping the thread now, but I'm eager to see some mods from the SG users.
Have a good one.
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I enjoy modding things... but not to the point of trying to shave a few grams.
I usually replace the shells of my controllers when the warranty ends... only screw up I have made so far is ripping the pads up when trying to desolder a shoulder button off a joycon... needless to say that repair project is still... sitting... running a wire is beyond me.
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I feel you, I'm watching northwestrepair's channel regularly and envy Tony's soldering skills. I wish I was 10% as good as this guy.
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I stuck a piece of wood behind my keyboard because the feet were too small, weak, and unstable. This increased the angle of my keyboard, and made it more stable, and easier to use.
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An important point: improvise with the materials and tools available to you and find a solution. With fancy schmanzy equipment on the other hand it's no big deal to get satisfying results.
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I never modded anything, but I recently replaced the fan of my laptop, which felt great. No more constant airplane engine sounds now. I was thinking of frankensteining a better memory of an older laptop into it too, but I'm kinda afraid of doing so.
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First make sure your memory isn't soldered to the motherboard some brands like to commit this crime to cut costs. Some older Laptops have "glory holes" to facilitate changing memory modules. Watch some tear down videos for the specific model.
In any case first step is to power off the laptop by pulling the battery plug or the whole battery depending on the model.
Take pictures with your cell phone which will help you with re-assembly.
I did change the processor and memory and replaced the HDD with an SSD on an old laptop bringing it back from unusably slow to fit for everyday tasks. In my experience older laptops are much easier to work with than new ultra-slim ones.
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I have a mouse (logitech g502) where you can adjust grams, I never bothered to change anything. Same for my gamepad.
But I didn't buy a computer premade... My motivations was money but also a bigger tower case. It's easier to replace things inside, to clean it, and I thinks it's easier ventilated.
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What a coincidence. I bought a used G 502 Proteus Spectrum just a couple of days ago. I removed all the weights and coming from a much lighter mouse it feels still very heavy to me. What I like best is the switchable scroll mode.
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does changing keyboard switch on a hotswap pcb count as one? but i would like to learn how to solder/desolder so i can swap my mouse switch, and maybe deshroud a gpu one day
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does changing keyboard switch on a hotswap pcb count as one?
A mod is a mod as I see it. Swapping mouse switches should be relatively easy with a basic soldering iron. It could be more difficult to take the mouse apart though (depends on make and model) and you'd want replacement skates after re-assembly most likely. Taking a GPU apart is easy and I have done it with my RTX 3080 this year to change thermal paste and thermal pads. Just be gentle and be sure thermal pads have the right thickness.
As always you should watch how-two videos before you begin.
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While mass production delivers products with consistent quality there's a downside to it. It's nothing special being one of millions using a product. The industry tries to follow the trend to customization to some degree but must fail in the end inevitably.
While the rationale of tinkering with your hardware might be performance improvement and better usability there's also a deeper motivation to make it really your very own.
So there are those who disassemble their mouse gleefully and weigh every part on a precision scale to determine where they can whittle away a few grams from structural components.
Then there's the esoteric discussion about the ins and outs of switches like Omron, Huano, Kailh and Zippy.
If you can't tell the difference between Chinese and Japanese Omrons get off my lawn please. level 4, 4 days remaining
I'd really like to see and hear about your ventures into modding our tools of the trade like controllers, keyboards and mice.
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