On Sun, Aug 22, 2004 at 01:14:09PM -0400, Dave McGuire wrote: > On Aug 22, 2004, at 12:53 PM, Samuel A. Falvo II wrote: > >>Where can I buy one piece of this one in Prague? I would be genuinely > >>interested :) > > > >You may or may not be able to. I don't know. I know I can get them > >from > >http://www.insight-electronics.com > > > >>It doesn't matter - you have to give up on thru-hole on modern CPU's > >>anyway :) > > > >It does matter. Through-hole parts are way easier for a complete > >neophyte to solder. > > I must strongly disagree with this statement. The notion that > through-hole soldering is easier than soldering surface-mount devices > is, and always has been, a myth. Personally, any more, I *hate* > soldering through-hole parts. Sure it takes a steadier hand due to the > finer pin spacings and such, but give me an SOIC over a DIP any day. > > Perhaps a part of the problem is that people want to be able to > solder with a cheap soldering iron they bought at Radio Shack for $12 > that has a tip as big as their finger. To that, I say "use crap tools, > get crap results". With quality tools, good lighting, and a little bit > (maybe a few hours) of practice, I'm convinced that nearly anyone can > solder wide-pitch SMT with no problem. Don't want to shell out a few > bucks for a quality temperature-controlled iron? Don't try to solder. > It's as simple as that. I've got to agree completely with Dave here. Having soldered more than a couple of things together in technologies ranging from vacuum tube to high pin count fine pitch chips over the last 23 years since my first soldering iron, I find that about the easiest thing is a board with 1206 passives and SOIC chips. I'll grant you that things like QFN are a pain, but an SO16 isn't and 1206's are so much faster to work with than leaded resistors and capacitors. In fact, I almost always use surface mount parts when building up a quick prototype on some proto-board material.
-Dan --