[ottoman]

Safer and a hell of a lot easier to use the pads and you'll avoid bridging chip legs etc.

U should always where possible avoid soldering directly to chip legs. Some parts of modchip installs can't get round it but where u have an alternative use it.

When routing wires to the other side of the motherboard try to keep the wires a short as possible. If ur soldering to the pads underneath the cd/dvd controller chip there should be a hole through the motherboard just to the right of the chip that u can route all the wires through.

Good Luck!!

Let us know how u get on.