On the market for an all in 1 Rework station - Open to suggestions. Aoyue 2703A+?

Ive been wanting to get a rework station for a while and the time will be soon.

I am interested into those all in one kits as they are a compact solution and I do not have lots of space.
I already have a good Iron but I may need to take it elsewhere so those all in one stations are very tempting.

After some research I found the Aoyue 2703A+ and it seems pretty good.
It seems to be able to do all that I want and fits my budget ( about 300$ )

What I want to do:
-Have a Good quality iron with replaceable parts ( element, tips )
-Hot air station to do SMD and BGA reflow/reballs ( I have over a dozen dead 360/PS3 laying about )
-I want to do things like Xbox ram upgrade
-Programmable profiles for hot air operations.

The Aoyue 2703A+ looks like it can do all of this but I am open to suggestions and tips. Keep in mind my budget is around 300$-400$ max.
I have never owned or worked with one of those before and do not want to make a noob mistake with my purchase.
Maybe even something cheaper would fit the bill?

 

I have an X-Tronic rework station and paid about $130 but for a little more you can get a really nice one with vacuum solder sucker and hot air, look at their site:

http://xtronicusa.com/home/#!/~/category/id=4184030&inview=product17796160&offset=0&sort=normal

I love the temperature control of these and the fact they warm up super fast. I'm sure there are better and more expensive models out there but this has worked great for me (did that CCAM board I sent you with it).

 

[Aoyue is a solid name in soldering. I got a Aoyue 968A+ and it works very well for when i need remove some SMD components with hot air. IIRC i remember seeing something around the net that they take alot of Hakko designs and ideas and implement them in their own (clone somewhat?). It's funny that i really wanted to get an Aoyue 2703a+ but SRA soldering was not gonna stock it for another 2 months and i need to get work done. If your going to be doing alot of SMD soldering/desoldering i strongly recommend pick up a nice preheater for the boards your going to be working on down the road. It safely and gently heats up the PCB so you dont need to apply high tempatures of hot air for long times and can avoid a lot of possible damage.

Long story short = I would go for it, i got an Aoyue product and works amazing. I dont think you'll have any problems.

 

Thanks for the replies both.
I am not yet decided about what to buy.
Aoyue 2703a+ looks great but there are significantly cheaper alternatives as Helder pointed, that are apparently quality.
What drew me to the Aoyue 2703a+ was the programmable profiles but I am not sure if I really need them.

Back when I was lurking the Xbox 360 repair forums, those repairmen sure seemed to like their profiles and would share profile parameters with each others.
I kind of got the idea that the automation profiles was a great tool there.

 

You're supposed to use hot air with a thermal profile. It basically controls how long your air is on at what temperature, but importantly has preheat and cooling ramps. These mean you can regulate your heating (and cooling) to, say, 2 degrees per second. This prevents thermal shock, which would damage components. If that's what you meant by profiles, and cost is more important to you than the risk of damage to your components, then by all means buy a cheaper unit.

Slightly off topic, how the hell do you pronounce Aoyue? Does their secretary just sound like she's throwing up when she answers the phone? "Hello, aeeeuuuuughhhhhh!"

 

Allright, makes sense. Thanks for the advice.

I asked myself the same question actually. I went to watch an unboxing on youtube and the bloke pronounced it "A-O-U".
Sounds good to me, ill be using that from now on.

 

I have a yihua (same product with different brand) 968DB+ works really well no profiles but is good for simple reflows and smd work. Both elements are replaceable and uses a bladder for the hot air (as apposed to the crappy blower types).

Most of the Chinese stations can take hakko parts straight up, like the soldering irons most of the time simply plug in with no modifications.

 

been wanting to get a desoldering station to speed up chip removal

 

Well, the
[h=1]AOYUE 2703A+[/h]will be mine. It actually went on sale and I jumped on it.

 

The prices for these tools is plummeting fast!

It was only 12 months ago that you only got an iron and hot air for this kind of price, now you get a vacuum desoldering tool included! Nice!