best cheap/free scores 1.1

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I think that should be a 7600 GS (and not a GT). I got one of those here as well. Really nice AGP video cards with fairly low power draw (under 30W, IIRC). They typically sell for over $30 on eBay any day... so you got a $30 card for free!

Given the Sacon FZ caps, I imagine you have an E-VGA card? (or XFX??)
If yes, it's also probably going to need a bigger heatsink. Otherwise, it will likely end up being dead/no-video like the 7300 GT that Dan81 found a few posts back. The stock HS is just about good enough for desktop use. Any load, and they run too hot, making them die over time. Also, they tend to be noisy with those tiny stock fans.

Something like a Zalman VF700 heatsink should keep it nice and cool under all loads you throw at it. And silent too, if the fan is set to lower voltage.

I'll look at it a little closer tomorrow morning when I get to the office....you may be right.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Aww. But wouldn't it be easier to just cut the wires on the Delta and re-wire it to standard ATX vs. trying to rebuild a shady cheap PSU?
Come to think of it, I have a 200W (or was it 250W) HiPro that's in the same boat - it's one of those Dell-proprietary PSUs from the Pentium II/3 era. It's 5V-heaby, but that's OK, because it most likely will go in a classic 5V-heavy PC.

That Delta was in a very bad shape, as the PCB had snapped corners.

Anyways, the Wintech I got is my subject for a rebuid - I want to replace the secondary ATX wires with sleeved ones from a dead SAMA PSU (honest rating on PCB tho - 300W), rectifiers from the same PSU so that the Wintech will be a 12v capable PSU and pretty much it. Oh, and did I mention I rigged a fan controller from a dead 250W FSP? (along with the Yate Loon fan it had)

[TechGeek]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Ha! Cool to see someone still cares about old tech like that (I know I still do.)

Regarding the VX700... why do you say you think it needs a recap? Picture too dark or something?

Being a Diamondtron (i.e. Mitsubishi's version of the Sony Trinitron), I wonder if build quality is similar to Sony's. On that note, I can tell you that just about every Sony CRT I've opened has always had a mix of nothing but quality Japanese caps (typically Nichicon, Rubycon, and Chemicon... though only general purpose 85C series.) If your Diamondtron is like that, I'd be surprised to find bad caps in there. Maybe if there is a section of hot components somewhere, that could be the only place. Not sure about Mitsubishi, but Sony always did a good job to heatsink everything that needed it.
*snip*

Image is on the shaky side of things, and it's kind of washed out. Probably need to get a pattern generator and try to correct the geometry on it, since it seems to be a little out of whack, too.

FYI, this thing was stored for probably 10+ years in a non-climate-controlled garage.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I think that should be a 7600 GS (and not a GT). I got one of those here as well. Really nice AGP video cards with fairly low power draw (under 30W, IIRC). They typically sell for over $30 on eBay any day... so you got a $30 card for free!

Nope, I knew I didn't read the tag wrong.... Definitely a 7600GT.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

that actually looks like one of those china remanufactured video cards. here are two listings of it on ebay: new nVIDIA Geforce 7600GT 512MB DDR2 AGP 4X 8X VGA DVI Video Graphic Card and nVIDIA Geforce 7600GT 512MB DDR2 AGP 4X 8X VGA DVI Video Card.

the above listings also include gpu-z screenshots of the video card showing it to have a core clock of 400 mhz and a mem clock of 266 mhz. these are misleading video card listings when the proper specs of the 7600gt say that it is supposed to have a core clock of 560 mhz and a mem clock of 700 mhz. the memory used must also be gddr3.

the proper specs of a 7600gs are instead a core clock of 400 mhz and a mem clock of 400 mhz of ddr2 memory. so that china remanufactured 7600gt is in fact more of a 7600gs or worse than that due to the downclocked memory. looks like more chinese style corner cutting and overpromising again...

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Arent they all made in china?

Atleast it was free.

[Per Hansson]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Post a GPU-Z screenshot, would be fun if this is really gray market cards
Oh, and don't forget about that Antec PSU

BTW I got something in the mail today.

Nice!

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Oh, and don't forget about that Antec PSU

It's in the queue to be reworked....

Nice!

It's already been forwarded onto Sweden.

[Per Hansson]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Thumbs up on both accounts!

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

The 7-series, was the last confirmed eVGA cards to have the dreaded Sacon FZ caps.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Finally found a interposer for my Dell Vostro 1015 for $1.

Here's a pic of it. 4GB RAM, Core 2 Duo T6670 @2.20GHz and (for now) a 80GB Hitachi drive. Came with a smashed matte LCD, replaced with one from my Acer Aspire 5349 (RIP ;_; ) and so far everything looks really nice. Installing Windows 7 Pro right now (it even has a COA for it), wonder how it does with Flash given I have 4 gigs of RAM.

Oh yeah, and I replaced the stupid proprietary DC connector it had with one harvested from the same Acer I mentioned.

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

what?
interposer? never heard of it!

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

what?
interposer? never heard of it!

Practically an kind of removable SATA adapter with pins.

Yes, Dell can be crazy at times.

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

must be some strange codeword to make it sound expensive, the rest of us call those "adapters"

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

That Delta was in a very bad shape, as the PCB had snapped corners.

Ah. Monkey technicians at work somewhere again, I see. Just the same as that PC I found a little over a week ago. (Pictures still pending, lol. ) Some people just don't know how to use a screw driver/

Image is on the shaky side of things, and it's kind of washed out. Probably need to get a pattern generator and try to correct the geometry on it, since it seems to be a little out of whack, too.

Should make a thread about it with some pictures.
Geometry may be corrected from the menus if it isn't way too bad.
Washed out image may be just from improper brightness/contrast adjustment, or G2 voltage too high... OR... being a Sony cousin, maybe Mitsubishi put one of those silly self-biasing circuits on the Cutoff amp for quicker warm-up like Sony did on their newer CRTs, which often gave them the "over-bright" issues.

Nope, I knew I didn't read the tag wrong.... Definitely a 7600GT.

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1553271190

Good memory, then!

But like Chaos mentioned above, this is indeed a 7600 GS with those core clocks. On that matter, there is actually no 7600 GT model for the AGP versions of this card - not officially from any of the known legit manufacturers anyways.

So your 7600 GT is indeed a "gray market" card and really just a 7600 GS. But not that this matters too much - it is still based on the same G73 GPU core, which means that technically it may be possible to push it to GT speeds (530 MHz core clock, that is... memory probably won't budge very much.) Of course, probably not with the stock cooler. Speaking of which, you "gray market" card also appears to have somewhat better cooler than most 7600 GS AGP video cards, so that's another plus.

My 7600 GS (also free) didn't come with a cooler, as someone had stripped it for parts. Which is OK, as I had to make my own, and despite looking ugly, it probably works much better than the stock. This was back in 2012, BTW. Post here:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...3&postcount=24
Card still works great with that ugly ghetto cooler mod. Currently resides in my "PacMan" PC.

Atleast it was free.

And still a great AGP card, nevertheless. Will handle many DX9 games of its era just fine.

On that note, even the 7300 GT AGP is pretty decent, as it is another variant of the G73 GPU core (just slightly slower core clock and 8/4 pixel/vertex shaders instead of 12/5 of the 7600 GS/GT.)

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

A interesting PC I've scored for free:

PSU: Premier LC-C400ATX 400W
Case: craptacular Deer case that I threw in the dumpster with 10x the power of Hulk, but not before removing everything from it including switches and LEDs
Mobo: ASRock 939N68PV-GLAN - G-Force 7050/nF630A
ODD: generic 54x CD-ROM and ASUS DRW-1814BL
HDD: Samsung HD082GJ 80GB SATAII and Samsung HD322GJ 320GB SATA II
RAM: 2x256MB (don't ask why so little, I dunno either)
NIC: onboard Gigabit LAN + RTL8139 PCI NIC
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+
OS: Windows XP SP3

Also got a Gigabyte GA-M52S-S3P along with 2x1GB Nanya DDR2 sticks.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Mobo: ASRock 939N68PV-GLAN -
RAM: 2x256MB

That was a typical RAM configuration for DDR1. At the time it was most likely made, (2005 or 2006 before the Core 2 launch) we didn't even see a need for more than 512 MB of RAM. (socket 939 came out in 2005 or 2004)

It was the period where I would also happily use Windows 2000 as well! (SP4 or SP3, I was hoping SP4 was released already at that time for Windows 2000)

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

That was a typical RAM configuration for DDR1. At the time it was most likely made, (2005 or 2006 before the Core 2 launch) we didn't even see a need for more than 512 MB of RAM. (socket 939 came out in 2005 or 2004)

It was the period where I would also happily use Windows 2000 as well! (SP4 or SP3, I was hoping SP4 was released already at that time for Windows 2000)

Board was made in 2008, so it's well into Core 2 Duo era.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Since I can't edit my previous post, I scored three more goodies - a gutless SunPro 7700A, and another 7700 which seems to look a good 200-250W unit, and a Pentium III SL3XK 650MHz Coppermine Slot 1.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Board was made in 2008, so it's well into Core 2 Duo era.

So it's one of those seemingly rare motherboards, where you can use DDR1, even when made in 2008 or the like? (And possibly AGP as well) IIRC, only Asrock made those kind.

I bet Windows 98 SE and Windows 2000 SP4 users love to get those kind of motherboards. Windows 2000 SP4 wasn't EOL until 2010 or very close to that.