best cheap/free scores 1.1

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Nice score!
Keep it cool, though. GTX 7xx line is quite sensitive to heat. Shouldn't be a problem with that TwinFrozR cooler, though.

Doesn't seem to be hot at all - 33*C is what it stays at most of the time. It's a 750Ti, and even OC'd, it seems to run cool.

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Doesn't seem to be hot at all - 33*C is what it stays at most of the time. It's a 750Ti, and even OC'd, it seems to run cool.

Well of course, that's the idle temperature.
Try running a game or Furmark and log the temperatures (GPU-Z, SpeedFan, MSI Afterburner... etc.) Most likely will peak around the low 60's Celsius, but that will depend on the ambient temps, though. Either way, for longevity's sake, keep under 50-52C.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Well of course, that's the idle temperature.
Try running a game or Furmark and log the temperatures (GPU-Z, SpeedFan, MSI Afterburner... etc.) Most likely will peak around the low 60's Celsius, but that will depend on the ambient temps, though. Either way, for longevity's sake, keep under 50-52C.

I was thinking of sourcing an Accelero cooler, but then I figured out it's probably pointless, because with such a cooler I'd be rather going for at least a GTX 1050Ti or a 1080Ti.

[Digi]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I acquired my ThinkPad T61 today for about £50 and is in really good nick. A 2.00GHz model (with the 1280x800 panel) but the condition it's in is borderline immaculate barring the shiny keyboard. It gave me some leeway to pretty much build it up if parts happen to get a little bad. And the BIOS is a modded Middleton one, which removes the whitelist.

The fan could be replaced, however... It croaks when it spins down, but I can deal with that a little later. Parts seem to be available at the ready so I'm prepared for it with the maintenance manual. Just wished I figured out what it shipped with from its serial number.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Scored these today:

Albatron K8SLI - dead sadly - nF4 SLi chipset, Skt939. Came with a Athlon 64 3000+
ASUS Geforce 7300GT 256MB PCI-E
Winfast Geforce GT220 1GB
Intel i740 8MB AGP2x
Winfast PxDVR3200H PCI-E TV Tuner (wonder if it's compatible with 10)

and last but not least, a Gigabyte H55M-S2V/Core i3-540 combo. 2 dead MOSFETs on the VRM sadly, so no fix until I get a new soldering iron (a 60W one, the ones I currently have are both 40W). Shame as board looks fine otherwise.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Today's freebies:

Asus X55A laptop. OS was hosed and wouldn't boot....had master password, which prevented entry to the BIOS to reinstall OS. THis came from a shop, which baffled me....clearing the password wasn't hard.

Several PATA HDD's and yet some more opticals...

[ratdude747]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Today's freebies:

Asus X55A laptop. OS was hosed and wouldn't boot....had master password, which prevented entry to the BIOS to reinstall OS. THis came from a shop, which baffled me....clearing the password wasn't hard.

Several PATA HDD's and yet some more opticals...

Flip the laptop. If that's the Asus platform (core chassis) I think it is (from looking it up), those things go through keyboards like potato chips. My inlaws had one (same age, but more GPU/CPU power), they fought with it. Due to the issue replacement keyboards were unobtainium for a bit.

[TechGeek]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Flip the laptop. If that's the Asus platform (core chassis) I think it is (from looking it up), those things go through keyboards like potato chips. My inlaws had one (same age, but more GPU/CPU power), they fought with it. Due to the issue replacement keyboards were unobtainium for a bit.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-for-Asu...-/151181051784

[ratdude747]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-for-Asu...-/151181051784

Upon further review this isn't it... the crap one had a chicklet keyboard. The plastic stake construction was the failure point.

In that case, keep or flip, I can't advise either way.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I was definitely going to flip it....it's not a bad laptop, but it doesn't hold a candle to my Precision M6400! The Asus has some celeron CPU in it, I might see if I can swap it with somehting a little better. It has 4gb RAM, which is the max. FWIW, testing this morning revealed even the battery is good. 2.5hrs powered on so far and still over 50% life remaining. This message posted from it.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Managed to fix the H55M-S2V board.

God, I couldn't imagine Gigabyte cheaping this much on PCB quality. The gate tabs literally ripped off, hence why I had to solder the MOSFET gate tabs together. I know, it looks very ugly, but it works fine (measured fine in all ways possible)

Anyways, board POSTs fine, haven't checked beyond that.

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

dont blame the chinese fab-house for your lack of equipment - that resoldering job is terrible!!
and get that loose bit of solder off there before it falls onto a motherboard and shorts something!!

that's why you use flux cleaner afterwards.....

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

dont blame the chinese fab-house for your lack of equipment - that resoldering job is terrible!!
and get that loose bit of solder off there before it falls onto a motherboard and shorts something!!

that's why you use flux cleaner afterwards.....

That loose bit of solder on the top of the photo is because there's nothing under the MOSFET gate tab to solder on. I had to solder both gate tabs together with lots of solder, THEN solder to whatever small bit I had left from the ripped gate pads. It's leaded solder, and it didn't fall at all when I flipped the motherboard upside down.

And believe me, this is the best a blunt 40W China soldering iron can do. Had it been a new Kemot soldering gun (sorta) it would have looked much better. Doesn't help that when the old FETs burned, they literally fused with the pads. Checked for shorts at least three times before powering on, and I was getting green lights on everything. (all tested okay after replacement)

And even then, it may get hot during load (which sounds like a normal thing to happen), but not THAT hot to literally melt solder.

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

no, the loose bit to the right of the flux above the poly cap.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

no, the loose bit to the right of the flux above the poly cap.

Oh. That's just ye olde colophonium, the kind used to grease violins. I don't have liquid flux.
I did already clean that.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Oh, and don't forget about that Antec PSU

I got around to it today. It was loaded with capxon and fukkyou caps. None bloated, but all way out of tolerance.

Anyway.....here we go!

Apart:


No bloaters....


...but...yea, 1000uF 10v cap reading 173uF...the other one was reading 51uF. The others were on par with being out of their tolerances.



Back together & tagged.


...and alive & well. It worked before, but I'm sure it wasn't happy....but now I bet it is!



Just a refresher, this was something Ratdude picked up at the goodwill store.

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

lol
that's the same model psu that brought me to this forum - mine had a burned pfc coil.

[ratdude747]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I got around to it today. It was loaded with capxon and fukkyou caps. None bloated, but all way out of tolerance.

Anyway.....here we go!

Apart:


No bloaters....


...but...yea, 1000uF 10v cap reading 173uF...the other one was reading 51uF. The others were on par with being out of their tolerances.



Back together & tagged.


...and alive & well. It worked before, but I'm sure it wasn't happy....but now I bet it is!



Just a refresher, this was something Ratdude picked up at the goodwill store.

Nice. Not bad for $5?

Now you need to build a rig for it... I owe you a part or two for that

[BigTroll]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

picked up a 2.0ghz black macbook logicboard on ebay for $12 shipped, said tested and Iam really surpised it worked, using said machine with the logicboard transplant to type this message.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Nice. Not bad for $5?

Now you need to build a rig for it... I owe you a part or two for that

I have a build in mind for it....which starts with a new old stock VP6...

...I also scored an Epox EP-D3VA motherboard, which is basically Epox's version of the VP6 but with an ISA slot...this was a cheap one, it has bad caps.

This one showed up... I recapped it in lytics, as unusual as it is, I didn't deem it worthy of polymodding. Pre-testing this one, if it would POST, it only would show 1 CPU.

...but it's cured now!


I also attached a heatsink to the northbridge....it didn't have one.