best cheap/free scores 1.1

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I know right? and whats really crazy was at the time intel was talking with motherboard manufacturers and was trying to do the same with the desktop market but luckily consumer backlash prevailed and that never happened.

yea luckily good sense prevailed or else my backlash would be that i would never buy anything brand new ever again. i'll stick to the good ol' stuff! so luckily, intel had the good sense prevailing NOT to do stupid things that would drive them out of business... rofl!

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Surprisingly yes it was the last generation to have this feature, too bad intel went to all soldered with the 5th gen Broadwell cpus.

And not coincidentally, the 5th gen CPUs is when we started seeing laptops with dead CPUs a lot more frequently - similar to GPUs. 4th gen and older were a lot tougher.

On that note, it's also not uncommon to see 6th and 7th gen Intel desktop CPUs dead from inadequate stock heatsinks.

Today's success was making a Dell Optiplex 380 (LGA775) run a LGA771 x5450 quad-core 3GHz Harpertown Xeon (Yorkfield q9650's are still $50+). The x5450's are a dime a dozen, and even today make an excellent entry to mid-level system (even better if you also add a GPU and not use the crappy Intel GPU).

Nice!
They do make for a nice browser PC / entry-level gaming PC for 2015 and older games. Even the higher-end Core 2 Duo's do. I put an E8400 CPU into one of my test PCs the other day (originally had a E4700 @ 2.66 GHz.) With the C2D E8400, streaming 1080p video online is no hassle. Now 1080p @ 60 FPS will break it... but TBH, most of the time I never really see a point in going past 720p. Even 480p is OK if the video compression is not shit (which if shot from a cheap camera or phone, it most likely will be.)

Panasonic Viera 60" or 65" plasma TV from 2011, got it for the blazingly high cost of free.
Purchsed for $2500 new back in late 2011.

Great score!
So does it work? Or do you need to fix anything on it?
Either way, for free, it's still an amazing score. Good quality plasma TVs are so much better than your average Wallmart China garbage.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Nice, what was required to get this to work ?

I had to dremel the sides of the CPU for the socket notches to line up and mod a couple pads on the bottom of the CPU (they actually make adapters for this). Microcode had to be added into the firmware or it will POST, toss an error saying "Incompatible processor installed", and halt. If you want the firmware let me know.

[TechGeek]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

*snip*

Great score!
So does it work? Or do you need to fix anything on it?
Either way, for free, it's still an amazing score. Good quality plasma TVs are so much better than your average Wallmart China garbage.

Yup, it seems to work, at least from a quick glance. Powers up, produces a picture, and can navigate through all menus with ease. It's old owner will be bringing the stand and remote for it in the near future, so I'll be able to stand it up and really put it through it's paces.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Nice!
They do make for a nice browser PC / entry-level gaming PC for 2015 and older games. Even the higher-end Core 2 Duo's do. I put an E8400 CPU into one of my test PCs the other day (originally had a E4700 @ 2.66 GHz.) With the C2D E8400, streaming 1080p video online is no hassle. Now 1080p @ 60 FPS will break it... but TBH, most of the time I never really see a point in going past 720p. Even 480p is OK if the video compression is not shit (which if shot from a cheap camera or phone, it most likely will be.)

Spent the morning abusing this.....solid as a rock and nice performer with a SSD and a quadro K420 low-profile GPU.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Got a working battery for my old Acer Aspire 5536G, brought back to life a few days ago. I need to find and Intel board ASAP tho, this S1G2 based AMD board literally puts out enough heat to rival an Prescott. Like hell, not even the Athlon II M320 I have in my ASUS X5DAF doesn't heat up to insanity.

Hope I can find a Intel based board (same HD4570 512MB GPU most of the time, some came with Geforce G105M 1GB I think, but those are rare as hens teeth) and throw a P8700 in and be happy.

[piernov]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

And not coincidentally, the 5th gen CPUs is when we started seeing laptops with dead CPUs a lot more frequently - similar to GPUs. 4th gen and older were a lot tougher.

Actually it started from 4th gen, and incidentally a good part of the CPU are soldered since all the H/U/Y-series are available only in BGA package.
Even better is that the U/Y have the PCH integrated on the same package as the CPU and those PCH also went down in reliability.
And the new pacakge of the CPU with integrated PCH makes it way harder to replace with BGA rework since it bends way too easily.

Long gone are the days where you never saw an ICH/MCH kill itself, and you could have a high-side MOSFET send 12V to your Pentium 4 and it would be fine.

[BigTroll]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Actually it started from 4th gen, and incidentally a good part of the CPU are soldered since all the H/U/Y-series are available only in BGA package.
Even better is that the U/Y have the PCH integrated on the same package as the CPU and those PCH also went down in reliability.
And the new pacakge of the CPU with integrated PCH makes it way harder to replace with BGA rework since it bends way too easily.

Long gone are the days where you never saw an ICH/MCH kill itself, and you could have a high-side MOSFET send 12V to your Pentium 4 and it would be fine.

Nice info there, now just remember I purposely bought my 2014 A1466 MacBook Air because Louis Rossmann said its the most reliable unit in his series of Apple products to buy.Please do me a favor and make sure to let him know his advice changed my life since I see you moderating his youtube channel. And it does have a soldered Haswell chip but it at least seems to run cool.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Rescued this from a scrap bin, HP Kayak XAs dual slot-1 AGP workstation.....stellar candidate for a retro build as unusual as they are. I have some 3DFX goodness here for it. CPU's missing, RAM missing, HDD's missing.....blank slate!

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

rescued a makita 9inch angle grinder from a skip.

wont take photo's till i strip, inspect and clean it.
i dont even know if it's 110v or 230v yet.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Rescued another Acer 7738G (GT130M, unknown CPU for now, will come back with updates) and a 5735Z. The former doesn't turn on (battery is dead probably, and so is the charging cable probably, wouldn't surprise me if it was the cable) and has no HDD, RAM, and missing keys (bout' 3 or 4), former powers on and works fine but has missing bezel above the KB, as well as missing keys and a dead battery (AS07A75).

[Xenon-Codex]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Did anyone ever tell you that you hoard waaaayyyyy too much beige boxes? It's like your reliving the good old days of beige PCs.

Been a while since I posted here by the way.

I only have the beige boxes from the late 90's. Most of them are Chieftec minitowers, and some others. I even painted some salvaged black DVD-R drives and card readers to match beige...

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Picked up an EVGA GTX460 1gb GPU for $15.99 on ebay. $0.99 opening bid and nobody bid against me....and $15 to ship it.... Not stellar, but certainly not terrible.

FWIW, this post from my test bedded Kayak D6723T XA workstation running a Pentium II 450 running win2k on FF 3.6.28!

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Any comments on "3D" (with glasses) displays on laptops? I've a business, here, looking to donate several and I'm not sure if they're worth the effort...

I decided against accepting the donation -- it would be yet another
make/model that I would have to support and, with just 30 pieces, the
effort didn't seem worth the time.

[I've been requesting minimum donations of 100 "near identical" machines
to keep the number of different images I need to support to a manageable
number (~10). It should also help minimize the "mine-is-better-than-yours"
sort of rivalry that kids are likely to engage in.]

A few days later, freight company dropped off a pallet with 6 large boxes
on it. (and a pair of SMX-1500's!) Yup... the 30 laptops that I'd begged off
on. <frown>

"Crap! Now I'll have to arrange to send them back to the donor..." No
doubt, someone in their shipping department hadn't been told to abort
the shipment!

Polite call to the donor explaining what had happened and hoping HE
would cover the cost of the return shipping (please, please, please...).

"Yes, I know you said your group couldn't use them for their current project.
But, I figured you could use them -- or, FIND someone who could use
them -- easier than we could! It's just not worth our time to bother
with surplus equipment given everything else that's happening, nowadays.
So, consider them a gift..."

[What do you say, other than "Wow! Thank you very much!" <grin>]

Ka-ching! I've only had time to open the first box which contained 5 Dell
XPS17 3D's (along with power supplies and "magic glasses") -- 2.3GHz i7,
16GB, blu-ray writer, 1TB SSD-hybrid drive *and* a 1TB rust disk. I suspect
the other 5 boxes have similar contents! But, no time to unpack them as my
other half is grumbling about all of the "deliveries" coming to the house,
lately. (I'll cover in another post, when I have some free time...)

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

^
I was wondering where you've been!

[TechGeek]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Update on the plasma TV:

So far, all inputs that I've tested (HDMI 1 through 3, antenna) work just fine. Need to test the composite and component video inputs and it'll be up for sale.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

More free scores!


Dell Latitude E6400 - this is the GMA X4500MHD variant. Might hunt down a Precision M2400 mobo since it has FX370M and can take quads

Lucky Star 6P2M810b - Slot1+370 combo, based on i810. POSTs after removing a bulging TAYEH cap (it was bulging from both sides)

unknown UMC based 486 mobo w/ 80387 coprocessor and RAM - untested, has corrosion on battery, might be salvageable

ATi 3D Rage Pro Turbo All-In-Wonder 8MB AGP - works fine

20V 6A Li Shin Int. Enterprise corp laptop adapter - also works fine, had to adapt an Acer plug to it.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Picked up another voodoo3500 on ebay for $15 shipped. Some surface mount components missing....so a little gamble.....but my success rate is at 100% so far repairing these.

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Well, we are on the cusp of meeting our 1,000 piece (laptop) goal!
(presently, 920 on hand with a mid-July goal -- assuming, of course,
that "school", of some sort, starts up in August as "usual"...)

I spent much of the past few weeks transferring the "collection"
(accumulation?) to an off-site storage location. Too many folks
were "noticing" the big stash ("Wow! Look at all those laptops!!").
Past experience says that this sort of thing is soon followed by
a break-in and the "removal" of those items!

[As the "goods" are donated, there's no real monetary "loss" if they
are stolen. But, having to replace or repair a door frame that has been
pried open or a window that has been smashed, dealing with the police,
landlord, etc. DOES represent a real cost! And, the labor spent on
accumulating them is for naught.]

I made a big show of the fact that the "pile" is now gone so anyone
who may have noticed it will likely notice its ABSENCE ("Hey, where
did all the laptops go??")

But, I should have taken some photos before dismantling the pile -- it
was REALLY an impressive sight! (can't really take a photo in the tiny
storage locker and all you'd see is boxes piled up...)

The other problem has to do with the logistics of "processing" them!
It's taken all this time just to inventory what's on hand, record serial
numbers, cursory checks of broken parts/missing batteries, matching
power supplies to laptops, removing "identifying marks" to protect the
identity of the donors, etc. I can't DO anything in the storage locker
as there's not even room for a CHAIR to sit on!!

So, I have to schlep a box or two at a time back to the house in
order to do any work on them. Then, pack them back up and drag
them back to the locker -- taking care to juggle the other boxes
around so I don't "process" the same box, again, later!

(sigh) Doesn't look like I will be getting any WORK done this summer!!
But, the software to test and "build" the laptops should be finished in
a week (fingers crossed) and I can let other folks do the menial task
of having it "build" and configure each machine and track their ultimate
distribution...

Assuming, of course, that the folks working on the other "political"
end of the problem manage to get their shit together....

Sure would be nice if this was happening when the temperatures were
something more tolerable -- all that lugging things in/out of doors is no
fun when its this hot (not to mention all the smoke in the air!)

[Topcat]

Re: Post your system.......

Today's haul....couple i5 & i7 systems, couple color laser AIO printers, and other crap....