best cheap/free scores 1.1

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Apparently, this is "UPS week"...

Rescued one of these and one of these. Along with a pair of these and 3 extra of these.

I have my eye on one of these (with a spare) which may end up replacing all of the above. Just not sure I can install it anywhere that will support the weight!

And, of course, smuggling THAT into the house will be more of a challenge than the smaller units! <frown>

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Scored some free gems:

- Office 97 Small Business Edition (DE)
- Windows 95C (DE)
- AOL Diamond (DE)
- EPSON Creative Design Pack (Multilanguage, but the sticker on it is in Deutsch)
- Corel Draw 7 OEM (Multi)
- Aztech SC16-3D + ATI Rage Pro Turbo Driver CDs (EN)
- CD-R w/ bunch of pictures from the previous owner.
- Acer 56K Modem Driver CD

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

More free scores:

-Sony Vaio FZ21M - needs reflow
-HP Pavilion DV2000 - reflowed, works great but needs some work aesthetically
-Acer 5315 - no power
-Fujitsu Siemens Esprimo V6505 - powers on fine but good god the KB is literally slayed
-HP DV6820 - no display, mobo has no CPU, so untested
-Nokia CA-42 cable - handy for Seagate repairs (BSY and SMART reset)

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

-Nokia CA-42 cable - handy for Seagate repairs (BSY and SMART reset)

I've seen that done....seemed a lot of effort for a drive that's worth maybe $2 on a good day...

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Honestly it's not much work, I just cut up an FP_Audio header, wired RX, TX and GND, and isolated the twisted copper with electrical tape, and right now it's resetting a 2TB 7200.11 as I write this.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Honestly it's not much work, I just cut up an FP_Audio header, wired RX, TX and GND, and isolated the twisted copper with electrical tape, and right now it's resetting a 2TB 7200.11 as I write this.

I'd do it perhaps in an effort to recover data for a client....but I don't think I'd ever trust the drive enough to use it again.

[TechGeek]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Seagate? Nuh-uh, automatic recommendation for replacement on the spot if it's not showing SMART problems. If it is, it's diagnosed as a failing HDD on the quote.

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Apparently, this is "UPS week"...

Rescued one of these and one of these. Along with a pair of these and 3 extra of these.

I have my eye on one of these (with a spare) which may end up replacing all of the above. Just not sure I can install it anywhere that will support the weight!

And, of course, smuggling THAT into the house will be more of a challenge than the smaller units! <frown>

Cripes! I'm a sucker for "free"... Time to see if there are any other things that I can add to my "scrap" pile to get rid of them, tomorrow!

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Seagate? Nuh-uh, automatic recommendation for replacement on the spot if it's not showing SMART problems. If it is, it's diagnosed as a failing HDD on the quote.

Honestly I wouldn't trash a 7200.11 if the only issue is BSY. I'd just reset SMART using the already known guide, update the FW and be happy with it.

Also that adapter comes handy for experimenting with Samsung (non-Seagate) drives too.

[dmill89]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Samsung SyncMaster 730b 17" monitor for $1.

Not much use for a monitor like this (17" 1280X1024) on a PC these days, but it works great as a display for my video surveillance system.

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Cripes! I'm a sucker for "free"... Time to see if there are any other things that I can add to my "scrap" pile to get rid of them, tomorrow!

And, of course, smuggling THAT into the house will be more of a challenge than he smaller units! <frown>

Given the pictures of that 5KVA unit, I can totally see this:

Wife: Hey honey, what happened to our kitchen stove?
You: Sorry babes, that stove had to go. We weren't really using it too much anyways.
Wife: Well, I'm trying to make some tea. What I'm I supposed to do?
You: Just wrap the car battery booster cables around your cup and connect across the batteries in this UPS here. Or just leave it out under the sun - we're in the desert, after all.

It's a process that involves removing the weak plastic rivets from a Model M that are used to hold the barrel plate to the backplate and sandwich everything in between them together. Over time, these rivets weaken and eventually fall off, causing the key feel to change. Eventually, the keyboard will be unusable as parts of it will no longer type.

Interesting.

Good to keep in mind if I ever decide to use my single Model M for anything (I'm really mostly keeping it just for the novelty and to show around.)

Otherwise, I don't find it that great for everyday use. While it's great for typing, the lack of Windows key makes it hard for me to use on a productivity / "main" PC.

And I also find that a lot of these older keyboards have terrible key roll-over. Moreover, many can't take more than 2 simultaneous key presses (Ctrl+Alt+Del and a few other special function keys excluded, of course.) Very few old keyboards can interpret any 3 simultaneous key presses and even less, more than 3 keys. So for that reason, I find a lot of these older keyboards are not that great for gaming either - at least for competitive games that require a lot of key press action (e.g. Fortnite.) Otherwise, I really like the sound and key press feel of the Model M.

A Lionel "RW" 110W transformer for $10. Everything works properly except the whistle button, a common issue with all older Lionel transformers as the rectifier discs become weak with age (for anyone not familiar most O-gauge trains are AC powered and inject DC to trigger the whistle), nothing a diode won't fix.

Beautiful piece of vintage train equipment there.
They sure don't make then like that anymore.

Scored some free gems:

- Office 97 Small Business Edition (DE)
- Windows 95C (DE)

Nice.
For typing up documents and making spreadsheets, honestly I think this is all you will ever need for a lifetime. Unlike modern Office 365, which requires subscription, you can use this older Office version pretty much forever.

On that note, I found 2 copies of Office XP Small Business Edition discarded at my previous job's trash. The disc sets were still unopened and with original CD key sticker attached.

Samsung SyncMaster 730b 17" monitor for $1.

Not much use for a monitor like this (17" 1280X1024) on a PC these days, but it works great as a display for my video surveillance system.

Yup, those old Dell monitors are perfect for applications like that: reliable and good enough to get the job done.

I personally don't mind the lower resolutions that much. Just recently started switching my CRTs from 1024x768 to 1152x864 (and 1280x960 on the 21" ones.) I was testing a 22" 1650x1050 LCD monitor on my main PC all this summer (to make sure it can take the heat), and since it's an LCD, that higher resolution was actually bearable. But if I want higher resolution, it will have to be on a bigger screen. I dislike high resolutions on a small monitor - makes text and icons on most websites too small to see from far away.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

On that note, I found 2 copies of Office XP Small Business Edition discarded at my previous job's trash. The disc sets were still unopened and with original CD key sticker attached.

oi! sell me one copy! i could use one of those as im still on winxp!

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Finally got around and fixed the Sony Vaio FZ21M.

Notable "issues" found:
- thermal paste was as dry as Sahara
- whoever tried to reflow the GPU literally didn't heat it enough - it was showing rainbow puke before reflow
- BD drive is semi-kaput, laser-wise

I replaced the old dry paste with brand new MX2, and reflowed the GPU with my automotive heatgun set to 350*C for ~30sec-1min, closed everything back together and it works like it's brand new.

Also a few small upgrades I did are a T8100 in place of the old T7250, a 500GB Samsung (made by Seagate) in place of the old 200GB Fujitsu it had, as well as 4GB of DDR2-800 in place of the 1GB 667 sticks it had.

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Given the pictures of that 5KVA unit, I can totally see this:

Wife: Hey honey, what happened to our kitchen stove?
You: Sorry babes, that stove had to go. We weren't really using it too much anyways.
Wife: Well, I'm trying to make some tea. What I'm I supposed to do?
You: Just wrap the car battery booster cables around your cup and connect across the batteries in this UPS here. Or just leave it out under the sun - we're in the desert, after all.

Today, I recycled 6 Smart-UPS 1500s as a token offering to the "God of Equilibrium". I figure I still need to shed some more volume and mass. But, that was a good start.

What I really need to do is take another pass through all of my books and paper notes...

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Scored an free Acer Aspire 5720G.

Original specs as I got it from the dump:

- no HDD
- Core 2 Duo T5450
- Panasonic UJ-850 DVDRW
- Fujitsu-Siemens (FSC) OEM'd Geforce Go 7600 GS 256MB (which surprisingly works fine, as well as has not been reflowed, though someone soldered some screw standoffs and the reason for that is beyond me (5520G/7520G/5720G/7720G all have a proprietary removable bracket on the back of their GPUs, held on by adhesive tape, and not those funny-ass standoffs)
- 1GB RAM (2x512, and one was PC2-4200 no less!)
- greek KB, saved it as it's working fine, but is in dire need of a key replacement session (assuming I still have some of the special keys)as its keys are more yellow than one of my Maxell DVD-Rs lol
- Intel 3945ABG Wi-Fi card

Specs after restoration:

- 250GB Seagate Pipeline Mini HDD
- Core 2 Duo T5800 (for the time being, as I have a T8300 handy)
- HT-DT-ST GSA-T40N DVDRW
- Acer branded HD4650 1GB DDR2
- 4GB DDR2-800
- italian KB (not very new, but at least it's matching the white color of the case)
- Intel WiFi Link 5100

Left to do is also upgrade the screen, assuming I can source an 7520/7720 LVDS cable, and drop in a 1680x1050 panel.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I picked up yet some more of those silly Nobilis C2-era systems, I've got to have 50 of them now.

Several new-old-stock Coolermaster 400W PSU's

and the pick of the litter, rescued from a recycle bin....a Supermicro C2SBA+ LGA775. It had 6gb RAM and some lousy/worthless/slow C2D processor in it...in working order. Here's where it gets good though!! I checked the board specs at Supermicro (it wasn't a board I was familiar with), checked the BIOS revision against the latest on their site, it was current. It's a G33 chipset....which got my wheels turning (dangerous sometimes) since it *can* support 5400-series Xeons with the correct modifications... Yup, I modded an E5450 c0 stepping and plopped it in there....it POST'd right up. I booted into Hiren's and checked CPU-Z, CPU is reported correctly, all instructionsets and goodies are working/supported....I didn't even have to mod the BIOS with Xeon microcode. I've noticed some Intel LGA775 boards (the DG45ID was a good one) that do this as well.... Of course they don't 'officially' support Xeon CPU's due to them having to be physically carved up....but they toss the microcode into their firmwares.

Ok, not a horribly stellar system....but I always have a love for making things run stuff they weren't intended to!

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Today's score is a Compaq CQ57-460EA. i3 380M, 4GB of RAM (originally had a single 4GB stick, I replaced it with 2x2GB so I might at least get dual-channel hopefully). Originally had a Seagate 320GB (unchecked) but I replaced it with a 500GB HGST, and the Panasonic DVD-RW with a Lite-ON DVDRW. Will probably crack it open though to replace the thermal paste, as well as give it a good cleaning.

Anyone know compatible mobos with discrete GPU for a G6-1000 series and this CQ57 though? As in, P/N for them is what I'm looking for.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Another score today... another 5520G. Jeez, the 8400M G variants seem to be everywhere! Very scarce on the 8600M front tho, a shame since the G84s are nice if cooled properly.

Anyways. I had to reflow both the GPU and chipset. The GPU had white screen issue, which the reflow fixed (along with repasting and adjusting the GPU heatsink a bit) and the chipset was almost working - the only issue it had was it would not recognize the DVD drive no matter what. Reflowed it, boom. DVD drive would show up fine.

Anyways, it's running Windows 7 now, although it's quite hot (GPU stays in mid 50s - low 60s) but honestly that's to be expected of anything AMD running DDR2 and older than S1G4.

[speter]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Cooler master tower HAF 932, Asus p6x58D premium mb, 24g ram, 1TB hdd, I7 950, Optiarc DVD RW, Gforce GTX570 1.25g ram. $50

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Cooler master tower HAF 932, Asus p6x58D premium mb, 24g ram, 1TB hdd, I7 950, Optiarc DVD RW, Gforce GTX570 1.25g ram. $50

Not bad at all!
Those X58 boards are still viable for modern use. Maybe they won't be able to play all of the latest games (if that's something you even had in mind.) But if the board supports 6-core Xeon Westmere CPU, I strongly suggest to go with one. The 2 extra cores will help a lot, even if you do get a slower chip (not to mention you may be able to OC it quite a bit more, being a Xeon chip and all.)

If anyone watches TechYesCity on YouTube, he still does the occasional build comparison of socket 1366 / X58 platforms with modern stuff... and these old chips still perform respectably well.