best cheap/free scores 1.1

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by momaka

Awesome PSU scores.

The Powerman PSUs are actually FSP / Fortron Source - good stuff.
Yes, they will need a recap. Knowing FSP, they are probably full of cheapo Teapo and CrapXon.


Medion? I wonder if that is the same brand that also has video cards under their name.

By the way, you should check the jumper settings on that motherboard. Someone could have installed a jumper on a fan connector and thus no power issue. Also could be a shorted MOSFET on the GPU causing that - though highly unlikely.

That said, definitely keep the GeForce 3 video card (or sell it) - the price for GeForce 3 and 4 series of video cards seems to have gone up a bit in the last few years. Not quite on the same level of Voodoo graphics cards, but still alright. Same with the high-end GeForce FX line (like FX5700, FX5800, and FX5900/FX5950).


I like the "uni-shell" side panel on that case. And it's a cool silver case - a breath of fresh air from all of the black cases popular nowadays (I'm sure I've said this before, but I'll say it again - I'm so tired of black PC cases and black components.)

I was able to get the Medion board to fire off. I blew all teh dust out of it, and replaced the dead CMOS battery, and it took off and POST'd...inspite of a bunch of bad caps on the south end of the board. Not sure if I'll recap it or not....I'll have to see what chipset it is and if I can run something a little faster than the 1.6GHz P4 that's in it. I snapped a couple pics, since you seemed interested in knowing what this thing was... The GPU is a Medion geforce3 Ti 200, 64mb, Sanyo polymer & wg-series lytics. Not sure who OEM'd the motherboard, but it reeks MSI...







Now for this Sony.... It cleaned up nice....very solid case. I had to take a heat gun to the sticker on the side, it was stubborn....but was able to remove it without a trace. This would be a good sleeper case to put something unique in!

[Topcat]

Yup, the Mdeion board is a MSI (MS-6399). 400FSB max....ick!

http://soggi.eu/motherboards/msi-oem...-1-MS-6399.htm

[ratdude747]

Made two scores for $9.99 a pop:

- Hanns G HL248 24" 1080P slim LCD monitor. No power adapter, but I just happened to have picked up a compatible 12V 3A (what's spec'd on the monitor) brick for $0.99 a few weeks ago. Works great from what I've tested so far.

-Nikon S550: Had original box, battery, and charger. Took a chance on it (not powering up), but the power up issue was a dead battery and it works great. Slick little camera (5x optical zoom in a tiny body... how???). Ebays for $30ish, so not a mega score, but still, not too shabby?

To quote my father, "sometimes even a blind squirrel finds its nut..."

[Topcat]

^
Might check the caps on the signal processor board.

Picked up one of these from Ebay for $69 shipped. Used but mint, everything included all the way down to the screw pack. Normally a ~$275 case!

http://www.supermicro.com/products/c...3/SC733TQ-665B

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by Topcat

^
Might check the caps on the signal processor board.

Picked up one of these from Ebay for $69 shipped. Used but mint, everything included all the way down to the screw pack. Normally a ~$275 case!

http://www.supermicro.com/products/c...3/SC733TQ-665B

Will do.

Good case score. My V3 series (and original V5) uses the non-hotswap version. Works great and if you use Arctic Cooling fans its virtually silent (even with SLI'd gtx 250's !).

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by Topcat

^
Might check the caps on the signal processor board.

No problems there, but I did see a 47uf 63V LED driver board cap (the only cap on that board) that looked a bit puffy in the bung. Not a size I have either... one cap!

[momaka]

Originally Posted by Topcat

I was able to get the Medion board to fire off. ... I snapped a couple pics, since you seemed interested in knowing what this thing was... The GPU is a Medion geforce3 Ti 200, 64mb, Sanyo polymer & wg-series lytics.

Cool. Thanks.

Yeah, MSI sounds right. I was curious because I have a Medion Radeon 9800 XL with a green PCB that I saw once also under MSI and once under ASUS. So I was wondering who made it. But I suspected MSI, since the PCB didn't have the ASUS ass-backwards cap polarization silkscreen. Your findings confirm my suspicions were true.

That GF3 TI 200 is pretty cool. Not the fastest GF3 card, but plenty enough for retro DX8 / DX8.1 games. And it looks well-built.

As for the Medion PC... wow, Made in Germany?
... at least according to the back sticker. I presume that means assembled in Germany with China/Taiwan components. Or not?

Originally Posted by Topcat

Yup, the Mdeion board is a MSI (MS-6399). 400FSB max....ick!

Ouch. Only thing that will run decent in that is one of those "higher-end" Northwood cores. I have one that is 2.8 GHz. Runs on par with other non-HT P4s, but certainly better than the Willamate cores. In modern times, that's like comparing a small snail to large snail, I suppose.

Originally Posted by Topcat

Now for this Sony.... It cleaned up nice....very solid case... This would be a good sleeper case to put something unique in!

Looks sturdy too. I've seen so many of these older cases in the recycling bins when I used to work at a computer store back last spring. Really sad, as some of them were really solid and good looking too.

Anyways, what's in that ASUS P5N-VM motherboard I see there?
Looks like a C2D/C2Q build with 2 LAN chips and dual-link DVI-Is??

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by momaka

Anyways, what's in that ASUS P5N-VM motherboard I see there?
Looks like a C2D/C2Q build with 2 LAN chips and dual-link DVI-Is??

Its some dual core LGA775 Xeon @ 3.16GHz (I think). I don't know the model, I'll have to pull the sink off and check. That board was in an Asus barebones system that was given to me. The case looked like the Globetrotters played basketball with it, completely destroyed. HDD bad. Board and PSU were good. Has 8gb RAM in it. Considered it for the Sony case...but I want to look into one other motherboard first.

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by ratdude747

No problems there, but I did see a 47uf 63V LED driver board cap (the only cap on that board) that looked a bit puffy in the bung. Not a size I have either... one cap!

IDK... it's not at all stable on DVI. VGA works OK... and I cracked open the brick, it's OEM'd by delta.

I'll recap both boards... probably dried up on the control board?

[mikay786]

Tried dismantling the sub-woofer on the bose system i bought last week but couldn't get the front panel off that needed treatment (badly yellowed white plastic)

anyhow just masked it up and did it intact and has come out fantastic.

Before and after pics, well worth the little bit off effort and only cost £3.99 for the peroxide.

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by momaka

Anyways, what's in that ASUS P5N-VM motherboard I see there?
Looks like a C2D/C2Q build with 2 LAN chips and dual-link DVI-Is??

CPU is a Xeon E3120 @ 3.16....I was curious myself, so I checked.

[jwillifixit]

So I've been harvesting from two spots for the past 8 months now and have been ABSOLUTELY amazed by what I've found! That said I've made an observation - the general public is generally clueless when it comes to protecting personal data.

Most of the computers I pull are actually working or had a very simple failures with their only real issue being that they are old. In some cases all that is needed is a good cleaning and perhaps the ram needed to be re-seated or something like that. Worst case is a bad power supply or bad ram/card etc. Possibly bad caps but to be honest I've only found maybe 5 or 6 machines out of 100 that had obviously bad caps.

I just pulled in a computer the other day and found that it was working perfectly - fully intact including the hard drive. No passwords at all (not that it would protect anything anyway but still). Among other less interesting data this particular machine held the tax filings of 4 families for a period of 5 years.

What follows are some examples of what people did to retired computers before putting them in the dump... (while leaving the HDD's totally untouched).

1. cut the cables
2. smash the motherboard with something like a hammer
3. drill holes in anything that looks important (seriously... what are you thinking).

[Topcat]

^
Thats funny.... I was given a system last week.... HDD was removed (typical)...but I hit eject on the optical drive and in it contained a disc of an MRI of the owner....all his information. Of all the.....

[jwillifixit]

Found today

[Topcat]

Cheap ebay score. Said used, but never been mounted up. Came in original box. Came from a recycler, my guess it that it was some kind of return or "B" stock (one side has a couple light scratches on it). The power supply alone was worth what I gave for the whole thing. Me is happy!

[momaka]

Originally Posted by Topcat

Cheap ebay score. Said used, but never been mounted up. Came in original box. Came from a recycler, my guess it that it was some kind of return or "B" stock (one side has a couple light scratches on it). The power supply alone was worth what I gave for the whole thing. Me is happy!

Nice case! Quit teasin' man.

I've been looking at a few cases on Craigslist myself. Found an older (but not *that* old) Antec case with a silver front. Not sure what model. Looks alright and comes with a DVD drive. $10 only and maybe a 20 minute drive from here. I wonder if I should go for it. There's also someone selling a Ranger R4-R for $25 (about $10 less than they go on Newegg). Kind of tempted to go with that one instead... but I don't know, these modern-day gaming cases all feel kinda cheap to me. I've been using an older eMachines case (AMD Athlon XP / Pentium 4 -era) sort of as a "foot rest" under my desk. It also holds the components of my secondary PC. And so far, even that case feel a lot more solid than modern cases. So I'm not sure if I should go for any of the cases above. What do you all think?

Originally Posted by Topcat

CPU is a Xeon E3120 @ 3.16....I was curious myself, so I checked.

Not bad at all. 3 GHz dual-core - that's plenty for browsing and office tasks. Older games too. Heck, I've seen videos on YouTube where people push GTA 5 on a slow-ass Pentium 4 630 with an nVidia GT 210, lol. So you can bet that Xeon kick any P4's ass in games.

[dmill89]

Originally Posted by momaka

but I don't know, these modern-day gaming cases all feel kinda cheap to me.

My Cooler Master HAF-932 is pretty sturdy, but it is also a fairly expensive case (around $140, though I got mine for $40 from the local PC shop several years ago after someone ordered it and never came back to pick it up), most of the <$50 cases are pretty flimsy these days though (granted aside from OEM cases most in this price range have always been pretty flimsy with some exceptions, they might be a little worse now but were never stellar, OEM cases have definitely gotten cheaper/flimsier over the last few years though).

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by momaka

Nice case! Quit teasin' man.

I've been looking at a few cases on Craigslist myself. Found an older (but not *that* old) Antec case with a silver front. Not sure what model. Looks alright and comes with a DVD drive. $10 only and maybe a 20 minute drive from here. I wonder if I should go for it. There's also someone selling a Ranger R4-R for $25 (about $10 less than they go on Newegg). Kind of tempted to go with that one instead... but I don't know, these modern-day gaming cases all feel kinda cheap to me. I've been using an older eMachines case (AMD Athlon XP / Pentium 4 -era) sort of as a "foot rest" under my desk. It also holds the components of my secondary PC. And so far, even that case feel a lot more solid than modern cases. So I'm not sure if I should go for any of the cases above. What do you all think?


Not bad at all. 3 GHz dual-core - that's plenty for browsing and office tasks. Older games too. Heck, I've seen videos on YouTube where people push GTA 5 on a slow-ass Pentium 4 630 with an nVidia GT 210, lol. So you can bet that Xeon kick any P4's ass in games.

I'd say go for it on the Antec case, that's cheap...and I've always liked Antec cases. They're always roomy and sturdy, 2 qualities I find to be quite a luxury with a case these days. I also like cases that are anything but black....and those are getting hard to come by. I certainly don't mind my black Supermicro case, but if I can find a good sturdy beige, white, or silver one, I will always snatch it up!!

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by dmill89

My Cooler Master HAF-932 is pretty sturdy, but it is also a fairly expensive case (around $140

I have the Antec version of that case, it too is pretty sturdy.

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...94&postcount=1

[Dan81]

Scored some MORE PS2s:

- an SCPH-90004 8D, so it's an late 2008 model - came with a quite interesting "Canyon" branded controller, a Hama AV cable (with gold-plated connectors!) and a copy or Rayman:Hoodlum Havoc - power button was broken, managed to fix that using another power board (although ghetto since it was from a older slim PS2)

-an SCPH-50003 - this one was pretty stock. It works fine, reads everything from the first try. It had the warranty seal intact but I removed it. I replaced the casing with one from a defunct silver with same model number because its original black case had deep ugly scratches all over it! It's not modded or anything, but that's obvious. Uses a Sony KHS-400C laser.

-an SCPH-30004R - this one was pretty obvious it was opened, as there was a sticker pointing to some service shop in Gdansk, Poland. It has a pretty noisy fan, but otherwise it works fine and also reads everything (although not from the first try).
Chipped with a Ripper 3.2 chip (which I suspect being a Messiah clone with a few more features) and uses a Sanyo SF-HD7 laser.


The two fat PS2s (50003 and 30004R) were $15.64 and the 90004 was $12.62. Pretty nice, especially considering the guy that I bought the fat PS2s from advertised them as having dead lasers. It actually turned out they were perfectly fine, and just the 50003 had a bit of a sticky tray.