best cheap/free scores 1.1

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Originally Posted by momaka

Just had a dejavu moment of this yesterday - I found a eVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti for $10 at a yard sale. Knowing these go for at least twice that on eBay right now, I grabbed it. Still haven't tested it yet, though. But the owner said it was working when they last used it before upgrading. Let's hope so.

nice score for the money for a card series (and evga brand to boot) with a high failure rate because of the way they did the idle throttling for the fermi series. the idle clocks were set too low causing the card to heat up too fast and too much when entering load. terrible idea when u talk about metal fatigue...

anyway at 10 bucks, i cant complain. i'd take it as faulty for parts or not working anyway...

[momaka]

Originally Posted by ChaosLegionnaire

nice score for the money for a card series (and evga brand to boot) with a high failure rate because of the way they did the idle throttling for the fermi series. the idle clocks were set too low causing the card to heat up too fast and too much when entering load. terrible idea when u talk about metal fatigue...

anyway at 10 bucks, i cant complain. i'd take it as faulty for parts or not working anyway...

Yeah, looks like people on eBay are paying over $15 even for a non-working card like this.

That said, I briefly tested my GTX 560 Ti last weekend (using two power supplies in my test PC , since this is a 170 Watt TDP video card), and it appears to work fine. I didn't get a chance to test it thoroughly, though. So I don't know how hot it runs under stress or anything like that. But like you said, I too, noticed that the idle 2D clocks were set really low - something like 145 MHz for the GPU and RAM (forgot the exact numbers) and the card was running around 40°C in this idle mode. Funny enough, a few days ago when I was browsing through eBay video card again, I saw this same exact video card (except it was the 1 GB version) listed "For Parts/Repair" with no video. Let's hope mine works at least for a while. I *might* be building a quad-core PC soon (a first for me ) based on a Core 2 Q6600 chip, so maybe I can use this video card in it to make a kick-ass PC (again, to me anyways ). I say "might" above, because I ordered the CPU last week and seller has yet to confirm that my CPU was shipped or provide me with a tracking #. Then again, for $4 total, maybe he just decided not to bother (can't blame him/her... who sells a quad core CPU for $1 anyways? ).

And if not, I can always sell that video card. The GTX 560 Ti 1 GB versions seem to be *selling* right now for $30-40 shipped (based on auctions I watched end, not on some seller posting inflated prices). This being a 2 GB version, I think it will fetch even more. But I think I will keep it for the time being... or at least until I perform some stress tests to see how hot it runs under load. I am willing to bet it will hit 80°C easily.

Originally Posted by stj

paid £30 for one of these:
http://www.tek.com/datasheet/wvr500

now i can find out EXACTLY why some old equipment works with a crt but looks like shit on an lcd panel.

Cool unique gizmo, there!

I *think* analogue video content looks crappy on a LCD mainly because of the over-saturated LCD colors near mid-brightness. But I could be wrong on that, though.

Originally Posted by diif

Took a gamble on a Dell monitor described as only half of the screen works on ebay.
Won it for 99p, turned out to be a U2711b.
I stripped it down, reseated the cables and it works great, just need a dual link DVI cable for it to appreciate the resolution correctly. 2560x1440.

Nice score for sure!

Originally Posted by Dan81

-fake Beats headphones that need fixing

Let us know how they sound. I've always wondered about the quality of cheap poser headphones vs. the "real" thing. So far, all headphones I opened appeared to have generic drivers. Typically they have the impedance written on them, and if you are lucky, the maximum power rating.

Originally Posted by Dan81

and for the shocker:

-400W Delux ATX-400W P4 PSU - shocker is,this is one of their Sun Pro built units.

Lol, I think those Delux PSUs love you or something - they always seem to find their way to you .

Originally Posted by Dan81

Does anyone know where can I find some decent heatsinks for this?

Other than stealing something from another PSU... buy some aluminum and make your own? Here, the local hardware store sells "L"-shaped pieces that are approximately 4 cm x 90 cm x 3 mm. They also have straight pieces of the same size.

I've used their "U"-shaped pieces to make small transistor heatsinks before, and those worked great.

[Dan81]

Originally Posted by momaka

Let us know how they sound. I've always wondered about the quality of cheap poser headphones vs. the "real" thing. So far, all headphones I opened appeared to have generic drivers. Typically they have the impedance written on them, and if you are lucky, the maximum power rating.

Well,I just fixed them the same day. They did something interesting and nice - instead of being truly cheap as heck,they actually installed a 3.5mm port in the headphones and made a 3.5 - 3.5mm cable. Neat!

Anyways,they sound pretty good. I actually have some doubts these are fake,but the cable quite says they're fake - original Beats are supposed to have a microphone built in? Those seem to sound beautiful on PC (their bass literally shake my bones),but sound like normal small earbuds on my phone. I guess there's something different between my Acer Aspire 5349's soundchip and my phone's soundchip?

Originally Posted by momaka

Lol, I think those Delux PSUs love you or something - they always seem to find their way to you .
Other than stealing something from another PSU... buy some aluminum and make your own? Here, the local hardware store sells "L"-shaped pieces that are approximately 4 cm x 90 cm x 3 mm. They also have straight pieces of the same size.
I've used their "U"-shaped pieces to make small transistor heatsinks before, and those worked great.

It's not their shape that buggers me. It's the fact that their grounding pins are in such a way that,for fitting a heatsink from another PSU,I have to flip it the other way (most heatsinks are oriented from left to right with their grounding pins,while Sun Pro does exactly the opposite - they oriented the heatsink ground pins from right to left) and the holes for the secondary transistors won't fit. I still have some heatsinks left from another cooked Sun Pro based Delux (that resembled more of a Raidmax inside - not even Raidmax could get this brown of a PCB!) and some heatsinks left from a Kissquiet unit and I could try and see if I can swap the heatsinks or at least solder the grounding pins to the heatsink itself so that it fits into this Sun Pro unit.

Anyways,you're somehow right - every Delux unit seems to end up to me.

So far,most of the units I owned were Sun Pros,iMicro clones and rebranded Kissquiet units. Anything else was my own work generally,like a Linkworld-based unit (which was pretty good,those heatsinks were almost as thick as Bestec's),a KME based unit (which was purely made out of scrap stuff - the PCB I got for $1.23 (5 RON),the case was free and the fan was a Yate Loon from something else) and another shocker - a CWT ISO unit.

The last one was a case-swap between a 2012 Delux that died and my G-Alantic Enterprises LTD. 350W PSU. I had to remove the plastic holder for all the wires,as they were so thick I couldn't close the holder. (it's the black piece from the other side of the PSU) Anyhow,Delux seems to use some weird metal for their casing,as their metal doesn't heat up insanely like the CWT casing did.

[junktv]

Scored a Mitsubishi VS-60719 60" projection tv today. Thing is huge.

[mariushm]

Newegg's running a promo today .. 30$ wireless n router for 5$ and mail in rebate takes it down to free.

PROMO CODE : On Networks N150 Wireless Router, Open Source Ready - N150R EMCENEG22

Link : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc..._-33416001-S0H

It's wireless n so max 150 mbps, one 100 mbps wan port, 2 100 mbps lan ports , basic and cheap.

Here's the whole flyer / mail sales pitch : http://promotions.newegg.com/NEemail...BFRElBLkNPTQ==

Something that popped up to me, a 8 TB external Seagate usb 3.0 thingie for $200 , down from $300 , a 3TB toshiba discounted to around $80 , a good asrock fatality z97 for $90 after $20 mail in rebate and 25$ off from the start (default price 135$)

[kc8adu]

scored a bunch of stuff in the past month.
a sansui g8000.free.
7 ford/international vt365 FICM.free.how does a guy at a garage sale end up with 7 of these?piece of cake for me to fix and have ready for exchange.
kemwood ts-480.$50.at a yardsale.works fine.box of cb's free.2 of which are hr-2510's.even have good displays.
13 brand new lenovo packs.ebay being awash with shit replacements for $15 means even originals with year old datecodes dont bring much.$1 each.already stripped for cells.which are panasonic 2900's.SCORE!
and a box of magnetic work lights from walmart.case of 24 for $15.
i dremel out the inside,stuff in 2 18650,and a usb charger.the guys i fix clusters,ficm,ecm, for at auto shops love these.
and finally a hp i7 laptop with a bios password.free.
easy to fix.for me that is.

[ratdude747]

Not bad... How new of an i7 on that laptop?

[junktv]

Originally Posted by kc8adu

scored a bunch of stuff in the past month.
a sansui g8800.free.
7 ford/international vt365 FICM.free.how does a guy at a garage sale end up with 7 of these?piece of cake for me to fix and have ready for exchange.
kemwood ts-480.$50.at a yardsale.works fine.box of cb's free.2 of which are hr-2510's.even have good displays.
13 brand new lenovo packs.ebay being awash with shit replacements for $15 means even originals with year old datecodes dont bring much.$1 each.already stripped for cells.which are panasonic 2900's.SCORE!
and a box of magnetic work lights from walmart.case of 24 for $15.
i dremel out the inside,stuff in 2 18650,and a usb charger.the guys i fix clusters,ficm,ecm, for at auto shops love these.
and finally a hp i7 laptop with a bios password.free.
easy to fix.for me that is.

Can I rub your belly? Nice scores!

[Topcat]

after 9 years, a long-lost friend is coming home!

[momaka]

Christmas came early this year! My newest scores:
* 3 or 4 audio tapes (2x are good quality Sony blanks)
* a ton of floppies in very good condition (including two AOL v2.x promo floppies )
* one can of clear coat paint + two cans of high gloss paint (yellow and blue)
* 2Wire ADSL modem + 4-port switch + WAN, with power adapter
* Compaq Presario V6000 laptop - dusty and in non-working condition but has everything in it, including the HDD... and came with a power adapter
* USB wireless dongle with a damaged USB port... but nothing that can't be fixed
* Plastation 3, slim model . Came with HDMI and power cable, but no controllers (maybe they were in the pile of furniture where I found the PS3, but I didn't feel like rummaging through it). Appears to power on fine and display an output to my TV. Didn't test it further, though. Also came with a NFL Madden 13 game inside. Double-score? Well, I don't play any sports games like that, but I can always pass it along to someone that does .

Anyways. Story behind all of this is, I saw a "curb alert" ad on Craigslist close by in my area. I took my bike and went to see what was there. That's where I found the cans of spray paint, the tapes, and the floppy drives. But on the way back, I went through a quiet local road in my neighborhood and noticed a pile of furniture. A cable caught my eye, so immediately stopped to investigate . And then right there I saw the PlayStation 3 sitting on a brown couch, right in plain sight. Then I looked a bit more and saw a laptop sitting in an open laptop box.

Having too many electronics already, I decided to NOT take anything with me. Since I saw these things mid-day, I thought someone would eventually walk by and take them. But then as the evening rolled in, some clouds formed in the sky. I checked the weather forecast for the night: rainstorm. When the clouds got really thick and it really was about to start raining, I decided to go back to that place and see if someone had taken the PS3 and the laptop. But to my surprise, they weren't! In fact, nothing at all was taken from the pile. Knowing that the rain could ruin these, I decided to save them. I put the PS3 in a paper bag I had in my backpack and took the laptop right in the laptop box that it was in already. As I started walking home, I saw another pile of furniture about 100 yards down the road. I saw a printer with some wires sitting on it, so I stopped and started investigating that pile too. That's where I got the 2Wire ADSL model. I thought about taking the printer too, but it was one of those bulky inkjets. And since I don't bring any used stuff directly in my house, it meant that anything I found had to be left outside (under our covered deck), until I opened and cleaned it up. So I left the printer, thinking I could go get it the next morning if I really wanted to... but I woke up too late, and by that time the trashman had already dumped it. Oh well. I'm still more than happy with my scores above.

As for the laptop... it appears to be an early Core 2 Duo with Windows Vista Business OEM. There's a sticker on the laptop that says "Graphics by nVidia"... and this being a 2006-2007 "vintage" laptop, I think we can all have a good guess as to why it's not working . According to the quick specs manual, the GPU is either a GeForce Go 6150 or GeForce 7150M. But I guess we will see once I tear it apart. Currently, it's not of much interest as is the PS3, so it's waiting in its box until I get to it. The PS3 would be great if it works. Would really like to try the game, The Last of Us. Also, I'm sure the Blu-Ray drive would be good to have if/when renting movies.

[TechGeek]

inkjunks

Fixed that for ya.

[stj]

ASUS Transformer tablet - with keyboard and box!!

had no touch, but i reflowed the controller and it works.
unfortunatly it has an intel cpu.

[TechGeek]

A month ago- a dual-deck VCR
A few days ago- a DVD player

Guess what I did?

[momaka]

By the way, I forgot to add...
I got the Core 2 Quad Q6600 CPU last week. Tested it in my Intel DG33SX (DG33TL-equivalent) motherboard, a.k.a. the "MOSFET assassin". The good news is the CPU worked okay. The even better news is, I might have fixed that motherboard for good now - it didn't blow any more MOSFETs on me this time, even with the Q6600 CPU, which eats quite a bit more power than the E2180 I was using before that.

Originally Posted by TechGeek

Fixed that for ya.

Thank you!

Originally Posted by Dan81

Anyways,they sound pretty good. I actually have some doubts these are fake,but the cable quite says they're fake - original Beats are supposed to have a microphone built in? Those seem to sound beautiful on PC (their bass literally shake my bones),but sound like normal small earbuds on my phone. I guess there's something different between my Acer Aspire 5349's soundchip and my phone's soundchip?

Your phone probably has a weak amp inside, made for med/high-impedance ear buds. Even those "fake" Beats likely have standard 32-Ohm 40 mm drivers, so they would benefit from a more powerful amp. As for a build-in mic... I don't know. I think there are a lot of different models, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of them don't have it.

Anyways, you should build a dedicated headphone amplifier - then you can get even more bass out of them. It's seriously addicting And you won't have to disturb your neighbors or other people in the house when you want to listen to music loud late at night .

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Originally Posted by momaka

2Wire ADSL modem + 4-port switch + WAN, with power adapter

ugh, u should have just left it. i had a 2wire adsl wireless modem before and it was utter garbage: freezes when i bittorrent and play bandwidth intensive games. also, guess what? after around one and a half years of use, it stopped working. changed the power adapter and it still didnt go back to working condition so the problem was with the modem itself internally. the problem with it was, it kept power cycling itself when power was applied. i was a nub back then but armed with the knowledge i have now, in hindsight i think it looks like a bad cap related problem?

if u ever wanna think of using it, maybe u should check the caps it has and recap it if u like. otherwise, should've just tossed it. i dont know if the freezing during bittorent or bandwidth intensive applications was due to crap caps or the crap design of the modem.

Originally Posted by momaka

Compaq Presario V6000 laptop - dusty and in non-working condition but has everything in it, including the HDD... and came with a power adapter.

As for the laptop... it appears to be an early Core 2 Duo with Windows Vista Business OEM. There's a sticker on the laptop that says "Graphics by nVidia"... and this being a 2006-2007 "vintage" laptop, I think we can all have a good guess as to why it's not working . According to the quick specs manual, the GPU is either a GeForce Go 6150 or GeForce 7150M.

lol its bumpgated for sure. in hindsight, if u knew it was a nvidia bumpgate era laptop, u shouldnt have rushed and gone through all that just to save it... personally, if it was me, i would've just draped some plastic sheet over it or put it in a plastic bag or something and tie it up to give it *some* protection from the rain. the rest of its fate, i leave it in the hands of god... if it gets struck by lightning while out in the open, its a sign from the above that god is angry with mankind for abusing his gifts and designing junk! so he sent lightning to destroy the infernal contraption!

Originally Posted by momaka

Playstation 3, slim model . I can always pass it along to someone that does .

personally, i recommend that you keep it for posterity since u used to fix consoles for a living. should keep it as a memento. can use it to tell grandfather stories to kids decades later too. besides, there's no other person better to fix it if it ever hiccups. plus i believe u have a ton of spare parts from your previous job to fix it right? if it was anyone else, it would just get tossed again. such a sad fate for that playstation: being ditched/dumped by your owner twice!!

Originally Posted by momaka

I thought about taking the printer too, but it was one of those bulky inkjets. And since I don't bring any used stuff directly in my house, it meant that anything I found had to be left outside (under our covered deck), until I opened and cleaned it up. So I left the printer, thinking I could go get it the next morning if I really wanted to... but I woke up too late, and by that time the trashman had already dumped it. Oh well. I'm still more than happy with my scores above.

im afraid im gonna have to say "good riddance!" on that one... there's waaay too many "inkjunk" printers floating around like techgeek said, it probably isnt worth saving. if the earth becomes uninhabitable by a mountain of giant inkjunk, i'd say mankind learned their lesson the hard way NOT to manufacture and design junk!

Originally Posted by momaka

Tested it in my Intel DG33SX (DG33TL-equivalent) motherboard, a.k.a. the "MOSFET assassin". The good news is the CPU worked okay. The even better news is, I might have fixed that motherboard for good now - it didn't blow any more MOSFETs on me this time, even with the Q6600 CPU, which eats quite a bit more power than the E2180 I was using before that.

errr, did u test it with a burn-in stress testing program like prime95 small fft test for a few hours? cuz thats the only way to be certain... dont mean to rain on your parade or quality of repairs but one shouldnt jump the gun when it comes to stuff with a bad track record...

[momaka]

Oh yeah, I almost forgot about this score, but I got it around the same time as that C2Q CPU: 13x SATA cables for $4 shipped. Could have gotten even more from the same seller as he had other listings (one even offered 25 SATA cables for the same price). But all of the listings ended at the same exact time, so I didn't want to possibly get outbid on a listing that might have attracted more attention, and I also didn't want to bid on more than one listing and then end up winning two or more items (because then I would have had more than 30 SATA cables, which is way more than I need). Anyways, no one bid on any of other listings for the SATA cables, so I guess I should have gone for the 25 SATA cables instead. Would have been just about enough cables for all of my current and future builds. But too late now, I guess. Moreover, I need to focus on getting Molex->SATA cables now. I have way too many old good-quality PSUs that I can re-use even with newer builds, but the lack of SATA cables is really a show-stopper.

Originally Posted by ChaosLegionnaire

ugh, u should have just left it. i had a 2wire adsl wireless modem before and it was utter garbage: freezes when i bittorrent and play bandwidth intensive games. also, guess what? after around one and a half years of use, it stopped working. changed the power adapter and it still didnt go back to working condition so the problem was with the modem itself internally. the problem with it was, it kept power cycling itself when power was applied. i was a nub back then but armed with the knowledge i have now, in hindsight i think it looks like a bad cap related problem?

Nah, no bad caps in the 2Wire modem I found. Almost everything inside is ceramic or tantalum caps. Just two or three SMD electrolytic caps.

Also, I only plan on using it as a switch/WLAN, if possible. As terrible as you say your 2Wire modem was, I doubt it's any worse than my D-Link DI-614+ wireless router that has always randomly power-cycled ever since day one we got it. Sure the power adapter had bad caps at one point, but I fixed that and the issue didn't go away. Eventually I recapped the entire router and it still does its random power-cycling whenever it pleases.
Anyways, it did get me through a few years college, so now it rests unused in storage.

Also, speaking of modems that have built-in LAN and WLAN (like the 2Wire I found), does anyone know if I can re-purpose it as a wireless repeater? Or perhaps use as a switch to add more ports to my existing Verizon modem+/router. That thing only has 4 ports, and I have 6 wired desktops. Kind of annoying to have to constantly plug/unplug ethernet cables. Eventually their locks break from doing that.

Originally Posted by ChaosLegionnaire

lol its bumpgated for sure. in hindsight, if u knew it was a nvidia bumpgate era laptop, u shouldnt have rushed and gone through all that just to save it...

Well, we will see when I tear it apart. I think I can hear something rattling inside, so who knows. It did come with a HDD and a power adapter, so those two items alone were worth the trip (which was really walking distance to my house - not like I used any gas to take my car).

Also, used GeForce 6150 chips are available on eBay for $10. Might bite later on in the fall when it gets cool enough for me to start doing reflows on my stove again. This laptop seems decent enough to fix up. Already has 1 GB of RAM. If I can add 512 MB or 1 more GB, I'd be set. That's not to say that this laptop will replace my Dell Latitude C600 - I'm too used to the Latitude line of laptops and their quality. Also very used to their keyboard layouts, which are the closest I've seen to a regular desktop keyboard. HP/Compaq and Toshiba tend to randomly position the Del/Insert/Home/End/Pg Up/Pg Dn keys, and that really messes with me.

Originally Posted by ChaosLegionnaire

personally, i recommend that you keep it for posterity since u used to fix consoles for a living. should keep it as a memento. can use it to tell grandfather stories to kids decades later too.

Nah, I hate consoles as it is. No way I'll be keeping one and not putting it to some kind of use, be it working or for parts. These things owe me so much hair!

And like I said, I've really been wanting to play the game, The Last of Us. So no, this thing isn't going to just sit on my shelf and collect dust.

Originally Posted by ChaosLegionnaire

im afraid im gonna have to say "good riddance!" on that one... there's waaay too many "inkjunk" printers floating around like techgeek said, it probably isnt worth saving.

Yes, it really isn't worth saving, but if it did have an HP print head, it might have been. I have an HP "PhotoStupid" b209 All-in-one that needs a new head. Funny thing is, a new head costs more than 2x the printer did even when it was new . Seriously, HP

Anyways, if I did save that junk printer, it would have been to take apart with my little nephew. He loves taking stuff apart and is very technically inclined. Could have gotten him a few good motors and gears out of that printer to play with. The last HP OfficeJet I took apart filled small box with useful parts - mostly screws really, but also quite a few gears and springs.
ABS plastic is also pretty useful - it easily dissolves with PVC glue (as well as Acetone and M.E.K.), so it can be used to repair many broken stuff... or if you make a mold, create your own parts.

Originally Posted by ChaosLegionnaire

errr, did u test it with a burn-in stress testing program like prime95 small fft test for a few hours?

No, since I don't have an OS installed for that motherboard.
Yes, I'm still very weary of it. One phase seems to run a bit warmer than the others. Oh well, if it wants to take a dump on me and take that C2Q with it, and then burn in a huge fireball... then so be it. Maybe I should power it with a PowMax PSU too. :evil: That would be the ultimate "burn-in" test.
I just don't care to get another s775 motherboard right now.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

how many power phases does the DG33SX board have? im guessing 3 from the pictures that i seen but they werent very clear...? 3 power phases is barely enuff to power a quad. please dont fry that cpu... lol...

[TechGeek]

Originally Posted by momaka

epic snip
yes, i'm still very weary of it. One phase seems to run a bit warmer than the others. Oh well, if it wants to take a dump on me and take that c2q with it, and then burn in a huge fireball... Then so be it. Maybe i should power it with a powmax psu too. :evil: that would be the ultimate "burn-in" test.
I just don't care to get another s775 motherboard right now.

lol

[FreddyBear]

Found a retro Game Boy once! Still worked well...sold it on eBay for about $30

[grss1982]

Just scored 6 LiteOn Power Supply [Model PS-5231-3M1-ROHS] 230 Watt here in my locale. They were offered at $3 a pop. All with stable voltages.

I went for them since I had a small Internet cafe of 5 units all running Core 2 Duos and I they felt like heavy duty units. In fact they're quite heavy and I believe these are a step up those crappy power supplies included in most el cheapo cases nowadays.

Anybody have any idea on these models? My googlefu just leads me to eBay. No actual history or technical data on them.

I told they were working pulls from Lenovo and IBM computers. :|