best cheap/free scores 1.1

[stj]

nice, now you can play QUAKE !!
that's the thing i did when i got my first TNT card.
amazing at the time compared to the competition that wasnt much more than frame buffers.
unless you count the 3D-FX Voodoo stuff, but they had flakey drivers originally.

[momaka]

Originally Posted by Dan81

Just scored a Pentium III 1GHz (Coppermine core),a QDI/Legend Advance 10F (P6V694X) and a TNT2 M64 32MB GPU.

Awesome classic hardware! Thanks for saving it.

Originally Posted by Dan81

... but every other 1000uF cap was made by Licon,which screams of pure crap.

I have a Pentium II motherboard completely populated with those. Still works last I checked many years ago. But yea, they are probably junk. Were yours bulging/leaking?

Originally Posted by ChaosLegionnaire

i forgot to mention: did u check the cpu/gpu heatsink fin intake to see if it is clogged or blocked off with dust like on my ebay xfx 6800 ultra that ran at 99°C?

Yes. I now almost always wash heatsinks that had considerable dust accumulation before. Brings them back to "like new" condition.

Originally Posted by ChaosLegionnaire

also errr... did u properly reapply the thermal paste for the cpu & gpu or did u get lazy?

I got lazy with the CPU - I just put a drop of thermal compound on top of the old aluminum-like thermal pad (not sure what that stuff is).
GPU received a custom copper "U"-shaped shim, though. It's a goofy setup, since the copper shim is made from very thin material, so I sandwitched some of the old thermal pads between the "U". But it seems to work well.

Anyways, I don't think it's my thermal paste / job that is causing the high temperatures, because both the GPU and CPU are always within 2-5C of each other's temperatures. If the CPU heats up, the GPU heats up... and vice versa. So I think the fan is just not running fast enough and the heatsink is really too small for this CPU's thermal requirements.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Originally Posted by momaka

both the GPU and CPU are always within 2-5C of each other's temperatures. If the CPU heats up, the GPU heats up... and vice versa. So I think the fan is just not running fast enough and the heatsink is really too small for this CPU's thermal requirements.

ok. one way to check if the fan is inadequate is to touch the heatsinks during load. if the heatsink feels quite hot, then yes, the fan may be inadequate and/or the heatsink is just too small to handle the thermal dissipation requirements like u said.

[Dan81]

Originally Posted by momaka

I have a Pentium II motherboard completely populated with those. Still works last I checked many years ago. But yea, they are probably junk. Were yours bulging/leaking?

Nope,none were bulging or leaking either. I guess high ESR was the cause. That,and one of the caps responsible for filtering one of the RAM slots was a 100uF 6.3v cap (those small caps without vents). Talk about penny pinching.

But otherwise,Licon seems to fail without bulging. Not my first case of finding such caps - I had the same case with a S754 Biostar that had TK caps,but in that case it wouldn't POST at all (this S370 board would POST 1 out of 5 tries).

[Dan81]

Oh well,it's me again. Got these from upgrading someone's PC:

ASUS A7V600-X Rev 1.01 motherboard w/ Sempron 2600+
Premier LC-B400ATX PSU (which is lighter than a empty Coca-Cola can )
256MB RAM
H-L Data Storage GCE-8481B CD-ROM
Samsung SP0411N 40GB IDE HDD.

Also rebuilt a Delux PSU using a Foxconn 80mm fan and a Leadman LP-7700A PCB. (the same as everell's "KING" PSU - this one right here,and momaka's Raidmax RX-380K's PSU) (apart from the transformer,mine reads 7700A and some other things) The PCB cost me 5RON,so about the price of a pack of Lays chips .

[momaka]

I got about 9.5 GB worth of RAM for a little less than $4.50 shipped. Mostly DDR2 1 GB and 512 MB sticks. But there were also two 1 GB DDR sticks in the mix as well as one 512 MB DDR PC2100. IIRC, all of the sticks were quality OEM brands like Samsung, Hynix, Micron, and a few others. Now I have more than enough RAM for both my DDR and DDR2 motherboards.

The only thing I don't have enough of: cases for these systems and space in my room to set them all up... nor the need for that many PCs. Thus, much of my "classic" PC gear is just laying around doing nothing. I also don't know anyone around here (where I live) that likes older games like I do. Otherwise if I did, I could probably set up enough systems for a small 6-10 person "old-school" LAN party. With CRT monitors, ball mice, clicky keyboards, and all the rest.

Originally Posted by Dan81

The PCB cost me 5RON,so about the price of a pack of Lays chips .

I would have went with the bag of chips instead.
Better to fill your gut with cheap food than your room with "magic" electrical smoke when that Delux (Sun Pro/Leadman) PSU gives out.

[Dan81]

Originally Posted by momaka

I would have went with the bag of chips instead.
Better to fill your gut with cheap food than your room with "magic" electrical smoke when that Delux (Sun Pro/Leadman) PSU gives out.

Funny that you said that, because in my infinite stupidity, I had one of those EMI filtering PCB on the AC receptacle. You can guess what happened when I plugged it in.

I still have it and now it's working. I replaced the receptacle,replaced the EE-25 choke/transformer on the AC side and recapped it. This one may be a legit Leadman, as 7700 sounds like a Leadman model to me.

And a funny thing, I thought you were going to comment on the Deer I listed in there. (it really came with the rest of the parts)

[mikay786]

Today folks I hit the motherload, just got back from a 8 hour drive and what was a massive gamble.

I don't have a clue how to test half the stuff or even what it's used for

Just a teaser I got a Naim XPS 2 for free basically and bought a lot of other stuff too. I'll give y'all the full drop when I'm on the PC. Too exited had too post on phone

[mikay786]

Naim Nait 5i integrated amp
Naim XPS-2 power supply with burndy
Pioneer SC-LX90 Susano 10 channel reciever
Pioneer BDP-LX91 bluray player
Marshall JCM1C guitar amp 50th anniversary
15m Naim Nac A5 speaker cable
10m QED XT400 speaker cables
4x QED Silver Anniversary Interconnects
A load of other audiophile cables, weird power plugs and extent ions

Seller had a box of cables and was like you want them, as if he was going to throw them away if I didn't take them.

Basically guy got equipment from a friend who inherited it from his deceased father and just wanted rid.

Paid £800 for both pioneer items which was a good deal. But the silly deal was the remaining items all for £300. The cables are worth more than that!

The XPS2 power supply was not even listed in the description. Just showed the front in a single blurry pic but when asked said was included. Took a gamble on it as didn't have a clue what it was.

Tested everything aside from the guitar amp and power supply. Don't even have a guitar so not sure how to test. Everything else in perfect condition and working order.

[diif]

Wow, very nice haul.

[grss1982]

First cheap score:
Intel i3-2100
Foxconn h16mx 2.0
4gb of DDR 3 Patriot RAM (Dead)
1GB DDR5 GT 630 (Dead)
Samsung 500GB HDD (Dead)
El-Cheapo ATX case that rusted a leaky roof that pooled water at the bottom of the case.

Got this from a friend who had me fix his main rig. As a reward and partially to free space at his house, he gave me this.

I'm happy to report that with a new case plus a pair of cheap 2GB DDR3 RAM and an Nvidia 8600GT 256MB DDR3 I now have a working i3 setup for use by the parents. Kind of overkill for them for FB and youtube but hey.....my first best cheap/free scores 1.1!!!!!

[momaka]

Welp... I almost got a good cheap deal the other day.

What I was trying to get: Antec EARTHWATTS EA-500

But what I ended up getting: Apevia/Aspire ATX-AS520W.


Yes, these two PSUs are not quite in the same class. And I DO know that Apevia/Aspire is mediocre at best. But here is what happened: I was looking at some "as-is" PSUs on eBay and found the Antec PSU first and then the Apevia PSU. Now, the auction for the Apevia PSU was ending just a few hours before the Antec, so I bid on it first. (After all, I always wanted to see what's inside those flashy Bling-Bling Aspire-to-be-decent PSUs and maybe fix one up, as I know they are notorious for using bad caps.) Needless to say, I won that auction for 99 cents (plus $11 S&H) without anyone trying to outbid me at all . But then when it came time to bid on the Antec, I started reading something and totally forgot about bidding on it . The auction ended with someone else winning that PSU for the same 99 cents as the Aspire PSu (and where I am located, shipping to me was the same for that Antec as it was for the Apevia... i.e. around $11).

So talk about missing a good deal there . I was planning to get that Antec to use in a new PC I am trying to build: a quad-core rig with the Intel Q6600 CPU I got for $4 + the eVGA GeForce 560 GTX 2 GB I found for $10 this summer + 3-4 GB of RAM I just got for $4.50 a week ago + Pentium4's Intel DG33TL "MOSFET Assassin" motherboard (free) that I think I finally repaired correctly. Would have made a cool rig for just about $30. I'd love to stick one of my HiPro 250 Watt PSUs in that build, but the Q6600 can eat as much as 150 Watts under max load and the 560 GTX another 170 Watts. So I need at least 300 Watts of power on the 12V rail for those. Maybe if I used two HiPros, that could work. My PCs are never pretty anyways, so why not.
(On the plus side, that should make a nice little space heater for the winter months. )

Originally Posted by Dan81

Funny that you said that, because in my infinite stupidity, I had one of those EMI filtering PCB on the AC receptacle.

That's not stupidity - those receptacle filters are a good thing!
They just need to be isolated properly so that they don't short out to anything.

Originally Posted by Dan81

And a funny thing, I thought you were going to comment on the Deer I listed in there. (it really came with the rest of the parts)

Eh... it's a low end L&C/Deer. Need I comment more?
When you say lighter than an empty Cola can - I believe you. My 380 Watt Raidmax was like that. In fact, possibly even lighter. It tried to fly away from me when its fan spun.

Originally Posted by grss1982

First cheap score:
Intel i3-2100
Foxconn h16mx 2.0
4gb of DDR 3 Patriot RAM (Dead)
1GB DDR5 GT 630 (Dead)
Samsung 500GB HDD (Dead)
El-Cheapo ATX case that rusted a leaky roof that pooled water at the bottom of the case.

Got this from a friend who had me fix his main rig. As a reward and partially to free space at his house, he gave me this.

Nice scores!
If the water has gotten to the HDD, remove its PCB and check its contacts for corrosion. You may be able to revive it. See this:
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=58024

The GeForce 630 GT might just need a reflow, so another potentially-fixable item.

[Dan81]

Scored a ASRock P4i65G and a BenQ FP71G+ monitor today

[Topcat]

junk box that contained 6x Quadro FX 4800 GPU's and some other stuff. All are good.

[momaka]

Originally Posted by Dan81

Scored a ASRock P4i65G and a BenQ FP71G+ monitor today

Another P4 motherboard - nice!
I see this one supports 800 MHz FSB and CPUs with HT, plus SATA and AGP 8x. Too bad it has only two DDR RAM slots.

Originally Posted by Topcat

junk box that contained 6x Quadro FX 4800 GPU's and some other stuff. All are good.

Wow, now that's a score!
Those Quadro video cards are basically GTX 280 with a modified BIOS and different drivers.
Power-hungry cards, though!

Speaking of power, I got my Aspire/Apevia PSU a few days back. It's definitely a great score, but not in the regular sense - almost every capacitor in it is bad. And there are so many design flaws that I won't even bother making a list here. But let's just say this PSU has provided me with a lot of comic relief, and I think some of you may enjoy seeing it as well when I get to posting about it. Now I'm trying to fix it, and the fun has just begun!

[Topcat]

^
There was a 5800 in there too.

[Dan81]

Some more scores:

-dead Premier LC-C400ATX (blown fuse)
-Samsung SP2504C 250GB 7200RPM SATA
-ASUS DRW-1608P3S DVD Writer
-MSI 845E MAX MS-6566E
-Winfast A340T 128MB(TV out)
-Doogee X5 phone (w/ bulged battery,need to find another one that has the same pin arrangement)
-Realtek RTL8139 NIC
-crappy Linkworld/Deer case with no panels.

[stj]

those are scores???

[TechGeek]

to him, they are

[Dan81]

Originally Posted by stj

those are scores???

Given I paid nothing, I guess they are.

Just for fun, I might see what is wrong with the Premier. I saw the fuse was shattered to pieces,but nothing obvious on the primary side.