Post your system.......

[momaka]

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

Let's be honest. You never upload pictures

Never? NEVER?! Okay, now you gave me a little bit of motivation with this.

As promised, specs and *a* picture of my HP

PC: HP Pavilion 8756c
CPU: Pentium 3 E Coppermine @ 850 MHz and 100 MHz FSB (BIOS incorrectly reports 866 MHz lol)
Motherboard: ASUS MEW-AM, socket 370, Intel i815 Northbridge and 82801AA Southbridge
RAM: 384 MB of RAM @ 100 MHz (1x 256 MB PC133 and 1x 128 MB PC100 Infineon)
HDD: IBM Deskstar DTLA-305030 (30 GB, 5400 RPM) @ UDMA Mode 2/ Ultra ATA33 (motherboard won't go above that, even with 80 pin IDE cable)
Graphics: onboard Intel i815 (2 MB VRAM and limited to 24-bit only )
Audio: onboard Intel audio with TDA1517 output chip (the best part about this PC really)
Optical Media: none (had a CD-ROM and CD-RW drives, but I removed them)
PSU: Lite-ON 188 watt PSU with only a 4A rating on the 12V rail.
OS: a messy install of Windows XP SP2 (found it like this, PC is a dumpster find.)
Fans: 1x Delta 80mm fan (CPU/system cooling), 1x Panaflo 80mm fan (Lite-ON PSU)
Other: stock (and beat up) case, Mitsumi 3.5" Floppy drive, cheap no-name $1 fan controller for the CPU fan (because that Delta 12V 0.3A fan is a real screamer. I tried it on 27V once and it was a scary thing to see .) AND, a custom duct for the CPU fan (the original one took the CPU fan really far away from the CPU heatsink and also resonated and made terrible noise)
Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 955DF 19" CRT monitor @ 1024x768 x85 Hz
Keyboard: trusty old Logitech Delux 104 PS/2
Mouse: Logitech M-S34 ball PS/2 mouse

Now I can't for the life of me even remember when I found and started using this PC, but I think either late winter or early spring in 2009. Hard drive at that time had 22,028 power-on hours on the clock and 20 bad sectors. Now it is at 24,992 power-on hours and 21 bad sectors. I'm planning on retiring it when it hits 3k hours (i.e. 25,028 hours) or thereabouts - and all these hours are actually me sitting in front of the computer. Very few times I left it running without me being on it.

Anyways, here's a picture below.


When I retire it, I will try to take some shots of the PSU as well. All I remember about it is that it had huge Panasonic HFQ caps on every rail. And the 12V rail is always about 11.8V

[momaka]

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

But there's a small story to it....Pentium 4's are what got me into computers. I had a really old Celeron 533 system with 128mb RAM and Windows 98 SE for the longest time. My parents ended up getting me a Pentium 4 3.00GHz with 1GB RAM and Windows XP Media Center edition. It was the best upgrade ever!! From then on, I wanted to learn how computers work, and from there I ended up going to school for it, and then ended up getting into electronics. So, the Pentium 4 forever holds a special place in my heart Anyways...

Hey, I understand you there totally .

In a similar way, my family had an old Pentium II 400 MHz with 64 MB of RAM and Windows 98 back in 2001-2002. When we moved to the current place where I now live, I got my own room (just starting high school). This is when I got my first "own" computer - a 1.4 GHz AMD Duron with 256 MB of RAM and Radeon 9200 SE. And then from there on, it was nearly the same experience as you .

I actually still have that PC (albeit, a bit upgraded now), and that's the computer I am planning to put in place of the HP Pavilion 8756c. The only reason I didn't use it in the first place is because around 2006/2007, that AMD PC became unstable due to bad caps in its PowMax PSU . Moreover, the motherboard had GSC capacitors, and because this was my first PC, I didn't want to use it until I recapped the motherboard - which I did only a little more than a year ago.

Here's a pic of my P3, at least from the front. Love that old Workstation case, it's very robust. Manufactured: 12/17/98

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1424921694

That looks like a really nice case!
Man, I do miss the days of beige "non-bling" cases.

[Pentium4]

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

As promised, specs and *a* picture of my HP

Whoa! That's amazing! That's the same computer I was talking about when I referred to my old Celeron 533, except yours was the higher end Pentium 3 version So cool! That one looks to be in good shape. The MEW-AM had a lot of limitations, but man was it a rock solid board. Mine died on 8/29/08. I didn't know anything about PSU's back then, I'm guessing that's what failed in it. It had 50,000 poer on hours. Unfortunately all I have left from the poor thing is the original Hyundai 64MB PC100 RAM module, an the DVD drive that came with it that no longer reads any discs.

I'd love to see a pic of the inside and the PSU, but I can wait till you retire it Have you tried using HD Regen to fix the sectors on the hard drive? I've had pretty good luck with that program. Awesome to see that you're still using that thing

[Pentium4]

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

Hey, I understand you there totally .

In a similar way, my family had an old Pentium II 400 MHz with 64 MB of RAM and Windows 98 back in 2001-2002. When we moved to the current place where I now live, I got my own room (just starting high school). This is when I got my first "own" computer - a 1.4 GHz AMD Duron with 256 MB of RAM and Radeon 9200 SE. And then from there on, it was nearly the same experience as you .

Very cool. I bet that Pentium II 400 would have run circles around my Celeron 533 The thing was sooooo slow. It couldn't even handle Starcraft multiplayer with more than one other person in the game, it was that slow. You still have that Duron system because it's sentimental, but still useful? Some pics would also be great

Logitech Delux 104

Excellent keyboard.

I actually still have that PC (albeit, a bit upgraded now), and that's the computer I am planning to put in place of the HP Pavilion 8756c. The only reason I didn't use it in the first place is because around 2006/2007, that AMD PC became unstable due to bad caps in its PowMax PSU

And it survived?! Those things have high ripple even when the capacitors are "good"

Moreover, the motherboard had GSC capacitors, and because this was my first PC, I didn't want to use it until I recapped the motherboard - which I did only a little more than a year ago.

Poor thing I've seen quite a few boards ruined by GSC. And it's such a shame because the GSC "era" was when boards were built very well, and with lead solder.

That looks like a really nice case!
Man, I do miss the days of beige "non-bling" cases.

I do too. I'm not sure why, but when you see an old beige chassis like that, it just screams "reliable workhorse" to me
It's very heavy too. There's no exhaust fan, but there is an 80mm fan pulling cold air in the front. I think this is fine because the computer doesn't run very warm anyways. Speaking of, here's the case that the Pentium D 955 is in:

[momaka]

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

Whoa! That's amazing! That's the same computer I was talking about when I referred to my old Celeron 533, except yours was the higher end Pentium 3 version So cool!

Lol, that's a funny coincidence.
"higher end Pentium 3 version" - imagine if I was somehow able to turn back time and give you my HP when you still had yours with the Celly .

That one looks to be in good shape.

Yeah, that took A LOT of cleaning. I had to wash all of the plastics because they had food and coffee spilled on them. Metal parts of the case got wiped with chlorine towels to disinfect and remove some of the original weird smell. The Windows XP installation needed a ton of spyware removal (but very few viruses, though). After I did all of that work, though, I never had to do anything else to it. It is still fairly clean inside.

The MEW-AM had a lot of limitations, but man was it a rock solid board. Mine died on 8/29/08.

I don't know, mine started acting goofy at one point, but then I just jiggled the RAM modules and it worked normal again after that.

I'd love to see a pic of the inside and the PSU, but I can wait till you retire it

If it was a standard-size ATX PSU, I would take it out and take pictures easily. But it's a very compact ATX PSU and very crammed... and I like to get all of the details when I open PSUs, so I need some time for that.

Have you tried using HD Regen to fix the sectors on the hard drive?

No, never did. Good thing you mention that program, though, as I have another HDD that might need it.
As for the IBM DTLA-305030 - nah, I'm not going to mess with it. At this rate, the bearings on the spindle will die before the HDD runs out of sectors to reallocate. Plus, these IBM HDDs don't like diagnostic tests and HDD tools - they tend to reallocate more sectors when you try to stress them to the max.

Awesome to see that you're still using that thing

It's getting harder and harder, though. Windows boots in under 80 MB of RAM, but once I open Firefox 24, I am up in the 200-300 MB range. With Youtube or eBay, I am right near the 384 MB limit, at which point after, I hit the pagefile and the PC becomes very slow - that IBM HDD begins to trash and clack as if there are 1000 small gnomes inside it whacking everything with tiny hammers .
Still works great for Word processing and my old version of Photoshop, though.

You still have that Duron system because it's sentimental, but still useful?

Yes, sentimental. However, I swapped the CPU when I recapped it - now has an Athlon XP 2500+. Will be plenty fast compared to this Pentium 3. I'm still contemplating whether or not to use the original Windows XP install, which is an original 2600 build (i.e. no service packs).
When it goes up, I'll take pics of it. It's in the depths of my closet ATM, under various other cases and parts

Poor thing I've seen quite a few boards ruined by GSC.

The GSCs are out, though, and the motherboard works great. It's a beautiful (for the time) bright-red Jetway with shiny leaded solder .

I'm not sure why, but when you see an old beige chassis like that, it just screams "reliable workhorse" to me

And Office Space movie
I like them because it reminds me of the booming and innovative PC era at the time.
You have some good beige cases. I like the details you put on there with the Pentium D and ATI graphics sticker.

[domas]

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

re: last 3 or 4 last posts.

are you using those as your main systems??

[Compgeke]

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

I hope not - I'd give people far faster systems if I were in the area as I consider that stuff to be not old enough to be collectible but too old to be worth keeping.

Anyways, my laptop which I've never actually posted:
Lenovo Thinkpad T410
2.4 GHz Core i5 520M
8 GB DDR3-1333 (of course at 1066 because of chipset limtations, yay!)
256 GB Crucial MX100 SSD boot drive
320 GB WD Blue HDD in the optical bay for moar storage
nVidia Quadro NVS 3100M GPU (GeForce 210 core but slightly higher clocked)
1440x900 LCD, with insanely bad colour
Windows 7 Pro x64.

Of course this is beat to hell and as such my battery casing clips are a bit broken on the rear side, my Thinklight doesn't work, I have occasional hardlocks, a lot of scratches, HDD screw hole is broken out, etc. I'll replace it sometime this year but for now I'm just hoping it lasts a bit longer.

[momaka]

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

re: last 3 or 4 last posts.

are you using those as your main systems??

Yes, sort of.
It's my main system at my parent's house, even though I do have more powerful PCs running right next to it.

I hope not - I'd give people far faster systems if I were in the area as I consider that stuff to be not old enough to be collectible but too old to be worth keeping.

True, but they actually make excellent Torrent servers. I have an HP NetServer E800 set up like that. Only has a single 80 GB SCSI hard drive right now, but in a month or so I will be adding two 300GB HDDs to it. With a good internet connection, it will rack up some serious data at the end of the month. Last rental place I had in college provided the internet for us. While the wireless was slow as dog turds, the wired connection was superb: easily sustained 30 Mbps up/down speeds. After racking 100's of GB of data one month, though, they cut the wired internet to my apartment .

[Pentium4]

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

Lol, that's a funny coincidence.
"higher end Pentium 3 version" - imagine if I was somehow able to turn back time and give you my HP when you still had yours with the Celly

Haha, I probably would have kept it longer. Maybe the RAM was more of a limitation than the CPU. I never had more than 128MB @ 100MHz in there. Not much to work with even with Windows 98 SE.

If it was a standard-size ATX PSU, I would take it out and take pictures easily. But it's a very compact ATX PSU and very crammed... and I like to get all of the details when I open PSUs, so I need some time for that.

That, I understand. (In that case, I can't wait for you to tear apart that ePOWER ) If it has all Panny caps, I wonder what failed in mine. I don't remember much about it, but I remember that the fan was not seized. It was shut down, and just stopped powering up after that, and I know for a fact that the board was fine.

No, never did. Good thing you mention that program, though, as I have another HDD that might need it.

Yeah, give it a try! I've seen it fix up to 762 sectors on one drive, and it amazingly tested fine after that after another run, and the thing is running an OS now 3 months later with no issues!

It's getting harder and harder, though. Windows boots in under 80 MB of RAM, but once I open Firefox 24, I am up in the 200-300 MB range. With Youtube or eBay, I am right near the 384 MB limit, at which point after, I hit the pagefile and the PC becomes very slow

I imagine. It's too bad that that board doesn't support 133MHz CPU's. I thought you were still using IE6, did it finally become too obsolete to use? I tried getting on the internet a few months ago with IE5.5 and it couldn't load anything correctly

The GSCs are out, though, and the motherboard works great. It's a beautiful (for the time) bright-red Jetway with shiny leaded solder

Nice! What's the model number of it? Jetway usually makes really cool looking boards.

Yes, sentimental. However, I swapped the CPU when I recapped it - now has an Athlon XP 2500+. Will be plenty fast compared to this Pentium 3. I'm still contemplating whether or not to use the original Windows XP install, which is an original 2600 build (i.e. no service packs).

Don't a lot of programs require at least SP1 to function? I also remember XP being unstable with no service packs. At least in my experience.

And Office Space movie
I like them because it reminds me of the booming and innovative PC era at the time.

Yes! No kidding. Most things back then were built with no corners cut, at least compared to a lot of new things you see today.

You have some good beige cases. I like the details you put on there with the Pentium D and ATI graphics sticker.

Thanks man. I have seen a lot and I made sure to keep the ones that I thought were the nicest looking, but also have enough room for airflow. That Pentium D one you're looking at has two 80mm exhaust fans in the back, which is hard to find in an old beige case. Those also help keep that Pentium D Extreme cool
I'm also really weird in the fact that I like case stickers to be accurate. It does have a Sapphire HD 6570

re: last 3 or 4 last posts.

are you using those as your main systems??

The Pentium D is a HTPC and the Pentium III is just a router/firewall

[eccerr0r]

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

I actually am still using these 'boxes':

P3-Celeron Tualatin 1200 with 256MB RAM, no video card, 6 Ethernet ports: (Router, 1U network appliance)

Geode GX1 256MB RAM, built in video but I don't use the console (backup shell box on network, its "case" currently qualifies for the "Ghetto Mods" thread.)

[Dan81]

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

Rebuilt my main system:

ASUS M2V-MX
Athlon 64 3200+ 2.20GHz AM2 (OC'd I think)
1TB HDD
LG DVD-RW drive
Delux 450W PSU (same innards as an iMicro,but it strangely keeps going since 2007)
1.50GB RAM DDR2
Delux MG760-BMW ATX case - BMW style front w/ HDD leds rewired by me
Windows 7 Ultimate x64

It runs a lot faster than my old Sempron 3400+ which I finally retired. I got it from a friend who asked me to recap his old board - had blown KZGs due to a VERY CHEAP power supply (noname!!!) which were replaced with 3 Sanyo WGs and a OST RLX (which I actually think it acts as a "dummy" cap). I also used a better HSF since it came with absolutely no thermal grease at all. It's a "Speeze" (Spire) HSF that came from a S754 system (which I put a stock AMD HSF on).

[Agent24]

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

There were some KZGs with manufacturing issues some years ago, yours could have been some of them.

Throw the OST away!

[Dan81]

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

Throw the OST away!

It's the only OST on the board. I'll try replacing it sometime with a Rubycon MBZ,but right now it works fine.

[momaka]

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

Athlon 64 3200+ 2.20GHz AM2 (OC'd I think)

Looks like it. 3200+ stock speed is 2 GHz. That said, I think you can push it up to 2.5 GHz with stock voltages and cooling - at least I was able to. I think I read somewhere that the limit is about 2.6-2.7 GHz. But even at 2.4-2.5 GHz, that's already 4000+ speed. And yes, it is noticeable. Meanwhile, power consumption probably won't go up more than 20W, which is good.

By the way, that's a decent PC, but what graphics card does it have in it?

had blown KZGs due to a VERY CHEAP power supply (noname!!!)

Ha! I doubt the power supply was *the only* reason for those KZG to bulge. Honestly, I think even the OST RLX you use are better than the KZG... but not by much. If they are 10 mm diameter and you keep them cool, though, they might just survive for a few years. Keyword here: *might* .

I also used a better HSF since it came with absolutely no thermal grease at all.

None? Not even a drop?
Poor CPU. Must have been running hot. Even toothpaste would have been better than nothing .
------

In other news, I finally got the SCA to SCSI adapers from China. Only problem: they are at home and I am away. So it will be another few weeks before I am able to test them and test the 300 GB Cheetah 10k HDDs. But if they work, that HP Netserver E800 would be a sweet file storage/torrent box again. Right now, I'm running quite low on space on its 73 GB HDD. And I think it is also starting to fail on me . It's making random loud metal clicking and clunking noises.

[Dan81]

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

By the way, that's a decent PC, but what graphics card does it have in it?

Whoops!Looks like I forgot mentioning the GPU - Geforce 210 1GB.

Ha! I doubt the power supply was *the only* reason for those KZG to bulge. Honestly, I think even the OST RLX you use are better than the KZG... but not by much. If they are 10 mm diameter and you keep them cool, though, they might just survive for a few years. Keyword here: *might* .

My case is really big and with lots of space,so there's plenty of air. Also,I still think that OST acts as a "dummy" cap since when I first recapped it with OSTs it didn't post. Installing the Sanyo WGs fixed that.

None? Not even a drop?
Poor CPU. Must have been running hot. Even toothpaste would have been better than nothing .

Not even ONE drop. It was as clean as ice. Thanks god I had 3 S754/939/AM2/AM3 heatsinks (2 stock and one Speeze HSF),all of them with thermal paste. Oh,and the temperature is in the 30-50*C range.

BTW,I also got a PCI-E to SATA controller onboard from J-Micron.

Overall,I think it's a nice system,and it's faster than my old Sempron 3400+.

I might replace the OST with a Rubycon MBZ at one point,because it's on my recap list anyways,along with my A7N8X-E Deluxe (few KZGs left,3 replaced with Rubycon MBZ 6.3v 3300uF caps).

As for overclocking,I'll try seeing what can I do since my board is a MicroATX board from ASUS,and we all know that ASUS quite likes crippling the BIOS on this type of boards. (example is the P4P800-VM)

[Bungz]

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

Got tons of high end systems and bits but I like this one best at the moment because it was the first board I partially recapped



Currently a FX 57
Asus A8V Deluxe (every single 1000uf cap was blown, swapped with nice 820uf Panasonic FR series)
AGP 6600GT
4GB Corsair VS
40GB WD Sata
Tip found Thermaltake 480w PSU that I partially recapped.
Would have cost a small fortune new, cost me next to nothing apart from a few caps and kind donations.

[nasomi]

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

Some people here have some "classic" computers, but hey if it works, it works.

My desktop is a simple i7 950, about 5 years old, with 12gb ram and 2 gtx580's, and dual 180gb ssd's.



Then I have my rack.







And can't forget the play things.

[Compgeke]

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

Bought a Xeon X5560 so now both Precision T3500s are decent spec, no more 2.4 GHz Dual Cores (W3503).

Precision T3500 #1 (aka my main)
2.8 GHz Xeon X5560. It's slower clock wise but faster performance wise and uses less power than the i7 did.
12 GB DDR3
Radeon R7-240 1 GB GDDR5
PERC 6/i w/ 2x 500 GB HDDs. RAID 0.

Precision T3500 #2:
Core i7 940
4 GB DDR3
Quadro NVS 285
no HDD (yet).

[Dan81]

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

Finally retired my A7N8X-E Deluxe...

Here's the new rig:

300W JNC LC-B300ATX (for the record,it's a Linkworld this time and not a Deer)
Foxconn 865A01-PE-6LS - had missing caps,works fine now
2GB DDR400 RAM (4x 512MB sticks,both dual-channel)
80GB WDC WD800JD SATA
Sony DDU1613 CD/DVD-ROM
ATI Radeon HD3450 512MB - from the old A7N8X rig
Celeron D 330 2.66GHz - BIOS reports 88*C,but I'm very very sure it's not at that temperature. Will replace with a Northwood or early Prescott Pentium 4 (better than Celeron D any day)
Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 x86

[RJARRRPCGP]

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

Finally retired my A7N8X-E Deluxe...

Here's the new rig:

300W JNC LC-B300ATX (for the record,it's a Linkworld this time and not a Deer)
Foxconn 865A01-PE-6LS - had missing caps,works fine now
2GB DDR400 RAM (4x 512MB sticks,both dual-channel)
80GB WDC WD800JD SATA
Sony DDU1613 CD/DVD-ROM
ATI Radeon HD3450 512MB - from the old A7N8X rig
Celeron D 330 2.66GHz - BIOS reports 88*C,but I'm very very sure it's not at that temperature. Will replace with a Northwood or early Prescott Pentium 4 (better than Celeron D any day)
Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 x86

Still may find that XP is better with that rig. (pretty much anything before Core 2) (especially a single core)

Vista and later also has a tendency to lag unless you have an SSD or HDDs in RAID 0.

4 GB of RAM recommended for 32-bit 7. (probably the max for a board of that era)


Windows Vista and later has DirectSound removed and thus breaks compatibility with sound cards from that era.

Windows 7 requires you to get a brand new sound card.