best cheap/free scores 1.1

[mockingbird]

Not worth the money for either. Both only have 2MB ROM.

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by mockingbird

Not worth the money for either. Both only have 2MB ROM.

well... considering my current router a an atheros based netgear g router, both are improvements.

personally the lite version of dd-wrt never seemed so bad... i'm not exactly doing anything fancy with it either...

[mockingbird]

I tried the latest DD-WRT on an Asus RT-N12B. I wasn't impressed. I switched to a very new custom release of TomatoUSB and it worked great.

[ratdude747]

the last router i ran ddwrt on did it well till it died... and a recap didn't save it.

granted, it was ddwrt lite

for now I have the Belkin N hooked up, DHCP off, N only. the netgear is doing all the routing since other in the house are using the internet and I can't take the system offline at the moment...

debating with myself on whether to dd-wrt the linksys or not...

[ratdude747]

i successfully dd-wrt'd the linksys... dd-wrt lite that is.

edit- so far, so good!

[ratdude747]

more scores today:

$10- logitech momo wheel. complete unit, in box, with all the goodies. works great. I twas originally $20 but it had sat so long that it was qualfied to be 50% off... it must have been hid behind a dorm fridge or something.

$6- netgear WGR614 v1. if I can, I will linux it up, if not, I'll do something cool with it.

[ratdude747]

not much out there on this router... from the FCC ID of the radio module, it uses an internal mini-PCI B/G card for the wireless part...

https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/repor...='P27-LA10'

I guess I will have to open it up and look inside when I get home...

[ncovert]

Okay, I made some good scores about a week ago. These are from craigslist:
Dell Dimension 4700 (has bad caps, no ram or hard drive, I put in a 120Gb drive) for $20
Compaq Presario SR1710NX(no ram, bad caps, I put a different mobo in temporarily) for $15
Dell Optiplex 170L (no cpu fan or shroud, no ram, 40Gb HD) I put in 1Gb of RAM and a 80Gb SATA Hard drive and a new cpu shroud. Now delighting one of my relatives. for $5
IBM Aptiva 2176-C33 (Pentium 133Mhz, 48Mb RAM, someone upgraded to a 40Gb Hard drive that was dead) for FREE
Gateway FLEXATXSTC Bro Essential 700c (Complete system with 60Gb Maxtor HD) also for FREE
Gateway model "450" (Intel P3 450Mhz, no ram, 20Gb HD) for FREE
A really cool fan controller/USB Card reader for $10
A Western Digital 500Gb hard drive for $25
A Western Digital 320Gb hard drive for $15
2 Maxtor 120Gb hard drives for $5 each
Some custom built computer (Intel Celeron 566Mhz, 128Mb RAM, 15.3Gb HD) for free

That concludes the craigslist finds.

[ratdude747]

found a brand new (still in retail packaging) targus chillmat for $8 at a thrift store...

[Scenic]

^ I didn't know Targus was available over there.
Then again.. the only Targus thing I've got is a headphone. A pretty darn good sounding one too, especially for free
It's a Targus AEH01 (or AEH-01)

http://www.targus.com/us/productdetail.aspx?sku=AEH01US
(I'm not using the "Talk-Through" blob thingie..)

The total lack of any kind of specifications on that thing anywhere on the web still confuses me..

[shovenose]

Targus is definitely available here.

[ratdude747]

my day did not end there...

more thrift scores:

- (not computer related) brand new in packaging XACTO knife- $0.75 (wanted one for my toolbox)
- oldschool IR (wireless) keyboard/mouse - $2.50:

the keyboard has the mouse built in. it is from around 1998. it uses PS/2 for they keyboard and serial for the mouse. it was in the original box but clearly used. the keyboard has a wide variety of hotkeys. I thought it would be a good for my media PC project (it has the proper ports).

[ratdude747]

forgot to add- I also got a lite-on 19V netbook PSU for $1.50. I didn't need one at the moment, but for that price, it may good to have if I never needed to troubleshoot or test something... plus, it might be good tradebait.

[c_hegge]

1 freebie laptop. It's a Hell Latitude D531. Turion 64 X2 TL-56 1.8GHz, 2GB DDR2, no HDD or cover, (you don't need one, though, since the screw holes for the HDD and the plastic insulation are all part of the case), and a dead battery. It was free because the customer said it had got wet, but it still fires up no problem. I disassembled it to check for damage, but all I could find was some on the case and PCMCIA slot (pictured). I can't find any evidence of any damage anywhere else, so it may never affect it.

[Scenic]

better than what I currently have *jealous* :|

[shovenose]

Good fine c_hegge Care to send it over here for review?
jk

[c_hegge]

Nah, it's a bit old for that now, besides, who says I can't review laptops?

Btw, I also had an IdeaPad a bit like yours come my way for repairs. The customers kids had destroyed the USB ports. That took me over an hour to disassemble and reassemble. I had this one apart and back together in about 15 mins.

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by c_hegge

Nah, it's a bit old for that now, besides, who says I can't review laptops?

Btw, I also had an IdeaPad a bit like yours come my way for repairs. The customers kids had destroyed the USB ports. That took me over an hour to disassemble and reassemble. I had this one apart and back together in about 15 mins.

yeah, latitudes D series and newer are pretty easy to work on... the d400 is a piece of cake, the d630 is a tad trickier... the d5xxs don't really follow the others in terms of specs but I am not surprised the ease of repair was kept.

[Agent24]

It's funny how some laptops come apart really easily while others seem downright evil.

You'd think they designed them to be hellishly difficult to disassemble on purpose.

[ratdude747]

Scored another cheap router.

it is a netgear WNDR3300:

-dualband wireless N
-8 internal antennas

I paid $5 for it.

I looked inside, saw capxons, in the future I will recap it (out of the values it needs).

DDWRT'd it... it so far works great (knock on wood)... right now the 5ghz radio is set to N/A and the 2.4ghz radio is set to G only. both use WPA2 personal for the security.

for $5 I think i got a steal.