Topcat's First Weird Project of 2023!

[Topcat]

2022 was crazy busy around here....I really didn't get to play with many of my toys.....

Lets start out 2023 a little better on that front, beginning with a bad Quadro FX5800....



...but this is what I was after, the outer shell...

The casing surrounding the heatsinks is plastic....however the backplate feels like magnesium or some alloy....not completely sure, but it's not plastic.



This will make more sense as the project develops....especially what weird build it's going in...but HAPPY 2023!!

[momaka]

Re: Topcat's First Weird Project of 2023!

Subbed... to keep an eye on this.

Wondering what you're going to do with just the casing. At first, I thought you'd be reusing the heatsink too, perhaps for some GPU modding. Seems like not exactly... but I'll be keeping an eye.

BTW, any plans for the heatsink? Hope you're not scrapping them. With a little machining and modding, that can be a great cooler on a mid-tier GPU.

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's First Weird Project of 2023!

It's not going to be anything really earth shattering...just a bit of a creative finishing touch on a previous build now that GPU's are coming way down thanks to the tanking of bitcoin!

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's First Weird Project of 2023!

Here's another piece of this little puzzle....





The build these are going into was done a couple years ago. At the time, these and pretty much all GPU's were going for big bucks....but these were around ~$120 per card then....not sure why, they're too old to be effective cryptominers....but now they're down to ~$50. They are the GPU equivalent of a GTX295 but with a buttload of RAM (4GB)....which in 2009 was a TON for any GPU. These are a nice fit for what they're going into, period specific and GPU vs CPU also a good pairing.

I can't go any further until I get a warmer day; as this project will require a little paintwork....nothing doing when it's in the 40's in the garage...and I'm not painting in my tech room.

[stj]

Re: Topcat's First Weird Project of 2023!

gpu's can do much more usefull tasks than mining crypto

i'v seen software that realtime cracks the CSA digital cypher used by all the sattelite-tv equipment!!!

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's First Weird Project of 2023!

gpu's can do much more usefull tasks than mining crypto

i'v seen software that realtime cracks the CSA digital cypher used by all the sattelite-tv equipment!!!

I remember doing that back in the 90's....cracking the DTV cards and I also ran an emulator through a PC. The emulator survived 'black sunday', but the cards did not... They nuked emulators about a month later....and I quit trying to keep on top of it after that.

[stj]

Re: Topcat's First Weird Project of 2023!

no, not card-emu

it works like this:
*all* digital tv is encrypted with CSA - not sure why, probably government scum involved.
the set-top box encryption is simply an extra layer that works with the card to obtain the channel key for CSA.

if you crack the CSA it decodes every channel no matter the card or "official" encryption type.
in short - "no more secrets", they are fucked for good now!

[stj]

Re: Topcat's First Weird Project of 2023!

btw, there is also GPU code to realtime decrypt intercepted GSM calls and even TETRA streams.

[momaka]

Re: Topcat's First Weird Project of 2023!

The build these are going into was done a couple years ago. At the time, these and pretty much all GPU's were going for big bucks....but these were around ~$120 per card then....not sure why, they're too old to be effective cryptominers....but now they're down to ~$50. They are the GPU equivalent of a GTX295 but with a buttload of RAM (4GB)....which in 2009 was a TON for any GPU. These are a nice fit for what they're going into, period specific and GPU vs CPU also a good pairing.

Quadro FX 5800 = GTX 285
GTX 295 has two GT200b GPUs and is only 448-bit mem. and even slower clocks.
So IMO, you got the better package deal.

Indeed strange why they were commanding that high of a price before. They are only DirectX 10 cards, so not really something meant for modern gaming. And like you said, not great for crypto either... so perhaps just a case of eBay/online sellers gone mad?

Anyways, glad you were able to get them for a better deal.
They are indeed very nice "2010" cards.

Hmmm... maybe I ought to send you a few era-specific games to test on these... you know, to make sure the cards work OK.

I can't go any further until I get a warmer day; as this project will require a little paintwork....nothing doing when it's in the 40's in the garage...and I'm not painting in my tech room.

I was lucky to catch a few days in December with nice warm temps to do some painting myself. It's a project I've posted here, but inched forward just a little more with it. Turned out pretty nice, but I won't spoil it.

Otherwise... yeah, my garage workbench is a mess ATM, and I also am avoiding it due to the cold temps (well, it's in the low 50's, which isn't terrible... but the dry air quickly makes my hands freeze, even if I am well-dressed otherwise.)

gpu's can do much more usefull tasks than mining crypto

i'v seen software that realtime cracks the CSA digital cypher used by all the sattelite-tv equipment!!!

But the only question now: is it even worthwhile to watch TV anymore?

[stj]

Re: Topcat's First Weird Project of 2023!

But the only question now: is it even worthwhile to watch TV anymore?

depends.
if your a sports fan then yes,
for everybody else - NO.

[momaka]

Re: Topcat's First Weird Project of 2023!

depends.
if your a sports fan then yes,
for everybody else - NO.

Good point!

My dad likes tennis, and it's always a struggle where to find it depending on the tournament. Sometimes it's Tennis Channel Plus that only has the rights, other times it's ESPN. EuroSport has been pretty lame, unless you like watching cycling all year long.

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's First Weird Project of 2023!

Quadro FX 5800 = GTX 285
GTX 295 has two GT200b GPUs and is only 448-bit mem. and even slower clocks.
So IMO, you got the better package deal.

I actually meant to say 285......I think I just fat-fingered it.

Indeed strange why they were commanding that high of a price before. They are only DirectX 10 cards, so not really something meant for modern gaming. And like you said, not great for crypto either... so perhaps just a case of eBay/online sellers gone mad?

The sad thing is, they were selling for ~$120! I don't know what people are really doing with them. They are great GPU's for their time.....but by modern standards, not so much. No way I was going to give that for them...

Anyways, glad you were able to get them for a better deal.
They are indeed very nice "2010" cards.

I actually paid $75 for the pair shown...probably still too much....but it's for one of my kooky builds.

Hmmm... maybe I ought to send you a few era-specific games to test on these... you know, to make sure the cards work OK.

You mean Quake3 Arena isn't taxing them enough?! :rofl2:

I was lucky to catch a few days in December with nice warm temps to do some painting myself. It's a project I've posted here, but inched forward just a little more with it. Turned out pretty nice, but I won't spoil it.

Nothing warm enough in the immediate future.....but there may be a day or two of 60's next week.... If thats the case, I may be able to shoot the paint and bring them into the tehc room to cure (nice & warm in here).

But the only question now: is it even worthwhile to watch TV anymore?

No.

[mmartell]

Re: Topcat's First Weird Project of 2023!

gpu's can do much more usefull tasks than mining crypto

i'v seen software that realtime cracks the CSA digital cypher used by all the sattelite-tv equipment!!!

I don't think this is possible in real time since typically a new key is issued every second or less.

[stj]

Re: Topcat's First Weird Project of 2023!

the software has been around for over 5 years.
it's german and it takes about 3-5seconds for initial sync - then it's 100%

[mmartell]

Re: Topcat's First Weird Project of 2023!

the software has been around for over 5 years.
it's german and it takes about 3-5seconds for initial sync - then it's 100%

Are you talking about BISS ?

How about posting a link so this can be verified...

[stj]

Re: Topcat's First Weird Project of 2023!

no, not biss

like i said, the broadcast streams are coded in CSA,
all the other crap, nagravision, irdeto, seca etc simply exist as a second layer to seperate the user/card from the real cypher function.

they all just provide the real key to the CSA decrypt engine inside the mpeg chipset.

a quick search finds these
https://github.com/Greek64/DVB-CSA1_bruteforce
https://sat-universe.com/index.php?t...-force.299771/

[mmartell]

Re: Topcat's First Weird Project of 2023!

I understand how it works however neither of those links point to any confirmation of what you are asserting to be the case.

If you have a link to said software then post it.

[momaka]

Re: Topcat's First Weird Project of 2023!

I actually meant to say 285......I think I just fat-fingered it.

Well, it's all in the ballpark anyways ... though two GTX 295's would have been slightly more power hungry.

I actually paid $75 for the pair shown...probably still too much....but it's for one of my kooky builds.

Well, at a little less than $40 per card, that's not too bad, TBH. These are big cards and the shipping weight/size makes a considerable portion of their price. I find it hard to run into big cards selling for less than $15 on eBay... and that's for non-working hardware, usually (at least BIN prices.) Typically it's more along the lines of $20-25... so ~$40 is not that far off.

You mean Quake3 Arena isn't taxing them enough?! :rofl2:

Well, what can I say? I put the original (pre-Steam) Counter-Strike 1.5 (+ Half-Life) and Need For Speed High Stakes (1999) or Need For Speed Porsche Unleashed (2000) on just about every PC I have, regardless of how new or old it is. Neither of these need anything more than a Pentium II/3 -era PC and DX 7 graphics card to run really well. But they are timeless classics. Quake 3 is more or less from the same era and probably in the same boat too... so I can relate there.

But for "showing off" slightly newer hardware like those FX 5800's, there are also a few newer games that aren't actually that bad.

Nothing warm enough in the immediate future.....but there may be a day or two of 60's next week.... If thats the case, I may be able to shoot the paint and bring them into the tehc room to cure (nice & warm in here).

We had some 50-52F weather here yesterday. Very sunny and nice. So I was able to do some spray painting myself (which I rarely do... and I must admit, I'm pretty sucky at it too... though it didn't help my rattle cans were probably very expired / out of date and actually not shooting out a mist, but rather a jet of paint ). Anyways, this was for a... "interesting" build, to say the least. Not sure when I will get around to make a thread and pictures of it, but probably much further someday into the future. I have too many other builds in the queue to post about first. One will be coming tonight (or at least an update to it.)

No.

I like that short answer, LOL!