The ghetto mod thread

[Dan81]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

good background, shame about the o.s.

R.I.P xp though, it did serve me real well through the years.

With 2GB of RAM I felt like Vista/7 is too much for the machine I put the 8400GS in, so the best choice was XP (besides Linux)

[diif]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

Here's a fan mod and a couple of things I've made.
Bonus points if you can guess what the two white things are for.

[stj]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

good background, shame about the o.s.

[Dan81]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

Bought a Geforce 8400GS, turned out to be a artefacting lemon.

Before:


It had its moments when it wouldn't artefact though. Took advantage of that, and ran 4 rounds of Furmark,one after the another, bringing the card to 86*C each time.

Surprisingly, the artefacts went away,never to come back, but just to make sure, I added a 12cm fan (which is kinda loud, but I didn't want to risk anything at this point) on the case side panel, and now everything is well, keeping the card at a cool 56*C (as opposed to over 70 without it before running Furmark).

Here's a photo after the fix. Excuse the image quality, I'm using a DIY S-Video cable and that was the sharpest quality I could get. (I use the PC to tape shows and other things using the VCR to which the PC is connected.)


I'm really going to laugh if this fix will be a long-term one, especially since I didn't pay a lot ($2.50 - 10RON) for it, and because the chip uses the G86 core.

[piernov]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

It appears you are using a Bestec PSU. If it's a ATX-250-12E, you won't even need a 12V adapter for the 12VSB - the 5VSB on the Bestec ATX-250-12E will naturally reach 12V after a few years of use

Good catch, it's an ATX-300-12Z though. Crap PSU but got 2 of them so one has its use now...

[Per Hansson]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

^^Oh god be careful, some of us are drinking coffee here!

[momaka]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

iMac 2008 24" PSU mod.

Lol, nice work. Anything to get it going again.

It appears you are using a Bestec PSU. If it's a ATX-250-12E, you won't even need a 12V adapter for the 12VSB - the 5VSB on the Bestec ATX-250-12E will naturally reach 12V after a few years of use

[stj]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

so if you changed the backlight to run on 12v you could use an xbox360 psu.

[piernov]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

what voltages does it actually need??

24V 3A for backlight
12V 16A
12VSB

(approximated max current consumption, keep some margin)

I used a 20V 4A laptop power brick for the 24V, works ok.

12V is from an ATX PSU.
12VSB is from a 1.5A adapter because I use the PSON signal to turn on the ATX power supply. Otherwise short the green wire of the ATX PSU to ground and you can tie the 12VSB to the 12V line.

The original iMac PSU has a built-in thermal sensor. The value of the sensor is not shown in software (all sensors are here on HWMonitor except this one). I couldn't figure out how it works so I use a software to control the CPU fan (or else it will go to full RPM after 30 seconds). Allows me to adjust the speed for decent cooling of the GPU as well, I want it to die as late as possible.

[goontron]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

that gives me an idea, are railway tracks usually grounded, or just left alone?

Don't know about the EU, but the Union and BNSF tracks here are grounded every mile or so.

[stj]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

Not really a ghetto mod per say, but it doesn't fit anywhere else...

Im using my neighborhoods cable plant/DSLAM (as in cable TV) as a very large random wire antenna. The ground is bad at the plant, and was grounding out though the metal siding of my house. I lifted the ground and now, not only am i able to hear the QAM (over the shielding!) with an SDR, but im able to pull in radio stations from Nebraska and Colorado with ease. Along with some signals from the Echostar uplink center. Not that i really need to use this to pull signals from Echostar.......

that gives me an idea, are railway tracks usually grounded, or just left alone?

[stj]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

iMac 2008 24" PSU mod.

what voltages does it actually need??

[goontron]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

Not really a ghetto mod per say, but it doesn't fit anywhere else...

Im using my neighborhoods cable plant/DSLAM (as in cable TV) as a very large random wire antenna. The ground is bad at the plant, and was grounding out though the metal siding of my house. I lifted the ground and now, not only am i able to hear the QAM (over the shielding!) with an SDR, but im able to pull in radio stations from Nebraska and Colorado with ease. Along with some signals from the Echostar uplink center. Not that i really need to use this to pull signals from Echostar.......

[piernov]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

iMac 2008 24" PSU mod.

[eccerr0r]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

I have tons of 75Ω cable (RG6, RG59?), but so little 50Ω cable...

75Ω cable seems like a dime a dozen feet, 50Ω... no idea where to even get it cheaply.

[stj]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

i used to have a reel of it, from the days of installing tv antenna's.
now i have a 250m reel of CT100 from dish installing - now that is some good shit!! copper core, copper braid, copper foil!!!

[eccerr0r]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

You can afford sacrificing RG58? Dang!

[stj]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

that's not ghetto - it has a connector, last time i needed something like that i just stripped about a foot of the insulation and braid off!!

[eccerr0r]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

Come on, more ghetto mods please!

This is my 70cm amateur band antenna!

[goontron]

Re: The ghetto mod thread

^ yeah, well now the power draw is so low its doesn't even register on my ammeter.... On the AC side using a high value (10k) current shunt, i get about 40v (0.004A). I should have been able to measure that with the amps setting on my fluke.... A disturbance in the force indeed.