Supermicro P6DGU Retro Build

[Topcat]

Cheap board that's VERY hard to come by; from the cheap score thread:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...postcount=2373

After having to make some component level repairs to this board that were beyond simple bad caps, its alive & healthy.

The processors are 2x 1GHz 100FSB (SL4KL), which are quite rare
2GB of RAM that I stole from a bad Asus CUV4X-D that was given to me...
GPU is a Matrox G450 (the best spare AGP card I have on hand at the moment).
Onboard U2 SCSI, Complimented with an ARO-1130 ZCR RAIDport upgrade (another rarity)
test HDD's are a pair of 9.1gb IBM's in a raid0...in permanent state, I'll find some 10k or 15k's.
Adaptec ana6922TX dual port NIC

I have an interesting case in mind for this one...but for now it's all in test form...

The culprit that had CPU slot 2 non-functional:


2 Live CPU's!!







Win2k with FF12, and of course this thread created from it...


...and probably the most unique rarity of this board:


More to come...

[momaka]

Re: Supermicro P6DGU Retro Build

Oh that Made in USA sticker... I spotted it from far away and I love it!

Dual P3's @ 1 GHz - that should handle quite a bit. I tried the same in my CUR-DLS motherboard (though my CPUs are the 133 MHz version, so not that rare... but for $2 I can't complain at all) and it was pretty speedy, even with XP. If fact, I'm kind of wondering why you didn't put XP on there. With 2 GB of RAM and those CPUs, it will handle a much newer browser than FF12.
And you have AGP slot in that? - Nice! My crappy CUR-DLS only has PCI and PCI-X. Best PCI card I have is a GeForce 8400 GS, and that's already reserved for another PC. Besides, even a very good PCI card is slow compared to AGP due to slow nature of PCI bus.

So you got quite the good hardware there. Imagine if you had a time machine and traveled back a little, then showed your rig to people. I bet they'd be drooling hard.

Now it's just a cool functional museum piece. But can still be useful, if you have the right software and whatnot. And in this condition, it might be worth good money some day. Actually, people are putting crazy prices on old hardware like this already. I'm not sure if anyone is ever buying this stuff at that price... but I guess they must be if those auctions/listings exist. Who knows.

[Topcat]

Re: Supermicro P6DGU Retro Build

Oh that Made in USA sticker... I spotted it from far away and I love it!

So did I....its probably one of the reasons I put so much effort into repairing the board. Normally when they need these kinds of components replaced, I toss them into the recycler barrel. Made in the USA + super rare supermicro....yea, no way is it dumpster fodder...

Dual P3's @ 1 GHz - that should handle quite a bit. I tried the same in my CUR-DLS motherboard (though my CPUs are the 133 MHz version, so not that rare... but for $2 I can't complain at all) and it was pretty speedy, even with XP. If fact, I'm kind of wondering why you didn't put XP on there. With 2 GB of RAM and those CPUs, it will handle a much newer browser than FF12.
And you have AGP slot in that? - Nice! My crappy CUR-DLS only has PCI and PCI-X. Best PCI card I have is a GeForce 8400 GS, and that's already reserved for another PC. Besides, even a very good PCI card is slow compared to AGP due to slow nature of PCI bus.

This board has zero overclocking abilities. no VCORE adjustments, and only two FSB settings: 100 and 66....but I'm with you. When its set up in permanent form, I will put XP on it. I have several legit XP VLK's. XP will run great on this.

So you got quite the good hardware there. Imagine if you had a time machine and traveled back a little, then showed your rig to people. I bet they'd be drooling hard.

Funny thing is, I remember looking at the P6DBU which same board, except it's a BX chipset (this one is a GX, which supports more memory) back when it was new (1999-ish)....was like $700...and that was before you bought supporting hardware.... No way a poor slob like me could afford that back then.

Now it's just a cool functional museum piece. But can still be useful, if you have the right software and whatnot. And in this condition, it might be worth good money some day. Actually, people are putting crazy prices on old hardware like this already. I'm not sure if anyone is ever buying this stuff at that price... but I guess they must be if those auctions/listings exist. Who knows.

I've seen some of those loony listings.....I wish & hope they will bring those kinds of prices some day, I have some really oddball stuff around here that would definitely qualify! I'll have to sell them all before I kick the bucket....my wife thinks they're all scrap iron, and would probably dispose of them as such....

The case I'm working on for this build is a very excellent example of an era-specific 'out-of-the-box' system, but in a very unusual full tower option....and of course I have a nice array of Plextor opticals to outfit it with.

[momaka]

Re: Supermicro P6DGU Retro Build

So did I....its probably one of the reasons I put so much effort into repairing the board. Normally when they need these kinds of components replaced, I toss them into the recycler barrel. Made in the USA + super rare supermicro....yea, no way is it dumpster fodder...

So it's possible you threw out quite a few good boards then.
On seconds thoughts... most old hardware just needed a recap. So maybe not that many. And newer hardware with polymers probably doesn't get to you since you do mostly recaps.
Nevertheless, if I was near, I would've probably lived next to your dumpster, just to make sure I didn't miss anything getting thrown out.

This board has zero overclocking abilities. no VCORE adjustments, and only two FSB settings: 100 and 66....

Meh. I'm so used to working on OEM boards that I hardly notice anymore.
Of course, it is nice to have them. Some older chips like the Athlon 64 can take pretty good overclock. What I like to do, though, is keep the clock @ stock speed but turn down the core voltage for extra power savings. You'll be surprised how low some of these A64 CPUs can go. An 89W TDP skt754 3200+ can pretty much be turned into a 67W TDP chip (same as the skt939 version). And the 939 version of the same chip literally turn it into 30-40W chip - that's almost as cool as a Pentium 3 CPU. Then the stock HS can really be turned silent.

Funny thing is, I remember looking at the P6DBU which same board, except it's a BX chipset (this one is a GX, which supports more memory) back when it was new (1999-ish)....was like $700...and that was before you bought supporting hardware.... No way a poor slob like me could afford that back then.

Hehe.
I'm a little younger than you, so for me it was stuff from the socket 939 era when I was in my mid-teens. I remember drooling over the Athlon 64 FX-60 CPU, which back then killed everything Intel could put out. And of course, one of those SLI boards that could do dual 7900 GTX cards. Technically, I wasn't exactly broke and could also ask my parents to help me with the funds for such a rig... but it just didn't feel right. So instead, I kept puttering on my lowly-low-key 1.4 GHz Duron Applbred (T-bred) rig with 256 MB of RAM and a slow-even-for-its-time Radeon 9200SE (spoiled edition) video card. But then again, I learned so much on that PC due to it being slow, that I'm actually thankful I had it and not anything faster.

8 years later, and I got an Athlon 64 FX-57 CPU for free! (essentially a single-core version of the FX-60 and probably one of the fastest single core chips ever made.) Used it in a PC until last winter. Still have it and will be putting into use. It's paired with an MSI MS-7191 mobo, which I think I posted the recap of here.

I've seen some of those loony listings.....I wish & hope they will bring those kinds of prices some day, I have some really oddball stuff around here that would definitely qualify!

Some of them do, actually.
It's usually the socket 7 and older stuff, though. Complete 386 and 486 systems fetched around $100 at one point. Haven't looked up recently what they sell for now or their availability.

That said, the prices on AGP cards is steadily going up, especially nVidia mid and high-range stuff. I saw a "very rare" (according to auction) GeForce FX 5950 XT ultra go for over a $1000 just 3-4 months ago, and several other listings with other FX5900 variants for $200-300 on average. These weren't the asking prices for them either. Most just started at $1-10 starting bid. And what I wrote above is what they _sold_ for. Very crazy if you ask me.

I'll have to sell them all before I kick the bucket....my wife thinks they're all scrap iron, and would probably dispose of them as such....

Just tell her to write an obituary on BCN, if anyone wants to come pay you respects (+ buy hardware while there, from which the proceeds can go towards funeral costs).
That should get your stock sold pretty fast. Maybe not at the best prices, but better than scrap!

And personally if it was my funeral, I'd specifically request for people to bring bad & blown caps and toss them in when they dump me in the ground.
Ah, okay sorry for the black humor! I might have gone a little overboard there. Runs in part of my family.

[ratdude747]

Re: Supermicro P6DGU Retro Build

I've seen some of those loony listings.....I wish & hope they will bring those kinds of prices some day, I have some really oddball stuff around here that would definitely qualify! I'll have to sell them all before I kick the bucket....my wife thinks they're all scrap iron, and would probably dispose of them as such....

You could always will all of them to various BCN members...

Yeah, I know

[Topcat]

Re: Supermicro P6DGU Retro Build

So it's possible you threw out quite a few good boards then.
On seconds thoughts... most old hardware just needed a recap. So maybe not that many. And newer hardware with polymers probably doesn't get to you since you do mostly recaps.
Nevertheless, if I was near, I would've probably lived next to your dumpster, just to make sure I didn't miss anything getting thrown out.

It would be pretty picked clean and determined to be absolute junk before being trashed. Anything really rare or unusual, I typically hang onto. I strip anything usable off them I can that's practical to remove and/or reuse.

Meh. I'm so used to working on OEM boards that I hardly notice anymore.

For the most part, I don't either. I lost interest in overclocking anything once the netburst era stuff took hold....they were lousy overclockers, and CPU's beyond that, it really wasn't necessary... Pentium classic through Pentium3 era hardware was the 'golden age' of overclocking.

Hehe.
I'm a little younger than you, so for me it was stuff from the socket 939 era when I was in my mid-teens.

I never had a 939 system, but I had a couple 940's later on, after they had become 'trailing edge'. This was a good 10yrs ago. I got seriously interested in tech @ around 19, around 1993....but already had a strong background. It started with 386/486...and then came the Pentium & windows95, all hell broke loose then!!

Some of them do, actually.
It's usually the socket 7 and older stuff, though. Complete 386 and 486 systems fetched around $100 at one point. Haven't looked up recently what they sell for now or their availability.

That said, the prices on AGP cards is steadily going up, especially nVidia mid and high-range stuff. I saw a "very rare" (according to auction) GeForce FX 5950 XT ultra go for over a $1000 just 3-4 months ago, and several other listings with other FX5900 variants for $200-300 on average. These weren't the asking prices for them either. Most just started at $1-10 starting bid. And what I wrote above is what they _sold_ for. Very crazy if you ask me.

You know what's getting ridiculous in price....SCSI hard drives... I've got a lot of them, but am always looking for more. They're great for performance & authenticity of some retro builds. Controllers are plentiful & cheap.....but the drives.... YIKES! When I can get away with it (PCI compliance is the usual hurdle, especially P-classic stuff), I'll add SATA controllers to some P-classic~P3 era stuff, its a huge performance boost.

Just tell her to write an obituary on BCN, if anyone wants to come pay you respects (+ buy hardware while there, from which the proceeds can go towards funeral costs).
That should get your stock sold pretty fast. Maybe not at the best prices, but better than scrap!

And personally if it was my funeral, I'd specifically request for people to bring bad & blown caps and toss them in when they dump me in the ground.
Ah, okay sorry for the black humor! I might have gone a little overboard there. Runs in part of my family.

You could always will all of them to various BCN members...

Yeah, I know

You vultures!! I'd have to label everything I guess....the sleeper builds without labels would be taken at face value.....bad for the seller, good for the buyer...

[ratdude747]

Re: Supermicro P6DGU Retro Build

You vultures!! I'd have to label everything I guess....the sleeper builds without labels would be taken at face value.....bad for the seller, good for the buyer...

Insider info is legal for auctions, right?

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: Supermicro P6DGU Retro Build

Oh that Made in USA sticker

lol time for u to get that datavac. u should really get it. it has a made in usa sticker similar to that too!

was like $700... No way a poor slob like me could afford that back then.

aye same. similar to momaka, i drooled over those thousand dollar cpus back in the day. i remember surfing for fx-57 reviews and prices and wishing i could afford that. also did the same for the qx9650.

now, i managed to get a san diego athlon 64 4000+ that overclocks to fx-57 speeds and more for US$30 back in 2011. also got the qx9650 for around US$150 back in 2011. so i managed to get thousand dollar hardware back in the day for a steal now lol!

I remember drooling over the Athlon 64 FX-60 CPU, which back then killed everything Intel could put out. And of course, one of those SLI boards that could do dual 7900 GTX cards. Technically, I wasn't exactly broke and could also ask my parents to help me with the funds for such a rig... but it just didn't feel right.

IMO that kind of hardware would fall in the 5000 dollar dream pc category and frankly, it aint right asking your parents to splurge that much of their hard earned money unless u wanted to be and were a spoiled brat...

now, earning your own 5000 bucks and then spending it on good stuff like that, now that would feel so much better on money well spent!

slow-even-for-its-time Radeon 9200SE (spoiled edition) video card.

lol. yea there were many joke names for what exactly ati meant with the se suffix on the low-end line. slow edition, shitty edition were among some of the other joke names. like u, i also got a 9800se to unlock to a pro. not a slow or shitty edition video card now! but it was still spoilt lol! it had defective pipelines thats why it was binned down as an se with only 4 pipelines as opposed to 8...

[kc8adu]

Re: Supermicro P6DGU Retro Build

btw i saw several of those boards "back in the day"
with that vrm chip killed by slotket hacks gone wrong.
i think i still have one in its original box complete with its bulging "nrsy" craps.
its a one of these days retro pc project.

[Topcat]

Re: Supermicro P6DGU Retro Build

^
I recapped a lot of 370DLE/DL3 suprmicros with those fake NRSY crap caps. I've probably gotten a few of these in back in the day, but being customer property, I really didn't pay much attention to them, slot-1 stuff was historic junk in the BCN early days....but for retro-sake, its all coming back.

This board did have some fake NRSY's in it, not bloated, but very out of tolerance.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Supermicro P6DGU Retro Build

not bloated, but very out of tolerance.

Like CapXon KMs that I saw on here, IIRC, those seem notorious for going bad without bulging and likely without leaking...

[momaka]

Re: Supermicro P6DGU Retro Build

It would be pretty picked clean and determined to be absolute junk before being trashed. Anything really rare or unusual, I typically hang onto. I strip anything usable off them I can that's practical to remove and/or reuse.

So lots of MOSFETs and other chips get left behind then. Ceramic caps too. That's not totally stripped in my book.

I never had a 939 system, but I had a couple 940's later on, after they had become 'trailing edge'.

940/AM2 is when AMD quality started going down a bit, in terms of mobos. But most socket 939 motherboards are absolutely solid, minus some of them having crap caps, of course.

You know what's getting ridiculous in price....SCSI hard drives... I've got a lot of them, but am always looking for more.

Not just those.
All hard drives cost a lot more than they used to. Part of the problem is that people/companies now have become way more paranoid about their data getting in the wrong hands through HDD recycling (yet, some will happily use Windows 10 without a second thought - go figure). So a lot of companies instead send their HDDs and hardware to the "crusher". So no more cheap HDDs anywhere.

It seems that IDE HDDs have also become a lot more rare. I really liked the last generation of parallel recording disks - the likes of Seagate Barracuda ATA IV and 7200.7 along with some WD800 drives. Now these are hard to come by. They can be found in SATA variants too (and in fact, I just got a shipment of 9 of them yesterday for $20 total - but deals like that are not so common anymore). For the very old PCs however, I like to stay with native IDE/PATA.

You vultures!!

What???! No!
I just suggested that so that your hard work with some of these machines doesn't go to waste. At least that's how I feel about my stuff. Much rather give it to someone who can use it rather than see it get thrown out and looted for metal by the neighborhood scrappers (that is, if I was to croak ).

Also, rather than label everything, just give it a "starting" sell price from which to bargain down from.

lol time for u to get that datavac. u should really get it. it has a made in usa sticker similar to that too!

I should.
That gives me an idea: I'll see if I can find one for cheap on eBay. Maybe broken too. Otherwise these things cost a fair bit that I'd rather just get a cheapo $40 air compressor from Harbor Freight. (And that's more useful, as I can also use it to spray paint too)

IMO that kind of hardware would fall in the 5000 dollar dream pc category and frankly, it aint right asking your parents to splurge that much of their hard earned money unless u wanted to be and were a spoiled brat...

Exactly.
And that's when I really started getting into "ghetto-putter" style - i.e. take and reuse old cheap stuff rather than buy new bleeding-edge expensive stuff. I think that was a wise decision that I don't ever regret taking. Learned a lot in the process, especially troubleshooting.

now, earning your own 5000 bucks and then spending it on good stuff like that, now that would feel so much better on money well spent!

Nah. If I had saved that money back then, I would have put them towards something more permanent. New technology and new cars depreciate in value way too quickly. For this reason I will never ever buy a new car. Not to mention that nowadays with all the electronics, I have zero interest in anything offered ATM. My current car has manual windows and a throttle cable, and I am very happy with it. That's all I'll say before I derail the topic way too far.

[Topcat]

Re: Supermicro P6DGU Retro Build

So lots of MOSFETs and other chips get left behind then. Ceramic caps too. That's not totally stripped in my book.

I bilk most of that stuff. Hot air SMT station has them off in seconds.

940/AM2 is when AMD quality started going down a bit, in terms of mobos. But most socket 939 motherboards are absolutely solid, minus some of them having crap caps, of course.

Add in quirky chipsets and other strange things....that's always been a weird waterloo of AMD stuff....there was always a 'sweet spot' to find when building an AMD system. While I never had one for my main system, I've built a lot of them for clients who wouldn't have anything else.....and when you want to sell a computer, the customer is always right, right?

...yet, some will happily use Windows 10 without a second thought - go figure... So a lot of companies instead send their HDDs and hardware to the "crusher". So no more cheap HDDs anywhere.

Win10, ironic, isn't it.... When HDD's are missing from county systems I collect, they take them to the local rifle range and use them for target practice. Such a waste!

What???! No!
I just suggested that so that your hard work with some of these machines doesn't go to waste. At least that's how I feel about my stuff. Much rather give it to someone who can use it rather than see it get thrown out and looted for metal by the neighborhood scrappers (that is, if I was to croak ).

Also, rather than label everything, just give it a "starting" sell price from which to bargain down from.

I will do with these like my stepdad does with his gas & oil can & sign collection....there's a tag on the back with a full description and a minimum price....so if they end up sold for scrap, shame on them.....

A case teaser, and this is a good one!!



If the sun ever comes back out, I need to mix a batch of my super bromine yellowing removal soup.

XP test.....ran like a champ! FF17.0.1 seems to be the happy version. I tried 28, and it was very laggy & choppy, GPU didn't seem to like it, and most older GPU's usually dont...so I didn't go any further forward, and started going back.

[ratdude747]

Re: Supermicro P6DGU Retro Build

940/AM2 is when AMD quality started going down a bit, in terms of mobos. But most socket 939 motherboards are absolutely solid, minus some of them having crap caps, of course.

Socket 940 (barely) came before Socket 939... Socket 939 is the consumer (single CPU) version of socket 940. Generally Socket 940 was for Opterons and 939 was for Athon64/Sempron. There are a few Athlon64 FX's that were made in socket 940, but that was the only exception.

Add in quirky chipsets and other strange things....that's always been a weird waterloo of AMD stuff....there was always a 'sweet spot' to find when building an AMD system. While I never had one for my main system, I've built a lot of them for clients who wouldn't have anything else.....and when you want to sell a computer, the customer is always right, right?

Even socket 940 had issues... the AMD AGP to Hypertransport chip has no good driver support. That said, the Nvidia Nforce Professional series seems pretty solid.

I will do with these like my stepdad does with his gas & oil can & sign collection....there's a tag on the back with a full description and a minimum price....so if they end up sold for scrap, shame on them.....

Damn, so much for sniping out the idiots Up next on American Pickers...

[momaka]

Re: Supermicro P6DGU Retro Build

Damn, so much for sniping out the idiots Up next on American Pickers...

Uhm.... I think you got the wrong quote up there ^ , RD...
or rather, you quoted TC with my user name in there. Oops!

I bilk most of that stuff. Hot air SMT station has them off in seconds.

Hehe, I guess you know how to keep the junkers off your dumpster.

Add in quirky chipsets and other strange things....that's always been a weird waterloo of AMD stuff....

Yeah, ironically nVidia has always been the best supported and most stable chipset for AMD. However, the bumpgate issues started around the nForce 4 series, and progressed very badly towards the nForce 5, MCP61 (nForce 6?) and MCP71 chips. So for this reason, I just don't trust motherboards with these chipsets.

ALi didn't get the support it should have and I think they also had some reliability issues. But otherwise they were cool chipsets. Not in the literal meaning, though (my AsRock 939Dual-SATA2 has scorching hot NB and SB, even with fans blowing air on them.)

So it's really only the ATI chipsets that were the most trustworthy of the bunch... and even these had problems with failing, though nowhere as bad as the MCP61 and newer.

....and when you want to sell a computer, the customer is always right, right?

Maybe you'll disagree... but not if they are the type to bitch and moan at you for the rest of their lives when you told them of a better alternative and they didn't listen, then blame you for everything - i.e. some customers are worth more trouble than the money they bring, IMO.

Win10, ironic, isn't it.... When HDD's are missing from county systems I collect, they take them to the local rifle range and use them for target practice. Such a waste!

Agreed.

A case teaser, and this is a good one!!
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1539103725

Oo nice! I once had a Gateway 1000 case. But my dad threw it away, thinking it was old worthless computer. This was some years back when I was in high school. The thing had a 486 CPU in it, I think... or something along that. Nice heavy case with a uni-shell. And belt-less CD-ROM drive - the type that never lets you down. The only thing I have left from it is a Nidec fan and a PCI Trio 64 video card. Maybe a modem and a PCI USB 1.1 card too. Wish I still had it now. I'll see if I can dig a picture of it. I think I have one from wayback. Yours above looks pretty much the same internally from what I can see. Only the front design is a tiny bit different. It's a solid case. You got the right idea here!

XP test.....ran like a champ! FF17.0.1 seems to be the happy version. I tried 28, and it was very laggy & choppy, GPU didn't seem to like it, and most older GPU's usually dont...so I didn't go any further forward, and started going back.

Try FF24. It's the last "best" version for XP that doesn't hog CPU resources at startup. And for the sake of keeping the PC able to handle modern websites (even if very slow), you can add a Portable version of FireFox, like 49 and up. It can co-exist with FF17/FF24 or whatever other FF version you have on there (just can't run them at the same time.)

[ratdude747]

Re: Supermicro P6DGU Retro Build

Uhm.... I think you got the wrong quote up there ^ , RD...
or rather, you quoted TC with my user name in there. Oops!

Copy pasta'd and faceplanted. DOH!!!!

[lti]

Re: Supermicro P6DGU Retro Build

Oo nice! I once had a Gateway 1000 case. But my dad threw it away, thinking it was old worthless computer. This was some years back when I was in high school. The thing had a 486 CPU in it, I think... or something along that. Nice heavy case with a uni-shell. And belt-less CD-ROM drive - the type that never lets you down. The only thing I have left from it is a Nidec fan and a PCI Trio 64 video card. Maybe a modem and a PCI USB 1.1 card too. Wish I still had it now. I'll see if I can dig a picture of it. I think I have one from wayback. Yours above looks pretty much the same internally from what I can see. Only the front design is a tiny bit different. It's a solid case. You got the right idea here!

Those Gateway cases are nice, but the "mini-tower" I had (the same size as a standard ATX tower today) used a proprietary power supply (even though there was room for a standard ATX PSU). It was a better case than that Corsair case I modded because everything lined up and the threaded holes weren't full of paint. It's really sad that those are what make a case from 1997 better. It came with one of those CD-ROM drives with the gear-driven tray, but it was dead (and not the original drive - it was a 48x Samdung).

I've never had a "nice" computer, even once they were retro. I saw all of the new stuff in the mid-2000s before it wasn't exciting anymore, but I had business computers and cheap crap until I got my Core i5.

[Topcat]

Re: Supermicro P6DGU Retro Build

Those Gateway cases are nice, but the "mini-tower" I had (the same size as a standard ATX tower today) used a proprietary power supply (even though there was room for a standard ATX PSU).

This case does have a weird 'mini PSU', but the sleeve it's in is a standard ATX PSU cutout, so I can use any PSU in this.

[momaka]

Re: Supermicro P6DGU Retro Build

It was a better case than that Corsair case I modded because everything lined up and the threaded holes weren't full of paint. It's really sad that those are what make a case from 1997 better.

Yeah, new cases are more about the paint job and lights than anything else. Even really expensive heavy ones seem to have silly features and use the cheapest of the cheapest Molex/SATA connectors for any built-in fan controllers they may come with.

On that note, this is why I like the older Antec cases - they're made of thick steel and rarely painted on the inside. Just quality heavy cases like those back in the days. Not a fan that a lot of them came with front panel doors, though - I always thought that was a useless feature (at least for me.)

It came with one of those CD-ROM drives with the gear-driven tray, but it was dead (and not the original drive - it was a 48x Samdung).

Yup, mine had the gear-driven tray too. I still have a few other drives like that around. Seems like these are always the most reliable ones. At least my Teac CD-540E are.

I know it's a CD-ROM drive, but I would still actually have tried to fix that Samsung drive of yours.

I've never had a "nice" computer, even once they were retro.

Me neither, if I am to be judged by other people. But I am quite happy with what I had nevertheless and can't say I didn't use the living ghosts out of every machine I had. This Dell OptiPlex 170L that I have here as a main rig (2.8 GHz P4 HT, 1.25 GB RAM, onboard everything) has been pretty damn reliable. And that's after serving who knows how many years in an office. What started as a "homeworks" computer for my college dorm turned into a main PC instantly. Even my classmates in college liked working on it, despite being quite outdated even back then.

This case does have a weird 'mini PSU', but the sleeve it's in is a standard ATX PSU cutout, so I can use any PSU in this.

Interesting.
The one in my Gateway 1000 had a normal-size AT PSU. Made by PowerTronic, IIRC. Looked well-built on the inside.

**EDIT** I found two pictures of that Gateway PC. My memory was wrong, it's actually model number P5-100. But anyways, here they are:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1539180373
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1539180373

[Topcat]

Re: Supermicro P6DGU Retro Build

^ I would totally take that case if you still have it!

This is the PSU (which I won't be reusing):



There's an adapter plate that makes it compatible with a standard ATX PSU cutout....you can see the adapter plate, even though it's sitting face-down. I do not know if this PSU even works, its a 200w "Powertech". That is a pile of stuff off the case I won't be reusing.



The HDD cage hangs from the ceiling of the case, right in front of where an 80mm fan goes....the fan opening had a steel plate over the opening.....and that certainly won't fly!! The plate removed and a fan will go where its supposed to be. HDDs will be mounted in 5.25" front bays.

I have an aopen 300w PSU with the weird AT connector on it, which this board has.....so a good matchup. Freshly recapped too.