Topcat's Other Misc Weird Build Thread

[whatamidoing]

Re: Topcat's Other Misc Weird Build Thread

I did downgrade the RAM from 8gb to 4gb; as I'll put XP 32 bit on this, no need for 8gb....and I have oodles of 1gb PC2-6400U modules.

They would have been wasted anyway. i945 does not support memory remapping, so you'd get 3.something GB usable anyway.
How much the .something is depends on the motherboard and gpu, but I've even seen 150 megs or less, I did sometimes use such machines to "dispose" of useless 512MB DIMMS (2x1 + 2x512)

Just for laughs, if you have a PD 915 or 925 (and some aluminium tape) at hand try modding it to run at 1066FSB. All the PD 925s I've seen would happily run at 1066/4GHz at stock voltage with no issues.
The only unknown is the Intel BIOS, but I did the BSEL mod on several 775 prebuilts (HP home machine with Award BIOS, HP pro machine with "Compaq" (blue screen with drop down menus at the top, i don't know how else to call it), Acer with AMI and FSC with Phoenix all with no problems)

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's Other Misc Weird Build Thread

CPU experimentation done, taken it as far as I can go. Absolutely nothing 1066 or Core2 would run in this. Zero initialize.....no load on +12v EPS rail upon powerup; the board just isn't 'wired' for them. I dug in my bin of Pentium D CPU's, nothing faster than what was in it would run. Created load, but would never post, which screams out firmware issue....so time to do a little research.

I had been searching the system model, which didn't yield much results as far as CPU support or BIOS updates....so I identified the board in it; which is an Intel D945GBI; in which I did find a BIOS dated 2007 (system was made in 2005). Flash-0-Rama and now it's running a Pentium D @ 3.6GHz 2MB L2.....which is a step above the 3GHz that was in it. Still nothing Core2 would run in it, even ones rated for 800FSB....so it looks like this is all she wrote for CPU upgrades....I did gain 600MHz in core speed though. I did downgrade the RAM from 8gb to 4gb; as I'll put XP 32 bit on this, no need for 8gb....and I have oodles of 1gb PC2-6400U modules.

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's Other Misc Weird Build Thread

Looks like it is a Pentium D rather than a Celeron from the screen shoots. Though it isn't much better, it has more cache, but is still a Netburst space heater. While there isn't a clear close-up picture of it in the post from what I can see from pic 2 I'd guess a Radeon X300 based on the red PCB and small passive cooler (an x600 or x1300 is also possible but they generally have larger and/or active coolers).

Yes it is a Pentium D (and I knew that ).....no idea why I typed celeron.... I have some 1066 C2D's, I'll see if it plays nice with any of those.

[dmill89]

Re: Topcat's Other Misc Weird Build Thread

Tomorrow will be CPU testing. It's a Celeron D @ 3GHz....but being a 945G chipset, it support 1066FSB and C2D/C2Q....but I can't seem to find the latest BIOS for it anywhere.....since gateway is long gone now.... Theoretically, it could run a Q6700. Came with an Audigy2 sound card, not sure what the GPU is. Not quite retro by any stretch, it'll be another decade or two; it's circa 2005~2006-ish...but the FX's were always the nicer of gateway's....and being a weird BTX form-factor, scrap if I couldn't fix it. More to come.

Looks like it is a Pentium D rather than a Celeron from the screen shoots. Though it isn't much better, it has more cache, but is still a Netburst space heater. While there isn't a clear close-up picture of it in the post from what I can see from pic 2 I'd guess a Radeon X300 based on the red PCB and small passive cooler (an x600 or x1300 is also possible but they generally have larger and/or active coolers).

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's Other Misc Weird Build Thread

Today's goofy one is a Gateway FX400S. This was a dropoff over a year ago that was buried under crap in the garage. Filthy & disgusting. I did wipe it down so it wouldn't make a mess on the bench....but this was high-end for the time. Well built tank of a case.... I didn't want to scrap it if I could fix it....it's worth rescuing IMHO.....the only one of about 20 computers I scrapped today.







The system powers on but wouldn't POST. Caps appear ok.....and I discovered this taking it apart to start the process of elimination.





Out of case.





Replaced with a connector from a junk board.



That fixed it. Probably recap it anyway given its age.





It's heavy on the +12v EPS rail for sure!!



Memtest....



Tomorrow will be CPU testing. It's a Celeron D @ 3GHz....but being a 945G chipset, it support 1066FSB and C2D/C2Q....but I can't seem to find the latest BIOS for it anywhere.....since gateway is long gone now.... Theoretically, it could run a Q6700. Came with an Audigy2 sound card, not sure what the GPU is. Not quite retro by any stretch, it'll be another decade or two; it's circa 2005~2006-ish...but the FX's were always the nicer of gateway's....and being a weird BTX form-factor, scrap if I couldn't fix it. More to come.

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's Other Misc Weird Build Thread

Here's another neat one....not quite worthy of its own thread, but great for this one! I acquired two of these in the last couple weeks and have had some fun hotrodding them, they are quite buildable! These are probably the nicest AIO's I've ever seen, especially for something more modern. Full size motherboard, socketed CPU, long DIMM & ECC support, RAID support, MXM slot for GPU upgrades.....and I already mentioned the gas-charged lift arm for opening the hood!!

Refresher pics:







Now, the point of today's post....One of these was missing the HDD caddy. They're apparently nothing standard, and nearly impossible to find. I did locate one on ebay, and the buffoon had it priced @ $100 + ship and no 'best offer', it was the only one I found....I refuse to pay that for a little piece of plastic....

...so here we are...where the HDD's reside....





This is what the plastic caddy looks like.





Yea, now you see why I'm not paying a hundred bucks for that little piece of plastic.... This system is being built out for my wife, she's due for an upgrade and constantly grumbles about the tower & clusterflunk of wires under her desk.... It only need a single drive, not two....so lets get creative!!

Ironically enough, enter in a HP 2.5" to 3.5" SAS adapter. These can be had on ebay all day long for ~$8 shipped.



Plugs in....but absolutely nothing to attach it to. Standard screw layout for a 3.5" drive do not even begin to line up with the tracks on the onboard HDD cage.



...so I start by drilling 2x 1/8" holes in the AFT end of the HDD tray.



Next, I mark the location of the above shown drilled holes in the cage base and drill those out.



Next step is some 8mm brass case standoffs. These will allow the tray to be level inside the cage, so it won't stress the drive connect header.



Nuts on the back end. The cage is mounted on standoffs inside the AIO, these nuts clear the floor of the AIO case by a good 2mm.



Perfect!



480GB SSD installed.





Like it was born there!! Everything reassembled.



Win10 Enterprise installed. I did bump the MXM GPU up a little. It had a Quadro500M 1GB in it, and it was pretty weaksauce.... I had a Quadro K2200M 2GB in the bin....which is much nicer and will be stellar for what she does. Display is 2560x1440, very nice to look at!



The specs for this rig are:

HP Z1 Workstation AIO
Xeon E3-1280 v2 @ 3.6GHz <-- I also added that
16GB ECC PC3-12800
480GB SSD
Quadro K2200M 2GB GPU
Win10 Enterprise 22H2

The other one I'm building up will be similar to this one....just want to play around with the RAID functions....and I did add a stiffer GPU than this one....I'll give up the details on that one when it's finished....but wifey really likes this so far!

[momaka]

Re: Topcat's Other Misc Weird Build Thread

What purpose does this capacitor serve in a passive PFC device?
Do you have a schematic that explains it?
Incidentally I have recapped a PSU exactly like this too from a Dimension 9200, I think the cap was ok, but it was over three years ago so who knows today

Sorry for the late reply.

It's the cap for the RCD (resistor-capacitor-diode) snubber circuit on the primary side for the main PS MOSFET.

Normally, I've only seen ceramic caps used for the snubber, since they are cheap and handle the high frequencies well. But they are always much smaller in value. Not sure why LiteON used such a high capacitance value. I'm sure there's a reason, though. These PSUs do work fine after all. It's just that the high value for such cap calls either for an electrolytic or a polypropylene film type. The latter option is more pricey, so probably that's why they went with a 'lytic there.

I did actually draw a circuit diagram when I saw this... but it's in my electronics notebook, which is currently a few thousand miles away.

Correct you are. Here's a better view of it, pulled from another angle; from the high-res pic:

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1686457554

Boggles my mind why thye used a cap versus a diode for snubbing (I don't recall seeing diode down there), so it had to be a RC snubber....but I'm sure they know things I don't.

They do have a diode in there. It's one of the heatshrinked parts next to the cap. So it is a full / proper RCD snubber circuit. Just not sure again why they did it with such a high-value cap. But like you say, maybe LiteON knows what they were doing and it's there for a reason. Nevertheless, I didn't feel comfortable leaving the original electrolytic cap in there when I checked it and it showed over 20 Ohms of ESR.

BTW, here is the post in the quality build thread for my PS-6311-2d2 [Dell L305N-00]:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...postcount=2972

And the thread that shows the recap and the snubber circuit mod with a PP cap:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=72929

Yes, it is pre-seagate. I wiped it and put it in the smaller HDD 'good' bin. I have a guy that comes by periodically looking for smaller SATA & IDE drives....I give him anything sub-500gb for free. THey're not worth fooling with trying to resell. Not sure what he does with them....but I get the impression he's a hobbyist.

Nice!
Sounds like another retro PC head.
Well, great to see you've found someone local to reuse these.

Most of my systems are still based on sub-250 GB spinners. The latter ones with 16M cache are more than fine with Windows 7 - not quite SSD -level boot times, but some do come close. The older stuff I relegate for XP.

I haven't touched XP in a looooong time....I'd be really rusty there....but I'm sure it'd all come back to me. I still use XP for analog media to digital conversions; such as a record to MP3. I've just found older hardware & software to produce better results and actually easier to use.

I still daily-use XP whenever I can.
Recently, I tried the Quantum-based (beta) version of Mypal on XP and it runs like a champ - exactly like Firefox Quantum would on Windows 7, but even faster. Haven't tried it on one of my more powerful XP machines, but if it does run like FF Quantum, I might be ditching 7 and going back to XP on some systems. A lot of software is dropping Win 7 support soon (including Steam). So if I have to make a choice between "unsupported" OSes, it would certainly be XP. I only ran 7 on some PCs because of FF Quantum / browser support. If FF drops Win 7, I won't be downgrading to 10 just for that.

Funny how XP is getting better and better 3rd party support with the retro community now.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Topcat's Other Misc Weird Build Thread

Again, it's a shame, because these OEM units are pretty solid otherwise - no APFC to worry about blowing up the primary cap(s).

That being said, beware some of the Lite-On units from this particular era use an electrolytic cap for the primary-side main PS snubber circuit.
It's rated something like 400V and 2.2 uF, and you can just about see it peeking with its top in the picture below, right next to one of the big caps on the primary side.

So if you get one of these units and it's acting "funky" with weird noises when you try to turn it on, check that cap. The one I had wasn't making any noise, but I did check the cap pre-emptively and it read high ESR (20 or 30 Ohms, IIRC.) I replaced it with a 2.2 uF (again, IIRC) polypropylene... which do cost a little more. But at least I won't have to worry about it again.

What purpose does this capacitor serve in a passive PFC device?
Do you have a schematic that explains it?
Incidentally I have recapped a PSU exactly like this too from a Dimension 9200, I think the cap was ok, but it was over three years ago so who knows today

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's Other Misc Weird Build Thread

I like it!

Gracias. I don't know what possessed me to pull this one off the pile and build it....but I did...

Actually, this is essentially what I thought about doing with a Dimension E510 (or was it 520?) that I got some years back. It was the same thing like yours, but minus the "dedicated" GPU and no HDD included. Otherwise, bad caps in the PSU and on the mobo just like yours. I didn't end up doing any mods or upgrades to it yet, though. Just fixed it up and set it up as a spare PC to have around. It plays older (<2006) games nicely with a better GPU.

I haven't tried any games on it yet, but knowing what this CPU & GPU combo are capable of, it'll play some Q3A and UT like a champ!!

The big 120 mm fan on the front is also nice - pulls cold air from the front and dumps it on the CPU. Also pulls some air through the HDDs too. What I don't like about this setup, though, is that there is no exhaust fan other than the PSU. So these cases do get somewhat hot inside. I also have a Dimension E5150, which on the outside is the same thing as the E520, but the motherboard is a i915 chipset (IIRC) and won't take anything better than Pentium 4 and Pentium D. I have a 130W TDP Pentium D 830 that member Pentium 4 sent me a while back. Always wanted to use that thing, but it needs some serious cooling. Luckily, I found a spare 6-pipe cooler with the rest of the junk where I picked up that PC. So the goal is to replace the P4 CPU on that E5150 with the D830. I know what's the point of wasting time on something like that today. But the case does look pristine otherwise... and like you said, I also like the styling.

That being said, I've flipped the front fan on the E5150 to pull air from the case and dump it out front. Haven't had enough time to play with it to see if that makes the cooling any better, but I'll get there one day.

I was surprised how cool it ran bumping it up to a quad core. Under the 120mm fan is another 80mm that cools disks and the south section of the case. Well laid out case, I must admit.

Hey, at least it's not a Celeron with integrated graphics and Windows Vista (not uncommon for that era.)

I usually break those down and junk them....especially the ones with no slot options for upgrading GPU's.

It is.
That being said, beware some of the Lite-On units from this particular era use an electrolytic cap for the primary-side main PS snubber circuit.
It's rated something like 400V and 2.2 uF, and you can just about see it peeking with its top in the picture below, right next to one of the big caps on the primary side.
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1686366550

So if you get one of these units and it's acting "funky" with weird noises when you try to turn it on, check that cap. The one I had wasn't making any noise, but I did check the cap pre-emptively and it read high ESR (20 or 30 Ohms, IIRC.) I replaced it with a 2.2 uF (again, IIRC) polypropylene... which do cost a little more. But at least I won't have to worry about it again.

Correct you are. Here's a better view of it, pulled from another angle; from the high-res pic:



Boggles my mind why thye used a cap versus a diode for snubbing (I don't recall seeing diode down there), so it had to be a RC snubber....but I'm sure they know things I don't. The unit was quiet (audible and on the scope), not that a failing snubber circuit would have shown noise on the outputs....but it did appear (and sound) to be functioning correctly.....but I confess, I didn't check it.

Cool!
The only issue I run with these cases (at least the Dimension E520 & 5150) is if the GPU is too long - then it clashes with the CPU cooler shroud.

This one cleared by a decent amount AFT of the card....but clearance with the shroud on top was close....but even the retainer bracket (blue thingy on a hinge) closed & latched correctly.

I like it - you got the dual-slot cooler version of these. The single-slot ones run blistering-hot and are retarded IMO. Whoever though it was a good idea to couple a 100+ Watt TDP GPU with a heatsink that's probably not even capable of cooling a Pentium 3 should reconsider their career.

LOL...I concur....and funny enough, I had that exact card sitting here as a standby if the double slotter didn't fit. The card is actually good.

Noooooo!!!!! I love PS/2 and it is always my first choice for KB/MS if the mobo has the ports.

Eventually I'll come across another one. I kept the header, it was just the ribbon that I killed.....

Was the Samsung 160 GB one a pre-Seagate model? If so, keep it around - those are super-reliable, IME. Not the fastest, though... though not the slowest either.

Yes, it is pre-seagate. I wiped it and put it in the smaller HDD 'good' bin. I have a guy that comes by periodically looking for smaller SATA & IDE drives....I give him anything sub-500gb for free. THey're not worth fooling with trying to resell. Not sure what he does with them....but I get the impression he's a hobbyist.

I had a moment like that with Windows XP the other day. Set it up on a PIII laptop I wanted to test out quickly while doing other stuff. After setup finished, I was like "OK, what else did I have to do now that I always do with my standard XP installs?" I really had forgotten how much simpler it was to set up XP and not have to deal with disabling a ton of crap like I have to with Windows 7. And my 15 YO flash drive still has all of the standard utilities and proggies I need for XP.

I haven't touched XP in a looooong time....I'd be really rusty there....but I'm sure it'd all come back to me. I still use XP for analog media to digital conversions; such as a record to MP3. I've just found older hardware & software to produce better results and actually easier to use.

Oh c'mon, it's still not that bad of a system (anymore), IMO. Will easily browse the internet all day long. 4 GB might limit how many facecrook tabs one can have open (probably 2 max. ), but this ain't the kind of PC for "such people" anyways.

LOL.....I did look, 8gb of PC2 for this would cost about under $20 shipped.....I just didn't bother. Fwiw, this site can be viewed from a pentium classic on Firefox 2.xx!!

[momaka]

Re: Topcat's Other Misc Weird Build Thread

I like it!

Actually, this is essentially what I thought about doing with a Dimension E510 (or was it 520?) that I got some years back. It was the same thing like yours, but minus the "dedicated" GPU and no HDD included. Otherwise, bad caps in the PSU and on the mobo just like yours. I didn't end up doing any mods or upgrades to it yet, though. Just fixed it up and set it up as a spare PC to have around. It plays older (<2006) games nicely with a better GPU.

...but I've always kind of liked the styling of these cases....

The big 120 mm fan on the front is also nice - pulls cold air from the front and dumps it on the CPU. Also pulls some air through the HDDs too. What I don't like about this setup, though, is that there is no exhaust fan other than the PSU. So these cases do get somewhat hot inside. I also have a Dimension E5150, which on the outside is the same thing as the E520, but the motherboard is a i915 chipset (IIRC) and won't take anything better than Pentium 4 and Pentium D. I have a 130W TDP Pentium D 830 that member Pentium 4 sent me a while back. Always wanted to use that thing, but it needs some serious cooling. Luckily, I found a spare 6-pipe cooler with the rest of the junk where I picked up that PC. So the goal is to replace the P4 CPU on that E5150 with the D830. I know what's the point of wasting time on something like that today. But the case does look pristine otherwise... and like you said, I also like the styling.

That being said, I've flipped the front fan on the E5150 to pull air from the case and dump it out front. Haven't had enough time to play with it to see if that makes the cooling any better, but I'll get there one day.

Here's another for this thread....and if your first question is why did I waste any time on this, don't bother....I don't have an answer. This is a Dell XPS 410 that was one of about a dozen random junk systems that were dropped off this week. It's a gutless wonder with a C2D @ 1.8GHz and 1gb RAM. GPU is a Radeon HD 2400....Talk about a lemon!

Hey, at least it's not a Celeron with integrated graphics and Windows Vista (not uncommon for that era.)

I didn't even power this up, as I knew what would be wrong with it....

Yup.
If there was a chance anyone would have saved one of these to still use it, chances are it died due to bad caps. Sad, because the rest of the HW is build really well on these machines.

Lets rummage through the bin of C2D & C2Q CPU's. This board can't run anything faster than 1066 FSB..... I had a C2Q Q6600 @ 2.4GHz in the drawer, perfect! The fastest it could take would be a Q6700 @ 2.66GHz....but I'm not spending the $18 on one when the Q6600 will do fine.

Yeah, not worth it.
In today's times, the difference between Q6600 and Q6700 is negligible, particularly to online browsing. And a Q6600 can be had for <$10 all day long - essentially 2x cheaper.

I also knew I had to crack the PSU open.....and imagine that, bad caps...

Sounds about right.
I find 2nd tier/brand caps in OEM PSUs from that era never to last too long. The same Ost, Ltec, CapXon, and Teapo caps from just a few years earlier usually outlasted them.
Again, it's a shame, because these OEM units are pretty solid otherwise - no APFC to worry about blowing up the primary cap(s).

This PSU was a real pain to work on. Nothing unplugged and there was just too much extra crap to desolder....so I had to work with it half ass still assembled. It looks like a lite-on build.

It is.
That being said, beware some of the Lite-On units from this particular era use an electrolytic cap for the primary-side main PS snubber circuit.
It's rated something like 400V and 2.2 uF, and you can just about see it peeking with its top in the picture below, right next to one of the big caps on the primary side.
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1686366550

So if you get one of these units and it's acting "funky" with weird noises when you try to turn it on, check that cap. The one I had wasn't making any noise, but I did check the cap pre-emptively and it read high ESR (20 or 30 Ohms, IIRC.) I replaced it with a 2.2 uF (again, IIRC) polypropylene... which do cost a little more. But at least I won't have to worry about it again.

Going back together....and a few other upgrades..... A double-slot GPU can actually fit in this.....

Cool!
The only issue I run with these cases (at least the Dimension E520 & 5150) is if the GPU is too long - then it clashes with the CPU cooler shroud.

Time for the mystery period-specific GPU to sign in!

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1686366550

I like it - you got the dual-slot cooler version of these. The single-slot ones run blistering-hot and are retarded IMO. Whoever though it was a good idea to couple a 100+ Watt TDP GPU with a heatsink that's probably not even capable of cooling a Pentium 3 should reconsider their career.

Butt shot... I deleted the rear header for the PS2 & serial ports, as I accidentially tore the ribbon that connected it to the mainboard. It wouldn't release from the plug and the ribbon pulled out of the plug. Oops....ohh well, I always use USB anyway.

Noooooo!!!!! I love PS/2 and it is always my first choice for KB/MS if the mobo has the ports. I wish my E520 & E5150 came with a PS/2 header/bracket, but they didn't When I went to look for one on ebay (some years back), $15-20 just seemed silly to spend on cable for a junk low-end C2D CPU. So I made my own, as I had a spare PS/2 header from something else (remember that boxy "lane server" PC I sent you - these don't have PS/2 connectors, so it's added by a header... which I believe I sent you one for as well .) Anyways, it was a bit of a PITA to make (I used ethernet cable and shoved one side of the cables into the PS/2 header's connector, and the other soldered to the blank PS/2/Serial header on the board)... but it worked! So now at least my E5150 has PS/2 ports. I need to do the same for the E520, but just never enough time for these silly small things.

I removed the drives that were in it. One was a 160gb Samsung, the other a 320gb WD. I replaced them with a 120gb Crucial SSD for the OS and a 1TB Toshiba for junk.

Was the Samsung 160 GB one a pre-Seagate model? If so, keep it around - those are super-reliable, IME. Not the fastest, though... though not the slowest either.

Installed Win7. Its been a while since I've worked with 7, I was a little rusty with it....

I had a moment like that with Windows XP the other day. Set it up on a PIII laptop I wanted to test out quickly while doing other stuff. After setup finished, I was like "OK, what else did I have to do now that I always do with my standard XP installs?" I really had forgotten how much simpler it was to set up XP and not have to deal with disabling a ton of crap like I have to with Windows 7. And my 15 YO flash drive still has all of the standard utilities and proggies I need for XP.

...and that's that! Time wasted on a pretty worthless system.....but ohh well.
...
Specs:
Dell XPS 410
C2Q Q6600 CPU
4GB PC2-5300
Geforce 9800GT 512mb
120gb SSD + 1TB HDD

Oh c'mon, it's still not that bad of a system (anymore), IMO. Will easily browse the internet all day long. 4 GB might limit how many facecrook tabs one can have open (probably 2 max. ), but this ain't the kind of PC for "such people" anyways.

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's Other Misc Weird Build Thread

Here's another for this thread....and if your first question is why did I waste any time on this, don't bother....I don't have an answer. This is a Dell XPS 410 that was one of about a dozen random junk systems that were dropped off this week. It's a gutless wonder with a C2D @ 1.8GHz and 1gb RAM. GPU is a Radeon HD 2400....Talk about a lemon! ...but I've always kind of liked the styling of these cases....but being that oddball BTX form-factor, even with my case surgery skills there's not much I can really do with one....so I have to use what I have available.....so lets take this lemon and make some lemonade!!



I didn't even power this up, as I knew what would be wrong with it....





Motherboard out for recapping. I only replaced the KZG & KZJ. The 680uF 16v were KMG, a series that's not prone to failure....so I left them alone.



Case inside wasn't too bad. Dusty, but the air hose cleaned it well enough. No need to wash it.



Recapped and then tested in the oven. It worked.



Lets rummage through the bin of C2D & C2Q CPU's. This board can't run anything faster than 1066 FSB..... I had a C2Q Q6600 @ 2.4GHz in the drawer, perfect! The fastest it could take would be a Q6700 @ 2.66GHz....but I'm not spending the $18 on one when the Q6600 will do fine.



I also knew I had to crack the PSU open.....and imagine that, bad caps...





Recapped.



This PSU was a real pain to work on. Nothing unplugged and there was just too much extra crap to desolder....so I had to work with it half ass still assembled. It looks like a lite-on build.



Going back together....and a few other upgrades..... A double-slot GPU can actually fit in this.....



Time for the mystery period-specific GPU to sign in!



I had 4gb of RAM in the bin....I guess I used up all the 2gb modules, all I had was 1gb. No biggie really. I'll install Win7 on this, 7 on 4GB ram is just fine.



Butt shot... I deleted the rear header for the PS2 & serial ports, as I accidentially tore the ribbon that connected it to the mainboard. It wouldn't release from the plug and the ribbon pulled out of the plug. Oops....ohh well, I always use USB anyway.



Time to light it up....





I removed the drives that were in it. One was a 160gb Samsung, the other a 320gb WD. I replaced them with a 120gb Crucial SSD for the OS and a 1TB Toshiba for junk.





Installed Win7. Its been a while since I've worked with 7, I was a little rusty with it....



...and that's that! Time wasted on a pretty worthless system.....but ohh well.



Specs:
Dell XPS 410
C2Q Q6600 CPU
4GB PC2-5300
Geforce 9800GT 512mb
120gb SSD + 1TB HDD

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's Other Misc Weird Build Thread

New user here. and subscribed to this thread. I love obscure build threads. i about shed a tear over the dell AIO with the digitizer cracking. probably my biggest fear working on those things. thankfully knock on wood i have yet to break one but ive only done a few.

Welcome to the site and stay tuned! I do have a few silly builds waiting in the wings!

[charleslam]

Re: Topcat's Other Misc Weird Build Thread

New user here. and subscribed to this thread. I love obscure build threads. i about shed a tear over the dell AIO with the digitizer cracking. probably my biggest fear working on those things. thankfully knock on wood i have yet to break one but ive only done a few.

[momaka]

Re: Topcat's Other Misc Weird Build Thread

Going back some pages... looks like I missed quite a few builds here. Gonna re-read and come back to them. But first, this one.

Forgive me computer gods, for I have sinned....but keep in mind, this was done to mock someone that bragged about spending $100 on RGB fans & lighting! I found that to be absurd. My 'mock' cost less than $10.

This is what I mean when I say I hate the "real" modern stuff - you just buy everything and slap it together, then muck around with software. $30 case fans and $10-30 per LED strips. It's stupid!
What you showed with this build is exactly what I mean about PC building being more fun back in the day - if you were creative, you could do it for a lot less and still get stellar results. The same stands even today... but alas, the PC industry is trying to milk every penny out of it and make you think you need to spend crazy money to get the same RGB lighting that everyone has (I'm talking about those silly cases with the 2-3 fans in the front with rainbow RBG fans. )

Momaka is going to disown BCN over this one!! Red & Blue 12v LED tape. The stock Antec fans have blue, so I went with more blue, and some red to create a little contrast.

LOL!
Quite the contrary, actually.

I never said I don't like LED lightning. Just not the modern barfage with the rainbow colors going nuts (i.e. like this.) When case lightning is tastefully done, I do appreciate it - even on a fully black case (as mentioned in the past, I'm not a huge fan of all-black cases with all-black components inside... but do make exceptions, of course.)

Live test! This is hard to photograph. In person, the light is a lot more crisp....but you get the idea...

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1653195163

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1653195163

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1653195163

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1653195163

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1653195163

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1653195163

Looks good to me!

Still, I like the way the lights reflect inside the Apevia case better.

With the case closed, at no angle looking in the window can you actually see any of the LED's; which is critical for making this look half way decent....for as ricey & ghetto as it already looks!! Yes, this project aggravated the 'intended target' (not a member here). I spent $10 shipped for the two 10' reels of LED tape, and I used very little....maybe 3 feet combined

Nice job! And wow - 10' LED rolls now go for $5? They were about twice that last time I bought some for an experiment with a TV (don't ask! )

so at $0.50 per foot it cost ~$1.50 compared to his ridiculous $100....but here's where the sin mentioned in the opening paragraph came into play...I actually enjoyed this!!!

Yeah, but you had to do so much work with your mods , whereas his $100 LEDs would have been a matter of just plugging in and installing the software. How can that not be more fun?!
/sarcasm

Well this was critiqued today by none other than my 24yr old daughter who said it looked awesome, but the blue was a bit overbearing.

Now that you mention it... I think she's right.
Definitely a good suggestion on her part.

Looks like those attention to details genes run in the family.

Add a little more red if you can....so I pondered....and pondered....and didn't come up with much until I inadvertently realized there was a plastic air guide on top of the CPU heatsinks that basically allowed a 70mm fan to be used on a sink intended for 60mm.... THis raised the fan off the sink a good 30mm; leaving plenty of room between the fan & sink.....and BAM!! The light bulb...err, LED lit up!

That's actually a brilliant idea! I think I might borrow it for one of my builds. It also has this type of air guide as well... though I'll have to see if that will work there or not, since the guide has a divider in the middle.

Now to wire them into power....and the reason I used such long wires... I routed these down to the lower right corner where the unused 4-pin +12v connector was tied out of the way (the board uses the larger 8-pin). I then stole the 4-pin connector off a junk motehrboard.

Those are always handy indeed. The older non-HDMI Xbox 360 motherboards have them for their dual fans, so I also have a few spares myself.

I rarely do it this neat, though (actually, did I ever? ) If there is a spare floppy connector, that's usually my choice of power source - take two long leads from new capacitors (I save all of the cut off leads from new caps after I install them) and solder wires to these. Some hot glue and misc scrap wire for insulation and... those are my connectors. A little sloppy, but overall an improvement over just shoving the wires in a spare molex plug.

...and now the real test...and again bear in mind that these pics look like shit.....I guess I don't know the secret to correctly photograph something like this with no flash....

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1653271122

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1653271122

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1653271122

That solved the overwhelmingly blue issue!

Very very nice!
The red lights in the heatsinks is actually a really cool idea. Definitely going to try that if I have a build that will have LEDs. So far, I don't have a single complete PC with lights inside it. The Pac-Man one would have been a good candidate if it had a clear side panel. But I won't cut it just for that. It's a good retro case.
Now, I do also have quite a few PCs in my fleet that never came with side panels. I've thought about doing one or two of them with silly lights... but alas, it's just not a priority. I have too many other projects to catch up on (some non-computer/electronics related ones too.)

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's Other Misc Weird Build Thread

This one sold today!!

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...8&postcount=77

[Uranium-235]

Re: Topcat's Other Misc Weird Build Thread

At the time, that was a huge deal....huge upgrade and huge price difference!

That was the point of my reply. He was figuratively jizzing in his pants when he saw that

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Topcat's Other Misc Weird Build Thread

Reminded me of 2004, where I was still happy with 256 MB of DDR1 SDRAM, but the guy I was with, told me that it was out of stock, so I was able to get 512 MB of PC2700 DDR1 SDRAM, LOL. (most likely in the summer)

Was the year of that T-bred 2400+ KIXJB upgrade, which I think is 2004 chip revision, (04xx, 0415, IIRC) spanked my T-bred 2000+ AIUCB that said "02" on it, which I think means 2002.

I got the old T-bred 2000+ on July 1, 2003.

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's Other Misc Weird Build Thread

my old boss was buying a p1-100 @ frys and they were out of stock, so the guy went into the back and came up with a p1-233, he just took it and it rang up for the price of a 100.

At the time, that was a huge deal....huge upgrade and huge price difference!

[Uranium-235]

Re: Topcat's Other Misc Weird Build Thread

my old boss was buying a p1-100 @ frys and they were out of stock, so the guy went into the back and came up with a p1-233, he just took it and it rang up for the price of a 100.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Topcat's Other Misc Weird Build Thread

It's sporting a Pentium166 & 128mb RAM; the max RAM it can take. The P-166 was an absolute workhorse of its era....definitely worthy of a little resto work.

Filthy but in good physical condition.

I remember coming across a Pentium 166 for the group home PC at Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center. It sure was one of the late-1990s' greatest hits!

And, of course the same for when I saw a Pentium 133 on the same campus! Windows 3.1x ran like a lightning bolt! (IIRC)

But, when my family by 1997 got a Pentium 133 system, I was still so happy! Even when not as fast as the 166. Came with 16 MB of EDO RAM and in what was likely 2000, it got upgraded to 48 MB!