best cheap/free scores 1.1

[MAVA]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

This is my first.

Back in the early 2000's I got a hair up my butt to upgrade our 27" Sony Trinitron to 30 something like XBR or XBR-Squared units that were non-working on Craigslist. Nearly all the TV's just needed new caps, but I upgraded to a flat screen, but my father still watches TV for about four hours of TV a day on one of those 36" Sony's I re-capped

It sure pays to look for free stuff on craigslist...

Martin

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

A pair of 35AHr gelled electrolyte batteries. Now I can take my electric wheelchair (upthread) for a spin (without an extension cord)!

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

This time , I wanted to try one of my oldest tricks when we used to repair very exhausted and old TVs . A heat gun and full re-soldering without changing any parts whatsoever

I wouldn't be surprised if a folk can rejuvenate a bunch of Uniden Bearcat scanners with that trick...

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

NIB: Windows Server 2003 Enterprise (x64) w/25 client licenses

Looks like yet another (antique) guest OS I'll be able to support!

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Nine (who the hell buys just 9?) Cisco LAP1142N's w/ midspan injectors and wall warts.

I'll have to reflash to eliminate the controller...

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I got a summons from the county for jury duty, I completed the form and went to the courthouse to turn it in. On the way out, I noticed a few computers stacked by the door....I got curious and went back to ask about them. After the clerk got a hold of the boss, they gave me the thumbs up to take them....and said they had plenty more in another building that she'd run by commission about me clearing out.

The tall black tower was the one I was really after. Aweome enlight case with some S603 era supermicro xeon board. Has 1x 2.4ghz CPU and 1gb RAM. The SCA backplane is missing the caddies, but its a supermicro enclosure/backplane, it won't be hard to find them. It works. Yes, I have the sides for it, they're shown below.

The smaller black case is some C2D, works. Both the Aopens are P4 era junk. One works, the other I didn't test.









Yea, a microfiche reader....they made me take it...lol

[ratdude747]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Nice Score... The jury isn't out on that one. Don't you love how supermicro's just appear out of nowhere?

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Nice Score... The jury isn't out on that one. Don't you love how supermicro's just appear out of nowhere?

I know, right? I can't wait to see what they've got stashed in the other building they told me about. It's an old timer SM board.....but SM all the same!

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I got a summons from the county for jury duty, I completed the form and went to the courthouse to turn it in. On the way out, I noticed a few computers stacked by the door....I got curious and went back to ask about them. After the clerk got a hold of the boss, they gave me the thumbs up to take them....and said they had plenty more in another building that she'd run by commission about me clearing out.

NICE!

I love it when things like that pop-up when/where you least expect them, especially if it's something you're actually always looking for or don't mind getting.

The tall black tower was the one I was really after. Aweome enlight case with some S603 era supermicro xeon board. Has 1x 2.4ghz CPU and 1gb RAM. The SCA backplane is missing the caddies, but its a supermicro enclosure/backplane, it won't be hard to find them. It works. Yes, I have the sides for it, they're shown below.

LOL, I guess those older Supermicro motherboards can sense that you have a knack for them, so they literally come to you.

The smaller black case is some C2D, works. Both the Aopens are P4 era junk. One works, the other I didn't test.

I like the beige cases for those Aopens, though.

Also, AOpen being now dead/defunct, you can actually sometimes get a pretty decent $$ sum on eBay for motherboards like that (same goes for SOYO, DFI, and a few others).

Yea, a microfiche reader....they made me take it...lol

Haha. I guess you had to take one for the team. But hey, I would have done it too if they gave me those computers. Beggars can't be choosers.

NIB: Windows Server 2003 Enterprise (x64) w/25 client licenses

Looks like yet another (antique) guest OS I'll be able to support!

Neat! A stash of legacy OSes like that is always a good idea.

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

maybe you can mod the microfich unit as a soldering inspection device - move the illumination to above.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I played around with the server a little. I test fitted a Supermicro SAS tray (something I have an abundance of) with the SCSI SCA cage, it fits like a glove....even the activity LED optics lined up. Apparently Supermicro made these universal to fit all their removable storage cages (smart move IMO). These are a dime a dozen on ebay. SCA HDD's are also something I have an abundance of, including a few 147gb 15k RPM...so I tossed win7 on it...boy this thing is slow!! The motherboard is a X5DPL-8GM, supports 400/533FSB, 32-bit only.

It also has a HP DAT40 tape drive with a massive 20gb native storage, 40gb if I compress. I have a DAT tape around here somewhere....but finding it is another story. It's SCSI as well. The SCA cage is controlled by an adaptec 2120s RAID controller, the tape drive is using the onboard controller.

[ratdude747]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

^Funny, My X5DAL's aren't that slow... then again, they have twin 3.2GHz Xeon Gallatins, 8GB of RAM, and the nicest AGP cards I can get my hands on.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

^Funny, My X5DAL's aren't that slow... then again, they have twin 3.2GHz Xeon Gallatins, 8GB of RAM, and the nicest AGP cards I can get my hands on.

1x 2.4/400 is SLOOOOOWWWW! I did up it to 4gb, its what was quick at hand. ATI rageXL 8mb is miserable!!

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

1x 2.4/400 is SLOOOOOWWWW! I did up it to 4gb, its what was quick at hand. ATI rageXL 8mb is miserable!!

Maybe try one of those newer nVidia GPUs on simple PCI? (like FX5500 or even 6200) Those have a bit better performance (even tho the former is based on the GF4 core but with DX9 support)

[ratdude747]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

ATI rageXL 8mb is miserable!!

That's why it's a server and not a workstation

Just sayin'...

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

That's why it's a server and not a workstation

Just sayin'...

Orly? I'd have never guessed! I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for some super cool eATX board to stuff in that case.

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I played around with the server a little... so I tossed win7 on it...boy this thing is slow!! The motherboard is a X5DPL-8GM, supports 400/533FSB, 32-bit only.

*shrug* No surprise there.

Windows 7 tends to run slow on anything from the P4 era, especially when you do it on a slow integrated GPU. Extra brownie points if Windows 7 doesn't have a driver for it and forces some generic crap driver on there - then you get the ultimate slowness.

ATI rageXL 8mb is miserable!!

There's a reason ATI named it Rage - that's how you're supposed to feel when using the PC.

Funny, though, considering my Pentium 3 HP Netserver E-800 also uses that same IGP. It's so slow that the Windows XP login raster change takes a good 10 seconds before starting to render the desktop, lol. Even the Intel i810 chipset in my HP Pavilion 8756c with it's 1 MB onboard VRAM is faster than that (though limited to only 24-bit colors ).

Maybe try one of those newer nVidia GPUs on simple PCI? (like FX5500 or even 6200) Those have a bit better performance (even tho the former is based on the GF4 core but with DX9 support)

TBH, even a GeForce MX4000 PCI would be worlds better than the ATI Rage (I've seen quite a few MX4000 on eBay for the cheap, and sometimes they have dual VGA outputs too!). The GeForce FX5200 PCI and Radeon 9250 PCI would also be okay. Really anything is better than ATI Rage - even an old Matrox. But for Windows 7, you would want to go with something DX9c compatible. So that means either GF 6200, 8400 GS, or X1300 if you want PCI (I found an 8400 GS PCI for cheap a few months back, and actually it's a really good performer for the PCI bus - better than a Radeon X1300, which is also one of the better cards you can get for PCI.)

[ratdude747]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

*shrug* No surprise there.

Windows 7 tends to run slow on anything from the P4 era...

My X6DA8-G2 runs windows 7 like a champ (posting from it actually). Then again, it's running twin 3.8GHz Irwindales (HT enabled) with 16GB of DDR2 and a 9800GT EE GPU, so no, not a fair comparison. It is technically netburst though...

[ratdude747]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Orly? I'd have never guessed! I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for some super cool eATX board to stuff in that case.

I'm sure you will find something... we always do... and when we don't, they find us

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

My X6DA8-G2 runs windows 7 like a champ

I have the X6DAI-G2 running a pair of paxvilles with 16gb ram, it runs S2K12 R1 beautiful. The DA8 is the same as the DAI, the DA8 has onboard SCSI though.....which would be a stellar upgrade for this case, since it would maintain its existing SCSI setup. I have a spare pair of paxvilles here...

I wouldn't give that much for one....but yea, they're around.
https://www.ebay.com/itm//322654555499

I'm sure you will find something... we always do... and when we don't, they find us

We have the supermicro touch...