best cheap/free scores 1.1

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Arrrgggghhhhh! Where the hell did all these frigging cables come from???! :<

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Arrrgggghhhhh! Where the hell did all these frigging cables come from???! :<

They breed at night. I've got a pile of them in the middle of the office floor....which every morning seems taller.

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

They breed at night. I've got a pile of them in the middle of the office floor....which every morning seems taller.

I have my garage walls lined with these 6x10.5x18" boxes (see pic). The boxes having cables inside include:

• VGA
• DP
• DVI
• SCSI-1
• SCSI-2
• SCSI-3
• SCSI-VHCI
• MORPH-1
• MORPH-2
• MORPH-3
• MORPH-V
• SUN
• SUN-N
• SUN-W
• THRU
• ODD CABLES
• KVM CABLES
• KVM LONG
• KVM EXTENSION
• RJ45 SHORT
• RJ45
• RJ45 LONG
• COAX
• DB9
• DB25
• DB25 LONG
• PRINTER
• MISC TELECOM
• A/V
• VIDEO
• MICKEY
• POWER
• MISC POWER
• HP EXTENDER

And that doesn't count the "little cables" that don't merit large boxes (e.g., audio, USB, etc.).

So, 34 of these boxes would bean effective box 18" deep, 32" wide and >66" tall!

When the temperature drops below 100 (well below!), I need to make a point of sorting through the mess out there and ridding myself of excess!

I suspect that what happens is you stumble on a cord, someplace, and figure "I'll put this aside in case I need it". And, as long as you can cram it into whatever box you've selected, it's forgotten. YOU NEVER MAKE A MENTAL NOTE TO STOP COLLECTING "type X" CORDS!

Then, someday (today!), you go to cram six DVI cables that you pulled off the 3 monitors you've retired and find they don't fit in the "DVI" box! :<

[The really annoying thing is that I have "17 ft patch cord" on my shopping list for tomorrow... <frown>]

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I dont see any HP EVC's on that list..... THose are kinda scarce these days....a few odd things non-HP use them. I have many boxes full of any/all {insert your video cable type here} and power cords....

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I dont see any HP EVC's on that list..... THose are kinda scarce these days....a few odd things non-HP use them. I have many boxes full of any/all {insert your video cable type here} and power cords....

I only have cables for things that I own (or, "owned until recently"). There's a lot of oddball cables in the "Sun" box as well as oddball video cables in the "VIDEO" and "A/V" boxes (e.g., 13W3, 3BNC, 4BNC, etc.).

Some have been harder to deal with. E.g., I have a couple of "shoeboxes" full of short "adapter" cables (HDMI to DVI, DP to VGA, DP to DVI, DMS59 to 2VGA (or 2DVI or DVI+VGA). But, recently acquired several DP to DVI cables (6 ft). So, do they go in the "DP" box? The "DVI" box? The "adapters" box? <frown>

I had a similar problem with the SCSI cables that changed connectors from one end to the other. If it starts out as a DB25 and transitions to an HD50, do I put it with the HD50 SCSI cables? Or, the "SCSI-1" cables? Or, somewhere else??

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Got an free ASUS A8V. strangely NONE of the caps are bulged.

what caps are on it? i have two of those and on ebay, i've seen some a8v boards use osts, ltecs or panny fj caps. if none are bulged, im gonna have to assume those are jap caps most likely.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

what caps are on it? i have two of those and on ebay, i've seen some a8v boards use osts, ltecs or panny fj caps. if none are bulged, im gonna have to assume those are jap caps most likely.

Panny in EVERY corner of the board on the A8V. I looked hard enough and couldn't spot any other cap brand.

BTW I was talking about the PSU caps Even though it's a L&C, it seems it was pretty lightly used. I'll probably recap it with OSTs and treat it as a low end 250-300W unit. It looks decent enough to power a 939 machine

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Some have been harder to deal with. E.g., I have a couple of "shoeboxes" full of short "adapter" cables (HDMI to DVI, DP to VGA, DP to DVI, DMS59 to 2VGA (or 2DVI or DVI+VGA). But, recently acquired several DP to DVI cables (6 ft). So, do they go in the "DP" box? The "DVI" box? The "adapters" box? <frown>

My vote goes to the 'adapter box', since a cable of that nature essentially eliminates the need for the adapter...hence its 'built-in' if you will, and would be more logically sought in the adapter box if in a situation where that style cable would be needed.

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

My vote goes to the 'adapter box', since a cable of that nature essentially eliminates the need for the adapter...hence its 'built-in' if you will, and would be more logically sought in the adapter box if in a situation where that style cable would be needed.

That was my "rational" conclusion.

But, the practical aspects of that screw me cuz the "adapter box" was sized for "adapters" -- typically small/short cables (12 inches or less). Cramming several 6 ft "cables" in there would require moving to a larger box. (did I mention the walls of the garage are already filled with such boxes??)

So, rather than stuff them in some OTHER (cable!) box, I opted to replace some DP-to-DVI adapters that were feeding DVI-to-DVI cables with these DP to DVI cables. Change the problem to fit the solution!

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

A pair of 1100W redundant platinum supplies for my T420 (pulled from an R720 that was scrapped)
A pair of Z800 power supplies (no sign of the Z800's, though -- sigh)
3 Z800 disk sleds
1 Z800 5" disk bay filler
12 8G PC3-10600
shitload of plastic DIMM "fillers" (keep dust out of unpopulated slots??)
18' CAT56 patch cord (I was looking for 17' <frown>)

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Found a mystery box in my office closet that had a bunch of old 'kangaroo' drives & 4x radeon 7000 GPU's in it. I have no earthly idea where these came from. One of the GPU's is posting this message in a BP6 system running W2K/FF12.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I was given (took in trade, sold client a newer/faster one) a mint condition Inspiron 1300 laptop with charger & Dell case. Has a single core celeron @ 1.5GHz and 512mb RAM in it. I got the max CPU (Pentium-M 780) @ 2.26GHz and 2gb RAM for it for $20, which is probably about all the system is worth....but given its pristine condition, batt is good, and it works...what the hell.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I am beginning to think I'm starting to drown in PS3s

Just scored a PS3 phat CECHG04, complete with HDMI, AC cable and a controller for $19.26 (80RON).

Also got a EpoX EP-9NPA7I for $1.20. nForce 4x chipset, Skt939.

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

how many you got?
i have about 7 - i think.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

5 phats and a slim.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I was given a HP slimline s7620n about 2 years ago by a local shop. It was full of dead roaches, case scratched to hell, and from the house of a heavy smoker.....it sat in the garage since I got it, I never messed with it...and just kinda forgot about it. I came across it yesterday and figured I'd open it up and take the memory, CPU and HDD out of it and trash the rest.....well the 'fixer' in me said lets see what works and what doesnt. I cracked the ACBEL PSU open, sure enough, full of bad l-tec caps.... I hotwashed the motherboard & PSU only at that point, so if it can't be fixed, it'll go in the trash and no more time wasted. I recapped the PSU, that brought the PS and motherboard back to life.... It has a 1.8GHz 533fsb core solo CPU in it and 2gb ram. It had a 250gb HDD in it. The RAM was maxed out, I tried up'ing it to 4gb (even after a BIOS update), and it wouldn't run....atleast with the modules I tried. I found the max CPU it could run in my junkpile, which was a 2.33 C2D 667FSB....

Now for the case....the paint was so scratched, there was no fixing it....so why not waste a sunday reviving a completely worthless system. I took a scotchbrite pad and scuffed it out, removing all the deep scratches. I then took a can of Rustoleum 'Hammered Steel' rattlecan paint and shot it. All things considered, it came out great!









The only pieces I didn't paint, they were in good shape and easily separated from the rest of the front.



More junk



Tesitng outside the system. Win7 runs decent on this.

This post created from it, running FF56esr


I haven't reassembled it all yet....I need to let the paint cure out a couple days....Worthless system and not worth a thread of it's own....but an honorable mention here.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Looks more like a system made for XP or 32-bit Windows 7. Especially today, where I can see an out-of-RAM condition happening with everyday applications! Yikes!

Especially NT 6x and any Windows version based on NT 6x, which means Windows 10 as well!

Seriously, with only 2 GB of RAM, you're better off with a Linux distro using XFCE or Mate!

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Looks more like a system made for XP or 32-bit Windows 7.

It originally came with vista x86, I removed the COA prior to painting. It won't run x64, it only supports Yonah core CPU's, they're x86 only.... W7 x86 runs fine on it.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Ok, strange day......but first things first....I reassembled the s7620n.





The hammered steel paint made for a nice finish on a turd like this....now, here's what made today strange....I made my rounds to the local haunts where I get stuff....and lo & behold, this systems twin brother....



Pretty good color match!! The hammered look just gives it character.


...and some monitors along with the HP slimline & old Dell P4...

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

It originally came with vista x86, I removed the COA prior to painting. It won't run x64, it only supports Yonah core CPU's, they're x86 only.... W7 x86 runs fine on it.

So I suspect EMT64 was laser-cut, LOL! (Unless it was based on a Core 1 Duo)