best cheap/free scores 1.1

[BigTroll]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Bingo! (At least for the fact that you have a Q9650)
Back in 2016, I think I got a Q9450 or something like that and even for that one, based what I saw for test reports, it would embarrass an OC'ed Q6600, especially the batch of Q6600 that I received!
My Q6600 OTOH, was apparently pathetic, even for 65nm!

And it's not the first time I had bad luck with 65nm Intel, my E2180 M0 (Conroe) (65nm) acts more like it's a 90nm chip, even a meh 2.9 Ghz being a major challenge! And 3.0 Ghz apparently making it degrade before my eyes, despite that should have been for the majority, a walk in the park! Prime95 caught it flunking at 3.0 Ghz, IIRC, at 5 hours, which is actually an odd time for Prime95 to fail, as Prime95, in my experience, usually would fail at 1 hour or 2 hours, if I got a duddy chip!

I dunno why Prime95 even took that long for it to error out with air con air on it. Usually, if it acts odd, it means a heat issue, in my experience. (Like Prime95 once failing at 23 hours with my 2003 Barton 3000+ AQZFA, LOL. (I think that was in 2007 or 2006) That was clearly an overheat, because the sun was coming in the window.)

It was very odd, at 3.0 Ghz, because I ran Prime95 and then for no good reason, it failed in a shorter time, I saw it randomly fail at only 1 hour or similar! And it also did the same dang kind of thing at 2.92 Ghz, WTF!

kinda mirrors my experience I bought some wierd ABIT board maybe it was a 965 chipset and a E2180 and had no problem getting it to a stable 3.2, prime95 with a zalman 9700NT and it never went about 55c, loved that chip.

next in 2010 I bought a used q9450 on ebay and put it on a gigabyte P35 DS3L and i couldn't get it stable at 3.2 needed alot of voltage, so I made a trade deal with a friend, got a better P45 UD3P gigabyte board and had no problem doing 3.2 undervolted, I still have the system but haven't powered it up in about 3 years, it was running TINY XP, Vista 64 and iDeneb OSX 10.5.8 it was a TRI-BOOT system.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

kinda mirrors my experience I bought some wierd ABIT board maybe it was a 965 chipset and a E2180 and had no problem getting it to a stable 3.2, prime95 with a zalman 9700NT and it never went about 55c, loved that chip.

next in 2010 I bought a used q9450 on ebay and put it on a gigabyte P35 DS3L and i couldn't get it stable at 3.2 needed alot of voltage, so I made a trade deal with a friend, got a better P45 UD3P gigabyte board and had no problem doing 3.2 undervolted, I still have the system but haven't powered it up in about 3 years, it was running TINY XP, Vista 64 and iDeneb OSX 10.5.8 it was a TRI-BOOT system.

My Q6600 needed 1.39 V at 3.2 for Linpack to pass, but Prime95 on blend mode, failed with a bus error-related WHEA BSOD! So, it was time to crank up the FSB termination voltage! But that wasn't enough either for the bus errors, I also needed a lot of cold air or else, I would get a bus error-related WHEA BSOD when just Skyping or similar!

The bus error story starts like this on one day in 2014, IIRC:

I was at my bed and when Prime95 in blend mode was running, suddenly, Windows said "***STOP:0x00000124" and rebooted itself within some seconds. I also remembered saying "Shit!" out of my mouth.
Then on reboot, checked the event log and saw Windows say "bus/interconnect error".

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

That is a rotten shame. 4:3 LCD's in that size & resolution are RARE! Whoever did that deserves a fist to the nose for that.

I know!
I was so excited when I was cleaning it, as I thought about setting it up as monitor for my main rig (NOTE: this is probably one of the RARE times I consider replacing CRTs on my desk with an LCD.)
Then I decided to plug in before really investing time cleaning it up... and sure enough, when the backlights came on... RIP.

By the way, I forgot to mention, but when I dug out that monitor from the dumpster, I also found a PC in there too - a beat up Micron case from the late Pentium 4 (32-bit) era. Nothing to write home about. However, there was one bit of hardware in there that was definitely worthwhile saving: an nVidia GeForce4 TI 4600 video card.

If you don't know, those now command close to $100 on the used market because... no idea? Sure it's a rare AGP video card now, but hardly the best. A Radeon 9600 is usually both cheaper and more powerful... and not that much newer, for those who still want to stick with "retro" AGP hardware.

In any case, saving that TI 4600 was still satisfying. It was filthy, though, just like the rest of the PC (spilled coffee everywhere on it, all kinds of warehouse dust and dirt, and who knows what else.) The TI 4600 had a burned track near the AGP connector. Perhaps this happened because of the spilled coffee? Either way, I gave the card a full wash with soap and hot water, then let air dry for a few days. Yesterday, I fixed that burned track, as nothing else measured wrong on the card. So I plugged it in my test PC and was pleasantly surprised to add a _working_ TI 4600 to my video card collection (FYI, I already have 2 other TI 4600 cards, but one has the artifacts, and the other has a ripped RAM chip with damaged tracks on the PCB.)

On top of that, I also got a Radeon X1950 AGP (another quite high-end card) last week for cheap. This is now the best AGP card I have in my collection. Previously, it was an x800 GTO with factory-unlocked and enabled shaders. I just got to sit down now and build some oldschool PCs with these.

Rarely it hovers over 60. It usually hovers in the 56-57 range, and the MB around 50. Youtube though, it goes berserk - I recorded temps in the 70 range.


Much better than a Packard Bell that had a 8400M GS. If you think that my Acer would have a short lifespan with the 610M, that Packard Bell trash of a laptop (in every aspect) was getting hot from just turning on.

Yeah, I know there were some really crap HS designs back then (and still today.)

My Compaq Presario V6000 (an HP Pavilion dV6000 in disguise) was in a similar boat, even with its lowly-low 2 GHz single core Turion CPU. At stock settings, it barely managed to make the NB/GPU stay under 60C while idling. At load - forget it. Luckily, I found that the Turion CPU I had lended itself nicely to under-volting. Downlocked it a bit from 2 GHz to 1.6 GHz and dropped the voltage from 1.2V stock to 0.975V! As a result, peak power draw dropped by more than 10 Watts, and the CPU and GPU rarely go over 60-62C (even on the hottest of summer days) after an hour-long session of YouTube (480p.. and this was some years back, so those results are probably irrelevant now.) Not great results by any means, but much better than how I got it stock. This is the thread for that laptop, by the way:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=64440

It was a freebie laptop I found on trash day near my nehighborhood. Still have it and it still works. Though after opening it again to try an Athlon X2 CPU, the wireless no longer works. I suspect the NB or SB is starting to go, and that's causing the wireless issues. Ah well, who cares, I do have a better laptop now - a Pavilion dV6000... Oh wait, that is the same thing! The dV6000 I got is the Intel version with Intel chipset, though... so perhaps I won't have issues with it. We will see. Still need to find an HDD caddy for that one to make it work.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Yeah, I know there were some really crap HS designs back then (and still today.)

My Compaq Presario V6000 (an HP Pavilion dV6000 in disguise) was in a similar boat, even with its lowly-low 2 GHz single core Turion CPU. At stock settings, it barely managed to make the NB/GPU stay under 60C while idling. At load - forget it. Luckily, I found that the Turion CPU I had lended itself nicely to under-volting. Downlocked it a bit from 2 GHz to 1.6 GHz and dropped the voltage from 1.2V stock to 0.975V! As a result, peak power draw dropped by more than 10 Watts, and the CPU and GPU rarely go over 60-62C (even on the hottest of summer days) after an hour-long session of YouTube (480p.. and this was some years back, so those results are probably irrelevant now.) Not great results by any means, but much better than how I got it stock. This is the thread for that laptop, by the way:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=64440

It was a freebie laptop I found on trash day near my nehighborhood. Still have it and it still works. Though after opening it again to try an Athlon X2 CPU, the wireless no longer works. I suspect the NB or SB is starting to go, and that's causing the wireless issues. Ah well, who cares, I do have a better laptop now - a Pavilion dV6000... Oh wait, that is the same thing! The dV6000 I got is the Intel version with Intel chipset, though... so perhaps I won't have issues with it. We will see. Still need to find an HDD caddy for that one to make it work.

I've seen that thread. HP wasn't the best either, but at least my NX7400 (made from 7300 parts lol) doesn't need a big heatsink to cool a T5500, since it runs on a integrated Intel GPU. Not the best but at least it's reasonably good.

Wish I can get a dv5 or dv7, whichever is ATI based. nVidia chipsets are horribly hot, although their redeeming quality seems to be that VLC can play 1080p60 rendered videos just fine (which I really didn't expect for such a old GPU). Nearly similar to my Aspire 6530, but in a small package, which makes it easy to carry.

[ratdude747]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I've seen that thread. HP wasn't the best either, but at least my NX7400 (made from 7300 parts lol) doesn't need a big heatsink to cool a T5500, since it runs on a integrated Intel GPU. Not the best but at least it's reasonably good.

Wish I can get a dv5 or dv7, whichever is ATI based. nVidia chipsets are horribly hot, although their redeeming quality seems to be that VLC can play 1080p60 rendered videos just fine (which I really didn't expect for such a old GPU). Nearly similar to my Aspire 6530, but in a small package, which makes it easy to carry.

I haven't had good luck with anything HP of that era. There's a reason all of my HP laptops are parted out. Seems that they didn't transition to ROHS very well... so many BGA issues.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I haven't had good luck with anything HP of that era. There's a reason all of my HP laptops are parted out. Seems that they didn't transition to ROHS very well... so many BGA issues.

I've had my fair share of success with Acers bearing nVidia chipsets, it can't be THAT bad at this point.

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

i have had an acer running 24/7 for several years - the main problem with acer is flimsy cases that crack if you flex them.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I haven't had good luck with anything HP of that era. There's a reason all of my HP laptops are parted out. Seems that they didn't transition to ROHS very well... so many BGA issues.

Does that include 2009, with their Athlon II-based CQ61 as well?
Because the one that I worked on, was shit!

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Scored a cheap Dell Inspiron 1520. C2D T5450, 2GB RAM, 320GB WD Scorpio and a 128MB (or 256MB, idk yet) Geforce 8600M GT.

Haven't been able to turn it on though, because it seems the HP charger's center pin isn't long enough to be detected at all.

[ratdude747]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Does that include 2009, with their Athlon II-based CQ61 as well?
Because the one that I worked on, was shit!

Something new enough to have windows 7 was in the dud pile :p

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Got a crappy beat up 15" LCD monitor from my workplace's dumpster and also a black KeyTronic PS/2 rubber dome keyboard.

The keyboard needs to be taken apart and washed/cleaned up (its quite grimy.) I did 5 of these in a box of random PC and cable garbage I got last spring. Nice keyboards, actually. But have very short cord and the small Backspace key layout that I'm not a huge fan of. Otherwise pretty decent.

As for the 15" LCD... it was _almost_ busted. There was a huge stash of CPVC and metal conduit on top of it. Somehow, it wasn't damaged, though (I still wish the 21" 4:3 survived like that! ) Might wonder why even pick up a screen this small. But actually, it proved to be useful right away. Had to go at work and connect off-site to a server with no monitor. Did that with this monitor, and it worked perfectly. Being only a 15", it was super easy to carry around with me. So when I have time, I'll clean it up and maybe even recap it. For a test monitor, this thing is neat - easy to put or tuck anywhere.

Funny thing is, it came with the ticker "industrial" power cord attached to it - the type typically found on UPSs.

I haven't had good luck with anything HP of that era.

Same.
And even in the XP era, I think Dells were just better all-around. I'm not a Dell fanboy by any means, but generally I've had pretty good luck with their stuff. Now, when it comes to their modern day stuff (as in, anything made past 2013-2015)... I'll pass - especially those touchscreen Inspirons. So flimsy! Even the modern Precisions are.
Strangely enough, Lenovo seem to be worse, and they used to be pretty good back in the day - especially when they were still IBM and/or IBM design under the Lenovo name.

Does that include 2009, with their Athlon II-based CQ61 as well?
Because the one that I worked on, was shit!

Eh, those were hit-or-miss, depending on the model.
I got one for my family back in 2008-2009 or so. Not sure if it was a CQ61 or 62. But it was an Athlon II -based system with Radeon chipsets (HD4350 iGPU). I picked it based on the fact that it ran decently cool, even under heavy load (under 55C at all times.) In particular, its fan moved a decent amount of air without sounding like a jet engine, which many thinner and more expensive laptops did at the time.

So this laptop ran pretty smooth and worked for 5-6 years with no issue through a good amount of daily use. After that, I think either the iGPU or the SB supposedly went out (wasn't there when it happened.) Was brought to a repair shop where they supposedly didn't do anything... though I'm not so sure about that, as Windows didn't recognize the installation as genuine. So possibly it got a motherboard swap. Regardless, I cleaned the laptop HS after that (it was packed with dust) and cleaned it up a bit. Still runs to this day, though doesn't see much use.

Haven't been able to turn it on though, because it seems the HP charger's center pin isn't long enough to be detected at all.

Shouldn't matter for a Dell. They should still turn on. Just may not charge the battery and possibly work in limited performance mode, due to not being able to see the adapter power rating. But it should turn on. If not... well, you got a GF 8600 GPU in there. Need I suggest more?

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

My rounds consisted of 3x C2D era towers, 3x LCD monitors, and the pick of the litter a beige 19" hitachi CRT monitor with a flat Triniton tube in working condition. It runs 1600x1200 so nicely!

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Shouldn't matter for a Dell. They should still turn on. Just may not charge the battery and possibly work in limited performance mode, due to not being able to see the adapter power rating. But it should turn on. If not... well, you got a GF 8600 GPU in there. Need I suggest more?

Yeah, I ended up gutting it. One of the "MAXIM" power chips went silently FUBAR (without any visible signs, other than that it heats up to insane amounts) and I don't have any replacements.

As for the 8600, not sure if I have any use for it. It's a strange type of MXM2 that you don't find in any other laptops. Oh well, at least I got a TSSTCorp TS-L632 DVD-RW and a 100% healthy WD3200BEVT-75ZCT1, as well as a Intel Centrino 4965AGN card and a C2D T5450.

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Another Z800 -- I think that's number six or seven? Dual CPU but I haven't fired it up yet to inventory its resources (though I see 4T of disk and a Q4000).

Eight 500G drives -- but, in my haste to get home, I neglected to notice that they're IDE. <frown> I'll return them in the morning (I don't think I have any PATA machines -- other than the Portable 386 -- anymore).

Six single arm monitor stands that should free up some space under my monitors for some additional appliances.

And, a small 24-port Gbe switch to replace one of the 16 port switches in the office (amazing how quickly you can run out of ports!). I can swap the 16-port for the 8-port in my bedroom.

Time to string more cable! <frown>

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Eight 500G drives -- but, in my haste to get home, I neglected to notice that they're IDE. <frown> I'll return them in the morning (I don't think I have any PATA machines -- other than the Portable 386 -- anymore).

those are valuable - worth a lot more than SATA.
xbox media center guys buy them off ebay.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

yea 500gb was the second highest capacity available for ide. only seagate sold 750gb in ide flavour. for everyone else (hitachi,wd, maxtor), 500gb was their highest.

whats the brand and model anyway of those u have, george? i might be tempted to take a few but not all 8 if they are wd caviar blue (not se or se16) or if they are maxtor or hitachi p7k500 series. i cant take all 8 due to the heavy weight and the high international shipping cost of shipping so many heavy hard drives.

used working 500gb ide drives typically fetch around 20-30 bucks on ebay. not a bad price to earn some coin.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

My rounds consisted of 3x C2D era towers, 3x LCD monitors, and the pick of the litter a beige 19" hitachi CRT monitor with a flat Triniton tube in working condition. It runs 1600x1200 so nicely!

A couple honorable mentions from this haul.....of course (for Momaka) the 19" (18"viewable) Hitachi CM771. I had to reflow some solder on the CRT interface board, and after that, solid as a rock!







Now for one of the systems....goofy ass HP 500-424 AMD based tower....



...but look closer:


Yea, mini ITX with an external PSU in this big ass case!



The shop that gave it to me told me the ext PSU was toast, it was not included....I happen to have one the same voltage (19.5v) from some junk HP laptop. After that it fired right off. It's an AMD A8-6410 quad core APU, 8gb RAM, and a 3.5" 2TB hdd in it. Win10 install. The little devil on my shoulder is thinking junk the big ass case and put this in a tiny ITX case with a SSD instead. Its not a bad little system except it boggles my mind why they put it in that huge case....

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

yea 500gb was the second highest capacity available for ide. only seagate sold 750gb in ide flavour. for everyone else (hitachi,wd, maxtor), 500gb was their highest.

whats the brand and model anyway of those u have, george? i might be tempted to take a few but not all 8 if they are wd caviar blue (not se or se16) or if they are maxtor or hitachi p7k500 series. i cant take all 8 due to the heavy weight and the high international shipping cost of shipping so many heavy hard drives.

used working 500gb ide drives typically fetch around 20-30 bucks on ebay. not a bad price to earn some coin.

They were (I already dropped them off) likely Hitachi as they came out of an Apple storage array (each mounted in individual carriers to allow the drives to be hot-plugged).

I don't get involved in sales. I just rescue stuff that I can use that isn't likely to be actively "sold" (i.e., may have value but no one interested in actually testing it and putting it up for sale). So, I'm not taking "money" out of anyone's pocket. E.g., the PATA, SAS and (various flavor) SCSI drives have no direct use (in refurbed computers) so they're mine -- as long as I ensure the data never gets loose! The same is true of the larger SATA drives (takes too long to wipe them before installing in a refurb machine).

I think the transaction cost of an individual sale is too high (not enough "staff" to process all of the things that *might* be saleable) to bother with small items -- unless you can make one listing and use it for 20 - 200 of <whatever> to sell.

E.g., the monitor stands are probably worth $20-50, each. But, they're bulky to pack and ship, etc. So, they're effectively "scrap metal" (pennies per pound?)

Likewise, the Z800's are big/heavy beasts. And, nowhere near "current". So, there's no effort spent on trying to sell them when there are i5's and i7's for which we can more readily command a dollar!

Instead, these things are seen as good "comps" to give to someone like me -- to offset the time I spend and the expertise I bring....

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

A couple honorable mentions from this haul.....of course (for Momaka) the 19" (18"viewable) Hitachi CM771. I had to reflow some solder on the CRT interface board, and after that, solid as a rock!

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1576025815

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1576025815

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1576025815

That. Is. NICE!

Hitachi really did make some great CRT monitors.

Are you sure it's a Trinitron tube, though? Because I have the bigger version of that: the CM814 (21"), which uses shadow mask. Nevertheless, I easily think that is my best CRT monitor - yes, I consider it even better than the 24" widescreen Sony's. It's just much sharper with deeper and more vivid color. The big Sony CRTs tend to not have good contrast/color, even on max settings (and if maxed out, their focus goes a little softer.)

Anyways, thank you for saving it!

I don't think you'll be disappointed with it.

**EDIT**
Did a search on that model. It IS a shadow mask (or "ErgoFlat", as Hitachi calls it.) Link:
http://www.hitachidisplays.com/products/19_771.htm

And you get all of the "pro" settings/menus, just like the big 21" pro monitors. That is a real gem!
Try setting the contrast fairly high, with brightness just enough to make the monitor barely visible in a completely dark room (might need to adjust the individual color temperature too, for tint-free image.) Then try watching a movie with lots of moving lights or something similar. I think you will like what you see.

Now for one of the systems....goofy ass HP 500-424 AMD based tower....

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1576025815

...but look closer:
https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1576025815

Yea, mini ITX with an external PSU in this big ass case!

Ah, it's an HP. That explains everything.

Pretty decent specs, though, especially for a multimedia/HTPC box. The R5 graphics will even run some games (on low-med settings) as new as a 3-4 years ago. Probably nothing "modern" or "AAA-title" though.

Yeah, probably a good idea to move the mobo to a mini-ITX case and maybe use this HP case for something bigger (mATX??), if it fits. Provided you don't run into issues with proprietary USB and front pannel pinouts. I know that's Dell's area of expertise - makes re-using Dell cases a PITA sometimes.

Its not a bad little system except it boggles my mind why they put it in that huge case....

That's pretty much how most modern desktop "mini-towers" look like inside nowadays. Usually laptop-like motherboards in a cheap light, but fairly large (for their size) tin-can case. PSUs: often proprietary SFF crap or external. And if you do get an optical drive, it's almost always a slim drive. No one cares to put full-size (or good quality) components in desktop anymore, unless you get a "gaming tower".

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

On topic of laptops - momaka, how's a HP G6065EM? I just found one at my friend's workplace - it's missing a LCD,DVD-RW, HDD etc. Do you think it's worth ressurecting? Or should I look for something else (like Acer, Packard Bell, Dell or Toshiba)