best cheap/free scores 1.1

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Advantage of beige boxes is you have far more flexibility in deciding what to put IN them! No oddball form factors for power supplies, motherboards, special disk sleds, drive brackets, etc.

Yup! Also helps keep retro rigs period-specific or making modern innards look very 'sleeper'.

...and there's plenty more of them around here not seen in the pics...

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

We used to ship containers full of CRTs to a group that would dismantle them and reclaim precious metals, etc.

In my case these were literally smuggled and reselled. I feel pity for the poor man who actually bought it and brought it back. At least the seller knew me and took my word that a HDD shouldn't have those holes for granted.

And for the newest free score today, a near mint condition HP DV7-1451nr. Turion ZM82, HD3200 iGPU, no RAM and HDD, but it had one cage tho.

No biggie if it doesn't work, I'll just go ahead and order a Intel board w/ heatsink, hopefully the discrete GPU (9600M GT or GS) flavour. 9600s seem to work really sweet for me, in nearly 4 laptops (two of them being updated variants branded as GT130M) as opposed to HD3450/70 variants, but might have just been bad juju.

Also have been keeping touch with my friend, and he said he hasn't found the heatsink for that board. He did show me the board. It clearly looks like it has been reflowed once, but he tested it with a spare HSF from an Intel counterpart board and it POST'd perfectly. Since it's free, I don't really mind, since the most usual thing that goes bad (and that's not even regularily, unlike nVidia iGPs) is the Radeon IGP (HD4250) on these. He initially said he first reflowed the GPU (though I've done that little mistake too with a DV6-2125so) and it didn't work. I told him to try and reflow the IGP too (shared my DV6 experience with him) and he said it worked after doing that.
Mobo in question is a NEW75 LA-5911P (my non-discrete board is 5912P) and came out from a Acer 5552G.

Yup! Also helps keep retro rigs period-specific or making modern innards look very 'sleeper'.

...and there's plenty more of them around here not seen in the pics...

Sleepers are the most interesting machines. I still have a IBM Netvista 6578 case here that I modified w/ a TFX sized PSU (ghetto mounted since the original was SFX, should get a cheap SFX unit though, just for the sake of it) and a Samsung DVD-RW that just needs a good mobo+CPU combo. I'm quite undecided if I should either drop a HD4850 + Phenom X3 or a 1st gen i3 550 + GTX650Ti.

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Yup! Also helps keep retro rigs period-specific or making modern innards look very 'sleeper'.

...and there's plenty more of them around here not seen in the pics...

We don't see many beige boxes getting "recycled". But, then again, most of the big donors are corporate and tend to go with a bazillion copies of some "mainstream" model.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

We don't see many beige boxes getting "recycled". But, then again, most of the big donors are corporate and tend to go with a bazillion copies of some "mainstream" model.

Their time has pretty well passed and most are long gone/recycled by now. The survivors tend not to be sent to recycling facilities.

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Their time has pretty well passed and most are long gone/recycled by now. The survivors tend not to be sent to recycling facilities.

We see them, from time to time. But, as there is usually very little inside that can be salvaged to produce a "modern" machine (small disks, old/slow CPUs, ISA busses, etc.) they just go straight to the scrap heap (dismantled and recycled as scrap). Keep in mind, our goal is to put (relatively) "new" machines into the hands of "average joes".

It's the same logic that causes servers and big iron to be scrapped, regardless of their age/capability. Or, test equipment!

<shrug> With only so many volunteer hours available, everything boils down to "priororities".

[Lots of folks want us to "put it aside for them" (to purchase) but, doing so takes up lots of space and then they will typically assume it's just sitting there, waiting for THEM to get around to dropping by to look at it. Then, they may NOT want the item(s) -- which means we've stored it (at some inconvenience to ourselves) when we could have just scrapped it!

Oh, and, of course, "they" will only want to pay "scrap" prices for anything they DO buy (tell me, again, why we should set things aside for these folks??!)

[You should have head the complaints from one of the guys who used to buy servers at those prices AFTER I started pulling the RAM -- he'd bought a big, heavy box with the "easy money" already removed! Gee, did he think WE couldn't do what HE was doing??]

(sigh)

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Scored another free lappy, it's an Acer Aspire 5750G.

Has a i3 2330M, HM65 iGP + Geforce GT540M 2GB, 4GB of DDR3 and a 7200RPM 320GB Seagate HDD.

Already ordered a i7 2670QM since it has support for it (might need to update the BIOS tho) and will repaste both with MX4 while at it.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Another free score.

Toshiba L650-1QJ. Has i3-380M, HM55 chipset + Radeon HD5650 1GB. Had no HDD and RAM, battery was bad and GPU needed a reflow. Now it works with 4GB RAM and a 250GB Seagate HDD, running Windows 10 Enterprise (skinned as Win2k Pro)

[TechGeek]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

APC Smart-UPS 1000 (SUA1000), had a bad RBC6 pack which I swapped with one from our cabin that was a brand new pack pulled from another SUA1000 which was dead. Put it into service with an APCUPSD server, killed the beeper, eliminated the shutdown grace period, set an auto-return level of 15% with a 2 minute return delay, set the low transfer level to 100V and the high transfer level to 130V, and probably some additional stuff by going over the serial console.

Samsung ML-3750ND, untested.

2x Industrial grade serial cables, untested.

2-system PS/2 KVM switch, untested.

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I got two spools of almost 500 ft of 12 AWG, 300V, stranded wire from work. Don't ask why - our workplace just likes being wasteful sometimes and throws away perfectly usable stuff in the bin. In this case, the spools had maybe 10-20 feet used from each, so they are still nearly full. But our install crew will not use them again, due to being opened and used. So they got chucked in the trash... and I volunteered to roll out the trash bins that day.
Got a bunch of other nuts, bolts, and other stuff like that (Conduit couplers? Anyone? Going once? Twice? No? Ok, I'm taking them. )

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Another good pick from the school haul (was discovered at the bottom of a tote filled with keyboards & mice). Dell Optiplex 990 USFF. i7-2600, 16gb RAM. Spinning HDD bad. Changed it to a SSD, added a low profile Quadro K420 2gb GPU & Audigy FX sound card, took that one to the house.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I got an tip for a free Toshiba L555, might take it. i5 430M, HD4650, 4GB of RAM, battery in good condition, only missing thing is a HDD.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Scored an ASUS X5DAF for free. Had a bad Radeon IGP, now works fine. Also, has anyone ever heard of Apple HDDs rebranded as Lenovo? The one I got with this laptop sure is.

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Another pair of Dell 3007's that appear to work. But, no stands (WTF??!). No place to USE them so I'll have to store them as future spares. (I already have 4 in use) Of course, I'm running out of places to store monitors (I think I have ten 24" and ten 21" already set aside) so these might end up boxed and stored under a bed! <frown>

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

bah pity i dont live near u. i could use some of those dell 30 inchers cos im not willing to pay the huge price tag dell asks for them new. and then international shipping for those would cost hundreds. shame & waste. pity...

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Another pair of Dell 3007's that appear to work. But, no stands (WTF??!). No place to USE them so I'll have to store them as future spares. (I already have 4 in use) Of course, I'm running out of places to store monitors (I think I have ten 24" and ten 21" already set aside) so these might end up boxed and stored under a bed! <frown>

Stands are usually missing because many used aftermarket stands/wall mounts, etc....seen that a lot, especially with larger screens. Monitors breed at night here as well....unfortunately its usually the smaller ones.

FWIW I've got 5x 3011's in my fleet.

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Stands are usually missing because many used aftermarket stands/wall mounts, etc....seen that a lot, especially with larger screens.

Of course! The four 3007's I have in use have their stands stored out in the garage while each is mounted on an articulated arm. This gives me access to the space immediately below the monitor without having to lift the screen higher to accommodate having another device straddling the standard base.

But, NOT having the stands feels like I've been "cheated" -- despite the fact that the monitors were free! <frown> (Cake/Edith)

Monitors breed at night here as well....unfortunately its usually the smaller ones.

FWIW I've got 5x 3011's in my fleet.

Storing the 30's is tedious -- hence the idea of stashing them under a bed. The other monitors are stored much more accessibly -- so I can pull one down on a moments notice if I need a spare monitor for a headless box. I've since permanently installed a spare monitor with an extra long cable so I can route the cable-end to any machine that needs it (though this only works in the room in which it is located -- I could use a much longer cable to reach throughout the house but then the machine (and its keyboard) would be distant from the actual display!).

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

bah pity i dont live near u. i could use some of those dell 30 inchers cos im not willing to pay the huge price tag dell asks for them new. and then international shipping for those would cost hundreds. shame & waste. pity...

They won't be "wasted". I have two workstations each with a pair of 30's -- which is just about perfect (except for the "seam" located directly in front of me) for the uses, there (desktop publishing and software development).

The third and fourth workstations share (using the "input select" capability of the monitors) a set of four 24's as that's more useful for the CAD/EDA work for which they are used.

I found three 30's to be too "wide" (about 80" from left to right) when placed at the optimal viewing distance for my vision -- feels like I'm watching a tennis match as I have to keep swiveling my head from one extreme to the other. By comparison, the four 24's (three wide, two high) aren't as much of a strain (about 62").

Six 24's doesn't work for similar reasons -- looking up and to the left right to catch the far corners of the displays. Hence the 1-2-1 configuration -- I can use the high monitor for displaying "notes" while the set of three low monitors display schematic, PCB and related documents (datasheets, software listings, etc.).

(six 21's is acceptable but the "main" screens end up smaller)

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

But, NOT having the stands feels like I've been "cheated" -- despite the fact that the monitors were free! <frown> (Cake/Edith)

The stands showed up, today, so now I'll have to figure out where to store THOSE (I'm leaving the monitors under the bed as they are already wrapped up, nicely)

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Any comments on "3D" (with glasses) displays on laptops? I've a business, here, looking to donate several and I'm not sure if they're worth the effort...

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

no,
i had(still have) some of those, they work well with crt's that run at 120Hz or better - preferably interlaced.
if the refresh is any lower they flicker like a bastard and give you a headache.

lcd's other than some "gaming" ones are 60Hz regardless of the settings you use.
you probably cant use them anyway, they usually tap the vsync from the video-signal, on laptops the external is independant of the primary