best cheap/free scores 1.1

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

the card slots and IO plate were on opposite sides of the board. Imagine my friends surprise when he was going to do a drop in MB upgrade!, he had to do a case also!

Ok, a lot of Dell's were like that....and yea, I wouldn't have put that kind of effort into a case that would look butchered....no way to do that mod cleanly.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

damn i could use one of those 17 inchers too! are they universal ac compatible for 240v land?

I'll check....if they are and you want one, cover whatever the shipping is and you're welcome to one.

[ratdude747]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Ok, a lot of Dell's were like that....and yea, I wouldn't have put that kind of effort into a case that would look butchered....no way to do that mod cleanly.

The term you're looking for is BTX, which is the intel chassis standards those were made to. That's also why the CPU is front and center on the board; this location was part of the standard as an improvement in cooling performance.

What killed off BTX is that ATX, unlike AT, still worked for the I/O of the day and the aftermarket didn't buy into the form factor... and the fact that right aftr BTX came out in the mid 2000's, Intel abandoned ship on Netburst and BTX's thermal enhancements weren't as critical. Had Tejas/Jayhawk come to frutition, perhaps we'd be using BTX cases instead.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

The term you're looking for is BTX, which is the intel chassis standards those were made to. That's also why the CPU is front and center on the board; this location was part of the standard as an improvement in cooling performance.

What killed off BTX is that ATX, unlike AT, still worked for the I/O of the day and the aftermarket didn't buy into the form factor... and the fact that right aftr BTX came out in the mid 2000's, Intel abandoned ship on Netburst and BTX's thermal enhancements weren't as critical. Had Tejas/Jayhawk come to frutition, perhaps we'd be using BTX cases instead.

Yup....I remember them all too well, they were a funny shaped board compared to an ATX or uATX.... Made a lot of green recapping them....but I just don't remember any XPS's following this form-factor....but apparently there was. I do remember an XPS system that would always roast a coil and 2x 2700uF MFZ Rubycon caps next to it, I saw tons of them for repair ~10yrs ago....but I don't remember the model number or the form factor...I never saw one in its case, I only saw the motherboard and didn't pay much attention to the orientation of the IO area....

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

damn i could use one of those 17 inchers too! are they universal ac compatible for 240v land?

Both the 17" are 110~240 input voltage....

[lti]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

This one needed a little adjusting....it was a little out of focus.

I briefly had a Dell monitor with the same front panel as that one, but a different board inside. The service manual I found for it didn't have an LG CRT in the parts list either (it had Chunghwa and Philips tubes instead). It had burn-in, and I didn't think it had a very good picture (although it might have just needed the focus adjusted).

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

One of my EDU customers gave me 3x Dell CRT monitors, 1x 15" and 2x 17"..... Momaka, I thought of you as I loaded these in my truck, all 3 work.

LOL, that's so funny.
Guess I'm one of the few crazy "CRT freaks" still left around here.

Great save, BTW!

A decade ago, when CRT monitors were being discarded left and right, I didn't even bother to look at anything less than a 19". But recently, it's actually very hard to find any CRT monitors at all. The few that I found here locally, people are asking crazy prices for them. Not that I'm looking to buy any... but the more time passes, the more I like my CRTs. Come to think of it, one NGO where I volunteered a long time ago, I did the entire CRT to LCD conversion in that office by myself. Some 30-odd 17" CRTs went to scrap/junk removal after this. IT boss there at the time knew I liked CRTs, so he had no problems with me taking as many as I wanted. But I was worried back then that I didn't have the space. So the only CRT I manage to save out of there was the current 21" Sony Multiscan E540 that I'm posting from right now. There were 2 of them there, though. And the better one (mine has a deep scratch on the screen) got discarded too when I was away for a few weekends. Bummer! At the same time, they also had a bunch of 19" and 17" Trinitrons with perfect pictures, along with A TON of 17" Dell's like the one you posted.

On that note, I think yours (at least the 17" ones) are model M781, if I'm not mistaken. I always wondered about who made those. I have a M782 (dumpster-picked 5 years ago), which is also a 17", but has a flat screen and is made by Samsung. Overall, that one is pretty nice. But so are the M781's. I think some of them suffered from slight focus issues (probably not adjusted properly at the factory), but they did have very good colors. In fact, those 781's had controls for the individual color gains too, if I remember correctly. All I remember is I played with one before getting it retired for that NGO place, and I remember I could set the colors to such absurdly high levels that the picture would loose focus slightly. Unlike a over-saturated LCD picture, CRTs still look good with over-saturated colors.

Ah well, only wish I saved more of them, but who would've thought these things would have any value today.

All that's left is cleanup and rehome them at some point. There seems to be a weird little niche of fellas that like these for retro games.

Yeah, CRTs are awesome for games - both retro and new ones. I'm currently using a 19" Dell M990, and it has the best color I have seen in a monitor - ever! On a full black screen in a fully dark room, you can't even tell the CRT is on - zero light emissions from the tube. And on a full white screen, it's blinding to look at.

That said, DigitalFoundry (which I guess is some kind of a big name out there in the tech gizmo world?? ) even did a video fairly on that matter, basically explaining what I've been saying for years in regards to CRTs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8BVTHxc4LM

damn i could use one of those 17 inchers too! are they universal ac compatible for 240v land?

Yup, most CRTs from the 90's and pretty much all from the 2000's are universal. They usually pack a big 400V input cap inside and use flyback converter for the PSU - same thing as phone chargers these days.

Today's barn find (in a goat barn, and it smells like goats) is a Dell XPS 625. Very interesting aluminum case, and despite the dust & smell, its in very good condition.

That's a very interesting and cool find. But the part about the smell almost had me in tears laughing

I guess this would be a perfect case for someone who lives in the city but is from the country-side and misses that "country-side smell".

(Side note: my grandmother used to have a chicken coup and pig pen very long time ago. I remember the smell of both of these all too well. Never found it to be repugnant as a kid - just very particular about that place and time.)

It's a really interesting case, uniquely lighted but not overdone. 750W PSU. System works, but a pretty worthless system (Athlon2 5600+ @ 2.9GHz)....

For modern games and stuff... yeah, it kind of is. But for a casual basic browser PC, it should still handle OK with Windows 7. Probably best to put a better motherboard in it, though, given how cool the case looks.

but it appears to be a standard full ATX with removable IO shield.

Interesting.
For a second, I was convinced this would be a BTX system. But it does indeed appear to be ATX - just with the motherboard flipped 180 degrees so that the ports are on the bottom and expansion connectors on the top. HP used to do that A LOT. I don't like it a whole lot, though, as it makes cable management a bit more messy. (Not that I am a neat freak when it comes to that - I'm sure many of you have seen my builds in the Post Your System thread. )

I've never seen one of these cases before....but very interesting.

Same.
I have seen the slightly newer "figure-8", and in fact re-built one for a colleague at another place I used to work at. He had the Front Panel connector re-wired, but not 100% correct, so nothing else was working besides the power button. I fixed that for him and got both the HDD and Power LED to function properly. Was a cool case, for sure.

That looks similar to one of mine,(XPS 720) a quad core 3ghz. nothing was standard on mine, a nonstandard power supply, and motherboard. The computer ran fine, if it started, but 1/2 of the time it would just blink the power light, until unplugged a while, then it would start fine again. because it was proprietary, I didn't bother looking for a board or power supply, as it wasn't worth spending money on.

Sounds like it probably just needed new caps in the power supply.
For those older PCs, Dell used pretty much Delta, LiteOn, and HiPro/Chicony almost exclusively for their PSUs... which means a lot of them were prone to getting bad caps at some point, as all of these manufacturers used Ltec, Teapo, OST, CapXon, and a few other crap cap brands that go bad over time.

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I'll check....if they are and you want one, cover whatever the shipping is and you're welcome to one.

Shipping a CRT to Singapore? I think Chaos might as well buy a plane ticket to the US, come with a big briefcase but no no luggage inside, and then bring the monitor in that on the way back.

While at it, maybe he can make it here for inauguration day too.

The term you're looking for is BTX, which is the intel chassis standards those were made to. That's also why the CPU is front and center on the board; this location was part of the standard as an improvement in cooling performance.

Improvement in cooling? IDK about that. Most BTX Dells from the socket 775 run terribly hot inside, since cool air is drawn from the front of the case, then after it passes through the CPU, the hot air is discarded inside the case and only the PSU fan moves that out of the case. Hence why so many cooked their caps.

Of course, some XPS and workstation series (like the T-series) did have several more system fans on those BTX designs, so they used those to move the hot air out of the case. But the mass-produced Optiplex and Dimension towers didn't and subsequently ran quite hot inside.

I'm actually experimenting with one such BTX system right now (Dimension E5150), where I flipped the CPU/system fan to draw air from inside the case and discard it out the front of the case. Still haven't been able to conclude if this works better or not, due to being winter here and my test room being too cool for thermal tests (about 64F / 18C only). But once summer hits and I get some nice 86F / 30C inside temps, that should tell if this was an improvement or not. I'm also planning to swap a Pentium D 830 mini-heater in that PC eventually, so that should definitely point out any weaknesses in the cooling (FYI, the Pentium D 830 is a 130 Watt TDP CPU that can eat up as much as 150 Watts on full load - as The Mask would say, "SSSSSMOKIN'!" )

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

(FYI, the Pentium D 830 is a 130 Watt TDP CPU that can eat up as much as 150 Watts on full load - as The Mask would say, "SSSSSMOKIN'!" )

I bet Bloomfield (first-gen Core i7) easily draws that much or close to that at stock. I can imagine 250W easily when OC'ed.

And my Radeon RX5600XT GPU draws about 150W easily at 1440p.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Scored a pair of Focusrite Scarlett Studio HP60 headphones and a Spacer 2.5" SATA to DVD adapter for my DV7-4040sb.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Just bought a "new" motherboard for my DV7-4040sb, which now registers as a DV7-4150eo. Board is pretty clean, and came with a spare Turion II P540 as well. Same revision as the original 4040sb. Only small dent it had was a missing cover for the touchpad connector, which I easily solved with a small piece of folded paper (very small) stuck in with some tweezers, just enough that it makes contact and doesn't destroy the socket.

Also made sure to repaste it (it had paste when I got it, and messily applied at that) with MX4, as well as drop in the Phenom II N620 in place of the P540.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Also of note, the old board is pretty much toast. And just for laughs, that godforsaken reflowed board actually worked last night after I used nothing else than a anti-wind lighter to reflow the IGP

[TechGeek]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

momaka: Nice post count.

[MikeRWK]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I pickup broken tvs and repair to sell. Picked up this 70" Sharp Aquos and found the fix here on the forum, turns out it needed a diode. It goes without saying I'm keeping this one.

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I almost got a really good deal on a bunch of video cards this week (keyword being almost ).

Every once in a while, I check various Craigslist sections just for fun (usually once or twice a week.) There was one post last week from a guy offering 3x GTX 570 video cards for $20. At first, I though it's per card, going by the tittle... which is still a pretty good deal! But then I checked the post and it said all three for $20 total. Unfortunately, by the time I had found this post, it was a few days old already. When I messaged the person, he said he just sold them the previous day. I guess he forgot to remove the post (but he did eventually.) So someone got a really nice deal there.

The above was one of the posts. The other was for a GTX 770... again, for $20. That one came a day later and I was going to message the person... but forgot. When I woke up the next day and through about sending the person a message, the post was pulled down (likely sold.)

So it looks like older high-end cards still sell pretty well.

momaka: Nice post count.

Oh, I don't know what you're talking about.

Picked up this 70" Sharp Aquos and found the fix here on the forum, turns out it needed a diode.

Nice!

[TechGeek]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Scored a Model M from eBay, PN 1391401. Won the auction at $49, came out to be about $76 shipped. Now let's hope that USPS doesn't mangle it.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Another cheap pickup (basically the cost of shipping). When I spotted it, I was more interested in the very vintage (circa 1992) Enlight AT full tower case.....that just happen to have a Micronic 486 DX2 system in it with a blistering DX2/50 (66 @ turbo speed) CPU, 16mb RAM (HUGE expensive amount in 1992), and a blazing ISA Trident 512k GPU in it.

Not sure what I'll do with the old 486 guts in it.....but there's a plan for the case... Anyway, just to induct it into my retro fleet:

Yea, that's style! The plastics are a tad yellowed.....next summer I'll have to make up some of my 'soup'.


I had to make a custom boot floppy for the 'troubleshooter', as this thing wouldn't even dream of booting from the optical. This process was a bit tricky; mainly extracting the files from the old ISO....but I got it.

Man, whatta system!!


I had to use a 1.44mb drive, I don't remember where my box of 1.2mb 5.25" floppies are....I haven't used them in decades.


Nifty blue ZIF-style socket3 that boasts being 'overdrive ready' under the CPU....I don't know if a DX4 100 would run in this....I don't feel motivated enough to spend $100 to find out (that's what a DX4 100 OD chip goes for).



The filter hasn't even disintegrated yet....quality!!


Even the Dallas RTC is still good, it keeps time & settings, surprisingly.... It has that 'been stored in a basement' musty smell to it, so it'll need cleaning and likely the PSU need a recapping (I haven't disassembled the PSU yet).....but this will make a fantastic retro system case for what I have in mind. I have a smaller AT style case I can transfer the 486 innards into, I can't waste that either.

[Per Hansson]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Even the Dallas RTC is still good, it keeps time & settings, surprisingly....

That's not a Dallas RTC, it is a BenchMark probably BQ3287 or similar
Yo ain't fooling me boy

Not sure what I'll do with the old 486 guts in it.....but there's a plan for the case...

Sell it on eBay and retire early?

[TechGeek]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

So it was built in 1992? The BIOS date on the motherboard is a couple of years older than that.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

That's not a Dallas RTC, it is a BenchMark probably BQ3287 or similar
Yo ain't fooling me boy

I just noticed that....I glanced and saw the 'clock'. Looks like someone has replaced it. Ok, so the battery didn't last 30 years!! Ya got me there.

Sell it on eBay and retire early?

Maybe someday....I wanna play with it a little first!