best cheap/free scores 1.1

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Yesterday my wife came back from the Salvation Army store and said there was a ton of computer stuff there...

I now approve of your wife and marriage.

She can put up with me and scouts PC junk...I've got it made!!

yeah! damn! im so jealous of topcat! his wife actually looks out for him and helps him look out for stuff he's into! i'll be damned if i ever find a gf much less a wife like that! the two of u, mr and mrs topcat, are definitely a match made in heaven!

I was told it was a doctor in Rolla, MO that had a passion for computers.....and had a massive hoard. His wife is making him downsize it, there's rumors of more stuff to come. I'll be checking regularly. Its going from one hoarder to another!

yeah i pity that guy! its the tale of two cities paraphrased... its the tale of two wives there! one wife looks out for computer stuff for her other half while the other asks the husband to get rid of the excess computer stuff. i'd bet that doctor computer guy must be so jealous of topcat too!

thats why if i ever get a gf or wife, she has to be like that. always looking out for her other half's interests as well. if not, whats the point?! might as well be single then!

If it were a LION or a NICAD, I'd agree.....not horribly worried about a SLA though....When those are bad, they just won't come back to life. I'm not this dumb!

I guess you never worked with / charged Lead-Acid batteries

well i feel sheepish! i thought the battery in UPS-es was always lithium, so yeah i ass-u-med that one really bad! so i guess i never really worked with UPS-es before much less lead acid batteries...

Some people rescue cats & dogs....I rescue computers... My wife tells me I treat them like 'little people'...and they don't poop on the rug!

yea, computers poop in the earth and make a stink in the ground if they end up in the landfill, so rescuing computers is a good way to reduce land pollution! glad your wife can see the merits of what her husband does!! she truly appreciates u for what u do!

damn hard to find someone these days who can truly appreciate u for who and what u are these days. the dating scene these days are chock full of naive controlling people or control freaks trying to turn someone into their ideal version of the "perfect partner". bah! *spits*

[dmill89]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

well i feel sheepish! i thought the battery in UPS-es was always lithium, so yeah i ass-u-med that one really bad! so i guess i never really worked with UPS-es before much less lead acid batteries...

There are a few newer UPSs out that use lithium batteries but the vast majority (and anything over a couple years old) use lead-acid since it is (comparatively) cheap and size/weight generally aren't much of a concern for UPSs.

The biggest problem with this isn't the batteries themselves, but the cheap-ass charging circuits most UPSs (especially consumer grade ones) have, where there is no "smart" circuitry to detect the battery is fully charged and stop charging, but instead just a constant low-current "float" charge that eventually "cooks" the lead-acid batteries.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

The biggest problem with this isn't the batteries themselves, but the cheap-ass charging circuits most UPSs (especially consumer grade ones) have, where there is no "smart" circuitry to detect the battery is fully charged and stop charging, but instead just a constant low-current "float" charge that eventually "cooks" the lead-acid batteries.

Yup...constant charged SLA will boil out in ~3yrs in consumer grade UPS's. The dead ringer (no pun intended) is when you shake the battery and it sounds like a rattlesnake rattle or the sides have bulged out and you have to surgically remove it from the UPS.

[ratdude747]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Now we get to box 2; and the pick of the litter!! I stumbled over this box twice and paid no attention to it until after I had already checked out.....and then it dawned on me....that box said Supermicro on it.....so I went back and opened the flaps to see this!



I looked at it no further....I closed it back up and walked it up to the counter.

...and here's what I got!! Brand new in box Supermicro SC-742 eATX chassis!! It's of course in perfect condition and BEIGE!! Anything NIB beige is getting nearly impossible to find, then add in it's a Supermicro! MEGA SCORE!!!



Bag still sealed.


Taken out of the bag for the first time.....it even still smelled new!

HDD's are internally mounted, it doesn't have the hotswap backplane...but I can live with that.


Case internals, shiny & new!!


FSP 300w PSU....that's nothing to get overly excited about.....but is an ok PSU....I'll still check the caps before use.



Not a bad haul. The case was $25. Total, I spent $70 bucks.

How'd I miss that???

Mega score indeed! Looks to be an older version of my Irwindale's case (which also isn't hot swap despite having the front door (or did until a PO busted the hinge).

You could get in a lot of trouble with that...

[TechGeek]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Po?

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Made a lowball offer on a Voodoo3500 w/ the breakout dongle, in untested condition (seller said no AGP system to test it). Seller accepted lowball. Card arrived today and in very clean condition (looks to not have a lot of hours on it). Works flawless....abused it for a good hour beating on Q3A bots.

How'd I miss that???

Mega score indeed! Looks to be an older version of my Irwindale's case (which also isn't hot swap despite having the front door (or did until a PO busted the hinge).

You could get in a lot of trouble with that...

This one was the score of the year for sure (and it's only March)!! It's unassigned, I have nothing mind mind for it....but it will definitely get built. It deserves a very fine board & build!

[ratdude747]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Po?

Previous owner. Who you blame for all the problems you have with a used device or vehicle.

[TechGeek]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Nice

[MikeRWK]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Scored an xbox one s controller from an abandoned apartment. The tenant jumped rent and moved to the other side of the country.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

yeah! damn! im so jealous of topcat! his wife actually looks out for him and helps him look out for stuff he's into! i'll be damned if i ever find a gf much less a wife like that! the two of u, mr and mrs topcat, are definitely a match made in heaven!

You don't know the half of it.... She enables my hoarding!! When she came home telling me about this, she brought proof with her in the form of these:

Belkin monitor stand & keyboard tray with slides, new in box...and 2x new in box wireless Logitech keyboard/mouse combos.



She thought this would go good with one of my 'retro rigs'...


She knows better than to buy corded keyboards unless they're beige 'clickies'....and yes, she knows the difference....I have trained her well!

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

ugh... i think thats enuff of that before i snap and go postal with jealousy and envy... where do u find a woman like that?!

[@udiophile99]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I don’t know your opinion on this, but I do think that the 80s and the 2000s had the most beautiful relics, including the legendary IBM PS2/77 486 DX2

[ratdude747]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

You don't know the half of it.... She enables my hoarding!! When she came home telling me about this, she brought proof with her in the form of these:

Belkin monitor stand & keyboard tray with slides, new in box...and 2x new in box wireless Logitech keyboard/mouse combos.



She thought this would go good with one of my 'retro rigs'...


She knows better than to buy corded keyboards unless they're beige 'clickies'....and yes, she knows the difference....I have trained her well!

I wish mine was that well trained... although she did get me a APC 750 UPS NOS for $2 once:

Wifey almost made a cheap score: NOS APC Smart UPS 750 for "less than $5". Great, except the batteries are beyond dead 17 years young! I was honestly looking more for a rackmount one anyway...

Ended up being a much better score than I initially gave her credit for... Sure, it took two new batteries to make it work, but it worked out. Better than nothing... or a tiny one-battery unit, like the one that powers my fiber gateway (didn't even come with a battery from the ISP, but I added one as part of my setup)

[brethin]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

My wife is too busy getting capacitor discharged and recharged, and cooking and cleaning, last thing she has time for is my hobbys thank God.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

My HP DV7-1214ea's AMD board has finally gave up - after 6 months of reflow, it has crashed during Windows booting up.

Anyways, I managed to bring it back on track with some updated components - instead of a Turion X2 ZM-82, it now sports a Core 2 Duo P7450, and the puny HD3470 has been replaced with a 9600M GT 512MB. Basically, what I've done is score a free board + HSF (no CPU or RAM) from a DV7-1080es.

It's been running nice so far. I might upgrade the CPU as high as I can locally find (probably a T9400 is my best bet, or a P8700) and hopefully replace the long since dead battery.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Figured I should put up some pics of some retro I've been sent for free.




Luckytech P5MVP3, including an AMD K6-2 500MHz CPU and 384MB of RAM. Recapped it a few days ago wih Rubycon MBZ and two 1800uF Sanyo WGs for the RAM regulator.



Sound Blaster Live PCI CT4830



WDC 40GB HDD, soon to be split into two 20GB partitions for Win98 and games.

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Some people rescue cats & dogs....I rescue computers... My wife tells me I treat them like 'little people'...and they don't poop on the rug!

That's a hilarious comment!

I guess you could say I probably kind of do that too... at least with my CRT monitors for sure! ... even moreso if anyone tries to point something out on the screen and touches the glass with their finger - that insta-triggers me, almost to the point of wanting to say "getcha dirty hands off of her!"

Figured I should put up some pics of some retro I've been sent for free.

Yay, pictures!

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1617829941

Luckytech P5MVP3, including an AMD K6-2 500MHz CPU and 384MB of RAM. Recapped it a few days ago wih Rubycon MBZ and two 1800uF Sanyo WGs for the RAM regulator.

Nice, nice!

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1617829981

Sound Blaster Live PCI CT4830

Oh, I have one of those too. Got it a while back for like $1. I don't think I ever used it in anything too long, though. Good oldschool audio card, though.

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1617830054

WDC 40GB HDD, soon to be split into two 20GB partitions for Win98 and games.

I like those drives quite a bit. I have a number of these in the 80GB SATA flavor (though also one exactly like yours in IDE too.) They run very quiet and have good performance - especially for an older Windows 98 rig. Only thing I don't like about those drives is they seem not to like frequent power-cycling. Already killed one in my parents' PC after it got regular (almost daily) power-cycling for a few years. And I have another one installed in another general-purpose PC that I also power-cycle a lot and use frequently in the summer. That one is also starting to die in the same way - sometimes takes many seconds to calibrate, re-calibrates several times, and/or mis-reports temperature to absurdly-high values on a cold boot. I've already checked (and re-tinned) its head amp contacts on the PCB with fresh leaded solder, so that's not the issue. I think these HDDs just don't like frequent power-cycling. But leave them running constantly On, and they seem to last for many many years.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Today's haul, from a local printing business.....The ink printers went straight to the recycle pile.....



Here's the rest:

1x custom build in a nice coolermaster case
1x HP slimline with an AM2 Athlon 5200 in it
1x Full ATX Nobilis systems
4x uATX Nobilis systems
3x ~10yr old laptops
2x Pentium classic era laptops
The usual pile of keyboards/mice (also went to the recycle pile)

The pile...





This one was the pick of the litter.....the coolermaster case custom build.

Included a Phenom 920 quadcore, 8gb RAM, GTX470, and Delta 750w PSU.



POST/BIOS screen:


Booted from Hiren's & tested. No issues.



CPU-Z



Then there's that full ATX Nobilis system, I've never seen one in a full ATX case....so I thought it worthy of an honorable mention. I've got gazillions of these in hte uATX form factor.





C2Q Q6600, 4gb RAM, and some Sapphire GPU in some Intel board....



That's about as far as I got with it all...

[MikeRWK]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I got a milwaukee m18 grinder and battery from a guy living out of a motel for $20. From what I can tell he took a broken grinder and a good battery from wherever he works. The grinder needs a service field aka commutator.

I charged the m18 the only way I could and it's still holding strong and according to the battery when I check how many charges its had its only been charged 231 times.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Won a retro lot comprised of:

- ASUS ISA-486SV2 w/ Intel 486-DX2
- PC Chips M577 (VIA MVP3) w/ Cyrix M II
- S3 Trio 3D 2X 4MB "C368 Ver 1.0"
- miro Video 22SD-PCI / S3 Trio 64v+ 2MB
- Winfast A6200TD 128MB 128bit AGP (isn't this one of the few 6200s that can unlock into a 6600?)

All untested, so boy this is gonna be awesome retro fun for me, especially the 486 mobo.