best cheap/free scores 1.1

[Scenic]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

weeee....

found a mini ITX mainboard today



it works fine... after i've set the ClearCMOS jumper from "Clear" back to "Normal"... *DOH*
even the battery is still good =D

Via C3 1GHz (passive cooling)
1x DDR RAM slot
everything onboard (LAN, Sound, Graphics, ...)

only thing i'm gonna do to it is get rid of those OST caps.. they're EVERYWHERE

[acstech]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

Hey, if none of 'em are bulged, I'd just run it. Most of the new Biostar boards have OST caps in non-critical positions, and I don't hear anyone complaining about it.

I'd replace the VRM output side ones and forget the rest.

Good find! Was it in the dumpster or elsewhere?

[Hugh Chardon]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

w00t!

[momaka]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

It's only a 15 watt processor (lol!), don't worry about the caps.
I see a Realtec chip, is that the Audio (AC'97)? Also, what are the specs of the onboard video?
Great find, by the way .

[NxB]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

I have one of those collecting dust at work. I think its even slower. And you know how the old saying goes, don't fix it if its not broken.

[acstech]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

The old saying is: "If it aint broke, fix it until it is!"

[Scenic]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

came out of a dumpster.
i guess someone tossed it because it didn't work... (because of the clear cmos jumper lol!)

momaka: the realtek chip is the onboard LAN (Realtek RTL8100C 10/100MBit)
onboard graphics: VIA/S3 UniChrome IGP (16/32/64MB shared mem.)
nice thing: that graphics card supports hardware mpeg2 decoding

specs:
http://cypert.com.tw/index.php?optio...d=53&Itemid=71
http://www.zyang.net/mainboard/c3vcm6.htm

allthough theres no manufacturer printed on it, it seems like it's made by ECS.
has OST and G-Luxon caps .. so i guess that's right lol..

it works fine so far, but sometimes it just beeps...
beep code says that there are RAM problems.. wiggling the RAM around a bit fixes this usually.. gotta clean the RAM slot..(or replace the OST 6,3V 1000uF caps around the slot if cleaning doesn't help)

something else i've found today: Asus GeForce 8600GT (512MB PCIe)
ripped it out of a pc that seems to have been hit by something... case totally warped,, board cracked.. dirty as hell.. no idea what the hell happened to this thing.. o.O

haven't had the time to test it, but it seems to be fine (from looking at it).
no bulging caps, no ripped off SMD components, no GPU core damage..

oh and i got my first Pentium Pro
200MHz 256KB Cache... man.. this thing's HUGE
some bent pins.. but nothing too serious (all pins still there..)
got no board though :/

[Scenic]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

god damn 10minute edit limit *grrr*

[Harvey]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

Is that inductor (or whatever the black box marked 1R2 is) supposed to be on at that angle?

[Scenic]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

seems like it..

[momaka]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

Great, more excelent finds .

Harvey - if you look closely, you will see that there are two differently marked boxes on the PCB, and one is at an angle the way the inductor is.

Scenic - did you find the 8600GT and Pentium Pro in the same case? Because that would explain why the case was in the condition it was; maybe someone got mad that their new 8600GT didn't working with their old mobo so they started bashing it. Perhaps the same guy/woman who threw out the ITX board you found .
-------------
Back to the ITX board, that VIA/S3 UniChrome is pretty good for onboard graphics actually. Most onboard graphics of the same era motherboards just plain suck. For example, I got a HP Pavilion 8756C last week, and the motherboard has some onboard video with 11MB shared video ram. Manual says, truecolor (24-bit) only avaliable at 640x480 and lower resolutions . Can't even play CS 1.6 on that video card, and that's a really old game. No AGP either .
But hey, it was a free computer so I shouldn't complain. Here are the specs by the way:
Asus MEW-AM socket 370 motherboard (all Rubycons), PIII 850MHz, 256MB PC100 RAM, 30GB Deskstar, 4x4x24 CDRW, 48x LG CD-Rom, Floppy, NIC, Modem, and best of all a 188 Watt Lite-On PSU (Rubys and Pannys inside + Panaflo fan ). All it needs now is a nice PCI VGA card and a chipset cooler, just because I don't like bare chipsets.
And I forgot to mention that it came with some food particles and lots of coffee dripps on it too . Haven't tested it yet, though I spent a good time cleaning it after I found it. Intake vent was a wall of dust. All plastics went in the basement sink for washing.
...
Basically, I found this computer in the same townhouse community/development that I found the previous computer. The place is not too far away from my house and they have about 10 or so dumpsters that I now check regularly. I guess you just have to find the right place for these things.

[NxB]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

If you wiggle the memory and it works then either you have bad contact in the socket ( can try to clean it) or you have cold/cracked solder on the pins going to the mainboard.

[blinkdt]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

Two Dell Latitudes tipped against the side of a trash can. They had loose CPUs . . . quarter turn of a screwdriver and I loaded up Vista on both. Oddly, they each had a next day on site warranty good for an additional three years that the owner never chose to exercise.

[pentium]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

Wow, what a haul today

-various repinnable connectors and switches so I can now run 8 different serial console sessions from one terminal
-IBM Thinkpad 770x (no hard drive or drive caddy. charging gives a blinking amber battery light)
-IBM Thinkpad 30T (no ram, no hard drive or caddy, and no battery, but it has an XP pro serial)
-Powerbook G3 (no keyboard, no hard drive or caddy and the CPU cage cover is missing but it does have the MPEG2 decoder card)
-citoh serial terminal
-Rennisance full length ISA video card
-AST RamPage AT ISA memory card
-ST-512 with controller card
-DOS 6.22
-DOS 5 (on 5 1/4" floppy)
-Panasonic KX-4400 portable laser printer (AWESOME!)
-200GB Ultrium 4601 DLT drive
-empty Mac Pro box to carry it all in

I say it was a really good haul

[pentium]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

Went back again today and got three more AHA-2940U scsi cards, a 75Mhz Overdrive and a rackmount ATX case.
I was going to get more but security came around and shooed me away, even though the guy who puts this stuff out does not mind people digging through it so long as you don't leave a mess or cut open the wrapped up pallets of stuff (which sucks as there was a G5 Mac and a blueberry G3 Mac).

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

Then you look security in the eye and say:
"I was given permission by the person that pays your boss."

[Toasty]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

Problem is if you make it a hassle, they could shut it down for everyone.

Get a letter/note showing permission.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

You've never had to bullshit your way through military security have you.
The security guy at the dumpster is at the bottom of the hill and shit rolls down.
If you establish that you are [or what you are doing is] higher up the hill and interfering may cause 'something' to roll then he will step aside to avoid getting splattered.
-
If you're REAL good, you can get him to help load the car too.

[Gianni]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

At the and I had time to build the case for the LCD Panel I found in February, here few pics.
As I was not able to find the same aluminum material like the first one I build , this one has a little worst aspect. I had to add a third "leg" on the pedestal otherwise it fall backwards.

Ciao
Gianni

[EGuevarae]

Re: Your Best Dumpster Finds

At the and I had time to build the case for the LCD Panel I found in February, here few pics.
As I was not able to find the same aluminum material like the first one I build , this one has a little worst aspect. I had to add a third "leg" on the pedestal otherwise it fall backwards.

Ciao
Gianni

Cool design. I might try something similar on a naked NEC 1830 I have.