best cheap/free scores 1.1

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

It was on a stand, but it had 10mm by 10mm screw holes for mounting on a wall. I could have used those holes to fabricate a frame to hold a mini-ITX board (AMD 5350 chip) and a passive heat sink. I could have bought a pico-PSU to power it. Add a solid state drive and a postage-stamp laptop-style wifi module and antennae, and it would have been neat. Too bad I didn't think of that. But that's okay, I don't have the time or the creativity to do a project like that.

I was thinking of doing this with a old 22' VGA LCD I have and a Sandy Bridge-based Celeron B800 laptop I have (well, the motherboard of it and such) as there would be lots of space (the LCD's PSU is basically the size of a pico-PSU, and I'm not kidding.) but to do that I'd have to find a way to mount it over both the PSU and the driver board (both have shields so that would not be an issue) then drill several holes for the VGA cable and USB ports, which is easier said than done.

[ratdude747]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

I was given about a dozen Tripplite internet550u UPS's. Batteries are toast of course....but replacement batts are a whopping 9 bucks....I actually had a couple of the batts on hand, they're used in all kinds of things. Not bad!!

Where are you getting UPS batteries that cheap? If it's what I'm thinking of, batteries are $17 or so at cheapest, at least for the two used by my 550VA smartUPS, and the one used by the cyberpower UPS powering my fiber modem/gateway.

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Where are you getting UPS batteries that cheap? If it's what I'm thinking of, batteries are $17 or so at cheapest, at least for the two used by my 550VA smartUPS, and the one used by the cyberpower UPS powering my fiber modem/gateway.

They use a smaller battery -- 60VAHr instead of the 90VAHr that is more common for small UPSs. (I have a flashlight that uses the 60VAHr for its smaller size)

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

DTVpal DVR with a bad 2200u 10WVDC cap. I spent more time cleaning up the case (dirt/dust) than doing the repair!

And another Z800. I think that's number 5 (or 6)?

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Where are you getting UPS batteries that cheap? If it's what I'm thinking of, batteries are $17 or so at cheapest, at least for the two used by my 550VA smartUPS, and the one used by the cyberpower UPS powering my fiber modem/gateway.

Ebay had a 2-pack of them for $24 bucks shipped. If you subtract what the actual shipping would be, they're ~9 bucks.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/382670673634

They also have 3 and 4 packs for about 10 bucks more per pack....but for the time being, I only needed 2....I already had several on hand.

[ratdude747]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Ebay had a 2-pack of them for $24 bucks shipped. If you subtract what the actual shipping would be, they're ~9 bucks.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/382670673634

They also have 3 and 4 packs for about 10 bucks more per pack....but for the time being, I only needed 2....I already had several on hand.

Different form factor.

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Ebay had a 2-pack of them for $24 bucks shipped. If you subtract what the actual shipping would be, they're ~9 bucks.

Digikey's "free shipping on prepaid orders" used to be the best way to buy batteries "mail order". I'd buy them in ten-packs and, for the price of a first class stamp (to mail a check with the order), shipping was free.

They appear to have stopped that policy -- on batteries. Most other stuff they sell has negligible shipping costs so the perc isn't much of a benefit...

Now, I rescue the "four-pack" battery modules from larger UPSs and pull spares from within (only a few of my UPSs require the large 48V packs)

[Hondaman]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

My latest score is not exactly "free", but it is quite a score. It cost me less than $22, shipped right into my mailbox. An AUTOGRAPHED hardback copy of "The Sun Does Shine" by Anthony Ray Hinton. Pristine, ABSOLUTELY UNREAD condition. He spent 29 years on death row in Alabama before he was exonerated (his cell was right next to the execution chamber). 53 men and one woman walked past his cell, and every single one of them left in a hearse (Alabama's electric chair gave you 2000 volts for 60 seconds, definitely enough to kill you. Alabama has since switched to a lethal injection into a vein).

On the night of the crime, Anthony was locked inside his employer's building (with lots of witnesses), so he couldn't have done it. I hope the prosecutor, um, asks for lots of forgiveness for bringing charges. Otherwise, from my Christian viewpoint, he's going to BURN IN HELL FOR ETERNITY when he dies.

EDIT: Sure, it was nice to shake the hand of Reuben "Hurricane" Carter [Jan. 25, 2001], but this book is a tangible symbol of a man who overcame so much. Of course I ran out and got a "regular trade paperback" for actually reading the man's story. You don't open the binding and read an autographed copy, everybody knows that. You preserve it.

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Scored these free stuff from a friend who upgraded his PC:

Allied AL-8400BTX - recapped with Rubycons on the secondary!
ASUS P5QL Pro LGA775, P43
Core 2 Quad Q9400 w/ cooler
16GB Hama pendrive, Alcor based chipset
Sound Blaster Audigy SB0570

[kevin!]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Last Monday, at the recycling point I found a fujitsu esprimo with an i5 4460, 4GB of ram 1600 MHz DDR3 CL11, it came without the side cover and without a hard disk, I put a disc that I had around (a Seagate 7200.12 of 500GB), I put a Nvidia GT 1030, and it is perfect, it has not failed even once, and it has been 120h without shutting down.
I do not understand how someone can have gotten rid of that computer, but hey, now I have it with me and it is giving me very good service.
On Monday I will receive another module of 4GB 1600 MHz CL11 to expand it to 8GB.
And as a curiosity, the computer came with a Windows 10 Pro license xD.

[Topcat]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

^
Not bad!!

[TechGeek]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

A buttload of electronics stuff. About a 50/50 split of AT and ATX computers, all but 1 picked through and with missing parts. Also got VCRs, DVD players, etc. Have not inventoried.

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

something else you obviously got that i dont - a lot of storage space!!

[momaka]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Some of my latests *cheap* (-ish) scores :

Gigabyte Radeon HD5830 1GD5 for $10 - haven't tested, but was told it works, and likely it does.

Gigabyte Radeon HD6850 1GD5 for $12 shipped to my door. Artifacts, but issue turned out to be a shorted ceramic cap and not the GPU, so I got that up and running now. Originally, I got this GPU simply for the cooler, as that alone was worth the $12 (Windforce dual 70 mm fan cooler with 2 heatpipes, IIRC.)

And some free scores:

2 small LCD TVs. One is a 22"-26" (not sure) Samsung, and the other a 26"-32" Dynex.

The Samsung was a Craigslist score, with the owner saying the TV doesn't always turn on. Seemed like it would be a badcaps issue. But upon opening the TV, I didn't see any. Maybe one of the small startup caps, but we will see. Haven't tested it yet.

The Dynex was a dumpster find. No idea what's wrong with it (if anything). Came with aftermarket metal stand. No remote. No bad caps when I visually inspected the unit, but that doesn't mean anything. Like the Samsung, the caps are the usual cheap stuff, so they could still be bad and not showing it. It also got rained on very badly more than a few times. So it might not be salvageable or for parts only.

Also from the same dumpster as the Dynex TV: a nice mountain bike with front and rear suspensions and V-type brakes. Very nice soft seat too. Just needs a new rear outer tire, as the old one is quite bald. The brakes need work too. But both of those are easy stuff to fix. As I already have enough bikes and I found this in a dumpster near my job, I left the bike at work and asked if anyone wanted it. After a few weeks, one of the techs took it.

Last Monday, at the recycling point I found a fujitsu esprimo with an i5 4460, 4GB of ram 1600 MHz DDR3 CL11, it came without the side cover and without a hard disk, I put a disc that I had around (a Seagate 7200.12 of 500GB), I put a Nvidia GT 1030, and it is perfect, it has not failed even once, and it has been 120h without shutting down.

Very nice score.
Indeed I don't know why anyone would throw out and i5 PC, as even the older models are still viable and useful hardware.
Good match with that GT 1030, though I think even a GTX 1050 will be OK before the CPU starts to bottleneck the system - that is, when it comes to gaming performance. Speaking of which, I see you have Steam and Portal 2 on there already. I like that!

ASUS P5QL Pro LGA775, P43
Core 2 Quad Q9400 w/ cooler

Nice combo!
It's ridiculous how cheap Core 2 Quad CPUs have become. Yes, they may not have anywhere the performance of new CPUs (even when comparing them core to core, directly), but they are still more than enough for office and online browsing. I would say gaming too. But these days, none of the game devs care to optimize game performance for PCs anymore - hence the steep CPU requirements of many games. If they did that crap for consoles and mobile platforms, hardly any of the games out there right now would even run.

something else you obviously got that i dont - a lot of storage space!!

No, not really.
Even with "lots" of storage space... it all eventually gets filled and I end up where you are - no space to store things.

A buttload of electronics stuff. About a 50/50 split of AT and ATX computers, all but 1 picked through and with missing parts. Also got VCRs, DVD players, etc. Have not inventoried.

Cool. Sounds like the motherload of PCs I scored from a repair shop about 2 years ago. Took me a while to go through all of the stuff (and clean every single item.) But it was worthwhile and enjoyable in the end.
So have fun and keep us posted if there's anything interesting in that lot! (I suspect there should be - especially the AT PC stuff.)

[Dan81]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

momaka - the Q9400 is going to be reused in a EP41T-DS3R I'm waiting on, since it's exclusively DDR3, and it would be a shame not to pair a Q9400 with lots of DDR3 RAM, especially since it's cheaper to get than DDR2 locally (sometimes even as far as getting it free, lol)


Anyways, my free dumpster scores for today:

Soyo 6VBA133 w/ P3 Katmai 500MHz and 168MB RAM - POSTs fine although I think the smaller caps are dried out as I'm having issues with the front panel. Wendell caps btw, never had the chance to run into these ever.

... and a whole PC comprised of:

Gigabyte GA-7N400(1)
AMD Athlon XP 2500+
2x256MB DDR400
Gigabyte Radeon 9600 128MB AGP8x
RTL8139D NIC(2)
HDD rack without HDD(3)
ASUS 52x CD-RW (replaced with a ASUS DVD-RW drive)
and last but not least, the most gutless and sorry excuse of a "450W" PSU I've ever laid my eyes on.

(1) - There are 3 variants - the 7N400 which I own that doesn't have onboard LAN, the 7N400-L that has onboard LAN, and the 7N400 Pro2 that comes with additional SATA RAID and other goodies.

(2) - Since the board doesn't come with a onboard NIC, this was supplied so there is LAN connectivity.

(3) - There's something wrong with the rack - booting with it connected results in both devices (HDD in rack and DVD-RW) showing up garbled during detection regardless of the IDE channel. Disconnecting it will return make the DVD-RW show up as normal.

As for the PSU, I can only tell you this - it was so cheap, the fuse was literally the same as one of the fuses I found in a soldering iron I bought - a small, rounded kind of fuse. I threw it away and replaced it with a "400W" (250W actually) Deer I had recapped and it works fine now.

[Curious.George]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Even better that GETTING free stuff: getting RID of stuff you no longer want/need! Sixth (final?) carload going out the door, today. Ahhh... feels LIBERATING! (where the hell did all that stuff COME from??!)

[Digi]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

An Apple MacBook A1260/A1226 with a bad 8600M GT. So there's no display activity via internal or external. At least the DVD drive makes a noise and fans spin. But now I need to figure out how to replace the GPU, as I don't have the right hardware to do it. And I'm not really going to just replace the board entirely and be done with it.

[TechGeek]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

And another large bin of random electronics! About 30lbs. Everything from a portable scanner and HP external LightScribe drive to an old Compaq laptop and a high-end 2008 Panasonic camcorder. Have not inventoried.

[stj]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

nice - sounds like the old auctions i used to go to - before company's started using skips instead!

[kevin!]

Re: best cheap/free scores 1.1

Very nice score.
Indeed I don't know why anyone would throw out and i5 PC, as even the older models are still viable and useful hardware.
Good match with that GT 1030, though I think even a GTX 1050 will be OK before the CPU starts to bottleneck the system - that is, when it comes to gaming performance. Speaking of which, I see you have Steam and Portal 2 on there already. I like that!

The saga of Half Life, and Portal, for me are impressive works , they cannot be missing on my computer xD.
I have this computer mounted in my computer workshop connected to a TV, and when I get bored I put series, or play a game, the GT1030 behaves quite well for the use I give it . It would not be bad to put a 1050, but for now I do not hurry, when I can put it on. (I don't know if I wrote it correctly, I'm learning English yet xD)
Thanks momaka for the advice .