Re: Post your system.......
Yeah, I did install a Q6600 G0 in it now.
					Yeah, I did install a Q6600 G0 in it now.
 I'd still take it over any boring black box these days.
) but have to reinstall the GPU drivers.
. However things didn't turn out that way. 


 )
 ) 
 )
 ) Found the HP Jasmine / MS-7778 motherboard above for a very decent price for an FM2 mobo (under $20 with shipping, IIRC.)
 ) JasmineR supports 5k, 6k, and 7k series of APUs (like the A8-6600k I have), whereas the regular Jasmine does not and only supports 5k series APUs.
 ) I thought about buying another motherboard first, because I found some conflicting information online regarding certain JasmineR motherboards not being compatible with 6k and 7k APUs. But after more thinking 
 (… I want to say my head exploded 
 ), a cheaper and easier route seemed to be getting another APU, as ATX/m-ATX FM2 motherboards were not that easy to find (still aren't) and fairly expensive for what they are. This time, however, I was set on getting a known compatible APU. Not wanting to spend too much either, I went for the cheapest APU: the A4-5300. Got one on sale for $10 shipped (guess from where again? 
 )
 Digging in the BIOS revealed it came out of a Pavilion p7-1534 PC. On that note, this is where things get confusing, because according to the HP website, the p7-1534 comes with a blue-colored Jasmine [MS-7778 v0.8] PCB. So how is it that my green-colored MS-7778 v1.0 PCB is a regular Jasmine and not a JasmineR??? Did HP run short on v0.8 motherboards and then started flashing v1.0 PCBs? 
 How do I know? Well, with a bit of luck and patience, I found and bought another FM2 motherboard for cheap – a Gigabyte GA-F2A68HM-H. This one IS known to be compatible with the 6k and 7k series of APUs. When I tested the A8-6600k in it, the motherboard wouldn't even power up. Almost made me think I had gotten a dud motherboard (again.) To confirm, I stuck the A4-5300 in the Gigabyte mobo. Sure enough, the new Gigabyte mobo also work and booted fine. So I went back to the 6600k to double-check and… NOPE! No boot, again. 
 Perhaps that Radeon IGP is the culprit? This is the first time I bump into a dead socketed CPU, BTW. It's a shame, because the IGP in the A8 and A10 APUs are actually not terrible for entry-level gaming and graphics.
 ) The built-in wireless module, for example, didn't come with antennas. So what I did: took some WiFi antennas out of my “PS3 junk box” and stuck those on there. You can see one of them is mounted on the back of the PC to one of the PSU screws. The other one is just hanging inside the case on the ATX wires. There's no cover for this case, so that's why I left the antenna there. Can't get more ghetto than that! 
 
 But the antennas work well and I get good WiFi. 
 (yet! – I'm working on one… and it likely will be ghetto 
 too.)
 Good enough for me now. 
		
							
						
 Even such a “low-spec” modern game is too much for that APU. In fact, even with a somewhat more decent video card, the CPU portion of the APU was still badly chocking.
 Even such a “low-spec” modern game is too much for that APU. In fact, even with a somewhat more decent video card, the CPU portion of the APU was still badly chocking.





 But I think they are kind of cool now, just because they are somewhat rare. Also, I'll take anything over the boring black boxes we get nowadays.
 That's only 13 years late... but hell, who am I to judge?! 
 After all, I'm still rocking a Pentium 4 as my "daily driver". Though lately, I've been using another PC that I built for my parents that they no longer use. It's got a Pentium Dual Core E2160, 2 GB of RAM, 80 GB of spinning rust, and Windows 7 - about as basic as it can get.
 Still wondering whether to stick with Windows XP or move onto 7. Been using 7 on quite a few of my experimental and OG builds now, so I've gotten a little more used to it.
							
						
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