Badcaps.net Origin & Roots - Topcat's VP6 Thread!

[Topcat]

For all of you who enjoy this site, post stuff, argue politics, or use the information posted here to make a buck or two, you owe it all to this:



If it weren't for this goofy old board, this site would not exist....

Thats all for now.

[rhomanski]

Out of curiosity, I 've been checking the new member introductions. You generally get about 5 people a day or so joining the site. If we all gave you $1 a month you might not have to work. Unless you feel like the wealthy, when asked how much money do they need, replied just a little more.

Good job man. You have come up with an excellent site. This site is mostly wide open to all. I joined another site that is razor focused on it's purpose. No disagreement is tolerated, no deviation is allowed. Totally different approach. It has it's place, but I enjoy freedom. Thank you.

[Andrew F. Ali]

I am very grateful for the birthing of this site. Though I joined in awhile after it was born, I have made some wonderful friends from all over the globe whose faces I can only imagine and I have learnt so much and still learning from the great electronic minds who share their experience and knowledge freely on this site. I am proud to be a member of the Badcaps family.

[ReeceyBurger123]

I am very grateful too I will make a donation after my money is stable again.

[kevin!]

Interesting!
I give many thanks to this site,and staff for having managed to create site, and have always been very kind to me, even a colleague spoke to me in Spanish, that is to have a lot of consideration.
THANKS TO ALL! If not for everybody you, this would not exist, no beech learned about capacitor or electronics .

Bye , sorry my bad english

[Dan81]

Originally Posted by Topcat

For all of you who enjoy this site, post stuff, argue politics, or use the information posted here to make a buck or two, you owe it all to this:



If it weren't for this goofy old board, this site would not exist....

Thats all for now.

Y'know,I quite feel sad knowing that last week I came across a KT7-RAID that had the socket ripped out. Would have recapped it,since ABIT boards are almost non-existent here.

I ended up buying a Gigabyte GA-7VA (quite notorious for bulging caps on this forum) with several blown GJT caps. Probably Evercon/GSC rebrand. I replaced them with some OSTs for the big 3300uf caps,which despite not being the best,they're miles better than GSC. 1500s are 06' HMs and 1000s were replaced with 820uF Pannies.

[Topcat]

Ok, a post from a classic....the board this site was established on!! Yet another system to add to the 'retro collection'.





Nifty old procase ATX desktop case....

System specs:

Abit VP6
2x 1GHz Coppermines
2gb PC133
Promise TX4 SATA controller
200GB WD SATA HDD
ATI 8500 AIW 128mb
SB Audigy
3COM 10/100 NIC <-- actually made in the USA!!
Plextor 48x24x48

I would have used an IDE HDD, but I don't have any remaining that are 7200rpm that aren't making excessively loud bearing whine....so in comes a little modern SATA twist for this old relic.

Slowly but surely, the pile of old hardware is dwindling...

[stretch0069]

TC....you're old......

[stretch0069]

here's what is on its way next month.......








as far as I know, it all works......

no extra charge for dirt, dust, and critters.

[Topcat]

^
VP6's with teapo caps....blasphemy!!

[stretch0069]

Originally Posted by Topcat

^
VP6's with teapo caps....blasphemy!!

thats a factory original board! Thought you might like to recap one last VP6.

[Topcat]

Is that really a BIOS Savior?

[stretch0069]

nice catch!!!!!!!

yep.......see.....you better have some damned good beer when I get there.

[momaka]

Thank you VP6 and thank you Topcat for giving us badcaps.net!

These old dual-CPU motherboards are awesome. I don't know why, but older computer hardware like this really grabs my pique. I have a GeForce 4 TI4400 in the garage waiting for a bath and quick recap.

[Topcat]

Reviving another old thread for a very good reason.... I built 3 very unusual VP6's for a very old preferred client over a decade ago....with the understanding that he would send them back to me rather than be recycled when they were phased out. He kept his word. The first one was shut down (still fully functioning) @ the first of the year. He said the other two aren't far behind. He's been sending me stuff for repair (boxfull upon boxfull of acer 5600GT's) since I started back in 2002....I sourced & built these VP6's maybe 2006~2007, I really don't remember....



These were my first *real* polymer build attempts....and I was paid a LOT of money for these!

[Dan81]

You're now giving me the temptation to try and add polymers to a Socket 7 mainboard

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by Dan81

You're now giving me the temptation to try and add polymers to a Socket 7 mainboard

Go for it. KC8ADU has posted about it a few times (poly modding proprietary CNC motherboards that were socket 7).

[Topcat]

I didn't post pics of the board in the above post because it was filthy....very dusty. I cleaned it up in the sink....I also replaced all the small caps (100uF and 220uF). I pulled the NB heatsink so I can put a bigger better one on it....but here's to an awesome polymodded VP6, one of BCN's first.

Retesting after cleanup & smaller cap replacement.

Purty polies!




Testing:


Just pure awesomeness!





No idea what I'll do with this....but it's an interesting piece of BCN history!

[momaka]

Originally Posted by Topcat

These were my first *real* polymer build attempts....and I was paid a LOT of money for these!

But they ended up living past their useful life, so I'm sure it was worth it to whoever these were for.

And I can see you put some details on these too
"Abit VP6 - BCN Polymer Edition #1 of 3 Built by: www.badcaps.net"
- Very nice touch there!

2x Pentium 3s @ 1 GHz is not that shabby either. With the AGP port, that could make one really unique retro game PC - probably something we'd all have drooled at, back in its days.

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by momaka

But they ended up living past their useful life, so I'm sure it was worth it to whoever these were for.

I don't know what these were doing..... All the repair work he sent me were for a medical center he worked for. The other 2 poly VP6's are still in operation....but he says they'll be phased out soon.

Originally Posted by momaka

And I can see you put some details on these too
"Abit VP6 - BCN Polymer Edition #1 of 3 Built by: www.badcaps.net"
- Very nice touch there!

I did the same thing for the poly BP6 from THIS THREAD, but I didn't number it since it was just some random BP6 I picked up cheap....and any further BP6's I come across will get the poly treatment as well...so no telling how many there will be...although, I'm sure there won't be many as rare as they are nowadays. Funny, I didn't really think many would ever notice that.

Originally Posted by momaka

2x Pentium 3s @ 1 GHz is not that shabby either. With the AGP port, that could make one really unique retro game PC - probably something we'd all have drooled at, back in its days.

They're great retro gaming rigs. They'll run all the classics from quake 1 through quake 3 arena, starcraft, diablo 1 & 2, AoE, Classic Warcraft (a game I never cared much for, but many others did)....and so on...