Repurposing a 2004 Athlon 64 system in 2021

[momaka]

Originally Posted by Topcat

It all depends on what kinds of loads were on them (high ripple) and how hot they had been running at. Under normal loads and kept relatively cool, yea....MBZ and MCZ were pretty robust....but excess of one or the other or both, their lifespans were relatively short.

True.
Well, based on some of the socket 939 MSI boards I have around, their VRMs run pretty cool. If that 3500+ CPU is what the system's had all its life, then it probably never ran much past lukewarm... unless the BIOS has fan control and runs the CPU fan at some absurdly-low value (the case of my ASUS K8V-SE Delux - CPU fan even stops sometimes, if I set it on auto, due to both the board BIOS and the fan's built-in PTC slowing down the fan too much.)

Originally Posted by Topcat

Yes, these are 820uF @ 2.5v. These have stood the test of time for polymodding for the last ~15 years, I've never had an issue when these were correctly applied in place of lytics. ...but FWIW, you can get away with a lot of 'slop' when playing 'musical values' in the polymodding process.

The VRM on these MSI boards is a relatively high-frequency, based on the inductors I see (looks like about 5 turns, so probably around 1 uH.... but perhaps your Sencore LCR meter may be a little more accurate than my eye if you want to pull a similar coil from a dead board and check ) So with 9x 820 uF caps in there, you probably have more than plenty of capacity. The more sensitive boards are those cheap ECS / PCchips ones with DBL494 / TL7500 / KA7500 PWM ICs and single-ended VRM design with free-wheeling diodes. Now those run at relatively low frequency and do like their bulk capacitance... hence why they always come with 6-8x 2200-3300uF caps.

Originally Posted by Topcat

No, it wasn't That one was an eATX, and I didn't have any cases available for it....but FWIW, I found this one via ebay's 'recommended for you' targeted spamverts....and added it to my 'watchlist'...

Well, it's not really spam then, if you found it useful.

And yeah, eBay is pretty good with their "recommended" list. Got me to buy things more than a few times too.

Originally Posted by Topcat

...so yea, it's your fault!

LOLZ!

OK, I take the blame for that one. But let's not keep tabs, shall we?
Otherwise, I don't know how many things I would say I've spent money on / bought because of the information that exists on badcaps.net.
(Notice I said "spent" above, and *not* "wasted" )

[eccerr0r]

Interesting, usually ebay's recommendations are useless for me... I guess that's better for my already too thin pocketbook?

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Originally Posted by momaka

In the summer... I don't even want to think what would happen if I did that. Perhaps if I'm trying to re-create a tropical environment, that might be a good idea.

nope. thats actually trying to recreate a sauna in your room! thats indeed a good idea! a sauna is actually good for you, health wise! helps your body detoxify itself by sweating out the toxins! all u need is a bath towel wrapped around your waist and u're the perfect gangsta talking shit and intimidating people in the sauna! hahaha!

[TechGeek]

Originally Posted by Topcat

[...] Yes, these are 820uF @ 2.5v. These have stood the test of time for polymodding for the last ~15 years, I've never had an issue when these were correctly applied in place of lytics. ...but FWIW, you can get away with a lot of 'slop' when playing 'musical values' in the polymodding process. Barring the unexpected, TechGeek having a good PSU on the system feeding it good/solid/clean power, and nothing crazy happening to the system; this board should last a very long time. [...]

Clean power is not in any way a problem with this system. Especially given that it's getting its power from an Eaton Powerware 9130 double-conversion UPS, which likely delivers cleaner power than what the utility power has, and its PSU is a nearly bulletproof HiPro-made Dell PSU.

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by TechGeek

...and its PSU is a nearly bulletproof HiPro-made Dell PSU.

Better check the caps. I agree that Hipro PSU's are solid....I've had good luck with them....but I've also recapped a ton of them!!

[TechGeek]

Originally Posted by Topcat

Better check the caps. I agree that Hipro PSU's are solid....I've had good luck with them....but I've also recapped a ton of them!!

Already been in this PSU a million times, lookin' rock solid to me.
EDIT: Shipped?

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by TechGeek

Already been in this PSU a million times, lookin' rock solid to me.

Then why have you been in it a million times?! These are notorious for bad teapos that don't swell. Better check again.

Originally Posted by TechGeek

EDIT: Shipped?

Monday.

[TechGeek]

Originally Posted by Topcat

Then why have you been in it a million times?!

I crack it open every 3 months when I clean the computer to clean it out and give it a visual inspection.

Originally Posted by Topcat

Monday.

Nice.

[momaka]

Originally Posted by Topcat

Better check the caps. I agree that Hipro PSU's are solid....I've had good luck with them....but I've also recapped a ton of them!!

Nice PSUs indeed, but not impervious to bad caps. The old ones generally tend to do a little better and not suffer from bad caps as much, IME. However, the moment you get one bad Teapo, that means all the rest are to follow suit soon... and it could all happen within weeks of each other. So one month you open it and all is well. Next month could be your PSU not even wanting to start from the bad caps, because they all decided to quit. Same goes for Ltec and CapXon. Seems like they all go in batches more than anything.

Originally Posted by TechGeek

I crack it open every 3 months when I clean the computer to clean it out and give it a visual inspection.

Better than me in that regard, I guess.

I still have a few of the older units running on stock caps. The one in my Optiplex 170L (still main PC) is probably 15 years old. I can't remember when is the last time I checked it while doing cleaning - maybe 2 or 3 years ago. Probably overdue on the PSU check up, but whatever. . As for dust cleaning... I try to vacuum my place often enough that dust accumulation isn't bad. So even if I cleaned my PCs only once every 5 years, they would still be OK. I've never had big dust bunnies form in my PCs... though that probably also has to do with the fact that I don't keep any systems running 24/7 (maybe up to 8 hours a day max for some and that's it.)

[TechGeek]

(re: momaka) Frequently used systems are generally kept running 24/7 around here as it keeps temperatures from floating around as much, which should significantly improve lifespan by not stressing the crappy RoHS solder as much.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

yes but running the systems 24/7 would now stress out the crappy caps instead! so which do u want? blown psu with busted caps (maybe also blowing the mobo along with it) or failed board with focked rohs solder?! pick carefully! choose the lesser of the two evils! lol!

[momaka]

Originally Posted by TechGeek

(re: momaka) Frequently used systems are generally kept running 24/7 around here as it keeps temperatures from floating around as much, which should significantly improve lifespan by not stressing the crappy RoHS solder as much.

Won't make a difference.

Actually, neither extremes are good - that is, running 24/7 can be as stressful to some components as very frequent power-cycling (multiple times a day.) So the best balance is to keep a system On when you'll be using it that day (if multiple times a day), but otherwise keep it Off.

ChaosLegionnaire above mentioned one good example of why 24/7 is not good - electrolytic caps will dry out quicker at higher temperatures.
The video card that you're currently using (GeForce 4 TI, last time I looked) is also from before the RoHS era, but will fail a lot quicker with 24/7 use than frequent power-cycling, due to being an nVidia GPU that runs rather hot.
On the other hand, if you're using older WD HDDs (typically 120 GB or smaller variety), many of these favor high hours / 24/7 over frequent power-cycling - at least from my experience with older WD drives. Newer ones don't seem to care as much either way, though.

[TechGeek]

It's been FAR too long since I've posted an update on this system. It's been ROCK SOLID since the recap and it's survived 2 power outages.

Motherboard back in my hands.


Mostly empty case, sitting lonely on a desk.


Motherboard unboxed.


Close-up of the CPU. (Why'd I take that picture?)


CPU heatsink and cooler reinstalled.


Motherboard reinstalled.


Cabled up.


Buttoned up and ready for testing.


Tested fine, back in its cubbyhole.


Power restored.


Booted up once again.


Routing traffic once again!


BONUS FEATURE: May 28, 2021 Power Failure - Just a few pictures from that.

Power out, UPSs are on battery power. Power failed at 02:29:38 that morning.


Just under 2 hours later. Both UPSs have exhausted their battery power. Very dark in the Tech Room.

10:11 that morning, about 45 minutes after the power came back on. The Dell PSU died (5VSB crapped out) so I have to jerry-rig this HP PSU out of the back of the system because the wiring came out on the wrong side of it. Replaced it with an EVGA 500BQ PSU since then and it hasn't given me trouble since.


More damage from this power failure- Physical damage sustained on my 2nd data drive in my main computer. I've long since worked around this. Forced the drive to map the damaged sectors out, ran badblocks against it, and it's back in service once again.

[Topcat]

I did such a nice job!!

[clearchris]

Brutal. I'm in the process of setting up a sequencer for my computer rack. It doesn't have a surge protector, but it waits for about 30 seconds after power is restored to start turning on the power to the devices, in order, with a few second delay between each. So far so good, I have had one on my audio equipment for years, and with all the power outages I have had, no damage so far. (hate to say that...)

[eccerr0r]

"knock on wood"?

hmm. Sequencer would be interesting to have, alas my computers are too far apart...

[clearchris]

Originally Posted by eccerr0r

"knock on wood"?

hmm. Sequencer would be interesting to have, alas my computers are too far apart...

Wouldn't cost much to hook an arduino up to a relay, or even a cheap timer that can run on 120v and pack it all into a junction box.

timer + relay module, requires DC power supply
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw...C+110v%2C+120v)

120v timer, requires 120v coil relay
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=relay+timer

[eccerr0r]

too far apart = need too much wire to connect everything together... or have to go wireless but then that would increase system price a lot...

Perhaps easiest to WOL them all, if that works... no hardware needed!

[clearchris]

Why would you need to connect them all together? If you wanted them to come up at different times, you just set the timer longer. This would require one full unit (timer+relay) per computer, but you would need at least one relay per computer even if they were all in one location.

[eccerr0r]

Well, ideally centralized control is best, then if some machines don't need to be on, can stay off too...