# Time for new computer from the dump



## exow2 (Apr 29, 2010)

Hey guys, before I get into this thread I want to start I'll give you a little heads up about me. I live in a small town in Ontario with about 110,000 people, so there isn't really much to do sometimes. I don't know ALOT about computer but I know a bit and I like to apply it where I can. I've replaced my own motherboard and cpu and added ram, things like that and I know how the components of a PC work, so you can say I know the basics. 

A few days ago I came up with the idea to go to my local dump (literally about 5 minutes away) and build my own PC from scrap parts that I find. I think it'll be a fun challenge for me to really test my computing skills and see if I can in fact build myself a functional PC from scratch (I'm 15 by the way). I'll be beginning my project tonight hopefully, and for now, I'll include some pics of the parts I've managed to strip from PC's so far, as well as the computers I've been able to snag from the dump. Like I said I don't know everything so if some of you TPU'ers want to keep an eye on this thread and help me out a bit it would be greatly appreciated. 

*Here's what I've picked up so far:*




Looks like I've got a nice little graphics card there. I haven't been able to get inside that first computer I showed you to see what cpu it's running, but I know I have a pentium 3 at least from that slim computer. Actually that P3 looks like it's still in running condition right there haha, but now that wouldn't be much fun to just plug that in to see it run now would it.


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## PVTCaboose1337 (Apr 29, 2010)

You found some sweet stuff!  I see some PIII era parts.  Probably not good for anything these days, but still fun to build nonetheless.  

You can make a few bucks by making a functional computer, and then selling it on ebay I bet!


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## richjordan255 (Apr 29, 2010)

all the best to you my friend id love to have the time to do something like that lol the joys of having kids i guess


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## exow2 (Apr 29, 2010)

PVTCaboose1337 said:


> You found some sweet stuff!  I see some PIII era parts.  Probably not good for anything these days, but still fun to build nonetheless.
> 
> You can make a few bucks by making a functional computer, and then selling it on ebay I bet!



Yea I'd say so. I'm just on the lookout for a decent case I can start to build this stuff inside . But I'll start stripping the parts out of each tonight hopefully. I'm not sure how I'm going to identify what type of mobo's I have there, or the ram to see what's going to be compatible with each other..any suggestions?


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## PVTCaboose1337 (Apr 29, 2010)

exow2 said:


> Yea I'd say so. I'm just on the lookout for a decent case I can start to build this stuff inside . But I'll start stripping the parts out of each tonight hopefully. I'm not sure how I'm going to identify what type of mobo's I have there, or the ram to see what's going to be compatible with each other..any suggestions?



Each OEM labels the ram with a thing like RAM-512-0984 or something like that.  Use Google, and google whatever you see on it.  Same goes for mobos, GFX, etc.


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## exow2 (Apr 29, 2010)

richjordan255 said:


> all the best to you my friend id love to have the time to do something like that lol the joys of having kids i guess



Thanks man, at least I can keep you up to date with what I'm attempting to do


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## exow2 (Apr 29, 2010)

PVTCaboose1337 said:


> Each OEM labels the ram with a thing like RAM-512-0984 or something like that.  Use Google, and google whatever you see on it.  Same goes for mobos, GFX, etc.



Ohhhh yea, should have thought of that, thanks.


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## MikeX (Apr 29, 2010)

I do overclock that till the end of its life !! 
(before its getting far too old at least)


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## v12dock (Apr 29, 2010)

Nice find!


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## n-ster (Apr 29, 2010)

Yay for young computer enthusiasts in Canada 

I'm 17 and in Montreal, but I have already lived in a small village in France for 4 years.. Population? under 1400... My school was an old Hospital and my playground at school was the parking lot


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## exow2 (Apr 29, 2010)

n-ster said:


> Yay for young computer enthusiasts in Canada
> 
> I'm 17 and in Montreal, but I have already lived in a small village in France for 4 years.. Population? under 1400... My school was an old Hospital and my playground at school was the parking lot



Haha cheers man . I love computers man their my passion


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## Kreij (Apr 30, 2010)

Darn dumpster diving Canooks. 

Nice Exow. There is a ton of stuff that people just pitch out. If I had something like that here I would do the same.


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## exow2 (Apr 30, 2010)

Alright guys, time for an update. I began dis-assembling the PC's tonight and this is what I've managed to strip out so far. I discovered what kind of graphics card I found earlier, and it's a cute dinky little geforce mx400! I'm excited to get this machine running and see what kind of old games this little thing can play haha! Anyways here's what I have to build my machine so far:



I have yet to get the fan's off the cpu's of either mobo, but the P3 looks like it was cooled very well. I'm un-sure of which mobo I want to use at this point, but I'm leaning towards the mobo with the un-identified cpu, since I dont want to go through the hassel of trying to find a case that will take the other mobo. BUT there are still many more trips to the dump to be done to increase my options. I'm going to have to do more research also on each psu to see which may be better to use.


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## exow2 (Apr 30, 2010)

Bump


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## Wrigleyvillain (Apr 30, 2010)

Doing the planet a small favor as well.


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## scaminatrix (May 2, 2010)

You wouldn't believe some of the stuff "someone i know" picks up at the dump. The windoze produkt key can be useful sometimes I got a few photo's of genine vlk's for XP and a vista one. Is it legal to pass them on? If so anyone's welcome to them, I haven't used them.

And well done for recycling exow2, the battery on the motherboard shouldn't have been at a dump in the first place as far as I know?


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## Necrofire (May 2, 2010)

brb dump 

Well, not right now, but this thread does make me want to go to the dump and find computer parts.


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## exow2 (May 2, 2010)

Another update time . I finished dis-assembling the P3 and began some troubleshooting. Both HDD's found both turned on but one made quite a loud humming sound, may just be how the HDD runs but I'm not to sure at this point. 

One of the motherboards and PSU's were fried as they would not turn on. Not sure if I can say the same for the P3 chip found on the fried mobo, but I'll troubleshoot again once I get some cooling paste. 

I ran into issues trying to troubleshoot the 2nd mobo as well, I plugged my 20" LCD 1280 x 1024 mo  while niter into the mobo, as well as an HDD and power supply and ran it, and unfortunately I was receiving no signal on my moniter ? Are the integrated graphics fried? (Some expert advice would really help now) 

I will post pic's of the mobo and PSU that is us-able, and take a look at my choice of DVD drives and tell me which one you believe would be the best choice . Thanks guys! I'll be heading back to the dump hopefully this afternoon to get more computers to strip, I'm still in search of a case .


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## scaminatrix (May 2, 2010)

exow2 said:


> I'll be heading back to the dump hopefully this afternoon to get more computers to strip, I'm still in search of a case .



I always tell my mate to look for anything that ISN'T, what I call, Council White. Generally most hardware inside a beige case it outdated.

Try and match the power supply to the hardware you use, some older power supplies just aren't compatible with the newer equipment due to a lack of 4-pin atx connectors, etc. see ATX Power Supply Revisions here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATX#ATX_power_supply_revisions

With any found hard drives, do a FULL format on them, not a quick one. any serious faults with a hard drive have a higher chance of being detected this way.

EDIT: Try not to use a PSU from pre-circa april 2003:
ATX12V 1.3

QUOTE
"Introduced in April 2003 (a month after 2.0). This standard introduced some changes, with most of them being minor. Some of them are:

    * Slightly increased the power on 12 V rail.
    * Defined minimal required PSU efficiencies for light and normal load.
    * Defined acoustic levels.
    * Introduction of Serial ATA power connector (but defined as optional).
    * The -5V rail is prohibited."
END QUOTE

The -5v rail must have been prohibited for a reason: anyone know why?
Try and match hardware ages (PSU and MOBO anyway) as there are more variations than you may think...


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## exow2 (May 2, 2010)

scaminatrix said:


> I always tell my mate to look for anything that ISN'T, what I call, Council White. Generally most hardware inside a beige case it outdated.
> 
> Try and match the power supply to the hardware you use, some older power supplies just aren't compatible with the newer equipment due to a lack of 4-pin atx connectors, etc. see ATX Power Supply Revisions here:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATX#ATX_power_supply_revisions
> ...




Thanks a lot for the info, I was under the impression all power supply's work the same but I guess I was mistaken, any feedback on why I wasn't getting any video to my moniter after I plugged it into the mobo?


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## scaminatrix (May 2, 2010)

exow2 said:


> Thanks a lot for the info, I was under the impression all power supply's work the same but I guess I was mistaken, any feedback on why I wasn't getting any video to my moniter after I plugged it into the mobo?



I would say don't forget about the atx plugs, there's 2different types, a 4 pin atx, that looks like this (but it would be white or clear):

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:...ort/1/0/6/7/-/-/atx-4pin-molex-39-01-2040.jpg

or a 6 pin aux

http://www.supernotebook.com/images/Aux-connector-148x200.gif

only one of these will be used, and it will plug into the mobo somewhere to provide extra power to the cpu. I looked at the photos you posted of that dell mobo, but couldn't see where to plug the lead into. Problem could also be caused by ram or cpu, so eliminate one by one...

EDIT: Actually I just spotted in your first post pics, it looks like the 6-pin aux.


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## MN12BIRD (May 2, 2010)

I sold a new PSU to a guy with an old PC the other day.  He came back and said it didn't work so I swapped it with another one of the same units assuming it was just bad.  He came back again and said it still didn't work.  He then pointed out they had no -5V rail and asked if I had any that did.  So I found a slightly older model that did and gave him that and he said it worked.  I've noticed that the new ones don't have -5V but this was the first and only time I've actually seen a PC that needed it.  Was that common on old ~PIII boards or something? 

Oh and my buddy just pulled a perfectly good working P4 out of the trash and put OSX on it.  Hahaha I thought that was pretty awesome.


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## scaminatrix (May 2, 2010)

MN12BIRD said:


> Oh and my buddy just pulled a perfectly good working P4 out of the trash and put OSX on it.  Hahaha I thought that was pretty awesome.



Nice, I know of an ES that was found in a server on a dump, a Pentium D 840.



MN12BIRD said:


> I sold a new PSU to a guy with an old PC the other day.  He came back and said it didn't work so I swapped it with another one of the same units assuming it was just bad.  He came back again and said it still didn't work.  He then pointed out they had no -5V rail and asked if I had any that did.  So I found a slightly older model that did and gave him that and he said it worked.  I've noticed that the new ones don't have -5V but this was the first and only time I've actually seen a PC that needed it.  Was that common on old ~PIII boards or something?



I don't know anything about the -5v except for what Wiki told me, it's definately for the ooollld stuff. Any experts shed any light? I'm interested in why it was prohibited, and not just removed/dropped.

Any news on the video signal yet exow?


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## exow2 (May 3, 2010)

scaminatrix said:


> Nice, I know of an ES that was found in a server on a dump, a Pentium D 840.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I know for a fact I plugged in that 6 pin you were talking about so that couldn't have been the issue. I guess I'll have to see if it is indeed the ram or cpu..just have to get some cooling paste and hopefully some more compatible ram from the dump


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## DonInKansas (May 3, 2010)

exow2 said:


> H I live in a small town in Ontario with about 110,000 people, so there isn't really much to do sometimes.



That's not a little town.  There are only around 1,000 people in my COUNTY. 

Glad you're finding a way to get into the hobby.  Cutting your teeth on inexpensive stuff is a good way to learn.


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## xBruce88x (May 3, 2010)

what speed it the p3 in the dell?

oh and that odd looking slot next to the cpu on the dell board is for upgrading the gfx memory of the onboard video... probably an ati chip. the two chips there are probably 2 or 4mb of ram for the gfx.

And you could probably find/overclock the current cpu to 1.1ghz or so on the other board, depending on the chipset. i'm guessing the max ram will be 768mb (3x 256) with both boards.

and 110,000 people is a decent sized city lol, my city has 14,000. your city is about the same as Athens, GA.


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## Melvis (May 3, 2010)

Good stuff, i like seeing the old hardware come back for round ....well whatever it might be lol

Im also just doing up a Skt 370 system for a m8s little sister to use, and this is the specs.

Intel Pentium 3 733MHz (O the power)
2x128MB DDR133
Gigabyte mobo (cant remember the number)
Geforce TNT2 32MB (runs crysis easy) 
20GB WD Caviar.

Ran geekbench and got a score of 400 

The AMD Duron 800MHz i got here beat it (462) bit surprised by that.

Keep up the good work  as im resurrecting two old beasts as we speek


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## LiveOrDie (May 3, 2010)

Good luck i use to do some thing similar when i was around the age of 15 did it for 2 years back in 2004 and sold a few and built a ok gaming rig out of the money , i use to ride around on my bike with a backpack and some tools in it going though the road side junk though out they do over here every 6 months i even found some P4s so things people though away if they think its broken when it was just bad ram lol, i pick up a p4 last year for my dad


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## scaminatrix (May 3, 2010)

Live OR Die said:


> i use to ride around on my bike with a backpack and some tools in it going though the road side junk though out they do over here every 6 months i even found some P4s so things people though away if they think its broken when it was just bad ram lol, i pick up a p4 last year for my dad



That's the way to go! My mate used to go round London where people are having their houses refurbished and collect old broken boilers that are in skips. You can always get £10 each for them. Then he told me in 2006 that he sees PC's, stereo's, phones, laptops, etc. all the time in skips, so since then we've been on the earner!
He works at a dump now which cuts out the travelling.

All the PC's I've been through are thrown out because they're broken and I've always found that it's only ever ONE part that's failed. The most common part I've found dead is PSU's + RAM, then Mobo's. I've found one broken graphics card, I can't remember finding a broken HDD (I've only found a handful of HDD's - they are nearly always removed by the owner before throwing away the PC) but I've NEVER found a dead processor..

Please note that this is just personal experience with old-ish PC's that are brought to me broken, not a common rule for all PC's/parts.  
Anyone remember the GeForce Tornado/Titanium Ti 4200?! You'll probably start finding loads of these exow!

If you want some makeshift thermal paste just for testing, from what I'm led to believe, blu-tac has ok thermal conductivity (some people have used it in Dry-Ice cooling set-ups) but get a second opinion from a TPU pro before blu taccing your cpu to a heat sink...


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