# A Tale of broken laptops, trades, and epic wins :D



## Mussels (Jun 9, 2014)

So lemme tell you a lil' story, with pictures cause no one can read on the internets.


One day a mussels was on facebook, and saw a girl selling a broken laptop for $20. so he bought it thinking "eh, i'll help this girl out. maybe i can fix it"

Suffice to say, the laptop worked well over HDMI but the screen was on LSD.






Meh, whatevs - lets take out the hard drive and ram, maybe fix it up later.





To save you googling... thats a 750GB sata II 2.5" hard drive. hotdamn. SCORE!


Heres a generic googled image of the ram, i forgot to snap a pic of it:







Not a bad score. Then something came up on facebook. an old guy had a crappy pentium 4 desktop full of viruses, and a brand new laptop that just needed some DDR3 ram. open trade. i decided what the hell, the hard drive was an epic win - i'll help him out. The case would be useful for a spare parts machine i was building at the very worst. Here is the photos of me excitedly opening up this ancient tech.






Look at those onboard options - wowee.





a 300W FSP PSU? You know what, i'll take that as a win. Reliable little things.










Ugghhh... AGP! DDR! and... sata cables to a shiny? the feck is with that bent metal?





.... whut





for realsies?





oh god its for realsies





Post formatting (on a SATA II port, so its speed capped)











And after all those pretty pictures, yes, i managed to get both of these for $20 and 15 minutes of driving


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## RCoon (Jun 9, 2014)

You son of a *****


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## LaytonJnr (Jun 9, 2014)

What was that Kingston beauty doing in there?! Man, you are too lucky.

Layton


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## SKBARON (Jun 9, 2014)

Jeez mate, you are lucky


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## Frick (Jun 9, 2014)

You COCK


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## Devon68 (Jun 9, 2014)

Oh man now that's what I call a great deal on an even greater day. Congrats


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## m4gicfour (Jun 9, 2014)

AGP... DDR... and an SSD? Whut.

You do need quick access to your hentai when waiting 10 minutes for facebook to load on that P4. Might explain the viruses...


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## remixedcat (Jun 9, 2014)

bathroom pc.


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## Shambles1980 (Jun 9, 2014)

give you $25 for em


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## natr0n (Jun 9, 2014)

even shitty looking oysters have fancy pearls inside.


Pearls = ssd/ram/drives


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## Shambles1980 (Jun 9, 2014)

id like to know who put the ssd in a p4, and didnt know its value


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## Trompochi (Jun 9, 2014)

Thanks for this, I lol'ed at the 750gb HDD part, but the SSD really cracked me up.


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## Peter1986C (Jun 9, 2014)

Lucky you.


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## remixedcat (Jun 9, 2014)

Shambles1980 said:


> id like to know who put the ssd in a p4, and didnt know its value



Turbo


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## Irish_PXzyan (Jun 9, 2014)

Jayziz lucky you man!


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## rtwjunkie (Jun 9, 2014)

That is a helluva score, Mussels!!!


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## manofthem (Jun 9, 2014)

I guess Facebook does serve some purpose


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## Vario (Jun 9, 2014)

As a follow up I kind of want to do a fake open up of my Everex Step 486 only to reveal a SSD.


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## OneMoar (Jun 10, 2014)

....... what I don't even
who the frack puts a ssd in a p4


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## Mussels (Jun 10, 2014)

i almost want to fire up XP on that system just to benchmark the SSD and see how slow it is


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## OneMoar (Jun 10, 2014)

Mussels said:


> i almost want to fire up XP on that system just to benchmark the SSD and see how slow it is


you are evil


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## Devon68 (Jun 10, 2014)

> who the frack puts a ssd in a p4


I would and probably will buy a 60gb SSD and a PCI sata card and see how it runs, but not too soon.


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## Mussels (Jun 10, 2014)

Devon68 said:


> I would and probably will buy a 60gb SSD and a PCI sata card and see how it runs, but not too soon.



i uggh... have a PCI sata 1 card here. dont make me do it.


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## AsRock (Jun 10, 2014)

DO IT!,


Nice find, maybe some one or the guy thought if he put a SSD in it it speed it up enough and failed for what he was expecting.


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## Mussels (Jun 10, 2014)

Sigh, i guess i'll slap these bad boys into my spare PC tomorrow and run a few benchies


sadly i think they're both sata II, but that wont mean squat on PCI lol


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## Shambles1980 (Jun 10, 2014)

i predict 88/100mbps!


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## Mussels (Jun 11, 2014)

sil3512 refused to install in windows 8.1, the generic whatever i'd never heard of installed fine. go figure.












40-110MB/s


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## Mussels (Jun 11, 2014)

SMART data says the SSD has less than 80 hours of runtime, even after me screwing around with it. hotdamn, its practically new.


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## Mussels (Oct 6, 2014)

felt like updating this thread to throw in a total random win...


bought a PC for my father in law, with the condition i got some of the parts in exchange for buying it for him when he couldnt afford it.

got myself a nice i7 2600 (non K, still OC'd to 4.2GHz!!)


and this was in the PC, totally not mentioned in the ad, in the invoice for the PC, nor in the asking price...


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## RCoon (Oct 6, 2014)

Mussels said:


> felt like updating this thread to throw in a total random win...
> 
> 
> bought a PC for my father in law, with the condition i got some of the parts in exchange for buying it for him when he couldnt afford it.
> ...



I hate you so much right now


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## Mussels (Oct 6, 2014)

RCoon said:


> I hate you so much right now




i'll live.


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## RCoon (Oct 6, 2014)

Mussels said:


> i'll live.



Where do you find these things? Private ads?


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## Mussels (Oct 6, 2014)

RCoon said:


> Where do you find these things? Private ads?




facebook sales. people sell a PC without knowing whats inside it, i often ask for model numers and look up the parts.

this guy had a 120GB SSD and 1TB on the receipt and must have forgotten that he paid for an extra 2TB seagate and 512GB SSD... i bought it for the i7, basically (which has now OC'd to 4.2GHz!)


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## OneMoar (Oct 6, 2014)

Mussels is cheating... at the game of life as punishment.. we should string him up by the feet and let mailman talk to him for hours on end...


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## Frick (Oct 6, 2014)

Damned workers and their income.


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## Mussels (Oct 6, 2014)

Frick said:


> Damned workers and their income.




just above minimum wage, 20 hours a week XD

I just get real lucky on the second hand market apparently - i never posted in this thread, but i got an i5 laptop with AMD graphics for $150 because someone put toothpaste in the hard drive to fix bad sectors.

guess what laptop gets a 120GB SSD tomorrow?


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## RCoon (Oct 6, 2014)

Mussels said:


> someone put toothpaste in the hard drive



Oh my, to fill in all those nasty cavities?


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## Mussels (Oct 6, 2014)

RCoon said:


> Oh my, to fill in all those nasty cavities?




apparently. i'll post pics of the laptop tomorrow, but basically the only damage was:

1. toothpaste in hard drive. I opened it, a platter was *MISSING*
2. the wifi adaptor was smashed somehow
3. the hdd/wifi bay cover was smashed beyond repair. every plastic clip destroyed, every screw had its thread stripped.


so $30 of parts and a lucky SSD later, she's up and running like a champion.

edit: oh i forgot, she threw in a 24" 1080p monitor for free because i was polite.


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## Sasqui (Oct 6, 2014)

I'm off to post on Facebook and Craiglist.  "Looking for computers neglected and/or infected with Ebola,  $20 max"


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## Mussels (Oct 6, 2014)

Sasqui said:


> I'm off to post on Facebook and Craiglist.  "Looking for computers neglected and/or infected with Ebola,  $20 max"



sale ads are better - buy ads get flooded with garbage. find something for sale, go have a look at it in person. always be polite, tell them you're looking for certain parts and you *think* theres has a part that fits yours - and if its no good or the price is too high, you just say its not gunna fit, thank them and leave. those same people often contact me later with the awesome deals.


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## 64K (Oct 6, 2014)

Mussels said:


> apparently. i'll post pics of the laptop tomorrow, but basically the only damage was:
> 
> 1. toothpaste in hard drive. I opened it, a platter was *MISSING*
> 2. the wifi adaptor was smashed somehow
> ...



Good lord! The things some people do to their PCs.


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## RCoon (Oct 6, 2014)

64K said:


> Good lord! The things some people do to their PCs.



I once arrived to a USB stick plugged into a LAN port. They said they lost all their photos they backed up. Sometimes people hate to be shown solutions that take 2 seconds to fix (aka unplug and replug into USB port). I think some people genuinely prefer if there is some dark voodoo magic solution that they don't know about and don't care to know about. Like toothpaste in a HDD or charging your iphone in a microwave.

I also found an entire netbook motherboard (inside) completely layered in chocolate. Someone had left a bar of chocolate on the keyboard all day and night while it was turned on, and it melted right through. Idle temps in excess of 90 degrees on bootup. Some things you can't fix.


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## Frick (Oct 6, 2014)

Mussels said:


> sale ads are better - buy ads get flooded with garbage. find something for sale, go have a look at it in person. always be polite, tell them you're looking for certain parts and you *think* theres has a part that fits yours - and if its no good or the price is too high, you just say its not gunna fit, thank them and leave. those same people often contact me later with the awesome deals.



That's what sucks about living remotely... And it seems here lots of people just recycle/throw away stuff instead of selling them anyway, or they want way to much money for crap, or they want it fixed for free.


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## RCoon (Oct 6, 2014)

Frick said:


> That's what sucks about living remotely... And it seems here lots of people just recycle/throw away stuff instead of selling them anyway, or they want way to much money for crap, or they want it fixed for free.



Facebook sale groups are useful, lots of stupid people selling things either hurrendously overpriced, or stupidly underpriced. I've found ancient AMD XP machine with a high end sound DAC in a Lian-Li £200 case. Tore it to pieces and parts outright were worth a tonne compared to the actually inner workings. I don't do home repairs anymore though, same crap every time gets boring, and IMO people should learn or pay the price to have it fixed to teach them a lesson.


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## m4gicfour (Oct 6, 2014)

I have only one thing to say, mussels: Two free SSDs in a row, one a half terabyte?


Frick said:


> You COCK


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## Devon68 (Oct 6, 2014)

Wow, now you cant say that luck was never on your side.


> just above minimum wage, 20 hours a week XD


Are you joking about this or?


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## m4gicfour (Oct 6, 2014)

Devon68 said:


> Wow, now you cant say that luck was never on your side.
> 
> Are you joking about this or?


Nope. He's not joking.


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## lZKoce (Oct 6, 2014)

Dat ssd....dat deals.....how....I don't even....what sorcery is this?....burn him, burn him on the stake 

The closest I've got to any deal that benefit me a lot was a brand new warranty G210 for 15 euro a few years back.


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## Mussels (Oct 6, 2014)

Devon68 said:


> Wow, now you cant say that luck was never on your side.
> 
> Are you joking about this or?



nope, i rely on leet skills and grey market deals for all my PC goodies


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## Mussels (Oct 29, 2014)

This thread needs another update...

First off i got an older i5 HP desktop for $80. no HD, but a 3.2Ghz 2C/4T i5 w/ 6GB DDR3 1333Mhz. Currently my new games server, because the damn thing idles at 39W.
has 4x PCI-E slots, so i've put my E-sata and USB 3.0 cards in and its my file server now as well.


And the real joy - got myself one hell of a laptop for $175 + $80 for an LCD.

HP G6-2148TX

i7-3632QM (2.2-3.2GHz, 4C/8T)
Radeon 7670 2GB (OC's like a bitch)
640GB HDD (swapped to a 60GB SSD with the 640GB in the optical bay)
8GB 1600Mhz DDR3 1600Mhz
Wifi was wonky, but that was easily fixed - got a 150Mb wiffi N + bluetooth atheros in there now out of my spares.

USB 3.0, HDMI, etc.

Stock clocks while the CPU was overheating before regrease and dust removal.













HP stuck some filter over the CPU fan intake, that more than doubled the noise. smart guys.






Regreased and overclocked GPU:


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## micropage7 (Oct 29, 2014)

Mussels said:


> This thread needs another update...
> 
> First off i got an older i5 HP desktop for $80. no HD, but a 3.2Ghz 2C/4T i5 w/ 6GB DDR3 1333Mhz. Currently my new games server, because the damn thing idles at 39W.
> has 4x PCI-E slots, so i've put my E-sata and USB 3.0 cards in and its my file server now as well.
> ...


just repaste and not using thermal pads?


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## Mussels (Oct 29, 2014)

micropage7 said:


> just repaste and not using thermal pads?



socketed CPU, had paste originally. I just repasted with arctic silver ceramique that i had on hand. went from 95C and throttling to 70-75C Wprime load.


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## Sasqui (Oct 29, 2014)

Mussels said:


> This thread needs another update...
> 
> First off i got an older i5 HP desktop for $80. no HD, but a 3.2Ghz 2C/4T i5 w/ 6GB DDR3 1333Mhz. Currently my new games server, because the damn thing idles at 39W.
> has 4x PCI-E slots, so i've put my E-sata and USB 3.0 cards in and its my file server now as well.
> ...



My first reaction is "you suck"   Where'd you score the laptop?


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## Mussels (Oct 29, 2014)

Sasqui said:


> My first reaction is "you suck"   Where'd you score the laptop?



facebook sale - the price kept dropping and dropping due to no-shows over the damaged screen. once i realised it was a true quad core i was interested and went for a look, and she lowered the price even further since i was the only one to have shown up with cash ready to go instead of a sob story.

Oh i got it from $200 to $175 after the dumb face i made when i saw chocolate melted over the outside of the CPU fan intake. didn't have to say a word.


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## Sasqui (Oct 29, 2014)

Mussels said:


> facebook sale - the price kept dropping and dropping due to no-shows over the damaged screen. once i realised it was a true quad core i was interested and went for a look, and she lowered the price even further since i was the only one to have shown up with cash ready to go instead of a sob story.
> 
> Oh i got it from $200 to $175 after the dumb face i made when i saw chocolate melted over the outside of the CPU fan intake. didn't have to say a word.



Huh, they didn't charge extra for the chocolate?  lol

Jokes aside, nice score!  Buying and selling - it's all about patience and luck.


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## Mussels (Oct 29, 2014)

it almost upsets me, i spent about $300 getting a secondary desktop up and running, and native res vs native res, this laptops faster XD


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Oct 29, 2014)

I cannot find any deals for stuff in my area. People think a x4 955 combo with 8 gb of mem is worth $650. Hmm I don't think so.


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## Jetster (Oct 29, 2014)

I was given a HP laptop that a coworker said "the shop" said it needed a motherboard and too costly to fix. Sure enough it would boot but screen would go black shortly after. I pulled the MB out and put a heat gun to the Graphics chip put it back and fixed. Sold it for $100


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## Mussels (Oct 30, 2014)

screen arrived today (fast shipping!)

within 30 minutes had it all back together and working perfectly 

any benchies you guys want ran on it?


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## Devon68 (Oct 30, 2014)

Maybe you could run Cinebench R 15 if it's not any trouble.
I want to see how much better it is than my CPU which scores 375 cb


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## Naito (Oct 30, 2014)

Ah the good old Facebook buy, sell and swap groups. The perfect place for your friendly neighborhood burglar to off load their latest loot.


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## Mussels (Oct 30, 2014)

Devon68 said:


> Maybe you could run Cinebench R 15 if it's not any trouble.
> I want to see how much better it is than my CPU which scores 375 cb



I think it varies based on temperature because a second run got a lower score (not shocking, its a laptop)

First run - you can see why i pooped myself a little when i first benched this laptop.


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## Mussels (Nov 10, 2014)

oh god it happened again.


so i think i mentioned a while back i bought a laptop for like $30, with a smashed LCD and used the HD i found in it? Lets call that laptop A


Well my dad visited after a thailand holiday, hotel staff dropped his laptop and smashed it. image came on screen once for me, and wouldnt boot after that.

i had a laptop that worked but needed ram and HDD, so we put his in and... instant success. same CPU, chipset, wifi adaptor, the whole lot - despite being a different brand. pure random luck.


well today i found a 4GB stick of SO-DIMMM DDR3 1333MHz ram and a 250GB HDD in a spare parts box (i was given this box of parts with the empty case that came with the free i5 system mentioned earlier) and thought to see if i could make laptop A work through HDMI without a screen... and i noticed that a lot of the parts looked very, very similar. same sata connectors for example. same size. same resolution.

Those of you who have read this thread know what happened already. heres the pics.


Rainbow sparkles from the compaq laptop





LCD from the good laptop looking suspiciously similar to sparkles above thanks to ebay







dont touch? oh no i better put it back together






now to go find a wifi card...


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## brandonwh64 (Nov 10, 2014)

I know there are bios hacks to allow unsupported cards. I used one on a old IBM Thinkpad to install a intel wireless G card. Try to google the model number around and see if someone has modded a bios for it.


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## Mussels (Nov 10, 2014)

brandonwh64 said:


> I know there are bios hacks to allow unsupported cards. I used one on a old IBM Thinkpad to install a intel wireless G card. Try to google the model number around and see if someone has modded a bios for it.



i had a compatible atheros chip on hand, its working fine in windows 7 already 

$20 for a new battery, will be here before friday.


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## Mussels (Sep 8, 2015)

bump for another win

a friend moving overseas donated his 'old dual core' PC to me  - minus video card and RAM, which he took with him. friggin i5 with a mobo better than my main PC (same socket, 1155)

http://ark.intel.com/products/53446/Intel-Core-i5-2320-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_30-GHz
http://www.msi.com/product/mb/Z77AG45.html#hero-overview


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## Jetster (Sep 8, 2015)

A friend gave me this highly abused Toshiba C855D S5303
AMD Dual core and DDR3 Hard drive was good
WTF did her kid do to this thing?
Sold it for $30 on CL

















She also gave me this ASUS Eee
Missing the D key but it works


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## Mussels (Sep 8, 2015)

front USB ports were smashed, mobo and CPU look shiny (i cleaned off the paste to ID it)


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## P4-630 (Sep 8, 2015)

Mussels said:


> front USB ports were smashed, mobo and CPU look shiny (i cleaned off the paste to ID it)



How can someone damage ALL front usb ports like that!?


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## Mussels (Sep 8, 2015)

P4-630 said:


> How can someone damage ALL front usb ports like that!?



my current goal is to find out how to replace them, as its a very nice case. (antec solo II)


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## P4-630 (Sep 8, 2015)

Mussels said:


> my current goal is to find out how to replace them, as its a very nice case. (antec solo II)



Hope you can fix it, good luck with it!


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## Jetster (Sep 8, 2015)

Mussels said:


> my current goal is to find out how to replace them, as its a very nice case. (antec solo II)



Just e mail them. They will probably just mail you one for free. Same thing happen to my P180 and they sent me one. My kids were little then and just jammed stuff in them
Case Front I/O Panel   http://support.antec.com


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## Mussels (Sep 8, 2015)

Jetster said:


> Just e mail them. They will probably just mail you one for free. Same thing happen to my P180 and they sent me one. My kids were little then and just jammed stuff in them
> Case Front I/O Panel   http://support.antec.com



i'm trying that now, but if logitech and other companies are anything to go by the Au versions of their support is a joke.


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## remixedcat (Sep 8, 2015)

While Logitech has given me two G700s's this year from problems with the G700.


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## Jetster (Sep 8, 2015)

Yeah if you get the right person sometime they will do you a solid. Problems is most of the good support people have moved on from dealing with idiots


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## MIRTAZAPINE (Sep 8, 2015)

Gosh I love this thread so much. So much good hardware there! I am so jealous you got at a good price! I would love to fix all of that! There no such things in my area. To fix the front io I would just buy usb of the same type and and use glue to fit at that area. I have been planning to do this my faulty io for my pc.

A decent skill techie is able to fix all those hardware easily.


You are sure cashing in a lot on people ignorance. Sometimes it is just because of frustration that people would want to get rid of their computer at a low price. Even hardware with decent specs.


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## remixedcat (Sep 8, 2015)

For fixing something that took me literally 2 minutes I got a netgear nighthawk R7000 as payment... ha ha... that's a 200  dollar router.


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## Mussels (Sep 8, 2015)

had to get the air compressor into that i5 system - doing the windows 8 to windows 10 upgrade now (clean 8 install, it had no drive)

BIOS seemed to think it could OC the CPU to 3.7GHz, curious how fast it actually gets.


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## Mussels (Oct 22, 2015)

ah lads, its happened again.

so, got given a box of random shit again - this time for helping someone choose an ISP.
40GB IDE hard drives, cables for PS2's, USB 2.0 wifi G adaptors, three pentium 4 CPU's...
Shitty iomega USB 2.0 enclosure with no power brick? better smash it open and laugh at the contents.






Oh.
Fucking score!


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## Jetster (Oct 22, 2015)

Samsung Spinpoint 5400


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## Mussels (Oct 22, 2015)

Jetster said:


> Samsung Spinpoint 5400



who cares, its 2TB 

working condition too, full of their pirated movies and TV shows. at a guess they lost the power brick and assumed it was dead?


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## Jetster (Oct 22, 2015)

Good find. Delete the partition before you fine something really bad


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## Mussels (Oct 22, 2015)

Jetster said:


> Good find. Delete the partition before you fine something really bad



I found some very unflattering nudes on a galaxy S1 i bought for my mother, so i've fallen victim to that in the past XD


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## Devon68 (Oct 22, 2015)

2TB drive. You lucky bastard. Nice score.


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## Mussels (Nov 11, 2015)

had another win today, went to the tip and got a bunch of stuff for $5 (as in, $5 total)

Wifi N600 dual band range extender repeater
i5 750 + motherboard + 2GB of ram
Intel N600 dual band wifi (for my laptop)
Q6600 + 8GB DDR2 800Mhz
Asus mATX case + thermaltake PSU


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## Steevo (Nov 11, 2015)

Send me the Q6600 and 8GB you must........


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## remixedcat (Nov 11, 2015)

damn I want that RAM and wifi adapter!


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## Mussels (Nov 11, 2015)

remixedcat said:


> damn I want that RAM and wifi adapter!



there was two of the wifi adaptors, one ran at 80C and invisible to windows so it met a hammer.

got some more ram but its untested hence the no pics:

7x2GB of DDR2 800Mhz
2x4GB 1333Mhz DDR3 SODIMM/laptop
so many 1GB/512MB DDR2 desktop sticks i'm tempted to throw them away.


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## remixedcat (Nov 11, 2015)

DDR2 RAM is too freakin expensive and hubby n eeds moar and he's got a DDR2 amd mobo. 

~$30 on ebay for 2x2GB. not cheap but definitely affordable if you got a 4 slot board.


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## rtwjunkie (Nov 11, 2015)

Mussels said:


> there was two of the wifi adaptors, one ran at 80C and invisible to windows so it met a hammer.
> 
> got some more ram but its untested hence the no pics:
> 
> ...


Trust me, DDR2 always sells on ebay.  You'll be able to unload it all!


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## jboydgolfer (Nov 11, 2015)

Mussels said:


> I found some very unflattering nudes on a galaxy S1 i bought for my mother, so i've fallen victim to that in the past XD



jesus....when i first read that, i saw "from", instead of "for".... thank god i was wrong, for your sake.


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## Mussels (Nov 11, 2015)

jboydgolfer said:


> jesus....when i first read that, i saw "from", instead of "for".... thank god i was wrong, for your sake.



hahaha, my mum has a filthy sense of humour so if she had more mobile data she'd throw some scat porn on for me to find.


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## Mussels (Jan 14, 2016)

So...

I got this free.


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## Sasqui (Jan 14, 2016)

Mussels said:


> So...
> 
> I got this free.



Hooopoly Christ, 62C @5 Ghz!  Is 50x really the max multi on that chip?


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## Mussels (Jan 15, 2016)

Sasqui said:


> Hooopoly Christ, 62C @5 Ghz!  Is 50x really the max multi on that chip?




its a K so it can go higher. 5Ghz i'm having a little bit of stability issues at idle, so i see no point trying above that just yet.


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## cdawall (Jan 15, 2016)

I don't know how much I like this thread lol


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## Toothless (Jan 15, 2016)

My turn.

While back in highschool learning advanced flight techniques, a friend of mine had a (at the time mind you) pretty decent laptop. Quad, APU, 500GB HDD and 8GB mismatched memory. It was a tad upgraded from stock but who cares, it worked.

Fast forward, he dropped it in the street, bent the VGA port, damaged case, and managed to make the screen a spider web of color-changing goodness. He was about to trash it.

Well I was using this little netbook with a N270 in it and goodness it was bad. Big kid with tiny pooter'. 

He gave me his damaged laptop.

$70 for correct memory since it kept crashing the wifi (I had a thread about that) and $80 for a nice glossy screen replacement. Wonderful.

Same laptop that melted it's original power brick, heat issues (overclocked 1ghz over stock) and constant bsing. I still use it daily.

$400 laptop w/ decent overclocking at $150. Now runs a SSD for more speedyness. I love it.


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## Mussels (Apr 24, 2016)

Oops i did it again, i necroed a thread, cause i got free/cheap shit:






Asus Xonar DG
AMD 5450 1GB - passive cooled
Galaxy Nvidia GT640 2GB
Pentium G620 (2 core, 2.6GHz 1155)
Asus P8H61 1155 mobo


$20 
I'ma make me a file server, since my 4 bay E-sata enclosure died, but the drives survived.


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## dorsetknob (Apr 24, 2016)

Should report you to the mods for repeatedly reviving necroed threads
Ps lucky B*****D some Cheap goodies there


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## Mussels (Apr 24, 2016)

i'm short an 1155 cooler 

booooo


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## Ferrum Master (Apr 24, 2016)

I clicked... and I really expected Mussels again causing me being jealous...


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## Mussels (Apr 24, 2016)

hilariously enough the PCI SATA cards i intend to use to fit more hard drives on that motherboard are the exact same ones from page 1, post 25 i used to test that first lucky SSD - assuming they work in windows 10


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## Ferrum Master (Apr 24, 2016)

Mussels said:


> hilariously enough the PCI SATA cards i intend to use to fit more hard drives on that motherboard are the exact same ones from page 1, post 25 i used to test that first lucky SSD - assuming they work in windows 10



I actually have a struggle... I have a abit i815 board with Pentium III-S 1.4GHz... that b*tch doesn't install XP using silicon image sata PCI controllers and VIA ones fail to work at all... the silicon image ones freeze after first reboot to XP... such a pain 

I just wan't to show off in CPU-Z benchmark thread, the darn CPU clocks really good @1.7GHz... if I only still had my 694D dualie... it would kick the socks of all Pentium 4 lol... Also I need to repair one X-Fi Elite Pro without fear frying the whole PCI bus off


----------



## Mussels (Jun 12, 2016)

I need to post in this thread again.

Got a dell E6500 laptop for free (core 2 duo 2.5GHz, 4GB DDR2 800MHz, 120GB HDD, Geforce 9300) - $18 on ebay for a charger and i already had the $100+ expensive docking station for it in the shed. No idea what to do with it yet, but it runs W7 really well.

Also my brother managed to have his PC fail in a spectacular fashion (old BIOS issue cropped up regarding his RAM making it hard to post without generic ram he didn't have on hand, dirt in PCI-E slot 2 causing all slots to refuse to work, dead PSU)

I was given permission to keep whatever parts i fixed.

So far that includes: i7 3770k, 16GB 1866Mhz ram, asrock Z77 Extreme 4 mobo. PSU had burnt coils however.


----------



## dorsetknob (Jun 12, 2016)

I Swear you just get Dumped Bargains ( lucky Sod ) just so you can Bump this 30 month old Thread


Mussels said:


> I was given permission to keep whatever parts i fixed.


That's Only Fair
If you did'nt "fix Them"..... then they are recycle/landfill


----------



## Mussels (Jun 12, 2016)

this thread will live on forever, as long as i keep finding cool stuff


----------



## Caring1 (Jun 12, 2016)

Nice motherboard too, I've got 3 of them, one is ATX like that, the other two are m-ATX.


----------



## D007 (Jun 12, 2016)

Mussels said:


> I need to post in this thread again.
> 
> Got a dell E6500 laptop for free (core 2 duo 2.5GHz, 4GB DDR2 800MHz, 120GB HDD, Geforce 9300) - $18 on ebay for a charger and i already had the $100+ expensive docking station for it in the shed. No idea what to do with it yet, but it runs W7 really well.
> 
> ...



How in the sam hell did he get dirt in his memory slots? lmao.. I'm dyin here...


----------



## Mussels (Jun 12, 2016)

D007 said:


> How in the sam hell did he get dirt in his memory slots? lmao.. I'm dyin here...



humid area (right by the beach) means dust bunnies get pretty solid + potentially moist.

 looked like dust + carpet fluff inside the PSU, i'm assuming the same stuff got into the PCI-E slot. Problems started removing and re-inserting the second GPU in a crossfire setup, so its possible that physical movement knocked dust off the top GPU, into the second slot and down further into the PSU in the one convenient 'fuck you' of bad luck.


----------



## AsRock (Jun 12, 2016)

Mussels said:


> I need to post in this thread again.
> 
> Got a dell E6500 laptop for free (core 2 duo 2.5GHz, 4GB DDR2 800MHz, 120GB HDD, Geforce 9300) - $18 on ebay for a charger and i already had the $100+ expensive docking station for it in the shed. No idea what to do with it yet, but it runs W7 really well.
> 
> ...




What PSU was he running before it blow up ?,

Been meaning to post here my self as my neighbor gave me a Dell XPS 8500 which all so she gave me the Dell 4550 which i gave them some 5-6 years ago lol. 

Sadly her husband died a few months ago due to cancer who were married some 45 years.


----------



## Mussels (Jun 12, 2016)

AsRock said:


> What PSU was he running before it blow up ?,
> 
> Been meaning to post here my self as my neighbor gave me a Dell XPS 8500 which all so she gave me the Dell 4550 which i gave them some 5-6 years ago lol.
> 
> Sadly her husband died a few months ago due to cancer who were married some 45 years.



corsair HX750, it's under warranty still.

the dell laptop i got is surprisingly fast - it can play old games like CoD4 on low settings fairly well. 1080p H265 media playback only uses 30% or so of the GPU, so its a great HTPC/student laptop i guess.


----------



## silentbogo (Jun 12, 2016)

And I'm sitting here like an idiot, fixing a stupid fake-of-a-ripoff Android TV box for my neighbor... 
I should go buy some stuff.

In line with bragging about deals:
1) Let me present you a perfectly working GTX750 (1GB, non-Ti) for a low price of $20! Bought it last Saturday from a previous owner.
It was diagnosed as "faulty GPU, cheaper to buy a new one, sucka-a-a" by a legit tech at one of the local ASUS service centers.
Observed rippling on the monitor was actually from a dirty VGA port 


2) Secon score of the week is a $5 Acer D1800B-ITX
Also diagnosed "dead", but it just had a few kinks on the infamous VGA port (image is perfect on HDMI out).


----------



## D007 (Jun 12, 2016)

Mussels said:


> humid area (right by the beach) means dust bunnies get pretty solid + potentially moist.
> 
> looked like dust + carpet fluff inside the PSU, i'm assuming the same stuff got into the PCI-E slot. Problems started removing and re-inserting the second GPU in a crossfire setup, so its possible that physical movement knocked dust off the top GPU, into the second slot and down further into the PSU in the one convenient 'fuck you' of bad luck.



Well there's something I should watch for too then.. In Florida, by the beach.. I could see how that might happen.. 
Oops..lol


----------



## Iceni (Jun 13, 2016)

I had a fanless PC dropped off for spares a few weeks ago. 

i5 2400s
z77  motherboard.
Ram was shot.
PSU was shot (small form factor power brick type)
120gb ssd
2tb spinner
TVS TV card.

All for free. I have spare ram already, And it runs fine with a regular PSU, So All I need to pick up is the mini PSU. 

Case is 100% passive.











No idea what I'm going to do with it yet.


----------



## Mussels (Jun 13, 2016)

damn that thing is sexy, i want one


----------



## Jetster (Jun 13, 2016)

Why stock photos? Let see it


----------



## Iceni (Jun 13, 2016)

I have a funeral today, but will post pics when I get chance tomorrow.


----------



## dorsetknob (Jun 13, 2016)

Iceni said:


> Ram was shot.
> PSU was shot (small form factor power brick type)





Iceni said:


> I have a funeral today, but will post pics when I get chance tomorrow.


 That's mighty Decent of you
to give the Ram and power brick a Funeral


----------



## Iceni (Jun 13, 2016)

It's h67 not z77. Just noticed on actually looking. The rest of it has been dropped in another rig for testing.

Unfortunately it's the wifes fathers funeral. PC wasn't his tho, He was a film camera man, and we seem to have a pair of his leicas in the house from him.


----------



## Mussels (Jun 13, 2016)

i've got a few half height GPU's here, so one of those would be amazeballs for a HTPC/steam streamer.


----------



## Iceni (Jun 13, 2016)

I was actually thinking about using it for home security with a few cameras. I can stick it in the roof space and remote desktop it. Been intel I can use real temp to monitor it, and there are no fans to suck in dirt.


----------



## Mussels (Jun 13, 2016)

Iceni said:


> I was actually thinking about using it for home security with a few cameras. I can stick it in the roof space and remote desktop it. Been intel I can use real temp to monitor it, and there are no fans to suck in dirt.



sounds like an awesome use for it, stick an SSD in and no moving parts to fail


----------



## dorsetknob (Jun 13, 2016)

when  i was working we used to call those things


----------



## Mussels (Oct 25, 2016)

uh oh, mussels is posting again - what did he get this time

Sold an i7 system to some randoms on facebook, and they mentioned they hated going to IT stores who had no skills and couldnt fix the actual problems.

Mcgyvered some solutions up in front of their eyes and recovered 700GB of data from all their 'broken' systems (read: plugged the hard drives into the new desktop) and they donated the old systems whole, as well as paying me for the work.

1. Core 2 duo 2.2GHz laptop w/ Geforce 7400 graphics - only needs new charger + battery (scored them free from a friend who had a similar laptop die)





2. HP touchscreen AIO desktop - 2.2Ghz AM3 Athlon II x4, 4GB ram, 1TB hard drive. Nothing wrong at all, the previous 'technicians' merely hosed the OS.


----------



## Mussels (Jan 10, 2017)

Edit: i got a second one of the AMD AIO pictured above, the screens died in both in the summer heat. No video outputs, so they're officially toast.


_________________________________________________________________

Ahem.

This time around i scored three dell i5 half height desktops

i5 2400s (matx) (Gutting this to put in a full ATX case w/ a 670 and sell it)
i5 3470 (matx) (no plans... yet.)
 i5 3550 (mitx?) (shotgunned as my new server, 25W idle with the intel IGP)
2x 24" LCD monitors (1x samsung, 1x vivo) and a TP link archer D7 router with no power brick or aerials (but it works fine using the ones from my WDR-3600)


----------



## Toothless (Jan 10, 2017)

Mussels said:


> Edit: i got a second one of the AMD AIO pictured above, the screens died in both in the summer heat. No video outputs, so they're officially toast.
> 
> 
> _________________________________________________________________
> ...


Where are you getting all these goodies? I have a few friends in need of desktops and never get this lucky for them.


----------



## Mussels (Jan 10, 2017)

these were thrown out by a local business - i just happen to know three of the main players in town who buy/repair/resell on facebook groups, and get in first (i'll do a CPU swap in your laptop with liquid metal paste, if i can have that i5 kinda deals)

Pics


Bad pic idea without any scale - should have thrown a keyboard on top for reference.







Better context here with DVD drives - top ones so small its a laptop slot drive.





Look carefully at the rightmost USB ports on the top two ivy bridge systems and you'll see why they excite me so









Front ports are the same - despite being black, they're USB 3.0


----------



## Johnnyboy94 (Jan 10, 2017)

That's actually a good idea, I think it's about time I start contacting some local businesses myself


----------



## Mussels (Jan 10, 2017)

lids off:





lid off (ITX closeup)





DVD drive and HDD out of the way  (ITX )





the sandy bridge/USB 2.0 one had a gold rated PSU, the new ones did not. If i keep the ivy matx one in its case, i'll transplant the gold PSU over too.


----------



## silentbogo (Jan 10, 2017)

It's nice to have stuff for free...
Our greedy bastards want money even for completely non-working hardware (cheap, but still).
Good thing there ain't many buyers, where I get my stuff, so at least I can knock down the asking price by 50-60% if waited long enough...


----------



## Mussels (Jan 10, 2017)

honestly, these i5's are good enough to power my gtx 1080 :/

~$100 on ebay for a full ATX board and instant gaming PC.


----------



## Mussels (Jan 25, 2017)

I'll take pics in the morning, but today for $120 Au i managed to get:

MSI H110 something motherboard 
i5 6400
8GB DDR4 2400 (single 8GB stick)
600W generic PSU (doesnt seem terribad)
Thermaltake RGB mouse + keyboard (wife stole the keyboard instantly, mouse seems crappy)

Dude was told "pick the PC or me" by his GF, he chose poorly.


----------



## Frick (Jan 25, 2017)

How close were you to them, ie how much did you manupilate this poor couple? Monster.

EDIT: I got that exact USFF Dell from a trashbin at work btw, i3 equipped. It was the HDD that died. Very nice, decently quiet. I gave it to my parents to replace their Phenom II x3 Tower of Bodges.


----------



## Mussels (Jan 25, 2017)

Frick said:


> How close were you to them, ie how much did you manupilate this poor couple? Monster.



one mutual friend on facebook, he put the parts up at reasonable prices but had a 1 week deadline... i came by on day 7 to see what was left


----------



## Frick (Jan 25, 2017)

Mussels said:


> one mutual friend on facebook, he put the parts up at reasonable prices but had a 1 week deadline... i came by on day 7 to see what was left



You aussied suck on facebook obviously.


----------



## Ferrum Master (Jan 25, 2017)

Mussels said:


> Dude was told "pick the PC or me" by his GF, he chose poorly.



It is only the start... we all know that


----------



## Mussels (Jan 28, 2017)

Pics as promised, assembled into a total 'sleeper' LAN system

Crappy Asus case (tweaked)
MSI H110M PRO-VH PLUS
i5 6400 @ 3.1Ghz (3.3 turbo)
8GB DDR4 2400 (single 8GB stick)
Evga GTX 970 4GB
120GB intel SSD
optional 1TB drive in the ODD bay


Generic asus case, spiced up with Orico HDD dock instead of DVD drive, 3x USB 3.0 ports instead of card reader.





Glamour shot - theres also 4x USB 2.0 under a slide up cover at the bottom, wont really need those much.





Bum shot: nothing exciting, reinforces the 'shitty PC' look





modular PSU would help a ton internally, but this antec neo eco was the most efficient spare PSU i had around, wanted to get wattages as low as possible





wife wont let me near the keyboard as its 'hers' now, so generic images here

24W idle, 120W load with IBT + heaven DX11 at 1920x1080, 60FPS. maxed out at 240W with Vsync uncapped.


----------



## Deleted member 24505 (Jan 28, 2017)

Mussels, you're not a klepto are you


----------



## Mussels (Jan 28, 2017)

tigger said:


> Mussels, you're not a klepto are you



its ok, your parts are old - they're safe


----------



## Mussels (Feb 6, 2017)

... yeah back again.
https://www.lifewire.com/acer-aspire-v3-572g-833595 (mine is lower res, touch version)
'faulty' laptop for $250 Au
I7 -4510u, geforce 840M 2GB, 1TB HDD, 1x8GB DDR3L. 1366x768 touchscreen.

Problem? Previous owner had opened it up, and failed to screw in the wifi card, HDD, and CPU fan  on re-assembly. all three came loose, system failed to post sometimes, failed to see wifi networks, and had a rattle *facepalm*


----------



## AlienIsGOD (Feb 6, 2017)

Mussels said:


> ... yeah back again.
> https://www.lifewire.com/acer-aspire-v3-572g-833595 (mine is lower res, touch version)
> 'faulty' laptop for $250 Au
> I7 -4510u, geforce 840M 2GB, 1TB HDD, 1x8GB DDR3L. 1366x768 touchscreen.
> ...


LOL!


----------



## jboydgolfer (Feb 6, 2017)

Mussels said:


> these were thrown out by a local business



Why in the F@ck don people ever throw shit like that away around me ?! I could use a laptop


----------



## Mussels (Feb 6, 2017)

desktop equivalent performance of a 4th gen i3 (dual core + HT) with radeon 5770/geforce GT 640
screen is not damaged, thats a reflection


----------



## Mussels (Feb 18, 2017)

this time i helped a friend with his epic wins:

he upgraded someone who had motherboard problems to a budget motherboard "i hate gigabyte shit, i dont care if the new boards cheap" and was given the old board and GPU after the upgrade was done - supposedly DOA.

http://www.gigabyte.com.au/Motherboard/GA-Z87X-OC-rev-1x#ov
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Gigabyte/Z87X-OC/ (our own review, by cadaveca)

Problems:

#1. OC ignition was turned on requiring two boots to power on. Owner was flipping PSU switch instead of hitting power button -.- - 10 second fix once i asked "what the fuck is that giant glowing button for"
#2. 3.0V CMOS/BIOS batter was at 0.38V.

Oh Em Gee, i wonder why it had issues turning on but ran fine once it eventually did

Video card was a dull geforce 660Ti, but owner had slapped three different color thermal pastes on and it leaked everywhere. Unless you had three monitors connected, image was flickering like mad. Repasted, zero issues.


----------



## Mussels (Mar 16, 2017)

GTX 780 for $50 Au (~$35USD) this time around

Fan #1 was rattling/slowing down, and its the one the RPM wire was connected to causing the fan to get louder and louder over time. I simply wired that cable to fan #2 and removed #1 and got myself a great card for the spare PC


----------



## Ferrum Master (Mar 16, 2017)

Mussels said:


> GTX 780 for $50 Au (~$35USD) this time around
> 
> Fan #1 was rattling/slowing down, and its the one the RPM wire was connected to causing the fan to get louder and louder over time. I simply wired that cable to fan #2 and removed #1 and got myself a great card for the spare PC



Everflow fan... tried to get some on ebay... all two of them behaved the same :/.


----------



## Mussels (Mar 16, 2017)

$11.20 shipped from china for a replacement - that first fan location is a solid heatsink the air cant even pass through, so it seems totally redundant anyway.


----------



## silentbogo (Mar 17, 2017)

Looks like a frequent problem with Windforce.
On my last trip for junk videocard shopping there was a stack of triple-fan Windforce shrouds on the storage shelf. I should've grabbed all of those for parts as well...
Only managed to get one for free, and I already cut it in pieces for my random projects....


----------



## Mussels (Jun 22, 2017)

Today has been a glorious day for this thread

MSI GTX 980: $200
Gigabyte Windforce 980: $250

4x asus P67 motherboards with i7 2600's, 8GB 1333Mhz, corsair VX 550W PSU's - $150... total.


So you know, i'm building up some gaming PC's to sell. The i7's are doing 3.9Ghz quad, 4.1 turbo.


----------



## Toothless (Jun 22, 2017)

Mussels said:


> Today has been a glorious day for this thread
> 
> MSI GTX 980: $200
> Gigabyte Windforce 980: $250
> ...


I'd be all over them board/cpu combo if i had cash.


----------



## Mussels (Jun 22, 2017)

Toothless said:


> I'd be all over them board/cpu combo if i had cash.



i was drooling, they were being thrown out by a business that 'upgraded'

would love to know wtf they upgraded to, because with nothing more than a multi change in the BIOS they're top dogs in the CPU world at those clocks and could genuinely feed my 1080 for 4K gaming.


----------



## silentbogo (Jun 22, 2017)

Mussels said:


> would love to know wtf they upgraded to, because with nothing more than a multi change in the BIOS they're top dogs in the CPU world at those clocks and could genuinely feed my 1080 for 4K gaming.


It won't beat a web dev office I visited recently. While I was working on some stuff I was originally asked to do, their manager asked if I could look at few PCs from the perspective of upgrading (to be a near match to their newest i5-6400 systems).
One was an i7-2600+B75+120GB SSD+2x1TB HDD, another one i5-4690K w/ Z97 board, 32GB RAM and some random assortment of storage devices: from very old 250GB SATA-II HDDs to Crucial 120GB SSD for boot drive, up to 500GB Samsung 850 EVO! It was a total mess, but one hell of a high-performance mess.... Not sure how, but both systems ended up with Intel box heatsinks from Celerons and Pentiums (no copper core), so both were throttling and overheating like crazy. That haswell system was hitting near 50C on cold start in Ubuntu.


----------



## Mussels (Jun 22, 2017)

Wife saw the stash, took one look at it said "that ones mine"


Soooo... she has a GTX 980 now.


----------



## Ferrum Master (Jun 22, 2017)

Mussels said:


> Wife saw the stash, took one look at it said "that ones mine"
> 
> 
> Soooo... she has a GTX 980 now.



Sharing is caring .


----------



## Duality92 (Jun 22, 2017)

Mine did similar with the Jonsbo VR2 I reviewed for OCN xD


----------



## rtwjunkie (Jun 22, 2017)

Mussels said:


> Today has been a glorious day for this thread
> 
> MSI GTX 980: $200
> Gigabyte Windforce 980: $250
> ...


You have such luck that if you actively worked at this you could have a steady income. I wish that was me!


----------



## Mussels (Jun 24, 2017)

Todays catch was a trade in from someone with a 'crap' PC as they were buying a system i was selling


Trade in is an i5 4590 (OC'd to 4.9Ghz super easy), H97 motherboard w/ M.2 support, 16GB DDR3 1600, PCI-E wifi AC card

I mean really? Throwing THAT away?

Edit: 99C load may have been responsible... wrong stock intel heatsink, bad paste job, dust, and one pin not secured correctly -.-


----------



## Toothless (Jun 24, 2017)

Mussels said:


> Todays catch was a trade in from someone with a 'crap' PC as they were buying a system i was selling
> 
> 
> Trade in is an i5 4590 (OC'd to 4.9Ghz super easy), H97 motherboard w/ M.2 support, 16GB DDR3 1600, PCI-E wifi AC card
> ...


Can I move in with you and we can start a compooter business?


----------



## dorsetknob (Jun 24, 2017)

Mussels said:


> Todays catch was a trade in from someone with a 'crap' PC as they were buying a system i was selling


your going to have to apply for carbon credits from the aussie goverment for all your efforts to recycle computers


----------



## Mussels (Jun 24, 2017)

side note i got 4 OCZ fatality 550W PSU's without the modular cables - anyone know a cheap way to get those? My HX1000 and HX750 cables fit, but give the wrong voltages (i tested in a safe manner with a multimeter, me not silly)


----------



## Caring1 (Jun 24, 2017)

Mussels said:


> side note i got 4 OCZ fatality 550W PSU's without the modular cables - anyone know a cheap way to get those? My HX1000 and HX750 cables fit, but give the wrong voltages (i tested in a safe manner with a multimeter, me not silly)


Huh, how can cables give the wrong voltage?


----------



## Ferrum Master (Jun 24, 2017)

Caring1 said:


> Huh, how can cables give the wrong voltage?



They have different pinouts. Mirrored often.

Order the sleeved ones on ebay. I just give them the pinout drawing.


----------



## Mussels (Jun 24, 2017)

Caring1 said:


> Huh, how can cables give the wrong voltage?



12V rail is -3.3v with the incorrect cable, not exactly something i want to connect hardware to.

Modular PSU's almost never have compatible cables.

I found out this H97 board cant run past DDR3 1600, despite the BIOS having options for upto 3200... really asus? why have a feature that cant be used?


----------



## Caring1 (Jun 24, 2017)

Ferrum Master said:


> They have different pinouts. Mirrored often.
> 
> Order the sleeved ones on ebay. I just give them the pinout drawing.


That makes sense, I never considered that.


----------



## Ferrum Master (Jun 24, 2017)

Caring1 said:


> That makes sense, I never considered that.



I know one that also thought that. Burned the motherboard, SSD and sound card. Corsair wires A and B types. 

Each time pressing power on it acted like electric chair, killing everything more.


----------



## Frick (Jun 24, 2017)

Caring1 said:


> That makes sense, I never considered that.



To be fair, "wrong voltage" implies "defective voltage" meaning bad connectors, shorts or something.


----------



## r9 (Jun 24, 2017)

I was looking to add GTX 1070 to my mining setup and came across this ad on craigslist the whole machine for $650.
I'm thinking 1070 is referred  to something else.
Open the ad and what do you know it comes with 1070.
I see the ad posted a day ago.
I'm thinking this guy already has plenty of offers.
But people will always bargain or ask to hold it for them.
Also he said he would sell just the case for $500 or the whole lot for $650 and that he prefers to sell all at once.
So I txt the guy wanna buy the whole thing paying asking price cash no bs can pick it up right now.
What do you know he txt back.
He was like I'm tired of answering stupid txts all day.

i5 6600k
16GB DDR4
512GB SSD
Zotac GTX 1070
MSI z170
500w psu
PowerSpec Case
Evo 212
28" AOC Monitor
22" Samsung Monitor
Razer Naga Mouse
Razer Blackwiddow Ultimate Keyboard
2.1 Speakers
--------------------
$650

And here is one from two weeks ago

i5 6600k
Evo 212
16GB DDR4
512GB M2 SSD
1TB 3.5
Gigabyte z170 Gaming 5
650w psu
Case Corsair Crystal 460x
so everything but GPU $300

He had rx480 in but he just sold it for $150 I was too late.


----------



## Mussels (Jun 24, 2017)

r9 here knows the deal, if you just offer wads of cash 'right now' people give you the good stuff cheap


----------



## jaggerwild (Jun 24, 2017)

Never talk price before seeing the item..............


----------



## Mussels (Jun 24, 2017)

oh lawdy, these i7 2600's are doing 4.2Ghz on these mobos... i'm in heaven

(heaven 4.0 and Intel burn test, to be precise)


----------



## Mussels (Sep 23, 2017)

Ooops i britneyed again

Took my kid for a ride on his bike, went past a garage sale. They were packing up as 'nothing good is left'


----------



## Toothless (Sep 23, 2017)

Mussels said:


> Ooops i britneyed again
> 
> Took my kid for a ride on his bike, went past a garage sale. They were packing up as 'nothing good is left'


I'll do favors for one of those cards. 

Or offer to buy if you decide to sell.


----------



## Mussels (Sep 23, 2017)

the keyboards missing the palm wrest, small sads. working well otherwise - it doesnt like my front USB 3.0 ports (asmedia) but works fine on my intel ones at the rear of the system.


----------



## cdawall (Sep 25, 2017)

What cards are those?


----------



## AlienIsGOD (Sep 25, 2017)

cdawall said:


> What cards are those?


GTX 780


----------



## Mussels (Sep 26, 2017)

i mean, its not written on the fan label or anything 

they're basically 3GB 970s withg the performance they give off, quite impressed by them.


----------



## Shambles1980 (Sep 28, 2017)

I hate you..

BTW, if you decide to water cool those things you can edit the bios to remove the TDP limit, and you can get 780ti performance out of the things..
I wouldn't do it without water cooling though. 1.3ghz or so on the core with no throttling is the target if you wonder. 
(without the tdp limit bios mod it throttles regardless of power draw and temps.) 

Still
hate you.
Who gets 2 780's for about 1/2 the price of one?? damn it.


----------



## OneMoar (Sep 28, 2017)

Mussels said:


> i mean, its not written on the fan label or anything
> 
> they're basically 3GB 970s withg the performance they give off, quite impressed by them.


aren't all 970's 3GB anyway


----------



## Papahyooie (Sep 28, 2017)

Two 780's for 75 bucks... you gotta be kidding me!


----------



## Mussels (Sep 29, 2017)

both those GPUs are rehomed to family gamers who couldnt afford to update (both had 670's, which are now in my spare parts systems)

lovin the keyboard, it might be louder but its so similar to my primary keyboard (both corsair mech) that its making me feel much more at home on my second PC.


----------



## erixx (Sep 29, 2017)

A garage sale with pro looking price tags! Aussies rock


----------



## Ferrum Master (Sep 29, 2017)

aDigitalPhantom said:


> Only a few years late for this, but what about a SSD with with a Pentium2?
> 
> Maybe I should finally clean up my electronics room. It's....well it's extremely messy.



I tried with a pentium 3. Nothing that special... HDD ain't the bottleneck in those systems.


----------



## Mussels (Sep 29, 2017)

aDigitalPhantom said:


> Only a few years late for this, but what about a SSD with with a Pentium2?
> 
> Maybe I should finally clean up my electronics room. It's....well it's extremely messy.



tried it - as others have said, their bottlenecks lie elsewhere (RAM speed, PCI bus (133MB/s aint a lot) etc)
A modern mech drive speeds old systems up massively, but unless you run an equally old, really lean OS (and applications, modern browsers and websites for example are bloated af) they dont perform well.


----------



## Shambles1980 (Sep 29, 2017)

Mussels said:


> both those GPUs are rehomed to family gamers who couldnt afford to update (both had 670's, which are now in my spare parts systems)
> 
> lovin the keyboard, it might be louder but its so similar to my primary keyboard (both corsair mech) that its making me feel much more at home on my second PC.




Well i guess i cant hate you as much now.. 
Still. 2 780's for 1/2 the price of 1... 
GAHHHH!


----------



## FreedomEclipse (Sep 29, 2017)

cdawall said:


> What cards are those?



"what cards are those" He asks while its clearly printed on the center fan...

Not had your morning cup of joe yet goofy?


----------



## Mussels (Sep 29, 2017)

there are also not-wins that happen, like the dell laptop at my feet

one of these
http://www.notebookreview.com/notebookreview/dell-xps-m1710-review-pics-specs/
all seemed well, except the GPU died. Worked fine for about an hour, now i cant even reach BIOS due to the artifacting.

and because posting here isnt right without SOME kind of luck based envy:

I also got a samsung galaxy note 1 that was improperly repaired - new screen installed but the 'menu' button has a seizure and presses constantly, as well as an acer iconia tab that just needs a charger.


----------



## Frick (Sep 29, 2017)

Mussels said:


> there are also not-wins that happen, like the dell laptop at my feet
> 
> one of these
> http://www.notebookreview.com/notebookreview/dell-xps-m1710-review-pics-specs/
> all seemed well, except the GPU died. Worked fine for about an hour, now i cant even reach BIOS due to the artifacting.



An old Dell with a dead GPU ... unheard of.  Baking time!


----------



## Sasqui (Sep 29, 2017)

I gotta start going back to yard sales early on Saturdays.  You just never know and I've made some good coin reselling stuff that was one persons garbage.

My problem is I want to keep too much for myself, so I look and say NO!  Self control, self control...


----------



## Shambles1980 (Sep 29, 2017)

of recent years i dont go much to boot sales / yard sales. 
never seems to be much in the way of electronics any more. and the little there is of it seems to have EBAY prices Including postage costs. "usually cheaper just to go to cex 'as terrible as that sounds'" 

I used to go and buy the old xboxes then mod them, made good money doing that even after all the spending on new hard drives and the time it took. 
But Given i started telling people they would be better off getting a raspberry pi for xbmc (or kody as it is now) and emulating their old games. which would cost about the same and have less inherrant problems, i kind of killed off my own market, "but i cant just tell people the wrong info lol" 

The only reasons i go to boot sales/ yard sales now really is if i need a cheap monitor for something "like the pc in the caravan that does not come inside" or my brother needs a new one "because he is still using a crt from his p4 machine Which i only just upgraded for him last month"

But even then i haven't found one in the past 5 visits.

wired xbox 360 controllers are about the best thing i can find these days. and i dont think i need any more of those, i only use them for VERY few games and emulation.


----------



## cdawall (Sep 29, 2017)

FreedomEclipse said:


> "what cards are those" He asks while its clearly printed on the center fan...
> 
> Not had your morning cup of joe yet goofy?



I had not and was posting from my phone. None of that bodes well for seeing what it said


----------



## Mussels (Oct 5, 2017)

Two updates in the same week? madness!

$50 on facebook:







(i realised no IGP after this photo, and threw a 7750 on there for initial setup)


----------



## silkstone (Oct 5, 2017)

Mussels said:


> Two updates in the same week? madness!
> 
> $50 on facebook:
> 
> ...




What the actual F$%@!

All that for $50!!!!!!


----------



## Mussels (Oct 5, 2017)

silkstone said:


> What the actual F$%@!
> 
> All that for $50!!!!!!



board had issues posting on my RAM, every third post the the bios would clear and it'd work - then fail on the reboot. guy just didnt update the BIOS, W10 is installed and i'm testing away.

genuinely could make this my primary or secondary PC if the CPU performance is good (or if i throw a 1700 in there), M.2, 4x sata 3 vs 2x on my current board and 6x USB 3.1 could be worth it


----------



## yotano211 (Oct 5, 2017)

Mussels said:


> Two updates in the same week? madness!
> 
> $50 on facebook:
> 
> ...



Was the AMD processor included that?


----------



## Mussels (Oct 5, 2017)

yotano211 said:


> Was the AMD processor included that?



ryzen 5 1400, board and GPU were the combo. borrowed the DDR4 from my skylake system to get it up and running.


----------



## Filip Georgievski (Oct 5, 2017)

Nothing to brag about, but in my country these are considered good deals non the less:

1. The I5 750 i bought as an upgrade from my i3 540 was 30$ few years ago.

2. R9 280X VAPOR X i use was bought a year ago was 100$ + a free H55 Gigabyte mobo (new, never used, bought by mistake thinking it was for 1155 socket). Now it is at my dad's office rocking the I3 540 with 4GB DDR3 and on integrated GPU, with the POS Hantol i swaped from my sistem.

3. Got a Q9300 recently for 20$, cheapo upgrade for my second home PC with the P45 C51 mobo and rocking 6GB DDR3 1333Mhz and a 6770HD which i plan to upgrade.


----------



## Mussels (Oct 5, 2017)

Filip Georgievski said:


> Nothing to brag about, but in my country these are considered good deals non the less:
> 
> 1. The I5 750 i bought as an upgrade from my i3 540 was 30$ few years ago.
> 
> ...




a good deals a good deal, as long as those parts made you happy for a low price they belong in this thread 

(meanwhile i'm friggin happy with this ryzen - its no performance king, but its giving 70% the CPU performance of my primary rig, at stock clocks. Could be an epic LAN system, since its mATX)


----------



## Filip Georgievski (Oct 5, 2017)

Forgot to mention:
Got a HTC U11 + Phillips Bluetooth speaker for free at a giveaway from TMobile here as a presentation.


----------



## dorsetknob (Oct 5, 2017)

Mussels said:


> $50 on facebook:





Mussels said:


> board had issues posting on my RAM, every third post the the bios would clear and it'd work - then fail on the reboot. guy just didnt update the BIOS,





Mussels said:


> ryzen 5 1400, board and GPU were the combo



further Proof that Ryzen was a premature/Incubator Baby
Not for the inexperience to set up and get working
Knowledge and skill/expertise has Enabled you to work the "good Deal" into A respectable Bargain
Congrats ( and an Evil Eye of jealousy coming your Way )


----------



## yotano211 (Oct 5, 2017)

Mussels said:


> ryzen 5 1400, board and GPU were the combo. borrowed the DDR4 from my skylake system to get it up and running.


That is a great deal, the ryzen itself sells for much more than that.

I sent over 15min reading reviews on that ryzen 1400 and I like the reviews on it. What a killer little quad core, very impressed with it.


----------



## Kanan (Oct 7, 2017)

Mussels said:


> (meanwhile i'm friggin happy with this ryzen - its no performance king, but its giving 70% the CPU performance of my primary rig, at stock clocks. Could be an epic LAN system, since its mATX)


You should overclock it and watch it vaporise your 3770K... well okay, maybe not vaporise but actually maybe beat it


----------



## Mussels (Jan 31, 2018)

Had a few more wins i forgot to post here, but the best would be a micro ATX lenovo PC purchased for $25 as 'faulty'







Just needed a new hard drive (i used an SSD).... look what i found inside it


----------



## jboydgolfer (Jan 31, 2018)

Mussels said:


> Had a few more wins i forgot to post here, but the best would be a micro ATX lenovo PC purchased for $25 as 'faulty'
> 
> 
> 
> ...



ill PM you my shipping address.
$25 was it?


----------



## Mussels (Jan 31, 2018)

jboydgolfer said:


> ill PM you my shipping address.
> $25 was it?



netflix has never been so smooth on that system, i was told i made some hilarious faces when i realised what CPU was in there
(a friend bought the other 3, they had i3's... i just got lucky)


----------



## jboydgolfer (Jan 31, 2018)

Mussels said:


> netflix has never been so smooth on that system, i was told i made some hilarious faces when i realised what CPU was in there
> (a friend bought the other 3, they had i3's... i just got lucky)


My nephew has the dell SFF optiplex, which his friends always are surprised by its hp. It has 16gb ram, a i5, and a 750ti. Imagine someone finding it in a dumpster. Id harvest it before hand tho. but his friends will come over, and see how tiny it is, and expect performance to suite its size, but they are apparently surprised often.


----------



## Mussels (Jan 31, 2018)

jboydgolfer said:


> My nephew has the dell SFF optiplex, which his friends always are surprised by its hp. It has 16gb ram, a i5, and a 750ti. Imagine someone finding it in a dumpster. Id harvest it before hand tho. but his friends will come over, and see how tiny it is, and expect performance to suite its size, but they are apparently surprised often.



that is literally what i just upgraded from, had one that was originally an intel atom and upgraded to the 3550 - and now sidegraded over to a larger size, but a crazy amount of grunt for an SFF system


----------



## jboydgolfer (Jan 31, 2018)

Mussels said:


> that is literally what i just upgraded from, had one that was originally an intel atom and upgraded to the 3550 - and now sidegraded over to a larger size, but a crazy amount of grunt for an SFF system



i would have built him a PC, but a friend who works for dell brought it by, bnib, and even if i didnt want it, it would have been rude to not accept it . It would have continued to be sufficient, but my nephew was recently given a 55" 4k TV, which he has connected to the Optiplex, and as im sure Your aware, that PC is not capable of driving those resolutions.....so i told him, i am not going to build him a 4K capable PC, but i will do my best to build a PC that can drive as well as possible.

the good part, is that when i Do upgrade his PC, i can sell off what parts of value there are in the optiplex, which arent TOO valuable, but do have some resale worth


----------



## _JP_ (Jan 31, 2018)

Mussels said:


> Had a few more wins i forgot to post here, but the best would be a micro ATX lenovo PC purchased for $25 as 'faulty'
> 
> 
> 
> ...


M93 right? I have a few of those to play with, M92 too, nice little machines, easy to setup too, despite zero OC options.


----------



## jboydgolfer (Jan 31, 2018)

_JP_ said:


> M93 right?


Thats what it looks like


----------



## Mussels (Jan 31, 2018)

M83, older than you guys think


----------



## _JP_ (Feb 1, 2018)

Mussels said:


> M83, older than you guys think


The M83 and M93 are both from the same year, 2013 
It's just the M93 had some extra features and/or expansion ability over the M83...that and M9x usually have a card reader at the front, so yeah, M83 it is.


----------



## Atomic77 (Feb 3, 2018)

First of all saying nobody can read on the internet is not true. I am one of many that can read.  I don’t know much about computer parts but that looks like a good find.


----------



## rtwjunkie (Feb 3, 2018)

Atomic77 said:


> First of all saying nobody can read on the internet is not true. I am one of many that can read.  I don’t know much about computer parts but that looks like a good find.


What are you talking about with the no reading thing?  I'm sure I am not the only one you have confused.


----------



## Atomic77 (Feb 3, 2018)

This is what I was referring too.


Mussels said:


> So lemme tell you a lil' story, with pictures cause no one can read on the internets.
> 
> 
> One day a mussels was on facebook, and saw a girl selling a broken laptop for $20. so he bought it thinking "eh, i'll help this girl out. maybe i can fix it"
> ...


----------



## silentbogo (Feb 3, 2018)

Well, @Mussels ,  now I'm gonna hijack your thread and brag about my freebies! 

#1 Got a Gigabyte GSmart Guru G1 (too many of G's). I've fixed it a few times before for my neighbor, so he promised to give it to me when it breaks the next time.
Few days ago he dropped that phone and broke a digitizer... The pic looks scary, but the phone is OK. I was simply trying out my new screen separation tool.
The new digitizer should arrive monday.


#2 Bought a dozen of SFF PC cases from a local warehouse (defective/flawed but 100% new). Cases are already gone, but they gave me about 100+ non-working PSUs as a bonus.
... time to start making tesla coils.... lots of tesla coils....
I've already fixed a few 600W 80+ Bronze units. Only a "couple more" to go 



#3 A mining motherboard! AsRock H81 Pro BTC. Diagnosed as "non-working" at some service center, but so far it worked for 2 days, passed all stability tests, and had no issues w/ GPUs.
I'm not good at cryptomining, so I might use it for something else (or trade it for something useful).


#4 Broken, but soon gonna be working, WiFi/Ether IP Cam.
Forgot to make a photo of the whole thing, but it's a 2MP chinese IP camera(heavily reworked foscam clone w/ better hardware and firmware) with two servo motors, WiFi, Ethernet, SD card slot, IR floodlight and tons of other features.
The CPU was dead, but fortunately for me the replacement IC only costs $5.
Here's a before-after photoshoot of the SoC removal process.

Under normal circumstances I would've left it alone in the box, or reused a camera module for my DIY USB microscope, but unfortunately I got my motivation for repairing this thing from a recent robbery. Luckily for me thieves only managed to snatch a few broken laptops before security arrived. 
The new SoC is also on the way, so if it works, I might just save $100 on a new security camera.


----------



## AlienIsGOD (Feb 3, 2018)

Atomic77 said:


> First of all saying nobody can read on the internet is not true. I am one of many that can read.  I don’t know much about computer parts but that looks like a good find.


sarcasm must be a new wonder to you....


----------



## Mussels (Feb 4, 2018)

I got one of these as well, 'tested as doa' - they were going to be violent with it






Works 100%, all thats wrong is if you use the fan header for system fan 1, the PC wont post. Very odd, but totally leaves a working mobo when you ignore that...


----------



## silentbogo (Feb 4, 2018)

Mussels said:


> Works 100%, all thats wrong is if you use the fan header for system fan 1, the PC wont post. Very odd, but totally leaves a working mobo when you ignore that...


Gotta check that diode near SYSFAN1 connector. I think what happened, is it failed and now there is nothing to suppress the shootback noise from fan motor.
Alternatively, it could be a nearby capacitor. MSI always advertises those as "military grade" or some other bullshit, but they fail just as often as others.
Though, caps on mid- to high-end boards are a real pain in the ass to solder...


----------



## Komshija (Feb 7, 2018)

I never got any great deals. However, I managed to negotiate slightly lower prices for certain hardware (used and new in the stores) and sell them for slightly more. For instance, not so long ago I sold completely new PC to my neighbour. Total price with deliveries was around 4700 kn / 630 €. I assembled it, installed the necessary software and sold it for 5200 kn / 700 €. At the local store they would pay for such (complete) system approx. 5500 kn or 735 €.

Some time ago I bought used iPhone 6S 64 GB with valid warranty in mint condition for 3000 kn / 400 € and sold it for 3400 kn / 455 €. The girl was selling it for 3200 kn / 430 €, but I managed to lower the price to 3000 kn / 400 €, despite I was aiming at 2800 kn / 375 €. The fun fact is that I "sold" the phone before I actually had it.  So, as you can see my deals aren't that great.


----------



## Mussels (Feb 14, 2018)

Just won a competition on the logitech facebook page, won myself the powerplay wireless charging mousepad worth $150 Au

... and its compatible with my logitech G403, winnnnaaaaaar!


----------



## Mussels (Feb 18, 2018)

Cloth pad is a perfect match for the G403/G703, low noise and low friction






despite G403 being 'unsupported' the pad is both charging it, and working as the receiver


----------



## Sasqui (Apr 6, 2018)

A recent trip into the local IT department reveals about 2 dozen Dell PC's (HEDTs for CAD work).  I ask about them, our IT guy says they're going to be "re-purposed" but he's got to recycle the pile of old laptops by my feet.  There's about 2 dozen older Dells... he's ok if I grab a few, the HDD's are gone.

I snap pics of the service tags.  Most are junk but... two with i7 CPUs!  So here's what I scored:

Precision M6800:  Core i7-4810MQ / 16GB DDR3 / 17.3" 1080P / FirePro M6100 2GB  (The downside of this one is that although it supposedly works, it was literally run over a car, so the case is in rough shape, plus no battery)
Precision M6500:  Core i7-820QM / 4GB DDR3 / 17" 1080P / FirePro M7749 1GB




Assuming it works... The M6500 I plan to connect to my TV as a media client and living-room PC for surfing, etc.  Not sure what to do with the M6800, maybe part it out or see if components can be swapped.


----------



## anselmo (Apr 6, 2018)

"Bloody nora" - James May. For real, those are great finds. Specially the Kingston drive. Wow, those deals never appear here in this god forgotten land.


----------



## Jetster (Apr 6, 2018)

I love how old Dells have dents in them


----------



## Mussels (Apr 7, 2018)

nice laptops!

I scored myself an $800 VR headset for $300, but while its fun thats not as epic as the 'free shit' this thread is mostly about


----------



## Sasqui (Apr 7, 2018)

Jetster said:


> I love how old Dells have dents in them



That's the one that was driven over by a truck, literally.  The screen was replaced and it still worked for the owner.  It boots fine... that's pretty impressive.  The battery in the M6500 seems to be kaput, but that too boots just fine.  Neither has a BIOS password either.

Edit:  Stopped in a work and found 4 batteries for the M6500.  The old one was definitely shot, replacement is charging fine.  Also ordered a Win 7 re-install and driver package USB from Dell at $19.99  ...I'm not a fan of downloading 20 files and taking a stab at the correct install order or what drivers are really needed.  The only other things I need now are a HDD and USB Bluetooth adaptor


----------



## Mussels (Apr 27, 2018)

I keep winning mice and mouse pads off facebook/gaming competitions...







Razer Mamba TE (LAN party, CoD2 comp)
Razer Deathadder Elite (FB comp, local store)
Razer Basilisk (most recent, razers FB page)
G700/G700s: got the G700 at half price due to a pricing mixup, got the 700s free from someone who won it, but didnt want it
Logitech Powerplay mousepad + G703: Logitechs FB page. Kinda nice never having to recharge a wireless mouse, after the 700's going flat in under 48 hours.
Shitty logitech laptop mice: Free, but ugh. horrible.


----------



## Mussels (Apr 29, 2018)

Got another one: Got a PC and all its accesories for $250

Came with: 
3x monitors
Razer Blackwidow Chroma TE (v1)
Logitech G602
Logitech G230 headset
8GB ram
i5 3550
6x assorted hard drives
corsair PSU
GT 750Ti 2TB


----------



## _JP_ (Apr 29, 2018)

For that price, that is awesome!!


----------



## Mussels (Apr 30, 2018)

i got a GTX 1050ti 4GB for $150, slapped it into that PC and now i can probably sell it for about 4x what i paid for it XD


----------



## _JP_ (Apr 30, 2018)

I was going to say that 150$ for a 1050ti isn't that low of a price for that card, but then I remembered that you're in Australia. 
Those are going for around 150€ here, including taxes. Since USD to EUR price conversion is usually 1:1 (or thereabouts), at first it doesn't sound like a good deal.


----------



## Mussels (Apr 30, 2018)

the 1050ti was close to retail price, but local buyers would take a 1030 over a 980ti, they only care about the bigger number... that 1050ti will add $400 to the sale price because people are dumb.


----------



## Melvis (Apr 30, 2018)

I got a 1156 Gigabyte Mobo, 2x Sapphire 7850's and an i3 for free, bought a i7 860 for $45 shipped, installed left over 8GB DDR3 RAM, put in 2x500GB HDD's (Spare from other clients dead PC's) put it all into a new Bitfenix Case and sold it for $800. 

Bought a PC off facebook site unseen for $30, was a socket 1150 Gigabyte Mobo, Dual core Pentium 2.8GHz, 4Gb DDR3 RAM, 500GB HDD, Gigabyte M3 Case, DVD Burner, Windows 7 Sticker, had W10 installed. Sold it for $250and got there old PC for nothing.


----------



## Caring1 (May 29, 2018)

I bought an Acer Laptop off eBay ($80 delivered) with supposed screen issues, the backlight had failed according to them.
I got the lappy this morning, pulled the LVDS cable and re-inserted it, the screen works perfectly.
I now have a nearly new i3 quad core Laptop with 4Gb Ram running W10 Pro on a new 240 Gb SSD they had installed.


----------



## Mussels (May 29, 2018)

Caring1 said:


> I bought an Acer Laptop off eBay ($80 delivered) with supposed screen issues, the backlight had failed according to them.
> I got the lappy this morning, pulled the LVDS cable and re-inserted it, the screen works perfectly.
> I now have a nearly new i3 quad core Laptop with 4Gb Ram running W10 Pro on a new 240 Gb SSD they had installed.



that free SSD is exactly the kind of win i love to get


----------



## remixedcat (May 30, 2018)

traded a member here for a  very nice lenovo w530 laptop and it's awesome. workin pretty good.


----------



## Papahyooie (May 30, 2018)

remixedcat said:


> traded a member here for a  very nice lenovo w530 laptop and it's awesome. workin pretty good.



Glad to hear it! The network stuff is running swimmingly too.


----------



## remixedcat (May 30, 2018)

kewelll


----------



## Mussels (Sep 11, 2018)

$50 Au on facebook


----------



## Ferrum Master (Sep 11, 2018)

Mussels said:


> $50 Au on facebook



Hmm. Apply this... actually very close looking.


----------



## Deleted member 178884 (Sep 11, 2018)

Mussels said:


> $50 Au on facebook


Time to dump gumtree


jk but holy crap you've got insane luck right here.


----------



## Sasqui (Sep 11, 2018)

Here's the latest from my corner:

Bought at a yard sale for $10, had a few electronic issues, Sold on eBay for $150 + shipping




Got for free at work in recycle pile, sold on eBay for $205 + shipping

"DELL PRECISION M6800 i7-4810MQ@2.80 GHz M6100 BOOTS / BSODS for PARTS or REPAIR "


----------



## Deleted member 178884 (Sep 11, 2018)

Sasqui said:


> Here's the latest from my corner:
> 
> Bought at a yard sale for $10, had a few electronic issues, Sold on eBay for $150 + shipping
> View attachment 106608
> ...


"recycle pile" well whoever threw that out made you nice profit....


----------



## Sasqui (Sep 11, 2018)

Xx Tek Tip xX said:


> "recycle pile" well whoever threw that out made you nice profit....



Yes... plus:

Two perfectly fine M6400 laptops yet to sell, those are fetching from $75 to $200
One M6500 i7 with NVIDIA works perfectly, I'm keeping it, using it for crunching now   Those are fetching around $300


----------



## Deleted member 178884 (Sep 11, 2018)

Sasqui said:


> Yes... plus:
> 
> Two perfectly fine M6400 laptops yet to sell, those are fetching from $75 to $200
> One M6500 i7 with NVIDIA works perfectly, I'm keeping it, using it for crunching now   Those are fetching around $300


Your hired now find me deals.







Jokes aside I still need to save up since there is always resellable stuff around just the travel expenses or not having the cash saved in the first place, excellent work.


----------



## Sasqui (Sep 11, 2018)

Xx Tek Tip xX said:


> Your hired now find me deals.
> Jokes aside I still need to save up since there is always resellable stuff around just the travel expenses or not having the cash saved in the first place, excellent work.



Gotta keep your eyes open.  I'll be going to more yard sales come spring, looking for vintage audio equipment.  If that Kenwood was in working order, it would have fetched well over $500!  The guy that bought it is in WY, and fixes / collects vintage equipment.  He had no problem paying shipping for a 40 pound (yea no lie) unit.

The laptops were a find... I poked through a pile of about 15 of them, jotted the service tag numbers and punched each into Dells website to see what they were made of, those 4 laptops were the ones worth grabbing and the IT guy said "take 'em, they're just going to be recycled"!


----------



## Deleted member 178884 (Sep 11, 2018)

Sasqui said:


> Gotta keep your eyes open.


For certain that's the key in deal hunting - Time to save up again.


----------



## Mussels (Oct 20, 2018)

Scored myself a logitech G903 mouse for $60 second hand, but 'as new' with box and all accessories
paired with the powerplay pad i won off facebook, this is one hella nice setup for a low price

edit: something about the RGB lights screws with the camera, and defocuses it - cant take nice pics


----------



## Ferrum Master (Oct 20, 2018)

Mussels said:


> Scored myself a logitech G903 mouse for $60 second hand, but 'as new' with box and all accessories
> paired with the powerplay pad i won off facebook, this is one hella nice setup for a low price
> 
> edit: something about the RGB lights screws with the camera, and defocuses it - cant take nice pics



Do it manual dude.

And... cmoon... keyboards needs more love.


----------



## lexluthermiester (Oct 20, 2018)

Mussels said:


> Scored myself a logitech G903 mouse for $60 second hand, but 'as new' with box and all accessories
> paired with the powerplay pad i won off facebook, this is one hella nice setup for a low price
> 
> edit: something about the RGB lights screws with the camera, and defocuses it - cant take nice pics


Oh goodness that keyboard needs a bath! Cringey that..


----------



## erixx (Oct 20, 2018)




----------



## 27MaD (Oct 20, 2018)

RCoon said:


> You son of a *****


----------



## Sasqui (Oct 20, 2018)

erixx said:


>



I have washed a keyboard in my dishwasher, it worked great!  That was AFTER letting it sit on a radiator for about a week.  I've done the same with a few grungy remotes.

Can't say I've ever done a motherboard.  However, I have one that died last week, so I may try it as a last resort


----------



## Mussels (Oct 21, 2018)

ITS REALLY DUSTY HERE


----------



## lexluthermiester (Oct 21, 2018)

Mussels said:


> ITS REALLY DUSTY HERE


Ok, shutting up..


----------



## Frick (Oct 21, 2018)

Mussels said:


> $50 Au on facebook



Yeah on Facebook there are deals to be had, but you have to live there in my experience. My sisters boyfriend always gets good prices on many things, but he spends like hours per day lurking around, waiting for prey to show itself.

I really hate doing that, so it's just slow old expensive swedish ebay for me, where "old" means "retro" which means "expensive". It's the same on most fleamarkets, and anyway when they are supposed to open at 9 people (generally old people who are being obnoxious while they're waiting to die) are there from like 6 or even earlier so all the good stuff is gone even before the official opening time. And also "here's an old mouse covered in grime RETRO RETRO RETRO €20" or literally broken low end stereo equipment from the early 90's "RETRO RARE PIONEER WHERE THE AMP IS LITERALLY CRAP, LIKE LITERALLY MADE FROM POO AND COPPER €50".

I hate this and people with a passion.



Mussels said:


> ITS REALLY DUSTY HERE



Don't you have a child? If it can walk it can scrub.


----------



## Mussels (Oct 22, 2018)

Frick said:


> Don't you have a child? If it can walk it can scrub.



theres a reason some of the LED's in that keyboard only do red now, and its due to a child 'scrubbing' with a toy train


----------



## Melvis (Oct 23, 2018)

Got this 8GB 580 yesterday for $120 Australian or $85 USA Dollars with receipt. He even drove 30mins and dropped it off to me at my door lol


----------



## lexluthermiester (Oct 23, 2018)

Melvis said:


> He even drove 30mins and dropped it off to me at my door lol


That was nice of him! Good price too.


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## Tallencor (Oct 23, 2018)

Welcome to the 900 club. I love my 900.
So you have wireless charging? Does it just stay at full charge?
Awww man I just needed to wait a little longer before I  got mine. So jealous .


----------



## Mussels (Oct 23, 2018)

Tallencor said:


> Welcome to the 900 club. I love my 900.
> So you have wireless charging? Does it just stay at full charge?
> Awww man I just needed to wait a little longer before I  got mine. So jealous .



my g703 had the wireless charging too, this just has a few more buttons
tends to stay above 95%, it drops and raises a bit to not kill the battery


----------



## therealmeep (Nov 3, 2018)

Thought this would be a good candidate for a "biggest win" category. I got a "broken" Alienware 17 R3 yesterday, that showed no signs of life. 5 minutes of Googling came back with a common problem related to a crappy bios patch, with the fix being to bridge 2 pads with pliers, so I did that, and my "broken" Alienware suddenly turned in into a very very functional machine.
Specs:
i7 6820HK
16GB ddr4
980m 4GB
Machine didn't come with storage so I put in a 970 Evo, and has this beautiful 4k screen.


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## JovHinner123 (Nov 4, 2018)

therealmeep said:


> Thought this would be a good candidate for a "biggest win" category. I got a "broken" Alienware 17 R3 yesterday, that showed no signs of life. 5 minutes of Googling came back with a common problem related to a crappy bios patch, with the fix being to bridge 2 pads with pliers, so I did that, and my "broken" Alienware suddenly turned in into a very very functional machine.
> Specs:
> i7 6820HK
> 16GB ddr4
> ...



That's a win! For how much did you get it tho?


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## micropage7 (Nov 4, 2018)

Sasqui said:


> A recent trip into the local IT department reveals about 2 dozen Dell PC's (HEDTs for CAD work).  I ask about them, our IT guy says they're going to be "re-purposed" but he's got to recycle the pile of old laptops by my feet.  There's about 2 dozen older Dells... he's ok if I grab a few, the HDD's are gone.
> 
> I snap pics of the service tags.  Most are junk but... two with i7 CPUs!  So here's what I scored:
> 
> ...


ran over but the shape still good, not sure if today laptop


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## Sasqui (Nov 4, 2018)

micropage7 said:


> ran over but the shape still good, not sure if today laptop



It ran but constant BSODs both Win7 and Win10.  Sold on eBay for parts/repair.


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## silentbogo (Nov 4, 2018)

Sasqui said:


> It ran but constant BSODs both Win7 and Win10. Sold on eBay for parts/repair.


It's probably a dead GPU. Had a similar 17" Precision M6800 laptop at work with some ridiculous Kepler-based 100W NVidia Quadro (don't remember the exact model, but I think it was a K4100M).
It also suffered from random reboots and BSODs with occasional artifacts even in 2D. Took it out, laptop switched to iGP without a hitch - all problems gone. Also got a nice bonus of 2 extra hours of battery life. It is used by our analyst, so 3D performance was never really needed.


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## Sasqui (Feb 4, 2019)

Our IT staff was doing some closet emptying last week, and handed me this.  It's a monster!  PCI version with 64 MB of Vram.  Woohoo!

Still in shrinkwrap, circa 2001 or 2002.


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## FreedomEclipse (Feb 4, 2019)

Oh damn, still wrapped it its plastic and everything!! What do you plan to do with it?? If you open it up then it might lose its value


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## Sasqui (Feb 4, 2019)

FreedomEclipse said:


> Oh damn, still wrapped it its plastic and everything!! What do you plan to do with it?? If you open it up then it might lose its value



I was going to list it here and maybe on eBay, should fetch a whopping $30-$40   I wouldn't dream of breaking that cherry!


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## dorsetknob (Feb 4, 2019)

ATI AIW 7500 ?   in Original packaging 

I got a Hercules AIW 7500 in closet  ( no packaging and AGP )


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## Sasqui (Feb 4, 2019)

dorsetknob said:


> ATI AIW 7500 ? in Original packaging



Indeed, a 7500 PCI bus version AIW.  I was giddy when I got my hands on it

Unless you have Win XP, 98 95 or 2000 it won't work.  Great card for a retro build or a collector.


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## FreedomEclipse (Feb 4, 2019)

Part of the problems with these vintage relics is, quite a number of countries have switched to digital for TV signals. Depending who buys the card, the best theyre most likely to get is prime time radio if they have have it setup correctly. YMMV though.


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## dorsetknob (Feb 4, 2019)

FreedomEclipse said:


> Part of the problems with these vintage relics is, quite a number of countries have switched to digital for TV signals.


They work with Set top boxes for DTV


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## Sasqui (Feb 4, 2019)

dorsetknob said:


> They work with Set top boxes for DTV



True, the set top boxes convert digital to analog so older TV's can take the signal, and so could this.  In any case, it's not really practical for anything more than a curiosity or hobby project.


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## E-Bear (Feb 4, 2019)

Just got a HP dc7600s for 9.99$ Canadian. Replaced the dvd-rw, the hdd and cleaned it. Swapped the P4 cpu for a D925 also added 2 gigs of ddr667 and all set. I had all parts in a box so total of my htpc....9.99$


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## Sasqui (Feb 4, 2019)

E-Bear said:


> Just got a HP dc7600s for 9.99$ Canadian. Replaced the dvd-rw, the hdd and cleaned it. Swapped the P4 cpu for a D925 also added 2 gigs of ddr667 and all set. I had all parts in a box so total of my htpc....9.99$



Where did you find it... why replace the DVD-rw?


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## Jetster (Feb 4, 2019)

Sasqui said:


> Our IT staff was doing some closet emptying last week, and handed me this.  It's a monster!  PCI version with 64 MB of Vram.  Woohoo!
> 
> Still in shrinkwrap, circa 2001 or 2002.
> 
> ...



I loved those cards. I was new to video editing and could not get enough. Want to sell it?


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## lexluthermiester (Feb 5, 2019)

Sasqui said:


> Where did you find it... why replace the DVD-rw?


It was likely broken. It happens.


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## E-Bear (Feb 5, 2019)

Sasqui said:


> Where did you find it... why replace the DVD-rw?



Broken. The tray got stuck half open and somebody forced it.


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## dorsetknob (Apr 27, 2019)

work in progress


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## lexluthermiester (Apr 27, 2019)

dorsetknob said:


> View attachment 121821
> 
> work in progress


What's the model number?


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## dorsetknob (Apr 27, 2019)

Toshiba Satellite C670 1DF
Came with 4 gig Ram and 500gig HD and a new Battery
its currently got a B960 Pentium ( not sure if i can put a I3 in it ? some Specs list it as so).
Paid £25
got a spare Screen from a Satellite L350  it will fit after swapping cables and Frame.


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## lexluthermiester (Apr 27, 2019)

dorsetknob said:


> its currently got a B960 Pentium ( not sure if i can put a I3 in it


Unfortunately, no. Chipset limitation artificially made by Intel. It'll run for 30 minutes and them the whole system will shut off without warning. Learned that one the hard way.


dorsetknob said:


> got a spare Screen from a Satellite L350 it will fit after swapping cables and Frame.


Are you sure it'll work? I was about to link you a few replacement screens from ebay..


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## dorsetknob (Apr 27, 2019)

have to settle for a B980 then


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## Melvis (Sep 22, 2019)

Well this past month for me turned out pretty good, lots of people wanting to update or just get rid of there old computers, and is what I got.


First up is 2 Medion PC's from Aldi With Windows 7 installed, Plan to Clean them up add some more RAM maybe an SSD and sell them off. One has a gigabyte Mobo the other has a intel mobo
Specs per tower:
Q6600's
2GB DDR2 RAM
500GB HDD (one has another drive not sure on the size)
8400GS and a GT240




Next we have a Mini itx PC that had a dead Power brick, I just happened to have one that fitted and had the exact same Watts and AMPS. Plugged it in and it booted up! and to my surprise this is what it had inside.
Specs:
Antec 100 Case? I think
Gigabyte Mobo
Samsung Pro 128GB SSD
i5-3570K
8GB DDR3 Vengence RAM






Next We have a HP Pavilion 23 all in one PC, in very clean and good condition, with a Keyboard and Mouse
Specs:
AMD A4-6300 with Radeon Graphics
4GB RAM
500GB HDD




Last up we have another all in one PC but this one is a bit older, running Windows 7 and needs a bit of TLC, it boots and runs but can take up to 3 times for it to boot, it needs a very good clean out inside.
Specs:
Athlon triple Core
4GB RAM
1TB HDD
AMD Vision whatever spec GPU




I plan to clean them all up and sell them all off apart from the itx PC that is a keeper! and will be used for my parents Media PC when I get it up and running. 

Total cost for all this hardware? FREEEEEEEEEEE!  

Was a good month!

Sorry for the bad pics


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## Mussels (Sep 22, 2019)

oh snap, that ITX rig is a winner


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## Melvis (Sep 22, 2019)

Mussels said:


> oh snap, that ITX rig is a winner



Damn Straight! Considering he paid $250 for it like a month ago, he was reluctant at first to give it to me but by the end of the hr I was there fixing his internet issue he said take it, you might make use of some parts out of it. It seems to be OC as well, in W10 its turboing up to 4.2GHz, odd for a ex Hospital PC


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## Melvis (Oct 11, 2019)

Did a deal with a mate next town over for all these parts $200 AUS or $135 US, and he brought them to me.
Parts are:
MSI B450I Gaming Plus AC Motherboard (3-4Months old)
Noctua NH-L9-AM4 Low Profile Cooler
2x AMD Wraith Spire Coolers with Copper Inserts
1xTiny AMD Cooler
Silverstone Sugo SG13 ITX Case
Fractal Design Core 500 Mini ITX Case
4x 3.5" Seagate HDD's 5TB in total
2x 2.5" HDD's 750GB In total
Basic Thermal Master 450W PSU
120MM Coolermaster RGB Fan


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## natr0n (Oct 11, 2019)

Ozzie really has that pc hustle down.


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## jaggerwild (Oct 12, 2019)

dorsetknob said:


> View attachment 121821
> 
> work in progress


 Think I have a screen for that, PM me if your in the states...............


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## dorsetknob (Oct 12, 2019)

jaggerwild said:


> Think I have a screen for that, PM me if your in the states...............


Thanks  I'm in UK and Toshiba has been fixed for 5 months  managed to locate one for £20


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## Toothless (Apr 3, 2021)

Shame you guys let this thread die. It's still relevant! 

Girlfriend said I can go shopping. I needed a case that fits an XL-ATX board. One tech shop said they just tossed a big case that might work and it's in the dumpster. 

It's a Rosewill Thor V2 that they didn't want to deal with in near mint condition besides being dusty as hell.





(I only have one camera and it sucks.)


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## PooPipeBoy (Apr 3, 2021)

I do love a good freebie. These aren't recent finds, but a couple of years ago I scored these awesome freebies that were being thrown away.

The case is some kind of no-name Coolermaster 690 thing that I found complete with both side panels and an Aywun A1 750 Megapower Pro power supply. It was a bit second-hand looking at first (which is when I took this picture) with some scratches and a bit of rust on the bezel, but after a full wash and touch-up with spray paint it was looking much better.





This Samsung 1080p TV was also free and still worked perfectly fine. The internal power board started dying after a year of use but I sourced a replacement for US$30. Also bought a remote control for US$10. You can actually see the Coolermaster case on the right-hand side, that's my secondary rig (which I use both the case and TV for). Sometimes I haul the TV out into the living room to watch motorsports on rare occasions.





These were both a god-send at the time because I was really hurting for cases and monitors. The TV has four HDMI inputs and so I'm able to use the one screen for all of my hobby computers. Couldn't have found a better solution if I tried.


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## Atomic77 (Apr 3, 2021)

Wow that's awesome sauce right there. you could probably make something awesome out of that case but because im so stupid when it comes to things like that I would not know what in the heck to do.


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## lexluthermiester (Apr 3, 2021)

Toothless said:


> Shame you guys let this thread die. It's still relevant!
> 
> Girlfriend said I can go shopping. I needed a case that fits an XL-ATX board. One tech shop said they just tossed a big case that might work and it's in the dumpster.
> 
> ...


Score!! Win indeed!


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## Toothless (Apr 3, 2021)

lexluthermiester said:


> Score!! Win indeed!


Gonna give it some love and finish this build tomorrow. Super excited for it!


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## lexluthermiester (Apr 3, 2021)

Toothless said:


> Gonna give it some love and finish this build tomorrow. Super excited for it!


Lots of before & after pics good sir!


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## Toothless (Apr 3, 2021)

lexluthermiester said:


> Lots of before & after pics good sir!


Only if I can get my hands on the gf's phone since mine has a shoddy camera. It's a X79 Classified and 3930k combo. I'll post as soon as I get er' going.


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## RealKGB (Apr 3, 2021)

Toothless said:


> Shame you guys let this thread die. It's still relevant!
> 
> Girlfriend said I can go shopping. I needed a case that fits an XL-ATX board. One tech shop said they just tossed a big case that might work and it's in the dumpster.
> 
> ...


I love this case.
Considering buying one if/when my case runs out of space for all my stuff (I have a mid-tower(?) case that fits ATX, has 6 5.25" front bay slots, and a 4-bay 3.5" HDD cage, but I have a LOT of stuff and I'm beginning to fill it up).

Back on topic of the thread, Brian the Electrician (yes the very same from the LTT video) sent me a box of goodies! I have about half of a Slot 1 P3 system, and he had some (well, a lot) of stuff that he didn't need, so we worked some stuff out and he sent this my way (no pictures, sorry):
Radeon 9250
GeForce 4 MX440
2x 80GB IDE HDD
1x 8.6GB IDE HDD
Black 3.5" floppy drive (for main PC because beige floppy drive look bad)
Beige 5.25" floppy drive
A bunch of IDE/floppy ribbon cables
Sound Blaster Live! CT4780 + drivers

Though I will have a P4 CPU+motherboard combo, plus Quantum Bigfoot TX, plus some random stuff, plus a 550W PSU for my P3 system (old 250W unit is sus and doesn't work when I screw it into the case) to show off tomorrow.


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## Toothless (Apr 3, 2021)

ragnarok0275 said:


> I love this case.
> Considering buying one if/when my case runs out of space for all my stuff (I have a mid-tower(?) case that fits ATX, has 6 5.25" front bay slots, and a 4-bay 3.5" HDD cage, but I have a LOT of stuff and I'm beginning to fill it up).
> 
> Back on topic of the thread, Brian the Electrician (yes the very same from the LTT video) sent me a box of goodies! I have about half of a Slot 1 P3 system, and he had some (well, a lot) of stuff that he didn't need, so we worked some stuff out and he sent this my way (no pictures, sorry):
> ...


I did a build in the V1 years and years ago. FX-8350 or something like that for a friend and was amazed at the size. No shops around here likes anything bigger than ATX but man, I like that dumpster now.


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## RealKGB (Apr 3, 2021)

Got some stuffs for y'all!
These were given to me by an LTT forum-goer. I know, I know, but I've been active on there for WAY longer than I've been active here.
4-device 5-port 10/100 Ethernet switch. Will replace the ASUS AC1200 I'm using currently for that purpose.


XP Pro x86 + product key.

Quantum Bigfoot TX 4GB.

GeForce 6800 Ultra OC. Repasted with MX-4, and yes, I connected the fan.

A sealed copy of Vista Home Basic.

Enermax 550W PSU. For my P3 machine.

The PSU has 9 molex connectors, 2 floppy power connectors, a 20-pin ATX connector, a 4-pin CPU connector, and half of an AT power connector ensemble.
Plus two fans (one on the back, one on the bottom/top) and a PSU monitoring thing to prevent it from overheating and exploding if the fans stopped working.


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## Mussels (Apr 4, 2021)

oooooh an XP gaming system is appearing


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## RealKGB (Apr 4, 2021)

Mussels said:


> oooooh an XP gaming system is appearing


Part of it, yeah.
I have an ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe + Prescott P4 3.4E in the basement (from same guy that gave me this stuff), and once I get a case, PSU, and cooler for it (I only have a spare Optiplex 3020 MT case that's Micro-ATX and the board is ATX) it shall be revived with XP.
Possibly on an SSD, since the board has 4 SATA ports.

I'm currently in the process of setting up my P3 machine with Windows 2000.
My optical drive isn't working (gives error D:\ is not accessible. Incorrect function.) so I'm going to have to struggle with transferring files over the network.
Thankfully I have a 10/100 Ethernet card. Intel Pro/100+.


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## lexluthermiester (Apr 4, 2021)

ragnarok0275 said:


> Got some stuffs for y'all!
> These were given to me by an LTT forum-goer. I know, I know, but I've been active on there for WAY longer than I've been active here.
> 4-device 5-port 10/100 Ethernet switch. Will replace the ASUS AC1200 I'm using currently for that purpose.
> View attachment 195145
> ...


These would be right at home over in the following thread...








						TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club
					

TPU Nostalgic Hardware Club    The great thing about tech life is that you can embrace the future without completely leaving the past behind.      Nostalgic Hardware Information  3DFX Identification site: https://3dfxarchive.com/  Awesome information on processors...




					www.techpowerup.com


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## Toothless (Apr 6, 2021)

@lexluthermiester as promised.





It does have a 5.25" bay fan and side panel fan. Runs around 50c on full load on the core and the 1070 is so nice with the overclock while keeping the 150w limit.


----------



## lexluthermiester (Apr 6, 2021)

Toothless said:


> @lexluthermiester as promised.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Well nice this! Don't let anyone give you nonsense about the SuperFlower PSU, that brand is actually a solid budget brand and IIRC that PSU model is one of their best.


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## Mussels (Apr 28, 2022)

Reviving thread, since i had another epic win
Was buying 16GB of DDR4 off a random facebook seller, but he was confused as to what speed it actually was (or if the 16GB label meant a 16GB kit, or two 16GB sticks)
In the end, he just said $70 to take everything he had, as he had stability issues with the PC.
In the end it was no thermal paste, and a flat CMOS battery. Oops.

Some of this is posted elsewhere on the forum, but this thread needed some love.

In the end, i got all this for $70 Au:

B150 motherboard. DDR4 2133 max, which turns out to be what the RAM is! (Runs at  2133 CL12... acceptable.)
He did not know this had a CPU installed under the stock intel heatsink, therefore he did not know what it even was.







The stock thermal dust paste was amazing!




At this point, I did something known in Australia as "cacked me dacks" otherwise known as shitting ones pantaloons.
I don't care its 6 generations old, you get a free i7? It's a good damn day!




Missing one set of PCI-E power cables, leaving it with a single split 6+2 combo cable (So, two 8 pins still possible)
Mystery oil residue seems to be external only, fortunately.




One corsair ML120 fan: Turns out the ARGB is dead, he connected it to a generic ARGB controller and fried it. Using it on the CPU cooler regardless, its quiet.





Mystery corsair case: He had it all in pieces, drive cages removed etc. I think it shocked him that i could grab a case i'd never seen before and just reassemble it in seconds.






The final build:
i7 6700 (Mild OC, 3.7GHz all core, 4.0 turbo)
16GB DDR4 2133 C12
GTX 970 4GB (noisy even at idle, i need to lube the fan bearings) I Got this free because of its retarded display outputs: One DVI, one micro HDMI, three mini displayport. Back before us aussies could amazon an adaptor, that made the damn thing near useless for anything but a basic DVI monitor.
Thermaltake 750W Gold PSU (Missing almost every cable, so i kept the fractal for myself)
500GB Samsung Evo SSD (This was found in a generic USB 2.0 HDD caddy a while back)


40C at full load in Linpack, back when 14nm wasn't abused to fit enough cores to fill an apple orchard





Bonus: the dumb display outputs on the 970:


----------



## QuietBob (Apr 28, 2022)

Mussels said:


> Reviving thread, since i had another epic win
> Was buying 16GB of DDR4 off a random facebook seller, but he was confused as to what speed it actually was (or if the 16GB label meant a 16GB kit, or two 16GB sticks)
> In the end, he just said $70 to take everything he had, as he had stability issues with the PC.
> In the end it was no thermal paste, and a flat CMOS battery. Oops.
> ...


Nice score! 4c/8t with 16GB RAM and an SSD is perfectly usable today, and even the GTX 970 is good for some gaming.


----------



## Mussels (Apr 28, 2022)

QuietBob said:


> Nice score! 4c/8t with 16GB RAM and an SSD is perfectly usable today, and even the GTX 970 is good for some gaming.


Yup. The GPU has a noisy fan, which i've failed at replacing.

The factory heatsink is *tiny* and all my existing spares hit the damn PCI-E connectors - could dremel chunks of fins away and force a fit, but that'd make me sad





I've tried slapping on 60mm and 92mm fans, but the GPU hits 80C (hotspot around 100C) and i'm not keen on that





Cant find any after-market GPU coolers around either, they've all vanished off the market :O

Tomorrow, i'll be reverting to the stock fan/shroud and leaving it be until it fails or a get my hands on more spare heatsinks


----------



## lexluthermiester (Apr 28, 2022)

Mussels said:


> The GPU has a noisy fan


Have you opened the bearing and re-oiled it?


----------



## Mussels (Apr 29, 2022)

lexluthermiester said:


> Have you opened the bearing and re-oiled it?


Yeah, didnt help. Spinning it by hand it has a 'click' every spin where it tries to stop

Did find a stock fan for $15Au shipped, as long as it lives for the next month we're good enough


----------



## _JP_ (May 6, 2022)

There was a way to ghetto a duct between the fan and the heatsink so that the mass of airflow was constant (i.e. no dead spot under the hub) and then one would seal almost all the sides of the heatsink so as to create pressure inside the system. That would work better than just slapping a fan on top of the heatsink, but it would have to be a fan that moves a ton of air, instead of high static pressure.

Edit:
Something like this:





This example is with a Thermaltake Vulcano, but you get the gist:



Thing is, more pressure would be attained by sealing by half the air exit through the fins and getting a fan that would push even more air.


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## ThaiTaffy (May 6, 2022)

Not sure if that's for cooling a GPU or growing jazz cabbage.


----------

