TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[MaxiPro800]

No pics this time. (phone battery dead)

My new rig - still WIP as I need a Deer/L&C case



MB - Gigabyte 8IE2004 - i845E - weird thing it actually works with Prescott CPUs - they work at 133MHz FSB (as opposed to 100 with Northwoods)
CPU - Pentium 4 1.7GHz Willamette
RAM - 1x1GB Kingston KVR DDR400
HSF - Titan TTC-W6TB/825
Thermal Paste - Spire SP-456/1GB
PSU - Codegen 300X1 (P4) 300W - an pretty honest PSU. Most of the stuff is pretty true for what it's rated for. Just had to move the + side of the fan to 12v. Noisy,but better safe than sorry.
HDD - some old WDC Protege 8GB I've dug out of my parts pile
GPU - Pixelview FX5200 128MB - this one I dug out of my scrap parts. It had a bad BIOS,so I removed the old chip and soldered a new one. Works like a charm now!
OS - Windows 98 SE

Also,another thing I have to take care of is the fact that everytime I turn it off,I lose CMOS settings even though the battery still has some life left in it.

 

[AndreiCT]

@MaxiPro800 Upload some pics when you finish the system.

Part 2

If a few days ago i presented my first PC, an obsolete system with a soket 478 Celeron processor at 2,4 GHz, 256 MB of RAM DDR400 and a GeForce 4 MX440 with AGP 8X, today i will present the PC that i use every day. It is also an old 478 system but for Internet, music and older games it's still decent.

Case: NOX Zen
Motherboard: ASRock P4i65G, Chipset Intel 865G, FSB 800 MHz Hyper-Threading, 2 x Dual Channel DDR400, AGP8x, 3 x PCI, LAN, SATA, 5.1 Channel Audio, 6 x USB 2.0, Intel® Extreme Graphics 2, Hybrid Booster
Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 SL7PM, 3 GHz, Socket 478, Prescott, FSB 800 MHz, L2 Cache 1 MB, Hyper-Threading
Memory: 2 x Aeneon 1 GB DDR400 PC3200
Video Card: GeCube ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro 512MB DDR2 64 bit AGP8x
Hard Disk: Western Digital WD Blue WD5000AAKB 500 GB, 7200 RPM, 16 MB Cache, IDE
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-1814BL
Power Supply: Corsair Builder Series CX430

I also have:
- An MSI EX610X-091EU notebook with the following specifications: AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 TK-57 1900 MHz, 3 GB RAM DDR2, ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 2400 and a WD Scorpio 250 GB HDD.
- Another s478 Pentium 4 SL7PM processor at 3 GHz and another pair of 1GB DDR400 memory sticks (i forgot which model).
- A Sapphire Radeon HD 3850 512MB DDR3 256 bit AGP8X witch doesn't work anymore. I think the graphic chip or a memory chip disoldered from the board. Anyway this card was to powerful for an old single core pc.
- A Philips AS9510 Midi System from 1990 (picture below).

Mentions:
- The pictures are older, so in the pics the system looks awful with no wire management and with that Delux power supply. Now the system is powered by a Corsair Builder Series CX430 and the cables are arranged better. With other ocasion i will return with new pictures. And sorry for that mousepad, it's in the dumpster now.

Pictures:

 

[Trekkie4]

On a more serious note, I would like to know which idiot designed that Soltek SL-75KAV board - IDE connectors are located on probably the worst location available! Had to remove the RAM module(s) for testing purposes, which turned out to be a LOT more complicated than I expected, due to double layer of IDE cables running across RAM area. As if that wasn't enough, my FX5700 kept popping out from AGP slot due to the same reason, not enough clearance between the card itself & IDE cables running behind the card! Long story short, I had to come up with a whole new cable management, because of Soltek & their design flaws! Pics coming up soon...

 

[stinger608]

If I remember correctly @Trekkie4 , I got a smoking deal on two of them several years ago.............Once I received them and started a build I sold both due to the retarded IDE port positioning.

 

[uuuaaaaaa]

Here it is guys my old school P4 retro build: "Purple Haze"
I had to mod a couple of things in the case, as well as work some magic on some ramsinks and the cpu cooler!

Motherboard: Abit IC7-MAX3
CPU: P4 3.4EE Gallatin (SL7CH)
GPU: PowerColor X850XT PE AGP (or Sapphire HD3850)
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC4000 (2x1024)
PSU: Corsair HX620W
Soundcard: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro + Front panel
HDD: WD Caviar 160
CPU cooler: Modded Scythe Andy Samurai Master
GPU cooler: Modded Ati Silencer 5 rev. 2
Chipset cooler: Thermaltake Extreme Spirit II

Edit: You cant see the cable mess with the side panel fitted in place xD

 

[GreiverBlade]

When's the last time you saw one of these?
GFD for slot A.

View attachment 69010 View attachment 69011

ohhh a repost well at last the pics are here now golden finger FTW! ok that one is a bit more extended than the one i used to use ... seriously a floppy power connector?
(for me it ranged from the simple cut PCI slot with wirings and solder on a PCB to a DIP switch PCB with a specially made connector)

 

[The Foldinator]

IIRC i payed a house for it

 

[Trekkie4]

Here it is guys my old school P4 retro build: "Purple Haze"
I had to mod a couple of things in the case, as well as work some magic on some ramsinks and the cpu cooler!

Motherboard: Abit IC7-MAX3
CPU: P4 3.4EE Gallatin (SL7CH)
GPU: PowerColor X850XT PE AGP (or Sapphire HD3850)
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC4000 (2x1024)
PSU: Corsair HX620W
Soundcard: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro + Front panel
HDD: WD Caviar 160
CPU cooler: Modded Scythe Andy Samurai Master
GPU cooler: Modded Ati Silencer 5 rev. 2
Chipset cooler: Thermaltake Extreme Spirit II

Edit: You cant see the cable mess with the side panel fitted in place xD

View attachment 69213 View attachment 69214 View attachment 69215 View attachment 69216 View attachment 69217

oh wow, I used to have something very similar to this back in a day ... modded Pentium 4 rig, running Asus P4T mobo, 1.5GHz P4 CPU (S423) and 2x 64mb of RIMM memory! Had a transparent window, couple of LED fans, Coolermaster Aerogate & Coolermaster Musketeer fan controllers, they looked absolutely amazing in dark! Wish I still had those with me, I gave them away... *sigh*

I still have the pics from 2004 somewhere on my external HDD, so I'll upload them as soon as I get the chance

 

[MaxiPro800]

On a more serious note, I would like to know which idiot designed that Soltek SL-75KAV board - IDE connectors are located on probably the worst location available! Had to remove the RAM module(s) for testing purposes, which turned out to be a LOT more complicated than I expected, due to double layer of IDE cables running across RAM area. As if that wasn't enough, my FX5700 kept popping out from AGP slot due to the same reason, not enough clearance between the card itself & IDE cables running behind the card! Long story short, I had to come up with a whole new cable management, because of Soltek & their design flaws! Pics coming up soon...

My GA-8IE2004 does that as well,except they moved the ports next to the front panel. Pretty irritating when it comes to wire management.

 

[uuuaaaaaa]

oh wow, I used to have something very similar to this back in a day ... modded Pentium 4 rig, running Asus P4T mobo, 1.5GHz P4 CPU (S423) and 2x 64mb of RIMM memory! Had a transparent window, couple of LED fans, Coolermaster Aerogate & Coolermaster Musketeer fan controllers, they looked absolutely amazing in dark! Wish I still had those with me, I gave them away... *sigh*

I still have the pics from 2004 somewhere on my external HDD, so I'll upload them as soon as I get the chance

Oh yes Sir, pics please!

 

[Trekkie4]

Here's that "new" cable management... It was the best I could do under the given circumstances, rather than to have the ATA cable rub against the AGP card



Old rig from 2004, with fan controllers & side window coming up tomorrow - my external HDD is in use so I can't access the files at the moment (backing up the HDD in that Soltek system)

 

[uuuaaaaaa]

Here's that "new" cable management... It was the best I could do under the given circumstances, rather than to have the ATA cable rub against the AGP card



Old rig from 2004, with fan controllers & side window coming up tomorrow - my external HDD is in use so I can't access the files at the moment (backing up the HDD in that Soltek system)

That IDE connectors' placement is absolutely atrocious... Why would they design it like that?

 

[Ahhzz]

Here's that "new" cable management... It was the best I could do under the given circumstances, rather than to have the ATA cable rub against the AGP card



Old rig from 2004, with fan controllers & side window coming up tomorrow - my external HDD is in use so I can't access the files at the moment (backing up the HDD in that Soltek system)

On a side note, got pop-behinds from that site. You know you can directly upload to TPU, right?

 

[Trekkie4]

That IDE connectors' placement is absolutely atrocious... Why would they design it like that?

I have no idea... Maybe someone wanted to piss off computer techs, or to test their cable management skills? Seriously though, this board was a total PITA! Not only that, but it also has bulged caps, as you can probably see in the pics. I was tempted to swap them out for good ones, but I just didn't have the time OR patience to mess around with it any longer. And since I'm most probably not going to use this one, I simply don't see the point in wasting any more time & money into it I /do/ have certain rules though, and probably most important one of all is that EVERY machine in my collection needs to be operational - whenever I'm going to use it again or not (as in just for display purposes)

On a side note, got pop-behinds from that site. You know you can directly upload to TPU, right?

*sigh* Yes, I DO know that. In fact, I've been uploading pics to TPU image hosting server for a while, but something has changed in the meantime. Don't really know what, maybe someone from TPU staff here can help me find out - I was able to upload multiple pics at once, with just couple of clicks & without too much effort. Now it went back to old layout again, where you can ONLY upload one pic at the time, and ONLY under 2mb each. Since I'm using phone with HD camera (HTC M8S), pretty much every pic is above the mentioned limit, which means I would have to resize the pic 1st, and then upload it (one at the time) to TPU image hosting server. Which would obviously take way too long, I can't afford to spend this much time just to fiddle with the pics, sorry

EDIT
Finally, the Soltek system is up & running! Here's a tip for all of you retro fans out there, if you're going to make a Win9x/ME build & use nVidia graphics, try to avoid anything newer than GeForce4. Getting FX series (aka GeForce 5) to work under Win ME was a total nightmare! Normally I would just blame ME for that, but I know for the fact that 5th generation & newer will cause serious problems with ANY "9x" based windows, and not just ME

 

[Trekkie4]

Oh yes Sir, pics please!

There you go I probably have more of these somewhere (on a CD, maybe? It's been a while...) but for now you'll just have to settle with these 2

My 1st custom build, ever. Not really a "build", since I've only modified the existing system but hey - you gotta start somewhere, right?

 

[uuuaaaaaa]

There you go I probably have more of these somewhere (on a CD, maybe? It's been a while...) but for now you'll just have to settle with these 2

My 1st custom build, ever. Not really a "build", since I've only modified the existing system but hey - you gotta start somewhere, right?

Looks great!

 

[Trekkie4]

Looks great!

Thanks! I really DO feel bad for giving most of this stuff away Sold that P4 build (without the transparent case) back in 2006, 2007 while I traded & gave away for free most of the case mod accessories... It was just too bright for my taste, bright enough to illuminate the entire room

Also had this other machine here...

Actually, I STILL have this one with me, it was my 1st Pentium 2, 350MHz rig with Diamond Monster 3DII, Voodoo2 card inside Sadly, I've replaced the case (and wasn't able to find another one like this), but otherwise it's still the same system even today. In fact, it's now even more original, more identical to its factory specs than it was on this pic here, because at this point (in 2004) I already replaced the graphics, both ATI Rage & Voodoo2 with Matrox Millenium G450 DualHead. Which I eventually (few years ago) swapped back for Rage & Voodoo2, because I wanted to preserve it as it was, back in October 1998 when I 1st got it

 

[Norton]

Sadly, I've replaced the case (and wasn't able to find another one like this)

Is that similar to one of these?

I guess this case belongs in this thread


This is my 2nd one- posted a WTB thread here 3 years ago and located one after 4 months of thread bumping!!!

 

[Trekkie4]

Is that similar to one of these?

I guess this case belongs in this thread


This is my 2nd one- posted a WTB thread here 3 years ago and located one after 4 months of thread bumping!!!

Yes, it DOES belong into this thread lol But sadly no, this is not the same case Already found this one from the pic a while ago, I tried with most intensive Googling but ended up empty handed, I just can't seem to find mine anywhere *sigh* There's also this one here, on THIS website - quite similar to what I'm searching for but not the same.

EDIT
Certainly not one of my best pics, but here's alternative view of the case I'm searching for. If anyone has any idea which brand this is (I'm guessing either Codegen or AOpen), please let me know!

EDIT2
Fun fact... Despite me being an idiot & throwing away this case (along with some other precious & valuable components, such as completely operational Voodoo2 card) this machine is surprisingly preserved for a 17.5yr old build Motherboard, CPU cartridge, sound card & HDD have all been preserved & are entirely original. Including that Matrox Millenium G450, mentioned earlier - you can actually see the card in this last pic. G450 has been moved to a different system though but it's still here nevertheless, while the ATI Rage (AGP card), Diamond Monster 3DII Voodoo card (12mb) and 64mb of RAM have been replaced with identical components of what I used to have. So they're not technically the same, but close enough to consider "original" IMHO - it was the best I could do under the given circumstances. Apart from that, everything else (CD, floppy, fax modem, case & PSU) are completely new, bought new from the store.

Similar story with that other build, with transparent window... However, this other one got sold, but only the motherboard, CPU & RAM - everything else has been preserved, even today. Well, almost everything since both the Maxtor HDD and that BenQ CD-ROM died many years ago. I still have the original Hauppauge TV tuner, SoundBlaster 128, Matrox Millenium G450 (previously mentioned card, which was actually taken out from this P4 system first, before it was moved to P2 one), IOmega ZIP100 and NEC DVD, which you can see just above the BenQ CD drive.

 

[stinger608]

@Trekkie4 , I love them Cooler Master gauges in that first picture!!! I remember when them were being sold.........Dang, they were pretty pricey at the time. Always wanted a set to do a mod but never could find em at a reasonable price point.

Wish I could find a set now.

 

[Trekkie4]

@Trekkie4 , I love them Cooler Master gauges in that first picture!!! I remember when them were being sold.........Dang, they were pretty pricey at the time. Always wanted a set to do a mod but never could find em at a reasonable price point.

Wish I could find a set now.

Yeah, I know! Me too, me too *sigh* It's called Cooler Master Musketeer, I'm sure you can get it somewhere ... except they're STILL expensive as they were back in a day Top one, fan controller is caller CM Aerogate, and could easily say the same thing. I gave these two to somebody, who then lost them over the period of time & I never saw them again. Sad but true

EDIT
Speaking of my old P4 & P2 builds, here's something which you probably didn't notice Let's go back to this post from Feb, HERE...

Take a closer look at the optical drives & tell me what you see!



Yup, they're the same ones! This other, new build now also holds that G450 DualHead graphics and Hauppauge TV tuner. My original P4 rig had Asus P4-T mobo, Pentium 4 @1.5 (S423) CPU & Rambus Inline memory (aka RIMM) While this other one, the one from Feb has P4-B mobo, Pentium 4 @1.6 (S478) and has SD memory. Again, not 100% identical but close enough to make me happy

 

[Trekkie4]

Another day, another piece of hardware Sorry for double-posting by the way, I wanted to separate this from my previous post, since this one doesn't have anything to do with previously mentioned builds...

Time to upgrade my HDD in that black Athlon 1800+ build, with ASRock K7VT2 mobo, GeForce4 Ti 4200/2x Voodoo2 and Win98/XP Home, SP1. I've had a single 40GB Maxtor inside which is not even remotely enough to run both OSes & all the appropriate games in each one of them. So therefore this one should do the trick, 50-50. The idea is to dedicate 40GB to Win98 & another 40GB to XP...

Also got this awesome new toy, to play with First of its kind, never had external ZIP before! As you might have noticed, few of my retro builds already have internal ZIP100 units, so I figured it's time to try something different. This one is fully operational from what I can tell, but the top side window was completely broken & pushed inside. Had to take the entire unit apart & glue it back on, but otherwise it seems to be good as new!

 

[uuuaaaaaa]

Thanks! I really DO feel bad for giving most of this stuff away Sold that P4 build (without the transparent case) back in 2006, 2007 while I traded & gave away for free most of the case mod accessories... It was just too bright for my taste, bright enough to illuminate the entire room

Also had this other machine here...

Actually, I STILL have this one with me, it was my 1st Pentium 2, 350MHz rig with Diamond Monster 3DII, Voodoo2 card inside Sadly, I've replaced the case (and wasn't able to find another one like this), but otherwise it's still the same system even today. In fact, it's now even more original, more identical to its factory specs than it was on this pic here, because at this point (in 2004) I already replaced the graphics, both ATI Rage & Voodoo2 with Matrox Millenium G450 DualHead. Which I eventually (few years ago) swapped back for Rage & Voodoo2, because I wanted to preserve it as it was, back in October 1998 when I 1st got it

I wish I had a computer during that era... My first system had an Intel D845PESV board a 512MB stick of KVR333MHz a P4 Northwood 2.4GHz, a couple of optical drives and a Geforce FX5200 I think that I still have all those parts around!

 

[Trekkie4]

Yeah, I have some of the fondest memories of that Pentium 2, it really means a lot to me. Almost ashamed to admit, I was tempted to throw it away at some point (around 2005, 2006) because it was just using space & couldn't really use it for anything useful, but I'm SO glad I didn't! It's bad enough that I've replaced the cool-looking & perhaps unique case for cheap & generic one, just because this old one was squeaking & rattling too much

As I slowly got into this retro obsession, I guess you could call it, I've replaced XP with 98, reverted all the hardware modifications to its original specs & used it for playing retro (Glide) games. But then, I believe around 2012, the Chaintech 6BTM mobo finally gave up & suffered from a complete meltdown. Instead of throwing it away, I actually paid to have it professionally repaired - probably the only idiot who spent a fortune on a 18yr old motherboard lol and yes, it was fixed! Now some of the caps are bulging again, I'm assuming it's because of the bad PSU, but I'm too afraid to mess around with it. I might attempt repairs at some point & swap them out for good ones but it would be kinda pointless since I'm not using this one any longer. After all the problems I've had with it, and all the money spent for the repairs, I've decided to retire this old timer & preserve it in fully working condition ... that way it'll hopefully live forever, hopefully even outlive all of us I also have the ORIGINAL CRT monitor which came with it, and this one also works perfectly fine, as it did 18yrs ago! After all, I have approx. 16, 17 other retro builds here with me, so any further risking of my own Pentium 2 from back in a day would be (beyond) stupid thing to do IMHO!

 

[uuuaaaaaa]

Yeah, I have some of the fondest memories of that Pentium 2, it really means a lot to me. Almost ashamed to admit, I was tempted to throw it away at some point (around 2005, 2006) because it was just using space & couldn't really use it for anything useful, but I'm SO glad I didn't! It's bad enough that I've replaced the cool-looking & perhaps unique case for cheap & generic one, just because this old one was squeaking & rattling too much

As I slowly got into this retro obsession, I guess you could call it, I've replaced XP with 98, reverted all the hardware modifications to its original specs & used it for playing retro (Glide) games. But then, I believe around 2012, the Chaintech 6BTM mobo finally gave up & suffered from a complete meltdown. Instead of throwing it away, I actually paid to have it professionally repaired - probably the only idiot who spent a fortune on a 18yr old motherboard lol and yes, it was fixed! Now some of the caps are bulging again, I'm assuming it's because of the bad PSU, but I'm too afraid to mess around with it. I might attempt repairs at some point & swap them out for good ones but it would be kinda pointless since I'm not using this one any longer. After all the problems I've had with it, and all the money spent for the repairs, I've decided to retire this old timer & preserve it in fully working condition ... that way it'll hopefully live forever, hopefully even outlive all of us I also have the ORIGINAL CRT monitor which came with it, and this one also works perfectly fine, as it did 18yrs ago! After all, I have approx. 16, 17 other retro builds here with me, so any further risking of my own Pentium 2 would be beyond stupid thing to do

Hahaha, I guess that We suffer from the same disease! xD It's a good one tho!