TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[Ruru]

I had also an Audigy 2ZS when I was a teen, IIRC it had golden plugs. It was the best soundcard what I have ever used

 

[SniperHF]

Long time lurker of the thread

I've been going through my later end XP era stuff lately looking to build the one true machine; of the parts I have anyway.

Abit AN8-SLI w/Soundcard & Asrock 939 Dual Sata 2


Sapphire x800 & Sapphire x850XT


Creative SB Live 24bit & The best PSU I've ever owned


Zalman CNPS7000B-CU & Zalman CNPS9000



Unfortunately the CNPS9000 has a busted fan, still works pretty well though as a passive cooler.

Probably going to match up the AN8-SLI with an A64 4000+ and the x850XT as my XP system. Unfortunately I lack for cases that are in good shape.

I've got some older stuff I'm going through next, but it's all boxed at the moment.

Extra items:
Asus P5Q3 & MSI 9800GTX

 

[GreiverBlade]

got a computer to salvage data ... i wonder if i can keep it after the work's done ...

nothing exceptional but ... sturdy and late 2005 ish
Computer Model Dimension 5150/E510
Shipping Date 12/30/2005
Country Switzerland

sturdy sidepanel, easy opening and one of my favorite assembler PC case ... altho will need to dedust it a bit once the work is done


still didn't fired it up (so i don't know what's inside for now except general overview
but at last i can spot a Nidec Beta V


305w ... meh enough for what is it, 2hdd in tool-less rack (where even some more modern case ... lack them)




HDD's oh surprise ... i expected a Caviar SE 7200 250 but not a green 1tb


updates once i get to work on it

 

[Red_Machine]

View attachment 77455

I see AGP 8x, PCIe x16, PCIe x1, and... AGP 8x... moved slightly back?

 

[dorsetknob]

I see AGP 8x, PCIe x16, PCIe x1, and... AGP 8x... moved slightly back?

almost right
Slots left to right are
Pci, pci, pci, AGP8x,PCI1x, PCI16x. Future Port ( Yellow upgrade slot for CPU Card )

 

[SniperHF]

almost right
Slots left to right are
Pci, pci, pci, AGP8x,PCI1x, PCI16x. Future Port ( Yellow upgrade slot for CPU Card )

Love that board. Wish I had the AM2 card for it.
http://www.asrock.com/mb/spec/upgrade.asp?Model=AM2CPU Board

I did take full advantage of the PCie/AGP combo over the years though.

 

[dorsetknob]

I did take full advantage of the PCie/AGP combo over the years though.

As did i my way was with the Asrock duel series 4 coreduel sata 2
Still have mine fully working AGP, PCIx4 DDR or DDR2 Ram and it runs a Quad Kentsfield q6600

great Test bed for AGP and PCIx Graphics Cards and for Testing Both DDR or DDR2 Ram ( but not both at the same time )

It was a great idea for people on an upgrade path as you could start off with DDR and AGP and when you could afford it PCIx Graphics and DDR2 Mem and any 775 CPU up to and inc quads

 

[Maban]

I see AGP 8x, PCIe x16, PCIe x1, and... AGP 8x... moved slightly back?

It's a riser so you can upgrade to AM2 and DDR2.

 

[GreiverBlade]

It's a riser so you can upgrade to AM2 and DDR2.

wow ... serious

i knew ASRock was awesome ... but at that point ... it's beyond all

 

[uuuaaaaaa]

Long time lurker of the thread

I've been going through my later end XP era stuff lately looking to build the one true machine; of the parts I have anyway.

Abit AN8-SLI w/Soundcard & Asrock 939 Dual Sata 2
View attachment 77454 View attachment 77455

Sapphire x800 & Sapphire x850XT
View attachment 77456 View attachment 77457

Creative SB Live 24bit & The best PSU I've ever owned
View attachment 77459 View attachment 77460

Zalman CNPS7000B-CU & Zalman CNPS9000
View attachment 77461 View attachment 77462


Unfortunately the CNPS9000 has a busted fan, still works pretty well though as a passive cooler.

Probably going to match up the AN8-SLI with an A64 4000+ and the x850XT as my XP system. Unfortunately I lack for cases that are in good shape.

I've got some older stuff I'm going through next, but it's all boxed at the moment.

Extra items:
Asus P5Q3 & MSI 9800GTX
View attachment 77463 View attachment 77464

Oh man! I miss Abit boards!

 

[Red_Machine]

Just ordered the last parts I needed for the 5x86 machine. I should have it up and running by the end of the week!

 

[SniperHF]

Oh man! I miss Abit boards!

I've also got an Abit IX38 QuadGT but that's still in active use.

Too bad I don't have a matching set of Nvidia cards to run SLI on the AN8 board. I do have a set of 9800 gtx's but they would be just a bit mismatched with a 4000+ single core

 

[Mr.Scott]

I've also got an Abit IX38 QuadGT but that's still in active use.

Rare board now. Hang on to that one.

 

[jaggerwild]

Pics are always welcome.

Scott man!
I been looking at your postings thinking(I know him) Your from 411 forums?

 

[Mr.Scott]

Scott man!
I been looking at your postings thinking(I know him) Your from 411 forums?

You know me from 411, OCA, the bot, and CP, which is now Warp9-systems.
Your other alias is Phillycheesesteak.

 

[jaggerwild]

You know me from 411, OCA, the bot, and CP, which is now Warp9-systems.
Your other alias is Phillycheesesteak.

I lost ma marbles.............!

How are you?

 

[Mr.Scott]

I lost ma marbles.............!

How are you?

As well as can be expected.

 

[dorsetknob]

Not sure if they were ever released

They were released
http://www.asrock.com/mb/spec/upgrade.asp?Model=AM2CPU Board
you occasionally find them on eBay
it was often just cheaper to replace motherboard than to use the upgrade slot/board


Blast from TPU PAST

https://www.techpowerup.com/9287/asrock-future-cpu-port-am2-upgrade

 

[GreiverBlade]

moar info ... sooo i backed up all personal data used the 1tb HDD in a external enclosure for storage, i will get to keep the Dimension 5150 in exchange of the data retrieval work (YAY! ) as i give them back the 1tb HDD with the enclosure in addition (small price to pay it's a Thermaltake USB 2.0 enclosure that i paid 18chf ) data backing poped up my AV ... lotsa nasty stuff on it aside the personal data, bad bad user behavior , all data scanned, cleaned and quarantined if necessary.

graphic card, after running a PN search on 102A3343701 it's a ATI RADEON X600 256MB oh well ... replacement : Sapphire 3650 512mb instead


putting my own data HDD from the main rig in and will do a clean Win XP reinstall later

dear god of fan i praise thee.... thanks for giving me the awesomeness of a Nidec Beta V in all his 120mmX38mm 3600rpm 130cfm glory
blurry ... where's my Macro focus function ... oh ... there ... (notice the fan is fixed with rubber pin, quite a feat.)


D-Link Air Plus DWL-520+ wifi card? me likeh, mobo lil name? Connolly? awww so cute...


there was a lot more like that one ...


special dedicace for @P4-630
the CPU is : http://www.cpu-world.com/sspec/SL/SL7Z9.html

 

[Ruru]

Damn guys, cool HW on the latest posts (after my Audigy2 pic)!

 

[Trekkie4]

Some of you here might remember me talking about (and experiencing) problems with RetroMaster2000 system, the one from my TPU profile right? Random crashes, black screens and/or freezes without any reaction to any command and/or keyboard, other than reset button.

Here's the thing, even though I tested every single component (and they all checked out fine), I can only assume that it's the motherboard itself, that's causing all the problems. Because things are only getting worse, now the system hangs every time it goes to stand-by mode and is unable to read (or even recognize) my external USB HDD. Come to think of it, I've had USB related issues with this thing right from very the 1st day, none of the USB keyboards & mice worked with the board, so I had to use PS2 ones. Of course I set all the right parameters in BIOS, even flashed it to latest version and tried with fail-safe mode, still nothing. So yeah, for the sake of simplicity let's just say that Asrock doesn't work OK & so it will be replaced.

And so earlier today I got my hands on Asus A7V8X-X board, one of the best S462 boards out there according to users! I'm sure it's going to make a huge difference, and it's somewhat faster than Asrock K7VT2, at least when it comes to DDR speed. Not only faster, but unlike K7VT2, Asus also features full AGP 8X support and has 3 banks for the DDR memory, rather than using SD/DDR1 combo. Since I'll have to strip the entire thing apart & basically rebuild it from scratch, I'm also planning to add the floppy drive, larger HDD (already got both of these), add more RAM (going from 512MB to either 768MB or 1GB) and replace the ODD. The one I'm using right now is classified as DVD-RW, but it doesn't read (or even seem to recognize) DVDs so I'll need to replace it. Maybe even add 2nd ODD, we'll see...

Anyhow, so much for now, stay tuned for future updates & upcoming pics

History Log:
The history of RetroMaster 2000 Part 1 & Part 2
About RetroMaster 2000 project
Upgrading from MX400 to Ti4200
Upgrading from onboard to SB Live!, DOS support

 

[stinger608]

The one I'm using right now is classified as DVD-RW, but it doesn't read (or even seem to recognize) DVDs so I'll need to replace it

Honestly, I would put in a different optical drive in the current build and test it again. I have had many systems as well as client systems that a bad optical drive will cause tons of other issues!

Not to say that you shouldn't go ahead with the Asus A7V build! That is an awesome motherboard! I had one and let it get away several years ago........Wish I would have kept that one!!!!

 

[Trekkie4]

You know, that's very interesting thought... TBH, I never considered the cause of all the problems to be within the DVD drive In fact, that could explain why one of the system tests failed (and caused the system to hang) while recognizing the ATA drives! But yes, this one is most definitely acting up... Unfortunately, I don't have any spare DVD drives at the moment, not black ones at least. And since the entire thing is black (I even got the black FDD) it would be pointless to replace it with white unit.

But yes, regarding the boards & compatibility thing... I had USB problems even before I hooked this DVD drive. Even though this happened way back in 2014, I still remember what happened as if it was yesterday. The guy advertised the board "as it is", in the original box, complete with 512MB (2x 256MB) but in non-working condition. Apparently it didn't want to boot up, kept saying something about keyboard controller not working and reporting CMOS error, regardless of the battery being replaced & checked several times. He thought that it was due to BIOS being damaged or corrupted, but what I found later on is that someone removed ALL the jumper caps from the board for some reason. One or maybe two at most remained, probably the one for CPU speed but otherwise nothing. So once I got the manual from the Asrock website, I've successfully restored all the jumper caps to factory state & system booted up fine - except USB never worked under DOS environment. I'm referring to "legacy USB support", for mice & keyboards, but otherwise the board seemed to be in tip-top condition. That is, until I've started adding components, upgrading RetroMaster 2000 - that's when I began experiencing problems.

 

[stinger608]

Ya know @Trekkie4 , just unplug the DVD drive and fire it up. If its going to hang, it would do it with the drive unplugged man.

 

[Trekkie4]

That might seem like an obvious solution, but sorry to say it's not possible. Both Hiren's CD (which I used to test the system) and games (such as NFS 3 Hot Pursuit) which tend to crash or freeze need a working CD (or DVD) drive, in order to start