TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[Apocalypsee]

A look back at the history of modern graphics processors from 1976-1995.

The History of the Modern Graphics Processor

3D graphics transformed a dull PC industry into a spectacle of light and magic. TechSpot's look at the history of the GPU goes from the early days...

www.techspot.com

Love the article. I don't know SGI was the one who release OpenGL

 

[Grog6]

Yup. BITD, there was a Solidworks type group, that wrote a opengl driver for the Tseng labs S3 video card.

I had one with 4MB of memory, and hunted this down, and got it running for Q2, in openGL mode.

After weeks of working with it, acquiring files; it did 4fps in Q2; but it rendered beautifully.

This led to my TNT2 Purchase, IIRC.

 

[Ruru]

I guess you know what I'm up to..?

 

[Robert B]

 

[lexluthermiester]

Not bad. Free 10% OC. With that one did you need to change voltage, or was it just the jumper?

 

[Robert B]

A lucky mistake. 3.5V (stock) on ZIDA 5STX-J98 and bus 75MHz instead of 66MHz. With a suitable motherboard 83Mhz is in reach ...

 

[Ruru]

Don't have the Q6600 yet, goofin' around with E4300. Just warming up, FSB from 200 -> 333 isn't anything special.

And yes, it has 7GB (3x2GB + 1GB) of RAM.

 

[MaxiPro800]

Restored a '08 Acer Aspire 7520.

The problem it had was common - bad BGA solder. I reflowed it a 350*C, and it came back to life. Replaced the tired Athlon 64 X2 TK-57 with a Turion 64 X2 TL-60, bent the heatsink a little in the chipset to make proper contact, and so far temps are pretty good. Also added 4GB of RAM, and two HDDs (the caddy itself is made to support 2 HDDs), one being a 80GB Fujitsu from a PS3 I upgraded and a 320GB WD Scorpio Blue.

So far temps are acceptable (GPU temps are normal for it since it's a nVidia chipset) and it's been working really nice so far.

 

[Apocalypsee]

Restored a '08 Acer Aspire 7520.

The problem it had was common - bad BGA solder. I reflowed it a 350*C, and it came back to life. Replaced the tired Athlon 64 X2 TK-57 with a Turion 64 X2 TL-60, bent the heatsink a little in the chipset to make proper contact, and so far temps are pretty good. Also added 4GB of RAM, and two HDDs (the caddy itself is made to support 2 HDDs), one being a 80GB Fujitsu from a PS3 I upgraded and a 320GB WD Scorpio Blue.

So far temps are acceptable (GPU temps are normal for it since it's a nVidia chipset) and it's been working really nice so far.

Spoiler

View attachment 137662

Usually when I see Acer of those year the white casing already turned yellow/orange. That one still looks mint! Yup, the bad solder joint of nvidia GPU of those days are well known

 

[MaxiPro800]

Usually when I see Acer of those year the white casing already turned yellow/orange. That one still looks mint! Yup, the bad solder joint of nvidia GPU of those days are well known

Yeah, since it was made from two 7520s. One was yellowed and had a quite beaten up keyboard (keys were worn) but the board worked fine after reflowing, while the other was pretty mint looking (along with a 5520 as well!) and had the same board but with a MXM slot.

Couldn't get that one to work after reflowing, so I took most of the better features it had:

* Turion 64 X2 TL-60 (the one with no MXM slot had a Athlon 64 X2 TK-57 which had some pretty crappy specs)
* mint LCD (the no MXM slot machine had a yellowed LCD)
* bottom mounted subwoofer (had to dremel into case to fit since the one with MXM slot had a beaten bottom case)
* Hitachi-LG GSA-T40N DVD-RW (the other one had a near dead GMA-4082N)

All of this went into a 7520 made from parts - I had the bottom case and (now) working board from the iGPU one, but modded to fit the subwoofer from the dead MXM-slotted unit, the top casing and LCD also came from that one. So did the CPU and heatsink, as well as fan (one came without fan).

There's also a 5520 in which I transplanted the dead MXM board into. I'll either try a much harsher reflow (at 550*C instead of 350) and if it doesn't yield any results, then I'll look into repairing one of the 2 Intel boards I have (which supports Merom and Penryn CPUs). One flashes the screen once but stays on, and the other turns off about 3 seconds after it's powered on.

 

[Retrorockit]

I was checking Geekbench scores with my Optiplex 380- X5470 @ 3.36Ghz and came across this E7500 at 333fsb.
This is usually a pinmod at stock Voltage. Spanked my Xeon in single core, and an acceptable multicore score.

Dell Inc. OptiPlex 380 vs Dell Inc. OptiPlex 380 - Geekbench

browser.geekbench.com

Don't have the Q6600 yet, goofin' around with E4300. Just warming up, FSB from 200 -> 333 isn't anything special.

If you have Voltage control I would go for the Q6700. They're all G0 stepping and 10% faster.
With a locked BIOS QX6800 G0 and Throttlestop 6.00 can go up to 4GHz if the cooling and VRM can handle it.
link in my sig.
The QX6700 are all B3 stepping and dirt cheap because of it. Might go 3.45GHz.

 

[Ruru]

If you have Voltage control I would go for the Q6700. They're all G0 stepping and 10% faster.
With a locked BIOS QX6800 G0 and Throttlestop 6.00 can go up to 4GHz if the cooling and VRM can handle it.
link in my sig.

Yeah, it has voltage controls (Asus P5QL Pro), but I already bought a Q6600 from ebay. The next one shall be a modified LGA771 (X5450 perhaps?) Xeon.

 

[Retrorockit]

The $200 Q6600 G0 got all the rep back in the day becuase it could pinmod to 3GHz on a locked down system, while the top of the line $500 Q6700 wouldn't. On unlocked systems you saved a bunch of money. But now the Q6700 gets overlooked. The QX were $1000 chips back then. But the 65nm score about 10% behind the same speed 45nm. On an unlocked system the 45nm Xeon will be very good.

 

[dorsetknob]

The QX were $1000 chips back then.

Top of the Range at the time QX6700 Extreme (with Unlocked Multiplier).

 

[Ruru]

Extreme CPUs were always 999 USD/EUR until Broadwell-E when that almost doubled with the highest end model. Now that has returned to that previous price point, thanks to AMD.

edit: And yeah, people got either Q6600 or E8400 back in the day, Q6600 was more future proof but E8400 clocked higher and quad-core wasn't neccessary back then.

 

[Retrorockit]

But the E7500 would go 3.6 Ghz on a locked down office computer with a tapemod. If you're stuck at 65nm 266fsb the 65W 2 core X6800 is unlocked also. B3 stepping holds it back some but they can be found cheap. Just about any of the old Dell BTX Optiplexes can be overclocked one way or the other with these. The old P4 heatpipe coolers D9729 are more than enough for this. If anybody wants to do this the Zotac GTX1050 Mini fits and runs off of the Optiplex PSU in the MT size computers. If you're in the US and you can't find one of these computers for $20 you're not trying hard enough. Opti 745 8GB DDR2 800 (130W 65nm 266fsb unlocked CPUs for OC), Opti 755 8GB DDDR2 333fsb 95W CPU,Opti 760 UEFI, 16GB DDR3 333fsb95W CPU. No LGA771 Xeons, and pinmod for OC, But Q6600 3Ghz pimod is slower than 95W Q9650 3GHz by 10%.
Optiplex 380 333fsb,8GB DDR3 1066, Xeon X5470. Needs BIOS mod for LGA771.
There were some 9xx Optis. They added some PS2 ports that may block the GPU some, and RAID 0 inthe BIOS
Best BTX Dell is the T3400 workstation. X38 chipset has hidden 400fsb support, QX9650 goes 4.15GHz easily 16GB DDR2 1066 (if you can find any) Dual full size GPU support, RAID 0 BIOS and a stock PSU that can support a 150W GPU (GTX1070?). T9303 is the cooler for those. You need an unlocked CPU to get Voltage control on these for an OC.
There is an XPS BTX cooler that requires some bodging to fit. TJ258. 8mm heatpipes instead of 6mm. Trimming the 2nd FDD bay helps. There's a lump on the cooler shroud that has to go also.
The T3400 375W PSU drops right into the Opti MT and then an MSI GTX1060 Mini can fit (3GB for 8GB systems) with the bracket cut down to 1 slot and some plastic trimming.

Amazon.com: MSI GAMING GeForce GTX 1060 3GB GDRR5 192-bit HDCP Support DirectX 12 Single Fan VR Ready OC Graphics Card (GTX 1060 3G OCV1): Electronics

Amazon.com: MSI GAMING GeForce GTX 1060 3GB GDRR5 192-bit HDCP Support DirectX 12 Single Fan VR Ready OC Graphics Card (GTX 1060 3G OCV1): Electronics

www.amazon.com

Notice no ports on the 2nd slot, and the plastic is longer than the card.

Once you get away from the top end C2X CPUs they don't cost that much. $20-$30. QX6850 is a G0 stepping CPU. Sort of an unlocked, AND pinmodded Q6600 G0.

Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 2.93GHz Dual-Core (HH80557PH0774M) Processor for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 2.93GHz Dual-Core (HH80557PH0774M) Processor at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

100% OK SL9UL Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Processor CPU 683728219031 | eBay

Your recognition is our power to move forward, especially to a beginner like us.

www.ebay.com

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 3GHz Quad-Core (HH80562XJ0808M) Processor for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 3GHz Quad-Core (HH80562XJ0808M) Processor at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

A SLACP QX6800, or SLAWN QX9650 will cost more than twice that.

 

[biffzinker]

 

[Ruru]

Oh it's Phil, one of my favourite retro hardware dudes

 

[Apocalypsee]

Oh it's Phil, one of my favourite retro hardware dudes

Yep he made regular Friday videos, but sometimes bonus video in-between. It really felt like video reviews for past hardware. Seeing X850XT PE in that review make me smile

 

[Ruru]

Yep he made regular Friday videos, but sometimes bonus video in-between. It really felt like video reviews for past hardware. Seeing X850XT PE in that review make me smile

X800/X850 has also a place in my heart just like 9700/9800 series, I also have a working X800 Pro AGP

 

[lexluthermiester]

Not sure this qualifies, but this was very interesting;

 

[Horemheb]

Yesterday I decided to clean up the garage. I found some odds and ends.

I will update this as I figure out what some of them are. I forgot I even had most of it.

Athlon 64 X2 4000
Athlon 64 X2 4200
Intel E8400 (2)
Intel Q6600 (2)
Intel Q8200
Intel E6500
Intel E2168
Intel I-5 2310
Intel I-5 2500
Pentium 4 (2.53/512/533/1.525V ) Not sure where this one came from.

Foxconn 7950GT 512MB
MSI 9800 Pro ( I remember this being a really good card for me at the time.)
ASUS DirectCUII 780

 

[lexluthermiester]

Yesterday I decided to clean up the garage. I found some odds and ends.

Very cool find! You should list the parts. I can see several that are very overclockable and would make excellent choices for retro-computers.

 

[MIRTAZAPINE]

My black friday purchase here. Brand new agp oem graphic card, 2 FX5500 and an Ati 9600. Person I brought from said their spare for systems that are not used. Finally got a gpu that can run with my asrock conroe board! Wish I had buy another one of that board when it was for sale last year. I miss out on ddr3 2400 ram purchase on newegg today I am putting it off as it cost abit for me now with currency conversion. You may ask isn't ddr3 recent, well it is 10 years old plus tech now and I need it for an old board too. Wished to go for the highest spec one for the tail end of ddr3.

View attachment IMG_20191130_125439.jpg

 

[Ruru]

Those cheap "new" FX 5500s looks just so funny... I'll probably get one some day since it's been over a decade since I played around with a FX card last time.

Though a FX 5900 XT would be a perfect choice since they're affordable and are easy to clock to FX 5950 Ultra speeds.