TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[Bones]

Partially mine also. 4 of those were DOA's of both new and second hand. I killed the other 3 benching. I have one working one left. I haven't had a working 7950 GT in years.
Pretty much any on e-bay now will probably be dead, so beware all.

Then I have to be lucky since I do have a 7950 GT that works and has very little runtime on it since it was new.
I bought it as a NOS item a few years ago from someone on fleabay and yes, it was indeed a brand new/unused GPU still in it's box.

I've got it around here somewhere and will probrably keep it as a standby, you never know right?

 

[Fouquin]

Picking through more scrap lots. Found a few okay chips...

But then this emerged from the bag of loose chips:


I've been back on a S939 kick lately and was just remarking to another group how I'd really like to find one some day. Well, here it is! Oh but it doesn't get to be all happy happenstance, oh no. This chip has been bouncing around in a box with 11lbs of other chips, shipped across the country with no padding. No this chip is wrecked.




So after riding the high of fixing that FX-55 a few days ago I thought I'd sit down with the work light, my tweezers, a dull blade and about 3 hours of my time.



The soldering iron made a guest appearance at the very end when the absolute last pin was just a tad too wobbly to withstand socket pressure. The others bent at the knees were straightened with some broad head tweezers, carefully pressed back into shape with applied pressure. But then, it was done. Good enough for a quick and easy OC too!



Progress pics. Condition when it arrived, then after a cleaning, then finally all fixed up.

I love chip lots. One good find is worth more than any minuscule scraps of gold these chips could have given. Happy to save another great CPU from destruction.

 

[QuietBob]

But then this emerged from the bag of loose chips:

Awww, it pains me just to look at it. Your work reviving this chip is nothing short of amazing!

 

[Valantar]

Picking through more scrap lots. Found a few okay chips...

But then this emerged from the bag of loose chips:
View attachment 191651

I've been back on a S939 kick lately and was just remarking to another group how I'd really like to find one some day. Well, here it is! Oh but it doesn't get to be all happy happenstance, oh no. This chip has been bouncing around in a box with 11lbs of other chips, shipped across the country with no padding. No this chip is wrecked.

View attachment 191652View attachment 191654


So after riding the high of fixing that FX-55 a few days ago I thought I'd sit down with the work light, my tweezers, a dull blade and about 3 hours of my time.

View attachment 191655View attachment 191656

The soldering iron made a guest appearance at the very end when the absolute last pin was just a tad too wobbly to withstand socket pressure. The others bent at the knees were straightened with some broad head tweezers, carefully pressed back into shape with applied pressure. But then, it was done. Good enough for a quick and easy OC too!

View attachment 191657View attachment 191658View attachment 191659

Progress pics. Condition when it arrived, then after a cleaning, then finally all fixed up.

View attachment 191660

I love chip lots. One good find is worth more than any minuscule scraps of gold these chips could have given. Happy to save another great CPU from destruction.

You should advertise to do this for people with bent pins on their CPUs. Could probably make some money off that - as long as you charge less than the cost of a new CPU The quality of that work is outstanding.

 

[Susquehannock]

4800+ .... sweet. Great job on that.

Those are ridiculously expensive now so had to settle for 4400+ in my 939 build. And haven't even updated BIOS to make use of dual core yet so still on 3000+ thus far. One more iron in the fire which needs more attention.

 

[Fouquin]

You should advertise to do this for people with bent pins on their CPUs. Could probably make some money off that - as long as you charge less than the cost of a new CPU The quality of that work is outstanding.

I guess I could. Logistics costs can seriously hamper any value the service provides unless of course we're talking about some exceptional chips that need fixing.

4800+ .... sweet. Great job on that.

Those are ridiculously expensive now so had to settle for 4400+ in my 939 build. And haven't even updated BIOS to make use of dual core yet so still on 3000+ thus far. One more iron in the fire which needs more attention.

Yeah no joke! I've also been stuck with a 4400+ as my X2 for S939 for years. My 4400+ clocks so poorly that I've been almost always just resorting to the FX-57 set to 3GHz as my baseline for the platform. Now the 4800+ even at 2.7GHz is pretty much the go-to.

 

[Valantar]

I guess I could. Logistics costs can seriously hamper any value the service provides unless of course we're talking about some exceptional chips that need fixing.

I've seen enough posts of people having dropped their brand-new Ryzen chips to make me think that it could make sense.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Then I have to be lucky since I do have a 7950 GT that works and has very little runtime on it since it was new.

AGP? Then you ARE lucky.

Happy to save another great CPU from destruction.

You have far more patience than I could ever have. lol

 

[framebuffer]

Guys my overclocked MX400 vs GTS comparison is complete!

In 2001 the Italian website “nv Italia” published a very interesting review: in the attempt to reach the more powerful GeForce2 GTS (but at much lower price point), a rather special GeForce2 MX400 and a Kyro II (Hercules 3D Prophet 4500) were competing against it.
But wait, how do these cards were supposed to compete with the GTS?
Well, I’m glad I asked: the Kyro II had it’s very promising tile based rendering technology, able to boost performance even at low clocks and lower specs but the ASUS V7100Pro MX400, although was basically a GTS with half of the rendering pipelines and half of the memory bandwidth had a secret weapon, very useful for the heavily bandwidth limited Celsius architecture: It had extremely-low-latency (underclocked) memory modules!
continue reading

Also captured the tests and made side-by-side video comparison

Now time for some GeForce6 6800 pipeline unlock fun!

 

[F-Zero]

Thanks @framebuffer

 

[lexluthermiester]

AGP? Then you ARE lucky.

Very lucky indeed! AGP 7950's existed but were rare even when new. They are exceedingly rare now!

 

[Space Lynx]

Guys my overclocked MX400 vs GTS comparison is complete!

When I read this... I was thinking oh, that sounds like hardcore nostalgia. Then I scrolled and spotted the actual youtube comparison video... I need one of those mind blown gif's

that is so epic. awesome, ty for sharing!

 

[F-Zero]

My co-worker surprised me with this

 

[framebuffer]

Picking through more scrap lots. Found a few okay chips...

But then this emerged from the bag of loose chips:
View attachment 191651

I've been back on a S939 kick lately and was just remarking to another group how I'd really like to find one some day. Well, here it is! Oh but it doesn't get to be all happy happenstance, oh no. This chip has been bouncing around in a box with 11lbs of other chips, shipped across the country with no padding. No this chip is wrecked.

View attachment 191652View attachment 191654


So after riding the high of fixing that FX-55 a few days ago I thought I'd sit down with the work light, my tweezers, a dull blade and about 3 hours of my time.

View attachment 191655View attachment 191656

The soldering iron made a guest appearance at the very end when the absolute last pin was just a tad too wobbly to withstand socket pressure. The others bent at the knees were straightened with some broad head tweezers, carefully pressed back into shape with applied pressure. But then, it was done. Good enough for a quick and easy OC too!

View attachment 191657View attachment 191658View attachment 191659

Progress pics. Condition when it arrived, then after a cleaning, then finally all fixed up.

View attachment 191660

I love chip lots. One good find is worth more than any minuscule scraps of gold these chips could have given. Happy to save another great CPU from destruction.

Holy crap!! Never seen something like that

BTW I just received two WD Raptors 500G in a paper envelope, haven't had the courage to open it and test them yet

Thanks @framebuffer

View attachment 191770

Hahaha thanks man

When I read this... I was thinking oh, that sounds like hardcore nostalgia. Then I scrolled and spotted the actual youtube comparison video... I need one of those mind blown gif's

that is so epic. awesome, ty for sharing!

Thanks, I'm glad you like it

My co-worker surprised me with this

View attachment 191799View attachment 191800View attachment 191801View attachment 191802View attachment 191803

oh nice!
but what I really like from this pics is the DFI!!

 

[80-watt Hamster]

My co-worker surprised me with this

View attachment 191802

Mmm... G92...

 

[framebuffer]

a new monster just arrived

and it has 2.5ns memory so it should overclock easily to 800MHz+ (from 666MHz), should it make any difference with the PCI bus anyway, will see

 

[QuietBob]

Guys my overclocked MX400 vs GTS comparison is complete!

Great read, thanks for the memories! I used to have an MX400 as well. That was 20 years ago?! Geez, I'm old...
My GF2 was a Leadtek with 5.5ns memory and was factory oc'd at 200/183. It would only go to 215/190, so nowhere near your sample. Looking forward to more comparisons!

 

[framebuffer]

Great read, thanks for the memories! I used to have an MX400 as well. That was 20 years ago?! Geez, I'm old...
My GF2 was a Leadtek with 5.5ns memory and was factory oc'd at 200/183. It would only go to 215/190, so nowhere near your sample. Looking forward to more comparisons!

thanks, I'm glad you liked it!
yes the ASUS V7100PRO is a little monster, imagine when it was new and most probably the memory was able to stay at 250MHz+

BTW as a future follow up of this compare, I plan to use a GeForce4 MX460 to simulate a GeForce2 MX400 with infinite (well, up to 7.2GB/s ) bandwidth and verify
1. the point where it matches the GTS performance with half of the pipelines
2. the point where eventually the 4 pipelines are no more bandwidth limited

 

[framebuffer]

AMD Athlon 800MHz • 512KB • 180nm/Pluto • Slot A • 2000

 

[Bones]

AGP? Then you ARE lucky.


You have far more patience than I could ever have. lol

No, it's PCI-E but even those in the "Like New" condition this one is in are hard to find.

 

[Mr.Scott]

AMD Athlon 800MHz • 512KB • 180nm/Pluto • Slot A • 2000

View attachment 192136

Nice. I love the Slot A's.
Got one of these?

 

[68Olds]

I love weird devices/modules, but I never saw that one. Could you tell us about it?

I have had three different PowerLeap socket adaptors over the years. My favorite was the Slocket, but the only one I still have is the s423 to s478 adaptor.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I love weird devices/modules, but I never saw that one. Could you tell us about it?

I have had three different PowerLeap socket adaptors over the years. My favorite was the Slocket, but the only one I still have is the s423 to s478 adaptor.

It's similar to the goldfinger. Allows for direct CPU overclocking instead of using motherboard features. For example, that device will allow an Athlon 800 to run at 1ghz by changing the multi directly on the CPU.

 

[Mr.Scott]

It is a Gold Finger Device (GFD) made for overclocking the slot A's. There were many different one's made but all look similar and did pretty much the same thing.
Device plugs onto fingers on top of the CPU card much like an SLI bridge. Yes, that means you either have to remove the case on the CPU or cut it. Switches control the multi and vcore. Some even controlled the cache multi. Pending the board that you're using, sometimes you can get quite a large overclock. Definitely an enthusiast niche product. All are almost extinct now. It took me near 10 years to find this one.
On a side note: there is somebody at CPU World that will be making these again. I actually have the prototype for testing right now. It looks sweet. Much more compact and easier to use than the originals.
I would post a picture but don't want to let the cat out of the bag, being that it's not my cat.

 

[framebuffer]

Nice. I love the Slot A's.
Got one of these?

Unfortunately I don't...
Anyway having only two Athlon Slot A (the one in the photo and another 600MHz) I'm not sure if I would mess with the plastic shroud disassembly to reach the connectors for the GFD...