TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[Ruru]

I don't have one
It's on my most wanted list since a while, but anyway this picture has a specific point, let's see if someone can guess it (it's very easy actually)

From the first GeForce Ultra to the last one?

 

[Mr.Scott]

Pretty GF2 Ultra. Looks unused.

 

[Ruru]

Got a R7850 for 10eur incl shipping and I'll get a 650 Ti at 15eur later today. At least older mid-ends are free or cheap.

 

[framebuffer]

From the first GeForce Ultra to the last one?

yees

 

[Trekkie4]

Status update...

3 of the Adison rigs are pretty much done - minus the obvious things such as missing CD-ROM trim & brightening up the yellowed surfaces.


Pentium II, 350 (Chaintech 6BTM, 1st out of 2)


Pentium III, 550 (Asus P3B-F)


And here's the other Pentium II 350, that's currently still a work in progress (pics are in chronological order)

 

[MaxiPro800]

Scored another white 17 inch Acer. This time I got pretty lucky and landed on a 7720G, w/ T5750 and a late G86 based 9300M G, and 3GB of RAM. Does need some work though but otherwise it works fine.

 

[Ruru]

Well damn, it was in its original box.

Repasted it and blew most of its dust off already, I'll put it soon to my 2nd rig.

 

[MaxiPro800]

You can never have enough G84/86 based C2Ds.

HP Pavilion dv9730ef. One of the few 9000 models that came w/ 512MB of VRAM (most were 256MB usually.). G86-770-A2 chip, unsurprisingly artefacting due to some really shady cooling. Cleaned, reflowed and repasted with MX4 on both CPU and GPU.

Specs:

3GB RAM, borrowed from the Acer above until I can source 2x2GB sticks for that one
Core 2 Duo T5450 1.66GHz (for now)
Geforce 8600M GS 512MB
Toshiba TS-L802B HD-DVD drive
Toshiba MK2555GSX 250GB HDD
Windows 7 Ult. X64 SP1.

 

[Caring1]

You can never have enough G84/86 based C2Ds.


HP Pavilion dv9730ef. One of the few 9000 models that came w/ 512MB of VRAM (most were 256MB usually.). G86-770-A2 chip, unsurprisingly artefacting due to some really shady cooling. Cleaned, reflowed and repasted with MX4 on both CPU and GPU.

The early DV series were know for their overheating and failing, they had apparently fixed that by later versions after the DV6 series.
I hope yours is fine.

 

[Ruru]

I got these also for free yesterday U never know if u need an optical drive with older hardware.

I got these also for free yesterday U never know if u need an optical drive with older hardware.

You can never have enough G84/86 based C2Ds.
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HP Pavilion dv9730ef. One of the few 9000 models that came w/ 512MB of VRAM (most were 256MB usually.). G86-770-A2 chip, unsurprisingly artefacting due to some really shady cooling. Cleaned, reflowed and repasted with MX4 on both CPU and GPU.

Specs:

3GB RAM, borrowed from the Acer above until I can source 2x2GB sticks for that one
Core 2 Duo T5450 1.66GHz (for now)
Geforce 8600M GS 512MB
Toshiba TS-L802B HD-DVD drive
Toshiba MK2555GSX 250GB HDD
Windows 7 Ult. X64 SP1.

HD-DVD?! Nice!

 

[MaxiPro800]

The early DV series were know for their overheating and failing, they had apparently fixed that by later versions after the DV6 series.
I hope yours is fine.

After the reflow yes, it works fine. And it's surprisingly quiet and cool, but that's kinda expected for using MX4.

 

[Valantar]

You can never have enough G84/86 based C2Ds.
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HP Pavilion dv9730ef. One of the few 9000 models that came w/ 512MB of VRAM (most were 256MB usually.). G86-770-A2 chip, unsurprisingly artefacting due to some really shady cooling. Cleaned, reflowed and repasted with MX4 on both CPU and GPU.

Specs:

3GB RAM, borrowed from the Acer above until I can source 2x2GB sticks for that one
Core 2 Duo T5450 1.66GHz (for now)
Geforce 8600M GS 512MB
Toshiba TS-L802B HD-DVD drive
Toshiba MK2555GSX 250GB HDD
Windows 7 Ult. X64 SP1.

Ah, I miss the days when laptop CPUs were socketed. I've had some real fun upgrading dumpster dive finds from that era to much more powerful CPUs and giving them a new lease on life.

 

[Splinterdog]

You can never have enough G84/86 based C2Ds.
View attachment 193160
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View attachment 193162
View attachment 193163

HP Pavilion dv9730ef. One of the few 9000 models that came w/ 512MB of VRAM (most were 256MB usually.). G86-770-A2 chip, unsurprisingly artefacting due to some really shady cooling. Cleaned, reflowed and repasted with MX4 on both CPU and GPU.

Specs:

3GB RAM, borrowed from the Acer above until I can source 2x2GB sticks for that one
Core 2 Duo T5450 1.66GHz (for now)
Geforce 8600M GS 512MB
Toshiba TS-L802B HD-DVD drive
Toshiba MK2555GSX 250GB HDD
Windows 7 Ult. X64 SP1.

Impressive and I've had fun sending laptops away for reballing which only ever worked 50% of the time. Is that the same as reflow?

 

[Valantar]

Impressive and I've had fun sending laptops away for reballing which only ever worked 50% of the time. Is that the same as reflow?

Reflow should mean just (adding some flux and) heating the chip up until the solder between it and the PCB melts (in the hopes that this fixes any cold or broken solder joints). Reballing means removing the chip outright, cleaning it and the PCB of solder, then reapplying new solder balls to the chip (typically requiring solder paste plus a stainless steel solder ball stencil), putting it in place and heating it to solder it down. So they're related, but reballing is an order of magnitude more complex.

 

[MaxiPro800]

Yeah, the proper way to "permanently" fix it would mean a mix of reballing + changing the G86-770-A2 with a 771. I don't have enough tools for that so I'm going to have to make do with a normal reflow using an automotive heatgun.

Reballing is a waste of time if the chip itself has substrate issues, IMO. You're off better looking a bit into which chips have the fixed substrate, order those and then reball them instead of your original chip. This way you're basically making sure in proportion of about 95% it will survive for a long time.

 

[Trekkie4]

Scored another white 17 inch Acer. This time I got pretty lucky and landed on a 7720G, w/ T5750 and a late G86 based 9300M G, and 3GB of RAM. Does need some work though but otherwise it works fine.

View attachment 193063

OCD triggered!

 

[MaxiPro800]

HD-DVD?! Nice!

Yeah. Did show its age tho, couldn't use it to install Windows 7. Had to borrow the LG T40N from the Acer to install. Still keeping it because it's an interesting piece of history, and I really haven't seen a laptop to have HD-DVD before. It would be either standard DVDROM or in rare cases, Blu-ray (usually HP DV7-1000s had these, and even then, not all had BD).

 

[Ruru]

Yeah. Did show its age tho, couldn't use it to install Windows 7. Had to borrow the LG T40N from the Acer to install. Still keeping it because it's an interesting piece of history, and I really haven't seen a laptop to have HD-DVD before. It would be either standard DVDROM or in rare cases, Blu-ray (usually HP DV7-1000s had these, and even then, not all had BD).

Getting a Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive is something I've wanted to do for a long time, I guess I should look for one.

 

[Valantar]

Yeah. Did show its age tho, couldn't use it to install Windows 7. Had to borrow the LG T40N from the Acer to install. Still keeping it because it's an interesting piece of history, and I really haven't seen a laptop to have HD-DVD before. It would be either standard DVDROM or in rare cases, Blu-ray (usually HP DV7-1000s had these, and even then, not all had BD).

Might just be a dirty lens, it shouldn't be too difficult to clean that with a cotton swab with some isopropyl alcohol.

 

[QuietBob]

Well damn, it was in its original box.

For EUR 10 I'd say that was an incredible deal. Just checked some local listings, these are selling as "new" :

GT 610 - EUR 40 - 39 sold
GT 710 - EUR 55 - 60 sold
GT 1030 - EUR 105 - 48 sold
GTX 645 - EUR 110 - 21 sold

 

[silentbogo]

Scored another white 17 inch Acer. This time I got pretty lucky and landed on a 7720G, w/ T5750 and a late G86 based 9300M G, and 3GB of RAM. Does need some work though but otherwise it works fine.

Nice.
Which reminds me, I have a pair of 15" variants somewhere in a box. Just need to put them together. I think it's one of my longest delayed projects, which started when these were still relevant )))
Even ordered a pair of brand-new motherboards, but those came in damaged beyond repair (whole corner was broken on both), so I've fixed the old ones (one had a short on SATA power lane, another one had one of standby voltages missing). It's been sitting like that for a few years, totally forgot about it with moving between places.

 

[Ruru]

For EUR 10 I'd say that was an incredible deal. Just checked some local listings, these are selling as "new" :

GT 610 - EUR 40 - 39 sold
GT 710 - EUR 55 - 60 sold
GT 1030 - EUR 105 - 48 sold
GTX 645 - EUR 110 - 21 sold

Insane prices.. I sold my GT 1030 (with 1gen Accelero Twin Turbo) for like 30EUR about an year ago.

 

[MIRTAZAPINE]

Scored another white 17 inch Acer. This time I got pretty lucky and landed on a 7720G, w/ T5750 and a late G86 based 9300M G, and 3GB of RAM. Does need some work though but otherwise it works fine.

View attachment 193063

I remember this Acer gemstone in late 2000s. I help a friend upgrade this with a corsair 120gb ssd that time and it really flies despite the sata 2 limitation. I think laptop during that time period have rather unique and experimental design that I never see it that much these days.

 

[micropage7]

Scored another white 17 inch Acer. This time I got pretty lucky and landed on a 7720G, w/ T5750 and a late G86 based 9300M G, and 3GB of RAM. Does need some work though but otherwise it works fine.

View attachment 193063

i found the same laptop several weeks ago on local online shop, actually i want to try it but since i have 3 laptops i skip it, i dunno i should be thankful or sorry for that

 

[Frick]

You can never have enough G84/86 based C2Ds.

I would honestly disagree with this. At least in consumer laptops.