TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[Mr.Scott]

I recently restored my old PC from 2006-ish to 2013. And yes, I know it's dirty. I'm too lazy to clean it.

HP Pavilion a1250n
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
RAM: 4x512MB DDR-266
GPU: ATi Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB (had others before that I don't remember)
OS: Windows 7 Pro (originally ran XP, then Vista, then 7 Starter, and finally 7 Pro).

I've had other PCs before this one, but this one is the oldest one I have detailed memories of.

I originally had some 80GB drive in it (probably a Maxtor). In 2011 or 2012, I switched to a fresh install on a 40GB Maxtor Fireball 3. Because I like sentimental things, I couldn't bring myself to erase that drive and do a fresh install, so I grabbed a blank 100GB Maxtor that I have and did a fresh install on it.

It originally had a 350W Enermax PSU, but the cable spaghetti got annoying, so I switched it out for one of my 350W InWin PSUs a few days ago. I also swapped the CPU fan because the bearings on the original were long gone.

I think my very first PC was the infamous Patriot Computing Hot Wheels PC. I still have the CD book from it (with the original discs it came with).

DDR-266 is killing your performance. Even a 2006'ish machine should have been on DDR-400.

 

[Ruru]

DDR-266 is killing your performance. Even a 2006'ish machine should have been on DDR-400.

This, I've never actually even had DDR266 on daily use... I got straight from PC133 SDR to DDR400 back in the day.

 

[Trekkie4]

You and us both my good sir!

Myself included If there's anyone who loves "Sentimental Things" around here, it's me lol!

DDR-266 is killing your performance. Even a 2006'ish machine should have been on DDR-400.

This, I've never actually even had DDR266 on daily use... I got straight from PC133 SDR to DDR400 back in the day.

Agreed!! There really is no reason to use DDR266 unless the motherboard is incapable of supporting faster RAM modules ... in which case you seriously need to grab a better board lol

 

[Dinnercore]

I settled on an OC for my Lanparty JR P45.



When I pushed higher FSB I encountered some issues which are probably RAM related. These 2x2GB sticks are rated for 533MHz at best and I might get there after fiddling with the boards many memory sub-settings but I'd rather avoid touching that in depth. Would be a very time consuming effort for little gains.

I'm happy at 4.6GHz. Temps are also exactly where I want them with a ~10°C headroom on each component to compensate for higher ambients.

I ran some more PhysX related demos and found one that I had on my PC back in the day:



It tasks the PhysX dedicated GPU very well. I saw up to 95% usage on the 9600GT during certain scenes.



Still the most demanding thing to run for this PC are the UT3 PhysX maps in 1440p. It manages to hold 60 fps, dipping in the 50s just a few times but CPU is hovering at 80-100% usage, main GPU 70-90% and the pGPU 10-30%. Seeing up to 350W load when playing and the GPU climbs to 76°C.

It really took me back to the good days and I can't wait to use it at my friends place in an old fashioned LAN.
The noise from the GTX280 while playing UT3 was exactly the way I remember my PC. If you do not have this nostalgic feeling towards it, the noise would be unpleasent. I simply get a feeling of comfort out of it. It is one of those memories: I was often playing with a friend until early in the morning and I got these chills and the feeling of cold from being really tired, so I would put my hands behind the GPU exhaust on the case and let the GPU warm me up

 

[Frick]

This, I've never actually even had DDR266 on daily use... I got straight from PC133 SDR to DDR400 back in the day.

It was common in OEM machines.

 

[biffzinker]

It was common in OEM machines.

Similar to populating one single channel on a dual channel capable motherboard with the older integrated graphics in the north bridge chipset.

 

[sam_86314]

It was common in OEM machines.

This is likely why it's only DDR-266. It's an HP prebuilt in which my dad added a dGPU and better PSU.

I'm not going to upgrade it because I want this rig to stay the way it originally was when it was my daily driver. It's for nostalgia and as an old rig to mess around with.

 

[phill]

Wonder if the board would support anything faster?? I know HP have done some weird stuff in the past....

 

[Ruru]

Wonder if the board would support anything faster?? I know HP have done some weird stuff in the past....

I have a feeling that it could, as the memory controller is in the CPU

 

[Trekkie4]

I'm not going to upgrade it because I want this rig to stay the way it originally was when it was my daily driver. It's for nostalgia and as an old rig to mess around with.

Well, that changes everything, and of course I fully understand you. I was under the impression that you were simply working on a DDR retro system (as in putting together something randomly) in which case going for faster modules would make sense.

That being said, sometimes it's not about the speed or performance. If you've been following my latest posts & Adison PII system, you should know that I'm planning & going for 64MB of SD-RAM, which (even by retro standards) would had been on a lower level, leaving the room for optional upgrade to 128. In fact, all my other retro rigs (especially Slot-1) feature 256MB but just like your HP, Adison is all about preserving the original memories & its performance from back in a day.

 

[phill]

I have a feeling that it could, as the memory controller is in the CPU

One would hope that HP haven't done something daft to lock this or something, definitely worth a go considering a bit more performance is there for you if it works... But if it's doing whatever it needs to do, then extra performance or not, not really a problem I guess

 

[Mr.Scott]

This is likely why it's only DDR-266. It's an HP prebuilt in which my dad added a dGPU and better PSU.

I'm not going to upgrade it because I want this rig to stay the way it originally was when it was my daily driver. It's for nostalgia and as an old rig to mess around with.

FWIW, I wasn't dissing on your machine. I just found it odd that there was DDR-266 in a 2006 939 machine.
Carry on my friend.

 

[Susquehannock]

Yay. The dirty Sapphire works in the Shuttle nf2 system. Just long enough to confirm it ran all games properly. Then time came to see what was inside.

Worse than expected. Complete with hairs in the thermal paste. After some scrubbing, new grizzly thermal pads and MX-4 paste, the 3850 seems to run pretty cool. Lapped the RAM sink, gave fan hub drop of silicone and smiley cover sticker for good measure.

Runs Unreal Tournament 2004 with every setting maxed out very well. With the 7800gs in near exact same set up in Soltek FRN2 system always had to back off a couple settings to prevent slow frame rate during heavy action. Not anymore. Yet still had an occasional stutter in the Shuttle. Believe it to be the old 20gb TriGem branded Samsung ata-66 drive accessing. Thing is noisy! Pulled from a eMachine box before recycling.

Barely goes above 50-c during heavy gaming and hottest is upper 60s after several hours heavy stress testing. Fan sticks at 47% and tops at 52%. What is a good way to get control of that?

Shuttle AN35 ultra 400
Sapphire HD 3850 agp
2gb RAM pc3200
T-bred B 1800+ at 11x200=2,200mhz
PCP&C 425 turbo cool
SK-7 with 80mm fan
WinXP sp2
20gb TriGem SV2044D

 

[debs3759]

Cor blimey! You and the previous owner sure overuse the thermal paste!

 

[Susquehannock]

Cor blimey! You and the previous owner sure overuse the thermal paste!

Merely a contact pattern test on those RAM chips. Should have seen it before the bowed saw tooth surface was corrected.

 

[QuietBob]

@Susquehannock
Help! Somebody throw that poor GPU a life preserver!
I like how you restored the card in the end. Those AGP boards surely deserve it. Your rig turned out fine, but this HD3850 is begging for more CPU power. You would see a big performance boost in a dual core/DDR2 setup.

EDIT: I just reviewed my benchmark results. Even a lower clocked single core on AM2 does much better with the card than a 2.5 GHz Barton.

 

[68Olds]

I remember having an XP-90 back in my socket 478 days. I looked for it a couple years ago & couldn't find it. I assumed it got tossed in an office cleanup years ago. This weekend I was cleaning up a store room in the basement & found several boxes of old PC stuff. One box was loaded with cat5, USB, various PSU adapter cables, and power cords. In the bottom I found several old fans and a box. To my surprise, I was reminded I didn't have an XP-90, it was an XP-120! And here it is, put back in the original box. I am very excited for this find! Hopefully I can find some time to put together an air cooled s478 build for some fun.

 

[Trekkie4]

Well guys... This day turned out quite unexpected, and for once in a good way

While my own "Adison" case is still in for powder coating process, I found these two just earlier today!!


Yes, both cases are unfortunately yellowed, and one of them even has broken clips/hooks, which holds the face plate against the chassis (so therefore as such will be most likely used for parts) but overall I was quite surprised to find these. I guess the right term would be "shocked" actually.

 

[lexluthermiester]

This, I've never actually even had DDR266 on daily use... I got straight from PC133 SDR to DDR400 back in the day.

A lot of people did that. I actually went SDRAM133 -> RDRAM800 -> RDRAM1066 -> DDR400.

 

[Mr.Scott]

I remember having an XP-90 back in my socket 478 days. I looked for it a couple years ago & couldn't find it. I assumed it got tossed in an office cleanup years ago. This weekend I was cleaning up a store room in the basement & found several boxes of old PC stuff. One box was loaded with cat5, USB, various PSU adapter cables, and power cords. In the bottom I found several old fans and a box. To my surprise, I was reminded I didn't have an XP-90, it was an XP-120! And here it is, put back in the original box. I am very excited for this find! Hopefully I can find some time to put together an air cooled s478 build for some fun.

View attachment 176076View attachment 176077View attachment 176078

I have XP-90 in original packaging. I would kill for that 120. Me jelly.

 

[phill]

Hey all

I was wondering if someone might be able to shed some light on a bit of an issue I'm having....

I'm going through a few AGP cards and I seem to be having issues with them installing drivers for some reason.. Now I've tried some of them in my Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2 board and some work, but others have given weird graphical faults or just not accepted drivers at all...
What am I doing wrong!? lol

Example for one would be one of my 3850's.... One works perfectly, no issues at all...



But the other, when all I do is swap out the GPU and power back on, using the same PCIe cable, same DVI connection on the back, I get this....



What the heck am I doing wrong?! lol

I can't try the 3850 card in my NF7-S board as I don't have the PCIe connections for the card to power it and I have no adaptors either.... (I stick away from them personally) But I've tried the 9800 AIW and the X1650 Pro card, they seem to be working perfectly in the NF7-S as they install the drivers... but they didn't in the Asrock board... Any results guys why that might be?? Would the voltages be different with the two AGP slots??

Oh, and here's a few shots that I think this thread would enjoy....




I've tried 3DMax 99 to run but that requires DirectX 6.1 to run but I think XP has something slightly newer than that and it just fails to load the program.. I might need to go to Windows 98SE I think and try.... Now that'll push my brain to remember how to get it working from there... I might need to find another IDE drive as I'm damn sure 98 won't be having any SATA drivers!!

Any help guys and gals would be massively grateful

 

[lexluthermiester]

What the heck am I doing wrong?! lol

This might be a VBIOS VS motherboard incompatibility issue. Does the problem card work in another system?

 

[Caring1]

Might be incompatibility with the VIA chipset.
Early motherboards were fussy, particularly Nforce from memory.

 

[biffzinker]

I've tried 3DMax 99 to run but that requires DirectX 6.1 to run but I think XP has something slightly newer than that and it just fails to load the program.. I might need to go to Windows 98SE I think and try....

The DirectX runtime is backwards compatible with prior versions. It could be a driver issue causing it. You could try installing the DirectX Runtime distribution that has a date of 2010. Just watch out for the installer trying to install a browser toolbar. TPU should have it under downloads on the homepage.

The issue with the other 3850 could related to the drivers not picking up on the device ID.

 

[stinger608]

Also, from the original post:

Thanks to our Nostalgic member @Bungz , here is a download for users wishing to
run the amazing ATI HD3850 AGP on an ole Socket A system. The System will crash
without this patch!!!

however, the link isn't working any longer. Not sure if we can dig up this patch somewhere.