TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[lexluthermiester]

Got busy making a Windows XP build, mainly for EAX games and the weird one that doesn't run on W10. I used leftovers from my old FAH/WCG farm:

Asrock 880GM-LE FX motherboard
Phenom II X2 521, fastest 65w AM3 CPU (OEM part, basically an Athlon II X2 with an 667Mhz memory controller, every Athlon X2 had 533Mhz controllers)
Standard 125w AMD heatsink
4GB DDR3-1333 RAM (only 3.25 usable due to 32bit limitation)
Dell HD 7570 1GB GDDR5 (not DDR3 as standard part) OCed to 750/940. Low profile
Creative Labs X-Fi Xtreme Gamer with custom low profile bracket.
500GB 2.5" HDD
Asus DVD-R
El-cheapo unbranded low profile mATX case

Sorry for the potato camera pics

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edit: I have more XP setups but I wanted something smaller and easy to move around. My other XP boxes weight a TON XD

edit2: specs & benchmarks
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The overclock puts the HD7570 well ahead of the 4850 (OpenGL) which was a pretty high end card at its time. By rule of thumb I'd say it's 2~3x faster than an X1950XT at least, pretty much overkill for XP era games.
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Decent little system there. Nice build!

 

[Valantar]

Got busy making a Windows XP build, mainly for EAX games and the weird one that doesn't run on W10. I used leftovers from my old FAH/WCG farm:

Asrock 880GM-LE FX motherboard
Phenom II X2 521, fastest 65w AM3 CPU (OEM part, basically an Athlon II X2 with an 667Mhz memory controller, every Athlon X2 had 533Mhz controllers)
Standard 125w AMD heatsink
4GB DDR3-1333 RAM (only 3.25 usable due to 32bit limitation)
Dell HD 7570 1GB GDDR5 (not DDR3 as standard part) OCed to 750/940. Low profile
Creative Labs X-Fi Xtreme Gamer with custom low profile bracket.
500GB 2.5" HDD
Asus DVD-R
El-cheapo unbranded low profile mATX case

Sorry for the potato camera pics

View attachment 207038
View attachment 207039
View attachment 207040

edit: I have more XP setups but I wanted something smaller and easy to move around. My other XP boxes weight a TON XD

edit2: specs & benchmarks
View attachment 207048
View attachment 207049

The overclock puts the HD7570 well ahead of the 4850 (OpenGL) which was a pretty high end card at its time. By rule of thumb I'd say it's 2~3x faster than an X1950XT at least, pretty much overkill for XP era games.
View attachment 207050
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Love to see some SFF retro builds! Nicely done. Was that SFX PSU included with the case?

 

[lexluthermiester]

Was that SFX PSU included with the case?

Very likely. It kinda has that "came with the case" look to it. Especially given the cable lengths..
@TRWOV
Got a link for that case? It looks nice and I'd like to learn more about it.

 

[TRWOV]

It's a K-MEX CM-918A, supposedly it's a Brazilian made case but I'm pretty sure some (or most) of their cases come from China as I'm pretty sure I've seen some of "their" designs on Aliexpress and such.

For example, this one is basically an InWin Chopin with a different front panel: http://kmex.com.br/exibir.asp?pag=Exibir&parent=gabinetes1&chave=130&sb=275&tsb=Mini-ITX&prod=973#
I've got a couple of those but from the Acteck brand: https://www.amazon.com.mx/Gabinete-Acteck-Fiji-fuente-200W/dp/B00VVQAA4I

oh, and yeah, the SFX psu came with the case. I always replace the included SFX PSUs with FSP250-50GHS (cheap 80plus 250w psu) but this one had the power cable embedded in the PSU so no dice :/

 

[lexluthermiester]

It's a K-MEX CM-918A, supposedly it's a Brazilian made case but I'm pretty sure some (or most) of their cases come from China as I'm pretty sure I've seen some of "their" designs on Aliexpress and such.

For example, this one is basically an InWin Chopin with a different front panel: http://kmex.com.br/exibir.asp?pag=Exibir&parent=gabinetes1&chave=130&sb=275&tsb=Mini-ITX&prod=973#
I've got a couple of those but from the Acteck brand: https://www.amazon.com.mx/Gabinete-Acteck-Fiji-fuente-200W/dp/B00VVQAA4I

oh, and yeah, the SFX psu came with the case. I always replace the included SFX PSUs with FSP250-50GHS (cheap 80plus 250w psu) but this one had the power cable embedded in the PSU so no dice :/

I don't think those are the same ones. The one you're using has a full size 5.25" drive bay for an optical drive. The ones you listed do not. This is a feature I'm interested in.

 

[TRWOV]

Not exactly the same case but this one just has a differente front panel from what I can tell: http://kmex.com.br/exibir.asp?pag=E...sb=321&tsb=Gabinetes-Slim-Micro-ATX&prod=645#

There's also this from Acteck: https://www.amazon.com.mx/gp/product/B07YJ7FR7Q?pf_rd_r=AH3DK9X9FSETZ54DRV16
The PSU in those can be replaced with no problem

 

[lexluthermiester]

Not exactly the same case but this one just has a differente front panel from what I can tell: http://kmex.com.br/exibir.asp?pag=E...sb=321&tsb=Gabinetes-Slim-Micro-ATX&prod=645#

Yup, that looks right. Now to see if I can find it stateside! Thank You for the link!

 

[TRWOV]

The build is barely larger than my modded Vostro 270s, about 1" taller and 1" longer... ahh, the Vostro has a Core i5-10400

I used to love big builds (my main rig was a CM Cosmos) but nowadays space is a premium with the wife around and all that so SFF it is.

I still got my Cosmos in storage. I might reuse her for a Threadripper retro rig (whenever the Threadripper becomes retro xD)

 

[basco]

Space is a premium with the wife around !
love it Mr. TRWOV

 

[Valantar]

The build is barely larger than my modded Vostro 270s, about 1" taller and 1" longer... ahh, the Vostro has a Core i5-10400

View attachment 207071

I used to love big builds (my main rig was a CM Cosmos) but nowadays space is a premium with the wife around and all that so SFF it is.

I still got my Cosmos in storage. I might reuse her for a Threadripper retro rig (whenever the Threadripper becomes retro xD)

I mean, why build a huge box full of mostly air when the same performance and noise level can be had in a fraction of the size? Excess has its good sides, but personally I don't see any benefit to making a PC huge just because that's normal. And with modern hardware and SFF cases, there are no real compromises in SFF unless you have quite specific hardware needs. If I had unlimited time and funds I'd want to try building a 486 DOS gaming rig from something like this Or, at the very least, one of those strange industrial "card PCs" and a custom SFF daughterboard for expansion and power. Real retro PCs are cool, but I don't think I'll ever have the room for a stack of old beige (or ideally retrobrite grey-beige) boxes.

 

[Robert B]

Baby steps!

The guinea pigs have survived. I might do another pass of retrobright but I'm not so sure. The color matches the trays quite nicely. Just 2 hours of sun and some "lube". 1 EURO for the lot! Not a bad deal IMO! The busted case and all the contents.

Also, I have been a very very bad boy! Look at all these beauties which have passed through my hands. Just the tip of the iceberg!

 

[Ruru]

Yay it POSTed and there were the settings of the previous owner

 

[lexluthermiester]

Yay it POSTed and there were the settings of the previous owner

Oh my! update that BIOS!

EDIT: Here's a link to the latest version;

https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1366/Rampage_III_Extreme/RampageIII-Extreme-ASUS-1502.zip

Looking at the specs, it a solid board but unfortunately doesn't support Xeons. However, an i7-970 should be reasonably priced in the EU. Even the 980 might be a good price. The 970s can get to 4ghz without much fiddling and only a minor bump in voltage.

 

[MaxiPro800]

@Robert B
That poor JNC case saw better days. I have two of those (one housing a Slot 1 Coppermine 650 build and the other housing a Slot A Athlon 750) and they're relatively good, and the one thing I love about these is they're very modular between themselves. My 2 cases I have are built from at least 4 various cases - the CuMine was made from a JNC DT-807 case (roof and frame), with panels from a RJA-52 (yes, those are the models for each) while the Athlon was made from a JNC TAC case (TAC being some standard imposed by Intel for computer case makers I think? Don't really know more about that.), namely the roof and metal frame, while the panels were spares for the RJA-52, and the faceplate is something I couldn't yet identify over the internet (it is a JNC/ANS faceplate though)

Long story short - the JNC and ANS cases (at least those that aren't crippled to have only one detachable panel, these usually bear the SJA marking on the inside of their faceplates) that have a metal frame with a grille similar to yours and mine (check page 458 to see the grilles on mine) are literally made like LEGOs. Once you scrounge a few of them, it's literally mix and match between them, just like some of the older AT-era cases were.

 

[Ruru]

Oh my! update that BIOS!

EDIT: Here's a link to the latest version;

https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1366/Rampage_III_Extreme/RampageIII-Extreme-ASUS-1502.zip

Looking at the specs, it a solid board but unfortunately doesn't support Xeons. However, an i7-970 should be reasonably priced in the EU. Even the 980 might be a good price. The 970s can get to 4ghz without much fiddling and only a minor bump in voltage.

I'll update later. I had to take the board out as the northbridge temps were ~85C even on BIOS and as you may guess, there was dried "bubblegum" there. Scraped that away with an useless LGA771 Xeon, and let's put some MX-5 there.

 

[DR4G00N]

Looking at the specs, it a solid board but unfortunately doesn't support Xeons.

It absolutely does, just like every other Asus X58 board.

 

[Ruru]

It absolutely does, just like every other Asus X58 board.

I'll get a X5650 before anyone even suggests it

 

[lexluthermiester]

It absolutely does, just like every other Asus X58 board.

Not according to the ASUS official CPU support page. Are you sure the microcode is present? ASUS is usual very good about listing all CPU's that are compatible.

 

[Ruru]

Not according to the ASUS official CPU support page. Are you sure the microcode is present? ASUS is usual very good about listing all CPU's that are compatible.

Never actually heard that anyone had any problems for like X5650 in a common X58 board

At least googling "xeon x5650 rampage 3 extreme" looks promising

 

[lexluthermiester]

Never actually heard that anyone had any problems for like X5650 in a common X58 board

At least googling "xeon x5650 rampage 3 extreme" looks promising

Fair enough. I saw the list and didn't want to make any assumptions of compatibility. It won't hurt to test.

 

[Ruru]

Fair enough. I saw the list and didn't want to make any assumptions of compatibility. It won't hurt to test.

And they're dirt cheap these days, I may as well ask one from Finland so I don't need to buy one abroad. We still have OC culture like always and retro stuff is also a thing here.

 

[lexluthermiester]

And they're dirt cheap these days, I may as well ask one from Finland so I don't need to buy one abroad. We still have OC culture like always and retro stuff is also a thing here.

Right and the X5675 is one of the best overclockers! You're in for some fun.

 

[Ruru]

Also getting a Phenom II 955 BE for my AM2NF3 today from a local dude

edit: I got two, I can try which OCs better, paid 10EUR... tho I probably pay another 10EUR next month for the another..

 

[Trekkie4]

Baby steps!

The guinea pigs have survived. I might do another pass of retrobright but I'm not so sure. The color matches the trays quite nicely. Just 2 hours of sun and some "lube". 1 EURO for the lot! Not a bad deal IMO! The busted case and all the contents.

Also, I have been a very very bad boy! Look at all these beauties which have passed through my hands. Just the tip of the iceberg!

I really like & admire your dedication to details, making things just "perfect"

Can I ask for a favor? Would it be difficult for you to take addition pic of that Plextor DVD-RW? I have a sneaky suspicion that it's actually made by the company TOP-G, in which case it will probably say so on top of the unit, somewhere on the label.

Also, that V7700 GF2 GTS looks very familiar. I got the same card, currently inside one of my "Adison" builds, paired with talking P4B board & 2.6GHz P4

 

[Robert B]

Hi @Trekkie4 ! Thanks! Anything you need I got it!

As far as I know this is the last of the "true" Plextor drives.

Its story is kind of sad but I won't spill the beans just yet!

That V7700 was quite an unexpected find! I really dig your Adison stuff. From experience when it rains it pours so when you really want something, life plays tricks on you and you get much more than you bargained for. I guess now you have enough Adison builds to last a lifetime