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TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

Lenne said:
Now that's a sweet build! :love:
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I learned so much building and modding with that PC, it eventually got dismantled, cut down to about 1/3 the size, filled "body" with bondo and plastic welding, painted it white with purple mesh, and gave it to a girlfriend of mine about 5 years ago. I wish I got more photos of the builds I have done over the years. Most of the stuff is only accessible by memory. Here's another random "older" oddball computer photo I found...I think this is an Aluminum HTPC case, maybe Silverstone, with a huge Intel S5000PSL dual 771 with dual X5470.

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And here's a Lenovo M58P (I think) that I modded to fit a full size GPU with a custom GPU mount made from parts of cases I had lying around. I think it had either a QX6700 or a tape modded Q6600.

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And a couple "dump" builds (literally built with free or next to free parts...some literally from the dump, and then sold for cheap to people who couldn't otherwise afford a gaming PC for their kids. I can't really remember what exact hardware.
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All three of the above cases were missing side panels, badly dented...I used that super cheap "handy panel" board from the hardware for like $1.
 
That white Lenovo looks hella cool (especially with that X360 controller), so does that inverted mATX HP!
 
Lenne said:
What CPU you have to tinker with :)
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Mainly I want to bring my Q9550 samples higher ;) The P5Q Turbo works well enough for them but I can't help but feel the CPU is being held back a bit. I also want to go for PYPrime 2B DDR2 again, that was a lot of fun and with a better board maybe I can do more :)
 
Lenne said:
That white Lenovo looks hella cool (especially with that X360 controller), so does that inverted mATX HP!
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That inverted MATX in the OEM HP case...I had a mother ask me to build her son the best PC I could for $150 CAN as a grade 8 grad gift. I said I would do the best I could, but that $150 isn't going to get him what is typically referred to as a gaming PC. When I gave her that thing she cried...it wasn't the best PC at the time (keep in mind, years ago), but it had at least a decent GPU for the time. I can't remember the platform, but at least a dual core.
 
onemanhitsquad said:
It is time for another episode of "What's In The Tub?"

Always fun to see what you stashed and lost track of. I was looking for this video card , GeForce 4 TI 4600 because it never worked properly from out of the box , I figured I would give it another look , I love to be disappointed!
The Thermaltake fan was a add-on that they sold

The tub!


assorted network cards , wired and wireless...cool Abit AirPace pci-e card



sound cards and a misc ATI card



a couple of Ageia Physx cards and the Ti 4600




assorted vid cards and a WinTV card

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Thanks!!!!
 
Greenslade said:
Happy Birthday :)

The Commodore 64 : 40th Anniversary :)​

:)​

Do you prefer to have the actual game in a box ,rather than a downloaded one? o_O
Has anyone on here been involed in making a game? o_O










​

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Back in the day I used Garry Kitchens Game Maker on the C64 and drew up some backgrounds, spiky death balls and a mario character with 3 frames of animation but never completed the project (I gave up after failing to create good music). I'd much rather play games than make them.
 
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A beautiful example of the nForce 780a-based Foxconn Destroyer. ;)
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I bought this board off of eBay, and as soon as I got it I suspected it was used in a prebuilt of some kind. Mainly because of the condition, coupled with some light hot glue residue around a couple SATA ports + front I/O.

There's just something about nForce boards that appeals to me... I know that basically all of them are worse at overclocking (and self-immolating) than their Intel/AMD chipset alternatives - but they're unique, and often a fun struggle of sorts.
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The heatsink assembly is substantial, and that NF200 ensures it's necessary. There was an optional heatpipe extension module which came in the box, which is the reason for the four screws on the NB HS.
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Northbridge is dated Wk14/2008. I haven't yet seen a PCB date code printed on the board.
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Wtf is going on in the VRM area...? Let's take a close look.
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Foxconn calls this an 8-phase in marketing, which I don't think it possibly could be. Looks like a 4+1, 2high/2low side. What an odd layout, though.
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There is a mixture of 2x Nikos P75N02LDG and 2x unidentified MOSFETs. I say unidentified because I'm unfamiliar with that "A" logo, and searching the numbers printed brought no results. Someone here may know instantly what that part is ;)

This is the datasheet for the Nikos parts. They're rated for 75a continuous @ 25⁰c, and 50a continuous load @ 100⁰c. The rest of the data, is beyond my limited knowledge...

The Destroyer suffered from the usual Foxconn issue of having crap BIOSes for much of its lifetime. Issues that existed took way too long to be fixed (only the final(?) version, G18, has NB multiplier support), and of course you can't find any of them from Foxconn's support as the pages are gone. It took me a couple hours of searching to find this thread, and get a working link out of it for G18. If someone here somehow also has a Destroyer in 2022 and wants the BIOS, please PM me.

My board came with D30, which is about mid-late development, and P13 on the backup BIOS. You may not have noticed - but there are indeed two BIOS chips :) they're just oceans apart. I managed to kill one of them by carelessly flashing in Windows :banghead: but the other chip still works flawlessly. Just had to swap the two over. An EEPROM programmer is on the way to remedy this ;)

It's a shame that this board never got proper support, much like the Bloodrage. Foxconn had a habit of making physically great boards, and then apparently putting 0.25 BIOS engineers on the job. I guess they're used to only needing to provide the hardware aspect.

I managed 410.61MHz at the stock NB voltage, which is the highest of any Destroyer I've seen and is in the top 5 highest for 780a overall. I'm really impressed with this little board, I wasn't expecting 400MHz+FSB out of such a chipset :D

edit: after a good night's sleep (and remembering to turn on 2T), I squeezed 429.8MHz out of the board. ;)
 
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ABIT wasn't really bright with their BIOSes either - my board was acting up for no reason because some stupid chap thought 3.5V I/O is a good idea for default instead of 3.3V.

It might have been ideal in its heyday (though I doubt it, unless you had a pretty good PSU), but not by today - the components on it are around 20 years old already - they're pretty much starting to be unable to OC or unable to keep running at higher voltages than inteded.

It's kinda like the caps - don't expect them to last if you're running them at more than their spec allows.
 
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My Crosshair V Formula Z is just right for these...DDR3 2400Mhz!
 

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I have 7 of those "UD" type of boards from Gigabyte and not one has ever failed. Nice looking too!
My 790X UD4P is running for 12 years (slightly OC'ed DDR2).
 

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Audioave10 said:
I have 7 of those "UD" type of boards from Gigabyte and not one has ever failed. Nice looking too!
My 790X UD4P is running for 12 years (slightly OC'ed DDR2).
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I've actually been looking at one of those too, they seem quite nice. I assume you recommend it since you've had it for so long... ;)
 
I wanted to take a slight pause from fiddling with slot stuff just to look into this 2007/8 HP Pavilion dv9830ea. It's running a rather hot Turion X2 TL-64 and a 8400M GS. I remember adding 4GB worth of DDR2-667 and just recently, a WD Black 320GB, as well as a copper shim on the chipset (as the GPU's now exposed copper plate touches the GPU without the need of a shim) to replace the rather dry (but not crusty) thermal pad. I'll see how it keeps up after those additions, as I remember having to reflow it about twice.

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Also, taken a day earlier, a rather funny accident. I was testing the stability of my BE6 after lowering the I/O voltage to 3.3v. I installed a 40GB WDC not even knowing what was on it, expecting it to boot either a dualboot of Mandrake 10.1 and Windows ME. I was instead greeted by it booting into Windows 7 Home Premium , lol.
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Well guys, I finally bought myself a decent vintage CRT for playing retro games :)


ADI MicroScan MS-4P (otherwise known as "ADI 4P"), appears to be in mint condition and bright white as if it came straight out of the original box! Featuring 15" CRT screen with digital controls (but mechanical power switch), and unlike my previous LG StudioWorks 57M, this one auto-detects & reports as "ADI MS-4P", rather than "Plug & Play Monitor" generic label which was the case with LG.

Justin Case you're wondering, there was nothing wrong with LG ... it's a nice little thing & fully operational. Just not what I wanted to see on my current retro setup. LG is entirely digital, capable of up to 1280x1024 @60Hz, where this one on the other hand can only go up to 1280x800 (and even that is pushing it to the max) so I've decided to stick with 1024x768, 60Hz which is more than enough for my retro needs ;)
 
Welp, seems the dv9830ea held up rather good, temps were 66 max running YT with it slightly raised, no lock-ups as far as I can tell. It is running the latest BIOS that's been modded to remove the whitelist from it, so I could replace the old Broadcom card with an Atheros AR5B91.

The main hot spots were the HDD (it's a WD Black, enough said) and the northbridge (despite being copper shim'd) though the fan seems to do a good job if the thermals were 66*C tops. Not very comfortable with temps this high, but compared to Radeon based machines, I can totally live with it.
 
I wish I could come across a CRT locally...but I never do. I used to have a 23 or 24" beast back in the day that could do high refresh rate at decent res...it was awesome. But it was giant and I'd have nowhere to put such a thing these days. I also had a 34" HD CRT TV at one point. I miss that tech. I still have a tiny CRT TV that I only keep around for light gun games. These days, when I look for a CRT, all I want is "beige and less than 17". I've even asked recycling centers and they get a more $$$ from them as scrap then they do if they stored them and tried to sell them. So they won't hold them.
 
Had a 21'CRT that worked well, was capable of some good resoultions too but didn't have a use for it nor a place to keep it so it had to go.
As much as I'd love to save stuff like this I don't have unlimited space so it's not possible to keep it all.
 
Bones said:
Had a 21'CRT that worked well, was capable of some good resoultions too but didn't have a use for it nor a place to keep it so it had to go.
As much as I'd love to save stuff like this I don't have unlimited space so it's not possible to keep it all.
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I used to own 19" ADI CRT back in 2001 (up to 2005, 2006). It was easily the heaviest CRT I ever owned. Heavier than average TV from the same era, but eventually something blew inside & it wouldn't turn on any longer.

Probably a minor issue, blown moset or something similar but I immediately replaced the whole thing with 19" Philips LCD. Mostly due to the same reason(s) as you - that 19" CRT was just too big & heavy and therefore had to go.
 
Trekkie4 said:
'Heavier than average TV'
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I don't miss that aspect...that huge CRT monitor I had weighed way too much...but...I had another one, brand new from Future Shop at the time (long time ago...around 15-20 years back)...I spent $450ish CAD on a "flat" CRT, I think it was 19"...well...I brought it home, so psyched, hooked it up, got about 20 minutes or so of Quake or something in before it shut off and wouldn't turn back on again. I had purchased an extended warranty (scam) on top of the price...I was a teen, and this was a lot of money for me to have saved on my own. Anyway...I contact Future Shop, and they tell me I have to ship the monitor back to manufacturer...and pay for shipping, possibly both ways. Keep in mind the weight of these things, that I just purchased it brand new with an extended warranty. So...being a teen unable to drive with a crumby family, I had no way to deal with it other than bringing the thing back to Future Shop myself with all the paper work...so...I put it in a shopping cart...and took a bus an hour across town...to return it. They wouldn't take it. I wanted to ram that heavy thing through their front display window. I took it all the way back home and kept if for a couple years and looked at it out of sadness until I finally got the nerve to send it to the recyclers. I did get some people to help me return it several times, and got the same runaround each time.

Oh, I had that HD CRT TV, must have weighed around 130lb, same with a 36" standard def TV I had...well in the 130lb range. I am also in the 130lb range, so imagine me lifting those things lol I did though.

TLDR - CRT monitors are far too heavy to deal with in most cases, but I had a doozy of a time with one in particular.
 
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