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Post #1
I just started cleaning out my closet. I found a shitload of old computer parts, many broken. Quite a few were graphics cards:
nVidia GeForce 2 MX
ATI Rage Pro Turbo
Unidentified nVidia, circa TNT2
Unidentified ATI, from an Apple G3 (fried, but the computer was left out in the rain once)
ATI Radeon X700 (fried)
ATI HD X1650 Pro (fried)
ATI Radeon HD 4830 (brand-new, for a new system, last part comes in Wednesday)
Is it just me, or is something wrong with the distribution of fried cards? Discounting the new one (which may be Dead on Arrival, haven't tested), only one ATI card still works. Both nVidia cards are of a similar age, and still work.
Maybe it isn't ATI. Maybe it's that new cards don't last long. After all, I don't have any nVidia cards similar to the X700 or the HD X1650. I've got a 9600M in my laptop, but that's new enough to not affect things. Does anyone else have a bunch of broken ATI cards, or just broken new cards, to corroborate?
Also found:
Four CD drives, IDE
Two floppy drives
An ancient laptop (Pentium 133, 12" display, either 16 or 64 MB RAM, and 1.4 GB hard drive. Still works, but the BIOS seems to have a Y2K bug, and cannot reset the clock. Specs here)
An Apple-type PCI SCSI adapter
An original, first-production-run SoundBlaster Audigy, with gold-plated leads
About 6 sticks of DDR1 RAM
Waldo, Carmen Sandiego, and Osama bin Laden
Several cooling fans, ranging from ~20mm to ~300mm.
A bunch of IDE cable ribbons
A ton of random metal parts
A fried AMD Athlon
MS Visual Studio 2003
A very unusual PCI card, has four PS/2-like jacks, and the words "KEYSPAN RICHMOND, CA, USA" printed on it
Two motherboards, fried
A smattering of small cables, like USB, TRS, and RS-232
A 30-day WOW trial CD, unused.
What should I do with the crap? Some I'm keeping (the working graphics cards, the CD/floppy drives, and cables), but some of the working stuff I'm planning to put on eBay, like the RAM and Visual Studio. I have no idea what to do with the broken crap, though. I might make a Pentium ][ pendant, and I could probably get a couple bucks for the steel parts. Will any scrap facility give me something for a bunch of PCBs, given how much gold and stuff could be in it? Or do you guys have a better idea?
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Say my name. Say it three times and I'll slap you with some computer facts.
November 2007
9,248 Posts
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Build a robot.
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Sell it and become Steve Jobs.
Edited:
Oh wait he sold his car to sell his parts...
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Say my name. Say it three times and I'll slap you with some computer facts.
November 2007
9,248 Posts
Surprisingly, I think I have enough parts for a robot's control systems. It would be dumber than (pick one: the average Youtube commenter, the average Twilight fan, or the average XBox Live player), but it's doable.
Not enough motors, though. Maybe if I used the CD drives...
Edited:
I didn't find a black turtleneck in my closet.
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I also have a GeForce 2 MX which works fine and a Radeon X600 that still works too.
Don't forget to see what's in some of the parts, might have some mercury or something.
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I'm interested in seeing what that is. Could you post a picture of it?
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Goddamnit, I was going to ask you to send me the nVidia GeForce 2 MX.
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Can I have that laptop?
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Say my name. Say it three times and I'll slap you with some computer facts.
November 2007
9,248 Posts
Did some research (ie. Google):
http://guide.apple.com/action.lasso?...=23356&-search
"Keyspan's SX PRO serial card provides a low cost way to add four serial ports to any PCI-based Mac. It is compatible with a broad range of printers, modems, cameras, tablets, PDAs and other serial devices. Each port supports data rates up to 1 Mbps. The SX PRO serial card is recommended by Wacom, Costar, Radius and other manufacturers of serial devices and is the top selling PCI serial card for Macintosh!"
I have to say, that is not the stripped-down, DE-9, RS-232 serial port I'm used to. It's an 8-pin, DIN connector, used as a serial port for Apple Macintosh and Sun SPARC computers. I thought it might be a game controller port (the same socket, with different wiring, is used on the Turbo Duo, and similar ones on the Sega Mega Drive and Saturn) or a MIDI port.
And now you know.
Edited:
Did you read the specs? It has less disk space than most computers have RAM. You can count the megahertz. It weighs a metric fuckload. It can't seem to boot into an OS, the built-in, non-removable CD drive is broken, and the only other way to get data onto it is by 1.44mb floppy. It doesn't even have a 56k modem.
There's a slight possibility it has the infamous Pentium FDIV bug. I'd like to find out, but if not, I'll sell it. Average ebay rates for an antique laptop is 20-50 USD, so I'd manage a nice bit of money.
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With shiping rates of $100
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I'll take the Visual Studio Key...
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I'm wondering how you manage to 'fry' all of these parts. I've actually not had a single part die on me, aside from a hard drive here or there, and I've built and used three whole PC's worth of parts, not counting extra parts, so for a list...
Processors:
Core 2 Duo e8400
Pentium 4 3.0ghz
Pentium 4 2.66ghz
Celeron 2.0ghz
AMD Athlon X2 2.1 ghz
Video Cards:
ATI Radeon 4850
ATI 2400 Pro (pcie)
Nvidia 7600GT (also pcie)
Nvidia 6600GT
Motherboards:
Prebuilt intel crap board (still works though, socket 478)
Unknown (see: cant be assed to Google it) board from Gigabyte, socket 478, and still runs.
MSI 865PE-Neo2-V Socket 478
MSI K9N4 SLI Socket AM2 (For the record, I love the Nforce 4 chipset)
Asus P5Q SE Plus (Using for main desktop)
Only thing I've ever had bad was this motherboard, the first one I had to RMA, and that's the only bad part I've EVER recieved. And I'm still actively using three PC's worth of those parts.
Jesus Christ, all of those fried parts, that's outrageous.
Where did you find your AGP pro lightning rod, never have seen them on Newegg..
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you set the slider too high, then cry to mommy and daddy to buy you a new one
arsesexforce did anyway
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Heh, probably cutting up cards to unlock their overclocking limiter, right OP?
:D
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Say my name. Say it three times and I'll slap you with some computer facts.
November 2007
9,248 Posts
Only one was my fault. I overloaded the power supply trying to put in a new graphics card. Everything was undervolted, and that trashed the graphics card (don't remember what it was, but it wasn't in my closet), the processor (the Athlon), the PSU and the mobo.
The X1650 actually had an extra fan under it to keep it from overheating. Didn't seem to help.
I have never overclocked anything. I keep everything at stock speeds. Less risk of breaking everything, and you never get too much extra performance without massive cooling systems.
The proportion of fried stuff to working stuff is deceptive. Most of my working parts are in computers. Even if there's no reason for it. I have an old Pentium 2-era Celeron system with four dial-up modems in it. I have a box with a bunch of small (6-40gb) hard drives for a "file server". I have a perfectly working system, some unidentified graphics card, I suspect it's an early FireGL.
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Try taking the BIOS battery out of the notebook for a few minutes, that resets the clock.
I'm collecting my old PC parts to build a nice homeserver.
I already have:
GPU (x1600; fan makes load weird noises) (not needed for server, but whatever)
PSU (300-400W; not sure)
RAM (2GB DDR2)
Mainboard (old ASUS; socket 775)
soon: CPU (E6400)
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Can I have Visual Studio please? would help me learn more programming :P
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Just get Visual Studio express...
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...
Edited:
erm.,...how much is that? and how big is it?1gb?
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i think you should have a auction on facepunch.
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Google knows.
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I hate myself for not using Google most of the time.......
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Broken crap: Throw it away, it is only collecting dust in your closet.
What you might use?: Keep.
What is not fried/broken and you find no use for: Sell on Ebay
Edited:
Broken crap: Throw it away, it is only collecting dust in your closet.
What you might use?: Keep.
What is not fried/broken and you find no use for: Sell on Ebay
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So was that a no on the laptop?
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Sounds like a plan.
Edited:
Sounds like a plan.
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Say my name. Say it three times and I'll slap you with some computer facts.
November 2007
9,248 Posts
I plan to put everything up on eBay. I'll post links when I do.
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it's fun to find old crap.
i have loads and it would be foolish of me to list it all because i'd feel bad about how much completely useless parts i have that work but are too old to be worth ever using and not unique enough to be worth anything as e-antiques
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ATI Radeon X700 is it a bad thing my computer has this........ : - /
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You didn't find any skeletons?
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Say my name. Say it three times and I'll slap you with some computer facts.
November 2007
9,248 Posts
It was OK for the time I had it. If you still have an AGP slot, I'd recommend a more recent one, though.
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Did you find that GIANT dildo you were talking about?
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I agree. How big is your closet btw? :o
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Whats an overclock limiter?
Computer parts aren't motors.
Only reason to take apart a part is to do voltmodding or change a fan, not much else you can mod when pcbs are so small.
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I guess some people consider the static voltage a limiter...
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Say my name. Say it three times and I'll slap you with some computer facts.
November 2007
9,248 Posts
Yes. I really ought to return it to your mother.
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My closet is all computer parts.
The tower on the left has everything that's inside a computer (and wires) and the tower on the right has cd drives/mouses/keyboards/HDDS.
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Just think 5 years from now we'll be all like "Hey look at this old 4870X2 I found it only has 2gb of ram!
"
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I have an early Pentium 1 PC
an old AMD K6 rig
over 8 gigabytes of PC133 (hotshit)
1.5GB of PC100 laptop RAM (mostly fried)
some DDR 400, about 256MB if i'm not mistaken
circa TNT1 nvidia card
geforce 4000
geforce 6200
my old 8600 GT
AMD Athlon64 3500+
and more i do not want to list
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A while ago, I found a box full of about a dozen 1-4GB IDE hard drives in my brother's closet after he left for college. I never bothered testing them, though.
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oh and i found my old 512MB hard drive with win95 and midtown madness 1
bitches
