How to make a silk purse from a sow's ear?

[tazwegion]

Legacy Project: How to make a silk purse from a sow's ear?​

Here is the latest example of legacy rebuilds that come my way, obviously budget is always the paramount concern it would seem so reusing as much as possible of the original equipment is a given including the oddly configured case (see below) the dust build up is nasty buy not the worst I've seen, the build is about 5~6 years old.

My major reservations with this case are primarily the PSU mounting location which is directly adjacent to the CPU heatsink, but the fully removable motherboard tray & HDD cage do give it some redeeming quality, the CPU retention clip was noted to not be locked down when I was disassembling and when the CPU was removed I also found what appeared to be thermal compound residue (a thermal pad had been applied) on it's underside between the (slightly bent) pins.




Now the PSU has gone south (confirmed) but it took the mainboard with it, thus leaving me with a surplus of early generation components and nothing to mount them on OR power them with, ideally I'd recommend upgrading to some preloved AM2 components (or better) but this approach would completely obliterate the budgetary requirements of the rebuild which is intended as a kids PC with only "light gaming" in mind.


Salvaged components for rebuild:

• A64 3000+
• Generic 754/939/940 heatsink
• Vanilla ATI 9000 series AGP v/card
• 2 x Seagate 80Gb IDE
• DVD/RW IDE
• 512Mb Elixir DDR400

My only "other" option is a Pentium4 1.7Ghz mainboard (2 ram slot) combo I've got floating around but it requires SDram of which I have a surplus of 128Mb sticks but insufficient stock to achieve 512Mb (or better), then there's that case I've got to refresh & acceptable PSU to source

On the upside I now have a surplus of CPU fan retention brackets to suit 754/939/940 & passive chipset heatsinks

 

[time]

Firstly, I think I speak for others here when I say that case is (relatively) clean. I can still make out the individual fins in the CPU cooler.

Today, I was handed a 3-4 year-old PC that had every possible surface covered in fine dust - and I'm talking the outside. I could have gone for a swim in the depths of silt on the inside.

Regarding your salvage list, I find this sort of thing fascinating (in a morbid way), as long as it's someone else and not me. While the CPU is obviously hugely superior to your P4 option, where on Earth are you going to find an SD-RAM motherboard (I assume it's s754)?

 

[CougTek]

Time, ALL socket-754 motherboards use DDR SDRAM, so his Elixir stick would fit.

And yes, that case is relatively clean.

Also, anyone who's been doing computer repairs for a while has a pile of socket-A/754/939/AM2 processors waiting for a motherboard. The mainboards simply don't last.

 

[time]

Sorry, I was confusing single and dual channel re 754 vs 939.

But my point remains: where can he get a socket 754 motherboard to go with the socket 754 CPU and SD-RAM? It's been six years.

 

[Stereodude]

But my point remains: where can he get a socket 754 motherboard to go with the socket 754 CPU and SD-RAM? It's been six years.

Oh, I don't know...

 

[Bozo]

Here's 10 new ones

 

[LiamC]

Funny you should mention that, Asrock were selling (at least in Europe) s754 motherboards a couple of years ago based on the 760G with the 710 south bridge chipset :8

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=K8A780LM

 

[tazwegion]

anyone who's been doing computer repairs for a while has a pile of socket-A/754/939/AM2 processors waiting for a motherboard. The mainboards simply don't last.

I know it's really frustrating, the system originally had a Sempron 2600 but (as you surmised) I already had a spare A64 3000+ after upgrading our children's gaming computer with a A64 3200+ I managed to land for $10.00 AUD (including delivery)


Flea-bay is a good source of spares (as has been suggested) but some sellers want a kidney for legacy components, that and locking horns with a "sniper bidder" can lead to a decent bargain becoming a ridiculous price (competitive bidders)

Regarding your salvage list, I find this sort of thing fascinating (in a morbid way), as long as it's someone else and not me.

I guess I'm a hoarder and have difficulty stomaching the fact that what was once a "thumping system" has now been relegated to landfill, I've even replaced the capacitors on several mainboards & 2 Antec PSU's in the pursuit of service life extension... sad I know but true

 

[Stereodude]

Flea-bay is a good source of spares (as has been suggested) but some sellers want a kidney for legacy components, that and locking horns with a "sniper bidder" can lead to a decent bargain becoming a ridiculous price (competitive bidders)

Sniping is the only way to roll on ebay (unless it's BIN). Any other method of buying will lead you to paying more.

 

[Stereodude]

PS: It seems like you're making a leather wallet from a sow's ear since it's apparently a place you're putting your money. :bomb:

 

[tazwegion]

PS: It seems like you're making a leather wallet from a sow's ear since it's apparently a place you're putting your money. :bomb:

Ah yes... but a silk purse is a money storage device with more "bling" as I intend to reconfigure aspects of the case & it's colour scheme

Sniping is the only way to roll on ebay (unless it's BIN). Any other method of buying will lead you to paying more.

Yes whilst that is true (and I am guilty of sniping auctions) it requires greater time/effort on my part, alternatively I'll place my highest bid as what I believe the item is worth to me, if it goes over that amount then I cease bidding as someone else obviously wants/needs it more (or shill bidding is in progress)

 

[Tannin]

If that's the case I think it is, I reckon you'd be mad to keep it. Saw a few of them. Dreadful damn things. Got me beat how they could get the spray paint to stick to that tissue paper.

So, that leaves:

• X case
• X PSU
• X motherboard
• X CPU (because a CPU is useless without a motherboard)
• X RAM (because you need more than 512MB ... well, maybe at a pinch you could use the 512 + a 256 for 768.
• hard drive is OK

Sounds a bit like the swaggie who knocks on the farmer's door and say "Excuse me Mrs, I've got a button here, could you sew a shirt on it for me?"

 

[tazwegion]

Sounds a bit like the swaggie who knocks on the farmer's door and say "Excuse me Mrs, I've got a button here, could you sew a shirt on it for me?"

LOL actually that analogy reminds me of the story of the "magic soup stone" not sure of it's origins but a great tale nonetheless

If that's the case I think it is, I reckon you'd be mad to keep it. Saw a few of them. Dreadful damn things. Got me beat how they could get the spray paint to stick to that tissue paper.

A closer look for you...

Even with the motherboard tray removed the case retains good structural integrity, the metal appears to be more substantial that the last "Honli" branded enclosure which came my way


Thanks to LiamC I hope to soon have another mainboard and I've managed to acquire a used Antec 380w PSU for $30.00 (shipped) as well as another stick of 512Mb DDR400 which should just about round off this ensemble I think, had the PSU not gone "feral pig" on me I could have used more of the alloted budget for a better AGP card but as they say "you win some, you lose some!"

 

[Tannin]

Nope. Not the tissue-paper horror I was thinking of. Just as well.

 

[LiamC]

~~snip

I guess I'm a hoarder and have difficulty stomaching the fact that what was once a "thumping system" has now been relegated to landfill, I've even replaced the capacitors on several mainboards & 2 Antec PSU's in the pursuit of service life extension... sad I know but true

I'm hearing you. The kids s754 PC (3400+), X1650 Pro, 2GB runs Vista SP2 more than adequately (I'd install XP, but they like have a desktop covered in "gadgets"). It plays 3D games from a few years ago without breaking a sweat (Railroads!, The Settlers: Heritage of Kings) and can even play back 720p Flash movies trailers with only the very occasional dropped frame. So I'm happy it's not in landfill

 

[tazwegion]

I'm hearing you. The kids s754 PC (3400+), X1650 Pro, 2GB runs Vista SP2 more than adequately (I'd install XP, but they like have a desktop covered in "gadgets"). It plays 3D games from a few years ago without breaking a sweat (Railroads!, The Settlers: Heritage of Kings) and can even play back 720p Flash movies trailers with only the very occasional dropped frame. So I'm happy it's not in landfill

Whoa... your kids PC is better spec'd up than mine (I've only got a Radeon 9600XT), this particular legacy build is for my nephews but it looks like they'll have to make do with a 9200SE for now my other high end* cards a Ti4200 & MX400 are spoken for


* The term "high end" refers to their status in the pecking order around here LMAO

 

[Santilli]

I'm barking up the same tree. GA-K8N Pro-SLI is likely the culprit. No boot, no video when it did boot, and video card was checked.

Had two GA-K8N Pro-SLI builds go out within months of each other. Since Cougtek is usually on the money, do I buy another board?

GA-K8N Pro-SLI I could find is 140 dollars:-O.

Thinking a cheaper or same cost motherboard, new processor, i3, and new RAM, or, just forget the whole thing?

 

[CougTek]

..., do I buy another board?

Are you insane? Of course you are, what was I thinking? Yes, you buy another board, along a new CPU and new RAM. Don't pay 140$ for five-years-old technology. A new Pentium G620 or G840 would be faster and consume less electricity than anything fitting a socket 754/939.

 

[Santilli]

I forgot who I was asking...
This is why I like server quality stuff. I've never heard someone say the motherboards designed for Intel Xeons won't last but 5-6 years before dying.
There is really no reason for upgrading this machine. It plays movies, bluray movies, just fine. It plays some old games just fine, some that won't play on the Beast. Quake 4 comes to mind.

It's easy for you to recommend buying all new components. But, right now, I'm not up for putting out anything on it.

As a side note, Davids' build used the proper amount of paste, and, the cpu looks fine,
not burnt up like Psychoman's was.

 

[ddrueding]

It's not that a good server board will last 6+ years, it's that a workstation board that costs less than half as much will run more than half as long, combined with the equally inexpensive replacement being faster. In servers you pay the premium because rebuilding servers, specifically the associated unexpected downtime are a massive expense, well beyond the cost of hardware.

 

[Santilli]

DD:
This situation seems not to support that theory. CT is saying that 939 motherboards, die early, 5-6 years, vs. 12 for the Supermirco X5DA8 I'm typing this on.
Capacitors, design, whatever, the CPU is fine, I think. From my observations, the thermal paste application is near perfect, and, the cpu did not die due to over heating.
The consumer grade motherboards are designed for 5-6 years. For what it does, I can use the components for another 5 years,with minimal cost.

I ordered a brand new Asus motherboard for 60 dollars. Considering the options, if it works, for 60 bucks and a bit of labor, I have a working HTPC, and, I don't have to take the redundant components and trash them, since dual DVD ide , floppy drive, etc drives aren't worth anything, thanks to being IDE, etc.
That does bring up, what OS, considering Explosion 7.1 and a few other PCI cards, like wireless, etc.

I JUST HAD A GREAT IDEA. I have a 30 gig, Vertex Turbo around. Use that for the HTPC, and the kids can't load any games on it, or screw with it.!=!

Use the removeable SATA drive for storage....

I love it when a plan comes together....

 

[tazwegion]

DD:
This situation seems not to support that theory. CT is saying that 939 motherboards, die early, 5-6 years, vs. 12 for the Supermirco X5DA8 I'm typing this on.
Capacitors, design, whatever, the CPU is fine, I think. From my observations, the thermal paste application is near perfect, and, the cpu did not die due to over heating.
The consumer grade motherboards are designed for 5-6 years. For what it does, I can use the components for another 5 years,with minimal cost.

Then my "rag tag" collection of 754, 939, Socket 370 & 462 based systems have already exceeded all expectations (by a significant margin)


The worth (or expense) of maintaining/repairing existing Legacy systems is subjective and purely based on whether the system can meet the current needs of the end user...

 

[time]

I don't believe that there is still any difference in quality or reliability between server and workstation boards. Core construction is now the same.

And although polymer capacitors are now nearly universal, there's a lot more energy (higher frequencies) being managed by modern boards, so I'll be pleasantly surprised if the boards last as long as much more primitive examples from 12 years ago.

Greg, you don't have a socket 939 board. And a quick whip around NewEgg shows you could have upgraded performance by 2 to 3 times for $100 all up (Sempron 2.7GHz dual-core, 2GB RAM, Asrock motherboard).

 

[Mercutio]

I have four or five socket 939 Athlon x2/4600 or 4800 CPUs sitting around that I wish I had boards to mate to. I'm sure that if i stuck one of those in a standard office PC, no one would have any complaints about 'em.

 

[CougTek]

There is really no reason for upgrading this machine. It plays movies, bluray movies, just fine. It plays some old games just fine, some that won't play on the Beast. Quake 4 comes to mind.

I thought you wrote that the board was dead. So right now, it doesn't play movies, much less blu-ray movies, just fine. It played movies and old games...when it was working. Paying 140$ for a vantage motherboard when you can get a decent new Sandybridge-based CPU, motherboard and 4GB of DDR3 RAM for ~170$ is unsound IMO.

I don't know what are the other parts in that system, but the graphic card has to be PCI-E to fit on the GA-K8N Pro-SLI, so you can use it on a newer board too. There's still a single IDE channel on most new boards, so you can re-use your IDE optical drives. What else refrain you from upgrading? If you want a working system, that is, not one that used to play nice movies and games.

Maybe it's not obvious, but I'm trying to prevent you from making a mistake here.

 

[CougTek]

Apparently, cheap LGA1155 boards don't have any IDE ports on them. Oh well... There's always cheap AM3 boards and something like an Athlon II X3 450. Still better than paying 140$ for an old board.

 

[Santilli]

OK:
New motherboard was put in. Worked INCREDIBLY WELL for the install of XP, boots in 45 seconds from black to working, using the Vertex turbo.

After that, wouldn't go to boot screen at all, intermitent, then work, boot, and freeze.

I now think I've got two good motherboards, and one bad chip. I ran mem test, but, it freezes at about 7%, with the memory passing. The program stopping makes me think the CPU is fried.

Anyway, Newegg won't take the Power supply back, since the box was thrown out by one of the kids, and, they want the box and code on it.

While it did work, the combination was blinding. The Vertex Turbo is really something when setup on such a machine.

I decided to pay 10 and 15 dollars each for two CPUS, a 3800+ and a 3200+.

When they arrive, if they work, I'm in 75 dollars, and, the machine works, and, I have backup components to build another REAL computer when I get done.

That said, for surfing the net, playing XP games, and generally snappiness, the combination was excellent, despite benchmarks, etc.

It appears that both my Roomie from Hells' machine, and mine, both the same 3200+,
failed within a month of each other.

Kind of wondering if the bios would support a Athlon X2 3400, but, the manuals I found
did not indicate that they would.