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phill

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jun 8, 2011
Messages
15,861 (3.39/day)
Location
Somerset, UK
System Name Not so complete or overkill - There are others!! Just no room to put! :D
Processor Ryzen Threadripper 3970X
Motherboard Asus Zenith 2 Extreme Alpha
Cooling Lots!! Dual GTX 560 rads with D5 pumps for each rad. One rad for each component
Memory Viper Steel 4 x 16GB DDR4 3600MHz not sure on the timings... Probably still at 2667!! :(
Video Card(s) Asus Strix 3090 with front and rear active full cover water blocks
Storage I'm bound to forget something here - 250GB OS, 2 x 1TB NVME, 2 x 1TB SSD, 4TB SSD, 2 x 8TB HD etc...
Display(s) 3 x Dell 27" S2721DGFA @ 7680 x 1440P @ 144Hz or 165Hz - working on it!!
Case The big Thermaltake that looks like a Case Mods
Audio Device(s) Onboard
Power Supply EVGA 1600W T2
Mouse Corsair thingy
Keyboard Razer something or other....
VR HMD No headset yet
Software Windows 11 OS... Not a fan!!
Benchmark Scores I've actually never benched it!! Too busy with WCG and FAH and not gaming! :( :( Not OC'd it!! :(
Next time, when I'm going to need something like that you can be sure that I'll contact you Mr. Scott. Thanks.

Next episode will be dedicated to an ATI card which is firing on all its cylinders!!! Yep, it seems that the end of this year is ATI all around. :D
And you've found one that's not dead as well, impressed to say the least!! :D :D
 
Joined
Jul 3, 2016
Messages
758 (0.27/day)
SNAP! - Colour of Love

ATI 9700! Life in the FAST LANE!

It seems that the time to tackle the cards from the red camp has finally arrived. As you know by now, I'm a complete nVIDIOT but that doesn't mean that I'm also an a$$ and I can't appreciate the value of legendary cards that have other color than green. Green with envy should summize my reaction when I saw the reds delivering and a$$ whopping to the greens. ATI 9700 the meanest, baddest card on the block! Good Ol' 2002! https://www.anandtech.com/show/947

In case that you have forgotten, I must remind you that the only ATI card that I ever used was a mighty ATI Rage II C AGP with 4MB, back in '99. That magnificent card made not want an ATI graphic card for the next 20+ years. This is what happens when you are broke and your first 3D experience isn't quite what you were expecting!

The 366 Celeron came as a package deal with the ATI Rage II C and a 5400 rpm HDD. Yep. No money = NO FUN!

A year later I managed to buy a VANTA 8MB and boy was I impressed. No more ATI for me no matter what!

I know I was and I still am biased but at least you know my color! :D

But I digress.

For a few years I have been telling you about the difficulties I encountered when I tried to find a functional ATI 9700/PRO or 9800/PRO card.

Failure after failure with cards bought from the flea market that time and time again proved to be dead and buried.

Eventually, a moderator from a forum from my country where all this project has started back in 2015, contacted me and said that he wanted to send me a fully functional ATI 9700!

GOOD TIMES!!!

For the cost of shipping I soon held in my hands a red card which by all means was supposed to end my bad luck with ATI cards. A 20+ year redemption!

Such unassuming looks!




Remember! Strong essences are kept in small bottles!

The ATI 9700 was in excellent condition given its age and for someone accustomed with "wrecks" from the flea market, a card that had no signs of damage and only had to be restored was a breath of fresh air. Is this all that I have to do? LOL! Bring it ON

When you are in the trenches and you must decide who gets to live or not, you are focused on what you can see before your eyes. My visits to the flea market have become a mission to save everything that I consider it has a chance to catch another sunrise.

One more piece. One more card. One more motherboard. One more ... I know I have a problem but I treat my self with a component at a time. :D

The ATI Radeon 9700 128MB AGP / PN 109-94200-01 / P/N 1029421902 0001 came a little dirty, with a a still silent fan, all in all it was a perfect candidate for the operation I was going to perform on it.

Be gentle she whispered to me. Have no fear, only soft pillows and silk gloves for you! :D



As soon as I got the card only one thought came into my mind. What if this card is also dead?

There's only one thing to do! POWER IT UP!



Vital signs?

Still all out of gum and kicking A$$!!!



The PIII 800MHz with AGP 2x and Win 98 SE wasn't what she would've wanted but I got the information I needed. It was in perfect working condition. A working ATI 9700? WOW! They do exist! Who would've thought?

As you've come to expect, I was going to leave no heatsink unturned and even before I got the card I wanted to change the TIM.

After I read a lot on the internet, I was expecting to find a thick yellow thermal pad, which was supposed to need some work if I was about to remove the heatsink from the die of the graphic chip.

I was quite surprised when I laid my eyes on this.



Well. It seems I wasn't the first one to get here. Hmmm ... less work for me.

Expecting smooth sailing I wasn't prepared for the amount of work that was required to remove the nasty yellow stuff.

Acetone.



Pieces from a credit card, used with great attention.



Acetone and more acetone to remove yet another fine layer of the yellow trash.



SPA with IPA 99% for good measure.



Even so I had to use stronger tools to get what I wanted.

Bamboo stick anyone? Carefully though! Any damage sustained in this stage = THE END!



Cotton sticks? HAHAHHAAHhaHAHHAH! Pathetic!



Well, there no replacement for the right tool for the job!



Many tense minutes. Scratch, scratch, ... I can see the LIGHT!!! NOT! :D

Almost there.



The reward was equal to the effort put it.



Just a little bit more.



More fine tuning.



Fallen soldiers.



Totally worth it!



After I removed the yellow stuff the cooling fan came next.

It was covered with dirt and dust but it still spun smoothly.



The bracket also needed some TLC. I got this in spades! Have no fear!



I tried to clean the fan without taking it apart but the results weren't up to my standards so you know what came next.



Got water? Of course! Got Fairy Lemon? YOU BET!

Because no matter how many cottons sticks dipped in IPA 99% I used, I wasn't able to get rid of the dirt from the fan, I decided to wash the whole thing with hot tap water and Fairy Lemon dish soap. YES! You read that correctly! WATER!



I was very careful when I washed the motor not to damage the wires from the winding. They are very thin and fragile. In the end I got what I was looking for.

Flawless!



Some lube. Fresh 0.2 mm double sided tape for the sticker and PRESTO! Better than new!



Before I started restoring the ATI 9700, I was informed that on the ATI 9700/PRO cards, a thicker thermal pad was used and once this pad was removed, it was possible that the heatsink will not make good contact with the die of the graphic chip and I must remove the shim around the GPU to fix this. This fact is well documented on the internet. Many enthusiasts removed the shim to get better temps or solve instabilities dues to the high temperatures registered in full load. Believe it or not, the ATI 9700 hasn't got a GPU temperature monitoring sensor and you can read the temperature using software.

I wasn't too enthused by the prospect of removing the shim but I would've done it in the blink of an eye if it would've been necessary.

In the case of the ATI 9700 I got, I didn't had to remove the shim and this fact became obvious since I removed the heatsink. The thermal paste spread was good.

Even so, for peace of mind I also conducted an experiment of my own.

I put some fresh thermal paste, a little too much, and I pressed the heatsink with my hands against the die. Then, I verified if I would get a light slit between the heatsink and the GPU.



We got light! Ship it!

Fit for the job! Less paste next time and the heat will solve the rest. MX-4! I love this stuff!



To clean the PCB I used hot tap water and Fairy Lemon dish soap.



Next came a few IPA 99% cleaning stages and a lot of patience.



The final results were exactly what I was expecting.



Metal, metal, precious metal.



Better than new



Once my work was done I got the urge to test the card one more time.

What if I f..ked up something?!

I plugged it in my Abit NF7-S / AXP 2800+ PC and I pressed the POWER button.



Tense moments have passed ...

ALL SYSTEMS NOMINAL!



This is how I got my fully working ATI 9700!

Meet the shiny beast!



Such a nice card. So understated and yet so powerful. I must say that I really love this RED card.

After I got this card, as if the skies have cleared, I also found two ATI Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB beauties and a mighty ATI Radeon HD 5870 E6 which patiently wait form me to tell their story. I hope that all of them are still alive and kicking but no matter the outcome I must say that I love "working" with these cards. They bring back so many memories ... getting older sux BIG TIME!!!

It seems that the beginning of this year will be RED but I'm not complaining at all.

Cya soon with more awesome stuff! (Weather, ahem time, permitting)

gallery: https://postimg.cc/gallery/1Xdq8QS

More later.
 
Joined
Mar 23, 2016
Messages
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Processor Ryzen 9 5900X
Motherboard MSI B450 Tomahawk ATX
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Memory VENGEANCE LPX 2 x 16GB DDR4-3600 C18 OCed 3800
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Storage 970 EVO NVMe M.2 500 GB, 870 QVO 1 TB
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Audio Device(s) EVGA NU Audio
Power Supply EVGA 850 BQ
Mouse SteelSeries Rival 310
Keyboard Logitech G G413 Silver
Software Windows 10 Professional 64-bit v22H2
Oh hey, you finally got a working R300 card. I remember cleaning that yellow stuff off the GPU die, and trying not kill the card. I think it was toothpicks I used to push, and scrape it off the sides on the die.
 
Joined
Mar 23, 2016
Messages
4,839 (1.65/day)
Processor Ryzen 9 5900X
Motherboard MSI B450 Tomahawk ATX
Cooling Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition
Memory VENGEANCE LPX 2 x 16GB DDR4-3600 C18 OCed 3800
Video Card(s) XFX Speedster SWFT309 AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT CORE Gaming
Storage 970 EVO NVMe M.2 500 GB, 870 QVO 1 TB
Display(s) Samsung 28” 4K monitor
Case Phantek Eclipse P400S (PH-EC416PS)
Audio Device(s) EVGA NU Audio
Power Supply EVGA 850 BQ
Mouse SteelSeries Rival 310
Keyboard Logitech G G413 Silver
Software Windows 10 Professional 64-bit v22H2
Joined
Jul 5, 2013
Messages
25,559 (6.52/day)
I took the fan off mine and affixed a low-profile 80mm fan to keep the card cool. I did that to A LOT of video cards BITD because those puny little fans were never enough, always making horrendous noise and then dying. Quality 70mm or 80mm fans always did the trick. But I digress...
 
Joined
Jul 3, 2016
Messages
758 (0.27/day)
Have no worries. This ATI 9700 will see little to no use. If I'll decide to put her through her paces I'll mount a beefier cooling solution. A Zalman VF700 or an Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer. :)

Also I'll remove the shim if necessary. :D

But from where I'm standing it is good to have an all original ATI 9700. Heck, I consider this puppy on the same level as my 3dfx stuff. A working ATI 9700/9800 is something rarer than hen's teeth where I live.
 
Joined
Feb 10, 2020
Messages
173 (0.11/day)
Really nice, I know that feeling. I still have some treasures I won't use the way you do but also not give away from my early times :) …. one is a 80486 intel with 60mhz turbo boost :D … one is the Cyrix 6x86MX PR233 188MHz you have lying around as well as the Celleron366 :)

but my greatest treassure, which actually still works is happily packed upstairs on the attick - my Diamond Monster Vodoo2 with 12!!!! Mb of GFX-Memory :D .... god, I still remember getting this one around half a year before the release of HalfLife and being able to play that one on release in 1200x1024 resolution ..... memories :)
 
Joined
Mar 26, 2010
Messages
9,762 (1.91/day)
Location
Jakarta, Indonesia
System Name micropage7
Processor Intel Xeon X3470
Motherboard Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. P55A-UD3R (Socket 1156)
Cooling Enermax ETS-T40F
Memory Samsung 8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3
Video Card(s) NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800
Storage V-GEN03AS18EU120GB, Seagate 2 x 1TB and Seagate 4TB
Display(s) Samsung 21 inch LCD Wide Screen
Case Icute Super 18
Audio Device(s) Auzentech X-Fi Forte
Power Supply Silverstone 600 Watt
Mouse Logitech G502
Keyboard Sades Excalibur + Taihao keycaps
Software Win 7 64-bit
Benchmark Scores Classified
SNAP! - Colour of Love

ATI 9700! Life in the FAST LANE!

It seems that the time to tackle the cards from the red camp has finally arrived. As you know by now, I'm a complete nVIDIOT but that doesn't mean that I'm also an a$$ and I can't appreciate the value of legendary cards that have other color than green. Green with envy should summize my reaction when I saw the reds delivering and a$$ whopping to the greens. ATI 9700 the meanest, baddest card on the block! Good Ol' 2002! https://www.anandtech.com/show/947

In case that you have forgotten, I must remind you that the only ATI card that I ever used was a mighty ATI Rage II C AGP with 4MB, back in '99. That magnificent card made not want an ATI graphic card for the next 20+ years. This is what happens when you are broke and your first 3D experience isn't quite what you were expecting!

The 366 Celeron came as a package deal with the ATI Rage II C and a 5400 rpm HDD. Yep. No money = NO FUN!

A year later I managed to buy a VANTA 8MB and boy was I impressed. No more ATI for me no matter what!

I know I was and I still am biased but at least you know my color! :D

But I digress.

For a few years I have been telling you about the difficulties I encountered when I tried to find a functional ATI 9700/PRO or 9800/PRO card.

Failure after failure with cards bought from the flea market that time and time again proved to be dead and buried.

Eventually, a moderator from a forum from my country where all this project has started back in 2015, contacted me and said that he wanted to send me a fully functional ATI 9700!

GOOD TIMES!!!

For the cost of shipping I soon held in my hands a red card which by all means was supposed to end my bad luck with ATI cards. A 20+ year redemption!

Such unassuming looks!




Remember! Strong essences are kept in small bottles!

The ATI 9700 was in excellent condition given its age and for someone accustomed with "wrecks" from the flea market, a card that had no signs of damage and only had to be restored was a breath of fresh air. Is this all that I have to do? LOL! Bring it ON

When you are in the trenches and you must decide who gets to live or not, you are focused on what you can see before your eyes. My visits to the flea market have become a mission to save everything that I consider it has a chance to catch another sunrise.

One more piece. One more card. One more motherboard. One more ... I know I have a problem but I treat my self with a component at a time. :D

The ATI Radeon 9700 128MB AGP / PN 109-94200-01 / P/N 1029421902 0001 came a little dirty, with a a still silent fan, all in all it was a perfect candidate for the operation I was going to perform on it.

Be gentle she whispered to me. Have no fear, only soft pillows and silk gloves for you! :D



As soon as I got the card only one thought came into my mind. What if this card is also dead?

There's only one thing to do! POWER IT UP!



Vital signs?

Still all out of gum and kicking A$$!!!



The PIII 800MHz with AGP 2x and Win 98 SE wasn't what she would've wanted but I got the information I needed. It was in perfect working condition. A working ATI 9700? WOW! They do exist! Who would've thought?

As you've come to expect, I was going to leave no heatsink unturned and even before I got the card I wanted to change the TIM.

After I read a lot on the internet, I was expecting to find a thick yellow thermal pad, which was supposed to need some work if I was about to remove the heatsink from the die of the graphic chip.

I was quite surprised when I laid my eyes on this.



Well. It seems I wasn't the first one to get here. Hmmm ... less work for me.

Expecting smooth sailing I wasn't prepared for the amount of work that was required to remove the nasty yellow stuff.

Acetone.



Pieces from a credit card, used with great attention.



Acetone and more acetone to remove yet another fine layer of the yellow trash.



SPA with IPA 99% for good measure.



Even so I had to use stronger tools to get what I wanted.

Bamboo stick anyone? Carefully though! Any damage sustained in this stage = THE END!



Cotton sticks? HAHAHHAAHhaHAHHAH! Pathetic!



Well, there no replacement for the right tool for the job!



Many tense minutes. Scratch, scratch, ... I can see the LIGHT!!! NOT! :D

Almost there.



The reward was equal to the effort put it.



Just a little bit more.



More fine tuning.



Fallen soldiers.



Totally worth it!



After I removed the yellow stuff the cooling fan came next.

It was covered with dirt and dust but it still spun smoothly.



The bracket also needed some TLC. I got this in spades! Have no fear!



I tried to clean the fan without taking it apart but the results weren't up to my standards so you know what came next.



Got water? Of course! Got Fairy Lemon? YOU BET!

Because no matter how many cottons sticks dipped in IPA 99% I used, I wasn't able to get rid of the dirt from the fan, I decided to wash the whole thing with hot tap water and Fairy Lemon dish soap. YES! You read that correctly! WATER!



I was very careful when I washed the motor not to damage the wires from the winding. They are very thin and fragile. In the end I got what I was looking for.

Flawless!



Some lube. Fresh 0.2 mm double sided tape for the sticker and PRESTO! Better than new!



Before I started restoring the ATI 9700, I was informed that on the ATI 9700/PRO cards, a thicker thermal pad was used and once this pad was removed, it was possible that the heatsink will not make good contact with the die of the graphic chip and I must remove the shim around the GPU to fix this. This fact is well documented on the internet. Many enthusiasts removed the shim to get better temps or solve instabilities dues to the high temperatures registered in full load. Believe it or not, the ATI 9700 hasn't got a GPU temperature monitoring sensor and you can read the temperature using software.

I wasn't too enthused by the prospect of removing the shim but I would've done it in the blink of an eye if it would've been necessary.

In the case of the ATI 9700 I got, I didn't had to remove the shim and this fact became obvious since I removed the heatsink. The thermal paste spread was good.

Even so, for peace of mind I also conducted an experiment of my own.

I put some fresh thermal paste, a little too much, and I pressed the heatsink with my hands against the die. Then, I verified if I would get a light slit between the heatsink and the GPU.



We got light! Ship it!

Fit for the job! Less paste next time and the heat will solve the rest. MX-4! I love this stuff!



To clean the PCB I used hot tap water and Fairy Lemon dish soap.



Next came a few IPA 99% cleaning stages and a lot of patience.



The final results were exactly what I was expecting.



Metal, metal, precious metal.



Better than new



Once my work was done I got the urge to test the card one more time.

What if I f..ked up something?!

I plugged it in my Abit NF7-S / AXP 2800+ PC and I pressed the POWER button.



Tense moments have passed ...

ALL SYSTEMS NOMINAL!



This is how I got my fully working ATI 9700!

Meet the shiny beast!



Such a nice card. So understated and yet so powerful. I must say that I really love this RED card.

After I got this card, as if the skies have cleared, I also found two ATI Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB beauties and a mighty ATI Radeon HD 5870 E6 which patiently wait form me to tell their story. I hope that all of them are still alive and kicking but no matter the outcome I must say that I love "working" with these cards. They bring back so many memories ... getting older sux BIG TIME!!!

It seems that the beginning of this year will be RED but I'm not complaining at all.

Cya soon with more awesome stuff! (Weather, ahem time, permitting)

gallery: https://postimg.cc/gallery/1Xdq8QS

More later.
sometimes i just use needle, never use bamboo before, maybe i'm gonna try it in the future
 
Joined
Jul 3, 2016
Messages
758 (0.27/day)
Sander van Doorn vs Robbie Williams - Close My Eyes

Open for business

Believe it or not, you learn something new every day. I thought that AOpen was and still is a distinct company so when I found this on the Internet I was a little surprised: "AOpen used to be the Open System Business Unit of Acer Computer Inc. which designed, manufactured and sold computer components. It was incorporated in December 1996 as a subsidiary of Acer Group with an initial public offering (IPO) at the Taiwan stock exchange in August 2002. It is also the first subsidiary which established the entrepreneurship paradigm in the pan-Acer Group. Currently, AOpen is a subsidiary of Wistron Group, a spin-off of the Acer Group." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOpen

Acer and awesome components in one sentence? Don't get me wrong. I got nothing against Acer, I even own many laptops made by them and I have a good opinion about this company. The fact is I just wasn't expecting that a brand that is sacred to me, of which I read religiously in the PC magazines back in the day, to have ties with Acer. Truth be told I also never searched for information about Acer.

Now that we got this out of the way, if it is still the case, I must underline that I absolutely love AOpen stuff. They have to me a certain je ne sais quois. They attract me and they speak my language.

In September 2020 I found at the flea market a motherboard that me made think about the delicious Lindt swiss milk chocolate. I love milk chocolate since childhood. :D I eat it anytime, anywhere. Don't get me started about hazelnuts ... :) Have no fear, I'm still in great shape at 1.83m, 74 kg and 41 years old. Come to think of it on February 26th I'll celebrate 6 years since I started with great enthuziasm on the path of HW restoring. Getting older sux in more ways than one! :D

I found the AOpen motherboard in a state that would've made other people to turn away. A veteran like me wasn't put off by the sad looking image and like many times in the past I got the last laugh in the end. With experience comes confidence and you know what can be saved and what is gone into the great void beyond.

Man I love going to the flea market and travel back in time.



The exact model of the motherboard is: AOpen AK73 Pro(A) Socket-A KT133A / AK73-1394 A / AK73 PRO(A) . A wonderful KT 133A motherboard.

I found it tossed in a big bag together with other parts. It still had its cooler and underneath it I could see something ceramic. NICE!

Even if it had three damaged electrolytic capacitors when I laid my eyes on the AOpen lettering my eyes popped out. ME WANT! ME NEED! ME ACQUIRE! :D

The seller, a regular at the flea market , even if he doesn't now what he sells, has enough intuition to detect the interest of someone who happens to casually ask in an absent manner: How much is this piece of "junk"?, immediately started pulling from the heatsink, without unhooking the clamp, to see if there is something pink under it.

All this time, completely frozen, I looked in slow motion how he twists back-and-forth the heatsink and could feel the edges of the CPU die starting to fray .

NooooOOOOO!!! The fraction of the second from when I saw him yanking the cooler and the moment I started telling him to stop and that I'll buy the whole kit ceramic CPU and all, felt like an eternity.

Too late. What's done is done. The cooling fan had two broken blades so the kit already took one for the country, the added perversions bestowed on the meager ceramic CPU didn't make any difference if at all.

#$*@$)&@$@^$&@%%@!(*#^!&*~!!!!!!! Damn hooligans!

Ever since I saw the motherboard I was thinking about an Athlon 1GHz CPU on a 200MHz bus and I said to myself that more water will flow down the Danube until I'll find one.

Be careful what you wish for it might just come true! I wish for a V5 6K? cough, cough, ... fat chance.

When I got to my car, I used a screwdriver and with surgical precision I removed the clamp from the heatsink.



Carnage! Carnage and even more carnage!

F..K!!! A 1GHz/200MHz Athlon!? A1000AMT3B F..K! F..K!! F......K!!!

Wait a minute! I feel the energon still pumping inside! It must still be alive!

I took a deep breath and I said to myself that all will be alright in the end.

I gently touched the motherboard and I said to her: you're safe. Welcome to my humble laboratory where amazing things happen and pigs DO FLY!!! :D

I'm ready and willing to do my best!



The motherboard was quite filthy and I already knew that using only IPA 99% will not be enough.



The three electrolytic capacitors that I mentioned earlier aren't visible because I put them back into position just for taking pictures. Don't worry, I never work with half measures. All IN or all OUT! They have been replaced.



Due to the flea market treatment which mainly involves soft cushions and silk gloves, the board has a lot of scratches on the back but none of them are terminal. Surprisingly, the ceramic caps underneath the NB are sitting fine and dandy. Phew! NICE! Die Hard mobo!



Before I started restoring the motherboard I did what must be done and I replaced the damaged capacitors. A Rubycon YXG 2200uf/6.3V was replaced with a Panasonic FR 2200uf/10V. A GL 10uf/25V was replaced with a Panasonic FR de 10uf/50V. A Lelon RXA 680uf/16V was replaced with an AISHI RZ 680V/16V. In the case of the last cap I didn't have one with a pedigree but a working cap is way better than a dead one.



When in doubt hose it down! Even if in the picture the water jet seems too strong let me tell you that in fact it was not.



After the wash one paper label went MIA but it was no loss really. In exchange I got a silkscreened string logo AK73 Pro(A) which is way better than the cryptic barcode.

After the wash I dried the board as long as necessary. Slow drying in action.



I cleaned the CPU a little and I was able to better asses the damage. If this CPU still works I'll be both grateful and amazed, I said to myself.



Ready! Get set! GO!



Some PC133 goodness.



As expected, the temperamental and at the same funky RAM kit, of 2x256MB PC133, which only worked well on my Abit KT7, showed some fits and just 256MB were recognized.



Even if the board posted the good news was another. The 1GHz Athlon was still alive and kicking. The satisfaction I felt is hard to describe with just words. Wave after wave of adrenaline took over me and I started making all kinds of moves with my hands up in the air. YES! YES!!! YEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!

I tried another kit of RAM. A PC150, 2x128MB kit and this moment was one taken straight from the X-Files.

I inserted the RAM sticks. I powered up the motherboard and I got no beeps.

A few moments have passed and I heard something like a hissing noise, the kind you hear when some electronic components get damaged. For sure the CPU is bye bye I said to myself...

What the F..K?

I approached the motherboard and I tried to identify the area that made that noise.

I smelled the board and I was expecting to feel the good ol' burned stuff smell. Barbecue anyone?

Eventually I directed my ear towards the little PC speaker I mounted on the board. The tiny one not the big kid like that from the 486 PCs.

I restarted the motherboard and I finally found the source of the strange noise.

A gentle feminine voice was informing me via the PC Speaker that: "The memory may have a problem!"

WOW! This is something new! My jaw dropped on the floor ...

This is why the kit wasn't posting! The RAM beep code was replaced by the nice lady telling me to take out that PC150 crap and give her some love. Damn!

Wanting to solve the memory issues, ONCE AND FOR ALL, I prepared three sticks of 512MB PC133 RAM and I was ready for another round. 1.5GB of PC133 FTW!



Did it work? He he!



Clean bill of health.



Some AOpen motherboards had an option called Die Hard BIOS. In essence this option involves two separate BIOS chips and you can switch between them, when needed, via a jumper.



The board has a soldered SST 39SF020A chip. Because I didn't have another SST chip and because after I consulted the spec sheets I arrived to the conclusion that they are pin compatible, I mounted in the free PLCC socket a Winbond W29C020CP90B chip.

A Die Hard mobo requires a Die Hard BIOS don't you think?

The SST chips has a R1.13 BIOS and the Winbond a R1.20 BIOS. I switched between the chips via the JP30 Die Hard BIOS Select Jumper and all was ok.

More testing. More good news.



@100%!

The last stage was dedicated to cleaning the board. IPA 99%.



WET!



Looking good!



After a few careful cleaning passes I got the following results.



Unfortunately some scars and stains could not be removed. In the future I might use some lacquer to cover some of them but at the moment this isn't a priority. The good news is that these blemishes do not change the fact that this board is a great one! Remember, they don't make'em anymore!



The Die Hard 1GHz CPU.



After my work was done I held in my hands the motherboard and I just stared at it for a few minutes.

A DIE HARD KIT for the ages!



I'm sure that some of you think about Sk.A as something common that still hasn't won its rightful place like many other exotic parts, but for some, including me, which used them for many years(I had 3 PCs with Sk.A CPUs), these kits have started to become irresistible. Get them while they last!

gallery: https://postimg.cc/gallery/Sykvzzk

More later.
 
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immediately started pulling from the heatsink, without unhooking the clamp, to see if there is something pink under it.
I just died inside reading this. Ugh!

Glad it didn't kill the chip though. Well done one the cleanup job. Looks fantastic.
 
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@lexluthermiester - truth be told I wasn't hunting for RDRAM. That amount is what happened to be available when I went to the flea market. Today I received 1GB more with the special stuff I was talking previously. So I'm the proud owner of 6GB of RDRAM mostly 128MB, 256MB and 512MB sticks PC-600/PC-800/PC-1066.

@s3thra - I'm also glad for the outcome, especially for the chocolate brown motherboard and most importantly for that CPU that still is OK! :) The whole affair was a rollercoaster ride and what I put into words it is exactly what it happened. Also I tried to put as much of the emotions I felt while I worked with the parts as possible. :)

This evening I'll post the first hint of the special delivery I got today. You, my readers are tasked to identify the mystery item/s. :D

More later.
 
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Hint No. 1 - What could possibly be?

We already know that is uses RAMBUS memory.

I'll post a hint a day until the exact model will be identified. This baby is something special to get me so hyped.
 

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dorsetknob

"YOUR RMA REQUEST IS CON-REFUSED"
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Dorset where else eh? >>> Thats ENGLAND<<<
probably a s462 willamite board inc early P4 cpu
they were restricted to rdimm unlike the later s478
 
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Hint No. 1 - What could possibly be?

We already know that is uses RAMBUS memory.

I'll post a hint a day until the exact model will be identified. This baby is something special to get me so hyped.
Dual Socket 360 370 board with the 820 chipset. Pentium 4 is too easy, but what a lot of people don't know is that for a short time Intel made the 820 chipset for Coppermine & Tualatin core Pentium 3's. Support for up to 2GB of RDRAM(4x512MB). I had one for a short time.

This is my guess...
 
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Pretty close but still not what I have. :)

It is a dual CPU board but not the 820.
 

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Dumitru Farcas - Doina

This day will forever remain in my memory. My hands are still shaking. As soon as I identify all the cards that I got today I'll upload pics and detailed specs.

Legendary Flea Market loot. The stuff of dreams. I never thought that I'll find such loot there!

More later.
 
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Here's the LOOT! I'll post better pictures and I'll present the full specs at a later date.

Now I need a couple of beers to celebrate!

  1. Albatron GeForce FX 5700 Ultra
  2. Abit Siluro GF4 Ti4200 OTES
  3. Intel 752 Reference Board
  4. WinFast PX6800 Ultra
  5. Imagination Technologies Videologic Vivid! 32MB KYRO
  6. VideoLogic Vivid! XS 32MB KYRO II
  7. Hercules Terminator BEAST Supercharged S3 Savage 3D
  8. AMD K7 Slot A - AMD-K7800MPR52B A
  9. AMD K7 Slot A - AMD-A0700MPR24B A
  10. AMD K7 Slot A - AMD-K7800MPR52B A
  11. AMD K7 Slot A - AMD-K7700MTR51B A
  12. Intel Celeron 266MHz 266/66 Q525 ES A4 - Intel Confidential Engineering Sample
  13. Powerleap PL-IP3/T PL-IP3T Slot 1 to 370 Slocket Adapter Converter Card + Pentium III 1GHz 1000/256/133



There was so much stuff but I couldn't buy everything that I wanted.

Anyway, I'll always remember the white van that brought this treasure to our flea market. :D

More later.
 
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Dual Slot 2 Xeon (Pentium III)?
 
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