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TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

GreiverBlade said:
wow that's definitely the best thermal compound application i ever saw!

ps: good job on cleaning it :D
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Thanks! :D it's a good thing I've noticed it due to bad heatsink orientation... Whoever made this system flipped it other way around, so part of the CPU was exposed & visible. As if that wasn't enough, one of the mounting studs was placed incorrectly (most likely due to former owner replacing the motherboard at some point), so it was touching the board from behind... Fortunately, it was around the area where there wasn't any solder contacts, so it didn't cause the short circuit. All things considering, I'm surprised the system even worked to begin with! :eek:

Random Murderer said:
RedStorm was actually one of the first auto-overclocking utilities. It would find the max FSB you can boot to BIOS with, then asks if you would like to keep that FSB.
It wasn't great, even by low standards, but it was innovative for its time.
Personally, I didn't like it, but I was on a VIA KT166 chipset and they didn't play well together.

TL;DR: RedStorm actually does mean something(it's not just a marketing ploy), and some people specifically look for those.
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To be perfectly honest, I've never used and/or had a motherboard with RedStorm feature back in a day, mine was Asus P4T, paired up with 1.4GHz P4 but that's another story. I've heard rumors (and various opinions) regarding RedStorm feature and what ppl mainly had in common was regarding the safety behind the entire feature. From what I understand, RedStorm was marketed to be fail-safe feature designed for users who wanted to OC their systems but didn't have enough knowledge on how to actually do it. Despite the best intentions, RedStorm kinda backfired, because a LOT of users reported having problems (or even worse, fried motherboards) due to bad OC settings. Which, (in my own, personal opinion) translates to failure, and is furthermore supported by the fact they've removed it from the newer models. Feel free to correct me if you think I got something wrong, I would love to hear your opinion on RedStorm :)
 
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Trekkie4 said:
To be perfectly honest, I've never used and/or had a motherboard with RedStorm feature back in a day, mine was Asus P4T, paired up with 1.4GHz P4 but that's another story. I've heard rumors (and various opinions) regarding RedStorm feature and what ppl mainly had in common was regarding the safety behind the entire feature. From what I understand, RedStorm was marketed to be fail-safe feature designed for users who wanted to OC their systems but didn't have enough knowledge on how to actually do it. Despite the best intentions, RedStorm kinda backfired, because a LOT of users reported having problems (or even worse, fried motherboards) due to bad OC settings. Which, (in my own, personal opinion) translates to failure, and is furthermore supported by the fact they've removed it from the newer models. Feel free to correct me if you think I got something wrong, I would love to hear your opinion on RedStorm :)
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No, it definitely caused problems, and it was just kind of janky all around. I didn't like it either, but my point is that it was an important stepping stone towards the auto OC features we have today. It still sucked. :p
 
Random Murderer said:
No, it definitely caused problems, and it was just kind of janky all around. I didn't like it either, but my point is that it was an important stepping stone towards the auto OC features we have today. It still sucked. :p
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Right, sorry I misunderstood you. But yeah, you're right about that - it was certainly the stepping stone towards many OC utilities, today.

EDIT

Here's something you don't get to see (and/or do) every day... Configuring Autoexec.BAT & Config.SYS within Windows 98 to support sound, CD-ROM & mouse drivers in real DOS mode... Comes in very handy when playing older games, such as Doom & Duke Nukem 3D. I suppose this should be considered as 3rd OS on this particular system, as I already have Win98/XP dual boot config :D

EDIT2

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Got another one of these, earlier today... Have I mentioned already just how much I love these? Best OS ... EVER! ;) I even got the CD key memorized, seriously!! :eek:

Which means I now have 2 copies of 1st edition, one without the CD key & booklet and the other with full material, including "Windows 98 Starts here" and promotional material for free, AOL internet service.. Same thing goes for 2nd edition...

Oh, and speaking of 9X, I also have the original copy of Windows 95 on a CD, with its own instruction manual & CD key. Not to be confused with the one on top of my shelf, sealed-up copy of Win95 (floppy version). Also have 2 or 3 more copies of sealed up Windows 95 (OEM, CD) which I keep in one of the hardware boxes.

EDIT3

Fun fact, it seems that www.microsoft.com/windows98/ website no longer exists... Too bad, I was hoping to apply for that free AOL internet service. It seems I'll have no choice but to take the Win98 back to the store & ask for refund! :D
 
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Finally done reinstalling Win98 on that Cooler Master Athlon 1800 system, I've been having strange problems ever since I've added the sound card, so I figured it's time to format & take it from scratch. I've already upgraded the AGP card several times (from TNT2 to GeForce4 MX400 & then eventually to GeForce4 4200Ti) which resulted with random crashes & Glide (especially in SLI mode) having pixelated image, kinda like the trail or motion blur effect. I assumed it's hardware related fault, but as it turned out, it was just a driver (or the registry?) thing.

Anyhow, my weird & crazy idea was a success... Thanks to SB Live, I'm now capable of running DOS games :) IMHO, it's interesting to see the variety of these 3 generations, all working on a single system, together!

Starting off with Half-Life2, model & texture settings have been set to "medium", but the AA, filtering mode and water detail have all been set to "max". 4200Ti handled them perfectly, with the screen resolution at 1024x768. Still have to see the performance during the combat & scripted events, but so far so good!

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Now... Booting into Win98, to go back in time where the resonance cascade started :D This time, I'm running a pair of 12mb Voodoos in SLI, with the EAX support and same resolution - 1024x768

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As if that wasn't enough, I wanted to try with something even older... So I booted into the (real) MS-DOS mode & tried to shoot my way through Doom2 :D Can't say I'm one of the biggest Doom fans out there, but it was really nice to see that game once again!

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Due to the mouse, sound & CD-ROM DOS support, Doom (and all other DOS-based games) are very easy to work with, but I'm getting a weird problem upon exiting the DOS, restarting Windows command. It shows the BSOD, telling me that the math co-processor can't be located and so therefore some Creative SB driver won't be loaded... Maybe it's because I'm running (kinda) modern AMD Athlon, rather than old Pentium MMX or early Celeron?
 
It's time for a trip down memory lane! All aboard the nostalgia train - first stop, the legendary 6!

legendary-6.jpg

​
That’s right, those are the founding fathers of this noob’s CPU collection, now 14 strong! From left to right: Pentium 4 530 HT (Prescott, sans heat spreader and most of its die), Pentium D 820 (Smithfield), Pentium E2140 (Conroe), Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (Brisbane), Pentium E5200 (Wolfdale), and the venerable [failure], i5-650 (Clarkdale). Oh, what’s that? We may have a new addition to the club of distinguished silicon? Without ado, onwards then!

sony-vaio.jpg sodimm-ddr2.jpg 2.5.jpg t7100 dirty.jpg​

A Sony Vaio 14 CR series! Let’s see what it’s got under the hood after 4 years of abuse and 4 years of disuse. The heat pipe, 2.5" drive and SO-DIMM DDR2. Let’s take it off and see what else we’ll discover. Is that a T7100 I see? And PGA TOO? Oh goody, we are in for a treat.

t7100 safe.jpg t7100 clean display.jpg t7100 nt-h1.jpg
​
T7100 is borrowing a foam pad that belongs to 4400+, though the Pelican 1510 is in turn loaning the 4400+ the foam. Anyways, the little Intel CPU was scrubbed down with alcohol and gets a helping of NT-H1 in hopes that it'll live a bit longer. Off to the testing phase! It's a win-win; if it's still artifacting, then it joins the ranks of the masters. If it doesn't, it gets a new lease on life, and who doesn't love that? :D

What's that, you say? "This ain't even old!" Well don't fret, because here's what's next: ;)

sneak peek.jpg​
 
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Trekkie4 said:
Now... Booting into Win98, to go back in time where the resonance cascade started :D This time, I'm running a pair of 12mb Voodoos in SLI, with the EAX support and same resolution - 1024x768
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They'r waiting for you Gordon, in the test chamber........:p
 
Ding ding dang ding dang dang ding. . ... crowbar sound on walls of black mesa. :-P
 
Trekkie4 said:
See, that's what happens when you have several gaming nerds, all talking to each other :laugh: :D (kidding!)
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Im a handy man so a crowbar nerd if you can tell it that way. :-P
 
So, last week I got a whole bunch of broken laptops... and after some digging I found this pearl in the pile of sh%t!
It took about 2-3 days to fix it completely and transplant some parts from another laptop in the same batch, but the result was outstanding:

SPECS:
  • Core2Duo T5300 1.7GHz
  • RAM 4GB DDR2
  • HDD 120GB SATA (may upgrade it to 500GB)
  • Radeon X1600 512MB VRAM
  • Display 15.4" 1680x1050 (!!!)
  • WiFi b/g (Intel)
  • Bluetooth, IRDA, FireWire, S/PDIF,

And it also has both LPT and COM ports, so I can use it with my electronics projects!!!
 

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Indiana Jones, anyone? :)

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Mr.Scott said:
Got any Full Throttle? :D

images

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Actually, I do! Never played it really, except for one time at my friend's house, back in 1996, '97. Maybe it's time I finally give it a try, Sam & Max too!
 
Trekkie4 said:
Maybe it's time I finally give it a try, Sam & Max too!
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Oh, holy cow. You've never played Sam & Max?
Play Sam & Max! DO IT!
 
Random Murderer said:
Oh, holy cow. You've never played Sam & Max?
Play Sam & Max! DO IT!
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I'll need to get myself a better hard drive before I install any new games on either of my two partitions ... Win98 has 400 (or so) mb left, while the XP one has 600 and both of them are reporting error messages, telling me to clean up the hard drive every now & then :p

But otherwise sure thing... I believe the title is "Sam & Max hit the road", not 100% sure though because I know they've had several sequels. On a side note, I absolutely ADORE Lucas Arts games from that era, they've used to make the best point & click games ever!

EDIT
Actually, speaking of future upgrades... After spending some time with this CoolerMaster machine & playing games, I've noticed several setbacks & missing components which I'm hoping to tweak & address ASAP. Here are some of the items from my upgrade list:

1. Either 80GB (or more?) HDD, or another 40GB ATA drive
2. Either emulated or (most likely) real FDD, with the black faceplate.
3. Yet another CD/DVD ATA drive
4. Upgrade the AGP graphics to nVidia 4800Ti (not sure about this one)
5. System speaker (aka buzzer)

Not sure when exactly, but once I do get these updates, I'll make sure to take a pic :)

EDIT2
Don't know if I ever uploaded these pics before? 1st one is obviously just my retro system, glowing dark but the 2nd one is my own retro webcam, from around 1998, 1999 :D Yes, it still works, although you wouldn't want to use it for video calls today ;) In fact, I have it set up on that Cooler Master rig, just for fun (since it's not even connected to inet or home network)

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EDIT3
Usually you won't see me promoting YouTube channels & videos, but these are definitely worth following & watching, unless you already do ;)

 
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In contact with this fella:

http://wyoming.craigslist.org/sop/5180606903.html

Trying to set up a time and place to check these two Alienware systems out LOLOL.
I figure for $100 for the two it might be worth the cost. Would be awesome to restore at least one of them to the original configuration. :clap:
 
I have a similar gig with dead Alienware D9K laptop - it might be hard to restore it, considering that it has a dead mobo and spent the last 6-7 years in the garage, but it's worth a try. Just a question of $15.
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my Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra was feeling alone ... (and the lil 3650)

but not anymore ... ok it's not the real contender for the big one but still 2007 too and 3chf + 10chf shipping i could not miss that one ... :laugh:
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too bad it's not that one ...
203.jpg
 
stinger608 said:
In contact with this fella:

http://wyoming.craigslist.org/sop/5180606903.html

Trying to set up a time and place to check these two Alienware systems out LOLOL.
I figure for $100 for the two it might be worth the cost. Would be awesome to restore at least one of them to the original configuration. :clap:
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I did actually make this score!!! One is a 2008 Alienware Area 51 ALX. Its sporting an EVGA 790i Ultra SLi, 4 gigs ram, and a Q9650. Single slot video card but not quite sure what it is yet.
This specific system might be having some motherboard issues though. When it posts its just fine but once I exit out of the BIOS it hangs. Then when I jump into the BIOS again it will not navigate through the BIOS with the keyboard. I am using a PS2 keyboard so not quite sure what the heck is going on. I do have an ole Asus P5Q-E board that I got from @theonedub a few months ago that I could install, however it wouldn't have the little Alienware boot up screen. :oops:
Not sure how I could transfer that kind of image to a different BIOS chip?

Both systems are pretty dusty but no cig smoke. :toast:

Once I get them all cleaned and blown out I'll get some pictures and post em up. :peace:
 
Speaking of video cards, my previously mentioned (at least I think I've mentioned it before) nVidia GeForce4 4800Ti will be coming up tomorrow, I hope! So standby for upcoming pics, all I know it's MSI branded & pulled out from working system :)
 
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