I have a bit of a thing for older hardware currently and enjoy rebuilding/restoring older machines from the pomp of PC gaming (when I was a student!) back in the early 2000's Now I know different people have a different idea about whats retro but I might stick some older stuff up at a later date. Not really a project as such but thought I could stick a few pictures of returning a manky old machine into its former glory. Nothing too involved but everyone loves pictures don't they? And its quiet around here lately so there is another excuse. Soooooo one hour drive each way and some loose change later.... Here's my latest acquisition: Bit minging, had worse First thing I do despite some obvious issues is to see what we are starting with, I don't like getting stuck into it without knowing if it has issues from the start or I have done something to cause a issue later on. Ideally a machine that posts is a great starting point! Posts! One thing of note is the case has a nice home made fan controller built into a drive cover, all works nicely too! Will look at that later. So start stripping the machine back. Board out: Abit NF7-S with a Barton 2800+ Dead caps and its proper grubby. Chipset fan is seized too. Abit used this stupid thing on about a dozen different models and they all fail due to being cheap sleeve bearing tat. Memory is some nice LED Corsair stuff, has faded scan stickers on Prob a pretty penny back in the day. Righty need to clean more and make a list of capacitors I need to repair this board. Plenty more dirt to come!
Can't wait to see the rest of this, also of kind of want to see if my friends PC still runs after areas PSU
Just ordered a bunch of caps for the board but figured I better check the PSU Qtec 450w Dual fan Gold. Fun fact with these Qtecs is despite all the bad press for being terrible cheap POS that were going to go pop and blow your beloved gaming rig up, I have come across half a dozen of these and they all work perfectly! More than can be said for a lot of Antec and Tagan PSU's of the era! Lets ruin our warranty and see whats what. Absolutely bloody grim. Have a video. Cracking dose of asbestosis from that. Oddly all the caps are perfect. May well still change the secondary filter caps.
This thread makes me feel ooooooold. When I saw 'retro' I expected 8-bit, 16-bit at most; not a system I could quite easily run all my current software on. Look at it! It doesn't even have the decency to be beige!
I love how your retro case is a newer version than the case that's keeping my 1080Ti cool. The switches have died and been replaced with a 3D printed contraption, and okay so 80mm fans are bit old-school, and yeah maybe it did get to meet the dremel eight years ago to fit a larger PSU in... but it's still okay. Removable motherboard trays are still a thing right?
I'm mid 30's and this stuff is from my misspent youth, guess retro is a personal thing. Will try dig up something beige in future Yes please Matching scan stickers would be super Grease had turned to black mush, some light machine oil flushed that right out. Akasa cooler got similar treatment though the fan is a bearing job so was fine, oil won't hurt though. Very loud, can see why the previous user made a fan controller. Next was recapping the PSU. Old caps removed from secondary side: Think the caps were likely fine but I had suitable replacements to hand. Low ESR panasonic FR series, better than new now. Fans were all cleaned and the bearings oiled. Only a single cap for filtering the 12V and about 6 for the 5V rail, PSU from this era usually were weighted for 5V. This is usually good for socket A systems as they usually don't have a 12V 4pin for the CPU vcore as they use the 5V rail. The NF7 and some other higher end socket A boards have a 12V 4 pin so they use the 12V for the CPU so this PSU would be better served in a system that did not have a 4 pin connector. Will keep it in this build however as it is how it came. PSU runs fine and a basic test with a multi meter shows no odd readings, 12V is around 12.3V and the 5V is bang on. Next up will be recapping the board then I need to find some drives for it...
Board all sorted now. Old cap reading ESR a tad high there New ones read a little better Job jobbed. To clean the case next
Wow. From gash to flash. Amazing work there dude, I love seeing people putting passion into their work.
These are probably a bit too high end but I have a couple of 1GB sticks of Corsair Dominator CM2X1024-6400C4D (the ones with the tall fin heatsinks). According to the packet they're stored in I should also have a couple of 2GB sticks of MC2X4096-8500C5D (same tall fin heatsinks) somewhere in the house. I also opened up an old case yesterday in preparation for throwing it out and found what I think is an ATI HD4870 with a basic waterblock on it. I've almost certainly thrown out the stock heatsink but should still have a couple of the Zalman copper heatsinks around (somewhere) that'll work with it.
All good stuff, think I have a HD4870 cooler around in the loft so that could be a winner Did a bit more cleaning last night. Drive and fan controller out. For some reason the other blanking plate had all its tabs chopped off and was held in by tape. Unwrapped all the tape off the back of the fan controller to find a very tidy bit of wiring and soldering, will keep this so wrapped it back up in fresh tape. Card reader A few drinks look to have been spilled on this computer over time. Facia off with several small Allen headed bolts. Custom fan grills, naff way back then and still a bit naff now. Shame he case doesn't have a window or I could have got a "applique" to match on the side. All fans cleaned and oiled, decided to fill the spare drive bay as the cover was no use. Will see if I have a spare Sony drive to match the original if not this one can stay.
Hmm, I think I have an IDE Sony drive here like that one. I'll have a nose (and for all my other stuff) and update the for sale thread with what I have. Edit: For sale thread updated. I forgot I had a Voodoo3 3000 too.
This has stalled somewhat due to being away and other real life stuff. Sat down at it the weekend and realized it is missing 3 stand offs. Sadly these stand offs are M2 thread male and female which I haven't come across before, found some nylon spares online and am awaiting them
Mr B where do you reside? If you drive and are willing, I have an outhouse full of old gear we could come to some kind of arrangement on. (Ask Parge he has seen it!). Its my folks place in west london right next to heathrow.
