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Just now, Sir Beregond said:

Ah dang, one of the PC's I grew up with had one of those. All those PC's got moved into the shed and sat there for years. Then when my Mom moved out of that house a couple years back, pulled the hard drives out and junked them all. (We had lots of PC's when I was growing up in the early 2000's.)

Dude....I used to literally take ewaste by the truck load.  I threw away SOOOOOO many Pentium 2's and K6 AMD's. -_-  Now I want one again.  I think I'm broken lol.

5 hours ago, BWG said:

Get a 2600k!

I have my old 2600k and 3770k still and z68 boards for them.

AMD parts TEND TO last longer with modern stuff though.  You're right, Intel CPU's (when Intel was better) would obviously perform better.  I never got to try a Phenom 9850 though.   Or a Thuban.  The FX I had really wasn't THAT bad, it played games just as well as my 3770k did, and FX parts are cheaper to find used.  I don't want to spend new build money on old crap. 

Obviously on the flip side I could be going for Intel / GeForce builds, or literally search and hunt for the "best" at the times.  But meh, this keeps things easier for my hunt since I still remember the AMD parts that were good at the time.

EDIT:
Also updated OP and put first build into its appropriate reserved spot.  Will run benches on command on any of the rigs as I get them going too.  Bare with me though, these rigs aren't exactly fast.  Plus, I gotta wait for parts to arrive before I bother installing more crap.  Right now, I only have the Phenom rig going, but more is coming.  This is absolutely a project I intend to finish.   I'm really curious to see what its like using a K6-2, Athlon XP, etc, in 2021.

5 hours ago, UltraMega said:

What was your first CPU? Are you doing this for nostalgia or curiosity? 

 

I actually just took some super old GPUs to an ewaste place last week. You ever try going to an ewaste place? Usually they're happy to sell whatever they have. 

My first CPU ever was a K6-2 233 overclocked to 550MHz via jumpers, paired with a variety of cards, but mostly I used a Radeon 7000 / Radeon 9000 on it.  Had GF2 and GF4 cards too, but I think I had those later.  I mean I had computers before that too, but they weren't anything I tweaked hardware on, I was too young still.  First rig ever was an Apple II with a green 14" CRT.  Played Oregon Trail great!

For now I'm kinda just keeping my eyes peeled on ebay.  I don't have an e-waste place nearby, closest place is Portland and that's a good 6 hour drive from here.  I might make a drive this summer if the powers that be decide to open things up a little more.

1 hour ago, Sir Beregond said:

 

What kinda old school parts?

I made a thread last night in the AMD general section about my builds, but.....

AMD K6 / Radeon 7000 era GPU
AMD K7 (Barton probably) / Radeon 9800 or whatever high end AGP

AMD K8 (939 Opteron) / Radeon 2900 ish (8800GTX performance)

Phenom Quad / HD4890 (I have this one)
Thuban x6 / HD7970 or 290x
FX 8 core / RX 580 or Vega (I have a couple RX 580's)

I'm wanting to not only experience computing as it was like back in those generations, but I ALSO want to see what all I can force older junk to run.  I'm daily using this Phenom quad / HD4890 right now with Win7 on it.  Mostly for fun, maybe for lols.  Probably will post benchmarks and junk.  I dunno, just giving myself something cheap to do lol.

10 hours ago, BWG said:

But, will it run Crysis? Might want to screw the chassis to the table and the table to the floor.

With a quad core Phenom and HD4890 1GB?  Oh yeah, it should max Crysis at 30 FPS lol.  Just like the old days!  We'll see, I'm still playing with it waiting for the rest of the junk to arrive.  Ordered SSD, more RAM, the quad core (on a tri atm) for it last night.  It's honestly unusably slow at the moment due to the drive in it.  How did we EVER use Vista on a hard drive back in the day?  Honestly?

I figure I have junk, might as well make the junk work.  Then I got to thinking, I might as well add even more junk to my junk pile, so I have a giant junkpile of usable junk instead of just junk in boxes.  Makes sense? 

New stuff is boring.  There's no messing with it physically.  There's no overclocking.  That's boring.  I want to overclock by jumpers again!  I have 3 modern rigs in the house.

Benchmark and Game Results:

A few rigs have been ran, but over the next few days / weeks I'll update again with a consistent set of benchmarks and games I'll at least ATTEMPT to run on every single rig here.  Obviously some games won't be ran on some rigs.  Just for giggles, and for the sake of comparison between eras.  I'll be using highest possible "playable" or "watchable" settings, which would be 23 FPS on benchmarks (unless a "standard" run is used) and 30 FPS (minimums hopefully) in games.  This is mostly being done to see if old rigs even CAN still play games.  Also, its fun to see what "upgrades" really do for you as far as visual quality on settings you'd normally play with.

Let me introduce you folks to some blasts from the past!

My goals here are pretty simple.  I'm curious to see what old, older, and ANCIENT parts can still do today in 2021.  I also miss having old junk, I don't really know why..... 

I got to thinking since I have an old Apevia X-Plorer case sitting here (green), and I have an old Dell beigebox sitting here....I kinda want to see those function again as they were intended to.  So after I'm done torturing them with modern gaming / browsing (best I can pull off), they'll be retired to their appropriate OS with appropriate gaming titles installed, so I can plug them in and enjoy them anytime I want to.  Eventually, when I get a house instead of an apartment, I'll set them all up in my office room or shop / garage.  For now, I can drag them out one at a time, why not?

But then I got to thinking, why stop there?  Why not just build the ultimate machines from those eras?  Why stop at those 2 eras?  Why not build one great rig from every gen?  That got me thinking.  Which parts though?  Decided to go all AMD / ATI because its easier and because I ran them a lot.  Yes, I ran Intel and GeForce too.  I even have a G92 sitting here that was my first "high end brand new" GPU I ever bought (literally my first one, still have the newegg receipt too).

So here's the goals on specs:

• K6-2 era / Radeon 7500 ish GPU / SD Card / Windows 95
• Athlon Thunderbird / Radeon 9800XT / SD Card / Windows 98SE
• Athlon XP / Radeon X1950XT / SD Card / Windows 2k or XP x86
• Socket 939 Toledo / HD5870 / SSD / Windows XP x64
• Socket 939 Toledo / SLI G92 8800GTS 512's / SSD / Whatever OS I can plug on it (because I accidentally have 2 939's)
• Phenom I 9850 / AMD HD6970 / SSD / Windows Vista
• Phenom II 1100T / HD7970 / SSD / Windows 7
• FX 8350 / R9 290x / SSD / Windows 8.1
• Ryzen 2600 / 5700XT / NVME / Windows 10
• Ryzen 5800x / 6900XT / NVME / Windows 10 (maybe I'll try 11?)

Links to the finished builds (or *in progress):

1.  *K5-5laser (Athlon K5 / Radoen 7500)

2.  ChomperXT (Athlon K6-2 600 / Radeon 8500 (9200 same thing))

3.  ThunderbirdXT  (Athlon T-Bird 1100 / Radeon 9800XT (pro))

4.  TerminatorXP (AthlonXP 3200+ / Radeon X850 Pro)

5.  *RedToledo  (Opteron 180 / HD5870)  (Mobo needs caps)

6.   GreenToledo  (Opteron 180 / GTX 480)

7.   Toledo main (Opteron 180 / HD4890)

8.  Phenomenon  (Phenom 9850 / HD6970)

9.  PIITA  (Phenom II 1100T / HD7970)

10.  Bulldrowser  (FX 8350 / R9 290X)

11.  FuryRyzen (Ryzen 1400 / FuryX)

12.  Bratman (Ryzen 2600 / Vega 64)
13.  AMDerp (Ryzen 3600 / 5700XT)
14.  AMDumb (Ryzen 5800x / 6900XT)

15.  HAFLyfe (7900x / 7900XTX)

Builds are now updated above to reflect what's done.  Only 2 builds are marked with *, to indicate I'm still working on.  Any that are NOT marked, are now complete.  I will be working on pictures soon.

I ironically, for once, didn't have any crashes.  But, most of my rigs are stock ish anyway, I mean I guess PBO with IF / Memory overclock could be argued as not stock.  That EK AIO looks neat, and considering my current build plans it'll definitely be finding a use so .  Still folding when not gaming, gotta help build the team back up.   That was a lot of fun, hopefully next round I'll have another Ryzen / RX580 rig setup to join too if my CPU ever ships.

It's over already?  Screw it, I want a top 10 spot for my own bragging rights.   Still folding, come at me bro.   @BWG @ENTERPRISE @axipher

Seriously though guys, that was a lot of fun.  Wish I'd have not taken time off for gaming during the competition that one day .  Also woulda been nice had I not been lazy and gotten everything functional beforehand.  But ah well.

When's the next one?  

I'm coming for them top spots guys...... with my arsenal of e-waste garbage, I'm coming!

I remember doing this with an old Corsair H50 back in the day, even went so far as to change rads and add in a resevior too.  Looks like you kept yours mostly stock.  Looks good man!

1 minute ago, GanjaSMK said:

Speaking of home.  There's a lil church thrift store that has this Pioneer AVR for like $40.  I gotta go get this week.  When I do, imma put a pic up for you to RATE

Oh noes lol.  I'll keep my eyes peeled.  I'll be honest, been out of audio for a while lately.  I built one budget home theater for like $400 a few years ago, then spent too much on divorce, and other random life garbage got in the way.  Had my car all built up loud, but that got stolen.  Ugh.  Glad I moved and got a new car lol.  Working now on getting an actual house that's flat out mine.  Tired of paying rent. -_-

1 hour ago, Zonalo said:

 

Custom shaped ports!

I was actually thinking dash kits, A pillar pods, door adapters.  Maybe get into the engines some with fuse panels, maybe air intake things.  I dunno, just been thinking of various ideas.  Tired of living paycheck to paycheck, and have a chunk saved up.  Just trying to think of what I wanna do with it lol.  Still thinking up various "hustles".   Being here on EHW, might just make me take the plunge lol.

6 hours ago, UltraMega said:

Sup bro! 

10 minutes ago, GanjaSMK said:

 

Oh man been a WHILE!  Wasssssup

Just been waiting for an acceptable place to call home again online.  That's all.

21 minutes ago, BWG said:

 

Maybe you can fold on your broken TV's ARM chips too?

I wish lol.  That just ticked me off, it went straight to the dumpster. -_-

I do have another AM4 build, but I've been waiting on my 3300x to be shipped for about a month now.  Beginning to think its not going to show up.  OfficeDepot though, so I guess I can continue sitting and waiting for it.  Not like they won't issue me a refund or something.  Otherwise, I'd have another AM4 / RX580 rig going too.  It's fully build minus the CPU lol.

At least I have more powerful junk than before.  That's what matters...progress. 

I'm just hoping to score some old school parts at this point.  Subbed for the release.  

Lots of familiar faces in here!!!

Since I haven't been active in some time, here's what I've been driving for the last year.  Still a lot of stuff to do to it, as usual.  At least now, I live in a better place so my stuff is usually left alone now.

I'm actually wanting to invest in a giant 3D printer, for business, not pleasure though.  Still haven't figured out yet what I'd print with one though. 

I know for sure I could use one for various car audio purposes, and making my own custom bits and bobs for my ride.  I dunno, just a purchase and idea I had been debating for the last few months.

Subbing for just general reading and knowledge.

Most of what I have online at the moment, due to shortage of enough parts to go around for all my junk, and current pricing making me not want to buy other junk just yet.

2x 6 core Haswell Xeons
2x 12 core / 24 thread Haswell Xeons (24 c / 48t total)

Not pictured:
Another server build I threw together with spare junk, a 16 core / 32 thread Broadwell Xeon with an RX580 8GB.

I might get my Ryzen 3600 / RX 580 rig up in the next day or so.

:wheee:

Just getting my clients going.  Sorry it took so long, still working on getting all of my old junk online again.  I've got 2x6 core Haswells, 2x 12 core Haswells, and 1x 16 core Broadwell with RX580 going right now.  Working on getting my 3600 / RX580 going next, sadly the rest of my junk is still missing parts lol.

Let's get this thing going!  First post, but I'm sure I can figure this place out. :lachen:

EDIT:
Okay, got my Ryzen 3600 and other RX580 going now too.  That leaves only one system offline, still missing CPU lol.  Gonna be as close as I can get for now to fully online and folding.