Pio's new (lol) projects

[pio]

MX-5, stock 754 cooler, another 5.25 bay adapter, and 4x1gb kvr ddr400 arrived today.

 

Probably no pictures, I'll be busy testing junk. I think my black chieftec dragon comes in Monday. With any luck I'll have the 939 functional and just need to transplant into the case Monday. If I have time tonight, I'd like to see about getting the Athlon Xp functional, I could just about finish it if everything tests out okay. I also mentioned my K6 in the cpuz bench thread, so we'll see about that too. 

 

If anyone is interested, I might stream my shenanigans on the ehw discord, but you'll have to deal with me disappearing from time to time. I'm not really sure where to begin with it yet. The only one I could potentially "finish" would be the Athlon xp, but without the 939 functional to create media and lacking working cf cards I just don't know. 

[Sir Beregond]

How's that 970 treating you?

[pio]

10 minutes ago, Sir Beregond said:

How's that 970 treating you?

Well..... Kiddo got himself grounded last weekend....   As far as I know it's functioning great. It was getting a little hot, 80c loads. I have quite a few gpu's like that right now though.

 

So it's actually been powered off since about Sunday I think. He'll get it back next weekend assuming good behavior. It's certainly a huge upgrade from his temporary 960 he had, and a perfectly fine temporary place holder till I can score a cheap Vega for the build (planned card for the ryzen 2600 build). I'll regrease cards later on, 80c isn't going to kill anything. My 2900xt dang near idles there.....  

 

He's excited to play "Stray" now, I got him a copy of that. Should be an interesting game, my main rig does fine with it but it's certainly graphically intensive. 

Edited July 24, 2022 by pioneerisloud

[pio]

Actually pulled this thing apart (again) tonight on camera with a couple of the guys here at EHW.  Set her up on the bench, trying to see what I could get it to do, make sure its working.  So far, so good!!!  I'm having some RAM issues, the KVR 4x1GB DDR400 I bought is dead.  My KVR DDR400 ECC 4x2GB sticks I knew weren't going to work right, so those didn't work either even in 2x2GB array.  I tried putting a couple of generic 1GB sticks in with the OCZ stuff I have laying around for the Socket A, that didn't work either....its very possible the generics are dead too, those were freebies years ago.  The OCZ sticks work fine, but those are planned for the Socket A build.  I know the 2.5-3-3-6 sticks are good in these boards, but finding a set of 4 that matches is near impossible.  Sooo, I don't know what to do with it at this point.  Can't find RAM for it.

 

HOWEVER, I was able to successfully play Crysis for 45 minutes to an hour on it.  Played GRiD for a bit and even Metro2033 Redux on it.  All playable.  I tried to get a brand new game working on it, "Stray", but kept getting at the end a DX11 error message saying the game needs DX11 shader model 5....which, the card supports.  So, not sure there but whatever, 5 day old game on 20 year old hardware....I'll live with it not working. 

 

Edited July 24, 2022 by pioneerisloud

[pio]

After trial and error.......

 

I figured out the Athlon x2 4200+ is faulty.  it still works, but it is unhappy with HW memory hole enabled / above 2GB of RAM.

The A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard will not POST at all.

 

However I have success to report!!!!!  I'm a little bummed with "only" 2.70GHz CPU speed, but whatever this is fine.  Not very many people EVER have gotten even 4GB of RAM to work at decent speeds on Skt 939, let alone 8GB.  8GB was never a thing when this socket was used.  I present where its p95'ing at RIGHT NOW.  I even typed this post up on it while it's priming.

 

The second 939 rig WILL live!  Now, I just need the Chieftec Dragon, which I think arrives tomorrow, and its time to build it.

 

EDIT:  I was wrong.  The case arrives Wednesday.

 

Edited July 25, 2022 by pioneerisloud

[pio]

Since I'm still waiting on the case, and I just happen to have dang near everything here for an AthlonXP build to be completed, I'm working on that today.  Last night, I was able to get my AthlonXP rig working, installed Windows to it, and things seemed to be going pretty well.  Tried to launch CPU-z on it to run a bench for the competition thread, and it locks up immediately. -_-  Even though it had been rock solid and sitting pegged at 100% CPU usage doing updates and drivers for 6 hours.  Ugh.....so yeah, still playing with that.

 

Today in the mail:

ATI Radeon X800 Pro 256MB (for this Socket A rig I'm working on)

Some 64GB Compact Flash Cards, hopefully these will be faster than the 32GB I used

2x8GB DDR4-2666 for the Ryzen build coming

 

And a HUGE shoutout to @damric!!!!  We've got 3 2280 NVME drives now to play with!!!  I'm not 110% decided yet where I'm going to place these at, and I may or may not have to buy some PCIe riser cards to stuff them into, but alas, these are going to be SUPER helpful.  I've already got a home picked out for one of these already in my game rack server, but it absolutely will need a riser card to use it in there.  No big deal.

EDIT:
And absolutely NONE of my Socket A kit seems to be working properly.  I can get 2 of the setups to boot into Windows (all I need).  But immediately upon any sort of load on either one of them, the system locks up.  I've tried everything except a different PSU, as the Corsair RMX550 is the only PSU I have that has decent 5v rails at 25a available.  I'm almost wondering if I need like 35+a on the 5v rails for the Socket A rigs.  I really don't know.  I've tried Radeon 9800XT, X800 Pro, X1950 Pro, and all 3 GPU's lock up at various stages in 3dmark03.  When they do work, they're not artifacting or showing any sort of graphical issues, so I'm stumped.  Almost seemed like a memory issue earlier, but I'm kinda leaning more towards I don't have enough 5v.....and I have no clue what to do about that.

Edited July 26, 2022 by pioneerisloud

[pio]

Teaser update..... 

 

Please ignore my grandpa's feet....  

 

Second 939 rig will be going in here. If the included psu actually works, that MIGHT be the key required to testing the socket A gear too. I think the 5v rail is why I've been having lock up problems with those. My rmx550 psus were supposed to be fine for old rigs, but I noticed old psus had 30-40a on the 5v, whereas mine had 25a. Supposedly other people have had problems with low 5v rails on socket A equipment, so hopefully this antec 350w has good caps still. If I can get the socket a with 9800xt running right on this psu, I'll then know for sure it's a psu problem holding me back. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pio]

Sorry for double post so quickly, but.......  the Antec 350w PSU that came in the above case was flawless and looked brand new.  Caps were all solid on it.  Tested the 5v rail at 5.3v and 12v at 12.4v (no load).  Went ahead and powered up the 1100MHz T-Bird / Radeon 9800XT rig with it and a test install of Windows 7.  IT WORKS!!!!!  I also tested the rails under a load, just to be sure everything was fine.  5v = 5.11v load, and 12v = 12.10v load.  Absolutely perfect!  I uploaded a screenshot to the CPUz bench thread, but here it is too. (RAM was wrong, it didn't like 2x1GB so its got the proper 2x512MB in it now)  I played Quake on it for an hour!

 

This means my Windows 2k build is alive!!!!  I just need my beige Chieftec Dragon repaired fully and I can build it.  This also means I definitely do need another PSU, something with 35-40a on the 5v rail for the AthlonXP build.  So that rig is minus a PSU apparently.  Assuming no other goodies arrive tomorrow (enough to test anything), I'll be building the second 939 into the above black Chieftec Dragon tomorrow night.

 

Edited July 27, 2022 by pioneerisloud

[pio]

Huge shoutout to @Sir Beregond for the HD5770's!!!!  

 

May I present, the second Socket 939 build to my collection!  The purpose of this rig is to be able to daily drive an old machine, and also to use it to create media, drivers, whatever I need for the even older machines.

 

Specs:
Antec version of a Chieftec Dragon

eVGA 600BQ PSU

Asus A8NSLI Premium

AMD Opteron 165 @ 2.70GHz, 300x9, 1.50v

Xigmatek S1283 + Arctic P12's

4x2GB Kingston ECC DDR400 @ 195MHz, 2.5-3-3-6-9-12-2T timings, 2.85v

Sapphire HD5770

Hauppauge WinTV HVR 2250

Asus Xonar Xtreme Music

TP Link Wireless N 300 card

2x64GB HP SSD's

1x 2TB WD Blue

Samsung DVDRW + Lightscribe (IDE)

Iomega ZIP 250

IDE Compact Flash card reader

 

It's currently running on the bench with Windows 7.  Not really entirely sure what OS I'm going to properly stick on it, probably Windows 7 since I can still web browse on that, and play games.  And all of my media software should all work with Windows too.  It's running stress testing (p95 v2511) right now at the overclock, about an hour stable so far (*knocks on wood).  I did the best job I possibly could do with the cables, there's a LOT of them stuffed in there and these older cases really weren't setup for proper cable management either.  I think it looks great!   

 

 

 

 

Edited July 28, 2022 by pioneerisloud

[Avacado]

6 hours ago, pioneerisloud said:

Huge shoutout to @Sir Beregond for the HD5770's!!!!  

 

May I present, the second Socket 939 build to my collection!  The purpose of this rig is to be able to daily drive an old machine, and also to use it to create media, drivers, whatever I need for the even older machines.

 

Specs:
Antec version of a Chieftec Dragon

eVGA 600BQ PSU

Asus A8NSLI Premium

AMD Opteron 165 @ 2.70GHz, 300x9, 1.50v

Xigmatek S1283 + Arctic P12's

4x2GB Kingston ECC DDR400 @ 195MHz, 2.5-3-3-6-9-12-2T timings, 2.85v

Sapphire HD5770

Hauppauge WinTV HVR 2250

Asus Xonar Xtreme Music

TP Link Wireless N 300 card

2x64GB HP SSD's

1x 2TB WD Blue

Samsung DVDRW + Lightscribe (IDE)

Iomega ZIP 250

IDE Compact Flash card reader

 

It's currently running on the bench with Windows 7.  Not really entirely sure what OS I'm going to properly stick on it, probably Windows 7 since I can still web browse on that, and play games.  And all of my media software should all work with Windows too.  It's running stress testing (p95 v2511) right now at the overclock, about an hour stable so far (*knocks on wood).  I did the best job I possibly could do with the cables, there's a LOT of them stuffed in there and these older cases really weren't setup for proper cable management either.  I think it looks great!   

 

 

 

 

That looks clean. I dig it!

[schuck6566]

for you PS2 needs, I've had luck with these in the past.

PS2 to USB Female,PS/2 Male Converter Changer Adapter for Keyboard Mouse 2pcs by Oxusbor  

Amazon has them for $5.99+ tax free next day shipping with prime, ebay has similar items $3.95 +tax free economy shipping(roughly a week) from the U.S. both places so may make a diff depending where it's going.

[Sir Beregond]

Love it Pio!

 

In the future, I hope to do some retro builds too (when I have space to accommodate such projects). I wish I had my original ATI 7500, 9700 Pro, etc. I think I still have an X1650 Pro somewhere. Sadly not sure what happened to the rig with the 9800 GT in it.

[pio]

15 hours ago, schuck6566 said:

for you PS2 needs, I've had luck with these in the past.

PS2 to USB Female,PS/2 Male Converter Changer Adapter for Keyboard Mouse 2pcs by Oxusbor  

Amazon has them for $5.99+ tax free next day shipping with prime, ebay has similar items $3.95 +tax free economy shipping(roughly a week) from the U.S. both places so may make a diff depending where it's going.

Problem is, I'm not sure if that'll work.  The K6 uses an AT keyboard and serial mouse, not PS2.  I have adapters to make the AT and serial ports into PS2 though.  I'd hate to plug an adapter into my adapters to adapt my things to the adapters, wait a minute.......  

 

 

 

13 hours ago, Sir Beregond said:

Love it Pio!

 

In the future, I hope to do some retro builds too (when I have space to accommodate such projects). I wish I had my original ATI 7500, 9700 Pro, etc. I think I still have an X1650 Pro somewhere. Sadly not sure what happened to the rig with the 9800 GT in it.

Dude, you're telling me.  Over the years I threw away soooo much of this stuff its rediculous.  And now, I'm spending tons of money trying to get at least one of them back. -_-  Lesson learned, be a packrat early on lol.  If you still have your X1650, that's a good find too though, and the 9800GT!  I had both of those cards myself back when they were new too.  Good stuff.  Actually, the X1650 I had was paired with a Celeron 352 @ 4.5GHz when I joined OCN in 2006 I think it was.

---------------------------------------------------

Small update:

I received my B350 board and Ryzen 1400 today.  For some odd reason, its got absolutely no power going through it at all.  I fear the worst that the motherboard is dead.  But I have no way to say for sure, but I think that's a safe bet.  Emailed the seller and ASRock both just to double check.  I can, in theory, pull my Ryzen 2600 out and plop that in the board, see if that makes it come to life.  My Ryzen 3600 is too much of a PITA to remove, so I'd rather not pull that.  SIGH, I don't know.  I probably will have to pull that system down tonight (the 2600 rig), so I can test the CPU out in my B450 board.  Pretty sure the BIOS its on should work with a 1400, it works with the 2600.

 

EDIT:
So I went ahead and pulled kiddo's rig down (the Ryzen 2600 / B450).  Swapped the CPU into the B350 board, that board worked.  Checked the Ryzen 1400 and sure enough, it had bent pins from the mail (I certainly didn't bend them).  Upon moving the Ryzen 2600 back, I accidentally dropped it a few inches off the board and bent pins on THAT processor though.  I looked at it, didn't notice anything, so tried to put it back in the B450, and well....now the B450 doesn't work with either CPU.  The B350 works with both, after I spent hours straightening pins.  Sigh.....its looking like putting the 2600 in the B450 with bent pins might've damaged the socket.  I can get it to POST by pulling the cooler and reseating the CPU.  As soon as I save the date and time and exit, it no longer POST's again, and I have to reseat the CPU again to get it to come back.  I'm pretty sure I killed the B450 board's socket.  Fun......something stupid that could've been avoided easily had I not been a butterfingers and jumped because my kid made a loud noise. -_-

Edited July 29, 2022 by pioneerisloud

[Sir Beregond]

23 hours ago, pioneerisloud said:

had I not been a butterfingers and jumped because my kid made a loud noise. -_-

This speaks to me. I do the same sort of thing.

[pio]

1 hour ago, Sir Beregond said:

This speaks to me. I do the same sort of thing.

I still can't wrap my head around how I possibly damaged the stupid socket......

 

It's the only explanation I can think of though.  If I reseat the CPU and push on it while doing so, it'll POST.  Once I go into BIOS, save and exit, nothing again until I reseat CPU again.  But yet, in the B350 board I got yesterday, the Ryzen 2600 works fine in it.

[pio]

Ryzen 1400 rig is fully built, minus a HDD for storage on it.  I'll update with pictures once I get that in.  It's working great, I just tossed a 500GB 2.5" HDD in there out of my main rig for now.  I could take pictures, but I'm exhausted, I'll do it once its finished 100%.

 

Socket 754 setup is alive and working.  I used it tonight to bench test a ton of my old gear, drives, things like that.  Found some stuff that's dead sadly, either arrived that way or death by bad molex splitter.  I was actually a little disappointed, my Iomega ZIPCD 8x4x32 drive that I bought BNIB for the K6 rig is actually faulty right out of the box.  However, because its missing important bits for the wire management like IDE cables (SATA plugs are dead on the board), DVDRW, ZIP drive.....actually I think that's really all its missing.  But yeah, I can't build it as is, it'd look hideous with ribbon cables in there.  So that one is also on hold, however its currently installing some DX9 games right now so I can test out the X1950 with it.  Been waiting since the X1950 was brand new 20 years ago to try one!  After I get some gaming in on it tonight, it'll be retired to the shelf.

 

I did actually make shopping lists this time so I'm not just ebaying blind.  Yes, I added a B450 board on the list too for my son's rig. -_-  I'm going to order what I can afford in order from newest to oldest on payday.

 

Overall the shopping list isn't too terribly bad.  Please, shoot me a PM if you happen to have any of these parts and are willing to make a deal.   We can even do an add here on EHW so that way E gets his cut.

• 6TB HDD
• B450 motherboard
• Vega 64 (can wait)
• Black IDE DVDRW with lightscribe
• 2x black ZIP250 drives
• 4x double round IDE cables
• 2x single round IDE cables
• 2x round floppy cables
• 4x PCI wifi cards
• PCI IDE controller card
• Antec True 550 or equivilant PSU
• 500GB IDE hard drive
• black CF reader
• Bundle of various IDE / Floppy ribbon cables (for old rigs)
• Some beige paint
• (unknown still what all the K6 is missing, K5 is still missing all)

Edited July 30, 2022 by pioneerisloud

[Sir Beregond]

17 hours ago, pioneerisloud said:

I still can't wrap my head around how I possibly damaged the stupid socket......

 

It's the only explanation I can think of though.  If I reseat the CPU and push on it while doing so, it'll POST.  Once I go into BIOS, save and exit, nothing again until I reseat CPU again.  But yet, in the B350 board I got yesterday, the Ryzen 2600 works fine in it.

Strange. First I've heard of a damaged AM4 socket.

[Storm-Chaser]

On 28/07/2022 at 17:12, pioneerisloud said:

I'm pretty sure I killed the B450 board's socket.  Fun......something stupid that could've been avoided easily had I not been a butterfingers and jumped because my kid made a loud noise. -_-

I've had good luck with a credit card or razor blade on straightening pins. 

 

But yeah, I'm the same way and my hands aren't that steady to begin with. Worst fears especially when working with my z840 dual socket motherboard and getting the CPUs that last inch into the socket.  

[pio]

8 hours ago, Sir Beregond said:

Strange. First I've heard of a damaged AM4 socket.

I don't have any other explanation, I cannot see any further bent pins on the 2600x.  It's not clamping in right into the socket on his B450, it doesn't do that nice little "snap" anymore.  It does it just fine in the B350 board though, and POST's immediately in that board.

 

7 hours ago, Storm-Chaser said:

I've had good luck with a credit card or razor blade on straightening pins. 

 

But yeah, I'm the same way and my hands aren't that steady to begin with. Worst fears especially when working with my z840 dual socket motherboard and getting the CPUs that last inch into the socket.  

I seemed to have good luck using a mechanical pencil without lead in it.  The Ryzen 1400 works, and that's what started this whole mess. -_-

 

EDIT:

Also, a huge thank you again to @damric for the SSD's!  I've got homes for them right now.  Main rig is definitely appreciating the speed boost, I had to take my 512GB drive out for the Ryzen 1400 anyway as that's what I bought that drive for originally.  As soon as I can, which might be another month out or so, I'll order some PCIe adapter cards, I need a few spares anyway, and I'll pop one into the game server that I'm hosting for EHW.   Just wanted to share that those are installed in my main rig for now.

Edited July 31, 2022 by pioneerisloud

[damric]

2 hours ago, pioneerisloud said:

I don't have any other explanation, I cannot see any further bent pins on the 2600x.  It's not clamping in right into the socket on his B450, it doesn't do that nice little "snap" anymore.  It does it just fine in the B350 board though, and POST's immediately in that board.

 

I seemed to have good luck using a mechanical pencil without lead in it.  The Ryzen 1400 works, and that's what started this whole mess. -_-

 

EDIT:

Also, a huge thank you again to @damric for the SSD's!  I've got homes for them right now.  Main rig is definitely appreciating the speed boost, I had to take my 512GB drive out for the Ryzen 1400 anyway as that's what I bought that drive for originally.  As soon as I can, which might be another month out or so, I'll order some PCIe adapter cards, I need a few spares anyway, and I'll pop one into the game server that I'm hosting for EHW.   Just wanted to share that those are installed in my main rig for now.

So they work? I didn't test those particular ones, but they were from the same batch of SSDs that I gave away here a few months ago. Glad they are faster than the HDDs

[pio]

5 minutes ago, damric said:

So they work? I didn't test those particular ones, but they were from the same batch of SSDs that I gave away here a few months ago. Glad they are faster than the HDDs

 

Yes sir, they work great!  I was actually trying to RAID0 them on my B550, but yeah, that frustrated me and I gave up and am instead using them as separate drives lol.  I know how to do RAID on my board, I still have the 2 HDD's in there, and they're in RAID just fine.  Windows kept trying to create a new RAID array when setup started, and it'd only find one drive.  Not sure what was up with it.  Could reset CMOS and try again, but I like my clocks on my CPU and RAM and stuff, so yeah.....single drives it is.

 

I also did try the other one in the Ryzen 1400 machine too (the one going in the server first, eventually they'll all get in there probably).  So yes, they all work.  

Edited July 31, 2022 by pioneerisloud

[pio]

Double post, but hey...an update!

 

My grandpa, and his decades of experience with bondo came to the rescue with my beige Chieftec Dragon!  Check it out!

 

 

 

 

Going to have to put a dab of hot glue behind this tab that's not quite grabbing on just right.  Not really a HUGE deal.  Easy peasy.

 

 

I went ahead and wiped the case down thoroughly after taking these pictures, and the top is honestly nearly perfect too.  Those marks on the top wiped right off with a damp towel.  This rig (with the T-Bird 1100 / Radeon 9800XT / 1GB RAM / Windows 2k) is almost ready to be built.  Will need to paint match the front panel, and locate some IDE cables for it and I think its ready to be built!  I have a few cables, but not entirely sure which direction for cables I'm going.  Can't really see the internals so might just use ribbon cables.

 

I also went ahead and broke out the K6 rig at the same time, to determine how bad the case was on that one.  The front panel doesn't attach to the case at all, and there's a giant dent along the bottom I hadn't noticed previously.  Upon pulling it apart though, I found an 8x CD-ROM drive, a 1620MB WD Caviar, and a 10.1GB Toshiba HDD.  The internals look fine, I do want to inspect the caps on the PSU before I power it up, but looking at the motherboard I'm guessing the PSU will be fine in that.  Looking like for the K6 I'll need to find an AT style case, CD drives because I don't want the 8x in there, and an 80GB HDD because well, those drives are way too small.  I'll test those drives regardless, and if they work.......I'll save them for the K5 / Windows 95 rig that I have nothing for.  If they don't work, no big deal.

 

Here's some pictures of the K6 rig as it sits.  Again, was hoping the case just needed a paint job, but yeah....no.

 

 

 

Edited July 31, 2022 by pioneerisloud

[pio]

The Ryzen 1400 rig is giving me some issues while waiting for the HDD it's short.  For some odd reason, the GPU keeps disconnecting under load.  Not really sure why.  I've tried swapping to another RX 580, I've tried flashing BIOS on the cards, and I've tried removing my 8pin sleeved extension.  I'm at a loss, I can't have 2 cards that are dead sitting here.  

[Sir Beregond]

3 hours ago, pioneerisloud said:

The Ryzen 1400 rig is giving me some issues while waiting for the HDD it's short.  For some odd reason, the GPU keeps disconnecting under load.  Not really sure why.  I've tried swapping to another RX 580, I've tried flashing BIOS on the cards, and I've tried removing my 8pin sleeved extension.  I'm at a loss, I can't have 2 cards that are dead sitting here.  

That stinks. What GPU did you have in there originally?

[pio]

19 hours ago, Sir Beregond said:

That stinks. What GPU did you have in there originally?

Rx580 8gb. I have 4 of them. 2 so far are doing the same exact thing, both of my msi cards so far. Under gpu load, at random, I hear the windows disconnect noise and then the screen is frozen. I checked event logs, and it's definitely gpu being disconnected. I just haven't figured out why. 

 

I can try one of my asus 580s. I know I had problems with all 4 of the cards mining previously. So it's not impossible both of the msi cards are damaged. I just don't know. 

 

EDIT:
Replaced the PSU in the rig, so far its been running Valley for an hour and a half.  I knew I couldn't have 2 bad GPU's in there.  Been running my better MSI RX 580 8GB, that appears like it might overclock to 1450 core.  Will update proper tomorrow after its passed a good long time alive without the GPU disconnecting and hopefully (*knocks on wood) after some overclocking.  But so far, looking better.  Running bone stock on everything right now, just to make sure its alive properly.

 

EDIT2:
Woke up today to the rig dead again with the GPU having been removed.  I don't get it.

Edited August 2, 2022 by pioneerisloud