Pio's new (lol) projects

[PCSarge]

On 25/09/2021 at 00:38, pioneerisloud said:

 

I still have my original installers for 03, 06, Vantage, and 11.  I just figured I'd use those since they were common back then.  The newer 3DMark suites would be perfectly fine and suitable for all of my multi-core rigs (939 and newer), but I feel I might, MIGHT be able to run upwards of at least 06 on the super old single core rigs.  My thought was trying to find a diverse set of benchmarks and games that I can run on literally every one of these machines (with exceptions of newer game titles).

 

Of course I want to go all the way back!  This is why a K6 is on my list of rigs to build.

I mean TECHNICALLY speaking, I started on an Apple II, then a Centris 660AV, but I like to forget those days....... 

i have an operational Mac II Ci, want to come play with it? lol i also have a 486DX with 3.1 on it...somewhere

[pio]

On 29/09/2021 at 23:17, PCSarge said:

i have an operational Mac II Ci, want to come play with it? lol i also have a 486DX with 3.1 on it...somewhere

Actually yes I kinda do want to come play with it. Oregon Trail on 5.25" floppy on an Apple II, and fixing parallel dot matrix printers for my school system in the 3rd grade is what got me started down hardware.

On topic:
Assuming Steam finishes downloading what I'm waiting for, 8350 / 290x benchmark suite is going to be getting started this evening.  Figured I'd start with that rig as a baseline, since that's what I upgraded from to my sig rig.  Well....kinda, I had a 3770k and RX 580, but the FX and 290x should be very very similar in performance anyway.

EDIT:
Late night bump (well edit).  Working on the "benchmarks" on the FX rig now.  Also debating on ways I can record the gameplay footage; maybe bust out my laptop and use its camera or something.  Probably won't be updating tonight with the bench test results of the FX like I intended, but I'm running them as quickly as I can.  I don't want to give updates till I have the entire bench suite completed.

Edited October 1, 2021 by pioneerisloud

[pio]

I'm at a roadblock currently. Sorry about lack of bench results. Trying to figure out a way to record the game play footage so y'all can see the same thing I'm seeing. This way if I'm claiming it's playable or not, you can see for yourself. 

 

Kind of thinking maybe using my laptop's camera and recording it that way. 

 

Also my nfs3 disc isn't working. Seems it's abandonware, but at the same time.... It's not really going to be a struggle to run on any of these machines. So I might take nfs3 out since it's not working atm anyway. 

 

If anyone has an alternative solution for recording the game play I'm all ears. But so far this seems to be the best method. 

[damric]

My phone camera wasn't too terrible at recording Michele's gameplay then uploading to youtube. I mean I was definitely the weakest link, as the cameraman. Here is an example of one I took about 6 months ago when she was running a Vega 56 and just got her Ryzen 5800x

 

I have a better newer video of her actually playing and with her new RTX 3080 somewhere. I need to find it.

[pio]

@damric
I don't think I'd trust myself to hold my phone and play at the same time.  

I was debating on using my laptop's built in webcam to record it, but a friend pointed out how horrible the webcam is on it.  So......I'm buying a capture card.  Should be here hopefully by end of next week.   I'm only seeing a potential problem once the HDMI no longer passes audio through with it on the older cards that I'll have to use DVI adapters with.  But I have a few backup plans for that anyway.  Currently looking at the MyPin Game Live Box on Amazon for $90, looks like it'll do a fine job with all of these old rigs.

That's really the only holdup on benching the rigs I have done.  I want to be able to show you guys if its smooth gameplay or not, not just give benchmark numbers.  Obviously the faster rigs are going to benchmark faster.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
In other news, the Chieftec Dragon came back from the plastic repair shop today.  The top section of the front panel is still worse for the wear, but nothing a little putty and sandpaper and a fresh coat of beige paint can't fix.  They were able to just glue the original pegs back onto it that snap into the front of the steel.  So that works even better than magnets!  I'll update with pictures when I break it back out again to start the putty job on it.  It might not be for a while since holidays are fast approaching, and I've got a kiddo's birthday right before Christmas that has to be special too.  But progress is being made.

I also just ordered a proper front panel monetary push button for the 939 case mod I've been working on, it'll arrive between November and February apparently.  Typically its like 3-4 weeks though, so that's fine.  Ordered that about a week ago now.  Weller soldering station was also ordered, I was expecting it today but might not be till Monday now.  The plexi side window of the proper size (better be for $42) actually did arrive today, so I can finish the side panel.  I guess I could start assembling it now, but I'd kind of like the case to be finished before I start piling stuff into it.  So its really just putting a window on the side panel, and soldering the buttons and LED's back to wires and I can build the 939 to completion next.

Overall, I'm REALLY hoping to have all of these projects finished by my next birthday (April 2022).  We'll see, there's still a lot of stuff to go through and a lot of parts still need ordering.

[pio]

I promise guys, bench results are coming soon.  As stated previously, capture card is being ordered Monday or Tuesday (waiting on bank transfer).  I think that'll be the best way to prove without a doubt if these titles are playable or not across all rigs.

In the meantime, enjoy some modding progress.

Kingwin 2002 Mid Tower Mod:

Spoiler

This is the case the Athlon XP 2500+ and Radeon X1950 Pro will eventually sit in.  I'm still missing drives, fans, CPU cooler, and sleeved cables for this one.  Sleeved cables might not ever come though because 20pin and nobody sells sleeved 20 pin cables. -_-  Still searching though.

The only thing I really had to do to this case was put some new bolts and nuts on the plexiglass.  It was missing a couple of the factory inserts.  Otherwise, this case is in perfect shape for my uses.  Just needs a good cleaning because its been sitting for nearly 20 years, but really its not in bad shape as is.

 

 

 

 

Rosewill Challenger Case Mod:

Spoiler

This is the case for my AMD / ATI Socket 939 "museum" piece.  This case will house a Athlon x2 4200+ Toledo that does 3.1GHz and my Radeon HD5870 1GB.  I have everything here to finally start building this one minus the power button.  I accidentally ordered an on/off switch instead of a monetary push button.  Oops.  I could put it together now, but I don't want to rush myself and accidentally short something due to the buttons.

Case has been painted, a window was cut out with pre-drilled holes at the local steel fab, custom cut plexi glass was ordered, and finally assembled with some #6 x 3/8" bolts and nuts.  The front panel buttons were removed and the plastic was drilled out bigger to accomadate new buttons ordered from China.  Buttons are silver with green LED's built into the buttons to replace the blue and red power / HDD LED's.  Should be completed very shortly after the new button arrives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 10, 2021 by pioneerisloud

[ENTERPRISE]

On 10/10/2021 at 05:22, pioneerisloud said:

I promise guys, bench results are coming soon.  As stated previously, capture card is being ordered Monday or Tuesday (waiting on bank transfer).  I think that'll be the best way to prove without a doubt if these titles are playable or not across all rigs.

In the meantime, enjoy some modding progress.

Kingwin 2002 Mid Tower Mod:

  Hide contents

This is the case the Athlon XP 2500+ and Radeon X1950 Pro will eventually sit in.  I'm still missing drives, fans, CPU cooler, and sleeved cables for this one.  Sleeved cables might not ever come though because 20pin and nobody sells sleeved 20 pin cables. -_-  Still searching though.

The only thing I really had to do to this case was put some new bolts and nuts on the plexiglass.  It was missing a couple of the factory inserts.  Otherwise, this case is in perfect shape for my uses.  Just needs a good cleaning because its been sitting for nearly 20 years, but really its not in bad shape as is.

 

 

 

 

Rosewill Challenger Case Mod:

  Hide contents

This is the case for my AMD / ATI Socket 939 "museum" piece.  This case will house a Athlon x2 4200+ Toledo that does 3.1GHz and my Radeon HD5870 1GB.  I have everything here to finally start building this one minus the power button.  I accidentally ordered an on/off switch instead of a monetary push button.  Oops.  I could put it together now, but I don't want to rush myself and accidentally short something due to the buttons.

Case has been painted, a window was cut out with pre-drilled holes at the local steel fab, custom cut plexi glass was ordered, and finally assembled with some #6 x 3/8" bolts and nuts.  The front panel buttons were removed and the plastic was drilled out bigger to accomadate new buttons ordered from China.  Buttons are silver with green LED's built into the buttons to replace the blue and red power / HDD LED's.  Should be completed very shortly after the new button arrives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love the painted AMD logo on the side panel, works really well. Genius!

[pio]

 

 

Once that dries, I've been up to no good preparing for my multicore benchoff .  My new Capture Card arrived in the mail today, so I can have a few days to play with that while I wait for this to dry some.  Any day now my button can arrive.......between now and February next year.......  I've got most of the rigs built, tested, and installed with my game / bench suite list thing.  

[PCSarge]

5 hours ago, pioneerisloud said:

 

 

Once that dries, I've been up to no good preparing for my multicore benchoff .  My new Capture Card arrived in the mail today, so I can have a few days to play with that while I wait for this to dry some.  Any day now my button can arrive.......between now and February next year.......  I've got most of the rigs built, tested, and installed with my game / bench suite list thing.  

love the 70s faucet. reminds me of my grandmothers house also im pretty sure that should never be in water.

[pio]

7 hours ago, PCSarge said:

love the 70s faucet. reminds me of my grandmothers house also im pretty sure that should never be in water.

Apartment living, I don't get to pick the faucets.

 

And no, it probably shouldn't be in the water..........  we'll see if it lived.

(The machine its going into keeps BSOD'ing on me though, so there might be more wrong here than I was hoping for.  I noticed a few bulging caps, I'm really hoping I don't have to recap a motherboard just to finish a rig here.......)

[UltraMega]

2 minutes ago, pioneerisloud said:

Apartment living, I don't get to pick the faucets.

 

Off topic but..

 

The last apartment I lived in had what looks like the same exact faucet. I think it's literally the cheapest one at Home Depot and goes for about $20. I replaced it myself. It's usually not hard to do and worst case you just have to put the old one back when you move, but in my case they were happy to let me leave to better one in. 

 

You can get a much better faucet for pretty cheap if you ever want to swap it out, and usually the newer ones are super easy to install. I used to do faucet replacements so I just happen to be pretty familiar with that. 

[schuck6566]

8 hours ago, pioneerisloud said:

Apartment living, I don't get to pick the faucets.

 

And no, it probably shouldn't be in the water..........  we'll see if it lived.

(The machine its going into keeps BSOD'ing on me though, so there might be more wrong here than I was hoping for.  I noticed a few bulging caps, I'm really hoping I don't have to recap a motherboard just to finish a rig here.......)

I live in a highrise built in the 70's. They had to replace my faucet because the neck developed a split that was leaking and put a new 1 in that's identical to yours and what I already had. lol, they're still churning those units out.

[Mossy04]

My Computer was originally built in 2013 with a Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 AMD. The only thing I ever upgraded was the GPU and case fans.. Originally spent about 4,500.

 

Sorry my camera is bad on my phone!

 

 

I run most games a 60FPS

only game I have an issue with is RDR2 even at medium/High settings I only get 45FPS.

 

Edited October 21, 2021 by Mossy04

[UltraMega]

On 20/10/2021 at 00:32, schuck6566 said:

I live in a highrise built in the 70's. They had to replace my faucet because the neck developed a split that was leaking and put a new 1 in that's identical to yours and what I already had. lol, they're still churning those units out.

I can't tell you how many faucets I've seen with poor quality components that only make all the issues with faucets worse. I didn't own a Dremel until I got deep into faucet replacements. 

[ENTERPRISE]

40 minutes ago, Mossy04 said:

My Computer was originally built in 2013 with a Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 AMD. The only thing I ever upgraded was the GPU and case fans.. Originally spent about 4,500.

 

Sorry my camera is bad on my phone!

 

 

I run most games a 60FPS

only game I have an issue with is RDR2 even at medium/High settings I only get 45FPS.

 

What case is that bud ?

[pio]

49 minutes ago, Mossy04 said:

My Computer was originally built in 2013 with a Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 AMD. The only thing I ever upgraded was the GPU and case fans.. Originally spent about 4,500.

 

Sorry my camera is bad on my phone!

 

 

I run most games a 60FPS

only game I have an issue with is RDR2 even at medium/High settings I only get 45FPS.

 

 

Not a bad looking build!  Looks to me like a high end FX build?  I've seen that board, just don't recall which one it is off the top of my head.  Nothing at all wrong with it if it still does what you need it to.  I'd still be on my 2600k daily had it not broken.  That system looks beefy enough even for an older rig I wouldn't be surprised at all if it still played AAA titles fine.  Enjoy it!

 

By the way, if that's a 990FX board, it might be able to boot off NVME using some of those extra PCIe lanes, just as a possible upgrade path.   If it is, check for BIOS updates.  Pretty sure 2012 would've been 900 series / FX Bulldozer CPU's.

EDIT:  Derp, you had a sig rig.  Yeah, check Asus for a BIOS update if you haven't already.  The Crosshair V should support NVME, my Sabertooth does.

Edited October 21, 2021 by pioneerisloud

[Mossy04]

13 minutes ago, ENTERPRISE said:

What case is that bud ?

the corsair carbide air 540

[Mossy04]

11 minutes ago, pioneerisloud said:

 

Not a bad looking build!  Looks to me like a high end FX build?  I've seen that board, just don't recall which one it is off the top of my head.  Nothing at all wrong with it if it still does what you need it to.  I'd still be on my 2600k daily had it not broken.  That system looks beefy enough even for an older rig I wouldn't be surprised at all if it still played AAA titles fine.  Enjoy it!

 

By the way, if that's a 990FX board, it might be able to boot off NVME using some of those extra PCIe lanes, just as a possible upgrade path.   If it is, check for BIOS updates.  Pretty sure 2012 would've been 900 series / FX Bulldozer CPU's.

EDIT:  Derp, you had a sig rig.  Yeah, check Asus for a BIOS update if you haven't already.  The Crosshair V should support NVME, my Sabertooth does.

Yah there isn't much else let to upgrade unless is has a pci slot..lol.. since next year a bunch of new tech is coming out, I'm going to build V2 of this computer with the crosshair 8 extreme or whatever is equivalent late next year. with ddr5, next gen nvidia, new AMD cpu and mb chipset.. it'll be night and day with this computer to the next..lol

[pio]

7 minutes ago, Mossy04 said:

Yah there isn't much else let to upgrade unless is has a pci slot..lol.. since next year a bunch of new tech is coming out, I'm going to build V2 of this computer with the crosshair 8 extreme or whatever is equivalent late next year. with ddr5, next gen nvidia, new AMD cpu and mb chipset.. it'll be night and day with this computer to the next..lol

My lowly Ryzen 3600 rig with a Gen2 NVME drive was night and day difference from my old i7 3770k @ 4.4GHz, with the same GPU installed.  Yes, it's going to be a HUGE upgrade lol.  Going to a fast NVME from a 2.5" SSD is almost as good as going HDD to SSD.  So that alone is going to be a huge upgrade because probably Gen5 NVME by that time.  The CPU is going to help smooth things out so much too, oh man.  

You got nearly a decade's use out of that rig.  To me, that's a pretty wise use of $4,500 10 years ago.  I just always have to have something to monkey with, so I'm always buying old used junk lol.  If I were on a regular "new" upgrade cycle, that's how I'd want to be too.  One "all out" build every like 10 years.

[PCSarge]

6 hours ago, pioneerisloud said:

My lowly Ryzen 3600 rig with a Gen2 NVME drive was night and day difference from my old i7 3770k @ 4.4GHz, with the same GPU installed.  Yes, it's going to be a HUGE upgrade lol.  Going to a fast NVME from a 2.5" SSD is almost as good as going HDD to SSD.  So that alone is going to be a huge upgrade because probably Gen5 NVME by that time.  The CPU is going to help smooth things out so much too, oh man.  

You got nearly a decade's use out of that rig.  To me, that's a pretty wise use of $4,500 10 years ago.  I just always have to have something to monkey with, so I'm always buying old used junk lol.  If I were on a regular "new" upgrade cycle, that's how I'd want to be too.  One "all out" build every like 10 years.

i mean, i went i5 7600K to current rig so.....enough of an upgrade i wont touch it CPU/mobo wise for many years. we all know GPUs are pretty disposable though.... my old i5 2500K is still in service at my parents place as a work computer. they still say its faster than any prebuilt or laptop theyve ever bought. storage makes a difference, i brought them from 5400rpm HDD to SATA III SSD, even taught them to use a spare 7200RPM 1TB HDD i put in with the SSD as file storage.

Edited October 21, 2021 by PCSarge

[pio]

Okay, so I've got to share this one, because its the one that got me started doing all this to begin with.....the want of having an "ultimate" 939 rig again.

Rig doesn't work.  I'm about 99% sure its bad caps on the motherboard, so searching frantically around on ebay for yet ANOTHER 939 board (this is #4 in my possession).  It's just constant random BSOD's, doesn't matter what OS, doesn't matter what drive its on.  CPU and RAM work fine in the other 939 board, but the GPU doesn't......so I can't use my other board.  But this is what it looks like all put together at least.

So yeah.......looking for another 939 board again. -_-

 

Anyway, check it out!  I'm extremely thrilled with how it turned out so far.

So still need a functional 939 board that's NOT 32 laned SLI, my button to come in from China, and I think it'll be ready to go.  There's front USB missing, I have them.  They're just missing because no power / reset buttons so why bother putting them back in yet.

 

Ignore the missing lighter / ashtray.  It's there now, this picture was taken the day I cleaned it.  Just tossed in to show how it looks with the side panel.

[ENTERPRISE]

7 hours ago, pioneerisloud said:

Okay, so I've got to share this one, because its the one that got me started doing all this to begin with.....the want of having an "ultimate" 939 rig again.

Rig doesn't work.  I'm about 99% sure its bad caps on the motherboard, so searching frantically around on ebay for yet ANOTHER 939 board (this is #4 in my possession).  It's just constant random BSOD's, doesn't matter what OS, doesn't matter what drive its on.  CPU and RAM work fine in the other 939 board, but the GPU doesn't......so I can't use my other board.  But this is what it looks like all put together at least.

So yeah.......looking for another 939 board again. -_-

 

Anyway, check it out!  I'm extremely thrilled with how it turned out so far.

So still need a functional 939 board that's NOT 32 laned SLI, my button to come in from China, and I think it'll be ready to go.  There's front USB missing, I have them.  They're just missing because no power / reset buttons so why bother putting them back in yet.

 

Ignore the missing lighter / ashtray.  It's there now, this picture was taken the day I cleaned it.  Just tossed in to show how it looks with the side panel.

Nice, sucks about the motherboard though Seems like they keep crapping out on you. Time for a DFI ?

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DFI-LanParty-NF4-Motherboard-AMD-Athlon-64-x2-3800-CPU-4Gb-RAM-Bundle-/203452874774?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

[schuck6566]

Everytime I see 1 of these awesome looking builds or water cooling jobs I look in the mirror and remember this Far Side comic... I'm glad others here are so I can appreciate their work.

 

Edited October 25, 2021 by schuck6566

[Diffident]

16 hours ago, pioneerisloud said:

Okay, so I've got to share this one, because its the one that got me started doing all this to begin with.....the want of having an "ultimate" 939 rig again.

Rig doesn't work.  I'm about 99% sure its bad caps on the motherboard, so searching frantically around on ebay for yet ANOTHER 939 board (this is #4 in my possession).  It's just constant random BSOD's, doesn't matter what OS, doesn't matter what drive its on.  CPU and RAM work fine in the other 939 board, but the GPU doesn't......so I can't use my other board.  But this is what it looks like all put together at least.

So yeah.......looking for another 939 board again. -_-

 

Anyway, check it out!  I'm extremely thrilled with how it turned out so far.

So still need a functional 939 board that's NOT 32 laned SLI, my button to come in from China, and I think it'll be ready to go.  There's front USB missing, I have them.  They're just missing because no power / reset buttons so why bother putting them back in yet.

 

Ignore the missing lighter / ashtray.  It's there now, this picture was taken the day I cleaned it.  Just tossed in to show how it looks with the side panel.

 

I have an Asus A7VBX if you want it.  It has an Athlon XP 2000 installed, I think it's a 2000. It has a 333mhz FSB and 2 SATA ports. It was one of the first boards with on board SATA.  I replaced a 266mhz FSB board with this just to get the SATA ports.    I'm guessing it works, but I have no idea.  The CMOS battery is probably dead.  It's about 18 years old.  Since your into  old computers.  Don't know it you have a Socket A yet....I think it's a Socket A.

 

 

 

Edited October 25, 2021 by Diffident

[PCSarge]

3 hours ago, Diffident said:

 

I have an Asus A7VBX if you want it.  It has an Athlon XP 2000 installed, I think it's a 2000. It has a 333mhz FSB and 2 SATA ports. It was one of the first boards with on board SATA.  I replaced a 266mhz FSB board with this just to get the SATA ports.    I'm guessing it works, but I have no idea.  The CMOS battery is probably dead.  It's about 18 years old.  Since your into  old computers.  Don't know it you have a Socket A yet....I think it's a Socket A.

 

 

 

those PCI slots though god i dont miss them or ISA slots