Good, I'm glad!
It might be some while before I'm back on the vintage stuff, but there's a lot more 'retro' stuff I am doing soon.
Starting with the silly dual socket PC that may or may not work.
** Acme's [Akagi's] Retro Odyssey! From Apple ][ to Pentium 4. Repair, modding, and more! **
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It might be some while before I'm back on the vintage stuff, but there's a lot more 'retro' stuff I am doing soon.
Starting with the silly dual socket PC that may or may not work.
Iconic case get.
£5!
It looks great in the photo! Unfortunately it is pretty badly scratched up on both sides (the far side more so than the one seen here), on the top, and to a lesser extent on the front. So ideally it needs re-painting.
Chieftec Dragon vs Casetek (with a) Dragon (on it)
No plans for it for now, so into the loft it goes.
£5!
It looks great in the photo! Unfortunately it is pretty badly scratched up on both sides (the far side more so than the one seen here), on the top, and to a lesser extent on the front. So ideally it needs re-painting.
Chieftec Dragon vs Casetek (with a) Dragon (on it)
No plans for it for now, so into the loft it goes.
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Although, I'll take suggestions of what colour to paint it...
I only have black or white in stock. Or bright red. None of which I want to use.
I could try and find a similar metallic green... Or I could go purple, or metallic coral pink, or orange, etc.
I only have black or white in stock. Or bright red. None of which I want to use.
I could try and find a similar metallic green... Or I could go purple, or metallic coral pink, or orange, etc.
i think you need this one too
Retro Chieftech Dragon Full ATX Midi Tower PC Case | eBay
Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Retro Chieftech Dragon Full ATX Midi Tower PC Case at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products.www.ebay.co.uk
Thats ace!
I only do cheep though. Always scouting for freebies and cheap local pickups.
Buying parts for the Xeon PC was a gamble, but I'm hoping that all three of the untested boards I bought for it work, because then I can sell two of them!
I'm currently jobhunting and on partial disability, so this is a cheap way to pass time.
That case is tempting me to spray the one I have matte black... But I'd feel so bad!
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Over the years of owning ****box cars I've got pretty decent at it.
I was also considering painting it in Ford Purple Velvet Metallic.
Had some deliveries today!
3x Intel S5000PSL server boards, here is one of them (bottom) compared with the board from the T5400 (top)
A pair of Mac Pro 1.1 heatsinks, which are HEFTY compared to the Dell ones.
T5400 left, Mac Pro 1.1 right.
The Casetek case doesn't have the integrated standoffs for the CPU mounting, so I used nuts and lock washers.
The heatsinks fit with less than 1mm to spare... I'd love to say this is because of excellent planning but...
Cobbled together with both CPUs, all the RAM, and the GPU, going for broke!! No barebones testing here!
And would you look at that...
Few teething issues, the board beeps at me fairly frequently complaining of a CPU 1 overheat but I have no way of seeing what the temperature is from the BIOS. I have work still to do in the cooling department anyway so I'm not worried just yet.
And no USB keyboard support pre-OS it seems, so I had to mix my vintage with my retro and plug the Olivetti keyboard in because its the only PS/2 keyboard I have right now!
Cooling wise I have two 120mm fans in the drive bay area, and have made a fan filter.
The fans will get changed for different / matching ones soon.
3x Intel S5000PSL server boards, here is one of them (bottom) compared with the board from the T5400 (top)
A pair of Mac Pro 1.1 heatsinks, which are HEFTY compared to the Dell ones.
T5400 left, Mac Pro 1.1 right.
The Casetek case doesn't have the integrated standoffs for the CPU mounting, so I used nuts and lock washers.
The heatsinks fit with less than 1mm to spare... I'd love to say this is because of excellent planning but...
Cobbled together with both CPUs, all the RAM, and the GPU, going for broke!! No barebones testing here!
And would you look at that...
Few teething issues, the board beeps at me fairly frequently complaining of a CPU 1 overheat but I have no way of seeing what the temperature is from the BIOS. I have work still to do in the cooling department anyway so I'm not worried just yet.
And no USB keyboard support pre-OS it seems, so I had to mix my vintage with my retro and plug the Olivetti keyboard in because its the only PS/2 keyboard I have right now!
Cooling wise I have two 120mm fans in the drive bay area, and have made a fan filter.
The fans will get changed for different / matching ones soon.
How it was for testing...
4 hours and lots of cable ties, an extra fan, a sound card, and a SATA cable later...
This case has no way to pass cables through behind the motherboard tray, so making it look neat took some serious thought.
Fingers crossed everything else goes well. But I do at least have two spare motherboards if there are any issues!
4 hours and lots of cable ties, an extra fan, a sound card, and a SATA cable later...
This case has no way to pass cables through behind the motherboard tray, so making it look neat took some serious thought.
Fingers crossed everything else goes well. But I do at least have two spare motherboards if there are any issues!
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Was having issues with USB devices, absolutely nothing was detected on any port, front, rear, or internal.
I assumed there was a fault with the board since I bought them all as untested returns, so I swapped in another of the boards.
Here's the case empty:
It was really easy because of how I managed the cables out of the way of everything. Unplug things, remove cards, undo 3 screws (the rest of the motherboard standoffs are clips), and lift out.
A better look at the fan I mounted on the CPU heatsinks.
Anyway it turns out that the reason the USB wasn't working at all was because I had plugged the USB front panel in offset by one pin... But I wouldn't have found it without doing this so, no great loss. Seems to work now!
I assumed there was a fault with the board since I bought them all as untested returns, so I swapped in another of the boards.
Here's the case empty:
It was really easy because of how I managed the cables out of the way of everything. Unplug things, remove cards, undo 3 screws (the rest of the motherboard standoffs are clips), and lift out.
A better look at the fan I mounted on the CPU heatsinks.
Anyway it turns out that the reason the USB wasn't working at all was because I had plugged the USB front panel in offset by one pin... But I wouldn't have found it without doing this so, no great loss. Seems to work now!
Done and working, sound, video, etc!
It did decide to keep the fans going after I shut it down, but I wonder if that might just be a server thing.
I decided to install Windows 7 Ultimate in the end, instead of Vista.
It did decide to keep the fans going after I shut it down, but I wonder if that might just be a server thing.
I decided to install Windows 7 Ultimate in the end, instead of Vista.
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"Final" pictures!
I may change the mismatched fans and I may also pass the gray cables behind the motherboard if I get bored... But otherwise its done!
Yes I did polish the heatsinks, why do you ask?
I may change the mismatched fans and I may also pass the gray cables behind the motherboard if I get bored... But otherwise its done!
Yes I did polish the heatsinks, why do you ask?
Thanks!
I made an adjustment... Spot the difference (there are 6!) but only 1 is important.
And a picture of the front with the door open.
No power or HDD activity lights because the board uses a ribbon cable front panel connector arrangement for servers and none of the pins are where they need to be. I'll sort that somewhen.
And a picture of the front with the door open.
No power or HDD activity lights because the board uses a ribbon cable front panel connector arrangement for servers and none of the pins are where they need to be. I'll sort that somewhen.
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I cannot be stopped... I bought some parts for the next system build.
I will be using the i7 920 and the Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5 from the Casetek case, with 24GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR3, THREE GTX280s in SLI, and an 1100W Tagan PSU, in the bright green Chieftec Dragon...
This one is gonna be hot and hairy chested. Like Hugh Jackman.
I will be using the i7 920 and the Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5 from the Casetek case, with 24GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR3, THREE GTX280s in SLI, and an 1100W Tagan PSU, in the bright green Chieftec Dragon...
This one is gonna be hot and hairy chested. Like Hugh Jackman.
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Its a real ol' struggle to find a 1366 cooler
One in B grade I've got my eye on, but it looks a bit too "new"
An Intel Extreme one on eBay but the guy is asking a bit too much for it...
No new ones support 1366 because it uses different mounting to 1156/55/51/50/1200...
One in B grade I've got my eye on, but it looks a bit too "new"
An Intel Extreme one on eBay but the guy is asking a bit too much for it...
No new ones support 1366 because it uses different mounting to 1156/55/51/50/1200...
Well well well... Thankyou!
The case will have pretty poor airflow unfortunately (as most did back when this case was made
) But I've added it to the contenders list haha.
Looking to spend <£20 really
I've accidentally spent a lot on graphics cards.
I've accidentally spent a lot on graphics cards.
GTX480 arrived today, sadly some of the surface mount components on the back of the memory have come off. It "works" but after installing drivers, the drivers don't initialise.
It was only £10 so I'm not too bothered. I'm hopeful that it will work as a secondary card in SLI when I eventually find another.
Alpenfohn Brocken 3 and a few adapters and bits also arrived for the X58 build.
I have bought 2x GTX280s and an 1100W Tagan PSU, but the seller hasn't replied to me for a couple of days so I am slightly concerned he is going to scarper with my cash, but we'll see...
And I wont be using the Chieftec Dragon anymore, I have found an Antec P180 which I will use instead, which is a lot better suited for this. It has bits in it as well, but nothing hugely interesting as far as I know.
Also this is not the least bit retro, but making all these retro PCs so tidy inside made me feel bad about my main PC, so I took some time to tidy it up inside, and used cable combs for the first time... Its not perfect but its good enough!
It was only £10 so I'm not too bothered. I'm hopeful that it will work as a secondary card in SLI when I eventually find another.
Alpenfohn Brocken 3 and a few adapters and bits also arrived for the X58 build.
I have bought 2x GTX280s and an 1100W Tagan PSU, but the seller hasn't replied to me for a couple of days so I am slightly concerned he is going to scarper with my cash, but we'll see...
And I wont be using the Chieftec Dragon anymore, I have found an Antec P180 which I will use instead, which is a lot better suited for this. It has bits in it as well, but nothing hugely interesting as far as I know.
Also this is not the least bit retro, but making all these retro PCs so tidy inside made me feel bad about my main PC, so I took some time to tidy it up inside, and used cable combs for the first time... Its not perfect but its good enough!
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Yeah I'm starting to feel fairly sure I've been diddled.
So unless theres a miracle I am now down on a bunch of nice DDR2 RAM, a sound card, some GPUs and a PSU. Great.
So unless theres a miracle I am now down on a bunch of nice DDR2 RAM, a sound card, some GPUs and a PSU. Great.
FB Marketplace... I don't usually buy stuff posted on there for obvious reasons, but the retro tech community are usually pretty good, and this guy spoke to me about stuff for a good while, talking about our different projects, going through what he has and what I want and don't want, exchanging details etc, and then when it came time to post it, just radio silence, for days now.
I don't think he put stuff up with the intent of scamming, it was up for collection only and I asked about posting, I just think he saw the opportunity to be dishonest and pocket £55 and he did it.
Friend of mine is working on getting his address by enquiring about another item he has for sale, and another friend of mine is going to knock his door and see whats what if I haven't heard back from him by next week...
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