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geekhack Community => Other Geeky Stuff => Topic started by: Phaedrus2129 on Sun, 16 May 2010, 23:53:20
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(http://th06.deviantart.net/fs71/300W/i/2010/136/f/c/Demeter_1_by_Phaedrus2401.jpg) (http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/136/a/f/Demeter_1_by_Phaedrus2401.jpg)
This is my workroom computer, Demeter. Getting this old system back on its feet has been my sporadic hobby for several months now, since I picked it up from my grandma's house in Florida.
When I found it I originally thought it was just an empty beige case, until I got it open. She was in a sorry state, full of dust, missing a power supply, missing a CMOS battery, shredded floppy cable, disconnected drives, just awful. I had no idea what CPU or RAM or anything it had. I was originally going to part it out, but the more I worked on identifying it the more I grew attached to it.
Here's the worklog:
- Found in closet
- Installed Antec TP-480 PSU
- Installed new CMOS battery
- POST failed (freezes on Asus logo screen)
- Moved to Antec NSK6580 case, CD-ROM drive and floppy drive discarded
- POST achieved, CPU unidentified
(traveled back to NOLA)
- Removed CPU heatsink (Tt Volcano 7+), identified CPU as Athlon XP Barton 2600+ 1917MHz (166*11.5)
- Reinstalled CPU heatsink with Shin Etsu
- Antec TP-480 discovered to be faulty (bad caps), discarded in favor of Antec EA-430
- Traded Radeon 9800 Pro for X1300 Pro
- HDD identified, Windows 2000 present. Uncle did not recall password
- Tt heatsink replaced by quieter Rosewill heatsink
- Rosewill PCI NIC installed
- HDD wiped, Ubuntu 9.10 installed
- Ubuntu 9.10 corrupted after updates
- Antec EA-430 found to be badly crossloaded, out-of-spec voltage
- left alone for month or two
- Ubuntu 10.04 installed
- CPU overclocked to 2300MHz, unstable, settled on 2200MHz
- RAM replaced with 2x512MB SuperTalent DDR 400 CL2.5
- Zippy PSU installed
(http://th05.deviantart.net/fs71/300W/i/2010/136/1/6/Demeter_2_by_Phaedrus2401.jpg) (http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/136/1/5/Demeter_2_by_Phaedrus2401.jpg)
After AAAALLL that work... Finally, the computer is in good enough shape for me to call it "finished" though I still have a few things I'd like to do to it. Final configuration:
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
Athlon XP "Barton" 2600+ @2200MHz
1GB SuperTalent DDR 400 CL2.5
ATI Radeon X1300 Pro 256MB
Zippy Emacs 300W PSU
Antec NSK6580
Rosewill RCX-Z100 heatsink
Rosewill PCI 100mb/s NIC
Lite-On DVD-ROM
Seagate 7200.11 160GB IDE
Ubuntu 10.04
(http://th07.deviantart.net/fs70/300W/i/2010/136/0/d/Demeter_3_by_Phaedrus2401.jpg) (http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/136/5/4/Demeter_3_by_Phaedrus2401.jpg)
I took that little gold fan grille from the Antec TP-480. Breaks up the black and silver a little bit, a nice highlight without being really gaudy. :)
(http://th08.deviantart.net/fs70/300W/i/2010/136/9/4/Demter_4_by_Phaedrus2401.jpg) (http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/136/1/e/Demter_4_by_Phaedrus2401.jpg)
Cable management in this case leaves something to be desired...
The system is fairly slow. For instance, I can't watch Youtube videos without serious skipping. However it boots fast and shuts off fast, and is fast enough for browsing while in my workroom. I intend to add a SATA controller and some more HDDs for it to serve as a file server when I get around to upgrading to Windows 7, so I don't have to worry about having to scour through my drive for the stuff I want to keep before upgrading. In the meantime it works fine for looking things up and chatting while working in the shop.
It's been a very rewarding experience, bringing a system back from total death, especially one this old; vintage Pentium 3 era.
It's a nice little system and I hope I can keep it going for yet more years to come. ;)
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Yay Barton. Yay A7N8X~anything. That was the VW beetle of the nForce2. It would NOT stop, and it shipped forever.
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Lol, my last company used those cases for their Q6600/Q6700 machines. Decent, neutral looking cases.
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It is a nice case. Make it a bit bigger, remove the stupid PSU bar, and make a few more refinements and I think it would be one of my favorites. I really like the HDD cage design, that was really well done.
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I ran a Barton core 2500+ for a while...loved that machine. Still have it but mobo is a PSU killer unfortunately.
I particularly loved how it destroyed a P4 2.4 for Source engine games, both with identical graphics hardware, same OS (XP Pro, woulda been SP2 at the time, clean installs on both).
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seeing this made me realize, I've got a 2500 barton sitting in a parts drawer....that was a nice cpu
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I have a Barton 2500 here (and several JUIHB DLT3C XP1700's). Going in an NF7S v2 when my RAM arrives (TCCD-F) for a huge old school clocking session. I want to get the WR on water for both chips. I've always ran into cooling problems before, but I was sticking 2.0v+ through the chip on air.
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The Palomino XP1700 was my most numerous Socket A. OC'd like nothing else. Doggone it, those was the days. Jumpstarted my hardware hacking after a hiatus.
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Wow, the 2500+ was popular, eh? :p But I have a 2600+, so nyah nyah na-nyah nyah! :p
I got it to run Youtube. Installed some video codecs, swapped out the standard ATI driver for fglrx, and increased the shared memory size from 64MB to 256MB, and now it runs like a charm. :)
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IIRC, the point of running a 2500+ wasn't that it was fast or anything.
It was that it overclocked like crazy.
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IIRC, the point of running a 2500+ wasn't that it was fast or anything.
It was that it overclocked like crazy.
Totally and utterly the sole point.
Most would run at 3200 speeds straight off, no need to mess with voltages. The easiest overclock ever.
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And once you overclocked it, it WAS quite fast for the time, IIRC.
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I never OC'd mine and never will. Strong running chip at it's original speed, more than fast enough when it was still current and even quite a while after.
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Ah balls, I completely misread bhtooefr's post. I suck. This *was* the response to what I *thought* he was saying (That it died quickly after clocking).
I have an XP 1700 here that was clocked from day one. I bought it new, and it sat at a *minimum* of 2.5Ghz, and had regular forays nearing 3Ghz. It still lives, and will be first out the traps in my forthcoming OC session.
A Barton 2500 that has hit 3Ghz (The board died in that session, and stuck a stick of RAM into the board when it went, almost like it was soldered in) is right up after it. No "was" about it. These things are bloody hard to kill unless you get stupid with the voltage. That said, noting less than stellar cooling has been applied to these chips. If you want big numbers, you bring big guns to play with. The forthcoming OC session will be on a 120.3 rad, Eheim 1250 Mains pump, XSPC Delta V2 with a custom mount, and a 5 gallon bucket as a res. Voltage is unlikely to dip below 2.1v to the chip. I might even break out the OCZ DDR Booster and some BH5 for ****s and giggles.