Or you can be creative and make your own or modify them to fit...

I hate you, those gauge pods aren't as easy to get nowadays at least the first version is the second isn't as good as the first, i have since forgot the name of the gauge pod it's been a year or 2 since i tried finding some for sale, the first gen that is.

I like the Lian-Li PC30A case. I don't want to like it, but I somehow do like it! 😁

Malik wrote:

I like the Lian-Li PC30A case. I don't want to like it, but I somehow do like it! 😁

😁 It is an amazing case. I've stopped buying larger cases as I find I can't lift heavy stuff easily anymore. And there is a charm in small builds...

Tetrium wrote:

schlang wrote:

it's nice to see the evolution of onboard stuff on the back of the cases

Yes, but the only thing that I find a nuisance is that at some point in the past, mobo manufacturers started to use their own custom backplate layout which meant that if you somehow lost the backplate, another random one wouldn't fit anymore.
It's so bad theres even a market for spare backplates 😜

Some of them were that way from the very beginning. OEM's were notorious for proprietary ATX backplates, which drives me nuts with old equipment as OEM boards are the easiest to find.

They seem pseudo standardized these days though. Two network ports and 4 USB ports below them on one side, PS2 Ports on the other, and then the middle is a toss up (so is the other side now as no more PS2 on a lot of boards).

Sorry if this has been mentioned already [just can't seem to see it anywhere]... but on your Lian Li rig... your psu intake looks like it would be sucking through a small gap when the side is on. Assuming that the door isn't perforated in any way.

Reason I ask is that I just bought a used Lian Li PC50, very similar to yours but with an extra drive bay and a few minor cosmetic differences. Utterly blown away by how light an aluminium case is btw.

Is the side on yours ventilated and if not does it work ok with the side on or do you remove it when in use?

@ratfink: the case side isnt perforated. This type of case doesnt work well wit hotter chips or larger psus. Not enough room to breathe. So. Use it with low power chips and shorter smaller psus. As long as your willing to accept that limitation, the case works well. Or you could mod it by making some case vents, but thas something that i wasnt keen on doing.

Oh dear god, now my core 2 quad is going obsolete...

I was thinking the other day after i had bought a complete sempron 3400+ tower for 10$, that at this rate, if i was patient, i would not have to pay more than 5-10 $ for a system faster than my Q6700 in a few years.

MaxWar wrote:

Oh dear god, now my core 2 quad is going obsolete...

I was thinking the other day after i had bought a complete sempron 3400+ tower for 10$, that at this rate, if i was patient, i would not have to pay more than 5-10 $ for a system faster than my Q6700 in a few years.

Yeah, you can get stuff that's just slightly obsolete for throwaway prices. I recently bought a ton of stuff from dating from 05-07 for peanuts.

sgt76 wrote:

MaxWar wrote:

Oh dear god, now my core 2 quad is going obsolete...

I was thinking the other day after i had bought a complete sempron 3400+ tower for 10$, that at this rate, if i was patient, i would not have to pay more than 5-10 $ for a system faster than my Q6700 in a few years.

Yeah, you can get stuff that's just slightly obsolete for throwaway prices. I recently bought a ton of stuff from dating from 05-07 for peanuts.

I hear ya, it can be pretty funny when you get to profit from it, i certainly do... yet at the same time pretty sad as you get to witness how badly spoiled the consumerism society really is... I cant help but feel that this is unhealthy... The ''Obsolete'' word you used struck a chord .

I must quote my dad on this subject: i have to thank him for introducing me to computers early on. Dad knows more about computers than 99% of people, yet he is 10 years behind current technology. He has not bought a new computer for 15 years, he gets all his hardware from garbage and stuff i give him... But he also uses older software and does more with his computers than the other 99% do ( Wirth's law ? ). That being said, dad never played a game, he thinks its waste of time 😉 . He runs OS/2 ( Now ecom station) , hosts his own webserver, has a firewalled 10-ish machines home network. Maintains his personal database he programmed himself, has a 24/24 PC-powered surveillance camera system with motion detection and the fucker had not bought a single computer in 15 years. I gotta admire him!

If you're not a hardcore gamer or insist on keeping up with the crazy hardware cycle, then you actually need very little in the way of hardware to do an amazing amount of stuff.

Honestly I can tell you that the computer that gets the most use in my little collection is the s478 P4. It's all 2003-04 technology yet besides obviously not being able to handle the latest games feels as good as any newer machine.

Some of my other machines are built "mad max" style, from scavenged, free or junk parts- not pretty, but they work 100% fine.

Maybe I'll make a separate thread about them sometime.

The computer I use has a Northwood 2.8ghz Pentium 4 HT chip in it. It's a great machine and runs Windows 7 quite nicely. Unfortunately, I doubt it'll still be in service by spring time. It's starting to have some issues that make me think the motherboard is slowly starting to go. Some days, it's more cooperative than others. I'm glad, however that technology is at a point where capable computers aren't too expensive and older technology can still run current software. Money hasn't been as easy to come by lately as has been in years past.

sgt76 wrote:

If you're not a hardcore gamer or insist on keeping up with the crazy hardware cycle, then you actually need very little in the […]
Show full quote

If you're not a hardcore gamer or insist on keeping up with the crazy hardware cycle, then you actually need very little in the way of hardware to do an amazing amount of stuff.

Honestly I can tell you that the computer that gets the most use in my little collection is the s478 P4. It's all 2003-04 technology yet besides obviously not being able to handle the latest games feels as good as any newer machine.

Some of my other machines are built "mad max" style, from scavenged, free or junk parts- not pretty, but they work 100% fine.

Maybe I'll make a separate thread about them sometime.

Exactly, i guess everyone has his " hobby " and for some it amounts to spending a crazy amount of money to stay at the bleeding edge, i can understand that... I myself have been spending average 2000$ on a new machine every 3-4 years since i was old enough to afford it. But for your usual joe, all this upgrading seems pretty much overkill, like they just follow the wave and when their PC is not working well they buy a new one instead of fixing it... For myself i think i will be more frugal in the future.

The typical "Average Joe" usually gets something that's not very practical to fix. Whether it be something totally proprietary or even if it's a newer HP or Dell, one that uses a standardized case, you're still quite limited and don't have a stellar enclosure to build a nice newer system with what you have.

Also, considering the cost of parts nowadays, it's typically more practical anyways to get a new system. If a similar amount of money and effort would have to go into repairs that could have procured a more powerful system with all new components and, most likely, a warranty, then why not?

I am not downplaying what you just said, or what you just explained about average joe, its valid enough, and yes proprietary systems are not helping the sustainable way... I used to have a limited quantity of stuff so i had to rely on buying new when in doubt. Nowadays i have a huge quantity of hardware, almost all scavanged/salvaged stuff and i am constantly amazed by how Resilient this stuff is compared to what people think. When i am having issues with a system i just have a replacement ready. Would swap parts or format/change HDD the old and usually find out the problems can be fixed easily. Motherboards do go bad, i have a few of em... parts go bad yes, but i also have many systems with tens of thousands of hours of runtime, 486, p1, p2s... that are still behaving like champs. Its certainly easy to buy new systems and forget about it for a while, also it takes some time and know how to mess aroung and maintain hardware, but the reality is that there is a staggering amount of perfectly good hardware going in scrapyards everyday.

I would agree the way some parts seem to keep going and going. It almost seems like once stuif gets past a certain age it either dies or goes forever.

I have seagate drives that have been in service for 10 years and are still going. I pulled an old 11-gig western digital drive out of an old pentium system on a trash pile.

That system had a voodoo banshee card that was still good and went into a "new" p3 system I was building.

Back in 2007, I found a Gateway 2000 system on the side of the road. It was in very bad shape and the motherboard as well as the expansion cards were no good. The hard drive, a wide SCSI IBM UltraStar 18ES was still good and served me well until a few months ago when I tried a low level format on it and suddenly, the thing is messed up. Must admit the thing did well. I know for sure it sat in the rain before I got it. The CPU (A Katmai core 550mhz PIII) was good too; I used it along with a BX mobo and an AGP card I had in my closet to upgrade a friend's computer; he was using an i810 based system with a 400mhz Celeron before that.

@sgt76

Is that a Pioneer slot loading DVD drive? I've had a few of those in the past but could never get them to last. Does yours still work (well)?

feipoa wrote:

@sgt76

Is that a Pioneer slot loading DVD drive? I've had a few of those in the past but could never get them to last. Does yours still work (well)?

Yes it is. I got it NOS last year, and it works fabulously.

the bad thing about pioneer slot in drives is that they refuse to load dvds after a specific period of time, they just immediately eject the dvd then