The only real drawbacks with the BX are that it can be a bit picky with larger RAM sticks, and of course that 512MB RAM ceiling (which is also the i815's biggest drawback as well).

I believe bx supports up to 1gb?

oerk wrote:

Don't know which revision it is yet. Guessing it's an Argon. How can I check this? CPU-Z?

Or you can see the part number. From your photo, it reads "[...]0MTR51B A" (that "5" there really looks like an "S"), which is a Pluto/Model 2 number. The Argon/Model 1 ends with a "C".

meljor wrote:

I believe bx supports up to 1gb?

Yes, though it also depends on the motherboard. Many boards only have 3 DIMM slots and officially supports up to 768MB, so you need a board with 4 slots.

Ah, yes, the BX does support 1GB, but most boards have 2 or 3 DIMM slots - my HP Vectra's board has only two slots, as do most laptops using the 440BX-based chipsets (which are my frame of reference - although with 64MB built in, the Compaq Armada M700 can have up to 576MB.) It can also be funny with higher-density 256MB sticks as well. The Athlon could also have been a Thunderbird, but that's less likely - Argon and a GeForce 256 DDR are both from 1999, so that would've made the most sense.

oerk wrote:

YES! Score! Original Slot-A Athlon, 700 Mhz, and a GeForce 256 DDR to boot! Plus niceties like a DVD drive and CD burner. Works perfectly well, no visible cap damage.

It's a wonder how I beat him back then. Compared to my K6-2, this is a monster.

Athlon 700 and GF1 DDR is a very good combo 😁
The athlon can produce around 82-84 FPS in quake 3.
The Geforce will max it from 640 to 1024 in 16 bits, and from 640 to 800 in 32 bits.
In 1024 32 bits, the Geforce will be the limit, at around 62 FPS. It takes a GF2 GTS to get the 83 FPS in 1024 32 bits 😀
Currently mine (K7 700) is on a GF2 Ti, but only until I find an original Geforce 256 DDR 😀

Yeah, a 1999-built Athlon and 1999-built GeForce 256 DDR give you the ultimate 1999-cool! 😎 This is also on my vanity project build list, as I was only following (and swooning at) all those Athlon news and articles in magazines and the webz until I had the Socket A Tbird much later.

Who knows, the Pluto could still be a late 1999 product though, since Argon only had a short time in the market (hence rarer). It should also be a little cooler, which is a plus compared to the Argon. Slot A Thunderbird has different number scheming, like this. TDP is similar but of course L2 runs at full speed.

Well, 1999 & 2000 dream systems pretty much go like that:
Athlon 700 + GF256 DDR
Athlon "GHz Edition" 😁 + GF2 GTS/Ultra
The tricky part is picking good boards for them. VIA chipsets for Athlons haven't matured until at least the KT133 series.

Scooped up a Compaq TC1100 for $10 with the keyboard but is missing the battery and hard drive but not a big deal.

nforce4max wrote:

Scooped up a Compaq TC1100 for $10 with the keyboard but is missing the battery and hard drive but not a big deal.

Those early tablet PCs are well worth collecting now, because they'll be worth quite a lot in the future. A missing hard drive is a very easy fix, but how easy is it to source batteries for those?

Lukeno94 wrote:

nforce4max wrote:

Scooped up a Compaq TC1100 for $10 with the keyboard but is missing the battery and hard drive but not a big deal.

Those early tablet PCs are well worth collecting now, because they'll be worth quite a lot in the future. A missing hard drive is a very easy fix, but how easy is it to source batteries for those?

Well I already found an extra charger that I had one hand and was able to test it as well a hard drive from another machine so it boots. Only one ding on the edge but all in all it works. About to instal win 7 just for kicks but the 800mhz celeron :L

nforce4max wrote:

Lukeno94 wrote:

nforce4max wrote:

Scooped up a Compaq TC1100 for $10 with the keyboard but is missing the battery and hard drive but not a big deal.

Those early tablet PCs are well worth collecting now, because they'll be worth quite a lot in the future. A missing hard drive is a very easy fix, but how easy is it to source batteries for those?

Well I already found an extra charger that I had one hand and was able to test it as well a hard drive from another machine so it boots. Only one ding on the edge but all in all it works. About to instal win 7 just for kicks but the 800mhz celeron :L

Glad to hear that it works perfectly - you've found yourself a nice little bargain there! HP may have their flaws, but their documentation is usually very good, and they also hold it for really old systems (like my Vectra VL - and the Compaq Armada M700) - however, it seems like their service manual link has been messed up for the TC1100, and it points to the Getting Started guide for some reason - and that doesn't have the nitty-gritty details in. I'm surprised that it's a 800 MHz Celeron - this lists the lowest CPU as being a 1 GHz model. Looks like the system lacks LBA48 support, which is a shame.

Glad to hear that it works perfectly - you've found yourself a nice little bargain there! HP may have their flaws, but their documentation is usually very good, and they also hold it for really old systems (like my Vectra VL - and the Compaq Armada M700) - however, it seems like their service manual link has been messed up for the TC1100, and it points to the Getting Started guide for some reason - and that doesn't have the nitty-gritty details in. I'm surprised that it's a 800 MHz Celeron - this lists the lowest CPU as being a 1 GHz model. Looks like the system lacks LBA48 support, which is a shame.

Just got through with putting w7 on it and some of the basics, it is indeed a 800mhz model which isn't too horrible but they could have done better with the cooling. A bit on the warm side for a tablet but anyway bought a adapter that allows for msata to be used. CMOS battery is bad but will fix that once pay day comes in two weeks.

scored a nice little AT tower today with: p166mmx , 32mb edo, intel vx chipset (unknown board), live!, s3 trio 64v+, 200w AT psu. Fully working for just 10 euro 😮)

Finally found a floppy drive that worked with my beloved Toshiba Satellite Pro T2150CDT. Cost close to $25 with shipping being most of it. In case anybody's wondering, the model # is PA2652U. And here's a quick picture of it:

I did try it out very quickly before I went off to class and it did work.

Found a random old joystick (gameport type I think) for £2 in a charity shop, an Interact SV-200. Feels OK, but haven't tested it as I'm too lazy to set up the computer with a gameport on at the moment.

Just snagged a Pentium 4 3.2GHz Gallatin and tower heatsink, along with some other hardware I have no use for (incl an AGP Radeon X1600 - so now I can have both a PCIe and AGP version of this card sitting in storage 🤣). 😁

Now all I have to do is find a nice mATX S478 board and the FX 5800U will finally have the CPU it deserves. 😎

Also thinking about trying to find an EE case badge (would almost certainly be reproduction); anyone have a favorite/suggested place/seller for case badges? 😊

obobskivich wrote:

Just snagged a Pentium 4 3.2GHz Gallatin and tower heatsink, along with some other hardware I have no use for (incl an AGP Radeon X1600 - so now I can have both a PCIe and AGP version of this card sitting in storage 🤣). 😁

Now all I have to do is find a nice mATX S478 board and the FX 5800U will finally have the CPU it deserves. 😎

Also thinking about trying to find an EE case badge (would almost certainly be reproduction); anyone have a favorite/suggested place/seller for case badges? 😊

I have a dual-Gallatin rig, but they are Socket 604, and a Xeon to boot. Am I missing something? Love that high amount of L3 cache. 😀

Logistics wrote:

I have a dual-Gallatin rig, but they are Socket 604, and a Xeon to boot. Am I missing something? Love that high amount of L3 cache. 😀

Intel released Gallatin for Socket 478 as "Pentium 4 Extreme Edition" in late 2003 - they have 2MB L3 like your Xeons, but 800MT/s FSB.

Salvaged this baby today from being destroyed...

* P120
* 64 mb edo ram
* Seagate Decathlon ST5850A hd, 850 mb, it's tough drive 😀
* Creative 48x cd-rom
* Diamond Stealth 64, 2 mb, ARK2000PV accelerator
* Sound Blaster 2.0 CT1350B
* 3Com EtherLink III
* Logitech mousecard
* 3,5" & 5,25" drives

It booted up but i don't have any din keyboards. So I have to wait to get one or just buy adaptor to use ps/2. I thought that I had those adaptors somewhere but couldn't find any. First it needs a proper cleaning, there was fan on the processor which didn't work, can't remember does P120 need fan at all...

Mobo looks like a PC Chips M507, which happens to be one of their infamous fake cache motherboards... That is, it features no cache at all despite what the BIOS claims and what the two soldered on chips on the top right corner of the board with "WRITE BACK" labels on them state. At least they were nice enough to have a proper COAST cache slot unlike some of their 486 boards.

Sutekh94 wrote:

Mobo looks like a PC Chips M507, which happens to be one of their infamous fake cache motherboards... That is, it features no cache at all despite what the BIOS claims and what the two soldered on chips on the top right corner of the board with "WRITE BACK" labels on them state. At least they were nice enough to have a proper COAST cache slot unlike some of their 486 boards.

It's certainly looks like it, those chips on the mobo looks like fake, they look like somebody made them byself just before going to sleep at night 😁 well, anyway i think that machine is a keeper... i have storageroom left for something like this 😀