I've used Aliexpress many times in the past 2 years. Usually it works without any hassle, pretty much similar to ebay. However be prepared to wait for your item for a long time, usually 3-4 weeks. The few times that I didn't receive the item I got the money back without any trouble. They use a payment system called Alipay, and the seller doesn't get the money until you confirm that you received the item (until then the money is held in escrow). So you don't have to go after the seller to get the money back, it's returned to you from the escrow.

The latest items I ordered from Aliexpress were some YM3812 and Y3014 chips to build an OPL2 card. I placed the order on 4/11 and received them on 5/15.

If it's this lot http://www.aliexpress.com/item/V53C104HP45-DI … 62-dea629a24624 it says "contact the seller before ordering" and I suggest that you do; some sellers put that notice on lots that they're not sure they will have the items in stock all the time.

Here's what $0.99 and 15 bucks for shipping gets you:

*MSI socket 939 board with Athlon 64 3800+ CPU and hs/fan (was listed as a socket 754 so that's even better!)
*Dell Intel board with Pentium D 945 and also a dual-core Pentium as a throw-in
*4 working IDE hard drives (2x120GB, 80GB, 40GB)
*Floppy drive
*Wireless keyboard and mouse and another USB mouse
*8 sticks of DDR PC3200 between 256MB and 1GB
*USB PCI card
*4 network cards, 3 wireless

Not to mention a bunch of bubble wrap and a dozen or so antistatic bags, which always come in handy.

Not a bad haul! Time to test out these parts!! 😊

I tend to avoid Dell boards. They have non-standard connectors and are overall quirky. When you can't plug in a regular fan because Dell uses their own 5-pin connector, and can't plug in a regular power supply because instead of a regular ATX connector they have two 6-pin and a 4-pin connector for power scattered around the board, it's not worth the effort.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/112008543907

Just picked up this lot. It's a little deceiving because at first glance it just looks like a P4 system. It is a decent P4 system AND there is a parts lot with it. Looks like 5 video cards or so a couple modems and a couple sound cards a lot of memory and there was an ISA soundcard with SIMM slots I couldn't tell what it was. for 60USD shipped I think I made out ok.

That IS a good deal for $60! Congrats on the score.

Rhuwyn wrote:

...and there was an ISA soundcard with SIMM slots I couldn't tell what it was.

Looks like a Sound Blaster 32 to me (not AWE).

Brand new VTBook for less than $20 shipped 😀

Ran accross this and saw it was a No Reserve auction with a BIN of 250 bucks. I am not a Mac guy but I do like them and I even and a modern macbook Air and some other older Mac Towers.

I figured what the hell I'll throw out the opening bid. Won it for .99 cents plus free shipping. Kinda feel bad for this guy as he is loosing money by a long shot on this one.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/222133010593

Rhuwyn wrote:

I figured what the hell I'll throw out the opening bid. Won it for .99 cents plus free shipping. Kinda feel bad for this guy as he is loosing money by a long shot on this one.

Personally I'd pay for the shipping costs anyway. Also, I'm jealous those types of deals don't exist where I live 🙁

BSA Starfire wrote:

VIA/Cyrix III 600 MHz. […]
Show full quote

VIA/Cyrix III 600 MHz.

IMG_1148.JPG

AMD 486 DX/4 100 WB & Intel 486 DX/4 75 WT.

IMG_1150.JPG

Cyrix 5x86 100

IMG_1152.JPG

Cyrix 6x86 MII 333's, one @ 75 MHz bus, other at 83 MHz.

IMG_1151.JPG

Also got 2 Mendocino Celeron's @ 466 MHz and a PIII copermine @ 733 MHz & a very early P4 Northwood 1.6 in the same lot.

Gotta love the colour-scheme design and font's on them old Cyrix's. 😜

Rhuwyn wrote:

Ran accross this and saw it was a No Reserve auction with a BIN of 250 bucks. I am not a Mac guy but I do like them and I even and a modern macbook Air and some other older Mac Towers.

I figured what the hell I'll throw out the opening bid. Won it for .99 cents plus free shipping. Kinda feel bad for this guy as he is loosing money by a long shot on this one.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/222133010593

I had a girlfriend, back in 1995, and her father bought that same model of Mac.
I was kind of amazed on how the OS just flew (for it's time, compared to Win95) and that it had TV reciever build in.

brostenen wrote:

Rhuwyn wrote:

Ran accross this and saw it was a No Reserve auction with a BIN of 250 bucks. I am not a Mac guy but I do like them and I even and a modern macbook Air and some other older Mac Towers.

I figured what the hell I'll throw out the opening bid. Won it for .99 cents plus free shipping. Kinda feel bad for this guy as he is loosing money by a long shot on this one.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/222133010593

I had a girlfriend, back in 1995, and her father bought that same model of Mac.
I was kind of amazed on how the OS just flew (for it's time, compared to Win95) and that it had TV reciever build in.

Yeah I was drawn to it a bit because my highschool had 100s of these things. Interestingly enough the guy says this was his brothers who got it from the school district he worked for as an appreciation gift.

Rhuwyn wrote:

as an appreciation gift.

IT bosses and the school boards are way too paranoid to do something like this here.
In Denmark, we even have a law, that prevents IT-Departments to give away anything.
All need to be scrapped. Not because of sequrity... Well, that too.
The main concern are that everything are recycled because of that "nature-thing".
That I fully understand. Though giving stuff away for preservation for museums.
That is something they have not thought about. Well... Their loss when museums
are looking for historic item's in the future. 🤣 Collectors won't give up their items.

brostenen wrote:

IT bosses and the school boards are way too paranoid to do something like this here. In Denmark, we even have a law, that preven […]
Show full quote

Rhuwyn wrote:

as an appreciation gift.

IT bosses and the school boards are way too paranoid to do something like this here.
In Denmark, we even have a law, that prevents IT-Departments to give away anything.
All need to be scrapped. Not because of sequrity... Well, that too.
The main concern are that everything are recycled because of that "nature-thing".
That I fully understand. Though giving stuff away for preservation for museums.
That is something they have not thought about. Well... Their loss when museums
are looking for historic item's in the future. 🤣 Collectors won't give up their items.

Laws, or just corporate guidelines? There are no direct law just north of Denmark and at my job no corporate guidelines so I get whatever I want.

stamasd wrote:

I tend to avoid Dell boards. They have non-standard connectors and are overall quirky. When you can't plug in a regular fan because Dell uses their own 5-pin connector, and can't plug in a regular power supply because instead of a regular ATX connector they have two 6-pin and a 4-pin connector for power scattered around the board, it's not worth the effort.

By that time, I'm pretty sure they were using standard connectors.

brostenen wrote:

IT bosses and the school boards are way too paranoid to do something like this here. In Denmark, we even have a law, that preven […]
Show full quote

Rhuwyn wrote:

as an appreciation gift.

IT bosses and the school boards are way too paranoid to do something like this here.
In Denmark, we even have a law, that prevents IT-Departments to give away anything.
All need to be scrapped. Not because of sequrity... Well, that too.
The main concern are that everything are recycled because of that "nature-thing".
That I fully understand. Though giving stuff away for preservation for museums.
That is something they have not thought about. Well... Their loss when museums
are looking for historic item's in the future. 🤣 Collectors won't give up their items.

Yeah sometimes places in the US are the same way. It all depends on the play you work and the mentality of who is in charge. It's more corporate guidelines rather then laws. Executives are scared shitless of data breaches.

Lukeno94 wrote:

stamasd wrote:

I tend to avoid Dell boards. They have non-standard connectors and are overall quirky. When you can't plug in a regular fan because Dell uses their own 5-pin connector, and can't plug in a regular power supply because instead of a regular ATX connector they have two 6-pin and a 4-pin connector for power scattered around the board, it's not worth the effort.

By that time, I'm pretty sure they were using standard connectors.

Not really. I have in front of me right now a Dell LGA775 board that has all of the above non-standard features.

stamasd wrote:

Lukeno94 wrote:

stamasd wrote:

I tend to avoid Dell boards. They have non-standard connectors and are overall quirky. When you can't plug in a regular fan because Dell uses their own 5-pin connector, and can't plug in a regular power supply because instead of a regular ATX connector they have two 6-pin and a 4-pin connector for power scattered around the board, it's not worth the effort.

By that time, I'm pretty sure they were using standard connectors.

Not really. I have in front of me right now a Dell LGA775 board that has all of the above non-standard features.

Hmm, strange, because I had a basic Dell AM2 system that was standard (although I did have to guess at the pinout for the case after a case swap).

stamasd wrote:

Not really. I have in front of me right now a Dell LGA775 board that has all of the above non-standard features.

Lukeno94 wrote:

Hmm, strange, because I had a basic Dell AM2 system that was standard (although I did have to guess at the pinout for the case after a case swap).

I think everyone is correct here. I also tend to typically avoid Dell boards for the reasons stamasd mentioned. I've had at least 3 or so with proprietary "stuff" and it's really a pain in the ass. However it was probably around this time that they became at least slightly less proprietary. I had a dimension 2400 with a socket 478 that was standard micro atx, no strange extra power cables or anything. The front panel connector was different but when I swapped a board for the original one I just pulled each wire out and plugged it in where it belonged. But I have had later boards too that have been more proprietary.

And I really hate the style of board in my picture that goes in the case "ass backwards" as I call it. But it works, and again, for the price I paid it doesn't hurt to have extra stuff on hand.

I have an extremely crappy Dimension P4 matx case that uses the SB Live!/audigy header for it's front audio ports. Non standard, but kinda cool actually. Tempted to refurbish it just for because of that. Meanwhile my sister's PC uses an Inspiron 570 am3 board in a standard Newegg case. Just figured out the proper pinout for Start/Restart/LED's and have to hit F11 every bootup because it does not detect the "proper" front panel connector. At least Dell's have a fairly well documented pinout for just about everything they manufactured in my experience.