You guys find awesome Socket 7s in cool old desktop cases that have LED read outs and a turbo button...

What do I find?!? Another Gateway. This time an Athlon 950 based system with GPU I can't identify, and of all things a PCI Modem. *disgusting* The case for this one is damaged on the side, but all the components look to be in tact that are still left.

It has a WIndows 98 sticker on the front, but no product key on the side of the case... That would have been nice since I don't have a license of 98 right now.

The cool part though, is now i Have two Socket 462 mobos to work with, given they both work. So hopefully between this Athlon and the one I bought yesterday ( 10 bucks total ) I have a working system. And one last ramble. Outside of my Macs and my Wacom Companion, I've never bought any name brand computer(PC), and Gateways were never on my want list. 😀

***EDIT***

This is weird, this older Gateway has a newer mobo in it. An Elitegroup K7S5A, where as the other Athlon has from what I've gather is an OEM board from Gateway, an MS-6330 ver. 2.1. Not sure what mother board I should use, but I like the older-ness of the OEM board.

And the GPU in this other Athlon is probably also another TNT2. It looks just like my other one, but with the edition of a heat sink -- and I didn't realize they were AGP 4x. BLAH!

Picked up a some socket 478 stuff to get me motivated to continue resurrecting my old Soyo. It has been sitting off to the side half finished for far to long.

MCGA wrote:

This is weird, this older Gateway has a newer mobo in it. An Elitegroup K7S5A, where as the other Athlon has from what I've gather is an OEM board from Gateway, an MS-6330 ver. 2.1. Not sure what mother board I should use, but I like the older-ness of the OEM board.

Ooo... the K7S5A is a great board IMO. I've had one since 2001~ and its still plugging along. Yours probably needs some capacitors replaced, but its worth it. While it originally could only support earlier Athlons, unofficial BIOS updates allowed much newer chips. Mine is running a Barton 2400+. It even allows for some overclocking (though I haven't ever messed with that).

Picked this up for like a 5$ver, now I can connect my two ISA boxes together with one monitor and keyboard without fuzting about cables and stuff in the back. NOS and still shrinkwrapped... VGA + PS/2 Mouse + Keyboard.

Ozzuneoj wrote:

MCGA wrote:

This is weird, this older Gateway has a newer mobo in it. An Elitegroup K7S5A, where as the other Athlon has from what I've gather is an OEM board from Gateway, an MS-6330 ver. 2.1. Not sure what mother board I should use, but I like the older-ness of the OEM board.

Ooo... the K7S5A is a great board IMO. I've had one since 2001~ and its still plugging along. Yours probably needs some capacitors replaced, but its worth it. While it originally could only support earlier Athlons, unofficial BIOS updates allowed much newer chips. Mine is running a Barton 2400+. It even allows for some overclocking (though I haven't ever messed with that).

IT WORKS!!! Both motherboards work!!! 😁

Even the PSU that came with the k7SFA that was noticeably damaged works!

I'm thinking I should move the 1.1 Ghz to it, and putting the 950 on the older MS-6330. There was only one 512 meg chip in the K7S5A system, and it was loose in the case covered in dust. Luckily it works after cleaning it. The M3-6330 has 256( 2 x 128 ) megs and only 3 slots. At first one of the 128 chips didn't work, so just cleaned it more aggressively.

Cool about the BIOS! I'd like to get another Barton -- is that the same thing as a XP? I had a XP 2500 and sadly I gave it away not even 3 years ago. 😒

Anyways, I just need a new case now, since the K7S5A's case appears to have had something very heavy dropped on the side, which bent the frame and the corner of the PSU.

MCGA wrote:

IT WORKS!!! Both motherboards work!!! :D […]
Show full quote

Ozzuneoj wrote:

MCGA wrote:

This is weird, this older Gateway has a newer mobo in it. An Elitegroup K7S5A, where as the other Athlon has from what I've gather is an OEM board from Gateway, an MS-6330 ver. 2.1. Not sure what mother board I should use, but I like the older-ness of the OEM board.

Ooo... the K7S5A is a great board IMO. I've had one since 2001~ and its still plugging along. Yours probably needs some capacitors replaced, but its worth it. While it originally could only support earlier Athlons, unofficial BIOS updates allowed much newer chips. Mine is running a Barton 2400+. It even allows for some overclocking (though I haven't ever messed with that).

IT WORKS!!! Both motherboards work!!! 😁

Even the PSU that came with the k7SFA that was noticeably damaged works!

I'm thinking I should move the 1.1 Ghz to it, and putting the 950 on the older MS-6330. There was only one 512 meg chip in the K7S5A system, and it was loose in the case covered in dust. Luckily it works after cleaning it. The M3-6330 has 256( 2 x 128 ) megs and only 3 slots. At first one of the 128 chips didn't work, so just cleaned it more aggressively.

Cool about the BIOS! I'd like to get another Barton -- is that the same thing as a XP? I had a XP 2500 and sadly I gave it away not even 3 years ago. 😒

Anyways, I just need a new case now, since the K7S5A's case appears to have had something very heavy dropped on the side, which bent the frame and the corner of the PSU.

Yes, the "Barton" is just the last generation of the Socket A Athlon XP. They are cooler running, faster and usually able to be overclocked better than most other XPs (though the Thoroughbred B cores were amazing too).

Thankfully, this page with modded BIOS files for the K7S5A seems to still work:
http://www.ocworkbench.com/2002/ecs/k7s5abios/cheepobios.htm

Mine has had the CheepoBIOS on it for 7-8 years. Back then I upgraded the CPU to a 2400+ cheaply (thanks to eBay) installed a Geforce 4 ti 4200 and a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, gave it a gig of DDR and had a decent basic XP system for my mom to use.

Ozzuneoj wrote:

Yes, the "Barton" is just the last generation of the Socket A Athlon XP. They are cooler running, faster and usually able to be […]
Show full quote

Yes, the "Barton" is just the last generation of the Socket A Athlon XP. They are cooler running, faster and usually able to be overclocked better than most other XPs (though the Thoroughbred B cores were amazing too).

Thankfully, this page with modded BIOS files for the K7S5A seems to still work:
http://www.ocworkbench.com/2002/ecs/k7s5abios/cheepobios.htm

Mine has had the CheepoBIOS on it for 7-8 years. Back then I upgraded the CPU to a 2400+ cheaply (thanks to eBay) installed a Geforce 4 ti 4200 and a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, gave it a gig of DDR and had a decent basic XP system for my mom to use.

In the mention of bartons and overclocking, I've had this bookmarked for a number of years now. I'll just share it here. It's an explanation of the Athlon stepping codes and explains which ones are the best for overclocking so if that's what you're after, you'll know which one to buy.

https://web.archive.org/web/20091113154547/ht … des/barton.html

Ozzuneoj wrote:

Yes, the "Barton" is just the last generation of the Socket A Athlon XP. They are cooler running, faster and usually able to be […]
Show full quote

Yes, the "Barton" is just the last generation of the Socket A Athlon XP. They are cooler running, faster and usually able to be overclocked better than most other XPs (though the Thoroughbred B cores were amazing too).

Thankfully, this page with modded BIOS files for the K7S5A seems to still work:
http://www.ocworkbench.com/2002/ecs/k7s5abios/cheepobios.htm

Mine has had the CheepoBIOS on it for 7-8 years. Back then I upgraded the CPU to a 2400+ cheaply (thanks to eBay) installed a Geforce 4 ti 4200 and a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, gave it a gig of DDR and had a decent basic XP system for my mom to use.

Very cool! Thanks! It's only 13 bucks for a XP 3200 on eBay! But then I'd have an extra CPU, and then I'd feel the need to make it whole. 😀

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this system yet. If anything an early to mid 2000s gaming PC with whatever AGP 4x is best and see how far I can push it with overclocking using a newer CPU.

Anyways, I attached a pick of the board from the damaged Gateway I bought yesterday. The CPU cooler is from the other Gateway, but I might swap them out, because the larger one that came with this one is freaking loud even after putting mineral-oil in it! ( I'm going to have to buy a quieter cooler. ) And the GPU is Gateway's Vanta, so a low-end TNT2 I've gathered. And the case wires had been cut, but whoever owned this prior taped some of them back together -- but with the wrong colors, but I'm able to boot it up using this hack. AND, if you look closely at the corner of the PSU, you can see where I bent it out.

MCGA wrote:

Very cool! Thanks! It's only 13 bucks for a XP 3200 on eBay! But then I'd have an extra CPU, and then I'd feel the need to make […]
Show full quote

Ozzuneoj wrote:

Yes, the "Barton" is just the last generation of the Socket A Athlon XP. They are cooler running, faster and usually able to be […]
Show full quote

Yes, the "Barton" is just the last generation of the Socket A Athlon XP. They are cooler running, faster and usually able to be overclocked better than most other XPs (though the Thoroughbred B cores were amazing too).

Thankfully, this page with modded BIOS files for the K7S5A seems to still work:
http://www.ocworkbench.com/2002/ecs/k7s5abios/cheepobios.htm

Mine has had the CheepoBIOS on it for 7-8 years. Back then I upgraded the CPU to a 2400+ cheaply (thanks to eBay) installed a Geforce 4 ti 4200 and a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, gave it a gig of DDR and had a decent basic XP system for my mom to use.

Very cool! Thanks! It's only 13 bucks for a XP 3200 on eBay! But then I'd have an extra CPU, and then I'd feel the need to make it whole. 😀

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this system yet. If anything an early to mid 2000s gaming PC with whatever AGP 4x is best and see how far I can push it with overclocking using a newer CPU.

Anyways, I attached a pick of the board from the damaged Gateway I bought yesterday. The CPU cooler is from the other Gateway, but I might swap them out, because the larger one that came with this one is freaking loud even after putting mineral-oil in it! ( I'm going to have to buy a quieter cooler. ) And the GPU is Gateway's Vanta, so a low-end TNT2 I've gathered. And the case wires had been cut, but whoever owned this prior taped some of them back together -- but with the wrong colors, but I'm able to boot it up using this hack. AND, if you look closely at the corner of the PSU, you can see where I bent it out.

To be honest, I don't remember what CPUs you can run on a BIOS modded K7S5A... it might only do 266Mhz FSB chips. I know there must have been a reason that I went with a 2400+ at that time.

Also, if you know how to replace capacitors, I'd definitely replace the ones on that board. The taller green ones look to have rounded tops, which is what happened to mine. The rest of the board seems to be built like a tank though. It survived having a damaged CPU installed (which we thought killed the board and it sat in a cupboard for 2 years before I tried it again and found that it worked fine), it lived through a lightning strike that blew up the PSU it was connected to (the ATX connector on the board even has a slight brownish tinge to it in some places), then years later my Mom used it till the caps went bad, I replaced those and it kept plugging along until another cap that I should have replaced at the time (rookie mistake... they were all the same!) finally went bad.

I'd highly recommend not using the integrated audio though. I remember it being pretty bad.

EDIT: Oh, and to keep on the subject of the thread... I received a small but nifty purchase today. The lot cost me less than $15 shipped on fleabay.

In it was an assortment of RAM... nothing too interesting, aside from a decent looking 2x512MB SuperTalent DDR-400 kit...

... and a pristine looking Radeon 9800 Pro with the manual! 😀

I hope the card works obviously, but I won't be surprised if it doesn't. It is in a good shape and is quite clean, but all of the stuff was packed terribly. A little bit of crumpled news paper wrapped around the whole pile of stuff with nothing actually around them aside from some random plastic bags and clam shell packages on some of the ram sticks. *facepalm*

Hey, this page hit 2 million views! 😁

Ozzuneoj wrote:

To be honest, I don't remember what CPUs you can run on a BIOS modded K7S5A... it might only do 266Mhz FSB chips. I know there m […]
Show full quote

To be honest, I don't remember what CPUs you can run on a BIOS modded K7S5A... it might only do 266Mhz FSB chips. I know there must have been a reason that I went with a 2400+ at that time.

Also, if you know how to replace capacitors, I'd definitely replace the ones on that board. The taller green ones look to have rounded tops, which is what happened to mine. The rest of the board seems to be built like a tank though. It survived having a damaged CPU installed (which we thought killed the board and it sat in a cupboard for 2 years before I tried it again and found that it worked fine), it lived through a lightning strike that blew up the PSU it was connected to (the ATX connector on the board even has a slight brownish tinge to it in some places), then years later my Mom used it till the caps went bad, I replaced those and it kept plugging along until another cap that I should have replaced at the time (rookie mistake... they were all the same!) finally went bad.

I'd highly recommend not using the integrated audio though. I remember it being pretty bad.

EDIT: Oh, and to keep on the subject of the thread... I received a small but nifty purchase today. The lot cost me less than $15 shipped on fleabay.

In it was an assortment of RAM... nothing too interesting, aside from a decent looking 2x512MB SuperTalent DDR-400 kit...

2016-07-16 9800Pro 001 (1280x960).jpg

... and a pristine looking Radeon 9800 Pro with the manual! 😀

I hope the card works obviously, but I won't be surprised if it doesn't. It is in a good shape and is quite clean, but all of the stuff was packed terribly. A little bit of crumpled news paper wrapped around the whole pile of stuff with nothing actually around them aside from some random plastic bags and clam shell packages on some of the ram sticks. *facepalm*

It's a 200/266. Just checked the manual I found online last night. Good call. 😀

I've never replaced capacitors, but since you mentioned it, I can feel a few of them are not flat on top -- my older m6-330 is all flat, so I'm assuming it's good? It's something I do want to learn in my free time as it would tie into some other interests, I just need a better soldering iron, so this would be a good project for practice.

When I saw that picture, I though that was a 9500 Pro, I was close I guess. 😀 It's the last ATI I've owned and it was a great card for Battlefield and COD at the time.

2 MILLION NERDS have viewed this page. :p

^Or 200 nerds with OCD clicking this thread ten thousand times each. Who knows!

OK... I just won boxed Intel Pentium II and III.
Though I was out-BIN'd on the boxed Pentium MMX (well, it wasn't original 1997 box though, but 1998-printed instead ... so there's my solace).
And then also BIN'd a NIB SB A2ZS at an incredible price and have my offer for NIB SB Live X-Gamer accepted (these kits include games too).

I intend to scan / archival-photograph these boxes properly. I think we all deserve a professionally-done virtual retro/classic box arts gallery/museum by now -- more on that soon. 😀

HAPPY

Well this week i run across this babe and finally bought it:

Asus A7N8X Deluxe with Zalman CNPS6000-Cu hsf

dat back panel

and... another 2500+ Barton

also picked Intel pro/100 CardBus II

I bought this at an estate sale for 5 bucks! The PC, monitor/speakers, keyboard, and mouse. 😁

Its' a Compaq Presario 4710, which has these specs:
Pentium 166
24 megs of EDO Ram
S3 Trio 64 integrated PCI
2.5 Gig 5.24" hard drive ( the biggest HD I've seen in a long time! )
ESS Audio I think?
And the motherboard is Intel based with a Predator Image printed on it! Overall really clean and the few capacitors are flat. 😁

I cleaned it up -- which it didn't need much -- and it booted up without a problem into Windows 95! I also booted into DOS and installed Monkey Island 1 and 2 and the sound worked fine. Sadly the monitor would not turn on -- which explains why it was so yellowed compared to the rest of the system -- and I don't have the skill to fix it, but I figure I'll store it for now.

And I need to look at it again, but it felt like the battery was soldered to the board. 😒

Anyways, I attached some images.

Ozzuneoj wrote:

... by the way, does anyone have any methods they use for getting permanent ink off of surfaces like this? I used Goo Gone and it helped, but it won't all come out. Next I'll try a magic eraser, but since they're abrasive I know they will affect the surface itself too.

Just the cheapest nail polish remover works. Just be extremely careful, as stuff like that can even remove case paint and coating as well as factory-made labels.

jheronimus wrote:

Ozzuneoj wrote:

... by the way, does anyone have any methods they use for getting permanent ink off of surfaces like this? I used Goo Gone and it helped, but it won't all come out. Next I'll try a magic eraser, but since they're abrasive I know they will affect the surface itself too.

Just the cheapest nail polish remover works. Just be extremely careful, as stuff like that can even remove case paint and coating as well as factory-made labels.

I read another tip recently, which was to use a fresh permanent marker to color over the old ink, and then clean the whole lot off together. I have an IBM XT with some ink dried into the textured paint surface which I can't remove, so might have to give this a go as well.

@MCGA
Beautiful case!
Either leave it as is or upgrade it to the period-correct-max(tm) 😁

@rein_ein
I like the ZALMAN cooler and the Intel PCMCIA NIC with the Artwork 😁

JidaiGeki wrote:

jheronimus wrote:

Ozzuneoj wrote:

... by the way, does anyone have any methods they use for getting permanent ink off of surfaces like this? I used Goo Gone and it helped, but it won't all come out. Next I'll try a magic eraser, but since they're abrasive I know they will affect the surface itself too.

Just the cheapest nail polish remover works. Just be extremely careful, as stuff like that can even remove case paint and coating as well as factory-made labels.

I read another tip recently, which was to use a fresh permanent marker to color over the old ink, and then clean the whole lot off together. I have an IBM XT with some ink dried into the textured paint surface which I can't remove, so might have to give this a go as well.

Thanks for the tips! Depending on the surface you can often use dry erase markers too. The ink mixes with the permanent ink, but since there's more of the dry erase it allows all of it to be wiped away with only a small amount of residue. With this, I think the texture would prevent this from working as well, and I'm leery of acetone because it tends to actually melt fine textured plastic surfaces as well. The stuff my wife uses for her nails took the grain texture off of something I cleaned a couple years ago... it was a mess! I ended up having to wipe it on the whole surface to get it to all look the same.

MCGA wrote:

I bought this at an estate sale for 5 bucks! The PC, monitor/speakers, keyboard, and mouse. :D […]
Show full quote

I bought this at an estate sale for 5 bucks! The PC, monitor/speakers, keyboard, and mouse. 😁

Its' a Compaq Presario 4710, which has these specs:
Pentium 166
24 megs of EDO Ram
S3 Trio 64 integrated PCI
2.5 Gig 5.24" hard drive ( the biggest HD I've seen in a long time! )
ESS Audio I think?
And the motherboard is Intel based with a Predator Image printed on it! Overall really clean and the few capacitors are flat. 😁

I cleaned it up -- which it didn't need much -- and it booted up without a problem into Windows 95! I also booted into DOS and installed Monkey Island 1 and 2 and the sound worked fine. Sadly the monitor would not turn on -- which explains why it was so yellowed compared to the rest of the system -- and I don't have the skill to fix it, but I figure I'll store it for now.

And I need to look at it again, but it felt like the battery was soldered to the board. 😒

Anyways, I attached some images.

I have one of those, the bigfoot drive is kind of rare these days and most were unreliable.

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