My recently found HP PC, P4-based (3.06), ASUS P5S800-VM/S, VGA Gigabyte GV-N52L128TE FX5200, no RAM, no storage, no PSU but a nice little case and another Plextor driver for my collection:

idspispopd wrote:

Might take a bit too much power without Optimus when running all the time. You might want to measure power usage before you cont […]
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rick6 wrote:

The laptop is a Core2duo T2250 with a nvidia geforce 7xxx of some variant. After disassembling it cleaning all the gunk and unbending some miniscule pin connectors on the inverter board there was life again, it works. The shattered hinge is proving to be very difficult to fix without replacing parts which implies that i need to waste money on this laptop which is a big no no!

Also i was planning on using it as a surveillance DVR for a single camera but the board only supports PATA, and the only pata harddrives i have are only 100 and 120 gb which is way too little. If only i could find a way to use a sata hard drive without making a big mess of wires going in and out of the laptop..

Might take a bit too much power without Optimus when running all the time. You might want to measure power usage before you continue.
Regarding notebook hard disks: I wonder if those 2.5" SATA/PATA adapters are finally small enough to fit inside a notebook. They are certainly cheap enough:
http://www.ebay.de/itm/141540039508?_trksid=p … K%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

This seems to be the same adapter:
http://www.amazon.de/Adaptare-46216-Adapter-P … 7239981&sr=1-11
The seller writes that it should fit with most notebooks.
Customers reviews are ambiguous.

I have used this style (different connector angles than those you linked) http://www.ebay.com/itm/111293924332 in Toughbook CF-29 and CF-51.
They sit close up against the back of the drive so a smaller foot-print. Don't add much length compared to the ones you looked at..
Worked pretty well.
.

Last week-end while walking home I found 4 PCs lying on the pavement at night. I got slightly excited at first because I never saw so many systems in the street before. My initial enthusiasm quickly vanished though, as I noticed someone had probably got there before me, or the systems had been tossed as incomplete - the RAM and CPU had been stripped out. 3 of the cases had missing side panels, however two of them were still fitted with mobos (Gigabyte GA-H61M-S2PV).

One other case was completely gutted out. And another system appeared more complete - it's the one I decided to take home, some kind of HP pavilion with silly "easy to use" stickers on it.

Upon arriving home I noticed the Ram had been stripped out as well, and that there was no HDD either. The case appears too proprietary to re-use (mobo appears to be upside down) so I might end up tossing it again 🙁

Maybe I should have taken one of the systems with the H61 mobo instead as they seemed more current. They're probably being trashed right now.

MMaximus wrote:

(mobo appears to be upside down)

You mean BTX?

IIRC, those HP systems are standard MicroATX fare despite the mobo being oriented upside down.

Aren't they BTX? The older BTX standards was just ATX upside down (As far as the case is concerned), but later ones are a mirror of the old standard.

I just remembered that I have one of these HP/Compaq systems in storage, so I decided to pull it out, and, sure enough...

On top of that, I think I remember building a system around a mobo just like the one in this case, using an eMachines micro ATX case.

MMaximus wrote:

Last week-end while walking home I found 4 PCs lying on the pavement at night. I got slightly excited at first because I never s […]
Show full quote

Last week-end while walking home I found 4 PCs lying on the pavement at night. I got slightly excited at first because I never saw so many systems in the street before. My initial enthusiasm quickly vanished though, as I noticed someone had probably got there before me, or the systems had been tossed as incomplete - the RAM and CPU had been stripped out. 3 of the cases had missing side panels, however two of them were still fitted with mobos (Gigabyte GA-H61M-S2PV).

One other case was completely gutted out. And another system appeared more complete - it's the one I decided to take home, some kind of HP pavilion with silly "easy to use" stickers on it.

Upon arriving home I noticed the Ram had been stripped out as well, and that there was no HDD either. The case appears too proprietary to re-use (mobo appears to be upside down) so I might end up tossing it again 🙁

Maybe I should have taken one of the systems with the H61 mobo instead as they seemed more current. They're probably being trashed right now.

I used to always have some screwdrivers, antistatic bags and at least one big shopping bag with me for 'cases' like suddenly finding 4 computers one one spot, as theres no time and lots of competition.

I usually take just the best case and put all the useful remaining parts in that one case and then put either bubblewrap (or sometimes even cardboard from the find site) between the parts.

I found this desktop dumped near a bush next to my work place. It was covered in some dirt and leaves but I thought what the heck, let's just check it out.

So far looking good:

Uhhh... not so good anymore. Wonder how long this has been laying around?

Well, okay then. 🤣

I did scrape off few things.

Motherboard was Socket 7 with Winbond chips and all covered in dirt so no biggie. I did salvage S3 Trio64 PCI video card, Opti-based ISA audio card, P133 CPU and a heatsink+fan. Backplates in both cards are so rusty and rugged that I probably will recycle them anyway. Certainly I won't be passing them on to anyone else. CPU seems to have few of it's pins broken so I guess it's unusable too. But hey, at least the heatsink seems to be in good shape!

Rest (well, actually most) of that unit will see proper recycling soon. Damn shame some people just ditch this kind of retro treasures in public places to rot. Criminal activity, I say. The AT-case itself would have been extremely useful for me if it wasn't in such a rusty and bad shape. Turbo button and all!

I wonder if you could salvage that AT case with some sanding and a paint job... the plastic parts are in good enough condition that this might be worth it.

alexanrs wrote:

I wonder if you could salvage that AT case with some sanding and a paint job... the plastic parts are in good enough condition that this might be worth it.

exactly what I was thinking.

I did the same with an AT case last year.
Started by disassembling the case. It was full of dirt and insects, and had parts completely rusted.
I also popped the rivets and screws to have the case in individual pieces. Sanding was much easier that way.
After a good sanding (by hand and with an electric sander) I repainted each part separately with spray paint. Two coats.

The result I'm very proud today, and no rust has come back.

Ariakos wrote:

I found this desktop dumped near a bush next to my work place. It was covered in some dirt and leaves but I thought what the hec […]
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I found this desktop dumped near a bush next to my work place. It was covered in some dirt and leaves but I thought what the heck, let's just check it out.

So far looking good:

Nakamichi optical drive?

Beegle wrote:

exactly what I was thinking. […]
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alexanrs wrote:

I wonder if you could salvage that AT case with some sanding and a paint job... the plastic parts are in good enough condition that this might be worth it.

exactly what I was thinking.

I did the same with an AT case last year.
Started by disassembling the case. It was full of dirt and insects, and had parts completely rusted.
I also popped the rivets and screws to have the case in individual pieces. Sanding was much easier that way.
After a good sanding (by hand and with an electric sander) I repainted each part separately with spray paint. Two coats.

The result I'm very proud today, and no rust has come back.

Hmmmm. I might just hang on to that case... just in case. 🤣

But seriously, that mobo and I/O cards have to go. They are in awful shape.

PCBONEZ wrote:

Nakamichi optical drive?

I'm not sure, I didn't check. Case is so dirty I didn't want to fully disassemble it yet. Seems to be a 4-disc drive at least. Nice oddity, if it still works.

I'd like to see some good photos of the motherboard and PSU

Beegle wrote:

PCBONEZ wrote:

Nakamichi optical drive?

I'm not sure, I didn't check. Case is so dirty I didn't want to fully disassemble it yet. Seems to be a 4-disc drive at least. Nice oddity, if it still works.

If it is and it's the rare IDE version and still works it's probably worth quite a lot.
The SCSI ones are common.
.

Still cool. Nak was always so innovative with their tape decks.

Ariakos wrote:

I found this desktop dumped near a bush next to my work place. It was covered in some dirt and leaves but I thought what the hec […]
Show full quote

I found this desktop dumped near a bush next to my work place. It was covered in some dirt and leaves but I thought what the heck, let's just check it out.

So far looking good:

Uhhh... not so good anymore. Wonder how long this has been laying around?

Well, okay then. 🤣

I did scrape off few things.

Motherboard was Socket 7 with Winbond chips and all covered in dirt so no biggie. I did salvage S3 Trio64 PCI video card, Opti-based ISA audio card, P133 CPU and a heatsink+fan. Backplates in both cards are so rusty and rugged that I probably will recycle them anyway. Certainly I won't be passing them on to anyone else. CPU seems to have few of it's pins broken so I guess it's unusable too. But hey, at least the heatsink seems to be in good shape!

Rest (well, actually most) of that unit will see proper recycling soon. Damn shame some people just ditch this kind of retro treasures in public places to rot. Criminal activity, I say. The AT-case itself would have been extremely useful for me if it wasn't in such a rusty and bad shape. Turbo button and all!

Another vote for cleaning, sanding and repainting the case! I may also add that you could try sanding the rust from the expansion card brackets to clean them up and make them usable. Also if ya pop open the PSU and it is not corroded to heck ya might be able to salvage that as well 😀 overall a pretty nice scrap find man!

Stopped in to pick up some old cases from my friend who scraps computers to be greeted by a couple of extra cards.

Edit: Both posted perfectly. Just checked my Pentium III, 1000mhz board as well. Sunday's booked.. 😀

Sorry about the crap photo.

Oldbitcollector wrote:

Stopped in to pick up some old cases from my friend who scraps computers to be greeted by a couple of extra cards.

Edit: Both posted perfectly. Just checked my Pentium III, 1000mhz board as well. Sunday's booked.. 😀

Sorry about the crap photo.

Dat Voodoo 5 though

voodoo 5 in the trash. Let find the bloke that did that...