Not a dumpster find, but close enough. I was given an old PC to dispose of. Not quite old enough for my tastes, but it's vintage 2002:
Gigabyte KT600 (7VT600P-RZ)
Athlon XP 1900+
1GB
TNT2 M64 AGP
20GB Western Digital.
Windows XP
It has 4 bulging caps around the cpu, but it still boots to the desktop.

yawetaG wrote:

That kind of find is about on the same level as the Yamaha AV-receiver I spotted a few weeks back at a local recycling shop for $20. Later I discovered it was fairly recent, with a MSRP of 2000 dollars. Of course, when I went back to the shop, it was long gone...

Gotta have a internet-enabled smart phone for looking up retro hardware. I used to look at so much stuff at thrift stores without it, now it's an invaluable tool to quickly check specs and market prices on the go. Mine's a quad core samsung android 4.0 smart phone from 2014 I bought used off ebay for $25, and I found a way to get 100% free mobile internet up to LTE-4G, catch is limited to 1GB/month max. But I rarely go over it.

Over the weekend I acquired four old laptops from my relatives. As they were all in varying states of decay and I didn't feel like repairing them, I promptly pulled them all apart.

The things I saved were...

^Some CPUs...

^A few SO-DIMMs...

^A handful of wireless cards...

^An optical drive from a nice brand, which I need to test, as it came out of a kids' laptop...

And some HDDs in the 160-250GB size range, which I'll likely end up selling; they turned out to all be in perfect condition (no bad sectors, no SMART errors, etc).

kithylin wrote:

yawetaG wrote:

That kind of find is about on the same level as the Yamaha AV-receiver I spotted a few weeks back at a local recycling shop for $20. Later I discovered it was fairly recent, with a MSRP of 2000 dollars. Of course, when I went back to the shop, it was long gone...

Gotta have a internet-enabled smart phone for looking up retro hardware. I used to look at so much stuff at thrift stores without it, now it's an invaluable tool to quickly check specs and market prices on the go. Mine's a quad core samsung android 4.0 smart phone from 2014 I bought used off ebay for $25, and I found a way to get 100% free mobile internet up to LTE-4G, catch is limited to 1GB/month max. But I rarely go over it.

Well, the thing is that I have no need/room for an AV receiver, and I only discovered the original price by accident. When it comes to AV stuff I have a fair idea of the kind of stuff I would buy straight away. For example some time back I bought a little used high-end HDD/DVD recorder with 160 Gb drive for 15 Euro . It looked like something children would give their aging parents for use in the last years of their life. It has multiple SCART connectors, S-video, composite/component ins and outs, a crapton of features, just missing the remote and just a little too new to be DRM-free. Works like new.

yawetaG wrote:

kithylin wrote:

yawetaG wrote:

That kind of find is about on the same level as the Yamaha AV-receiver I spotted a few weeks back at a local recycling shop for $20. Later I discovered it was fairly recent, with a MSRP of 2000 dollars. Of course, when I went back to the shop, it was long gone...

Gotta have a internet-enabled smart phone for looking up retro hardware. I used to look at so much stuff at thrift stores without it, now it's an invaluable tool to quickly check specs and market prices on the go. Mine's a quad core samsung android 4.0 smart phone from 2014 I bought used off ebay for $25, and I found a way to get 100% free mobile internet up to LTE-4G, catch is limited to 1GB/month max. But I rarely go over it.

Well, the thing is that I have no need/room for an AV receiver, and I only discovered the original price by accident. When it comes to AV stuff I have a fair idea of the kind of stuff I would buy straight away. For example some time back I bought a little used high-end HDD/DVD recorder with 160 Gb drive for 15 Euro . It looked like something children would give their aging parents for use in the last years of their life. It has multiple SCART connectors, S-video, composite/component ins and outs, a crapton of features, just missing the remote and just a little too new to be DRM-free. Works like new.

New camcorders have DRM?

So now my games, my ink cartridges, AND my camcorders have DRM? Next thing you know my car will be locked to one owner and rendered useless by some server shut down in 20 years.

Fuck DRM, seriously.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

New camcorders have DRM?

So now my games, my ink cartridges, AND my camcorders have DRM? Next thing you know my car will be locked to one owner and rendered useless by some server shut down in 20 years.

Fuck DRM, seriously.

Amen.

Arctic wrote:

https://voodooalert.de/board/wcf/images/photos/photo-478-927ccc78.gif […]
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easy - powervr pcx2 with a huge heatsink 🤣

keropi wrote:

Arctic wrote:

https://voodooalert.de/board/wcf/images/photos/photo-478-927ccc78.gif […]
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easy - powervr pcx2 with a huge heatsink 🤣

And no video output.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

And no video output.

That makes them so easy to spot 😀

elod wrote:

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

And no video output.

That makes them so easy to spot 😀

I just googled it. They really do lack video output.

and here i was being a complete smartass.

Serves me right i guess.

EDIT: Damn you vogonites, I just realized in a little over a year I've posted here over 400 times. \
The addiction begins?

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

I just googled it. They really do lack video output. […]
Show full quote

elod wrote:

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

And no video output.

That makes them so easy to spot 😀

I just googled it. They really do lack video output.

and here i was being a complete smartass.

Serves me right i guess.

EDIT: Damn you vogonites, I just realized in a little over a year I've posted here over 400 times. \
The addiction begins?

0.89 post per day, apparently. I'm on 1.46, which seems pretty excessive. I wonder who has the highest? I guess you'd have to discount accounts < 1 year old at the very least or a newbie could post 100 times and instantly 'win' (lose).

EDIT: whoa! Just did a speculative check - clueless1 has an avg of over 5 per day!! 🤣

keropi wrote:

Arctic wrote:

https://voodooalert.de/board/wcf/images/photos/photo-478-927ccc78.gif […]
Show full quote

easy - powervr pcx2 with a huge heatsink 🤣

Videologic Apocalypse 3D (PowerVR PCX1)
It's not that easy 😁

Backside:

brassicGamer wrote:

EDIT: whoa! Just did a speculative check - clueless1 has an avg of over 5 per day!! 🤣

😀 I'm pretty sure there are some who are higher than that. Check Phil and gdjacobs. they post a lot.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

New camcorders have DRM?

So now my games, my ink cartridges, AND my camcorders have DRM? Next thing you know my car will be locked to one owner and rendered useless by some server shut down in 20 years.

Fuck DRM, seriously.

Just a note to you.. if anyone buys a modern car made after 2004 and has a loan on it, they -DO- install DRM in the car, or payment protection. Also known as a "Black Box" in your car for the duration of the loan. If you're late on a payment they can remotely send a shutdown code, even while you're driving it, and tell it to turn off the engine. They also have GPS tracking in it and they'll dispatch a repo person to repossess it without your knowledge or permission.

This is not speculation or "Tin foil hat, omg big brother is watching." this is a real, documented fact. All new cars sold today do this. They also record your GPS movements without your permission. And some companies will stipulate in the leasing agreement (if you're leasing) that if they record you speeding excessively, they can and will terminate the lease agreement, and make you return the vehicle.

The only way around it is to buy an older car used and pay cash for the full price. I believe it's 2004 and older.

I know this subject warrants a different thread and is off topic, just thought I'd let you know. DRM is real, it fucking sucks and I hate it. And it's why we're keeping our old 1996 car running as long as possible.

Found this, came back from a customer site. Interesting looking tiny machine, for sure. It doesn't boot, but there are suspicious looking bulging caps on the power supply, so me thinks that may be the issue... all of the caps on the motherboard itself look fine. I'll have to dig up a power supply to try it...

What is the general consensus on Via C3 CPU/motherboards? Are they a respected retro build PC? It's 733Mhz, with 256MB RAM... I'm thinking with a PCI Voodoo card this might be an okay-to-good Windows 98SE machine, if I can find the VIA drivers for it.

C3 was a dog at release but is now a fairly sought after chip because of how much you can slow it down when you want to. That's a good score.

RJDog wrote:

Found this, came back from a customer site. Interesting looking tiny machine, for sure. It doesn't boot, but there are suspicious looking bulging caps on the power supply, so me thinks that may be the issue... all of the caps on the motherboard itself look fine. I'll have to dig up a power supply to try it...

What is the general consensus on Via C3 CPU/motherboards? Are they a respected retro build PC? It's 733Mhz, with 256MB RAM... I'm thinking with a PCI Voodoo card this might be an okay-to-good Windows 98SE machine, if I can find the VIA drivers for it.

If you want to compare it to a good PIII then it's obviously not as good. But it's good at what it does best. It's a super simple and cheap PIII-like system. As you said, perfect 98SE machine for lighter games or run it in DOS mode.

kithylin wrote:

Just a note to you.. if anyone buys a modern car made after 2004 and has a loan on it, they -DO- install DRM in the car, or paym […]
Show full quote

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

New camcorders have DRM?

So now my games, my ink cartridges, AND my camcorders have DRM? Next thing you know my car will be locked to one owner and rendered useless by some server shut down in 20 years.

Fuck DRM, seriously.

Just a note to you.. if anyone buys a modern car made after 2004 and has a loan on it, they -DO- install DRM in the car, or payment protection. Also known as a "Black Box" in your car for the duration of the loan. If you're late on a payment they can remotely send a shutdown code, even while you're driving it, and tell it to turn off the engine. They also have GPS tracking in it and they'll dispatch a repo person to repossess it without your knowledge or permission.

This is not speculation or "Tin foil hat, omg big brother is watching." this is a real, documented fact. All new cars sold today do this. They also record your GPS movements without your permission. And some companies will stipulate in the leasing agreement (if you're leasing) that if they record you speeding excessively, they can and will terminate the lease agreement, and make you return the vehicle.

The only way around it is to buy an older car used and pay cash for the full price. I believe it's 2004 and older.

I know this subject warrants a different thread and is off topic, just thought I'd let you know. DRM is real, it fucking sucks and I hate it. And it's why we're keeping our old 1996 car running as long as possible.

Real or not, that reaction is a bit alarmist. You already carry a much more convenient GPS tracker with you everywhere you go.

Automobile black boxes are so named because they function like the flight data recorder on an airplane. They're used for insurance purposes, accident investigation, etc.
GPS locators and remote kill switches are something else entirely. The solution to those is to get a loan from a not-garbage institution, or as you said pay cash.

(As an aside, 1996 was the first year of mandatory OBD2, which is the cutoff criteria for emissions testing in many states. Meaning, you already lost the old-car game: it's a lot easier and cheaper to keep a car running when you can sawzall the cat off and put in a test pipe, or swap the engine without worrying if it'll talk to the emissions machine.)

Arctic wrote:

Videologic Apocalypse 3D (PowerVR PCX1)
It's not that easy 😁

oh! touché! 😵
nice one though 😊