The hardware - came with a wired mouse & multimedia keyboard (not wireless as stated in the spec table, and no remote either). Sadly the keyboard no longer works (think it needs a new cable).

Software/docs bundle, on its upright stand and inside shots - it came with no cpu, memory or hdd but with floppy and CD-ROM drive. I originally added a P3 733MHz & 512MB of PC133 and more recently changed the CD for a DVD writer, changed out the cpu fan for a bigger / quieter one and upgraded from a mech disk to a Crucial M4 SSD on an IDE to SATA adapter.

Last pics - board close-up, the one piece outer case sleeve which I always thought was neat and the POST screen. Was a system I used quite a lot at the time and has worked without trouble with 98SE, ME, XP & W7 over the years. Think my only failure was trying to upgrade to a 1GHz cpu - was way to enclosed around the socket to handle the extra thermals. After all these years I do notice one cap wth a very slight bulge, but the totally reliable original PC Chips PSU is still going strong!!!

Next up is the ASUS Terminator K7 DDR

Bought in 2003 to use up some spare parts, its currently set up with :

> Athlon XP 3000+ (Barton core) - despite what the spec sheet says it works fine if I pick the preset 166/33 OC option
> 1.5GB of PC2700 - I've tried 2GB but for some reason can't get it stable
> Primary HDD is a 160GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (ST3160815A) for the OS plus two 320GB Western Digital WD3200BEVE laptop drives in a dynamic RAID 0 array for the data
> Samsumg combo CD-RW / DVD drive
> PNY GeForce 6200 256MB PCI graphics
> OS is Windows 7 Pro

Lets open her up

And yet more

Last pic is my DIY combo case & VGA cooling fan as without it things can get a bit toasty inside (I also added a small front case fan for this reason as well).

For some reason ASUS decided not to include a RESET button, so I added one of those as well (you can see it of the case back next to the PS/2 ports).

Its a neat little system when cloased up and in use, but not to work on when open - the mass of cables make closing the clamshell case a nightmare to avoid snagging or slicing something, and the internal HDD bay brushes the edge of the 80mm CPU cooling fan.

The picture isn't too clear, but the DoM on the internal chassis label is 14th February 2003.

I always thought the less than ideal cooling / airflow would do for the motherboard caps sooner or later, but the original Nichicon ones still seem in good shape despite this.

That socket A system is a neat little thing. How well does that Barton run windows 7?

Sadly some updates break Windows 7 on Athlon XP, i had problems due to SSE2 Code in several Things 😒

But i like the MINI PCs very much! 😀

@chrismeyer6 , Thanks, it's not too bad at W7 but would be better if I could max the RAM out. I quite like to push these old systems with a W7 install just to see - almost like a burn-in / benchmark test

- does setup run OK, and without issues (I use a standard W7 disc slipstreamed with SP1)
- does it install or at least generally identify all the hardware
- how does it run the desktop and basic apps

If it manages that then I might leave it that way until I have a reason to change the OS

@matze79, Thanks and yes some of these updates are to be avoided on retro / W7 installs. TBH, for these systems I usually switch off updates completely and just cherry-pick a few security or driver / enhancement updates that I know will benefit the system