tehsiggi wrote on 2026-03-07, 16:19:

BTW: If anybody has a legit DEAD 9800XT - give me a message.. by dead I mean really dead. I need the PCB for science. They're just hard to get.. OR a high res photo of the GPU area without cooler. Much appreciated.

If a 9800XXL (MS-8956) will be OK too I could also provide photos.

ChrisK wrote on Yesterday, 08:53:

tehsiggi wrote on 2026-03-07, 16:19:

BTW: If anybody has a legit DEAD 9800XT - give me a message.. by dead I mean really dead. I need the PCB for science. They're just hard to get.. OR a high res photo of the GPU area without cooler. Much appreciated.

If a 9800XXL (MS-8956) will be OK too I could also provide photos.

Well, the 9800XXL is not a "real" XT - i'm interested in the thermal monitoring approach they've done on the XT.
While the 9600XT (RV360) has a thermal sensing diode inside the die of the GPU, I assume the 9800XT (R360) does not.
They use the LM63 in their design (apart from ASUS) and by the few pictures I found, they just placed a transistor as temperature sensor right next to the GPU. Still LM63, but a very different approach.

I was already able to confirm that R300, R350 and R360 have a thermistor (NTC) right next to the die on the top, so I'm just looking for good pictures of the "reference" 9800XT PCB to verify my claim: The R360 does NOT have a thermal sensing diode as the RV360 has. (And the temp measurements of the RV360 are way more accurate than R360)

Just wrapped up this "Q4/2001" Socket A build.

EpoX 8kha+
Athlon XP Palomino 1500+@1640MHz
Akasa Silver Mountain heatsink
Kingston HyperX 512MB@2-2-2-5-1T 1:1
120GB SSD + Win 2000 Pro
Asus V8200 Deluxe GeForce3 64MB
SB Audigy
3Com 10/100 NIC

I think the case is Lian Li pc-7a Plus II, but I'm not 100% sure. There are so many slightly different versions of this cases starting from the PC-60.

Few weeks ago I polymodded the motherboard and decided to make a period correct build out of it, after all 8kha+ was an absolute KJT266A OC legend back in the day. Pretty much everything connected to MB is very period correct except Kingston memory (KHX3000/512). It is in fact somehwhere around mid 2003 and should have BH-5:s. This made the OC process relatively easy, because I could just keep the memory 1:1 and at the tightest settings possible. For CPU I opted Palomino with smallest multiplier, again making the OC easier. I don't know if this build is a keeper, I have similar class sA systems already, but if I do, I probably throw water cooling stuff in. At this point I just didn't bother, it is just an unnecessary hassle if I decide to make something else in this.

Even the case fan with light is old school, it is not a modren led fan, but a cold cathode one 🤣.

Overall I had a productive retro computing week. I recapped one vintage 5V heavy PSU, one Radeon 9600 XT and while the gear for this build was on bench, I did a mid-late 2001 socket A cooler round-up, putting few of my vintage coolers to perfomance and sound test.

CharlieFoxtrot wrote on Yesterday, 14:29:

Just wrapped up this "Q4/2001" Socket A build.

Very nice looking system!

CharlieFoxtrot wrote on Yesterday, 14:29:

Kingston HyperX 512MB@2-2-2-5-1T 1:1

There was a time where I wished I had such RAM in my P4 system. Back in 2004 it was rumored that it can enable additional optimizations on 865PE ASUS motherboards (the famous ASUS PAT).

Now I look back and "meh, my Elixir-branded 3-3-3-8 is good enough". 🤣

I am testing out a somewhat-new-in-box Saitek Pro flightstick and two old Logitech USB gamepads that I got at the thrift store the other day. I definitely overpaid ($25 vs old price of $20) for the flightstick, but not in comparison to current prices for such things. The gamepads I got for $7 each.

I overclocked a s478 Prescott 3.2 to 3.8ghz on stock voltage. I could have went further but seeing the system pull close to 200w under a cpu load had me worried about the motherboard vrm, so I stopped there.

Also my Sapphire AGP x1950pro died. Or more specifically, I think the VRM failed, because now the card simply would not POST and the GPU stays cold.

dr_st wrote on Yesterday, 15:29:

Very nice looking system! […]
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CharlieFoxtrot wrote on Yesterday, 14:29:

Just wrapped up this "Q4/2001" Socket A build.

Very nice looking system!

CharlieFoxtrot wrote on Yesterday, 14:29:

Kingston HyperX 512MB@2-2-2-5-1T 1:1

There was a time where I wished I had such RAM in my P4 system. Back in 2004 it was rumored that it can enable additional optimizations on 865PE ASUS motherboards (the famous ASUS PAT).

Now I look back and "meh, my Elixir-branded 3-3-3-8 is good enough". 🤣

Thanks!

Yeah, I don't think fast OC memory really is mandatory, but nice to have and worth getting if you bump into these sort of sticks cheap. I have bunch of different DDR1 stuff, HyperX, Team Group, Corsair etc., so I naturally use them over some run of the mill basic RAM when feasible. It also depends on the platform how much you benefit from tight timings. Anyways, it is still more for the love of the sport, usually couple of more frames here and there don't drastically change the experience 😀