Ohhh boy.

An older friend of mine brought me a couple of computers he's had laying around for a while. One is from 2007, and one is from 2013. To put it mildly, these things were overkill at the time.

When he opened the trunk of his SUV I couldn't believe how MASSIVE these things were.

To give some perspective without giving it all away: The one from 2007 is an OEM system with its original 1000 Watt power supply, and it has two video cards in SLI. The one from 2013 is a custom prebuilt that was built with... get this... 64GB of RAM, two 512GB SSDs, a Bluray Burner and a Corsair AX1200i 1200W 80 Plus Platinum (!) PSU... yes, built that way in 2013. It also had two GPUs in SLI, though he said it never quite worked right with both, so one had been taken out and put in storage somewhere for a while (he will get it to me when he finds it).

To temper expectations: Neither one has top of the line GPUs for the time, sadly, but they are both really unique and (as far as I can tell) somewhat rare systems these days.

They are quite dusty from many years of use, so I want to get them cleaned up before doing their photo shoots. I will post pictures and more detailed specs later.

Also, these are two of the largest computers I own. The 2013 one is by far the largest tower I've ever seen in person, and I own some full towers from the early 90s and had an early 2000s Gateway server\workstation chassis for a while as well. This is bigger than all of them.

Stay tuned. 😮

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2025-08-17, 02:26:

Ohhh boy. […]
Show full quote

Ohhh boy.

An older friend of mine brought me a couple of computers he's had laying around for a while. One is from 2007, and one is from 2013. To put it mildly, these things were overkill at the time.

When he opened the trunk of his SUV I couldn't believe how MASSIVE these things were.

To give some perspective without giving it all away: The one from 2007 is an OEM system with its original 1000 Watt power supply, and it has two video cards in SLI. The one from 2013 is a custom prebuilt that was built with... get this... 64GB of RAM, two 512GB SSDs, a Bluray Burner and a Corsair AX1200i 1200W 80 Plus Platinum (!) PSU... yes, built that way in 2013. It also had two GPUs in SLI, though he said it never quite worked right with both, so one had been taken out and put in storage somewhere for a while (he will get it to me when he finds it).

To temper expectations: Neither one has top of the line GPUs for the time, sadly, but they are both really unique and (as far as I can tell) somewhat rare systems these days.

They are quite dusty from many years of use, so I want to get them cleaned up before doing their photo shoots. I will post pictures and more detailed specs later.

Also, these are two of the largest computers I own. The 2013 one is by far the largest tower I've ever seen in person, and I own some full towers from the early 90s and had an early 2000s Gateway server\workstation chassis for a while as well. This is bigger than all of them.

Stay tuned. 😮

A lot of people tend to overspend on cpu and ram and the video boards suffer. I overspend on everything.

Shagittarius wrote on 2025-08-17, 02:52:

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2025-08-17, 02:26:

Ohhh boy. […]
Show full quote

Ohhh boy.

An older friend of mine brought me a couple of computers he's had laying around for a while. One is from 2007, and one is from 2013. To put it mildly, these things were overkill at the time.

When he opened the trunk of his SUV I couldn't believe how MASSIVE these things were.

To give some perspective without giving it all away: The one from 2007 is an OEM system with its original 1000 Watt power supply, and it has two video cards in SLI. The one from 2013 is a custom prebuilt that was built with... get this... 64GB of RAM, two 512GB SSDs, a Bluray Burner and a Corsair AX1200i 1200W 80 Plus Platinum (!) PSU... yes, built that way in 2013. It also had two GPUs in SLI, though he said it never quite worked right with both, so one had been taken out and put in storage somewhere for a while (he will get it to me when he finds it).

To temper expectations: Neither one has top of the line GPUs for the time, sadly, but they are both really unique and (as far as I can tell) somewhat rare systems these days.

They are quite dusty from many years of use, so I want to get them cleaned up before doing their photo shoots. I will post pictures and more detailed specs later.

Also, these are two of the largest computers I own. The 2013 one is by far the largest tower I've ever seen in person, and I own some full towers from the early 90s and had an early 2000s Gateway server\workstation chassis for a while as well. This is bigger than all of them.

Stay tuned. 😮

A lot of people tend to overspend on cpu and ram and the video boards suffer. I overspend on everything.

Yeah... I was really hoping for a pair of 8800 Ultras and a pair of 780 Tis in these machines, but that must have been where the budget started to limit things. Also, to be fair, he said he bought the 2007 system at an estate-sale auction in ~2008 and got it for like half it's MSRP, which was probably a good deal at the time (if you like crazy high end proprietary OEM systems).

Personally, I always went for the absolute best bang for the buck. The only time I would ever overspend on something is if it was a relatively small price difference between an entry-level and a high-end product. For example, I will spend $130 on a 2TB NVMe drive to get a higher end model with DRAM and a better controller, versus $90-$100 for one without even if the general consensus is that the difference is unnoticeable in 99% of situations. I may forget about the $40 relatively quickly, but if some situations arises where the storage speed is a limiting factor, I cannot fix that, and I keep my drives forever. 😀

Same goes for RAM. I had 16GB of some fairly basic 3000Mhz RAM in my AM4 system when I built it in 2019, but a year or two ago I had an opportunity to get 64GB of faster 3600Mhz RAM for an excellent price, so I bought it just to be the "last RAM that this system will ever need", no matter what I use it for. Can't imagine paying for that much 12 years ago though. Whew!

I don't think it's really possible to overspend on GPUs unless you don't play recent games, have a 60Hz 1080P monitor, or you are literally buying things beyond your means. Overspending on high core count CPUs is definitely a thing though. I would gain almost nothing from a 5950X in my rig vs a 5800X3D.

a famous dual celeron board -)

dm- wrote on 2025-08-18, 05:44:

The attachment abit.jpg is no longer available

a famous dual celeron board -)

SCORE!

dm- wrote on 2025-08-18, 05:44:

The attachment abit.jpg is no longer available

a famous dual celeron board -)

Wow!

But er... is that a woolen glove you're holding it with?

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2025-08-17, 03:22:

Yeah... I was really hoping for a pair of 8800 Ultras and a pair of 780 Tis in these machines, but that must have been where the […]
Show full quote

Shagittarius wrote on 2025-08-17, 02:52:

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2025-08-17, 02:26:

Ohhh boy. […]
Show full quote

Ohhh boy.

An older friend of mine brought me a couple of computers he's had laying around for a while. One is from 2007, and one is from 2013. To put it mildly, these things were overkill at the time.

When he opened the trunk of his SUV I couldn't believe how MASSIVE these things were.

To give some perspective without giving it all away: The one from 2007 is an OEM system with its original 1000 Watt power supply, and it has two video cards in SLI. The one from 2013 is a custom prebuilt that was built with... get this... 64GB of RAM, two 512GB SSDs, a Bluray Burner and a Corsair AX1200i 1200W 80 Plus Platinum (!) PSU... yes, built that way in 2013. It also had two GPUs in SLI, though he said it never quite worked right with both, so one had been taken out and put in storage somewhere for a while (he will get it to me when he finds it).

To temper expectations: Neither one has top of the line GPUs for the time, sadly, but they are both really unique and (as far as I can tell) somewhat rare systems these days.

They are quite dusty from many years of use, so I want to get them cleaned up before doing their photo shoots. I will post pictures and more detailed specs later.

Also, these are two of the largest computers I own. The 2013 one is by far the largest tower I've ever seen in person, and I own some full towers from the early 90s and had an early 2000s Gateway server\workstation chassis for a while as well. This is bigger than all of them.

Stay tuned. 😮

A lot of people tend to overspend on cpu and ram and the video boards suffer. I overspend on everything.

Yeah... I was really hoping for a pair of 8800 Ultras and a pair of 780 Tis in these machines, but that must have been where the budget started to limit things. Also, to be fair, he said he bought the 2007 system at an estate-sale auction in ~2008 and got it for like half it's MSRP, which was probably a good deal at the time (if you like crazy high end proprietary OEM systems).

Personally, I always went for the absolute best bang for the buck. The only time I would ever overspend on something is if it was a relatively small price difference between an entry-level and a high-end product. For example, I will spend $130 on a 2TB NVMe drive to get a higher end model with DRAM and a better controller, versus $90-$100 for one without even if the general consensus is that the difference is unnoticeable in 99% of situations. I may forget about the $40 relatively quickly, but if some situations arises where the storage speed is a limiting factor, I cannot fix that, and I keep my drives forever. 😀

Same goes for RAM. I had 16GB of some fairly basic 3000Mhz RAM in my AM4 system when I built it in 2019, but a year or two ago I had an opportunity to get 64GB of faster 3600Mhz RAM for an excellent price, so I bought it just to be the "last RAM that this system will ever need", no matter what I use it for. Can't imagine paying for that much 12 years ago though. Whew!

I don't think it's really possible to overspend on GPUs unless you don't play recent games, have a 60Hz 1080P monitor, or you are literally buying things beyond your means. Overspending on high core count CPUs is definitely a thing though. I would gain almost nothing from a 5950X in my rig vs a 5800X3D.

I remember that being seen as "The way to go" with SLI and Crossfire of the period. Two flagships were seen as too much heat, power and bother, and you really paid through the nose for them, while two "high mid" cards came out at not much more than one flagship. Theoretically you were getting something like 150% of solo flagship performance and this would be thought of as more than adequate. Machine configs I have come across for example are duel 9600s, dual HD4850, dual HD6850... dual 9600 was super popular locally, I've seen half a dozen of those, and had a full size come in here with that config.

dm- wrote on 2025-08-18, 05:44:

The attachment abit.jpg is no longer available

a famous dual celeron board -)

I saw this board yesterday in YT video, so you are Fedor Sumkin?

dionb wrote on 2025-08-18, 11:11:

But er... is that a woolen glove you're holding it with?

If dm- lives in a humid environment (like northern Taiwan, where I live, has ~90% annual average humidity) then it's not a big deal.

There's some materials handling gloves that look like wool but they are chunky cotton. Used to use them at a cardboard factory on a summer job, all those cardboard edges would just slice up other types in a day, and leather were too thick for "feel".

paradigital wrote on 2025-07-28, 18:46:

The attachment IMG_5386.jpeg is no longer available

This is one of the best ISA sound cards around.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2025-08-17, 02:26:

Ohhh boy. […]
Show full quote

Ohhh boy.

An older friend of mine brought me a couple of computers he's had laying around for a while. One is from 2007, and one is from 2013. To put it mildly, these things were overkill at the time.

When he opened the trunk of his SUV I couldn't believe how MASSIVE these things were.

To give some perspective without giving it all away: The one from 2007 is an OEM system with its original 1000 Watt power supply, and it has two video cards in SLI. The one from 2013 is a custom prebuilt that was built with... get this... 64GB of RAM, two 512GB SSDs, a Bluray Burner and a Corsair AX1200i 1200W 80 Plus Platinum (!) PSU... yes, built that way in 2013. It also had two GPUs in SLI, though he said it never quite worked right with both, so one had been taken out and put in storage somewhere for a while (he will get it to me when he finds it).

To temper expectations: Neither one has top of the line GPUs for the time, sadly, but they are both really unique and (as far as I can tell) somewhat rare systems these days.

They are quite dusty from many years of use, so I want to get them cleaned up before doing their photo shoots. I will post pictures and more detailed specs later.

Also, these are two of the largest computers I own. The 2013 one is by far the largest tower I've ever seen in person, and I own some full towers from the early 90s and had an early 2000s Gateway server\workstation chassis for a while as well. This is bigger than all of them.

Stay tuned. 😮

Okay, small update.

I did some cleaning on the 2013 system. When I started seeing some weird bluish green crud down in the massive (and unecessary) bottom "chamber" in this case, I remembered what my friend told me a while back. He said when he bought the computer they only gave water cooling as an option, even though he didn't want it. Eventually, something did actually fail and it leaked all over the place and killed the motherboard. They replaced the motherboard and he used the computer for years and then gave it to a relative when he bought a new machine.

At some point it stopped booting and he took it back from the relative. He assumed the processor had been damaged by the old motherboard and finally just stopped working. I know this is pretty uncommon (especially for high end gear chips like a Socket 2011 Ivy Bridge CPU), so I was hoping it was something more easily fixable.

Sooo... after getting the machine all cleaned up and pulling out the Corsair AX1200i PSU (absolutely awesome PSU) for inspection, I decided to give it a go. The motherboard (Asus P9X79-E WS) would give a 00 code and a blue light near the CPU socket. I googled it and the number one suggestion was to use the BIOS Flashback feature to reflash the latest BIOS. I cannot believe how EASY it was to do this! I just put the file on an old FAT32 drive, named it P9X79EWS.cap, stuck the drive into the flashback port on the PC, pressed the BIOS flashback button for 3 seconds and the light started blinking. When it stopped blinking 5-10 minutes later, I turned the system on and it is now booting to the BIOS just fine!!

This thing is a BEAST by the way.

The case is a CyberpowerPC badged AZZA Genesis 9000B. It is reversible and arrived to me with the motherboard upside-down and the case opening on the opposite panel of a normal ATX system. You can pull the motherboard+ card tray out completely, flip it around and then make it a standard ATX layout. It also has incredibly huge fans in the top. Honestly, I'm not a big fan of the case compared to what I had at the time (CoolerMaster CM 690 II Advanced). Fiddly mechanisms, surprisingly cramped spaces (despite it's insane size) and massive chunks of useless plastic that hinder airflow. Still, it is a unique and interesting design. Very very 2010s.

I have attached some pictures of what I have done so far. It is just flopped onto the floor for now. In the pictures it is about 3-4 inches shorter because I have the bottom plastic panel removed (I had to hose out the dust and water cooling crud). It stands around 26" tall. 😮

It has an EVGA GTX 770 4GB (with a second one that I will get eventually), 64GB of XPG DDR3-1866 CL10 RAM ("only" 16GB installed currently... some of the heatsinks fell off too), an i7 4930K and 2x 512GB Adata SX900 SSDs.

I will post more later as I make progress... probably in it's own thread.

So yeah... this is easily the most beastly machine I have ever been given in a non-working state.

DundyTheCroc wrote on 2025-08-18, 12:05:

dm- wrote on 2025-08-18, 05:44:

The attachment abit.jpg is no longer available

a famous dual celeron board -)

I saw this board yesterday in YT video, so you are Fedor Sumkin?

kind of -) A BuB neighbour. we are sourcing items from same place.

Ozzuneoj wrote on Yesterday, 00:01:

Okay, small update. […]
Show full quote

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2025-08-17, 02:26:

Ohhh boy. […]
Show full quote

Ohhh boy.

An older friend of mine brought me a couple of computers he's had laying around for a while. One is from 2007, and one is from 2013. To put it mildly, these things were overkill at the time.

When he opened the trunk of his SUV I couldn't believe how MASSIVE these things were.

To give some perspective without giving it all away: The one from 2007 is an OEM system with its original 1000 Watt power supply, and it has two video cards in SLI. The one from 2013 is a custom prebuilt that was built with... get this... 64GB of RAM, two 512GB SSDs, a Bluray Burner and a Corsair AX1200i 1200W 80 Plus Platinum (!) PSU... yes, built that way in 2013. It also had two GPUs in SLI, though he said it never quite worked right with both, so one had been taken out and put in storage somewhere for a while (he will get it to me when he finds it).

To temper expectations: Neither one has top of the line GPUs for the time, sadly, but they are both really unique and (as far as I can tell) somewhat rare systems these days.

They are quite dusty from many years of use, so I want to get them cleaned up before doing their photo shoots. I will post pictures and more detailed specs later.

Also, these are two of the largest computers I own. The 2013 one is by far the largest tower I've ever seen in person, and I own some full towers from the early 90s and had an early 2000s Gateway server\workstation chassis for a while as well. This is bigger than all of them.

Stay tuned. 😮

Okay, small update.

I did some cleaning on the 2013 system. When I started seeing some weird bluish green crud down in the massive (and unecessary) bottom "chamber" in this case, I remembered what my friend told me a while back. He said when he bought the computer they only gave water cooling as an option, even though he didn't want it. Eventually, something did actually fail and it leaked all over the place and killed the motherboard. They replaced the motherboard and he used the computer for years and then gave it to a relative when he bought a new machine.

At some point it stopped booting and he took it back from the relative. He assumed the processor had been damaged by the old motherboard and finally just stopped working. I know this is pretty uncommon (especially for high end gear chips like a Socket 2011 Ivy Bridge CPU), so I was hoping it was something more easily fixable.

Sooo... after getting the machine all cleaned up and pulling out the Corsair AX1200i PSU (absolutely awesome PSU) for inspection, I decided to give it a go. The motherboard (Asus P9X79-E WS) would give a 00 code and a blue light near the CPU socket. I googled it and the number one suggestion was to use the BIOS Flashback feature to reflash the latest BIOS. I cannot believe how EASY it was to do this! I just put the file on an old FAT32 drive, named it P9X79EWS.cap, stuck the drive into the flashback port on the PC, pressed the BIOS flashback button for 3 seconds and the light started blinking. When it stopped blinking 5-10 minutes later, I turned the system on and it is now booting to the BIOS just fine!!

This thing is a BEAST by the way.

The case is a CyberpowerPC badged AZZA Genesis 9000B. It is reversible and arrived to me with the motherboard upside-down and the case opening on the opposite panel of a normal ATX system. You can pull the motherboard+ card tray out completely, flip it around and then make it a standard ATX layout. It also has incredibly huge fans in the top. Honestly, I'm not a big fan of the case compared to what I had at the time (CoolerMaster CM 690 II Advanced). Fiddly mechanisms, surprisingly cramped spaces (despite it's insane size) and massive chunks of useless plastic that hinder airflow. Still, it is a unique and interesting design. Very very 2010s.

I have attached some pictures of what I have done so far. It is just flopped onto the floor for now. In the pictures it is about 3-4 inches shorter because I have the bottom plastic panel removed (I had to hose out the dust and water cooling crud). It stands around 26" tall. 😮

It has an EVGA GTX 770 4GB (with a second one that I will get eventually), 64GB of XPG DDR3-1866 CL10 RAM ("only" 16GB installed currently... some of the heatsinks fell off too), an i7 4930K and 2x 512GB Adata SX900 SSDs.

I will post more later as I make progress... probably in it's own thread.

So yeah... this is easily the most beastly machine I have ever been given in a non-working state.

Heh, you got 79, I got 99 (X99-S). Gotta source a HSF for mine.

dm- wrote on Yesterday, 03:48:

DundyTheCroc wrote on 2025-08-18, 12:05:

dm- wrote on 2025-08-18, 05:44:

The attachment abit.jpg is no longer available

a famous dual celeron board -)

I saw this board yesterday in YT video, so you are Fedor Sumkin?

kind of -) A BuB neighbour. we are sourcing items from same place.

I know, I watch both channels 😉

badmojo wrote on 2025-08-18, 22:02:

paradigital wrote on 2025-07-28, 18:46:

The attachment IMG_5386.jpeg is no longer available

This is one of the best ISA sound cards around.

Interesting. I mean I can see that it has genuine Yamaha OPL, and a wavetable header, but this soundcard is good in other ways?

Would I be better using this rather than my Audician 32?

paradigital wrote on Yesterday, 12:42:

badmojo wrote on 2025-08-18, 22:02:

paradigital wrote on 2025-07-28, 18:46:

The attachment IMG_5386.jpeg is no longer available

This is one of the best ISA sound cards around.

Interesting. I mean I can see that it has genuine Yamaha OPL, and a wavetable header, but this soundcard is good in other ways?

Would I be better using this rather than my Audician 32?

Here is a whole thread about it, though the information may be a bit outdated vs what you'll find in more recent threads.

Perfect ISA soundcard, in theory

Also, similar Crystal chips have been used on modern ISA sound card projects aiming to be the ultimate ISA sound card. They have a very well rounded feature set.