vetz wrote:

Snatched a GTX 580 locally for 20 euro. Crossing fingers it works when it arrives 😀

Bargain.

vetz wrote:

Snatched a GTX 580 locally for 20 euro. Crossing fingers it works when it arrives 😀

Was it "sold as is" kinda deal? Worth baking anyway should it need some. It's a great card. 😀

Picked up a msi gtx 550 for $12 at Goodwill. Used, loose in their bin of electronic stuff. Works!

ODwilly wrote:

Picked up a msi gtx 550 for $12 at Goodwill. Used, loose in their bin of electronic stuff. Works!

Wow.. lucky there. I found a 486 motherboard with PCI last month in a local good will but someone had been stupid and dropped some heavy speakers in the bin on it and scraped of some capacitors and bashed the ram in the socket really good, didn't look like worth the repair to me.

I may have to visit goodwills more often around here then.

got myself a new tablet. A basic 8" model. it was free because of my cell service provider. So thats nice.

kithylin wrote:

ODwilly wrote:

Picked up a msi gtx 550 for $12 at Goodwill. Used, loose in their bin of electronic stuff. Works!

Wow.. lucky there. I found a 486 motherboard with PCI last month in a local good will but someone had been stupid and dropped some heavy speakers in the bin on it and scraped of some capacitors and bashed the ram in the socket really good, didn't look like worth the repair to me.

I may have to visit goodwills more often around here then.

No kidding, I just about crapped myself. My Goodwill has nothing good computer related 99% of the time. My only other big score here over the years was a 620 Watt Antec PSU packed with 4 inches of dust that somehow worked. $3. Sold it to my broke friend who needed it for $10 😎

ODwilly wrote:

kithylin wrote:

I may have to visit goodwills more often around here then.

No kidding, I just about crapped myself. My Goodwill has nothing good computer related 99% of the time. My only other big score here over the years was a 620 Watt Antec PSU packed with 4 inches of dust that somehow worked. $3. Sold it to my broke friend who needed it for $10 😎

The problem around here is we have a GoodWill "Computer Works" department that is based out of downtown Dallas, TX. All of the computers, towers, computer hardware, video cards, etc that are donated to all the metroplex goodwill stores get sent down there and and funneled into that store. They strip em down, clean em, test everything throughly, then sell it in the store. They have cases, power supplies, processors, ram, video cards, fully assembled towers and list the specs, etc. And they're usually competitive and give senior discounts, and even a frequent shopper card thing where after like 12 purchases they give a -10% discount on the next one and it stacks with senior discounts. I sometimes make a trip over there once every few months with my momma to abuse her being old for senior discounts. :>

I got a 550 watt ATX power supply there with +40 amps on 5v once. I've seen voodoo2's in there before, etc. The problem though is now where we live, it's a 28 mile trip one way and in to the middle of heavy traffic downtown dallas and we rarely get to go now a days... and because of it almost all the local good will stores never have computers or computer parts, because they have to ship em over there instead of selling in store.

Hey at least when you do make the trip it sounds like it is worth the effort! My closest Goodwill is an hour drive and I think all the electronics get sent to Seattle or somewhere else even further away.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?It … N82E16817438015 back to the thread! Bought one of these. For $30 they are a steal. Great review on JohnnyGuru, excellent build quality for the price, and has enough juice for the typical lower-end build. This one is getting paired with an Athlon ii 250 and that MSI Geforce 550 for a spare LAN box.

Scored two Macs for $50 on craigslist last week. Complete systems except both did not have HDs. I cleaned them up inside and out (though one of them still has some scratches on the outside case).

One is a PowerMac G5 dual 2.5GHz with 6GB RAM. Pictures http://imgur.com/a/OzFq3

The other is a Mac Pro 1.1 that had dual 2.66GHz dual core Xeons and 6GB RAM. I upgraded it to 2x2.66GHz Quad Core X5355 Xeons, 16GB RAM, and a 128GB SSD. The GeForce 7300 GT in it is unreliable... and I cleaned the fan/heatsink. Ordered an 8800GT to replace it. It's in very good condition. I upgraded the firmware so now it is a "Mac Pro 2.1" (8 core model that will support 2x4 core CPUs).

oeuvre wrote:

Scored two Macs for $50 on craigslist last week. Complete systems except both did not have HDs. I cleaned them up inside and out (though one of them still has some scratches on the outside case).

One is a PowerMac G5 dual 2.5GHz with 6GB RAM. Pictures http://imgur.com/a/OzFq3

The other is a Mac Pro 1.1 that had dual 2.66GHz dual core Xeons and 6GB RAM. I upgraded it to 2x2.66GHz Quad Core X5355 Xeons, 16GB RAM, and a 128GB SSD. The GeForce 7300 GT in it is unreliable... and I cleaned the fan/heatsink. Ordered an 8800GT to replace it. It's in very good condition. I upgraded the firmware so now it is a "Mac Pro 2.1" (8 core model that will support 2x4 core CPUs).

Now that is a nice score!

Thanks! Got it up and running now with El Capitan 😀

My Oculus Rift CV1 arrived over the weekend. Been spending quite a few hours since then in the virtual realm. There are even plenty of "retro" things that can be done in VR. Playing the original DOOM and Quake brings a new feel to those classics. There is even a virtual arcade that can be downloaded on Steam. NewRetroArcade. I also played with a VirtualBoy emulator that finally allows playing those games in 3D without burning out your retinas.

kithylin wrote:

ODwilly wrote:

kithylin wrote:

I may have to visit goodwills more often around here then.

No kidding, I just about crapped myself. My Goodwill has nothing good computer related 99% of the time. My only other big score here over the years was a 620 Watt Antec PSU packed with 4 inches of dust that somehow worked. $3. Sold it to my broke friend who needed it for $10 😎

The problem around here is we have a GoodWill "Computer Works" department that is based out of downtown Dallas, TX. All of the computers, towers, computer hardware, video cards, etc that are donated to all the metroplex goodwill stores get sent down there and and funneled into that store. They strip em down, clean em, test everything throughly, then sell it in the store. They have cases, power supplies, processors, ram, video cards, fully assembled towers and list the specs, etc. And they're usually competitive and give senior discounts, and even a frequent shopper card thing where after like 12 purchases they give a -10% discount on the next one and it stacks with senior discounts. I sometimes make a trip over there once every few months with my momma to abuse her being old for senior discounts. :>

I got a 550 watt ATX power supply there with +40 amps on 5v once. I've seen voodoo2's in there before, etc. The problem though is now where we live, it's a 28 mile trip one way and in to the middle of heavy traffic downtown dallas and we rarely get to go now a days... and because of it almost all the local good will stores never have computers or computer parts, because they have to ship em over there instead of selling in store.

It is a shame that most of the retro hardware they get doesn't get saved at all regardless of condition, as for the discounts I always had to haggle a little to get a discount and I shopped at the one in my area for almost 6 years before they got shut down because of the Austin store kept running at a loss. I don't feel like driving a 200+ mile round trip through traffic jams and road construction. I still remember one night where a trucker crashed his rig and spilled jet fuel so that went up nice and toasty. Last year a dumbass had a high load so it took out a bridge that was under construction and killed someone, a beam landed in front of another rig and stopped it stopped hard enough the load ended up in the cab! Russian style driving is catching on down here as well 😵

So no thanks to going up there!

RX 480 -- who's buying? (continued from page 9-10 of this thread)

First batches Radeon RX 480 have been sold (PowerColor, reference board ~$280) since at least yesterday here in Jakarta. NDA has been lifted, reviews have appeared. Verdict: at best a little faster than GTX 970, but not a 980 in most games today. In DX12 Hitman it's pretty impressive, faster than 980, closer to a 980Ti. Perf/watt is obviously still behind Pascal (quite far). If you can get it for $200~230, THEN it might be a good value.

So that's 2016 so far -- overpriced Pascal and overhyped Polaris...

Just to be warned the reference version of the RX 480 has a NASTY hot spot that is basically entirely all the vrms and the max temp with a room temp of 22c was recorded at 96c! Beyond that this is a good card for the price and very competitive.

This isn't the worst that I have seen but in the long run those temps will brick cards but the fix is simple and very easy. Even cheap vram/vrm heatsinks that one can get in a pack for like $10 with thermal tape will reduce the temps.

I'll give the RX 480 a month or two to settle in price and for partners to improve on some of the reference card issues. Like 6-pin vs 8-pin power connector that Tom's HW pointed out. If we can get the price down to $200 for the 8GB model, that would be a great upgrade for a 750 Ti.

clueless1 wrote:

I'll give the RX 480 a month or two to settle in price and for partners to improve on some of the reference card issues. Like 6-pin vs 8-pin power connector that Tom's HW pointed out. If we can get the price down to $200 for the 8GB model, that would be a great upgrade for a 750 Ti.

The nvidia GTX 1060 will be coming for sale on the 7'th of july confirmed, and nvidia founders edition will be $300, but the board partner versions will be $199 for basic models also confirmed. That'll probably be the 3GB version though. There's supposed to be two versions, 3GB and 6GB, and no idea on pricing of 6GB versions.

So I would say "hold your horses" and wait a few weeks or towards the end of july to see what aftermarket cards from red and green sides look like for the $200 price point and compare performance and see which is the better choice then.

I bought my very first brand new 1080p monitor today. Yes, in 2016. About time right? Last new monitor I bought was a $80 Wal-mart special in 2006. 17" Proview 1400x900 @75hz. Pixels are dying ALL over the place and the colors are beyond messed up.

I have been debating whether I should get a 4K LED. It would only run @ 30HZ though. My W520 does not support 4K at 60HZ.