Miphee wrote on 2021-01-13, 13:38:

It's awesome when you find a spouse who supports you all the way! :) My main rig has a Q9550. It's okay as an office and basic g […]
Show full quote

H3nrik V! wrote on 2021-01-13, 12:40:

And actually a friend of mine has a Core2Quad as his daily Win10 driver. It's +10 years but runs great, nowhere near sluggish. Even though it's a Win7-Win10 upgraded system. Very impressing IMO

It's awesome when you find a spouse who supports you all the way! 😀
My main rig has a Q9550. It's okay as an office and basic gaming platform but when I compare it to a 3 years old middle range CPU the differences are just insanely huge.
This Q9550 has a sentimental value to me but I should have replaced it like 3 years ago. The problem is that I have to replace everything else as well: board, RAM, GPU, even the PSU and I just don't want to spend that kind of money on an office rig. So the Q9550 stays!

Funny, IIRC, his is also a Q9550 (I remember for a fact that it's a 12 MiB version at least). Clocked at +3GHz, and been that since he got it .. 😁

Maybe it's because we only use laptops for work now, but that old rig seem sooooooo responsive, like there has been no development ever since. It might be a TDP thing with the old C2Q not using all kinds of power savings, where as my current laptop for work using an i7-9850H, idles at 800 MHz often ..?

My favourite era/generations are the Pentium 2 and Pentim 3 and I collected everything I've seen value in (Klamath-300; Deschutes-450; Katmai-500; Slot1 Coppermine-733; s370 Coppermine-933 and recently 1GHz; Tualatin Pentium III-S 1.26GHz). So a decent performing version for each slot/socket with each core. I also have a slotket wihch I don't use and some Celerons. But to find let's say a 1GHz Pentium III with each s-spec is I think pointless.

H3nrik V! wrote on 2021-01-14, 07:49:

Maybe it's because we only use laptops for work now, but that old rig seem sooooooo responsive, like there has been no development ever since. It might be a TDP thing with the old C2Q not using all kinds of power savings, where as my current laptop for work using an i7-9850H, idles at 800 MHz often ..?

Depends on what you use it for. Browsing the net, watching full HD movies and very occasionally playing pre-2017 games makes the Q9550 a decent choice (with 8 GB DDR3 and a HD6850). A computer like that costs $70 now and I don't want to spend $500 to get the same experience.
If I had $500 I'd buy a Core 2 Extreme QX9770. 😁

Living wrote on 2021-01-13, 10:18:

i dont see the point on buying and collecting.

and I don't see the point of life in itself, but yet here we are ^^

debs3759 wrote on 2021-01-13, 09:42:

Miphee wrote on 2021-01-13, 09:31:

So that's it, collectors are obsessed guys. Thank god I have a very supportive wife too. 😁

Yeah, proud obsessed old disabled woman here. I chose to remain single, so nobody to hold me back from spending twice what I can afford 😀

I have to hold me back from myself more often than not x3

RandomStranger wrote on 2021-01-14, 09:46:

Deschutes-450

How do you disassemble this package?
I have a badly damaged Deschutes 266 with a metal part separated from the CPU core.
The metal heatsink side has 8 pins but nothing on the other plastic side but the logo.
I can't find a video where someone takes it apart without breaking the plastic as well.
Is it possible at all?

My favorite timeframe is from 1986 - 1996. So many things were going on; so much competition in the CPU space, advances in Operating Systems were happening, so many vendors were showing off their products trying to differentiate and grab a piece of the pie, and shareware and BBSs and benchmarks... it was all so exciting. 4 different x86 CPU generations happened in that short time period: 80386 in 1986, 80486 in 1989, Pentium in 1993, and Pentium Pro in 1996, with each release doubling the IPC from the previous. An amazing timeframe to preserve, IMHO.

Miphee wrote on 2021-01-14, 20:36:

How do you disassemble this package? I have a badly damaged Deschutes 266 with a metal part separated from the CPU core. The met […]
Show full quote

RandomStranger wrote on 2021-01-14, 09:46:

Deschutes-450

How do you disassemble this package?
I have a badly damaged Deschutes 266 with a metal part separated from the CPU core.
The metal heatsink side has 8 pins but nothing on the other plastic side but the logo.
I can't find a video where someone takes it apart without breaking the plastic as well.
Is it possible at all?

No idea. My 450 has a completely different kind of cooler. Yours seems to be the same as the one on my Klamath-266

But to me it seems as if it was riveted. I don't see any obvious way to disassemble the cooler. I never tried to take the cooler off.
I have some hazy memories about reading somewhere that some slot-1 coolers were non-removable.
If it is riveted than probably all you can do is very cerefully drill the rivets out, but you have to have a steady hand, PCBs are soft.

It's not rivets, it's pins that can be pressed out with enough force. I can't remember how I stripped slot 1 processors like that 15 years ago, but it can be done. You have to be careful not to damage the circuit board though, it's not a simple task.

debs3759 wrote on 2021-01-14, 21:32:

It's not rivets, it's pins that can be pressed out with enough force. I can't remember how I stripped slot 1 processors like that 15 years ago, but it can be done. You have to be careful not to damage the circuit board though, it's not a simple task.

Yep ! They are press in pins. I used a Drill press with a nail (cut head and point off) and using wood blocks under the cpu forceably cranked the handle to push the pins out. It only comes out one way and almost screwed things up. Was a long time ago....
Added: and NO the drill was not turned on and you have to pop off the plastic front cover which is a biatch....

I'm not sure if I'd call myself a CPU collector, but since I don't want to dispose of CPUs once I acquire them, I guess that puts me at level 1.

Most of my CPUs were bought individually for some specific reason or because they came with a system that I bought. Right now there's a few I'd like to get for a future benchmarking project, but which I might have no ongoing use for after that. The Covington Celeron 300MHz is a good example. I don't know any good reason to run one, but it would make an interesting point of comparison.
I don't feel a need to have every speed grade, but I do like to have the fastest reasonably affordable model that will work in a given type of motherboard. Of course so does everybody else, so the actual "top" CPUs tend to be too expensive for me.

A few times in the past I bought bulk lots of slot-1 CPUs to include with motherboards I was selling. I haven't sold motherboards in years, and in the end I had a lot of leftover, identical Slot-1s that are still sitting around. I also have a shortage of heatsinks vs CPUs. I doubt they're worth selling as bare CPUs right now, but maybe eventually they will be. I could certainly stand to thin those out, I don't need all the duplicates.

Okay, Mr. 266 stays as is because I'm not going to break it apart with force. I tried removing the thin plastic part under the metal part and couldn't even do that so I figured that I'd just brick the CPU and accomplish nothing. It works by the way and since it doesn't even dissipate that much heat anyway I just taped the loose part with a black tape. Not the nicest collector's piece but it's functional. I'll buy another one when it turns up.
Not the most user-friendly design but at least no legs to bend or break.
I just had to straighten the pins on a P4 1.7 SL5TK that had literally no straight pins (probably tossed around in a recycling center). Good thing these pins are quite strong and can take a lot of bending. I love the 775 package so much!

In general I think motherboards are more precious than processors, so I'd rather have the fragile parts on the CPU.
Slot-1 was the best of both worlds though. Both the CPU and motherboard side are durable with that system.
Problem with slot-1 is the finicky connection, but once it gets going it stays working.

Miphee wrote on 2021-01-14, 20:36:

How do you disassemble this package? I have a badly damaged Deschutes 266 with a metal part separated from the CPU core. The met […]
Show full quote

How do you disassemble this package?
I have a badly damaged Deschutes 266 with a metal part separated from the CPU core.
The metal heatsink side has 8 pins but nothing on the other plastic side but the logo.
I can't find a video where someone takes it apart without breaking the plastic as well.
Is it possible at all?

Vogons member Robert B has done it with a couple of Slot A's wich are identical to PII:
Re: Hello, World! :D - Robert B's PC builds - oogle away freely :)

shamino wrote on 2021-01-15, 13:55:

In general I think motherboards are more precious than processors, so I'd rather have the fragile parts on the CPU.

True, much harder to get a socket 8 board than a Pentium Pro CPU.
But people who only collect CPUs will always love the 775 package, especially those who already received poorly packaged CPU packs filled with 478s and heavy Semprons.
True nightmare.

PARKE wrote on 2021-01-15, 14:12:

Vogons member Robert B has done it with a couple of Slot A's wich are identical to PII:

Thanks but watching that was enough. I don't have the nerves to do it. 😁

And what about engineering samples? Did Intel produce a sample line for every CPU model?

Yes, every new processor starts out as a sample, as that is mostly how they are tested.

debs3759 wrote on 2021-01-21, 16:33:

Yes, every new processor starts out as a sample, as that is mostly how they are tested.

How can the general public get their hands on one? I thought those are only given to OEM manufacturers for testing purposes.

Samples frequently end up in systems that are sold or find their way into the hands of resellers. A lot of samples end up on Chinese sites and sites like CPU-World, as well as sometimes on auction sites. Technically all of those break confidentiality agreements, but for samples of older CPUs, the manufacturers often turn a blind eye. Newer samples are a different thing though, and Intel definitely try to shut down sales of samples of current chips.

Miphee wrote on 2021-01-16, 21:49:

But people who only collect CPUs will always love the 775 package.

I don't. They can't be stacked in the showcase because the stacks tend to fall apart thanks to the asymmetric SMD arrays on the bottom. I'd say 775 CPUs are unstable 😁