Help someone build their jury-rig!

Electrofreak · 2012-08-06, 06:56 PM

Hey folks, long-time PS1 player here who has been gaming light the last few years. I've been able to get away with using a laptop using OnLive and playing games like Terraria and EVE Online with low settings.

But now, with PS2, the time came to fire up my old rig down in the basement, an AMD Phenom X3 (8550 I think) coupled with a 790GX chipset, 4 GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA 8800 GTS I'd brought back to life. I know, ouch. But hey, it should at least run the game, right?

Except it doesn't POST anymore, and I'm not sure why. It worked about 6 months ago when I booted it just to grab a file, but after a little testing, the problem appears to be a motherboard failure.

So I dove into my bin 'o parts. I used to repair computers back in the day so I've got a ton of old legacy crap. AGP video cards, an AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+, a Pentium D dual-core, a bucket of random DDR and DDR2 memory (mostly 512 sticks), a few old motherboards (socket A, 754, etc) and a stack of questionable hard drives, mostly IDE but a few SATA.

I've managed to cobble together a jury-rigged machine but it's pretty pitiful. I probably should throw down some money on a rig but I'll be putting the down payment on a house in a month or so and will need every penny I can spare for repairs and renovations.

So, looking at my pile of old stuff, I figure, some of you guys out there must have the same stuff lying around. I used to post on a car forum where people would post up old parts they didn't want anymore and were willing to part with for the cost of shipping.

Something similar could do a lot of good here, for those like me who are tight on cash and not looking for cutting-edge equipment. If someone can offer me a better replacement, I'll offer up my Phenom X3 for someone else with an AM2+ board looking for an upgrade.

I'd love to see a Parts Exchange thread!

Rbstr · 2012-08-06, 09:31 PM

I've got a GTX275 I'm feeling generous with (PCI-express, I can only help so much).

Frankly, I'd rather get rid of it for some nominal fee + shipping, I've got too much junk kicking around (The only thing I need/want is a SATA disk 500gb +)...which brings me to:

I also have a fairly nice, if a bit dinged, mid-tower case which has an older AMD mobo in it...I think with an nForce chipset...I know it's an Athlon 64ish era, I think an x2, I'm pretty sure it's socket 939. Probably 2gb of DDR with it too.
The power supply is 500w I think...but it's weird and the power cable attachment is on the inside...It was an emergency replacement. And maybe a PCI Soundblaster Audigy 2ZS.
All that stuff can go for shipping costs. I can dig up the real specs if someone needs it.

Electrofreak · 2012-08-06, 10:43 PM

Originally Posted by Rbstr

I've got a GTX275 I'm feeling generous with (PCI-express, I can only help so much).

Frankly, I'd rather get rid of it for some nominal fee + shipping, I've got too much junk kicking around (The only thing I need/want is a SATA disk 500gb +)...which brings me to:

I also have a fairly nice, if a bit dinged, mid-tower case which has an older AMD mobo in it...I think with an nForce chipset...I know it's an Athlon 64ish era, I think an x2, I'm pretty sure it's socket 939. Probably 2gb of DDR with it too.
The power supply is 500w I think...but it's weird and the power cable attachment is on the inside...It was an emergency replacement. And maybe a PCI Soundblaster Audigy 2ZS.
All that stuff can go for shipping costs. I can dig up the real specs if someone needs it.

Hah, I still think I have your old address Rob, from the CPU my brother and I bought off you for cheap years ago. A Prescott it was, I think, and served us well.

I may have to take you up on that 275, they still do pretty damn well. Probably about twice as well as my 8800 GTS.

I may try to see if I can get the Phenom X3 to work in the AM2 board in place of the the Athlon 64 5000+. I doubt I'll be getting another AM2+ board, as I'd rather get an i5 or a Piledriver processor.

I wish I had more to offer myself. The repair work I did was about 5 years ago, and most of the motherboards / video cards I have are AGP, if that's any indication.