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Last month I found a set of used computer parts: mobo/CPU/RAM, plus an IDE DVD drive, plus a workstation video card, for a good price. I say good price because the whole mess actually works. At least as far as I can tell; I haven't done any real stress-testing on it yet.
The case I got for this was the cheapest thing Microcenter had that still has external drive bays and could fit an ATX board. Cases have made good progress in quality over the years, but I still had to fix some of the threads where screws are supposed to go in.
The wires on the ultra-cheap power supply wouldn't reach where they needed to. So I used a spare 850W that had the longer wires. Except the supply wouldn't stay on? I had that in a different system and it worked there? I ended up putting the cheapo supply back in and getting ATX extension cable sets, which cost more than the supply itself. Not much either way.
The mobo, from about 2007, came with a dual-core AMD CPU, and 4GB of DDR2 RAM (can go up to 8). It's new enough to have SATA ports and PCI-express, and old enough to have a header for a floppy drive and be really cheap. There are drivers for it from all the way back to Windows2000, all the way up to Windows 10. I'm putting Win7 on it because I have one key left and I'm not letting it go to waste (even though I could have been sneaky and used it for Win10).
Since it has SATA ports, of course I went with an SSD! It's a smaller capacity off-brand but it'll do. I also put a floppy drive on this, but I'm down to my last spare, something I pulled from an old Vaio given to me by my cousin Gil.
Let me tell you about his old Vaio. It was something he got back in 2005 or so. In 2012, it started giving him more and more trouble, so he gave up on it, bought another computer, and gave me the Vaio, accessories and all. I tried my hand at it, reinstalling Windows, swapping parts, and so on, and even I couldn't get it to stay running. It wasn't just the computer that went bad: The Vaio-branded computer speakers started crackling out, the Vaio-branded ball mouse stopped working, and the Vaio-branded keyboard also quit. Maybe, and just maybe, I'm hoping if there's anything good in that system, it would be the floppy, even if it is missing its front plate.
Anyway. I've now gotten this weird retro-box up and running. I don't know where I'll put this thing, or what I'll do with it. Maybe I'll put a computer in every room in the house. Maybe I'll end up giving it to someone.
Non sequitur 1: Since winter is not a good time for long car trips, I've been using Google Streetview to get a feel for some theoretical/virtual road trips, and have music playing at the same time, to simulate using the radio. It's not quite the same as being out on the road but then there's a lot I don't have to worry about, and if I get tired or need to do something else, I can just stop whenever or jump to a different area. It's also resulted in an association of songs to places, such as when I'm looking at images of rural highways while "Restless" by Gordon Lightfoot is playing. Or when Streetview went past a homeless encampment in New Orleans while "Mr. Brownstone" by Guns n' Roses is playing. That said, and this goes for any major city, I'm quite sure that someone there would be very familiar with Mr. Brownstone.
Non sequitur 2: One of Ai's door handles broke off. At least it was the passenger side. It was getting kinda gummy for the past few years so I'm not all that surprised. I would pull up on the handle to open the door but I'd have to push it back down otherwise the door wouldn't latch. I've already ordered a new part and it should be here in time for the weekend. A neat (and merciful) thing I found is that the outer handles from both the hatchbacks and the sedan front doors are the same. Maybe I should have ordered a driver's side handle too, as a spare for what's to come.
The case I got for this was the cheapest thing Microcenter had that still has external drive bays and could fit an ATX board. Cases have made good progress in quality over the years, but I still had to fix some of the threads where screws are supposed to go in.
The wires on the ultra-cheap power supply wouldn't reach where they needed to. So I used a spare 850W that had the longer wires. Except the supply wouldn't stay on? I had that in a different system and it worked there? I ended up putting the cheapo supply back in and getting ATX extension cable sets, which cost more than the supply itself. Not much either way.
The mobo, from about 2007, came with a dual-core AMD CPU, and 4GB of DDR2 RAM (can go up to 8). It's new enough to have SATA ports and PCI-express, and old enough to have a header for a floppy drive and be really cheap. There are drivers for it from all the way back to Windows2000, all the way up to Windows 10. I'm putting Win7 on it because I have one key left and I'm not letting it go to waste (even though I could have been sneaky and used it for Win10).
Since it has SATA ports, of course I went with an SSD! It's a smaller capacity off-brand but it'll do. I also put a floppy drive on this, but I'm down to my last spare, something I pulled from an old Vaio given to me by my cousin Gil.
Let me tell you about his old Vaio. It was something he got back in 2005 or so. In 2012, it started giving him more and more trouble, so he gave up on it, bought another computer, and gave me the Vaio, accessories and all. I tried my hand at it, reinstalling Windows, swapping parts, and so on, and even I couldn't get it to stay running. It wasn't just the computer that went bad: The Vaio-branded computer speakers started crackling out, the Vaio-branded ball mouse stopped working, and the Vaio-branded keyboard also quit. Maybe, and just maybe, I'm hoping if there's anything good in that system, it would be the floppy, even if it is missing its front plate.
Anyway. I've now gotten this weird retro-box up and running. I don't know where I'll put this thing, or what I'll do with it. Maybe I'll put a computer in every room in the house. Maybe I'll end up giving it to someone.
Non sequitur 1: Since winter is not a good time for long car trips, I've been using Google Streetview to get a feel for some theoretical/virtual road trips, and have music playing at the same time, to simulate using the radio. It's not quite the same as being out on the road but then there's a lot I don't have to worry about, and if I get tired or need to do something else, I can just stop whenever or jump to a different area. It's also resulted in an association of songs to places, such as when I'm looking at images of rural highways while "Restless" by Gordon Lightfoot is playing. Or when Streetview went past a homeless encampment in New Orleans while "Mr. Brownstone" by Guns n' Roses is playing. That said, and this goes for any major city, I'm quite sure that someone there would be very familiar with Mr. Brownstone.
Non sequitur 2: One of Ai's door handles broke off. At least it was the passenger side. It was getting kinda gummy for the past few years so I'm not all that surprised. I would pull up on the handle to open the door but I'd have to push it back down otherwise the door wouldn't latch. I've already ordered a new part and it should be here in time for the weekend. A neat (and merciful) thing I found is that the outer handles from both the hatchbacks and the sedan front doors are the same. Maybe I should have ordered a driver's side handle too, as a spare for what's to come.
