b_usa
08-18-2004, 01:39 PM
Hey guys. I have a case of persistently empty pockets, and a PC to match. My setup consists of hand-me downs, dumpster/alleyway scores, and garage sale finds. Not that I'm complaining, Ive got a decent system. I'm running an HP Pavillion 6736, whatever OEM board HP provided (I believe its the Intel 810 chipset), w/ 667mhz Coppermine Celeron (ok, the CPU aint exactly bling bling), 512 MG RAM (dont know the bus speed on that, will dmesg tell me?),40G Seagate Barracuda (7200 RPM, cant remember if its 2 or 8MG cache. i did buy this new, $60 at WalMart. What is the standad these days ,2 or 8MG cache?), crappy old *** E-Machines 15 inch CRT (I cant wait to replace this with a 19 inch CRT, this is definitely my least loved component), wireless Kensington keyboard, some generic PS/2 mouse, and onboard audio. Since everybody knows I do the tech thing, they are always giving me old crap that they don't know what to do with. I fix up old rigs for my mailmans charity, which gives them to low income families w/ autistic children, and he pays me with (literally) boxes of all kinds of PCI cards, optical and floppy drives, hard drives (of the 1 to 8 MG variety), keyboards, mice, the occasional fully assembled PC, and all types of old software. My question is this: I want to use some of this crap. For instance, I've got a bunch of old ATI Rage Pro 3D cards (PCI bus). Wouldn't this at least be better than the onboard graphics chip provided in the Intel 810 chipset? I really want to find a few good sites that specialize in old hardware reviews and information. If anyone can point me in the right direction, I would be really grateful. Also, I know that the ATI Rage Pro was a pretty common and popular card. Did any of you guys have one? Can someone give me an idea of what it is roughly capable of?
(In case you were wondering why I am calling hardware from 1996 'old', it's probably because I got my first computer in 2002, which was a generic 200mhz Pentium MMX w/ 32 MG RAM, and a 3G hard drive. I liked it so much I bought a brand new DELL Dimension 8200 (? i think thats what it was ?) a month later. The DELL had a P4 1.8 mhz chip (the Willamette core, but hey, the P4's were still pretty new I think), 512 MG of Rambus RDRAM at 800mhz, 80G 7100 RPM hard disk, Nvidia GeForce 4 Ti4400 vid card, and a slick 17 inch CRT. In case you were wondering what happened to that, I ended up giving it to a girl friend who needed a computer for school. I felt bad for her, andI owed her some money. So now I's straight outta Low Cash...Word up to your mother OK? Thanks...
(In case you were wondering why I am calling hardware from 1996 'old', it's probably because I got my first computer in 2002, which was a generic 200mhz Pentium MMX w/ 32 MG RAM, and a 3G hard drive. I liked it so much I bought a brand new DELL Dimension 8200 (? i think thats what it was ?) a month later. The DELL had a P4 1.8 mhz chip (the Willamette core, but hey, the P4's were still pretty new I think), 512 MG of Rambus RDRAM at 800mhz, 80G 7100 RPM hard disk, Nvidia GeForce 4 Ti4400 vid card, and a slick 17 inch CRT. In case you were wondering what happened to that, I ended up giving it to a girl friend who needed a computer for school. I felt bad for her, andI owed her some money. So now I's straight outta Low Cash...Word up to your mother OK? Thanks...