Discussion I found an old PC in the basement.

[Dr3ams]

My wife and I were cleaning out the basement when I stumbled upon this old PC. Back in the early 2000s I had volunteered to collect donated computers and install them into local school networks. Some of the computers were defect and got shelved until I had the time to repair them. I couldn't buy new parts for them, so I canabalized parts from the others to build ones that I could use in the installs. After the project was over I had a couple of boxes of parts that normally would have been tossed, so I took them home. At the time, my mother-in-law needed a computer to surf the net, so I built the one shown in the photos from some of those parts.

Blew all the dust out and surprisingly it still works.

Specs:
CPU: AMD Sempron 2200+ 1.5GHz
CPU Cooler: Thermaltake TR2
RAM: 2x 512MB DDR 1 PC2700 333MHz
GPU: Club 3D ATI (now AMD) Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB 128bit AGP (max power draw 18 watts)
Motherboard: ASRock K7S41
Hard Drives: 2x Maxtor 80GB IDE
Drives: Plextor PX-708A CD/DVD burner and LG CD/DVD player
PSU: Golden Field (??? no idea where this came from) 350 watt

Also, there was an old 15" TFT display that still worked too.

At first I was going to toss it all into the dumpster, but changed my mind. Now I want to use it for older games like: Act of War, Red Alert 2 and such...

 

[artk2219]

It looks good, I used to have a 9600 pro, I loved that card, played tons of Americas Army, call of duty, quake iii, starcraft, and unreal tournament with a setup similar to that. Athlon XP 2400+, Radeon 9600 Pro, Soyo SY-KT333 dragon ultra platinum, 1gb ram, and a sound blaster audigy 2 hah. I've been thinking about doing a new Socket A build, i have an Athlon XP 3200+ hanging around, a Radeon 9700 pro, X850 XT, or GTX 6800 Ultra I could use, and a few KT800 and Nforce 2 boards I could prick from. My current retro rig for 98 and DOS is a K6-III+ 450 running at 550, 512MB RAM, Geforce 2 MX400, 64GB SSD, Sound blaster Live.

 

[stonecarver]

Wow this feel familiar. Weird the older you get it actually feels like those parts were in the not long ago past. 20 years ago those parts age at. Holy Batman cool find.

 

[sonofjesse]

Make it a retro gaming rig!

 

[Dr3ams]

I was hoping to upgrade it a little, so I looked through some drawers of older CPUs and Ram. But I don't have any other Socket A CPUs that are better than the one already installed. Same for the RAM...all I have in DDR1 is a bunch of 512MB modules. About a year ago I tossed out a NVIDIA GeForce 6800 and a 7800 GPU. That's unfortunate, could of used one of those in this PC. Also, the CPU cooler is very loud, so I will be replacing the fan on it.

 

[Misgar]

That case looks very familiar and I probably have a bunch of Celeron and Sempron computers gathering dust up in the roof space.

The only thing I'd caution against is the age of the PSU. There's always a nagging doubt that a 17-year PSU might stop working the next time you switch on the PC (the Sempron 2200+ was released in August 2004)

There's no easy way to determine if the PSU's electrolytics are drying out, unless you possess an oscilloscope and can measure the DC ripple on the +12V, +5V and +3.3V supply rails under load, but this only checks out the secondary circuits.

If the main 420V DC bulk electrolytic in the primary circuit dries out, the PSU will die, sometimes with a bang and a puff of smoke.

Assuming the PSU is a standard ATX unit with a 20-way or 24-way main connector, plus a 4-way or 8-way 12V DC supply for the CPU, consider changing it for something newer.

 

[Dr3ams]

That case looks very familiar and I probably have a bunch of Celeron and Sempron computers gathering dust up in the roof space.

The only thing I'd caution against is the age of the PSU. There's always a nagging doubt that a 17-year PSU might stop working the next time you switch on the PC (the Sempron 2200+ was released in August 2004)

There's no easy way to determine if the PSU's electrolytics are drying out, unless you possess an oscilloscope and can measure the DC ripple on the +12V, +5V and +3.3V supply rails under load, but this only checks out the secondary circuits.

If the main 420V DC bulk electrolytic in the primary circuit dries out, the PSU will die, sometimes with a bang and a puff of smoke.

Assuming the PSU is a standard ATX unit with a 20-way or 24-way main connector, plus a 4-way or 8-way 12V DC supply for the CPU, consider changing it for something newer.

That's good advice. The only extra PSU I have is a Bequiet! Straight Power 750 watt. I keep that one around in case I have to RMA the one in my system. I looked at some 400 watt PSUs and they average around 35 Euros, I'll probably order one of those.