New to me (old) Linux machine

[asand1]

Ever since I built my current W10 machine, I have wanted an older machine to play with that would use the 4 DDR400 1Gb sticks I had lying around.

The other day I got a text message from my buddy. He is moving to Salem and wanted to know if I wanted an old computer he had. I picked it up yesterday and was very happy with what I found.

The computer is an Aspire Apevia X-Cruiser case with an ASUS P5P800-VM MOTHERBOARD, Corsair CX430 PSU, -+3.2Ghz Pentium D, ATI Radeon X1600 PRO, 2x1Gb Supertalent DDR400, and 2x1Gb Corsair DDR400.

I installed my Linux Mint 17 XFCE loaded 80G HDD and ran right out of the box. I attempted to install Zorin OS 64Bit but couldn't get away from the black screen on bootup. I was able to boot and run Zorin after adding "radeon.modeset=0" to the grub, but it wouldn't persist and I would have to do it at each boot.

I then installed Mint 17 XFCE 32Bit with no problems and am posting with the computer right now on a USB WIFI dongle.

 

[Colt45ws]

Hahaha, nice! Yeah the older stuff usually runs with Linux super fine. There is a way to make that modeset line persist. You'll have to edit something. Not sure what; not familiar with Mint. On Gentoo its /etc/default/grub you can add it to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX line and then run grub2-mkconfig to remake the boot configuration with that setting.

Also, check that board out. The capacitors around the CPU on that photo look to be Chemicon capacitors and they are known to be bad right around that time frame. I had a nForce 2 board that had blown all of them around the CPU and its about the same age. If you are planning on keeping it, I would recap the whole board.

 

[asand1]

The caps all look good, that was the first thing I looked at before removing the GPU and RAM for cleaning. I don't know the brand or series, but they are black and gold colored and are not swollen.

 

[Colt45ws]

Well, thats good! Must've had an easy life.

 

[mk378]

The Pentium D, being basically two Pentium 4's in the same package, really guzzles electricity. Thus it makes a lot of heat which is a strain on the capacitors, etc. If you're going to have this running a lot and don't need super performance, you could consider a CPU swap.

 

[asand1]

Well spending money on this machine is out of the question. I plan on letting it run in the garage 24/7 to stay dry and use the internet and PDF repair manuals.

Are there any other multicore CPUs that would run in this (LGA 775) socket? I like the dual core and am not worried about excess heat in the garage, or high power consumption.

I am also picking up a couple more computers within the hour and might have something even better ;-)

 

[asand1]

OK, one of the machines I just picked up was an old Socket 745 with an Athlon 64 2300 and less than a gig of DDR. I parted it out and recycled it.

The other machine is considerably better. It is a Systemax Venture with a 2.2Ghz Pentium Dual, and 2Gb of DDR2. I installed Zorin OS (linux) and it is running great.

So between the Pentium Dual 2.2 and the Pentium D 3.2, What do you all think I should use for my garage PC?

Also I picked up a 17" no name LCD flat screen with a DOA power brick. I cut the power lead off the bricked brick and hooked it up to my repurposed ATX bench supply.

 

[mk378]

Originally Posted By: asand1
Well spending money on this machine is out of the question. I plan on letting it run in the garage 24/7 to stay dry and use the internet and PDF repair manuals.

Are there any other multicore CPUs that would run in this (LGA 775) socket? I like the dual core and am not worried about excess heat in the garage, or high power consumption.

There are a lot of CPU's in that package. The problem is that the BIOS on the board has to recognize and support the CPU in order to set up its voltages, clock frequencies, etc. If i is not supported, the board will do absolutely nothing.

So your options are practically limited to the chips that existed and were included in the BIOS at the time of the latest BIOS upgrade you can find.

The Pentium D will burn a couple of kWh per day, so a $5.00 Celeron (at 35W instead of 135W) from a thrift store has a very realizable payback time.

Pentium Dual Core is definitely the better chip. Because it is the new Core design instead of the P4, it has more performance per GHz. Also much more performance per watt.

 

[Colt45ws]

Yeah, the later 2.2GHz machine is the better choice.

 

[asand1]

OK, The Pentium DUAL machine is running an Nvidia nForce 680I LT SLI Motherboard. Looks like I have many CPU upgrade paths including Core 2 Quad

Two more gigs can be gotten on ebay for only $6.

I will probably steal the huge heat sink off the Pentium D (twice as tall) and the Corsair 430 PSU from the Pentium D machine and swap them in. The Pentium D machine is not worth playing with and more valuable to me for some of its parts.

Let me know if anyone wants 2x4G DDR400 with heat spreaders, or anything else from the PD machine.

 

[asand1]

Thinking maybe a Q9300.