perkyzombie

haha I frequently get windows irritation and flick the PSU switch off with a FUMS under my breath. I dare you windows, break, I dare you... Anyways, I did the reg hack back in September of 2018 which turns a desktop LAN connection to metered, admittedly I am surprised my system hasn't updated since. I do get a popup telling me windows couldn't update which makes me smile as I wonder why I still have a windows machine... oh yeah fu elgato drivers. Clearly, I'm not worried about security as this is just a capture rig and net access is blocked via my router; all my machines are assigned static IPs. *edit* doh, I didn't block this IP until February when I added a network switch so for five months metering this connection blocked all windows updates... thankfully with the october update fiasco! Perhaps relative settings to the conversation, I have no pagefile with 32GB physical installed and hibernation is disabled. I've noticed that the current Win10 Pro now lets you specify a metered connection in the network settings for desktops, however the functionality is not as restrictive as the windows version I did the regedit on. This current version will still execute some updates.

sounds like this is a socket 775 (intel) or 939 (amd), that will not have SATA 3. SATA 3 started appearing on motherboards around 2nd gen core series for personal desktops. yeah, quick look at chipset features around Sandybridge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_chipsets As the IDE operation is concerned, sounds like you had a hard drive and DVD on the same cable originally, make sure the jumpers at the back are set to master and slave respectively and that the cable is plugged into the motherboard to hard drive to DVD. Else just plug in the DVD and jumper it to master. Auto will also work but for troubleshooting fix it proper to master and slave. (of course HD to master does not require a slave to be present) If you are trying to boot WIN XP from the IDE, check the bios is set to IDE and not AHCI -if IDE emulation is available in AHCI mode than this isn't necessary. (also try visa-versa when trying to install 10, ie AHCI mode) During the first year Win10 was out I upgrade a win7 install on an Asus P5K-E running a duo E8400 with 8GB of DDR2 1066, the system was unusable. If you really want to game on this system I'd recommend Xubuntu or turn it into a Retro-rig and either keep XP or I'd go for Win98 SE.

I recently purchased Kentek because curiosity, mine is rated at 550w however the rating which interested me is the 5 volt rail at 40 amps. This is relative for P3, P4, Athlon XP systems. The 3.3v and 12v rails are only rated to 25amps, which is likely low on the 12v for modern gaming systems. Indeed a quick look at the rail specifications for the Kentek 680w, this is truly meant for the last of the 32bit systems, see picture, only 22amps on the 12v... that's why it blew on a modern system. After opening the 550w unit it is clearly a knock-off, I suspect the PCB is copied for an Enermax or SH circa 2002ish. However, all the AC interference suppression components were not populated and only the minimum of the electrolytic caps are populated. The PSU is a basic full-bridge rectifier with near no power conditioning. Admittedly, I'm quite the Corsair fan boy as I've six systems using their PSUs, 5 of which are the HXi series. I've not bothered or had the need to crack any of the HXis open and my only gripe regarding things Corsair is the complete lack of linux support but that's just typical and irritating. However(!), the sixth PSU is an older TX750W which had two issues. The axial fuse on the AC supply had a cold solder joint on an axial lead which eventually failed. This cause intermittent operation and the typical zzt sound as the connection went in and out of contact; easy fix. While I was poking around the PSU looking for the failure I desolder the AC film capacitor which is used for interference suppression. Not impressed here, these are the cheapest of the cheap, China X2s. Likely, the PSU experienced an overvoltage event which can really wreak havoc on film caps; mine was operating at 60% capacitance. I'm a huge fan of the Panasonic film caps as they have a fused grid array which limits breakdown propagation. I use these on all PSUs I refurbish (as well Nichicon PM or PW series electrolytic caps for PSU and motherboard power cap replacements -good high ripple current and ~0 ESR) https://industrial.panasonic.com/ww/products-cap/film-capacitors/film-cap-electroequip/radial-features The better the interference suppression the less the AC leakage into the DC supply and the less ripple current the motherboard caps have to deal with as well swtiching transients. Modern motherboards which are somewhat decent have all made the switch to polymer caps in lieu of electrolytic caps, polymer caps have ripple suppression ratings typically five or more times higher than the equivalent sized electrolytic as such they are far more tolerant to crapy PSUs... they are also 5 times the cost. https://www.tomshardware.co.uk/power-supplies-101,review-33299-3.html