Less of a build log more of a resurrection, Commodore PC

[adamp2006]

So i know this is no groundbreaking uber watercooled rig with 100's of frames per second, but i was gifted this PC by a kind old woman that said it was broken and therefore i could take it away for the sum of no £ ,as i never even knew that there was such a thing as a Commodore branded PC i thought it worth bringing back to life. I tested it out and it would just put the monitor in sleep mode at random, and after pulling off the fan from the 9600 GT i can now see why.

 

So hopefully you will all come along with me for the ride while i clean it up, repair where required, possibly replace if really needed (would like to keep it as standard as possible)

[adamp2006]

Was seeking older tech than this to put together a retro gaming pc that would run all my old Command & Conquer / 7th guest type games that i found in the attic, but this seems alot higher spec than i first thought.

 

Have done a little more digging and have come up with specs and a repair list.

 

So the sticker claims that this is the "GS" version but the specs really don't match that, so assume some level of customisation was available.

 

Specs :

• Motherboard - P5N32-E SLI (with Supremefx sound card)
• Processor - Intel Q6600 Core 2 Quad 2.4ghz
• Graphics - Geforce 9600 GT
• RAM - 1.5gb (all random sticks and speeds) 
• HDD - 120gb IDE (there is a sata cable installed to the HDD bay so guessing its a replacement)
• Optical Drive - Black Samsung SH-S183A
• O/S - Windows 7 (Vista key and logos all over so again guessing its been upgraded)

Repairs : 

• Clean everything , it's all covered in brown sticky dust , assuming previous owner was a smoker
• One of the front buttons that changes the fan led colour is broken, easy repair
• Obviously the fan on the 9600gt is beyond hope, will ghetto a fan on for now, may replace with identical 9600's in SLI
• CPU heat sink has a broken retaining clip
• Put it back to a nice fresh install of Vista

Upgrades :

• As mentioned replacing the 9600 for a pair in sli is a definite option
• 4 x 2gb sticks of matched PC6400 RAM to max out the board
• Somewhere in the range of 500gb sata hard drive (should be able to salvage from a SKY HD box)

Thats about it , couple of pics of how filth it all is , and well DAYUM that fan (think its about 240mm ) and yes that is a heatpipe / radiator combo coming off the PSU 

 

[NaLu]

Please make this build beautiful again

 

IMO 9600GT in SLI is just absolutely amazing idea! And this PSU... unique and cool.

[Bananasplit_00]

5 hours ago, adamp2006 said:

Was seeking older tech than this to put together a retro gaming pc that would run all my old Command & Conquer / 7th guest type games that i found in the attic, but this seems alot higher spec than i first thought.

 

Have done a little more digging and have come up with specs and a repair list.

 

So the sticker claims that this is the "GS" version but the specs really don't match that, so assume some level of customisation was available.

 

Specs :

• Motherboard - P5N32-E SLI (with Supremefx sound card)
• Processor - Intel Q6600 Core 2 Quad 2.4ghz
• Graphics - Geforce 9600 GT
• RAM - 1.5gb (all random sticks and speeds) 
• HDD - 120gb IDE (there is a sata cable installed to the HDD bay so guessing its a replacement)
• Optical Drive - Black Samsung SH-S183A
• O/S - Windows 7 (Vista key and logos all over so again guessing its been upgraded)

Repairs : 

• Clean everything , it's all covered in brown sticky dust , assuming previous owner was a smoker
• One of the front buttons that changes the fan led colour is broken, easy repair
• Obviously the fan on the 9600gt is beyond hope, will ghetto a fan on for now, may replace with identical 9600's in SLI
• CPU heat sink has a broken retaining clip
• Put it back to a nice fresh install of Vista

Upgrades :

• As mentioned replacing the 9600 for a pair in sli is a definite option
• 4 x 2gb sticks of matched PC6400 RAM to max out the board
• Somewhere in the range of 500gb sata hard drive (should be able to salvage from a SKY HD box)

Thats about it , couple of pics of how filth it all is , and well DAYUM that fan (think its about 240mm ) and yes that is a heatpipe / radiator combo coming off the PSU 

 

-snipity snip-

dat PSU. its just insaine. omg. please keep it because its awesome

[adamp2006]

Lol well it seems the PSU has some fans , absolutely no pun intended, just pure blind luck, dat branding tho :

 

 

It will definitely be staying, is 750w unit and will be in the system till the day it dies (touch wood , hopefully not anytime soon) Also on the branding issue, the case feet , OMG , i only have 2 of them tho, this calls for me to somehow scan them in, so that i can then use my very unloved 3D printer to make some replacements for it i feel  

 

 

Spending the day dusting and cleaning with anti-bacterial wipes think while i wait for the cable ties to come to cable manage it all i shall get it up and running with mighty Vista on my bench once all the main components are clean and i've rigged up a fan to the 9600.

[TheCamba]

Got to have different types of build logs.  Sometimes these are more fun than a standard "add water cooling" blog.

[adamp2006]

Cleaning continues, it really was very disgusting and i'm glad i've saved it from its horrible previous owners : 

 

 

Removed as many parts as i could to clean properly, repaired the button (pictured on the lower left before the repair) and ghetto'ed a fan onto the graphics card, had to solder the wire from the old fan onto the substitute so that it could be plugged into the board, desoldered all the leds from the fan too as they weren't needed.

 

 

Its not pretty but it works and as i'm planning on sourcing a matched pair of 9600s anyway its only got to function for a while. Also made sure that all the cleaning and repairs haven't done any damage, so set it all up on the desk so that i could install Vista Home Premium 64 on it and get all the drivers sorted.

 

 

Now just have to pull out a pile of cable ties so that i can route all the cables nice and neatly, also need to dig out a new battery as the time keeps slipping, and no wonder as the battery has all of 1.5v in it , sure i have a collection of replacements round here somewhere, i remember "rescuing" them from my old job

 

Will soon be back in the case at this rate, do still need to source some more RAM and those 9600s and also a bigger sata drive , but sure they will turn up in due course.

[porterj5]

very cool

[SilicateWielder]

Very nice. Perhaps I should do a B-log like this sometime.

[adamp2006]

So typically as i just get everything fitted back in the case and looking beautiful again :

 

 

2 things happen

 

1. i find 2 Sky HD+ boxes for free (for those outside the UK Sky is our satellite television company and their hd+ box is basically a DVR so has a 500gb sata hdd inside) one of which i already have and have installed the hdd and reinstalled Vista Home Premium to it , the other i will acquire thursday and will add as additional storage for all the hundreds of abandonware games i have been getting hold of and my own collection of big box pc games

 

2. i managed to sell off some old motorcycle parts i had lying around so can now afford to upgrade to the dual 9600 sli (total cost £32.61 delivered including sli bridge)  and the 8gb of PC6400 RAM (£19.98 for 2 4gb sets (2 x 2gb sticks)) so they should be getting ordered in the next few days and ofcourse there will be an update for the

 

Seems my repair on the switch for the fan leds worked out ok :

 

 

Do very much like the blue, it does allow you to cycle through and even turn them off which is nice also the side fan (250mm not 240mm as previously guessed) looks so good behind the commodore logo : 

 

 

Speaking of the logo, am currently wrapping my head around photogrammetry software so that i can get a 3d model of the feet , if it proves too complex i may just get an image of the shape and work from that but would rather actually model the original feet as they are more rounded and grooved, so lots of photographs to take and really must service the Ultimaker before need to start printing on it.

 

So hopefully with one more update we should be done and for a little over £50 total to bring this gorgeous machine back to life and fully upgrade it to its best possible configuration, will have to get hold of a couple of 3.5mm screws to re-attach the door so i can show you all its funky design aswell  

[TheCamba]

2 minutes ago, adamp2006 said:

- SNIP -

Dude, that looks nice.  Great work on cleaning it up.

[NaLu]

It looks suuuuper good mate!

[Stefan1024]

A PSU with an external heat sinks?!?

Wow, I haven't seen this so far.

 

Also I really like it when old machines get's restored to theier original glory.

[adamp2006]

A little bundle of joy was delivered today

 

 

My matched pair of Zotac 9600gt Synergy edition cards , also got the screws for the door (they have the wrong thread pitch so getting replacements) and the SLI Bridge (which was too short so had to grab a longer one sigh). But these are a good start, have them in and both showing up in windows:

 

 

And the orange looks so good at the back with the black, so LinusTechTips  , i know a couple of the blanking plates need spraying but they were missing when i got it and i had to dig in my box of spares for them :

 

 

Slowly getting there, will just be a case of waiting on the postie to bring me more bits and finding a set of PC6400 that is cheap and works with Intel, seems there are AMD only sets out there (which i never knew about , mainly due to actually having an AMD set up back at that point) so yeah its hard to find a reasonable set of compatible RAM but i will prevail  

[adamp2006]

So unfortunately this update is not so merry, a short list of things not going right.

 

1. One of the graphics cards isn't working right, was plugged into the other one so didn't notice till i was trying to set up the sli bridge today and it had an error in device manager, pulled the other one out and this is what it get

 

So yeah the seller has been advised and hoping that i can get a replacement and not have to get a refund , then get a replacement or worse not be able to get a matching one for the one i have (the old one is exactly the same spec but still lol , looks are everything) 

 

2. Still waiting on the RAM arriving, its coming from china as that was the only way to get it at a good price so yeah if it even turns up and works i will be surprised 

 

3. The screws for the door are don't seem to be available on ebay , which is a blow , may have to look up an ironmongers or something where i can go and actually visually inspect and test the screws before purchase, as all the "hardware shops" locally have those horrible plastic packets of screws that you can't test before (i have many many packs of them where they were just all wrong sigh lol)

 

So that's the current state of it , gonna be doing dual boot with XP 32bit as many of the games just really don't like Vista at all, but want it for the slightly newer games so best of both words hopefully.