Used Parts build to destroy the PS4

[SharkyMoto]

Hey guys,

I wanted you to be part of my latest project wich is to build the most bang for the buck i can possibly get. 

 

Sometimes i buy defective hardware off ebay, just to see whats wrong and over the time, i managed to sort the items i want by the chance they might be fixable.

 

so i did this time, when i bought a defective R9 270X for 10$.

Put it on the Test"bench" ... et voila, it booted up but there were some stripes in the picture... a little later it failed completely.

 

I remembered when i fixed my old x800 card by putting it in the oven, so i decided to give it a shot! 

so i stripped her down, cleaned it with ethanol and put it into the oven at 200°C for about 10 minutes.

 

After letting her cool off, i rebuilt it, applied some Arctic MX4 and gave it a try.. and it WORKS! 

Perfectly, i ran some benchmarks, totally stable so we can move on in the build!

 

Preview for part 2:

I get a 2500k including mainboard and RAM for about 110$ of craigslist, assuming that the processor will be a great with some OC.

 

What i do need is:

Mainboard,

Case,

PSU

 

What i still have is:

Liquid Cooler (240mm),

SSD,

HDD

 

So if you know about a good and relatively cheap, small formfactor case, let me know.

 

(case will be the only new thing since i dont want to have a used case around me, forgive me that! ) 

[Adreyu]

really nice job on the gpu, its always kind of hit or miss whether that will work. nice to see it turned out well

[vanished]

Do you need a case at all?  If we're talking extreme budget, bang-for-the-buck kind of build, it has pretty much the lowest possible value in terms of adding performance, but can be a significant cost (~$100 or more for some nice ones)

[Matty2hatty]

For mITX, well the Core 500 is pretty good and supports basically all GPUs. For mATX I like the core series and for atx I like the s340 or the source 210

[Mohenjo]

Just now, Ryan_Vickers said:

Do you need a case at all?  If we're talking extreme budget, bang-for-the-buck kind of build, it has pretty much the lowest possible value in terms of adding performance, but can be a significant cost (~$100 or more for some nice ones)

i mean the PS4 has casings. Only fair that this PC gets some too lol. Also you can get cases like the source 210 for like 30 bucks 

[Coaxialgamer]

Aren't you sure something else might be causing the gpu not to work ? Like a capacitor ?

 

because the oven is only a temporary fix at best.

[Adreyu]

does it have to be small form factor? the corsair spec 01 or 02 are really solid cases for cheap

[SharkyMoto]

2 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Do you need a case at all?  If we're talking extreme budget, bang-for-the-buck kind of build, it has pretty much the lowest possible value in terms of adding performance, but can be a significant cost (~$100 or more for some nice ones)

yes i want to use it as kind of couch gaming device and to carry it to some LAN's because i only play csgo there and dont really need much power for it.

i'm not in a competition to make the most budget pc ever, i just want to keep it as cheap as possible for this one  

[vanished]

Just now, SharkyMoto said:

yes i want to use it as kind of couch gaming device and to carry it to some LAN's because i only play csgo there and dont really need much power for it.

i'm not in a competition to make the most budget pc ever, i just want to keep it as cheap as possible for this one  

yeah I would definitely get one in that case then.  Looks like there are already some good suggestions above

[SharkyMoto]

1 minute ago, Coaxialgamer said:

Aren't you sure something else might be causing the gpu not to work ? Like a capacitor ?

 

because the oven is only a temporary fix at best.

i fixed several components by putting them into the oven, the xbox 360 works to this day since 4-5 years daily usage! 

this graphics card was brand new and the idiot i bought it from dropped it to the floor (how can you even do that), so i assume that the refluxing in the oven solved the problems once and for all.

[Coaxialgamer]

5 minutes ago, SharkyMoto said:

i fixed several components by putting them into the oven, the xbox 360 works to this day since 4-5 years daily usage! 

this graphics card was brand new and the idiot i bought it from dropped it to the floor (how can you even do that), so i assume that the refluxing in the oven solved the problems once and for all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SharkyMoto]

1 minute ago, Coaxialgamer said:

 

 

2 minutes ago, Coaxialgamer said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i can only tell you that it worked for me... so i'm doing it, since i cant destroy a destroyed videocard anyways and it worked for me, so i'm glad and continue building the cheapest pc i've ever built  i see it as a challenge, even if the gpu dies in a month, i had cheap fun for a month and i can still simply buy a new one 

[Coaxialgamer]

1 minute ago, SharkyMoto said:

i can only tell you that it worked for me... so i'm doing it, since i cant destroy a destroyed videocard anyways and it worked for me, so i'm glad and continue building the cheapest pc i've ever built  i see it as a challenge, even if the gpu dies in a month, i had cheap fun for a month and i can still simply buy a new one 

you mentionned that the guy dropped the card. That could mean a damaged PCB . Or maybe one of the power phases broke off.

[SharkyMoto]

New in: i5 2600k, atx mainboard, 8gb ram

 

Steps to do: Reselling the mainboard + RAM in order to get a smaller form factor, propably going for mATX.

 

Do you guys have any recomendations what mainboard i can get with the most bang for the buck and with oc ability?

are there matx boards with 4 dimm slots? that way i could stick in my 4 kit 16gb corsair venegance. 

 

Total cost to this point: 

 

Graphics Card: 11.50$ incl Shipping

CPU+Mainboard+RAM: 115$

Total: 226.50$

 

I consider the total as very very good, the cpu is well capable of almost every game i know. especially when i'm considering that the cpu alone sells for about 100$ on ebay, i basically got a mainboard and 8 gb of ram almost for free.

[Snooli]

Don't sell the MoBo. You'll only loose money on it. Figure some creative layout to save space. ATX boards aren't so big when you don't populate them. Try putting the PSU on top of the board 

[SharkyMoto]

are there any compact cases that would fit an atx board?

 

i really wanted to use the ms-tech q1, since its looking good and offers the space for my radiator that i already have from my old pc, but i would need an mATX board to work with since the full ATX is not going to fit into that particular case..

[ObilvionNizer]

35 minutes ago, SharkyMoto said:

are there any compact cases that would fit an atx board?

 

i really wanted to use the ms-tech q1, since its looking good and offers the space for my radiator that i already have from my old pc, but i would need an mATX board to work with since the full ATX is not going to fit into that particular case..

Thermaltake VL80001W2Z

 

LC-Power PRO-923B

 

Aerocool Strike-X

 

Aerocool Aero-500

 

BitFenix Neos

[SharkyMoto]

so yeah if these are the options, i'm surely going for a sweet mATX board and a small cubelike case.

i got my main gaming pc already and i want something as small as possible to fit under my TV and to carry it to LAN's.

 

The board i have sells for about 80-85$ on ebay, that means i can even go for an maximus iv, wich would be really good, since i've seen one that is 135$ wich would then bump up the total to about 260$ plus the PSU and the case i want, thats still significantly lower than a PS4, not to mention that it will crush a ps4's performance on idle.

[ObilvionNizer]

2 hours ago, SharkyMoto said:

so yeah if these are the options, i'm surely going for a sweet mATX board and a small cubelike case.

i got my main gaming pc already and i want something as small as possible to fit under my TV and to carry it to LAN's.

 

The board i have sells for about 80-85$ on ebay, that means i can even go for an maximus iv, wich would be really good, since i've seen one that is 135$ wich would then bump up the total to about 260$ plus the PSU and the case i want, thats still significantly lower than a PS4, not to mention that it will crush a ps4's performance on idle.

They are just the ones i could find on short notice during work. but there are some sweet cubed mATX case.

[SharkyMoto]

Just now, deansmylie1993 said:

They are just the ones i could find on short notice during work. but there are some sweet cubed mATX case.

i know... i just found the Aerocool GT-RS ATX Cube wich fits an ATX board while beeing super small and has a really nice 2 chamber design that leaves enough room for cable management, all that for a reasonable price tag of 50$

 

i think this is gonna be it!

Only part that is missing would be the PSU, lets see if i can get one on ebay ( i know its stupid but hey,  thats what i am! )

 

[ObilvionNizer]

I found this one https://pcpartpicker.com/part/apevia-case-xmasterbk500

[SharkyMoto]

i managed to snack this beauty with the CM 690 II case for 30-40$ from craigslist. So Cablemanagement should be a charm.

 

The case is beeing re used for another project and i'm calculating the PSU with about 20$ for this build.

 

so our current total is at 246,50$! thats exactly 100$ cheaper than the PS4, if i get the aerocool case it's 50$ cheaper than PS4.

 

I am already excited to see how it performs. Are there any benchmarks you are interessted in?

[ObilvionNizer]

12 hours ago, SharkyMoto said:

i managed to snack this beauty with the CM 690 II case for 30-40$ from craigslist. So Cablemanagement should be a charm.

 

The case is beeing re used for another project and i'm calculating the PSU with about 20$ for this build.

 

so our current total is at 246,50$! thats exactly 100$ cheaper than the PS4, if i get the aerocool case it's 50$ cheaper than PS4.

 

I am already excited to see how it performs. Are there any benchmarks you are interessted in?

 

Cool. I had another look and found these on eBay US

 

Server Cabinet Case 19" Rack Mount Lockable Deep Drawer with Key 2U - 54337

 

2U Rackmount 19" Empty Server Case from Rackable Systems with Phantom IV Xport

 

New BOOK PC Slimline Desktop Case Micro ATX Flex ATX - This would be nice if you fancied a bit of painting a maybe modding

 

Vintage 286 AT PC XT Steel Desktop Case with Power Supply ATX - This would be nice if you fancied a bit of painting a maybe modding

Silverstone Tek GD07B Aluminum Extended ATX HTPC Computer Case/Lockable/Black

[SharkyMoto]

41 minutes ago, deansmylie1993 said:

Cool. I had another look and found these on eBay US

 

Server Cabinet Case 19" Rack Mount Lockable Deep Drawer with Key 2U - 54337

 

2U Rackmount 19" Empty Server Case from Rackable Systems with Phantom IV Xport

 

New BOOK PC Slimline Desktop Case Micro ATX Flex ATX - This would be nice if you fancied a bit of painting a maybe modding

 

Vintage 286 AT PC XT Steel Desktop Case with Power Supply ATX - This would be nice if you fancied a bit of painting a maybe modding

Silverstone Tek GD07B Aluminum Extended ATX HTPC Computer Case/Lockable/Black

those vintage parts are looking oddly nice, that would be an idea for the next build! I'm gonna stick with what i got by random chance and see how it looks. it should be pretty decent without even touching. maybe i'll invest some time to make it really beautiful, we will see!

 

I'm looking forward to begin the build tonight, maybe i can manage to show the first results then already

[AlienALX]

On 3/14/2016 at 8:34 PM, Adreyu said:

really nice job on the gpu, its always kind of hit or miss whether that will work. nice to see it turned out well

 

You can usually tell if it will work before you even attempt it. It's caused by modern solder being made from tin rather than lead. Lead was far more dense and more flexible. So what happens is over time the PCB expands and contracts with heat and due to the tin solder being quite brittle it then snaps at the contact point, breaking contact with the GPU core. The symptoms are lines down the screen, blocks, artefacts and more than likely crashing (with the driver stopped but then recovered message). If left long enough you won't be able to load a driver for the card at all. It's very rare for a card with this fault to be stone dead though, but I guess if the issue was bad enough it could stop booting all together.

 

The reason it is hit and miss is because the card could be dead for other reasons (failed components, bad memory, bad memory controller, failed MUX and so on. Baking does not making components work again.

 

I did a lot of research into this a few years ago and a professional reflow oven (yes they actually exist) is basically a small convection oven (with a fan in it to make sure the heat is even throughout the oven). The only area they truly differ from a regular fan oven is that they heat up slowly and then cool down slowly to prevent any distortion of the PCB or fast expansion/contraction which could break the solder contact all over again.

 

The only issue? the repair will never last. Sometimes it will limp on for a few months, sometimes merely a few hours. The problem is you have not fixed the problem, which is damaged/weakened solder and you have not replaced the flux (the acid/glue that makes the contacts stick).

 

So nice job OP and I hope it lasts as long as possible for you