General Computer Thread

[Marc]

Grmmph, one of my machines was in need of a new BIOS battery, so I opened it up and discovered that it used one of those laptop thingies with the battery attached to a pair of wires which plugs into a tiny socket on the mainboard.. so the heap of good CR-2032 batteries I have were useless.. until I remembered that I have a few broken mainboards around.. which have a battery socket.
Ripped a socket off one of the broken boards and soldered the wires to it so now it has a battery socket on a wire which means that next time the battery is empty I can just replace it with a standard CR-2032..

Could have been worse - could have been on one those old Dallas RTC where the battery is embeded in the plastic and you either have to desolder the chip and replace it (unless yours is socketted) or dremel the top off.

Was it a name brand system? Can't recall ever seeing a motherboard coming with the battery pack but have recollection of them in name brand systems (NEC, Epson, Compaq) but then again I also remember the ones that you'd stick 4 AAAA batteries in the and then use double sided tap to hold it to the back of the case.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Grmmph, one of my machines was in need of a new BIOS battery, so I opened it up and discovered that it used one of those laptop thingies with the battery attached to a pair of wires which plugs into a tiny socket on the mainboard.. so the heap of good CR-2032 batteries I have were useless.. until I remembered that I have a few broken mainboards around.. which have a battery socket.
Ripped a socket off one of the broken boards and soldered the wires to it so now it has a battery socket on a wire which means that next time the battery is empty I can just replace it with a standard CR-2032..

Good job......

What kind of board was it? make, model?

 

[Santaman]

It is a mini ITX AM1 board, made by MSI, I assume the size of it is the reason the didn't include a full socket, real estate is a tad restricted, however there are vertical battery sockets as well... https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/AM1I/Specification
Can't really complain about the board itself, it has been going for 5 or 6 years without the slightest problem.
As for Dallas RTC clocks.. oh yeah.. I know them.. I have quite a few Pentium era mainboards that have them...

 

[Marc]

It is a mini ITX AM1 board, made by MSI, I assume the size of it is the reason the didn't include a full socket, real estate is a tad restricted, however there are vertical battery sockets as well... https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/AM1I/Specification
Can't really complain about the board itself, it has been going for 5 or 6 years without the slightest problem.
As for Dallas RTC clocks.. oh yeah.. I know them.. I have quite a few Pentium era mainboards that have them...

Guess Asrock were smarter. I have one of their M-Itx boards and they simply flipped the battery mount through 90 degrees so the CR-2302 sits vertically and doesn’t take up as much real estate.

 

[Santaman]

^^ I've got a Compaq Deskpro 2000 which also has a vertical battery socket so yeah, MSI could have used one as well, the one I made seems to do its job so the next 5 years or so I'll won't have to worry about it.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

I made a updated RAM Timing Table for those who care about these sorts of things
Updated the DDR speeds to go all the way up to DDR5 speeds and the "True Latency" behind all those RAM timing #'s you usually see on the package.

RAM Memory Timings = CL - tRCD - tRP - tRAS - CR

Spoiler: DDR# RAM Timing Latency Tables for those who care

Feel free to save the table for reference later

 

[publiusr]

A good graphic

Good to put devices down every so often
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-07-devices-mind.html

 

[think]

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Useful graphic thank you.

 

[Marc]

Useful graphic thank you.

don't get it do you.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

don't get it do you.

Would you like to elaborate?

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

It's a timing chart, what is not to get FFS this board

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Perhaps it was ambiguous which graphic you were referring to? In any case, I agree it didn't warrant such a comment. I doubt I'll have any use for the timing chart but I'll remember it's here just in case.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Perhaps it was ambiguous which graphic you were referring to? In any case, I agree it didn't warrant such a comment. I doubt I'll have any use for the timing chart but I'll remember it's here just in case.

It was a dram latency table.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Yeah, I know. I was using your previous phrasing of it.

 

[Santaman]

I Think @Marc was referring to the comic @think posted and @Gingerbread Demon was replying to the table that @KamenRiderBlade has posted.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

^_^

 

[publiusr]

The IBM computer here looks quite impressive
https://phys.org/news/2022-07-team-scripts-breakthrough-quantum-algorithm.html

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

First time, I bought an actual new laptop, a Dell Latitude 5501. It’s a 2020 model, and I think one of the last Latuitudes with removable RAM.

I got tired of the older models and old style docks having issues running 2 monitors and generally being junky.

Look how much RAM I was able to shoehorn in, despite Dell saying the max is 32GB.


The only problem was, I bought a 2TB standard Samsung SSD to upgrade from the 256GB it came with, but it turns out it has the NVMe “stick” SSD, so I had to go out and get one of those. I guess I have a spare 2TB SSD now to go along with a couple 1TB's.


As far as HDD's, I have just a few for all the ripped TV shows and movies, in duplicate.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

First time, I bought an actual new laptop, a Dell Latitude 5501. It’s a 2020 model, and I think one of the last Latuitudes with removable RAM.

I got tired of the older models and old style docks having issues running 2 monitors and generally being junky.

Look how much RAM I was able to shoehorn in, despite Dell saying the max is 32GB.
View attachment 29354

The only problem was, I bought a 2TB standard Samsung SSD to upgrade from the 256GB it came with, but it turns out it has the NVMe “stick” SSD, so I had to go out and get one of those. I guess I have a spare 2TB SSD now to go along with a couple 1TB's.


As far as HDD's, I have just a few for all the ripped TV shows and movies, in duplicate.
View attachment 29355

Niiiiiiiiiiice....... Yes lovely ram size there. I don't know why they cap it at 32gig in the specifications, maybe that is what they assume most people would do or some other issue but well done there.

As for those drives have you ever considered putting them all into one enclosure like a Hotway probox or something similar where they can all be accessed at once.