I was at work yesterday and one of our PC guys was throwing away these PC's that are fairly small. I said HEY! I want one! He claimed that none of them worked but hey it's worth looking at it too see if it would work.

I got it home and started tearing into it. I found that it has an intel Mobo with a 333Mhz Processor. it has onboard video and sound. It has a 4 Gig hard drive and it even has a NIC. I was also amazed on how claen the inside was. When I booted it up it had a bios checksum error. Replaced the battery for the bios and whalla, It booted up into 98 SE. It had some garbage on it but I formatted it and thought of what to do next.

I stared at my XP CD and attempted to load it on this bare minimum system. Sure enough it loaded and is working properly. Everything works except I have 2 question marks in the device manager. Seems I need drivers for the Multimedia Audio Controller and the PCI Simple Communications Controller. I think the PCI comm. controller works with the RJ45 cable slot so the net can work. I can't even get a connection so I need to search for some drivers for that part.

I mainly plan to use it for Folding@Home. It can't be used for anything else since it's so tiny and old.

333Mhz and how much ram with Windows XP? My laptop is 333Mhz and 128MB and runs 98SE so I'm thinking about going to XP. Congrats on the hardware score!

Multimedia Audio Controller = sound card

PCI Simple Communications Controller = Modem

I remember when I took basic web design classes they were using all 166 pentium with like 160mb of ram and they were running XP Pro. It was quite pathetic trying to run graphic apps and what not.

Quote: Originally Posted by Spectrum 333Mhz and how much ram with Windows XP? My laptop is 333Mhz and 128MB and runs 98SE so I'm thinking about going to XP. Congrats on the hardware score!

128 MB of Ram on it.


Im searching for some chipset drivers. I should work fine on the NIC card but it aint getting a connection. Still trying.


EDIT: 3:34 Central.

I finally got the net working and she's a Folding away! The Lan option in the Bios was disabled. It has a Davcom NIC in it whatever company that is. Im amazed on how well it boots up and things work so well on XP.

Just one question. I don't want to clutter up my room with a monitor and ect. Is it ok to disconnect the monitor, mouse, and keyboard while it's on? Shouldnt cause an issue I would think. It's only for Folding.

Yeah it will be fine.

If its PS2 DO NOT DO IT!!! It will end up frying the PS2 ports. Its all the devices are USB then its ok. Moniter is okie to swap while its on.......

Uhh... I unplug ps/2 ports all the time. It wont fry anything. I do it allmost daily on my webserver and occasionnaly on this rig, which has a $200 mobo. If there was any chance I wouldnt be risking it.

I dito M.D.K I have NEVER fried a ps2 port by disconnecting hardware.

same here...never a problem...ive learned many things at the lan party on what fries and what doesnt, and that doesnt

Agreed, PS2 isnt hotswap at all, but it does do some screwey things. Unplugging it wont do anything, but when you plug it in it probably wont work and may crash windows, but as for frying something, not unless theres some wacky ESD mishap.

I'll forth that call.

Yep - my server setting here humming away many years use with no PS/2 plugged in - I manage it with RealVNC and have never had a trouble one.

JimsZR2 you may wanna look into a KVM switch if you wanna use that PC for something.......also Im not discouraging you here so dont take it the wrong way buy my 733 MHz p3 with 256 mb ram was such a slow folder that I would sometimes go a month before it clicked in a work unit. You may be wasting more electricity then its worth.

Quote: Originally Posted by aaronrkelly Yep - my server setting here humming away many years use with no PS/2 plugged in - I manage it with RealVNC and have never had a trouble one. JimsZR2 you may wanna look into a KVM switch if you wanna use that PC for something.......also Im not discouraging you here so dont take it the wrong way buy my 733 MHz p3 with 256 mb ram was such a slow folder that I would sometimes go a month before it clicked in a work unit. You may be wasting more electricity then its worth.

I was thinking about that, running XP is probably using most of the system resources, so there wouldnt be much left to fold with. Might be a good idea to install some minimal linux distro and fold throught that. Or even better, go back to the dumpster, get the rest of the small pcs, repair em and cluster em.

I could throw WIN 98 back on it. Would take much less resources....I was thinking about finding a way to change out the Mobo and processor but I would need such small parts I have no idea who sells them.

Quote: Originally Posted by JimsZR2 I could throw WIN 98 back on it. Would take much less resources....I was thinking about finding a way to change out the Mobo and processor but I would need such small parts I have no idea who sells them.

If you could snag the rest (if there arent like more than 10), theyre probably equaly simple fixes if not the same thing. I still vote for a cluster.

I might be able to swing 1 more. So, with this cluster idea, you mean I would put them together and it would equal double the 333 proc. to 666?

Quote: Originally Posted by JimsZR2 I might be able to swing 1 more. So, with this cluster idea, you mean I would put them together and it would equal double the 333 proc. to 666?

No, same way dual procs dont = double speed, theres a bit of overhead. Maybe 550Mhz total. Not entirly practicle just a fun project to do.

Quote: Originally Posted by Cyno01 No, same way dual procs dont = double speed, theres a bit of overhead. Maybe 550Mhz total. Not entirly practicle just a fun project to do.

Figure out what the fastest proc that board supports then hit EBAY or see what fellow pimps have. If it would take a 500 or 600 mhz Intel that would be far more practical......