1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,160 Now you might look at this somewhat eclectic pile of hardware and go what a piece of junk 2 00:00:05,620 --> 00:00:07,420 but for me 3 00:00:07,420 --> 00:00:12,600 Everything on this table holds a very special place in my heart because what you're looking at is 4 00:00:13,480 --> 00:00:18,320 after hours of scouring eBay, FreeGeek, Craigslist 5 00:00:19,690 --> 00:00:21,690 basically to a piece 6 00:00:21,730 --> 00:00:24,330 my first gaming rig 7 00:00:24,330 --> 00:00:36,600 So if you were building a gaming machine on a budget back when I was in high school 8 00:00:37,160 --> 00:00:42,040 AMD was a very compelling option the chips were cheaper the boards were cheaper 9 00:00:42,040 --> 00:00:47,220 And this was actually the deciding factor for me thanks to a collaboration with NVIDIA 10 00:00:47,220 --> 00:00:54,020 Which is probably a hard thing for our younger viewers to imagine given what bitter enemies they've become since AMD's acquisition of ATI back in 11 00:00:54,300 --> 00:01:00,160 2006 they had much better onboard graphics than you could get on an Intel chipset 12 00:01:00,160 --> 00:01:02,160 And so I decided on my website 13 00:01:02,260 --> 00:01:06,020 And I'm going to show you the best weapon of choice the Soltech SL-75 MRN-L 14 00:01:06,020 --> 00:01:09,520 The crappier onboard graphics version of the famous 15 00:01:09,840 --> 00:01:16,880 FRN-L and FRN-2L whose budget overclocking prowess was second only to their amazing sense of style 16 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:20,380 That is until Soltech went out of business only a few short years later 17 00:01:20,720 --> 00:01:27,740 Thanks to their use of shoddy electrolytic capacitors that pretty much all leaked just outside of the warranty period 18 00:01:27,740 --> 00:01:30,860 I mean actually it's a miracle I found a working one of these 19 00:01:30,860 --> 00:01:37,520 I could have substituted some other board with GeForce 4 MX graphics onboard 20 00:01:37,920 --> 00:01:40,580 But to preserve the integrity of the build I 21 00:01:41,140 --> 00:01:47,960 Way overpaid some jackass who runs an eBay store who thought this thing was worth over a hundred dollars 22 00:01:48,160 --> 00:01:52,640 Because I tweeted I was looking for one so his listing got a bunch of hits. Ugh 23 00:01:54,540 --> 00:02:00,920 Next up is my CPU the legendary Athlon XP 2500 plus 24 00:02:00,920 --> 00:02:03,820 AMD marketed this processor quite cleverly 25 00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:12,840 The branding was similar to Microsoft's then brand spanking new Windows XP and used the PR model number system to compare the lower 26 00:02:12,840 --> 00:02:14,720 clocked but higher 27 00:02:14,720 --> 00:02:19,380 IPC Athlon chips to Intel's gigahertz marketed Pentium 4 family 28 00:02:19,400 --> 00:02:26,260 It ran a double pumped 1666 megahertz front side bus effectively 333 megahertz and featured 29 00:02:26,640 --> 00:02:30,700 512 kilobytes of cache with a clock speed of 1.83 gigahertz 30 00:02:30,920 --> 00:02:32,860 And was a well-known 31 00:02:32,860 --> 00:02:38,720 excellent budget overclocker with an unlocked multiplier that allowed basically all of them to run at 32 00:02:39,100 --> 00:02:41,840 3200 plus speeds or about 2.2 gigahertz 33 00:02:42,820 --> 00:02:49,220 K7 was notably the last generation of AMD chips to use a front side bus before they changed 34 00:02:49,540 --> 00:02:54,600 Everything industry-wide by moving the memory controller on board with the Athlon 64 35 00:02:55,600 --> 00:02:58,680 Physically, it looked very different from modern CPUs 36 00:02:58,740 --> 00:03:00,740 The die was completely 37 00:03:00,920 --> 00:03:07,120 Exposed with only some rubber pads around it to prevent it from chipping or cracking during heatsink installation 38 00:03:07,120 --> 00:03:09,340 You can see this one is quite chipped 39 00:03:09,340 --> 00:03:17,140 So yeah, they didn't always work very well and the pin layout on the bottom is very retro looking socket a has 40 00:03:18,160 --> 00:03:20,160 462 pins on the bottom 41 00:03:20,160 --> 00:03:23,200 Laughable when you compare it to a modern APU that has over 42 00:03:23,500 --> 00:03:30,780 900 pins in a much smaller area and a similar size modern Intel chip that uses LGA type contact pads 43 00:03:30,780 --> 00:03:35,300 rather than pins to improve durability and pin density and squeezes over 44 00:03:36,320 --> 00:03:44,640 2,000 in about the same area more pins are used for additional signaling to the motherboard and other system components for these more advanced 45 00:03:44,840 --> 00:03:51,000 processors cooling and overclocking of my 68 watt beast was taken care of by a 46 00:03:51,380 --> 00:04:00,420 Very unique product. This is the VanTec Aeroflow one of the only CPU coolers at least on the desktop to feature a 47 00:04:00,420 --> 00:04:02,420 tip magnetic drive fan 48 00:04:02,540 --> 00:04:09,740 TMD fans have the benefit of being able to use more of their area for cooling because the center hub contains 49 00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:18,260 No motor only a bearing and the tips of the fan blades actually have magnets that are driven by coils in the frame of the fan 50 00:04:18,660 --> 00:04:20,040 Cool, huh? 51 00:04:20,040 --> 00:04:26,540 Less cool is the fact that they vibrate like crazy and they're loud and on top of that 52 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:29,520 Because of AMD's mounting system in those days 53 00:04:29,900 --> 00:04:31,900 Putting this thing on sucks 54 00:04:32,240 --> 00:04:37,500 So the CPU die isn't actually centered between these two fragile 55 00:04:38,140 --> 00:04:40,140 plastic mounting clip things 56 00:04:40,300 --> 00:04:47,820 So the heatsink needs a cutout on the one side for the the hinge for the retention ARM on the socket and only goes on 57 00:04:47,820 --> 00:04:50,780 one way then you actually needed to like 58 00:04:51,340 --> 00:04:59,440 Seriously, this was the intended way to install a heatsink in those days put a screwdriver into this notch on the other side 59 00:04:59,440 --> 00:05:05,280 and sweat bullets while heaving down on it to pull the latch over the clips and then 60 00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:10,860 Move it slightly to lock on to them. I mean there were so many 61 00:05:11,640 --> 00:05:16,320 OMG, I put my screwdriver through my motherboard posts on the forums in those days 62 00:05:17,190 --> 00:05:25,170 My RAM choice was dictated by what was cheap at NCIX at the time. So this Samsung 512 megabyte DDR 63 00:05:25,470 --> 00:05:29,350 400 stick that I got from free geek actually still has the NCIX barcode 64 00:05:29,350 --> 00:05:32,470 Sticker on it and is exactly what I used 65 00:05:32,470 --> 00:05:36,130 In fact, it could be the exact stick that I had for all I know 66 00:05:36,130 --> 00:05:44,470 I opted for a single stick even though this platform is dual channel capable to give myself more room to increase the capacity 67 00:05:44,470 --> 00:05:46,470 of my rig in the future 68 00:05:47,110 --> 00:05:55,470 Technically three sticks could be run in dual channel on this platform with one stick twice the capacity of the other two 69 00:05:55,730 --> 00:05:59,010 But it was a kludgy solution and not guaranteed to work 70 00:05:59,650 --> 00:06:06,690 The case in power supply is where I really have to take a moment to thank free geek the guys that we did this collab 71 00:06:06,690 --> 00:06:11,970 With for hooking me up even Antec didn't have an original 72 00:06:12,710 --> 00:06:17,190 Landboy buried in the catacombs and I could not find one of these 73 00:06:17,190 --> 00:06:20,750 It took those guys like two weeks to find one and set it aside for me 74 00:06:20,950 --> 00:06:27,650 Thanks guys, the original land boy before they sullied the name with this nonsense was 75 00:06:28,170 --> 00:06:29,350 the bomb 76 00:06:29,350 --> 00:06:31,050 It was made of aluminum 77 00:06:31,050 --> 00:06:33,930 Very cool for the time it was affordable 78 00:06:33,930 --> 00:06:40,470 It included not just a power supply, but and this was a huge deal, especially then a decent 79 00:06:41,130 --> 00:06:44,270 350 watt power supply with blue LED lighting and 80 00:06:45,110 --> 00:06:50,810 While it may not have featured literally any room for cable management or even front panel audio 81 00:06:50,810 --> 00:06:58,950 It did have a removable three and a half inch drive cage for easy hard drive and floppy installation easy install sleds for the optical drive 82 00:06:59,350 --> 00:07:03,550 And a side panel window to show off the aftermarket 83 00:07:04,230 --> 00:07:09,350 80mm blue LED fan that I bought on an impulse like two weeks later at London drugs 84 00:07:10,010 --> 00:07:15,310 Officially my first way overpriced computer modding component for drives 85 00:07:15,310 --> 00:07:21,970 My original gaming rig reused the floppy drive and CD burner that I got as hand-me-downs from my uncle's Pentium machine 86 00:07:22,190 --> 00:07:28,590 This is not an insignificant part of the reason that front case doors were so fashionable at the time 87 00:07:28,930 --> 00:07:33,450 Black drives were not that common and they were even more 88 00:07:34,090 --> 00:07:37,150 Expensive than their beige counterparts. Yes friends 89 00:07:37,150 --> 00:07:41,570 The optical drive was as pricey as it was essential in those days 90 00:07:42,090 --> 00:07:43,350 for the hard drive though 91 00:07:43,350 --> 00:07:47,010 I couldn't carry forward an old one if I wanted better speed and 92 00:07:47,410 --> 00:07:51,970 To have enough storage to install more than one CD based game at a time 93 00:07:52,250 --> 00:07:57,810 So an 80 gig with an 8 Meg cache or a 120 gig with a 2 Meg cache 94 00:07:57,810 --> 00:07:59,250 Cost about the same 95 00:07:59,250 --> 00:08:05,270 I eventually settled for the 80 feeling confident that that was more than I'd need for a long time and 96 00:08:05,450 --> 00:08:08,450 Feeling like the extra performance would be more worthwhile 97 00:08:09,760 --> 00:08:15,860 Drives sure used to be more difficult to install by the way 80 pin versus 40 pin IDE cables 98 00:08:16,200 --> 00:08:19,880 Master and slave jumpers you kids have it easy 99 00:08:20,520 --> 00:08:27,930 For the rest of the machine. I'm using close approximations of the components that I had at the time my CRT was not a flat-core 100 00:08:28,070 --> 00:08:29,690 Screen and yes young kids 101 00:08:29,690 --> 00:08:34,190 We called it a flat screen because the piece of glass in the front was flat rather than curved 102 00:08:34,290 --> 00:08:39,230 We knew it was still big and heavy and I actually had slightly different hand-me-down 103 00:08:39,570 --> 00:08:44,210 Keyboard and mice before upgrading a year or so later to a wireless MX duo 104 00:08:44,550 --> 00:08:51,410 But the one thing that is exactly the same here is the mouse pad being too cheap to buy a real mouse pad 105 00:08:51,410 --> 00:08:56,770 I used a piece of paper to overcome the tracking issues on my computer desk and it worked great by the way 106 00:08:56,770 --> 00:08:58,070 You just have to replace it everywhere 107 00:08:58,070 --> 00:09:02,250 Once in a while, so we interrupt the scripted portion of this video to bring you 108 00:09:02,950 --> 00:09:08,150 the moment of truth 109 00:09:08,330 --> 00:09:20,270 Pressing the power button after of course turning on the power supply. Oh, you hear that tip magnetic drive fan 110 00:09:21,350 --> 00:09:23,360 music 111 00:09:23,360 --> 00:09:26,100 Come on display 112 00:09:26,280 --> 00:09:29,050 It's alive 113 00:09:29,110 --> 00:09:30,690 Athlon XP 114 00:09:30,690 --> 00:09:36,170 1.1 gigahertz, that's okay. We can go and change that manually. You can see 32 megs of memory shared 115 00:09:36,170 --> 00:09:37,950 Ah 116 00:09:37,950 --> 00:09:42,270 Hard drive not being picked up. I'll diagnose that later. Maybe that I DE cable 117 00:09:44,180 --> 00:09:47,210 Delete center set up and there we are 118 00:09:47,930 --> 00:09:52,600 Let's get some Windows XP installed on this bitch, right? 119 00:09:53,260 --> 00:10:01,180 so then with the system working, the only question remaining was will it run minecraft and the 120 00:10:01,860 --> 00:10:03,180 answer is 121 00:10:03,180 --> 00:10:04,600 surprisingly 122 00:10:04,600 --> 00:10:08,380 No after overpaying for that stupid motherboard 123 00:10:08,380 --> 00:10:09,840 It turns out that the system? 124 00:10:09,840 --> 00:10:13,120 the system is not stable enough to do anything more 125 00:10:13,120 --> 00:10:16,400 than install Windows and look at the desktop. 126 00:10:16,400 --> 00:10:21,680 Not entirely unexpected, but disappointing to be sure. 127 00:10:21,680 --> 00:10:23,400 So if you're not familiar with Massdrop, 128 00:10:23,400 --> 00:10:25,600 the concept is pretty simple. 129 00:10:25,600 --> 00:10:28,040 They've got this huge community of enthusiasts, 130 00:10:28,040 --> 00:10:30,500 and I can't say like computer enthusiasts 131 00:10:30,500 --> 00:10:33,420 or knife enthusiasts or audio enthusiasts, 132 00:10:33,420 --> 00:10:36,480 because there's all these different enthusiasts. 133 00:10:36,480 --> 00:10:37,320 And they basically go, 134 00:10:37,320 --> 00:10:39,840 hey, there's this like really cool product that we'd like, 135 00:10:39,840 --> 00:10:43,020 can you go to the manufacturer or an authorized reseller 136 00:10:43,020 --> 00:10:45,520 and tell them, hey, you know, we're all willing to buy it 137 00:10:45,520 --> 00:10:47,920 if you could just do a little something on the price. 138 00:10:47,920 --> 00:10:52,100 Massdrop takes buyers and sellers and does volume deals, 139 00:10:52,100 --> 00:10:53,860 so everyone gets a good deal. 140 00:10:53,860 --> 00:10:55,440 The manufacturer sells a bunch 141 00:10:55,440 --> 00:10:57,160 and the buyers get a lower price. 142 00:10:57,160 --> 00:10:58,340 Pretty freaking cool. 143 00:10:58,340 --> 00:10:59,340 And you can check it out at the link 144 00:10:59,340 --> 00:11:00,600 in the video description. 145 00:11:00,600 --> 00:11:03,300 But recently they have branched out a little bit 146 00:11:03,300 --> 00:11:05,500 and they've started working with manufacturers 147 00:11:05,500 --> 00:11:08,800 to do special editions of their products 148 00:11:08,800 --> 00:11:09,640 just for Massdrop. 149 00:11:09,840 --> 00:11:13,020 And special pricing is of course included as well. 150 00:11:13,020 --> 00:11:15,540 So they worked with HiFiMan this time around 151 00:11:15,540 --> 00:11:20,540 to bring back the HE300 with a special MD 152 00:11:20,700 --> 00:11:23,200 or Massdrop flare. 153 00:11:23,200 --> 00:11:24,340 So in their former life, 154 00:11:24,340 --> 00:11:25,600 solely under HiFiMan, 155 00:11:25,600 --> 00:11:28,840 these entry-level headphones were priced at 156 00:11:28,840 --> 00:11:30,840 about 300 US dollars. 157 00:11:30,840 --> 00:11:35,080 And the new one is very similar to the old HE300s, 158 00:11:35,080 --> 00:11:38,180 but with an updated and more lightweight structure, 159 00:11:38,180 --> 00:11:39,840 a more neutral sound signature, 160 00:11:39,840 --> 00:11:41,680 and an all black appearance 161 00:11:41,680 --> 00:11:44,920 compared to the silver and black of older generations. 162 00:11:44,920 --> 00:11:46,960 The most important change, however, 163 00:11:46,960 --> 00:11:49,080 that they have made is reducing the price 164 00:11:49,080 --> 00:11:54,080 to a very actually legitimately low 99 US dollars. 165 00:11:54,640 --> 00:11:56,140 So all you gotta do to check them out 166 00:11:56,140 --> 00:11:58,680 is head over to the draw.pss 167 00:11:58,680 --> 00:12:02,520 slash LTT dash HE dash 350. 168 00:12:02,520 --> 00:12:03,920 Don't expect you to remember that. 169 00:12:03,920 --> 00:12:07,990 Check it out at the link in the video description. 170 00:12:07,990 --> 00:12:08,830 Thanks for watching. 171 00:12:08,830 --> 00:12:10,030 Guys, if this video sucked, 172 00:12:10,030 --> 00:12:10,870 we know what to do, 173 00:12:10,870 --> 00:12:13,930 but if it was an awesome trip down nostalgia lane, 174 00:12:13,930 --> 00:12:14,910 then get subscribed, 175 00:12:14,910 --> 00:12:15,990 hit that like button, 176 00:12:15,990 --> 00:12:18,010 or even consider supporting us directly 177 00:12:18,010 --> 00:12:20,190 by using our affiliate code to shop at Amazon, 178 00:12:20,190 --> 00:12:21,910 buying a cool shirt like this one, 179 00:12:21,910 --> 00:12:23,770 or with a direct monthly contribution. 180 00:12:23,770 --> 00:12:25,830 You can find the Amazon and the T-shirt links 181 00:12:25,830 --> 00:12:27,030 up there, by the way. 182 00:12:27,030 --> 00:12:28,310 Now that you're done doing all that stuff, 183 00:12:28,310 --> 00:12:29,150 you're probably wondering, 184 00:12:29,150 --> 00:12:30,590 hmm, gee, what should I watch next? 185 00:12:30,590 --> 00:12:33,690 Oh, maybe a review of like a super sick 186 00:12:33,690 --> 00:12:35,610 17-inch gaming laptop. 187 00:12:35,610 --> 00:12:36,890 You can check that one out there. 188 00:12:36,890 --> 00:12:38,770 I guarantee you that it is both more powerful and smaller, 189 00:12:38,770 --> 00:12:39,950 but it's worth it. 190 00:12:39,950 --> 00:12:42,490 Smaller and more expensive. 191 00:12:42,490 --> 00:12:45,810 And that's three things that it is both of than this.