THE LEGENDS

With the development of industry some products emerged that were notorious for their durability, reliability, and performance. A similar phenomena exists in the world of Personal Computers. I thought it might be a good idea to identify some of these "die hards" and discuss some of the ways that we can keep them running. Some of these platforms are still operating after 15 years or more and many of them are capable of running current software, including Windows 11. Now I realize that Windows 11 requires a little tweaking to run on platforms this old, and sometimes those nasty little yellow triangles in Device Manager aren't going to vanish. That aside, I think it's a noble thing to grant credit where it is due. These days anything over ten years is considered vintage in the world of computing. Why not acknowledge some of that old, reliable hardware to promote some of those things that have been tried, tested, and proven to work? We live in an age where e-waste is a growing concern. Finding ways of keeping some of this older, reliable hardware running could be a contribution to a solution. Feel free to share.

I would like to begin with the X58 platform. The man in this video puts it so succinctly that I'll just leave it at that for the time present.

X what? I'm running an old AMD capable Gigabyte mobo that I got off of Ebay, for $50. (Gigabyte DX-10, GA-78LMT-USB3).
The AMD, 6-core cpu, is one I've had for years. I've Never OverClocked it, and I try to Never overwork it, and it still runs GREAT!
This motherboard has six SATA ports on it, and every one has a drive attached. Two SSD's, three HD's and one DVD.

I run various OS's on here, from Win-7 to my latest.....X-Lite, Optimum 11 V3, 23H2, OS Build 22631-3085. Which by the way, is the fastest OS I've ever run since DOS 6.22. With just 16GB of ram and a 120GB SSD, she screams like a Banshee.
I can win a game of Solitaire now in half the time, that it used to take me, with the older and slower OS's.
That may be over-glorification, but for an old mobo, and CPU, it still runs very good indeed.

Years ago, I bought the last Pac Man case in the store. I now have three of them. Two are in use and one is down for a complete refurbishment and refinishing. Some day, Good Lord Willing, it will be a running computer again. Which means another trip to Ebay!

Great topic! Thank you, Scannerman! Long may they live!

TM

That's exactly what I'm referring to : The older, tried and tested platforms. Intel doesn't have a monopoly on these. I think it goes without saying that the newer, meaner, leaner hardware can run circles around most of these older platforms BUT where will they be in ten years from now? I'm guessing that most of these will be burned out bundles of exhausted circuitry. IMO not much of the new stuff is built to last, but some of the older hardware has already passed the test of time. I started off with the X58 platform because I'm well acquainted with it having three of these running in my home. I'm typing this reply on an X99 platform, which is already considered ancient and being "forced" into early retirement by a half-baked TPM scheme. Ironically, the only system I'm running that answers Microsnot's mandatory TPM requirement for Windoze 11 is not running Win11. The reason is simple: Upon attempting Windows "upgrade" it destroyed my data and refused to boot. This was the one unit I owned that passed the 'clean bill of health' scan for Win 11 and it cost me dearly. Perhaps I'll get around to installing Win 11 on it one day but I'll not be using their upgrade tool, if and when I attempt the task. As it stands the X570 is running Windows 10.

I'm hoping others will share their legends here: Systems that have proven themselves rigorous and worthy. Hardware that can be trusted. Legends in their own time that can take a lickin' and keep on tickin'. (Some of us should be familiar with that reference.)

In 2009 I built an X58 system on the Asus P6T motherboard with an i7 920 D0 stepping processor. About two years ago I put it in a Lian Li case to give to my brother. I installed Windows 10 on it and it runs like the Legendary champ it is.

Edit: More like several years ago not two. Time flies LOL.

Scannerman said:

These days anything over ten years is considered vintage in the world of computing. Why not acknowledge some of that old, reliable hardware to promote some of those things that have been tried, tested, and proven to work?

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I'm exclusively a laptop man these days. My eclectic menagerie has some quite old machines as well as some newer fully supported devices. All seem solidly built and reliable. I would draw the line at around 2008, not because of hardware reliability, just that most processors much older than that tend not to support the minimum instruction set required to run Windows 8 or above.

My second oldest machine is a Dell Latitude E4310 doing duty as my System Two below, a test machine running Windows 11 and anything else I care to throw at it.



My oldest is a Samsung R519, also doing well despite being a 2009 model.



Other notable survivors include a Lenovo Thinkpad T430 from 2012.

I'm familiar with the Latitude but never seemed to have the money at the right time to get one. My girls (4) all needed laptops for school and such like so I waited to get mine. In the meantime I built a laptop from four different Acer laptops and a replacement keyboard for it from China. It served my purposes and it's still working today. Eventually I bought a Dell Inspiron in 2020 and it probably needs updating again. I so rarely use laptops. I learned quickly that touch screens really aren't that great. I acknowledge how handy they can be when you're on the go, but these days I don't get out much.

Scannerman said:

I'm familiar with the Latitude but never seemed to have the money at the right time to get one.

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I've never bought new, all my laptops were used machines. In the UK there's a pawn shop chain named Cash Converters and they have an online shop. That's how I could afford to get my Dell Latitudes, the newest being my System Three (in Other Info) a Dell Latitude 5410, i7-10610U, 32GB RAM.

Scannerman said:

I built a laptop from four different Acer laptops...

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I have a couple of Acer laptops too, my System One and an old AOD270 Netbook that really has no right to be running Windows 11 (but does).

The Acer's are OK, but not as solidly built as a Dell Latitude - their Latitude range is for business-class machines.

Bree said:

The Acer's are OK, but not as solidly built as a Dell Latitude - their Latitude range is for business-class machines.

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Agreed. I got my Dell for a very reasonable price, brand new, and I'm glad I did because a couple of months later it developed an issue with the UEFI/BIOS and my battery. I had to send it to Dell for repair. Once everything appeared to be working well I upgraded it to Windows 11 where I quickly learned that it was definitely not my favourite OS. What more can a poor boy do? I'll just have to roll with the punches.

Y'all are talking about PC's (laptops too) that are practically New!

Have y'all heard of the infamous "eMachine" ? I've never bought one, but several have been gifted to me over the years.
I still have one left. It's a model T6003. No bios date, but the onboard Graphics is dated Nov. 8, 2004. I guess that makes it 20 years old.

The sticker on the front of the case, says it's 64 bit capable, but it won't have anything to do with anything 64 bit. The CPU is an AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3000+, 1.8Ghz.
I poked around in it this morning, trying to find a BIOS date, etc. but nothing came up. I had to run "CPU-Z" to even find the data on the Graphics date.

On the motherboard are Floppy Disk port, and IDE drive ports as well as either 2 or 4 SATA ports. I've run every OS on it from Windows XP/32, to Windows 10/Pro/32, and it runs them all, just fine.
It still works great for internet searches and emails.
I had all sorts of problems with it. till I finally discovered that the #1 ram slot was BAD. So as long as I don't try to use that slot, the little ol' PC works just fine. So how do you find one bad ram slot, out of four? Very Carefully!


Keeping this 20 yr old PC running, is just an exercise in "A trip down memory lane".
My only reason to keep this old PC running is....It's just so much fun. And it's the only PC I have, that has a Floppy Disk drive in it.

It still runs Windows XP, just fine, on an old IDE hard drive. That's fun to play with! Brings back lots O memories.
I was a very busy, working, Computer Tech, back in the XP days.
Also runs Windows 10/Pro/32, on a SATA SSD. On the SSD, it scoots right along!

Cheers Mates!
TM
Today, an OS that runs Great on older PC's with limited ram, is "Micro-11" (or, Optimum 11, V3, 23H2, OS Build 22631.3085)

TechnoMage2021 said:

Today, an OS that runs Great on older PC's with limited ram, is "Micro-11" (or, Optimum 11, V3, 23H2, OS Build 22631.3085)

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Ha! I love it! I tend to draw the line on 20 years but I do have a fully functional Dell 530 Inspiron (32 bit) running Windows 10 of all things. I believe that one goes back to 2007. I have to say that little thing really hums for only having 4GB of RAM. Putting in a graphics card really picked it up.


On a side note, I mean to test run that "Micro-11" OS you keep raving about on my ROGUE build whenever I get around to building it. This is just the sort of thing I have in mind for that unit. Handy to have a PC for testing exotic software and hardware without risking messing up the main PC.

I currently have 5 notebooks that I keep because they are still working perfectly

HP Pavilion DV7 Core2Duo running Windows 10 I think 1903 (2008)
Asus G73JH Core i7 running Windows 7 Home Premium. (2010)
Eurocom Scorpius Core i7 Ivy Bridge running Windows 7 Ultimate (2012)
MSI GT73VR 7RE Titan Core i7 running Windows 10 22H2 (2017)
MSI GE76 Raider Core i9 running Windows 11 23H2 (2022)

All are running perfectly well except for the speed in different ones.
The one I still like the best is my Scorpius. This notebook will outlast me.
I did mention to @Scannerman that I was simply going in to see what
they had to offer and came out with a custom build. This is the build sheet:



It started life with 7970M in Crossfire but, had them change it to 8970M in crossfire.
Also had RAID 0 with Crucial 512GB SSDs but, Crucial couldn't write firmware to keep
them in RAID 0 so, I switched to one Intel 520 and one Seagate Momentus spinner.
I just love this notebook and use it still to this day.

Here are a few bench with both GPU versions.





Forgot to add the boot up times for the Scorpius:

I still have two old HP Pavilion DM4's but unfortunately they are beyond physical repair now. Both were still working fine. I kept one as spares for the other, but it just became beyond physical repair with hinge mountings etc and various other bits. They were hammered though!

I also have a box full of Asus EEE Pc's - the 7" ones with 8gb ssd's. Most working and some were spares for others. Not sure anything will fit on them any more though. I have one with an upgraded 64gb ssd in it that did used to run Windows 7 but even a light linux struggles on it now. Plus there aren't many 32 bits to put on it.

They are hard plastic and sturdy and not thin, but still small and light - like the 10" ones. I preferred it when laptops were hard plastic and ergonomic shapes rather than glamorous metal and the metal ones are a bit flat. Plastic can be moulded to ergonomic shapes I think.

Hazel123 said:

I still have two old HP Pavilion DM4's

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If taken care of them, those old HP Pavilion just don't die.
I upgraded the HP from Vista to 10 and I didn't think it would work but, to my
surprise, it updated but, it took about 4 hrs to make the change. I almost gave
up on it after 3 hrs. Slow to boot but, after it's going, it's still very acceptable.

Yes mine went onto Windows 10 as well - didn't have any issues. If I had the time, I'd fiddle about and install Windows 11 on one of them but it became too tedious trying to stop the screen collapsing! I fixed the hinges twice but the hinge mounting inside had come adrift. Someone could probably fix that but I gave up.

Flashorn said:

I currently have 5 notebooks that I keep because they are still working perfectly

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I've never been much of a notebook user but it behooves me to say that THAT's impressive!

Scannerman said:

I've never been much of a notebook user but it behooves me to say that THAT's impressive!

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I have to say @Scannerman that , these are all 17.3 notebooks and didn't / don't leave my desk so, it's
not too hard to keep them in good condition. Windows upkeep and a bit of cleaning is all it takes.

Until recently I had a x58 Asus P6 Deluxe with an i7 990x processor that i later found out was actually an engineering sample. Running with 24GB ram, and 2 gtx 1080tis in Sli. Was a beast, but it was retired now sits in a box. Want to revive it tough but after cleaning the motherboard, it powers on but no longer posts. Also have another machine with a Aanus x99 Deluxe motherboard, with a i7 5930K, which i still use but has been having a few stability issues. Edge will continually crash, and random blue screens, stress testing shows no issues though. Been a bit frustrating.

I have an iPhone SE (2016).
I hope it will last another ten years.

abactuon said:

I have an iPhone SE (2016).
I hope it will last another ten years.

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We have three of those in a drawer! All work but batteries don't last long. The software isn't supported any more though.