Technobabblery Corner

[NothanyTPM]

This is a thread where I just blabber on about tech that probably no one cares about...like this old PC

This old computer was my childhood PC. Don't remember when I got it, but I think it was around 2007-ish. I was a bit lucky with this machine because my mother wanted to buy one PC for her job, but somehow ended-up with two instead. The one my mom used was scrapped when she got herself a Macbook, but I kept mine.

This ran Windows XP with a Celeron D, I think 2GB of RAM, and only had an integrated GPU and sound card.

However, over the years I've upgraded this thing multiple time with parts I'd find in garage sales, buy off of ebay, and even a few from e-waste sites.

Now it run Arch Linux, has an Intel Core 2 Duo 6400, 8GB of RAM, an AMD Radeon HD 8570, and a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Sound Card.

This pretty much maxes-out this entire machine. I physically can't upgrade this machine anymore.

Even put RGB lights in it for the hell of it

[please ignore the ATi card]

You may be wondering why I kept this outdated machine instead of buying a new one, and I have two answers:

1. It's just plain fun. This whole machine is fun to mess around, change things, and seeing how many things still run on this old nugget. I mean have you seen this huge ass heatsink and fan? Thing sounds like a jet when it turns-on before being almost whisper quiet. All because they thought it'd be a good idea to have one huge fan to cool the entire thing instead of multiple small ones
2. Even though I'll finally build a new PC this year when I get the money, I still like keeping these old machines because they make for good "nostalgia boxes". So I'll likely just keep this machine as an emulation station and for when I want to revisit Windows XP/7

Also BTW, this isn't my main PC I use to draw (that would be utter hell). I just use this to play music, keep tabs on Discord, and basically do everything while my old lappy from the junkyard struggles to render my drawings. It also doubles as a NAS, so I can make really quick backups with this thing in-case shit happens (which did happen).

Might post something about my current rig and how I have it all set-up to seamlessly communicate between both my computers...though, by the time I do I would probably upgrade it again soon after

That's all I have for now. See you next post...whenever that is...

[Gimmick]

I have an RTL-SDR receiver that I've connected to my laptop that I use as a server. I haven't gotten software for it installed yet, but in the past on older computers I used it as a radio receiver.

I also have a 7 year old Toshiba Satellite C650D that still ran very smoothly for a 2012 bargain-bin netbook. Did most of my programming on it until 3 years ago when I had to move and couldn't take it along with me. Nowadays it has a problem with its battery/charger/something, but hopefully it works once repaired...unlike my first "proper" laptop which lasted about 6 years before its motherboard finally conked out

There's also a lot of files stored on both their hard drives as well as some backup drives, but I haven't verified them in a while. Hopefully they still work, but if not...well, out of sight, out of mind as the saying goes.