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Domain: freeboxen.com

Stories and comments across the archive that link to freeboxen.com.

Comments · 9

  1. Freeboxen by Myopic · · Score: 1 · on What Do You Do With Old Computer Parts?

    What happened to freeboxen?

  2. My quiet case project : it's an answer ... sort of by Prozzaks · · Score: 1 · on Building Quieter Computers

    Well, it seem these days, most of the power user just care to get something like 200fps in Quake III. Why ? Beat's me ! I'm not on a quest to get the ultimate frame rate, I just want my box to be quiet as possibly can be.

    To help you understand my take on the subject, here is the background :
    My PC has the following components :

    • A OEM case
    • A 235W OEM power supply
    • ASUS P3B-F
    • Intel Pentium II rated 400Mhz @ 400Mhz
    • A cheap OEM SECC2 Heat-Sink made of aluminum
    • A 128MB CAS2 no-name DIMM
    • Two 32MB CAS3 Samsung DIMM slowing down my memory timing, but preventing the appearance of the all mighty evil SwaP
    • A ATI All-In-Wonder Rage128 16MB
    • A Creative SoundBlaster Live! Value
    • A Realtek 8139 Ethernet NIC
    • My beloved USR 56Kbps ISA Real Modem. Sorry but to me a component that uses CPU power to do it's processing instead of taking the load off is not worthy of being in my computer. Not to mention the M$ Win part...
    • A Creative 48x CD-ROM drive. It's the loudest damned thing in my computer when it's spinning
    • A Quantum Fireball AS PLUS 40GB (7200RPM) in a removable tray
    • A Quantum Fireball CX1 10GB (5400RPM) mounted inside the case
    • Of course the stupid old 1.44 MB floppy drive only used for booting Tomsbrt in case of emergency

    Soon to be :

    • A Adaptec 2940UW
    • A Diamond Monster 3D II for Glide games

    It turn out that the Quantum Fireball AS makes less noise than the Quantum Fireball CX1. I still have to figure it out ...

    I use my PC for :

    • Running Linux and learning as much as time allows me (Jez I had so much time when I was a student... Think of all the time I wasted in High-School running the evil W monster)
    • Doing some gaming i.e. : Diablo II, Unreal, UT, Undying (Although that thing is going to cost me a new box)
    • Spending numerous nights filling my brain @ Slashdot, Tomshardware, Anandtech, Arstechnica, StorageReview, Developper.Intel.com, and most importantly, hounding the web for all the case manufacturers and their take at a quiet box.

    As I'm writing this post, that is probably going to be the base documentation for my Silent Case Project, you're guessing that my sleepless night of browsing have not yielded the desired result.

    I've check out many options such as water cooling, moving the PC to the closet, returning to the forest where a PC is pretty far from your everyday quest for survival. None of them suits me.

    The objective of my project is to build a case that meets the following criteria :

    • A silent as possible
    • Accessible
    • Provides sufficient ventilation to maintain all the components running within thermal specs
    • Be light enough to be easily transportable (Let's not forget the Lan parties ;-)

    To attain those goals I have to :

    • Read all I can about noise, sound, aerodynamics, PC specs
    • Find suitable materials : A case is not just a protection against unwanted fingers and dust ; it must provide EMI shielding, proper grounding, resist to impacts, and fit into my conception of the king of object you want in your bedroom (If you were thinking about plywood and a box of rusted leftover nails, forget it)
    • Find the tools or the companies or individuals with the means to work the materials I choose to build the casing

    For the sound isolation I was thinking about some kind of foam. Mineral lint would be affective but that takes too much space and it's not the kind of thing I want beside my bed. Form the casing itself, metal is almost inevitable if you want EMI shielding and grounding. And as for you who wonder why I have not mentioned water cooling yet, the greatest source of noise is not my CPU cooler and your just moving the problem out of the case (Nice ; you have water heating up but unless your reservoir is like a bathtub or something you will have to transfer the heat for the water to the air).

    That about as far as I am. If you have any idea that might help me, please fell free to send me some bits forming ASCII characters at Prozzaks@operamail.com

    To finish up, here is a list of thing that might help people wanting to achieve similar goals :

  3. Re:Cheap Sun Hardware by SuperJ · · Score: 1 · on Slackware Officially On Sparc
    There are a lot of places that give away old Sun stuff. Ebay is usually good if you're willing to pay a couple hundred $ for it. Another good place to go is freeboxen.com (featured on /. a while ago) where people often give away systems, though they might not be in the best shape. It's at least good for parts.

    In my experience, the best way to get old systems is to know someone who who maintains computer systems at a company where they use a lot of Sun (and can therefore help you get the stuff they throw out), which is how I got mine, or you can look around in dumpsters around high-tech companies. It might sound a little disgusting, but a lot of times people will throw out perfectly usable systems just because they're a little old.

  4. Re:Don't forget Freeboxen.com!!! by Krimsen · · Score: 2 · on IBM Offers Computer Recycling

    Dammit, I screwed up the tag. freeboxen.com

  5. Re:Don't forget Freeboxen.com!!! by Krimsen · · Score: 2 · on IBM Offers Computer Recycling

    Oh yeah... the site is

  6. Computer in a Keg - Re:Custom Cases by Dekaner · · Score: 1 · on Do It Yourself Cool Cases

    Hey, if you want a computer in a keg, be sure to team up with this guy who already has a head start!

    He's got one that's already sawed in half!

    - Dekaner

  7. What we can do with this (the good side !) by up2ng · · Score: 1 · on Online Hardware Swap-Meet

    This is great, most people don't stop to think that 800+ Mhz CPU's and Bleeding edge components aren't the norm in all places. Just remember back when PC's first came out, your "rich" friends had that Smokin 8086 PC and you had the Commodore PET-2001 (whew..1981 was cool) that you could only use for 15 min at a time @ school :p
    Now we can help kids and others that might be willing and able to learn, but might not have the means to do so !
    Let's all send a note with our kids to school, letting teachers know that this exists and help them to put together what our tax dollars don't !


    OTOH -
    The Privacy Policy is funny, at least the guy who runs this site has a sense of humor
    From Freeboxen.com's Privacy Page
    When you claim hardware we collect some information about your claim request. Most of this info is simply a matter of associating who wants what and when. The only unique piece of information that is gathered is the text of the message you send to the donor. This is done for ONE reason: Spam. Woe unto those who use the claim facilities on this website to send unsolicited commercial email. The penalties will be swift, severe, and closely resemble the wrath of god.


    - Save The Whales ,Collect the whole set !

  8. Re:What about eBay? by Corrado · · Score: 1 · on Online Hardware Swap-Meet
    [note to self: browse the ENTIRE site before posting to Slashdot :)]

    From the Freeboxen FAQ:

    Why just give it away? Can't you sell it on Ebay or something?
    The best reason to give it away is simply goodwill. With the increasing popularity of the free operating system Linux, it just sort of made sense to build a site that lets people get free hardware too. Hopefully at least some of this hardware will go to people who couldn't otherwise afford it.


    Later...
  9. My Post Is Offtopic by linuxgrp · · Score: 3 · on Forget The Pentium, Hack The 68K

    But it has to do with getting rid of - or getting - unwanted computer hardware.

    freeboxen.com is a site for people to unload the hardware they don't want for people who do. I just stumbled across it in another thread. It could really use some support. What a great idea!
    -- --
    Stay Tuned Next Week For...
    The Adventures of Open Souce Man!