alectrona6400

Some information on this page may be outdated. Some systems don't function properly anymore or they need more work.

Technology

I've probably got that from my dad who liked working on electronics and taking them apart. My dad took his new green machine bigwheel apart when he was around the age I got my own computer to access the internet with! One of the first computers I vividly remember taking apart was a dead Toshiba Satellite from 1997, and I was about 7 years old at the time.

I've always liked computers my whole life, and my plans for the future changed throughout my childhood (4-17y/o). Part of it may have been that earlier on in my childhood, I witnessed replacements of a lot of old computers. I wanted to have those old computers as my own, but they needed to be sent back to the school district (elementary) or I was simply not allowed to mess around with them (home). Also, no one knew that I even liked old computers and such until I was like, 9. I probably missed out on a good amount of stuff back then, but now I don't really care.

As I got older, I still wanted to pursue my hobbies and even a future career with computer repair. I didn't have my own computer (that was usable) until I was 8. I didn't have my own desktop until I was 11, and I didn't use custom parts to build a computer until I was 12. I didn't know how to solder until I was 15, and I got a (cheap) hot air station at 16. Now as of the time I'm writing this (September 2025), I'm 21 and I have recently pursued more intricate soldering work and to some extent, BGA rework. The latter of which I am slowly working on improving. I plan to get some kind of IT degree, but don't expect me to stay in university for 8 years. I'm too feeble for that amount of stress. Either way, I've learned quite a lot and I've applied my knowledge and skills to many solutions and systems, and I've helped many people. It went from playing Thinkin' Things 2 on the school computers as a little kid, to doing very specialized and intricate work on computer hardware. Some day I plan to actually get myself into software programming, and ROM hacking.

How do you get your machines?

It's complicated.

I usually acquire my machines from locals, eBay, recycling agencies (whenever possible lmao), and family. If you're really into computers like I am, and have the space to store them whenever they aren't being used, anything is possible. Ideally you'd want to find something that is best suited for your needs and that is something that takes time and experience. And a LOT of swapping systems around and acquisitions, if you really need the experience. I try to be concise and non-biased about computers I've owned, because ideally you shouldn't be going through more than 50 computers. Doesn't mean you can't, but it doesn't mean you should. Unless you're a serious collector. I just like having dumb fun, and I have a few things that require older hardware.

My "fleet"

Here's a summary of my more prominent machines that I use.

Name/Model	CPU/RAM/STORAGE/OS/GPU	Status	Application	Notes
Main Computer "Tsubasa"	R7-5800X/64GB/1TB-SSD+8TB-HDD/Debian/RX6800	Thankfully up and running.	Main Desktop PC	I do a good amount of my work on here. It's an incredible machine that I spent quite a lot of money on (though it was being pissy with my RAM at one point...) but I've put a lot of work into this one. It's housed in an early 2000s Alienware Area 51 Predator/P1 chassi from 2004 which is honestly my favorite part about this machine (fugly but functional). Makes me really feel like I'm using a god damn battleship. I also call this computer the Titan Dweevil because of the P1's design.
Secondary Computer "Cyandra"	E5-2680v4/48GB/1TB-SSD/Vista,10LTSC,FDOS,Debian/HD7950	Working hard, shockingly	Secondary computer, primary KVM system	This computer has quite a story to tell. It started off as an old Pentium 4 system and has pretty much had everything replaced in it. The namesake of this computer comes from an unstable headmate of someone I know and I think it fits her well, though this machine has been much more stable recently. Currently it runs several different operating systems and has X99 hardware installed. Yes, I also have Vista running on Broadwell thanks to community patches that allow it to run without "drifting".
Tertiary/Legacy Desktop "Magenti"	X5460/8GB/1TB-SSD/FDOS,WinMe,2K,XP,NetBSD/X850XT	Alive and LOUD.	Legacy system, Secondary KVM system	This computer is basically a rebuilt older iteration of Cyandra but it supports legacy operating systems, interfaces, and sports the best possible hardware for these purposes. Its namesake is similar to Cyandra's and is a sister system to it. I'm lucky to have found a cheap working X850XT, all it needed was a missing capacitor replaced and it fired right up without issue. And yes, one of the operating systems I have on here is Windows Me. It's actually very good once you tweak and patch it. The computer is very stable and works great for when I need to use something older.
PowerMac G5 (Mid 2003 Dual 2GHz)	DPG5-2GHz/8GB/600GB-SSD+1TB-HDD/10.5/X850XT	FINALLY works.	My best PowerPC Mac.	This one was given to me as a graduation present from my high school computer teacher, ~~partly because I was kinda begging him to give me one of his G5s in the computer hardware lab that was not being used.~~ It was also because I really liked the G5 towers, and since my old dual core 2.3GHz G5 kicked the bucket (those chipset solder balls were COLD), I was very happy to have another working G5 that wasn't some shoddy iMac or a single CPU tower. There was an issue with it, though... it was missing the RAM. That, and the fans were incorrectly calibrated. I went ahead and took the computer apart and repasted the chipset, and plugged in a wire to the temp sensor that was not connected... for whatever reason. Yeah, this was in a computer hardware repair class, after all! I bought some new old stock "SUPER TALENT" PC3200 DDR memory, which works perfectly and fits the aesthetic of the computer since the heat spreaders are silver! The SSD is a 600GB Intel 320 series, which I bought after seeing that it is the best SSD to use in a G5; it works in both bays, and it's SATA 1 compatible. The graphics card is an ATI FireGL X3, which I flashed to an X850 XT Mac Edition card by swapping the ROM chip from a dead Radeon 9600 card (128K) in place of the original 64K PC ROM which was inadequate. I could have gone for a reduced ROM, but what's the fun in that? As for the card's cooling, it's not ideal for a G4 but it works perfectly fine in a G5 because of its world-class airflow, and the fact that the X850 XT for G5 macs literally has that exact same cooling system. Again, one of the few times I've won the silicon lottery! There was a Geforce 6800 Ultra DDL for sale locally, but personally I didn't want to take a gamble on an untested card. It may be still up for sale, and I might buy it if I want to... but the X850 XT is perfect, and runs very quickly!
Apple eMac (2005) "Athena"	G4-1.92GHz (NOT A TYPO)/2GB/1TB/10.5/R9600	GPU is having issues. CPU OK.	All-purpose G4 speed demon	Nope, your eyes DON'T deceive you! I won the silicon lottery.. twice! This is a 2005 eMac that has been "generously" overclocked to 1.92GHz with a vcore of 1.375V from 1.42GHz/1.325V. It just so happens the eMac has a more-than-adequate copper heatsink, and the PowerPC 7447B is known to yield some nice overclocks. One day I would love to have a 7448 in here running at 2.08GHz, but I'm not sure how that can be done, especially considering it's probably impossible to patch the ROM. It's been stable for FOUR years, and it doesn't seem to stop any time soon. Yeah, I guess I may have jinxed it... but oh well. Without vcore adjustments you can easily reach 1.67GHz. It runs a dual boot of 10.4.11 and "10.5.9" which is an enhanced community-made (lightly) distro of 10.5.8 that adds some speed improvements and backports a few applications from 10.6.
Power Mac G4 MDD "FireWire 600"	G4Dual-1.33GHz/2GB/Total600GB/OS9+10.4/Ti4600	Believe it or not, it does work.	Mac OS 9 system, also for X.	Okay, I'll address the elephant in the room. I call this a FireWire 600 because this is a FireWire 800, but I downgraded the firmware to a version (FireWire 400 model FW) that was able to properly dual boot OS 9 and X without having to run some stupid scripts. FireWire 800 probably still works but I don't have any FW800 equipment to test it with, and I'm perfectly happy with 400. The computer I found on FBM for $50 and it came with a monitor. It was not functional, but I had repaired a power supply to use in this computer and now it works. Yes, you can get a working MDD G4 in the current year. You'll just need experience and a bunch of capacitors. The computer also cleaned up very nicely and now it runs very smoothly. I have a working GeForce4 Ti4600, and I am currently working on upgrading the cooler to something that won't repeat history with my last Ti4600. That card actually came from another MDD that I'm eventually going to fix up and sell, because I only bought it for the card. That one was $150.
386 Computer "mary386"	Am386DX-40/8MB/32GB/FreeDOS/ET4000AX	Works, complete with a hacked Dallas chip	Legacy (DOS) Desktop PC	I got this computer locally for dirt cheap and I had no idea it was a 386 until I opened it. The case is clearly from the mid 90s, so this could have easily been a 486 or Pentium... which would have been nice. But honestly, this is the ONLY working computer I own with turbo functionality, so if I wanted to run something from the early MS-DOS/IBM era, I could with relative ease. My dad actually used to own something similar to this, but it had more RAM and no FPU. This has less ram, and a 387 clone chip I found in a scrap parts bin. I did put a 32GB SD card in this computer to help with performance, reliability, and to make transferring data easier. The system is pretty much silent now and yes 32GB is overkill but why not. If this woman was able to put an SSD into an IBM XT I can sure as hell put a 32GB SD card in my 386. It's namesake is Mary from Ib, which also applies to my frequently-used laptops (e.g. mary8200) and to a lover's XT system "mary4".

Other configurations/Secondary systems

Here's some other machines that I have around for, well, other purposes!

Name/Model	CPU/RAM/STORAGE/OS/GPU	Status	Application	Notes
Modern macOS (2012 iMac 21.5)	i7-3770S/16GB/1TB-SSD/Monterey/GT650M	Works.	Modern macOS Desktop	I rarely ever use this, but it works great with a patched version of Monterey and it runs very fast. For some reason the adhesive I replaced doesn't seem to hold, so I have to keep it secure with some clear tape. I'm likely not the first one to do that.
Dell Inspiron "9500" (M6300 guts shoved into a 9400)	C2D-T9300/4GB/500GB-SSD/XP+Vista/QFX3600M	It's an actually functional Dell so it works.	Legacy (XP/Vista) Laptop PC	I probably put WAY too much time into this laptop but I love it. It's a Dell Precision M6300 with the looks of an Inspiron 9400... as such I call it the 9500. Some people say the white and silver is uglier compared to the black and gray, but ~~fuck you I grew up with a 1501.~~ I'm stoked I was even able to find a WORKING FX 3600M... and it's an awesome card that really makes this laptop shine. I'll definitely need to give it more RAM, and I may even consider doing an FSB mod to unleash the full potential of this computer. It's also got a japanese keyboard from a 9400 laptop I imported because it was actually once cheaper to import one that was simply broken than to buy one here that was fucking wrecked. It's also got the 1200p screen ~~which is enough to make a T61 enthusiast cry~~.
Compaq Presario 7000T Win9x desktop "Periwinkle"	PentiumIII-1GHz/512MB/40GBx2/WinMe/FX5500	Works, believe it or not.	Childhood desktop	This was actually one of the very first, if not, the first computer I used growing up. It's a Compaq Presario 7000T with a Pentium III, and it's honestly a very reliable system. I named it "Periwinkle" which is a reference to a Blue's Clues character, a show that I really enjoyed in my early years. This machine has been in our family since it was brand new, and until I die, it's staying here. It had a power supply issue in 2009 and was replaced. Recently my dad and I unearthed it and I replaced the power supply, dad got his stuff copied to a flash drive, and now the computer was finally in use once again. And okay, yes, I like Windows Me. Call me a fool. But I'll let you know, it has potential. System Restore, PC Health, SFP, and the lack of real-mode MS-DOS access without using the Emergency Boot Disk... are the main reasons as to why Windows Me was universally hated. That, and the fact it was rushed out the door. It felt more complete once you kept using Windows Update. And disabled those services. In fact, I prefer it to Windows 98SE. It comes with proper USB support out of the box, and the user interface feels more fluid. If anything, Windows Me was also sort of a refinement of 98SE, but Microsoft may have originally refined it a little too well especially with the removal of MS-DOS mode, which you can thankfully restore.
Pinnacle Systems Deko2000	PentiumIII-450MHz/384MB/80GB/WinNT4/3DLabs-GMX2000	Won't post likely due to a bad CPU, otherwise in working order	A/V and Caption Generator Computer, NT4 Workstation	I actually got this for free from a church that once ran a broadcasting area and this was one of the systems that powered their networks. It's a very loud and quite massive, is essentially a 2U rack mounted workstation, and currently... doesn't work. I know how to get it working but I think the CPU I installed doesn't work, it was in my scrap bin so I'm not too surprised. The video card is actually a special one known as the Pinnacle Aphrodite, which is basically a Permedia2 (ouch.) and an Oxygen GMX2000 working in unison. Other than that the computer is essentially a run-of-the-mill 440BX system with an Intel motherboard and some special cards (one has a 386EX!) for A/V stuff. Barely any documentation exists unfortunately. It's one hell of an NT4 workstation and theoretically it should even run programs like SoftImage 3D.
HP Pavilion zd8000 "Letty"	P4-650/2.8GB/500GB-SSD/FDOS,2k,Vista,NetBSD/MobilityX600-256M	Works because I know how to maintain it.	"The one machine that a tech nerd has because it's unique"	This, my friends, is a laptop that takes a god damn LGA775 Pentium 4 CPU. It's moreso considered a desktop replacement because of its intended design, but it's one hell of a weird system and I absolutely love it for that. It's the epitome of stupid multimedia oriented laptops from the time and uh... "das a huge bitch!" It weighs a ton and it has 3 big fans in it. This is by far the ULTIMATE musicmatch jukebox machine. I have put a few diferent operating systems on this machine and I also used a custom BIOS to allow for 2.8GB of RAM to be addressed by installing 3GB (1x 2GB, 1x 1GB). (The other 256MB of memory sadly isn't addressable on 256MB VRAM zd8000s)
eMac (2003 "ATI Graphics")	G4-1.8GHz (planned)/1GB/160GB/OS9+10.4.11/R7500	Not working at the moment, failed CPU swap attempt	Secondary OS 9 machine, and secondary eMac	This is one of the last eMacs made that could natively boot into OS 9... sorta. I say sorta, because this is unfortunately one of those "silent refresh" ones that disabled OS 9 boot support in the ROM; these were put into production in October of 2003, and have a ROM date of 10/22/2003. I was able to install and boot from an "Unsupported G4s" disc of OS 9, and it does work. After installing OS X, even on a separate partition, there's a small problem. Every time I want to boot into OS 9, I have to run a terminal script. I have thought of swapping ROM chips over, but honestly, I'll stick with the workarounds that exist. This has been overclocked to 1.27GHz, and had its HDD replaced with a 160GB which is noticeably faster than the original 80GB maxtor. Even a larger cache and lower spinup time can make a big difference; I compared this WD1600AAJB to a 120GB IBM drive from 2002, and the difference is night and day! I could get an older eMac or get one of my G3 iMacs to take its place, but I highly disagree. These are already quite heavy and take up a lot of space, and the G3 iMacs are honestly a pain in the ass to get working correctly sometimes. Recently I have tried to swap in a PowerPC 7447B CPU into this computer but at the moment I have failed in my attempts. I am still working towards perfecting my very horrendous BGA rework skills.

What now?