Re: I can't format my hard drive

Posted on 2020-09-23, 16:16

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

if your just formatting the hard disk it doesn't matter what version the boot disk is. If you want to boot from the hard drive after you format it you'll want to use the same dos version as you want to install. You will also want to tell format to copy system files after the format. so you would …

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Re: What is your dream build.

Posted on 2020-09-23, 12:04

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

However without the rose tinted glasses I have found from building similar dx4 systems that the games I played on that system are not really what I would describe as playable now! This is often the case, Even back then I was always trying to convince my parents to upgrade. Now it's an option our …

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Re: What is your dream build.

Posted on 2020-09-23, 11:41

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's hard to narrow to just 1. Best I can do is 3 with extra parts. I'm lucky that I still own our very first PC which I think features on alot of people's list. The fact its a 486 VLB scratches the VLB itch as well. It never got the AWE I always wanted but got a SC-55 instead which I didn't know …

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Re: Picked up a couple of interesting PCs, what to do...

Posted on 2020-09-22, 10:01

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yeh both my machines are dimms, (but they were free) RAMBUS is still missing from my collection 🙁

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Re: Need help getting a 486 to run Rise of the Triad

Posted on 2020-09-22, 09:59

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

maybe run a few benchmarks and you can see how good/bad your system is really running? You can find Phils 486 Benchmark suite and a few results here https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?p=336212 Duke3d isn't smooth but should be playable on a DX2/66, ROTT should only struggle on bigger maps. but our …

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Re: Adding a rear exhaust fan to ATX case ?

Posted on 2020-09-22, 09:36

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

kolderman wrote on 2020-09-21, 23:38: Well I'll be the rebel and say I love Corsair's airflow AF120/140 series. I was disappointed with their build quality compared with Aerocool Dead Silence in another build. Both do a decent job of pushing air round though.

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Re: can't get PCI video card to work

Posted on 2020-09-22, 09:30

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Cirrus Logic, Matrox , S3, Trident, Tseng are the common options for a 486. You can get a list of chips and their compatibility here. https://gona.mactar.hu/DOS_TESTS/ Obviously you don't need anything "modern" on a 486, Even the early poor performing 3D cards like the S3 Virge will be fine for a …

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Re: The Creeping Network (Creepingnet's) Retro PC Build Logs, Restorations, & Repairs

Posted on 2020-09-22, 09:10

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Nice pics, very too long for me to read. Same, know its hard as I also tend to ramble. Can I recommend breaking posts up to 1 project at a time, makes it a bit more manageable for the reader. Your projects are interesting but its just too much in 1 hit! Today I did get as far as the docking station …

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Re: VLB66 machine vs ISA66 vs ISA33 in DOS games?

Posted on 2020-09-22, 08:49

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Btw I do not know what VLB 66 and I never heard of it. How much more smooth "game coverage" I'll be able to squeeze out of VLB 66 (vs regular ISA DX66 or 33)? A twofold question. I think he means how smooth is a VLB system with a DX/66 vs ISA system with the same CPU or a 33 It's as simple as that: …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2020-09-21, 16:20

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

appiah4 wrote on 2020-09-21, 13:36: That's a fire hazard to be sure, make sure to buy a more modern PSU for that card.. yeh the whole process took longer then the actual testing. worse then been a fire hazard it looked terrible 😉

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Re: Official Retro Game Wallpapers

Posted on 2020-09-21, 15:49

by

by chinny22

in Windows

in Windows

3D Realms site has 1 for Terminal Velocity and another for Duke Zero Hour https://legacy.3drealms.com/downloads.html

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Re: Thin Client Storage Issues

Posted on 2020-09-21, 15:31

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Very good point about lack of support. I've gotten used to PC's with compatibility options in BIOS, If its included on a thin clients is down to luck. I'm out of ideas I'm afraid.

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Re: Retro Rig Photo Thread

Posted on 2020-09-21, 15:20

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

My socket 7 Pentium MMX build, with pretty much every upgrade I could find for the ultimate MS-DOS PC experience. https://i.imgur.com/ogYYvag.jpg https://i.imgur.com/rnEd7Za.jpg Processor: Intel Pentium 233MMX Motherboard: Biostar MB-8500TTD Chipset: Intel 430 TX RAM: 64MB DIMM HDD: 8GB Compact …

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Re: Thin Client Storage Issues

Posted on 2020-09-21, 13:33

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

This is my #1 reference page for Thin clients https://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/wyse/vx0/WyseV90L.shtml If your handy with soldering looks like it supports SATA natively. I imagine thin client have high failure rates due to been left on 24/7 but unlike a sever aren't in nicely temperature …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2020-09-21, 13:16

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Tested my newly acquired HD7990 last night. That card needs 8pin PCI-E connectors x2 My test PC's PSU only had a 6 pin connectesr x2 Opened the adapters that came with my 2 GF 590's that converts 2x 6 pin to a single 8 pin, half way there. Had to use raid my other machines for Molex splitters to be …

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Re: Picked up a couple of interesting PCs, what to do...

Posted on 2020-09-21, 12:59

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Based on that manual for the v1.2 M/B https://mbmanuals.retropc.se/manuals/57/dx400.pdf Looks like it has the 860 chipset so a FSB of 400Mhz Also Socket 604 can accept S603 CPU's but the other way around isn't supposed to be pin compatible? You sure you don't have a Gallatin? https://www.cpu-upgrade …

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Re: My set of rules for perfection

Posted on 2020-09-21, 12:16

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Look into slowdown utilities. If your CPU and motherboard are supported, SetMul and Throttle can do wonders for speed sensitive games Thats cheating in my rule book. How so? You could always turn off L1 and L2 caches in the BIOS, using SetMul just makes it easier. And some motherboard/CPU …

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Re: New, beige desktop case (review and build)

Posted on 2020-09-21, 11:52

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've gad the gap issue on period correct cases as well. I think some optical drives are more like 5.20? and seem to cause fairly visible gaps, its also more noticeable then on black machines. Doesn't bother me but it is something you notice when assembling. I really like having a real FDD as a 2nd …

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Re: Silicon Valley Mountains on FIRE.

Posted on 2020-09-21, 10:31

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by chinny22

in Milliways

in Milliways

Our peak fire risk is probably August to September. The weather has cooled recently so maybe that helps a bit but it's still very much fire season until the rain comes back. I checked some old files I saved on a couple nearby fires, one of those in 2014 started September 13th and as of this date …

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Re: What do you do with hardware equivalent PCs?

Posted on 2020-09-21, 10:09

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Once you reach a certain point it's inevitable to have very similar PC's. The "server" option is always a good one. Load it up with Hard drives and job done! I like a "Test PC" to try out installing stuff on. Keeps your main games retro rig nice and tidy. I also try to give these "double ups" a …

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