Re: Market value for popular or rare classic computer hardware

Posted on 2021-03-22, 20:30

by

by TheMobRules

in Milliways

in Milliways

Well, on one side there are people out there willing to pay absurd amounts of money for random items: not long ago some dude posted on this forum and said he would pay up to $500 (!!!) for an ASUS 486 motherboard (VL/I-486SV2GX4) that is quite fast but not uncommon or particularly collectible. So …

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Re: Replacing electrolytic capacitors with polymers on my Motherboard, GPU, Soundcard. Is it a good idea?

Posted on 2021-03-22, 16:40

by

by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just use replacements of the same type, no point in going with polymers unless you have specific needs (extremely low ESR on mid-00's boards for example). Even if you use electrolytics at this point they will probably outlive other hardware components, just think about how long the caps you want to …

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Re: Does cutting (standby) power to a CRT affect it's lifespan?

Posted on 2021-03-16, 20:21

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I wouldn't worry too much about it, really. The CRT power supply probably has a thermistor to limit the inrush current, so when you turn it off give it a few minutes so that the thermistor goes back to room temperature. Also CRTs are degaussed when you turn them on, but in the manuals they recommend …

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Re: AT motherboard ATX PSU with AT attachment?

Posted on 2021-03-16, 18:39

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

do you remember its original usage being on an atx psu? That connector was part of the ATX spec for a while during the early 2000's, it was intended to provided additional +5V and +3.3V lines to the motherboards (that's why there are red and orange wires). I've seen it mostly on early P4 …

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Re: Have anyone actually gotten hardware damaged due to using old PSUs?

Posted on 2021-03-16, 18:05

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The only "common" cases that I know of power supplies killing PC hardware is due to some dodgy ATX units where the +5VSB line would fail and kill components that remain powered during standby (such as RAM and some other chips in the motherboard). That's why I'm always puzzled about the usual …

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Re: What's the difference between HardMPU and PCMIDI?

Posted on 2021-03-15, 15:44

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

From a functional point of view, they're pretty much the same thing: 8-bit ISA cards that provide an MPU-401 interface with intelligent mode support. You can also achieve this with SoftMPU, but it needs to load a TSR that will obviously use some system resources and also requires EMM386, which makes …

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Re: Retro Development

Posted on 2021-03-14, 21:33

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by TheMobRules

in Milliways

in Milliways

I learned programming as a young teen using Borland Turbo Pascal for DOS, and was completely unaware of the "BASIC hate" in certain circles. It was only several years later when I started college that I heard many teachers dismiss BASIC as a "toy" or something that could not be used for any "serious …

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Re: Orchid Fahrenheit identification? ISA+VLB

Posted on 2021-03-14, 20:45

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

No, this card is VLB, it should be considerably faster than any ISA VGA, including the Tseng. EDIT: by the way, I completely missed it in your original post, but the text on the card clearly indicates that it is an Orchid Fahrenheit VA.

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Re: Orchid Fahrenheit identification? ISA+VLB

Posted on 2021-03-14, 00:52

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

That's an S3 805 graphics chip (P86C805), it even has the old S3 logo. That means the card is probably a Fahrenheit 1280+ (although the Vogons Wiki also lists two other Fahrenheit models that use the 805, the LB and VA).

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Re: 80486 BIOS image collection

Posted on 2021-03-13, 21:46

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

#89 Manufacturer/Identifier: MSI MS-4132 G ver. 1 Chipset: SiS 85C471/85C407 BIOS/Version: AMI 486DX ISA BIOS 08/08/93 BIOS String: 40-0100-001169-00101111-080893-SIS471B Filename MS4132G.zip File size 44.27 KiB Downloads 107 downloads Filename MS4132G.jpg File size 933.57 KiB Views 2903 views

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2021-03-12, 01:28

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ah, I see the BAT now. I must have missed that I have one of those boards. Keep in mind that it needs a 6V battery (2 x CR2032 or 4 x AA/AAA). If you use 4.5V or less, it will appear to work for a few days but as soon as the voltage drops a bit with usage the date and CMOS settings will reset. Also …

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Re: Socket 462/A and 12v rail

Posted on 2021-03-11, 18:40

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

In general nForce2 motherboards with the 4-pin connector will draw all the power for the CPU from the +12V line, but I've heard that on some other Socket A boards this is not the case and the CPU still mostly pulls from +5V despite the connector being there. Are you talking about any motherboard in …

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Re: Fastest AT computer.

Posted on 2021-03-11, 18:06

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

There's also this socket 478 motherboard. I found the link on this thread.

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Re: Retro Hardware Collecting rants

Posted on 2021-03-11, 06:55

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

+1 to good experiences buying from Eastern European sellers, no DOAs in my experience either. Most importantly, they usually know what they're selling, so they can test it properly and things are priced fairly, meaning no "50USD for an untested generic ISA controller card" bullshit that you see in …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2021-03-10, 18:26

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

idk about you, but these sure look like fakes to me, and not even good ones ^^ the printing is wavy and the paint/sticker? seems to be getting scratched off the sellers pic was low-res enough to make me believe for a second these could actually be real x3 The labels do look dubious... but they seem …

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Re: Old hard-drive buying tips

Posted on 2021-03-08, 17:37

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I don't think anyone has tested samples large enough to determine whether a certain brand or another is more reliable (except for known duds like the IBM "DeathStar"). Personally only one of many old WD drives I have has failed, while most of the Seagates I've come across were dead... but it doesn't …

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

Posted on 2021-03-08, 02:09

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks for your feedback. I want to learn from this. I'm not a pro by any means, but having desoldered many components with lots of pins (CPU and SIMM sockets in particular) here are my thoughts: My first few attempts were wildly inconsistent, going from a flawless 72-pin SIMM socket removal which …

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Re: External CMOS battery connector pinout

Posted on 2021-03-06, 18:41

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Is the 3-pin connector actually a 4-pin one with one pin removed? Something like this: o x o o 1 2 3 4 If that's the case, usually the first pin (the one near the empty spot) is connected to the battery "+" and the opposite pin (4) goes to "-". If you want to be 100% sure, just check the 2 outer …

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Re: What game are you playing now?

Posted on 2021-03-06, 18:30

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by TheMobRules

in Milliways

in Milliways

Honestly, I would have preferred if id Software kept going on the route they took for Doom 3. I liked Doom 2016, but Eternal didn't do it for me at all. I don't understand what's the necessity of limiting most combat to "arenas" with endless waves of enemies popping up, and all of this "combat loop" …

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Does anyone know the part number of these connectors?

Posted on 2021-03-01, 06:20

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm troubleshooting a CRT monitor and some of the ground wires use these connectors, the male part that is soldered to the board is basically a metal post (around 11mm long by 2.5mm diameter): conn_male.jpg The female part that is crimped to the wire has a plastic shroud around it: conn_female.jpg …

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