Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on Today, 21:17

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, opening it up certainly revealed some horrors! Mainly dirt, but also some weird brown crumbly stuff that had clearly been glue/resin attached to the copper coils. Oh no, that looks like the deadly brown glue that was used in many power supplies back then (even good ones)! That thing degrades …

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Re: Pentium 200 and Pentium Pro 200 builds. Do I need dedicated CPU fans or are nearby 80mm case fans enough?

Posted on 2023-12-04, 14:55

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

For the P200 that configuration with an 80mm fan nearby is totally fine, I had a Gateway 2000 that did the same thing with an 80mm fan blowing air through both the heatsink and the regulators. Heatsink size was just about the same as yours. In my experience while a little fan over the heatsink can …

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Re: 1994 Ultimate Gaming Build: Pentium 90

Posted on 2023-12-02, 06:07

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Socket 5 motherboards are general available for reasonable prices. Socket 4 is another story. I just checked on Ebay and there are only a handful for sale and they are all several hundred dollars apiece. It's a similar story with Socket 8 motherboards. Which is strange, because I have a Batman's …

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Re: Tseng ET4000/W32i on board video memory upgrade

Posted on 2023-11-09, 22:56

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thank you for the reply, I didnt pay attention the speed of the chips on the board, but that makes sense. It seems finding the 45ns 20dip chips is harder than I thought. It seems like these should work based on the specs given https://www.utsource.net/itm/p/213590.html Yes, that should work as it …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-11-08, 17:22

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Broken edge connector? 100 points ... 1 to 4 are missing... You cant imagine how irritated i was when i wanted to plug it in... I think that extra card edge under the power connector makes it even more confusing, it's easy to miss at first glance... I wonder how compatible this PCB is with the …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-11-08, 17:13

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I am surprised that nobody has seen it... But now i know why the drive was "untested"...Always the same thing with these seller idiots. Can you see it? I feel so stupid for not seeing it. And now i need to repair this drive too if it is even fixable. i will need some extremely high resolution …

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Re: The best reference PCI VGA card

Posted on 2023-11-05, 02:16

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Martin85 wrote on 2023-11-03, 13:51: I just got one of these and was wondering what purpose does the 3,5mm jack has on the back of the card? Thanks! Audio output for the MPEG decoder add-on.

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Re: AT (Clone) - Motherboard Formfactor

Posted on 2023-11-01, 01:10

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks a lot for the clearification. I have an additional question: I have little experience with AT systems, but NO experience with XT, systems. However, If I were to get me an XT motherboard, I would also need ALL additional peripherals (except the PSU), e.g. floppy controller, vga card, floppy …

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Re: AT (Clone) - Motherboard Formfactor

Posted on 2023-10-31, 06:40

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

As mentioned above, the standoff positions in that case are intended for XT style motherboards (notice the PSU is also XT form factor), so it may have been originally an XT clone. My XT clone case is almost identical to the one in your photos. Mounting hole locations on Baby AT motherboards can vary …

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Re: Annual specs for Ultimate Gaming Rigs from 1992 to 1999

Posted on 2023-10-30, 13:44

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Honestly, after ten days on the first page I still don't get what's the point of this topic if you reject all the suggestions on this magazine ads based configurations. I can make a long argue with arguments on most of the listed "top tear" configurations by years, but maybe this is the point - …

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

Posted on 2023-10-26, 04:39

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A bold choice. I use IPA myself. It's not really that risky. Unless you have access to an ultrasonic cleaner, water + detergent and some scrubbing is the ideal way to clean very dirty PCBs, as long as you make sure it has completely dried. It is better to use demineralized water to prevent it from …

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Re: Annual specs for Ultimate Gaming Rigs from 1994 to 1999

Posted on 2023-10-23, 20:59

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

1) Downgraded the 1994 spec to a Pentium 90 instead of the original Pentium 100. After reviewing a bunch of 1994 magazines, I can't find a single instance of a Pentium 100 in any systems offered for sale or even listed stand-alone. Even in CGW's Dec 1994 issue they mention the existence of the …

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Re: Questions about Asus PCI/I-P54TP4 motherboard (Socket 5) and CPU voltages

Posted on 2023-10-22, 18:54

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you look at the back of the CPU where the pins are, there should be a 3-letter code, such as 'SSS', 'VMU' or other variants (don't remember if this also applies to the goldtops, you probably need to check the processor spec for those I think). The first letter indicates which voltage range the …

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Re: Capacitor replacement for Asus A7N8X-E

Posted on 2023-10-22, 02:25

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Now if you can find out who makes those red Würth Elektronik junk caps all the Youtubers are crazy about I'd be really impressed. lol, I also noticed that, they really love those red things! Are those so much cheaper/easier to get than Japanese ones? Apparently it's a German company known for other …

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Re: Annual specs for Ultimate Gaming Rigs from 1994 to 1999

Posted on 2023-10-21, 04:40

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Nice, I also enjoy doing this exercise of coming up with the highest-end but realistic specs for systems on a certain period/year. There's something really fun about building a PC that would have cost thousands upon thousands of dollars back then for a fraction of the price, and thinking how much my …

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Re: Capacitor replacement for Asus A7N8X-E

Posted on 2023-10-17, 05:16

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So reading the posts, now it is fine to use Polymer capacitors near the VRMs? , if i remember correctly on polymer you need to use the same voltage from the original cap. but i did not know that you could change a 3300uf electrolytic cap with a 2200uf polymer cap! because the UF value is a rule to …

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Re: Storage device recommendations for 50 pin scsi

Posted on 2023-10-08, 20:38

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you want a solid state solution, I'd recommend BlueSCSI . IMHO SCSI2SD is too expensive and doesn't justify the price difference vs. other solid-state solutions, especially if you need to add storage to multiple machines. Here are some performance benchmarks of BlueSCSI vs. regular drives (on Mac …

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Re: The Soundblaster DSP project

Posted on 2023-10-08, 05:17

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I was under the impression that all of the Vibra chips had an integrated DSP. When examining a CT3930, I see what looks like a small ROM chip. Is it possible that the DSP can be swapped out from this chip? What else could it be? I also have a 3930 and was wondering the same, on my card that chip is …

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Re: Choosing the right capacitors for a recap

Posted on 2023-10-02, 17:36

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Keep in mind that hourly rating is typically given for running at a peak temperature. Not just max temp (usually 105C) but also max ripple current, basically worst case scenario. Obviously under normal conditions they last much longer, otherwise there wouldn't be 30-40 years old hardware with caps …

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Re: Choosing the right capacitors for a recap

Posted on 2023-10-01, 20:11

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by TheMobRules

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

About low ESR: I've seen that mentioned many times, but what's an acceptable range for a motherboard? Or is it again a matter of "get the lowest you can reasonably get, it doesn't matter that much?" It depends on the motherboard design. VRM circuits on newer boards usually require much lower ESR, …

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