Re: what hardware were you using in 1999?

Posted on 2013-02-15, 12:36

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by PowerPie5000

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

To the best of my knowledge, we had a Cyrix 686 rig with a Matrox G200 card and a Sound Blaster AWE32. God, that Cyrix chip was good for squat. Anyone else have the extreme displeasure of owning one? Cyrix chips were still better than the dreadful IDT Winchip at the time. I had the displeasure of …

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Re: Calling 440BX (and LX) users...

Posted on 2013-02-14, 20:10

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by PowerPie5000

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My Intel SE440BX-2 board is currently running an Asus Geforce 4 MX440 with no issues (using the latest Win98 drivers and DX 9.0c)... It also works fine with a 64Mb Hercules Geforce 2 Pro too. I tried a Gainward Geforce 3 but it wouldn't boot, but i suspect it's down to a tiny resistor that had …

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Re: Time for a graphics card change...

Posted on 2013-02-13, 21:01

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by PowerPie5000

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Some luck at last! The Asus Geforce4 MX440 is a keeper :happy:. The card itself looks a bit plain and boring, but both the 2D and 3D image quality are pretty decent. It's definitely a bit faster at 32-bit than my Hercules GF2 Pro and it's quite a bit faster than the GF2 Pro with FSAA enabled (there …

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Re: Can anyone identify this card........

Posted on 2013-02-12, 19:02

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by PowerPie5000

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Looks like a regular ethernet network card to me. EDIT: I believe it's a Netgear FA310TX 10/100 PCI network card (after doing a quick search).

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Re: Matrox G400 advice

Posted on 2013-02-12, 12:53

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by PowerPie5000

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The TNT2 cards were good for gaming, but the 2D quality and even the DVD playback wasn't that great imo.... I think even the 3D quality and colours appear better with a G400 too! I cannot state anything about DVD playback since I've never used it on TNT2, but the 2D and 3D output quality varied …

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Re: Matrox G400 advice

Posted on 2013-02-12, 10:50

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by PowerPie5000

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The DVD functionality is minimal and will work with most CPUs you could have bought off the shelf in 1999 but is still anemic. The 3D acceleration was okay but you would have been better off with a TNT2. The shining point was dual head (not very common in 1999) and the DAC which provided a very …

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Re: Time for a graphics card change...

Posted on 2013-02-11, 13:10

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by PowerPie5000

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The ebay seller is now sending me a passively cooled Asus Geforce4 MX440... The model is 'Asus V8170DDR/D/64M Rev 1.01' so it's not a crippled SE version either 😀. I wonder how much difference there will be compared to a 64Mb Geforce 2 Pro?

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Re: Time for a graphics card change...

Posted on 2013-02-10, 21:42

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by PowerPie5000

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I read that GF4 cards (including MX) were supposed to have superior 2D image quality compared to the GF2 (Of which the GF2 MX is supposed to be the worst). This card can't handle anything above 1024x768 or high refresh rates without looking like an out of focus/blurry mess First of all, you read …

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Re: Video Card Solder Failure

Posted on 2013-02-10, 00:39

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by PowerPie5000

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

h-a-l-9000 wrote: Soldering iron? That's not how capacitors make it to the board nowadays. It is with me when i replace them 😉.

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Re: Video Card Solder Failure

Posted on 2013-02-09, 22:07

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by PowerPie5000

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

> as they're usually rated for either 85c or 105c MAX temps! That's the temperature the capacitor will function 1000 hours at. Temporary soldering temperatures are higher. But you only touch the capacitor legs with the soldering iron for 1 or 2 seconds... 10 minutes in an oven at 200c is a major …

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Re: Video Card Solder Failure

Posted on 2013-02-09, 11:14

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by PowerPie5000

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Got recently 2 Quadro cards based on GF4 Ti and both had typical broken image artefacts. These older cards just worked more years, before they died on this. Never ones usually die after 3 years. And doesnt care from whom you buy them. Card makers don't care and customer must buy new one. Take off …

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Re: Time for a graphics card change...

Posted on 2013-02-08, 19:30

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by PowerPie5000

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's probably about as fast as a GF2 GTS. 2D quality will probably be just as bad, unless there's a DVI connector! Tough luck :( You're right, the 2D quality sucks and is worse than my Hercules GF2 GTS Pro (which actually has ok 2D quality for a Geforce card).... This Inno3D GF4 MX440SE has pretty …

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Re: random bright dots

Posted on 2013-02-08, 19:25

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by PowerPie5000

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I used to get bright green and purple pixels when running video files with a 32MB TNT2 Vanta (or it could have been an M64)... Never found out what caused it though. It only happened while watching AVI, DVDs or game FMV sequences... It was the saqme on a few systems using different drivers.

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Re: Time for a graphics card change...

Posted on 2013-02-08, 12:38

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by PowerPie5000

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

How does a Geforce4 MX440-SE compare to a 64MB Geforce2 GTS/Pro? The mystery replacement card from the ebay seller ended up being a 128MB Inno3D (brand i hate!) Geforce4 MX440-SE with active cooling. I returned a faulty Gainward Geforce 3 for this... I'm thinking i got a bit of a raw deal, but my …

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Re: Matrox G400 advice

Posted on 2013-02-08, 11:19

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by PowerPie5000

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

swaaye wrote: It has a few DVD features but most processing is done on the CPU. It still handles DVDs just fine with a relatively slow CPU, and the DVD picture quality is better than most too... But everyone knows ATI reigned supreme when it came to DVD playback 😉

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Re: Time for a graphics card change...

Posted on 2013-02-07, 19:49

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by PowerPie5000

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That damn ebay seller ignored my request for a refund and sent an 'alternative' replacement instead without asking me :angry:. I hope it's not a Radeon and i hope it's something that actually works with my mobo! They don't even know what kind of PC i'm going to use it with! I also asked them if i …

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Re: Time for a graphics card change...

Posted on 2013-02-07, 17:19

by

by PowerPie5000

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That damn ebay seller ignored my request for a refund and sent an 'alternative' replacement instead without asking me :angry:. I hope it's not a Radeon and i hope it's something that actually works with my mobo! They don't even know what kind of PC i'm going to use it with! I also asked them if i …

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Re: Time for a graphics card change...

Posted on 2013-02-07, 13:15

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by PowerPie5000

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I had an mx440 passively cooled [that's how pny made it] in a cramped case. never a problem. Well two psu's blew up but that was a different issue. :dead: Well the case for my PIII PC is a large metal tower with a single 80mm fan at the front... I'm guessing it should be ok as manufacturers …

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Re: Time for a graphics card change...

Posted on 2013-02-07, 12:21

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by PowerPie5000

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Is passive cooling ok for a Geforce 4 MX440? The Asus card i'm looking at doesn't have a fan or even a fan connector, but i think there's a place marked on the board where i can solder a fan connector (if it's needed?). My old case doesn't have much airflow.

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Re: Time for a graphics card change...

Posted on 2013-02-06, 23:06

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by PowerPie5000

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I got a Parhelia with a sheared off inductor last year. The guy sent me another card right away. But I don't know how someone misses damage like that. The card didn't work either. I'm guessing the damage can occur when the postman crams it through the letterbox! The Gainward GF3 card had just a …

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