Re: 1996 "Workstation," Build Ideas?

Posted on 2021-07-16, 20:25

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The question is x86/Windows or just "the best damn workstation possible in 1996" ? If the latter, then you're talking: - Sun Ultra 2 - SGI Indigo2 - SGI Onyx2 deskside (just scrapes in, being introduced in 1996 as a side-by-side replacement to the original Onyx) By a long way the Onyx2 would have …

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Re: Old servers - what are they good for?

Posted on 2021-07-14, 16:59

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I must be in the minority - for a large chunk of my career I looked after server infrastructure (Dell, HP, Compaq, Sun) ; unless it's something really special (and almost none of the usual x86 stuff falls in to that category) it just doesn't do anything for me. Too big, too power hungry and too …

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Re: PCI slots fouling CPU heatsink

Posted on 2021-07-09, 08:49

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That board definitely gets a "Fail" for layout! A mix of expansion slots and IO headers where only expansion slots should go?

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Re: Very unique 386 motherboard “Unknown Make/Model”

Posted on 2021-07-04, 09:44

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by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The 64k ATROM from GETROM looks legit. Loads of AMI BIOS strings, visible chipset config options etc. Almost the first thing in the file is the following string: SETUP PROGRAM FOR C&T 386 CHIPSET(C)1988, American Megatrends Inc.All rights reserved.1346 Oakbrook drive, Suite-120,Norcross, GA 30093, …

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Re: Copam U-series 486

Posted on 2021-07-03, 07:31

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

.. fastest card I've found for my 286. Yes, the one I have has 286 compatible BIOS. Most better ISA graphics cards have a BIOS that uses 386 instructions to rule out 286 systems. Second best VGA card I've tested on my 286 is the Ati VGA Stereo F/X, but it has worse VGA compatibility and it is …

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Re: WP32 McCake : MT32 compatible waveblaster board

Posted on 2021-07-01, 18:57

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by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I went for the larger HD44780 based screens to fill a 5.25" bay: Filename img20210613120948.jpg File size 29.76 KiB Views 358 views Filename img20210529180821.jpg File size 36.56 KiB Views 358 views The beige case (my 386DX/486DLC) was the first one I did, the blue one (my 286) is a slightly …

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Re: MP32L - Lite version of MP32 : Pi based MT32 synth

Posted on 2021-07-01, 06:36

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by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

The SC55 doesn't require sysex programming in order to set it up for each game. Most MT-32 games do, otherwise they either won't sound right or work at all. You can "emulate" this if you have a real MT-32 in a chain after another device; start playing a midi file with the first device turned on, …

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

Posted on 2021-06-30, 22:02

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by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Fixed my non-booting SGI Indigo 2 workstation. It has been in storage since about 2010 and yesterday was the first time I powered it on since then (it has a dedicated place to live under my workbench now). Unfortunately it wouldn't boot and I got loads of SCSI timeouts and the video subsystem take …

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Re: MP32L - Lite version of MP32 : Pi based MT32 synth

Posted on 2021-06-30, 19:29

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I had the "Unexp midi STATUS" error showing on a MT32-Pi installation when I was using a M-Audio Uno interface - some things would play (but be off-key), some wouldn't play at all, and display messages you would normally expect just wouldn't show at all. Swapped the M-Audio MIDI interface to a …

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Re: Dutch members: Tulip Vision Line dt 4/66 (486) CPU jumper help?

Posted on 2021-06-30, 10:29

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

CMD640 controller and a hard drive showing write errors you say? https://www.mindprod.com/jgloss/eideflaw.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMD640

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Re: 286 dead, long live the 286! Sourcing and building a fast 286 replacement

Posted on 2021-06-30, 10:20

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I settled on the use of the VLSI 82C200 board in the end - couldn't get the Biostar to work, even reflowing the main chipset IC. The VLSI has been running happily at 20MHz, 0-wait, since I was never happy about the instability at 25MHz. I've since bought a set of 40ns rated, newly produced simms …

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Re: Bad performance with AB-PB4 + Cyrix

Posted on 2021-06-30, 09:24

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by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yes, the Cyrix 5x86 is much more competitive on an integer performance basis - look at the 3DBench and Doom performance metrics; they're much more inline with the Overdrive processors. At the time Intel had put a huge amount of development into improving the FPU architecture, although it wasn't …

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Re: Octek hippo vl+ and eeprom

Posted on 2021-06-30, 08:31

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yes, got it. Out of curiosity: I have similar board, also 486DX and it has both BIOS and controller. Both are AWARD, not AMI. Can I replace it? From what I read you can put AWARD or AMI on any board, the only requirement is that both controller and BIOS brand match. Is that correct assumption? This …

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Re: Win98 freezes when transferring files

Posted on 2021-06-30, 08:09

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Does it freeze when you do a copy from the hard drive to somewhere else on the hard drive? i.e. exclude any other drives. Another thing I would be checking is memory; it's often the cause of random freezes and glitches - give memtest86 a run and see if you have any errors show up.

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Re: WP32 McCake : MT32 compatible waveblaster board

Posted on 2021-06-30, 06:54

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Definitely interested in the carrier board - I have a small form factor, 1x ISA slot system with only a floppy bay... So options for buttons, screen etc are limited. In my case I would probably just use the DOS command line tool to change synth and soundfont. Will the buttons, oled screen etc all …

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Re: AT to PS/2 keyboard adapter differences causing KVM keyboard error?

Posted on 2021-06-29, 18:37

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

What's the resistance? Perhaps one adapter has slightly higher resistance than the other, causing the keyboard signals to be out of spec for the KVM? I've an odd problem with one of my Belkin KVM's where a PS2 keyboard works perfectly when connected to a external keyboard adapter on a ZX Spectrum, …

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Re: Copam U-series 486

Posted on 2021-06-29, 17:24

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I was fortunate to actually paint the entirety of that second case when I bought it, so I know the exact colour :-) With the first, I had to try a few shades until I found a decent math - it's not bad as long as you look at the front, but the right edge, and to a lesser extent the top of the bezel …

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Re: HP Vectra ES/12 12Mhz 286

Posted on 2021-06-29, 12:13

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by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Shadow RAM is an ability to use some of the (normally inaccessible) memory between 640-1024kb. First, the system reserves part of this memory space to map various ROM's in (remember the original XT only had a 1MB address space). That's the main reason why 640-1024kb cannot be used for other purposes …

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Re: Building an ultimate gaming PC - GPU question

Posted on 2021-06-29, 09:33

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by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Oetker wrote on 2021-06-29, 09:13: Those CPUs are too slow for WinXP gaming, also too slow for late 98 if you ask me. For your machine some kind of Geforce 4 MX would suffice, I'd say. I'd agree - late 90's gaming would be need to be P3 or you could just sneak in the Athlon just before the year …

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Re: Building an ultimate gaming PC - GPU question

Posted on 2021-06-29, 09:12

by

by megatron-uk

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ultimate late 90's would either be Voodoo 3 or TNT 2. The Voodoo 4 and Geforce 256 were just on the cusp of the year 2000 (depending on where you were in the world they were late autumn 1999). If you must have Glide support, then probably nothing else will do than a Voodoo 3. Though my GPU of choice …

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