Re: IBM IntelliStation M Pro 6889-930

Posted on 2018-01-20, 14:28

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

A long time ago my parents asked for advice on buying a computer, and I recommended one of these to them. At the time, they were just getting to be "obsolete" for engineering work and there was a seller on eBay liquidating them in large numbers. Theirs was a P2-450MHz model, which later got upgraded …

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Re: Best standard PCI video card of XP era?

Posted on 2018-01-20, 08:18

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I once thought about buying one of the faster PCI cards for my file server. I wanted it to double as a usable desktop and support an extra participant in LAN games of Minecraft. I never did it though. $35 for that GT610 is cheaper than what I used to see. I remember those going for more like $50 to …

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Re: Best standard PCI video card of XP era?

Posted on 2018-01-19, 07:40

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I won't try to comment on the ATI cards, but for NVidia: The 8400GS PCI is relatively common compared to the others. There were 2 different GPUs used on "8400GS" cards. I recall some old internet complaints that the older GPU was actually better for games, but the later GPU added H.264 video …

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Re: X1950PRO vs HD3850 AGP vs HD4650 AGP

Posted on 2018-01-19, 06:37

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

If the only concern is gaming performance then the X1950 cards are probably a good choice. If you care about video playback on that system then I'd go for something later. The X1950 doesn't have H.264 acceleration. An Athlon64 can generally, sort of, usually, kind of play H.264 1080p video but at …

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Re: Concerned About My Old PC - ASUS P2B Graphics Lockup

Posted on 2018-01-19, 02:53

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by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I must be wrong about the existence of the AGP jumper. I looked in the manual and don't see it mentioned either. Maybe it's a hidden/implied part of the FSB jumper setting. I wish I could double check what I'm remembering. I have one of these boards somewhere but I'm not sure exactly where. (I …

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Re: Concerned About My Old PC

Posted on 2018-01-11, 01:39

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yes, it is running at 100FSB. In the BIOS there's an option under PnP settings to set the PCI clock (or timing?). By default it's set to 32 and I think I might have it on 33. I checked the jumpers and indeed all of them are set to run at 100Mhz FSB and the core multiplier is 3.5x. I should mention …

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Re: Concerned About My Old PC

Posted on 2018-01-10, 05:04

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Still seems strange to me, I don't think having the AGP aperture set to 64MB should be causing you these problems. Not sure what is best, but I think 32-64MB were typical settings. You mentioned a Deschutes P2 processor so in the comments below I'm assuming you're running a 100MHz frontside bus. …

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Re: Most frustrating part of working on old computers?

Posted on 2018-01-10, 04:14

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by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

When they start to occasionally blue screen and you're not sure why. It's very depressing when a system you like isn't stable.

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Re: What monitor do you use?

Posted on 2018-01-08, 15:35

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by shamino

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I have an NEC aperture grille CRT with a great picture, but it turned up dead after a power outage. I'm holding onto it in the hope that I'll be able to fix it someday. It would be my ideal choice if it were working. If I were to set up a retro PC right now for Win9x, then I'd probably use an HP …

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Re: TOP 5 videocards of all time

Posted on 2018-01-07, 19:48

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by shamino

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Diamond Trio64V+ or similar models - good for nearly anything in the DOS VGA 2D gaming era 3Dfx Voodoo2 ATI Radeon 9700Pro and it's derivatives Geforce 6800GT/Ultra AGP - in my opinion the ultimate NVidia AGP card. There are faster ATI AGP cards but took time for drivers to stabilize, and by that …

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Re: Most frustrating part of working on old computers?

Posted on 2017-12-23, 15:01

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Maybe someone said this already, but getting files onto them is often frustrating for me. They won't take USB drives, and if they can even be connected to a network, there's usually a bunch of files that need to be transferred before that can happen. Can't use floppy disks because my modern …

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Re: Cyrix appreciation thread

Posted on 2017-12-23, 01:45

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Some 486 motherboards had fake cache http://redhill.net.au/b/b-bad.html Wouldn't that be technically illegal due to misinforming customers (At least in the US)? I had one of those boards here in the US. It didn't come from a well known retailer though, it came from a small computer shop, which I …

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Re: Antistatic tape - do you use and where to buy?

Posted on 2017-12-21, 03:04

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you're in the US: http://www.staticbags.com/ direct link to the tape: http://www.staticbags.com/StaticTape.html I've never bought the tape, but I ordered bags and labels from him a couple times several years ago. Good experience, no problems.

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Re: Merry f'ing :-D christmass 2017 everyone :-) :-) :-)

Posted on 2017-12-20, 09:14

by

by shamino

in Milliways

in Milliways

I haven't been active here in a while, but merry Christmas everybody, and God bless you all. I just caught up on the recent drama, hope that isn't getting people down.

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Re: GOG versions of Quake 3 and UT99 on Windows 98SE?

Posted on 2017-12-20, 04:37

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

GOG's installer doesn't work on Win98, but there's a workaround. There's a utility that extracts the files from GOG's installers. I don't remember the name of it, but it's been discussed in other threads before. I used that utility to extract the files from the GOG versions of Unreal and Unreal …

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Re: Storing your pc parts.

Posted on 2017-12-20, 04:19

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you have a lot of CPUs, search eBay for CPU trays. I don't know if there are any available at the moment, but they have come up before. I bought a stack of those trays and keep almost all my CPUs in them. Very safe and compact. I have 2 types of trays, most of them are the type that holds older …

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Re: Most frustrating part of working on old computers?

Posted on 2017-12-20, 03:01

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

1) Reinstalling Windows and setting up everything afterward 2) Juggling of available hard drives to do a reinstall without having to wipe the previous install at the outset 3) Replacing power supplies 4) Dell clamshell cases 5) Beaten up second hand Dell clamshell cases 6) DVI-VGA adapters 7) Sloppy …

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Re: Star Control II developers working on 'direct sequel' 25 years later

Posted on 2017-10-11, 02:28

by

by shamino

in Milliways

in Milliways

Awesome announcement. SC2 is on the short list of my favorite games ever made (which is impossible to really pin down to 1 game). I guess it will be a while before we know how "modernized" the game will be, but I hopefully it stays in the traditional 2D style. The comment about Fwiffo makes me a …

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Re: Dual SLOT1 motherboard with PIi and PIII CPU - possible?

Posted on 2017-10-10, 16:39

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Boards that have both a slot-1 and socket-370 only intend one such CPU to be installed, so I doubt they would cooperate with what you're trying to do. Assuming you could convince it to work, there's also an electrical problem. These type of boards probably only have a single VRM which is routed to …

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Re: Pentium 233 MMX vs AMD K6-2-233

Posted on 2017-10-09, 16:08

by

by shamino

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A while back I did some benchmarking on a VIA MVP3 based motherboard, and a couple of the early setups matched what you're asking here. One CPU was a Pentium MMX at 233/66, the other was a K6-2 450MHz clocked down to 233/66. The K6-2 I used was a CXT core, while I think a "real" 233MHz chip would be …

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