Re: Apple Decides 600 Million PC Users with 5 Year Old PCs is a Sad Fact

Posted on 2016-03-24, 18:22

by

by Unknown_K

in Milliways

in Milliways

I have Thinkpads well over 5 years old that work just fine (Thinkpad T61). A 5+ year old ex gaming rig is decent enough for todays internet centric use. You just need a 4 core CPU and 4gb+ of RAM plus a decent video card. The switch to x64 and RAM requirements are what causes most people to just buy …

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Re: How to reliably (and cheaply) store data?

Posted on 2016-03-16, 18:59

by

by Unknown_K

in Milliways

in Milliways

For archives I use LTO tape drives, the older models are cheap enough.

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Re: Adlib Gold 1000 ISA card on eBay

Posted on 2016-03-11, 23:07

by

by Unknown_K

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I don't think sniping helps much of high value collectable items. Nice to see that older rarities command some value, is this hobby going to turn into a rich person only hobby like rare hotrod cars did?

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Re: Any use for Power Mac G4's?

Posted on 2016-03-10, 23:21

by

by Unknown_K

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That was the first G4 tower you could not directly boot OS 9.x on so you are stuck with OSX (10.4.11 is probably a good choice for it). The power supplies are known to go bad. I have 3 of those machines but with the earlier FW400 revisions so I use them for OSX and OS 9 apps (I collect Mac anyway). …

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Re: Do you connect your old systems to the internet?

Posted on 2016-03-10, 22:41

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by Unknown_K

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yes and no. I have a few Ethernet switches connected to old machines but its mostly for in house file swapping then for internet use. I can browse the web using an old 386 or 68k mac if I wanted to, but it is just easier to do it using a more modern machine then dump it to the server and then move …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2016-03-09, 23:42

by

by Unknown_K

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Funny I snagged a Dell Inspiron 8100 a couple days ago. 1ghz CPU with 1400x1050 screen. I also have an 8000 unit with the 1600x1200 screen snagged from a recycler years ago. Running Win2k on both currently. They are very heavy laptops meant for desktop replacement use, the Geforce2go video isn't bad …

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Re: dallas rtc

Posted on 2016-03-03, 19:20

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by Unknown_K

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

There are a few different models in use from my experience. The differences are probably in data size since most EISA systems seem to use Dallas chips to store CMOS and EISA configurations. http://www.mcamafia.de/mcapage0/dsrework.htm shows how to redo the battery on the most common variety.

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Re: Where are all these Voodoo5 5500s coming from?

Posted on 2016-02-24, 23:34

by

by Unknown_K

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Prices are what makes them come up, they are worth the effort to sell. The Radeons and Geforces of the era are plentiful and don't command that much money (plus they have to be tested since quite a few are dead).

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Re: Technology that fascinated you, but ultimately flopped

Posted on 2016-02-23, 04:42

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by Unknown_K

in Milliways

in Milliways

The Amiga 1000 was a flop for the same reason the original compact Mac was, a GUI with 256K of RAM is a joke. The A500 was popular here in the US, just not as popular as the 10M+ units sold C64. Better consoles on the late 80's stole some of the Amiga user base. Back in the day I jumped from my C64 …

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Re: Technology that fascinated you, but ultimately flopped

Posted on 2016-02-23, 03:22

by

by Unknown_K

in Milliways

in Milliways

Early WORM drives and later MO drives were very cool when they came out. Unlike CDR and DVD-R MO media was protected and pretty much indestructible plus very reliable.

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Re: I got a phone call today..

Posted on 2016-02-16, 14:01

by

by Unknown_K

in Milliways

in Milliways

Sounds kind of weird to me actually.

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Re: Top 5 hardest retro builds

Posted on 2016-02-10, 03:51

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by Unknown_K

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Can't think of my own list for top 5 hardest, but the one I had the most trouble with was a K6-III+. Had to turn on BIOS shadowing, pry the flash chip out with the power on, insert the new chip and flash with the new BIOS. It was a genuine brown trousers moment for me. You can buy cheap USB …

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Re: Top 5 hardest retro builds

Posted on 2016-02-08, 19:31

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by Unknown_K

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

EISA systems where you can't find the config files for the motherboard. Custom OEM systems where the maker went bust before the internet was a thing (little to no information or drivers).

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Re: Should I part ways with my PS/2 8570 (Model 70)?

Posted on 2016-02-02, 23:13

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by Unknown_K

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have all kinds of PS/2 machines and a couple PS/2 sound cards (not the gaming type), they are not meant for gaming (well maybe the PS/2 Model 30 - 286 which is ISA). Still they are decently built with good expansion and decent support for Apps and OS. OS/2 on a PS/2 is cool to run for example.

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Re: Earliest multiprocessing (on home PCs)

Posted on 2016-02-02, 02:05

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by Unknown_K

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The first MP system that home users made popular was the ABIT BP6 with dual Celerons. Celerons were pretty cheap and Windows 2000 was released soon after making for a nice combination (first NT version you could actually game on). Most people ran Win9x before 2000 so a MP rig was a waste of money. …

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Re: I recently found this hardware, AKA the Dumpster find thread.

Posted on 2016-01-26, 08:15

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by Unknown_K

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

im blown away by how dumb + selfish general society is. to throw away a perfectly good working computer, just because it wasnt fast enuff for whoever owned it.. or because they got a new one.... mindblowing.. like at least donate it to those in need or something.. wow. There is a glut of Win 7 …

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Re: Dead VLB Cards (bad solder joints)

Posted on 2016-01-25, 08:31

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by Unknown_K

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Many years ago when I actually bothered to sell my gear when I upgraded I sold an AMD 486/80 system. I was going to sell it to a friend of a friend so I have to take it over my friends house to set it up. When I got it all set up and turned it on the screen showed junk and I could not figure out why …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2016-01-23, 21:21

by

by Unknown_K

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Recycling which peaked a couple years ago when gold hit $1800 an ounce and copper was high is why recent stuff is going to be hard to find in a decade. The only thing that saved the older stuff is it was in collectors and hoarders collections, but $100 a lb for 486 processors and the $35 a pop for a …

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Re: Most powerful K6 2/2+,3/3+ ?

Posted on 2016-01-19, 08:57

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by Unknown_K

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Generally when your stock is running low you jack up the rates for the last few and sit on them.

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Re: Worst 90's computer brands?

Posted on 2016-01-16, 08:27

by

by Unknown_K

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Shame about Gateway, their old Gateway 2000 systems were some of the best built OEM machines around in the 386/486/Pentium days. They even made some decent keyboards and sold decent monitors.

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