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

Posted on 2017-10-24, 13:33

by

by appiah4

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Nice 486! I assume you got the extra 1MB of RAM added for 1280x1024. And I had that Mitsumi keyboard on my P90, but it broke and I threw it out decades ago. I need to get a new one for authenticity. I just got one yesterday but it's grimy as hell so it will need to be unassembled and go for a ride …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2017-10-24, 12:26

by

by appiah4

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I wish a producer would make a limited run of quality AT/ATX hybrid cases.

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Re: Underrated PCI 3D Accelerators

Posted on 2017-10-24, 12:02

by

by appiah4

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

That's probably due to Windows Xp having much more OS overhead, what CPU did you test this with? Windows 2000 may or may not be faster; I remember at the time Windows 2000 was faster if you suffered from a CPU bottleneck in XP, but above say the 1GHz mark XP tended to run games faster due to better …

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Re: Frustrating IDE problems with 486 build, I need help

Posted on 2017-10-24, 12:00

by

by appiah4

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If I had it connected the wrong way around sysmark would not have detected it on the ide chain right? Correct; like most things digital, it either works or it doesn't (with some room for errors... but if the cable looks to be in good physical condition then you're likely okay) Right, so goodbye CD- …

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So.. Windows Me and motherboard swap.. Terrible idea?

Posted on 2017-10-24, 10:46

by

by appiah4

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

I have a Pentium III system running on a Lucky Star 6P2BX2 motherboard. It's an early 440BX motherboard without the necessary VRMs to run 1.65/11.7V Coppermine CPUs. As a result, the system is stuck with a Katmai P3 450MHz but I want to upgrade it. If at all possible, I want to pull this off without …

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Re: Friendliest CPU family for mid-90s "final" DOS-era games?

Posted on 2017-10-24, 08:58

by

by appiah4

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I tend to stick to Socket 7 for DOS exclusive systems, so I would advise that, period correctness and all. Again, playing Duke Nukem 3D on your list at 640x480 or higher will require at the very least a 233MMX, but a K6-2 400 will be better.

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Re: U5SX 486-33F Build

Posted on 2017-10-24, 06:49

by

by appiah4

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Nvm1 wrote: Perhaps resize the images a bit. I can only see less then half of them 🤣 This makes it hard to Judge the outcome of the benchmarks 😀 Done 😉

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

Posted on 2017-10-24, 06:27

by

by appiah4

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Finally got around to benching my U5SX system. I'm happy, aside from the poor ISA VGA performance, must find a better card.

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Re: U5SX 486-33F Build

Posted on 2017-10-24, 05:59

by

by appiah4

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Ok, now that I seem to have mostly resolved the IDE issues, time for some benchmarks. http://image.bolterandchainsword.com/uploads/gallery/album_11505/med_gallery_60983_11505_379288.jpg http://image.bolterandchainsword.com/uploads/gallery/album_11505/med_gallery_60983_11505_192548.jpg http://image. …

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Re: Friendliest CPU family for mid-90s "final" DOS-era games?

Posted on 2017-10-24, 03:48

by

by appiah4

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Lots of solid suggestions from people, but I don't think they are keeping in mind that you are only asking for the last generation of DOS games, which as far as I know there shouldn't be any that are speed sensitive. Yes this point is being missed! A P233MMX won't cut it for SVGA Blood, Quake, etc, …

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Re: Frustrating IDE problems with 486 build, I need help

Posted on 2017-10-24, 03:43

by

by appiah4

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Sounds like more work than I am willing I will replace with a newer 52x CDROM and be done methinks.. and if that wont work then the problem mist be the IDE cable. If I had it connected the wrong way around sysmark would not have detected it on the ide chain right?

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Re: Frustrating IDE problems with 486 build, I need help

Posted on 2017-10-23, 21:06

by

by appiah4

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Except that the CD-ROM still gives me CD101 errors. Funny thing is that it shows up fine in system diagnostic tools, and the DOS CD-ROM drivers load fine. Something must be wrong with it mechanically, I put a CD in and try to get a dir listing, but it just tries to spin the disc up and stops after …

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Re: Frustrating IDE problems with 486 build, I need help

Posted on 2017-10-23, 20:53

by

by appiah4

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks for the input, here's an update.. The CF card works and I managed to boot from it. One of the following did the trick, though which, I do not know: 1. Moved the CD-ROM to the sound card's IDE controller with the old ribbon cable 2. Removed the WD Caviar HDD which I now presume is bust 3. …

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

Posted on 2017-10-23, 13:53

by

by appiah4

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

IRC on Windows 3.11, classic. I can't remember, did Win 3.11 require Trumpet Winsock to go online on a Dial-Up? I presume you are connected via LAN in this setup though?

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Re: Where can I get the best sound card or graphic card for IBM NetVista?

Posted on 2017-10-23, 08:46

by

by appiah4

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Riva TNT2 Ultra/Pro (NOT the M64 or Vanta) graphics cardswould also be pretty good. You could also go cheap and fast with a GeForce 2 MX 400 graphics card but its DOS compatibility would be much poorer. I think the current PSU would handle all the above suggestions well enough. GeForce 4 MX 440 and …

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Re: Where can I get the best sound card or graphic card for IBM NetVista?

Posted on 2017-10-23, 08:29

by

by appiah4

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I would say your best upgrade options are a Diamond MX300 (or any other Aureal Vortex 2 chipset) sound card and a Voodoo 3 3000 or 3500 AGP. If you can't find either, a YMF72x or YMF74x sound card and a Matrox G400 or a Riva TNT2 Ultra/Pro (NOT the M64 or Vanta) graphics cardswould also be pretty …

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Re: Friendliest CPU family for mid-90s "final" DOS-era games?

Posted on 2017-10-23, 08:26

by

by appiah4

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

K6-2 400 anyone?

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Re: About removing and replacing barrel batteries..

Posted on 2017-10-23, 08:04

by

by appiah4

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

For the record I can report that the mod I did works perfectly with the batteries I use.

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Frustrating IDE problems with 486 build, I need help

Posted on 2017-10-23, 06:35

by

by appiah4

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, this is starting to become a fairly bothersome issue, so much so that I may forego building the 486 I am working on and settle for a Socket 5 Pentium instead.. But before I do that, maybe Vogons can help me out. I am building this PC and I'm having trouble with IDE/Floppy drives every step of …

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Re: Duke 3D (on Win98) GM vs AWE32

Posted on 2017-10-21, 09:35

by

by appiah4

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Was the gravis gamepad connected to the awe32 gameport by chance?

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