Re: Like Abit VP6 but with 2 ISA slots

Posted on 2021-03-12, 08:40

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

How about the ABIT BP6? (It has 3 RAM slots though...) You'd have to get extremely lucky that yours runs on 133MHz, and as it doesn't even support Coppermine you'd need an ice-cream sandwich of PPGA to FC-PGA adapter (modded for BP6 SMP) and on top of that a lin-lin Tualatin adapter (or one of …

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Re: Best motherboard for "Mega DOS" build

Posted on 2021-03-11, 22:27

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

There was an Abit KT7A for a nice price on Amibay yesterday. Too late now but it would have been a perfect match. Something similar could still fit the bill, so I wholeheartedly second the GA-7IXE4 suggestion.

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2021-03-11, 22:05

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Very good day today at work (got a major promotion), so to celebrate - after uncorking the best wine in the house - ordered some nice stuff - a Model F keyboard and a Tekram Slot1 motherboard with 3 ISA slots, SBLink and CuMine support (like late revision Asus P2B, just not so horrendously expensive …

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Re: Anything good for removing RUST on old hardware?

Posted on 2021-03-11, 18:57

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

For copper, I find that ketchup works best lol. I clean my copper CPU waterblocks and heatsink bottoms that way. Makes them look brand new and shiny. I saw it in a few different articles on how to clean copper about 10 years ago. I guess the combination of tomato acidity + vinegar + salt in the …

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Re: Anything good for removing RUST on old hardware?

Posted on 2021-03-11, 14:16

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If we're going necro a question on my part: Options for rusty iron are clear. What about copper? I have some old heatsinks that are pretty tarnished. I tried phosphoric acid. So long as the copper was underneath the surface it looked beautifully rejuvenated, but the instant it made contact with …

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Re: Fastest AT computer.

Posted on 2021-03-11, 08:34

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yep. PICMG is still a thing and still fits AT form factor. I have a P3-1400S on one, but they are available up to Ryzen/i7/Xeon if desired. Not cheap though.

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Re: Understanding what usefulness of PII 400 or 450 vs PIII 800?

Posted on 2021-03-10, 22:07

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

how is the PII 400 or 450 useablity? Strictly for period correct nerds (yep, for those few month when PII 450 was the king). Although PII 400 with unlocked multiplier is nice. P3-450 was only fastest CPU for a few months, but few people actually bought the fastest CPUs and it was a solid mainstream …

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Re: What motherboard do i choose?

Posted on 2021-03-10, 17:55

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

[...] Yea I meant sdram. My computer automatically corrected it to sram-_-. But anyways I think you nailed what i am looking for at first glance. Any recommendations to start to look for? Given limited availability and a great number of models, just look for anything with MVP3 and if you find …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2021-03-10, 17:19

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I don't usually buy hardware in boxed state. But when I do... Filename 16153965959700.jpg File size 292.46 KiB Views 1433 views

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Re: What motherboard do i choose?

Posted on 2021-03-10, 15:17

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Those specs are off... SRAM is used in caches and no K6-2 system would have more than 2MB (or 16Mb) of it. You probably mean SDRAM. Anyway, reading what you probably mean instead of what you actually say, you have a late So7 CPU, some AGP cards, one of which is nVidia. That sounds like you want a …

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Re: PAS16: to sound blaster or not to soundblaster

Posted on 2021-03-10, 12:35

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by dionb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

When you say "emulation" what do you mean? The PAS16 has a dedicated SoundBlaster compatible chip on it (it should say Thunder on it). Now, I don't think the Thunder chip supports 16 bit audio, but I wouldn't call it emulation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Vision_Pro_AudioSpectrum Sorry, …

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Re: I bought some no-brand sound card clones just for fun

Posted on 2021-03-10, 08:41

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by dionb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

"All of the above" driver CDs ;) Time to let some software autoprobe the hardware, if it fits into a slot and doesn't hang the system before booting. I'd recommend a Linux distro like Knoppix that does extensive device discovery. No guarantees it actually supports whatever the chips are, but it …

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Re: PAS16: to sound blaster or not to soundblaster

Posted on 2021-03-10, 08:26

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by dionb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

SB emulation on PAS16 is hardly its best feature, so makes sense to go for a second card next to it. As for which, what do you want to run on it? If you want late-era DOS stuff, then I'd second the SB32. Tbh I'd actually look at adding two cards, as SB32 is an SB16, so not perfect SBPro2 support and …

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Re: An ISA Soundcard to pair with ESS1868f

Posted on 2021-03-10, 08:14

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Hmm... normally I'd say an SB16 with real OPL3 would be a nice paring (not that ESFM is bad, but having both to choose from is always better), but the one thing you don't want to do - for good reason - on any SB16 is MIDI. The last SB16s (i.e. AWE64 and derived SB32) don't have hanging notes, but do …

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Re: Unsure why my computer is slow?

Posted on 2021-03-10, 08:02

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That could make a BIG difference if it's throttling. Another possibility (but far less impacting) is no chipset drivers installed. That would result in no DMA for HDD transfers, which give a very bad performance hit in anything loading. I did enable DMA for each hard drive but whether or not it …

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Re: "new" (baby) AT based computer... what to choose?

Posted on 2021-03-10, 00:29

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You hardly have a gap there. With that many systems I'd not go for a specific performance target for another one (unless you wanted 808x or >P2), but rather a specific theme. There again, nothing really jumps out at me. The P5A (which revision?) is probably the most interesting of the lot, but you …

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

Posted on 2021-03-10, 00:25

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Actually got round to playing some DOS games today instead of just repairing and testing hardware. My Terratec EWS64XL is *NICE* and those different sound fonts for the Dream synth are fun. Not totally convinced the 8MB Hoontech is the best thing since sliced bread, but it gives my SC-55 a run for …

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Re: Unsure why my computer is slow?

Posted on 2021-03-10, 00:13

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That could make a BIG difference if it's throttling. Another possibility (but far less impacting) is no chipset drivers installed. That would result in no DMA for HDD transfers, which give a very bad performance hit in anything loading.

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Re: I bought some no-brand sound card clones just for fun

Posted on 2021-03-09, 18:16

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Are the chips on them actually what they claim to be? Not sure about the ESS cards, but the 'Creative' chip looks suspiciously like a C-Media CMI-8378...

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Re: Getting ancient ASC-88 SCSI controller to do something useful

Posted on 2021-03-09, 12:10

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, I am the lead dev of a PC Systems Emulator (www.varcem.com), and I have been busy cleaning up the SCSI layer recently. Implemented are several 5380/c80/c400/c400a cards, including the ASC-88 mentioned in the initial post. That said.. I am looking for someone who has the actual card, …

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