Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-12-02, 23:34

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

:dead: Bought a SiS 6326 8MB PCI with S-Video out because I needed a decent 1996/97 PCI card with TV-Out for capturing DOS. It cost me $8 so it wasn't cheap considering how useless it is for anything else. I'm not sure how good a card for DOS it is, but considering my second option is an ATI Rage …

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Re: A 286 computer, is it totally useless?

Posted on 2019-12-02, 22:58

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A 286 isn't useless - you're right it lacks a lot of stuff that 386 introduced, but see it as a significantly faster "XT" with 16b bus and more 'normal' hardware & config and it suddenly starts to look interesting. That said, if you don't like CGA or EGA and want to play 386-era or later stuff, a …

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Re: What can you tell me about BCM BC845DL Pentium 4 industrial motherboard?

Posted on 2019-12-02, 07:46

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'd say it does say the chipset - the original 845 (without additional letters), hence only supporting PC2100 DDR. I wouldn't worry about AGP 8x cards running at 4x - the AGP bus speed was rarely a real-world bottleneck, certainly not with the slow RAM and FSB of this old board, and as for no 3.3V …

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Re: Where can I find Dos/3.1 Aztech azt2316r isa sound card drivers?

Posted on 2019-12-02, 07:28

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You won't find drivers for your specific card as it's a PB special with drivers theoretically available via PB (and even then you probably only got the Win9x drivers on the MasterCD). What you want is drivers for a card with the same chipset. The 845 also has an AZT2316R, so is a very likely …

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Re: Will this MB support lower voltage Celerons?

Posted on 2019-12-02, 06:57

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Looks like the overclocking option suggested by @ShovelKnight might be worth a look https://www.neoseeker.com/forums/17/t7530-overclocking-possibilities-along-with-my-specs/ That would be a nice speed boost indeed - but to really use it you'd need a Celeron with a lower multiplier; although there …

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Re: Where can I find Dos/3.1 Aztech azt2316r isa sound card drivers?

Posted on 2019-12-02, 00:07

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Take a look here: https://ilovepa.ws/2017/06/08/aztech-sound-cards/ I38-MMSN843 maps to the "Packard Bell 030106" That doesn't help a lot, but then you find this topic: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=55842 Looks like you should try the 'SG Pro16 II (2nd)' driver from that link I gave. …

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Re: AWE64 Gold worth it ?

Posted on 2019-12-01, 23:55

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by dionb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

[...] Well right now my retro PC is PIII 500mhz 512 mb Ram Voodoo 5 5500 flopp + Zip 750mb Drive XD I also have the Roland MPU-401 fully boxed (missing ISA Card for now) So i plan on getting an MT32 and robably an SC-55Mk2 Bouncing between DOS and windows games. Nice system! Be aware that a lot of …

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Re: AWE64 Gold worth it ?

Posted on 2019-12-01, 23:43

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Yep, this would be paying over the odds, and that backstory stinks. But maybe to backtrack a little... I am in need of an ISA sound card and of course the one most people tell you to go for is the AWE64 Gold. Totally depends on what kind of system you have and what you want to do with it. The AWE64 …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-12-01, 23:28

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

[...] roland_scb-7.jpg Roland SCB-7. This was a really nice surprise! For this two cards I paid a little more than 2 Euros! Now I need to find a good sound card to pair it with this board. For now, I have just a Creative CT2900, a few ESS and Yamaha sound cards... Any suggestions? So, I've had a …

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Re: Where can I find Dos/3.1 Aztech azt2316r isa sound card drivers?

Posted on 2019-12-01, 23:22

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It would help if you told us exactly which Aztech card it is - the FCC ID is generally a good identifier. More likely than not you'll find the driver you need here: http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?file … menustate=41,36

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Re: Motherboard for socket 5 build

Posted on 2019-11-30, 13:26

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just looked it up, and PS/2 is specced at 275 mA, so something's drawing over 10x max permitted current if you blow a 3A fuse...

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Re: Will this MB support lower voltage Celerons?

Posted on 2019-11-30, 13:20

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Aside from the lacking Coppermine support, that is one sweet motherboard - nice and small, with decent onboard Rage Pro - but also ISA, non-overlapping PCI and AGP. It doesn't come much better for a late DOS/early Win9x system in a small form factor.

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Re: Motherboard for socket 5 build

Posted on 2019-11-30, 13:08

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

3A is a LOT for a mouse. I'd say there's more chance the pinout is off or something's shorting somewhere. You can easily find +5V and GND on the header by testing for continuity vs power connector or anywhere else with one of those voltages. If they don't match, you have an obvious pinout issue. If …

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Re: Windows 98 SE & internet connection via WiFi?

Posted on 2019-11-30, 12:37

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by dionb

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Sounds like the discussion about 'safety' here is getting a bit blurred due to no clear definition of what you mean by 'safety'. Basically you have three separate things to worry about. Each has their own risks and mitigations. 1) Secure WiFi network. Most Win98SE-supporting adapters only support …

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Re: VRAM vs DRAM

Posted on 2019-11-30, 12:21

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by dionb

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

[...] In general, 'VRAM' just means Video RAM, and basically just means "the memory that is connected to your video circuit". The term is also used in cases where the machine doesn't actually have physically different types of memory, but some part of the memory is just reserved for video use (such …

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Re: AT Power Supply Cable Color Codes

Posted on 2019-11-29, 12:20

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Looks weird... The bottom pic has the normal AT P8/P9 layout, so that's not the problem. Trying to find information on the system, but Tulip "PC40" doesn't ring up hits. Could is perhaps be a Vision Line DC? A pic of the system - and of the motherboard, specifically of the area around the power …

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Re: Motherboard for socket 5 build

Posted on 2019-11-28, 07:18

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by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

feipoa wrote: FX supports EDO as well. But I'm guessing not the NX and SiS 500 series. SiS 501 supports EDO too (iirc it was the first Pentium chipset to do so), but its memory performance is clearly slower than the i430FX. Even with FP, both are a lot faster than the i430NX.

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Re: VRAM vs DRAM

Posted on 2019-11-27, 23:36

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by dionb

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Wild guess: bandwidth vs latency. I recall reading somewhere that VRAM has higher latency on its normal 'DRAM' port than on regular DRAM. That would explain the difference - if software (drivers) takes advantage of both ports, the VRAM wins hands-down, if not (i.e. plain old DOS), the added value …

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Re: Has anybody here risked trying to "hardmod" a better SnR ratio?

Posted on 2019-11-27, 23:26

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Why not just get a better card? PCI sound cards aren't hard to find or expensive. Are you attached to this particular card, or just curious about modding for the sake of it? Because he (thinks he) can ;) It makes a lot of sense to practice this sort of stuff with generic very expendable cards …

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Re: How to choose PCI Video card instead of integrated?

Posted on 2019-11-27, 11:05

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Still need more info in the exact board - if it's an onboard AGP chip, you might be able to force PCI VGA vs AGP VGA, if it's onboard PCI that would be more difficult but there may be a jumper to select. Iirc most IBM systems from this period used Acer-manufactured boards.

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