Re: Struggling to find parts.

Posted on 2018-09-20, 21:18

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Be careful of that one. It's got an ODIN RTC battery. If it's not socketed and you're not handy with a soldering iron, that will be a challenge to replace. Also, sticker over chipset suggests PC Chips-style 'fake' stuff. Given the other chip is a regular UMC one, it probably really is UMC under the …

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Re: How to connect MIF-IPC-A to MT-32

Posted on 2018-09-20, 15:44

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

[...] So if a sound card _does_ output MIDI through the gameport, is it accurate to say _any_ will work with the SoftMPU driver, or did every card manufacturer have their own SoftMPU implementation, meaning some might never have released it? SoftMPU is a modern community-driven piece of software …

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

Posted on 2018-09-20, 13:46

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Has anyone heard of Codegen before, and is it any good? if you have to ask, the answer generally is no. It looks like a gutless wonder. probably one of these: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=123 Ah. Good to know. Here're pics of the internal: Doesn't look that …

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Re: What hardware is in this PC (I've bought it now!)

Posted on 2018-09-20, 11:56

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

[...] Yeah, I was wondering why the RAM looks like that. I've never heard of topless RAM before! I've begun taking it (the PC) apart now. I'm still not sure what I'm actually going to do with it - I might just leave it with its Windows 95 install on it for now. Well, functionally it's just RAM like …

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Re: Create a LAN between modern laptop and old beauties

Posted on 2018-09-20, 09:34

by

by dionb

in Milliways

in Milliways

For pure DOS you can transfer from an FTP server on your file server using Mike Brutman's mTCP. Second that for the DOS FTP programs, but be aware: the site links to crynwr packet drivers for old cards. They are designed for *very* old systems and my experience is that they don't work on 486/ …

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Re: Help Star Control I/II creators vs. Stardock lawsuit

Posted on 2018-09-20, 08:40

by

by dionb

in Milliways

in Milliways

Their Master of Magic reboot was authentic enough: so buggy at release it was virtually unplayable 😦 But playability doens't decide legality. It looks like everything hinges on exactly what was still valid in the stuff Stardock bought out of the ashes of Atari.

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Re: Struggling to find parts.

Posted on 2018-09-20, 08:12

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I am in the the states. Then Amibay is still an option; although US listings are a minority, it's a big, active minority, so worth a look. But in the US you also have Vcfed's marketplace: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?7-Marketplace Also of course Craigslist for the 'come pick up …

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Re: Struggling to find parts.

Posted on 2018-09-20, 07:51

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Depends mainly on where you are located. Wherever you are, 486 is getting rare, but can certainly still be found, both targeted (people knowing what they have and priced accordingly) and untargeted ("come pick up this old trash for free/small amount"). Without knowing where you are, amibay.com is …

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Re: Help Star Control I/II creators vs. Stardock lawsuit

Posted on 2018-09-19, 21:00

by

by dionb

in Milliways

in Milliways

To me reading the two threads, it sounds like Brad & Stardock were almost fanboy-ish in their adoration of Dogar & Kazon, but in return got rather less than honest replies about no plans/interest/time/contractual opportunity to develop Star Control stuff. Then after Stardock - figuring the field was …

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Re: What hardware is in this PC (I've bought it now!)

Posted on 2018-09-19, 20:04

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Wow! It was an STB after all - and an ET6000. Rare & nice (if not a super performer). Congrats - and GBP 30 well spent 😀 That Topless RAM is also fun. Never seen it so late/on such large SIMMs before. It was quite common on 1MB 30p SIMMs.

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Re: Quick questions about SATA via PCI in old DOS PCs

Posted on 2018-09-18, 16:13

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Tbh I've never benched SATA SSD vs SD or CF. I strongly suspect the latter will be quite a bit more expensive per MB though. Squeezing speed is only relevant if the bit you're squeezing is a bottleneck. The difference between HDD and SSD is huge, but that's mainly due to the much lower latencies of …

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Re: Quick questions about SATA via PCI in old DOS PCs

Posted on 2018-09-18, 15:54

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

1) I believe the SI3114 card needs PCI 2.2, so probably won't work. I've run a Promise SATA150-TX2Plus in a P100 system with i430TX, which supports PCI 2.1. 2) SATA is backwards-compatible, so yes. 3) I've not even been able to get an 8GB SSD working under 6.22. Fdisk correctly recognizes its size, …

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Re: Best AGP card for Aladdin V super socket 7

Posted on 2018-09-18, 09:13

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

It's hard to find Geforce2 MX here. Where's "here"? In NL Gf2MX cards are so common you can't even give them away... Is this card good? It's AGP 8X, not sure if it works in AGP1 2X 3.3V :confused: https://www.gigabyte.com/Graphics-Card/GV-N40128TE#ov AGP 1.0 (2x) and 3.0 (8x) aren't electrically …

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Re: What hardware is in this PC

Posted on 2018-09-18, 09:10

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Second that CT3910. The video card looks... the VESA connector very close to the back plate combined with those (unpopulated) holes for a bigger connector directly above the PCI slot seem pretty characteristic, but I don't recognize it. It's not a Matrox or any Diamond or STB card I'm familiar with. …

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Re: Do I NEED to use on-card RAM with a SB32

Posted on 2018-09-18, 08:00

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Good luck finding 4 MB 30 pin RAM SIMMs. Nowadays they are rare as hen's teeth. Been searching for years for 6 pieces (4 for one of my 486 mobos which now has 8x1 MB, 2 for my SB32 which is the same model as yours, CT3600). Rare and pretty pricey when you do find them. I managed to find 6 for …

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Re: Motherboard compatibility

Posted on 2018-09-17, 21:06

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Chipset is the least relevant part in Tualatin support - you can run a Tualatin on an i440BX (which blatantly doesn't support it) so long as you get the right pinout (FC-PGA2 - if not you need a pin mod), the right voltage (Tualatins like 1.45V) and preferably some form of BIOS support. Now, does …

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

Posted on 2018-09-17, 09:00

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

When I read that, it opened a vague memory of this in my mind. Not enough to pin it down and be sure, but something just on the edge of being familiar. I tried different combinations of the multipliers (even ones that weren't explicitly listed in the manual, I got weird speeds like 110MHz and …

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Re: Dual channel U320 SCSI, any benefit?

Posted on 2018-09-17, 06:51

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks for your reply, but I am still confused. Is it better (overall faster) to use this Adaptec SCSI host controller in RAID or non-RAID mode? To clarify, you've never seen a RAID built across two SCSI channels and are, therefore, uncertain if it will be of any speed benefit? Could you please …

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Re: To what extent are heatsinks/fans cross-compatible?

Posted on 2018-09-16, 23:29

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

AMD's stock HSF worked fine 15 years ago, but highly likely the fan isn't operating anywhere near as well now as then. Just replacing that might do the trick.

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Re: To what extent are heatsinks/fans cross-compatible?

Posted on 2018-09-16, 21:59

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You've got two things to look for here when it comes to the heatsink: 1) how much heat the heat sink can dissipate. More is generally better. 2) mounting system Any heat sink with the correct mounting system will work, but for effective cooling it needs to be able to remove enough heat. A Socket A …

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