Re: IDE cable motherboard connector - matters?

Posted on 2020-04-05, 20:35

by

by mpe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It depends. Devices can be configured as "Master" or "Slave". When set it like this the order doesn't matter. However a device can be also set to "CS" (Cable Select) mode where Master will be on the middle connector and Slave device is on the connector towards the end. But this also depends on the …

---

Re: Pentium Overdrive competition - socket 3/4/5/7

Posted on 2020-04-05, 19:52

by

by mpe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think the coolest thing about your results is that the POD83 marginally outperforms the P60 and P75, showing that it's performing at true Pentium levels. Did you happen to gather any other benchmark results? Doom would be interesting, not only because it's the industry-standard DOS game benchmark …

---

Re: Pentium Overdrive competition - socket 3/4/5/7

Posted on 2020-04-05, 17:53

by

by mpe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The Winstone 95 tests overall system performance. That means including storage. The key to my high scores is a very high storage performance. I was using Adaptec 2940U PCI controller and scsi2sd v 6.0 device. This combo delivers roughly 8000 kB/s with negligible access time. Which is maximum …

---

Re: When did PCI become popular? And when did you have your first PCI System?

Posted on 2020-04-05, 12:49

by

by mpe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

UMC deserves some love. I actually used UM8891F based Socket 5 motherboard (Shuttle HOT-539) and it wasn't that bad. It was a 64 bit designed for 3.3V Pentiums up to 200 MHz (non-MMX). It even had a dual-bank 64bit L2 async cache in 16 SRAM chips, which was rather uncommon in Pentium era. SIMMs had …

---

Re: When did PCI become popular? And when did you have your first PCI System?

Posted on 2020-04-05, 00:04

by

by mpe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

PCI launched in 1992 (420TX chipset, but that was rather a proof of concept), started getting traction in 1994 when second-gen Pentium started eating into the mainstream. Got mine in 1995 (in a Pentium 75 system). There was only a handful of non-PCI Pentium systems (if any). So you can say the PCI …

---

Re: Upgrade to 2MB TSeng VLB

Posted on 2020-04-04, 21:28

by

by mpe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I assume this is a 32bit card with 2-bank interleaving organisation and those chips are 256Kx4 devices. Thus I think address buses, the data bus and most of control strobes in those empty sockets are shared with already populated chips. Only 8 CAS strobes will be unique per a pair of chips (one …

---

Re: Gravis Ultrasound wall art project

Posted on 2020-04-04, 08:59

by

by mpe

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

OK, thinking about removing factory stickers from those wasn’t a great idea. However, I often remove damaged, non-factory stickers, retailer/OEM bar codes, OEM warranty void labels, etc. On the other hand a handful of times I even restored damaged factory stickers (as it is not a good idea to keep …

---

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2020-04-03, 13:25

by

by mpe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Bought Mach32 Graphics Wonder ISA VGA. I plan to challenge my soldering skills and upgrade it to 2MB. I hope it is just a matter of adding 8 DIP sockets and no other components are necessary. Anyone has successfully done this? Filename DSC_6068.jpeg File size 406.98 KiB Views 763 views

---

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2020-04-01, 21:34

by

by mpe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Still the "originals" were made in Singapore and those in China. So it is a question where these were produced under license by Quickshot or actually made by Creative.

---

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2020-04-01, 21:25

by

by mpe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The Sound Machine is a Quickshot branded CT1350. It is the same thing except for missing CMS upgrade sockets. More a custom branded version rather than a clone.

---

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2020-04-01, 21:15

by

by mpe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think you don't need any drivers for SB 2.0. In DOS it should work out of the box.

---

Re: Gravis Ultrasound wall art project

Posted on 2020-04-01, 21:08

by

by mpe

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

OK. Cleaned the other card and swapped MAX 2.1 for MAX 1.8. Looks cooler with longer PCB and socketed chips. Will keep the MAX 2.1 for my retro PCs... Ready to go above my working desk. Will still think about labels. Filename DSC_6055.jpeg File size 1.22 MiB Views 240 views

---

Gravis Ultrasound wall art project

Posted on 2020-04-01, 14:45

by

by mpe

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I had the idea for some time and only decided to do it now when I am locked at home. I wanted to put my Gravis Ultrasound mini collection on display in my house. GUS cards could be a bit troublesome for retro use, but the red PCB make them visually attractive. They make a nice interior design …

---

Re: Pentium Overdrive competition - socket 3/4/5/7

Posted on 2020-03-31, 18:55

by

by mpe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Did you have fans for these overdrives? If there's no fan installed, the processor is underclocked to protect itself. Of course I did. They just look way too uniform with them so I prefer to take pictures with fans removed. I think only the PODP83 has that feature (it disables multiplier without a …

---

Re: Pentium Overdrive competition - socket 3/4/5/7

Posted on 2020-03-31, 11:39

by

by mpe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yes the GA-586HX is a bit of outlier here. It actually supports straight P233MMX (as well as K6 or MII) so no need to use Overdrive on it. However, it gives just as big boost to the PODMT66x200 is to the P120 so I think the relative improvement will be the same. It is just interesting that a mature …

---

Re: Pentium Overdrive competition - socket 3/4/5/7

Posted on 2020-03-30, 23:31

by

by mpe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

And the winner is…. Pentium Overdrive 83 DSC_6010.jpeg Despite only offering only a modest clock increase the all-new architecture makes all the difference when compared to the 486DX2-66. This unloved CPU really brings the most significant improvement. I expected it to rock the Quake test. Quake …

---

Re: Pentium Overdrive competition - socket 3/4/5/7

Posted on 2020-03-30, 17:20

by

by mpe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

it’s NOT about which CPU is faster. You already know which CPU is faster by the MHz rating. .. the play of the most DOS games in good quality. ... you also want to be able to down clock it for CPU speed critical games. This will allow for the most DOS games.. I see your point, but I personally have …

---

Re: Pentium Overdrive competition - socket 3/4/5/7

Posted on 2020-03-30, 13:46

by

by mpe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yes. Despite only transferring 32bits at once and having lower FSB clock, mature 486 chipsets compare favourably to early Pentium chipsets (Mercury, Neptune, SiS 50x). Even considering memory/L2 bandwidth. That's why Am 5x86 runs so well against entry Pentiums. Especially when overclocked to 150/50 …

---

Re: Fake ISSI cache chips?

Posted on 2020-03-30, 12:06

by

by mpe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think you can ignore any markings or date codes shown on pictures in listings. What you get is a lottery. I order several chips and they different types of markings even when they came in the single shipment from the same seller. Some have bright top text others dark text that is barely legible. …

---

Re: Pentium Overdrive competition - socket 3/4/5/7

Posted on 2020-03-29, 20:31

by

by mpe

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Not really, pentium OD 83mhz, intel custom designed the die and left off many features that makes up real pentium so you cannot get full benefit of pentium. https://www.os2museum.com/wp/intel-overdrive-part-ii-pentium-overdrive/ Yes, I know about this. In the article Michal is making a claim that …

---