Agree with everything already said.
I binned (not even recycled) a whole lot of MMX PC's as well as a few 386's thought to P3's I'd collected just before getting back into retro PC's that had been sitting in my parents garage for about 10 years. While I don't really regret getting rid of it as I would never have touched most of it (doesn't help its on the other side of the world) I just wish I knew that their was interest in the stuff so someone else could enjoy it rather then just sitting in my parents garage And I know I've paid to replace stuff I threw out back then but that's just annoying not end of the world.

I did keep things with sentimental value, Family's 1st PC, MY 1st PC, 1st video card I purchased. Even then I didn't think I would use any of it but now that 1st PC (a 486) is my most prized PC. even though I've got what really is a much nicer 486, same as MY 1st PC a Gateway slot 1 PC. That's still back in Oz, I've got a very similar Dell Slot one with nicer Yamaha sound onboard in the UK, so while I have no plans for the gateway now its always an option in the future and it will be your actual whatever you have from all those years back.

Regarding where to buy/sell stuff in the UK. I only really know of ebay and gumtree, gumtree is good for buying as usually its people just selling what they think it crap, Its also a bit more localised for bigger things. got my first 2 UK retro PC's from gumtree at good prices as they didn't really know the value of what they were selling. Now though I usually check their only if I cant find what I'm after on ebay. I'd also keen to find other good places to buy in the UK

We all will be faced with something like this in one way or anything in our lives. Like others have said, keep one system and a few spares.
Dump the rest on your preferred selling site.

m1919 wrote:

Ebay is a joke for actually selling merchandise; the site is heavily buyer oriented.

I have a massive collection of pretty hardware but will never actually do another through ebay; the fees are a ripoff. They even include shipping costs to bloat the final seller fee. Bunch of thieves.

Ebay also supports stealing and fraud. a lot of buyers will open fake SNAD case and return a brick to the seller.
If Ebay sees that a tracking number shows the item as delivered they'll make the seller to fork over their money even if the buyer returns a brick.

I guess that is what happened to me. I sold some woman a perfect H55 gigabyte motherboard (out of my own system) which I cleaned with an air compressor and put back in the original box with all the unopened cables / convertors / manuals / CD's. The reason I got scammed (apparently) was that I used a stock image. In reality, the reason I got scammed is because she was a filthy human being. Anyway, I posted it to her and a week later I received a package. I opened it to find my motherboard box, with a different motherboard inside. The same model, but this one was covered in grease and dust and had lots (more than 20) of bent pins on the CPU socket. I then looked at eBay and found she had raised a beef and PayPal were refunding her the money (already done ... nothing I could do about it). 10 emails later and I finally gave up. She had the working motherboard and her money back, and I had nothing. At least she didn't leave me negative feedback! ROFL!

She was lucky that she lived 200 miles away and used a different PayPal address in someone elses name. Anyways, eBay is full of people like that. Actually, I guess THE WORLD is full of people like that! 🤣

You should always file a mail fraud and ic3 report with events like this.
I love it when the Feds come to my door asking for more info with the case so they can arrest the scammer!
You can also call up there local police and file a report too.

Iris030380 wrote:

I'll probably keep the SS7 machine. I found an awesome FIC PA-2013 motherboard with the 2MB cache in a recycle PC and bought six K63-450 CPU's brand new for it so I always had backups. It has everything I wanted to put into a SS7 machine, with brand new V2 SLI, Matrox Mystique and an Aureal Vortex etc. Runs like a dream, and housed in an awesome period case I restored. Scrubbed, primed, painted, waxed, buffed and sealed! Like a supercar! 🤣

It's probably the best one to keep if only because you can run such a broad range of games on it.

gdjacobs wrote:

It's probably the best one to keep if only because you can run such a broad range of games on it.

The board in that system has a good range of frequencies / multipliers. Can set it from 75Mhz right up to 575Mhz. Probably the best SS7 board I've had. I was underwhelmed with the K6-III performance though. Maybe I had too high expectations. After all it's still only a Socket 7 system.

Iris030380 wrote:

gdjacobs wrote:

It's probably the best one to keep if only because you can run such a broad range of games on it.

The board in that system has a good range of frequencies / multipliers. Can set it from 75Mhz right up to 575Mhz. Probably the best SS7 board I've had. I was underwhelmed with the K6-III performance though. Maybe I had too high expectations. After all it's still only a Socket 7 system.

I know what you mean! I had the same impression of my K6-3+ 550. In games they are probably equal to a theoretical Pentium MMX at 300MHz.

Arctic wrote:

I know what you mean! I had the same impression of my K6-3+ 550. In games they are probably equal to a theoretical Pentium MMX at 300MHz.

Seriously? The reviews I've been reading led me to believe it's just a tad slower than P3-500. I've been looking to get a SS7 system to get rid of my Pentium hardware for DOS games and be able to play some late P2 and early P3-level games like Black & White, Messiah, Deus Ex.

The games I've played from the late 90s onward are less CPU speed sensitive than GPU technology sensitive. Splinter cell, for example, has compatibility issues because of specific features in graphics cards of the era.

From my perspective, if you need something faster than a K6-2, you might as well use something _much_ faster than a K6-2. This is why I love fast Athlon or P4 based machines for titles in the Win98/AGP era. Or just use something like dgVoodoo 2.

jheronimus wrote:

Arctic wrote:

I know what you mean! I had the same impression of my K6-3+ 550. In games they are probably equal to a theoretical Pentium MMX at 300MHz.

Seriously? The reviews I've been reading led me to believe it's just a tad slower than P3-500. I've been looking to get a SS7 system to get rid of my Pentium hardware for DOS games and be able to play some late P2 and early P3-level games like Black & White, Messiah, Deus Ex.

I can safely tell you that a K6-III based PC, even with a maximum overclock, will nowhere near cut it with Black & White or Deus Ex. I was surprised and underwhelmed with the performance in games like Gunman Chronicles, Dungeon Keeper and even the original Half Life. I tested the machine with lots of GPU's from a TNT2 ultra, Voodoo 2 (+SLI) all the way up to a Geforce2 MX 400. You hit this brick wall fast and you don't get around it.

Late era DOS4GW games like Carmageddon and Tomb Raider work fine (as they should) and compatability wise the K6-III is a great DOS / Windows 98 machine for gaming. I was just expecting ... a lot more. At least Pentium 2 speeds. But you don't get it ... not anywhere near. Unless you are playing Quake 2 with the 3DNow stuff, or something similar, the K6-III is annihilated by the Pentium 2 MMX, and it's no contest vs a Pentium III. Even a 266Mhz Pentium II is a fair bit faster in most 3D games. But with the SS7 system you get to underclock right down to 75Mhz, making it perfect for covering a wide range of titles.

Iris030380 wrote:

Thanks Phil. […]
Show full quote

Thanks Phil.

It's difficult to know which parts are an investment. I am slightly out of touch as I stopped collecting a few years ago. Since then only things that have fallen into my lap have made their way into the storage room.

eBay is not an option for me, after someone tried to scam me out of an HD5970 I sold on there some years ago, I had to pull the listing, and as far as eBay is concerned it was a "sold" item and they wanted their percentage. I was forced to close my PayPal account because of this, and have never used eBay since. That HD5970 incident was just the last straw in a series of bad experiences, including a woman stealing a working motherboard from me (and taking her money back via PayPal) and posting me a broken one covered in dust, but in MY original box I had posted her my motherboard in! Again, eBay ruled in her favour, so I was down a motherboard and £45! There were more "incidents" and eventually I gave up on eBay / PayPal entirely. On a plus side, a fella from London ended up buying that HD5970 from me for £250 and simply forwarded me the money, which somewhat restored my trust of people a bit, so it wasn't all so bad.

I'm gonna stick with AMIBAY and local listings I think. It might take some time but with recovering sprained knee, I have time! 🤣

Sorry to go off topic here, but I just wanted to chime in on this. I had an incident where a buyer purchased a Pentium 4 HT Prescott for $5.95 + $2.50 shipping. The buy bought it on a Thursday, I mailed it out on a Tuesday (Monday was a holiday here). I informed the customer that I went to the Post Office to drop it off on Monday, but they were closed. Customer wrote back saying I should have shipped it out on Friday or Saturday , but that is not possible since I had other major life priorities at the time. My listing clearly stated that items can take up to 3 business days to ship (weekends and holidays excluded). Customer demanded I refund them $2.50 for the "inconvenience" (what inconvenience?), so I offered them a choice: either I cancel the order, or I refund them the $2.50. Customer opted for the refund, and very angrily said to ship it out with "no more delays." At this point I probably should have just canceled the order.

I knew this person would be trouble. After the received the item, not but two or three days later, they were filing for a return, evne though the listing, again, stated NO RETURNS; claimed the "CPU is faulty because it kept BSODing after 24 hours or usage over three days, but doesn't happen as often with other Pentium 4 CPU." I kindly informed the customer that it is likely their motherboard or power supply. Nope. Wasn't going to listen - demanded I refund the full amount without return, or refund them both return shipping and full amount when I received it. I told them to give it back, and when I do get it, I am testing it - which I did. I installed it in one of my machines and ran Prime95 for 6+ hours without a single problem. Not one. I went round and round with Ebay customer service, and two of the agents noted that the buyer was committing feedback extortion in the return comments, and file complaint with their escalation department - which said the buyer wasn't committing extortion. Long story short they ruled in the buyer's favor, and docked the full purchase amount, plus the $7.90 return shipping (Which I believe he overstated the weight of the item), which only cost me $2.50 (normally $3.30+ without discount). After that fiasco I put the CPU in another system and ran Prime95 for 2 solid days - again, not a single error or BSOD occured. I took photographic evidence + screenshots to prove to them that this buyer was lying and committing return - Nope, Ebay clearly doesn't care.

I am still debating on whether or not to file a police report on this buyer as he was attempting intimidation by using my shipping address and finding out where I worked and asking if I was the owner of [business name] ( I just used my name and store address, which does not contain the name of the business, or any indication it is a business).

Iris030380 wrote:

jheronimus wrote:

Arctic wrote:

I know what you mean! I had the same impression of my K6-3+ 550. In games they are probably equal to a theoretical Pentium MMX at 300MHz.

Seriously? The reviews I've been reading led me to believe it's just a tad slower than P3-500. I've been looking to get a SS7 system to get rid of my Pentium hardware for DOS games and be able to play some late P2 and early P3-level games like Black & White, Messiah, Deus Ex.

I can safely tell you that a K6-III based PC, even with a maximum overclock, will nowhere near cut it with Black & White or Deus Ex. I was surprised and underwhelmed with the performance in games like Gunman Chronicles, Dungeon Keeper and even the original Half Life. I tested the machine with lots of GPU's from a TNT2 ultra, Voodoo 2 (+SLI) all the way up to a Geforce2 MX 400. You hit this brick wall fast and you don't get around it.

Late era DOS4GW games like Carmageddon and Tomb Raider work fine (as they should) and compatability wise the K6-III is a great DOS / Windows 98 machine for gaming. I was just expecting ... a lot more. At least Pentium 2 speeds. But you don't get it ... not anywhere near. Unless you are playing Quake 2 with the 3DNow stuff, or something similar, the K6-III is annihilated by the Pentium 2 MMX, and it's no contest vs a Pentium III. Even a 266Mhz Pentium II is a fair bit faster in most 3D games. But with the SS7 system you get to underclock right down to 75Mhz, making it perfect for covering a wide range of titles.

I think the problem with these CPUs lies in the fpu performance.
They might be on par with Pentium 2s in integer-heavy programs but in games they drop again.

Arctic wrote:

I think the problem with these CPUs lies in the fpu performance.
They might be on par with Pentium 2s in integer-heavy programs but in games they drop again.

Yup.

Brickpad wrote:

I am still debating on whether or not to file a police report on this buyer as he was attempting intimidation by using my shipping address and finding out where I worked and asking if I was the owner of [business name] ( I just used my name and store address, which does not contain the name of the business, or any indication it is a business).

Well, the police report will probably go nowhere, but there's always the $0.75 solution if they should appear uninvited and disgruntled.

Iris030380 wrote:

jheronimus wrote:

Arctic wrote:

I know what you mean! I had the same impression of my K6-3+ 550. In games they are probably equal to a theoretical Pentium MMX at 300MHz.

Seriously? The reviews I've been reading led me to believe it's just a tad slower than P3-500. I've been looking to get a SS7 system to get rid of my Pentium hardware for DOS games and be able to play some late P2 and early P3-level games like Black & White, Messiah, Deus Ex.

I can safely tell you that a K6-III based PC, even with a maximum overclock, will nowhere near cut it with Black & White or Deus Ex. I was surprised and underwhelmed with the performance in games like Gunman Chronicles, Dungeon Keeper and even the original Half Life. I tested the machine with lots of GPU's from a TNT2 ultra, Voodoo 2 (+SLI) all the way up to a Geforce2 MX 400. You hit this brick wall fast and you don't get around it.

Late era DOS4GW games like Carmageddon and Tomb Raider work fine (as they should) and compatability wise the K6-III is a great DOS / Windows 98 machine for gaming. I was just expecting ... a lot more. At least Pentium 2 speeds. But you don't get it ... not anywhere near. Unless you are playing Quake 2 with the 3DNow stuff, or something similar, the K6-III is annihilated by the Pentium 2 MMX, and it's no contest vs a Pentium III. Even a 266Mhz Pentium II is a fair bit faster in most 3D games. But with the SS7 system you get to underclock right down to 75Mhz, making it perfect for covering a wide range of titles.

Yeah, black and white demands a strong CPU - it can struggle on a fast PIII at times - but Gunman Chronicles, Dungeon Keeper, Dungeon Keeper 2, Half Life and Deus EX rung great on my K6-3 (Riva TNT2 PRO / V2 SLi 8MB) even at higher resolutions. Half-Life runs great at 1024x768, same for Gunman Chronicles. DK2 ruts comfortably at 800x600, and the original DK does great at high resolutions. Deus Ex as well.

Here - 500MHz P II v.s. 500MHz P III v.s. 550MHz K6-III+ benchmarks! - it's not much slower then a 500Mhz P3. I'm sure I have GL-Quake and Quake 2 benches there - and HL is based on the Q2 engine.

Don't underestimate what a K6-III can do - it's only really limited by the slow Super-7 platform.

I'm guilty of this too, it's easy to test and play too newer games on the SS7 platform. The massive highlight of this platform is the flexibility.

In DOS it will play:
- 386 speed sensitive games
- 486 speed sensitive games
- Pentium era games
- High resolution DOS games

Under Windows you can also set the multiplier live and with a Voodoo3 for example there are a TON of awesome glide games that run well as well as early Direct3D games.

Games such as Half-Life, Deus EX, IMO are too new and I would play them on a much faster machine. They do run, but not as silky smooth as I like. Quake II with the AMD patch and MiniGL drivers show the potential (from 60 to over 80 FPS), but unfortunately not too many games got such a treatment.

So yea, it's the most flexible system IMO letting you play games from many different eras, a really cool machine.

Also ss7 is one of the funnest platforms to overclock.

www.amibay.com
www.cpu-world.com
www.classic-computing.de
www.dosforum.de
www.retroforum.nl
www.vcfed.org
www.oldcomputers.net

There are many avenues. My suggestion: theme bundles (all VGAs / all MOBOs / all HDDs / all CPUs et cetera) and sell for lower than typical: it helps move items fast.

Hope you recover soon!

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

I'm guilty of this too, it's easy to test and play too newer games on the SS7 platform. The massive highlight of this platform i […]
Show full quote

I'm guilty of this too, it's easy to test and play too newer games on the SS7 platform. The massive highlight of this platform is the flexibility.

In DOS it will play:
- 386 speed sensitive games
- 486 speed sensitive games
- Pentium era games
- High resolution DOS games

Under Windows you can also set the multiplier live and with a Voodoo3 for example there are a TON of awesome glide games that run well as well as early Direct3D games.

Games such as Half-Life, Deus EX, IMO are too new and I would play them on a much faster machine. They do run, but not as silky smooth as I like. Quake II with the AMD patch and MiniGL drivers show the potential (from 60 to over 80 FPS), but unfortunately not too many games got such a treatment.

So yea, it's the most flexible system IMO letting you play games from many different eras, a really cool machine.

Definitely! I mean sure the K6-III will crank out Deus Ex, but "playable" is totally subjective, and I also demand smooth gameplay. I can't handle any slowdown at all, especially on first person shooters, probably because of my Division 1 Quake III experience. For something like Deus Ex, especially running on a modern monitor, I'd be throwing a Pentium 4 and a Geforce 4 Ti into the mix.

One of the best things about using an old flat CRT, like my Diamond Mitsubishi 19" SB, are the awesome refresh rates, which you have to make use of. 120Hz with 120fps is pure bliss. Recently played HalfLife 2 again on that screen, using an X1950XTX, and it always makes me hate going back to a modern LCD with their 60Hz lock.

PeterLI wrote:

http://www.amibay.com http://www.cpu-world.com http://www.classic-computing.de http://www.dosforum.de http://www.retroforum.nl h […]
Show full quote

http://www.amibay.com
http://www.cpu-world.com
http://www.classic-computing.de
http://www.dosforum.de
http://www.retroforum.nl
http://www.vcfed.org
http://www.oldcomputers.net

There are many avenues. My suggestion: theme bundles (all VGAs / all MOBOs / all HDDs / all CPUs et cetera) and sell for lower than typical: it helps move items fast.

Hope you recover soon!

Thanks! Great links, thankyou. Past 2 days I've taken all the photographs, made a text database so I can keep track of everything easier, and wrapped every item with a label stuck to it and the number. You would not believe how many sticks of RAM I found, from EDO to 1066Mhz DDR2 and even some rare DDR1 running at insane speeds with head spreaders that I don't even remember getting. Literally 600+ sticks of RAM I had to organize into boxes. Never realized I was such a hoarder...