First post, by TheCoach
I always wanted to get myself a dedicated DOS/98 PC but lack of money or parts availability always stepped in the way.
But one day I opened up our local version of "ebay"(the closest thing I can think of) and chose to order the listing so that the cheapest stuff was at the top.
Some things caught my eye.
First it's this pentium III, the screen reads a keyboard or system unit failure so seeing a keyboard it scared me a little, BUT more photos revealed he never plugged that keyboard in...
He listed that for 20 Euros
The second was this cute little P2:
This one for 16 Euros
Needless to say this immediately moved the retro pc project from hard to real damn doable!
I started arranging stuff with this guy and asked for some photos of the inside of these things.
Meanwhile as I assumed these computers really didn't have anything special going on with their video cards(heck the P2 didn't even have one at all) I realized I'd need something period correct and with some style.
So I wondered what happens if I type in 3DFX into the search(I live in Lithuania, this place isn't known for a lot of computing in the 90s, especially not the kind that was really expensive) and to my surprise one listing actually appears, he lists it as "a very old card 3DFX"
Yes!
He obviously doesn't really know what he has, so I write him a message and ask him to take a photo of it. He delivers:
YES! My google fu tells me this is definitely a very much reference design Voodoo2 12MB card that only had a bad review because it came packed with very little and the box wasn't nice(go go bad 90s photoshop)
So the next thing I do is ask how much he'd sell it for and offer 10-15 euros for it(yes I am relying on him not really knowing what he has). I get a reply and he settles on 20 Euros, I agree and the voodoo is now mine(my friend just picked it up for me today).
I also manage to grab an S3 Virge 325 4MB for 15 Euros from some russian dude on ebay before someone else does(this is more of a nostalgia thing as for the longest time my only videocard was a Virge i upgraded to 4 megs by ripping out dram chips off of old mobos) and then I get those Pentium case photos that I asked for.
The P2 is an average pc of the time, nothing special in it but it's definitely a P2 and by the processor speed he listed I guess it's a Deschutes
The P3 however surprised me!
First of all ISA PCI and AGP so there's plenty of things to be done here. And then it's the state of it, besides the dust this thing looks completely untouched from the day it was put together, it's damn pristine (look at that sticker on the video card it looks brand new).
Then I look up the expansion cards ( got to love Compaq and clear labeling ) the video card turns out to be a Matrox Millenium Agp G200 8MB with a really convenient ram slot to expand it to probably 16MB and the sound card is an ESS, a really decent SBPro 2 clone. Now I really hope all my shipping arrangements go well on these Pentiums as I believe I found a really really damn good deal here.
Man is the Virge now redundant(probably will stick it into the p2 so it has some sort of display capability).
If all goes well and all hardware works together it'll be time to hunt for a second Voodoo 2 as SLI has to happen. I'll also need the help of the good people on this forum to get the most out of all this stuff too!