PeterLI wrote:

Today I bought an IBM PC 350. Apparently NIB. The question will be whether they actually have it in stock. The IBM PC series was the successor line to the PS/ValuePoint.

I hope you get it, because that's a very nice looking Pentium system! It always amazes me when they find some NIB IBM systems - I remember the YouTuber UXWBill (at least, I think it was him) getting a NIB IBM PS/2 of some kind.

PeterLI wrote:

Today I bought an IBM PC 350. Apparently NIB. The question will be whether they actually have it in stock. The IBM PC series was the successor line to the PS/ValuePoint.

did it come with matching monitor, mouse, and keyboard as you have pictured?

Even if not, very nice buy...that was an era when IBM's were still built like tanks.

gerwin wrote:

HighTreason wrote:

It is and, strangely, I bought it partly because of Duke 3D. Duke (And by extension, other Build Engine titles) are generally optimized for Pentium processors...

Duke 3D is completely integer based, it was Quake that was optimized for the pentium. Yet I suppose the 64-bit 60..66MHz Pentium motherboard bus helps the framerate.

True, it's entirely Integer-based, but the game engine was still optimized for Pentium Processors which - whilst more evident in SW and Blood - is why it ran like crap in DOSBox for so long... Maybe still does, I wouldn't know, but I heard they have emulation of Pentium chips now. In the case of Duke 3D the development team tested to make sure it would run on a 486DX2-66 and used that as the minimum requirement (And it won't run on anything less than a 486SX'or 486DLC) but as soon as you start using SVGA modes, high detail and making use of mirrors the code really was written with a Pentium in mind and the game will perform vastly different to how it does on a 486... The box even says as much.

Yeah, well, the box... I just stumbled upon this from the programmer:

Build.txt

3/19/94 - Optimized routines in assembly for 486's...
....
5/1/95 - Optimized horizontal line assembly code so it doesn't use the awful SHLD instruction any more. This is a good speed improvement for Pentiums only.

build2.txt

10/4/97 - So I tried to optimize Build for Pentium PRO's. I was actually able to get about a 50% speed increase mostly due to avoiding those awful partial stalls. But there are SEVERAL catches: 1. First of all, you need to enable WRITE-COMBINING for video memory to get all this extra speed. ...

note that the last Duke 3D patch v1.5 was from december 1996.

The cheat DNRATE shows the framerate on the top left. The game does demos, but AFAIK no timedemos.
I am curious as to what of aspect of the pentium architecture would make a difference, besides the bus, but don't have a Pentium Overdrive (POD) to test it against my 486s...

Ah, back when people both could, and did, hand-optimize code.

People still do (e.g. to take advantage of SSE), although it's more likely to be via intrinsics than raw ASM.

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Sucks about the PC 350, hope you get those other items though!

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Turns out my Toshiba Satellite 210CDT is actually a 200CDT, not that I'm complaining - since there is actually information on this little beast online! One nice thing about this Satellite is that it has a built-in power supply, so I don't have to faff around finding something that works - a simple two-prong power cable is all that is needed. Impressively, Toshiba still have the drivers for this online, so fair play to them for that. The laptop is definitely in need of a clean, but powers on fine, with a good looking screen. The NiMH battery is dead, but that's hardly surprising.

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For me, I'm too young for ISA to really have been relevant 😀 This laptop is old enough that it doesn't even have a USB port. I think it needs a new CD drive (which I will verify for certain when my Windows 95 CD arrives), and it definitely has no hard drive, but I'm quite pleased with it all the same. It has an additional memory module, which, based on a quick Google, is a 16MB stick; that would take it up to 24MB of RAM. I believe these systems had 100 MHz Pentiums, with 2MB Chips and Technologies graphics. Being the CDT model, it has a 11.3" 800x600 TFT.

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PeterLI wrote:

CM-500 in Japan.

NICE!

$7 1x DFI Lanparty Nf3 s754 + Athlon 64 3200+ Clawhammer. Sold as in working condition.
$7 1x DFI Lanparty Nf3 s754. Sold as non working / untested but looks great in the picture.
$14 1x DFI Lanparty RDX200 s939. Supposed to work but I have had bad experience with this seller, a bit of a gamble.
$13 1x P4 Northwood s478 3.4 GHz. Sold as in working condition.

I like how minimalistic design is used on Roland boxes, and the font is kick ass.
Must have been a joy buying those in the day 😀

Roland brings more joy to me than few other things.

I know there isnt a whole lot of love out there for the IBM PS/2 line but

a MCA based model 55sx and a ISA model 30 286. unfortunately the 286 needs a floppy drive and a cover for the HDD but it boots up OK. no real issues with the model 55sx. boots up as well.

soviet conscript wrote:

I know there isnt a whole lot of love out there for the IBM PS/2 line

Times change. That's a really nice score.

soviet conscript wrote:

I know there isnt a whole lot of love out there for the IBM PS/2 line but

a MCA based model 55sx and a ISA model 30 286. unfortunately the 286 needs a floppy drive and a cover for the HDD but it boots up OK. no real issues with the model 55sx. boots up as well.

I used to own a IBM 55 SX exacly like that one 😀 I got it back in the summer of 91.
The 55 SX works surprisingly well as a DOS gaming system although its only a 386 SX 16 Mhz.
You will have a hard time tracking down a MCA sound card if you want something more than PC-speaker sound.