alexanrs wrote:

I feel those CPUs are slightly underpowered to really show the performance those cards can offer... even though I should not be one to speak, as I used my Voodoo2 on my MMX 200 and my V3 is currently on a K6-2. The V2 would probably be more at home in a Pentium 2 (or even the K6-2) and the V3 would be a better fit for a Pentium 3. Actually, the only reason I'm using a Voodoo3 in my K6-2 is because I could actually buy one nationally - and in a package with a bunch of other cards, including a Virge DX and a Matrox - whereas the only Banshee I saw for sale here sold faster than I could put it in my wishlist. At least one user here at Vogons claimed the Banshee was actually faster in a K6-2 than his Voodoo3, perhaps due to the drivers being better optimized for K6-2 processors.

You're probably right, I got the release dates mixed up. Doesn't matter too much so long as the machine is the same across the board and I really don't want two different machines. I might use a Slot 1 board with Celeron processors then as I don't plan on spending any more money on this.

That would allow me to use a spare board I have and easily use Celeron's from the original up to the Coppermine versions as well as Pentium II and III chips. Whatever I have in stock. Probably a Celeron 300 for the Voodoo 2 and a Celeron 500 for the Voodoo 3, maybe a 600 as I have a few of those. Interchange Celeron with PII/III in that description, doesn't really matter that much, I just need a consistent metric with all cards and it has to be era appropriate.

I could also just use a fast K6-2 for all of the tests I guess. Whilst I think a Pentium MMX 233 would be a likely candidate for the Voodoo 2 and the K6-2 550 would be for the V3 I could just run a middle-of-the-road K6-2 for all of them as they were common at the time and were released between 98-99.

Lukeno94 wrote:

I've never had any real problems with my 12MB Creative Voodoo 2. Then again, when I stopped being stupid and actually looked properly for the right driver (on a non-dying system to boot), I can't say I've had any issues with my Soundblaster Live! 5.1 card either.

Never seen a Creative one IRL. Don't imagine they are much different. Time will tell how well the Diamond one works.

The Live 5.1 always sounded rough to me and actually finding a working driver is a pain in the ass. Envy24 all the way for me.

What even is that thing CelGen?

HighTreason; I've grown up around digital sound and digital sound cards, so that's probably why I'm happier with such a thing. I know it's a little better than a Yamaha sound card I have, but that's about it. Definitely agree with you on the driver front though. I got my Creative Voodoo 2 really cheaply from eBay, which surprises me - looking at what they usually go for, and given that it had pretty much everything bar the box and manual (I saw just the SLI cable going for about what I paid for mine, which had the SLI cable.)

Lukeno94 wrote:

What even is that thing CelGen?

HP's 7925 pack loading hard disk drive. Each disk pack holds 120mb and the drive supports an optional HPIB/GPIB/IEEE-488 interface so in reality you can plug it into just about any machine. Should also technically work with the GPIB to USB adapters out there but those damn things are expensive. $120 is the cheap side. 😐

Had a GPIB interface, sold it easily for 100$.

Met a good friend, traded all of this for an Atari ST:

Interesting looking integrated µATX Slot 1 board. CPU is an unknown celeron, chipset is EX, never heard of that one. Still, onbard graphics and sound are decent. Paired with a V2 and an ISA sound card, this could make a nice and compact mid-to-late 90s machine. I am intrigued.

Soyo VX board with Pentium 100. Had the same model or a very similar one in my K5 box back in '96/'97 😊

Early ATX Socket 7 mobo, don't remember the CPU, wasn't overwhelming:

Socket 7 TX board from BCM or GVC, never heard of the manufacturer, but the board looks solid. Like the color and the white memory slots.

Fully loaded Asus TUV4X - 1 GHz Coppermine, 1 GB RAM. Screams server to me.

Panasonic 5 1/4", untested:

Unknown Slot 1, guessing Siemens Nixdorf, Celeron 533:

Unknown Slot1, most likely from a Siemens Nixdorf server, Pentium 2 333:

Bunch of IDE drives. Three of the Maxtors are identical, these will go in a RAID 0:

RAM RAM RAM RAM:

WORKING 486-VC-HD, already have a non-working one, this will be my next project! 😊

Bunch of cards, a few of them necessary to complete the 486, and Trio cards are always nice to have (especially Elsa):

What happened to the images in that post? Oo

Why? I thought I had them in a public folder, can't you see them?

You are presenting wrong links, you need direct image links.

OK, sorry, apparently sharing from Dropbox didn't work. I've moved the images to Imgur.

That's a nice haul! Lots of goodies to play with.

Thanks Phil! Yeah, that should keep me occupied for a while.

My latest japanese purchases arrived:
The heatsink fell, any ideas what to use to glue it back on?

And a really unusual device:

I bought some new stuff.

First this QDI PX486SOJ. Its basicly the same as the QDI PX486P3 but with 128KB soldered cache (and 128KB socketed).

The board was sold as "untested" and comes from Italy. I thought the memory looked somewhat fancy and hoped they were at least 4MB sticks but they were 1MB sticks, HUGE 1MB sticks. The motherboard was totally dead, I tried everything, other memory, an other CPU and even disabling the cache but the stupid board would not even emit a beep. Do "untested" stuff sold on Ebay ever work? I have got 100% dead items when I bought untested stuff so far 😜, in Sweden 90+% of the untested parts sold on the Ebay clone Tradera work.

No huge loss the board was 10 euro and the shipping 16 euro but 26 euro is hardly a bargain for a 486DX-33 CPU and 4x 1MB memory. Perhaps its only the BIOS thats totally gone and the board can be resurrected, I will look into that sometime in the future. For now I have removed the battery and put the board in one of my big boxes full of projects for rainy days.

I got this nice AST 386SX-25 Notebook at a local thrift store today for ~5 euro 😀. It seems to be in perfect condition but no AC adapter was included and it was made before the DC plug was invented so I need to Macgyver some solution... some time in the future. It also went into one of the rainy day boxes.

I also got this not very retro XFX Geforce GTX285 for 15 euro + 7 euro shipping, I have not tried it yet but it was sold as working.
I could be accused of hording GTX285 cards, Im totally not im just... making sure I have a few spares.

lolo799 wrote:

[...]
The heatsink fell, any ideas what to use to glue it back on?
[...]

I use Arctic Silver Adhesive thermal compound for situations like this, it works wonders.

Does untested eBay stuff ever work? Yes. I had an iPod Classic 80GB that lasted a couple of years after being bought untested, and a whole joblot of 6 untested laptops worked - and only one had any issues with the motherboard (which I probably fixed by cleaning it with isopropyl alcohol, although I'd already bought a similar laptop and put the best bits of both together.) I've had more issues with supposedly working things not working than I have with untested things not working, to be honest!

Lukeno94 wrote:

I've had more issues with supposedly working things not working than I have with untested things not working, to be honest!

This is my experience when using the Swedish Ebay clone Tradera as well 😀.

I guess I have been unlucky when using Ebay, at least the "tested to BIOS" boards out of Ukraine have been working, not without issues but working.

oerk wrote:

Met a good friend, traded all of this for an Atari ST:

Nice haul. That 486 is by far the most interresting of them all.

keropi wrote:

lolo799 wrote:

[...]
The heatsink fell, any ideas what to use to glue it back on?
[...]

I use Arctic Silver Adhesive thermal compound for situations like this, it works wonders.

Thanks, I'll get some!

-

brostenen wrote:

oerk wrote:

Met a good friend, traded all of this for an Atari ST:

Nice haul. That 486 is by far the most interresting of them all.

I agree, and this will be my next build, since I'm lacking a fully working 486.