I'm trying to wrap my head around 100Mbit over ISA. I'm guessing there's a lot of caching and that's a "theoretical maximum burst speed", but still. IIRC the bus itself has a "you'll never, ever, see this in practice" theoretical max around 8MB/s (=64Mb/s) and that gets shared between everything on it, and there's overhead...

Yes, you are right. I am not sure, but I have in my mind that there are also 100mbit ISA ethernet cards around?

The 100 mbit TCNS seems indeed to be some kind of Arcnet. Not able to test it without further investment as you cannot use the standard ethernet coax cable but need a special RG-62 one.

Intel486dx33 wrote:

Also got a GoldenOrb rip-off, not from Thermaltake, but the design looks identical. That thing is going on some or other P3.

I have one of those and it's really loud. I don't like it. It's too loud. I am going to remove it and go with a standard heatsink.
I need a silent PC. My PSU is silent. Just the Thermaltake Golden orb is too loud. Maybe if you can get some sort of fan speed controller to slow down the fan because it spins at FULL speed.

I have a few Zalman controllers knocking around, maybe I'll use one of them. Anyway, this thing is for the looks, not the sound. Anything I really want to use regularly gets a BIG passive heatsink with an even bigger slow fan blowing onto it. That reminds me, I need to look out for some more Zalman CNPS6000 heatsinks 😉

xjas wrote:

That Parhelia is a beauty. Nice score!

Tnx. It took me long enough to get (VERY drawn-out negotiations with seller, not even about price), but it was worth it. Quick test shows it's working, at least up to desktop level. The aftermarket fan is just as loud/dying as the original though, so that need replacing. I wasn't planning to do any retro builds past the P3 level, but I've decided I need something with more 'oomph' to do things like hard disk bad sector checks. So I'm going to take a bigtower case, add removable trays for IDE, SCSI and SATA (if they exist, never seen one), also stick in ZIP & Orb drives and connect all of that to a motherboard with support for AGP but also multi-core CPUs. That will probably end up being one of those Asrock Frankenstein-boards. That board will need a GPU- which is where this Parhelia comes in 😉

SW-SSG wrote:

xjas wrote:

... Always wondered why Matrox used those LONG VGA connectors. Was it extra shielding, did they hide ICs under there, or did they just want to move the pins farther back on the board? Anyone know?

Looking at photos of a G450, some models traded a VGA output for a DVI, and the DVI port's holes are positioned closer to the slot cover than those of the VGA's. The other VGA port seemingly could also be replaced but I'm not sure with what (S-Video jack, maybe?).

Not TV-out, the Matrox boards did that by (ab)using pins in regular VGA or DVI connectors. I think it was just a second DVI port, there definitely was a dual-DVI version of the G450.

That's some awesome stuff; where did you get all that? 😊

All from ebay..... 😀

Rasna wrote:

All from ebay..... 😀

Very nice. 😀

xjas wrote:

I'm trying to wrap my head around 100Mbit over ISA. I'm guessing there's a lot of caching and that's a "theoretical maximum burst speed", but still. IIRC the bus itself has a "you'll never, ever, see this in practice" theoretical max around 8MB/s (=64Mb/s) and that gets shared between everything on it, and there's overhead...

Speaking of which, this was in that PPro haul:

Driver disk images for the Mitron VLB NIC:

Predator99 wrote:

Yes, you are right. I am not sure, but I have in my mind that there are also 100mbit ISA ethernet cards around?

The 100 mbit TCNS seems indeed to be some kind of Arcnet. Not able to test it without further investment as you cannot use the standard ethernet coax cable but need a special RG-62 one.

Well, if the following from the stason page is not a typo...:

Note: Enhanced mode optimizes performance and minimizes conflicts of your hardware by using a Thomas-Conrad ARCNET drive. It is also not necessary to set the I/O address. In compatible mode the adapter can use most existing ARCNET drivers.

...it might be able to reach that speed by using some sort of buffering drive.

liqmat wrote:

Speaking of which, this was in that PPro haul:

Those 3Coms are a beast. I have a small stash of those from back in the day. Due to their size, they're one of the view things I was able to keep my hands on and put into storage.

Got a Diamond Stealth II S220 with the Rendition Verite 2100 chip and bios update.

I found one of those roland general midi modules locally for 40 euros. I played some doom and seems to work fine. For long time now I have been hoping to find something like this.

liqmat wrote:

Speaking of which, this was in that PPro haul: […]
Show full quote

xjas wrote:

I'm trying to wrap my head around 100Mbit over ISA. I'm guessing there's a lot of caching and that's a "theoretical maximum burst speed", but still. IIRC the bus itself has a "you'll never, ever, see this in practice" theoretical max around 8MB/s (=64Mb/s) and that gets shared between everything on it, and there's overhead...

Speaking of which, this was in that PPro haul:

ISANIC.JPG

VLBNICBOX.JPG

VLBNIC.JPG

VLBNICSIDE.JPG

Driver disk images for the Mitron VLB NIC:

MiTRON_LX-2100_Network_Drivers_Disk_Images.zip

These are very nice cards! Also never noticed a VLB-NIC.

yawetaG wrote:

Well, if the following from the stason page is not a typo...: […]
Show full quote

Predator99 wrote:

Yes, you are right. I am not sure, but I have in my mind that there are also 100mbit ISA ethernet cards around?

The 100 mbit TCNS seems indeed to be some kind of Arcnet. Not able to test it without further investment as you cannot use the standard ethernet coax cable but need a special RG-62 one.

Well, if the following from the stason page is not a typo...:

Note: Enhanced mode optimizes performance and minimizes conflicts of your hardware by using a Thomas-Conrad ARCNET drive. It is also not necessary to set the I/O address. In compatible mode the adapter can use most existing ARCNET drivers.

...it might be able to reach that speed by using some sort of buffering drive.

Thats a clear typo, must be "driver". A "drive" must also be connected to the speed-limiting ISA-bus in some way, so this wouldnt make sense.

Predator99 wrote:

Yes, you are right. I am not sure, but I have in my mind that there are also 100mbit ISA ethernet cards around?

The 100 mbit TCNS seems indeed to be some kind of Arcnet. Not able to test it without further investment as you cannot use the standard ethernet coax cable but need a special RG-62 one.

Just noticed that I already had some of these cards in my collection - now I have 5 in total 😎
Drivers and tools are still available
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/IPG/tcc/drivers/TCNS/
Diag tool detecs my card and seems to be running. Think I will do some tests with a standard coax cable, dont think i can damage something...

Someone here posted about a Trackball Explorer a while back in this thread - well, look what I found today for $5! There's a Corsair mech. keyboard there too, but y'know... POINTER DEVICES! Currently using it on my main desktop rig, it really is a nice device. Don't know if I'd pay $80 for one, but it's still pretty sweet.

SpeedySPCFan wrote:

Someone here posted about a Trackball Explorer a while back in this thread - well, look what I found today for $5! There's a Corsair mech. keyboard there too, but y'know... POINTER DEVICES! Currently using it on my main desktop rig, it really is a nice device. Don't know if I'd pay $80 for one, but it's still pretty sweet.

That's quiet a lucky find. I absolutely love that mouse as well! I love trackballs; I still can't understand why they've got near extinct these days. 😊

They make modern ones, but, wireless only and expensive at best.

@SpeedySPCFan you got yourself a new subscriber.

bjwil1991 wrote:

They make modern ones, but, wireless only and expensive at best.

@SpeedySPCFan you got yourself a new subscriber.

There are some that are not expensive.. They used to be but the price has come down quite a lot in the last few years.

Logitech Trackman Marble - wired - $21.99
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/631060 … man_Marble.html

Logitech M570 wireless - $24.99
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/logitech-m570-wi … -blue/1260761.p

cyclone3d wrote:

There are some that are not expensive.. They used to be but the price has come down quite a lot in the last few years. […]
Show full quote

bjwil1991 wrote:

They make modern ones, but, wireless only and expensive at best.

@SpeedySPCFan you got yourself a new subscriber.

There are some that are not expensive.. They used to be but the price has come down quite a lot in the last few years.

Logitech Trackman Marble - wired - $21.99
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/631060 … man_Marble.html

Logitech M570 wireless - $24.99
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/logitech-m570-wi … -blue/1260761.p

As a trackball lover I absolutely hated the feel of the M570.

bjwil1991 wrote:

They make modern ones, but, wireless only and expensive at best.

@SpeedySPCFan you got yourself a new subscriber.

Thank you!

Strahssis wrote:

That's quiet a lucky find. I absolutely love that mouse as well! I love trackballs; I still can't understand why they've got near extinct these days. 😊

I kinda doubted it was that good when I saw people talking about it before, but after about an hour of using it I don't think I wanna go back to a regular mouse. 🤣