the perspective of the 2nd picture is pretty funky... almost looks like it's just the faceplate on the ground, not the entire machine

oeuvre wrote:

the perspective of the 2nd picture is pretty funky... almost looks like it's just the faceplate on the ground, not the entire machine

Yeah sorry 'bout that. I assure you, the whole machine is there. I'll try to grab some better pictures this weekend.

pcrob wrote:

pcrob wrote:

Yep, that's the same seller. Delivery was really quick (took only 9 days!) with excellent tracking information (even got an "out for delivery" update).

I'll be checking if it works a little later today and report back here.

So I can confirm the CPU works perfectly!

Cool, thanks!

Look what I found hanging on the "wall of crap" at one of my usual haunts today:

A bag of retro CPUs! Whaaaaaat?! Of course I bought it.

Here are the goods:

An Intel SX/33, an Intel DX/50 (not DX-2!), an Intel DX/33, an AMD DX/40, a Cyrix DX-2/66 (score!), an Intel SX/25, and a goddamn AMD K5/75. I haven't tested anything, but they seem to be in good shape - a few bent pins, but not major, and thankfully no missing ones.

This is nuts for a ton of reasons. This shop does put out whole PCs & parts, but they're usually generic business crap P4s or Core 2 Duos, or Emachines-grade rubbish home systems with onboard video and bulging caps. Occasionally I'll see the odd motherboard or sound card, but never a bag of CPUs like this. The only other truly retro piece I've found on the wall of crap was a Trident ISA card once.

On top of that, I've never even seen a K5 in person before, especially not in this area. They just weren't popular around here. A guy at one of the bigger local computer stores said he remembered the K5/6 series, but they never sold them; I'd bet the same applied to most of the other ones here. This particular chain of thrift shops don't always sell items in the same locations they take them in, but still, somebody must have carefully put this bag of CPUs together before it hit the floor.

I had as good a look as i could for other interesting items, but I was parked kinda-illegally and didn't intend to be in there that long. You better believe I'm going back for a thorough rummaging tomorrow.

As a bonus, that monitor in the back is a Dell 2007fp, something I've been after for a while. (Although a P190s would have also been nice, as I still don't have a matching set of three of the things. I now have 17", 19" and 20" versions, and none of them match. 😜) Anyway it's in good shape, there's an unfortunate scratch on the bottom left of the front polarizer but nothing major. It works great.

The best part is I had a 20% off coupon so I got the whole lot for seventeen bucks after tax. Pretty solid day's thrifting if you ask me!

Damn! Lucky guy. I've gotten lucky like that a few times at my local thrift stores and recycling yards.
Palette of working wiped SATA hard drives?
New-in-box GeForce 3 Ultra?
ATi All-In-Wonder?
Nearly brand new laptops for $15?

One of the "wall of crap things" (we call them goodie bags here) had a 3DS, GameBoy Advance SP, some e-Reader, and a Palm Pilot in it. $5. This was about 3 years ago and the first two are long since gone - I flipped them almost immediately for good money.

Never change, America's Thrift Store.

I've been eying these German Army surplus "luggables" that popped up on eBay. Finally caved yesterday and made a lowball-ish offer...
The machine is a probably a Pentium 1 on an Abit PR-5 board with C&T 65550 graphics (there's a longer post on it here) ; let's hope this baby works at all! Worst case I have a somewhat expensive Microsoft ball mouse and some interesting scrap 🤣

henryVK wrote:

with C&T 65550 graphics

That's interesting as the screenshots on Imgur clearly state, that an S3 chipset drives the display. The 65550 is probably just installed as an extension for external displays (see D-SUB connector on the back). But then again, which OS allowed independent displays through separate graphics cards in 1996/1997?

I'm not exactly sure but I think I can remember seeing one of those or a very similar device in 2004 in a radio relay unit. Quickly afterwards german military replaced most of its old outdoor x86 hardware with smaller, replaceable and more ruggedized hardware like the Rocky laptops from RODA computer.

henryVK wrote:

I've been eying these German Army surplus "luggables" that popped up on eBay. Finally caved yesterday and made a lowball-ish offer...
The machine is a probably a Pentium 1 on an Abit PR-5 board with C&T 65550 graphics (there's a longer post on it here) ; let's hope this baby works at all! Worst case I have a somewhat expensive Microsoft ball mouse and some interesting scrap 🤣

<snip>

It's beautiful! And not as expensive as I thought it would be. No shipping outside Germany as far as I can see. Should not get one anyway so *phew* impulse buy averted!

blurks wrote:

henryVK wrote:

with C&T 65550 graphics

That's interesting as the screenshots on Imgur clearly state, that an S3 chipset drives the display. The 65550 is probably just installed as an extension for external displays (see D-SUB connector on the back). But then again, which OS allowed independent displays through separate graphics cards in 1996/1997?

I'm not exactly sure but I think I can remember seeing one of those or a very similar device in 2004 in a radio relay unit. Quickly afterwards german military replaced most of its old outdoor x86 hardware with smaller, replaceable and more ruggedized hardware like the Rocky laptops from RODA computer.

I was wondering about that too, but maybe it's just the wrong driver in Windows?

The card itself is definitely a C&T.

Cyrix200+ wrote:

It's beautiful! And not as expensive as I thought it would be. No shipping outside Germany as far as I can see. Should not get one anyway so *phew* impulse buy averted!

I wrote back and forth with the guy.. he probably could be coerced into shipping to the Netherlands 🤣

henryVK wrote:

<snip>

Cyrix200+ wrote:

It's beautiful! And not as expensive as I thought it would be. No shipping outside Germany as far as I can see. Should not get one anyway so *phew* impulse buy averted!

I wrote back and forth with the guy.. he probably could be coerced into shipping to the Netherlands 🤣

Don't tell me that! 😉 As someone once said: “I can resist anything except temptation.”

Update: the K5 works (in this.)

I think I've got the basis for an interesting build in this setup. Coming soon...

henryVK wrote:

I've been eying these German Army surplus "luggables" that popped up on eBay. Finally caved yesterday and made a lowball-ish offer...
The machine is a probably a Pentium 1 on an Abit PR-5 board with C&T 65550 graphics (there's a longer post on it here) ; let's hope this baby works at all! Worst case I have a somewhat expensive Microsoft ball mouse and some interesting scrap 🤣

That thing is pretty damn neat! I just said elsewhere I don't like the "fake military" look on consumer hardware, but on actual ex-military gear I can see the appeal. Plus luggables of any sort are just awesome. Looking forward to a thread when you get it in your hands.

blurks wrote:

henryVK wrote:

with C&T 65550 graphics

That's interesting as the screenshots on Imgur clearly state, that an S3 chipset drives the display. The 65550 is probably just installed as an extension for external displays (see D-SUB connector on the back). But then again, which OS allowed independent displays through separate graphics cards in 1996/1997?

I'm pretty sure the C&T 65550 is just using the S3 driver in Win3.1 in order to function. I have a similar C&T in a half-ISA SBC, and you select which display you want to drive -- internal (LVDS) or external (VGA), but not both at the same time.

xjas wrote:

Update: the K5 works (in this.)
.

Good stuff!

I have an almost exactly the same chip in my collection.

I believe this is the early version which had branch prediction unit disabled. So it performs a bit worse than K5 branded chips. But still should be a little faster than Intel P75.

Bought some Socket 7 and 370 CPUs with bent pins, managed to sort out all of them except AN01 on a Pentium MMX 233.

According to the pinout AN01 is INC (Internally not connected)

I can't seem to straighten this pin it's VERY badly bent. It also stops me from putting the chip in a socket. Can I just snap it off and not worry?

you could try with a fine pencil, I even got pins that were curled up around themselves somewhat straight again with that method ^^

It is indeed curled up around itself 270 degrees.. I will try..

EDIT: WOW, it actually bent back! Not exactly pretty but it should fit. Now I'll clean the CPUs and post photos..

EDIT2: Photos

These are from the 1990’s era.
Advent AV370 speakers with subwoofer.
They sound pretty good with good base for there time.
They are NOT as nice as Klipsch Pro media 2.1 speakers but these Advent speakers work with
Powered sound cards like the Media Vision PAS16.
The AMP on the sound card does not seem to bother these speakers.

So I bought this questionable system I've asked about some 5 days ago. Pentium MMX 166 and a mobo, you guys said it probably won't work as it's lacking a VRM that MMX needs, but seller claims it does work. Here are new photos, what do you think? Should it work? Is it safe to re-seat the CPU and just power it up?

Larger photo of the motherboard: https://i.imgur.com/7hsUPRl.jpg

Got these cards today. Nothing tested. Vibra sound card is missing bracket and PCB audio jack. I got two floppy units, but are a little different from others floppy units: Sony MP-FP53W.

VioletGiraffe wrote:

So I bought this questionable system I've asked about some 5 days ago. Pentium MMX 166 and a mobo, you guys said it probably won […]
Show full quote

So I bought this questionable system I've asked about some 5 days ago. Pentium MMX 166 and a mobo, you guys said it probably won't work as it's lacking a VRM that MMX needs, but seller claims it does work. Here are new photos, what do you think? Should it work? Is it safe to re-seat the CPU and just power it up?

Larger photo of the motherboard: https://i.imgur.com/7hsUPRl.jpg

MMX runs fine with 3,3v. Just use a good cooler to make sure it will not get too hot.