Decided to give my good old S754 Athlon 64 3000+ its final upgrade (as I can't think of anything else that would be worth an upgrade). The 6600 GT needed to be replaced (bought cheap for under US$20 a long time ago, when it was still being used regularly, after my 6800XT AGP went to silicon heaven) as it never was 100% stable. Apparently the previous owner tried recapping it (the solder doesn't look that good), but used cheap regular capacitor instead of low-ESR ones or something like that, so I guess recapping it would make it allright.... but I wanted this system to have some better hardware decoding for no reason at all, so I got my first Radeon EVER!

Unfortunately, Firefox still struggles on Youtube (it was unacceptable with the HTML5 player, passable with dropped frames with Flash), and Opera/Webkit seems to have ditched all hardware acceleration on XP. Surprisingly, the best browser for Youtube on this PC is Internet Explorer 8. It works, no dropped frames with a 720p vídeo on fullscreen (non fullscreen is slower, as it uses software rendering) and it just feels faster overall. Unfortunately it has shitty compatibility, but it is not like I'll be using this on a daily basis.

Btw, do you guys know anything nice I could play in this rig that would have issues on my main machine with Windows 10? It is an Athlon 64 3000+ with 2 GB of RAM. I could throw an ond SBLive! at it, but it seems a bit pointless for now.

kanecvr wrote:

... Ebay is out of the question for me since shipping alone is 50-80$....

No, not always. I bought two full size mainboards from US, both with shipment prices like about 20-25 USD, which is very reasonable. Additionally, there are sellers from Eastern Europe and Russia, with very low shipping prices.

alexanrs, I've not seen that many games that don't run on Windows 7, and so far, the few games I've tried on Windows 10 have worked just as well as they did on 7 (although Unreal Tournament 2003 doesn't want to work properly, I never tried that on 7). I know ToCA 2 Touring Cars didn't like Windows 7 64-bit (but had run fine on Vista 32-bit), and there are a few sloppily coded games that are hardcoded to not run on anything newer than XP (Race Driver 2, GTR The Game).

alexanrs wrote:

Decided to give my good old S754 Athlon 64 3000+ its final upgrade (as I can't think of anything else that would be worth an upg […]
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Decided to give my good old S754 Athlon 64 3000+ its final upgrade (as I can't think of anything else that would be worth an upgrade). The 6600 GT needed to be replaced (bought cheap for under US$20 a long time ago, when it was still being used regularly, after my 6800XT AGP went to silicon heaven) as it never was 100% stable. Apparently the previous owner tried recapping it (the solder doesn't look that good), but used cheap regular capacitor instead of low-ESR ones or something like that, so I guess recapping it would make it allright.... but I wanted this system to have some better hardware decoding for no reason at all, so I got my first Radeon EVER!

Unfortunately, Firefox still struggles on Youtube (it was unacceptable with the HTML5 player, passable with dropped frames with Flash), and Opera/Webkit seems to have ditched all hardware acceleration on XP. Surprisingly, the best browser for Youtube on this PC is Internet Explorer 8. It works, no dropped frames with a 720p vídeo on fullscreen (non fullscreen is slower, as it uses software rendering) and it just feels faster overall. Unfortunately it has shitty compatibility, but it is not like I'll be using this on a daily basis.

Btw, do you guys know anything nice I could play in this rig that would have issues on my main machine with Windows 10? It is an Athlon 64 3000+ with 2 GB of RAM. I could throw an ond SBLive! at it, but it seems a bit pointless for now.

A 939 dual core with the same GPU works perfectly for web browsing. That said, an AGP HD4670 + a 2.0ghz mobile Sempron works fantastic for HD HTML5 Youtube video. EDIT: an Athlon 3400+ would be a worthwhile upgrade and cheap at that I think! 😀

Lukeno94 wrote:

alexanrs, I've not seen that many games that don't run on Windows 7, and so far, the few games I've tried on Windows 10 have worked just as well as they did on 7 (although Unreal Tournament 2003 doesn't want to work properly, I never tried that on 7). I know ToCA 2 Touring Cars didn't like Windows 7 64-bit (but had run fine on Vista 32-bit), and there are a few sloppily coded games that are hardcoded to not run on anything newer than XP (Race Driver 2, GTR The Game).

I wish there was a list somewhere. This system is my old main PC and I'd like to justify holding onto it xDDDD I'll look into these games you mentioned, thanks!

ODwilly wrote:

A 939 dual core with the same GPU works perfectly for web browsing. That said, an AGP HD4670 + a 2.0ghz mobile Sempron works fantastic for HD HTML5 Youtube video. EDIT: an Athlon 3400+ would be a worthwhile upgrade and cheap at that I think! 😀

I'll think about the 3400+. Apparently the board also supports some Turion processors and I'll look into it in time. For daily use I have a modern Haswell system, so I kinnda don't need this system to be able to watch Youtube... It was just kind of a "hey, my old system can do it!" thing I did because this machine does have some sentimental value.

MSI 790FX-GD70... bought as "not tested" for ~ $14. Works perfectly, not bad. 😎

Three more pci-e slots remaining. The middle one is unfortenately damaged (+12V pins burned). Perhaps I'll be able to repair it, or use external-powered pci-e riser.

Couple of Opteron 2218 - dual-core K8 @ 2,6 GHz - socket F(1207).

alexanrs wrote:

Lukeno94 wrote:

alexanrs, I've not seen that many games that don't run on Windows 7, and so far, the few games I've tried on Windows 10 have worked just as well as they did on 7 (although Unreal Tournament 2003 doesn't want to work properly, I never tried that on 7). I know ToCA 2 Touring Cars didn't like Windows 7 64-bit (but had run fine on Vista 32-bit), and there are a few sloppily coded games that are hardcoded to not run on anything newer than XP (Race Driver 2, GTR The Game).

I wish there was a list somewhere. This system is my old main PC and I'd like to justify holding onto it xDDDD I'll look into these games you mentioned, thanks!

Well, I've been drawing up a list in an Excel spreadsheet, and I have found a fair few games that have the exact same issue as each other - they demand that you have admin rights to run them (even though my account is an administrator), and when you run them in administrator mode, nothing happens. Most of them are from around 2002 to 2006. Notable titles that haven't worked also include the original Sims game, which simply does nothing (one person claims to have it running, but many others say they have issues.) There are also some games I've seen that will not run when fully patched, but the unpatched versions work fine - The Sims Medieval being one example of that. However, shockingly, I did get ToCA Touring Car Championship to run, something I'd not even managed to do on XP, let alone Vista or 7.

I would definitely say that it is worth upgrading to Windows 10 as the games that do run genuinely seem to perform better (I've heard unsubstantiated claims of up to 30% from one person) and the only issues I've had with 10 are actually getting it to start (both my laptop and desktop require rebooting before they'll boot successfully - and neither are running the same version of Windows 10); however, I would temper that with saying that if you are concerned about compatibility issues, it wouldn't hurt to be either dual-booting (which is going to be a bit of a faff as you'd have to upgrade to 10, take your key, wipe the OS and start again by installing 7, then 10 as clean installs), or to have a separate system running either XP or 7 (or both), depending on exactly what you want to play (that's your justification for keeping your current system!)

A few interesting video cards arrived today, and I'm happy to say that they all work as they should.

The first looks like an original Geforce 3. I did not have a GF3 in my collection, and I didn't need one bad enough to pay a lot for a Ti500, so I figured that I would buy a vanilla GF3. This is an Elsa Gloria DCC, the branded version of the Nvidia Quadro DCC. It is clocked at 200/460 and turned in a score of 6300 in 3DMark01 (with an Athlon XP 2400+ in 98SE). It has some extra capabilities that the GF3 doesn't, but I don't know how useful they are for gaming.

The second is a Leadtek WinFast A350 LX, a GF FX5900. It is actually a little slower than most FX 5900s (hence the LX) but seems to overclock to those levels just fine. Really like the case, but the fans are too loud for the card to be in regular use.

The last is a Leadtek WinFast A310 Ultra, a standard 5600 Ultra. I liked the cooling mechanism.

I still haven't found a Geforce that I like half as well as my Ti4600.

I got all three for about $28 shipped.

computergeek92 wrote:

Darkman wrote:

Got an Apricot VS660 P166 Machine , but this one I modified into a DOS machine. , by bringing the CPU down to a P75 clock speed and reducing the RAM to 24MB , I wanted 32MB but for whatever reason , it refuses to boot with the RAM sticks I have. , the motherboard is an Intel ATX "Thor" board , with the 430FX chipset, it had an SIS graphics card (as well as an onboard S3 Trio) which I replaced with a S3 Virge DX, as well as a CT1740 SB16 card (which has now been joined by an Ensoniq Soundscape , and an adaptec SCSI adapter attached to a Nakamichi 5 in 1 disc drive. There was a tape backup drive which I replaced with a CD drive until I find something to put there instead. the original 1.2GB SCSI drive is missing, so instead its using a 10GB IDE hard drive, formatted with DOS 6.22 and Win3.11

did quite a bit of cable tidying too, applied Arctic Silver 5 to the CPU , and generally gave it a good clean (the insides were caked with dust)

it also arrived with a big pile of floppy disks , mainly the DOS 6.22 , Win3.1 , Win3.11 and Win95 installations disks.

hmm... since the pentium 75mhz is equal to an am586 133mhz, and the am586 133mhz is probably exactly twice as fast as a 486DX2 66mhz (Pentiums are twice as fast as an equal speed 486 chip) You could use a turbo switch to turn your pentium 75 into a 486DX2 66! The ultimate dual speed retro system! I'd personally put Windows 95 on your PC if I had it, then I could also play Age of Empires RoR.. 😀

BTW, one question: Why would you underclock the pentium 166 cpu to 75mhz? I understand that DOS games are said to be more stable on a system with around 16MB ram installed, but isn't there dos games out there like Doom that would benefit from your pentium at 166mhz?

sorry for the late answer , didnt see the post until now.

on the surface of it, thats true , a P166 would be better for some of the later DOS games (particularly if I wanted to run any SVGA games) but then , I also have a Pentium Pro 200/1mb system , which is what I use for games like Duke3D , or Tomb Raider , or even Resident Evil (it has a Voodoo1 and PCX1 too) , so for this system I wanted performance closer to a 1994 system , Im aware the Virge DX and 32MB kind of contradict that, but its probably the most suitable card I have for it (the older Virge 325 card I have really doesn't seem to like my Apple Studio Display , and the Matrox/ATI cards are not as compatible)

I did consider getting an actual 486 machine but the main issue is the price/rarity, especially around here.

I dont think Ive seen a Pentium with a Turbo switch before, would be very interesting to hear more about that.

badmojo wrote:

keropi wrote:

I do have some random pics of the units...

Ooooh very nice, thanks for sharing. Love the Sony CRT too!

so i herd u liek nintendos n sony crt's 😜

Mega Man II is definitely my favorite game in the series!

All this Nintendo lately... Don't make me start posting Master System stuff. Oh well, The Challenge Will Always Be There!

- For the record, I hate the NES as a system, but it does have good games. The Master System only really came into its own in the last few years of its life, as an example, the 8-Bit version of Sonic was way better than the 16-Bit one in my opinion, Ancient did a very good job with it.

Here in Brazil the Master System was a huge thing (more than NES from what I remember). Sonic was, for all intents and purposes, a better game, but I simply loved Alex Kidd, as flawed as it was. I also have good memories of my older cousing playing it (and she was much better than my toddler self) and showing me some neat tricks. Now I wish we didn't give my Master System III away (and I had the Master System I before - 3D glasses and all - but we sold that when the colors got all wrong and stuff)

I heard about that, I also seem to think some interesting bootlegs showed up in that part of the world. They did quite well here too, I think they outsold the NES in the UK, we even have a rap song about it that I can't find right now (It was terrible anyway).

I don't know what it was with the Master System, I just clicked with it. I grew up on DOS, Atari 7800 and later the SNES (Then so on and so forth) and at some stage I grabbed a NES from a junk pile on someone's lawn - I did ask the owner first, he said it was all getting thrown out when his mate got there and he wouldn't complain if I took stuff off the pile, so I nabbed it. People throw out the strangest things. - and that was great and everyone told me it was the best and whatnot... Then I bought a Master System a few years later and instantly fell in love with it. Alex Kidd is indeed a fun little game... Usually. The Mega Drive one was horrible.

Don't know if this will work, but I think mine is in this album from pre-history; https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.102 … 39000287&type=3

SquallStrife wrote:

so i herd u liek nintendos n sony crt's 😜

Oooh la la very nice! The image quality on that CRT is ace - is that one of those broadcast quality things you read about?

@alexanrs - yes the history of Sega in Brazil is very interesting (I'm currently reading a book on Sega). The SMS was big in Australia too but not quite so skewed as it was in Brazil, where I think Sega had something like 80% of the market share.

I think we need more pics, so here's my SMS:

Genesis does what Nindendon't!

badmojo wrote:

Oooh la la very nice! The image quality on that CRT is ace - is that one of those broadcast quality things you read about?

Yep, it's a Sony PVM-2950QM.

So not only amazing image quality, but 29 inches diagonally.

We had a reasonably big national enterprise (Tectoy) who pushed the system really hard, with translated games and even modified some games to replace plot/characters with national stuff. OMG I LOVED THAT BIG RED AND BLACK CONSOLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The MS3, despite having Sonic (I did not have it in cartridge form), never had the same appeal for me =/
Before I got my PlayStation most of my systems were hand-me-downs from my uncles... and I got their Atari 2600, their Intellivision (both which I remember very little) and then the Master System when they switched to the Mega Drive, and it was one of the very early models, before Alex Kidd started to be bundled with it. Thankfully I also inherited their extensive games collection, and I had Alex Kidd in cartridge form with the Rock/Paper/Scissors sequences written on the back of the manual (thanks to my cousin). Good times... good times. Never finished Alex Kidd back then, though, but I eventually did so on a Pentium M laptop 2-3 years ago.

God... I'm hoarding too much hardware already (for the limited space I have)... I can't start hoarding consoles as well... MUST RESIST THE URGE TO HOARD...

Tectoy... The company that brought the Mega Drive the awesomeness that was Duke Nukem 3D. Granted the "port" gets a lot of negative criticism, perhaps it deserves it. But in all honesty, I always thought it was somewhat impressive they even got a mostly functional FPS to run on a stock Mega Drive. It doesn't look too bad on a regular TV either as they seem to smooth the image, hiding the ugliness you get in emulators.

Speaking of things written in manuals, Sonic 3D has an interesting one. In short, I bought it cheap and the manual has written in it, in thick marker; Access Level Select: At the Push Start screen, hit the cartridge with your fist and press start. Takes you to secret level select. You do not need the BARACUDA." Baracuda of course, is the cheat code you are meant to use; B, A, Right, A, C, Up, Down, A.

I have no idea who wrote it, presumably the previous owner. It does work too. I always like to think he discovered this oddity in a fit of 90s gamer rage, throwing his controller at the console after the 100th game over and having the level select screen appear. Unfortunately, I prefer the Saturn version of that game and the cheat won't work on that (Or I don't think so. I don't really want to smack the lid of my MK1 Saturn to find out).

HighTreason wrote:

Unfortunately, I prefer the Saturn version of that game and the cheat won't work on that (Or I don't think so. I don't really want to smack the lid of my MK1 Saturn to find out).

There's a patch for the Saturn version of Sonic 3D that restores the Mega Drive music. It's the only version I play! 😜