I may have added "from that era" 😉

miroVIDEO DC1 clip

Another Voodoo card, since you can never have enough of these 😉

My world seems to be raining HP LP2065 monitors all of a sudden. After buying 2 online last summer, in the past month I've come across 3 more in thrift stores. They are excellent 20" 1600x1200 monitors.
They are widely known to have an S-IPS panel. There's lots of internet gossip that some have VA (MVA?) panels, but I never saw any confirmed example to prove it. Now I'm convinced.

A few days ago I picked one up at a thrift for $8. Shockingly it has no scratches that I've been able to find. It must not have been there long. What's more, the backlight hours are quite low. While it has logged a connection to power for over 80K hours, the backlight has only logged 3500, and that's the only figure that really matters IMO.

But what excites me about this find is that it doesn't have the typical LG S-IPS panel inside. Instead, the service menu reports that it has an AU Optronics M201UN02-V6. The datasheet doesn't explicitly say, but the internet refers to this as a VA panel.
Old internet discussions are full of controversy about this. Many people who bought monitors like this (moreso the Dell 2007fp) when new were not happy about the prospect of unexpectedly receiving a VA panel, and I sympathize with that. But personally, I'm overjoyed to have the VA panel.

In the non-TN monitors I've seen (3 models of IPS monitors and now 2 models, 3 total samples of VA monitors) - I keep finding I like the picture on VA panels better. To put it simply, it's the most reminiscent of a good CRT. Better black levels, less washing out when viewed at off-angles, and I think the colors are more vibrant (maybe manual adjustments would help there). IPS is good, but VA is gooder.

I'm disappointed that VA was so thoroughly rejected by the populace when the 2 technologies were in competition. But very glad that I got this one - for $8! Out of 5 LP2065s that I've now acquired, this was the cheapest and my favorite. One IPS has been given away, 2 are now in secondary roles, and 1 is parked.
The "inferior" VA paneled monitor is now on my primary system. Love it.

VA panels were panned (as opposed to IPS, anything is better than TN) for three main reasons:
- colour oversaturation
- higher input lag
- narrower viewing angle
+ better contrast

The first one is inherent to the technology a valid point for very specific use cases, i.e. photographic and video work, but completely irrelevant for general purpose computing and actually an advantage for gaming and media viewing in most cases. It's no conincidence VA panels are the most used type in TVs. As for input lag, the electronics behind a panel are far more important in determining that than the panel itself. If you look at databases there's no significant difference between the various VA types and the various IPS ones (in fact the worst scores belong to a few IPS screens: https://displaylag.com/display-database/ That leaves the viewing angles, which is true, and off-angle you lose saturation (so get a bright, washed-out image, unlike IPS that loses luminosity, so fades). Those might be relevant for a TV or even for a laptop, but for a desktop PC used by a single user that's a non-issue (and they're still much better than TN viewing angles).

TLDR: VA gives you better blacks, more saturation and more contrast, with not even measurably higher input lag and just a moderate reduction in viewing angle.

I ran for a few years with a relatively old 17" 1280x1024 AG Neovo VA monitor as main unit and even though I now have a pair of excellent Dell 23" QHD LED IPS panels, they don't even come close to the colours that VA gave - even better than my Iiyama Diamondtron CRT.

So an excellent find - I'm jealous (nearest I found recently was a Dell 2007fp with dodgy electronics that replacing caps did not fix 😢 )

derSammler wrote:

Another Voodoo card, since you can never have enough of these 😉

I really want a Voodoo 1 or an 8MB Voodoo 2 myself, would gladly trade away a Voodoo 3 3000 AGP for it.

Alas, none available locally..

Where are you from?

Bought a lot of five Socket 5/7 pentiums. Three 100mhz, one 200mhz and one most likely dead, most likely 233mhz mmx.

Untested, and I yet don't have a proper ecosystem. But... soon :>

Roland A-880 programmable MIDI patchbay, so I can hook up more synth modules to my MIDI controller.

I pick this Geforce 3 AGP (MSI Starforce 822) today for $7 bucks. I will upgrade my Geforce 2 MX 400.

kixs wrote:

If you want to run Harris 25 at 25MHz you will have to replace the clock oscillator for 50MHz one. Now 32MHz is installed. Maybe put a socket first so you can swap them as you wish.

Ah...so the KOYO KCO-O1OT 32MHz Crystal is the one I need to change, weird that the one furthest away from the two processors is actually the one concerned.

My other issue is I've seen 287XL Chips running at 12.5 MHz, which is not only twice as quick as my 287-6, but it also upgrades the instruction set, how exactly would that complicate the situation, do I assume I'd be looking at fitting another crystal elsewhere on the Mobo?

I do have a couple of bags of old crystals as a Radio Amateur, particularly for modification of commercial gear onto 4m VHF (73 de M5WJF to anyone else in the fraternity), which usually means I don't have the one I need under Sod's Law.

I think the main difference in my old retro kit to many others out there that might wish to play games, will be that it will be used for data transfers, even the 8086, either on packet or other digital modes, as software radios (486DX-4 100), or some other Amateur Radio use, my Pentium/K6/K7's will be used for HF Datamodes and one will be used exclusively for Emercomms for RAYNET, running PC-ALE 24/7 to provide a Net using HF NVIS on 160m, 80m, 60m, and 40m. I've jusr built a couple of older Socket 939 machines for Weather Satellite Data, and I want at least one old machine to run software that detects the proximity of lightning strikes as an alarm system. Lightning isn't good for radios.

It may reduce the life of the machines being used, but I can't be bothered with stuff just gathering dust.

This laptop for $40 shipped. Reason - Yamaha YMF724, YMF740, YMF744 or YMF754 which means real good real mode DOS sound support.
Sony's specs say hardware MIDI and 3d surround, the download page says Yamaha DS-XG. The only ones that fit that bill are the those listed above.

Edit:
Found a picture of the motherboard. It has the YMF744B-F
/Edit

Sony Vaio PCG-XG29

Specs:
PIII-750
128MB RAM
18.1GB HDD
14.1" TFT
DVD-ROM
Floppy (swaps with DVD or external use I think)

The graphics card is supposed to not be that good for 3D accelerated games (NeoMagic MagicMedai 256XL+), but I have a 17" Toshiba running 98SE that can take care of that. Then again, that graphics chipset is the last they made AND it is supposed to support 3D acceleration. Most of the comments I saw were on their older graphics chipsets that didn't support 3D. So who knows. Guess I'll find out when I get it.

And hey, while I'm at it, I ordered a docking station as well which adds:
Firewire 400
S-Video
Composite video
Line in and out and optical out for sound
2x USB (really only 1 additional because the USB on the back of the laptop will be covered up by the docking station
FDD port (because the normal cable uses the dock connector)
PS/2 for mouse/keyboard
Serial
Some weird port.. serial? (switch between serial and it)
Parallel
3rd PCMCIA slot

Not so much a "bought today" post, but rather a "paid for today" post. But I'm just to excited not to share 😀

Over the last couple of days I've found two great lots.

The first is an AGP Voodoo 5 (70USD) that is probably going into my newest Slot 1 build. Guess I'll need to find a better CPU for that machine, too. I don't really think that anything better than a Voodoo 3 is necessary for Glide gaming, but Voodoo 5 sure will help with better resolutions. And it's just such a cool piece of hardware to me.

Another one is a box full of cool stuff:

1) a Gravis Ultrasound PnP (non-Pro). I've wanted a GUS for a really long time. Again, I know it's not all that essential for gaming, but it always kind of attracted me. I'd like to play some Crusader: No Remorse with that card, and also some Epic games. BTW, it's weird to me that people keep saying "GUS is ideal for 386 builds" when the earliest game that supports it is actually from 1992.

I'm actually thinking of building a multisound card setup (GUS+AWE32+MT-32+SW60XG while SC-55 remains connected to my Pentium 3) — either from my DX4@100/VLB build, or from my Socket 7 motherboard that has 4 ISA slots. The latter probably makes more sense, but the former is more preferable to me considering I already have a Pentium 3 build.

2) an Asus P/I-XP6NP5 Pentium Pro ATX motherboard — complete with a CPU and a heatsink.

3) two late 386 boards

4) an ISA videocard

You will like the V5. I've had one since new and have another for a spare.

I honestly feel kinda bad when I win auctions THIS CHEAP: https://www.ebay.com/itm/162873850011

Didn't even pay that much for shipping. I turned the guy onto USPS flat rate boxes for shipping and saved $8. I got it mostly because it was so cheap, and I was curious about the purple tv converter box.

luckybob wrote:

I honestly feel kinda bad when I win auctions THIS CHEAP: https://www.ebay.com/itm/162873850011

Didn't even pay that much for shipping. I turned the guy onto USPS flat rate boxes for shipping and saved $8. I got it mostly because it was so cheap, and I was curious about the purple tv converter box.

That's one of the auctions I had been watching. Decided I didn't need anything in that lot.

I agree, if these wer PC cards I wouldn't have even given them the time of day. But mac ones, even these early pci ones, are slightly more difficult to get ahold of. I'm basically padding my reserves with this.

luckybob wrote:

I agree, if these wer PC cards I wouldn't have even given them the time of day. But mac ones, even these early pci ones, are slightly more difficult to get ahold of. I'm basically padding my reserves with this.

I have a few in stock as well. It is much harder to find older Nubus era cards then early PCI mac cards.

derSammler wrote:

Where are you from?

Turkey

jheronimus wrote:

I don't really think that anything better than a Voodoo 3 is necessary for Glide gaming, but Voodoo 5 sure will help with better resolutions. And it's just such a cool piece of hardware to me.

Well, try the 4x RGSSAA of the V5 in any Glide game and I'm pretty sure, you'll never think of any V3 ever again. Once I bought my first V5 in 2000, I have never used my old V3 again, not even in a retro system.

If you are interested, I had posted a few real-life comparison screenshots in my retro system reconfiguration thread. Here and here.

I just can't stop advertising this killer feature of the V5 (and, to some lesser extent, of the V4). This is such a vast improvement of image quality that it is a shame most people tend to ignore it. It took nVidia and Ati almost a decade to release products with comparable FSAA quality...