derSammler wrote:

4X Overclock wrote:

These days Medion is a synonym for crappy PC.

That's complete nonsense. Medion PCs were never considered "crappy". In fact, they are often recommended due to their very good value-for-money ratio.

Oh, and btw, these days, Medion belongs to Lenovo.

I am using a Medion i3 notebook daily, also for gaming. It has Intel HD 3000 4gig of ram and i3 2310m. I bought it from a friend without HDD. Installing Win 7 was a bit hard, because after reinstall I could not update drivers - the Wifi antenne cables were damaged and without drivers USB ports were useless and I was too lazy to remove the HDD and copy the files which I found online so I burned them on CD and copied from disc 😁 It was a weird feel to burn in Ashampoo after 6-7 years 🤣. I am using it daily about 3 years without porblems - I open it up once a year to change thermal paste and clean fan. Also batter holds about 2,5 -3 hours. Only problem is the damaged case so I cant close it, but for 20 euros its okay 😜 I can upgrade ram but i have 32bit installed and as i mentioned sometimes too lazy 😎

In my experience, nowadays the quality-to-price ratio can vary when it comes to Medion products. This was not the case back then in 1997. Back then their PCs were considered very good. I mean, besides the branding of a monitor and the branding on a case there is nothing from Medion here, all parts from the shelf.

There was a reason ppl stood in line for that particular model that I posted last page, because the quality-to-price ratio on this one was through the roof..... THROUGH THE ROOF, I TELL YOU!

More than 200.000 Units were sold in one day. There were no fisty-cuffs or other felonies. But ppl stood patiently in very, very, very long lines that day.
There was one rumor of a guy apparently running away with one of the last machines, which later turned out to be false.

Got CT1784A ASP chip that perfectly fits the socket in my Sound Blaster 16.

Any idea which sw can use this (other than the TFX game)?

haven't seen a yellow ct1740, i have mainly seen green CT1740 cards.

Windows9566 wrote:

haven't seen a yellow ct1740, i have mainly seen green CT1740 cards.

And the early CT1740s come with it soldered. I have two of those.

imi wrote:

do you like In-wins? cause I like In-wins :) […]
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do you like In-wins? cause I like In-wins 😀

the case on the left is very very similar to the one I bought for my first own PC in 1998 (mine had a non-textured power button and a single U-shaped panel instead of split panels, otherwise it's the same, I had two different cases before that, but those were shared computers not my "own") unfortunately there's some specks of rust on the back... going to need to fix that, this one is going to house the original configuration I had back then, have collected all the hardware I need for it already.

the 2nd one I got mainly for the travan drive, and I like the case, unfortunately the panel doesn't seem to fit correctly (already fixed the bent tabs, but it still doesn't close)

and three In-wins 😀
my "second" case was an In-win S500 that I still own, unfortunately that one is heavily modded ^^
I had an In-win Q500 already leftover from the old office, but that got thrown out several years ago (not by me 🙁) now it's back in my collection ^^
my slot A build is probably going into one of the A500s

and also a bunch of other hardware... will report back with the contents of those cases (there's a surprise in there somewhere) and stuff later when I had time to go through it 😀

...my shoulder also hates me right now

let's see what's in there 😀

"my" old case...

another GA-6BXC 🤣 I have now three of these... this is a Rev 2.0, I bought a Rev 1.9 specifically for a bunch of money because that was my original motherboard that I am intending to put in this case, and I also got another Rev 1.9 from a scrap box
ELSA Erazor II A32, TNT2 Pro, nice, and a CT2770, I'll take it 😀

what about the AT case

Diamond Stealth 64 2MB, dedicated Travan controller... wait... wasn't there supposed to be a CPU too?

oh no 😵

what about the A500s

a P3B-F... aaaand another P3B-F nice 😁

and the Q500

😲
surprise, P2B-D

and a lot of dust everywhere.

I have a DSP 4.11 CT1740 that has it soldered on and the CT2740 (CT1747 chipset) has a socket.

Not as exciting as most stuff on this thread but finding a working CD-ROM from pre-2000s is starting to get more and more difficult, so when I found this for $2 I grabbed it. Not only have I run out of CD-ROMs (I still have some CD-RW, DVD-ROMs, Combo drives and DVD-RWs though) but the 52x LG ones from 2005+ look very out of place in my 386/486 builds, so something with a headphone jack and volume wheel was a nice catch..

jaZz_KCS wrote:

Windows9566 wrote:

haven't seen a yellow ct1740, i have mainly seen green CT1740 cards.

And the early CT1740s come with it soldered. I have two of those.

i also have one - but this card is so useless 😁 i prefer more the sbpro2, second generation awe32 as opl3 cards, maybe the second gen sb16 (ct2xxx).

I though the CT1740 with DSP 4.05 is actually one the more sought-after SB16 versions compared to CT2xxx or CT41xx.

True Yamaha-branded OPL3, no PnP, no hanging note bug, socketed ASP chip, WT header, disableable amp. True it is not without faults.

Anyway, I have other models (SB1.0, SB20, SBPRO2.0, AWE32 and AWE64) in my possession so I am happy to have an early SB16 in my collection.

CT1740 with DSP 4.05 has a very noisy output though.

CT2230/2290 is preferrable IMO.

yep... i am talking about the usability, how useful it, as a retro card at its age.

- noisy (every card is noisy from this age, this is extremely)
- pops in the digital sound
- the asp worth nothing
- if you use in a config around 93 - the sbpro2 or the pas has also better compatibility with more support
- the hanging bug is very overhyped - if you really want to use an external midi device, buy an intelligent controller
+ the opl3 implementation is great (like in the sbpro2)

the sb16 second gen also has backward compatibility issues (eg freezes as "sb"), but acceptable output. i collected ca 10 different type sb16, but finally i use these isa based blasters:
* sbpro2 ct1600 - socket 3 1994
* awe32 ct3910 (opl3 w/o ram upgrade) - socket 5 1995
* awe64 gold - socket 7 1997

from sb16 i kept because of nostalgic reason, but i dont use them:
* ct1740
* ct2290

arncht wrote:

yep... i am talking about the usability, how useful it, as a retro card at its age. […]
Show full quote

yep... i am talking about the usability, how useful it, as a retro card at its age.

- noisy (every card is noisy from this age, this is extremely)
- pops in the digital sound
- the asp worth nothing

This isn't going to change any minds, as other discussions have shown, but to counterpoint some of the CT1740 statements:

- The output can be noisy, but isn't inherently so. It's respectably quiet with an appropriate, non-default configuration, and assuming a non-faulty card.

- Popping/clicking is exhibited during single-cycle DMA playback. This is somewhat maskable with a -14dB treble mixer setting, but more-so by running the output through an external, 3.2kHz filter with a -12dB/octave slope (matching the SBPro).

- The ASP/CSP provides an MP3 alternative (ADPCM) that is usable on even low-end (286) systems and nicely integrates with Windows.

Also, you can disable the internal amplifier in the CT1740 and get a line out, which eliminates almost completely the "computer thinking" noises. This is a big advantage over SBPro2 and earlier cards which force you to use the amplified output.

here's some of the other stuff...

one more caddy drive for the collection

and one more for the midi collection ^^

a few GPUs

X850XT, X800pro toxic, HD4850, X1650pro AGP and my first Voodoo 1 😀

and now for the single most expensive item in this whole lot, more than twice as expensive as any of the complete systems from above...

why did I spend so much on this particular keyboard? well...
here's me using that same keyboard some 23+ years ago, it's probably much older than that though, I'm like 99% certain it's the original keyboard from our 386, it has a 8088/80286 (XT/AT) mode switch on the back.

imi wrote:

let's see what's in there :) […]
Show full quote

imi wrote:

do you like In-wins? cause I like In-wins :) […]
Show full quote

do you like In-wins? cause I like In-wins 😀

the case on the left is very very similar to the one I bought for my first own PC in 1998 (mine had a non-textured power button and a single U-shaped panel instead of split panels, otherwise it's the same, I had two different cases before that, but those were shared computers not my "own") unfortunately there's some specks of rust on the back... going to need to fix that, this one is going to house the original configuration I had back then, have collected all the hardware I need for it already.

the 2nd one I got mainly for the travan drive, and I like the case, unfortunately the panel doesn't seem to fit correctly (already fixed the bent tabs, but it still doesn't close)

and three In-wins 😀
my "second" case was an In-win S500 that I still own, unfortunately that one is heavily modded ^^
I had an In-win Q500 already leftover from the old office, but that got thrown out several years ago (not by me 🙁) now it's back in my collection ^^
my slot A build is probably going into one of the A500s

and also a bunch of other hardware... will report back with the contents of those cases (there's a surprise in there somewhere) and stuff later when I had time to go through it 😀

...my shoulder also hates me right now

let's see what's in there 😀

"my" old case...

hardware24_03.jpg

another GA-6BXC 🤣 I have now three of these... this is a Rev 2.0, I bought a Rev 1.9 specifically for a bunch of money because that was my original motherboard that I am intending to put in this case, and I also got another Rev 1.9 from a scrap box
ELSA Erazor II A32, TNT2 Pro, nice, and a CT2770, I'll take it 😀

what about the AT case

hardware24_04.jpg

Diamond Stealth 64 2MB, dedicated Travan controller... wait... wasn't there supposed to be a CPU too?

hardware24_04b.jpg

oh no 😵

what about the A500s

hardware24_05.jpg

a P3B-F... aaaand another P3B-F nice 😁

and the Q500

hardware24_06.jpg

😲
surprise, P2B-D

and a lot of dust everywhere.

I didn't know any lottery winner until now 🤣 Nice!

appiah4 wrote:

Not as exciting as most stuff on this thread but finding a working CD-ROM from pre-2000s is starting to get more and more difficult

I have recently bought a couple because indeed they are starting to become hard to find in working and undiscolorated condition, especially CD-ROM only drives.

imi wrote:

what about the A500s […]
Show full quote

what about the A500s

hardware24_05.jpg

a P3B-F... aaaand another P3B-F nice 😁

...

Nice haul!

Are all you P3B-F boards working? I'm fiddling with a PC I got in a lot that had a P3B-F in it, but it won't post. It powers on, onboard LED switches on, but no beeps, no video. Caps all look fine so not sure what the problem is at this stage. Would be a shame to recycle it if it can be saved somehow.

arncht wrote:

[...]

- noisy (every card is noisy from this age, this is extremely)

Disagree. Compare a CT1740 to a ProAudio Spectrum 16. Similar specs on paper, but the PAS16 oozes quality, where the early SB16s just ooze noise. Both have MIDI bugs though...

imi wrote:

here's some of the other stuff... […]
Show full quote

here's some of the other stuff...

[...]

and now for the single most expensive item in this whole lot, more than twice as expensive as any of the complete systems from above...

hardware24_10.jpg

why did I spend so much on this particular keyboard? well...
here's me using that same keyboard some 23+ years ago, it's probably much older than that though, I'm like 99% certain it's the original keyboard from our 386, it has a 8088/80286 (XT/AT) mode switch on the back

Wow, some haul! Were the rest of the things (P2B-D!) stupidly cheap or did you really pay megabucks for that keyboard? Looks nice enough though - Alps White switches by any chance?

Bought something myself too a while ago while drunk. Arrived today:

Probably the fastest So370 motherboard ever made, the P6S5AT, with SiS635T chipset, Tualatin and DDR support. Boots perfectly with my P3-1400S and 512MB DDR at CAS2. Time for a decent Win98SE build 😜

One dilemma though: Voodoo3, Gf3 or Matrox Parhelia?

In terms of compatibilty and drivers the Gf3 is the obvious choice, Voodoo3 does GLide, but Parhelia is quirky and actually outperforms the Gf3...

dionb wrote:

...the early SB16s just ooze noise.

Guess you overlooked the information and initial sample-set of measurements I'd provided in the "12-bit Sound Blaster 16" thread.

The anti-Creative bias is real, folks.