A s3 Trio64v+ variant, and a shitty M919 (often with an AM5x86)!!

AWE64 Gold seems quite popular. The Voodoo5 5500, also a popular staple for the retro enthusiast. Slot-A Athlons also have some appeal, but decent boards and the faster processors themselves seem to be harder to find than the standard Slot-1 P2/P3 stuff.

m1919 wrote:

AWE64 Gold seems quite popular

What is difference Gold with Standard one other than had RCA output jack and much memory capacity?

Oh yeah, is Roland MT-32 also popular for retro enthusiast?

northernosprey02 wrote:

m1919 wrote:

AWE64 Gold seems quite popular

What is difference Gold with Standard one other than had RCA output jack and much memory capacity?

Oh yeah, is Roland MT-32 also popular for retro enthusiast?

AWE64 Gold has gold contacts and the ability for expanded memory through either Creative's proprietary expansion board or a SIMMConn. It also looks better than the non-gold cards. 😁

Actually, I think you can find SIMMConn boards for non-gold AWE64 cards as well.

There is so much that was popular:
386DX-40
Paradise PVGA1A
Tseng ET4000
Gravis Ultrasound
Soundblaster 16
Goldstar Prime 2
Quantum Fireballs
SCSI CD-ROM Burner
486DX-25 (probably because it was the only 486 CPU with a reasonable price at this time)
486DX2-66 with VLB
Matrox Millenium
Gigabyte GA-586HX, ASUS P55T2P4
Pentium 133

elianda wrote:

There is so much that was popular:
486DX-25 (probably because it was the only 486 CPU with a reasonable price at this time)

The 486DX-25 was popular? It was hardly available at all. I only remember the 486 _SX_ 25 being popular back in the days..

This component seems to be wildly popular...

Also, a RTL-8139 ethernet card.

3com Etherlink II or III 10mbit Ethernet ISA card. Who doesn't own one of these?

I don't own one of those. I own five! PCI included.

I second that 😉

Almost anything made by 3dfx or Roland is very popular. Some of the best stuff, regardless of company for vintage computer gaming enthusiasts include :

Voodoo 2 12MB (x2 for SLI, especially the Quantum 3D Obsidian X-24)
Voodoo 5 5500 (any version)
Roland MPU-401 (any)
Am5x86 and Cyrix 5x86
Unlocked Pentium IIs, IIIs and above
Pentium III-S 1.4GHz Tualatin
Good PCI 486 Motherboards
Roland LAPC-I, SCC-1, SCB-55, MT-32, CM-32L, CM-500, CM-300, SC-55, SC-55mkII, SC-88
Sound Blaster 2.0 w/CMS chip upgrade
Adlib Gold, especially with the Surroundsound module
Gravis Ultrasound (any, especially the PnP)
Tseng ET4000-6100
Virtually anything made by Canopus
Ensoniq Soundscapes (except the PCI stuff)
Yamaha DB50XG and equivalents

I thought the Diamond Monster 3D II 12MB was the most popular Voodoo2 variant?

AMD K6 processors and SS7 motherboards were wildly popular back in the day because they could be had for much cheaper than comparable Pentiums and Slot 1 mobos. I think only now the situation is such where you have a tough choice to make.

S3 made some of the most popular 2D accelerators, while 3dfx ruled the 3D market for most of the early years.

Another thing that was extremely popular were those AT tower cases with LED digits. I rarely see those nowadays though.

That's how I remember it, at least.

- John

Kensuke_Aida wrote:

AMD K6 processors and SS7 motherboards were wildly popular back in the day because they could be had for much cheaper than compa […]
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AMD K6 processors and SS7 motherboards were wildly popular back in the day because they could be had for much cheaper than comparable Pentiums and Slot 1 mobos. I think only now the situation is such where you have a tough choice to make.

S3 made some of the most popular 2D accelerators, while 3dfx ruled the 3D market for most of the early years.

Another thing that was extremely popular were those AT tower cases with LED digits. I rarely see those nowadays though.

That's how I remember it, at least.

- John

It shouldn't be a tough choice to make with price no longer being the big consideration that it once was. If you're building a system that you will actually be using, then Slot 1/Socket370 systems simply outperform SS7 systems and with fewer bugs. The only reason you should have to go with SS7 is for nostalgic reasons or if you want to test how a particular part works (or doesn't work) in a SS7 system. Most of your games will run much better on one of the Intel platforms.

ATX power supplies with the proper voltages?
Perhaps IDE-to-flash media adapters?

elianda wrote:

SCSI CD-ROM Burner

I can't really see how that ever would have been particularly popular.

If you're talking about back in the day, then you might as well include Zip drives. 🤣

I have an S3 Trio64V2 775 2MB and a Creative SoundBlaster 16. It is a genuine SoundBlaster 16, not a clone.

Jorpho wrote:

If you're talking about back in the day, then you might as well include Zip drives. 🤣

Well, maybe for me different things are popular as for the retro newcomers now.

Jorpho wrote:

ATX power supplies with the proper voltages? Perhaps IDE-to-flash media adapters? […]
Show full quote

ATX power supplies with the proper voltages?
Perhaps IDE-to-flash media adapters?

elianda wrote:

SCSI CD-ROM Burner

I can't really see how that ever would have been particularly popular.

If you're talking about back in the day, then you might as well include Zip drives. 🤣

I have a Zip drive. An external USB model. I picked it up at Goodwill for $5 because it was in pristine condition and I thought "ehhh...what the hell."

Actually, they did have their moment in the sun when CD-R(W)s were still obscenely expensive. They were popular enough to spur a class-action lawsuit over their reliability.

I also used to have a SCSI Jaz drive. Now THAT was REALLY nice back in the day. Never failed. But again, better things came along to displace it.

There's a difference between what's popular now and what's was popular when it first came out. It's all thanks to hindsight.

- John