HighTreason wrote:

I have been beating my Athlon XP machine to death with a few applications and it is running fine with the XP-M 2400+ so far. It actually feels more responsive despite the slower CPU, perhaps due to the fact it actually has enough power to run. I might be brave and try a faster XP-M soon as I think I have two more that may work installed in dead laptops, at least one of them may be a DTR-class chip though, not an option as those actually use more power than the desktop model.

I will probably be using the system to run ePSXE for a Let's Play on my second YouTube channel soon.

I've got a XP-M 2400+ Barton in one of my computers, runs really stable at 2.3ghz. All XP-M's are unlocked so You could try
overclocking if Your Motherboard has overclocking features.

Manual multipliers only go as far as 12.5 on this board. Though the reported multiplier is incorrect with this CPU (Probably due to the BIOS having no real support for it) so perhaps one of them will actually be higher. I doubt it.

I don't really like overclocking anyway, I expect there is a good reason they marked the CPU down in the factory and this is a serious machine, it is not for playing around on... Even though I am currently using it to play around with. I might try it just to see what happens I guess. Everything is usable at 1800MHz however.

Had no Internet over the weekend, so I got productive 🤣

First, cleaned up a case and rebuilt my P4/ME rig with that one:
Re: 10 Reasons for a Pentium 4 Windows 98 DOS Retro Gaming PC :)

Second, not retro at all, but I finally got a Core 2 Duo mainboard to replace the Pentium D in my Linux machine. I really like the styling and size of the HP case so I kept it:

Thing is, the case while being standard Micro ATX is really proprietary. Had to replace the PSU because the ATX connector was too short (no loss - the be quiet! PSU needed a good home anyway 😀 ), and what's really really annoying - no cutout for an ATX backplate!

Luckily, the new mainboard had the same connector layout, so with some drilling and creativity I managed to make it fit:

And it's finally quiet now! The Pentium D's cooling system was driving me mad.

oerk wrote:

And it's finally quiet now! The Pentium D's cooling system was driving me mad.

True. So true.... The reason for buying a cooler like the North-Q 3310-Ufo.
It's one like this on the picture. Stock/Box cooler's are just shit from that time-period.

Nice build by the way. That case look's like some thing, straight out of the death-star.

Ha, you're right! It needs a sticker "Designed by the Empire" 🤣 Or a Darth Vader decal on the side!

oerk wrote:

"Designed by the Empire" 🤣

Or....

"Designed by Palpatine, to kick some Jedi ass....."

🤣

BSA Starfire wrote:

Added a Matrox G450 Millenium 32 mb PCI to my Cyrix/IBM 6x86 MX 333 ECS SiS based system, amazingly both DOOM & QUAKE are faster with the SiS 6326 4mb(not shared RAM) that is built into the board, image quality is about the same tho, that SiS is shockingly good!!! Will add scores to Phil's ultimate VGA benchmark spreadsheet in a bit. Of course the Matrox is far better in direct 3D games but I really thought the G450 would trounce the SiS 6326. But there you are, can't argue with the numbers, on Phils bench SiS got 229.27, Matrox 178.07.

I suppose the Sis 6326 is connected over AGP since the chipset support AGP, but the board doesn't have an AGP slot.
I had a look at the VGA Legacy Benchmarks for Quake, but only results for both cards in the AGP variant are listed. A G450 AGP seems to be faster than an SiS 6326 AGP both in 320x240 and 640x480. IMO it makes sense that the PCI bandwidth could limit the G450 in this case.
Interestingly, older Matrox PCI cards (Mystique/Millennium) result in faster performance than the SiS 6236 AGP (no entry in the benchmark with fastvid for the SiS).

Finally I was able to use the wireless display Rugged Panasonic Toughbook Wireless Display Touchscreen Cf - Vdw07bhm with my PC in the garage-lab, so even with a non-Toughbook PC. I've been lucky in finding into the display one of the latest firmware, otherwise I would have to buy first its dock in order to perform the right firmware upgrade, and then the configuration. Range up to 50m and touchscreen, together with on-screen optional keyboard, make it a kind of portable VNC, very particular.

Here's the welcome screen of my little BBS on this display:

Wireless Display = cool
Personal BBS = ultra cool

brassicGamer wrote:

Wireless Display = cool
Personal BBS = ultra cool

Thanks man, I have always been fascinated by the world of message boards - the BBS I have not been able to enjoy at the times because I was too young, and in any case I could not afford the necessary hardware, and even phone bills. For this reason I have recreated my little private BBS with Mystic BBS software, up 24/7 thanks to one of my Raspberry Pi and a little study. I am still at the beginning with certain aspects, but I have already 'implemented several nice touches and customization, and this BBS offers several services, such as internal email, message board, games, links to other services, FTP and IRC-style chat. Come and take a ride on rasppi.servebbs.org by telnet, if you want.

It would be nice to have the official VOGONS BBS...

I still want to put my own Telnet server back online. It wasn't a BBS, it just played tic-tac-toe and later Tetris. There was also a third option which displayed a random ANSI picture to test the terminal at the other end, the user would see glitches in the 'image' if their terminal did not support the features of the server properly.

I might try to get it back up in the coming months I guess. Perhaps with a wider selection of text-mode games.

Well... I really LOVE ANSI ART! I think these works are fantastic...

HighTreason wrote:

I still want to put my own Telnet server back online. It wasn't a BBS, it just played tic-tac-toe and later Tetris. There was also a third option which displayed a random ANSI picture to test the terminal at the other end, the user would see glitches in the 'image' if their terminal did not support the features of the server properly.

I might try to get it back up in the coming months I guess. Perhaps with a wider selection of text-mode games.

See, this is why I love this site - knowledge and skills such as the above should never die or become worthless.

Lately I've been testing old hardware. My GA5AX F3 runs a Rendition Verite fine but could not boot some Voodoo Rush cards nor a Voodoo3 AGP. They all then worked fine in a Slot A so I guess the GA5AX has some voltage issue. The Rush of course is PCI not AGP.

So in amongst the testing I rebuilt this:

Winchip C6 in GA5AX running DOS
Rendition Verite
some GUS or other

into this:

Athlon 700 in MS6167 running 98
Wildcat VP970 [probably not going to stay there, was last thing I needed to test currently]
AWE32 CT2760

Finding the AWE32 setup for DOS games running from 98 somewhat baffling.

I have recorded eight tunes on my Creative Wave Blaster 1 today (Many more will follow this week!)

Tracks:
1. Eternal Doom - DOOMin'
2. Theme Hospital - Atlantis
3. Passport.mid
4. Duke Nukem 3D - Grabbag Full Version
5. X-Files Theme
6. Tomb Raider Theme
7. Age of Empires - Conquest
8. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Kokiri Forest

The playlist can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxDnrsc … LiQxkg1wERt3wrq
I will update the playlist when i have made new recordings.

deemster wrote:

I have recorded eight tunes on my Creative Wave Blaster 1 today (Many more will follow this week!)

Very nice! Will listen to them after work 😀

Added the following tunes to the Creative Wave Blaster 1 playlist:

- Creative Symphony (AWE64 Gold demo midi)
- Runescape - Harmony
- Bible Black - My Pace
- Rise of the Triad - Goin' Down the Fast Way
- Duke Caribbean: Life's a Beach - Duke-O
- Age of Empires II - Quest for Butter
- Age of Empires II - Shamburger
- Nitemare 3D - Main Theme
- Nitemare 3D - Magic Theme
- Duke Nukem 3D - Plasma

Very cool. Just listened to some of them at work today while typing away. Thanks for this.

You're very welcome ! 😀 Final Fantasy VII - One Winged Angel has been added.
Also: The theme from 3D Pinball Space Cadet from Windows XP!