Decided to benchmark my POD 200MMX at other jumper configs that my motherboard supports:
180Mhz
166Mhz
150Mhz
As well as re-run benchmarks with my P54C at 75-133Mhz with my TNT2 M64. Will test all setmul switches at the same time and post results to Phil's VGA database as well as my own.

edit: I realized the documented jumper settings are incorrect. 😒 The jumper settings for 200MMX cause the system to lock up with motherboard beeps when I press any keyboard key. The supposed jumper settings for 166MMX actually are for 200MMX. The jumpers for 180MMX however work perfectly. Have not tried 150MMX yet, and unless I randomly experiment with jumpers, doesn't appear I can get a 166MMX result. I suppose this makes some sense, as both 200 and 166 use the 66Mhz bus, while 180 uses a 60Mhz bus and 150 uses a 50Mhz bus. Perhaps the cpu is multiplier locked but not FSB locked.

I ventured into the attic with the intention of inventorying my motherboards and I decided to start with the "untested newly brought in stuff"-cabinet thingy and after 2 hours or so the entire cabinet thingy was tidied like is hasn't been for several years! and so far only 3 mobos inventoried 🤣.

School is over and summer is finally here, which means I can now focus on more important things. Like retro computers. 😁

I ordered a Sound Blaster 16 for $15 on eBay a few weeks ago, a CT1740 to be exact, and today I finally plugged it into my Cyrix 486SLC rig. Sounds great, as usual since it has a discrete YMF262. I've heard many complaints of noisy output and hanging notes on these earlier cards but I haven't noticed anything annoying on this one yet. I'm not picky enough for that stuff right now, it's just nice to finally have an ISA sound card.

Side note, too: Even now, as I get older I see my gaming tastes grow and refine. For a long time up to now I could never really get into RPGs, especially old CRPGs like Ultima, Wizardry and Baldur's Gate, as much as I've wanted to. But as of late I've been playing way more RPGs and actually enjoying them. I'm halfway through Baldur's Gate and now I'm itching to try out Ultima VII on my 486 rig. That game is picky concerning what hardware it runs on, but I think my 486SLC 33Mhz should provide an acceptable balance of speed. Sure I could just use Exult, but where's the fun in that? 😀

ElementalChaos wrote:

School is over and summer is finally here, which means I can now focus on more important things. Like retro computers. 😁

I ordered a Sound Blaster 16 for $15 on eBay a few weeks ago, a CT1740 to be exact, and today I finally plugged it into my Cyrix 486SLC rig. Sounds great, as usual since it has a discrete YMF262. I've heard many complaints of noisy output and hanging notes on these earlier cards but I haven't noticed anything annoying on this one yet. I'm not picky enough for that stuff right now, it's just nice to finally have an ISA sound card.

Side note, too: Even now, as I get older I see my gaming tastes grow and refine. For a long time up to now I could never really get into RPGs, especially old CRPGs like Ultima, Wizardry and Baldur's Gate, as much as I've wanted to. But as of late I've been playing way more RPGs and actually enjoying them. I'm halfway through Baldur's Gate and now I'm itching to try out Ultima VII on my 486 rig. That game is picky concerning what hardware it runs on, but I think my 486SLC 33Mhz should provide an acceptable balance of speed. Sure I could just use Exult, but where's the fun in that? 😀

Nice rig you are building there and nice score on that CT1740 😀

Yesterday I've been dismantling my retro computer (yes, after all those tests till I found the perfect config for my purposes 🤣 ). I'm starting a new and promising job in two weeks, but it's 800km ahead from home and I wanted to carry the whole case but there's no room for it in my car (only for daily laptop and important things, sorry), so I will pack the parts till I find another case there, at least temporary.

Luckily, it's still common and quite easy to find AT cases in my country 😀

mmx_91 wrote:

Yesterday I've been dismantling my retro computer (yes, after all those tests till I found the perfect config for my purposes : […]
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Yesterday I've been dismantling my retro computer (yes, after all those tests till I found the perfect config for my purposes 🤣 ). I'm starting a new and promising job in two weeks, but it's 800km ahead from home and I wanted to carry the whole case but there's no room for it in my car (only for daily laptop and important things, sorry), so I will pack the parts till I find another case there, at least temporary.

Luckily, it's still common and quite easy to find AT cases in my country 😀

I think I recognize that CPU heatsink (the low profile copper one), it's quite heavy and the fins are kinda easy to bend compared to alu CPU heatsinks. How does it cool? I don't think I ever used mine (I really kinda remember having had such a model in my own hands a couple times, but I'm not absolutely sure).

Just replaced the rubbish PSU in my Pentium III machine with a better quality 300 watt one.

Got a Voodoo 4 up and working in my P3 system, and replaced the PSU with a Corsair CX750 😀

Tetrium wrote:

I think I recognize that CPU heatsink (the low profile copper one), it's quite heavy and the fins are kinda easy to bend compared to alu CPU heatsinks. How does it cool? I don't think I ever used mine (I really kinda remember having had such a model in my own hands a couple times, but I'm not absolutely sure).

http://www.akasa.com.tw/update.php?tpl=produc … &model=AK-351-2

Yep, that is! I haven't tested it to its limit, since it's cooling a Socket 7 processor and they run indeed quite cool. But here it does its job really well paired with a silent Fractal Design 50mm fan. When I bought it, it had the typical marks from the rubber pads of a Socket A cpu 'printed' below, and the original fan was a noisy high-rpm one, clearly aimed to cool more powerful cpus. I'm quite happy with this configuration 😀

That cooler looks like one that StarTech sells: https://www.startech.com/Computer-Parts/Fans/ … ervers~FAN3701U

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

That cooler looks like one that StarTech sells: https://www.startech.com/Computer-Parts/Fans/ … ervers~FAN3701U

Yes, it also looks the same. Maybe it was a generic one, mine didn't have the Akasa brand printed on the fan either 😀

It is indeed an awesome cooler. Full copper, heavy and works great. A bit noisy, but can be improved with a fan controller.

While waiting for me to get my hands on a decent enough 300W power supply for conversion I pulled out another project and finished setting up a 386 machine while watching TV.

Installed zdoom source port on my XP and imported all my WADs. Played some Doom, Doom2, Plutonium and TNT. Amazed at the MIDI quality of my Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. Doom and Doom2 sound as good (IMO) as any Roland device.

CelGen wrote:

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a166/ballsandy/Computer%20related/59DA0625.jpg […]
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What a beauty....

For me, it was writing a new blog entry about something that happened in 1995.

Added a partition to my DOS machine (F:, I'm all full now), then reorganized my games on the partitons to give each one more breathing room. C:\games now houses titles from 1983-1993, totaling 822MB; D: holds Wing Commander 3 totaling 1777MB; E: houses titles from 1994-1995 and totals 1251MB; and F: holds titles from 1996 to 1997, totaling 950MB. Also updated the spreadsheet that documents all this. Then I defragged and scandisked all the partitions. 😀 Now rewarding myself with a little bit of Ultima Underworld!

Wrote up some Word documents using Office 97 on a Thinkpad 760EL and drew a couple of crude maps using paint in between people stopping in at my work. Starting up a Pathfinder campaign with some friends 😊

ODwilly wrote:

Wrote up some Word documents using Office 97 on a Thinkpad 760EL and drew a couple of crude maps using paint in between people stopping in at my work. Starting up a Pathfinder campaign with some friends 😊

Nice...playing in a D&D 5th edition campaign myself at the moment.

Rhuwyn wrote:

ODwilly wrote:

Wrote up some Word documents using Office 97 on a Thinkpad 760EL and drew a couple of crude maps using paint in between people stopping in at my work. Starting up a Pathfinder campaign with some friends 😊

Nice...playing in a D&D 5th edition campaign myself at the moment.

Ha! Same here, that is what got me itching to start my own campaign. The Pathfinder DM and player books were like $5 in a Humble Bundle last year. Table top games are addicting.