Some places to check for old hardware include:
-Goodwill, thrift shops, yard sales
-if you have friends that are elderly, or perhaps the parents of your friends, ask if they have old computers that you can recycle for them.
-if you have any friends in the IT field, ask if they are getting rid of any old hardware and if so, can you pick through before they dispose of them?

You might be able to get some decent items this way (case, motherboard, monitor, etc). These heavy items are the ones that are most expensive to buy online due to shipping cost of heavy, bulky items.

Once you have a decent foundation, now you can look to places like ebay for specific components that are usually inexpensive and low shipping cost due to being small and light weight.

I'm sure others will have much more suggestions for you. Welcome to our community! 😀

You might want to look for old parts at school's, companies and other places like that.
Take you'r time, to pick up the phone and make some call's around. 😀
If you happen to live in a city/town were there is a secondhand/thrift store, then you could possibly find parts there.
Check the local online second hand website's, and check around the city at places were people throw out stuff.
Check amibay as the last resort, before looking at stuff on ebay. Ebay is wildly overpriced.
Well... Unless we are talking about stuff like CF to IDE adaptors and stuff like that.

And.... Welcome to the Asylum (our hobby is considered mad by alot of people around... 🤣)
You won't find a lot of other places on the net, with the same extent of knowledge, that's for shure. 😀

Another way to aquire computer stuff is by dumpsterdiving (basically pick up what others throw away...do keep in mind that it's preferable to not have to do anything illegal while you're at it 😜).

Flea markets are also good, but most here in The Netherlands seem to sell mostly non-computer related junk, but sometimes something interesting drops by this way (I got my GF6800 AGP and a Zalman PSU with something like 40A/5v this way, both were like under €5 each and both were in good shape 😁)

Just purchased this system at 25 euro:

- Pentium-S 150mHz
- 64 Mb RAM
- 4 Gb HDD
- 2 floppy readers
- 1 CDRom 32X

I don't know much more 'cause seller was not "expert" (nor me), nevertheless it seems in very good conditions:
http://1drv.ms/1SPPE2O
http://1drv.ms/1SPPI2g

This is the audio card, it should be Sound Blaster compatible:
http://1drv.ms/1SPPNTL
http://1drv.ms/1SPPR5X

It was a good deal? Will it run Quake 1?
Thanks! 😀

Looks good to me. Should have no problem at all running Quake 1, unless there are some exceptionally obscure circumstances.

25 euro was a good deal for you IMO. The ESS 1868f is a good sound chipset as well.

Thank you!
Bit I'm a bit worried 'cause I just realized (looking other photos) that it has not PS/2 ports for keyboard and mouse, but only DB! 😮
So I will newer use clean controls? 😀

Usually not a big deal. Depending on the motherboard, it may have a PS/2 mouse header that you can use. Brackets can be found on Ebay, but pinouts were non-standard so they usually require testing to ensure the plug conforms with the board. You can also purchase inexpensive AT to PS/2 adapters for the keyboard.

This looks like a good system and I think the socketed RTC chip dosnt use an internal battery as it's branded "VIA", your motherboard probably uses a normal CR2032 coin cell which is good news.

Almost every socket 7 board will have a PS/2 mouse header but I know it diddnt work on some early i430FX motherboards because of a bug.

At least seems that AT to PS/2 adapter for keyboard is included indeed:
http://1drv.ms/1KMWqhT

Will I need some kind of software driver to use the ESS 1868f with Free DOS?
Thank you

Scandy wrote:

Just purchased this system at 25 euro: […]
Show full quote

Just purchased this system at 25 euro:

- Pentium-S 150mHz
- 64 Mb RAM
- 4 Gb HDD
- 2 floppy readers
- 1 CDRom 32X

I don't know much more 'cause seller was not "expert" (nor me), nevertheless it seems in very good conditions:
http://1drv.ms/1SPPE2O
http://1drv.ms/1SPPI2g

This is the audio card, it should be Sound Blaster compatible:
http://1drv.ms/1SPPNTL
http://1drv.ms/1SPPR5X

It was a good deal? Will it run Quake 1?
Thanks! 😀

Thanks for showing us a couple pics of your 'newest' addition 😀

The case looks to be in almost perfect condition, very nice find! 😁
It even seems to have a LED display (left side of the black part on the front of your case, this usually means a LED display is present), which also is something that even in those days was not all too common.
Very good purchase if you asked me!

Your board, at first glance, doesn't seem like anything particularly special (AT Socket 7 boards were never really rare) but the thing is that your AT Pentium is in such a good condition, I hope for you it works. AT cases are very hard to find these days, especially ones that aren't all yellow and LED display is even better 😁

If you want, I'd be delighted if you took some more pics of the insides as the 2 pics you took from the inside only covers a small part of what's in there.
If you want to post further pics, we could even spot stuff like the exact hardware that's inside your rig and probably see if there's any damage or other things you might need to be aware of (and of course a lil hardware pr0n is always welcome here 😜)

The fact your rig has 64MB RAM would indicate it was previously upgraded by someone who had knowledge about these rigs as 64MB is seen as the most optimum amount of memory for the usual Socket 7 systems of that age (when new, these would typically have more like 8MB, perhaps 16 or 24 if the memory had been upgraded by a computer shop somewhere early during it's life) and the back of your system seems to have an adapter sticking out and amongst other things, considering the rough location of the protruding adapter thingy, this would likely be an adapter for putting a newer PS/2 keyboard into the older and larger keyboard connector of the motherboard.

Scandy wrote:

At least seems that AT to PS/2 adapter for keyboard is included indeed: http://1drv.ms/1KMWqhT […]
Show full quote

At least seems that AT to PS/2 adapter for keyboard is included indeed:
http://1drv.ms/1KMWqhT

Will I need some kind of software driver to use the ESS 1868f with Free DOS?
Thank you

Lol, I only saw this reply after I posted mine 😁

Anyway, your rig happen to have a Matrox PCI card in there?

And please keep the pics coming! 😁

Tetrium wrote:

If you want, I'd be delighted if you took some more pics of the insides as the 2 pics you took from the inside only covers a small part of what's in there.
If you want to post further pics, we could even spot stuff like the exact hardware that's inside your rig and probably see if there's any damage or other things you might need to be aware of (and of course a lil hardware pr0n is always welcome here 😜)

Thank you!
Pics were from the seller, when I'll receive it I'll do more pics for sure! 😁

Scandy wrote:

Tetrium wrote:

If you want, I'd be delighted if you took some more pics of the insides as the 2 pics you took from the inside only covers a small part of what's in there.
If you want to post further pics, we could even spot stuff like the exact hardware that's inside your rig and probably see if there's any damage or other things you might need to be aware of (and of course a lil hardware pr0n is always welcome here 😜)

Thank you!
Pics were from the seller, when I'll receive it I'll do more pics for sure! 😁

Looking forward to it 😀

Waiting to receive the "new" PC (what a pleasant shiver thinking again on the DOS prompt!) I'd like to take advantage for some new questions:

- FreeDOS or MS-DOS? I really like the idea of using a FOSS OS, but since I still have the three floppies of MS-DOS 6, there are some practical or technical reasons for preferring the latter?

- ESS 1868f is the name of the chipset or sound card itself? Will I need some kind of software driver or utility?

- it is possible to install on the same system multiple sound cards (e.g. SB AWE32 and Gravis Ultrasound) choosing each time (in ingame setup) which to use?

- since I have a floppy reader, which "typical" software could I use for copying? I recall in the early 90s "XCopy" or something like that... and what are in general some great killer applications on DOS?

- why building a retro PC today? How to enjoy a better experience than, e.g., DOSBox?

- last but not least, it's since 1993 that I look for an answer to this: what is the magical "Turbo" button for?

I apologize for the (too) many questions, but in the enthusiasm of waiting it seems to me to be back to the (good) times when you learned asking directly to people, and not only from tutorials. 😉
Thank you!

Scandy wrote:

Waiting to receive the "new" PC (what a pleasant shiver thinking again on the DOS prompt!) I'd like to take advantage for some new questions:

- FreeDOS or MS-DOS? I really like the idea of using a FOSS OS, but since I still have the three floppies of MS-DOS 6, there are some practical or technical reasons for preferring the latter?

Up to you. FreeDOS with JEMM seems to work really well, but I've also had good luck with MS-DOS 7.1 and PC-DOS 7.1. I still want to test OpenDOS 7.01WIP.

Scandy wrote:

- ESS 1868f is the name of the chipset or sound card itself? Will I need some kind of software driver or utility?

Chipset. I'm too familiar with it, actually, but you'll need software to use the mixer and initialize the card. Drivers are hosted on Vogonsdrivers as below.
http://vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=616&menustate=0

Scandy wrote:

- it is possible to install on the same system multiple sound cards (e.g. SB AWE32 and Gravis Ultrasound) choosing each time (in ingame setup) which to use?

Yes, by choosing non-interfering I/O ports, IRQs, and DMA channels.

Scandy wrote:

- since I have a floppy reader, which "typical" software could I use for copying? I recall in the early 90s "XCopy" or something like that... and what are in general some great killer applications on DOS?

I have no opinion on this.

Scandy wrote:

- why building a retro PC today? How to enjoy a better experience than, e.g., DOSBox?

Why not build one?

Scandy wrote:

- last but not least, it's since 1993 that I look for an answer to this: what is the magical "Turbo" button for?

Originally for clocking back to XT speeds as some games didn't run properly when fast clocked.

Scandy wrote:

I apologize for the (too) many questions, but in the enthusiasm of waiting it seems to me to be back to the (good) times when you learned asking directly to people, and not only from tutorials. 😉
Thank you!

No worries. Have fun!

Well, I'll receive my new Pentium 150 at the end of this week! 😊
Since I've configured a DOS system a lot of time ago (and I was a kid), I remember practically NOTHING about CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT, so I need your help, as a newbie. 😅

After installing FreeDOS, what will I need to do to make the sound card ESS 1868f working in DOS?
Thank you very much.

Scandy wrote:

Well, I'll receive my new Pentium 150 at the end of this week! :blush: Since I've configured a DOS system a lot of time ago (a […]
Show full quote

Well, I'll receive my new Pentium 150 at the end of this week! 😊
Since I've configured a DOS system a lot of time ago (and I was a kid), I remember practically NOTHING about CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT, so I need your help, as a newbie. 😅

After installing FreeDOS, what will I need to do to make the sound card ESS 1868f working in DOS?
Thank you very much.

Give us some more specs and pics and stuff! 😁

I don't know a lot about sound cards though so I can't really tell you a lot about those 😊

Scandy wrote:

- play smoothly Wolfenstein 3D, DOOM, Heretic, Hexen, Dark Forces and Quake 1 in software mode

DOSBox seems to play them smooth on CRT set to native Hz and possibly some higher Hz.
Quake only in 320x200 will go well on Pentium.

- use an SD card as HDD

Number of possible rewrites should be much less. If you'll use windows - you may notice the problem.

avoid somehow mechanical problems of old floppy disks

There is Gotek floppy emulator based on flash disk