VOGONS


First post, by Symphony

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Hey there! For a while now I've wanted to roughly recreate my very first PC (long gone at this point), and a few days ago I managed to find some remaining evidence of it in the form of the original leaflet and order form. Problem is, this was a super budget PC so they were not exactly forthcoming about the specific parts used (the case, monitor, keyboard etc. were all no brand) and at the time I was too scared to actually open the thing up so I have no idea what specifically was inside it.

What I'm wondering is if, given the price, purchase date (October/November 2000, not sure which, the order date said November but completion date says October) and vague specs could anyone throw out some rough guesses at what graphics and sound card might have been used? Here is the original leaflet of the left and receipt for the one I had on the right side:
UEIOu5M.jpg

The graphics card only had 1 VGA input, and I don't recall the BIOS showing up during post so I don't think it was an Nvidia card, the most graphically intensive game I played on it was Robot Wars: Arenas of Destruction which ran perfectly fine, but mostly I stuck with stuff like The Sims House Party (which I believe means that it supported DirectX 7).

Last edited by Symphony on 2022-05-10, 18:29. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 2 of 4, by Con 2 botones

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Was it a 8MB graphics card?
Maybe a Savage4 LT? or Matrox G200?

The sound card could have been integrated in the motherboard, like CMI3880 or ESS 1868/1869

Reply 3 of 4, by Symphony

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Con 2 botones wrote on 2022-05-10, 18:06:

Was it a 8MB graphics card?
Maybe a Savage4 LT? or Matrox G200?

The sound card could have been integrated in the motherboard, like CMI3880 or ESS 1868/1869

Yeah, the specs of the exact one I had is on the right hand side, the GPU was just listed as an 8mb AGP card, I included the flyer as well for reference of the sort of other machines the store was selling and the prices they were charging. I do know that it at least had a dedicated sound card as my speakers plugged in to a 3.5mm port in an expansion slot - but I'm pretty sure the sound card didn't have a gameport.

Looking up the two you mentioned they seem like they could be strong possibilities, their performance lines up about with what I remember from my PC.

Last edited by Symphony on 2022-05-10, 19:21. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 4 of 4, by ThinkpadIL

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Here is a solution for you - since you have no idea and there is no way to find out what were the actual video and sound cards in your machine, then buy the best possible ones that match the time you bought it.

If in the future you'll find out what were the exact models of these cards, you will always be able to change them, if you'll want of course. 🙂