To paraphrase someone you may have heard of :

I will keep on adding to my pile of crap collection "until the flesh goes numb".
I will "not stop 'til I get enough". HINT : I hope that I never do get enough, as it will be a sad day indeed if/when I have to give up the thrill of the hunt .

It is very difficult to stop collecting. I have been there, about 10 years ago. I collected ISA sound cards and at one point i had almost all rare cards and lots of cheap crap like ESS, OPTI, ALS etc . So i decided to sell everything. Rare stuff like Roland LAPC, SCC-1, Gravis cards etc sold very good of course but thing is nobody wanted cheap stuff. So after couple years has passed, i searched from basement these crap cards and started to play with them again. And here i go again 😀 I have about 8 different PC-s from XT 088 to Pentium 4 and lots of other stuff in boxes that i rarely use. Now i am thinking about to narrow down my collection again, thing is if you have to much hardware, there will be no time to really use these nice computers.

eightbit wrote on 2022-07-19, 03:28:

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-07-19, 03:26:

eightbit wrote on 2022-07-19, 03:22:

You are not married, are you?

This also explains my current collection, No-one to stop me from buying shit I dont need. 😁

Lol. I am married (for over 20 years) but my wife is OK with my stuff. It is me that feels guilty sometimes as my stuff consumes more space than her stuff....a lot more space.

I'm another one of the married ones. Only time I run into trouble with it is when I'm trying to do something major like reload a machine because she does not understand what this entails. She's talked about wanting to get into it, I've provided her a lot of opportunities, but I think it's more one of those "bonding" things, that said, shame she does not indulge more because she's pretty badass at Doom network games.

darry wrote on 2022-07-19, 06:00:

To paraphrase someone you may have heard of :

I will keep on adding to my pile of crap collection "until the flesh goes numb".
I will "not stop 'til I get enough". HINT : I hope that I never do get enough, as it will be a sad day indeed if/when I have to give up the thrill of the hunt .

That used to be me back in the day, right now I'm in this ever-ongoing flux of fixing stuff up, selling it off if I don't use it enough. I already kind of have my dream team of vintage PCs so I'm more motivated to maintain that which I have than really start accumulating more, though it is tempting to do some YouTube Revivals of very broken and dead stuff from e-bay because I like doing that sort of thing for fun.....sort of like a Computer version of Vice Grip Garage.

psychofox wrote on 2022-07-19, 10:40:

It is very difficult to stop collecting. I have been there, about 10 years ago. I collected ISA sound cards and at one point i had almost all rare cards and lots of cheap crap like ESS, OPTI, ALS etc . So i decided to sell everything. Rare stuff like Roland LAPC, SCC-1, Gravis cards etc sold very good of course but thing is nobody wanted cheap stuff. So after couple years has passed, i searched from basement these crap cards and started to play with them again. And here i go again 😀 I have about 8 different PC-s from XT 088 to Pentium 4 and lots of other stuff in boxes that i rarely use. Now i am thinking about to narrow down my collection again, thing is if you have to much hardware, there will be no time to really use these nice computers.

For me, I don't stop only because I keep running into people who have garages and areas under their stairwells that have the really old stuff I really like (8088-80486) that they want to give to a good home. That's how I landed the Compaq with the Blue Lightning BLX4 chip in it last year for $0.00. If it's free, I'll take it, if it's cheap, I might, if it's expensive, nah, I'll just nab a cheaper, more beat up one to restore.

My goal is simple: I want to collect CPUs. All of them.

I generally buy stuff that I have a specific use for and that I have enough space to physically store and/or use.

I've specifically passed on vintage hardware which while appealing from a collectability POV, I just don't see myself ever using. If it's just going to sit on a shelf, I don't want to buy it.

The only thing I'm currently focused on collecting is vintage audio hardware including sound cards and sound modules. I've got most of what is out there maybe with a couple gaps in the collection still. Other than that, I don't see myself buying much more than I already have.

At least, for the moment, on thing i really stick to is the time period : 1996->2010
I think i never bought something outside that timespan.
The older stuff i have is there because i ended up with it, but not because i bought them (A few old 486 and Pentium laptops and a Thomson TO9).
I have no recent stuff besides a 2015 GTX960... plugged into a 2010 socket 1366 motherboard. (Currently waiting for my Valve Steam Deck)
This time period is MY OWN golden age. But everyone has its own.

I generally try to get my hands on "weird parts" first, then good parts second.
For example, i got a 9700Pro (because i loved that card back then), a GF4 Ti4600/4800 (because it was the period correct challenger) and a Matrox Parhelia (because it was the weird outsider)
But i was more excited by the Parhelia.
Same thing for GeForce256 vs Fury Maxx. The Maxx is barely usable for retrogaming, but its an incredibly weird card.
I love weird parts in general. (Bad Willamette P4 with RDRAM, WD Raptor 10k rpm HDDs, Slockets, "Killer" Network cards, IBM Microdrives)
Again, i'm not willing to sell this. But if i would, it will probably be difficult to find someone interested in that weird parts.

While reading all your comments, i see that everyone has its own story, and every one is different and have different long term goals. Really interesting !

I really think i will stop buying parts for some time. And just focus on what i have. And enjoy them on the long run. After all, back in the time, computers were expensive and you could not simply buy a new one each couple of years. My parents PII-350 from 1998 was still regularly used in 2002/2003 (even if i bought my own machine before that). Having a slow computer was part of the experience. Later i played TES:Oblivion hundreds of hours with 20ish fps on my Athlon 64/Radeon 9600XT. And i kept it until it burnt in 2009 (University -> No money for a new computer)

I will definitely look into writing articles or videos. Maybe about that Thomson TO9. A French 8bit desktop computer from 1985 with color graphics and light pen input. It is mostly unknown outside of France.

I haven't bought anything 'retro' since the COVID hit. Reasons:

1) Prices have gone nuts
2) Economic uncertainty
3) I have too much stuff already.*

* Including boxed computers that I bought years ago and which I still haven't examined. There might be Voodoo/GUS cards in them for all I know! (Or just more PCI winmodems...)

acl wrote on 2022-07-20, 09:29:

At least, for the moment, on thing i really stick to is the time period : 1996->2010 I think i never bought something outside th […]
Show full quote

At least, for the moment, on thing i really stick to is the time period : 1996->2010
I think i never bought something outside that timespan.
The older stuff i have is there because i ended up with it, but not because i bought them (A few old 486 and Pentium laptops and a Thomson TO9).
I have no recent stuff besides a 2015 GTX960... plugged into a 2010 socket 1366 motherboard. (Currently waiting for my Valve Steam Deck)
This time period is MY OWN golden age. But everyone has its own.

I generally try to get my hands on "weird parts" first, then good parts second.
For example, i got a 9700Pro (because i loved that card back then), a GF4 Ti4600/4800 (because it was the period correct challenger) and a Matrox Parhelia (because it was the weird outsider)
But i was more excited by the Parhelia.
Same thing for GeForce256 vs Fury Maxx. The Maxx is barely usable for retrogaming, but its an incredibly weird card.
I love weird parts in general. (Bad Willamette P4 with RDRAM, WD Raptor 10k rpm HDDs, Slockets, "Killer" Network cards, IBM Microdrives)
Again, i'm not willing to sell this. But if i would, it will probably be difficult to find someone interested in that weird parts.

While reading all your comments, i see that everyone has its own story, and every one is different and have different long term goals. Really interesting !

I really think i will stop buying parts for some time. And just focus on what i have. And enjoy them on the long run. After all, back in the time, computers were expensive and you could not simply buy a new one each couple of years. My parents PII-350 from 1998 was still regularly used in 2002/2003 (even if i bought my own machine before that). Having a slow computer was part of the experience. Later i played TES:Oblivion hundreds of hours with 20ish fps on my Athlon 64/Radeon 9600XT. And i kept it until it burnt in 2009 (University -> No money for a new computer)

I will definitely look into writing articles or videos. Maybe about that Thomson TO9. A French 8bit desktop computer from 1985 with color graphics and light pen input. It is mostly unknown outside of France.

I have a weird Parhelia .. I got the PCI-X version for my P4 server board, its an odd duck being a PCIe version at its heart but on teh PCI-X board its a lovely rock solid card to use, Currently working on trying to get it working on normal PCI boards.

I build computers for Best Compatibility and Performance with Games and Programs.
So don’t necessarily build the Fastest computers but build for compatibility.

So I am trying to consolidate my primary computers.

So Far I have.

1) 486dx4-100 computer for DOS and Win3x
2) Pentium MMX 233 computer for DOS, Win3x, and Win95 games
3) AMD K6-lll with Voodoo-3 for Win98 games
4) Intel Pentium 1ghz PC with Voodoo-3 for Win98 games.
5) Windows XP computer for Games.

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-07-20, 11:37:

I have a weird Parhelia .. I got the PCI-X version for my P4 server board, its an odd duck being a PCIe version at its heart

Oh, by the way, since you have a PCI-X one (mine is AGP), i have a question 😀
Some PCI-X cards are PCI retrocompatible.
For example, i have a PCI-X 3Ware SATA RAID card that works perfectly fine in a PCI slot.
Just like in this picture (wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI-X#/media/Fi … 32-bit_slot.jpg
I just avoid using all the SATA ports in RAID0 mode to avoid bandwidth issues.

Does the Parhelia work that way too ?

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2022-07-20, 12:14:

I build computers for Best Compatibility and Performance with Games and Programs. So don’t necessarily build the Fastest compute […]
Show full quote

I build computers for Best Compatibility and Performance with Games and Programs.
So don’t necessarily build the Fastest computers but build for compatibility.

So I am trying to consolidate my primary computers.

So Far I have.

1) 486dx4-100 computer for DOS and Win3x
2) Pentium MMX 233 computer for DOS, Win3x, and Win95 games
3) AMD K6-lll with Voodoo-3 for Win98 games
4) Intel Pentium 1ghz PC with Voodoo-3 for Win98 games.
5) Windows XP computer for Games.

That was one of my initial goals too. I started with a 2005 era WinXP computer, for games like Farcry, F.E.A.R, Doom3, NFSU . But soon after i built a Win98SE 2000/2001 era machine for Quake II, III, Midtown Madness...
I still have these two machines and i use them regularly. So at first, yes, it was mostly for compatibility.
But i did not stop with only two, and i started to cover every 1 or 2 year period (my signature is not up to date)

• 1996 : MSDOS 622 - MMX233 / Mach64 CT 2MB / Voodoo1 / AWE64
• 1998 : Win98SE - Celeron 300A OC@450 / Matrox Mystique 220 / Voodoo2 12MB SLI / Aureal Vortex
• 1999 : Win98SE - P3 700 @930 / GeForce SDR / SB Live!
• 2001 (in progress) Win2k - P4 Willamette 1.7 / RDRAM / GPU TBD (8500/GF2/GF3) / Sound TBD
• 2003 WinXP - Athlon XP3200+ / 9700Pro / Audigy2 ZS
• 2005 WinXP - Opteron 154 (~= Fx-57) / GTX7800 SLI / X-Fi Platinum
• 2007 Vista - Core 2 Extreme QX6850 / HD2900XT or HD3870X2 / Integrated sound
• 2009 Quad GPU build (in progress, i use the MB for my main computer) - Core i7 965 Extreme / GTX295 QuadSLI or HD4870X2 Crossfire / X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty

But i built that by little steps.
Improving part by part.
I have some parts for more than 20 years (Celeron 300, PII, PIII),
I found parts in trash (A Voodoo1, A Socket 1366 board + an i7)
I got some for free (A Voodoo 2, a lot of CPU,RAM,motherboards, even a Qualification Sample Tualatin and an unreleased AM2+ motherboard seen at Computex 2008).
And i can count on a single hand how many times i paid $100+/100€+ for a part.

But it seems that i covered quite well my 1996 -> 2010 era. Compatibility will definitely not be a problem.
And now i have 15y of game to play. And i feel weird about that... <insert here a French curse> !!!

So I'm not sure but I probably started collecting and building somewhere in the early to mid 2k's or so. I was never in it for the retro-feels. It was something slightly different to me as I, back then, felt like old computers were seen as trash and useless and I was like "why throw away an item that still functions perfectly?". That and I was always into playing somewhat older games anyway, so this fit my new hobby quite well 😜

For me the collection is essentially the reserve bank for spare parts, my intention has always been to build and not to have for FOMO or something. I never cared much for, well...collecting? I never even call it a collection, I just call it "my stash of spare parts" because that's what they've always been for me.

At first I started by dumpsterdiving and asking around if anyone had an old computer I could have. Later on I started visiting fleamarkets and other places where lots of old hardware could be found and I started buying stuff online and I gradually became (somewhat xD) more picky. But most of my collection is basically the lower and midrange stuff with some higher end gear mixed in here and there.

I also don't know when exactly I stopped buying stuff but it was also a gradual process. At some point I was just looking at my collection and I felt satisfied, with no 'hunger for more' or the need to get more. That and I also gradually had less and less spare money to spend on the hobby and I got into different things.
I never fully stopped buying things locally though, so new stuff did keep dripping in but at way lower volumes.

However, the itch to build more (retro) computers was never gone completely, but I simply have other priorities.

I did consider getting rid of most of it a few times but I'm glad I never did 😀
Still the thought has never completely left my mind to, eventually, start slowly selling some stuff in very low volumes, if only because it seems interesting in a way. But only if I feel like I want to commit, because I know selling this stuff will eat a large amount of my time and will require substantial effort, both which I currently don't have to spare as I have important stuff going on for the forseeable time.

I have in the last 10 years tried to build near-ultimate builds. This focuses on early versions of platforms. This is what interests me now as a lot of the later stuff is much easier to find. For example a 486 DX33 on EISA with SCSI hdd, using only parts available in 1990 was pretty much the ultimate build in 1990. Some consider ultimate to mean the fastest of the platform say one of the AMD chips on socket 3. But at this time they were overshadowed by the Pentium. So I guess i turn my nose up at a lot of the builds people love and the snob aspect i can kinda relate to. But i think it is just different interests or goals. I guess a lot of builds I did like 10 or 20 years ago and I've been there and done that. Also with the early stuff you tend to run into weirder hardware. Dual builds usually interest me as they were the hardware i lusted over for years.

Nowadays I will only buy hardware if it fits the above criteria and/or it has historical significance. Which means eBay prices and rarely. I also document hardware a lot so spend most of my time doing that. I really like it when I can pull together multiple sources and produce a page that is much more comprehensive.

acl wrote on 2022-07-20, 14:17:

Oh, by the way, since you have a PCI-X one (mine is AGP), i have a question :) Some PCI-X cards are PCI retrocompatible. For exa […]
Show full quote

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-07-20, 11:37:

I have a weird Parhelia .. I got the PCI-X version for my P4 server board, its an odd duck being a PCIe version at its heart

Oh, by the way, since you have a PCI-X one (mine is AGP), i have a question 😀
Some PCI-X cards are PCI retrocompatible.
For example, i have a PCI-X 3Ware SATA RAID card that works perfectly fine in a PCI slot.
Just like in this picture (wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI-X#/media/Fi … 32-bit_slot.jpg
I just avoid using all the SATA ports in RAID0 mode to avoid bandwidth issues.

Does the Parhelia work that way too ?

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2022-07-20, 12:14:

I build computers for Best Compatibility and Performance with Games and Programs. So don’t necessarily build the Fastest compute […]
Show full quote

I build computers for Best Compatibility and Performance with Games and Programs.
So don’t necessarily build the Fastest computers but build for compatibility.

So I am trying to consolidate my primary computers.

So Far I have.

1) 486dx4-100 computer for DOS and Win3x
2) Pentium MMX 233 computer for DOS, Win3x, and Win95 games
3) AMD K6-lll with Voodoo-3 for Win98 games
4) Intel Pentium 1ghz PC with Voodoo-3 for Win98 games.
5) Windows XP computer for Games.

That was one of my initial goals too. I started with a 2005 era WinXP computer, for games like Farcry, F.E.A.R, Doom3, NFSU . But soon after i built a Win98SE 2000/2001 era machine for Quake II, III, Midtown Madness...
I still have these two machines and i use them regularly. So at first, yes, it was mostly for compatibility.
But i did not stop with only two, and i started to cover every 1 or 2 year period (my signature is not up to date)

• 1996 : MSDOS 622 - MMX233 / Mach64 CT 2MB / Voodoo1 / AWE64
• 1998 : Win98SE - Celeron 300A OC@450 / Matrox Mystique 220 / Voodoo2 12MB SLI / Aureal Vortex
• 1999 : Win98SE - P3 700 @930 / GeForce SDR / SB Live!
• 2001 (in progress) Win2k - P4 Willamette 1.7 / RDRAM / GPU TBD (8500/GF2/GF3) / Sound TBD
• 2003 WinXP - Athlon XP3200+ / 9700Pro / Audigy2 ZS
• 2005 WinXP - Opteron 154 (~= Fx-57) / GTX7800 SLI / X-Fi Platinum
• 2007 Vista - Core 2 Extreme QX6850 / HD2900XT or HD3870X2 / Integrated sound
• 2009 Quad GPU build (in progress, i use the MB for my main computer) - Core i7 965 Extreme / GTX295 QuadSLI or HD4870X2 Crossfire / X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty

But i built that by little steps.
Improving part by part.
I have some parts for more than 20 years (Celeron 300, PII, PIII),
I found parts in trash (A Voodoo1, A Socket 1366 board + an i7)
I got some for free (A Voodoo 2, a lot of CPU,RAM,motherboards, even a Qualification Sample Tualatin and an unreleased AM2+ motherboard seen at Computex 2008).
And i can count on a single hand how many times i paid $100+/100€+ for a part.

But it seems that i covered quite well my 1996 -> 2010 era. Compatibility will definitely not be a problem.
And now i have 15y of game to play. And i feel weird about that... <insert here a French curse> !!!

Thus far the HX board I have tried it in cannot deliver enough voltage to the card, will be trying it in a 462/423 board soon. Work is hampering my free time currently so it on the to do list.

It’s possible that the HX board I have is the issue too but I have another HX board on the way so I’m going to test on that one too.