SavantStrike wrote:

but I'm OCD and don't want to think about galvanic corrosion.

Hehe, I know what you mean about high humidity and corrosion/bad connections -> http://www.cmoo.com/snor/weeds/Weeds_Backwood … s_Homestead.htm <grin>.

rfnagel wrote:

SavantStrike wrote:

but I'm OCD and don't want to think about galvanic corrosion.

Hehe, I know what you mean about high humidity and corrosion/bad connections -> http://www.cmoo.com/snor/weeds/Weeds_Backwood … s_Homestead.htm <grin>.

I think it would be worth the humidity for the peace and quiet. Have you had any equipment failures as a result of it?

The internet access though. That seems like it might be painful.

SavantStrike wrote:

I think it would be worth the humidity for the peace and quiet.

It surely is. You can hear a pin drop out here -:) That is, except for nights like last night... HORRID lightning/thunderstorms... wrath of gawd type stuff.

SavantStrike wrote:

Have you had any equipment failures as a result of it?

Not too much... I run the air conditioner (which I just spent the past three days busting my ass on! Still babying this 20 year old RV rooftop unit!) when it's hot and humid. Although, the humidty I'm sure played a key role in the downfall of my old 486DX-100 -> http://www.cmoo.com/snor/weeds/Weeds_486DX4-100.htm .

SavantStrike wrote:

The internet access though. That seems like it might be painful.

Hehe, anyone who knows me here knows that just back in February, WE FINALLY GOT DSL BROADBAND CAPABILITY OUT HERE IN THE STICKS! WOOHOO! Went from a completely miserable-arsed dialup, to a 10mb connection! 😀

rfnagel wrote:

It surely is. You can hear a pin drop out here -:) That is, except for nights like last night... HORRID lightning/thunderstorms. […]
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SavantStrike wrote:

I think it would be worth the humidity for the peace and quiet.

It surely is. You can hear a pin drop out here -:) That is, except for nights like last night... HORRID lightning/thunderstorms... wrath of gawd type stuff.

SavantStrike wrote:

Have you had any equipment failures as a result of it?

Not too much... I run the air conditioner (which I just spent the past three days busting my ass on! Still babying this 20 year old RV rooftop unit!) when it's hot and humid. Although, the humidty I'm sure played a key role in the downfall of my old 486DX-100 -> http://www.cmoo.com/snor/weeds/Weeds_486DX4-100.htm .

SavantStrike wrote:

The internet access though. That seems like it might be painful.

Hehe, anyone who knows me here knows that just back in February, WE FINALLY GOT DSL BROADBAND CAPABILITY OUT HERE IN THE STICKS! WOOHOO! Went from a completely miserable-arsed dialup, to a 10mb connection! 😀

You mean that beautiful piece of retro computing is no more?

Oh that's sad 🙁

As for broadband in the sticks, all of a sudden the only down side is a longer commute to work...

*Captain Picard voice* Be careful not to hit the gold plated memory with your phasers, it's charged with anti-protons! You could destroy half the motherboard.

SavantStrike wrote:

You mean that beautiful piece of retro computing is no more? Oh that's sad 🙁

Yeah, unfortunately so. I broke down and boxed up that PC late last year. It was suffering from too many issues (almost *ALL* related to bad connections; I'm sure due to the topic at hand), and I was running out of elbow room in this shack out in the woods <grin>.

SavantStrike wrote:

As for broadband in the sticks, all of a sudden the only down side is a longer commute to work...

I do PC repair from home. The only downside is, well, the locale itself... not to many goat-farmers out here have 'em 🤣!

I moved up here back in March of 2005, moved from Miami Florida to here... talk about "culture shock" <grin>. Mind you, I've always loved the woods, and especially the swamps in the Everglades down in South Florida... so living out in the woods is a "natural" for me.

Hehe, even though I'm "used" to the woods, it was definitely a shock going from the hustle and bustle of Dade County (Miami) life, to the almost dead-silence of the area <grin>.

Advantages?

Hehe, I can play DOOM, jump online and surf the Internet (or play another online multiplayer game; been playing Call of Duty on Steam recently)............

........and then hop outside for a nice campfire 😀 Or, grab my real-world (non-DOOM <grin>) scattergun, and go rabbit hunting right out in front of my trailer ("OH! Those waassscally wabbits!" 🤣)...

...and then come back inside, hop on the Internet, and bitch about the current "state of the union" and politics in general 🤣! 😀

It don't get no better than that! 😀

rfnagel wrote:

Yeah, unfortunately so. I broke down and boxed up that PC late last year. It was suffering from too many issues (almost *ALL* re […]
Show full quote

SavantStrike wrote:

You mean that beautiful piece of retro computing is no more? Oh that's sad 🙁

Yeah, unfortunately so. I broke down and boxed up that PC late last year. It was suffering from too many issues (almost *ALL* related to bad connections; I'm sure due to the topic at hand), and I was running out of elbow room in this shack out in the woods <grin>.

SavantStrike wrote:

As for broadband in the sticks, all of a sudden the only down side is a longer commute to work...

I do PC repair from home. The only downside is, well, the locale itself... not to many goat-farmers out here have 'em 🤣!

I moved up here back in March of 2005, moved from Miami Florida to here... talk about "culture shock" <grin>. Mind you, I've always loved the woods, and especially the swamps in the Everglades down in South Florida... so living out in the woods is a "natural" for me.

Hehe, even though I'm "used" to the woods, it was definitely a shock going from the hustle and bustle of Dade County (Miami) life, to the almost dead-silence of the area <grin>.

Advantages?

Hehe, I can play DOOM, jump online and surf the Internet (or play another online multiplayer game; been playing Call of Duty on Steam recently)............

........and then hop outside for a nice campfire 😀 Or, grab my real-world (non-DOOM <grin>) scattergun, and go rabbit hunting right out in front of my trailer ("OH! Those waassscally wabbits!" 🤣)...

...and then come back inside, hop on the Internet, and bitch about the current "state of the union" and politics in general 🤣! 😀

It don't get no better than that! 😀

Wish I had such nature close to my house 😉

But at least I got tons of birds in my garden all the time, usually sparrows 😀
Sometimes numbering 40 or more, it's great!! 😁

In all honesty, I've always been a "nature" man, always loved being in the green. I actually love mountains...and got born in The Netherlands, flat as a pancake! 😜

jmrydholm wrote:

*Captain Picard voice* Be careful not to hit the gold plated memory with your phasers, it's charged with anti-protons! You could destroy half the motherboard.

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

Oh man TNG was absolutely freaking awesome in it's day. A more appropriate post could not be made on a vintage computing forum.

rfnagel wrote:

Yeah, unfortunately so. I broke down and boxed up that PC late last year. It was suffering from too many issues (almost *ALL* re […]
Show full quote

SavantStrike wrote:

You mean that beautiful piece of retro computing is no more? Oh that's sad 🙁

Yeah, unfortunately so. I broke down and boxed up that PC late last year. It was suffering from too many issues (almost *ALL* related to bad connections; I'm sure due to the topic at hand), and I was running out of elbow room in this shack out in the woods <grin>.

SavantStrike wrote:

As for broadband in the sticks, all of a sudden the only down side is a longer commute to work...

I do PC repair from home. The only downside is, well, the locale itself... not to many goat-farmers out here have 'em 🤣!

I moved up here back in March of 2005, moved from Miami Florida to here... talk about "culture shock" <grin>. Mind you, I've always loved the woods, and especially the swamps in the Everglades down in South Florida... so living out in the woods is a "natural" for me.

Hehe, even though I'm "used" to the woods, it was definitely a shock going from the hustle and bustle of Dade County (Miami) life, to the almost dead-silence of the area <grin>.

Advantages?

Hehe, I can play DOOM, jump online and surf the Internet (or play another online multiplayer game; been playing Call of Duty on Steam recently)............

........and then hop outside for a nice campfire 😀 Or, grab my real-world (non-DOOM <grin>) scattergun, and go rabbit hunting right out in front of my trailer ("OH! Those waassscally wabbits!" 🤣)...

...and then come back inside, hop on the Internet, and bitch about the current "state of the union" and politics in general 🤣! 😀

It don't get no better than that! 😀

Yeah, that's about as good as it gets. I hope that some day in the distant future when I retire, I might be able to move out towards the sticks. Then the commute isn't important and I can enjoy the view 😀.

The compromise for me is that I hope that someday I can retire out in the sticks. [/i]

get an awe64 on ebay (usually ~1€) and use the simmconn adapter (http://simmconn.tripod.com) to add PS/2 RAM to it. it's the cheapest and easiest solution

schlang wrote:

get an awe64 on ebay (usually ~1€) and use the simmconn adapter (http://simmconn.tripod.com) to add PS/2 RAM to it. it's the cheapest and easiest solution

I did that with my PIII and Awe64 Gold. The thing is I wanted to use one of the two CT32 cards I have laying around from a sound card lot I snagged for cheap, and I also wanted a green card for the proper color scheme. I guess the regular simmconn with an Awe64 non gold would have worked too, but it doesn't look quite as cool as the CT32 does, plus it takes up a lot of space (you lose at least the first slot, if not the second depending on what card you're putting in the computer).

I may live to regret this though as the Awe64 supposedly has much cleaner circuitry and a better noise floor.

I bought these on ebay (4 x 16 MB for two AWE32 cards)
Cost $58. Maybe not the cheapest but high quality, tested modules from a top rated seller.
Japanese Tamahagene steel connectors (just kidding 🤣 but it is tin at least, for sure)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem … em=390115686848

Jolaes76 wrote:

I bought these on ebay (4 x 16 MB for two AWE32 cards) Cost $58. Maybe not the cheapest but high quality, tested modules from a […]
Show full quote

I bought these on ebay (4 x 16 MB for two AWE32 cards)
Cost $58. Maybe not the cheapest but high quality, tested modules from a top rated seller.
Japanese Tamahagene steel connectors (just kidding 🤣 but it is tin at least, for sure)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem … em=390115686848

I think I got some 72 pin EDO from that seller a while back 😀.

Now that you mention it, I vaguely remember seeing that and thinking it was a good deal if only I needed 4 sticks of it. So, whatcha doin with two Awe32's? Are you composing with them, or for two boxes, or for a spare 🤣. Any of those three is interesting.

Yes, it seems to be worth buying only if you need more than a pair (you could get a little discount as well)

I originally intended to keep the RAM as spare but I gave it to my brother instead for better use (he actually composed some midi tracks a long time ago)

I don't know how I was able to cram the AWE32, an Ultrasound, an NVidia GeForce 2, and a Voodoo 2 card in one small Dell. But I think the amount of circuitry in that old box really pushes the bottleneck to the limit. At least the Midi sounds good!

jmrydholm wrote:

I don't know how I was able to cram the AWE32, an Ultrasound, an NVidia GeForce 2, and a Voodoo 2 card in one small Dell. But I think the amount of circuitry in that old box really pushes the bottleneck to the limit. At least the Midi sounds good!

It probably pushes the power supply to the limit, too.

200 watts, it's an old Optiplex Gs

jmrydholm wrote:

200 watts, it's an old Optiplex Gs

I'd hold off on that second Voodoo 2. You might want to consider a bigger power supply first, or make sure never to load that GF2. Also, make sure you've got good 120V ac coming in to the house. Dirty power kills equipment when it's loaded heavily. If you can keep the GF2 from kicking into overdrive though, you might be alright.

You'd probably need a wiring harness to use a normal ATX supply in a Dell of that vintage though.

I always use a larger power supply than is necessary to avoid mishaps. I know I pay a premium in energy efficiency, but only when the box is on 😀.

Dells were known for their non-standard PSU wiring though. Use a different one and the system could go *POOF*.

Oh it's ok. The Optiplex only has a single V2 in it. My XP machine with a bigger, better PSU holds the SLI rig. I have a desktop from 2003, the old Dell, and my Alienware m11x. I probably shouldn't buy any more computers for a while 🤣

jmrydholm wrote:

Oh it's ok. The Optiplex only has a single V2 in it. My XP machine with a bigger, better PSU holds the SLI rig. I have a desktop from 2003, the old Dell, and my Alienware m11x. I probably shouldn't buy any more computers for a while 🤣

If your Dell has a proprietary power supply, you will need one of these to make the switch to a standard ATX.

http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/std/sku=dellconverter

You'll probably find hacks for converting an ATX PSU to Dell, but using this adapter is a lot easier and you can still use the PSU with standard ATX boards later without having to reverse the hack.