VOGONS


First post, by StriderTR

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I recently built myself a "reasonable" DOS/Win3.11 machine, as discussed in the thread linked below.

Yet Another Win3.1/DOS Build – Socket 7 – Suggestions Wanted

Now that I've been using it for a few months, I decided to write it up on my little retro blog. I would love some feedback and/or suggestions on my write-up, and the build itself. Correct me if I'm wrong anywhere, suggestions on improvements, or just an overall "what do you think?".

Thank you in advance! 😀

https://theclassicgeek.blogspot.com/2024/02/a … s-3x-retro.html

Retro Blog: https://theclassicgeek.blogspot.com/
Archive: https://archive.org/details/@theclassicgeek/
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Reply 1 of 8, by dominusprog

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Congrats! It's a very nice build. Post some benchmarks if you can.

Duke_2600.png
A-Trend ATC-1020 V1.1 ❇ Cyrix 6x86 150+ @ 120MHz ❇ 32MiB EDO RAM (8MiBx4) ❇ A-Trend S3 Trio64V2 2MiB
Aztech Pro16 II-3D PnP ❇ 8.4GiB Quantum Fireball ❇ Win95 OSR2 Plus!

Reply 2 of 8, by kiacadp

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I enjoyed the read and tagging along in your journey to building your S7 machine.
Very interesting and informative.
Thanks.

Reply 3 of 8, by StriderTR

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dominusprog wrote on 2024-02-05, 21:24:

Congrats! It's a very nice build. Post some benchmarks if you can.

Thanks!

I plan on doing a follow-up post basically covering what it can do, including benchmarks. Similar to what I did with my EPIA-800 Windows 95 build. 😀

If you're curious, this is the follow-up to that EPIA-800 build: https://theclassicgeek.blogspot.com/2024/01/t … -build-log.html

kiacadp wrote on 2024-02-06, 01:05:

I enjoyed the read and tagging along in your journey to building your S7 machine.
Very interesting and informative.
Thanks.

Thank you! 😀

I've always enjoyed writing. I'm not saying I'm any good at it, but I do find it fun and relaxing. Plus, if it can help someone in the future, then all the better.

Retro Blog: https://theclassicgeek.blogspot.com/
Archive: https://archive.org/details/@theclassicgeek/
3D Things: https://www.thingiverse.com/classicgeek/collections

Reply 4 of 8, by elszgensa

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Good read, and your philosophy is right up my alley too. I've always found it much more fun to choose from a number of quite good components than to pay through the nose for the one very best model.

If you're ever in need of writing prompts - I'd love a followup going into periphery, e.g. how to find a reasonable display supporting low-res, hi(-ish)-Hz DOS modes without too many issues, compatible mice (do we grab a vintage PS2 one straight away, or can we somewhat reliably identify USB models that support running through a passive adapter), that sorta thing.

Reply 6 of 8, by StriderTR

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elszgensa wrote on 2024-02-06, 18:33:

Good read, and your philosophy is right up my alley too. I've always found it much more fun to choose from a number of quite good components than to pay through the nose for the one very best model.

If you're ever in need of writing prompts - I'd love a followup going into periphery, e.g. how to find a reasonable display supporting low-res, hi(-ish)-Hz DOS modes without too many issues, compatible mice (do we grab a vintage PS2 one straight away, or can we somewhat reliably identify USB models that support running through a passive adapter), that sorta thing.

Yeah, I have that same philosophy when it comes to my modern hardware as well, it's good, but not the best of the best. If it does what I need, and does it well, that's what matters to me the more. 😀

I will be doing a follow-up post once time permits, like I did for my Win95 EPIA-800 build.

For PS2 mice/keyboards, thankfully some are still available, and still being made by some companies (Like Perixx). While you can get away with using a USB-PS2 adapters for both, I really wanted "real" PS2. I picked up a NOS HP keyboard and NOS Mi MIcro mouse for this build.

Bruno128 wrote on 2024-02-09, 11:26:

You complain about voodoo prices yet you spend $40 on a simple fdd 🤷‍♀️

Indeed. 😀

The $40 FDD is still vastly cheaper than a Voodoo card, and also vastly more useful since I have a LOT of floppy disks I want to archive and having a new old stock drive I know is in 100% working order goes a long way in helping me complete that task.

Also, I don't have a need for a Voodoo, it would just be nice to have one to play with again, but I had a need for the floppy. There are many things I want, but I will always divert funds to what I need before the things I want. 😀

Retro Blog: https://theclassicgeek.blogspot.com/
Archive: https://archive.org/details/@theclassicgeek/
3D Things: https://www.thingiverse.com/classicgeek/collections

Reply 7 of 8, by dr_st

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Very nice read and a nice build, thank you for sharing!

I used to have a Cyrix 133 CPU build (that mobo died, but I still have the CPU as a collector's item). For years I've been using an AWE64 (CT4520 like yours or CT4500) as the primary sound card of my retro system, though in later years I've switched to a Yamaha Audician 32 with a DreamBlaster daughterboard. At one point, I wanted to get an OPTi with a build-in wavetable like yours, but did not succeed and later lost interest.

https://cloakedthargoid.wordpress.com/ - Random content on hardware, software, games and toys

Reply 8 of 8, by StriderTR

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dr_st wrote on 2024-02-09, 22:15:

Very nice read and a nice build, thank you for sharing!

I used to have a Cyrix 133 CPU build (that mobo died, but I still have the CPU as a collector's item). For years I've been using an AWE64 (CT4520 like yours or CT4500) as the primary sound card of my retro system, though in later years I've switched to a Yamaha Audician 32 with a DreamBlaster daughterboard. At one point, I wanted to get an OPTi with a build-in wavetable like yours, but did not succeed and later lost interest.

Thanks!

I used Cyrix processors many times in builds "back in the day", so I was glad to have one for this build. 😀

The AWE cards have always been favorites, but it wasn't until I started looking into this build that I became familiar with OPTi. I'm glad I did, they seem like nice cards, especially since you can still get them cheap. This build actually re-sparked my interest in learning more about different sound cards of the era, specifically ones I've never used before.

Retro Blog: https://theclassicgeek.blogspot.com/
Archive: https://archive.org/details/@theclassicgeek/
3D Things: https://www.thingiverse.com/classicgeek/collections