Free Voodoo 3 2000 inside a random Mendocino build. I legit had no idea what it was until I popped the case off. 533 Mendocino, some Fastfame mainboard that's worse than PCChips, and out of nowhere, a V3 2000.

Found a Soyo SY-7VBA133U motherboard at a local thrift store a few months ago. It's apparently one of the few motherboards with more than one ISA slot that also support up to 1.4 GHz Tualatin processors.

Looking at Ebay these boards sell for hundreds of dollars, while I got mine for about 10 bucks.

Same chap that sold me a few working Voodoos, sold me a cheap Soyo 5EHM v1.2, the 1MB cache version.

eBay says it's worth 250USD. (yeah right.)

A few years ago I grabbed some motherboards, cases, and video cards for $30.00. Two of the motherboards were industrial Socket 478 boards that had an ISA slot, one was Socket 775/P4/AGP, and one was a desktop MATX Socket 479 motherboard.

PcBytes wrote on 2024-11-10, 16:16:

Free Voodoo 3 2000 inside a random Mendocino build. I legit had no idea what it was until I popped the case off. 533 Mendocino, some Fastfame mainboard that's worse than PCChips, and out of nowhere, a V3 2000.

A few years back, I found an Aureal Vortex 2 card in a Mendocino build that I got for around 15 EUR from my local classifieds.

Specifically, it was a Turtle Beach Montego II.

I once found three terratec promedia soundcards in the original box which were likely only used a few times for a short period in the late 90's.
a Base64, EWS64 L, EWS64XXL .

Likely not my greatest find but definitely the one that surprised me the most.

edit: forgot to mention where I found them... In the garbage. 😐
Someone had actually thrown them away.

Voodoo 2 for 0.50€ in 2016

Got a Gravis Ultrasound PnP in it’s original box in mint condition for $2 at a garage sale.

Most my best finds were mostly around dumpsters and recycle bins, just sitting there waiting for me. Also had a friend give me a bunch his old parts free about 5 years ago, some of which I gave him about 20 years ago 🤣
Probably the best bought deal was about 10 years ago, bought a Vtech Laser XT/3 with keyboard, manual and some floppy disks for $15 at thrift store.

This was a pretty good find, from an actual dumpster as well!
Slot A FIC SD11 Dumpter find

I've still got the families first PC and my first PC but I knew they were at my parents so not exactly a find.

For me, it would have to be either the time in 2005 when I got a Voodoo 2 8 MB for $5 in a junk bin or two years ago when I got a Rage Fury MAXX and Viper V330 for $20. Those were some amazing deals, and I was very happy both times!

MadMac_5 wrote on 2024-11-11, 01:38:

For me, it would have to be either the time in 2005 when I got a Voodoo 2 8 MB for $5 in a junk bin or two years ago when I got a Rage Fury MAXX and Viper V330 for $20. Those were some amazing deals, and I was very happy both times!

Wow a Rage Fury MAXX. I think those are worth over $1000 now. Very nice find.

IDK, you tell me, Roland RAP-10 at the bottom of a box I already thought I was getting my $20 worth in in other stuff. Voyetra V4001/2 ditto, which box had some other gems in it also, not so pricey but hard to track down. Got a P5A-B for $5 the other year. Finally got curious about a 15+ years ago curb find that I just left in a stack, and it was an IBM BlueLightning BL3 system. Bought a Banshee for a few bucks at thrift two years ago, I think it was a $40 card then, but prices have gone higher. In general, cash outlay on most of the things I have in my stash were very little, they were lame old junk at that time years back, like 5 noteworthy Soundblasters and 4 voodoos.

I think 2024 though, I've only made some deals that were "alright" rather than astoundingly cheap, though next year I could be telling you I made out like a bandit if those things turn into high demand, high priced parts. Don't think I've got anything since 2017 that I have failed to mention on "What retro hardware did you buy today" thread unless it was really minor bits and pieces. Edit: Oh yah, best ratio 2024 pickup might have been a clean maybe new in box Geforce4 MX440 for a dollar, they're not worth a lot, but a dollar is still a small fraction of it /Edit. Actually give it 2 years some of the stuff I mentioned in the "modern" equivalent thread might be lifting off 🤣

You'll notice the stuff I am having most fun with is the weird old shitty parts though 🤣 General intention is to settle on some "good enough" configurations as well as a few superstars, and let the rest go, but I am slow as hell at it.

Edit: I guess things like the IBM PC330 6571 DX2/66 box I got for $10 the other year is listing at $200 plus on eBay now. Also I prolly only paid a few bucks in thrift for my Model M spacesaver... and all the rest of my Model Ms. (boring shape ones) Though those last mostly fall in the "long enough ago, you could fall in a pit of ewaste and shake $1000 worth in 2024 prices out of your clothes when you got home." kinda time range.

Hmm, probably the Radeon 9100 PCI that was in a Dell 2400 I found in the alley a few years ago. I had initially assumed that it was just another 9000/9200 class card; a Vogons post later informed me that it's basically a Radeon 8500 on PCI!
The 8100 points that it coughed up in 3DMark01 should've been a big hint, though at the time I believe I credited the overclocked PCI bus in the machine I used for benchmarking.

10$ PCI Voodoo 3 3000 a few years ago (they were already expensive).

Toshiba 4010CDT for 40$ (maxed out RAM)

I think my best deal has been a boxed Roland RAP-10 with all the software and documentation etc., which I think cost me around 60€.
I have also lucked out on VLB Mach32 and two 64s, and didn't pay more than 40€ for any of them but those aren't really super great deals, not compared to some others mentioned here 🤣.

But as far as things that have cost me nothing or very little, I have got a bunch of video cards and motherboards as trash. There's nothing really noteworthy though, or well, they're things I don't care very much about such as 440BX motherboards and variety of GeForce cards which I'll eventually cash out on 🤣

I probably should not include this but is vintage electronics from the late 90's. I might have already told this story years ago here but will repeat it anyway. My friends uncle bought a Kenwood KR-9600 when they first came out, used it a few years and then bought some new McIntosh gear. He gave his nephew the 9600, who told me about it but had no use really, so stored it in his closet for over a decade. My friend later gave it to me when he moved, which I reluctantly agreed to take since it was his uncles.
Next thing was an estate sale on my way to work on a Saturday about 2005. Stopped and looked around, lots of tables of stuff but nothing good until I saw a Technics SA-5760 for $80, told the man I wanted it and offered $50, all the cash I had. He said they wanted $80 but if not sold by end of day they would take the $50 because everything had to go. Said I would be back in a few hours. At the end of the day stopped back and the place was empty of everything, no tables, no people, nothing...except that SA-5760 sitting off the porch in the lawn where a table had been. I wrote a note with my name and number and left it wedged in the door and grabbed the receiver and drove off. Next day went back and my note was still there in plain site and still no one around. Left the note where it was and went home, never hearing anything. So today have two vintage receivers worth lots that ended up being free. They both work great except could use an AM tuner re-alignment, common with old audio gear.
FWIW: That house sat vacant for the next 2 years before seeing any activity around it, and I drive by it every day to work since about 1997.
Those are the very best of free deals in vintage electronic stuff I ever ran into, but are not computer related so really do not belong in this topic. I still wish I could have them for that 5760 back then.

Horun wrote on 2024-11-11, 04:31:

I probably should not include this but is vintage electronics from the late 90's. I might have already told this story years ago […]
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I probably should not include this but is vintage electronics from the late 90's. I might have already told this story years ago here but will repeat it anyway. My friends uncle bought a Kenwood KR-9600 when they first came out, used it a few years and then bought some new McIntosh gear. He gave his nephew the 9600, who told me about it but had no use really, so stored it in his closet for over a decade. My friend later gave it to me when he moved, which I reluctantly agreed to take since it was his uncles.
Next thing was an estate sale on my way to work on a Saturday about 2005. Stopped and looked around, lots of tables of stuff but nothing good until I saw a Technics SA-5760 for $80, told the man I wanted it and offered $50, all the cash I had. He said they wanted $80 but if not sold by end of day they would take the $50 because everything had to go. Said I would be back in a few hours. At the end of the day stopped back and the place was empty of everything, no tables, no people, nothing...except that SA-5760 sitting off the porch in the lawn where a table had been. I wrote a note with my name and number and left it wedged in the door and grabbed the receiver and drove off. Next day went back and my note was still there in plain site and still no one around. Left the note where it was and went home, never hearing anything. So today have two vintage receivers worth lots that ended up being free. They both work great except could use an AM tuner re-alignment, common with old audio gear.
FWIW: That house sat vacant for the next 2 years before seeing any activity around it, and I drive by it every day to work since about 1997.
Those are the very best of free deals in vintage electronic stuff I ever ran into, but are not computer related so really do not belong in this topic. I still wish I could have them for that 5760 back then.

i collect CD's Cassettes and vinyl so i can see the value in those amps. thanks for sharing!

My best deals in recent memory:
- $0 Voodoo3 3000 AGP hiding in a Gateway tower
- $20 Macintosh IIci with no battery explosion or cap leakage (since recapped of course)