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Buying another Micron Millenia from Ebay

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First post, by dbellue1

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Hey everyone, I just wanted to share that I found another Micron computer on Ebay. I already have one similar to it, but this one is a little different.
This one has a Micronics motherboard and uses an older type of ram; this is really a blast from the past. It comes with a mechanical hard drive and when it arrives, I will attempt to put an SDD hard drive in with windows 95 on it. Just when I think these Micron computers are unobtainable, one shows up.

Reply 1 of 24, by dbellue1

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Sorry I cannot upload pictures of the system; I keep getting an error message. It was not possible to determine the dimensions of the image. Please verify that the URL you entered is correct.
I have never seen this error before and do not know what to do.

Reply 2 of 24, by dbellue1

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What makes this special to me is back in 1991 my bare bones 486-33 dx system I ordered off of Computer Shopper came with a Micronics motherboard. So having one again is really exciting for me. I hope it has the Award bios, that's the one my 486 had. I do see Intel chips on the motherboard. There isn't a lot of information given on the Ebay page.

Reply 3 of 24, by dbellue1

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The answer was to convert the file to a jpeg.

Reply 5 of 24, by Major Jackyl

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sangokushi wrote on 2025-08-05, 23:17:
dbellue1 wrote on 2025-08-05, 07:14:

The answer was to convert the file to a jpeg.

That's a heatsink?

That is indeed the heatsink.

The attachment MICRON_Heatsink.jpg is no longer available

I like these Microns, too. They are pretty reliable.

That looks like one of the Dell-looking ones in the picture. If that's the one you're getting, that looks great! SS7. External VRM. SB-Link, going to a CT1920?. All the fun stuff.

Main Loadout (daily drivers):
Intel TE430VX, Pentium Sy022 (133), Cirrus Logic 5440, SB16 CT1740
ECS K7S5A, A-XP1600+, MSI R9550
ASUS M2N-E, A64X2-4600+, PNY GTX670, SB X-Fi Elite Pro
MSI Z690, Intel 12900K, MSI RTX3090, SB AE-7

Reply 6 of 24, by Grem Five

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Major Jackyl wrote on 2025-08-06, 00:45:

That looks like one of the Dell-looking ones in the picture.

Its a Palo Alto case. https://web.archive.org/web/20240901231021/ht … ch.com/show/335

Sad we now have to use wayback machine for Anandtech now.... the native links worked earlier this year but no more.

Reply 7 of 24, by dbellue1

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Major Jackyl wrote on 2025-08-06, 00:45:
That is indeed the heatsink. […]
Show full quote
sangokushi wrote on 2025-08-05, 23:17:
dbellue1 wrote on 2025-08-05, 07:14:

The answer was to convert the file to a jpeg.

That's a heatsink?

That is indeed the heatsink.

The attachment MICRON_Heatsink.jpg is no longer available

I like these Microns, too. They are pretty reliable.

That looks like one of the Dell-looking ones in the picture. If that's the one you're getting, that looks great! SS7. External VRM. SB-Link, going to a CT1920?. All the fun stuff.

I never thought I would get to own one, and here it is.

Reply 8 of 24, by dbellue1

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Grem Five wrote on 2025-08-06, 05:27:
Major Jackyl wrote on 2025-08-06, 00:45:

That looks like one of the Dell-looking ones in the picture.

Its a Palo Alto case. https://web.archive.org/web/20240901231021/ht … ch.com/show/335

Sad we now have to use wayback machine for Anandtech now.... the native links worked earlier this year but no more.

I was happy it came with this case. Back in 2007 I ordered a Dual Pentium Pro 200 Micron system from Ebay and it came with this case. Happy Memories!

Reply 9 of 24, by dbellue1

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Hey all, I wanted to ask for some advice. The new Micron is supposed to be here today. It comes with Windows 95 on a HDD. I would like to clone the operating system on the HDD to a SDD. What cloning software do you guys suggest. Thank You.

Reply 10 of 24, by dbellue1

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Hey Major Jackyl, I see you have a similar system to mine with the MSI motherboard and a Intel 12900K. I wanted to ask what kind of cooling solution do you use. I was thinking about going with the Artic freezer 3 or an Noctua fan. I am Leary of changing out a AIO every three yrs because of the loss of fluid in the radiator. If I mess it up during install I am worried I could damage the motherboard.

Reply 11 of 24, by dbellue1

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Well, I am a proud owner of a piece of history, boy is this going to be an adventure.

Reply 12 of 24, by dbellue1

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I guess I will have to buy memory for this board off Ebay since the website I bought memory for my other Micron systems don't seem to carry it, SIMM's. Windows 95 is installed and it has no USB ports. I thought I would just burn a CD with some programs and install them, No! I installed Shadow Warrior from CD, but it couldn't read any of the CD's I burned. The motherboard holds 256MB of Ram. It is Pentium 200 MMX. The motherboard is a Micronics and the chipset is the
Intel 430HX (PCIset HX Triton II) I think. I put HWinfo on a CD but it can't read the CD, then I have seen posts that windows 95 will not run it. It would be a shame to install windows 98 on this since this is so close to the Pentium motherboards. I swear the memory slots look the same as on my 486 system I had in 1991. It seems to use the VRM to run MMX cpu's. A manual I found says you can run regular Pentiums without it. Wow, one generation away from my 486.

Reply 13 of 24, by dbellue1

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I guess I will also by memory for the CT 1920. One would think I would be in sound blaster heaven with a sb16 chip on the motherboard and this daughter board. The Retro Web has drivers for the mother board. Too bad I can't figure out how to get the drivers to it. I guess I will put a 120GB SSD in with windows 98 and see if it will read the CD's I burn, all the other Micron systems with 98 on them do. Maybe because win 95 is 16bit, that is why it cannot read my CD's, I would guess. No I just saw online it is 16\32bit. Well, this is where the fun begins.

Reply 14 of 24, by jakethompson1

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Qty (2) 32MB, 72-pin 60ns, EDO SIMMs would be a good choice

More likely the CD-R readability is related to the CD-ROM drive. It either never read CD-Rs or the degradation of the laser over time means it has become picky with them. Or, you're burning DVDs and not CD. Or perhaps a UDF filesystem instead of ISO9660.

Reply 15 of 24, by dbellue1

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I just wanted to say I feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to own the Micron systems I have. I wish there were more people like you guys who understand how exciting it was to live in the 90's and see these computers when they first came out. It's like a dream now. I think I have bought too many, I thought if I saw one I should get one since they are going on 30yrs old. So I have 5 now, and they all represent a leap in technology at the time. I have a HX, a TX, a LX, a BX, and a
Intel 815E (Solano-2). In 2007 I did buy a dual Pentium Pro 200 Micron system off Ebay, I always thought I would get another one. The only one I have seen on Ebay was 4yrs ago and it was stripped down and the person wanted $1200 or $1500 for it. The one I had I maxed out the memory to 512MB and got another VRM and put in another 200Mhz Pro cpu. It was a dream owning that thing. I guess you could say the 60's were famous for music and the 90's were famous for computers. In 1991 I was at a Junior college and the computer lab had 286's. We would look at computer shopper magazines in the lab and get excited over the 386's and the 486's and Sound Blasters. There were no computer stores where I lived at the time but you could buy Sound Blaster cards at the new Wal-Mart stores. What a great time to be alive.

Last edited by dbellue1 on 2025-08-11, 04:34. Edited 3 times in total.

Reply 16 of 24, by dbellue1

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Thank you jakethomson1. I should have thought about that. I should take a CD-ROM drive out of one of the other Micron systems and try it. That would make things manageable.

Reply 17 of 24, by dbellue1

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I knew this would be fun. Put in a SSD, check. Put in a windows 98 boot disk and run fdisk, enable LBA, check. Restart computer with the boot disk and a windows 95 cd, WTF. The boot disk spins up and being read and then you are just left starring at a blinking curser with no error message. Who says retro computers are boring.

Reply 18 of 24, by dbellue1

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What is really fun is when you have a M55Hi-Plus 2MB 09b motherboard and there are no USB connectors on the back panel. Life before USB is sort of like life before cell phones. How did we survive?

Reply 19 of 24, by Major Jackyl

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dbellue1 wrote on 2025-08-09, 16:37:

Hey Major Jackyl, I see you have a similar system to mine with the MSI motherboard and a Intel 12900K. I wanted to ask what kind of cooling solution do you use. I was thinking about going with the Artic freezer 3 or an Noctua fan. I am Leary of changing out a AIO every three yrs because of the loss of fluid in the radiator. If I mess it up during install I am worried I could damage the motherboard.

I use a Nzxt Z73 of an older generation. It's probably 3 years old and still no liquid loss. It's not oriented the best, so I will know if it starts having issues, but under load it only gets to 40C on a hot day (P-cores running@4.2Ghz, e-cores@3.6Ghz.) If it ever fails. I'll replace it with a Noctua NH-D15, because I use them elsewhere; they are the most powerful, solid coolers you can buy in the modern-age.

The attachment 20250811_164731.jpg is no longer available

That Micron looks pretty sweet so far! Vibra16C is a good chip and made BETTER with that CT1920. Finding a USB PCI card would be the icing on the cake. I use floppies and CDs still. The disk with "NUSB33e.EXE" (USB install package for w98, english) is the most used during setups, since most of my computers have USB.

If the inside is very dusty, the inside of the CD drive could be, too, as fans will try to pull in air from anywhere. The drive might need a cleaning and it'll be golden.

The Microns I've collected have definitely grown on me. I have three same, but different ones, and one newer one, with S462. All very simple and definitely hit that nostalgia spot nicely.

The attachment 20250811_164624.jpg is no longer available

Damn, it was more than 15 years ago now, I worked as a scrapper for a few summers and unfortunately destroyed quite a few of these. I kept parts from them, though. Memory, CPUs, etc. (how I got the blue heatsink) Dude didn't want me taking ANYTHING, every penny went right into cigarettes... This is what made it worse. Some of these are mostly plastic, too and circuit boards paid $0.04 per pound, so they weren't even worth the scrap.

Main Loadout (daily drivers):
Intel TE430VX, Pentium Sy022 (133), Cirrus Logic 5440, SB16 CT1740
ECS K7S5A, A-XP1600+, MSI R9550
ASUS M2N-E, A64X2-4600+, PNY GTX670, SB X-Fi Elite Pro
MSI Z690, Intel 12900K, MSI RTX3090, SB AE-7