VOGONS


Bought these (retro) hardware today

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Reply 58640 of 58665, by MattRocks

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giantenemycat wrote on 2026-03-29, 19:43:
Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-03-29, 18:13:

Nice! That is pretty much the level of system that a lot of us suspected, along with the upgrades and such. Getting a YMF719 is a nice bonus, for sure. 😀

I definitely think we should have a thread for these. I enjoy the detective work (and guessing) involved.

This is my third from the same seller. He sells them (seemingly genuinely) untested, and ships them with a lot of bubble wrap in a mailing with no box at all. Surprisingly only 1 of them arrived with notable damage to the case. The upside is they're always £40, so especially if you see an AT KB port, you know it's basically guaranteed to be more valuable than that in parts alone by some margin.

Other than that, it's difficult to find such mystery boxes unfortunately. Although a dedicated thread might be a good idea, to pool everyone's finds together.

I think I found your supplier on eBay.

Judging from one backplate being consistently missing from all boxes that have an iGPU, I suspect someone is pulling graphics cards before sale - so the older ones that you are jumping on are probably better value. And, I envy your new Yamaha sound card! 😀

Reply 58641 of 58665, by TheIpex

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Phil is auctioning off some of his video cards on eBay. I ended up buying a pair of STB Voodoo2 cards from him.

Intel 486DX2 66MHz
Intel Pentium MMX 233MHz
Intel Pentium III-S 1400MHz
Intel Pentium G3258 4600MHz

Reply 58642 of 58665, by giantenemycat

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MattRocks wrote on 2026-03-29, 22:18:

I think I found your supplier on eBay.

Judging from one backplate being consistently missing from all boxes that have an iGPU, I suspect someone is pulling graphics cards before sale - so the older ones that you are jumping on are probably better value. And, I envy your new Yamaha sound card! 😀

I'm sure those looted graphics cards are mostly absolute gems like GeForce4 MX 440-SE and Radeon 9200 SE, stuff like that. Next up these people will be pillaging SDR and DDR because they heard about the RAM shortage.

Reply 58643 of 58665, by DLL hell

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Antieon wrote on 2026-03-22, 02:41:
Went to go pickup a Radeon 9250 128MB PCI for $15.... guy asks me "You do a lot with old computer stuff.... step inside..." […]
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Went to go pickup a Radeon 9250 128MB PCI for $15.... guy asks me "You do a lot with old computer stuff.... step inside..."

Takes me to his basement (not sketchy at all...) and it is loaded to the brim with old tech, pulls out a few boxes and starts pulling out AGP and PCI graphics cards.

Voodoo 3 2000 PCI
Quadro FX1000 128MB
Rage 128 Pro 16MB
Cirrus Logic 5440 PCI
and a few AOpen CMEDIA Sound Cards.

$70.

All working, just a bit dirty.

Any day you go hunting for old tech and walk out with a 3DFX card for cheap is a good day.

Lmao, put the Voodoo in the gasket

Reply 58644 of 58665, by TM30

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TheIpex wrote on 2026-03-29, 23:28:

Phil is auctioning off some of his video cards on eBay. I ended up buying a pair of STB Voodoo2 cards from him.

What's his eBay account name? I want to have a look what he has to offer.

Reply 58646 of 58665, by Living

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TheIpex wrote on Yesterday, 08:58:
TM30 wrote on Yesterday, 08:41:

What's his eBay account name? I want to have a look what he has to offer.

philscomputerlab

every time he features something in his videos the prices goes insane

i hate that side of youtube.

Reply 58647 of 58665, by johnvosh

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Took and bought this Gateway Select 400 system to add to my growing Gateway system collection. Got it mainly because it had an AMD K6-2, which is what my first own computer had in it and I was running XP on it as well. It just sucks that there is no AGP slot, so have to find a decent & cheap PCI video card as the integrated video isn't that great. I have since upgraded this system to an AMD K6-2 550MHz which is the fastest one I have. I do have a K6-2 and while it will run it, it doesn't like it and runs slower than normal.
I do have a SD to IDE adapter in it and am going to put 98SE on to it. I tried the 98 Quick install, but I hate how they removed all the good things in 98SE explorer and folder views, etc... so will install my actual copy of 98SE and then fully patch it.

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Anyone ever get this popup back in the early 2000's!? I remember having a non-legit copy and was installing it on computers for family and friends and then we started getting this!

The attachment IMG_2195.JPG is no longer available

This system was last turned on December 26th, 2008. So it sat idle for over 17 years

The attachment IMG_2239.JPG is no longer available

Reply 58648 of 58665, by johnvosh

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Living wrote on Yesterday, 10:42:
TheIpex wrote on Yesterday, 08:58:
TM30 wrote on Yesterday, 08:41:

What's his eBay account name? I want to have a look what he has to offer.

philscomputerlab

every time he features something in his videos the prices goes insane

i hate that side of youtube.

Anytime any tech youtuber does something with old tech that makes it look good/cool the prices go insane... it really does suck!

Reply 58649 of 58665, by devius

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johnvosh wrote on Yesterday, 10:50:

This system was last turned on December 26th, 2008. So it sat idle for over 17 years

Someone got a new computer on Christmas 2008.

Reply 58650 of 58665, by giantenemycat

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johnvosh wrote on Yesterday, 10:50:

It just sucks that there is no AGP slot, so have to find a decent & cheap PCI video card as the integrated video isn't that great.

In my experience, the NVIDIA NVS 280 is the most consistently available (and cheap) PCI card that's actually "capable" . Performs like a FX5200 apparently, which would be more than fine for a K6-2. Just depends on how period accurate you want to be. Otherwise you will have to keep an eye and refresh for PCI cards, filtering through all the PCI-E, AGP and incorrectly described junk - that's how I got a Radeon 7000 PCI in box for £30.

I do have a SD to IDE adapter in it and am going to put 98SE on to it.

Oh no :(

Anyone ever get this popup back in the early 2000's!? I remember having a non-legit copy and was installing it on computers for family and friends and then we started getting this!

Yeah that drove my dad crazy enough to get a legit key. It was on our second family computer he got used from a little computer shop in 2006 - 450MHz PIII / 440BX / 256MB / Radeon 9200. I think he contacted Microsoft and they sent the copy? I would imagine they didn't send it for free...

Reply 58651 of 58665, by PD2JK

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Terratec Maestro with Yamaha DB50XG.

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i386 16 ⇒ i486 DX4 100 ⇒ Pentium MMX 200 ⇒ Athlon Pluto 700 ⇒ AthlonXP 1700+ ⇒ Opteron 165 ⇒ Dual Opteron 856

Reply 58652 of 58665, by pete8475

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johnvosh wrote on Yesterday, 10:50:
Took and bought this Gateway Select 400 system to add to my growing Gateway system collection. Got it mainly because it had an A […]
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Took and bought this Gateway Select 400 system to add to my growing Gateway system collection. Got it mainly because it had an AMD K6-2, which is what my first own computer had in it and I was running XP on it as well. It just sucks that there is no AGP slot, so have to find a decent & cheap PCI video card as the integrated video isn't that great. I have since upgraded this system to an AMD K6-2 550MHz which is the fastest one I have. I do have a K6-2 and while it will run it, it doesn't like it and runs slower than normal.
I do have a SD to IDE adapter in it and am going to put 98SE on to it. I tried the 98 Quick install, but I hate how they removed all the good things in 98SE explorer and folder views, etc... so will install my actual copy of 98SE and then fully patch it.

The attachment Untitled.jpg is no longer available
The attachment IMG_2288.JPG is no longer available

Anyone ever get this popup back in the early 2000's!? I remember having a non-legit copy and was installing it on computers for family and friends and then we started getting this!

The attachment IMG_2195.JPG is no longer available

This system was last turned on December 26th, 2008. So it sat idle for over 17 years

The attachment IMG_2239.JPG is no longer available

You can do a proper install of 98 with the quick install dvd, just don't pick 98 lite.

Reply 58653 of 58665, by MattRocks

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giantenemycat wrote on Yesterday, 11:30:
In my experience, the NVIDIA NVS 280 is the most consistently available (and cheap) PCI card that's actually "capable" . Perfor […]
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johnvosh wrote on Yesterday, 10:50:

It just sucks that there is no AGP slot, so have to find a decent & cheap PCI video card as the integrated video isn't that great.

In my experience, the NVIDIA NVS 280 is the most consistently available (and cheap) PCI card that's actually "capable" . Performs like a FX5200 apparently, which would be more than fine for a K6-2. Just depends on how period accurate you want to be. Otherwise you will have to keep an eye and refresh for PCI cards, filtering through all the PCI-E, AGP and incorrectly described junk - that's how I got a Radeon 7000 PCI in box for £30.

I do have a SD to IDE adapter in it and am going to put 98SE on to it.

Oh no :(

Anyone ever get this popup back in the early 2000's!? I remember having a non-legit copy and was installing it on computers for family and friends and then we started getting this!

Yeah that drove my dad crazy enough to get a legit key. It was on our second family computer he got used from a little computer shop in 2006 - 450MHz PIII / 440BX / 256MB / Radeon 9200. I think he contacted Microsoft and they sent the copy? I would imagine they didn't send it for free...

PCI Radeon 7000 on pure DX6 stack would be okay, but you really do not want to put a GeForce5 FX (or anything DX8+) on a K6-2!

K6-2 inherits Socket 7 era assumptions. Fundamentally, the main bus was designed with L2 cache on the motherboard that predates Direct3D abstraction layers - it's an architecture from an era that expected to push data between DOS and 3Dfx Glide, not between NT5x and DirectX shader models.

That next generation Direct3D driver overhead will overload the L2 cache causing lower FPS. There are two problems. DX8+ shader pathways will add orchestration the L2 cache was never expected to host, and DX9+ shader translations the L2 cache was never expected to host.

I'd expect higher frame rates with DX5/DX6/DX7 era drivers. 3Dfx cards would set benchmarks, and something like GeForce4 MX with 128bit VRAM would be the cheap powerful later era upgrade - but hard to find in PCI format.

Actual cheap PCI cards today means one of the newer cards sold for use in network servers, and some of those reuse GPUs that were actively supported by Win9x drivers and DirectX6 HAL drivers so you can activate the GPU with minimal CPU overhead - but most server graphics have memory bus halved (64bit DDR is slower than 128bit SDR).

Hmm..

PCI Matrox G450/G550 64bit DDR is a good proxy for PCI cards that actually existed: PCI TNT 128bit SDR, PCI Starfighter 128bit SDR, PCI 3Dfx Banshee 128bit SDR, ...

Last edited by MattRocks on 2026-03-31, 05:15. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 58654 of 58665, by johnvosh

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pete8475 wrote on Yesterday, 21:00:
johnvosh wrote on Yesterday, 10:50:
Took and bought this Gateway Select 400 system to add to my growing Gateway system collection. Got it mainly because it had an A […]
Show full quote

Took and bought this Gateway Select 400 system to add to my growing Gateway system collection. Got it mainly because it had an AMD K6-2, which is what my first own computer had in it and I was running XP on it as well. It just sucks that there is no AGP slot, so have to find a decent & cheap PCI video card as the integrated video isn't that great. I have since upgraded this system to an AMD K6-2 550MHz which is the fastest one I have. I do have a K6-2 and while it will run it, it doesn't like it and runs slower than normal.
I do have a SD to IDE adapter in it and am going to put 98SE on to it. I tried the 98 Quick install, but I hate how they removed all the good things in 98SE explorer and folder views, etc... so will install my actual copy of 98SE and then fully patch it.

The attachment Untitled.jpg is no longer available
The attachment IMG_2288.JPG is no longer available

Anyone ever get this popup back in the early 2000's!? I remember having a non-legit copy and was installing it on computers for family and friends and then we started getting this!

The attachment IMG_2195.JPG is no longer available

This system was last turned on December 26th, 2008. So it sat idle for over 17 years

The attachment IMG_2239.JPG is no longer available

You can do a proper install of 98 with the quick install dvd, just don't pick 98 lite.

Oh, I didn't know there was different versions. Most of my systems don't have a DVD-ROM, so I just chose the CD-ROM ISO version. I will have to look into it more, maybe buy some DVD-ROM drives!

Reply 58655 of 58665, by MattRocks

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Given the awful disappointment with my old PCs, I treated myself to mystery GPU. As in, most of this eBay box was known and the GPU was a mystery to me. Maybe not to you?

Reply 58656 of 58665, by TheMLGladiator

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MattRocks wrote on Today, 14:17:

Given the awful disappointment with my old PCs, I treated myself to mystery GPU. As in, most of this eBay box was known and the GPU was a mystery to me. Maybe not to you?

My guess is this thing: Diamond's Viper II Z200
https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/diam … per-ii-z200-agp

Reply 58657 of 58665, by Ozzuneoj

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TheMLGladiator wrote on Today, 15:09:
MattRocks wrote on Today, 14:17:

Given the awful disappointment with my old PCs, I treated myself to mystery GPU. As in, most of this eBay box was known and the GPU was a mystery to me. Maybe not to you?

My guess is this thing: Diamond's Viper II Z200
https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/diam … per-ii-z200-agp

Yes, that is 100% it. Nice detective work!

An S3 Savage 2000 is a cool find these days. They are quite hard to find, and are surprisingly valuable to collectors.

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

Reply 58658 of 58665, by MattRocks

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Yes, I was relieved to discover it is a Diamond Savage 2000 - it was the card everyone hoped would be fixed with a driver update because proper hardware S3TC + hardware T&L would have been a first. But, I gather that where Nvidia and others tacked S3TC on as an extra pass with bugs, S3 tacked on T&L as an extra pass with bugs. Oh well.

Reply 58659 of 58665, by giantenemycat

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Very green, but not very exciting: P4 1.4 GHz and GeForce2 MX. Specifically the OG MX, not the later 200 or 400 which released in 2001. These will be going in my year 2000 Socket 423 build.

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giantenemycat wrote on 2026-03-29, 13:12:
It's finally here. […]
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It's finally here.

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We have:

  • SuperPower SP-586TB
    • Pentium MMX 166MHz
    • S3 Trio64 (86c764x)
    • Some amount of EDO RAM? Two different sets of 2, so likely had been upgraded over time
    • Fujitsu MPA3026AT 2.62 GB HDD
    • GoldStar GCD-R580B (LG)
    • Labway A151-A00 sound card (Yamaha YMF719)
    • D-Link DU-A2 Rev:D2 USB add-in card. OPTi 82C861 controller, so only USB 1.1?

    It powers on and make all the noises it should be making, but I can't get a POST. Have tried a different video card still nothing. Suspect it's something relatively easy to fix like one of the other cards not being seated properly, but don't have time right at the moment. That Labway sound card alone is worth almost as much as I paid for the whole thing, so not really worried.

I was also able to get this going. As I suspected, taking out the USB card and PC speaker allowed it to boot up just fine. Everything works, including HDD and CD-ROM. 40MB RAM. Windows ME installed, but it's pretty bare. What interests me is it's slow as all hell, now this reminds me of the ME experience I had on my first family PC.