VOGONS


First post, by maddmaxstar

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Hey there, I figured this would be the perfect place to post some photos of my older PC's, primarily the ones I have stored here at my apartment. I have some even older ones (Like my Vic20, C64, PC/XT, 286, AT&T PC6300, PS/2, etc) stored at my parents place, but heres a selection of the ones I've been recently working on...

(A word of note, most of the machines have newer CDROMs in them to copy software from CDRs. I know it's not as "Retro" but it is functional.)

In no Particular Order:
Rig #1 - My Favorite 486 - "Tetra"
I've had this rig for about 10 years now, a friend of mine gave me his old machine for helping him set up his Duron 900. It originally had a Cyrix 5x86-100 (might have been the IBM version), but being an AMD fanboy at the time, I swapped the chip out for an Am486. Honestly I wish I'd kept the Cyrix, but oh well.
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AMD Enhanced Am486DX4-120 (SV8B).
Arstoria AS496 Motherboard (SiS Chipset), 256k Cache, 3PCI/4ISA
32mb (2x16) 72pin EDO
10GB WD HDD (used to have a 1GB Conner, but it recently died)
4mb ATI 3D Xpression+ PC2TV (TV Out)
Sound Blaster 16 CT2230
D-Link DE-220 10Base-T Network card.
LG 52x CDROM
Running Win95C and Win3.11 (both running from DOS 7.1)

Rig #2 - My K6-2 - "Titania"
This was my main PC from 98 to 2000, originally ran a K6-266 and a Diamond Speedstar A50 AGP card (SiS6236) but I upgraded it to a K6-2 500 and a Voodoo3 2000 around early 2001, when I used it as a backup LAN party machine. This machine when I built it was my first PC I'd built myself from all new parts (except the case/PSU, which was from my P75). Also, the original V3-2000 died when I accidentally broke some caps off it about 7 years ago, but I found a replacement one just last week.
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AMD K6-2 500 (I have a K6-2+ 500 coming soon from eBay)
FIC VA-503+ Motherboard Super7 (Via MVP3) with 1MB L2 Cache
128mb PC100 RAM (I want to put 256mb in, but DIMM slot 2 is flaky trying to find a compatible chip and has been giving me grief.)
6.4GB Fujitsu HDD
16mb 3dfx Voodoo 3 2000 AGP
Realtek 8139 10/100 NIC
Sound Blaster 16 CT2230
HP CD-Writer 8200i 4x4x24 CDRW
Running Win98SE

Rig #3 - My Pentium 75 - "Bob"
I got lucky and managed to find a selection of identical parts to my very first IBM PC-clone I got in 96, the original parts either died or were traded in for an upgrade. However I was able to scrounge and rebuild the system up to it's original spec (other than the RAM and Case).
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Intel Pentium 75 (Gold-top)
FIC PA-2002 Motherboard (VIA based), 512k Cache I think.
16mb EDO (2x8), system originally had 8mb.
850mb Quantum Trailblazer
2mb Cirrus Logic CL5446
Bravo Sound 16 (Opti 82C930)
D-Link DE-530CT 10Base-T/10Base-2 PCI NIC
USRobotics Sportster 33.6 Winmodem
Mitsumi FX400 Quad-Speed IDE CDROM
Running Win95 OSR1

Rig #4 - My Slot A K7-550 - "Titania-II"
My Main machine from 2000-2002. This thing was bloody expensive when I got it and was a really nice working machine for it's time but was obsolete even as a backup by 2002 and languished in storage for years (probably why I still have it mainly intact). The coolest part of it is the Athlon 550 chip in it is a very early model Argon core, branded only as "AMD 7th Generation Processor" and the CPUID string even reads "AMD K7" rather than Athlon - which makes it run slower in XP without a patch.

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AMD Athlon 550MHz (Argon Core)
FIC SD11 Motherboard (AMD 751+VIA 686A Chipset)
512mb PC100 (2x128, 1x256)
20GB Western Digital WD200BB 7200rpm HDD
16mb Voodoo3 3000 AGP (With TV-Out)
Realtek 8139 PCI NIC
Sound Blaster Live Value PCI
Liteon 16x10x40x CDRW
Enlight 7237 Case (Painted black inside because I tried to mod it)
Running WindowsXP

Rig #5 - My good ol' 386sx - "Spitoon".
This is the first PC I'd built of any type. Originally I had it built into an IBM PC/XT case (and even was using it with the old Herc Monochrome card, MFM HDD and the original floppy controller modded to use a 720k 3.5" drive). Later I put it into this Atlantic 286 case because I put the XT back together.
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Intel 386sx-16MHz + 80387-16 FPU
4mb (4x1mb) 30pin RAM
40mb WD HDD (3.5" but full Half-height and noisy)
1mb Trident 8900D ISA
Calpak 2400baud Modem (I miss BBSing!)
Sound Blaster 2.0 CT1350B
Mitsumi LUOO2S 1x CDROM+Controller Card
Running DOS 6.22+Windows 3.11

Rig #6 - My TI486DLC-40
I still had the 2nd motherboard from "Spitoon" that I used to upgrade the 386sx once upon a time. I scored enough parts recently to build it into another fully working machine, although I think the 3.6v Battery needs to be replace as it was starting to corrode.
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Texas Instruments TI486DLC/E-40BGA
Not sure the motherboard model but has an MXIC chipset and an empty FPU slot marked "x87DLC".
16mb (4x4) 30pin RAM
1GB Conner HDD
1mb Trident 8900D ISA
Adlib Sound Card
Mitsumi 48x CDROM
Running DOS 6.22+Windows 3.11

Rig #7 - My Backup 486.
This is the 486 I rescued from salvage last week. I built it into the case from another 486 I salvaged a month ago.
6698976133_3bdc22e1a6.jpg6698982505_775edf96ef.jpg
AMD Am486DX4-100 (NV8T).
Lucky Star LS-486E Motherboard (SiS Chipset), 256k Cache, 3PCI/4ISA
16mb (2x8) 72pin EDO
8.4GB Fujitsu HDD
4mb ATI 3D Charger (Mach64GT/RageII)
3Com 3C905-TX 10/100 PCI NIC Card
Sound Blaster 16 CT1740
LG 48x CDRW
Running DOS 6.22+Windows 3.11

Rig #8 - Another K6-2
I built this one 2 years ago to give my Fiancee a machine to run some late-DOS/early Windows games like Blood and Monkey Island, however now that I have "Titania" working again, I'll probably get rid of this one at some point. Not that this one is a bad machine, it actually runs pretty well, but if you can't tell, I have quite a few and space is at a premium.
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AMD K6-2 400MHz
Asus TX97-E Motherboard (i430TX Chipset, hacked BIOS installed to support a higher 6x Multiplier on the 66MHz bus).
256mb (2x128) PC100 RAM
20GB WD200BB 7200rpm HDD
2mb Trident 9440 PCI
8mb Voodoo2 from STB
PCI NIC card (8139? 😜)
Sound Blaster Vibra16 ISA
52x CDROM
Running Win98se

That's the Retro boxes I currently have running. I have some others that are a little more contemporary (but not new) that I may add to this thread at a later time. Thanks for reading!

Last edited by maddmaxstar on 2012-01-15, 22:36. Edited 2 times in total.

= Phenom II X6 1090T(HD4850) =
= K7-550(V3-3000) =
= K6-2+ 500(V3-2000) =
= Pentium 75 Gold(Voodoo1) =
= Am486DX4-120(3DXpression+) =
= TI486DLC-40(T8900D) =
= i386sx-16+i387(T8900D) =

Reply 1 of 38, by Mau1wurf1977

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Very nice...

Not chance in hell to find such machines over here in Australia 😒

You have an original Adlib card 😀

My website with reviews, demos, drivers, tutorials and more...
My YouTube channel

Reply 3 of 38, by DonutKing

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cool 😀 I like your 486 towers. My first PC came in the same style of case. I wish I had one of those 🙁

You have an original Adlib card

Who doesn't? 😁

If you are squeamish, don't prod the beach rubble.

Reply 5 of 38, by Tetrium

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DonutKing wrote:

cool 😀 I like your 486 towers. My first PC came in the same style of case. I wish I had one of those 🙁

You have an original Adlib card

Who doesn't? 😁

Me 🙁

But oh well, I'll manage with the soundblasters 😜

I really like your towers! You even have teh rocker! 😁
Just one thing..you aren't running all your CPU's without heatsinks right? 😁

Whats missing in your collections?
My retro rigs (old topic)
Interesting Vogons threads (links to Vogonswiki)
Report spammers here!

Reply 8 of 38, by badmojo

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Amazing stuff! Those AT towers are cool, it took me ages to find my first one but I've found a recycler close by gets quite a few of them - they never put them out for sale, just scrap them, so I sneak around the back and save them. I guess they don't think anyone will buy them?

I have too many towers now, but what I really want is a very plain looking desktop case like my first 486 came with. It was probably very cheap and I don't think it even had a turbo button, but it did have a flip top lid which was great.

BTW I'm very jealous of the 4X Mitsumi CD drive that "Bob" is sporting. I've been looking for one of those for over a year but, as Mau1wurf1977 said, finding parts in Aus can be difficult.

Thanks for sharing!

Reply 9 of 38, by maddmaxstar

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Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

You have an original Adlib card 😀

I used to have 2 of them back in the 90's, but one died. I wish I kept it, there's probably enough docs online to figure out what was wrong with it, the sound went all staticy. The Adlibs were awesome, they were made in Canada, so they were common to find here. I really wish I could find the english version of the Adlib Jukebox disk, all I can find online is the French, I used to love that little program. I also wish I could one day find an Adlib Gold.

Tetrium wrote:

I really like your towers! You even have teh rocker! 😁
Just one thing..you aren't running all your CPU's without heatsinks right? 😁

Teh Rocker? You mean the rocker power switches? They do make for a badass looking 486 😜
And yes, they have Heatsink/Fans, I just wanted to display the processors. My Gold P75 is one of my favorite looking chips.

Malik wrote:

Nice AT cases!

I wish I have a jeannie who can provide me with more and more AT cases!

Thanks! These things are getting harder and harder to find. Most of these I've had since the 90's when they were scrapped the first time 😜.

badmofo wrote:
Amazing stuff! Those AT towers are cool, it took me ages to find my first one but I've found a recycler close by gets quite a fe […]
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Amazing stuff! Those AT towers are cool, it took me ages to find my first one but I've found a recycler close by gets quite a few of them - they never put them out for sale, just scrap them, so I sneak around the back and save them. I guess they don't think anyone will buy them?

I have too many towers now, but what I really want is a very plain looking desktop case like my first 486 came with. It was probably very cheap and I don't think it even had a turbo button, but it did have a flip top lid which was great.

BTW I'm very jealous of the 4X Mitsumi CD drive that "Bob" is sporting. I've been looking for one of those for over a year but, as Mau1wurf1977 said, finding parts in Aus can be difficult.

Thanks for sharing!

They probably just strip them and put them in the trash because they don't think they're worth anything to sell, all the while making the remaining ones in existance rarer and rarer and more valuable to retro collectors. I remember one place I worked for, I was tossing dozens of complete IBM PC 5150's and Mono monitors into a dumpster. I cringe when I think of that now. The bulk of my old PCs I have now I got because no one wanted them anymore. I think they're fun to play with.

I currently work for a PC shop that handles recycling. They do the whole thing, strip the cases for plastic and wires, seperate the aluminum, PCB's, etc, and send the parts to appropriate recycler, so nothing gets put in the dumpster. But when I'm in, I handle shop work overflow, the storefront and check over the scrap heap for any useful systems, cases, cards, parts, etc, before the guy that strips them gets ahold of them, so I come across some awesome vintage stuff sometimes. Lately I've been singling out anything with a decent 486 knowing how rare and valuable they've become. I'm not about to start dumping them on eBay for gawd-awful prices though.

And that 4x Mitsumi drive was my very first CDROM, same drive too. It's neat, but it's slooooow and makes a high pitched whine noise when reading CD-R's.

= Phenom II X6 1090T(HD4850) =
= K7-550(V3-3000) =
= K6-2+ 500(V3-2000) =
= Pentium 75 Gold(Voodoo1) =
= Am486DX4-120(3DXpression+) =
= TI486DLC-40(T8900D) =
= i386sx-16+i387(T8900D) =

Reply 10 of 38, by nemesis

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I'm very impressed with your collection. There is just so much awesome in that post, where do I begin?

Ok. First of all, I have that exact same flashlight! And it appears that you live relatively close to me too. Howdy neighbor!

Now to the computers. They are all gorgeous. You're very lucky to have them and they're lucky to have you as an owner. Vintage computer adoption just isn't getting the attention that it needs nowadays.
I could go on and on about those beauties, but my brain just can't handle that much awesome in one dose, so I'll stop for now.

As for the original Adlib card, I don't have one anymore either. Someone gave mine away quite a while back. 🙁
edit: I love how you named them too. 😁

Reply 13 of 38, by maddmaxstar

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nemesis wrote:
I'm very impressed with your collection. There is just so much awesome in that post, where do I begin? […]
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I'm very impressed with your collection. There is just so much awesome in that post, where do I begin?

Ok. First of all, I have that exact same flashlight! And it appears that you live relatively close to me too. Howdy neighbor!

Now to the computers. They are all gorgeous. You're very lucky to have them and they're lucky to have you as an owner. Vintage computer adoption just isn't getting the attention that it needs nowadays.
I could go on and on about those beauties, but my brain just can't handle that much awesome in one dose, so I'll stop for now.

As for the original Adlib card, I don't have one anymore either. Someone gave mine away quite a while back. 🙁
edit: I love how you named them too. 😁

It makes an excellent flashlight, especially for power failures. Just shake it and you're good. The downside is that case screws get stuck to it. And a Cannuck, eh? East Coaster?

And I used to have a habit of naming all of my machines, starting with 'Titania', though Bob and Spitoon were retroactively named after their C Drive volume names back in the day. "Bob" was named after Bob the Guardian on Reboot. "Spitoon" was a bucket compared to Bob. Using "Titania" as part of my PC naming scheme is still in use, my current Phenom X6 1090T is named "Ti-Magnus".

Here's also a Youtube video of her predecessor - Ti-Triton, which garnered over 130k hits on Youtube over the last 4 years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YntPDJu5pLE

mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:

Nice rigs. 😁 I'm just wondering though, where are the heatsinks on Bob and Tetra? 🤣

Bob and Tetra have heatsink/fans. 😜 I just took them off for show.

sliderider wrote:

I think I have a 386DXL-25 mounted in a nearly identical case as #1 and #7 somewhere.

They're an awesome little Baby AT case, I wish I had more, they're retro looking, compact and plenty enough interior space. I think I have a Am386DX-25 (board only) in storage at my folks place too.

= Phenom II X6 1090T(HD4850) =
= K7-550(V3-3000) =
= K6-2+ 500(V3-2000) =
= Pentium 75 Gold(Voodoo1) =
= Am486DX4-120(3DXpression+) =
= TI486DLC-40(T8900D) =
= i386sx-16+i387(T8900D) =

Reply 14 of 38, by nemesis

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Ohhh, New Brunswick, Canada... I'm in New England (I was thinking of New Brunswick, NJ). Still neighbors though as far as I'm concerned 😁 .
Loved that video of Ti-Triton, I almost used that same light kit in my acrylic computer case, but got too lazy after spending so much time hooking up the water cooling kits.

Reply 15 of 38, by mr_bigmouth_502

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nemesis wrote:

Ohhh, New Brunswick, Canada... I'm in New England (I was thinking of New Brunswick, NJ). Still neighbors though as far as I'm concerned 😁 .
Loved that video of Ti-Triton, I almost used that same light kit in my acrylic computer case, but got too lazy after spending so much time hooking up the water cooling kits.

New Brunswick, eh? We have more Canadians on here than I thought! 😁 I myself am from northern Alberta, though I'd much rather be living in BC. 🤣

Reply 16 of 38, by feipoa

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Nice collection there. Sorry to heard about the Cyrix 5x86 give-away.

I think I see a Chicitta banana sticker on #5. That's original.

It would be nice to eventually match up the white with the whites and the beige with the beiges.

Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.

Reply 17 of 38, by nemesis

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Sorry to heard about the Cyrix 5x86 give-away.

I skimmed by that too quickly to notice I guess 😖 . Too bad about that, those chips are awesome. Especially the IBM 5x86 (I have 3 myself now).
That AMD 120 is still a very nice CPU though. Just lacks the faster FPU (and maybe the L1 cache, not sure about that).

Reply 18 of 38, by feipoa

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nemesis wrote:

Especially the IBM 5x86 (I have 3 myself now).

And so begins the Cyrix CPU hoarding. My master plan to artificially inflate the Cyrix 5x86 prices seems to be working! I will soon be rich and buy my own island!

Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.

Reply 19 of 38, by maddmaxstar

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nemesis wrote:

That AMD 120 is still a very nice CPU though. Just lacks the faster FPU (and maybe the L1 cache, not sure about that).

There's 8k of L1 Cache on the Am486. the normal versions had write through and the Enhanced versions were Write-back.

I think back in the day I would have kept the Cyrix 5x86 100MHz if I'd known it was that much faster. I ended up trading it for a 486DX4-80. I'll keep my eyes open for one, perhaps I'll find another one at some point provided that Feipoa hasn't bought them all 😜.

feipoa wrote:

And so begins the Cyrix CPU hoarding. My master plan to artificially inflate the Cyrix 5x86 prices seems to be working! I will soon be rich and buy my own island!

That might not be a bad idea or far from the truth, check this out, I watched this auction because I was sorta interested, but then it skyrocketed out of my price range. Apparently there be gold in them thar chips:

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/300651357900?ssPageNam … 984.m1438.l2649

From what I've heard, there's about 0.2g to 0.25g of Gold metal in their plating. About 20-25$ a chip at current prices.

I'm so collecting Cyrix/IBM chips whenever I get a chance to do so affordably. So far in my collection I have 3 (and 1 gold top Pentium). I imagine you guys have many more 😜

= Phenom II X6 1090T(HD4850) =
= K7-550(V3-3000) =
= K6-2+ 500(V3-2000) =
= Pentium 75 Gold(Voodoo1) =
= Am486DX4-120(3DXpression+) =
= TI486DLC-40(T8900D) =
= i386sx-16+i387(T8900D) =