candle_86 wrote:

Creative 3D Blaster Banshee 4.99, Xfi Xtreme Music 4.99

Ah, the Xtreme Music--lovely card as they seem to be much more abundant than the other models, but not junk like the... is it the Xtreme Sound that uses the cheap DSP? I forget, but the Xtreme Music is definitely a keeper. Add kX Project for Stereo goodness!

I noticed while searching my local surplus place for the past few years that several of the Xtreme Music cards have heat-sinks on the DSP, but some do not. And I noticed physical differences in the overal thickness of the DSP on several of the boards, showing there are many revisions of this IC. I noticed mine does get hot enough that you don't want to touch it, very long. I probably should add some cooling so the heat-cycling doesn't eventually ruin the BGA setup. Not that I can't run down and get another one for $5. 🤣!

With the X-Fi cards there are a lot of OEM versions out and about. I think I got three different types and only one would work with the Creative drivers. Of course I don't remember which model. Don't you hate that? When you do some testing and don't write it down anywhere, so you got to do it again 😵

All OEM X-Fi cards I had worked with default creative driver.

I like the creative cards but their drivers....... just way too many cards from the same series with different chips/numbers/drivers

Cyrix200+ wrote:

Another 14" VGA monitor

Looks cool! What's the dot pitch?

jwt27 wrote:

Cyrix200+ wrote:

Another 14" VGA monitor

Looks cool! What's the dot pitch?

.28 according to the internet:
http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/dis … p4ts.oid=218298

I like Compaq/HP for keeping all old stuff online 😀

This is actually a continuation of my recent WYSE acquisition. This is the printer that was originally used with that system, I just didn't get a chance to go back and grab it until today. Unknown if it works or not because it didn't come with a printer cable, nor do I have one to test it with. 🤣

I received this beast today!

It's in every way identical to the F930 I use now, except it has a flat front tube instead of curved (this also means the visible size is 498mm instead of 500mm). Other than that, specs are the same: 0.21mm, 130kHz, 160Hz.

but wait...

yeah... it's fucked. Let's hope the ridiculously expensive shipping included some insurance. 🙁

Cathode Ray Monitors are parts that you shouldn't get shipped.
I always pick them up locally.

Arctic wrote:

Cathode Ray Monitors are parts that you shouldn't get shipped.
I always pick them up locally.

I have another (extremely rare) tube on my way... I do hope it's better packaged than this one...

That corner can be seamlessly epoxied back together, totally worth the trouble if the tube didn't suffer any damage. 😉

Did you test it? The tubes are actually pretty hard to damage unless they neck gets hit.

133MHz wrote:

That corner can be seamlessly epoxied back together, totally worth the trouble if the tube didn't suffer any damage. 😉

Yeah the plastic shouldn't be too difficult, I was thinking of using cyanoactrylate glue for that. But the steel chassis is all warped too, so I'll have to take it apart completely and straighten it all out.

Tube still looks good... but I can't get it to power on. The rod that connects the power switch was misaligned so it didn't do anything at first, but even when I press it manually all I get is a faint buzz from the power supply, nothing else.

I have some good news though, the second tube arrived undamaged! Will get some pics up soon once I find space for this thing.

jwt27 wrote:

Yeah the plastic shouldn't be too difficult, I was thinking of using cyanoactrylate glue for that. But the steel chassis is all […]
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133MHz wrote:

That corner can be seamlessly epoxied back together, totally worth the trouble if the tube didn't suffer any damage. 😉

Yeah the plastic shouldn't be too difficult, I was thinking of using cyanoactrylate glue for that. But the steel chassis is all warped too, so I'll have to take it apart completely and straighten it all out.

Tube still looks good... but I can't get it to power on. The rod that connects the power switch was misaligned so it didn't do anything at first, but even when I press it manually all I get is a faint buzz from the power supply, nothing else.

I have some good news though, the second tube arrived undamaged! Will get some pics up soon once I find space for this thing.

Might be worth taking it apart and checking nothing came loose internally. Might be a simple repair, might not be. 😀

Lukeno94 wrote:

jwt27 wrote:

Yeah the plastic shouldn't be too difficult, I was thinking of using cyanoactrylate glue for that. But the steel chassis is all […]
Show full quote

133MHz wrote:

That corner can be seamlessly epoxied back together, totally worth the trouble if the tube didn't suffer any damage. 😉

Yeah the plastic shouldn't be too difficult, I was thinking of using cyanoactrylate glue for that. But the steel chassis is all warped too, so I'll have to take it apart completely and straighten it all out.

Tube still looks good... but I can't get it to power on. The rod that connects the power switch was misaligned so it didn't do anything at first, but even when I press it manually all I get is a faint buzz from the power supply, nothing else.

I have some good news though, the second tube arrived undamaged! Will get some pics up soon once I find space for this thing.

Might be worth taking it apart and checking nothing came loose internally. Might be a simple repair, might not be. 😀

I already did, and can't see anything wrong with it... Aside from the case and chassis, everything looks okay.

Just arrived today. Gonna have to remove some rust, but not too bad considering this cost me 7 Euros total.

So here's the other screen.

Looks similar to the F930 at first sight, but it's quite different! This is the F980, aka the Holy Grail as I've been calling it. As far as I know the only tube ever manufactured with a 0.20mm dot pitch! Which in my book, makes it the best CRT monitor ever produced. Man, I still can't believe I finally got it. I've been looking for years for one of these, was almost starting to doubt they even existed.

It has the weird 13W3 port, BNC connectors, a serial port and USB.

specs are:
Tube: Curved shadow mask, 0.20mm horizontal.
Horizontal: 137kHz
Vertical: 160Hz
Recommended resolution: 2048x1536 at 85Hz
Max refresh rate: 1024x768 at 160Hz (or 2048x1536 at 160Hz, interlaced)
Max resolution: 4K or so at 60Hz (uh, in theory)

Nice CRT there! Shame about the other one - hopefully it was insured.

And 13W3 isn't weird...if you're a Sun workstation 🤣 I have a Sun CRT on loan that has such a connector - adapters are also available if you want/need that second input and don't have an RGBHV switch; they're like $10-$20. 😀

Can those monitors wear out from constant usage? I see Eizo F520, F35, F57, and so on for cheap a lot.

Stojke wrote:

Can those monitors wear out from constant usage? I see Eizo F520, F35, F57, and so on for cheap a lot.

They do, but generally last very long. My oldest colour tube is from the early 90's and still works okay, although it's getting worse now.
Eizo is probably the best quality you could get, but only the F9xx series is really spectacular in terms of scan rates and dot pitch. I have the F77 too for example and it's not very interesting with its 1600x1200 at 75Hz.