It's been a while since I posted here, real life kept throwing distraction at me and the weather has been quite nice. Some new stuff for me:

IBM 5x86 100MHz CPU:

Gigabyte GA586VX w/ IBM 6x86 PR150+

Vtech/PC Partner TXB820DS w/ Pentium MMX 166MHz (I just love the warranty sticker placement on this one 😀 No paste either)

Jetway for Acorp J-656HXA w/ Pentium 166MHz

AOpen AP5C/P w/ Pentium 120MHz

(I think I might have mixed up the pictures a bit for the motherboards).

And finally, this nice catch. Mostly empty, but the floppydrive is nice and so is the case. I hope I can get the floppydrive to work. It originally housed a '486 DX/100' according to a sticker. It has the name of a school etched in the top of the case.

Cyrix200+ wrote:

Vtech/PC Partner TXB820DS w/ Pentium MMX 166MHz (I just love the warranty sticker placement on this one 😀 No paste either)

It's not really required on these low power CPUs, although it doesn't hurt. Thermal paste only became more common on Socket 370 and Super Socket 7 CPUs which used a bit more power.

The sticker is in a terrible spot though 🤣 Interesting how there's another sticker on the heatsink to make sure that the metal from the CPU heatspreader will never come in contact with the metal from the cooler.

Cyrix200+ wrote:

Vtech/PC Partner TXB820DS w/ Pentium MMX 166MHz (I just love the warranty sticker placement on this one :) No paste either) http […]
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Vtech/PC Partner TXB820DS w/ Pentium MMX 166MHz (I just love the warranty sticker placement on this one 😀 No paste either)

Love it!! I had the 430VX (VX820DS) counterpart for many years, it came from my cousin's first computer. I took it in 2004/5 if I remember when I was a teenager that liked to deal with computers, and got rid of it in 2010 (what a shame!). It was a solid board 😀

Talking about the sticker, what a weird place to place it 🤣. Although those processor doesn't really require thermal paste, I like to apply a small amount of it when working with these kind of old systems. My 250Mhz overclocked Pentium MMX has actually Arctic MX4 applied over it, I like it overkill 😀

Cyrix200+ wrote:

And finally, this nice catch. Mostly empty, but the floppydrive is nice and so is the case. I hope I can get the floppydrive to […]
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And finally, this nice catch. Mostly empty, but the floppydrive is nice and so is the case. I hope I can get the floppydrive to work. It originally housed a '486 DX/100' according to a sticker. It has the name of a school etched in the top of the case.

Nice catch, indeed! That's one beautiful case!

Couple of sound cards for me.

Picked up this Aureal A3D card for 99p+postage

And this Yamaha ISA sound card i can't find much info on. YMF719-S and YMF704C-S chips on it. Won it for £2.95 shipped.

This monster AT case from a swap meet last week

had a 486 motherboard inside with a 100mhz AMD DX4 but I'm thinking of putting a Pentium 90 in it.

soviet conscript wrote:

This monster AT case from a swap meet last week […]
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This monster AT case from a swap meet last week

had a 486 motherboard inside with a 100mhz AMD DX4 but I'm thinking of putting a Pentium 90 in it.

Did the cat come with it? Because nice find regardless, but that is a very nice looking cat.

Cool! I have the exact same one, but unfortunately without this foot/socket and some mis-matched bezel plates.

soviet conscript wrote:

This monster AT case from a swap meet last week

...

had a 486 motherboard inside with a 100mhz AMD DX4 but I'm thinking of putting a Pentium 90 in it.

soviet conscript wrote:

This monster AT case from a swap meet last week

The cat approves. Good job!

devius wrote:

soviet conscript wrote:

This monster AT case from a swap meet last week

The cat approves. Good job!

Actually I think the cat is quite disapproving.

"Mr. PC, you think you're high and mighty. But how many mice can you catch in a day?"

Ha, I lied a bit, mine is a bit different 😀

Cyrix200+ wrote:

Cool! I have the exact same one, but unfortunately without this foot/socket and some mis-matched bezel plates.

soviet conscript wrote:

This monster AT case from a swap meet last week

...

had a 486 motherboard inside with a 100mhz AMD DX4 but I'm thinking of putting a Pentium 90 in it.

Bancho wrote:

And this Yamaha ISA sound card i can't find much info on. YMF719-S and YMF704C-S chips on it. Won it for £2.95 shipped. […]
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And this Yamaha ISA sound card i can't find much info on. YMF719-S and YMF704C-S chips on it. Won it for £2.95 shipped.

Hey nice a full height OPL3-SAx!!! they didn't solder the wavetable header but the pads are there and its an easy job. The YMF704C is not amazing but can do a decent job and will actually sound better in GM games than some other wavetable cards like the Creative Waveblasters IMO.

Cards that I found last month:

Look what the postman delivered?

Something very special, such a fancy box...

Oh, it's just a Pentium 4 😊

But seriously, seller did a great job at packing this.

Also, with so many people complaining about prices and chasing high powered Pentium 3 gear, this kit of Intel chipset 478 board, CPU, RAM and GPU was 20 Aussie dollars 😀

A great kit for a cheap Windows 98 retro gaming PC.

Large caps are in mint condition, Nichicon. The smaller ones are G-Luxon.

Bonus: Takes Willamette too 😀

Got these today for $20 some of them have power supply, all of them are brand new.
Two of them are old AT cases still in plastic.

Nice I use the little bro to the InWin case there on the top left of the first photo. Also that compaq looking one underneath is quite cool.

I finally got my SiS Xabre 600 card 😉 After years of searching I found it accidentally on the local auction. The seller was not aware of what he was selling - sold it for 8 euros including shipping... I wonder what price it would reach on e-bay - Haven't seen any of those in years...
Is there anybody here who has it and can compare the results in benchmarks with me?

you can see more pics here:
https://www.facebook.com/RetroGraphicsCards/p … 669732503183472

The second card I got is not so ultra rare but still interesting. I bought it for the box but when I got it - it turned out that is rev A not B (the more common one), REV A is slightly shorter and seems not to work in AGP X4 mode (or maybe that is just the problem of compatibility with my MoBo). Does any one here have the REV A to check it?

^ as always nice shiny stuff 😁

Just installed this piece of hardware on the "nostalgia rig". Everything worked awesomely except for Doom (no sound fx, still pending to fiddle with the IRQs in the BIOS).

And today's entry for worst packaging ever goes to:

Yes, because written instructions definitely prevent it from being damaged in transit. I wonder if the seller also has "make me rich!" scrawled on his face.

Ah, it seems I have judged our friend harshly - he has placed the COAST module in an anti static bag and sellotaped it to the inside of the envelope. Clearly these measures have resulted in it arriving unscathed!

Module yet to be tested. Was advertised as from a PowerPC system. Took a chance and it is physically compatible, but is only 256K so could be pointless. £2 shipped.