VOGONS


Reply 20 of 53, by senrew

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PhilsComputerLab wrote:
Good times Tetrium :D […]
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Good times Tetrium 😁

I remember the "old days" when most here built high powered 486 133 MHz machines. And there was me, with my Super Socket 7 gear and going on about cache tricks 🤣

These days you can sometimes get 486 gear for less than a decent SS7 board, how times have changed.

So yes, lots of parts are going for higher prices, but there is SO MUCH, that just flies under the radar and you don't see used often. Maybe I should do a shoestring build video or something like that.

PS: Stock up on RIVA 128 cards. 1997 retro gaming bliss with lovely film grain 😊

Ah hell, you know a thread has gotten derailed when Phil finds new video ideas out of it 🤣

Halcyon: PC Chips M525, P100, 64MB, Millenium 1, Voodoo1, AWE64, DVD, Win95B

Reply 21 of 53, by PhilsComputerLab

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🤣

Keen to see how you go with those parts. Those two cases, I had one that looked just like it.

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Reply 22 of 53, by Tetrium

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PhilsComputerLab wrote:
Good times Tetrium :D […]
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Good times Tetrium 😁

I remember the "old days" when most here built high powered 486 133 MHz machines. And there was me, with my Super Socket 7 gear and going on about cache tricks 🤣

These days you can sometimes get 486 gear for less than a decent SS7 board, how times have changed.

So yes, lots of parts are going for higher prices, but there is SO MUCH, that just flies under the radar and you don't see used often. Maybe I should do a shoestring build video or something like that.

PS: Stock up on RIVA 128 cards. 1997 retro gaming bliss with lovely film grain 😊

Yes definitely 🤣

I actually remember bidding on a NIB MSI ss7 board and was the only bidder, only to be shillbid so I ended up having to pay €15 for it.

And later I broke the socket tab thingy when trying to mount a Cyrix CPU with a taller HS 😵

Well we do have to kinda thank ourselves for putting us into this position 😜

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Reply 23 of 53, by Tetrium

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senrew wrote:
PhilsComputerLab wrote:
Good times Tetrium :D […]
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Good times Tetrium 😁

I remember the "old days" when most here built high powered 486 133 MHz machines. And there was me, with my Super Socket 7 gear and going on about cache tricks 🤣

These days you can sometimes get 486 gear for less than a decent SS7 board, how times have changed.

So yes, lots of parts are going for higher prices, but there is SO MUCH, that just flies under the radar and you don't see used often. Maybe I should do a shoestring build video or something like that.

PS: Stock up on RIVA 128 cards. 1997 retro gaming bliss with lovely film grain 😊

Ah hell, you know a thread has gotten derailed when Phil finds new video ideas out of it 🤣

🤣!
Phil can even turn MX's into pure gold if he wanted to 😜

Looking forward to your new vids 😁

But there's still stuff to be bought that will become interesting down the road and some of this stuff has been known for years (yes I'm looking at you P4 and A64 😜).

I'm not so sure about how PCI-E graphics cards will be doing, but it also seems to matter less as hardware seemed to have changes less dramatically. Things were much more rapid back in the 90s

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

Reply 24 of 53, by Frasco

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A man got to eat, therefore sellers just lost the sense of ridiculous.
There is no simbyosis. The market is stagnated and inflated.
Unfortunately the horizon is totally moribund and unbalanced.
See how collectors are annoyed in this topic. Brakes my heart.
Here in South America prices broke loose, too.

That new AT case is affordable, though. It's only too short.

SB16 for the retro feeling is nice, pratically I spit on them 😠 !
So many bugs as proven by topic "Sound Blaster 16 Bugs and Deficiencies Summary"
* Single-Cycle DMA Clicking (Non Vibra).
WHAT A CROCK ! I suspected as much...

PCI-E ? I kind love and hate the 9800GX2. It's just beautiful 😀 , but seems to have a high mortality rate due to heat(?). Don't have a vision of future for PCI-E cards. I hope I have no more regrets...

A 17 years old collector, and a 14 years old !? I just have to take a praise!

Reply 25 of 53, by Deksor

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Don't forget me ! I'm almost 19 ^^

Yes, to me, SB16 are really where creative started to make bad stuff ... Filled with bugs, noises, cheapness ... The SB pro 2 is probably their last awesome sound card

Though I wonder if some of the SB 16 can't be "fixed" ?

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Reply 26 of 53, by senrew

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Meh, I've got my AWE64 Gold so I'm good on the ISA card front for sound anyway. It's just nice to have options for authenticity.

Halcyon: PC Chips M525, P100, 64MB, Millenium 1, Voodoo1, AWE64, DVD, Win95B

Reply 27 of 53, by Deksor

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Yeah the AWE64 seems good ... but it doesn't feature the OPL3 which is a problem for me ...

Though combined with another sound card that features that chip it must not be a big flaw. (at least that's what I'm planning to do)

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Reply 28 of 53, by Frasco

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Yeah, you too. 😵

senrew wrote:

Meh, I've got my AWE64 Gold so I'm good on the ISA card front for sound anyway. It's just nice to have options for authenticity.

Cause CQM is different from real OPL3.
Yeah, maybe a SB16 is perfect for some games.

Reply 29 of 53, by kenrouholo

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Deksor wrote:

Yeah the AWE64 seems good ... but it doesn't feature the OPL3 which is a problem for me ...

Though combined with another sound card that features that chip it must not be a big flaw. (at least that's what I'm planning to do)

Skip all AWE models and just get a Roland, Yamaha or Korg synth module. Unless you actually owned an AWE* in the past, it won't be nostalgic to you any more than a non-wavetable SB card, and it's not the best option for sound quality at all.

(just my opinion, of course)

I started with an SB Pro (1.5 maybe?) myself, and I did think Creative was great back then, but a lot of the nostalgia for me faded when I kept learning more and more details about how Creative cards kinda sucked.

(Lots of people still love them. Do what you want. Again, only my personal opinion here.)

Yes, I always ramble this much.

Reply 30 of 53, by Deksor

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Well I've got two (maybe three ? I don't know actually if the third works or not) YMF7x4 cards which features the awesome XG synth ^^

but unfortunately that synth only works under windows, and also (still in windows), I can't play duke 3D with the sound effects and speech. Adding a creative/compatible sound card would definitely help for that PC and, well, I've never owned one. I'm just curious to see what it is capable of even though it might not be really awesome, it won't suck as my SB16 CT2700 does (at least for the noise issue). And since the yamaha card also features a true opl3 and is sb pro compatible, this makes the best combo to me ^^

Trying to identify old hardware ? Visit The retro web - Project's thread The Retro Web project - a stason.org/TH99 alternative

Reply 31 of 53, by kenrouholo

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Deksor wrote:

Well I've got two (maybe three ? I don't know actually if the third works or not) YMF7x4 cards which features the awesome XG synth ^^

but unfortunately that synth only works under windows, and also (still in windows), I can't play duke 3D with the sound effects and speech. Adding a creative/compatible sound card would definitely help for that PC and, well, I've never owned one. I'm just curious to see what it is capable of even though it might not be really awesome, it won't suck as my SB16 CT2700 does (at least for the noise issue). And since the yamaha card also features a true opl3 and is sb pro compatible, this makes the best combo to me ^^

To clarify, I was suggesting to use an older Creative card like a Pro along with an external synth like a Roland SC55 (which can sometimes be had for a similar price as an AWE64 Gold - though if you're willing to settle for an AWE64 Value, those are generally fairly cheap).

Of course, still my opinion, just clarifying what I meant. There are of course several possible options for things you could do.

The Yamaha card is certainly pretty nice for Windows.

Edit to clarify further: I don't mean to be pushy on the idea, only posting a second time about it because I think I had worded my previous post a bit poorly.

Last edited by kenrouholo on 2017-03-01, 22:56. Edited 1 time in total.

Yes, I always ramble this much.

Reply 32 of 53, by stuvize

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Deksor wrote:

Well I've got two (maybe three ? I don't know actually if the third works or not) YMF7x4 cards which features the awesome XG synth ^^

but unfortunately that synth only works under windows, and also (still in windows), I can't play duke 3D with the sound effects and speech. Adding a creative/compatible sound card would definitely help for that PC and, well, I've never owned one. I'm just curious to see what it is capable of even though it might not be really awesome, it won't suck as my SB16 CT2700 does (at least for the noise issue). And since the yamaha card also features a true opl3 and is sb pro compatible, this makes the best combo to me ^^

The YMF7x4 series is great under windows but the DOS sound quality is not that great. I didn't think it was any better than the OPL3-sax they seem to have a lot of static like SB pro sounds more true to the SB pro than a SB16/AWE32, but Yamaha made these with SB pro emulation not SB16\AWE32.The AWE64 gold has the best DOS sound of any card I have ever heard. One thing to remember when it comes to comparing sound cards on their sound quality in DOS is software, even though the Yamaha chips are superior in my opinion they have to emulate Creative's standard as the Yamahas are not true compatibles. AWE\Vibra cards generally have the best sound quality if there is a SB16 option in the game if there is only SB\SB pro option AWE\Vibras might not sound any better than a SB pro maybe worse in some scenarios, and there are even some late games that have a specific option for AWE cards that sound superior to the SB16 option.

Tetrium wrote:

Using thriftstores here for scavenging old parts has been in decline for several years where I live and these days it's next to impossible to even find anything worthwhile. I actually seem to have more luck bumping into a PC left on the sidewalk then to find something for sale that is worth buying.

The best thing has been local second hand websites for the last few years, but apparently stuff is really turning dry lately (except maybe for Meljor 🤣).

This had been the same for me haven't seen anything good at a thrift shop in well over a year, but oddly I have been getting a lot more towers lately from the transfer station as well as just setting by trash cans or in dumpsters. Most of the stuff is from 98-04 but still been getting more socket 7 and the occasional 486 towers than normal.

Reply 33 of 53, by Unknown_K

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PhilsComputerLab wrote:
Good times Tetrium :D […]
Show full quote

Good times Tetrium 😁

I remember the "old days" when most here built high powered 486 133 MHz machines. And there was me, with my Super Socket 7 gear and going on about cache tricks 🤣

These days you can sometimes get 486 gear for less than a decent SS7 board, how times have changed.

So yes, lots of parts are going for higher prices, but there is SO MUCH, that just flies under the radar and you don't see used often. Maybe I should do a shoestring build video or something like that.

PS: Stock up on RIVA 128 cards. 1997 retro gaming bliss with lovely film grain 😊

AMD stretching out the 486 era to the 133 models kept companies making boards and chip for a long time so they are plentiful. SS7 wasn't as popular as the mainstream Pentium boards so there are less of them around.

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Reply 34 of 53, by brostenen

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PhilsComputerLab wrote:

These days you can sometimes get 486 gear for less than a decent SS7 board, how times have changed.

And just think of the next 5 years, when new people to this hobby, had Socket 478 in their teens.
Socket 478 and early 775 (single core), will be the next expensive thing, and SS7 becomes what 486 is now.
WinXP gaming are slowly becomming retro now. And looking at all them bad cap issues and low build
quality of a lot of hardware from the early 00's, I think high quality hardware will be even more expensive
then SS7 stuff are right now.

Don't eat stuff off a 15 year old never cleaned cpu cooler.
Those cakes make you sick....

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Reply 36 of 53, by nforce4max

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brostenen wrote:
And just think of the next 5 years, when new people to this hobby, had Socket 478 in their teens. Socket 478 and early 775 (sing […]
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PhilsComputerLab wrote:

These days you can sometimes get 486 gear for less than a decent SS7 board, how times have changed.

And just think of the next 5 years, when new people to this hobby, had Socket 478 in their teens.
Socket 478 and early 775 (single core), will be the next expensive thing, and SS7 becomes what 486 is now.
WinXP gaming are slowly becomming retro now. And looking at all them bad cap issues and low build
quality of a lot of hardware from the early 00's, I think high quality hardware will be even more expensive
then SS7 stuff are right now.

That is why for some things it is now or never and hit the gas and gone for broke last year collecting what I could but there is some things that I regret not having bought like a 1GB GDDR4 2900 XT ect. The nicer things are going to be horrendously expensive over the next few years and it will not be getting any better especially should those things become hard to come by like certain cards or boards. It will be like the cancerous housing market that rewarded people who got in at just the right time or who were early but harshly punished the later generations with inflated and unsustainable prices.

On a far away planet reading your posts in the year 10,191.

Reply 37 of 53, by TheAbandonwareGuy

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Tetrium wrote:

Using thriftstores here for scavenging old parts has been in decline for several years where I live and these days it's next to impossible to even find anything worthwhile. I actually seem to have more luck bumping into a PC left on the sidewalk then to find something for sale that is worth buying.

Here in the United States finding a thrift store that will sell there vintage computers (or any computers) is extremely rare as most will just send them to the recycler. Goodwills in particular in most states does this as according to the laws they could get in trouble if someone bought a PC with a bunch of sensitive user information on it and used it to harm owner of said information. Its to avoid the "I gave you a computer and someone stole my identity using it" law suit. Im pretty sure there are also other more or less unrelated laws in someone states that would prevent thrift stores from easily reselling there vintage items without an in house tech to sanitize them. I'm lucky as one of my local thrift stores lets me scavange from there scrap pile. Some of the small town thrifts are pretty relaxed about this stuff and will sell them to you under the table if you ask the right people AKA management (especially the charity/church ran ones where the employee's can make the mental "Well morally this is the right thing to do as X organization needs the money to do good things" call)

My regional recycler which takes in items from 6 countys and two college towns also is the most douche filled place on the planet. Not to mention all electronics are "Property of the County" upon arrival and no one there will let you buy/take any of the equipment due to more ass backwards laws in Illinois (This state sucks.....). I asked what would happen if i just came and grabbed something and the employee on duty said something along the lines of if he let someone take something he would get fired and that he would be required to call the cops. I could really just go at night if i wanted to but I shouldn't have to. I tried emailing upper management to see if i could work out some sort of deal with them or the county and there contact email actually doesn't even exist.....

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Reply 38 of 53, by senrew

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South Florida is a graveyard. None of the big chain thrifts accept the computers, and if they do, they just recycle it. I watched someone drop off a box of random old modems and other less desirable cards and the lady literally just dumped it into a huge bin marked "RECYCLING".

There are a few independent e-recyclers here, plus the local city dumps. They'll take the machines but refuse to let you take it out of the piles. Dropped off a few empty rusted cases a few months ago and in the bins were a TON of old AT cases. I asked about taking some with me and they told me it was illegal in the county due to hazardous materials in the chips or some such stupidity. Had a bit of a heart palpitation bout thinking about it on the way home.

Halcyon: PC Chips M525, P100, 64MB, Millenium 1, Voodoo1, AWE64, DVD, Win95B

Reply 39 of 53, by nforce4max

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senrew wrote:

South Florida is a graveyard. None of the big chain thrifts accept the computers, and if they do, they just recycle it. I watched someone drop off a box of random old modems and other less desirable cards and the lady literally just dumped it into a huge bin marked "RECYCLING".

There are a few independent e-recyclers here, plus the local city dumps. They'll take the machines but refuse to let you take it out of the piles. Dropped off a few empty rusted cases a few months ago and in the bins were a TON of old AT cases. I asked about taking some with me and they told me it was illegal in the county due to hazardous materials in the chips or some such stupidity. Had a bit of a heart palpitation bout thinking about it on the way home.

If I had seen that I would have blown a fuse, really stupid of these places to turn down paying customers just to "recycle" for a few cents in metal scrap.

On a far away planet reading your posts in the year 10,191.