After years of enjoyable searching for the things on my list I have everything I want, and I'm here to tell ya that it hasn't made me a happier man - if anything my interest in this hobby has declined 😢 There's something to be said for the thrill of the chase / having a list of projects you're planning for the future.

^This. In the beginning, there was definitely the thrill of the chase, but it eventually turned to finding hardware to build systems that play the games I enjoyed most. Once I got those, I've been pretty content to just enjoy what I have, and hang out here.

My modern PCI non-E collection 😀

GPU-z is kinda dumb when it comes to PCI-e to PCI bridges...

clueless1 wrote:

^This. In the beginning, there was definitely the thrill of the chase, but it eventually turned to finding hardware to build systems that play the games I enjoyed most. Once I got those, I've been pretty content to just enjoy what I have, and hang out here.

Yeah. I wanted to try out a whole bunch of different kinds of hardware in my setup. Incidentally, it turns out the best hardware for my purposes ended up being some of the least expensive, and I obtained a lot of it early on. The rest was just to have the "experience", so to speak. But there's no need to hold on to over half of my current inventory. I'm no collector.

badmojo wrote:

After years of enjoyable searching for the things on my list I have everything I want, and I'm here to tell ya that it hasn't made me a happier man - if anything my interest in this hobby has declined 😢 There's something to be said for the thrill of the chase / having a list of projects you're planning for the future.

Yup I've gotten pretty bored of it myself. Honestly thinking of reducing my collecting to just my Packard Bell machines and ditching everything else. It's become more of a burden than a joy to own most of these things. 🤣

That said... Still looking for a Packard Bell spectria all in one... (see below)

the older style 4x4 Packard Bell (below)

and either the Milano style case or the Multimedia GL, GLE or Pulsar from over in the EU.

Or (GL/GLE/PULSAR)

Yeah I got kinda tired of it too so I just have one retro box (the HP 7270) and have 86box on my desktop + laptop as well. That covers pretty much any retro/MIDI stuff for me.

My Dinosaur collection :

I mainly collect CPUs but build retro rigs for fun too. I concentrate on the DOS era but I like to test as much of my collection as I can so I have parts for up to Socket 1155 and FM2. My collection is definitely missing a few things:

- Any 512kB and 1MB Pentium Pro CPU. At least I have a few 200/256 and 180/256 pieces.
- A standard ATX PPro mobo. Mine is a non-standard HP one that needs a special PSU. An ATX->HP power adapter would help too.
- Any Rise MP6
- Any WinChip C2.
- Any Nexgen CPU.
- Cyrix/IBM 5x86-120, 133
- Any pink top Cyrix. They were the mobile ones, IIRC.
- A Gravis Ultrasound Extreme. Or any GUS (Classic) that's not 3.4 or 3.74.
- A working S939 board. I had one but accidentally killed it by chipping the north bridge.
- A Pentium 66. I have a few 60's both with and without the infamous FDIV bug (all gold top, though. Any in full ceramic flavor would be nice too.)
- More K6-III+ and 2+ pieces. They're extremely rare in the scrap and always welcome. Slot A Thunderbirds are also welcome. All these families are represented by single pieces in my collection.
- A socket 1150 board. Newer than my main PC but would be nice to test that one single Haswell Celeron I bought from a forum mate who accidentally found it at a flea market. I'm not sure it works, it was in a dead m/b in the opposite direction. Hell, I couldn't even imagine that these LGA CPUs could be forced in if not correctly aligned. Now I know that it's possible...
- A Socket 478/ISA/AGP board would be nice too but I can live without it.

I'm looking now to build a high-performance Windows 98 computer as my compaq isn't really cutting it.

I would love to get an official Sony Trinitron CRT like the Sony GDM-F520 MMaximus shared in his post

Gorgeous.

But I could also live with one of the IBM or Dell branded Black Trinitron CRTs. I just want my new system to not look as outdated as my poor desktop format compaq.

King_Corduroy wrote:

That said... Still looking for a Packard Bell spectria all in one... (see below) http://pbclub.pwcsite.com/wiki/images/8/8c/Spec […]
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That said... Still looking for a Packard Bell spectria all in one... (see below)

Ah yes, the Spectria is very sought after. However the appeal wore off for me when I found out that Packard Bell monitors are typically quite blurry, so it's likely the spectria would be the same way.

Currently searching for a Diamond Edge 3D. And also boxed stuff.

Looks like it may be awhile though.

I collect records,VHS,8 tracks,cassettes and I WOULD LOVE having a collection of videodiscs also!!! (If I could find a good MONO player I might get it)

kixs wrote:

HDD:
- Conner 42MB 3.5" IDE

If you're just looking for a Type 17 IDE drive, the ST-351 works and is fairly common.

agent_x007 wrote:

My Dinosaur collection :

HDDs 0.jpg

who needs SSDs?

Qjimbo wrote:

But I could also live with one of the IBM or Dell branded Black Trinitron CRTs. I just want my new system to not look as outdated as my poor desktop format compaq.

I was using a couple of IBM P70 Trinitrons for years, those were great for a CRT, low eyestrain, night and day over your generic 15" SVGA. However, they look pretty out of date. I am struggling to remember what happened to them, think one was still operational but one went fuzzy. They must have crawled into a corner somewhere.

oeuvre wrote:

who needs SSDs?

Exactly. They simply don't sound as good 😁

KCompRoom2000 wrote:

All right, let's list what I've been searching for but have yet to find in my journeys at local thrift stores and recycling cent […]
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All right, let's list what I've been searching for but have yet to find in my journeys at local thrift stores and recycling centers, I'm bound to find some of these eventually:

- A PCI Ethernet card for my Win95 rig <- found a Realtek RTL8139 that should work.
- ZIP250 drive module for the Dell Latitude C-series laptops <- not found yet
- A front USB port/card reader drive bay addon for my AMD64 rig <- have one now (a 4-port USB/AC97/2-port Firewire 3.5" drive bay hub)
- A case to store my Dell Optiplex GX260 motherboard 😜 <- not found yet, will probably settle for a test bench chassis there.

Yeah, that's pretty much all I can think of right now.

OK. Now I have half of the items listed there as you can see above, so here's a new list for what I don't have but would like to get someday:

- A spare black Dell CRT Monitor. (Now that I have the space for one since I sold a 15" Apple CRT a week ago, and so I wouldn't be empty-handed if my M782p ever dies.)
- A few 3dfx Voodoo2 cards for the two 9x rigs of mine. A single V1 or V2 for my C433 and two V2 SLIs for my GX150 would be a dream come true.
- Any Intel Pentium III Tualatin CPU.
- An nVidia Geforce256. Not necessary, but would be nice to have for benchmarking purposes (especially trying to shove games that use real T&L and recommend a Geforce2 onto it)
- A Yamaha ISA sound card. so my P1 rig can have real OPL without the hanging note annoyances of the SB16s of the era.
- A 2.5" SATA SSD for my Toshiba Satellite A105 laptop.
- A 12.1" TFT LCD screen for my Toshiba Satellite 315CDS laptop.

Complete in box:

• intel Pentium 60
• ATI Graphics Ultra+ Mach32 (ISA)
• ATI Graphics Pro Turbo Mach64 (VLB/ISA)
• ATI Graphics Xpression Mach64 (VLB/ISA/PCI)
• Creative Labs 3D Blaster PCI
• Creative Labs Graphics Blaster Eclipse
• Creative Labs Graphics Blaster Picture Perfect

BitWrangler wrote:

kixs wrote:

HDD:
- Conner 42MB 3.5" IDE

If you're just looking for a Type 17 IDE drive, the ST-351 works and is fairly common.

Looking for that specific unit 😉

My updated list:

CPU:
- Ti486SXL-40 (386 pinout)
- Ti486SXL2-50 (386 pinout, 3V)
- Ti486SXL2-66 (386 pinout)
- Cyrix 486drx2-66 (386 pinout)
- IIT X2 487DLX25/50 (maybe 33/66 not sure if exists)
- ULSI Math Co DX2 66MHz
- Cyrix 5x86-133
- Weitek 3167-033

VGA:
- ISA Tseng ET4000/w32i 2MB
- ISA Diamond Speedstar32 2MB (ET4000/w32i chipset)
- ISA Mach64 VRAM 2MB
- VLB S3 Trio64
- VLB S3 964/968
- VLB ATI Mach64 VRAM 2MB
- PCI Tseng ET6100
- ATi Mach64 memory upgrade module part number: 100-26401-00
- AGP 3dfx Voodoo 5 5500 64MB

HDD:
- Conner 42MB 3.5" IDE
- Conner CFA850A 850MB 3.5" IDE

Misc:
- Socket 370 to Tualatin converter (FC-PGA to FC-PGA2)
- 486 CPU voltage regulator socket adapter 5V to 3V
- M919 cache module
- rectangular DIP crystal oscillators between 82 and 98Mhz
- Micomsoft XE-1 ST2 arcade stick for Sega Mega Drive

An NIB Thrustmaster HOTAS Cougar.

Ironically, used Cougar is more expensive on ebay than the newer, more sophisticated, and better built HOTAS Warthog.

My "MS-DOFFICE" is almost ready, pretty much with all the retro PC's i wanted to build:

Turbo XT
Tandy 1000 SL
286-16
386DX-40
AMD5x86-133

The Turbo XT is a true CGA PC and i would like to use a real EGA card on the 286.
The 386 is an awesome right, specially after i started using MR. BIOS instead of AMI.
The 5x86 covers almost all the rest and i like how the disabled Turbo gives a DX2-66 performance equivalence.

I will probably build a T-bred Athlon XP based system running Windows 98 which will also take care of the latest DOS games.

Things i still want:

-IBM Music Feature
-Adlib Gold
-Acer Magic S23
-Yamaha DB50XG
-Turtle Beach Tropez Plus