Maybe not so retro, but I got a couple of Xeon X5687's to upgrade a couple of old HP Z400 workstations the family uses. Looks like this will bring them from older C2D-level performance up into upper i5-3rd Gen territory for pennies. These things (Z400) also have triple-channel RAM, so it may even be into i5-4th Gen territory in benchmarks.

probnot wrote:

I have that case. Hasn't cut me, but I don't like the stupid rails needed to mount drives. Especially since I don't have them...

Wood ice cream sticks. glue and a drill work wonders.

probnot wrote:

I have that case. Hasn't cut me, but I don't like the stupid rails needed to mount drives. Especially since I don't have them...

Also, I'll take removing the front to slide one side off vs sliding the whole cover off (like those P2 era InWin cases)...it jams up, or doesn't line up every time!

I've got some if you ever need any.

Bought a lot of 10 kg at Ebay for 60€. I asked the seller to care about good packaging and use padding. But it arrived all loosely stacked above each other in a carton that was much too large 😵 😵 😵

I was very surprised what I received. In the sellers photo I only spotted the AWE32 and the ET4000 and that was enough to bid on it.

But what additionally arrived..cool 😀 Highlights:

Not on the photo: ASUS GTX 460 PCIe. This one is already running in my "Main" PC, never owned a graphics card and was using onboard graphics for the last 10 years. Now I know what I have missed 😎

Then 2 cool VLB cards:
- ATI mach 32
- Tekram DC 680C: Looked quite bad and 1st I was thinking it didndt work as there was no BIOS message. After some tries I figured out that it wont boot without RAM installed. Put 4x4MB on it now it runs perfectly. Its an IDE RAID controller with caching and a Harris 80286-20 on it. Very cool...!

Never intended to collect any VLB stuff because I never owned it but I think I will keep this.

All is running perfectly in spite of the bad packaging. At the AWE32 RAM connectors are broken.

One of the biggest (if not the biggest) Docking Stations from the late 90s..:

Compaq ArmadaStation II (plus its fitting machine, Armada 7400) for 30 bucks
(roughly 40cm x 40cm x 12cm / about 15 kg), built in power supply with extra fan (!)

It even has 2x ISA/PCI slots in the docking station. (Full length!)
Like the laptop itself it is from around 1997/1998 so I think I am going to stick a TNT in there.
Funnily enough, nowadays, external docking stations for graphic cards are all the hype for laptops (eGPU)...
Here's Compaq doing exactly that (well, kinda...) in 1997.

The laptop houses a Pentium 2 with 300Mhz and 256MB RAM. What would you think would be a fitting PCI GPU for this beast?
RIVA 128? TNT? or even TNT 2 M64? Of course the full length suggest a Voodoo, but not all of us do have one...

Yesterday I had a "Wavetable-bundle-day"...
- First one is jazz / crystal based card with wavetable daughterboard (I managed to identify it as Audio Wave AWS32 - audio work studio)

- Second one is Turtle Beach Monterey = TB Rio Daughterboard + Turtle Beach Tahiti

I'm nicely suprised by Rio - it sound great, not so naturalistic as yamaha but it has that retro touch - that how I remember retro games soudtracks.

Some recordings of the Rio would be great it sounds like something up my alley..

Seller photos. 13$ shipped.
Both in working condition.

Thank you Craigslist!

Oh and $40 of this month's grocery money. I'll post a video later of me turning them on. I want to see what a hyperdrive enabled mac plus can do!

Beautiful, all that for $40? That's a steal!

luckybob wrote:

Thank you Craigslist! […]
Show full quote

Thank you Craigslist!

Oh and $40 of this month's grocery money. I'll post a video later of me turning them on. I want to see what a hyperdrive enabled mac plus can do!

Lmao. Well now you can enjoy ramen noodles while enjoying vintage Macintoshs.

Yesterday I bought locally a big lot of mixed retro and modern parts.
The retro-stars:

- A Creative 3D Blaster Banshee PCI: It's my first ever real 3DFX card, it's in good visual state and works, although sometimes at boot lacks primary green color but after a while it display correct colors 😕. Anyway, a nice card, and since it's PCI I don't have to worry about AGP notchs and voltages.

- A Trident TGA8900C ISA 1MB: My first ISA graphic card, only 25 years after it was made 🤣. Surprisingly it boots without a hitch in my Pentium III-S 1400 and works in win98. Obviously perfomance is nothing to write home about, but the fact that it boots and works is impressive enough.

Thre is also one of the infamous Alliance Semiconductor AT3D, but I don't dignify it wth a photo. It boots, but I'm not gonna bother with installing the drivers and benching it.

Another curious piece, this is not retro at all, but a text-book example of over engineering:

It's a PCIe 4x to 4 USB 3.0 card. The big chip is a PCIe switch that divides the 4x lane into four 1x lanes, each one connected to an individual USB chip (the 4 small ones on the left) that powers one USB port each (the chips are dual port). In theory this configuration allows for full bandwdth simultaneously for each port, in real life it only serves to overcomplicate the card and make it much more expensive (130$ when new, 3-4 times the cost of a conventional 4 port card).

shiva2004 wrote:

Yesterday I bought locally a big lot of mixed retro and modern parts. The retro-stars: […]
Show full quote

Yesterday I bought locally a big lot of mixed retro and modern parts.
The retro-stars:

- A Creative 3D Blaster Banshee PCI: It's my first ever real 3DFX card, it's in good visual state and works, although sometimes at boot lacks primary green color but after a while it display correct colors 😕. Anyway, a nice card, and since it's PCI I don't have to worry about AGP notchs and voltages.

IMG_20170910_010204.jpg

- A Trident TGA8900C ISA 1MB: My first ISA graphic card, only 25 years after it was made 🤣. Surprisingly it boots without a hitch in my Pentium III-S 1400 and works in win98. Obviously perfomance is nothing to write home about, but the fact that it boots and works is impressive enough.

IMG_20170910_010233.jpg

Thre is also one of the infamous Alliance Semiconductor AT3D, but I don't dignify it wth a photo. It boots, but I'm not gonna bother with installing the drivers and benching it.

Another curious piece, this is not retro at all, but a text-book example of over engineering:

IMG_20170910_012427.jpg

It's a PCIe 4x to 4 USB 3.0 card. The big chip is a PCIe switch that divides the 4x lane into four 1x lanes, each one connected to an individual USB chip (the 4 small ones on the left) that powers one USB port each (the chips are dual port). In theory this configuration allows for full bandwdth simultaneously for each port, in real life it only serves to overcomplicate the card and make it much more expensive (130$ when new, 3-4 times the cost of a conventional 4 port card).

🤣 @ using that Trident in 98: I used a TVGA9000B 512K in my P3 out of curiosity one day, and while it recognized and installed PnP drivers, it was fun seeing everything being slowly drawn out 😀

jaZz_KCS wrote:

It even has 2x ISA/PCI slots in the docking station. (Full length!)

That is one impressive docking station!

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

luckybob wrote:

Thank you Craigslist! […]
Show full quote

Thank you Craigslist!

Oh and $40 of this month's grocery money. I'll post a video later of me turning them on. I want to see what a hyperdrive enabled mac plus can do!

Lmao. Well now you can enjoy ramen noodles while enjoying vintage Macintoshs.

And canned creamed corn

Jade Falcon wrote:

And caned creamed corn

Actually, I have a fondness for canned pasta. I don't know why, but I like those little "meat" balls. 🤣 Hopefully I can get some other side work fixing laptops to make up the difference. Being jobless sucks.

On a happier note, I did open the Apple 2e and the missing key was inside! someone had already tried to glue it back on. I'm going to have to do a root canal procedure to actually fix it, but at least I have the key cap!

luckybob wrote:

Jade Falcon wrote:

And caned creamed corn

Actually, I have a fondness for canned pasta. I don't know why, but I like those little "meat" balls. 🤣 Hopefully I can get some other side work fixing laptops to make up the difference. Being jobless sucks.

On a happier note, I did open the Apple 2e and the missing key was inside! someone had already tried to glue it back on. I'm going to have to do a root canal procedure to actually fix it, but at least I have the key cap!

Haha Jobless does suck. I've considered doing freelance computer repair for a while now. The thing is I'm bad with laptops and every idiot buys laptops these days even though there proprietary non-repairable BGA shit boxes. I know someone that paid $2000 for a Dell Lattitude UltraBook from a Rent-One store and complains Everytime that piece of shit malfunctions.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

I know someone that paid $2000 for a Dell Lattitude UltraBook from a Rent-One store and complains Everytime that piece of shit malfunctions.

But "it looks so nice!" 🤣

Jade Falcon wrote:

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

luckybob wrote:

Thank you Craigslist! […]
Show full quote

Thank you Craigslist!

Oh and $40 of this month's grocery money. I'll post a video later of me turning them on. I want to see what a hyperdrive enabled mac plus can do!

Lmao. Well now you can enjoy ramen noodles while enjoying vintage Macintoshs.

And caned creamed corn

does the one in the middle have an internal HD?

xplus93 wrote:

does the one in the middle have an internal HD?

No. It has an orbital hard drive....

Where else would it be? Lmao