oeuvre wrote:

Bought an Optiplex GX1 tower + GeForce 6200 PCI for it

Ooh Im also in the process of restoring / upgrading a GX110; is the GX1 a later or earlier model? Care to share specs and what you are changing?

Finally got lucky at one of the (rather crappy in general for PC/sound stuff) local second hand stores, and scooped this up for 15 Euro:

Little used E-mu/Creative Labs Proteus X2 Virtual Sound Module complete with all CD-ROMs, manuals, and USB/MIDI interface/DRM dongle. The interface/dongle works and can also be used as a stand-alone USB/MIDI interface. I still have to try the software.

Then I found this online: http://www.creative.com/emu/proteusvx/ and my day got even better. 😁

BitWrangler wrote:

Heyyyyy, I could make a decent PC out of my Pentium 60 box.... 😉

luckybob wrote:

*audible gasp*

I suddenly want one! and it looks complete!

Jade Falcon wrote:

Same here.
Hows it work?

KCompRoom2000 wrote:

Same here, that actually reminds me of those OrangePC compatibility cards that allowed Macintoshes to run Windows/DOS natively. I wonder if that Assist Card PC set could be used for the same purpose. 😎

Cyrix200+ wrote:

That is so stupid! I love it! 🤣

Does the example onb the manual have a motherboard with both S370 and Slot1? That would make 3 CPU sockets in a PC 🤣

I haven't received it yet, but looking at the website and manual, the card is almost completely independent of the host system, it uses the PCI port for power and the host system only sees a network card, the reason why the card has two RJ45 ports.
The card is not controlled by the host system like those old x86 compatibility cards, which I made a thread about years ago, it's here if you're interested PC compatibility cards

https://web.archive.org/web/20010502191110/dt … st.co.jp/cardpc
https://web.archive.org/web/20030508083308/ht … load/cardpc.PDF

I formally request a new thread and full investigation of this card.

please.

and thank you.

appiah4 wrote:

oeuvre wrote:

Bought an Optiplex GX1 tower + GeForce 6200 PCI for it

Ooh I'm also in the process of restoring / upgrading a GX110; is the GX1 a later or earlier model? Care to share specs and what you are changing?

GX1 is earlier, but shares the same chassis. This one has 350MHz Pentium II, 256MB RAM and 4MB onboard ATI graphics. Bought a 4MB video SGRAM upgrade + GeForce 6200 128MB + 800MHz Slot 1 for it... after a BIOS update it will be able to run pretty much any Slot 1 CPU that runs at 100MHz FSB (including Coppermine + Tualatin ones that run at 100MHz instead of 133MHz).

It also has 4 ISA slots and 5 PCI slots (2 shared).

luckybob wrote:

I formally request a new thread and full investigation of this card.

please.

and thank you.

It reminds me of a LOM (lights out management) card in a server. Completely independent except, of course, a LOM has its own independent power source.

Got theese NOS parts today.

First a socket 3 PICMG1.0 SBC with a 486 DX4. A weird thing with this is that it seems to have onboard Trident VGA with extra video memory sockets, but it lacks the VGA header..

Next i buyed a Supermicro X7DBN dual lga771 board, but the seller got empty and gave me a X7DBE+ instead. Cant complain about that?

Scraphoarder wrote:

First a socket 3 PICMG1.0 SBC with a 486 DX4. A weird thing with this is that it seems to have onboard Trident VGA with extra video memory sockets, but it lacks the VGA header..

SBC-490_PICMG.jpg

I'd suggest it maybe used an LCD or Plasma display over the feature connector.

BitWrangler wrote:

Scraphoarder wrote:

First a socket 3 PICMG1.0 SBC with a 486 DX4. A weird thing with this is that it seems to have onboard Trident VGA with extra video memory sockets, but it lacks the VGA header..

SBC-490_PICMG.jpg

I'd suggest it maybe used an LCD or Plasma display over the feature connector.

Yes you could be right about that. Strange they didnt bother to solder on the VGA connector. All chips on the lanes seems to be in place.

You can always solder on a VGA connector to the card itself, but you're going to need another bracket to utilize both the VGA port and RS-232 port (might be hard to find), or trace out the bracket by putting the VGA port on the bracket and tracing where to drill at.

bjwil1991 wrote:

You can always solder on a VGA connector to the card itself, but you're going to need another bracket to utilize both the VGA port and RS-232 port (might be hard to find), or trace out the bracket by putting the VGA port on the bracket and tracing where to drill at.

Solder on the VGA connector was the first thing i thought about, but the bracket would be more tricky. Not sure if i will use the integrated graphics at all sice it could be disabled (JP16).

Scraphoarder wrote:

bjwil1991 wrote:

You can always solder on a VGA connector to the card itself, but you're going to need another bracket to utilize both the VGA port and RS-232 port (might be hard to find), or trace out the bracket by putting the VGA port on the bracket and tracing where to drill at.

Solder on the VGA connector was the first thing i thought about, but the bracket would be more tricky. Not sure if i will use the integrated graphics at all sice it could be disabled (JP16).

Didn't know there was a jumper for it. I'd suggest a Cirrus Logic CL-GD5428 or equivalent for the VGA.

Looks like it might have a connecter for a VGA cable next to the empty vga port.
Or is that for a keyboard? maybe solder a vga port on to the card?

Jade Falcon wrote:

Looks like it might have a connecter for a VGA cable next to the empty vga port.
Or is that for a keyboard? maybe solder a vga port on to the card?

It's probably a PS/2 port.

vlask wrote:

dexvx wrote:

I saw this distinctly Intel design. Probably an i740. […]
Show full quote

I saw this distinctly Intel design. Probably an i740.

For sure i740 - have one....Seems to be genuine intel version, but with only 4MB of memory. Looks like many collectors searching it, because almost all cards had 8MB of memory....

http://vgamuseum.info/index.php/cards/item/195-intel-740

Interesting, checked your pics, and mine uses the same memory chips (Samsung KM4132G512Q-10), which turns out is 512 Kbit x 32 = 2M each. I forgot if the reverse side has any chips or not, need to go back home to check it out. Haven't powered anything on in the last few days because I'm re-arranging my lab.

Need more shelves...

oeuvre wrote:

appiah4 wrote:

oeuvre wrote:

Bought an Optiplex GX1 tower + GeForce 6200 PCI for it

Ooh I'm also in the process of restoring / upgrading a GX110; is the GX1 a later or earlier model? Care to share specs and what you are changing?

GX1 is earlier, but shares the same chassis. This one has 350MHz Pentium II, 256MB RAM and 4MB onboard ATI graphics. Bought a 4MB video SGRAM upgrade + GeForce 6200 128MB + 800MHz Slot 1 for it... after a BIOS update it will be able to run pretty much any Slot 1 CPU that runs at 100MHz FSB (including Coppermine + Tualatin ones that run at 100MHz instead of 133MHz).

It also has 4 ISA slots and 5 PCI slots (2 shared).

Nice PC. My GX110 is a LP case and came with a 3 pci riser card but I got a 2 pci 2 isa (1 shared) riser for it. My board is a Socket 370 coppermine only. Came with a 766 but replaced that with a 1000. Also upgraded the RAM from 2x128mb to 2x256mb and added a G450 PCI an SB Live and a YMf-719. Considering replacing the G450 with a Radeon 7000 PCI or 9250 PCI for better 3d performance. Optiplex are charming machines..

andrewreader wrote:

Ebay: 386: https://thumb.ibb.co/f1evV6/386.png Dot Matrix Printer: https://thumb.ibb.co/btypq6/printer.png […]
Show full quote

Ebay:
386:

Dot Matrix Printer:

If all is well, hopefully I collect on Sunday.

Tongue In Cheek Rant:
I was meant to stop buying old hardware when I put together a PC that could run old DOS games. Then I was meant to stop when I put together a machine that could run old Windows 98 games. Then XP games. Then when I found a replica of my old Dell P90. Then when I found a 486 for sale. And then when the 486 didn't quite work properly, I got a Winchip 180 and motherboard on standby. And then a more complete 486 motherboard. And now this.. 😢 😊 🤣

I've been down the same road and my collection has just grown over the years.
Looks like a nice 386 - let us know what the specs are when you do collect it.

They're also easy to work with. Hopefully it comes before Thanksgiving so I can play with it

appiah4 wrote:

Nice PC. My GX110 is a LP case and came with a 3 pci riser card but I got a 2 pci 2 isa (1 shared) riser for it. My board is a Socket 370 coppermine only. Came with a 766 but replaced that with a 1000. Also upgraded the RAM from 2x128mb to 2x256mb and added a G450 PCI an SB Live and a YMf-719. Considering replacing the G450 with a Radeon 7000 PCI or 9250 PCI for better 3d performance. Optiplex are charming machines..

You know, I always loved working on that era of Optiplex when I worked for a PC repair shop from 2003-2006. I loved the way they opened, how everything fit together so snug, and they always ran great (aside from the viruses people picked up).

If I ever find one of those I'll have to grab it...

... ack, what am I saying, what would I actually do with it?! I have so much hardware from that era already. Including two Dell XPS T450 towers I've been trying to find homes for. 🤣

I shall post pics tomorrow, but picked up a free Gateway 2000 sx-33 in immaculate condition. No cache, 2 2mb 72pin simms, onboard Cirrus Logic, and out of the 6 ISA slots only one is filled with an extra 8bit parallel card. The kicker is that the 210mb WD Cavier WORKS PERFECTLY.