VOGONS


Reply 40 of 82, by Tetrium

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I've basically gotten most of the stuff I really wanted, but I clearly remember having made the decision to not buy that NV1 and the next time I was in the thrift shop, of course it had already been sold.

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Reply 41 of 82, by SpectriaForce

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I regret that I never asked my primary school whether I could buy or get their old 386/486 systems around the year 2000 when they were phased out of the class rooms. I believe they all went to east Europe for a third life.

Reply 42 of 82, by elod

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SpectriaForce wrote:

I believe they all went to east Europe for a third life.

That's what they told you 😀. By that time we were mosly in Pentium territorry. In 2001 we got our first batch of P3s.
I do regret throwing out our scools 486 machines. And all those VLB cards that I hated back then.

Last edited by elod on 2017-12-30, 04:03. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 43 of 82, by Jed118

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Ozzuneoj wrote:
alvaro84 wrote:

Something I had not only seen but bought and used too - but I gave it away later and I regret it very much. It was a 8087 FPU, back in '93. Now I have a 1000+-piece CPU/FPU collection but no 8087.

Holy cow... 1000+ and still haven't come across one? That's crazy. 😵

I've got one in my collection! 😁 I likely pulled it from an even-then old XT I was throwing out while working at a local computer store... 20 years ago 😉

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Reply 44 of 82, by Jed118

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SpectriaForce wrote:

I regret that I never asked my primary school whether I could buy or get their old 386/486 systems around the year 2000 when they were phased out of the class rooms. I believe they all went to east Europe for a third life.

That's hilarious because I sold my CAD teacher some 386DX40s in like 1997 for use with AutoCAD 12 (DOS) because several of his DX33s failed.

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What's for sale? my eBay!

Reply 45 of 82, by Smack2k

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When I first got back into old computers in 2012 the Goodwill Computer works store near me had a TON of really good and now more expensive AGP And PCI Video cards in boxes selling for next to nothing. Also had some Super Socket 7 boards and other goodies. But I was only concerned with older ISA and VLB ca dos at the time and passed them all up.

Reply 46 of 82, by dr_st

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There was this plush crocodile toy I saw in a store once. It was expensive; like maybe $40? But it was niiiiiice. Looked almost real and the texture was amazing. Still regret not getting it.

https://cloakedthargoid.wordpress.com/ - Random content on hardware, software, games and toys

Reply 47 of 82, by Zarchos

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spiroyster wrote:
Yeah there have been a couple over the years... Here are the ones that I still think about every now and then, and sometimes sti […]
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Yeah there have been a couple over the years... Here are the ones that I still think about every now and then, and sometimes still think... what if o.0

In order of rarity (aka magnitude of facepalm after the event).

🙁. SGI Crimson "Jurassic Classic" ... price was good, couldn't fit it in the car.

🙁 🙁 SGI 750 (dual Itanium workstation).. well, its itanium, so nuff said... however two were offered to me and they were both pennies o.0 I later found out that the number of them actually shipped globally was in the double digits (so less than 100)... they would have been my only itaniums!

🙁 🙁 🙁 Acorn Phoebe case. 80 quid, ~2 years ago (I posted in the ebay thread, no one took the bait, so I aalllllmost did). It would have been a talking point, being the only official yellow computer case I know about (not yellow because of UV!). Phoebe was the next gen RiscPC that was never released other than some prototype cases.

🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁 Amiga Walker on ebay quite a number of years ago... didn't realise there were only two prototypes in existence, price was nearing the 200 GBP mark when I saw it, although I don't know what it went for in the end though. If it was today, given Amiga fans, 10K, 100K, who knows o.0

I tended to get pissed off with rare stuff I didn't get, not so much getting something for a good price. I jettisoned a lot of my retro gear few years ago and stopped 'collecting', although I'm sure I could find space for any of the items listed above.. 😉

The Phoebe casings come back regularly on Ebay.
I saw a few units less than 2 months ago.
I believe somebody has a stock to sell ...

My turn for the missed opportunities : a non working Acorn A500 prototype ... it must have been 6 years ago ;-(
I didn't buy it ...

but

but

but

I bought the working one listed about 4 months ago 😉
It was an interesting machine with working hard drive, with lot of nice things to preserve, including :
https://www.domesday86.com/?page_id=936

Xavier Louis Tardy

Reply 48 of 82, by harddrivespin

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I didn't take a Gemini Galaxy 2 (z80 British home computer) or a Mostek MDS due to space issues. I also (quite some time ago) saw a Sun Voyager going for cheap but didn't take it due to not being interested in old computers at the time.

Reply 49 of 82, by Tetrium

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dr_st wrote:

There was this plush crocodile toy I saw in a store once. It was expensive; like maybe $40? But it was niiiiiice. Looked almost real and the texture was amazing. Still regret not getting it.

This sounds really soft for old hardware 😜

Whats missing in your collections?
My retro rigs (old topic)
Interesting Vogons threads (links to Vogonswiki)
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Reply 50 of 82, by Ozzuneoj

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I have an opportunity to get an Abit SA6R board for around $20... been considering it, but that's more than I normally spend on one old board. It looks to be in good condition. I know 815\815E board aren't that common, and this looks to be a decent board... but how does it compare to a solid Apollo Pro 133T board like the ASUS TUV4X or AOpen AX34-U. Or a really nice 440BX board like the Abit BXII RAID? I have all of these (some need extensive recapping), and I hope to eventually have one ideal P3 setup to play with, but its hard to decide. I know the BXII doesn't officially support 133Mhz FSB or Tualatins, and its a much older chipset so lacks other nice features, but it is highly praised, so there has to be a reason for it. The AX34-U is probably the best candidate for an ideal P3 setup since it has an ISA slot as well as Tualatin support... but I know VIA chipsets of this era aren't known for their compatibility and reliability. In what situations is that likely to be an issue and is an 815E board better?

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

Reply 51 of 82, by appiah4

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i815 is a pretty good chipset but I kind of favor 133T over it for being able to use ISA slots regardless. That said, my general purpose retro PC is an i810 and I find it to be exponentially hassle free compared to th 133T bench build I had a couple months ago. VIA is.. well, VIA.

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 52 of 82, by armankordi

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I passed up a huge haul of old parts because of the promise that we would return. It's been 4 years and I'm pretty sure most of it has been recycled. (even though I am going down there this summer to look!)

IBM PS/2 8573-121 386-20 DOS6.2/W3.1
IBM PS/2 8570-E61 386-16 W95
IBM PS/2 8580-071 386-16 (486DX-33 reply) OS/2 warp
486DX/2 - 66/32mb ram/256k cache/504mb hdd/cdrom/awe32/DOS6.2/WFW3.11
K6/2 - 350/128mb ram/512k cache/4.3gb hdd/cdr/sblive/w98

Reply 53 of 82, by retrofanatic

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I visited a fairly large PC recycler that has a retail store attached that sells some older pc parts and systems and sometimes gaming consoles and I found and bought some really cool items including an old TI-99, a Yamaha sound module, an IBM Aptiva (Pentium 75) with the fancy sliding front case thing (it was exactly like the one I owned in University back in the mid 90's so I was really excited), an original Sound Blaster in the original box(!), a couple Coleco Adam systems (complete) and some other items I have been looking for for a while.

Then one of the employees showed me that they had an old original Apple IIe system as well that looked to be in mint condition. I don't know what was with me that day, but I just totally disregarded it thinking that they would be asking too much or that I shouldn't buy anymore stuff. I can't believe that I thought that since I really wanted one of those systems since it was very nostalgic to me (it was what I used in Elementary school in the 80's).

I did give them an offer for everything else and they accepted it and I left there feeling great about my sound blaster and Aptiva purchase, but when I got home I started to think about the Apple system in all it's brown/beige glory in mint condition and I can't believe it that I didn't even try to give them an offer. Looking back I would probably trade everything else I got (except the sound blaster in box and yamaha midi module 🤣) to have that Apple IIe in that condition. This happened a couple years ago and it still bothers me today...I'm not quite over it yet. Oh well, maybe it wasn't meant to be 😢.

Reply 54 of 82, by infiniteclouds

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I really regret not snatching one of those brand new Audician 32s on ebay a month or two ago. The prices had started going up so I decided I'd wait until I got through my holiday spending even if it meant paying even a BIT more later on.... but they've since vanished altogether.

Reply 55 of 82, by IAmJefferson

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Around late-2017, I wanted to buy a particularly ultra rare model from Toshiba's own "Dynabook" product line. The model is "2540S" (also known as PAS 254 N 8), it has the following specifications:

  • CPU: 333MHz AMD K6-II (with the notorious 3DNow! technology)
  • RAM: 64MB (192MB maximum)
  • 13" inch DSTN LCD screen (800x600)
  • 2MB S3 ViRGE MX86C260 (ViRGE/MX) video chip
  • 4.3 GB internal hard drive
  • SoundBlaster-compatible sound chip
  • Has a floppy drive and a CD-ROM drive

There are two reasons why I couldn't buy that laptop:

- It is untested, and yes, I do NOT like STN screens. The one that they were selling on a Japanese thrift shop in my country didn't come with any essential accessories (such as AC adapter).
- Drivers for this particular laptop is ultra hard to find, as there are no available recovery CDs nor available drivers on the internet for this model.

Here's the picture of that laptop.

28SAArR.jpg

Reply 56 of 82, by torindkflt

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A couple years ago, I found an AT&T PC 6300 with keyboard and color monitor at a Goodwill in Nebraska for $100. I nabbed that sucker right away.

Sadly, the expense of the AT&T PC meant I no longer had enough money to also buy this, which was sitting on the same shelf right next to it...

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Yep...a G4 Cube including monitor and basically everything else, with the only apparent defect being a faulty optical drive...for only $90.

I'm not into collecting old Macs near as much as old PCs, but this I definitely wanted...if only I had the money for it at the time. 😵

Reply 57 of 82, by gdjacobs

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torindkflt wrote:

Yep...a G4 Cube including monitor and basically everything else, with the only apparent defect being a faulty optical drive...for only $90.

The G4 Cube was in many ways, lots of sizzle but not much steak. Yeah, the design was striking, but it was expensive and performance limited with a huge external power brick. Plus the issues with the plastic outer surface and overheating in more challenging ambient conditions.

All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder

Reply 58 of 82, by dionb

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Was nosing around one of the more chaotic thrift shops in one of my old stomping grounds when I spotted this:
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Yep, that's an original ST-412 with IBM front plate.

Unfortunately they still only took cash and I had none, and by the time I was back with some it was gone...

Reply 59 of 82, by brostenen

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Some of this is recent hardware, other is kind of old....
Though there are a few pieces of hardware that I am missing in my collection.

- 2 x IndevisionECS (Amiga Scandoubler).
- Amiga 500. (OCS model with kick 1.3).
- Amiga1200, upgraded with 030 card and IndevisionAGA scandoubler.
- 020 16mhz Accelerator card for Amiga600.
- C64 Over-Voltage Protector.

I regret not getting all this, at the time when it was still fairly cheap.
Now it all cost a leg, an arm and half a soul.

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

My blog: http://to9xct.blogspot.dk
My YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/brostenen

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