XGI Volari Z7 as gift from Rhuwyn, so big thx goin to him. Btw its pure 2D (sold 2005 and later) and power consumption is 1.4W 😎 . Seems to be good for only one thing, you can easily measure with this power consumptions of other cards.

^ 1,4W? really really nice in situations where power/heat are an issue 😀

Were those Volaris popular in the server market? Lots of NOS on ebay...

If i posted every retro thing I did, it would be a daily occurrence. Anyway, here's something boring: I inventoried (is that a word?) my 14 PSUs and hooked up each of my 16 optical drives to an AT PSU in order to find out in which one I left a missing CD ages ago.

brassicGamer wrote:

and hooked up each of my 16 optical drives to an AT PSU in order to find out in which one I left a missing CD ages ago.

You do know that you can eject the drives without power by sticking a paper clip in that little hole in the front?

brassicGamer wrote:

If i posted every retro thing I did, it would be a daily occurrence. Anyway, here's something boring: I inventoried (is that a word?) my 14 PSUs and hooked up each of my 16 optical drives to an AT PSU in order to find out in which one I left a missing CD ages ago.
...

Did you find the CD?

Cyrix200+ wrote:

brassicGamer wrote:

If i posted every retro thing I did, it would be a daily occurrence. Anyway, here's something boring: I inventoried (is that a word?) my 14 PSUs and hooked up each of my 16 optical drives to an AT PSU in order to find out in which one I left a missing CD ages ago.
...

Did you find the CD?

My first thoughts exactly. 🤣

I've had the misfortune of turning on old systems or plugging in old CD drives only to find that the tray won't come out. I'm guessing there is some rubber loop-thing inside that got old and snapped or something.

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

You do know that you can eject the drives without power by sticking a paper clip in that little hole in the front?

I know that trick, but does it work with slot-loading drives (Pioneer) like the one in the middle above? I had never needed to pull out a disc that way though. Those Pioneers are my favorite drives btw.

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

brassicGamer wrote:

and hooked up each of my 16 optical drives to an AT PSU in order to find out in which one I left a missing CD ages ago.

You do know that you can eject the drives without power by sticking a paper clip in that little hole in the front?

Thanks, Phil - I can see why they made you hardware mod! 😉

Aside from a screwdriver, a paperclip is the tool I use most often. On this occasion, I also wanted to test the actual functionality of the drives whilst inventorying. And the trick does work on the slot-loaders - you just have to find the right part of the slot. Something I'm rather good at. Ahem.

Cyrix200+ wrote:

Did you find the CD?

Yes. And I would have cried if I had lost it, as I don't have an image. Time to do that before one of my kids uses it as a frisby.

brassicGamer wrote:

And the trick does work on the slot-loaders - you just have to find the right part of the slot. Something I'm rather good at. Ahem.

Wait, I still have one of those drives. Which part, I'm curious?

Another way is of course using flat pliers ... or credit cards. 😜

CT1690 SBPro 2.0 with Sony interface

I think this will complement nicely the Roland RAP-10 I got the other day.

archsan wrote:

Were those Volaris popular in the server market? Lots of NOS on ebay...

They were used on server platforms, but mostly integrated on the main board.

archsan wrote:

brassicGamer wrote:

And the trick does work on the slot-loaders - you just have to find the right part of the slot. Something I'm rather good at. Ahem.

Wait, I still have one of those drives. Which part, I'm curious?

Another way is of course using flat pliers ... or credit cards. 😜

Sigh... unless anyone can find information to the contrary, it seems I was mistaken. You're absolutely right in these drives do NOT have the release mechanism. I was thinking of a the PowerMac drives that don't have a bezel. Sorry!

^no biggie. Bummer though.

This might be relevant: http://how-to-install-car-audio-systems.blogs … -that-wont.html

If you can get past the first pic 😁 there are interesting illustrations below (esp Method 2).

edit: Nevermind, duh, I can't find the Pioneer to try it on!

Got my first Voodoo 3 card today — for about 1,5 dollars.

It's a Powercolor Evilking 3 Pro, so basically, a Voodoo 3 3000 with AGP2x, 166MHz and 16 MB SDRAM. I like the fact that it has a fan — AFAIK, Voodoo 3 produce a lot of heat, and most original cards came with a passive cooler only.

Funny thing is, I've actually thought that Voodoo 3 were only produced by 3DFX+STB, and all of them were green. So when I've seen this yellow thing with a weird looking Voodoo 3 logo (but no mention of 3DFX) I've began to wonder whether this could be a knockoff. But turns out, I was wrong.

Another funny thing is, I don't really have a system for it, since I mostly build Socket 7 systems. However, I also have almost all parts for a Slot I system, including a cool looking Pentium II-300 (got it in a bundle with some Slot I Pentium III), appropriate RAM, HDD, NIC and CD drives. I'll also get a bundle of sound cards with an Aureal Vortex-based chipset, so the only thing I'm missing is a Slot I motherboard. Don't know what would I need a late Glide/A3D machine for, though. Cartridge CPUs look really awesome to me, though 🤣

Gainward (?) TSENG ET4000/W32i VLB adapter arrived today. Pretty neat condition, just a minor scratch on the PCB. That's my first VLB part ever. I removed the heatsink which did not seem original

That's actally an effect of my drunk-bidding. I did not really needed that card, but got it for ~7 USD shipped. I guess it was worth it.

I want to build some VLB 486 system and this card seems a good choice. As it has memory expansion sockets (I see from the web that not all of them do), I will look for some modules to upgrade the card to whooping 2mb of RAM.

It does not have Gainward brand printed on the PCB, but this is what you get by decoding FCC ID: https://fccid.io/ICUVGA-GW144

What do you think about this card? Yeah, I know, not much to say 😀

VL-Bus and Voodoo3.... Nice find, both of them. 😜

tikoellner wrote:

That's actally an effect of my drunk-bidding.

^^ Hahaha!

Artex wrote:

tikoellner wrote:

That's actally an effect of my drunk-bidding.

^^ Hahaha!

Tell you what, could be worse... could have drunk-bid some Trident 😉

Naahh... Tridents are ok in 286/386's.