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What retro activity did you get up to today?

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Reply 26200 of 28625, by Minutemanqvs

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Today I reinstalled my dual Socket A system, with a Matrox Parhelia I finally got my hands on, running on Windows 2000. Played some Quake III with hi-res textures on it and checked for stability with 3DMark 2001 SE, it gets around 6700 points in 1024x768 default settings. Quake III demo "four" runs at 93 fps at maximum quality settings in 1280x1024.

I'm really happy with this system, it's exotic enough to be cool. The only "downside" are the noisy fans, but all systems of this era were like this...the coolers are original AMD and do a very good job of taming the heat on these Athlon MPs. It also just fits in a standard 40$ ATX case without drive cages in the way. On the mainboard you can chose to power it with ATX + Molex or ATX + ATX 12V connector, which negates the usual 12V rail problem on modern ATX power supplies. I'm glad I have several of these 😀

And the mainboard also supports 2 sticks of standard DDR, or 4 of ECC DDR, which is very easy to live with.

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Searching a Nexgen Nx586 with FPU, PM me if you have one. I have some Athlon MP systems and cookies.

Reply 26202 of 28625, by Minutemanqvs

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Kahenraz wrote on 2023-12-15, 17:54:

Are those 60mm fans? You can replace them with Noctua fans.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B009NQMESS?psc=1

Yes, they are 60mm and you are right. I already did that on my Slot A cooler...it's amazing how we could bare with the noise back then, but nowadays it bothers me quite a lot!

Searching a Nexgen Nx586 with FPU, PM me if you have one. I have some Athlon MP systems and cookies.

Reply 26203 of 28625, by PcBytes

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Another PS3 rescue, CECHG04.

This one had LOTS of dust and a dead APS-231 PSU (no wonder, the APS-231 is the worst PS3 power supply, along with Nichicon's ZSSR PS3 PSUs).
Cleaned thoroughly, dusted off every square cm of it, repasted with MX6.
Currently FTP-ing off saves from it, then next stop is a new HDD in place of the ole' 40GB Seagate it runs.

"Enter at your own peril, past the bolted door..."
Main PC: i5 3470, GB B75M-D3H, 16GB RAM, 2x1TB
98SE : P3 650, Soyo SY-6BA+IV, 384MB RAM, 80GB

Reply 26204 of 28625, by Kahenraz

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Minutemanqvs wrote on 2023-12-15, 18:00:
Kahenraz wrote on 2023-12-15, 17:54:

Are those 60mm fans? You can replace them with Noctua fans.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B009NQMESS?psc=1

Yes, they are 60mm and you are right. I already did that on my Slot A cooler...it's amazing how we could bare with the noise back then, but nowadays it bothers me quite a lot!

Fan noise was minimized by how loud hard drives were. I think that computers' distinctive "sound" became normalized at the time and we didn't know anything different. It wasn't until computers got quieter that we started to realize that it wasn't the computer itself but specific components that could be replaced for quieter ones. For most of us, computers were just black boxes never to be opened.

I can still remember that people used to think that the monitor was the computer and called the computer a hard drive.

Reply 26205 of 28625, by Law212

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Set up my Pentium 1 the other day so I can play through Doom and sigil 1 and 2 as well as other games. The last computer left is the 486. Doom is a blast no matter how many times I play it.
This is a Pentium 1 233 MMX with a 12 meg voodoo 2.

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Reply 26206 of 28625, by debs3759

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Kahenraz wrote on 2023-12-15, 19:08:

I can still remember that people used to think that the monitor was the computer and called the computer a hard drive.

I know people who still call the base unit a CPU or a hard drive. People also think the memory is the hard drive. Annoys the hell out of me when I hear that from otherwise well educated people.

See my graphics card database at www.gpuzoo.com
Constantly being worked on. Feel free to message me with any corrections or details of cards you would like me to research and add.

Reply 26207 of 28625, by Kahenraz

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80 gigabytes of CPU, 1.4 gigahertz of memory, and an Intel hard drive.

Reply 26208 of 28625, by CrazyCatman

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Kahenraz wrote:

I can still remember that people used to think that the monitor was the computer and called the computer a hard drive.

But this one is my hard drive....
atari_mega1_003-1024x768.jpg

Computer and hard drive:
atari_mega1_004-1024x768.jpg

So many computers, so little time...

Reply 26209 of 28625, by kant explain

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Questionable in terms of actual activity. But heard from an old acquaintance regarding a Radio Electronics magazine RE Robot he built in the 80s. I never had immense interest in the robot itself, but the brain in itself was an 80188 based computer board. You could build it or actually buy it. From a company called Vesta Technologies, who is still in existence.
Anyway I said I have no room for the robot, but he offered to send me just the electronics. Which seems as if it's finally going to happen.

Why I post this. The robot is in Florida. If anyone is interested, I could put you in contact. I would also send you the electronics subsequently, just have to gaze upon them for a while.

*** Permission to crosspost ***

Last edited by kant explain on 2023-12-16, 22:11. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 26210 of 28625, by Kahenraz

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CrazyCatman wrote on 2023-12-16, 19:33:
Kahenraz wrote:

I can still remember that people used to think that the monitor was the computer and called the computer a hard drive.

But this one is my hard drive....

I stand corrected! 😂

Reply 26212 of 28625, by BitWrangler

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Turn of the millennium web design fail, not enough dancing hamsters, garish colors, comic sans headers and under construction signs, oh or frames for no reason.

Just kidding.

Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.

Reply 26213 of 28625, by H3nrik V!

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I think, I was under the impression that CPU was short for ComPUter or something. The brackets to mount the towers under the desk was at least in Denmark sold as CPU-Holders ... 😀

If it's dual it's kind of cool ... 😎

--- GA586DX --- P2B-DS --- BP6 ---

Please use the "quote" option if asking questions to what I write - it will really up the chances of me noticing 😀

Reply 26214 of 28625, by kant explain

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CPU = Central Processing Unit. It's a term from the mainframe days that is mistakenly applied to a microprocessor. Or since it's in such widespread use, you could say it's been repurposed.

Reply 26215 of 28625, by kant explain

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CrazyCatman wrote on 2023-12-16, 19:33:
But this one is my hard drive.... https://yuri.dk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/atari_mega1_003-1024x768.jpg […]
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Kahenraz wrote:

I can still remember that people used to think that the monitor was the computer and called the computer a hard drive.

But this one is my hard drive....
atari_mega1_003-1024x768.jpg

Computer and hard drive:
atari_mega1_004-1024x768.jpg

I hate you. I've wanted a Mega ST / Megafile stack for ages. It's not damned fair!

Reply 26216 of 28625, by Ensign Nemo

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BitWrangler wrote on 2023-12-17, 21:18:

Turn of the millennium web design fail, not enough dancing hamsters, garish colors, comic sans headers and under construction signs, oh or frames for no reason.

Just kidding.

Don't forget the really bad midi music playing in the background and a hit counter on the bottom of the page!

Reply 26217 of 28625, by Kahenraz

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Make sure that your website is part of a "web ring" that only connects to dead links.

Reply 26218 of 28625, by debs3759

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Kahenraz wrote on 2023-12-18, 01:13:

Make sure that your website is part of a "web ring" that only connects to dead links.

LMAO

That takes me back to when AOL, CompuServe, GeoCities and similar ruled the web. I felt like a Goddess when I found working links worth finding from many of my searches 😀

See my graphics card database at www.gpuzoo.com
Constantly being worked on. Feel free to message me with any corrections or details of cards you would like me to research and add.

Reply 26219 of 28625, by Horun

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Digging thru some "dead" parts found a bios chip for ECS P5VX-BE with bios 1.4. Noted there is not a lot on that board so wasted a few hours digging around and got a few more bios, the manual and a FAQ.
Upped to our library and archive org. http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?file … 132&menustate=0 and https://archive.org/details/ecs-p-5-vx-be-stuff.-7z
Noticed that TRW has the board but no manual or bios. Maybe they can add the extra info.....
Also found minor stuff to ECS P5VX-A and P5VX-B but incomplete so far... just rambling. 🤣

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun