I like that the power button has power written on it. Kinda reminds me of cringe mac fanboy meme that can't find the power button on a PC.

Wait! A new case? Does it mean that you have the keyboard lock's key? 😮

GigAHerZ wrote on Yesterday, 10:37:

Wait! A new case? Does it mean that you have the keyboard lock's key? 😮

Should be in that packet of screws 5th pic he posted, 1st one of second batch, in the bottom of the case.... though it's not like most of them were super unique, one fits all a lot of the time. If you want one super bad, buy a cheap removable HDD caddy with a lock the same shape and it has a high chance of fitting.

Indeed. Usually the HDD racks used the same key. I'm not even sure why would anyone want to lock the keyboard with it?

Managed to get these Compaq speakers for 5$ to (hopefully) pair them with my Compaq CDS 520.

They dont have the rca connectors since the wire was cut. From my research they are JBL speakers and they are quite heavy, so i hope they sound well.

They seem to be somewhat rare.

Part number is: 288839-001

Arrived today, a Microstar MS5169 super 7 mobo with K6-2 300 MHz CPU and 64 MB SDRAM. I was looking at the MSI website support page and it looks like based on the available BIOS versions and this version 2 PCB that it will only support up to (I think) a 400 MHz K6-2 CPU, as support for the higher speed CPUs and K6-2+/K6-3 CPUs look to be added to later BIOS versions which are only for higher PCB versions. A little bit of a shame but that's ok, I'll just use it for a medium speed super 7 build. It's only 1 of 4 super 7 boards I have.

Brawndo wrote on Today, 01:55:

Arrived today, a Microstar MS5169 super 7 mobo with K6-2 300 MHz CPU and 64 MB SDRAM. I was looking at the MSI website support p […]
Show full quote

Arrived today, a Microstar MS5169 super 7 mobo with K6-2 300 MHz CPU and 64 MB SDRAM. I was looking at the MSI website support page and it looks like based on the available BIOS versions and this version 2 PCB that it will only support up to (I think) a 400 MHz K6-2 CPU, as support for the higher speed CPUs and K6-2+/K6-3 CPUs look to be added to later BIOS versions which are only for higher PCB versions. A little bit of a shame but that's ok, I'll just use it for a medium speed super 7 build. It's only 1 of 4 super 7 boards I have.

I would think it would work up to at least a K6-2 550 with no issues. And if the board doesn't have a 5.5x multiplier, just set it for 2x and it will read it as 6x.

cyclone3d wrote on Today, 02:42:

I would think it would work up to at least a K6-2 550 with no issues. And if the board doesn't have a 5.5x multiplier, just set it for 2x and it will read it as 6x.

Thanks for the tips. I haven't fired it up yet but I'll see what it's capable of, and I have a couple K6-2 500 MHz processors I can try.

Brawndo wrote on Today, 01:55:

Arrived today, a Microstar MS5169 super 7 mobo with K6-2 300 MHz CPU and 64 MB SDRAM. I was looking at the MSI website support p […]
Show full quote

Arrived today, a Microstar MS5169 super 7 mobo with K6-2 300 MHz CPU and 64 MB SDRAM. I was looking at the MSI website support page and it looks like based on the available BIOS versions and this version 2 PCB that it will only support up to (I think) a 400 MHz K6-2 CPU, as support for the higher speed CPUs and K6-2+/K6-3 CPUs look to be added to later BIOS versions which are only for higher PCB versions. A little bit of a shame but that's ok, I'll just use it for a medium speed super 7 build. It's only 1 of 4 super 7 boards I have.

Seems like it needs some new capacitors or could it be the angle of the camera?

Bige4u wrote on Yesterday, 01:39:

Not exactly "today", but i just have to share... NIB, purchased locally back in 1998 and never used, just stored away and forgoten about, till now.me time.

Jackpot! I've been after a good example of that case for years. It seems to have been made all around the world and varying in quality, the only one I've managed to get my hands on is pretty awful. Super cheap plastic.

pampilhoso wrote on Yesterday, 20:15:

Managed to get these Compaq speakers for 5$ to (hopefully) pair them with my Compaq CDS 520. […]
Show full quote

Managed to get these Compaq speakers for 5$ to (hopefully) pair them with my Compaq CDS 520.

They dont have the rca connectors since the wire was cut. From my research they are JBL speakers and they are quite heavy, so i hope they sound well.

They seem to be somewhat rare.

Part number is: 288839-001

bbbbb.jpg

Lovely. I have a pair of these flanking my Presario 425. I'd say they sound pretty good, as far as beige era PC speakers go. It's a shame they're passive, but they go ok plugged direct to an older soundcard with onboard amp.

Brawndo wrote on Today, 01:55:

Arrived today, a Microstar MS5169 super 7 mobo with K6-2 300 MHz CPU and 64 MB SDRAM. I was looking at the MSI website support p […]
Show full quote

Arrived today, a Microstar MS5169 super 7 mobo with K6-2 300 MHz CPU and 64 MB SDRAM. I was looking at the MSI website support page and it looks like based on the available BIOS versions and this version 2 PCB that it will only support up to (I think) a 400 MHz K6-2 CPU, as support for the higher speed CPUs and K6-2+/K6-3 CPUs look to be added to later BIOS versions which are only for higher PCB versions. A little bit of a shame but that's ok, I'll just use it for a medium speed super 7 build. It's only 1 of 4 super 7 boards I have.

Excellent motherboard and is on par with GA-5AX, P5A and SY-5EMA+. I own them all and they are very versatile. And with some bioses they support the mobile low voltage processors.

Pierre32 wrote on Today, 07:36:

pampilhoso wrote on Yesterday, 20:15:

Managed to get these Compaq speakers for 5$ to (hopefully) pair them with my Compaq CDS 520. […]
Show full quote

Managed to get these Compaq speakers for 5$ to (hopefully) pair them with my Compaq CDS 520.

They dont have the rca connectors since the wire was cut. From my research they are JBL speakers and they are quite heavy, so i hope they sound well.

They seem to be somewhat rare.

Part number is: 288839-001

bbbbb.jpg

Lovely. I have a pair of these flanking my Presario 425. I'd say they sound pretty good, as far as beige era PC speakers go. It's a shame they're passive, but they go ok plugged direct to an older soundcard with onboard amp.

Great to know that! Can you confirm that they use 2 RCA connectors? or 3.5mm jack?

pampilhoso wrote on Today, 08:32:

Pierre32 wrote on Today, 07:36:

pampilhoso wrote on Yesterday, 20:15:

Managed to get these Compaq speakers for 5$ to (hopefully) pair them with my Compaq CDS 520. […]
Show full quote

Managed to get these Compaq speakers for 5$ to (hopefully) pair them with my Compaq CDS 520.

They dont have the rca connectors since the wire was cut. From my research they are JBL speakers and they are quite heavy, so i hope they sound well.

They seem to be somewhat rare.

Part number is: 288839-001

bbbbb.jpg

Lovely. I have a pair of these flanking my Presario 425. I'd say they sound pretty good, as far as beige era PC speakers go. It's a shame they're passive, but they go ok plugged direct to an older soundcard with onboard amp.

Great to know that! Can you confirm that they use 2 RCA connectors? or 3.5mm jack?

IIRC (they're currently at a different address!) they have female RCA sockets on the rear. So I use a 3.5mm to to dual RCA cable. I always suspected there was a missing component to these (perhaps a powered sub or something) but I have no idea really.

Brawndo wrote on Today, 01:55:

Arrived today, a Microstar MS5169 super 7 mobo with K6-2 300 MHz CPU and 64 MB SDRAM. I was looking at the MSI website support p […]
Show full quote

Arrived today, a Microstar MS5169 super 7 mobo with K6-2 300 MHz CPU and 64 MB SDRAM. I was looking at the MSI website support page and it looks like based on the available BIOS versions and this version 2 PCB that it will only support up to (I think) a 400 MHz K6-2 CPU, as support for the higher speed CPUs and K6-2+/K6-3 CPUs look to be added to later BIOS versions which are only for higher PCB versions. A little bit of a shame but that's ok, I'll just use it for a medium speed super 7 build. It's only 1 of 4 super 7 boards I have.

Are those two large caps above the CPU socket looking a little bloaty, or is it just angle of the pic?

BitWrangler wrote on Today, 12:33:

Brawndo wrote on Today, 01:55:

Arrived today, a Microstar MS5169 super 7 mobo with K6-2 300 MHz CPU and 64 MB SDRAM. I was looking at the MSI website support p […]
Show full quote

Arrived today, a Microstar MS5169 super 7 mobo with K6-2 300 MHz CPU and 64 MB SDRAM. I was looking at the MSI website support page and it looks like based on the available BIOS versions and this version 2 PCB that it will only support up to (I think) a 400 MHz K6-2 CPU, as support for the higher speed CPUs and K6-2+/K6-3 CPUs look to be added to later BIOS versions which are only for higher PCB versions. A little bit of a shame but that's ok, I'll just use it for a medium speed super 7 build. It's only 1 of 4 super 7 boards I have.

Are those two large caps above the CPU socket looking a little bloaty, or is it just angle of the pic?

They're bad, as are two of the three under the CPU socket and one to the right of the DIMM slot. This is an MSI board (famed for bad caps) from the cap plague era. All larger electrolytics will definitely need replacing.

AngryByDefault wrote on 2021-06-09, 23:09:

Down the rabbit hole, step 1 ... […]
Show full quote

Down the rabbit hole, step 1 ...

AMD_Am586-X5-133-lowres.jpg

Just arrived!...

Finding a mainboard for building my theme system is proving impossible so far, but as these are becoming more rare and I got them for a good price i figured I'd get them before they're gone...

Now I have to keep diggin' for a board and every other piece 😜

Ok, so June was "CPU month" for me, as I started getting hooked on all this...

First I got a couple of Am586-x5-133 I posted earlier.
Then, as it seemed that getting a matching socket 3 board was not going to happen, I got a Socket 7 Gigabyte GA-5SMM board + K6-2 500 + 256 MB RAM kit for U$26. Since it was *not* PCChips (as 90% around here are) and at good price I figured it would be worthwhile and bought immediately.

It had an ugly, almost glued and wrongly wired cooler and a crippled Compaq BIOS, but I was able to manage all that without damaging anything 😜

Later on, since I'm trying to go for "not-the-most-common" parts and learn from them, I got these processors (from 2 different sellers):
* AMD K6-2 550 - I didn't even know they existed at this speed, so I got it for being rare (to me).
* Cyrix MII 300 GP - Never dealt with any Cyrix before, it should be fun to learn about them.
* Cyrix 686 MX PR200 - Same reasons.

While seeking for decent mainboards I found someone selling a complete system (board, micro, mems, large HDD, case, etc.) with a PCChips M571 which had been recommended to me as being fairly good and well documented overall, so I got it as an eventual "sacrificial machine", one wich I could experiment with not risking the Gigabyte board.

Shipping was relatively expensive so I added a AWE64 the seller had at a good price and was also in my "wanted" list to justify that cost... -> I guess THIS is when you start to loose control, isn't it? 🤣

The case also seemed interesting because it had an "AT-in-ATX" I/O shield and what I though would be two removable covers on the side, but they turned out very different from what I expected and won't be so useful after all:

Anyway, this added a seventh CPU to the list, not all remarkable, but useful nonetheless.

Then July started and it seems to be "Video card month"...

[ To be continued. ]