Re: Which Mac for retro gaming?

Posted on 2024-02-16, 10:09

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by SBB

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks for the useful replies all I had a look at some of the machines mentioned here - I don't really want a laptop (old batteries, etc, and I have enough machines), and I had a look for a PowerPC mac mini but they are really expensive! Plus they don't natively run OS9 (although it seems like it's …

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Which Mac for retro gaming?

Posted on 2024-02-14, 14:50

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by SBB

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hi all Was wondering if anyone here has any thoughts on gaming on an old Mac I've never had a Power PC Mac and thought it might be a good idea to get one whilst the prices are "reasonable" I am thinking a G4-era machine of some sort (e.g. PowerMac G4 or iMac G4) as these can run both OS 9 and early …

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Re: BioShock retail cannot connect to download server

Posted on 2021-08-17, 09:04

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by SBB

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Slight correction here worth mentioning as I just had this problem and found this thread - the bioshock.exe file needs to go into the Bioshock\Builds\Release folder - i was a bit confused when I put it into the "Bioshock" root folder and got an error about a missing DLL when launching the game!

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Re: Unstable socket A board - what to do?

Posted on 2021-08-03, 22:18

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by SBB

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It seems ok at the moment. Visually the caps look ok and the system is stable now I changed the RAM to some Kingston ram from the approved list from Nvidia Is there something else I can do to check the condition of the caps?

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Re: Unstable socket A board - what to do?

Posted on 2021-08-03, 09:27

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by SBB

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Put my 3000+ back in the board and reinstalled it into my system, Really surprised by how much faster the NF2 system is over the (low end) VIA board! I know this was always mentioned in reviews of the time but it still really surprised me - ran a short benchmark session and the system is …

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Re: Unstable socket A board - what to do?

Posted on 2021-08-02, 14:58

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by SBB

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Got a bit of time to revisit this on my test bench now it's out of the system I bought some of the RAM from the compatibility list shared by BitWrangler (as a lot of my DDR is crap 266mhz stuff anyway), a pair of Kingston KVR400X64C25/512 sticks (512mb PC3200 CL2.5) This appears to have fixed the …

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Re: Dead Ti4600? :(

Posted on 2021-07-29, 13:23

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by SBB

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Lead-free solder Too old for that. is it becaue BGA memory during that era was faulty? Mostly yes. Plus high operating temperatures. Some manufacturers are more notorious than the others. From my anecdotal experience - early Samsung BGA chips are the main culprit. Infamous GeForce FX 5800 cards …

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Re: Dead Ti4600? :(

Posted on 2021-07-28, 11:05

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by SBB

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Got luck and managed to pick up a 9800 PRO locally for £25 yesterday so things are looking up! Just tried it in the machine and it's stable, going to give it a bit of TLC and new thermal paste and hopefully my problems are sorted...

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Re: Dead Ti4600? :(

Posted on 2021-07-26, 14:06

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by SBB

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Tried on a different board and looks like both the Ti4600 and 9800PRO are dead, artefacts on the POST screen :( noticed these cards are all super expensive on ebay now ... i wonder if thats because so many have died? I remember they used to be worth very little only a few years ago. My FX5600 …

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Re: Dead Ti4600? :(

Posted on 2021-07-26, 10:19

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by SBB

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Actually it seems like that could be the problem, or something along those lines Just tried an FX5600 and ATI 9800 PRO I have in my collection and both are doing crazy things with screen corruption! Either half my collection just broke or there is an issue with this machine.. Gives me a bit more …

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Dead Ti4600? :(

Posted on 2021-07-26, 08:06

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by SBB

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Finally got my Athlon XP machine running stable after switching out the motherboard but now it looks like the GPU has died! (Gainward Ti4600) I didnt get a screenshot of what my machine is doing but it looks something like this... I think it's a VRAM problem: https://i.stack.imgur.com/2iuC8.png …

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Re: Unstable socket A board - what to do?

Posted on 2021-07-23, 12:26

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by SBB

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I removed the northbridge heatsink, it was absolutely stuck solid with the old paste (looked more like glue to me it was so dried up!), managed to get it all off eventually using some solvent remover, then reapplied fresh paste I was hopeful, but the board is still unstable :( I will put the MSI …

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Unstable socket A board - what to do?

Posted on 2021-07-22, 15:19

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by SBB

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hi all I just finished putting together my Socket A PC but it isn't stable, The specs are as follows: AMD Athlon XP 3000+ FSB333 (would be nice to have a 3200 but I already had this in my collection) GlacierTech aluminium cooler (not the best but very hard to find Socket A coolers - will try to get …

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Computer loses BIOS settings after power lost

Posted on 2021-04-20, 14:49

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by SBB

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hi all I know its not THAT retro hardware but it's getting there ... I suppose! I have a strange problem with a PC i've built and not sure where else to ask, Other than this problem it works OK and is stable, Specs: Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700, MSI P35 Neo2 motherboard, 4GB Corsair Dominator PC8500 …

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PSU that turns on by iself!

Posted on 2019-12-11, 13:47

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by SBB

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have an old power supply (Thermaltake TR2 420w) that works fine, however it has a weird issue where it turns on by iself! At first I thought hte issue was with the computer it was connected to, but with the PSU sitting on the bench with nothing connected, when i plug the power cable in the fan …

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Re: What SCSI hardware were people using back in 1998?

Posted on 2019-09-10, 10:19

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by SBB

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks for all the nice replies everyone :) I just realised that I have a box of SCSI drives somewhere in the garage salvaged from some servers, I will check those to see if any are suitable If I dont have anything reasonable will have to get hold of a drive, but a nice 9.1GB OEM drive (as per …

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What SCSI hardware were people using back in 1998?

Posted on 2019-09-09, 14:37

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by SBB

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hi all I recently picked up an old PC locally for cheap which has a nice spec circa 1998: Pentium 2 350mhz QDI Slot 1 ATX motherboard Nice period-correct beige case! I added an ATI Rage Pro AGP which I had lying around (period correct). Just need to get a nice sound card and some drives. I always …

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Re: My "Ultimate" Tualatin Build!

Posted on 2017-02-19, 21:26

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by SBB

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I love it! The mean green beast :cool: Still harhour some love for the early 00's mod cases, quality ones were rare sadly and most couldn't handle continues lan party transport. You tempt me to recreate my athlon from back in the days :lol: I know tell me about it. I used to attend lots of lan …

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Re: My "Ultimate" Tualatin Build!

Posted on 2017-02-16, 23:50

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by SBB

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Finally got around to adding some green LED fans ... very early 2000s!

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Re: Fun with ASUS TUSL2-C

Posted on 2016-08-08, 22:47

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by SBB

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you get an Apollo 133 board you can have Tualatin and a lot more RAM, I think up to 1.5GB? Given the choice though i'd go with 815 as it seems to be slightly faster in benchmarks Edit, oops didnt realise how old this thread was 😀

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