Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2019-01-28, 20:02

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Decided to do some testing in Windows 98 SE on my Dell Pentium III 897MHz laptop. First of all the built-in Ethernet on this laptop is dead. Not a problem in Windows XP as I have a PCMCIA Wireless adapter. Of course I can't use that in 98 due to modern WiFi security, so I needed Ethernet. I inserted …

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Re: Show us your retro computer cases

Posted on 2019-01-28, 19:48

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

This is my most retro case and houses my Pentium MMX. Funtional Turbo button on the GA-586HX board :happy: Case is a bit flimsy but does the job. https://i.imgur.com/VBHkBZsl.jpg I have a case like that, only with green buttons. Flimsy is indeed correct, mine fell to pieces and I subsequently lost …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-01-28, 00:21

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Bought a couple of Thin Clients today on eBay. Something I'd been itching to do for some time - to buy a Thin Client and use it as a low powered PC setup for diagnostics and retro gaming. But when I bought the first one, I got inspired to look for something a little older and hopefully DOS …

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Re: 10 year cpu challenge

Posted on 2019-01-21, 21:22

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Can somebody explain me what the rationale behind this topic is? I can write down what I used to have and now have, but I don’t see the point. It’s probably going to make some of you jealous while some might not be impressed at all. For me personally, the most fun posts in this topic are those that …

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Re: 10 year cpu challenge

Posted on 2019-01-20, 06:59

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Now: Custom-built PC - Intel Core i7 4770K (Overclocked to 4.5GHz) 16GB PC3-12800 DDR3 RAM 1x 120GB SATA SSD 1x 500GB SATA HDD 3x 2TB SATA HDD 1x 3TB SATA HDD 1x 4TB SATA HDD Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB PCIe Graphics Card Onboard Sound & Ethernet Asmedia ASM-106x PCIe SATA RAID Card CD/DVD Writer …

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Re: Any Love For Socket 5?

Posted on 2019-01-18, 19:33

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have a Socket 5 PC that I bought 2nd hand back in the early 2000s, an LPX-based Desktop. I didn't know it was a Socket 5 until I got it home and had a look. It had a Pentium 75MHz CPU originally and being Socket 5 did limit the upgrade options somewhat. Ultimately I ended up putting in an IDT …

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Re: Help with a 286 Motherboard

Posted on 2019-01-16, 11:43

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The board is not working properly. I compared the two pictures and I realize it's missing a chip in the right corner. I think it's a clock generator. Where can I get that chip? and a socket for that? Any other sugesstions are welcome.. Regards The missing chip is the i287 Math Coprocessor. It's not …

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Re: Show us your unicorn! Let’s see the one you wish you’d kept

Posted on 2019-01-14, 11:02

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Only picture I have of it I'm afraid, rather poor quality - http://i.imgur.com/vqLxiWWl.jpg Both of the 2 systems on the right hand side were destroyed by poor storage in a shed. But I most wish I'd kept the setup on the far right. I received it 2nd hand for free in the early 2000s, it was a 486SX …

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Re: Real Magic MPEG VGA Cards

Posted on 2019-01-14, 10:06

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The only one I ever remember seeing was the RealMagic Hollywood Plus card in the early 2000s, which was PCI. I don't know about any earlier versions, but with the Hollywood Plus it was pretty much solely used for DVD playback via it's own software. It was technically possible for 3rd party software …

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Re: Is there any need to have two retro gaming rigs witth the same OS?

Posted on 2019-01-05, 12:11

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I personally do have multiple systems with the same OS and similar configurations, but only because I've amassed the collection over many years and would regret it if I parted with any of them. Not all of my machines are setup for gaming purposes though, only certain specific configurations. As …

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Re: Is my HDD dead

Posted on 2018-12-21, 22:41

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just to say I have had similar happen in the past, where simply reseating the power connector has solved the issue. The drives would literally do as you describe, sounding like they're switching on and off, sometimes repeatedly, leading to system freezes. The best way to test for this, would be to …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2018-12-17, 23:28

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Finally thought up a good use for my old Mac Mini G4, which I installed Mac OS 9 on natively some months back. I'm going to have friends over on New Year's Eve and we'll be playing some computer quiz/trivia games and amongst the games will be the Mac version of "You Don't Know Jack" (UK Edition). …

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Re: Old fart topic: What was your hardware specs in 1992?

Posted on 2018-12-15, 11:10

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

In 1992 I was still using a Commodore 64, as were a lot of my friends. I always wanted to do more with the system than just playing games, but I only really had 1 program - a painting/drawing program called Saracen Paint. I did use simple BASIC commands to create & store lists and simple documents …

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Re: Proper RAM Amounts For Mid-1999 Gaming Build

Posted on 2018-12-13, 08:48

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I had a Coppermine PIII 650MHz in late 1999, which came with 128MB RAM. That seemed quite bog standard by that point for a "decent" PC. I did upgrade to 256MB RAM in late 2001. This system eventually ended up with 512MB RAM, though I'm not sure whether that upgrade was done before or after the PC …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2018-12-12, 22:12

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Tested out a spare hard drive from an old laptop. Thought I'd check it's health status - only 4.5 million reallocated sectors. I think that's a new personal record, never seen a HDD quite so bad. 😲

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Re: What about this SIS motherboard?

Posted on 2018-12-11, 18:29

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I can't really answer your questions, but if it was me I'd be more concerned initially by the fact that the battery has leaked all over the place. It may not even POST without some extensive repairs.

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Re: Athlon 64 X2 6000+ still fast?

Posted on 2018-12-10, 23:29

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm running an Athlon 64 X2 6400+ with 4GB RAM as a Web Server, with Ubuntu as the OS. The 6400+ is the fastest CPU my motherboard will accept and for my needs it's absolutely fine. Still usable as a modern PC, though I would hate to have to run it as my main day to day system. Even an Intel Core 2 …

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Re: From your experience, what have you found to be the most robust, reliable hardware to date?

Posted on 2018-12-04, 13:32

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Definitely my Seagate ST-225 hard drive. As others have mentioned, those things seem to last forever, which is ironic considering how crap modern Seagate hard drives are nowadays. My ST-225 was in storage for years, getting banged and bashed about but was happily resurrected last year for an 8088 XT …

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Re: What use are old IDE hard drives for today

Posted on 2018-12-03, 11:26

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I still have a few old IDE drives with limited capacity. Wherever possible, I use them in my retro systems as anything larger would be a waste for the most part. I've got: 286 with 213MB HDD (nowhere near filling it either, currently using a DDO but will soon backup and switch to XTIDE) 386SX with …

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Re: XT-IDE BIOS with 3com 3c509B

Posted on 2018-12-02, 19:45

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by PTherapist

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

- Could you please specify, which 256kb/32KB EEPROMs you are using that can work with 3c509? - How can I turn 12KB XT-IDE version to 16KB, so I can use multiple copies trick (assuming 16+16 for 32KB EEPROM)? - Does XT-IDE supports CD-ROMs? As far as I can see, it cannot detect them and it also does …

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