Re: any hard core Thinkpad fans amongst the ranks?

Posted on 2022-02-14, 10:47

by

by gex85

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Huge fan here. Back in the early 2000s I bought a used 570E - think of an Ultrabook before that term was invented. I loved that machine and used it a lot, but then the display cable broke and I somehow couldn't replace it. I have been on the lookout to acquire one over the last few years but so far …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2022-02-10, 08:00

by

by gex85

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Nice, I had these on my watch list for weeks and was very tempted to pull the trigger, but I just bought two other NOS cases the other day so I don't have any real use for even more. Glad someone here on Vogons got one 😀

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

Posted on 2022-01-22, 19:34

by

by gex85

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I went through my collection of motherboards, decided which ones to sell and which to keep, and tested most of those that have to go. The collection is just getting too big for my taste, so I'll be selling at least 10 boards.

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

Posted on 2022-01-17, 20:28

by

by gex85

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Today I upgraded a Diamond Monster Sound MX300 with some bigger and better caps (Panasonic FR series all the way) and a new op-amp. It was originally equipped with a JRC 074 which is a clone of the TL074. While the TL074 is generally considered a good op-amp, the JRC clone seems to be mediocre at …

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Re: Is this Pentium 3 PC worth buying?

Posted on 2022-01-15, 13:24

by

by gex85

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If it didn't have that Turtle Beach sound card, I'd say it's really overpriced, although it seems like a well-balanced system otherwise. But with that card it's easily worth the 70€. But be aware that it is pretty much useless outside of Windows 98.

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Re: Tualatin vs Coppermine on 440BX

Posted on 2022-01-15, 13:16

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by gex85

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have a Tualatin 1.4 GHz on a CUBX-E with modded BIOS and it's not much of a hassle at all. Also using the Korean solder-on adapter and a modded BIOS that's here on the forums and is also available for the P3B-F afair. Works like a charm. But I have a soft spot for Tualatins, and depending on your …

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Re: Introducing Junky. A undesirable prebuilt, rescued from the garbage heap.

Posted on 2022-01-14, 10:52

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by gex85

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Not a bad machine at all, especially for 10 bucks. Should run pretty much everything from the 90s very well. And to me it looks nice, too. I like them plain old beige boxes.

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

Posted on 2022-01-12, 13:27

by

by gex85

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have been experimenting with some newer and freshly formatted (in a different PC) disks today, but still without success. The drive would just give various read errors all the time. What makes it complicated is that the drive has a proprietary 24-pin connector and a flat-flex cable. So I can …

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

Posted on 2022-01-11, 13:07

by

by gex85

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Since the floppy drive is so important in these somewhat older computers, make sure to exercise it! A fast/ slow / too-tight belt is usually tolerated quite well by old floppy drives - they've got sensors to tell where things are. As long as the drive motor isn't just freewheeling it should be okay …

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

Posted on 2022-01-10, 12:00

by

by gex85

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I replaced a floppy drive belt in the Panasonic CF-150B (aka Tandy 1100 FD) that I was given for free the other day. It wasn't a real success yet, since the "DIR" command results in errors pretty often and trying to open any file on the disk always gives read errors only. Since the floppy drive is …

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

Posted on 2022-01-07, 16:32

by

by gex85

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I replaced a floppy drive belt in the Panasonic CF-150B (aka Tandy 1100 FD) that I was given for free the other day. It wasn't a real success yet, since the "DIR" command results in errors pretty often and trying to open any file on the disk always gives read errors only.

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Re: Retro Rig Photo Thread

Posted on 2022-01-05, 19:52

by

by gex85

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Quite the beast. And a fantastic deal indeed. Good job fixing that battery leakage! I never really understood the concept of big towers though. Hardly anyone ever used all these 5.25" bays, so it's a complete waste of space... That's also the reason I don't own a single one of these huge towers, …

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Re: Diamond MX300 - looking for sign of missing transistor

Posted on 2022-01-04, 08:45

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by gex85

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Here you go. 2N4403. Filename 2022-01-04 09.40.10.jpg File size 45.74 KiB Views 503 views File comment MX300 Q1 File license Fair use/fair dealing exception

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Re: Cannot use Windows XP after installing P3 CPU for Lucky Star 6LX2 Ver 1.1 (Intel 440LX)

Posted on 2022-01-03, 15:42

by

by gex85

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, first of all, the board uses the 440LX chipset which - unlike the 440BX - does not support FSB speeds > 66 MHz. To max out the board CPU-wise, you would probably have to go with Celeron CPUs (433 MHz Mendocino core for Slot 1, 733 MHz Coppermine-128 core if you use a slotket, preferably with …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2022-01-01, 09:54

by

by gex85

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

They are separate machines thankfully, the Win9x machine I limited to PCI only and I dont use it for DOS stuff, the XG50 is a daughter card which attaches via the Midi port of the SoundBlaster 16, not sure if the MX300 midi port would work with the XG50 .. I haven't tried it yet as I dont know if …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2021-12-31, 21:47

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by gex85

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Received some goodies this week... Looking at getting a MX300 myself with the Spdif breakout card and a 2mb wavetable board for it, still deciding if the wavetable board is worth the cost. Edit - Decided to add my name to the list for an Orpheus I + PCMIDI and Dreamblaster X2GS, been looking for …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2021-12-31, 12:45

by

by gex85

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Received some goodies this week... Filename PXL_20211231_123721003.jpg File size 628.5 KiB Views 2100 views File comment Trust Voodoo Dragon 2 (12MB) File license Fair use/fair dealing exception Filename PXL_20211231_123712006.jpg File size 563.68 KiB Views 2100 views File comment Diamond Monster …

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Re: Most recent platform for Baby AT motherboards?

Posted on 2021-12-30, 09:30

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by gex85

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

While researching the Commate P4XB (didn't know it existed), I found out about the Zida "Tomato" TX810E / TX810EB / TX810EU+BU models. These are Socket 370 boards and at least the TX810EU and BU variants have native Tualatin support. Seems that Zida had quite a few Baby AT boards in their lineup, …

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Re: Most recent platform for Baby AT motherboards?

Posted on 2021-12-29, 18:35

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by gex85

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Jetway 849BS is another Socket A/462 Baby AT board. It supports 133 MHz FSB CPUs (Athlon XP) and has an AGP slot, so I'd prefer it over the M812LMR.

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Re: Motherboards with good onboard graphics cards?

Posted on 2021-12-29, 14:24

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by gex85

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The LifeTec MT29 (Pentium 3 500, 64MB in late 1999. Sold by Aldi in Germany and the Netherlands) had an MSI motherboard with Riva TNT2 M64 on-board. Not ‘really cool’ in 1999 but one could have worse ;). The later models (667MHz in mid-2000) had 128MB and a Riva TNT2 AGP card (so not on-board …

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