Re: What do you drive?

Posted on 2024-05-22, 11:17

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by gerry

in Milliways

in Milliways

You bet! Probably more than computer related video's I like fixing up old PC's and making them live again. Fixing up old cars isn't that far off the same subject matter. Helps that getting an old car going is different to an old truck which is still different to an old digger. Then you have …

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Re: what was it like watching the death of 3dfx post voodoo 3 (late 1999-2000)?

Posted on 2024-05-22, 11:06

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by gerry

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i admit i never really thought much about 3dfx voodoo stuff back when it was happening. i spent the period on cheap pci 2d cards and all the games i played looked fine, then when voodoo was ending i got a pc with a tnt2 card and everything 3d looked great!

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

Posted on 2024-05-22, 10:29

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by gerry

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

pan069 wrote on 2024-05-21, 21:52: I recently found a couple of NOS 486 cpu coolers with screw on fan (instead of clipped-on/moulded fans). I found one of these a few years ago and they are very moddable with Nocuta fans. PXL_20240521_102351245.jpg that's a nice find, especially being NOS - …

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Re: Is the Pentium 4 underrated for retro computing?

Posted on 2024-05-22, 10:26

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by gerry

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

RandomStranger wrote on 2024-05-22, 04:55: Something good enough is still better than nothing. this should be the vintage computer enthusiast's mantra 😀

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Re: Windows Me - "Misunderstood Edition"

Posted on 2024-05-21, 15:38

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by gerry

in Milliways

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Back in 2000 were there actually many users who wanted, cared about or even know what native DOS mode was? Indeed more then you would think. You have to remember that computers were still very expensive while at the same time became obsolete much quicker. Many people either didn't want or couldn't …

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Re: Hi Everyone from Italy

Posted on 2024-05-21, 09:47

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by gerry

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Hi, 'retroinside' is a good forum name :) welcome that celeron machine is like so many late 90's machines, i can imagine all kind of mixed dos and early 9x games being played, some really stretching the capabilities to the limit its amazing how we managed with such small hdd back then, 4gb! …

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Re: What do you drive?

Posted on 2024-05-21, 08:39

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by gerry

in Milliways

in Milliways

not driving so much, but does anyone else watch those "will it start?" and rescue type videos? its fun to see someone coaxing an engine back to life after decades of of neglect, although often with an approach that's decidedly temporary some videos go through the whole process from barn find to …

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Re: Pentium3 to look for?

Posted on 2024-05-20, 15:38

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by gerry

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

as a rule, if you want to save some money then don't try to optimise the components. a Pentium 3 700mhz or 1ghz will have different prices but not all that much difference is noticed when playing typical games. same goes with cards. you could even (shock!) consider a celeron :) a motherboard that …

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Re: Voodoo/TNT2/GeForce or Voodoo/GeForce for Windows 9x?

Posted on 2024-05-20, 15:23

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by gerry

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I still don't know which is better! :) i know voodoo has many proponents, if I was putting together a system for 9x and wanted to do so cheaply with the maximum games 'reach' for the money i'd say tnt2 was just fine (or some cheap later similar card) as to which is better, who knows? its usually …

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Re: Is it safe to connect to internet under Windows 95 or 98SE?

Posted on 2024-05-20, 08:27

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by gerry

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

another thing to consider - you can use a firewall etc, all good practice, and the risk is then fairly low but if you *never* connect that 9x machine to anything else, never take data from it on floppy, usb or otherwise and the machine's particular set up isnt precious to you (or you have a pristine …

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Re: How important is screen resolution to you?

Posted on 2024-05-16, 19:46

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by gerry

in Milliways

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But it's not only the PC hardware that can barely keep up with the jump to 4k! Where I live, the terrestrial TV stations have only just moved to HD, with some still broadcasting in SD AFAIK. True 4k content can only be found online via streaming or on UHD Bluray discs, which isn't the most popular …

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Re: Retro Rig Photo Thread

Posted on 2024-05-16, 19:39

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by gerry

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

PARKE wrote on 2024-05-16, 17:14: chrismeyer6 wrote on 2024-05-16, 12:55: I like that metal armor on your ide cable. It's shower hose, less romantic than armor 😀 i like the re-use ingenuity though, it looks cool!

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Re: Is the Pentium 4 underrated for retro computing?

Posted on 2024-05-16, 19:37

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by gerry

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My first P4 computer was such a system. It is a Compaq Evo N610c with 1.8GHz P4-M Northwood and ATI 7500. The only game I recall playing on it was Rayman 3, but there must have been a few others. The problem with that laptop is the poor thermal design which cooks the hard drive. Nowadays if I …

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Re: For Win98 games you don't need a build faster than [...]

Posted on 2024-05-16, 19:34

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by gerry

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My 2 cent are. My last real W98 machine was P3 500MHz 256MB Geforce 2 MX. It was snappy. Ran everything. Now I would use a 800MHz. And Geforce 5. They are cheaper than Geforce 4. Athlon and P4 are more XP territory. my 'top' 98 machine is a duron 800 with a geforce 4 (just an mx440 i think), …

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Re: My experience returning to Win98 after 25 years

Posted on 2024-05-14, 20:06

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by gerry

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Windows 98 is just a nostalgia machine, IMO. I started out with it when I got back into vintage computing, but the bugs and stability issues are just obnoxious. Eject a CD? Nah, Windows 9x is still randomly locking onto it--blue screen. Put the CD back in, hit enter, and then eject it again. It's …

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

Posted on 2024-05-14, 20:02

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by gerry

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

In the UK at least, it doesn't help that most plugs sold now, are usually only found with 13amp fuses fitted. I sold consumer electronics in the 80s/90s, initially retail, and back then, most equipment didn't come with a fitted plug, so as part of the sales process we'd also fit the correct fused …

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Re: Is the Pentium 4 underrated for retro computing?

Posted on 2024-05-14, 20:00

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by gerry

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Pros: Pentium 4 systems (particularly with Intel motherboard chipsets) tend to have relatively good compatibility with other hardware & software, good stability, good drivers P4 uses ATX power supplies using the 12V connector, and are thus easy to power using modern power supplies Early P4's are …

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Re: Retro Rig Photo Thread

Posted on 2024-05-14, 08:02

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by gerry

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I picked up this gateway yesterday. It's a pentium 75, 28MB ram. From a collector standpoint it came with the original monitor, keyboard, software+drivers CDs and disks and instructions and other literature that I guess came with it originally. It seems the og OS was windows 95 but the previous …

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Re: How important is screen resolution to you?

Posted on 2024-05-14, 07:54

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by gerry

in Milliways

in Milliways

My biggest pet peeve with screen resolution in the computer realm is that EVERYTHING is now 16:9 ratio. That's fine for movies, but for me it's very bad for computer stuff. I grew up on 4:3 from the '70s - the 2000s. Yes i'd like a choice, 'widescreen' works well enough for a lot of work and games …

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Re: How important is screen resolution to you?

Posted on 2024-05-10, 09:23

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by gerry

in Milliways

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I can't do multi monitor so the best option for me actually is 4K. A single 3840x2160 monitor is literally 4 1920x1080 screens rolled into one. I have more than enough screen real-estate to keep a eye on my Twitch chat, OBS, the game I'm playing and whatever MIDI system I need to have in use. …

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