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

Posted on 2024-04-13, 11:02

by

by timsdf

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yeah, if your test machine is the NF7, you might wanna change it. I found out after being close to going insane that nForce 2 and certain Radeons (I think 9600, X1300/1550/1600/1650) won't play nice unless you use a certain Catalyst version. IIRC 9550 and 9600s will only work with 6.2. No idea …

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Re: Asrock 775Dual VSTA & Core4Dual thread

Posted on 2024-03-12, 10:52

by

by timsdf

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've noticed larger cache and maxing FSB makes a lot of difference in speed. I've read comments that reason is slow memory/cache architecture on these boards. I'm currently running e5800 4ghz and there's definitely diminishing returns on pure clock speed increase after 3.5ghz. 4ghz 2mb cache is …

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Re: Motherboards with AGP and PCIe

Posted on 2024-03-05, 12:00

by

by timsdf

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So for most modern board with AGP and PCIe I must go with AMD Phenom? Not good alternative for example for Q9650 and DDR2/3? Fastest platform is either intel: Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2 QX9650 667mhz ddr2 Amd: Asrock ALiveDual-eSATA2 Phenom x4 970 1066mhz ddr2 They are basically equal in speed when …

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Re: Athlon MP Dual CPU build. What case would I be in?

Posted on 2024-03-02, 16:27

by

by timsdf

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have overclocked Athlon XP build in Antec Super Lanboy. It has 120mm front and rear fans + 120mm psu fan. Silver aluminum case with a window is what the coolest looking 2000s builds did. I have removed riveted hard drive cage so the case fits EATX motherboards too now. I built my dual Athlon MP …

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Re: GeForce4 Ti 4200 replacement fan?

Posted on 2024-02-27, 12:45

by

by timsdf

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

You can replace just the fan and keep the original heatsink if you want, just need to measure the fan and the mouting bracket to make sure you get the right size. Ebay has pretty much any size you might need. Example: If stock fan sleeve bearing or bearing lock is worn out but cooler is good enough …

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Re: Best Core 2 chipset?

Posted on 2024-02-20, 03:27

by

by timsdf

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Performance is motherboard dependent. ie. cheap Gigabyte P45 overclocks better dual core FSB than most x38 boards but a good ddr3 x38 still wins if it can overclock to same FSB ~465+. "The best" depends what cpu you're going to run because FSB overclock limits are different between quads/duals. I'd …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2024-02-15, 11:27

by

by timsdf

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Picked up this 'mystery box' last night for next to nothing. The ad didn't have any specs, just a few not great photos, but I could see a graphics card in there with VGA and DVI, PCI slots, and what I thought looked like a P4 cooler. So I took a punt. It's turned out to be an AGP FX5200 card, 768MB …

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Re: Unconventional 3dfx build

Posted on 2023-12-25, 11:58

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by timsdf

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

MSI KT3 has been a reliable workhorse for w98se / xp in my builds. It's a decent board, just remember to sync fsb:ram 1:1 333mhz for best performance.

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Re: best windows 7 "retro" laptop

Posted on 2023-12-16, 18:44

by

by timsdf

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Interesting Clevo machines, never heard of those. That's some serious power they pack. However the Dell Dimension 7720 in the spec I described still looks better, a more modern cpu with avx2 even if with fewer cores, and a pascal generation gpu, would make it more capable for running the most …

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Re: best windows 7 "retro" laptop

Posted on 2023-12-16, 16:37

by

by timsdf

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Clevo / XMG / Sager 17" desktop replacement machines. They run a bit loud, but cooling is very good for the hardware they pack. Example models: X7200 LGA1366 socket, support i7 990x or Xeon x5690, triple-channel ddr3 so-dimm and GTX580m SLI with bios/driver-mod support GTX 680m P570WM LGA2011 socket …

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Re: Asrock 775Dual VSTA & Core4Dual thread

Posted on 2023-12-16, 15:05

by

by timsdf

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Looks awesome. QX9770 is certainly fast enough for win98 😁 Is there any problems with riser cable fit / compatibilty? Since motherboard is only pcie 2.0 x4 does the power / signaling work fine?

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Re: Compact microATX Socket A Build - Choices ... VIA or SiS, XP 2500+ or XP-M 2400+ ?

Posted on 2023-12-13, 11:29

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by timsdf

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

You can try. Mobile Athlons are specified run under 45w while desktop parts are 70w. Undervolting desktop cpu can get close to but usually mobile CPU are binned better. XP-M is also multiplier unlocked without modding so it's the better cpu for old games. I would prefer the VIA board because win98 …

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Re: Windows XP system spec recommendations.

Posted on 2023-11-03, 23:32

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by timsdf

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

People need to remember recommendation is different from "a dream spec" build of an era :) Cheap, quiet and reliable build could look like this: Any LGA1155 motherboard with a PCI slot i3 3220 2x2gb ddr3 1600mhz GTX 560ti / 660ti Soundblaster X-Fi or Augigy 2 ZS PCI 120gb SSD Versus a dream spec …

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Re: 5900 ultra temps

Posted on 2023-10-23, 12:28

by

by timsdf

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Replace stock cooler with ie. Zalman VF900-cu cooler. It should have temps ~70c. Stock 5900u cooler is not that great in the first place and temps go easily to 85c+. Custom cooler should resolve if the problem is between the die and heatspreader or just bad mounting with stock cooler. I have couple …

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Re: Soltek SL-75KAV Socket A motherboard not powering on

Posted on 2023-10-13, 11:03

by

by timsdf

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

List what I'd try after tantalums: -Replace caps around chipset and ram (specially the green ones) -Are you sure dip switches are in correct positions? Test if 100FSB setting boots -Test another cpu, ceramic athlon/duron cpu can get damaged/cracked pretty easily on the die -If board tries to boot …

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Re: Market value for popular or rare classic computer hardware

Posted on 2023-09-10, 15:36

by

by timsdf

in Milliways

in Milliways

Watched this ASUS Ti4600 go for 696 AUD yesterday, no fucking clue why anyone would pay that much for it, even a NIB Ti4600 wouldn't be worth 700 AUD. You can buy a modern 4000 Series RTX card for less, same for a RDNA 3 GPU. Factoring in postage and taxes bringing it to say 750 AUD to send it …

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Re: Core 2 build

Posted on 2023-07-23, 09:13

by

by timsdf

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you're going for quadcores couple suggestions: P45 motherboard with xeon mod X5460 is probably the best option. Cheap and overclocks easily to 4.0 - 4.5ghz. X38 / X48 often requires QX9xxx cpu to overclock to the max. Too expensive to make any sense unless you already have the parts. DDR3 boards …

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Re: Everything DDR3 related.

Posted on 2023-07-20, 21:09

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by timsdf

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

No point getting Hypers unless you're overclocking on LN2. 2gb Elpida BBSE and PSC modules are still really cheap and perform 99,95% of hypers in regular use. BBSE / PSC were sold ie. XMP 1600mhz cl6-8-6 and 2200 cl9 commonly with good oc headroom. Anyway, nice statistics 😀

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2023-06-04, 09:16

by

by timsdf

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Got a couple NOS goodies for Lian Li PC-60 build 😀

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Re: Original Voodoo 5 6000 prototype for sale on eBay

Posted on 2023-05-15, 09:34

by

by timsdf

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Maybe this doesn't fit into the V6000 sale topic but there's second video from LTT now with hardware from same owner as V6000 card. Video shows 4x Quantum3D Obsidian 100SB-4440V in sli. It's really cool video so if anyone hasn't seen it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D24ueW8G0-w

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