Re: Finally, a mid 90s build I am (somewhat) happy with!

Posted on 2024-03-01, 22:38

by

by gn0me

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

That's an awesome looking build! Those parts make for the quintessential 1997 gaming rig. :D That Micron heatsink looks interesting. Is it just a heatsink or a heatsink/fan combo? It's a passive heatsink. It has a black plastic tray that clips over the sides of the cpu itself, then you screw the …

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Re: Finally, a mid 90s build I am (somewhat) happy with!

Posted on 2024-02-27, 06:42

by

by gn0me

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Which Win9x games are you playing? Early Win9x games didn't really use A3D, EAX but did use MIDI, something the Yamaha does very well. Personally I find the real-life performance gain of SCSI doesn't match the hassle but it is fun to play around with. Depends on what your priority is. Definity …

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Re: Finally, a mid 90s build I am (somewhat) happy with!

Posted on 2024-02-26, 23:54

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by gn0me

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

That slim case reminds me of a P2-era Dell I have, but I like the Micron badging much more. It also appears to be a totally standard ATX case, not the proprietary stuff Dell was doing. I don't think I ever saw any Micron prebuilts, I've only read of them in old magazine articles. Yeah, it seems …

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Finally, a mid 90s build I am (somewhat) happy with!

Posted on 2024-02-26, 17:39

by

by gn0me

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Hey all, been a hot minute. Finally finished a Win95 build that I’m stoked to be using, I decided to relax my usually strict demands for absolute period correctness, and allow for some non era parts still within the vein of what was available at the time. The result is as follows: Base PC: Micron …

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Re: Best way to manage multiple game controllers for single PC

Posted on 2023-03-08, 20:42

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by gn0me

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you have it set to one of the controllers and first boot up does it show in game control panel ? Those are "digital" so switching without restarting windows will probably never work as they need to be powered thru the 15pin at Windows startup for proper detection iirc.... Ah, good point I hadn't …

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Re: Best way to manage multiple game controllers for single PC

Posted on 2023-03-08, 00:13

by

by gn0me

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Is that a full 15 pin switch? My guess is that it's specific for some application, like most SCART switches or 80 pin IDE cables, and therefore it's not a generic 15P4T selector... I believe so yes, last time I opened it up all connections had pins to all 15 spots on each connector on the switch …

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Best way to manage multiple game controllers for single PC

Posted on 2023-03-07, 17:35

by

by gn0me

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So I have one of these: 4-way-db15.jpg And I have these: wingman-extreme.jpg v3-wheel.jpg thrustmaster-flight-system-top-gun_1_c88465f58b84f9bad19995a4b4efeddb.jpg When I hook this up to my AWE64 in the following order: Screenshot 2023-03-07 at 11.31.56.png Whenever I switch to one of the …

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Re: My 15 Retro PC KVM Setup

Posted on 2022-06-02, 21:41

by

by gn0me

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Wow, how am I the first person to comment on this project?! This is phenomenal and gives me some inspiration to do something similar, although I have a meagre 7 machines ranging from a 486 through to my daily driver dual 10 core 192gb ram workstation. Great job! Do you have any videos of it in …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2022-04-05, 14:10

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by gn0me

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

X1600 Pro AGP thats a nice little GPU, looks like its a NOS one too or at least a boxed one with all accessories. Yep, it's used as theres dust accumulated on the fan blades, but its complete in box. I have another card on the way too for my PIII machine, All in Wonder Radeon 8500DV 64MB complete …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2022-04-05, 07:07

by

by gn0me

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Received this glorious little bugger in the mail yesterday all the way from Aussie land: 8C4D7367-DA99-4DF9-9A46-0B26E756EAC7.jpeg 976DBABA-6912-43F5-B406-E30AF204E0DB.jpeg 9449528A-626F-4A58-8827-79E86DB82961.jpeg F48455DF-F140-4B7A-89DC-6FA1683A1DEA.jpeg 3F04FF5C-4DE7-4A27-99B7-FA52286FC3BD.jpeg

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Re: Voodo 2 SLI vs. Voodoo 3

Posted on 2022-03-24, 20:28

by

by gn0me

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Of course not only, but is't a windows card that support some dos game such as quake, mechwarrior2, shadow warrrior, blood etc. Voodoo1 is more than enough for dos build. Orchid Righteous3D clicky 4MB card from late 1996 such a nice choice Calling it a windows card is just a label someone gives to …

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Re: Dual-booting DOS 6.22 FAT32 & Win98SE FAT32 On Same HDD?

Posted on 2022-03-22, 22:24

by

by gn0me

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Thread resurrection, apologies. I ran into this issue and when using DOS 7.x, some applications identify it as running Win9x and thus won’t complete the install process. As mentioned above, creating multiple primary partitions and then installing a 3rd party boot loader into the MBR is probably the …

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Re: Hello darkness my old friend…

Posted on 2022-03-21, 22:21

by

by gn0me

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Some boards with onboard vid and sound had only 5 or 6 slots. Maybe intended for one of those. Looks likely with those 4 DE-9 openings as well as a DB-25. Thats a whole lot of serial ports if you're not using two for something else. That said, how problematic is "only" 6 slots? With this board, 2 …

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Re: Hello darkness my old friend…

Posted on 2022-03-21, 20:23

by

by gn0me

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

mR_Slug wrote on 2022-03-21, 19:55: 6 slots? should be 8. Perhaps this was an OEM custom case. I think I’m going to try and find a proper AT backplane and swap it out. This is a brand new case so kinda want to stick with it

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Hello darkness my old friend…

Posted on 2022-03-21, 19:30

by

by gn0me

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I forgot how annoying the lack of solid industry standards from this time period was. Do I just have the wrong socket 7 board for this case, or is this case not going to work no matter what motherboard I get?

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Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Gameport Header

Posted on 2022-03-10, 23:16

by

by gn0me

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Semi serious question: Is there some kind of international cabal which hoards the DB15 gameport header cable/PCI bracket for these sound cards, and if so will someone acquiesce my humble petition to join their ranks? Why are these so ridiculously difficult to come by? I bought a bare Audigy 2 ZS …

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Re: Happy Days! Obtained my ultimate dream setup from my High School days!

Posted on 2022-01-30, 00:09

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by gn0me

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Figured I'd share what I have been able to work on, which is 3D modelling my office. Since the basement will be unfinished when we take possession, I get to customize how my office will be built. As you can see I'll be physically placing my retro PCs away from the desk and opposite to the Monitor, …

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Re: Happy Days! Obtained my ultimate dream setup from my High School days!

Posted on 2022-01-28, 20:30

by

by gn0me

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

HDDs, depending on quality can be surprisingly reliable. I have a stack of SAS2 drives in a raidZ array going very strong for several years 24/7. 8 active drives plus 2 spares just in case, none of the spares needed to be swapped in so far. Not new drives, they were at 50000 hours when I got them, …

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Re: Happy Days! Obtained my ultimate dream setup from my High School days!

Posted on 2022-01-28, 20:26

by

by gn0me

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

stamasd wrote on 2022-01-28, 20:00: see my 2nd post above for the drives. (edit) here it is again https://www.ebay.com/itm/151962539115 Thanks. Better act quick, I just bought 7 of the remaining 12 drives they have 🤣. Figured I'd get 5 for the hotswap cage + 2 spares to have on hand

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Re: Happy Days! Obtained my ultimate dream setup from my High School days!

Posted on 2022-01-28, 20:16

by

by gn0me

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

As the defacto king of dual-cpu on Vogons, and regent SCSI master. I approve of this build. Grab one of these before the seller runs out: https://www.ebay.com/itm/284308082851 (not my auction, but I did buy 3) They are NIB, and will allow you to run cheap 2nd hand SCA scsi drives. Not to mention it …

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