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

Posted on 2020-09-21, 13:16

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Tested my newly acquired HD7990 last night. That card needs 8pin PCI-E connectors x2 My test PC's PSU only had a 6 pin connectesr x2 Opened the adapters that came with my 2 GF 590's that converts 2x 6 pin to a single 8 pin, half way there. Had to use raid my other machines for Molex splitters to be …

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Re: Picked up a couple of interesting PCs, what to do...

Posted on 2020-09-21, 12:59

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Based on that manual for the v1.2 M/B https://mbmanuals.retropc.se/manuals/57/dx400.pdf Looks like it has the 860 chipset so a FSB of 400Mhz Also Socket 604 can accept S603 CPU's but the other way around isn't supposed to be pin compatible? You sure you don't have a Gallatin? https://www.cpu-upgrade …

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Re: My set of rules for perfection

Posted on 2020-09-21, 12:16

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Look into slowdown utilities. If your CPU and motherboard are supported, SetMul and Throttle can do wonders for speed sensitive games Thats cheating in my rule book. How so? You could always turn off L1 and L2 caches in the BIOS, using SetMul just makes it easier. And some motherboard/CPU …

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Re: New, beige desktop case (review and build)

Posted on 2020-09-21, 11:52

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've gad the gap issue on period correct cases as well. I think some optical drives are more like 5.20? and seem to cause fairly visible gaps, its also more noticeable then on black machines. Doesn't bother me but it is something you notice when assembling. I really like having a real FDD as a 2nd …

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Re: Silicon Valley Mountains on FIRE.

Posted on 2020-09-21, 10:31

by

by chinny22

in Milliways

in Milliways

Our peak fire risk is probably August to September. The weather has cooled recently so maybe that helps a bit but it's still very much fire season until the rain comes back. I checked some old files I saved on a couple nearby fires, one of those in 2014 started September 13th and as of this date …

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Re: What do you do with hardware equivalent PCs?

Posted on 2020-09-21, 10:09

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Once you reach a certain point it's inevitable to have very similar PC's. The "server" option is always a good one. Load it up with Hard drives and job done! I like a "Test PC" to try out installing stuff on. Keeps your main games retro rig nice and tidy. I also try to give these "double ups" a …

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Re: Which browser do you use?

Posted on 2020-09-21, 09:39

by

by chinny22

in Milliways

in Milliways

My work also has that same situation, well IT boys like Chrome i guess :D And yes Windows 10 in our work computer have both old IE and that Edge monstrossoty. Still holding on to my Windows 7 main home PC. But for how long can i hold on, time will tell. nah us IT boys like less work ;) We only …

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Re: My set of rules for perfection

Posted on 2020-09-21, 09:17

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Out of the original rules: - I never put a motherboard without front USB headers in an enclosure with front USB ports. I was like this at first, thinking I'll add a USB card to make the case ports functional, never did and now it doesn't bother me, just as the front audio ports aren't connected on …

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Re: Windows 95 optimization and 486DX2 performance

Posted on 2020-09-18, 23:08

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

As Keenmaster said did you let IE4 install? That kills performance. You can still install 2.5 just remove the CD on intial boot (or remove teh IE branded cab files if installing from the HDD) On a 486 I dont see any point for any of the updates unless a prrogram specificly needs it. But I agree. …

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Re: 386 Max Partition Size?

Posted on 2020-09-18, 22:48

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've just had to to the same thing on an early 486. 500MB just isnt enough! I went with the EZ-Drive dynamic drive overlay option as I dont have the tools to flash rom chips. It's easy to setup, works well, and invisable to dos. I had it setup and dos installed in under 1/2 hr Phil's done a video on …

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Re: Silicon Valley Mountains on FIRE.

Posted on 2020-09-18, 22:34

by

by chinny22

in Milliways

in Milliways

yeh Australia had worst fire seasion on record start of the year, was so bad they had to run a big international tourism campain telling people what hadn't burnt down once it was over, by then the peak Christmas/New Year holidiy season was finished. Then the floods came to ruin anyone that did make …

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Re: Advice upgrading Pentium MMX Voodoo2

Posted on 2020-09-18, 22:06

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Sorry to revive this thread @Nipedley but I just recently got my hands on an IBM Aptiva 2176-F33 (A-2 with the ATI Mach64 video chip and single USB port.) Your info on the Voodoo 3 was helpful in deciding which card to put in the machine for DOS gaming because the Mach64 has too many quirks ( …

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Re: Another builds discussion

Posted on 2020-09-18, 09:05

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

An excuse to tell the wife is a bonus (important one at that) but not the main reason. More importantly it forces you to actually use all your pc's The fact is your going to have your favorites, For me it's my DX2/66 and the P3 600 SLI, which funny enough are the slower of their "counterparts" To …

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Re: Official Retro Game Wallpapers

Posted on 2020-09-18, 08:23

by

by chinny22

in Windows

in Windows

C&C Gold and RA1 both came with complete theme packs not just wallpaper's, I think Tiberian Sun did as well? All 3 were made freeware and can be downloaded here if you want the "complete desktop experience" https://cncnz.com/features/freeware-classic-c … -conquer-games/

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Re: Another builds discussion

Posted on 2020-09-17, 10:30

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Thanks for the comments :) yeah in the end I guess there's a pretty strong overlap between builds 2 and 3 to make build 2 really significant. Still I like that yellowed beige OEM tower and would like to do something with it and use some of those sound and gfx cards. Maybe hunt another earlier …

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Re: Games that justify building a Windows XP PC

Posted on 2020-09-17, 09:33

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

EAX is the number 1 reason. but my XP rig is my most heavily used PC. It plays vast majority of my Win9x games, with enough power to fully maximize AA, AF, and all that if I want to see games in all their glory. It's also bridges the gap nicely between modern and retro on my network and talks …

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Re: Best way to get win98 / winXP games?

Posted on 2020-09-17, 09:22

by

by chinny22

in Windows

in Windows

Buy the game on GOG, and download the cd images from archive.org, the n burn it You don't even need to burn it, you can just mount the iso unless you want CD audio daemon tools lite 3.47 is the final version for Win98 and predates forcing adware installation. XP has few options if you no longer …

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Re: Another builds discussion

Posted on 2020-09-16, 09:11

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Can't see any benefit of downgrading to a P2. You'll take a performance hit in Windows gaming, and doubt you'll notice any difference in DOS at all Systems 2 and 3 are very similar. Ideally you want to go a generation earlier for DOS and/or generation later for XP for a meaningful difference. Slot …

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Re: Does your collection / regular builds lean more towards AMD or Intel

Posted on 2020-09-16, 08:41

by

by chinny22

in Milliways

in Milliways

I'm not a fan boy (need the competition to keep everyone honest) but I've definitely got a Intel/Nvidia bias, not helped by also having a lot of office cast off's. I haven't purchased a new PC sine 98! Out of the 13 PC's I have currently setup. I only have the 5x86 and Slot A representing AMD with …

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Re: 325T Build

Posted on 2020-09-15, 16:17

by

by chinny22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Do you mean 5422? thats what wiki thinks a 325T has. It's a good fast card, very nice match for a 386 http://www.vgamuseum.info/index.php/cpu/item/132-cirrus-logic-cl-gd5422 Only reason I can think of upgrading is if you want a 2MB card for higher resolutions in windows, but really on a 386 and Win3 …

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