Re: Period correct build?

Posted on 2018-03-03, 20:38

by

by Half-Saint

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

As people before me stated, period correctness is a pretty fluid thing for me as well. For example, I started off with a Pentium 133 and 16MB of RAM and ended up with a Pentium 200 and 96MB of RAM a couple of years later. I was always about a generation behind current tech as well. Could never …

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Re: White ATX Chassis

Posted on 2018-03-03, 17:23

by

by Half-Saint

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Try AmiBay forum.

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Re: Still alive

Posted on 2018-03-03, 13:30

by

by Half-Saint

in Milliways

in Milliways

Hey dude! Hang in there! It's good to see so many old members are still around. I'm back too 😉

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Re: Two computers for it all

Posted on 2018-03-03, 13:25

by

by Half-Saint

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I can do pretty much everything I want with these 2: 486 33Mhz with dos 6.22. It can go down to similar speeds as 4Mhz 286 would be with turbo and caches disabled and I can get correct speed with difficult to run games like wing commander and ultima 7. K6-III+ with voodoo 3 and voodoo 2 cards that …

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Re: The Tualatinator, a.k.a. Can a retro PC be still useful?

Posted on 2018-03-02, 13:15

by

by Half-Saint

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

The XT layout is lovely, it's just that particular keyboard model that I hate 😁 It feels mushy and weird. You really should try a good mechanical keyboard to know what I'm talking about.

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Two computers for it all

Posted on 2018-03-02, 12:59

by

by Half-Saint

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I know this has been discussed many time but I keep getting back to this problem. I'm speaking of having too many computers of course :-) If, for a moment, we disregard pre-286 era games, would it be possible to run everything else on a maxed out Pentium I machine? Back then, I went from a NEC V20 …

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Re: I recently found this hardware, AKA the Dumpster find thread.

Posted on 2018-03-02, 08:02

by

by Half-Saint

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The last things worth mentioning that I got as a result of dumpster diving were two VLB cards: a disk controller and a Cirrus Logic 5428 video card. That was almost two months ago! I find less and less useful stuff lately.

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Re: My Tulip Vision Line DC 486dx TC38 Restoration Quest [update 1]

Posted on 2018-03-02, 06:09

by

by Half-Saint

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

How is the restoration going? I love those slim desktop cases 😀

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Re: The Tualatinator, a.k.a. Can a retro PC be still useful?

Posted on 2018-03-02, 06:05

by

by Half-Saint

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Hey dude, you're not seriously using 640x480 on a 14" monitor as a "daily driver"? Even back in the day, I couldn't stand anything less than 800x600 in Windows. In one of my retro PCs I'm using a Diamond Fire GL 1000 Pro card and it runs at 1920x1080 no problem. Also that BTC keyboard is just …

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OPTi 486 board jumper settings help!

Posted on 2018-03-01, 15:05

by

by Half-Saint

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

As the title suggests, I need help with the jumper settings. I found this board with all the jumpers removed. Was able to find some photos online but not of this exact model. Can anyone help? The jumpers that are currently there were all installed by me. I bet a few are still missing tho. I want to …

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XT and 16-bit VGA cards

Posted on 2018-03-01, 15:02

by

by Half-Saint

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Since some people on eBay seem to think that 8-bit VGA cards are made of gold and price them accordingly, I decided to test some of my 16-bit VGA cards. I knew from previous experience that Trident 8900 cards would work fine so I tested a few more (see photos) and they all worked flawlessly! DSC_ …

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Re: 486 build PSU problem

Posted on 2018-03-01, 13:51

by

by Half-Saint

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I tried to disconnect the motherboard, leaving everything else connected to the PSU. The result is the same.

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Re: What you thought you will never have?

Posted on 2018-03-01, 13:42

by

by Half-Saint

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

appiah4 wrote: I never thought I would have a working Voodoo 2 SLI setup. Now I do. *Joy* That! Also never thought I'd have so many different Creative SB cards 😀

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Re: Is the VIA EPIA-M a good ITX Win9x platform?

Posted on 2018-03-01, 13:26

by

by Half-Saint

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Got me thinking and I found this: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/PCI-32bits-to … /481838031.html You should be able to easily mount this inside an mATX case. Bet you could get it cheaper too...

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Re: Is the VIA EPIA-M a good ITX Win9x platform?

Posted on 2018-03-01, 13:15

by

by Half-Saint

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Minor update. The EPIA MB did not fit in the slim modern mITX case I had so I will have to try it in a mATX case which I was going to use for an AM3 build. That means it will be temporary but I can now use a PCI video or sound card in the build. So.. Which do you think is the better idea? Drop in a …

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Re: Vital MF002BR 8-bit sound card

Posted on 2018-03-01, 08:08

by

by Half-Saint

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

After some googling I came to the conclusion that I'm dealing with a ground loop hum here. I'll order a ground loop isolator and see, if that helps.

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Re: Vital MF002BR 8-bit sound card

Posted on 2018-02-28, 15:39

by

by Half-Saint

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Finally tested the card with my XT clone today. I ran Police Quest 2 configured for Ad Lib and it worked! I could hear music and everything :-) What really bothers me is the level of noise this card has. It's like it's picking up everything that's going on in the PC. If you type dir, you get more …

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Re: My childhood Peacock 8MHz XT

Posted on 2018-02-28, 15:29

by

by Half-Saint

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Just got back to playing with my XT. Testing some hardware and games. I know I had Police Quest 2 on the XT but I don't really recall playing it. I probably played it later on a 486DX-40. On the XT with Hercules graphics it's definitely too slow to be enjoyable. It runs a lot faster, if a VGA card …

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486 build PSU problem

Posted on 2018-02-28, 13:20

by

by Half-Saint

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My old 486 often refuses to turn on. Sometimes it works, most of the time it doesn't. Would there be an easy way of testing the power switch? It's either that or the PSU itself. Opened it up yesterday and can't find anything wrong by visual inspection. Cheers

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Re: Is the VIA EPIA-M a good ITX Win9x platform?

Posted on 2018-02-15, 14:03

by

by Half-Saint

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I still own a Windows XP machine based on Via Epia M10000 and it was fine for a while. I used it for download and light browsing but it wasn't my main PC. The main problem for XP is that it only supports 1GB of RAM. It should be fine for Windows 98.

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