Re: What's your favorite thermal compound?

Posted on 2016-07-15, 11:34

by

by ynari

in Milliways

in Milliways

Needed some TIM last weekend, all mine had dried out. I'd used plenty of different types in the past, but went for MX2 - its not the highest performing, but the durability is eight years. The performance difference between MX2 and most of the other compounds is minimal.. There's only one CPU upgrade …

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Re: Lost everything :(

Posted on 2016-07-15, 11:20

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by ynari

in Milliways

in Milliways

Good job getting it back - did you really use LN2 to keep the drive cool enough to recover data? I've gone for a RAID10 system at home (almost working) going to get round to backing up to an external drive, and tape too..

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Re: 775 boards/chipsets with proper Gallatin support?

Posted on 2016-07-15, 11:11

by

by ynari

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The D975XBX2 definitely lists it, and the D975XBX probably supports it too. 3.46 is not the pinnacle, looks like you want the 965 for that : http://ark.intel.com/products/27615/Intel-Pen … Hz-1066-MHz-FSB

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Re: What's the hardest part of building a retro rig for yourself?

Posted on 2016-07-15, 11:02

by

by ynari

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The biggest pain is undoubtedly configuration management in DOS. Not that it's horrendous, but creating about three separate configurations (minimum : lots of memory/EMS/all devices, devices and no EMM386, max memory and no EMM386), then sourcing the correct combination of CD driver, cd redirector, …

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Re: Comeback for AMD?

Posted on 2016-07-06, 16:06

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by ynari

in Milliways

in Milliways

The default connection for the Vive is HDMI, which is probably what most people are using. It is poor that not all connections were tested, though.

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Re: Comeback for AMD?

Posted on 2016-07-06, 15:59

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by ynari

in Milliways

in Milliways

Yeah, there's a bit of a difference between a card that is definitely constantly out of spec, and one that doesn't work on the (optional) displayport interface, and will probably work with a driver update. Plus there's been various VR testing with the 1070/1080 and it works well, albeit with the …

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Re: whats the heaviest CRT youve set on a desktop

Posted on 2016-07-01, 09:46

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by ynari

in Milliways

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I suspect a proper desktop case will have no problem at all - you could stand on it without issues. If it's a modern cheap mini tower made of thin aluminium it might be more of an issue. Size does not necessarily correspond to weight. My 21" IBM CRTs seemingly weigh less than the 17" ilyama CRT I …

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Re: AMD ZEN, what do you folks think?

Posted on 2016-07-01, 09:19

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by ynari

in Milliways

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It might have decent price/performance, but it won't be fast. AMD are alright for acceptable low end computing with decent integrated graphics, but not at high performance. They also have some very nice low end APUs for embedded systems. I wouldn't touch anything other than Intel and Nvidia for a …

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Re: Any Legend of Grimrock fans here?

Posted on 2016-06-29, 12:32

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by ynari

in Milliways

in Milliways

You might be surprised at the idea of a turn based Doom - it actually works extremely well. Check out DoomRL. Any tips for not dying when there's six Knights in a square stabbing me are welcome, I'm not happy with RPGs seemingly relying on twich gaming.

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Re: Incredible how even fairly modern processors don't cut it

Posted on 2016-06-29, 11:54

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by ynari

in Milliways

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Note also that's a Conroe architecture processor. I'm about to go from a Q6700 (Kentsfield), to a X3370 (Yorkfield). There's a 300MHz clock and 333MHz FSB difference, but for a couple of benchmarks the performance of the X3370 is much higher than expected. The reason? Kentsfield has SSSE 3, whilst …

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Re: In your opinion whats the best CRT monitor

Posted on 2016-06-29, 11:32

by

by ynari

in Milliways

in Milliways

FYI, it's possible to buy 13W3 to HD15 adapters to run normal graphics cards to a Sun/Silicon graphics monitor. Wouldn't have thought there's enough decent monitors hanging around to make it worth it, though. One of my IBM C220p CRTs is slowly dying. I'll have to finally take the plunge and buy my …

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Re: Any Legend of Grimrock fans here?

Posted on 2016-06-29, 11:22

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by ynari

in Milliways

in Milliways

I've played the first Grimrock for a fair way and enjoyed it, but I'm not a fan of the realtime combat. I appear to be repeatedly dying with squares full of knights stabbing me. May go back to it at some point

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Re: Connecting a Roland MT-32 and SC-55 to a PC with One Sound Card

Posted on 2016-06-15, 13:42

by

by ynari

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Note that if the sound card is a number of SB16 or SB AWE32 models, the 'hanging note' MIDI bug may happen if digital sound and MIDI are played at the same time. (Also, Tie Fighter is a real arse to configure)

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Re: Guess the game!!

Posted on 2016-06-13, 12:26

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by ynari

in Milliways

in Milliways

Blame Canada : South Park Gratuitous Nuke Edition? 😉

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Re: Makeshift Dialup Internet Server - Advice?

Posted on 2016-06-10, 10:44

by

by ynari

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's worth searching for a cheap telephone exchange - that way the modems can dial properly. That's the way I tested modems when I used them professionally. The cheap exchange I used wasn't perfect, and occasionally needed to be powered off and on, but it worked quite well.

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Re: My dual 1GHZ PIII Monster, I call it "The Witch Doctor"

Posted on 2016-06-05, 22:50

by

by ynari

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

pentium III CPUs weren't that expensive, unless it was at the moment of release - I had two, but sold one. 600 is definitely high for two Voodoo 2s, they were somewhere between 180 and 200 GBP new, unless you're adjusting for inflation. I've got a P6DGS with the remaining 1GHz 100MHz P3 in the loft, …

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Re: SSD Worth it?

Posted on 2016-06-01, 15:22

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by ynari

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yes, because the 2001 drive sounds like a coffee grinder.. I've got an Intel SSD in my main retro PC with adapter, and an industrial flash DOM in my old retro PC. Both are silent, and lovely and fast, albeit much slower than in a modern SATA or NVMe system.

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Re: Bought this (Modern) hardware today

Posted on 2016-06-01, 09:20

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by ynari

in Milliways

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I've got an X3370 on the way (3GHz s775 Xeon), as an upgrade from my Q6700. Wasn't that expensive, and I caved to the idea of a little more speed and SSE4.1.. Also currently trying to resist buying 4GB DDR2 ECC, after finding out they exist, and work. 16GB in many 775 era chipsets..

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Re: What is your favorite or must have pieces of hardware?

Posted on 2016-06-01, 09:13

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by ynari

in Milliways

in Milliways

There's not too much that's must have. I'd say : AWE64 Card that offers a MIDI port MT32/CM32L Sound Canvas Old graphics card with decent DOS compatibility (any) Soundblaster X-Fi (new games, Directsound under XP) I also need to try getting an old Quadro I have with the stereo3D port working with …

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Re: Retro Consoles.... who plays them

Posted on 2016-06-01, 09:06

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by ynari

in Milliways

in Milliways

Nice! Despite my love of CRT monitors and projectors, I might draw a line at the game consoles though. I do have a space issue. Might ponder a plasma..

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