Re: PSU - bust the myth

Posted on 2016-02-11, 17:33

by

by 386SX

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hmm... let's see. No expense spared with a phenolic board. Input transient filtering is okay. I think I see two X, two Y, 3 coils, and what looks like a MOV. Full bridge rectifier. Looks like a PTC for inrush limiting. Transformers look a little anemic. Can't read the switchers to find the current …

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Re: PSU - bust the myth

Posted on 2016-02-11, 11:13

by

by 386SX

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I hoped better.. 🙁

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Re: PSU - bust the myth

Posted on 2016-02-11, 10:16

by

by 386SX

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Even if it's not the old retro psu we'd need for these machines, for older (SS7) or future build I bought a Corsair VS650 psu. It has this specs: 3,3v-20A 5v-20A 12V-50A -12v-0.3A +5vsb-2.5A. I know it's a entry level one but I thought this would be better than others. I don't think I would have …

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Re: PSU - bust the myth

Posted on 2016-02-10, 23:04

by

by 386SX

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I opened mine psu today and seeing that even if a classic unknown brand it's quiet old style (400w but heavier and with more components than other 550w I have). Nothing comparable to the high end ones seen in the link above but there're big transistor on the heasinks and quiet big primary capacitors …

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Re: DVD accelerators compared

Posted on 2016-02-10, 15:27

by

by 386SX

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If the Xcards 720p output isnt 1280*1024 (which it isnt) my Acer TFT will do some processing and scaling, this screen wont show anything that isnt its native resolution without scaling. At high resolutiuon (720P) the scaling wont degrade a low resolution source like a DVD as much as it does at the …

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Re: DVD accelerators compared

Posted on 2016-02-10, 14:26

by

by 386SX

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I am using the late 2003 one and the only newer I have found. I can't compare the best setting (720p/72hz, using CRT the 60hz will be difficult) if I don't understand the exact resolution. It look like 1024x768 or ...x720 but, probably it's my cheap crt monitor the aliasing would seems to be still a …

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Re: DVD accelerators compared

Posted on 2016-02-10, 13:10

by

by 386SX

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I am trying the EM847x Realmagic X card pci comparing to the previous EM8300 solutions. Interesting and different solution, some opinions later. I am also testing the REALmagic Xcard right now. Im very impressed with the DVD decoding, even with a PII @ 133 MHz with disabled L2 cache the decoding is …

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Re: DVD accelerators compared

Posted on 2016-02-10, 11:43

by

by 386SX

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I am trying the EM847x Realmagic X card pci comparing to the previous EM8300 solutions. Interesting and different solution, some opinions later.

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Re: PSU - bust the myth

Posted on 2016-02-09, 14:41

by

by 386SX

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I am looking at a new/old v2.1 psu to understand how things are inside. This is a rebranded cheap psu that should have 48A on the +5v and total of 500W. I see these kind of capacitors: 2 bigger caps Dexon 200v/470uf 2 medium-small Lowesr 2 medium unbrand HB CD288 2 medium-small ThengX 1 another …

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Re: PSU - bust the myth

Posted on 2016-02-09, 14:01

by

by 386SX

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think that even if I could recap power supply capacitors assuming it could be easier to repair of some game console I did, the problem for me would be how to test it under stress without risking to break a whole connected system. And generally a bit of fear in the case something would go wrong not …

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Re: PSU - bust the myth

Posted on 2016-02-08, 20:48

by

by 386SX

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

By the way it still seems incredible nowdays to have 1000W on a multiple rail and 150w on another.. Modern hardware demands tons of +12V but very little +5V & +3.3V, so modern PSUs are tailored accordingly. Just like they were tailored the opposite way in 2000, when the reverse was true: http:// …

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Re: PSU - bust the myth

Posted on 2016-02-08, 17:41

by

by 386SX

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

By the way it still seems incredible nowdays to have 1000W on a multiple rail and 150w on another..

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Re: PSU for Athlon XP 3200+, Radeon 9800 XT?

Posted on 2016-02-08, 17:07

by

by 386SX

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Are there any way to prevent that something will be burned when an older psu cap will fail? Like something to shutdown power supply before something goes wrong like overvoltage on some rails? I don't know. Or at least I don't know of any external measures you can take (except maybe for a fuse? …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2016-02-08, 16:56

by

by 386SX

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Or is it a K6-2? a 500Mhz model would be a nice bonus :) I bought a bunch of crap hics cards from a local seller (x12 for £8) purely because of the unidentifiable PCI card I saw in the terrible picture. Turns out it's a REALmagic EM8300 MPEG-2 / DVD decoder card. Apparently useless without the …

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Re: Weird Video Card Issues

Posted on 2016-02-08, 16:40

by

by 386SX

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you find some info/manual of you motherboard maybe there'll be some led status info about the slow led light. Is the power cable outside the power supply connected directly to the wall or with a multiple plugs?

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Re: PSU for Athlon XP 3200+, Radeon 9800 XT?

Posted on 2016-02-08, 16:32

by

by 386SX

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So about recapping, which brand to choose for the caps? And what about the values of the capacitors about voltage and u? Higher always better? General guidelines for starters. Replace with caps of: - Same diameter (sometimes a slightly wider cap will fit in if there's enough room, like a 12.5mm …

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Re: PCI Video Card for Pentium Pro 180MHz

Posted on 2016-02-08, 14:02

by

by 386SX

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Only an opinion: the first generation Voodoo based card (usually 4MB of ram) is a 3D only accelerator that need another 2D video card to run (it will not run alone). A Radeon 7000 is a much newer card that usually would require much more powerful cpu to be used at best. It depends on what someone …

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Re: PCI Video Card for Pentium Pro 180MHz

Posted on 2016-02-08, 13:51

by

by 386SX

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Maybe (and if compatible with your system I don't know) I would try Mystique 4MB + Voodoo 1 or a Riva 128 PCI, obviously for very old accelerated games.

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Re: Weird Video Card Issues

Posted on 2016-02-08, 12:19

by

by 386SX

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

But the system boot up anyway even without the video signal? Not really sure. I'm not that adept at interpreting sounds, but it does seem like it's working. I usually don't let it go very far, though. It only takes a few seconds to realize the video signal isn't going to come through. Try to see if …

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Re: Top 5 hardest retro builds

Posted on 2016-02-08, 12:13

by

by 386SX

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think in general the older the system, the harder it gets. Hardware just seems more particular the further you go back. I have a 486 VLB system with SCSI HDD and optical, but I've never been able to get the ISA soundcard to work (CT4520) in DOS or WFW, regardless of drivers and configurations …

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