Re: Gateway 2000 slim 486 DX/66 questions

Posted on 2017-06-02, 11:40

by

by Ampera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That looks like a former laptop hard drive, with a PATA to IDE converter board used. I have a similar converter I use to wipe and test laptop hard drives I acquire using a desktop PC. The question is, why did the owner use a laptop HDD in his desktop? Cost cutting, maybe? It's very strange indeed. …

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Re: 440BX vs 815EP chipset

Posted on 2017-06-02, 11:38

by

by Ampera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The main factor is time. The 440BX came out almost a year and a half earlier than the 815EP. Of course the newer chipset is going to be faster and better. Another factor may have been cost. I'd imagine the 815EP may have been more expensive at launch then the already venerated 440BX, and was …

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Re: Specification for AT and Baby AT boards? (mount hole locations)

Posted on 2017-06-02, 04:28

by

by Ampera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

AT and ATX screw hole locations are nearly identical. All AT board should work in ATX cases, however AT cases don't always have screws, so you may need nylon fixtures, or other forms of mounting.

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Re: Dual k6 possible?

Posted on 2017-06-01, 16:03

by

by Ampera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A supercomputer is high end, and can compute way faster than your machine, but they are often built using POWER chips, and are thus useless to anybody. Having 2+ CPUs or threads on a Pre Pentium 4 machine is useless. Nothing will ever use it ever. The only reason to make one is if you find the parts …

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Re: Sector not found, DOS FAT16 corruption

Posted on 2017-06-01, 16:01

by

by Ampera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Search up "How to disable System Volume Information" Myself personally, I have never had an issue with this. It always writes it to my floppy diskettes, and they read fine. DOS 6.22 should be able to handle long file names by shortening them.

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Re: Dual k6 possible?

Posted on 2017-06-01, 08:23

by

by Ampera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The better question is why aren't you using four Pentium Pros? For the ultimate, nothing ever is going to use this, retro build. I can understand the want to put a load of old CPUs on a board, but there is no practical reason to do so. Nothing up until the 21st century really used multi-threading …

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Re: Pentium III (440bx) parts suggestions

Posted on 2017-05-31, 21:04

by

by Ampera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Every copy of x86 Windows on the market is Windows NT. The last version of DOS windows was Windows ME

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Re: New Pentium Pro system!

Posted on 2017-05-31, 00:14

by

by Ampera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

UPDATE: So, it was a BIT stupid of me to order a Socket 370 cooler for a Pentium Pro. I ended up ordering a proper Socket 8 cooler. The Mach64 came in, broken. The seller was nice, and refunded the money, and let me keep it. With the help of my father I was able to fix the broken trace and get the …

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Re: Recommend a good ISA DOS soundcard

Posted on 2017-05-30, 20:22

by

by Ampera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Vintage hardware is fascinating in general.

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Re: Pentium III (440bx) parts suggestions

Posted on 2017-05-30, 15:58

by

by Ampera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BRAND-NEW-Belkin-3-Port-Hi-Speed-USB-2-0-PCI-Card-F5U219v1-/272685719562?hash=item3f7d55e00a:g:rdEAAOSwZ8ZW7HgV I recommend these Belkin usb 2.0 cards. They use an NEC chipset that is very compatible and stable. I have used the 4 port version of this card in 98 before. …

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Re: Pentium 133 question

Posted on 2017-05-29, 19:19

by

by Ampera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The goal of thermal paste is to provide a good contact between the heated surface, and the heat dissipator (Heatsink). If you can get a good contact without it, you may be fine on lower power devices, but if you can use it, you should, as there is no reason not to.

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Re: Pentium III (440bx) parts suggestions

Posted on 2017-05-29, 15:48

by

by Ampera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've never used a stock AWE32, however from listening to the AWE32 Clint used in his 486, if that's how they all sound then the CT3670 sounds better. Even still, they sound great, here's a sample of Passport.MID off my 486 machine (WARNING: This is a .WAV file, it is large for some people on metered …

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Re: Which is better, Pentium 233MMX, Cyrix MII 266 or K6-233?

Posted on 2017-05-29, 01:55

by

by Ampera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I more meant they always sold cheaper than Intel. Only in the spawn of the Athlon 64 did they have an upper hand in performance too.

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Re: Help identifying 486 motherboard

Posted on 2017-05-29, 00:40

by

by Ampera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Would help if you didn't cut off the bottom part of the board. And gave more pictures, especially of higher resolution and on the sides.

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Re: Which is better, Pentium 233MMX, Cyrix MII 266 or K6-233?

Posted on 2017-05-28, 19:24

by

by Ampera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That's the song that AMD has sung it's entire life.

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Re: Which is better, Pentium 233MMX, Cyrix MII 266 or K6-233?

Posted on 2017-05-28, 18:31

by

by Ampera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'd say the P233MMX. Cyrix MII is weak, but K6-233 I'm sure is close.

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Re: Let's recap an AT power supply

Posted on 2017-05-28, 17:17

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by Ampera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Cool work! If you are in search of a good AT PSU, Newegg is still selling them. I bought one from Athena Power and it seems to be working stable.

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Re: Question about upgrading a Dell Dimension XPS T500 to Socket 370

Posted on 2017-05-28, 17:16

by

by Ampera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Personally I don't understand the use of Slotket adapters today. It makes sense when they came out, you don't have to upgrade your motherboard, just your CPU, but today with Socket 370 boards pricing about as much as an average American dinner, I don't see the point.

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Re: cpu min/max speed (management state) option not in windows 7

Posted on 2017-05-28, 14:08

by

by Ampera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think this is actually a rare instance where a post in Marvin belongs in The Guide.

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Re: Recommend a good ISA DOS soundcard

Posted on 2017-05-28, 05:49

by

by Ampera

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That is true, but in my experience, an AWE32 is an SB16 with a somewhat decent MIDI option. The real way to do DOS MIDI is to use the MIDI output into something like a Sound Canvas, which are incredibly expensive if you can even locate one.

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