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

Posted on 2017-04-13, 20:07

by

by jade_angel

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If it has HT, the CPU itself should say so - CPU-Z ought to tell you, or boot into Linux from a CD and do cat /proc/cpuinfo (you'll see two "CPUs", and you'll see "ht" somewhere in the Flags section, using the output from my local box, a Core i3, as a guideline).

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Re: Do MAC edition video cards work on PC's?

Posted on 2017-04-13, 17:39

by

by jade_angel

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Most of the PCIe ones were designed for AMD64 Macs, though, weren't they? If so, they'll have EFI firmware, which should work on a PC with EFI.

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Re: Do MAC edition video cards work on PC's?

Posted on 2017-04-13, 14:53

by

by jade_angel

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Generally it won't work, at least not in Windows or DOS, since those depend on the card's firmware to set it up initially. On a Mac-edition card, that firmware is OpenFirmware fcode or PowerPC machine code, while on a PC-edition card, that's x86 machine code. So, the Mac-edition card's firmware will …

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Re: How you define a 586

Posted on 2017-04-12, 20:39

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by jade_angel

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I should point out that the K6 and the Athlon were very different under the hood - K6 was, architecturally, something like the bastard child of a Pentium and a P6, while the Athlon was more or less like a P6 internally, with a double-pumped bus and some other bits of trickery involved. I consider …

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Re: How you define a 586

Posted on 2017-04-12, 12:37

by

by jade_angel

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Joking, but ha-ha-only-serious. Maybe "486++"? It's definitely got more shinies, microarchitecturally speaking, than a 486. The same sorts of things can be said about the K5 vis-a-vis the Pentium, or the Athlon vis-a-vis the P6. K5 is a 586++, K7 is a 686++, Nehalem is a K10++, in a manner of …

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Re: I have this "mini" 486. What is it good for?

Posted on 2017-04-09, 03:08

by

by jade_angel

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You can get it to run Doom well with ISA video. I'd start with either a Tseng ET4000AX or an S3 83c805, combined with either a DX2/66 or a DX4/100, plus 16+ MB of RAM. Look at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ha8Q_oLUr8&t=4s for reference; I'd definitely recommend adding cache. Max it out if there's …

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Re: What sys specs for 640x480 DOS gaming?

Posted on 2017-04-09, 02:51

by

by jade_angel

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Some SB16s have issues, though I can never keep straight which ones have trouble and which don't. Kinda why I like ESS cards, actually.

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Re: FrankenDOS?

Posted on 2017-04-09, 02:36

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by jade_angel

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Probably a stapled-on afterthought. I didn't look to see what DR-DOS 8.1 does in that case, either. Both PC-DOS 7.1 and DR-DOS 8.1 are "mostly unofficial" versions that were never properly shipped and have to be frankensteined, though.

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Re: FrankenDOS?

Posted on 2017-04-08, 16:44

by

by jade_angel

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Checked it, yeah, it doesn't have any idea about VFAT at all, LFNs get munged.

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Re: VLB 486 memory weirdness

Posted on 2017-04-08, 16:42

by

by jade_angel

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Kinda smells like it, yeah.

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

Posted on 2017-04-07, 15:48

by

by jade_angel

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Fair enough, then. I did a search on the model number, and couldn't find much beyond forum posts.

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

Posted on 2017-04-07, 13:08

by

by jade_angel

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The catch is that from about 1987 (when the IBM PS/2 debuted) to about 1999 (when the AT motherboard standard was almost entirely displaced by ATX), the AT and PS/2 connectors coexisted - and, since they're electrically compatible (modulo the XT protocol), it was very common for keyboards to be …

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

Posted on 2017-04-06, 19:10

by

by jade_angel

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

AT connectors were still around then, yes - recall that the ATX form factor didn't come around until 1995 and didn't fully displace AT/Baby AT until at least 1999 or so. I couldn't get a firm date on that keyboard or even production years, but what few posts I could come up with had those coming …

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

Posted on 2017-04-06, 17:20

by

by jade_angel

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That Key Tronic board ought to be from the late 90s, if I'm finding things right (but Key Tronic has a ton of rather similar designs). It's a rubber dome with keycap-integrated slider design, considered fairly decent for the type if somewhat stiff.

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Re: What sys specs for 640x480 DOS gaming?

Posted on 2017-04-06, 03:32

by

by jade_angel

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Certainly, if I were looking to build a box that'll handle all the various high-end DOS games, I'd be looking at more than SS7, though for the ones you listed I think a decent S7 rig will do and SS7 will do very well. But if I wanted to make very sure indeed - maybe an original Athlon, probably with …

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Re: What kind of case is this ?

Posted on 2017-04-06, 03:11

by

by jade_angel

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If that's eMachines I'll smoke my hat. I don't recall who made those - maybe Enlite? I know I've seen them around before, quite often. Kind of an odd board, though - VLB, can take a DX4, but still has 30-pin slots? Oddish.

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Re: What sys specs for 640x480 DOS gaming?

Posted on 2017-04-06, 03:07

by

by jade_angel

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I don't recall testing them all exhaustively, but I can provide a few data points. I recall playing Duke 3D on a Cyrix MediaGX/200, and it was really rather, err, glacial. Playable, but only just, at 640x480. The next two machines I tried it on - a K6-2/350 and a Pentium 2/450 - were glassy smooth. …

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Re: Matrox G200 questions

Posted on 2017-04-05, 13:41

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by jade_angel

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Surely they could've produced a DX7 card inbetween? Like G550? Who knows if they have seen their future in gaming market, even after success of G400. The G550 is a dolled-up G400. It's not even particularly faster (maybe slightly so, especially the last revisions). But otherwise, I'd agree - they …

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Re: Are there packet drivers for non-modem SLIP connections?

Posted on 2017-04-04, 18:48

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by jade_angel

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Self-assembled serial port card? Now I'm kinda curious!

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Re: Help choose a sound card (Dreamblaster S2 make it moot?)

Posted on 2017-04-04, 18:47

by

by jade_angel

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

The Audician32 is pretty nice. I've got one in one of my 486 boxen, and an Audiodrive in the other - they're about equally good, in the general case. Playing through a Win98 DOS window won't hurt anything, quality-wise, if anything it'll save some hassle with sound. The catch is that some games …

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