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Re: What was the first PC you built yourself

Posted on 2017-01-18, 16:20

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Kind of a weird line for me. I started out with a Tandy 1000 SL that my parents bought and then moved on to an IBM PS/2 Model 50Z that my dad brought home from work. I got that in 1995 or so, by which time it was already quite long in the tooth. I remember that came with PC DOS 5, and it was the …

Re: The Compaq AP550 Workstation

Posted on 2017-01-18, 13:51

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Very nice indeed!

Re: 775/771 systems old school or not?

Posted on 2017-01-18, 03:05

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

RAM makes all the difference in the world, too. My motto is "if there's no downside to having more, and I can afford it, max the buzzard out!" I haven't maxed out my modern machines, but that's because they max out at 32-64GB, and that's expensive, so it runs afoul of the second caveat 😜

Re: 775/771 systems old school or not?

Posted on 2017-01-17, 19:55

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

To me, those systems are too new to be retro, vintage or old-school, but not by a lot. They're "obsolete modern", basically, but obsolescence kinda depends on how high-spec they were when new. I'd be inclined to consider a Dell Optiplex GX280 to be mostly junk now without a pile of upgrades, for …

Re: Why doesn't this exist?

Posted on 2017-01-17, 19:44

in Milliways

in Milliways

Anyone else got idea on what computer related items that should exist that could be convenient for you? System Boards that plug in to PCI Express and contain a complete 486/Pentium class machine with BIOS/RAM etc, that can be run through a software portal on the host system. It's basically DOSBox …

Re: Linux and graphic cards installation

Posted on 2017-01-17, 19:05

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I don't use any vmware application, is a fresh debian installation. I am not expert in debian but I think that is a driver that is labeled "vmware" as provider when no other correct drivers are found just like a generic "svga driver" of the old win systems. Maybe is the same that is used in the …

Re: Why doesn't this exist?

Posted on 2017-01-17, 15:37

in Milliways

in Milliways

Yea that SATA issue with VIA is a real pain :lol: My dream gadget is a CD/DVD drive emulator, like a GOTEK. Connect to IDE, takes a 2.5" SATA drive, little LCD display at the front displaying the ISO / BIN-CUE image and some buttons to cycle through the images. That would be cool for a start-up …

Re: Linux and graphic cards installation

Posted on 2017-01-17, 15:05

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

For example, trying the Savage 4 I get this on Xorg.0.log: (II) LoadModule: "savage" (WW) Warning, couldn't open module savage (II) UnloadModule: "savage" (II) Unloading savage (EE) Failed to load module "savage" (module does not exist, 0) and the it try other until the vbe driver and it go to the …

Re: Linux and graphic cards installation

Posted on 2017-01-17, 13:50

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

i do wonder a bit what is going on here: drivers now are in kernel space, optimally as .ko modules which are then loaded automagically during boot (firmware required at this point), later xorg just takes over drawing - thats all; xorg.conf is a thing of the past; That's true only for cards that …

Re: What are builds you want to make someday?

Posted on 2017-01-17, 05:44

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Got a few projects in mind, according to intended hostname. "Hecate": Mostly finished, VLB AMD 5x86, PC DOS and OS/2 (go Big Blue). At this point I need a 2MB graphics card (ET4000/W32i on the way, making do with a fairly good Cirrus GD5428 for now) and I need to do a small hardware mod to the …

Re: Retro PC challenge!

Posted on 2017-01-16, 22:55

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Fantastic build! I love that case especially - has exactly the right blend of retro and modern, and aluminum is never out of style. Very very nice indeed!

Re: Graphics card choice for 486 DX4-100 system

Posted on 2017-01-14, 05:24

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

PCI > ISA for graphics, unless you're comparing a screamer of an ISA chip (ET4000, etc) against a stinkerino of a PCI chip (Trident 9680, say) Are you seriously comparing a isa card to a 64 bit pci card like that trident? (even when that chip usually came with 32 bit dram). The s3 trio64 would be …

Re: Graphics card choice for 486 DX4-100 system

Posted on 2017-01-13, 18:22

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Another decent choice, if you can find one, might be a PCI Rage 128 or Radeon (Standard, DDR, 7500 or VE, probably not a later one), though you may have difficulty finding drivers for Win3.1 or OS/2. IIRC, Matrox made a PCI G400 also, which might be a good call, though apparently the G400 has some …

Re: Dual Pentium III motherboard weirdness..

Posted on 2017-01-09, 21:30

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The GeForce4 MX 440 - or equivalently, the Quadro4 380 - would be a fine fit for this, I think. For audio, the Audigy2 ZS is a fine card, I think, but you might wanna see what the onboard audio is. Often they were ESS, Crystal or Ensoniq chips which aren't awful (but they're not stellar either). I …

Re: S3 Virge 325 + Pentium 133 + Socket 7 - 2 MB / 4 MB

Posted on 2017-01-09, 02:53

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I would say generally no - the biggest thing the extra RAM would give you is a higher maximum resolution. This might be helpful for games that use double-buffering, but in general a P133 and Virge combo isn't skookum enough to handle the kinds of resolutions that would need 4MB of RAM. However, if …

Re: Can I use a Rendition v2200 AGP Card & Voodoo3 PCI card in the same machine?

Posted on 2017-01-09, 00:15

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Windows (not 95 or NT4, though) will indeed let you use 2 monitors, though some games get odd when you have multiple 3d-capable video cards. However, that combo should work fine.

Re: Wearnes - another forgotten company. What sound cards produced?

Posted on 2017-01-08, 01:59

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I've only encountered their CD drives before, but the one I had was a bulletproof beast. I had a CDD-620 that came in my first "real computer" (an IBM PS/Valuepoint retrofitted with a 486DX4), and it hung around, moving from one system to another for quite a while. I finally gave it to a roommate to …

Re: SCSI SSD's?

Posted on 2017-01-07, 05:00

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You wouldn't, but you would get the max that the ISA bus could sustain: IOW, the bus becomes the limit pretty much 100% of the time, rather than the disk being the limit.

Re: SCSI SSD's?

Posted on 2017-01-07, 02:22

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'd like to get my hands on one to test it - they'd be great in old Suns and SGIs, too. And again, the latency improvement on an SSD means they'll feel fast as greased lightning, even though the transfer rate is thoroughly mediocre (though for the day, it was fantastic - and with an SSD you'll …

Re: Two new builds, out of nowhere.

Posted on 2017-01-07, 01:23

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I powered up the machine, heard a bang, but it didn't shut down. When I hunted for the blown cap, I found it, on the sound card. Not sure why that kablooied, there was nothing plugged into it. I did stick the K6 board's guts into the case, though, so that I could test out the second AWE64, and a …

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