Re: Pentium 60/66 retrogaming use

Posted on 2020-01-17, 17:06

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I ran with a P60 on SiS501 chipset from 1995 to 1999. It was perfectly usable for period-correct software - slower than my mother's P90, but there was nothing she could run that I couldn't. Primary SiS IDE was fine, I just didn't use the CMD-640 secondary IDE.

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Re: MB recommendation for P3 Tualatin 1.4GHz with on-chip socket adapter

Posted on 2020-01-17, 11:31

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

"On-chip adapter"... srsly... Pretty elegant-looking socket adapter though :) If it works as designed, you have a nice range of boards to choose from. Not at all sure you'll get away with not flashing BIOS though - you never know what (old) BIOS might be on a board you buy, the only ones that you …

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Re: Is ebay the best place to get hardware?

Posted on 2020-01-17, 11:00

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I prefer EBay because I find better deals. People on amibay, vcfed, or Facebook retro market tend to know the value of their items. It depends what you're looking for. If you want very rare stuff, you are unlikely to get it cheap on more community-oriented sites because people know what they're …

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Re: Roland Remake of the MT-32?

Posted on 2020-01-17, 10:42

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Interesting idea, but hardly realistic. Even with the increasing popularity of retrogaming, it's very niche, and within that niche the people actually doing in on bare metal hardware (as opposed to just running RetroPi and DOSBox etc) is a niche - and then you also hit the subjective aesthetics: you …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2020-01-16, 14:47

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Bought this Cherry RS 6000 M keyboard today in second hand shop, along with a few floppys they had. Keyboard doesnt have a cable, but from the looks of it, it seems like new. So i paid 2 EUR. At home I opened her up and saw that the cable is missing indeed. "RS6000M" isn't the actual name of the …

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Re: What specs to look for to play DOS Quake, Diablo II, Warcraft III, etc. at HIGH native resolutions?

Posted on 2020-01-16, 13:17

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Ideally for an OS without TRIM support, go for SLC SSDs, as they are by design less vulnerable to the sort of fragmentation TRIM solves. OP seems bent on only buying new stuff for his 20yo computer, that would make SLC prohibitively expensive, as this is very high-end enterprise stuff, but if buying …

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Re: Aureal Vortex vs Vortex 2

Posted on 2020-01-16, 09:29

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by dionb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Out of interest: what makes the MX300 better than other Aureal2 cards? And how would it compare to say the Turtle Beach Montego II (that I also hear good things about)?

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Re: Options by IBM ISA soundcard

Posted on 2020-01-16, 08:51

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by dionb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I found this one too and more expensive: Usual eBay insanity. Or rather, that specific kind of seller with a big shed and a lot of patience. For that money you could get a Terratec EWS64XL (on eBay, in US, available at this moment via Buy Now). Unless that OPL3/4 jumper does something very …

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Re: What specs to look for to play DOS Quake, Diablo II, Warcraft III, etc. at HIGH native resolutions?

Posted on 2020-01-15, 22:12

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

[...] Thanks for the pros and cons. I bought a $21 Crucial 120gb SSD, and will use the Startech SATA to IDE Adapter to start off with. I'll mess with the 2gb SD card it came with for DOS. OK, should work. Bear in mind you can only format 32GB FAT32 partitions in Windows98SE - but you can use bigger …

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Re: Options by IBM ISA soundcard

Posted on 2020-01-15, 16:48

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by dionb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

[...] Thoses soundcards are good? Also the OPL4 in this card will work like a GM/wavetable function like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7cByGN3Uq0 ? Rather intrigued by that OPL3/OPL4 jumper. No sign of an OPL4 chip or associated ROMs on the board. I'd say it looks like a fairly generic …

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Re: Weames PA-9050-B (AD Echo) ROM (?) sockets

Posted on 2020-01-15, 12:19

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I think it's not your card that is faulty per se. You have an exemplar with an early revision of ECHO ESC614 chip, which had a bug, expressing itself as clicking while using DMA. It was fixed in later ESC614A revision. Actually should have updated this thread sooner. The crashes etc had nothing to …

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Re: What specs to look for to play DOS Quake, Diablo II, Warcraft III, etc. at HIGH native resolutions?

Posted on 2020-01-15, 12:11

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

[...] So all, is it really as easy as using that Startech SATA to IDE adapter (is this the one people recommend for P3 builds?)? I'm not using the one on my Dreamcast anymore (got an ODE for that), so I can try it. Yes, if the BIOS supports your drive size... BUT, if the above is so easy, what was …

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Re: Windows 98SE: 64MB SDRAM fully cached or 256MB on 430tx

Posted on 2020-01-15, 10:25

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by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

This hobby is all about good feelings. Using 256MB on 430TX wouldn't make me smile. We had to make pragmatic choices back then now we are doing it for pleasure. Now I wan't all my RAM to be cacheable :) I think this is a great excuse to treat yourself with a 430HX board with 512M capable TAG SRAM. …

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Re: What specs to look for to play DOS Quake, Diablo II, Warcraft III, etc. at HIGH native resolutions?

Posted on 2020-01-14, 23:23

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Since two posts in a row about not using a small 120gb or less mechanical hard drive, I assume it's because these just don't exist anymore? Like companies just don't make and sell new ones of those anymore? The only ones around that 120gb size I found based on reviews are used and old... I've only …

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Re: What specs to look for to play DOS Quake, Diablo II, Warcraft III, etc. at HIGH native resolutions?

Posted on 2020-01-14, 19:19

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

OK, OK, you guys win. I'll stick with the original power supply until it's proven it isn't enough. At least I know what I need to get next time around. Which Dionb, what would the ideal 5v amps and watts rating be on an ideal proper period upgraded power supply? The stock is 22A/40W?. --- Thank you …

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Re: What specs to look for to play DOS Quake, Diablo II, Warcraft III, etc. at HIGH native resolutions?

Posted on 2020-01-14, 16:42

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

[...] I don't see the Ti4600 in that topic, sure the link is correct? Sure, here it is from that page, 87 at idle, 124 watts at load: https://i.imgur.com/rLCirCD.jpg Ah, I was looking for text, not at pics... That system is completely different, much newer, so the total value isn't relevant, but …

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Re: Windows 98SE: 64MB SDRAM fully cached or 256MB on 430tx

Posted on 2020-01-14, 14:01

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by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Did win9x memory requirements increase much in later 90s? I built my pentium pc in 1995 with just 16Mb of ram and it was fine with that. I am sure 64Mb would probably be much faster but thinking about something needing 256Mb I can only think of winxp and games from around 2005 and later. Yes, …

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Re: How compatible are IBM PS/2 VGA monitors?

Posted on 2020-01-14, 07:52

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by dionb

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

The original 8513 12" monitor is very picky - it does VGA and VGA only, 320x200/240 and 640x480. Slight variance in input can cause artifacts. I have one (for nostalgia's sake - from 1988-1995 we had a PS/2 model 70 with one) and happened to use it for testing some old crap last weekend. Using …

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Re: Windows 98SE: 64MB SDRAM fully cached or 256MB on 430tx

Posted on 2020-01-13, 16:00

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just use 128Mb. Why? That's worst of both worlds - above the 64kB caching limit, but less than 256MB, so less effective at avoiding thrashing. Why stop at 256MB btw? i430TX officially only supports that much, but it can handle 4 banks of 128Mb chips, so will do 512MB with two double-sided 256MB …

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Re: What specs to look for to play DOS Quake, Diablo II, Warcraft III, etc. at HIGH native resolutions?

Posted on 2020-01-13, 12:02

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

[...] Here's the specs for the original OEM power supply on the Dell T700R: https://i.imgur.com/URpPaMV.jpg Here's the Startech Dell compliant one: https://i.imgur.com/fsh235u.jpg My buddy wrote [with my notes]: "The original PSU was rated for 200w, but could only deliver 140w when loads are …

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