Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2018-02-01, 16:43

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Bootstrapping my bootstraps... Wanted to get my 486 running DOS, but no luck with CF cards formatted/copied under Window 10. So decided to get Win98SE installed on my oldest system to help. Unfortunately my oldest system at that point was a Dell D610 laptop, which was already PCIe based and despite …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-01-31, 22:59

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

cyclone3d wrote: bjwil1991 wrote: And 90 versions more advanced than Windows 8, 91 versions more advanced than Windows 7, and 89.9 versions more advanced than Windows 8.1 We could do this with ATI/AMD and Nvidia video card model numbers as well. Then Creative wins with their EMU10k 😉

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Re: My £20 / $28 pick up and what do I need to do first

Posted on 2018-01-31, 14:21

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

FYI, this is an internal ZIP drive: Here's a similar pic of a tape drive, like in your systems:

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Re: Concerns about replacing RAM

Posted on 2018-01-31, 00:25

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

1) you don't say whether this is a 386DX (32b memory bus) or a 386SX (16b memory bus), but given the 8 SIMM slots with 2 sets of 4 I will assume it's a DX. In that case memory needs to be installed in 32b blocks, and as each 30p SIMM is 8 bits wide, you have to install RAM per 4 modules. So yes, …

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Re: My £20 / $28 pick up and what do I need to do first

Posted on 2018-01-30, 21:07

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Nice haul, agree that the IBM is the hands-down winner, at least on looks & (nostalgic) value, although I loved those Siemens cases too. As for mould - mould itself isn't a major problem, damp is. These things have been kept in a very humid environment. Once that is completely dried out you should …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-01-30, 18:10

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

After my warnings about ozone I now wish I had some... Just picked this up: https://tweakers.net/ext/f/G6RWklIrZGeoLaeGA0lw8SdV/full.jpg I needed something that would run Win98SE, but was new enough to allow USB boot. So was very happy to find this nearby for almost nothing: - Compaq TR100 uATX …

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Re: Looking to Consolidate - Opinions

Posted on 2018-01-30, 13:53

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by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I am in a house and would love to do what you say, but that would be quite costly!! I have them hooked up to 2 KVMs right now. Its just too many machines that I have no room for anything else... Just put the systems you don't need at the moment in a closet. 10 boxes stacked dosn't take up much …

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Re: Trying to find drivers for a Zenith Data Systems laptop

Posted on 2018-01-30, 11:34

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by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've managed to get sound working in windows, but not ms-dos, and opl3 doesn't work but at this point that's to be expected. I guess that's not my dream 486 gaming lappy (that keyboard sucks too) :c So which drivers did Windows install for the sound? That should be a good clue to where to look for …

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Re: Blue / Blue PCB SDRAM

Posted on 2018-01-30, 11:17

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by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The best thing is that they're original. Not any midding stuff... They were described as RIMM but I have one identical already and there is written on them PC133 DIMM :) The keying is clearly 168p 3.3V unbuffered DIMM, so it could really only be EDO or SDR-SDRAM, and EDO being used this late in …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-01-30, 07:49

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Do be careful with that ozone - it does the job breaking down smells and other yuck with its high reactivity, but just as happily does that to your airways too. In the stratosphere ozone is great, but down here it's considered a pollutant in its own right. Make sure you ventilate enough when using …

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Re: Best Slot 1 Motherboard?

Posted on 2018-01-30, 07:43

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by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Nono, i am planning the dual V2s for my K6-III+/450 system, which is paired with a Matrox G400 Max. (I need help learning how to set up drivers in 98SE and just general optimization for my needs by the way. It's a real pain.) In that case not sure the V3-3500 would be the best match. You lose 32b …

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Re: Socket A: Nvidia vs Via - battle of the platforms!

Posted on 2018-01-29, 23:27

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by dionb

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I can buy an Abit (you see the pattern, don't you? :blush: )KV7 motherboard for a very cheap price (around 10 euro) and redone the test with the Via KT600 chipset but i think that KT880 will generally score better despite the difference being only the dual channel memory (as far As I remember but I …

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Re: BeOS Build/Install

Posted on 2018-01-29, 23:01

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by dionb

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

I wouldn't recommend running BeOS (or Haiku) on your main desktop system, it's just too limited in terms of hardware and software support for that. But it's a great demonstrator of how well a sleek OS designed from the ground up for desktop UI and multiprocessing can work. I ran it on various dual/ …

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Re: Best Slot 1 Motherboard?

Posted on 2018-01-29, 22:49

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by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've heard about the "no-cache celerons" before. What a silly move. I mean i understand they wanted to save money, but there is a certain level of performance even the most basic of user needs. Intel had managed to get itself into a bit of a marketing tangle in 1997. They were trying to muscle all …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-01-29, 22:26

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Didn't buy anything but saw this on reddit and thought of you guys. Nothing like getting pissed off cause some component smells like ass thanks to coming from a smoker who didn't mention it. https://i.imgur.com/6roTGA3.jpg I've had to scrub down components in the shower before. I've noticed in my …

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Re: Looking to Consolidate - Opinions

Posted on 2018-01-29, 15:43

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It would help to know what you already have, then we can recommend which of those you could best use, possibly mixing up compontents a bit. Right Now, the Following. Way to many.... (There is some stuff I dont know off the top of my head and I am typing this at work so I can fill in the blanks …

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Re: Most powerful AGP or PCI gpu for slot 1 system.

Posted on 2018-01-29, 13:53

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by dionb

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Anything up to GeForce FX 5950 Ultra or Radeon 9800 Pro. But the most powerful card that can work with AGP 3.3.v Slot 1 system is Galaxy GeForce 7950GT. Of course you could go for a Slot 1 system with AGP 4x, allowing lower voltage options. You could do that with either an Intel i815 chipset (slot …

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Re: Socket A: Nvidia vs Via - battle of the platforms!

Posted on 2018-01-29, 13:35

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by dionb

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

nVidia vs Via is all very well, but what about SiS? SiS' 735 chipset was very popular in mid-SoA times, both because it outperformed the contemporary AMD760 and Via KT266A chipsets, and because of the excellent and ludicrously cheap ECS K7S5A motherboard (pretty much the only SiS735 based board …

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Re: Looking to Consolidate - Opinions

Posted on 2018-01-29, 11:04

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It would help to know what you already have, then we can recommend which of those you could best use, possibly mixing up compontents a bit.

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Re: Do I need -5v for ATX motherboards with ISA ?

Posted on 2018-01-28, 23:07

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by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

What kind of systems are you building? -5V can be needed for some old sound cards, but there is a bigger issue when using a modern PSU for old systems, particularly the more demanding ones: since P4 and Athlon64, CPU (and PCIe) power has been delivered from the +12V line and nothing much comes from …

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