Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-02-10, 09:10

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I could never understand how it made any business sense for a company to spend time and money on proprietary add-on interfaces that had no hope of catching on. Like the AMR\CMR slots and AGP Pro. Fully agreed on proprietary interfaces, but none of those you mention are proprietary. AGP Pro was an …

---

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-02-09, 22:18

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I always wonder exactly what use case Asus had in mind with those cards and that whole concept. The only time it would make sense to buy one (when they were new) was if you were intending to use so many cards that both your PCI and ISA slots would all be full. In that case a two-in-one card would …

---

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-02-09, 16:56

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

only quick post and bios enter with piece of crack S3 Trio ... looks still can do something Iam interested about OC with this board so hope that is possible (maybe after re-flash original Asus bios) http://www.imagehosting.cz/images/dscf6880re.jpg http://www.imagehosting.cz/images/dscf6881re.jpg We …

---

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

Posted on 2018-02-09, 14:32

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yeehaa! Received my MIDI cable in the post today. So hooked up my retroPC to my partner's Roland FP-7 electric piano and fired up a game. Nothing. Then checked whether "out" and "in" on the cables referred to the PC or the peripheral. Switched them round and had General MIDI blasting at me out of …

---

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-02-09, 14:03

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Another black friday at me, again got luck about soundcards which are not my favourite target ... but they are welcome to my storage :-D [...] and "few" boards like Asus 2x slot1 for Rimms http://www.imagehosting.cz/images/dscf6855re.jpg Nice haul :) 1000 dollar question as far as I'm concerned is …

---

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-02-09, 13:55

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Would be interesting to se how the Crusoe performs under DOS (and Windows). Not very well per MHz, but if you measure per Watt it's a different story. Best performance per Watt until the introduction of the Pentium M (which was what killed Transmeta stone dead). Last week I also got my hands on a …

---

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

Posted on 2018-02-09, 09:36

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Nice score. I especially like the ZIP drive, didn't know such ones existed but I do remember that transparent plastic Apple was using at the time :P I didn't even know old PCs could even be dumped there. I don't think you're supposed to dump PCs there, it literally didn't fit. But that obviously …

---

Re: Creative Waveblaster ct1900 value?

Posted on 2018-02-08, 21:17

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That is an oversimplified view, so far, PC emulation is lacking in many domains, and it's definitely not all perfect. Also, you can't emulate using 5"1/4 floppy disks, the noise of an old HDD, the feel of a CRT (I much prefer my CRTs over the scanlines effect), or just messing with your hardware. …

---

Re: Creative Waveblaster ct1900 value?

Posted on 2018-02-08, 18:41

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

What is the point of getting any of the stuff we discuss here? A Raspberry Pi (or entry-level Core i3 system) can do pretty much anything remotely practical we discuss here. We're all 'real collectors' in that sense. Personally I'm not interested in wavetable daughterboards, but as they say, …

---

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

Posted on 2018-02-07, 21:23

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Was listening to audio from my Aztech Sound Galaxy Pro 16 II (AZT2316A) sound card yesterday evening. I was spoiled back in the '90s as I went straight from PC speaker to GUS MAX. Hearing proper SB-compatible FM for essentially the first time was somewhat... underwhelming. So today I was reading up …

---

Re: SLi on a single core...

Posted on 2018-02-07, 14:33

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have found a socket 939 board for sale which is capable of SLi. I have wanted to mess around with SLi for ages but I was wondering if there was any real point to this on a S939 board as I would be limited to a couple of dual core Athlons (FX and X2 apparently) and single cores. The dual core …

---

Re: Toshiba satellite pro 4600 ram

Posted on 2018-02-06, 15:16

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That sounds like a dead SO-DIMM. Did you test it with this one by itself in the same SO-DIMM slot that the other 256MB SO-DIMM was in? If so I'd be pretty sure it's dead or there is some more subtle compatibility issue between specifically these chips and the combination of memory controller and the …

---

Re: Toshiba satellite pro 4600 ram

Posted on 2018-02-06, 11:36

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Which CPU does your Satellite Pro 4600 have? If it's a 100MHz FSB model, this DIMM should be fine. If it's a 133MHz FSB model, this DIMM is in any event not rated for the correct speed which may be the problem. In any event it's a good Micron model, with 16Mx8 chips, which are the best supported in …

---

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-02-06, 10:19

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

BTW, it's weird to me that people keep saying "GUS is ideal for 386 builds" when the earliest game that supports it is actually from 1992. You are quite right on that. I have the same opinion, yet I think a GUS is kind of well suited for 386dx-40 to 486dx4-120/5x86-133. It is not for 386sx-33's or …

---

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-02-05, 13:19

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

VA panels were panned (as opposed to IPS, anything is better than TN) for three main reasons: - colour oversaturation - higher input lag - narrower viewing angle + better contrast The first one is inherent to the technology a valid point for very specific use cases, i.e. photographic and video work, …

---

Re: Compaq Deskpro EN PD1060 can handle a good AGP card?

Posted on 2018-02-04, 23:41

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The most relevant information is just off the bottom left-hand corner of your picture: how is the power supply rated? How much power can it provide on the 3.3V and 5V lines that the AGP slot gets most of its power from? That said, this is a P3 system, there's no point in going for one of the final …

---

Re: games for a crippled pentium

Posted on 2018-02-04, 17:30

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

emosun wrote: dionb wrote: Any idea where this system/board was sold? It's the board that comes with the multimedia m415. But which market? US? Somewhere in the EU? Somewhere else?

---

Re: games for a crippled pentium

Posted on 2018-02-04, 16:51

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Looks like you're interested in a particular build, and since this one is a branded Packard Bell machine, changing a mobo isn't an option. exactly. If i really wanted better performance I could just pull any of the pentium 2 or 3 machines i have off the shelf. More interested in seeing what this …

---

Re: VOGONS Driver Library

Posted on 2018-02-04, 15:39

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

As Linus famously said: Only wimps use tape backup: real men just upload their important stuff. I have a folder of drivers on my home server that is about 3.5GB is size, basically every driver I looked at or installed between 1995 and 2005 - and for the latter half of that period I was into …

---

Re: S3 Diamond Stealth 64 VLB - but which one?

Posted on 2018-02-04, 11:17

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Tnx, that looks like the answer- although I still can't find any pics of exactly this board only. Looks like I need to rectify that in the Vogons Wiki :) The press release surprises me a bit - I had a PCI 868 in a PC bought in late January/early February 1995. I was aware at the time it was pretty …

---