Re: 89/90 best sound card

Posted on 2019-03-06, 14:15

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If replicas are fine, then that would be a fun and educational alternative to finding the original unicorns. I'll be trying to build one of root42's SB2.0 replicas soon and intend to stick that into a late 80's Olivetti XT. Not totally period-correct, but a config that would have occurred often …

---

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

Posted on 2019-03-06, 00:12

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

At last found some time to test a few sound cards. Apart from an ALS100 card (which I suspect of having PnP-issues so need to re-test in a more modern system than my 1991 486) everything works. A SB16MCD CT1750 does what it's supposed to with less noise than I'd expect for one of those early beasts, …

---

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-03-05, 22:58

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Eleanor1967 wrote: [...] Yes, mine is reversed as well. Do you know if DIP1 is now DIP4 or is what the manual calls DIP1 still DIP1 just in the wrong location? With me, 4 is really 1, so switches from MDA/Hercules to CGA/EGA.

---

Re: 89/90 best sound card

Posted on 2019-03-05, 22:53

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A Roland MT-32 via an original MPU-401 (or LAPC-1) next to an AdLib would be about the ultimate 1989 or early 1990 setup. Unfortunately back in the day almost no one had even one of these due to costs involved, and all are so rare/collectible now that you'd end up paying a similar amount to what …

---

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2019-03-05, 15:24

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That little police car computer is so damn cool. If I even happen to run a fallout theme park I know what to look for! I myself finally fallen for the temptation and placed an order at everybody favorite belgiam online shop around here :) So much stuff to play around with now. Ooh yes, beautful …

---

Re: Recent-ish mainboard with dual floppy support?

Posted on 2019-03-05, 12:51

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Tbh, I'd stick with the Phenom II and try to find one that does do decent AHCI. I also have one on an oddball Asrock nForce3 chipset (yep, Phenom II quadcore with AGP), which I wouldn't recommend if you want to run Windows (support ended before Vista) but is fine for Linux. I believe nF4 would still …

---

Re: Can you identify these three graphics cards?

Posted on 2019-03-04, 22:45

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks for your replies! :blush: The 3dfx Voodoo 3 PCI seems to be very rare? The Diamond Viper V330 and Diamond Monster 3D seem to be sold quiet frequently. I'm unsure whether I should keep these cards or sell them. Voodoo 3 PCI cards are certainly less common than the AGP versions, but I wouldn't …

---

Re: Pentium with no L2.

Posted on 2019-03-04, 21:49

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If I recall the idea was that EDO without L2 was about as quick as FPM with L2, when they were dropping L2 to cut costs Before putting away my 430HX motherboard, I decided to test this theory using Quake's timedemo in DOS with a K6-2 (no integrated cache) at 500 MHz (6x83.3). The results were: EDO …

---

Re: Can you identify these three graphics cards?

Posted on 2019-03-04, 18:29

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The Voodoo3 looks like a V3-3000 PCI OEM version. I have the exact same card. The other two are the Diamond V330 and Monster3D indeed.

---

Re: Cascading regular/low end KVM switches

Posted on 2019-03-02, 13:20

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

First off, Aten isn't low-end stuff. At least you have two of the best devices in their category to start with. I hate shortcuts and try to disable them on any stuff I use, so I can 't offer any advice there. As for the image quality bit - that would be my prime concern. VGA is analog, so the signal …

---

Re: Authenticity vs Power

Posted on 2019-03-02, 13:01

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Tbh, that whole "these days 10yo parts are still usable when in the past they wouldn't do half that" only applies if you focus on CPU & GPU. With other parts, maturity was reached much earlier. It's entirely true that in say 1999 (20 years ago) you wouldn't have been able to run anything current on …

---

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

Posted on 2019-03-02, 11:50

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Funny how completely unrelated hardware sometimes shows identical issues. Last night was corroded contact night. I had a pile of I/O controllers and an unresponsive motherboard to test. Nothing worked first time and every single one had at least one contact issue. The board (the last of my Morse 486 …

---

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

Posted on 2019-03-01, 21:47

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Deksor wrote: There's no room underneath, it's a desktop tower and the plate where the board sits on can't be removed ... Right, but there are spacers between the plate and the board surely? I'd expect to be able to fit two flatcables in that space between plate and board easily.

---

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

Posted on 2019-03-01, 21:19

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Deksor wrote: So I improved my cable management, it looks even cleaner now 😁 Still room for improvement though - I'd route those IDE & floppy flatcables under the motherboard instead of over it for starters.

---

Re: Authenticity vs Power

Posted on 2019-03-01, 20:59

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Of course if you're talking about authenticity, don't forget the monitor. If you were running Win3.x, chances are you have a monitor that couldn't decently display 1024x768 anyway, at least not at a refresh rate that wouldn't induce headaches within a few minutes. I had an S3 868 card with 1MB that …

---

Re: Pentium with no L2.

Posted on 2019-03-01, 12:33

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Did you create a chart or graph? Nope, just the raw data. I think I'll need to use 133 MHz because Socket 4 is either 60, 66, or 133 MHz POD. Or will the POD drop to 100 MHz with the fan removed? If it does, that would be even better so I don't have to use a socket 5 upgrade module for the other …

---

Re: Pentium with no L2.

Posted on 2019-03-01, 10:46

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Great! That's what I used to have, before I was forced to offload it all when I moved to a tiny apartment in the big city. I did the same, benching everything with a P100 at 66MHz FSB (the one speed every board could do) Here's the raw data I still have: http://dionb.eu/chipset1.html

---

Re: Pentium with no L2.

Posted on 2019-03-01, 00:56

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

In cases whereby one motherboard shows a marked improvement when using SDRAM over EDO, it would be very interesting to compare such a board with another of an identical chipset which did not show improvement when using SDRAM. It is possible that the board which you suspect is dodgy may just be able …

---

Re: Pentium with no L2.

Posted on 2019-02-28, 22:48

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I assume that with faster CPUs L2 is much more significant, but for a Pentium with SDRAM is right on the edge of L2 speeds. This is only an assumption as I have no EDO ram to test. On my 430TX board, SDRAM did not offer any speed benefit to EDO. In fact, I was able to set the RAM timings faster …

---

Re: Authenticity vs Power

Posted on 2019-02-28, 16:37

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yep. And in fact even back in 1996/1997, the difference in CPU and VGA might have been huge, but if you had an 'old' Gravis Ultrasound and/or Sound Blaster AWE32, not to mention a good mechanical keyboard, there would have been little reason to upgrade those parts even if you'd just upgraded your …

---