Re: Retro Hardware Collecting rants

Posted on 2021-03-11, 17:36

by

by Big Pink

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It may also be that hardware that had become obsolete in the West continued to be used in the East later, putting them half a step back on the price curve from a Western buyer's perspective (expensive > landfill-bound junk > expensive)

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Re: Retro Hardware Collecting rants

Posted on 2021-03-10, 19:31

by

by Big Pink

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have no problem with goods coming into the UK or leaving to non EU countries. Haven't shipped anything this year to the UK, but I know things passing through the UK are messed up. All so a few rich men can dodge taxes (don't get me started on Brexit - biggest lie to be sold to us in my memory) …

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Re: Retro Hardware Collecting rants

Posted on 2021-03-10, 16:40

by

by Big Pink

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

UK customs was a complete mess at the start of the year. I bought a GeForce PCX 5300 from a seller in Spain back in December (wanted it for a build on my week off at the New Year as several attempts to purchase a 5750 had fallen through at this point). After its departure scan on the 26th it dropped …

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Re: Good value Win98 Graphic Card

Posted on 2021-03-09, 18:06

by

by Big Pink

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Well, balls. I started work on a build using a free LGA775 board I got and obtained an FX1300 to see if I could put it to use running 98 on modern-ish hardware, but it sounds like that works out somewhere between very sub-optimal and awful. At least the Quadro card was dirt cheap.

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Re: My ancient mystery Covox box

Posted on 2021-03-08, 15:47

by

by Big Pink

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

It's amazing how just a bunch of resistors in the right formation can yield working audio. It's up there with crystal radios in terms of simplicity.

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Re: Looking for Tom Clancy's games

Posted on 2021-02-11, 21:36

by

by Big Pink

in Milliways

in Milliways

Apologies, mod. The games odd absence from any online store and its presence on the particular site led me to view it as legitimate, against my initial judgement. OP, since you already have an Eagle Watch disc could you not just buy a replacement for the scratched one and second hand copies for the …

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Re: Looking for Tom Clancy's games

Posted on 2021-02-11, 16:53

by

by Big Pink

in Milliways

in Milliways

I read something just last week about obtaining Rogue Spear. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to link to it because it may not be above board. Edit: LINK REMOVED

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Re: Retro confessions. What are yours?

Posted on 2021-02-09, 20:13

by

by Big Pink

in Milliways

in Milliways

The furture doesn't exist.. It's always NOW. Still waiting for my Jetsons style hover car to turn up. The collapse of the future into the present is future shock. The Jetsons are hauntological retrofuturism. On topic, I feel closer to the 90s knowing the pretender to the Pentium name was overthrown …

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Re: If we were to accept 15 years ago as retro....

Posted on 2021-02-09, 00:19

by

by Big Pink

in Milliways

in Milliways

Soon to be vintage: - optical disk drives. Given how many I've acquired for free because they were already in the case I bought, they're definitely in the obsolete phase (not to me with a large DVD collection) but not yet in the 'this is my ticket to riches, I'll list it on eBay for low three …

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Re: Retro confessions. What are yours?

Posted on 2021-02-08, 16:09

by

by Big Pink

in Milliways

in Milliways

There's always been a 'now' all through time and most people simply move along without much reflection or engagement with any aspect of their own nor their cultural past. I don't want to drag this thread too off-topic; but for most of recorded history 'now' and 'the past' were largely …

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Re: If we were to accept 15 years ago as retro....

Posted on 2021-02-06, 22:45

by

by Big Pink

in Milliways

in Milliways

Yes, I was talking about integrated graphics inside northbridges (eg. i810), and later CPUs when they in-turn integrated the functions of the northbridge. On-board graphics are where space is set aside on the motherboard for the relevant chips that would ordinarily be located on an expansion card - …

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Re: If we were to accept 15 years ago as retro....

Posted on 2021-02-06, 15:36

by

by Big Pink

in Milliways

in Milliways

I think integrated video might be more the turning point of PC history - the GPU duopoly took hold when IGPs killed off the budget/office market. I'd divide the history of integration into three eras by motherboard design: 80s - Antikythera mechanism: Lots of discrete chips. Almost everything except …

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Re: Retro confessions. What are yours?

Posted on 2021-02-02, 14:44

by

by Big Pink

in Milliways

in Milliways

As much as I detest the aforementioned fashion company (oh, to think they were on the verge of going under in 1997), I confess that I'm quite nostalgic for the Macintosh LCs my primary school had in the 90s. I'd pay penance to Bill for absolution, but he doesn't need money.

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Re: Let's talk about our hated trends

Posted on 2021-02-01, 19:12

by

by Big Pink

in Milliways

in Milliways

I kind of feel the same, when someone have an awesomme intro, trying to lead up to some kind of awesomme video with an interresting speaking voice. And all I get, is someone sitting with no movement and just reading from a script, with a kind of monotoneous robotic way of saying things. That shit …

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Re: Let's talk about our hated trends

Posted on 2021-01-30, 17:26

by

by Big Pink

in Milliways

in Milliways

Another trend I hated happened about 1999-2000, and was strangely shaped UIs. I mean, video players with round windows, skins that made your MP3 player have cat shape and UIs with colour schemes that made you think that blue leds are not that bad. That was the totally radical 90s for you. That look …

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Re: If we were to accept 15 years ago as retro....

Posted on 2021-01-30, 05:01

by

by Big Pink

in Milliways

in Milliways

If I'm not mistaken, "retro" means something along the lines of "imitation". I.e. something that was popular in the past made a comeback. I guess fashion is the most obvious example. So, retro doesn't mean "old", it means it's new but mimicking something from the past. The example I learned in the …

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

Posted on 2021-01-30, 02:43

by

by Big Pink

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Almost three years ago I found my way to this forum after saving a Compaq Prolinea 4/50 and a Compaq DeskPro EN SFF bound for the bin at work. On Monday I got back to the office to find this lot being readied for scrap: x3 Lenovo Thinkpad T430 (one already given away) HP Elitedesk 705 G3 SFF (only …

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Re: Let's talk about our hated trends

Posted on 2021-01-21, 20:45

by

by Big Pink

in Milliways

in Milliways

the issue is that they're getting too wide now x3 and often are not tall enough anymore for how wide they are. https://apple.slashdot.org/story/21/01/21/1532232/goodbye-and-good-riddance-to-the-169-aspect-ratio I'm clinging to my 16:10 Asus VK266H monitor I bought in 2009 despite the fact it's not …

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Re: All these interposers and hardware hacking of old chips. What about using new chips in old motherboards?

Posted on 2021-01-21, 19:32

by

by Big Pink

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A socket 370 to 478 interposer would be pretty cool. Somehow make it all work?! That would be nice. I know this isn't what you meant - but if you consider the Celeron 400 series super-Tualatins, the ASRock 775i65G motherboard gives you DDR SDRAM and AGP 8x without having to suffer the guilt of …

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Re: All these interposers and hardware hacking of old chips. What about using new chips in old motherboards?

Posted on 2021-01-21, 16:45

by

by Big Pink

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I’m still wondering about the post I found where a guy said he stuck a k6 into a socket 370 motherboard after clipping off a pin and said it worked but ran hot until he fried the mobo with a screw driver accidentally a few weeks later. Were it possible, you'd expect someone to have made a slocket- …

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