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

Posted on 2021-02-09, 05:36

by

by bZbZbZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I reconfigured my ethernet switches to isolate all five of my retro computers (Windows 9x and XP) from the main network. Now they are all networked together on a separate subnet, where there is no router, no Gateway, and no DHCP server (static IP for everyone, old school!). They can still access one …

---

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2021-02-08, 07:11

by

by bZbZbZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

This is the exact card (surprised the listing is still up, although it's "currently out of stock and it may or may not be restocked"): https://www.newegg.ca/powercolor-radeon-9800-r98e-pd3/p/N82E16814131412R The brand is PowerColor, which is legit (certainly not Built by ATI). It performs decently …

---

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2021-02-08, 04:15

by

by bZbZbZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I just bought this video card locally and it's fully working: Radeon-9800SE.jpg It's a Radeon 9800 crippled with a 128-bit memory bus. The weird thing is that it has a LOT of this TSOP memory (256MB) and the R350 core appears to be fully enabled. In practice, it should be similar to a heavily …

---

Re: The Athlon 64 Frustration Build

Posted on 2021-01-26, 22:30

by

by bZbZbZ

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Yes, it is amazing that the in-box coolers for many generations of AMD processors still fit on socket 754/939 motherboards from 17 years ago!!! This is particularly useful because I expect a lot of people with new Ryzen builds are using a 3rd party cooler (Liquid, Closed Loop, big air, etc). The …

---

Re: 6800XT thermal paste change- would thermal pads be needed?

Posted on 2021-01-04, 05:02

by

by bZbZbZ

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I think the 'reference' cooling solution uses a separate heatsink for the memory, with thermal pads. Check out the disassembly photos of the 6800 Ultra from ixbt here: http://ixbtlabs.com/articles2/gffx/nv40-part1-b.html They've got the 6800 GT here: http://ixbtlabs.com/articles2/gffx/nv40-2.html As …

---

Re: Windows XP - Wide Screen Monitor or Not? Am I missing anything?

Posted on 2020-12-30, 20:10

by

by bZbZbZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A widescreen monitor that's capable of displaying 4:3 (or 5:4) content in the proper aspect ratio is perfectly fine... I'm okay with the resulting black bars (letterboxing... or rather reverse letterboxing??) on the left and right. What bothers me are the widescreen monitors that insist on …

---

Re: Windows XP - Wide Screen Monitor or Not? Am I missing anything?

Posted on 2020-12-28, 06:13

by

by bZbZbZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

From what I've found, most 19" LCD monitors seem to use 1280x1024 which is 5:4 rather than 4:3. Granted, 1280x1024 was a somewhat common resolution (certainly more common than 1280x960 for some reason) and most programs/games from the Win98/XP era support that resolution. But if you are running …

---

Re: post up pics of your "computing area"

Posted on 2020-12-25, 06:05

by

by bZbZbZ

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Hello! I have a few 'computing' areas... On the right side of the 'retro room', with the 19" Diamondtron CRT, I have two of my original (mostly) childhood computers: A Pentium III with Voodoo3, and an Athlon 64 X2 with Radeon X850. Details are here . On the left side, with a 20" 1600x1200 LCD, I …

---

Re: Socket 775 system revival story. Bonus: In-place upgrade of a 12-year old Vista install *PICS*

Posted on 2020-12-18, 05:48

by

by bZbZbZ

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I think the fundamental difference between our views is that you see such a system as 'retro' and think more about backward compatibility, whether I see it as a machine that can still be useful in the modern world, and so I care about forward compatibility. As I said, I have enough computers more ' …

---

Re: Sony Playstation Classic gamepad works perfect on WIN98!!!

Posted on 2020-11-26, 08:09

by

by bZbZbZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

This is a great discovery! I believe the PlayStation Classic comes bundled with two of these controllers. With all of the custom firmware that's available for the PSClassic, being able to also use the controllers on a Win98 PC is another bonus! Back in the day, my cousin had a Gravis Gamepad Pro, …

---

Re: Socket A Motherboards That Have 12V-Centric VRMs?

Posted on 2020-11-20, 18:01

by

by bZbZbZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I can just say that my Asus A7N8X Deluxe v2.0 (nforce2 ultra 400) does not have the atx12v connector, so that one is quite likely 5v-centric. I use an old Enermax PSU with strong 5V rail Greetings, new user here... it is possible to mod the A7N8X to use the 12V rail. Here's how: 1. Remove the cpu …

---

Re: Socket A Motherboards That Have 12V-Centric VRMs?

Posted on 2020-11-20, 17:49

by

by bZbZbZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Does having the ATX12V P4 connector guarantee a motherboard will not be pulling lots on 5V and requiring an old PSU? Are there any boards that have the ATX12V connector but still pull big currents on 5V anyways? I don't think there's any 'guarantee' for anything, the only sure way is to test the …

---

Re: Socket A Motherboards That Have 12V-Centric VRMs?

Posted on 2020-11-18, 01:50

by

by bZbZbZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The 4-pin supplemental power connector delivers 12V exclusively (the four pins are +12V, +12V, ground, ground). My understanding is that motherboards that use this connector are using it to service the CPU via VRMs that step down the 12V to whatever the CPU requires. As you mentioned, there was a …

---

Re: Recommendations for Pentium 4 3GHz HT?

Posted on 2020-10-29, 04:10

by

by bZbZbZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Do you know the sSpec of that CPU? If not, can you show a CPU-Z screenshot? If it's a SL7QB, you might be able to install a 64-bit OS (I know you can on the P4P800 SE) This P4 happens to be a Northwood. So 32-bit only. That's fine with me though, I have other x64 desktop computers that outperform …

---

Re: Recommendations for Pentium 4 3GHz HT?

Posted on 2020-10-28, 20:18

by

by bZbZbZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! The Windows 2000 idea is interesting... In your opinion is there any practical benefit to Win2k over XP? Even if there isn't, I wouldn't mind playing with that (or dual booting it for demonstration purposes).

---

Re: My retro build

Posted on 2020-10-25, 18:07

by

by bZbZbZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Great, if your mobo has a 20-pin ATX power supply connector you could test it using a modern ATX power supply (you may need an ATX power supply with a detachable 20+4 pin ATX cable. O if you're lucky the last 4 pins of the modern 24-pin ATX connector might be able to hang off your motherboard …

---

Re: My retro build

Posted on 2020-10-25, 17:27

by

by bZbZbZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

In my opinion it might not be worth your time/effort to recap unless you see visible bulging or leaking of the existing capacitors. If you happen to be a novice at soldering (like I am) there is also a possibility of turning working hardware into non-working hardware. Perhaps the greatest risk would …

---

Recommendations for Pentium 4 3GHz HT?

Posted on 2020-10-25, 16:23

by

by bZbZbZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hi everyone, I've acquired a working Socket 478 system... it's an ASUS P4P800 Deluxe with Pentium 4 3.0 GHz (with hyperthreading). Any recommendations on what to do with it? I already have four retro computers: Windows 9x: Pentium III 700 + Voodoo3 (authentic + Glide) Athlon 64 2800 s754 + Radeon …

---

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2020-10-25, 16:11

by

by bZbZbZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

luckybob wrote on 2020-10-25, 16:05: Well, I did the best I could with the image I had. ^.^ Yes, amazing! I couldn't quite figure out the motherboard model number until after I bought it.

---

Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2020-10-25, 16:03

by

by bZbZbZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

junky Pentium 4 system An asus P4P800-E DLX is NOT junky! (nice score on the video card as well) Thanks! I think this is the non-E version of the P4P800 Deluxe... it has the 3COM onboard ethernet, and the VIA chip for IDE RAID. The mobo says "REV 2.00" on the PCB and the documentation on the Asus …

---