Re: Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi 2MB or 64MB (SB0460) ?

Posted on 2022-08-16, 17:09

by

by Sombrero

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I'm currently making changes to my rigs and I tried to figure out does the 64MB X-Fi cards have any real benefit over the regular 2MB cards. I found only one review that tested that and according to their testing using 64MB card increased fps like 0.1%. (Edit: or did it only drop CPU usage by 0.1%? …

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Re: Running online DRM games offline guide

Posted on 2022-08-01, 17:41

by

by Sombrero

in Deep Thought

in Deep Thought

For Portal 2 (Build v7293 was last build I tested) on Vista and above I use the command "portal2.exe -steam", also drop the .dll in the bin folder. As far as Goldberg version it shouldn't matter. I want to say Vista compatibility is broken but 7 should still be fine and I haven't yet had to revert …

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Re: Running online DRM games offline guide

Posted on 2022-08-01, 11:44

by

by Sombrero

in Deep Thought

in Deep Thought

@DosFreak what version of Goldberg did you use with Portal 2 to get it to work? I copied the install folder from Windows 7 that does have Steam installed to Windows 10 that doesn't have Steam installed and tried the latest Goldberg and version 0.2.5 but no dice, errors out after the valve intro and …

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Re: Win98SE CD-RW utilities?

Posted on 2022-07-31, 08:41

by

by Sombrero

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

IIRC, some older versions of ImgBurn did work on Win98SE. That's a freeware program which has all the CD writing features that one could possibly need. The latest (last) version should work even with Win95, direct quite from the main page: ImgBurn supports all the Microsoft Windows OS's - Windows …

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Re: Windows XP Build advice.

Posted on 2022-07-30, 07:34

by

by Sombrero

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Unless you want to dual boot a more modern OS. The GTX550 Ti can deal with a lot more than 2006/2008. It'll play well with anything except maxed out Crysis. I'm curious why you recommend GTX 550 Ti over something like 750 Ti? I guess 550 Ti is a bit more period correct if that's important, but 750 …

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Re: Windows XP Build advice.

Posted on 2022-07-30, 07:12

by

by Sombrero

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Unless you want to dual boot a more modern OS. The GTX550 Ti can deal with a lot more than 2006/2008. It'll play well with anything except maxed out Crysis. I'm curious why you recommend GTX 550 Ti over something like 750 Ti? I guess 550 Ti is a bit more period correct if that's important, but 750 …

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Re: What game are you playing now?

Posted on 2022-07-27, 18:46

by

by Sombrero

in Milliways

in Milliways

I've been madly addicted to Dangerous Dave since I bought John Romero's collection box of it a few months ago. Finally managed to record a full playthrough including all special areas, too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U1Mg98gMX8 I've been toying with the idea of going for a full rerun of …

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Re: Help with building a pentium iv build.

Posted on 2022-07-26, 11:36

by

by Sombrero

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

In that case you want an Athlon64 or Pentium M, not a Pentium 4. Late Pentium 4 was a very hot-running dead-end, overtaken by both Intel's own mobile offerings (for which desktop boards were available) and AMD's hammer. Again, 65W D0 Cedar Mill's aren't any hotter than dual core C2D's, it's like …

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Re: Help with building a pentium iv build.

Posted on 2022-07-25, 10:45

by

by Sombrero

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The Pentium 4 however will make your PC a furnace. You'd be better off even with a Pentium Dual Core E2220. D0 stepping variant Cedar Mill's are 65W TDP, so they are fine. Though their Tcase max is lower than with the 86W models, around 64,5°C vs ~69°C so still a good idea not to cheap out on the …

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Re: What is your most hated/feard task in building a (retro)PC?

Posted on 2022-07-22, 14:32

by

by Sombrero

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hated task: dealing with lousy descriptions that all too often say nothing about has the item been tested to work, when and preferably also how while looking for stuff for your build Feared/Hated when it happens: 2-Going back and forth with the seller when something isn’t working or wrong part …

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

Posted on 2022-07-17, 11:18

by

by Sombrero

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If the card needs some poking in order to work the agp connector on the card could simply be a bit dirty and cause issues. Easy to rule out and a toothbrush + some IPA is a bit cheaper than a PCI V5.

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Re: Cost of living strikes!!!!

Posted on 2022-07-16, 10:58

by

by Sombrero

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

NVIDIA 5090 Ti 240V 2kW MEGAJENSEN Edition confirmed. And I start feeling iffy if a GPU has a TDP over 200W 🤣

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Re: What game are you playing now?

Posted on 2022-07-14, 13:24

by

by Sombrero

in Milliways

in Milliways

played red faction - fun and some nice features but looked and felt a bit more 1998/99 than 2001 back when the look and feel of games could change notably in 2 years! I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Red Faction. One of the enemy death animations really busts my nuts though, the one where …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2022-07-13, 13:32

by

by Sombrero

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

the seventh console generation era was awful as far as I'm concerned Huh??!! Xbox360, Playstation3 and Wii are awesomme consoles. Just as good as 6'th generation. Personally I only have 7'th generation these days, as I find it a royal PITA, to find a way to hook those consoles up to my living room …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2022-07-13, 09:37

by

by Sombrero

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It'll grow (back) on you. It's still too new. ;) I used to despise Pentium 4 CPUs, but they've somehow grown on me, not unlike a fungus inside one's unmentionables (likely a very similar feeling, actually, expect antifungals do zilch for Pentium 4 CPUs, except maybe as a makeshift thermal compound …

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Re: Equalizer for Windows XP?

Posted on 2022-07-11, 17:30

by

by Sombrero

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Audigy 2 ZS drivers do include an EQ, if you used a full driver cd to install the drivers but are still missing it you must have unticked the part that includes it. If you downloaded a driver package from creative I don't think that includes much more than just the driver.

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

Posted on 2022-07-11, 10:58

by

by Sombrero

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Just yesterday I was messing about with Sold Out rerelease of Cannon Fodder or a redump cd image of it to be precise, and turned out the adobe acrobat files on the disc are corrupt. So either the guys at redump ripped the disc wrong and got wrong hashes for it or the Sold Out version has corrupt …

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Re: Recommended Reading..

Posted on 2022-07-10, 11:00

by

by Sombrero

in Milliways

in Milliways

If we're making suggestions, I can highly recommend the CGW museum. It has all issues of Computer Gaming World, from the 80s to the mid 2000s: https://www.cgwmuseum.org/ The magazine mostly deals with game reviews, but there are some nice articles talking about popular hardware at the time (e.g. …

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Re: How did you get started on retro computing?

Posted on 2022-07-08, 05:29

by

by Sombrero

in Milliways

in Milliways

I was a huge PlayStation fan back in the 90's, got into PC gaming early 2000's and sold my PS1 and all my games. Around ~2010 I started missing my favorite PS1 games and that was the start of it all, it went like this: First I started using PS1 emulator (ePSXe) and downloaded games from the net. PAL …

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Re: Win98 + PCI SoundBlasters = Bad luck

Posted on 2022-06-29, 06:15

by

by Sombrero

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Did you use default WDM drivers that most likely got installed or did you use the Driver Utility Program to swap them to VxD? You should use VxD drivers with win98 for gaming.

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