Got myself this DTK SPK102S keyboard this week, for some 15 bucks.
It has SMK Cherry MK mount 2nd white clicky switches in it...
I am typing this post on it, it feels quite nice....
It works okay, was reasonably dirty and would need some restoration for sure.
Obviously deep cleaning and retrobrighting. Also some keys do not register properly, I suspect cracked solder joints that need reflowing.

So a week ago, I spent $5 in cash on an exercise machine, pictured below:

Obviously it isn't an actual exercise machine, and is instead a 21 inch, 1600x1200 recommended res CRT. Outside of some honestly odd positioning for some resolutions, it works brilliantly.

And, if you can read what is on there, the pickup I made today shouldn't be much of a surprise.

That's right a B&W PowerMac G3. This one is specifically a 400MHz model that comes with a 30GB IDE drive, ATi Rage128, and an upgraded 512MB of RAM. It also has an ADB port, so I'm technically set for moving files down from modern stuff if I start getting insane and doing old Mac collecting. It also has the revision 2 motherboard, despite having a January manufacturing date, so the previous owner must have had issues. It had OSX 10.3 installed on it already, but given the age of the hardware, I made the choice to downgrade to something a bit more suitable.

I am happy to say that everything works so far, though I did have to bring my desktop resolution down to make Dark Forces playable. I am very new to anything but using a G3 era machine for school work in third grade, so I'm sure that issue will be solved in due time.

appiah4 wrote:

Damn you! I envy those desktop cases so much.. Not a single one to be found (in decent condition) where I live; understandable as computers were a VERY small market in a poor economy at the time, C64s dominated everything..

Damn, I sold one in a very good condition just last week for around 35 USD. Although abroad shipping would be probably pretty high (those things are very heavy armoured tanks).

HanJammer wrote:

appiah4 wrote:

Damn you! I envy those desktop cases so much.. Not a single one to be found (in decent condition) where I live; understandable as computers were a VERY small market in a poor economy at the time, C64s dominated everything..

Damn, I sold one in a very good condition just last week for around 35 USD. Although abroad shipping would be probably pretty high (those things are very heavy armoured tanks).

We don't live too far away and Eastern European shipping costs are usually much more agreeable than from countries like Denmark, Spain etc.. If you get another one, give me a knock 😀

appiah4 wrote:

Did they by chance have an MSI KT3 Ultra/Ultra-ARU/Ultra2? Still hunting for one of these..

Beats me, just a pile on the shelf.

Scored not too badly today.

Bought an old system off the classifieds for $30, containing:

Gigabyte GA-6VXE7+. This is a VIA chipset Intel Socket 370 motherboard, with 2 ISA slots, SB-Link, and Support for Coppermine P-IIIs. Not quite a Tualatin monsterboard, but still a good board for high compatibility. Very nice.
Intel Celeron 633 - Eh, can't win them all
Radeon 7500 with 32meg ram - Not that interesting, but nice for the collection.
128meg RAM - 2 x 64MB SDRAM ram chips. These are good to have for older systems.
10GB Fujitsu Hard drive - In good working condition.
CD-ROM drive - don't really care for it, but still, good for spares.
100meg ZIP drive - First one, now I have to get some disks to test it out.

Also included:
Serial Mouse - Good to have more of them
AT keyboard with converter to PS/2 - Another AT keyboard is good to have

So not a bad pickup based on pure luck, no idea what it had in it before buying.

Imi...where do you have been? :-p 35€ lot arrived today. Sold without slot brackets, but the very friendly seller included them anyway.

My highlight is the "ATi V.I.P. (VGA Improved Performance)"
https://retronn.de/imports/hwgal/hw_graphics_ … _vip_front.html
"This is the first VGA card from ATi. It supports for EGA/VGA Softsense automatic mode switching. The actual VGA controller on this card is the Chips P82C441 supporting a max. clock of 30 MHz."

Other card on the photo is a ancient BTX card. As far as I know this unsuccessful online service was only provided in Germany. Card is manufactured by LOEWE, a former german manufacturer known for its expensive premium CRT-TVs.

Some other nice cards

TV-capture card (totally useless today, but I like the design..) and a MDA. Dont know about the PCB in the middle, looks like a printer spooler?

After finding the AT computer with the FX chipset motherboard, I ordered a Biostar MB8500TTD from Ebay, received it yesterday, and did the motherboard swap last evening. Good to hear that speaker beep!

I forgot that most AT cases block access to the PS/2 mouse port that this motherboard has. So I have a PS/2 cable/bracket assembly on the way, as well as a USB one, and a pair of 128 megs sticks of PC100. I'll also need to order some floppy disks to do the BIOS update, and some CD/Rs so I can burn a Win98SE disk. I'm enjoying building a replacement for the Asus TXP4 system that I lost in the fire.

Predator99 wrote:

Imi...where do you have been? :-p 35€ lot arrived today. Sold without slot brackets, but the very friendly seller included them anyway.

I'm on holiday (literally) :p taking a break.
also I need to organize what I have before getting much more

I decided to take a chance on a couple of items recently, that haven't worked out quite so well.

Here's a Toshiba Satellite Pro 490CDT - "untested". Pentium 2 with OPL3 sound, TFT screen. It looks nice in the picture:

I always take apart laptops when I get them to check if they're in an operable state, before turning them on. They often arrive with damaged components thanks to getting bashed about in shipping or loose screws etc. This one died on the operating table, Varta Cancer 🙁

The 4xxCDT laptops were really short lived so there are no parts available. Maybe I can use it for the screen? Otherwise it's now a useless pile of grey plastic.

Also bought some Bose MediaMate speakers - again the seller reduced the price and I thought it was a good enough deal, I was hoping that the brown-ish marks you can see by the volume dial were just a shadow or something, no such luck, they look(ed) horrible in person. Note the extremely vintage power supply too - that actually works but I don't think I'll be using it.

They do work okay though, I made them look nice again too.

Predator99 wrote:

TV-capture card (totally useless today, but I like the design..) and a MDA.

Pfff, hook a VCR output to it, then run composite/svideo in from a cable/sat box. 😎

proper AT vintage tower. I have a 3 digit turbo LCD to go in it.
🤣

I bet those integrated drive bay speakers sound exactly as tinny as I imagine 😁

That’s a very nice case, I especially like the big red power switch.

Won an auction last week for a bunch of "Vintage Computer Cards" which i was the winning bidder of £47. Only wanted it for 3 particular cards which were these

Happy to finally add an original Adlib card to the collection! The SB Pro 2 and Yamaha Waveforce were also nice cards too 🤣

jaZz_KCS wrote:

I bet those integrated drive bay speakers sound exactly as tinny as I imagine 😁

a step above motherboard speaker 🤣

@Bancho
excellent deal 😁

Bancho wrote:

Won an auction last week for a bunch of "Vintage Computer Cards" which i was the winning bidder of £47. Only wanted it for 3 particular cards which were these

Happy to finally add an original Adlib card to the collection! The SB Pro 2 and Yamaha Waveforce were also nice cards too 🤣

Not a replica? :-p Then this was a great deal..!

Amazing deal. Even replicas can go for more than that sometimes! Definitely worth it.

Cyrix200+ wrote:

Unknown (for now) 486 EISA motherboard, marked 4FLUD-1. Keyboard connector removed for some reason, but looks okay otherwise. No […]
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Unknown (for now) 486 EISA motherboard, marked 4FLUD-1. Keyboard connector removed for some reason, but looks okay otherwise. No battery damage (battery was also already removed).

EISA cached IDE FDD controller:

Nice setup! Do you plan to sell or trade the disc controller card? I have unused OPTi Local Bus VGA card, or many more items for trade.