I bought this "PC 120 MHZ VON 1996" from 1997 a week ago, it came today.

While there was absolutly no more information written there was a picture showing the board posting and the BIOS ID ended I430TX-001_10_TX-H which a quick google identified as a PC Chips M572 i430TX board. I have only heard good things about the PC Chips M572 so I thought the 22 euro starting bid was more than reasonable and as noone else wanted the system thats what I paid. The seller was German so the shipping was cheap. The system is complete and working, The CPU is a P120, the memory 64MB, the video card is a S3 Virge and the audio card is an ESS Audio drive.

The "PC 120 MHZ VON 1996" from 1997.

The "PC 120 MHZ VON 1996" from 1997 inside

My IBM 5x86c-100 just arrived today. Perfect working condition. Pins were just slightly bent, but easly fixable. I love the heatsink - IMO it looks better than any other CPU. Paid 30USD.

It's on my 4DPS now.

And here my other acquisitions from this week (better photo): GUS Classic. GUS was my best find ever - it was sitting inside Colani Tower I've bought for 15USD.

Munx wrote:

nforce4max wrote:

My 9800 gx2 and 8800 gts arrived today to my surprise the seller being a total idiot didn't pack them right so both graphics cards were rubbing together. The brackets on both cards were bent and the 9800 gx2 look like it had been dropped /rage face but it looks like the 8800 gts survived. Why can't these sellers actually pack shit right these days, got to be the fourth such incident this year for me so far. 😠

I wish Ebay had a mandatory "how I'm going to package it" description. When I was buying my socket 7 board the seller just put some newspapers around it and wrapped it it so much ducktape I could barely get it out of there. It was slightly bent but luckily still working fine.

So far the best packaging I got was from a guy who had some sort of home-brewing business and decided he didnt need his 8800GTX - the box he put it in was full of bubble-wrap and air-cushions/bags and the shipping cost around 10 Euros, 2x-3x less than I usually get for larger cards.

Agreed but there is not telling how many snowflakes out there that might flip out and make a big stink, everything from idiots to shitty businesses who are too cheap to even stuff their packages well enough.

Got some CPU's in the other day:

2x 1100MHz PIII Coppermine SL5QW 11x100Mhz for my dual P3-rig (this thing here: My retro rig collection - from 286 to Core 2 Quad! - photo heavy thread - updated periodically )

2x 1400MHz PIII Tualatin 512KB SL6BY and SL5XL + 1200MHz PIII Tualatin 256KB SL5PM

I also got a Pentium 4 Mobile 552 SL7NC (26x133) Prescott core - unfortunately being a mobile chip it's multiplier is stuck at 14x when used in desktop boards, making it kind of pointless. Maybe it will work in my Inspiron 8200 🙁

Those mobile P4s are not pointless, they can be amazing in high clocking boards plus their power consumption is pretty good vs the desktop models.

Ozzuneoj wrote:

Quantum3D Graphite 2016-04-06 005 (1440x1920).jpg

Wow, would you mind sharing that beautiful background Q3D image with us?

Skyscraper wrote:

*snip*

Nice! I have the same case 😊

Looks like it was popular with small computer shops in Germany in that period. Mine's from 97 too, but has a Gigabyte GA-586HX in it.

Got a super thick 3,000 rpm Scythe 120mm fan that moves 115cfm of air for free. Contemplating turning it into a USB desk fan for during the summer

oerk wrote:

Skyscraper wrote:

*snip*

Nice! I have the same case 😊

Looks like it was popular with small computer shops in Germany in that period. Mine's from 97 too, but has a Gigabyte GA-586HX in it.

Nice!

I like the case, it's very compact.

I found another item I could not resist, an 8bit VGA card that I never seen before. The chipset is an early VGA chipset and not very common, I have only seen it on 16bit ISA cards. It will be good to have some choice for my XT system, my V7 VEGA VGA or this OCTEK UM587F, both cards are combined EGA/VGA 256KB cards.

The price was decent but the shipping cost from the UK was just as unreasoable as it use to be.

OCTEK UM587F 8bit 256KB EGA/VGA. The sellers picture.

carlostex wrote:

rein_ein wrote:

This babe finally arrived today,if i correct it's PCCHIPS M216 comes together with 20 mhz Harris cpu and 10 mhz Amd fpu,cant wai […]
Show full quote

This babe finally arrived today,if i correct it's PCCHIPS M216 comes together with 20 mhz Harris cpu and 10 mhz Amd fpu,cant wait till obtain ide controller and give it a try.
Posts well btw and seems some leaking battery was removed just before selling.

I have a feeling that despite it being 20MHz the whole system might be slow, in fact slower than fast 16MHz 286 boards.

I actually have one of these without the DIP memory sockets and a 25Mhz too, they are faster than a 386SX 16, which I also have, these were the last 286 built with highly integrated chipsets and support for 30 pin simms, also dropping support for 8bit ISA slots. A system like this is reviewed in RedHill guide check it out.

Finally the auction for the last "must have if cheap enough" item in my watch lists ended.

There was a new old stock boxed Turtle Beach Tropez on Ebay that sold for £123.88 a week ago. Although I was tempted the £139 if you include shipping was a tad too much for my liking. Did a Vogons member buy this card?
Link to the boxed Turtle Beach Tropez I did not buy. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Turtle-Beach-Tropez … cvip=true&rt=nc

I already had a boxed "Turtle Beach Tropez Plus" in my watch list on another auction site and a "plus version" must be better than a non plus just like a volume knob that goes to 11 is better than one that goes to 10. The price ended up just over 100 euro with shipping which I hope was a fair price.

Here are the sellers pictures of the card I bought.

Skyscraper wrote:

Did a Vogons member buy this card?

Yes, I've try to bid, but for me - price is too high.

Skyscraper wrote:

"plus version" must be better than a non plus

I've have both long time ago, and for dos gaming is same, no difference detected.

easy_john wrote:

Yes, I've try to bid, but for me - price is too high. […]
Show full quote

Skyscraper wrote:

Did a Vogons member buy this card?

Yes, I've try to bid, but for me - price is too high.

Skyscraper wrote:

"plus version" must be better than a non plus

I've have both long time ago, and for dos gaming is same, no difference detected.

Just like the volume knobs then! The ones that go to 11 are still better! 😉

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOO5S4vxi0o

I rather pay £83 for a used card than £139 for a new one anyhow as Im going to use the card myself. 😀

Skyscraper wrote:

Just like the volume knobs then! The ones that go to 11 are still better! ;)

Yes, I know this video. So "Plus" is always better. But nobody know why. :)

Skyscraper wrote:

easy_john wrote:

Yes, I've try to bid, but for me - price is too high. […]
Show full quote

Skyscraper wrote:

Did a Vogons member buy this card?

Yes, I've try to bid, but for me - price is too high.

Skyscraper wrote:

"plus version" must be better than a non plus

I've have both long time ago, and for dos gaming is same, no difference detected.

Just like the volume knobs then! The ones that go to 11 are still better! 😉

Sorry but no, Tropez+ a totally different animal compared to Tropez Classic or Tropez 32 (TBS2000).
Features not included in the former.

Better DACs (sampling up to 48Khz) with much better signal to noise ratio. (TBS2000 also has this DAC).
Different and much better chipset (Crystal vs. Opti).
Fully plug and play.
4Mb of uncompressed samples (vs. 2mb).
Yamaha effects processor available from DOS (reveb, EQ, chorus, flanger etc).

Tropez+ is in my opinion the best all round DOS gaming sound card.

vmunix wrote:

Sorry but no, Tropez+ a totally different animal compared to Tropez Classic or Tropez 32 (TBS2000). Features not included in th […]
Show full quote

Sorry but no, Tropez+ a totally different animal compared to Tropez Classic or Tropez 32 (TBS2000).
Features not included in the former.

Better DACs (sampling up to 48Khz) with much better signal to noise ratio. (TBS2000 also has this DAC).
Different and much better chipset (Crystal vs. Opti).
Fully plug and play.
4Mb of uncompressed samples (vs. 2mb).
Yamaha effects processor available from DOS (reveb, EQ, chorus, flanger etc).

Tropez+ is in my opinion the best all round DOS gaming sound card.

Thanks for the information. It seems my money was well spent!

Now I just hope the card gets here in one piece and that it's fully function. At least it has been stored in an ESD bag inside the box going by the pictures.

Here is another chapter in the never ending story about sellers on auction sites that do not package the items they sell using some basic common sense.

I bought a Roland Sound Canvas ED SC-D70 a week ago, these are not cheap and I told the seller to package the sound module so it would not get damaged during shipping.

Today I got this surprisingly small box. Surly a SC-D70 can not fit into a box this small?

It seems it does fit, as long as you do not use any packaging material what so ever.

No visible damage but I have not tested the unit yet.

Why do I always seem to stumble over these kind of people when I buy stuff?

Skyscraper wrote:

It seems it does fit, as long as you do not use any packaging material what so ever.

Roland Sound Canvas ED SC-D70 thight fit.JPG

Sorry, but I just had to laugh at that picture 🤣

You seem to be on a buying spree lately? You're worse than Artex at his prime time 😉

vetz wrote:

Skyscraper wrote:

It seems it does fit, as long as you do not use any packaging material what so ever.

Roland Sound Canvas ED SC-D70 thight fit.JPG

Sorry, but I just had to laugh at that picture 🤣

You seem to be on a buying spree lately? You're worse than Artex at his prime time 😉

Yea but the buying spree pretty much ends here.

There were alot of items I wanted but I was going to wait for good prices. The prices only seem to go up so when I found alot of the stuff I have been looking for all at the same time I thought f**k it and bought everything that I could get for prices I found "acceptable".

I paid ~2800 euro too much tax last year so when I get my tax returns my savings account will be back to normal.

Got a retro care package in today from a friend:

SB 2.0 8-bit ISA clone (Anchor Electronics MF-002)

MSI socket 754 VIA board - I'm building a fast and quiet win98 machine around this one for my sister today.

ECS SiS socket A board with 3.3v AGP slot - great for a fast, compact Voodoo 3 build.

IBM PCI SCSI controller card - this baby is going streight into my dual-PIII build 😁
Yamaha DS-XG PCI sound card - can't have enough of these babies - I just love the XG synth.
Geforce 2 MX400 64MB - working GF2 cards are hard to come by here. Most were passively cooled and are now dead. Not to mention they weren't that common to begin with since most people tough a TNT2 M64 was enough.