Grzyb wrote on 2023-08-03, 11:35:

rkurbatov wrote on 2023-08-03, 10:36:

That's true. But I've read another explanation that such amount of memory is a result of a memory structure.

Multibank DRAM allows for chips of capacities other than powers of two, but powers of two were also available.
I've seen MDRAM-based cards with 2, 2.25, 3, and 4 MB.

Why didnt it catch on ? is it more expensive to produce and program for ?

rkurbatov wrote on 2023-08-03, 10:36:

HanSolo wrote on 2023-08-02, 20:58:

It's not that strange when you think about it: at 1280x1024@16 you need exactly 2.5 MB

That's true. But I've read another explanation that such amount of memory is a result of a memory structure.

That is of course possible. I only meant that this uncommon size is quite handy 😀
But it seems there are also versions with conventional 2 MB around

What I said is also not quite correct since the chips have 1.125 MB, not 1.25 MB. So it's not perfectly sized for 1280@16bpp but for 1024@24bpp.

Trashbytes wrote on 2023-08-03, 11:38:

Why didnt it catch on ? is it more expensive to produce and program for ?

I think the only chips with MDRAM support were Tseng ET6000 and ET6100.
Very fast chips, but 2D-only, while others were already releasing 3D stuff.

I liked this Edirol (Roland) 10 channel mixer so much, I ordered a second one. 😁

Picked up a Dell GX150.
Windows 2000 Professional with OEM licence.
1GHz PIII
512Mb PC133
20Gb ATA
Floppy broken
CDROM broken

Its the small desktop case so i nice size with a low profile AGP slot and 2 full height half length PCI slots.

Cheeky little ebay buy and all for £21

Finally, I found one of my grails. This one has eluded me for much, much longer than I’d like to admit.

Now to figure out if we’re doing an EISA 486, dual-P54C w/ EISA, or dual-P55C w/ EISA…

As much as it’d be a bit slower in a Pentium build, it would be fun to see this alongside a Voodoo/Voodoo2.

(From some rudimentary testing with an S3 928-based EISA card, I can truthfully report there is a noticeable performance uplift with EISA VGA cards over ISA VGA cards when dealing with faster CPUs and better chipset implementations, like 430NX or 430HX).

Recently ordered a Cooler master cooler for my socket a system. the listing didn't specify the model, but it has the wide latches I need (since the middle latch on my board snapped off).

Found this case at a local thrift store today. Other than being a bit dirty, it's in surprisingly good shape.

WJG6260 wrote on 2023-08-04, 14:48:

Finally, I found one of my grails. This one has eluded me for much, much longer than I’d like to admit. […]
Show full quote

Finally, I found one of my grails. This one has eluded me for much, much longer than I’d like to admit.

Now to figure out if we’re doing an EISA 486, dual-P54C w/ EISA, or dual-P55C w/ EISA…

As much as it’d be a bit slower in a Pentium build, it would be fun to see this alongside a Voodoo/Voodoo2.

(From some rudimentary testing with an S3 928-based EISA card, I can truthfully report there is a noticeable performance uplift with EISA VGA cards over ISA VGA cards when dealing with faster CPUs and better chipset implementations, like 430NX or 430HX).

IMG_0554.jpeg

Nice! Haven't seen too many EISA video cards, so I can only imagine how difficult it would have been to track that down.

ElectroSoldier wrote on 2023-08-03, 21:56:

Picked up a Dell GX150. Windows 2000 Professional with OEM licence. 1GHz PIII 512Mb PC133 20Gb ATA Floppy broken CDROM broken […]
Show full quote

Picked up a Dell GX150.
Windows 2000 Professional with OEM licence.
1GHz PIII
512Mb PC133
20Gb ATA
Floppy broken
CDROM broken

Its the small desktop case so i nice size with a low profile AGP slot and 2 full height half length PCI slots.

Cheeky little ebay buy and all for £21

That's a good buy, I must admit I am a bit jealous.

Village Tronic MPDD Pro card (Trident Blade XP). Probably shit card, but I bought it mainly for being unusual (at least I haven't seen one before). Might be good for late 90's OS9 machine.

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-08-04, 17:24:

Found this case at a local thrift store today. Other than being a bit dirty, it's in surprisingly good shape.

That case is very cool

Will I or won't I???

Hoping to get a look at this at a yard sale tomorrow. TT case, Asus and Core stickers. Don't recognise the one to the right at present. Kinda unlikely that I'll get it, constrained for space, but if it's like "Take it $5" or something then something shitty is going on the curb 🤣 Might pay more if it's got something very special in.

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-08-05, 02:09:

Will I or won't I???

Hoping to get a look at this at a yard sale tomorrow. TT case, Asus and Core stickers. Don't recognise the one to the right at present. Kinda unlikely that I'll get it, constrained for space, but if it's like "Take it $5" or something then something shitty is going on the curb 🤣 Might pay more if it's got something very special in.

I always look for floppy drive bays when checking out mystery boxes. I'm mainly interested in Windows 98 era and earlier, so a floppy drive is a good sign. I'd assume that this is an early XP system that didn't need a floppy drive as the covers are still on it. Still might have something interesting in it if you aren't as picky as me about the era.

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-08-05, 02:09:

Will I or won't I???

Hoping to get a look at this at a yard sale tomorrow. TT case, Asus and Core stickers. Don't recognise the one to the right at present. Kinda unlikely that I'll get it, constrained for space, but if it's like "Take it $5" or something then something shitty is going on the curb 🤣 Might pay more if it's got something very special in.

Looks like a Nvidia sticker to me.

I think the unknown sticker might be Thermaltake, extra with the case or for a cooler or PSU or something. If I yell zoom and enhance at the screen enough times it looks like TT in an orange-red blob.

Yah know it isn't gonna be real historic, maybe tail end of "modern" really, 2009 -2011 intel logo and V9? case getting reviews in 2011 might mean it's 1st gen core i5 or i7 ... Not sure what GPU around that age would interest me, I've got cards from around those generations, top end would be HD6990 or GTX590 which are both a bit space heaterish. HD7970 just appeared in late December if it was someone's Christmas present. IDK if you buy a case like that and put a 6450 or 520 in it but anything possible.

Well, not today but this week nonethless: I picked up Thermaltake Xaser III "Fireball Edition" ATX case few kilometers from my home and received MSI FX5900XT from mail. These both will be part of my autumn project, socket A system with custom loop for CPU and GPU and possibly NB. I still got my old wc blocks, pumps and reservoirs from sA era so I expect this to be fun and trip back to my "fiddling with computers" days in early 2000s.

Case is in good condition, albeit it's not perfect. It has only few scratches on the sheet metal so it overall looks great, but acrylic window is in terrible shape and I need to replace that. It also lacks most of the rails (I don't actually need more than it has left and I can 3D print more if necessary), included fan control panel and this strange large side fan panel, but in the end, I can't complain for 30e and I don't actually need anything that it lacks. I also had to drill case lock open to get front panel open, so I need to replace that too or front panel doesn't stay closed, do some cleaning and all that jazz.

I'm waiting some other parts to arrive, such as PSU (Enermax EG365AX), MB (Epox 8rga+), memory (Kingston HyperX DDR CL2 modules) and Black Ice radiator for the loop. PSU and MB should be working fine, but I'm going to recap those nonethless (For example, I bet that MB doesn't overclock anymore much, even if it boots just fine stock), so it will be some time until this baby is finished.

This beauty has arrived. Intel VS440FX Venus with still unknown Pentium Pro CPU and 8MB of RAM.

I already have quite Workstation looking ATX case, Matrox Millenium II and probably a tape streamer / SCSI Zip drive for a nice NT4 build.

Got to see the tower, didn't hit any buttons for me, nice enough case, 650W PSU, Core2 quad (I have the parts for 5 or 6) and 9600, got three of those. He wanted $50 which didn't trigger my cheapskate FOMO either so didn't get it... in 3 years or so when I've built out all my good cases I'm possibly gonna regret that but meh.

What I could not walk away from today at another sale was this beastie. Samsung SyncMaster 955DF made October 2002 in Korea. I don't know if I couldn't walk away from it because it was only $2, or because it is a flat square tube 19" that only seems to take the space of some of my 17 inchers, with the promise of all mod cons for a CRT. Taking a quick glance at user thoughts about them I see that the focus pot can be a bit iffy? Other than that they sound pretty solid. Just got home really might be later this afternoon before I test fire it...

IBM ThinkPad 760EL and Lenovo ThinkVision L201p. Like in all the best romantic stories they ended up together by some cosmic coincidence. The laptop has resolution 800 x 600 and the display 1600 x 1200, so it's a perfect match 😀

EDIT: There's a pretty good video of this somewhat unique laptop construction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P1PVyA7-fw "IBM ThinkPad 760EL: Modular Excellence and Vogue Magazine"