luckybob wrote on 2023-08-30, 20:29:

Nexxen wrote on 2023-08-30, 11:12:

https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/abc-co … 86-a3886-01-v3-

Seller's pics. Will be a nice winter project.

I dont say this too often, but it might be cheaper/easier to just pull all the parts off and make a new pcb...

that said, if you do start this project, i'd love to follow along with pics or youtubes

My point is to acquire Necroware abilities. It's 100% didactical.
This board involves soldering, desoldering, rebuilding, anchoring, troubleshooting, reflashing...
If I can go through this I can get my "basics" grade 😀

The board is unimpressive, has SIPP and will require a lot of elbow grease.

I don't youtube but will post pics and the occasional underwhelming video.

tobiasrieper wrote on 2023-08-30, 15:52:

I managed to grab this Nvidia 5200 for under £20 shipped. I liked how it was boxed and an MSi card. I have no idea what LF means? I only noticed it after i won the auction...
It doesn't say LE anywhere I tend to avoid those.
I hope I haven't got the 64bit version and not the 128. What do you guys think? I thought I got a good deal. I like shiny new boxed things with early 2000s/late 90s 3d art.

LF stands for low frame rate. 🤣. JK

amigopi wrote on 2023-08-30, 16:26:

Indeed. Which is why I just bought 2 kilograms of AGP cards. No idea whatsoever what is in that lot, the guy was selling them by the kg 😄

We'll see once the package makes its way here...

AGP cards are getting heavily on the ISA card territory: as saying goes for old ISA graphics cards, any ISA graphics card that throws an image on the screen, is a good card and worth saving 🤣

oh2ftu wrote on 2023-08-30, 17:46:

amigopi wrote on 2023-08-30, 16:26:

Indeed. Which is why I just bought 2 kilograms of AGP cards. No idea whatsoever what is in that lot, the guy was selling them by the kg 😄

We'll see once the package makes its way here...

Hahaa, from Kemi?
I was tempted but this time I could resist 😀

Indeed 😏

I tried to resist, but ultimately just could not...

CharlieFoxtrot wrote on 2023-08-31, 05:02:

AGP cards are getting heavily on the ISA card territory: as saying goes for old ISA graphics cards, any ISA graphics card that throws an image on the screen, is a good card and worth saving 🤣

It's not like anyone's making any more of them 🙂 Plus they're small and light and often quite cheap and thus (too!) easy to hoard...

An Olidata OLI-BX3 with a PIII 500 Mhz and 3x64 MB of ram sticks for 35€ + local shipping.
I'm sure most of you will recognize the motherboard without looking at the CD-ROM label.

Basically, this italian PC manufacturer (Olidata) had an official license for making Asus P*B motherboards under its name. There is also the OLI-BX which is the P2B.
But there are no differences at all besides PCB color. I checked and this one has a Coppermine capable VRM chip. I tested it and it's fully working.

So if you are looking for cheap Asus P*B(-F) motherboards and don't care for brand name, look in the italian used markets!

Nexxen wrote on 2023-08-30, 11:12:

https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/abc-co … 86-a3886-01-v3-

Seller's pics. Will be a nice winter project.

So this board could be a 286 or 386sx? If so, that's interesting. Not too surprising considering that's what the SX was supposed to do. But I've never actually seen a MB with both footprints.

Went to a kind of garage sale yesterday. A friend was closing his office and he had his retro stuff stored there, so he decided it all had to go. He had a lot of nice stuff, but mostly stuff I didn't need. I ended up grabbing these..

mrfusion92 wrote on 2023-08-31, 11:34:

An Olidata OLI-BX3 with a PIII 500 Mhz and 3x64 MB of ram sticks for 35€ + local shipping. I'm sure most of you will recognize t […]
Show full quote

An Olidata OLI-BX3 with a PIII 500 Mhz and 3x64 MB of ram sticks for 35€ + local shipping.
I'm sure most of you will recognize the motherboard without looking at the CD-ROM label.
PXL_20230831_112054423.jpg
Basically, this italian PC manufacturer (Olidata) had an official license for making Asus P*B motherboards under its name. There is also the OLI-BX which is the P2B.
But there are no differences at all besides PCB color. I checked and this one has a Coppermine capable VRM chip. I tested it and it's fully working.

So if you are looking for cheap Asus P*B(-F) motherboards and don't care for brand name, look in the italian used markets!

Interesting of Olidata to rebrand the P3B-F and give it a green PCB. Looks much better than ASUS' color scheme of that time.

IIRC they also had license for Gigabyte too. I remember buying a car boot sale GA-7DXE that had their OEM BIOS applied as well as well as their stickers.

KungfuPancake wrote on 2023-08-30, 11:25:

Bought a rather modern 486 board (including the CPU and 4x16MB FP memory) today, for 20€. Sellers picture:

IMG_0384.jpeg

Doesn't post, seller claims it's a broken BIOS - either way, it's going to be a nice Sunday afternoon project 😀

The board arrived today and I got a quick inspection and debugging session in. The battery leaked at some point, but the damage is minimal. Only one trace was discolored, but not damaged. So that's handled and all is good. The jumper setup is horrid, but I think I got it right. It's not POSTing though, no POST codes even, it's proper dead. The CPU is getting voltage and clock, the BIOS does not have any sticky address or data lines , it just reads a bit of data and then gets stuck. So good chances it's the BIOS with either bit rot or a flash that went wrong.
Now I'll have to wait for the Xgecu T48 I ordered for this occasion..

Oh, and the bundled CPU is a AMD DX4-100 with write back cache and 4x16MB EDO SIMMs, so that was a pleasant surprise 😁

eesz34 wrote on 2023-08-31, 14:20:

Nexxen wrote on 2023-08-30, 11:12:

https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/abc-co … 86-a3886-01-v3-

Seller's pics. Will be a nice winter project.

So this board could be a 286 or 386sx? If so, that's interesting. Not too surprising considering that's what the SX was supposed to do. But I've never actually seen a MB with both footprints.

Yes, because of the 16-bit external bus.
In fact there is the same board with an Intel chipset for the 386 and 387 socket instead of 287.
Hopefully I'll manage to repair it, it's only a VARTA disaster after all 😀

https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/?showIma … es=1&name=A3286

Just picked up this NOS Chieftec Matrix (MX) series midi tower case. AFAIK these were released in the spring of 2003 and it is slightly modified version of the original Dragon (DX) series. As expected, it is like new! And pretty big!

Pretty neat overall, my Socket A build will find its home inside.

for some, this is a retro case, but I have a main PC built on Ryzen 7 in this

Jccwu wrote on 2023-09-01, 17:04:

for some, this is a retro case, but I have a main PC built on Ryzen 7 in this

Hey that's ok, my main computer has one of these cases I bought in 2007 that started out with an Athlon X2.

https://www.provantage.com/win-development-z5 … b3~7INWN169.htm

For me the same. As long as there are ATX boards, the Stacker STC-T01 stays.

Jccwu wrote on 2023-09-01, 17:04:

for some, this is a retro case, but I have a main PC built on Ryzen 7 in this

Is that an X-Fi sound card ?
What benefits does this provide over the integrated one ? (Considering HW accelerated sound was killed by Windows Vista)

acl wrote on 2023-09-01, 18:47:

Jccwu wrote on 2023-09-01, 17:04:

for some, this is a retro case, but I have a main PC built on Ryzen 7 in this

Is that an X-Fi sound card ?
What benefits does this provide over the integrated one ? (Considering HW accelerated sound was killed by Windows Vista)

You can often get better sound quality with a dedicated sound card compared to using integrated sound. Better components, especially for digital to analog conversion, makes a difference.

acl wrote on 2023-09-01, 18:47:

What benefits does this provide over the integrated one ? (Considering HW accelerated sound was killed by Windows Vista)

Can't speak for their setup, but I still use dedicated sound cards to avoid interference and ground loop issues with integrated audio.

And, then there's the issue of drivers for 'obsolete' operating systems...
(if the motherboard built-in sound does not have such drivers, but your 'old' pci/pcie card has)

Ah damn... I couldnt resist.
60 Euros shipped for both cards... slightly over my usual budget...
I dont even know what the small card is. I was just interested in the Aztech card but i really need this small and very cute soundcard 😁
EDIT ( small card is possibly a "Princeton MF-001") https://fccid.io/J5QMF-001
Just bought them 2 minutes ago... now i have to wait...
Seller Pictures:

My first 430HX mobo in a long time. Chaintech 5IFM-M202.