Apparantly laser printers with Windows 7 support (drivers) has suddenly gone retro these last few months....
Was looking for a new* one since this summer, waiting for prices to go down a bit/fluctuating as usual, and suddenly all the 'old'(!) models had vanished from all the webshops (distributors cutting them off I guess), and I barely managed to get hold of 1 before it all went poof.

- Hence my recent Brother DCP-L2530DW purchase is hereby considered as retro! 🤣
Feel free to disagree.🤔

*: my other printer, yes I now have 2!, is a basic Samsung laser from the year of our Lord 2007, which has Windows 98 drivers!! 😁

Anyone love when a normall stupidly priced CPU comes along at a price that makes you wonder if the seller is aware of what they are selling ?

Just scored a Phenom II X4 980 BE for a whole 28 bucks ...I know its not exactly dusty retro but its an older CPU to get for a reasonable price. (hrmm this is slightly newer than Sandy Bridge ..meh still old enough)

Perhaps I should start a Phenom II Aiming for the Stars thread.

Last week I bought this Gigabyte GA-7IXE4 (Socket A) new in a box for 25€. This turned out to be my favorite Windows 98 board, because it still looks and feels like the late 90s, almost like a Super-Super-Socket 7. The only problem is that it comes from Spain and I had to ship it through a forwarding service (shipping-address-spain.com), which cost me around 30€ total just for the shipping.

The seller still has 9 pieces available if anyone's interested: https://uk.wallapop.com/item/mainboard-placa- … nador-961617650

Seller's photo:

asdf53 wrote on 2023-12-04, 10:28:

Last week I bought this Gigabyte GA-7IXE4 (Socket A) new in a box for 25€. This turned out to be my favorite Windows 98 board, because it still looks and feels like the late 90s, almost like a Super-Super-Socket 7. The only problem is that it comes from Spain and I had to ship it through a forwarding service (shipping-address-spain.com), which cost me around 30€ total just for the shipping.

The seller still has 9 pieces available if anyone's interested: https://uk.wallapop.com/item/mainboard-placa- … nador-961617650

Seller's photo: 7ixe4.jpg

Is it because you're located outside of the EU, or did the seller only ship to Spain?

asdf53 wrote on 2023-12-04, 10:28:

Last week I bought this Gigabyte GA-7IXE4 (Socket A) new in a box for 25€. This turned out to be my favorite Windows 98 board, because it still looks and feels like the late 90s, almost like a Super-Super-Socket 7. The only problem is that it comes from Spain and I had to ship it through a forwarding service (shipping-address-spain.com), which cost me around 30€ total just for the shipping.

The seller still has 9 pieces available if anyone's interested: https://uk.wallapop.com/item/mainboard-placa- … nador-961617650

Seller's photo: 7ixe4.jpg

Looking at picking up the same board but from the bay instead... I have a Athlon 1.4 to throw in it and some DDR500 to make a late DOS/solid 98Se rig. (Im hoping the ISA slots will behave like actual ISA slots and work with a AWE64 Gold)

H3nrik V! wrote on 2023-12-04, 11:35:

Is it because you're located outside of the EU, or did the seller only ship to Spain?

I'm from Germany, problem was that the checkout system of Wallapop is very restrictive, it only allows shipments to Spain, Portugal and Italy. I asked the seller if we could negotiate outside of Wallapop but she said no, maybe thought it was a scam. Generally shipping from Spain is very expensive, even the cheapest shipping methods are 20€ for a small package, so shipping it directly without the forwarding service isn't much cheaper.

Trashbytes wrote on 2023-12-04, 11:38:

asdf53 wrote on 2023-12-04, 10:28:

Last week I bought this Gigabyte GA-7IXE4 (Socket A) new in a box for 25€. This turned out to be my favorite Windows 98 board, because it still looks and feels like the late 90s, almost like a Super-Super-Socket 7. The only problem is that it comes from Spain and I had to ship it through a forwarding service (shipping-address-spain.com), which cost me around 30€ total just for the shipping.

The seller still has 9 pieces available if anyone's interested: https://uk.wallapop.com/item/mainboard-placa- … nador-961617650

Seller's photo: 7ixe4.jpg

Looking at picking up the same board but from the bay instead... I have a Athlon 1.4 to throw in it and some DDR500 to make a late DOS/solid 98Se rig. (Im hoping the ISA slots will behave like actual ISA slots and work with a AWE64 Gold)

DDR500? This is a board with AMD750 chipset that basically has same RAM specs as i440BX: SDR-SDRAM, max 128Mb chips. So no DDR and max DIMM size is 256MB (and if you want to go for that, you need DIMMs with 16 chips).

The ISA slots are actual ISA slots, no bridge needed so will work with any ISA card assuming no CPU speed issues.

dionb wrote on 2023-12-04, 12:21:

Trashbytes wrote on 2023-12-04, 11:38:

asdf53 wrote on 2023-12-04, 10:28:

Last week I bought this Gigabyte GA-7IXE4 (Socket A) new in a box for 25€. This turned out to be my favorite Windows 98 board, because it still looks and feels like the late 90s, almost like a Super-Super-Socket 7. The only problem is that it comes from Spain and I had to ship it through a forwarding service (shipping-address-spain.com), which cost me around 30€ total just for the shipping.

The seller still has 9 pieces available if anyone's interested: https://uk.wallapop.com/item/mainboard-placa- … nador-961617650

Seller's photo: 7ixe4.jpg

Looking at picking up the same board but from the bay instead... I have a Athlon 1.4 to throw in it and some DDR500 to make a late DOS/solid 98Se rig. (Im hoping the ISA slots will behave like actual ISA slots and work with a AWE64 Gold)

DDR500? This is a board with AMD750 chipset that basically has same RAM specs as i440BX: SDR-SDRAM, max 128Mb chips. So no DDR and max DIMM size is 256MB (and if you want to go for that, you need DIMMs with 16 chips).

The ISA slots are actual ISA slots, no bridge needed so will work with any ISA card assuming no CPU speed issues.

Didn't notice its not DDR, so Ill throw some CL2 SDR in it I do have some 16 chip stick I can use, cheers for pointing that out, silly of me to assume it was DDR, though the 462 boards I have are all DDR so the mistake likely stems from that.

6AJA4T +PIII-1400Mhz + 768Mb RAM

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2023-12-03, 20:05:

What do you plan on using it for? Do you have a setup where you can still use a dialup modem?

Not yet. Nature abhors a vacuum - I hate empty ISA slots...

Plus some dial-up shenanigans would be fun at some point in the future...

Jccwu wrote on 2023-12-04, 18:12:

6AJA4T +PIII-1400Mhz + 768Mb RAM

These Chaintech boards with the blue cooler are so beautiful, look at the neatly placed capacitors to the right of the socket. It's as if their engineers had the mission to not only make their boards run well, but also look great. They also made the only good looking Slot 1 board in existence (CT-6BTM0).

It's not quite as advanced as some of the accomplishments in this thread, but we recently got an old ASRock Z68 Pro3-M mob functioning with Win XP Pro SP3. The setup is still on the static mat, for testing purposes, but I couldn't help myself - I just had to turn back time and play some 3D "Space Cadet" Pinball. :>))

Today ordered an Extron 300A, anxious to get it. Should work wonders in keeping my modern setup in the desk arms and stop using these stupid vga to hdmi converters from Amazon.
Received a CNPS7000B-CU for my P4 build for WinXp.

Jccwu wrote on 2023-12-04, 18:12:

6AJA4T +PIII-1400Mhz + 768Mb RAM

Good looking motherboard, but that's the strangest front USB pin out I've ever seen.

I cannot edit my post and insert the image for some reason. "Reaction image posts are off-topic on VOGONS."?

I've bought what seems to be a Creative Labs' CT2755, "EasyCD External Drive.". But I guess I'm missing a controller board. Apparently a CT2750 is the one that goes with this drive. Seems hard to find, do you know if the CT1880 will work with it?

ESS cards tend to be budget cards. I already have cheap labway version. So I wanted to have ESFM card with better noise floor and flashier look.
Got this one. Not in the perfect condition but it's working. Crystal held in place with hotglue. Not reference design I'm sure 😀

Yes card is almost noise free, but Line Out is on quiet side. For everyday use with external amp+speakers it's fine. However it does not output enough signal in order to enjoy my Goa Psy XM library at full tilt with Fiio K7+Hifiman Sundara headphones on balanced output.

Also it's not compatible with Serdaco X2GS SE wavetable board. Capacitor prevents inserting it fully because of board USB connector... ...regular S2 however works just fine.

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-12-02, 23:26:

shamino wrote on 2023-12-02, 19:12:

At a thrift store I got a Brother MFC-7420 laser printer, thinking it should be a good emergency backup for my DCP-7020. They seem to be essentially the same printer.
Turns out the linux driver is different and broken with the 7420. Guess if I need to swap the printers I'll have to boot Windows to use it.

I've always wondered if running a virtual machine with an older operating system that tunnels the parallel port for a vintage printer, to share it across the network, is viable. Maybe this is worth trying?

Can Linux work with printers shared from Windows?

Honestly I've never tried virtualization on anything, ever. But yeah, it seems like that could work.
From what little I've read about the problem, it sounds like somebody was able to solve the linux driver issue, but I didn't quite get what the guy's fix was.

I have an always-on server that I could plug the printer into, but that runs linux also. The office PC (which I use the printer with) is set up to dual boot, but the Win7 partition is rarely used. At least I was able to verify the MFC-7420 does work, the only problem is the linux driver.

vutt wrote on 2023-12-05, 19:55:

ESS cards tend to be budget cards. I already have cheap labway version. So I wanted to have ESFM card with better noise floor a […]
Show full quote

ESS cards tend to be budget cards. I already have cheap labway version. So I wanted to have ESFM card with better noise floor and flashier look.
Got this one. Not in the perfect condition but it's working. Crystal held in place with hotglue. Not reference design I'm sure 😀

Yes card is almost noise free, but Line Out is on quiet side. For everyday use with external amp+speakers it's fine. However it does not output enough signal in order to enjoy my Goa Psy XM library at full tilt with Fiio K7+Hifiman Sundara headphones on balanced output.

Also it's not compatible with Serdaco X2GS SE wavetable board. Capacitor prevents inserting it fully because of board USB connector... ...regular S2 however works just fine.

That is a Terratec Gold 16 and the best ES1868 card there is.

appiah4 wrote on 2023-12-05, 20:45:

vutt wrote on 2023-12-05, 19:55:

ESS cards tend to be budget cards. I already have cheap labway version. So I wanted to have ESFM card with better noise floor a […]
Show full quote

ESS cards tend to be budget cards. I already have cheap labway version. So I wanted to have ESFM card with better noise floor and flashier look.
Got this one. Not in the perfect condition but it's working. Crystal held in place with hotglue. Not reference design I'm sure 😀

Yes card is almost noise free, but Line Out is on quiet side. For everyday use with external amp+speakers it's fine. However it does not output enough signal in order to enjoy my Goa Psy XM library at full tilt with Fiio K7+Hifiman Sundara headphones on balanced output.

Also it's not compatible with Serdaco X2GS SE wavetable board. Capacitor prevents inserting it fully because of board USB connector... ...regular S2 however works just fine.

That is a Terratec Gold 16 and the best ES1868 card there is.

Indeed. Terratec was known for making high quality sound cards.