bjwil1991 wrote on 2024-04-14, 12:53:

Bought a Zenith Data Systems Z-Note 325Lc bundle

Love tht aesthetic that Zenith had at that time...

Picked up an FX 5500, the PCI version.

It’s going to be paired with a 233Mhz IBM 6x86, it’s overkill for this CPU. My super socket 7 board doesn’t have an AGP slot, and while a 16/32MB card might be more period correct, this was quite inexpensive and will do everything 3D-wise that the processor is capable of.

I’ll also try it with a PIII-500E, just to compare the bottlenecks.

Dan386DX wrote on 2024-04-14, 17:25:

Picked up an FX 5500, the PCI version.

It’s going to be paired with a 233Mhz IBM 6x86, it’s overkill for this CPU. My super socket 7 board doesn’t have an AGP slot, and while a 16/32MB card might be more period correct, this was quite inexpensive and will do everything 3D-wise that the processor is capable of.

I’ll also try it with a PIII-500E, just to compare the bottlenecks.

Make sure your SS7 board provides 3.3v to PCI cause these chinese FX requires it 😀

mmx_91 wrote on 2024-04-14, 17:59:

Dan386DX wrote on 2024-04-14, 17:25:

Picked up an FX 5500, the PCI version.

It’s going to be paired with a 233Mhz IBM 6x86, it’s overkill for this CPU. My super socket 7 board doesn’t have an AGP slot, and while a 16/32MB card might be more period correct, this was quite inexpensive and will do everything 3D-wise that the processor is capable of.

I’ll also try it with a PIII-500E, just to compare the bottlenecks.

Make sure your SS7 board provides 3.3v to PCI cause these chinese FX requires it 😀

Looks like it. But I am grateful you said that as I had no idea it was necessary with these cards. 👀

I finally have received my *almost* brand new Roland SC-55ST. Actually the little boy had been waiting patiently on my doorstep for a few days as I was away from home on travel.

I have not had the time to test it yet. The green red LED light shows proof of life - so far so good.

Question: Is there a coin battery inside the bowels of the beast?

Dan386DX wrote on 2024-04-14, 18:38:

mmx_91 wrote on 2024-04-14, 17:59:

Dan386DX wrote on 2024-04-14, 17:25:

Picked up an FX 5500, the PCI version.

It’s going to be paired with a 233Mhz IBM 6x86, it’s overkill for this CPU. My super socket 7 board doesn’t have an AGP slot, and while a 16/32MB card might be more period correct, this was quite inexpensive and will do everything 3D-wise that the processor is capable of.

I’ll also try it with a PIII-500E, just to compare the bottlenecks.

Make sure your SS7 board provides 3.3v to PCI cause these chinese FX requires it 😀

Looks like it. But I am grateful you said that as I had no idea it was necessary with these cards. 👀

If you own a post tester card with voltage indicators, I'd recommend trying it to be sure the 3.3v line is really powered, just in case. 😀

mtest001 wrote on 2024-04-14, 19:08:

Question: Is there a coin battery inside the bowels of the beast?

There are no coin cells in any of the LCD-less units. This is because there is no settings to control from a front panel.

Kahenraz wrote on 2024-04-14, 19:17:

There are no coin cells in any of the LCD-less units. This is because there is no settings to control from a front panel.

Thanks for the confirmation.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-04-14, 00:15:

Oh no, you've stumbled onto the great unnamable secret of retrocomputing... the aim is to have something differently crappy from everyone else.

Yup, I buy things not because they work well most of the time. I buy them because they are weird and hence probably suck.

mtest001 wrote on 2024-04-14, 19:08:

I finally have received my *almost* brand new Roland SC-55ST. Actually the little boy had been waiting patiently on my doorstep for a few days as I was away from home on travel.

Does it have the rackmounting dimple in the bottom, like the SC-55?

That's a beautiful SC-55ST.

nfraser01 wrote on 2024-04-14, 13:02:

bjwil1991 wrote on 2024-04-14, 12:53:

Bought a Zenith Data Systems Z-Note 325Lc bundle

Love tht aesthetic that Zenith had at that time...

I agree. I also didn't know they used a tree as their logo back then. I also have a DigiSpeech Port*Able Sound parallel card that'll fit nicely on this beast.

H3nrik V! wrote on 2024-04-12, 14:00:

Got a Cooler Master HAF tower containing an ASUS Rampage III Extreme, 12 Gigs of DDR3 and, oh well ... An i7 980x 😎

There she is ... 😀

Seems like the seller had pets, though 😁

Last weekend's flea market find:

Bought it mainly for nostalgia reasons and because there was no other PC tech at all on offer (again).
Don't know where people find all those goodies on flea markets...

Grabbed a Gigabyte GV-R96X128D (Radeon 9600XT 128MB) for my P3 1.4Ghz Tualatin build. Not sure if 128MB was common for the XT’s? And a K6-2+ 500.

"New VGA Empire", I always wonder at the marketing people and what they were thinking at some point.

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-04-12, 12:21:

I dont normally buy old mice but this Z Nix Bus mouse and card popped up for a whole 30 USD, figured it would fit and old 286/38 […]
Show full quote

I dont normally buy old mice but this Z Nix Bus mouse and card popped up for a whole 30 USD, figured it would fit and old 286/386 machine perfectly, drivers seems to be available via the archive. I kinda like the look of it too, it has that old retro feel. That said them mouse buttons dont look very fun to use, my fat fingers might not be able to sit on them very well.

Z NIx Bus Mouse.jpgZ Nix Mouse card.jpg

Z NIx Mouse.jpg Not sure if the bottom being this clean and not scuffed at all is a good sign or not.

Also grabbed this Matrox Parhelia 128 AGP for 30 USD which is not a bad price for these cards, I have a PCI-X version already but I hear the AGP version fixed a few things so im hoping this card is still alive and well.

Matrox Parhelia.jpg

The Parhelia is a really nice find for this price. I run these cards on my Windows 2000 machines and they work great. There are 2 versions of the AGP variants, one is 4x/8x and the other (later) one only 8x as far as I remember. What problems do the PCIe versions have if you know?

Minutemanqvs wrote on 2024-04-15, 11:16:

"New VGA Empire", I always wonder at the marketing people and what they were thinking at some point.

I had a good chuckle when I saw that 😂

Minutemanqvs wrote on 2024-04-15, 11:19:

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-04-12, 12:21:

I dont normally buy old mice but this Z Nix Bus mouse and card popped up for a whole 30 USD, figured it would fit and old 286/38 […]
Show full quote

I dont normally buy old mice but this Z Nix Bus mouse and card popped up for a whole 30 USD, figured it would fit and old 286/386 machine perfectly, drivers seems to be available via the archive. I kinda like the look of it too, it has that old retro feel. That said them mouse buttons dont look very fun to use, my fat fingers might not be able to sit on them very well.

Z NIx Bus Mouse.jpgZ Nix Mouse card.jpg

Z NIx Mouse.jpg Not sure if the bottom being this clean and not scuffed at all is a good sign or not.

Also grabbed this Matrox Parhelia 128 AGP for 30 USD which is not a bad price for these cards, I have a PCI-X version already but I hear the AGP version fixed a few things so im hoping this card is still alive and well.

Matrox Parhelia.jpg

The Parhelia is a really nice find for this price. I run these cards on my Windows 2000 machines and they work great. There are 2 versions of the AGP variants, one is 4x/8x and the other (later) one only 8x as far as I remember. What problems do the PCIe versions have if you know?

Early revisions of the Perihelia had an issues with banding graphical corruption where you would get weird lines of corruption at all resolutions when running 3d modes, its was a known issue that Matrox even acknowledged on their website at the time, this was corrected with the AGP versions and later revisions of the PCIe/PCI-X model due to newer silicon. FAA was also changed slightly to fix known errors in the AGP 8X version. (PCIe versions have no issues, its only the early AGP and PCI-X models)

Nothing major unless you got one of the early models.

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-04-15, 11:29:

Minutemanqvs wrote on 2024-04-15, 11:19:

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-04-12, 12:21:

I dont normally buy old mice but this Z Nix Bus mouse and card popped up for a whole 30 USD, figured it would fit and old 286/38 […]
Show full quote

I dont normally buy old mice but this Z Nix Bus mouse and card popped up for a whole 30 USD, figured it would fit and old 286/386 machine perfectly, drivers seems to be available via the archive. I kinda like the look of it too, it has that old retro feel. That said them mouse buttons dont look very fun to use, my fat fingers might not be able to sit on them very well.

Z NIx Bus Mouse.jpgZ Nix Mouse card.jpg

Z NIx Mouse.jpg Not sure if the bottom being this clean and not scuffed at all is a good sign or not.

Also grabbed this Matrox Parhelia 128 AGP for 30 USD which is not a bad price for these cards, I have a PCI-X version already but I hear the AGP version fixed a few things so im hoping this card is still alive and well.

Matrox Parhelia.jpg

The Parhelia is a really nice find for this price. I run these cards on my Windows 2000 machines and they work great. There are 2 versions of the AGP variants, one is 4x/8x and the other (later) one only 8x as far as I remember. What problems do the PCIe versions have if you know?

Early revisions of the Perihelia had an issues with banding graphical corruption where you would get weird lines of corruption at all resolutions when running 3d modes, its was a known issue that Matrox even acknowledged on their website at the time, this was corrected with the AGP versions and later revisions of the PCIe/PCI-X model due to newer silicon. FAA was also changed slightly to fix known errors in the AGP 8X version. (PCIe versions have no issues, its only the early AGP and PCI-X models)

Nothing major unless you got one of the early models.

Oh OK, nice to know! I also have a couple of the later P750 (Parhelia-LX, half every spec and speed) and they are super robust cards.