Nice, boxpressed! The E-Mu card looks interesting. So bascically the standard E-Mu (10K1, I assume) chip plus severel analog ins/outs for homerecording.

What does the breakout box do? Mic preamps?

boxpressed wrote:

Bought this lot of sound cards for about $50 shipped. […]
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Bought this lot of sound cards for about $50 shipped.

I really only wanted the Waveblaster II for my collection. It comes with a CT1790 with ASP, and it works fine. The MIDI from the 2MB patch set is really subpar, but that's what I was expecting.

The E-MU card and breakout box are interesting. I didn't even know that Creative has a "professional" line with E-MU.

Although I dislike the Live! cards, I finally have an original CT4760 with gold-plated connectors.

And an Audigy and a Hercules C-Media card (I think) round out the lot.

Nice haul. The gold plated Live is great to have. Personally I have this love/hate relation with them.
The stereo output sounds buggy. The midi-part is totally awesomme.

oerk wrote:

Nice, boxpressed! The E-Mu card looks interesting. So bascically the standard E-Mu (10K1, I assume) chip plus severel analog ins/outs for homerecording.

What does the breakout box do? Mic preamps?

I'm away from home right now, so I'll try to post a better photo of the breakout box later. I think I'm missing the external MIDI interface cable. Here's a description of the inputs from one review:

The package comes in two main parts. The E-Card is a soundcard with a single pair of analogue inputs and outputs, plus an S/PDIF input and output and a single MIDI I/O connector. To supplement this, the E-Drive fits into a spare 5.25-inch drive bay (just like a CD-ROM drive), and provides a further pair of S/PDIF sockets, a headphone output with level control and an additional two analogue inputs. Unusually, these are designed for use with microphones; they provide phantom power, and each has a separate front-panel switch to add a 20dB pad for line-level use, and its own level control. All analogue inputs and outputs (both on the E-Card and E-Drive) are on balanced quarter-inch jack sockets, and Emu claim that the preamps are of studio quality.

It turns out that these parts comprise the E-Mu Audio Production Studio. It was released in 1998 and was reviewed in 1999, I think. There's a bit of information online about it, including positive reviews from music websites and a tepid review from Maximum PC. Another thing to mess around with, at the very least.

boxpressed, this might be the last product they launched before Creative bought them.

I bought one of those scrap CPU lots a few weeks ago, the package arrived today.

The CPUs were not super cheap, 1 euro for each CPU but most were Slot-1 which dosnt have pins, and the CPUs with pins actually looked rather good. The shipping cost was cheap.

I told the seller to package the CPUs well but we all know how that ends up. Im not even going to post pictures of how the beat up package looked when it got here. Lets just say I could feel the stuff tumbeling around inside while carrying the box.

Here is a picture showing most of the Slot-1 CPUs after I moved them to another box, some coolers did get loose during shipping but I think most if not all Slot-1 CPUs are fine.

Here is the packaging material protecting the CPUs with pins from the heavy loose tubeling Slot-1 CPUs with coolers 😀

Here are the CPUs with pins, I have to say socket 7, socket 370 and Socket A CPUs have very sturdy pins, socket 939 CPUs not so much...

There were also some socket 478 CPUs in the package but those were actually protected by memory stick packages so I guess they are in as good or as bad shape as they were when the seller packed them. I have not checked them yet though.

All in all im very happy with this buy as there are 3x Katmai 600, at least 3x PII333 and a P3 700 among the ~25 Slot-1 CPUs. The socket 7 CPUs were 2x P120, 2x P200MMX, 2x K6-2 400 and a P233MMX, I had to adjust a single pin, the rest were OK. There were 12 Socket 370 CPUs in the package, one sits on a slotket and I have not checked it out yet but the highlights are 2x Celeron 533 Mendocino and the fact that I got most if not all of the Mendocino speed grades missing in my collection. I had to adjust 5 pins on the socket 370 CPUs. I have not investigated the Socket A CPUs yet but most pins look OK.

I finally took the plunge and bought the parts to recreate my old Duron system. The 950MHz "Spitfire" processor arrived first, and in an interesting package...

Yup, in a VHS tape case. Well, it did the job, no pins are bent. Unfortunately I will only be able to test it once the rest arrives.

Got this P4 for free. I quite like this AOpen case.

Nothing too interesting inside, aside from a Geforce 3 Ti500 and Audigy 1394 - I will keep those. Already started moving my Slot 1 mobo into this case.

pojo wrote:

Got this P4 for free. I quite like this AOpen case.

Nothing too interesting inside, aside from a Geforce 3 Ti500 and Audigy 1394 - I will keep those. Already started moving my Slot 1 mobo into this case.

That is a nice case... has a contemporary IBM-ish look to it.

Skyscraper wrote:

I bought one of those scrap CPU lots a few weeks ago, the package arrived today.

With all the lots you're buying... you're gonna be the "goto guy" in time to come!

pojo wrote:

Got this P4 for free. I quite like this AOpen case.

Nothing too interesting inside, aside from a Geforce 3 Ti500 and Audigy 1394 - I will keep those. Already started moving my Slot 1 mobo into this case.

Both the HQ-45 and the HX-45 from A-Open are really great cases.
I have two of each models in my collection, and the best thing is the thickness of the plates.
The only downside of these cases, is the lack of space for harddrives.

386_junkie wrote:

Skyscraper wrote:

I bought one of those scrap CPU lots a few weeks ago, the package arrived today.

With all the lots you're buying... you're gonna be the "goto guy" in time to come!

I like buying lots as you often you get 20 of item X for the same price as two of item X when buying the items one and one.

I also like buying whole AT systems when I need an AT case, as a case is ~30 euro + ~20 euro shipping and a whole 286 or 386 system can often be found for 40 - 60 euro + 20 - 30 euro shipping. The extra money often gets you stuff that would cost you much much more if you would buy the parts separately.

I have one such example here which arrived yesterday.

I wanted another AT desktop case and found a 386 system on Ebay for 55 euro with 31 euro shipping. The price was pretty much at the upper limit of what Im willing to pay as the system was sold as non working because it lacked a HDD. There was no information about what kind of 386 CPU the system had but there was an image from the BIOS and an image showing the board counting 16MB memory so the board was at least alive. There were also images showing a nice Western Digital 1MB VGA card and a ISA SCSI card so I thought it would turn out a decent deal, and I think it did.

First the bad, the packaging was not good even if I have seen worse. The case was well protected from 5 out of 6 sides but as a former mail carrier I really know its not enough. The worst thing though was that the hood wasnt secured, only a single screw held it and the screw wasnt screwed in tight so the hood was chewing away at the front panel plastic. Luckily the damage isnt major and it isnt worth making an issue out of it as the system was sold as non working.

Here is a picture showing the damage to one of the sides of the front panel, the frame also has a dent.

Here is a picture shwoing the nice 1MB VG-8000 Western Digital WD90C30-LR VGA card.

Here is the SCSI card, it also has a floppy controller so it seems useful. 😀

And here is the reason it turned out to be a good deal eventhough the case is slightly damaged.

I have wanted an AMD 386 DX40 system for years and finding one along with an Asus ISA-386C motherboard when buying a random system for the AT case was a very nice surprise. The board use an external battery (probably dead) so there is zero corrosion damage and the board seems to be in perfect shape 😀

boxpressed wrote:

Bought this lot of sound cards for about $50 shipped. […]
Show full quote

Bought this lot of sound cards for about $50 shipped.

I really only wanted the Waveblaster II for my collection. It comes with a CT1790 with ASP, and it works fine. The MIDI from the 2MB patch set is really subpar, but that's what I was expecting.

The E-MU card and breakout box are interesting. I didn't even know that Creative has a "professional" line with E-MU.

Although I dislike the Live! cards, I finally have an original CT4760 with gold-plated connectors.

And an Audigy and a Hercules C-Media card (I think) round out the lot.

I used to have the Hercules Muse, is not a bad card better than the generic or onboard soundcards of the era.

Skyscraper wrote:

I also like buying whole AT systems when I need an AT case, as a case is ~30 euro + ~20 euro shipping and a whole 286 or 386 system can often be found for 40 - 60 euro + 20 - 30 euro shipping. The extra money often gets you stuff that would cost you much much more if you would buy the parts separately.

I have one such example here which arrived yesterday.

I see your logic... and yes, sometimes you can find decent parts to make the whole lots / complete systems worthwhile... but not all the time unfortunately.

Nice find with the board though!

Picked up a CT3780 AWE32 this week. This value version doesn't have the SIMM slots, but does have the ASP chip and an OPL.

Was a good deal too at $10 😊

RacoonRider wrote:

I've got a 386SX-40 ALi board with MR.BIOS, are you interested in the BIOS dump? 😀

Not specifically, as I don't have a 386 ALi board, but by all means upload it anyhow. Microid seems to have occupied this weird niche selling replacement BIOSes for OEM systems as well as common chipsets. There are hardly any images of MR BIOS online, except for some Socket 5/7 chipsets which they apparently released for free before they went under.
I have a dump of their OPTI 481 BIOS that I found as a bare chip, I've been meaning to upload it somewhere...

386_junkie wrote:

Can this be done by software alone?... I do not yet have an external ROM reader / burner.

Thanks

After a bit of quick googling.... I have no idea.
Most questions regarding dumping deal with one of the major BIOS providers, who supply their own flashing tools. There's also Uniflash, but I suspect it's geared toward more modern chipsets with actual flash devices, and I've no idea how it'd handle an EPROM such as that. There's probably something you can throw into DEBUG to try to save that area of memory to disk, but I don't know where to start, nor if it would grab everything.

Really, your best bet is to get a programmer. They're super useful, especially if you work with old computers. Hell, I've even used mine to resuscitate a Socket 775 board that was boot looping before.
I have a TL-866 off of eBay, and it's taken everything I've thrown at it so far. They'll also do a variety of microcontrollers/GALs, and can even test RAM chips and logic ICs (74xx, etc.) There's also a way floating around to mod the cheaper 866CS into the 866A (which will do ICSP).

You're in the UK, right? It looks like the only one remotely near you is £89.99 [link]
However, if you don't mind waiting on shipping from China, you can get one for £31.88 [link]

I was offered an unspecified "old PC" for a decent price by a dealer I usually buy console games from and the cost plus shipping wasn't terrible so I took a chance. Based on the low-res image she sent me I was guessing it would be an AT 286 or 386SX system but it turned out to be a nice little Juko XT clone. Dual floppies, 12MHz and an old MFM hard drive that apparently still works. Haven't seen one of those since my 20MB drive crashed in about 1992. Actually this machine is very similar to my first PC, except that this one seems to have been upgraded to VGA at some point with a Tseng ET4000 ISA card which works in an 8bit slot. The VGA card is dated about two years later than the dates on the other components so it mush have been a later addition.

Interestingly the VGA card has 512k, and so does the motherboard itself. My old Juko had the full 1MB and this one has some empty RAM sockets so I might try to track down some chips to upgrade it. I booted the bare board last night to see it show the VGA BIOS screen and count up to 512k RAM so it seems to work fine. I'll get the rest of the system booting tonight probably. The PSU in the case is absolutely huge - I'd forgotten how big and heavy some of this old equipment is.

Awesome, post pictures when you can!

Don't really need them, but if I could resist shrink-wrapped floppies for a dollar I wouldn't be here.

pewpewpew wrote:

makingflippyfloppy.jpg

Don't really need them, but if I could resist shrink-wrapped floppies for a dollar I wouldn't be here.

If I had a $1 for every shrink-wrapped floppy box I bought.....I'd have at least $20 in my wallet. 😎

Picked up another lot of ISA & PCI sound cards. Got all of these for $20 shipped.

* Silicom Wavemaster 32FGP. This one is in the center row at the bottom. I pretty much bid on the lot for this card. It has an AdMOS QDSP QS700 patch set for GM, and it has a real OPL3. I'm starting to collect ISA cards with internal sound banks/patch sets, and this one was cheap.

* Three Vortex-based cards, two of them Vortex 2. I don't have a Diamond Monster MX300, so that was a bonus.

* S3 Sonic Vibes. I'd never even heard of this card. Apparently, it is one of the earlier PCI-based sound cards, a contemporary of the Ensoniq AudioPCI.

* Some Yamaha-based cards, 719 (2x) and 724.

* A few others that don't seem too interesting.