First parts dropped in this saturday 😀
the v2 are like new if not new, no sign of use on the slot 😵
Cleaned the AWE64 (just hope I never need to start replacing those caps....)
the RAM was cheap and thus I am upgrading my computers 64 mb EDO to 256 MB SD (just to bad my mobo doesn't acccept pc-100)

kithylin wrote:

skitters wrote:

Artex wrote:

New Old Stock EPoX 8K3A+ Rev 1.2 Socket 462 board.
...............

Two pairs of IDE slots?
I don't think any of my motherboards have more than a single pair.

The second set is powered by what is basically a PCI IDE controller with it's own bios that's mated on to the motherboard. It's usually run by Promise on 99% of motherboards. It's really not that uncommon. I have a gigabyte and Soyo boards both with second sets of IDE slots and addon cards. Most boards with this option do RAID via the second IDE ports as well. My gigabyte board supports 4 drives over 2 add-on slots and RAID 0,1,5,6 *(fake software raid of course)

Yup, invariably Promise or Highpoint. Watch out, as they're sitting on the PCI bus with all your other peripherals.

kithylin wrote:

skitters wrote:

Artex wrote:

New Old Stock EPoX 8K3A+ Rev 1.2 Socket 462 board.
...............

Two pairs of IDE slots?
I don't think any of my motherboards have more than a single pair.

The second set is powered by what is basically a PCI IDE controller with it's own bios that's mated on to the motherboard. It's usually run by Promise on 99% of motherboards. It's really not that uncommon. I have a gigabyte and Soyo boards both with second sets of IDE slots and addon cards. Most boards with this option do RAID via the second IDE ports as well. My gigabyte board supports 4 drives over 2 add-on slots and RAID 0,1,5,6 *(fake software raid of course)

Yeah they were quite common actually. Many manufacturers would make motherboards in 2 flavors: a regular one, and a "-RAID" one which was the regular motherboard with an extra IDE controller.

Also, almost bought a dual-socket370 motherboard, originally from a Silicon Graphics 330 workstation. Found its manual here: https://techpubs.jurassic.nl/manuals/hdwr/end … html/front.html (see chapter 3 "system board") and went through it, then decided it would be too much of a hassle to find all the required addons (special CPU coolers with 3+2 pin connectors that have integrated thermal sensors, ECC memory etc) especially at this price.

I'm posting the link to the auction here in case someone else is interested. The seller has several. (I have no association with the seller other than having bought another motherboard from him a few months ago, that's how I came to monitor his ebay store once in a while). As far as I understand from the manual, ECC is enabled in BIOS by default, it can be disabled but to be able to boot and get to the BIOS setting it requires to have ECC memory installed first. Also has on-board SCSI, cool. And AGP Pro for those extra-power-hungry cards. The chipset is Via Apollo 133A, doesn't support Tualatins sadly.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/252056700079?_trksid= … K%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

stamasd wrote:

Also, almost bought a dual-socket370 motherboard, originally from a Silicon Graphics 330 workstation. Found its manual here: htt […]
Show full quote

Also, almost bought a dual-socket370 motherboard, originally from a Silicon Graphics 330 workstation. Found its manual here: https://techpubs.jurassic.nl/manuals/hdwr/end … html/front.html (see chapter 3 "system board") and went through it, then decided it would be too much of a hassle to find all the required addons (special CPU coolers with 3+2 pin connectors that have integrated thermal sensors, ECC memory etc) especially at this price.

I'm posting the link to the auction here in case someone else is interested. The seller has several. (I have no association with the seller other than having bought another motherboard from him a few months ago, that's how I came to monitor his ebay store once in a while). As far as I understand from the manual, ECC is enabled in BIOS by default, it can be disabled but to be able to boot and get to the BIOS setting it requires to have ECC memory installed first. Also has on-board SCSI, cool. And AGP Pro for those extra-power-hungry cards. The chipset is Via Apollo 133A, doesn't support Tualatins sadly.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/252056700079?_trksid= … K%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Why are those specific coolers required? I can't imagine anyone making a board that wouldn't boot without a specific cooler, especially not a company that made industrial stuff like Silicon Graphics.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

Why are those specific coolers required? I can't imagine anyone making a board that wouldn't boot without a specific cooler, especially not a company that made industrial stuff like Silicon Graphics.

Remember, up to this point in time SGI hardware was 100% proprietary, non-industry-standard. This board and its generation was their first foray in using (somewhat) off-the-shelf components AFAIK.

stamasd wrote:

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

Why are those specific coolers required? I can't imagine anyone making a board that wouldn't boot without a specific cooler, especially not a company that made industrial stuff like Silicon Graphics.

Remember, up to this point in time SGI hardware was 100% proprietary, non-industry-standard. This board and its generation was their first foray in using (somewhat) off-the-shelf components AFAIK.

by the time you found all the required parts it would be cheaper to just buy a working sgi box complete.

nothing like buying a used fan for the same prices as a whole box! 🤣

BloodyCactus wrote:

stamasd wrote:

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

Why are those specific coolers required? I can't imagine anyone making a board that wouldn't boot without a specific cooler, especially not a company that made industrial stuff like Silicon Graphics.

Remember, up to this point in time SGI hardware was 100% proprietary, non-industry-standard. This board and its generation was their first foray in using (somewhat) off-the-shelf components AFAIK.

by the time you found all the required parts it would be cheaper to just buy a working sgi box complete.

nothing like buying a used fan for the same prices as a whole box! 🤣

Well, at least the board is from an SGI Visual Workstation 330 which already used more standard parts, the earlier SGI Visual Workstation 320 and 540 weere practically 100% propietary, even used propietary RAM and a custom firmware called ARCS instead of a BIOS, which only few OSes supported it, including some versions of Windows NT 4 and 2000, Windows XP dropped support for the SGI Visual Workstation 320 and 540

The later SGI Visual Workstation 230, 330 and 550 used more standard parts and a standard BIOS

Carlos S. M. wrote:

Well, at least the board is from an SGI Visual Workstation 330 which already used more standard parts, the earlier SGI Visual Workstation 320 and 540 weere practically 100% propietary, even used propietary RAM and a custom firmware called ARCS instead of a BIOS, which only few OSes supported it, including some versions of Windows NT 4 and 2000, Windows XP dropped support for the SGI Visual Workstation 320 and 540

The later SGI Visual Workstation 230, 330 and 550 used more standard parts and a standard BIOS

I had my share of HP pa-risc workstations, Sun servers + workstations, Ive had SGI indy/indigo/o2.

i remember when i go a sun blade and cheered as it had regular pci slots, standard ide and used standard pc ram.. i still have a soft spot for OpenBoot / OpenFirmware instead of bios.

the downside was sun pci controller, sun ethernet controller, etc standard but non standard!

skitters wrote:

Two pairs of IDE slots?
I don't think any of my motherboards have more than a single pair.

Two extra IDE really aren't that rare. 4 on the other hand.... 😁
8K5A3+ is considered the best AGP 3.3V compatible board, probably V5 6000 compatible as well, not that I need it for this purpose. 🤣

Have the successor of 8K5A3+, the 8K9A3+. Due to 1.5V AGP not compatible to old high-end cards like V5 anymore...
The four additional IDE port were a reason to buy it, i thought, but later i saw that i've never used more than 2 harddisks...

Caps on motherboards and other parts

melbar wrote:

Have the successor of 8K5A3+, the 8K9A3+. Due to 1.5V AGP not compatible to old high-end cards like V5 anymore...
The four additional IDE port were a reason to buy it, i thought, but later i saw that i've never used more than 2 harddisks...

Caps on motherboards and other parts

I've had 5 drives (3 HDDs/SSDs + 2 optical drives) in my main PC for years, but I can't see me ever having 7 or 8.

I've used 5 HDDs and a CD in one computer before. Two of the HDDs were SCSI though. 😀

When you accumulate sound modules, you need a way to hook them up! Enter the Rolls rm203x 10 stereo inputs.. the manual "example 1" is hooking up half a dozen sound modules! 😀 I think it counts as retro, 2003?

Now I can hook up my AWE32 out to #10, and hook up all my modules. The downside, if you dont want a module in use its turn it off or turn its volume all the way down. but either works.

I did some testing, sounds fine, but I plan to roll opamps. I believe it has TL082, need to open it up abnd see, but I plan on getting some Burr Brown OPA2134 / OPA2604 or AD823 from Analogue Devices. the AD823's are $6 a pop tho 🙁

BloodyCactus wrote:

the AD823's are $6 a pop tho 🙁

You can open an account with AD, and they will let you order samples for free. Not many, but still 2 of them every couple of weeks is better than nothing. TI used to do the same, but lately they've been very stringy.

(edit) I've just checked, AD won't give out AD823 samples just now. That changes from time to time so check every once in a while. It's still worth registering with them, you can in the meantime get samples of other awesome stuff.

http://www.analog.com/en/products/amplifiers/ … roduct-overview
If you scroll to the bottom of the page there is a section where you can purchase stuff directly from them. For some parts, under the "purchase" button there will be a "request sample" button as well.

Also to stop derailing this thread, I won another Thinkpad at auction. A 380ED this time, P166MMX, one with 12" TFT screen (the majority of the 380ED had DSTN screen, save for select few with TFT).

At least this one I know for sure it powers up.

I can fix those errors very easily.

This particular type has TFT screen.

mmm old ThinkPads

I should pick one up at some point... just never know where to find them for cheap.

oeuvre wrote:

mmm old ThinkPads

I should pick one up at some point... just never know where to find them for cheap.

Ebay if you're patient and know what to look for. All the ones I posted in this thread I picked for $25-$38 including shipping.

stamasd wrote:

Also to stop derailing this thread, I won another Thinkpad at auction. A 380ED this time, P166MMX, one with 12" TFT screen (the […]
Show full quote

Also to stop derailing this thread, I won another Thinkpad at auction. A 380ED this time, P166MMX, one with 12" TFT screen (the majority of the 380ED had DSTN screen, save for select few with TFT).

At least this one I know for sure it powers up.

I can fix those errors very easily.

This particular type has TFT screen.

Pentium 166. Does it work with DOS? Can run pure DOS while having sound?

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:

Pentium 166. Does it work with DOS? Can run pure DOS while having sound?

Of course it does. All Thinkpads from that era have DOS drivers, as DOS was an option for OS to come pre-installed on them. They also have drivers for OS/2, NT 3.51, NT 4.0, Win9x, and sometimes Win2k and even XP. 😀
The sound chip is CS4236B; it works in DOS.