Grabbed a poorly listed Ensoniq S-2000.

Sure hope it is OK.... why do people use carpet to lay electronics on when taking pictures? At least it isn't shag.

Looks like Gateway had these as an option.

Pabloz wrote:

gdjacobs wrote:

I want to try a CMI8330 card (or a SoundPro rebadge) but they're sometimes hard to find.

whats so special about cmi8330? it looks like another cheap card from taiwan.

Full SPDIF output for both FM and PCM. Also, it has both SP Pro and SB16 compatibility.

dionb wrote:

Just received confirmation I can go pick up two totally unknown old boxes for free. The seller posted a stock pic of an Amiga 1000 and stated "similar, but not the same, photo from internet" but added "extremely heavy", which is hardly how I'd describe an Amiga pizza box and 12" monitor. The mind boggles at what I'm exactly going to find there. Loot box ahoy 😉

Aaand... not my lucky day...

The "similar" to an A1000 with 12" monitor turned out to be two HP S7500 CRTs - rather late low-end affairs and in a bad state. I passed on the opportunity.

Then the other loot box: a Packard Bell Platinum ATX miditower with something in it. Given the ATX backplate I thought I'd found another MSI MS-6168, as it was the only board shipped in this case with the specific connectors (onboard audio in PC99 colours and one serial port replaced by a blue VGA connector). Nope. The previous owner had actually managed to downgrade the motherboard to something close to what would have been found in a low-end Packard Bell at the time: a Gigabyte GA-6VMML (Via PLE133, no AGP and generally crappy). The low-end PB would have had GA-6WMM7 (the i810 version of the same). Oh, and the caps are all bust too. Given the low price I paid (EUR 10...) not anything to complain about, but a disappointment nonetheless.

Edit: could have known this. The case is a Hercules (1998-vintage) Platinum tower, which should have had an Intel SE440BX or MSI MS-6119 in it - neither of which had PC99 colours or integrated VGA. And of course the previous owner was a smoker - my fingers stink again 🙁

cyclone3d wrote:

Grabbed a poorly listed Ensoniq S-2000. […]
Show full quote

Grabbed a poorly listed Ensoniq S-2000.

Sure hope it is OK.... why do people use carpet to lay electronics on when taking pictures? At least it isn't shag.

s-2000.jpg

Looks like Gateway had these as an option.

s-2000-back.jpg

Yup - a 1Mb ROM Gateway 2000 OEM version is what you have there. The 2MB ROM versions have the larger "MX" chip (in length) and are the retail versions that also typically have the IDE interfaces.

Artex wrote:

cyclone3d wrote:

Grabbed a poorly listed Ensoniq S-2000. […]
Show full quote

Grabbed a poorly listed Ensoniq S-2000.

Sure hope it is OK.... why do people use carpet to lay electronics on when taking pictures? At least it isn't shag.

s-2000.jpg

Looks like Gateway had these as an option.

s-2000-back.jpg

Yup - a 1Mb ROM Gateway 2000 OEM version is what you have there. The 2MB ROM versions have the larger "MX" chip (in length) and are the retail versions that also typically have the IDE interfaces.

Which means I can do a direct comparison with my retail version 😀

cyclone3d wrote:

Artex wrote:

cyclone3d wrote:

Grabbed a poorly listed Ensoniq S-2000. […]
Show full quote

Grabbed a poorly listed Ensoniq S-2000.

Sure hope it is OK.... why do people use carpet to lay electronics on when taking pictures? At least it isn't shag.

s-2000.jpg

Looks like Gateway had these as an option.

s-2000-back.jpg

Yup - a 1Mb ROM Gateway 2000 OEM version is what you have there. The 2MB ROM versions have the larger "MX" chip (in length) and are the retail versions that also typically have the IDE interfaces.

Which means I can do a direct comparison with my retail version 😀

For sure! The difference is subtle unless you have expert ears imo. The Elite is night and day compared to the plain S-2000, but primarily because of the attached DSP. If you've got one of these, then you have another for comparison! They all share the S2016 base model #.

cyclone3d wrote:

Grabbed a poorly listed Ensoniq S-2000.

Sure hope it is OK.... why do people use carpet to lay electronics on when taking pictures? At least it isn't shag.

NO KIDDING. Huuuuuuuuge freaking pet peeve. Especially when they then go and demand premium prices and say things like "I know what I have." I don't want something that's been in the place where your slough along with your yucky feet and all the mice in your house use as a toilet. Put it on a desk or a table like a civilized human being. How hard can this be?? ARGHLGRFKLGLK;KF

So this happened today...

Found a nice NOS sealed Netgear PCI card in my stores today too 😁

Compensated for my bad luck with old hardware this week by buying an Asus P5A system. Not picking it up till the weekend, so don't know the revision, but regardless it's a board I've wanted since these things were new (even if I now know a late rev GA-5AA is technically better). Also getting a nice ATX desktop case (1998-era AOpen by the look of it), another Diamond Speedstar A50, either an early revision SB 64 PCI or a late Ensoniq AudioPCI, a PCI modem (yay...), fast CDRom and slow CDRW, a Compaq 15" v55 CRT and a (badly yellowed) Packard Bell keyboard. Oh, and an otherwise unspecified HDD running Windows 98 - which proved that it all works, at least well enough to boot to desktop.

Apart from the motherboard not really anything special, but can't wait to see if I can get my K6-3+ running at 720MHz (and if it's a rev. 1.05 or later, then see how to hard fix the slowdown bug)

dionb wrote:

Compensated for my bad luck with old hardware this week by buying an Asus P5A system. Not picking it up till the weekend, so don't know the revision, but regardless it's a board I've wanted since these things were new (even if I now know a late rev GA-5AA is technically better). Also getting a nice ATX desktop case (1998-era AOpen by the look of it), another Diamond Speedstar A50, either an early revision SB 64 PCI or a late Ensoniq AudioPCI, a PCI modem (yay...), fast CDRom and slow CDRW, a Compaq 15" v55 CRT and a (badly yellowed) Packard Bell keyboard. Oh, and an otherwise unspecified HDD running Windows 98 - which proved that it all works, at least well enough to boot to desktop.

Apart from the motherboard not really anything special, but can't wait to see if I can get my K6-3+ running at 720MHz (and if it's a rev. 1.05 or later, then see how to hard fix the slowdown bug)

I have three p5a-b boards and four p5a, all revisions. Tried two k6-3+ cpu's and two k6-2+. Getting any of these combinations with working cache above 630mhz i had zero luck. I also have the Gigabyte late revision (5.2), it is not better in any way as far as i know. Didn't even clock any higher as the Asus. It even was a fraction slower in benchmarks. The Gigabyte Ga5aa (baby at version) did a bit better but also slower as the p5a boards.

The absolute highest 3dmark scores i got from a 1.04 P5A-B

So good luck reaching 720mhz! Let me know if you got it.

Another console on a card, this time PC-FX. I have the 3DO Blaster, so now all I need is that ISA CD-I card.
I realize there are development cards for snes/psx/etc but I don't think I will come across them easily.

Very cool! Never knew it ever existed 😀

Hentai-ecchi engine card in your regular PC. Sweet.

dionb wrote:

[...]

The previous owner had actually managed to downgrade the motherboard to something close to what would have been found in a low-end Packard Bell at the time: a Gigabyte GA-6VMML (Via PLE133, no AGP and generally crappy). The low-end PB would have had GA-6WMM7 (the i810 version of the same). Oh, and the caps are all bust too. Given the low price I paid (EUR 10...) not anything to complain about, but a disappointment nonetheless.

Turns out I was a bit too hasty and mis-identified the motherboard. It's a Gigabyte GA-6VEML. That letter difference means PLE133T and FC-PGA2, so Tualatin support. It's still crappy integrated VGA without AGP, but under the (dusty, smoky) heatsink I found a Celeron 1200, which is a nice surprise.

meljor wrote:

[...]

So good luck reaching 720mhz! Let me know if you got it.

Shall do 😀

furan wrote:

Another console on a card, this time PC-FX. I have the 3DO Blaster, so now all I need is that ISA CD-I card.
I realize there are development cards for snes/psx/etc but I don't think I will come across them easily.

Wow. Like others - Yeah. I had no idea! Nice.

furan wrote:

Another console on a card, this time PC-FX. I have the 3DO Blaster, so now all I need is that ISA CD-I card. I realize there are […]
Show full quote

Another console on a card, this time PC-FX. I have the 3DO Blaster, so now all I need is that ISA CD-I card.
I realize there are development cards for snes/psx/etc but I don't think I will come across them easily.

Ya know, it's one thing to not know about a piece of obscure hardware like this, but another to not even know the hardware this hardware is allowing you to play on the PC. 🤣 Completely out of the loop on this one. Looked it up on Wikipedia to get filled in. So something like this would probably turn up on a site like Yahoo! Auctions is what I am guessing?

Got a few RAMs in the mail box today...

liqmat wrote:

furan wrote:

Another console on a card, this time PC-FX. I have the 3DO Blaster, so now all I need is that ISA CD-I card. I realize there are […]
Show full quote

Another console on a card, this time PC-FX. I have the 3DO Blaster, so now all I need is that ISA CD-I card.
I realize there are development cards for snes/psx/etc but I don't think I will come across them easily.

Ya know, it's one thing to not know about a piece of obscure hardware like this, but another to not even know the hardware this hardware is allowing you to play on the PC. 🤣 Completely out of the loop on this one. Looked it up on Wikipedia to get filled in. So something like this would probably turn up on a site like Yahoo! Auctions is what I am guessing?

Yeah, Yahoo Auctions Japan, or a Japanese Ebay seller (at a huge mark-up compared to Y! Auctions, probably).

There are three PC98 versions on Y! Auctions right now, the PC/AT version is much harder to find.

Just received this beuty… quite not standard colour as for s370...

Batyra wrote:

Just received this beuty… quite not standard colour as for s370...

Abit CASPER 2.jpg

Oh Casper, the friendly ghost... Is that for a white build?