Got my IDE update kit ready to go into my Redstone Computers XT Turbo. Comprises of a XT-IDE 8-bit card, BigFoot 2.1gig 5.25" IDE hdd with cable.

The system it's going in.

keropi wrote:

just received a used boxed but complete MediaVision ThunderBoard 😀

That one is rare - Congrats!

rikukos wrote:

keropi wrote:

just received a used boxed but complete MediaVision ThunderBoard 😀

That one is rare - Congrats!

really? I would think uncommon but rare? 😕

Predator99 wrote:

I think its hardwired to 25 MHz (crystal 50 MHz). I got it without CPU, so the 33 MHz one was added by me. Therefore I dont think its a very late board. But it seems to be really fast for a 25 MHz.

There's some cache on that board - that's why it's so fast.
386DX-25 systems usually lack cache, which makes them much slower than 33 or 40 MHz ones.

keropi wrote:

rikukos wrote:

keropi wrote:

just received a used boxed but complete MediaVision ThunderBoard 😀

That one is rare - Congrats!

really? I would think uncommon but rare? 😕

Well at least two people here have one so not that uncommon ah? At least it was made in the USA not like the Singaporean made Sound Blasters.

Not today but yesterday. While most folks in my country were sitting on their lazy asses in the sun yesterday, I took my opportunity to buy some computers from a museum collection:

New for me is the HP 9835A, which I have never owned.

Needless to say I've had an amazing day and today is even better because the HP 9835A powered up and so did the Sharp MZ-80K 😊

Caluser2000 wrote:

The system it's going in.

RedstoneXT.JPG

Whoa I have the exact same CRT 😁 it supports so many old video modes, that's awesome !
I even have its manual if you want pictures from it.

Caluser2000 wrote:

Got my IDE update kit ready to go into my Redstone Computers XT Turbo. Comprises of a XT-IDE 8-bit card, BigFoot 2.1gig 5.25" IDE hdd with cable.

Watch that Bigfoot. Every single one I've dealt with since they were made until now will inevitably click of death.

If it does die, and the drive still spins up, I will gladly purchase it for an art project 😉

While I was away in Romania, Polish eBay had granted me several very compellingly priced items!

Among others, a full Pentium II 350 system with built in sound, ATI Rage II DVD, some amount of PC100 RAM, 6.4G HDD. Curiously, this one has a PS/2 and what seems to me to be a BUS mouse (or SVIDEO?) output. More on that when I haul it back home, 8,000 KM from here.

Other cards include a late Hercules card (my ATI Graphics Solution 3 won't play nice with the Wonder card I have) with what appears to be 64k RAM, a 256k 8 bit Paradise VGA card (I could not pass up the low cost of $4, apparently it works, if not it becomes an ar ), a couple Crystal based soundcards and a P166 CPU for the P75 that I got last week.

Now I am going to Gdansk and Sopot, and what may await me upon my return is a slimline 486SX machine. How will I take this stuff back with me...

dionb wrote:

Nprod wrote:

Vegge wrote:

And open sesame 😁

I genuinely laughed out loud, what a marvellous troll... Perhaps Beckman just made cases for people looking to replace the spongy keyboard on their original units?

Er yes, there was a whole industry around that because the original ones were *so* bad. This one is interesting because you apparently don't even unscrew the top part of the case, but there were lots out there, including the highly regarded Saga Emperor series where you kept the bottom part of the case and just screwed that - with motherboard and all - into the new case.

Sounds like ALR from the early 90s. I dealt with these as a kid and yeah, what a joke that was.
https://books.google.pl/books?id=MDsEAAAAMBAJ … e%20486&f=false

scroll down to the second page from this link and JUST UPGRADE THE CPU!

Deksor wrote:

Caluser2000 wrote:

The system it's going in.

RedstoneXT.JPG

Whoa I have the exact same CRT 😁 it supports so many old video modes, that's awesome !
I even have its manual if you want pictures from it.

It'd be cool if you scanned it to pdf. I was lucky enough to have the XT and EGA monitor given to me.

Jed118 wrote:

Caluser2000 wrote:

Got my IDE update kit ready to go into my Redstone Computers XT Turbo. Comprises of a XT-IDE 8-bit card, BigFoot 2.1gig 5.25" IDE hdd with cable.

Watch that Bigfoot. Every single one I've dealt with since they were made until now will inevitably click of death.

If it does die, and the drive still spins up, I will gladly purchase it for an art project 😉

I've got a 4gig one in my 386DX25 rig using EZDrive. Haven't had issues yet. Also got 4 spare 4gig and 6gig ones. I live in New Zealand so shipping might be prohibitive 🤣.

MSI 694D Pro V1.0 Motherboard (seller photo). Looks like it comes with some RAM and CPU's as well, but I don't know what they are yet. Unsure if this board can support a dual Tualatin mod, but I'll find out. If not, I'll just stick with some 1GHz PIII's.

Caluser2000 wrote:

Jed118 wrote:

Caluser2000 wrote:

Got my IDE update kit ready to go into my Redstone Computers XT Turbo. Comprises of a XT-IDE 8-bit card, BigFoot 2.1gig 5.25" IDE hdd with cable.

Watch that Bigfoot. Every single one I've dealt with since they were made until now will inevitably click of death.

If it does die, and the drive still spins up, I will gladly purchase it for an art project 😉

I've got a 4gig one in my 386DX25 rig using EZDrive. Haven't had issues yet. Also got 4 spare 4gig and 6gig ones. I live in New Zealand so shipping might be prohibitive 🤣.

Send it to me by sea, I'm in no hurry 😜

I've had no luck. I seem to recall the computer store I worked for in the 90s was basically giving them out as they were all pretty much duds. I had one in my 233MMX which had to be swapped out for a 6.4gig Fujitsu drive, and later to a 4.3gig WD.

I've done something to one that will make you laugh or cry, maybe both. I will have to update my Hard Drive Display project thread soon, as that project is 80% done. But yeah, I had to find a way to externally power my drive, literally.

At the time when I was working for a university during summer (3 times) when I was high school student, I had opportunity to work with zenith computers a LOT and actually repair them. 1998 thru 1991 or so.

The motherboard you got for 386dx is NOT from a Zenith. Zenith at this time is staunchly proprietary hardware design. Only thing is IBM compatible is bios and chips, rather like Compaq which is competing for same thing and also proprietary but both works perfectly with PC software. PS/2 is totally out of the topic here but it is perfect PC/XT/AT compatible with IBM as well. Zenith always say Zenith on the bios text POST start up.

Zenith used their home numbered parts in power supplies and Zenith was a electronics giant since late 1900's before and knew how to design also proprietary power supply as well but strangely weird, and they tend to use red and green LEDs by the power connector on motherboard as voltage status when on and power supply connectors are not standard either, case is totally non-standard apart from slots ISA typically. Floppy and hard drives are standard and ISA bus is standard. Zenith did use IDE like compaq was with PATA standard (16 bits).

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox- … =vEfAHvPTzXBD-M:

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox- … =vEfAHvPTzXBD-M:

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox- … =6_nZ89tINezdrM:

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox- … =6_nZ89tINezdrM:

Too bad, could not find photos of 386 boards looks like. Basically large very.

And cases is heavy.

Zenth did make their own design of luggables and carry-able DTR notebooks even few semi-notebook but internally were very cheaply made inside vs compaq's. Go figure!

Worked on Zenith 8088, 286 and occasionally 386 and many 386SX machines. I was given a new EazyPC (with a monitor bolted on using one board) , bios is not standard as it used a 186 CPU so it locks up on rare few software including one of DOS's utility. I was into 286 and 386 and uni computing dept only gave me EazyPC on hand but I should had taken asked 286 even 8088. But I gave it away short time later to someone who could use it when we moved and that was more than 2 decades ago.

Cheers, Pentiumspeed.

(10) 18-inch IDE cables for $16 on eBay.
They look like good quality. And they have all 40-pins holes available.

keropi wrote:

Caluser2000 wrote:

That was my first ever sound card that I fitted to my old 286/16. Still have it too. The only thing I kept of that system.

according to the registration card that is filled but never sent out, the previous owner installed it in a XT system for games 🤣
it's a good card , does what it says 😀

Grats Keropi! You know I love a good boxed relic! 😎

Caluser2000 wrote:

keropi wrote:

really? I would think uncommon but rare? 😕

Well at least two people here have one so not that uncommon ah? At least it was made in the USA not like the Singaporean made Sound Blasters.

3 total for me. 2 bare, one boxed & complete!

Artex wrote:

3 total for me. 2 bare, one boxed & complete! https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x600q90/924/lCk5OW.jpg […]
Show full quote

Caluser2000 wrote:

keropi wrote:

really? I would think uncommon but rare? 😕

Well at least two people here have one so not that uncommon ah? At least it was made in the USA not like the Singaporean made Sound Blasters.

3 total for me. 2 bare, one boxed & complete!

You couldn't make an images of the 3.5"s disk could you? Mine are long gone. PDFs of all the documentation would be useful to folk as well.

I've got a thunderboard as well. Came in a completely unknown to me lot of cards I got a while back. All I knew was it was ISA sound cards. I might actually have 2.

These came today - a couple a Intel QX9775 CPUs - cost was $20 shipped. 😀 I already have a Gigabyte EP45-UD3P motherboard that is modded for LGA771 CPUs and I think I have at least 1 more of those conversion stickers. If not, I'll have to order some more.