Jed118 wrote on 2021-03-04, 05:51:

Took a steep chance on this -

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Generic-ASUS … 4.c100227.m3827

If the video card works, and the floppies do, I can make this work.

Seems like a great price for a 486 system already put together with a working VLB MACH32. Did the seller actually intend to use free shipping? That's a huge gamble with something so heavy. Between the fees (over $20 including paypal) and what could be $60+ for shipping depending on your location, that takes a pretty large chunk, and it's not fun packing computers so that they survive shipping. I hope he takes the time to do it right. 😀

Agreed. I thought my Compaq Portable 1 was going to arrive with broken pieces externally and no damage. Packed well and that made me happy. Just had to adjust the cards on the inside, but it's a great project computer.

Also, the one card looks like a Microsoft InPort Bus Mouse card.

bjwil1991 wrote on 2021-03-04, 06:22:

Agreed. I thought my Compaq Portable 1 was going to arrive with broken pieces externally and no damage. Packed well and that made me happy. Just had to adjust the cards on the inside, but it's a great project computer.

Also, the one card looks like a Microsoft InPort Bus Mouse card.

Oh man, I just realized it has a Seasonic power supply! That is so cool! I've never seen a Seasonic that old... or any Seasonic AT units for that matter. I wonder how their quality was back then? I think the average PSU was a bit more robust back in those days than in the past 20 years.

I like the painted back on the case too. If it cleans up well that could be a very fine looking machine. 😀

EDIT: EDIT: I had a comment about the pricing of this guy's computers but I thought it through and decided I was wrong. Nevermind. 🤣

Jed118 wrote on 2021-03-04, 05:51:

Took a steep chance on this -

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Generic-ASUS … 4.c100227.m3827

If the video card works, and the floppies do, I can make this work.

And it seems the Varta hasn't started leaking yet! (y) Would prioritize getting rid of that ASAP, though.

dionb wrote on 2021-03-03, 14:08:

Mendocino cache was smaller but faster. At the same clock, it was neck-and-neck with a Deschutes P2 or Katmai P3, with benchmark […]
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Almoststew1990 wrote on 2021-03-03, 09:10:

I bought a 333MHz Celeron but was sent a 266MHz Pentium 2. If the seller gives me the option to keep or send back I was wondering what CPU was likely to be faster? I've got a 66FSB Slot 1 system.

Mendocino cache was smaller but faster. At the same clock, it was neck-and-neck with a Deschutes P2 or Katmai P3, with benchmarks preferring cache speed over size favoring the Mendocino and those preferring cache size over speed the Deschutes.

With 66MHz difference in core speed and 33MHz slower L2 (than a P2-333 would have), it's not even close: the Mendocino would make mincemeat of the old Klamath hothead. It would also consume less power, stay cooler and so require a less noisy fan (or just passive cooling). Plus you can overclock a lot of Celeron 333s to 500MHz. That P2 probably wouldn't make 300MHz - but on a 66MHz system (i440EX/LX?) that's not too relevant.

So in terms of performance the Klamath 266 is inferior across the board.

Edit:
Yep, take a look at these benchmarks

P2-266 scores 41fps where Celeron 333 Mendocino scores 55, just one less than the P2-333.

Note that the lower"Celeron 333" score is from a Covington Celeron with unlocked multiplier (which still - just - beats the P2-266). No Covington CPUs were released faster than 300MHz, so a 333MHz unit is 100% certain to be Mendocino.

Not to mention that on a BX board, Celeron 333's are well known often to be willing of 500 MHz 😁

[Edit:] Need to read before I post - you already had the overclocking part above the image 🤣

Well I got an Abit i9 32x-max motherboard with some issues and a Medion Ti4200 back from someone I gave them to a couple years back. The Medion card works great! But the Abit board has some issues. I can get into the bios, but after fiddling around in the bios for a few seconds it just hard freezes.

First, did not bought these retro PC, just found it today waiting for me for years in our old building at work.
Looks like Compaq 4000 5233MMX, no video and RAM, but CPU is still there. Here is a pic with it's firs best friend 😀
p.s. What OS to install if it is running, Win 95 or Win 98?

Sold off a mATX Socket 370 motherboard. Immediate seller's remorse, now looking through motherboards I have no need of just because..

DundyTheCroc wrote on 2021-03-04, 10:56:

First, did not bought these retro PC, just found it today waiting for me for years in our old building at work. Looks like Compa […]
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First, did not bought these retro PC, just found it today waiting for me for years in our old building at work.
Looks like Compaq 4000 5233MMX, no video and RAM, but CPU is still there. Here is a pic with it's firs best friend 😀
p.s. What OS to install if it is running, Win 95 or Win 98?
Compaq233mmx.jpg

IMO 95. 98 is something for P2 and newer.

H3nrik V! wrote on 2021-03-04, 07:10:

Jed118 wrote on 2021-03-04, 05:51:

Took a steep chance on this -

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Generic-ASUS … 4.c100227.m3827

If the video card works, and the floppies do, I can make this work.

And it seems the Varta hasn't started leaking yet! (y) Would prioritize getting rid of that ASAP, though.

That will be the first thing to go, believe me. I'm gonna have to start sourcing some DX2/66 chips. I bought an ITS 486 off eBay, I should have grabbed the Cyrix one too.

As for the shipping, yeah, that was one of the reasons I jumped on that. I hope it's packed well too. 😁 Seller's been around since Oct 2000, I think he's not a noob.

Today I received boards of different generations, from different places, ASUS P5A and ASUS P5B. Random-stuff-box came along with P5B. P5B+box didn't cost me a dime.
P5A was sold as faulty, after some IPA-cleaning it POSTs.

DundyTheCroc wrote on 2021-03-04, 10:56:

First, did not bought these retro PC, just found it today waiting for me for years in our old building at work. Looks like Compa […]
Show full quote

First, did not bought these retro PC, just found it today waiting for me for years in our old building at work.
Looks like Compaq 4000 5233MMX, no video and RAM, but CPU is still there. Here is a pic with it's firs best friend 😀
p.s. What OS to install if it is running, Win 95 or Win 98?
Compaq233mmx.jpg

I don't think there's a reason to ever run '95 over '98 even on an original 586 system. Unless you just want to run '95 because you want to, 98, SE in particular works better and has more modern support. I'm running 98SE on my P133, which was a P90 until recently and it performs just fine.

In my experience 98 needs RAM more than CPU speed. I acquired a Packard Bell desktop with a Pentium 75MHz and 8MB of RAM that someone had forced 98 onto and it was basically unusable, and my Libretto with 16MB needed 98lite to run 98 sufficiently.

Well, I picked up a small lot of K6III processors. One happens to be K6II+ 450. Unfortunately, all had bent pins. The worst of which was the III+ of course. It took alot of squinting and patience, but I was able to get it straightened up enough to fit the socket 7 and get it up and working.

That's great that you managed to get them back without breaking a single pin off 😀

You got me worried that I had lost my K6-III+ processor, it wasn't on the board it came with where I thought it was. I found it on another MVP3 board I had. It turns out I have so many Super 7 boards now that I'm losing track of the CPUs, awful, I should sell some. So of course I bought another one 😁

It's a Jetway 542, bought with a bunch of bad caps that I replaced, but the replacement caps are too tall so I need to buy some more new caps and replace them. It came with a 'thermoengine' cooler, which was somehow jammed hard against the CPU socket clip, because of course the socket clip is broken off.

I was thinking that since the chipset date code was so late that it might have a nice CPU attached, but nope, a K6 233. This thing must've been pieced together from parts then sold off when it stopped working. I should test it out soon after all this work.

I also bought an IBM 20x CD-ROM drive, which sadly does *not* have the optional sound card integrated. A few months ago I bought the PC card and cable for this drive, now the drive itself appears 😀 It plays after I took it apart and oiled the things that need oiling.

I was sad that it had no sound card, so I took it apart and checked it out, I wonder if soldering on all these parts would get me a working sound card via PCMCIA?

SilverHawk wrote on 2021-03-04, 23:50:

Well, I picked up a small lot of K6III processors. One happens to be K6II+ 450. Unfortunately, all had bent pins. The worst of which was the III+ of course. It took alot of squinting and patience, but I was able to get it straightened up enough to fit the socket 7 and get it up and working.

You should have seen the 486 I picked up for $5 - all pins lying down. 30 minutes with an exacto knife, needle nose pliers, and a paint scraper got them all righted. I lost one, but it was a redundant ground, chip worked fine.

Then I did an LGA P4 - yeah, NOT fun.

I just bought two Cyrix DX2/66s - I'm going to be doing a large comparison of 10+ 486 chips on YouTube, and then upgrading two DX33 computers (one that I bought here just yesterday)

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/254779071667

Two parcels today.

First was a sound card, not one I strictly need (my main Win98SE system already has a Turtle Beach Montego II) but still couldn't resist because of the excellent preservation - just look how shiny even the amp heatsinks are on this Diamond Sonic Impact S90:

Then the other one. To quote AC/DC - I got big balls:

Intended for young children, it's a huge serial trackball with just one button. What was MS thinking? Still, looks impressive enough.

My two most recent retro computers are coincidentally both IBM systems, a RS/6000 workstation and an Aptiva with a Slot A Athlon (650MHz).

Beauty, eh?

The Aptiva certainly is, the RS/6000 is currently more frustrating than beautiful and I haven't even tried to fire it up yet!