Got this Socket 940 board + FX53 for $25! A new build is in the works... 😀
Man, I'm still mad at AMD for what they did to socket 939/940.
I mean, they launched the pair as *the* socket(s) for the future, that would be supported with new processors for a long time... So I saved money for a while and built a rig, expecting to be able to upgrade it for a number of years... and then 6 months later they dropped it, no more new CPUs for 939/940. I was so upset. Insread of having to buy just a CPU, in order to upgrade later I had to buy CPU+motherboard+memory. Especially annoying since socket AM2 differed from 939 by just one pin. Guess they learned some tricks from Intel along the way... 487SX anyone? :p
I hear you - I was in the same boat. At least they got rid of the ECC/Registered RAM requirement when moving to the 939 socket. I was even more pissed when I found out Microsoft didn't support the Nforce3 chipset on the otherwise awesome MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum motherboard when using a combination of a dual core processor (in my case the Athlon X2 4400+) and ATI cards above the 9000 series. 😵
Got this Socket 940 board + FX53 for $25! A new build is in the works... 😀
Man, I'm still mad at AMD for what they did to socket 939/940.
I mean, they launched the pair as *the* socket(s) for the future, that would be supported with new processors for a long time... So I saved money for a while and built a rig, expecting to be able to upgrade it for a number of years... and then 6 months later they dropped it, no more new CPUs for 939/940. I was so upset. Insread of having to buy just a CPU, in order to upgrade later I had to buy CPU+motherboard+memory. Especially annoying since socket AM2 differed from 939 by just one pin. Guess they learned some tricks from Intel along the way... 487SX anyone? :p
Both Intel and AMD have pulled that stunt - Socket 754. 939 and 940 (with 754 being fairly silly) on AMDs side, whilst Intel pulled the same stunt earlier with Socket 423, and Socket 4/5.
🤣 tell me about it. I am putting together a socket423 build right now, and I'll be limited to 2GHz. Unless I somehow find one of those socket423-to-478-adapter-with-builtin-voltage-converter (made from unobtainium) in which case I might reach 2.8GHz. 🙁
FWIW I still have my original socket 939 computer. Haven't used it since about 2011 when I was for a while into bitcoin mining (when it was still profitable for the little guy who stuffed 3-4 video cards in a spare computer). That machine with a couple of Radeon 5870s and a Radeon 6870 in it mined about 70 bitcoins over a year. 😉 Still have the video cards in it too.
I/O, I/O,
It's off to disk I go,
With a bit and a byte
And a read and a write,
I/O, I/O
Speaking of mice, I just fixed a cheap USB mouse. Always nice to see those old two-button mice - not something I ever really used outside of early school days though!
Got 2 DVD drives the other day, both with a silver-colored front bezel. Been on the lookout for a couple of those to appear for a long time so I have a better color match with a couple of silver-colored cases, one of the 2 even is a burner 😁
I never was a fan of silver cases, but mostly for that reason. I hate seeing them with black or cream drives in, it looks shit. Good find.
My father used to have a machine with a metallic blue case which a local rip-off merchant built for him, it looked especially horrible with the white DVD-ROM, black CD-RW and yellowed gray floppy stuck in the front of it.
Cheers HT 😀. I wasn't even aware of the existence of silver-colored DVD drives until I came across these (though I never bothered to go find out so I would know for sure) and the silver optical drives I did came across were usually CDROM drives, most without the capability to even burn media.
The main reason why I opted for black drives in my silver-cased builds is mostly because imo the white ones look really out-of-place in them (especially if they have yellowed a bit as well) and because black ones in the silver cases I have don't look "too" bad imo, but I'd still prefer a matching color 😀.
The main problem I have with silver cases is that most of them aren't really of good build quality (very thin metal and tend to vibrate easily).
🤣 tell me about it. I am putting together a socket423 build right now, and I'll be limited to 2GHz. Unless I somehow find one of those socket423-to-478-adapter-with-builtin-voltage-converter (made from unobtainium) in which case I might reach 2.8GHz. 🙁
Never heart about converter with voltage regulation. I own clean converter from 478 to 423 but you still limited by Willamete core so cant use NW to it.
2760 and 3900 are the best of 32's, and there are 1 or 2 models more amoungst the top tier. (The downside of them two, are the price)
They are perfect in MS-Dos-6.22, though running Win98, I usually go for an YMF-724 or AWE64.
Don't eat stuff off a 15 year old never cleaned cpu cooler.
Those cakes make you sick....
Cheers HT 😀. I wasn't even aware of the existence of silver-colored DVD drives until I came across these (though I never bothered to go find out so I would know for sure) and the silver optical drives I did came across were usually CDROM drives, most without the capability to even burn media.
The main reason why I opted for black drives in my silver-cased builds is mostly because imo the white ones look really out-of-place in them (especially if they have yellowed a bit as well) and because black ones in the silver cases I have don't look "too" bad imo, but I'd still prefer a matching color 😀.
The main problem I have with silver cases is that most of them aren't really of good build quality (very thin metal and tend to vibrate easily).
That surprises me - I've had a silver DVD burner for years, although it has never been in a silver cased machine! (It's in my PIII HP Vectra right now). The one silver cased machine I had used black optical drives, but as those were hidden away behind drop-down doors, it wasn't that big a deal.
Cheers HT 😀. I wasn't even aware of the existence of silver-colored DVD drives until I came across these (though I never bothered to go find out so I would know for sure) and the silver optical drives I did came across were usually CDROM drives, most without the capability to even burn media.
The main reason why I opted for black drives in my silver-cased builds is mostly because imo the white ones look really out-of-place in them (especially if they have yellowed a bit as well) and because black ones in the silver cases I have don't look "too" bad imo, but I'd still prefer a matching color 😀.
The main problem I have with silver cases is that most of them aren't really of good build quality (very thin metal and tend to vibrate easily).
That surprises me - I've had a silver DVD burner for years, although it has never been in a silver cased machine! (It's in my PIII HP Vectra right now). The one silver cased machine I had used black optical drives, but as those were hidden away behind drop-down doors, it wasn't that big a deal.
There were always optical drives offered in thrift stores, but most were either black or white and the few silvery optical drives were mostly CDROM drives.
I don't always take a look at the optical drives as I'm well stocked (and if I did, it was more to see if there were any SCSI ones amongst them) and looking for silvery ones online I never bothered with (shipping costs and I didn't really want them that much).
As far as I can tell, it is a Packard Bell branded 8-bit ISA Aztech Sound Galaxy BXII sound card. It isn't in perfect condition, but they don't seem terribly common, and it makes a nice cheap addition to my collection. This would be only the third 8bit sound card I have come across (along with my CT1350B and Midiman MM401). The volume knob and the YM3812-F OPL2 chip are pretty cool. 😎
Does anyone know anything else about these? I can't find much information on them, other than that some have had success installing CT1350B drivers for them (which, incidentally, I have original floppies of). I know the SB 2.0 doesn't do MIDI over its Gameport, but would these cards be capable of doing it? Are there any 8-bit midi+pcm cards that can? Its just something I've been curious about...
Last edited by Ozzuneoj on 2016-05-30, 03:40. Edited 1 time in total.
I picked up one of those Aztech Sound Galaxy BXII recently too - they don't need any drivers (in DOS), they just work like the a real SB2.0. Set jumpers and off it goes.
I'm not sure about the MPU-401 thing, I'd be surprised if it had one. It does have a working line-in though which is a win over a SB2.0. My world was not rocked by the sound if it - the OPL2 is nice but the FX are somewhat "muddy". It doesn't crackle and pop like a CT1350b though.
As far as I can tell, it is a Packard Bell branded 8-bit ISA Aztech Sound Galaxy BXII sound card. It isn't in perfect condition, but they don't seem terribly common, and it makes a nice cheap addition to my collection. This would be only the third 8bit sound card I have come across (along with my CT1350B and Midiman MM401). The volume knob and the YM3812-F OPL2 chip are pretty cool. 😎
Does anyone know anything else about these? I can't find much information on them, other than that some have had success installing CT1350B drivers for them (which, incidentally, I have original floppies of). I know the SB 2.0 doesn't do MIDI over its Gameport, but would these cards be capable of doing it? Are there any 8-bit midi+pcm cards that can? Its just something I've been curious about...
I recognized your sound card, so I had a look at mine and mine is a bit different.
Apparently you have one of the chips socketed while mine is soldered to the PCB.
I can't read the markings on your socketed chip, but my soldered chip had the following markings (they are a bit hard to read, so may contain some slight errors),
MHS
cAVS AZTDSP36 (the "c" is the copyright symbol)
S-80C51FASM
cINTEL 80,82 ("c" is copyright symbol again)
9309 (this looks to be a date code)
Your bottom-left chip with the Packard Bell sticker on it, is unstickered on mine and this chip has the following markings,
AZTECH
AZTSB0792-U07 (0792 is probably another date code)
JAPAN
9305P5005 (lots of date codes on the chip 🤣).
Yours probably is a similar chip, so if you want you can probably leave the original sticker on.
Your Yahama chip (in the middle above the jumpers) appears to have a slightly more recent date code of 9315 where mine reads 9302, followed by EAIB (can't read yours).
You have "Made in Singapore" in the top left where mine has "ASSB in Singapore" in the top middle (directly above that row of 6 very tiny resistors) and all of your caps and all of your tiny resistors are also on my card.
I know I stripped this card from an old system by my own hands and mine still has the original sound cable attached to the white socket, I think it's best if I take a pic so you know the wiring 😀.
My jumperblock appears to be the same, but the jumpers on mine are set up a bit differently (I never changed these so this is how it was extracted from its original system).
They are (from left to right) J2 2-3 J1 1-2 and IRQ7 (the IRQ jumper is probably kinda irrelevant for you to know though).
The long resistor-whateverthingy on your card is black where mine is blue (it's the one directly to the right and then slightly lower to the Yamaha chip in the middle).
Last but not least: Bottom left mine has a stciker with the part number, it reads "I38-SGBX21", so it's indeed some form of Sound Galaxy!
Pic to come (cellphone, but it's the best that I can do right now).
edit: Forgot to take a look at the back of the card as this usually also reveals interesting bits of info.
The date code in the PCB is 1293 and it has another date code printed in white font (almost looks like it's painted with a very fine paintbrush) 9319.
Theres also in the PCB the following: 50-0SC6AZ-2S-5
🤣 tell me about it. I am putting together a socket423 build right now, and I'll be limited to 2GHz. Unless I somehow find one of those socket423-to-478-adapter-with-builtin-voltage-converter (made from unobtainium) in which case I might reach 2.8GHz. 🙁
Never heart about converter with voltage regulation. I own clean converter from 478 to 423 but you still limited by Willamete core so cant use NW to it.
Those would allow 400MHz FSB Northwood chips to be used in Socket 423 motherboards. Been looking for one for some time, but I have never seen one on sale anywhere. They must not have sold well and there probably aren't many of them around.
I/O, I/O,
It's off to disk I go,
With a bit and a byte
And a read and a write,
I/O, I/O
