WHAT!? wrote:

I had just recently started a topic here about my desire to build a socket 7 system but I ended up abandoning that idea. I've be […]
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I had just recently started a topic here about my desire to build a socket 7 system but I ended up abandoning that idea. I've been looking for weeks now to get a mainboard to build on, but it seems anything decent is in a cost range of around $100.00 to $300.00 I just can't see spending that.

So I've changed plans and moved on. I found a couple of Socket A boards on e-bay today that I plan to play around with. Picked up one for $40.00 and another for $50.00 (both have a single ISA slot).

I got the EPoX EP-8KTA3 (pro version) and I also picked up on an Iwill KK266-R

http://www.anandtech.com/show/708
http://www.anandtech.com/show/724

I'm a little wary of the Iwill board since it's a 1.0 board. I usually like to grab something that has been refined a bit vs the original product at release but I guess we'll see what I get. I can't seem to find a lot of information on board revisions concerning the Iwill.

The people asking those numbers are insane. Anything in this hobby is worth 25-50 at most (unless it's IBM or something actually collectable or genuinely rare like the 6800U 512mb).

Keep in mind most of these are e-cyclers who would have otherwise scrapped the board. By that logic would dictate they should sell them for maybe 1.5-1.8x scrap value.

I hate scalpers driving up the prices. It's making it where the good stuff like 9700 Pros (which are insanely common. They sold like hotcakes) or anything else worthwhile unobtainable for people like me (an expelled 17 year old semi-hacktivist) who only have maybe 50 a month for parts. And you have to compete with retired former IT techs with bank accounts deeper than the mariana trench....

Same happens or even worse sometimes with vacuum tubes, two decades ago were junk, now some prices are impossible.

vmunix wrote:

Same happens or even worse sometimes with vacuum tubes, two decades ago were junk, now some prices are impossible.

OK, vacuums tubes might be an exception? Aren't they like one of the most fragile things ever to be used in electronics. I'm guessing you're referring to the ones used in top end audio?

Something like that is like Vintage wine. Sure there were 10000 bottles the year it was made, but 200 years later, 9,900 have been drank. Except instead of bottles being drank, tubes have been broken. The same extreme failure rate doesn't really exist in any decently made items (like computer equipment) after the invention and common place acceptance of the transistor.

Not very old but not a new one either: Bought a Momo black force feedback wheel set at a flea market for 2,5 euro! 🤣

That's a perfectly working and complete wheel for next to nothing. Still worth around 40 euro used so i take that ,thank you 😎

Just recieved PnP Pro.
So little time 🙁 maybe tomorrow I'll manage to test it - but looks good.
Photo doesn't show it but there is a significant difference in PCB colour... non-Pro version is much darker...

Now I NEED to find original drivers disk, manuals and box (hope its possible to find one)

Traded a semi broken 6800 GT for this supposedly dead Trident TGUI9440-3 PCI video card. Put it in a computer to test and it works somehow.

cj_reha wrote:

Traded a semi broken 6800 GT for this supposedly dead Trident TGUI9440-3 PCI video card. Put it in a computer to test and it works somehow.

That is an atrocious picture oh man 🤣

incoming 286/16 in a pizza-box case - sized as an actual pizza-box more or less 🤣 🤣 🤣

Ordered a Tualatin Celeron 1300, one of the highest clocked Celerons and also one of the fastest CPUs which runs on FSB 100

ESS 1688F Audiodrive, but this time with an extra, my first wavetable board 🤣

And I can now confirm the sound is great, FM, SB pro

Can someone identify the Wavetable card? I thin its 512kb.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

The people asking those numbers are insane. Anything in this hobby is worth 25-50 at most (unless it's IBM or something actually collectable or genuinely rare like the 6800U 512mb).

Keep in mind most of these are e-cyclers who would have otherwise scrapped the board. By that logic would dictate they should sell them for maybe 1.5-1.8x scrap value.

I hate scalpers driving up the prices. It's making it where the good stuff like 9700 Pros (which are insanely common. They sold like hotcakes) or anything else worthwhile unobtainable for people like me (an expelled 17 year old semi-hacktivist) who only have maybe 50 a month for parts. And you have to compete with retired former IT techs with bank accounts deeper than the mariana trench....

100% this. Preach it!

Received today my first Pentium Pro !
It's the 200MHz version with 256KB of L2 cache. It was only 10 bucks. I do not have any use for it at the moment, but I may have a pentium pro system soon, and anyways I have probably saved this one from the gold recoverers

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

IT techs with bank accounts deeper than the mariana trench....

But when we sell... Yeah I have deeper pockets then most for hardware as I'm not married and don't have kids, but I often just want to move on and get rid of things and don't care if I get top dollar. So having deep pocket guys around is not all that bad. 😀

vmunix wrote:

Same happens or even worse sometimes with vacuum tubes, two decades ago were junk, now some prices are impossible.

This is why I always used TV tubes. there so dang um cheap and tend to be more robust.

JLPedro wrote:

Can someone identify the Wavetable card? I thin its 512kb.

I can't help identify the manufacturer of the wavetable card, but the QS700 synth and paired AdMOS patchset ROMs are pretty common among standalone wavetable cards. I believe that each ROM has a 512KB capacity for a total of 1MB.

It should sound similar to the fourth card in my lineup here: My Wavetable Sample Thread

@TheAbandonwareGuy

I totally agree with you ! (and I'm 18 so I know what it feels like, however I've got other resources than ebay to get retro hardware and I've got most of my collection for really cheap in comparison of ebay, with most of my AT computers paid for 10-20€, sometimes getting as low as 5€ or a bit less)
The best thing to do would be to not buy to them, but I know that people will do this anyways ... And I also know how it will look like in a few years : it will look just like the retro consoles market where even a mario game costs you at least 20€ on ebay and it's already in a bad shape (no box, no manual, nothing but the game that can be a bit damaged). 10 years ago I started to collect retro consoles (yeah I was really young), but for the last 2-3 years, I didn't buy any game because either the ones I find are bad games or they are way too expensive for me. But most of the time, I just don't find anything because there are way too many peoples looking for retro games in order to make money

This is why I'm starting to speed up, before the prices will raise everywhere and not only on ebay. Hopefully for me, I already have a lot of neat things, and I will probably have more soon (like I said in my previous post, I may have a pentium pro system soon, but it won't come alone 😁)

Deksor wrote:

This is why I'm starting to speed up, before the prices will raise everywhere and not only on ebay.

Face to face local deals are always your best bet for getting a good bargain on retro/old computers. I bought 10+ AT systems for less then 50$ before locally.

Its harder to find these local deals, but over time you'll build up a black book and know who to go to for the parts you need. Ebay and other online places are so out of whack with prices because of the bigger market and the less work with in finding parts. More people wanting something and the price goes up, that and some numbskull will list something for a crazy price and other think their part is also worth the same.

If you want parts for cheap buy local or stop being picky. Or find someone like me that mass dumps parts online at low prices with the sole goal to get rid of them yesterday.

Don't worry, it's exactly what I am doing ^^

Most of the things I've found over the years were found in garage sales/flea markets, but the 8088, the 386SX and the two dead 486s and the ton of parts were bought from one person, and this is that person that also has the ppro and more cool stuff (for example another 486 that may be working and also a VIP 486 motherboard that isn't made by pcchips and that don't have any awful varta battery) for cheap. But I'm not sure if that will keep going in few years ... I hope it will, but seing how that happened in the retro consoles domain, I'm not really sure. But anyways, today is still full of good deals, and I won't let them go ^^

For now for PC hardware, I always end up to find what I'm looking for locally, so I don't really need the internet to find what I want. I just need to be patient

Got this little baby today. I got it for free, so technically it is not "bought today".

Anyway....
It has some damage on the lid, around the hinges. Typically for plastic of that age.
The lid is basically cracked around at the hinges.

I got it with the original charger, and it boots into Win95.
Some googling, turned up with 133mhz. It is a Pentium one, that's for shure.
It has 1gb harddrive, and 24mb ram. The PCMCIA network card has no cord. 🙁

Not computer related, and not really retro either but weird just the same. I found this 2001 Sony MVC-CD200 camera at my local goodwill for 3$! I have a bunch of the floppy models already so I just thought this was pretty cool. 😁

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

The people asking those numbers are insane. Anything in this hobby is worth 25-50 at most (unless it's IBM or something actually collectable or genuinely rare like the 6800U 512mb).

Keep in mind most of these are e-cyclers who would have otherwise scrapped the board. By that logic would dictate they should sell them for maybe 1.5-1.8x scrap value.

I hate scalpers driving up the prices. It's making it where the good stuff like 9700 Pros (which are insanely common. They sold like hotcakes) or anything else worthwhile unobtainable for people like me (an expelled 17 year old semi-hacktivist) who only have maybe 50 a month for parts. And you have to compete with retired former IT techs with bank accounts deeper than the mariana trench....

True....
People are asking insane prices these day's. Supply and demand are a thing to count for. That is for shure.
Yet it can not count for those prices alone. Some times it is just artificially inflated prices.
Shure GUS cards are rare these days. And they are sought after. They are just not "350 dollars-rare".
And this goes for anything related to our hobby.