appiah4 wrote:

Bought a P2 board with a CPU and 2 sticks of ram on it. Seller's photo: […]
Show full quote

Bought a P2 board with a CPU and 2 sticks of ram on it. Seller's photo:

No idea what the CPU is (asked the seller and he quoted the sticker on the BIOS chip..) or how much RAM it has (did not ask after the first question) but he swears it works, so I paid around $20 for it, a floppy drive and 2 DVD/CD-RW combo drives. If anyone can ID the board from this lousy photo, humour me 😀

I want to turn it into a 99/00 gaming PC.. I want to add a Voodoo 3 to it, but I have none and finding one would be a hassle. The only Voodoo 2 I have is in my MMX build. I guess that means I may buy and use a TNT2 for the first time.. GeForce 256 is not an option, as it's almost as rare as the Voodoo 3 where I live. So the only other option is GeForce 2 MX 400 (which isn't time accurate but actually fairly decent for such a rig..)

I may end up getting both a TNT2 and an MX400..

I'd say go for the TNT2 or GF2. You can add voodoo 2 cards later. I prefer not to be limited to glide.

Artex wrote:

3DFX V5-5500 and V5-6000 Domed Case Badges

I think I bought stuff from the same guy (eBay?). Funny story about that, and related to what I was going to post today anyway.

I purchased some stickers off him a couple of months ago and we got talking through eBay messages about retro hardware and collecting in general which was nice because most people I've bought old stuff off before are just reselling for profit or getting rid of "junk", or in terms of stickers they were mass producing things for money, not making a few here and there because they have a passion for retro HW. Of course the quality didn't match a professionally made item in a factory but I'm sure as hell going to give my money to someone who's doing it because they genuinely love the scene.

He told me he was moving house soon since a kid was on its way and they needed more space and with all of that came a lot of financial pressure.

We lived in the same general area in Sydney so this weekend I went to visit and pick up a couple of other items I bought off of him earlier in the week and ended up leaving with a whole lot more than I anticipated - some old, some newer, some game related and some had nothing to do with tech at all. Mainly stuff he didn't want to bring with him I guess.

Not going to spam the thread with photos for all of this stuff since it's all been seen one hundred times before.

Some highlights include (all prices in australian dollars):

An ~2000 era PIII rebuild - $125

• Asus CUSL2
• PIII 1GHz
• 512MB SDRAM
• Asus V7700 Deluxe with some third party vantec cooler
• Some Creative Live Sound Blaster (didn't check model)
• A mid 00's Antec case. I don't know the model, just looks like it was 2004 or 2005. Silver, aluminium, removable mobo tray, side window but still top mounted PSU, multiple floppy/optical bays and minimal fan ports.
• also had some rounded ide cables which was nice.

A whole bunch of old PC games which he said were duplicates from his collection. I had some myself but I know some friends who'd like copies - $80

• Battle Realms (CD + Case Only)
• Blood II: The Chosen (CD + Case + Manual)
• Blood II: The Chosen - The Nightmare Levels (CD + Case Only)
• Caesar III (CD + Case (Only)
• Deus Ex (CD + Case Only)
• Diablo (CD + Case + Manual)
• Doom 3 (CD + Case + Manual)
• Dungeon Siege (CD + Case Only)
• Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (CD + Case Only)
• Escape from Money Island (CD + Case + Manual)
• Forsaken (CD + Case Only)
• Half-Life Counter-Strike (CD+Case Only)
• Hexen II (CD + Case + Manual)
• Hexen II Mission Pack: Portal of Praevus (CD + Case + Manual)
• Homeworld (CD + Case Only)
• Iron Storm (CD + Case + Manual)
• Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II (CD + Case Only)
• MDK (CD + Case + Manual)
• Outlaws (CD + Case only)
• Quake II (CD + Case + Manual)
• Quake II Mission Pack - Ground Zero (CD + Case + Manual)
• Quake III Arena (CD + case + manual)
• Quake Mission Pack No. 1 (CD + case + manual)
• Quake Mission Pack No. 2 (CD + case + manual)
• Red Faction (CD + Case + Manual)
• Redneck Rampage (CD + Case Only)
• Return to Castle Wolfenstein (CD + Case + Manual)
• Serious Sam: The First Encounter (CD + Case Only)
• SiN (CD + Case Only)
• SiN Mission Pack - Wages of Sin (CD + Case + Manual)
• Sim City 3000 Unlimited (CD + Case Only)
• Slave Zero (CD + Case Only)
• Soldier of Fortune II (CD + Case + Manual)
• System Shock 2 (CD + Case Only)
• The Curse of Monkey Island (CD + Case Only)
• Unreal (CD + Case + Manual)
• Unreal II (CD + Case + Manual)
• Unreal Tournament '99 GOTY Edition (CD + Case Only)
• Worms World Party (CD + Case Only)

A whole lotta brand new stickers/badges - don't remember the price. A dollar each or so.

• Noctua metal badge x 5
• Nvidia "Graphics by Nvidia" x 13 (old logo)
• Pentium II Xeon x 9
• Designed for Microsoft Windows NT/98 x 4
• Red Pentium Inside with transparent background x 6
• Blue Pentium Inside with transparent background x 2
• Pentium MMX x 3
• AMD Athlon (metallic) x 6
• Pentium III x 50 (got these for 20c each)
• Pentium II MMX x 3
• Pentium II x 2
• AMD K6 III x 4
• Pentium 4 Extreme Edition x 5 (these were $3.50 each)
• Pentium 4 w/ HT x 50 (20c each again)
• Athlon 64 X2 x 30 (25c each)
• Athlon 64 x 10 (50c each)
• Graphics by ATI x 10 (50c each)
• Blue "Intel Inside" with transparent bg x 5
• Red "Intel Inside" with transparent bg x 3
• Green "Intel Inside" with transparent bg x 3
• Celeron with transparent bg x 6

He also gave me some of his 3dfx stickers he made for free which was nice of him.

Just some other things I bought/got from him:

• developer signed collectors edition copy of world of warcraft: burning crusade along with normal collectors editions copies of the other expansions
• the revenant statue from DOOM (2016) collectors edition
• various IDE optical drives, an external ZIP drive
• HP iPAQ Pocket PC H1910 - runs Windows Pocket PC 2003 Pro complete with box, cables, etc
• A whole box of untested mid 00s video cards, mainly ATI.
• A CPU keyring made from a dead Core2Duo.

But I think my favourite thing I came out of it with was two large printed flags - one Unreal Tournament 99 Blue Team and one Unreal Tournament 99 Red Team. He made them himself and they are awesome. I'm going to have to find a way to hang them up over the retro gaming area. Apparently there was also some Quake 3 CTF flags as well but they were packed away.

Excuse the spare bedroom shot, I didn't have many places to lay it out. The colours are a bit off on the photos because it's 5am and shot under the lamp in this room 😵

Good weekend!

appiah4 wrote:

Bought a P2 board with a CPU and 2 sticks of ram on it. Seller's photo: […]
Show full quote

Bought a P2 board with a CPU and 2 sticks of ram on it. Seller's photo:

Could be a Jetway P2 board of some kind. They commonly had white I/O connectors, I think.

Or a Lucky Star. Compare the looks with this board:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lucky-Star-6ABX2V-Mot … y-/181977623093

tikoellner wrote:

http://ixbt.photo/photo/281121/45920Ol0gXjBjN2/921833w.jpg […]
Show full quote

I really love these kind of controllers. Good catch.
I am actually looking for controllers like that too.

brostenen wrote:

tikoellner wrote:

I really love these kind of controllers. Good catch.
I am actually looking for controllers like that too.

How about this one?

Thanks brostenten 😀

Might sound stupid, but I think chache controllers add a lot of flavour, really improving "cool factor" of any build, even though cache may not be useful at all if you use CF card. I want to get any ISA slot in my PC pupulated with something interesting and cache contoller does the thing 😀

c0keb0ttle wrote:

Could be a Jetway P2 board of some kind. They commonly had white I/O connectors, I think. […]
Show full quote

appiah4 wrote:

Bought a P2 board with a CPU and 2 sticks of ram on it. Seller's photo: […]
Show full quote

Bought a P2 board with a CPU and 2 sticks of ram on it. Seller's photo:

Could be a Jetway P2 board of some kind. They commonly had white I/O connectors, I think.

Or a Lucky Star. Compare the looks with this board:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lucky-Star-6ABX2V-Mot … y-/181977623093

Wow, I think you are spot on, except that what I got seems to be a Ver 3.0, and possibly a 6ABX2 instead.

Skyscraper wrote:

How about this one

It is in my watchlist. I just do not have the money right now.
No secret that I am hoping that it will be up for sale when I have money for it.
First. I need to source AT cases. And I have found something, somewere.
I only have to wait untill payday.

tikoellner wrote:

Thanks brostenten 😀

Might sound stupid, but I think chache controllers add a lot of flavour, really improving "cool factor" of any build, even though cache may not be useful at all if you use CF card. I want to get any ISA slot in my PC pupulated with something interesting and cache contoller does the thing 😀

Yeah.... It is my exact same thought as well.
Another thing is that they might give better compatibility with newer drives.
Who knows.... They might or might not.

Another thing I am trying to save money for, are those IDE/SCSI converters.
I have seen one special one, that converts a 2.5 inch PATA to 68-Pin SCSI.
Having 68-pin, can then be converted to 50-pin, and the result is a cold-
running SCSI harddrives. They are however expensive. Really expensive. 🙁

I have two 9gb 10.000 and three 4gb 10.000 rpm IBM SCSI drives.
They are loud as a jet engine, and they get extremely hot.
So I am looking for a better solution, that run quiet and cold.
If only I knew how much those five drives are worth, I would set them
up for sale, in order to get enough money for a converter.

brostenen wrote:

It is in my watchlist. I just do not have the money right now. No secret that I am hoping that it will be up for sale when I hav […]
Show full quote

It is in my watchlist. I just do not have the money right now.
No secret that I am hoping that it will be up for sale when I have money for it.
First. I need to source AT cases. And I have found something, somewere.
I only have to wait untill payday.

Well then I will edit out the link.

This is the wrong thread for links to non sold Ebay auctions anyhow so it's perhaps best you also edit out the Ebay link...(which also increases the chanse that the item dosn't get sold while you gather the funds ten fold).

Skyscraper wrote:

This is the wrong thread for links to non sold Ebay auctions anyhow

True that. 😀

brostenen wrote:

Another thing I am trying to save money for, are those IDE/SCSI converters. I have seen one special one, that converts a 2.5 inc […]
Show full quote

Another thing I am trying to save money for, are those IDE/SCSI converters.
I have seen one special one, that converts a 2.5 inch PATA to 68-Pin SCSI.
Having 68-pin, can then be converted to 50-pin, and the result is a cold-
running SCSI harddrives. They are however expensive. Really expensive. 🙁

Here's a bit of a tip on how to score a SCSI converter on the cheap: keep a lookout for "SCSI" optical drives, which are actually IDE drives with a converter slapped on the back of it. Usually the seller doesn't know this and presto; you have a SCSI to IDE converter for the price of a SCSI optical drive. Compatibility might be an issue, but I gather that's the case with all converters.

I recently bid on one that went for ~20 EUR. Good price for a converter, but still too much for a cheapskate like me. 😉

tikoellner wrote:

Thanks brostenten 😀

Might sound stupid, but I think chache controllers add a lot of flavour, really improving "cool factor" of any build, even though cache may not be useful at all if you use CF card. I want to get any ISA slot in my PC pupulated with something interesting and cache contoller does the thing 😀

I like the idea of shoving as much "memory" into a machine as I can. I've got 64MB in my DX2 right now, and I plan on maxing out my SB 32 and putting in a maxed out cache controller.

Sellers photos.

My new mobo does not have a game port header so I needed a sound card with one. As far as I know this and the audigy 4 pro are the best two cards with a game/joy stick port.

Finally own a 486 system backbone. Did I do good?

I have no idea how a UMC U5SX 486-33F performs compared to a i486DX33 but it can't be too bad I guess.

Obviously I can't use it with my DX4-100 CPU (my initial 486 build goal) but that's fine, I now have a Pentium MMX system to cover that era.. Now, to find an AT Case for this board 😀

appiah4 wrote:

Finally own a 486 system backbone. Did I do good? […]
Show full quote

Finally own a 486 system backbone. Did I do good?

I have no idea how a UMC U5SX 486-33F performs compared to a i486DX33 but it can't be too bad I guess.

Obviously I can't use it with my DX4-100 CPU (my initial 486 build goal) but that's fine, I now have a Pentium MMX system to cover that era.. Now, to find an AT Case for this board 😀

That's a very interesting board. I guess it was designed to be as cheap as possible by a) making the footprint tiny b) including compatibility for 30-pin SIMMs so that upgraders didn't have to buy new RAM c) including support for 72-pin SIMMs for when you could afford to upgrade (but I've NEVER seen only 1 slot) d) integrating as many components as possible, even the keyboard controller e) no cache whatsoever. This, and the lack of option to install a co-pro (which could only have taken the form of a 487 anyway, which is a drop-in Intel DX that deactivates the SX) are the two factors which will make the performance of this system extremely sucky compared to other 486 possibilities. In fact, a 386DX/40 would probably outperform it easily.

BUT if this is your only 486-class system, it'll make a great platform for early VGA games and, like you say, you have an MMX system for Doom and the more demanding games of that era.

It's an extremely quirky all-UMC board. I like it!

brassicGamer wrote:

That's a very interesting board. I guess it was designed to be as cheap as possible by a) making the footprint tiny b) including compatibility for 30-pin SIMMs so that upgraders didn't have to buy new RAM c) including support for 72-pin SIMMs for when you could afford to upgrade (but I've NEVER seen only 1 slot) d) integrating as many components as possible, even the keyboard controller e) no cache whatsoever. This, and the lack of option to install a co-pro (which could only have taken the form of a 487 anyway, which is a drop-in Intel DX that deactivates the SX) are the two factors which will make the performance of this system extremely sucky compared to other 486 possibilities. In fact, a 386DX/40 would probably outperform it easily.

BUT if this is your only 486-class system, it'll make a great platform for early VGA games and, like you say, you have an MMX system for Doom and the more demanding games of that era.

It's an extremely quirky all-UMC board. I like it!

Interesting read. I didn't expect that sucky performance when buying it to be honest, my research online seemed to indicate around 486SX2 levels of performance out of this, but alas, it is what it is. If I ever build something around it, it will be an MS-DOS 6.22 machine with a GOTEK HxC, 16-bit sound and good old ISA SVGA, something to play pre-1994, pre-CD-ROM games on. It should be fine for that, I would think.

Anyways, the board seems to be almost identical to this:http://www.amoretro.de/2012/09/mb457-v1-1-umc … -33mhz-cpu.html except that the one at the link has an Award BIOS and this has an AMI BIOS.

I suppose the barrel battery has to go right away? It can be replaced by a CR2032 battery holder?

brassicGamer wrote:

are the two factors which will make the performance of this system extremely sucky compared to other 486 possibilities. In fact, a 386DX/40 would probably outperform it easily.

I disagree. The UMC U5SX is actually faster clock-for-clock than an Intel SX, and the lack of L2 cache doesn't matter that much since it does have L1 cache. So, I actually expect this to perform better than an Intel 486DX33.

Pretty cool and interesting board, i also think it should be much faster than a 386. And the UMC chipset was fast.

Let's hope it runs with an 8MB 72-pin SIMM, I have no 30-pin SIMMs 😁