debs3759 wrote on 2022-05-21, 14:42:

chrismes wrote on 2022-05-21, 13:33:

An online store had illuminated case badges for 1,49€, so I got one when I needed to order fans. I'm pretty pleased with this thing.

Awesome! Illuminated as in lit by an LED backlight, or fluorescent?

It's active and comes with a small voltage regulator and a molex connector. There must be an LED somewhere in this thing.

I had to drill a hole in the case, but it was worth it.

if it came with a little box it's probably EL and not LED

imi wrote on 2022-05-21, 15:33:

if it came with a little box it's probably EL and not LED

You're right. I looked those up and that's definitely what it is.

Grzyb wrote on 2022-05-21, 07:47:

keropi wrote on 2022-05-21, 07:05:

I got an original Hercules card

That's Hercules Graphics Card Plus, with the RamFont feature.

the what? 🤣
is there more info on that? I had no idea I just assumed discrete logic was moved to an asic/cpld for cost reducing reasons

edit: OK I see, it has the ability the name suggests: load new font and use that instead of rom one... I wonder if there is a collection of them or something to toy around...?

keropi wrote on 2022-05-21, 16:22:

the what? 🤣
is there more info on that? I had no idea I just assumed discrete logic was moved to an asic/cpld for cost reducing reasons

edit: OK I see, it has the ability the name suggests: load new font and use that instead of rom one... I wonder if there is a collection of them or something to toy around...?

Info: https://www.seasip.info/VintagePC/hercplus.html
Software: http://www.minuszerodegrees.net/manuals.htm#Hercules

Back in the era, that card would be precious for anybody living in a non-CP437 country.
The original Hercules, and pretty much all the clones, required ROM replacement to display national characters...

thanks for the info Grzyb
indeed over here cards even up to VGA had Greek-enabled roms ... it was good back then but it is annoying now since they interfere with ascii gfx 🤣 🤣 🤣

I went thrifting today and I got.... one of those large floppy boxes for €1. It has a nice color and it got the original keys with it 😜
Some of those middle ... disk..separators are missing but that's not a big deal for me.
I had never visited these thrift stores before but they literally had zero computers. Well, this floppy box was basically all that they had, so I'll take it! xD

Well, I guess that that 1996 machine I was thinking about making is gonna be a 1996+2000 machine thanks to a locally spent $25. Really, it’s just gonna be a general purpose DOS machine using a floating Pentium 166, maybe 233 anyways, so an overkill 3D card for windows 95/98 ain’t bad to have if it gives me a highly compatible 2D core.

I got a ess solo 1 waiting to see if It works

2x 256 MB RDRAM with a blue heatspreader

RandomStranger wrote on 2022-05-17, 19:16:

SteveC wrote on 2022-05-17, 18:30:

99p eBay win, no detail at all apart from "3x old graphics cards 1x sound card 1x ethernet card 1x USB card 1x processor. Untested." Let's see what it all is when it turns up!

Looks like the 3 graphics cards are an ASUS 9800GT (maybe 8800GT), a Radeon 9550 (maybe 9600) and probably an X550. For 99p it's not a bad deal even if the only usable part is the cooler on the 9800GT.

These just turned up..

ASUS 9600GT MG/HTDP/512MD2/A (ASUS 9600 GT Magic)
Radeon 9600 Pro Advantage 256MB V/D/VO
Radeon X550 EZ 256MB
5xUSB 2.0 PCI card
10/100 Realtek PCI Ethernet card
Asus Supreme-FX PCIe sound card (appears to have been originally bundled with the Asus P5N32-E SLI motherboard)
Core2Duo 2.4GHz CPU

So for 99p and a few quid shipping I'm quite pleased! Separately worth best part of £100 looking on eBay 😀 No idea if any of it works yet though!

A bundle of 3 ISA cards for 14,50€ (shipment included).
Bought mainly for the ESS 1868. I'm tempted to put it in the Tualatin pc but my IBM PS/Valuepoint is a better home for that card, I guess.

mrfusion92 wrote on 2022-05-23, 17:30:

A bundle of 3 ISA cards for 14,50€ (shipment included).
Bought mainly for the ESS 1868. I'm tempted to put it in the Tualatin pc but my IBM PS/Valuepoint is a better home for that card, I guess.

Paradise EGA - nice.

HanJammer wrote on 2022-05-23, 19:55:

mrfusion92 wrote on 2022-05-23, 17:30:

A bundle of 3 ISA cards for 14,50€ (shipment included).
Bought mainly for the ESS 1868. I'm tempted to put it in the Tualatin pc but my IBM PS/Valuepoint is a better home for that card, I guess.

Paradise EGA - nice.

Im guessing the middle card is some sort of Serial IO card, looks like it has both Com and Serial ports on it.

Picked this up at the local flea market. I like the colour 😀

Geforce4 TI 4200 128 MB 128 bit

bearking wrote on 2022-05-23, 20:40:

Picked this up at the local flea market. I like the colour 😀
20220523-233804.jpg
Geforce4 TI 4200 128 MB 128 bit

Cooked one of these things, when attempting repairs on it.

Good card, still.

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-05-23, 20:18:

HanJammer wrote on 2022-05-23, 19:55:

Paradise EGA - nice.

Im guessing the middle card is some sort of Serial IO card, looks like it has both Com and Serial ports on it.

Yes, both.

I really don't know what to do with those cards tho. Perhaps if in the future i will have a 286/386 system but right now i'm not really interested in that era.

mrfusion92 wrote on 2022-05-23, 21:00:

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-05-23, 20:18:

HanJammer wrote on 2022-05-23, 19:55:

Paradise EGA - nice.

Im guessing the middle card is some sort of Serial IO card, looks like it has both Com and Serial ports on it.

Yes, both.

I really don't know what to do with those cards tho. Perhaps if in the future i will have a 286/386 system but right now i'm not really interested in that era.

Its quite amazing just how simple an uncomplicated both cards are compared with more modern cards, makes me wonder if modern cards are overly complicated just for the sake of overkill voltage filtering, smoothing and even delivery.

HanJammer wrote on 2022-05-23, 19:55:

mrfusion92 wrote on 2022-05-23, 17:30:

A bundle of 3 ISA cards for 14,50€ (shipment included).
Bought mainly for the ESS 1868. I'm tempted to put it in the Tualatin pc but my IBM PS/Valuepoint is a better home for that card, I guess.

Paradise EGA - nice.

Definitely not EGA.
Looks like Hercules, or Hercules/CGA, maybe even Hercules/CGA+Plantronics.
Similar to this - http://www.uncreativelabs.de/th99/v/P-R/54541.htm
Still nice, though!

Brackets and Blasters, Voltage Blasters that is....