Well, I now have a MASSIVE collection of old hardware that I am planning on using for reviews of old hardware on a website as well as probably putting video reviews up on youtube.

I already have a domain and available free hosting (good hosting from somebody that has plenty of space on their host). So yeah, I just have to get some machines put together all the way before I can start reviews.

Been quite a while since I have built a website so that will probably take a bit to get going as well.

I really like the look of the ALi board because it doesn't have a 486 socket...but, it does have some known issues, such as VLB not working with a genuine 386 CPU (DLC only), and perhaps the inability to handle more than 16MB of RAM properly. It's too bad there are hardly any VLB 386 boards without 486 sockets out there. The Panda 386 is the only one I've seen so far, unless you include blue lightning type systems.

I'm interested in the results from the EFAR, the UMC and the MX.

Anonymous Coward wrote:

I really like the look of the ALi board because it doesn't have a 486 socket...but, it does have some known issues, such as VLB not working with a genuine 386 CPU (DLC only), and perhaps the inability to handle more than 16MB of RAM properly. It's too bad there are hardly any VLB 386 boards without 486 sockets out there. The Panda 386 is the only one I've seen so far, unless you include blue lightning type systems.

I'm interested in the results from the EFAR, the UMC and the MX.

I've got the exact OPTI based board (middle left picture). Mine still has a barrel battery though it is Lithium so no worries about leaking or corrosion.

I'm guessing the VLB will not work without a 486 DLC?

I have quite a few project going on... like forever and I feel I'll never come around to finish them. Just too many interruptions and lately even motivation has gone down a bit 🙁

Honestly? I don't have anything going atm. A whole lotta nuthin', too damn broke and I've sort of lost interest outside of collecting or "rescuing" as I call it Packard Bell equipment. 🤣

cyclone3d wrote:

Well, I now have a MASSIVE collection of old hardware that I am planning on using for reviews of old hardware on a website as well as probably putting video reviews up on youtube.

I already have a domain and available free hosting (good hosting from somebody that has plenty of space on their host). So yeah, I just have to get some machines put together all the way before I can start reviews.

Been quite a while since I have built a website so that will probably take a bit to get going as well.

This sounds fun... and if it will be a constant flow of systems being reviewed... it sounds like it will be quite time consuming too. I'll be looking forward to reading your reviews! What era will the systems be based?

It's been ages since I last created a website... but have often pondered the possibility of putting my museum up online to share for others to see... for much of the hardware and systems I have seems to be very limited information online.

cyclone3d wrote:

I've got the exact OPTI based board (middle left picture). Mine still has a barrel battery though it is Lithium so no worries about leaking or corrosion.

I'm guessing the VLB will not work without a 486 DLC?

Are you sure about the battery? I'd still maybe take it off and just use an external just in case.

VLB works fine with any PGA-132 CPU... that includes a plain old DX-40.

Anonymous Coward wrote:

I really like the look of the ALi board because it doesn't have a 486 socket...but, it does have some known issues, such as VLB not working with a genuine 386 CPU (DLC only), and perhaps the inability to handle more than 16MB of RAM properly. It's too bad there are hardly any VLB 386 boards without 486 sockets out there. The Panda 386 is the only one I've seen so far, unless you include blue lightning type systems.

I'm interested in the results from the EFAR, the UMC and the MX.

Nope, no issues. It could have been a user error, though I have had no problems with this board. In fact, come to think of it... I did have an issue the very first time getting a DX-40 to run, but I remember the reason being that jumpers settings online (stason or th99) there was an error with one of the reported jumpers... I think maybe this was it, I edited the copy I made from online to read as it actually is.

This board has 32MB... no issues.

A heads up that EFAR is one of the lesser rated with regard to performance unfortunately. UMC and MX are both good as expected, though these are two of the boards requiring work. The UMC has a GAL I need to negotiate... and the MX I need to replace a flip flop IC.

More to the point....

What is your main project right now, or... if not now, when you next get the chance?

kixs wrote:

I have quite a few project going on... like forever and I feel I'll never come around to finish them. Just too many interruptions and lately even motivation has gone down a bit 🙁

If it's human, it will not be linear. We are a cyclic species and we work in waves or phases. I expect I'll still be doing this when I am old and smelly! 🤣 Some of my projects I may be doing still in years to come, even after some users here no longer visit Vogons.

When it comes down to it, the true hobbyist will always outlast market trends and pricing cycles. I feel high prices have slowed things down for people, projects maybe going on hold... but I hope and expect things will become cheap again which may kick-start the hobby for some.

Out of all your projects though... if you had the choice to finish one, which one would you want to finish and complete the most?

King_Corduroy wrote:

Honestly? I don't have anything going atm. A whole lotta nuthin', too damn broke and I've sort of lost interest outside of collecting or "rescuing" as I call it Packard Bell equipment. 🤣

Projects take all different shapes and forms. "Rescuing" is very much a project in itself and really should be commended as you are doing the community a service.

Do you have a patient at the moment that you "rescued" recently and is in need of TLC?

Thats an easy one for me to answer ..
Like a handful of others on Vogons..
The restoration /ugrade/and modding of a Toshiba gas plasma T5200 is my main current project ..
but I do like to restore classic retro laptops as well..
😁
rgds

Haven't had any since I fixed up the sleeper NetVista.

Did whittle down the fleet now to 4 total, the sleeper NetVista, a regular PIII NetVista, and my main desktop + laptop

My main project at the moment would probably be working on my XT build.

Just experimenting and seeing what I can push out of a 4.77MHz CPU with only 256KB RAM.

With regards to gaming from that era, the XT would never be my favourite system as its not really cut out for it, but nevertheless I enjoy working on it.

My next aim is to test out booting over Serial via XTIDE and see how it performs.

I don't have any flagship projects. It's so difficult to find the parts I want, I just wait until something I need shows up and stick it in the system I had in mind.

My one and only flagship project is to push my Tualatin to the maximum limits the motherboard can support and see how fast and usable I can make it for my daily tasks, while retaining the single CPU architecture. So far everything is going well and runs stable at 1470Mhz @ 140Mhz FSB, but I still need a couple of upgrades before calling it a day, and these are three CL2 512MB PC133 SDRAM sticks and a Promise TX2300 controller to run my two WD Velociraptors at SATA 3GB/s mode. So far I'm very content by how the machine runs.

386_junkie wrote:

cyclone3d wrote:

Well, I now have a MASSIVE collection of old hardware that I am planning on using for reviews of old hardware on a website as well as probably putting video reviews up on youtube.

I already have a domain and available free hosting (good hosting from somebody that has plenty of space on their host). So yeah, I just have to get some machines put together all the way before I can start reviews.

Been quite a while since I have built a website so that will probably take a bit to get going as well.

This sounds fun... and if it will be a constant flow of systems being reviewed... it sounds like it will be quite time consuming too. I'll be looking forward to reading your reviews! What era will the systems be based?

It's been ages since I last created a website... but have often pondered the possibility of putting my museum up online to share for others to see... for much of the hardware and systems I have seems to be very limited information online.

Oldest I have is some 80386 era hardware. I'll be doing reviews all the way up to Pentium IV/Athlon 64 era to begin with, but there will probably be some other newer stuff mixed in as well.

386_junkie wrote:

cyclone3d wrote:

I've got the exact OPTI based board (middle left picture). Mine still has a barrel battery though it is Lithium so no worries about leaking or corrosion.

I'm guessing the VLB will not work without a 486 DLC?

Are you sure about the battery? I'd still maybe take it off and just use an external just in case.

Yeah, the battery says it is an organic lithium. Not even a hint of any leakage or corrosion. It may have been replaced at some point I guess.

386_junkie wrote:

VLB works fine with any PGA-132 CPU... that includes a plain old DX-40.

Ok, I wasn't sure if that was the case as I haven't tried it and everything I keep seeing seems to say otherwise.

I'm still working on maxing out my 486DX2 VLB machine as well as our family XT which is pretty much finished now.

The third is an ongoing project.. currently it's an AMD K6-2+ system running Voodoo 2 SLI. Might move up to something faster like a P3 1.4GHz or even AMD socket 949 since I just recently got a badass DFI Lanparty 4 mobo with an Opteron and custom cooling. Would make for a wicked Windows XP gaming computer I believe.

I don't have any ongoing projects, I've finished all of them - the last two over a year ago. I'll post about them when the time is right.

I don't have anything planned for the future either, I already have everything I want. It's not money, it's lack of time and incentive to pursue any more projects. I'll continue to enjoy what I already have and concentrate on more important matters (like my physical and mental health).

I just do what I enjoy doing without compartmentalizing it.

386_junkie wrote:

If it's human, it will not be linear. We are a cyclic species and we work in waves or phases. I expect I'll still be doing this […]
Show full quote

kixs wrote:

I have quite a few project going on... like forever and I feel I'll never come around to finish them. Just too many interruptions and lately even motivation has gone down a bit 🙁

If it's human, it will not be linear. We are a cyclic species and we work in waves or phases. I expect I'll still be doing this when I am old and smelly! 🤣 Some of my projects I may be doing still in years to come, even after some users here no longer visit Vogons.

When it comes down to it, the true hobbyist will always outlast market trends and pricing cycles. I feel high prices have slowed things down for people, projects maybe going on hold... but I hope and expect things will become cheap again which may kick-start the hobby for some.

Out of all your projects though... if you had the choice to finish one, which one would you want to finish and complete the most?

King_Corduroy wrote:

Honestly? I don't have anything going atm. A whole lotta nuthin', too damn broke and I've sort of lost interest outside of collecting or "rescuing" as I call it Packard Bell equipment. 🤣

Projects take all different shapes and forms. "Rescuing" is very much a project in itself and really should be commended as you are doing the community a service.

Do you have a patient at the moment that you "rescued" recently and is in need of TLC?

Actually I do! I have two that need my attention but I haven't been working on them. I need to finish a video I'm filming on a Compaq Deskpro 2000 5200mmx and an AST Adventure! 255 and get them either sold or parted out since I have no intention of keeping them as I'd like to keep the collection just Packard machines these days. The PB machines should be easy to fix since they both need power supplies but one seems to have corrosion on the board, hopefully can be cleaned up.

Vipersan wrote:

but I do like to restore classic retro laptops as well..

You don't often encounter people restoring retro laptops... these sound like cool projects.

I've only started getting into retro laptops... having bought last year a couple of Compaq LTE's w/ docking station, and a Compaq SLT for my newborn daughter. I repaired a power distribution board for one of the LTE's and I intend to restore an RTC on the SLT... but as she is only 5 and a half months old, I don't feel too much pressure with this one just yet.

I will stop in sometime to check out some of your laptops and see your excellent work, thanks.

oeuvre wrote:

Haven't had any since I fixed up the sleeper NetVista.
Did whittle down the fleet now to 4 total, the sleeper NetVista, a regular PIII NetVista, and my main desktop + laptop

I love the idea of "sleeper" systems! To be fair, I know folk put in top of the range in old cases... but I didn't know this is what a sleeper system was until you posted. Do you have a picture of your two sleeper systems and their spec's?

This now explains a lot... as a while back on Youtube... I saw Crysis being played on an Amstrad 1512 (8 MHz CPU): -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=541EKFsF9gY

PTherapist wrote:

My main project at the moment would probably be working on my XT build.
Just experimenting and seeing what I can push out of a 4.77MHz CPU with only 256KB RAM.

With regards to gaming from that era, the XT would never be my favourite system as its not really cut out for it, but nevertheless I enjoy working on it.

Please don't say Crysis (see above)... but what can be pushed out of your XT?... and why is the CPU limited to only 4.77MHz?

One of my projects is a rescued Amstrad 1512... in due course, I will look to see what I can do with it.

Anonymous Coward wrote:

I don't have any flagship projects. It's so difficult to find the parts I want, I just wait until something I need shows up and stick it in the system I had in mind.

Yup... I know what you mean. There are parts that I hope have escaped the landfill/dump scenario and are still waiting to be found.

Out of interest, what specific parts are you looking for? It may be, if you make them known... they may find you, and it won't be the first time either... if you recall.

Half-Saint wrote:

I'm still working on maxing out my 486DX2 VLB machine as well as our family XT which is pretty much finished now.
I just recently got a badass DFI Lanparty 4 mobo with an Opteron and custom cooling. Would make for a wicked Windows XP gaming computer I believe.

Keep that XT purring!... and never get rid. Having a family computer heirloom is great to hear of!

I'm curious of Opteron, if this a good CPU? and how does it compare to an Athlon 64? The reason I ask is that I have an Opteron system somewhere that I do not know yet what to do with.