Big Pink wrote on 2020-07-24, 18:51:

My search string on eBay for a GeForce 256 was more about what I wasn't looking for, along the lines of:
"GeForce 256 -256MB -GB -HDMI -pcie -pci-e -pci-ex -pci-x -"pci-express" -x16 -fx -6800 -8800".

literally every search ever nowadays, be it ebay or google... "I'm not looking for this, this, this and this and this, and that and not this either...." x3

Big Pink wrote on 2020-07-24, 18:51:

My search string on eBay for a GeForce 256 was more about what I wasn't looking for, along the lines of: "GeForce 256 -256MB -GB […]
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brian105 wrote on 2020-07-24, 18:27:

Speaking about the search engine pollution, GPU hunting is the worst. Try searching GeForce 256 in eBay. All you get are cruddy 8800GTs and low end nvidia trash with 256MB VRAM. Coupled with the distinct lack of PCI video cards, it makes looking for new parts very annoying.

My search string on eBay for a GeForce 256 was more about what I wasn't looking for, along the lines of:
"GeForce 256 -256MB -GB -HDMI -pcie -pci-e -pci-ex -pci-x -"pci-express" -x16 -fx -6800 -8800".

Could someone please go back in time and tell the PCI SIG to call PCI Express something else!

Shhhhh... don't tell people your eBay search secrets!

TheMobRules wrote on 2020-07-24, 17:03:

I agree, this is extremely annoying. The other day I was searching reference documentation for some old compilers and a large part of the search results I got were links to threads on fake forums

Gotta love those fake forums - especially the ones that just copy posts from somewhere else and mark one of them as an "expert solution".
That expert solution is - of course - hidden behind a paywall.

I also don't like that Google wants to be increasingly more clever than their users. I was looking for drivers for my Philips SonicEdge a while ago and Google thought that I'd rather want to watch videos about the Sonic games. No I don't, Google, just stop trying to shove into my face what you think is best for me. Goddammit! 🙁

What's even worse is all of those "PDF manual libraries" that sell manuals waaaay overpriced and sometimes the scans of the manuals are so bad that you can't even read the circuit diagrams. Thanks for nothing I guess. I doubt it's even legal to make money with content that was printed by Hitachi for example. It's not even their content to sell in the first place.

Just a hint, you can put multiple negative terms in a bracket like this:

-(foo, bar, baz)

You can also use them to combine positive search terms, and use quotes for exact phrase match :

(geforce, Nvidia, riva) (tnt, tnt2, "geforce 256")

If I can add my suggestion to the "search criteria"... when looking for a specific card, taking the same ex. of the GF256, don't just search "GF256" but rather the commercial name, for ex. ASUS V6600 or Creative CT6970 ecc...

Big Pink wrote on 2020-07-24, 18:51:

Could someone please go back in time and tell the PCI SIG to call PCI Express something else!

Whoever came up with that name needs to be shot... er... too much violence out there these days, they need to be... firmly reprimanded.. or something.

Seriously, "PCI" already existed and had an understood meaning. "PCI-X" also already existed and had an understood meaning.
So then here comes a completely different interface, totally incompatible with both of the above, and the marketing dude calls it "PCI Express".
What an asshole.

I was annoyed when eBay got rid of wildcard searches.
Many years ago, I used to resell tested RAM with a compatibility guarantee (for a list of chipsets) and a return policy. A lot of people who didn't want to dig into the details of compatibility/etc were willing to pay enough for that to make it worthwhile.

I had figured out some RAM search terms that relied heavily on wildcards. I had derived them mostly from the part numbers used by some memory manufacturers.
But wildcards can be used for anything where you can figure out a pattern that makes them useful, and I'm sure I used them for various single purchases as well. I just remember the RAM thing because I did it several times.
eBay deleted the feature because, as they said, "not enough people are using it."

shamino wrote on 2020-07-24, 22:00:

Seriously, "PCI" already existed and had an understood meaning. "PCI-X" also already existed and had an understood meaning.
So then here comes a completely different interface, totally incompatible with both of the above, and the marketing dude calls it "PCI Express".
What an asshole.

Well, it's electrically incompatible, but it's designed to look the same from software's point of view. I think that was the idea.

shamino wrote on 2020-07-24, 22:00:

Whoever came up with that name needs to be shot... er... too much violence out there these days, they need to be... firmly repri […]
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Big Pink wrote on 2020-07-24, 18:51:

Could someone please go back in time and tell the PCI SIG to call PCI Express something else!

Whoever came up with that name needs to be shot... er... too much violence out there these days, they need to be... firmly reprimanded.. or something.

Seriously, "PCI" already existed and had an understood meaning. "PCI-X" also already existed and had an understood meaning.
So then here comes a completely different interface, totally incompatible with both of the above, and the marketing dude calls it "PCI Express".
What an asshole.

Not totally incompatible. Bridge solutions exist for both directions (PCI to PCI Express and PCI Express to PCI) . Pericom and PLX (now part of Broadcom) are two manufacturers of such bridge chips .

Regarding search engines, google in particular, my complaint is that they ditched the "+" operator. So you can browse through dozens of irrelevant results, because it's apparently better than immediately been shown zero results.

konc wrote on 2020-07-25, 07:59:

Regarding search engines, google in particular, my complaint is that they ditched the "+" operator. So you can browse through dozens of irrelevant results, because it's apparently better than immediately been shown zero results.

Technically they replaced it with "terms". Thanks Google Plus.

TheMobRules wrote on 2020-07-22, 18:57:

It's interesting to note how some preconceptions can affect prices in a noticeable way, case in point: Tseng video cards. These (the VLB models in particular) are usually listed at insane prices, probably because of this prevalent notion (not just in this forum) that they are "the absolute best of the best", while there are many other cards that are just as fast (or even slightly faster) that don't have the same "fame". Especially considering that among all the "fast" VLB cards, the Tseng models are usually the ones with more game compatibility issues.

I think the problem in this particular case was that back then the Tseng cards were a great option not just because of the speed, but because they were considerably cheaper than the other "high-end" options.

Now, at this point it seems that all VLB cards seem to be considered "collector items" and they command absurd prices, but a few years back, this Tseng obsession, while annoying, also made some card listings go pretty much unnoticed, which allowed me to get for quite cheap a boxed Diamond S3 Trio64 VLB and a couple of Paradise Bahamas S3 864, which are all in my opinion more rare, just as fast and have better image quality than the Tsengs I have. So it's not all that bad in that sense.

I've had the idea for years that this is actually a thing.
That if I were for instance say (on Vogons or some other more well known retro assembly) something along the lines of "Hey guys, I tried out this graphics card, the Shittyfier SUX 2000 Turbo and it is awesome!" and within a couple minutes the ebay bots would raise prices of all listings containing the Shittyfier SUX 2000 Turbo would double rigth away, regardless of whether this piece of information I am sharing is actually true or not 🤣

Tetrium wrote on 2020-07-26, 02:56:

I've had the idea for years that this is actually a thing.

Or you should just hint that it was sold in limited numbers and only a handful of them exist now. Include serial numbers too.
People go nuts when they see "rare" in the description.
Or write "The Shittyfier SUX 2000 Turbo has a rare bug, only 100 were ever made!"

I would like to add the problem with finding PCI sound cards that work with DOS, the cost of them, and the fact that many of the "affordable" ones you do find that should work with DOS have been so cheaply made in China that they are missing parts like the audio amp, or have the game port disconnected even when the game port was included, I have seen ESS sound cards that have a game port but it's not connected to the PCB, and I just bought an ALS4000 sound card that was missing the audio amp so basically you cant even hear the sound out of it with out some very powerful amplified speakers, and on top of that every type of sound is at a different volume level and the PCM and FM sound are at a very low volume, and there was no noise filtering at all, but there were places on the PCB were the noise filtering capacitors would go.

I knew the sound card would be crappy just by looking at it, but that was just ridiculous, thankfully I got it for less than $10, but the sad part is a lot of the "crap" sound cards like this sell on eBay for $20 or more.

Basically avoid any sound card that seems to have a lot of empty space or parts missing.

dr_st wrote on 2020-07-25, 06:41:

shamino wrote on 2020-07-24, 22:00:

Seriously, "PCI" already existed and had an understood meaning. "PCI-X" also already existed and had an understood meaning.
So then here comes a completely different interface, totally incompatible with both of the above, and the marketing dude calls it "PCI Express".
What an asshole.

Well, it's electrically incompatible, but it's designed to look the same from software's point of view. I think that was the idea.

I don't see how that is a useful basis to give something a deliberately confusing name. Programmers don't care what it's called. Consumers who buy expansion cards do. It's a completely different interface.
The ability to make a bodge chip to bridge different interfaces together doesn't justify it either.

Tetrium wrote on 2020-07-26, 02:56:

"Hey guys, I tried out this graphics card, the Shittyfier SUX 2000 Turbo and it is awesome!"

Ah yes, the Shittyfier SUX 2000 Turbo. 🧐 Indeed quite the collector's card it is. Unfortunately it is quite expensive these days, however the Shittyfier SUX 2000 Turbo SE can be had for relatively cheap.

devius wrote on 2020-07-26, 10:39:

Tetrium wrote on 2020-07-26, 02:56:

"Hey guys, I tried out this graphics card, the Shittyfier SUX 2000 Turbo and it is awesome!"

Ah yes, the Shittyfier SUX 2000 Turbo. 🧐 Indeed quite the collector's card it is. Unfortunately it is quite expensive these days, however the Shittyfier SUX 2000 Turbo SE can be had for relatively cheap.

Now you've done it -_-
Now prices will rise out of the pan by tomorrow! :'(

Miphee wrote on 2020-07-26, 05:37:

Or you should just hint that it was sold in limited numbers and only a handful of them exist now. Include serial numbers too. Pe […]
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Tetrium wrote on 2020-07-26, 02:56:

I've had the idea for years that this is actually a thing.

Or you should just hint that it was sold in limited numbers and only a handful of them exist now. Include serial numbers too.
People go nuts when they see "rare" in the description.
Or write "The Shittyfier SUX 2000 Turbo has a rare bug, only 100 were ever made!"

If it's old, then it must be rare!
If 'people' say it's popular, then it must be rare!

But tbh, if few were made, it would be rare already. But even if something is rare doesn't mean that it is wanted, which indicated that even rare stuff doesn't necessarily have to be expensive by default.

Sometimes a seller would put in "rare" even if it's blatantly untrue 🤣. But I just try to read behind the cheaply thought out title. But it would have been more ideal if this simply hadn't been the case.

Oh well, at least the scrappers of old have probably managed to help get actually interesting items into the hands of retro hobbyists anyway especially in the old days when the stuff was much easier to find (and thus not rare -> not wanted/stocked by price inflators).

too bad I wasn't as busy collecting in the times of old 🙁

I find it kinda interesting that five years ago a seller in Germany was selling K6-3 CPUs like crazy (8 Euros a piece or so?) with several hundred available
in the offering. Now it's very hard to find one. Same goes for K6-2+ CPUs.
I've got a K6-2+ but I had to pay € 45 with shipping and the only K6-3 I've found is listed for roughly € 80 with shipping.
Don't get me wrong, nothing wrong with that, I just find it interesting how things move on and what was worth next to nothing
can be quite expensive some time later.

Something similar happened with Asus P5a-B mainboards: I bought a rev 1.04 several years ago for roughly 40 Euros, shipping included.
Now I've seen a P5A-B actually auctioned (so no fantasy prices there) with a K6-2 (not plus!) on a well known auction site go for over € 120,00 + shipping.
And that was a Rev 1.05 which can't properly deal with K6-2/3+ CPUs.

I can see this happening with Core 2 Duo/Quad hardware when people who loved gaming on XP are getting older and older.