Horun wrote on 2021-01-13, 03:50:

I only collect what I need. Am not some cpu whore who has to every release of every version and sub version. To me that is a bit silly like the cat lady that needs every feral cat in the city in her home.
Curious ? so if you have some 1000+ cpu's do you also have 1000+ boards they work on or are you just buying and hoarding cpu's because you can and are trying to make some museum ?
Just curious and is only my opinion that if you collect more than you can use and are not making a museum then maybe you in it for the wrong reasons... Just my opinion.

Yeah, I'm a hardware whore. I also have around 150 motherboards and over 500 graphics cards, including an original Hercules card and an ET 1000.

Why do people collect anything? By your logic, it's weird to collect anything 😀

My goal is to finish writing software to test and optimise everything, potentially writing an OS and gui that will work on it all, if I get that far before I go senile. My boot sector works, and I wrote a working windowing library, I just need to finish the glue that connects them together. Being housebound due to poor health, I needed a hobby, and kinda got obsessed with x86 computers somewhere down the line 😀

I have my own definition. Until now, Intel CPUs are my primary. But since the holes in my sheet is filling up, I expand a bit .. 🤣

My definition is "every distinct" different model of each clock speed.

So for Pentium II for example:

233 MHz: 2 pcs:
With and Without ECC cache
266 MHz: 4 Pcs:
* Klamath (0.35u) core with and without ECC cache
* Deschutes (0.25u) core with ECC cache and T6 and TP6-e TAG (512 Mib and 4 GiB cacheable range respectively)
300 MHz: 2 pcs:
* Klamath core ECC cache
* Deschutes core ECC and TP6-e TAG (AFAIK it doesn't exist with T6 TAG)
333 MHz: 2 pcs:
* Deschutes core with ECC cache and T6 and TP6-e TAG
350, 400 MHz: 3 pcs each:
* Deschutes SECC, SECC-2 PLGA and SECC-2 OLGA
450 MHz: 2 pcs:
* Deschutes SECC and SECC-2 OLGA

And so fort .. I do my own definition of "significant" differences.

For 486's it's on of each speed, one of each distint characteristic, i.e. Write-back, Lo-power, etc.

Horun wrote on 2021-01-13, 03:50:

so if you have some 1000+ cpu's do you also have 1000+ boards they work on or are you just buying and hoarding cpu's because you can and are trying to make some museum ?

Must be the latter. I only need one (okay, two) working board per platform.
It's enough to test everything. I have a board for, I mean if it's possible at all.

OzzFan wrote on 2021-01-13, 02:11:

I do have 2 Pentium 4 Extreme Editions in my collection though. A Pentium 4 EE Socket 478 and the Pentium Extreme Edition (part of the Pentium D series but they dropped the D from the EE name) Socket 775. I bought the CPUs before the prices got ridiculous years ago, and they're staying right in my museum/collection. ☺

Aaand now I'm jealous. 😁 I always look through sold rigs and motherboards sold with a CPU/RAM, maybe one of them has an Extreme CPU the seller doesn't know about.. No luck so far. 😉

kolderman wrote on 2021-01-13, 02:24:

I am happy with the fastest CPU per CPU generation.

I'm just the opposite. The slowest, earliest CPU of it's generation is somehow more exciting to me. Maybe because I'm not playing with these at all, it's just a collection.
Or in my case it's more than a collection, it's an obsession.
I'd like to think that it's also an investment, but people 60 years from now will probably won't give 2 shits about a few hundred s775 CPUs. 😁

Horun wrote on 2021-01-13, 03:50:

To me that is a bit silly like the cat lady that needs every feral cat in the city in her home.
Curious ? so if you have some 1000+ cpu's do you also have 1000+ boards they work on or are you just buying and hoarding cpu's

(I only have 281)
There was a guy on TV who collected old TVs and converted his house into a museum. He had an impressive collection.
Why am I doing it? First, I absolutely didn't want to it because it's nearly impossible to get them all. It's frustrating to have a collection and miss key pieces.
So I bought all the regular stuff you get: PCs, monitors, whatever you need to play with.
Then I got tired of playing my old games, I put together 20 rigs, tested a bunch of video cards, repaired tons of electronics and that was it for me. To be honest there is a limit to what you can do with old hardware and software.
So from that point I had a choice: sell everything and start a new hobby or downsize a little and get into a new hobby: collecting processors.
I started with 775 only (when it was about ¢10/piece) and moved onto earlier stuff because it's still quite cheap. 90% of CPUs are cheap and collectible, even 2-3-486 CPUs ($10-20 tops).
So this is how I became the crazy CPUwhore-guy. I have a limit though, $80/month. I'm in no rush to complete my collection because finding and buying (winning) the missing CPU is the fun part, storing it in a box is not.
So this is how collecting something works. I also have a huge phone card collection, they are useless now with all the pay phones gone.
I have hundreds of papers from the old Turbo chewing gum, never got rid of it. I once started collecting soviet radios but there isn't enough space in the world for that. Old coins, Roman coins, WW2 memorabilia, you name it.
So that's it, collectors are obsessed guys. Thank god I have a very supportive wife too. 😁

Miphee wrote on 2021-01-13, 09:31:

So that's it, collectors are obsessed guys. Thank god I have a very supportive wife too. 😁

Yeah, proud obsessed old disabled woman here. I chose to remain single, so nobody to hold me back from spending twice what I can afford 😀

i dont see the point on buying and collecting. I only save some rare parts when i find them in computers i have to replace or fix (im in IT), i never buy things i dont have user for.

someday ill have a display in the wall with that parts plus some others that are special to me (first mouse, sound card, proccessor, etc)

i still think the best part for old tech is to be able to make lan partys with the old computers / laptops i fix and save from the waste. I only wish i could do it more often

I have to be careful reading this thread. I have around 30 CPUs but I'm wondering if I should become a "CPU Whore" 😁

I don't understand why anyone thinks having any kind of hobby is odd 😀 My collection will hold its value, spending the money clubbing or getting drunk won't supplement my pension if I live that long 😀

debs3759 wrote on 2021-01-13, 10:43:

I don't understand why anyone thinks having any kind of hobby is odd 😀 My collection will hold its value, spending the money clubbing or getting drunk won't supplement my pension if I live that long 😀

your collection has a much higher MIPS rating than most ! 😀

I like that some collectors are quietly preserving things, they are like secret agents transporting things into the future towards a time where it can be appreciated once more - through that vulnerable time between new > old > worthless > 'vintage' > historic

Miphee wrote on 2021-01-13, 09:31:

Thank god I have a very supportive wife too. 😁

Speaking of that ..

I'm just rounding up the last pieces of my home office/man cave .. My wife questioned the size of the desk .. I told her kindly that the left wing on the table was meant for some retro computing. Her answer was "but wouldn't it be nice with room for shelves, where you could have a LOT of retro computers to toggle between ..?

No need telling, she's a keeper 😀

Another thing I'm trying to set up, is the Core2 architecture. I'm trying to get hold of one of each Core2 based CPU at 2.66 GHz (that's the most common denominator) or some that can be clocked to just that. The great plan is to benchmark the sh*t out of them to find out, what advantages e.g. more cache, more cores, another FSB etc. actually was worth back then.

And actually a friend of mine has a Core2Quad as his daily Win10 driver. It's +10 years but runs great, nowhere near sluggish. Even though it's a Win7-Win10 upgraded system. Very impressing IMO

Just a snip out of my "keep track" Excel sheet. Greens I have, Yellowish only exists as engineering samples, and all marked with an asterix have som comments on a separate tab.

H3nrik V! wrote on 2021-01-13, 12:37:

Speaking of that .. […]
Show full quote

Miphee wrote on 2021-01-13, 09:31:

Thank god I have a very supportive wife too. 😁

Speaking of that ..

I'm just rounding up the last pieces of my home office/man cave .. My wife questioned the size of the desk .. I told her kindly that the left wing on the table was meant for some retro computing. Her answer was "but wouldn't it be nice with room for shelves, where you could have a LOT of retro computers to toggle between ..?

No need telling, she's a keeper 😀

I wonder how long are you collecting and how large is your collection...

My was fine with it at the beginning... But now, 10++ years later, she isn't 🤣 But it's fine as long as I sell something and I have as much as possible in my room.

debs3759 wrote on 2021-01-13, 09:42:

Yeah, proud obsessed old disabled woman here. I chose to remain single, so nobody to hold me back from spending twice what I can afford 😀

I envy you, I had to limit my spendings even if I wanted to buy a 100 new CPUs every month. 😁 But taking it slow has it's advantages too, I don't have to worry about completing my collection anytime soon!

Living wrote on 2021-01-13, 10:18:

i dont see the point on buying and collecting.

To each their own! I'm sure the majority of people find it ridiculous that people buy ancient hardware just to relive their childhood. My sister-in-law spends all her money on travelling the world and material possessions mean very little to her.

SteveC wrote on 2021-01-13, 10:35:

I have to be careful reading this thread. I have around 30 CPUs but I'm wondering if I should become a "CPU Whore" 😁

It's quite addictive once you get the first few CPUs and realize that a few more and the series is complete!
My first completed series was the 775 Celeron 4xx with the Conroe-L core. It felt awesome!

debs3759 wrote on 2021-01-13, 10:43:

I don't understand why anyone thinks having any kind of hobby is odd 😀 My collection will hold its value, spending the money clubbing or getting drunk won't supplement my pension if I live that long 😀

I have a feeling that newer generations won't have this kind of enthusiasm for older CPUs like we do.
Will a complete collection worth a lot decades later? Who knows. Collectors are strange folks.
Example: I bought most of my Roman coins in Italy and the most expensive piece was... half a cent in 1999. Yeah. They are so common that it's worthless even after ~1600 years. The only ones that hold any value now are the gold ones (~$600) or the really rare ones. Of course on Ebay they can cost 10x that much but Ebay is a crazy place to buy such things anyway (no offense).

H3nrik V! wrote on 2021-01-13, 12:40:

And actually a friend of mine has a Core2Quad as his daily Win10 driver. It's +10 years but runs great, nowhere near sluggish. Even though it's a Win7-Win10 upgraded system. Very impressing IMO

It's awesome when you find a spouse who supports you all the way! 😀
My main rig has a Q9550. It's okay as an office and basic gaming platform but when I compare it to a 3 years old middle range CPU the differences are just insanely huge.
This Q9550 has a sentimental value to me but I should have replaced it like 3 years ago. The problem is that I have to replace everything else as well: board, RAM, GPU, even the PSU and I just don't want to spend that kind of money on an office rig. So the Q9550 stays!