VOGONS


First post, by chris2021

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These are large endeavors for which you don't yet even have a game plan laid out. Lofty goals. You'll have to limit these to things which are practical and (likely) doablr, yet big. Really big.

I'll start -

Get MINIX running on a Northstar Dimension server.

Disassemble the Canon AS-100 firmware.

Repair a tattered, battle scarred, barely populated Atari TT motherboard.

Build the Radio Electronics RE-Robot 80188 brain (and maybe modify it to be used in a Unicorn-1).

Reply 1 of 32, by Joakim

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I have a voodoo 2 8mb that is missing some surface mounted capacitors. But I found my old 12 mb card at my parents so I have no real need for the 8mb one, and no I won't attempt to upgrade it to 12 mb like some youtuber did, was it Adrians digital basement? 😀

Reply 4 of 32, by Horun

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Re-cap a few video cards and motherboards. Test two motherboards have not been tested/used in a decade or so...

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 6 of 32, by waterbeesje

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I've got this LPX 386SX motherboard with some blown caps and everything onboard that would make an enjoyable computer (onboard IDE/FDD/VGA, except drives ofc) and I want to build my own case for it. Still not sure what it should look like, what psu solution...

And another few dozen projects awaiting ofc 😁

Stuck at 10MHz...

Reply 7 of 32, by dionb

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Whoa... lots...

Couple that come to mind:
- have an transparent acrylic ATX case lying in pieces without a purpose.
- have two identical Zalman ZM Reserator 1 towers that are just itching for application to a dual CPU (and maybe dual GPU) setup - possibly in that acrylic case.
- SunPC 5x86-on-a-card that needs installing in my SparcStation 20 once I find a suitable Solaris (preferably 2.6) somewhere.
- DEC axpPCI-33 board with Alpha on it that needs some NT (maybe NT5).
- DEC 164LX board with no Alpha on it that needs a 21164PC CPU (unobtainium :'( )
- Compaq AP550 i840 dual P3 board that works, that I hacked into a case (board is fairly ATX standard, PSU is not) but that I haven't installed OS or gotten second CPU (with insufficient clearance for normal HSF - maybe a target for the watercooling stuff - but it won't fit in the acrylic case...)
- Philips GUS PnP clone with no RAM that could do with some.
- big pile of dead hardware with no obvious defects that need better troubleshooting.
- couple of So5 and So7 CPUs (late K5, Winchip 2a) that need testing and benching, particularly on really old hardware.

etc. etc. etc.

Last edited by dionb on 2022-03-20, 00:32. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 9 of 32, by Nexxen

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dionb wrote on 2022-03-19, 21:57:
Whoa... lots... […]
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Whoa... lots...

Couple that come to mind:
- have an transparent acrylic ATX case lying in pieces without a purpose.
- have two identical Zalman ZM Reserator 1 towers that are just itching for application to a dual CPU (and maybe dual GPU) setup - possibly in that acrylic case.
- SunPC 5x86-on-a-card that needs installing in my SparcStation 20 once I find a suitable Solaris (preferably 2.6) somewhere.
- DEC axpPXI-33 board with Alpha on it that needs some NT (maybe NT5).
- DEC 164LX board with no Alpha on it that needs a 21164PC CPU (unobtainium :'( )
- Compaq AP550 i840 dual P3 board that works, that I hacked into a case (board is fairly ATX standard, PSU is not) but that I haven't installed OS or gotten second CPU (with insufficient clearance for normal HSF - maybe a target for the watercooling stuff - but it won't fit in the acrylic case...)
- Philips GUS PnP clone with no RAM that could do with some.
- big pile of dead hardware with no obvious defects that need better troubleshooting.
- couple of So5 and So7 CPUs (late K5, Winchip 2a) that need testing and benching, particularly on really old hardware.

etc. etc. etc.

Yes, some work... 🤣
DEC is very thumb up 😀

PC#1 Pentium 233 MMX - 98SE
PC#2 PIII-1Ghz - 98SE/W2K

Reply 10 of 32, by dionb

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chris2021 wrote on 2022-03-19, 22:09:

I used to have one of those Sun PC cards. K6 iirc. I thought it went in an Ultra 5 or suffin.

That was the SunPCI, which was basically a full PCI SBC with either K6-2 or P3 on it. The SunPC was SBus, not PCI, and was far more dependent on the host system - little more than a CPU and some glue logic.

"NT5"? Win2k??? On an Alpha? News to me.

Yep, originally Win2k was supposed to support Alpha, but due to politics, support was dropped during development. Last build to support Alpha was RC2. See here https://winworldpc.com/download/30c39014-3ee2 … 11-c3a4c2ac5a54

Reply 11 of 32, by Horun

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dionb wrote on 2022-03-20, 00:32:
That was the SunPCI, which was basically a full PCI SBC with either K6-2 or P3 on it. The SunPC was SBus, not PCI, and was far m […]
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chris2021 wrote on 2022-03-19, 22:09:

I used to have one of those Sun PC cards. K6 iirc. I thought it went in an Ultra 5 or suffin.

That was the SunPCI, which was basically a full PCI SBC with either K6-2 or P3 on it. The SunPC was SBus, not PCI, and was far more dependent on the host system - little more than a CPU and some glue logic.

"NT5"? Win2k??? On an Alpha? News to me.

Yep, originally Win2k was supposed to support Alpha, but due to politics, support was dropped during development. Last build to support Alpha was RC2. See here https://winworldpc.com/download/30c39014-3ee2 … 11-c3a4c2ac5a54

Thanks ! I had read that elsewhere long ago but was not sure if true .

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 12 of 32, by debs3759

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I've got 30+ cases, 150 or so motherboards, several hundred graphics cards, 1000s of CPUs, a pile of PSUs, etc. The ambition is to test everything before I'm 70 (60 this year) and build the best systems I can for every socket and CPU manufacturer from 808x up to around 2010. I doubt I'll stop there, Ryzen will be outdated by the time I get that far, if I live that long 😀

See my graphics card database at www.gpuzoo.com
Constantly being worked on. Feel free to message me with any corrections or details of cards you would like me to research and add.

Reply 13 of 32, by pan069

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From the top of my head:

1. I still have two full Snark Barkers kits to build (would love to have a good solution for a bracket that is not 3D printed).
2. I took apart my 386 some time ago to do some recabling, need to put it back together.
3. I have all the parts for a nice Super Socket 7 build (based around a K6 I received a while ago: Huge number of K6-2E+/570ACZ CPUs for sale on eBay)
4. I have a GigaByte GA-8IPE1000-L motherboard with leaky caps that need attention.
5. Test a whole bunch of cards (video/sound) that I haven't had the time to test yet.

And probably a lot more...

Reply 15 of 32, by PcBytes

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'ight, let's see.

1. Run my newly bought Chaintech 5AGM2 on a test bench. I have it almost equipped (sans a case, of course) w/ 256MB RAM and a K6-2 500 (non-plus.)
2. Repair a 8IPE1000 which ticks on power on continuously. It's been recapped as the Nichicons were actually SHORTING the whole mobo, that's how bad they were.
3. Find out why on God's green Earth my P2B rev 1.02 will absolutely and positively refuse to run 40GB HDDs despite me flashing it to the latest BIOS.
4. Possibly upgrade my Gateway GP6-400 with a standard 440BX mobo that can support overclocking. No, ABIT is not an option in my country. AT ALL.

"Enter at your own peril, past the bolted door..."
Main PC: i5 3470, GB B75M-D3H, 16GB RAM, 2x1TB
98SE : P3 650, Soyo SY-6BA+IV, 384MB RAM, 80GB

Reply 16 of 32, by Tetrium

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There is lots that I never ended up doing, the most important one is learning how to solder (and I mean really, not just solder 2 wires together and that kind of stuff) and getting the gear needed to do repairs.

And like some others here, I got plenty parts (and cases) still left to test and work with.

Whats missing in your collections?
My retro rigs (old topic)
Interesting Vogons threads (links to Vogonswiki)
Report spammers here!

Reply 18 of 32, by debs3759

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chris2021 wrote on 2022-03-20, 03:23:

@debs3759 Any UK specific mobos, Research Machines, etc.?

No, not that I'm aware of

See my graphics card database at www.gpuzoo.com
Constantly being worked on. Feel free to message me with any corrections or details of cards you would like me to research and add.

Reply 19 of 32, by weedeewee

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-many mainboards with battery leakage damage to fix
-ide-scsi firmware jumper mod
-install NT on my alpha UDB
-fix up an amstrad pc1640 for which I do not have the monitor which contains the psu and cable to the case though connecting it to standard AT psu is easy enough.
-re-organize my room and setup some more shelves so I have more space to get things done without having to reshuffle stuff everytime I want to do something else.
-check out an ibm ps1 which has lost its front panel (also no monitor, ergo no psu, sigh)
-set up a token ring network
-get a system terminal connection to my as400 and hope it still works.
-recap some other motherboards
-replace the, already tossed out, ccfl lighting from a 42" TV with some led backlighting
-make a comprehensive list of all the hardware I've got stashed and find more projects which I've forgotten
-recap some AT psus
- ...

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