VOGONS


Reply 20180 of 27185, by HangarAte2nds!

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I put some heatsinks on the R7 250 I use in my Win 7 rig on which I play many XP titles and some Vista/Win7 titles. The previous one I had quit on me and I suspect a bad VRM. Though the cooler works pretty well to cool the GPU, it doesn't cool anything else on the board. Since I will often run the card overclocked, I didn't want this one succumbing to the same issue.

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Reply 20181 of 27185, by HangarAte2nds!

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BetaC wrote on 2021-10-17, 01:07:

Since I don't need this run-of-the-mill locked Pentium 2, nothing special Pentium 3, and I haven't used my Voodoo 3 in a year, I mounted them all on a wall.
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I am planning to do the same with some of the vintage hardware I have. I have some Socket 7, 478 and 775 CPUs I will never use in a build. I will probably do 3 small frames to start, each with 2 CPUs, to show front and back for each socket type. I also have some memory I won't ever use because the capacity is too small and was thinking of doing a frame with examples of 30 pin, 72 pin, 168 pin, DDR, DDR2, DDR3, DDR4. I am also planning to build a RAID array with a dozen or so random 1TB SATA HDDS and I am thinking of making the mount a display that will mount all of the drives flat against the wall so you can see the labels. Since it will serve as a server for my entire retro console ROM archive, seems fitting for a piece of kinetic retro art.
EDIT: I was just thinking I could mount the RAID array over a simple plywood acoustic resonator box to accentuate the sound of the mechanical hard drives. It is pretty much mandatory to be able to call it "kinetic" art because you definitely can't see the HDDs moving, 🤣.

Last edited by HangarAte2nds! on 2021-10-17, 02:21. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 20182 of 27185, by pan069

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BetaC wrote on 2021-10-17, 01:07:

Since I don't need this run-of-the-mill locked Pentium 2, nothing special Pentium 3, and I haven't used my Voodoo 3 in a year, I mounted them all on a wall.
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Interesting. I was fantasising (fantasising because I have no skills whatsoever) about doing a wall mounted system in a framed case, like yours, but not dead parts but fully working. E.g. with a 286 or 386. With custom made edge connectors and ribbon cables to connect cards to their ISA slots, it might be possible to mount an entire system in a flat fashion. You'd have to construct the edge-connector-ribbon-cables in such a way that they go off to the side of the motherboard and/or even underneath/behind a double layered surface on which the components are mounted so it looks like they aren't connected, or even some special designed PCB to extend the ISA bus from the back of the motherboard (like a riser would in IPX based cases). 🤔

Reply 20183 of 27185, by Jed118

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BetaC wrote on 2021-10-17, 01:07:

Since I don't need this run-of-the-mill locked Pentium 2, nothing special Pentium 3, and I haven't used my Voodoo 3 in a year, I mounted them all on a wall.
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I have three shadowboxes of processors like this, backlit (one is adjustable RGB) I'm going to do another one just for 386s, and I have thought about putting a micro 386 motherboard up too. Seeing this has convinced me to do so 😉

Otherwise today, just worked on a very clean 200MMX system. Needs a couple drivers and she's ready!

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What's for sale? my eBay!

Reply 20184 of 27185, by HangarAte2nds!

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Finally completely finished my Windows 7 retro build!
Dell Opltiplex 780
Xeon X3220 @3GHz
6GB DDR3 1333 MHz
Dell OEM Radeon R7 250
SB Audigy 2
USB 3 PCIe card
128GB SATA SSD (Boot)
128GB Micro SD via USB 3 adapter
1TB Seagate Barracuda SATA 6GB/s 7200RPM HDD
TSST Super-Multi Optical Drive
VST USB 3.5" Floppy

Just got done putting mini heatsinks on the GPU to improve thermals and installed the SB and 1TB HDD. I use this to play most XP games, the odd Win98 game that runs properly and some Vista/7 era games. The micro SD is my GTAV drive and is faster than the SATA SSD in this context. Although I only have a SATA II interface, this modern SATA III drive still seems faster than one of my old SATA II drives.
So this is my Crysis/GTAV/late XP specialty machine and it does its job very well. GTAV is an outlier but it runs well enough and I don't wanna take up the 107GB on one of my better rigs. It will also serve as a music recording machine.
I never thought I would get so excited about a hotrod 12 year old workstation but here it is...

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Reply 20185 of 27185, by HangarAte2nds!

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Jed118 wrote on 2021-10-17, 03:23:
BetaC wrote on 2021-10-17, 01:07:

Since I don't need this run-of-the-mill locked Pentium 2, nothing special Pentium 3, and I haven't used my Voodoo 3 in a year, I mounted them all on a wall.
image0.jpg

I have three shadowboxes of processors like this, backlit (one is adjustable RGB) I'm going to do another one just for 386s, and I have thought about putting a micro 386 motherboard up too. Seeing this has convinced me to do so 😉

Otherwise today, just worked on a very clean 200MMX system. Needs a couple drivers and she's ready!

That's a neat looking build. I like the color. Is that an ASUS board? I am getting ready to do a P200MMX on an ASUS P5A SS7 board for some overclocking fun. I will also be testing a variety of early AGP cards, ones released in both PCI and AGP flavor, for DOS and Windows performance. It is going into a '99 vintage Compaq Presario case with a vintage Compaq monitor.
I have seen some acrylic PC cases and I am thinking of doing a retro build in one. I just got 4 PIII workstations so it will probably be a PIII. I am thinking PIII 750. I have a GF3 with a gold heatsink and brown PCB and a SBLIve card with a brown PCB and gold accents. I think that will contrast nicely with the green of the intel CC820 MB and the black plastic fairing on the Slot 1 Coppermine CPU assembly. I can paint the PSU to match the color scheme. The cool thing about the Slot 1 PIII is that you can read the numbers on the CPU very easily, something you can't do with most assembled systems. That hologram on the CPU is pretty cool too. It all looks very retro-futuristic.
Since the board supports 133MHz bus speed, I will probably overclock this to 1000MHz. It should make a good substitute for the P4 1.6 I had back in the day and be a great early WIn XP gaming rig.

Reply 20186 of 27185, by Brawndo

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Finished tieing up the cables in my late XP Core2Duo tower so they're all routed nicely and out of the way. Installed XP on a SSD (didn't even need to inject SATA drivers which I wasn't expecting) and verifying the drivers needing to be installed since I had to get them all from third party websites, thanks to Intel for pulling them off their site. Once I know exactly what I'll need I'll build an XP install with drivers specific to this system injected and nLite to strip the fluff.

I'll need to reinstall Windows anyway since I noticed it made the Windows drive E:, I assume because I had a USB drive plugged in during the install which is currently the C: drive. Ah the joys of these older OSes. Just waiting to get a X-fi sound card to finish this build up.

20211016-223605.jpg

Reply 20187 of 27185, by dormcat

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Brawndo wrote on 2021-10-17, 06:11:

(didn't even need to inject SATA drivers which I wasn't expecting)

Same happened to my XP build when installing WinXP Pro 32-bit SP2 on a Gigabyte GA-P31-ES3G + C2D E7400; the very same WinXP disc asked SATA drivers on an MSI K9A2 Platinum + Athlon 64 X2 5000+. I wonder why the Gigabyte MB waived the driver requirement.

As for my retro activities: MemTest86 shows six of my DIMM collections are either faulty or dead. 😿

Plus I found two spare SATA cables withOUT metal clips; was forced to buy one a month ago as the only spare one back then was with metal clips 0.1mm too thick for a PlexWriter PX-7555A. 😅

Reply 20189 of 27185, by ODwilly

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Popped open a fresh stack of Memorex CD-R's.

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Main pc: Asus ROG 17. R9 5900HX, RTX 3070m, 16gb ddr4 3200, 1tb NVME.
Retro PC: Soyo P4S Dragon, 3gb ddr 266, 120gb Maxtor, Geforce Fx 5950 Ultra, SB Live! 5.1

Reply 20190 of 27185, by PC-Engineer

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Brawndo wrote on 2021-10-17, 06:11:
Finished tieing up the cables in my late XP Core2Duo tower so they're all routed nicely and out of the way. Installed XP on a SS […]
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Finished tieing up the cables in my late XP Core2Duo tower so they're all routed nicely and out of the way. Installed XP on a SSD (didn't even need to inject SATA drivers which I wasn't expecting) and verifying the drivers needing to be installed since I had to get them all from third party websites, thanks to Intel for pulling them off their site. Once I know exactly what I'll need I'll build an XP install with drivers specific to this system injected and nLite to strip the fluff.

I'll need to reinstall Windows anyway since I noticed it made the Windows drive E:, I assume because I had a USB drive plugged in during the install which is currently the C: drive. Ah the joys of these older OSes. Just waiting to get a X-fi sound card to finish this build up.

20211016-223605.jpg

Looks like an Intel DP965LT. It‘s an early Core2 board from 2006 with maximum FSB of 1066 to CPU and max 8GB DDR2. Maximum CPU is the Kentsfield QX6800. A very nice Base for WinXP. Intel like there is no Support for Overclocking.

Epox 7KXA Slot A / Athlon 950MHz / Voodoo 5 5500 / PowerVR / 512 MB / AWE32 / SCSI - Windows 98SE

Reply 20191 of 27185, by Jed118

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HangarAte2nds! wrote on 2021-10-17, 04:35:

That's a neat looking build. I like the color. Is that an ASUS board?

HWinfo tells me it's a Shuttle HOT-569. So not a bad board 😉

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What's for sale? my eBay!

Reply 20192 of 27185, by gerry

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ODwilly wrote on 2021-10-17, 11:34:

Popped open a fresh stack of Memorex CD-R's.

I was looking at that pile of CDs thinking that i remember when a single CD contained what once took a pile of floppy discs. Now a single middle of the road USB stick contains what once took a pile of CDs.

thinking about it CD burning at home was actually quite a short 'era' if we consider the 'middle' period when it was commonplace, before being replaced by early USB and card memory devices, i still have a pile of CD-R's left over from that time which will likely never be used

Reply 20193 of 27185, by RandomStranger

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gerry wrote on 2021-10-18, 09:56:
ODwilly wrote on 2021-10-17, 11:34:

Popped open a fresh stack of Memorex CD-R's.

I was looking at that pile of CDs thinking that i remember when a single CD contained what once took a pile of floppy discs. Now a single middle of the road USB stick contains what once took a pile of CDs.

thinking about it CD burning at home was actually quite a short 'era' if we consider the 'middle' period when it was commonplace, before being replaced by early USB and card memory devices, i still have a pile of CD-R's left over from that time which will likely never be used

It didn't feel all that short if I look back. Around 2000 was when our computer science teacher brought in a device, held up and asked what that is. Only one knew (not me). It was a USB stick whith an unbelievable 16MB storage capacity he bought for around $60-70. It was a great replacement for floppies, but it wasn't until 2006-ish when the 512MB sticks became really affordable (for a penniless student's wallet). I was burning disks until around 2010-2012.

And also that was the time when I got into the habit of using mobil racks as easily (re)movable data drives. They sort of grew on me. I still prefer using them in retro machines. If I want to try something it's easy to switch drives without going elbow deep in the case.

I find it a little weird how hard it is to find old used USB sticks. A couple of times I tried looking for 256MB or smaller ones and I never found any. The failure rate must have been high. The smallest I have is a 512MB Kingston Data Travaller from my high school years and a 512MB MP3 player from the same time.

sreq.png retrogamer-s.png

Reply 20194 of 27185, by BitWrangler

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Yah, USB stick of a given capacity drops below $10 and it's shortly discontinued. I wish you could go into Bulk Barn and scoop a bag full of 1GBs or something as I would like to have many smaller sticks rather than fewer bigger ones, as it's not like you've got much room for writing the contents on them. Also I keep wanting various bootable sticks that don't need real high capacity. The smallest I bought new and still functional last I checked is a 256MB SanDisk, I thought it was amazing when I paid a mere $60 or so for it in early noughties. Some years later got some excess promotional sticks 64MB but those are dog slow and I don't trust them. Recently lucked out shortly after last Xmas and picked up four 5x16GB packs on clear-out at $5 each.

Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.

Reply 20195 of 27185, by Brawndo

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PC-Engineer wrote on 2021-10-17, 17:29:

Looks like an Intel DP965LT. It‘s an early Core2 board from 2006 with maximum FSB of 1066 to CPU and max 8GB DDR2. Maximum CPU is the Kentsfield QX6800. A very nice Base for WinXP. Intel like there is no Support for Overclocking.

It's an Intel DG33FB with a C2D E6850, and I have a GeForce 560 Ti in there, so plenty of horsepower to handle anything from the later XP years at the highest quality. Overclocking isn't a big deal to me as I have quite a few systems to cover all "eras" of games, so I don't need to push any of them to achieve bleeding edge performance. I'm more concerned with stability and longevity.

Reply 20197 of 27185, by PTherapist

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Today I did a quick & dirty PSU transplant in my Olivetti PCS-11 386SX PC. The old PSU was long dead and I'd been temporarily using a PSU I borrowed from a thin client. So I gave the thin client back it's PSU and fitted a 12V DC to ATX PSU instead. I insulated the bottom of the Olivetti's PSU casing, then attached the power supply with double sided sticky pads.

It'll suffice for now, I still have a bit more to do at some point in the future, such as properly connect the Reset line & find a piece of plastic to plug the gap at the back where the old PSU once resided so I can properly mount the DC socket instead. Without the reset line connected it sometimes fails to POST and requires a power cycle, but I can live with that for now.

Today I also finished off some quick maintenance on my Fairchild Channel F System II console - after several minutes of being powered on it was emitting a loud static noise over the normal console audio, basically the audio frequency drifting after warming up. So I waited until the noise appeared at full strength, then tweaked the audio pot on the motherboard until it went away. Whilst in there I also took the opportunity to tweak the RF video signal and do some general dusting & cleaning.

Reply 20198 of 27185, by PD2JK

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Watching Deep Impact on Netflix, a LOT of Compaq goodness. I'd like to note the mix of CRT's and the first LCD's, oh boy.

i386 16 ⇒ i486 DX4 100 ⇒ Pentium MMX 200 ⇒ Athlon Orion 700 | TB 1000 ⇒ AthlonXP 1700+ ⇒ Opteron 165 ⇒ Dual Opteron 856

Reply 20199 of 27185, by Sombrero

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Got the last part for my Win98SE build that was holding me back, the 20pin->24pin power adapter and was finally able to get the thing running! Before that I had to throw in the remaining parts that I hadn't been able to put in yet or just didn't want to so I'd have space to work in there. One of these was the CPU heatsink, been about 20 years since I last had to deal with Socket 370/A heatsinks and they haven't gotten any better with time.. thermal paste sure got spreaded well all around, I just hope there is still at least some between the heatsink and the CPU 😜

After getting the cards in too (Voodoo 3, SBLive and Orpheus Soundcard) I crossed my fingers and turned it on, and sure enough it booted right up and gave a surprisingly sharp picture. Didn't recognize all the RAM though. Went to BIOS and noticed the CPU temperature was already at 60°C and slowly creeping up.. I didn't put any fan on the heatsink, I had already noticed earlier the fan that came with the StarTech heatsink was laud as hell while testing fans I had lying around with passively cooled videocards, and I repurposed the noctua fan that I originally intended for the heatsink for a 9800 GTX+ instead. As the temperature rose to 70+°C I figured I REALLY messed up with the heatsink or it just wasn't alone enough for the Pentium 3 in there, opened the machine and the heatsink was pretty hot so I figured the latter was probably the case. Slapped the original noisy StarTech fan back on there and the temps dropped to around 35°C.

As I was messing around with that I also tested the RAM sticks, slot 1 and the 128MB stick in there seems to work just fine, but either one or both of the two other 64MB sticks are iffy or the two slots are, need to have a closer look at that later as another issue turned up: the CDROM drive wasn't being recognized no matter what I tried. It powered up and ejected the tray just fine, but BIOS didn't see it at boot up and neither did Win98SE setup. I tried it with IDE/SATA adapter with my XP machine and it didn't like it one bit and froze as WinXP was loading. Next I tried a SATA DVD drive on the Win98 machine with the same adapter as you can use it both ways and that wasn't being recognized either.

So I figure
- A: The IDE CDROM drive is just somehow busted and the StarTech IDE/SATA adapter doesn't work with optical drive at least on that machine
or
- B: The IDE/SATA adapter was DOA and I'm somehow being a dummy with the CDROM drive.

Eh, I guess I just need to find another CD drive, so more waiting has to be done.