WJG6260 wrote on 2022-03-04, 18:16:

That pro variant is pretty impressive. It reminds me of the 3DLabs Wildcat. AGP Pro is neat, but it feels like there's so few cards supporting it and it's just not worth the performance gain. This thing must've been a beast in its time.

Well, the double slot backplate and the BA heatsink make it rather bulky. They added that "Silicon Image" chip to provide the DVI port, I assume. And of course, it brings the full 64 MB of RAM.
But compared to high end CAD gear from the mid 90s, I'd think it was rather pedestrian and moderately priced - the huge production numbers of the gaming market doing their magic.

AFAIK, the AGP pro will make no difference in performance - the extra pins provide extra electrical power, which was a good idea from gf256 upwards.
But soon they figured out that a molex connector on the card will do that much easier and there's no point in having a motherboard provide that kind of juice. So it never caught on.
But there are quite a few boards around for AGP pro, it just rarely gets noticed. You can spot the yellow sticker right away, usally.
The Asus CUSL-2 socket 370 and A7... Socket A come to mind.

Hi,

Got this today. A CT2230. It was in a pentium-90 PC from the era magic and not so cool but there was the sound blaster with an interesting chip in it.

Today's recent pickup is interesting insofar as I bought it MISB (with tearing in the factory wrap with plans to open), but things went downhill just about as soon as I took it out of the shipping box.

I noticed tape around the ATI box flap where one would open the box to extract the inner liner, and it was obvious due to discoloration and dust the tape was there for a while. I figured something was up, so I decided to photograph my opening of the ATI box. I carefully moved some of the wrap aside and, of course, tape was stuck to the actual flap itself. Once I took the inner box out and opened...

Surprise! No video card present... but for some strange reason, all product documentation and discs where there (I presume for adding some weight, but they could have done the same with junk paper). The seller quickly refunded me but didn't want me to ship it back.

I actually owned this card already as it was included as a "throwaway" part of a motherboard purchase in October of 2019, but the reason I bought this MISB version was to replace the card. Note the paint around the heatsink and other average wear. But now, this lonely old card has been reunited with a box and all the fixin's. All's well that ends well.

Bought a NOS Compaq Portable 286 keyboard, Mitsumi CD-ROM controller (for the LU005S drive since I cannot find the controller that came with the drive for some reason), a single drive 40-pin IDE cable, and a CD-ROM audio cable.

Meatball wrote on 2022-03-04, 20:53:

Today's recent pickup is interesting insofar as I bought it MISB (with tearing in the factory wrap with plans to open), but thin […]
Show full quote

Today's recent pickup is interesting insofar as I bought it MISB (with tearing in the factory wrap with plans to open), but things went downhill just about as soon as I took it out of the shipping box.

I noticed tape around the ATI box flap where one would open the box to extract the inner liner, and it was obvious due to discoloration and dust the tape was there for a while. I figured something was up, so I decided to photograph my opening of the ATI box. I carefully moved some of the wrap aside and, of course, tape was stuck to the actual flap itself. Once I took the inner box out and opened...

Surprise! No video card present... but for some strange reason, all product documentation and discs where there (I presume for adding some weight, but they could have done the same with junk paper). The seller quickly refunded me but didn't want me to ship it back.

I actually owned this card already as it was included as a "throwaway" part of a motherboard purchase in October of 2019, but the reason I bought this MISB version was to replace the card. Note the paint around the heatsink and other average wear. But now, this lonely old card has been reunited with a box and all the fixin's. All's well that ends well.

Ah sux... thrift stores got me like that twice... ~10 years apart, bagged up "NIB" boxes, felt heavy enough, but get it home and it's just paperwork and disks, derp. One was a soundblaster box, one was a NIC. ... oh and a recent one was a Boca high end looking serial card box (High speed UARTs) and it had generic take out serial card in it.

WJG6260 wrote on 2022-03-04, 05:13:

Also, I probably need to update the bios on this thing as it does not like Athlon XPs very much. A 1700+ Palomino would run at 1100MHz, but not at 1466MHz; apparently it should be able to do the latter, so I’ll try a re-flash and see…

C4D5E2C0-B41A-4970-A7DE-8C3CB0FF42B3.jpeg

Some of those caps look a bit dodgy.
That can absolutely cause instabilities at higher frequencies.

bofh.fromhell wrote on 2022-03-04, 22:39:

WJG6260 wrote on 2022-03-04, 05:13:

Also, I probably need to update the bios on this thing as it does not like Athlon XPs very much. A 1700+ Palomino would run at 1100MHz, but not at 1466MHz; apparently it should be able to do the latter, so I’ll try a re-flash and see…

C4D5E2C0-B41A-4970-A7DE-8C3CB0FF42B3.jpeg

Some of those caps look a bit dodgy.
That can absolutely cause instabilities at higher frequencies.

Definitely. I’m probably gonna do a partial recap on this thing at some point. I will say it’s impressive it’s running as-is, since the caps are already lower quality ones. That PCChips quality, I suppose 🤣

Not really "retro" in itself but "for" retro I guess.

I received these little dudes the other day. The build quality of these boards is superb. Really looking forward to trying these out, unfortunately I won't have time at the moment. Probably have to wait until Easter...

pan069 wrote on 2022-03-04, 23:28:

Not really "retro" in itself but "for" retro I guess.

I received these little dudes the other day. The build quality of these boards is superb. Really looking forward to trying these out, unfortunately I won't have time at the moment. Probably have to wait until Easter...

These are really cool. I've been wanting these for some time, but haven't been able to justify the cost. I already have a couple of original SIMMCONN adapters. The issue is that they are much more awkward than the new flat ones and can sometimes hit adjacent cards since they stick out much further.

pan069 wrote on 2022-03-04, 23:28:

Not really "retro" in itself but "for" retro I guess.

On the contrary. That's the exact definition of "retro" when it comes to computers (when original memory expansions from creative certainly are NOT "retro")...

Very nice. And they have correct colors too!

HanJammer wrote on 2022-03-04, 23:41:

pan069 wrote on 2022-03-04, 23:28:

Not really "retro" in itself but "for" retro I guess.

On the contrary. That's the exact definition of "retro" when it comes to computers (when original memory expansions from creative certainly are NOT "retro")...

Very nice. And they have correct colors too!

You are correct. As a community we keep mixing up Vintage vs Retro. These are indeed as Retro as you can get! 😀

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-03-04, 23:35:

pan069 wrote on 2022-03-04, 23:28:

Not really "retro" in itself but "for" retro I guess.

I received these little dudes the other day. The build quality of these boards is superb. Really looking forward to trying these out, unfortunately I won't have time at the moment. Probably have to wait until Easter...

These are really cool. I've been wanting these for some time, but haven't been able to justify the cost. I already have a couple of original SIMMCONN adapters. The issue is that are much more awkward than the new flat ones and can sometimes hit adjacent cards since they stick out much further.

They are pretty pricey indeed and I had to think for a while before I could justify the purchase to myself. But then I lost a bid on a GUS classic and thought, fuck it... 😀

I have the SIMMCONN's as well (from Serdashop), but like you pointed out, even though they work, there is a "clunky" aspect to them.

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-03-04, 21:36:

Meatball wrote on 2022-03-04, 20:53:

Today's recent pickup is interesting insofar as I bought it MISB (with tearing in the factory wrap with plans to open), but thin […]
Show full quote

Today's recent pickup is interesting insofar as I bought it MISB (with tearing in the factory wrap with plans to open), but things went downhill just about as soon as I took it out of the shipping box.

I noticed tape around the ATI box flap where one would open the box to extract the inner liner, and it was obvious due to discoloration and dust the tape was there for a while. I figured something was up, so I decided to photograph my opening of the ATI box. I carefully moved some of the wrap aside and, of course, tape was stuck to the actual flap itself. Once I took the inner box out and opened...

Surprise! No video card present... but for some strange reason, all product documentation and discs where there (I presume for adding some weight, but they could have done the same with junk paper). The seller quickly refunded me but didn't want me to ship it back.

I actually owned this card already as it was included as a "throwaway" part of a motherboard purchase in October of 2019, but the reason I bought this MISB version was to replace the card. Note the paint around the heatsink and other average wear. But now, this lonely old card has been reunited with a box and all the fixin's. All's well that ends well.

Ah sux... thrift stores got me like that twice... ~10 years apart, bagged up "NIB" boxes, felt heavy enough, but get it home and it's just paperwork and disks, derp. One was a soundblaster box, one was a NIC. ... oh and a recent one was a Boca high end looking serial card box (High speed UARTs) and it had generic take out serial card in it.

Depending on the model, you can sell the Sound Blaster box and stuff for $50+.

I got a SB 2.0 box and manuals, etc. at a thrift store a couple years ago. Then I sold the complete with matching serials SB 2.0 for a pretty penny... though of I had saved it for another year or so I probably could have gotten double or more of what I sold it for.

Meatball wrote on 2022-03-04, 20:53:

Today's recent pickup is interesting insofar as I bought it MISB (with tearing in the factory wrap with plans to open), but thin […]
Show full quote

Today's recent pickup is interesting insofar as I bought it MISB (with tearing in the factory wrap with plans to open), but things went downhill just about as soon as I took it out of the shipping box.

I noticed tape around the ATI box flap where one would open the box to extract the inner liner, and it was obvious due to discoloration and dust the tape was there for a while. I figured something was up, so I decided to photograph my opening of the ATI box. I carefully moved some of the wrap aside and, of course, tape was stuck to the actual flap itself. Once I took the inner box out and opened...

Surprise! No video card present... but for some strange reason, all product documentation and discs where there (I presume for adding some weight, but they could have done the same with junk paper). The seller quickly refunded me but didn't want me to ship it back.

I actually owned this card already as it was included as a "throwaway" part of a motherboard purchase in October of 2019, but the reason I bought this MISB version was to replace the card. Note the paint around the heatsink and other average wear. But now, this lonely old card has been reunited with a box and all the fixin's. All's well that ends well.

I've had a somewhat similar thing happen when I bought a second hand TUSL2-C and the board turned out to be defective, but the original box + manual it came with was a perfect fit for my other TUSL2-C boards 😀

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-03-04, 21:36:

Meatball wrote on 2022-03-04, 20:53:

Today's recent pickup is interesting insofar as I bought it MISB (with tearing in the factory wrap with plans to open), but thin […]
Show full quote

Today's recent pickup is interesting insofar as I bought it MISB (with tearing in the factory wrap with plans to open), but things went downhill just about as soon as I took it out of the shipping box.

I noticed tape around the ATI box flap where one would open the box to extract the inner liner, and it was obvious due to discoloration and dust the tape was there for a while. I figured something was up, so I decided to photograph my opening of the ATI box. I carefully moved some of the wrap aside and, of course, tape was stuck to the actual flap itself. Once I took the inner box out and opened...

Surprise! No video card present... but for some strange reason, all product documentation and discs where there (I presume for adding some weight, but they could have done the same with junk paper). The seller quickly refunded me but didn't want me to ship it back.

I actually owned this card already as it was included as a "throwaway" part of a motherboard purchase in October of 2019, but the reason I bought this MISB version was to replace the card. Note the paint around the heatsink and other average wear. But now, this lonely old card has been reunited with a box and all the fixin's. All's well that ends well.

Ah sux... thrift stores got me like that twice... ~10 years apart, bagged up "NIB" boxes, felt heavy enough, but get it home and it's just paperwork and disks, derp. One was a soundblaster box, one was a NIC. ... oh and a recent one was a Boca high end looking serial card box (High speed UARTs) and it had generic take out serial card in it.

This is why I always open boxed items when I see them for sale in a thrift store.
At one time I found a boxed sound card which I wanted. It had a sticker on it saying it had been tested and was in working condition by the staff of the thrift shop but I was suspicious right away so I took the box to the spot where you need to place your items on a desk so the prices can get scanned but instead I proceded to open the package with an employee watching me. And it contained a damn ordinary PCI NIC! xD
No glorious sound card with yamaha sound chip or whatever it was I was interested in 😜

If I'd bought it and open it up at home, they could have said I was trying to scam them by replacing the item myself, but now with one of them watching me I gave the box back and left the shop without it.

You have to be careful with things like these. Even if it has a sticker with "tested, working" on it I won't believe it till I seen it functioning with my own eyes 😜

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-03-04, 15:58:

OK, right, the chip I saw lacks two legs to be a YMF-262. Well, that one in the CT1747 is the minimum amount of OPL3 a SB16 shou […]
Show full quote

HanSolo wrote on 2022-03-04, 13:29:

No, only the integrated one in the CT1747

OK, right, the chip I saw lacks two legs to be a YMF-262.
Well, that one in the CT1747 is the minimum amount of OPL3 a SB16 should have.
It somehow still seems to be a discussion whether the integrated one was as good as the original. No idea, I liked it on my ct2770.

From my understanding the CT1747 contains a licensed YMF262 core so it is true OPL3. But on every card the sound goes through additional filters/amp-circuits which means that all cards can sound slightly differently.
And personally I don't even consider CQM as bad as some people make it 😀 So 'true OPL' is nice to have but it's not the only selection criterion for me.

Tetrium wrote on 2022-03-05, 10:28:

You have to be careful with things like these. Even if it has a sticker with "tested, working" on it I won't believe it till I seen it functioning with my own eyes 😜

I factor in that problem by basically rarely buying at "in working order" price or maybe half of that at the most. So I factor in at least a blanket 50 % failure rate and spare me all the assessement and disappointment.
(last time I broke that rule I got that Escom pizzabox that won't boot. But it turned out to come with a 100 €+ mechanical keyboard...)

The only box I ever got was on purpose, along the actual shopping - a mint condition Matrox Millennium 4MB, for a buck.
But then the fuckup selling it turned out to be too stupid to pack. Uninsulated, he put it in the same box as that rancor, or something. Totally unnecessary bruises upon arrival.

Still, totally worth it. Who owns a legal copy of Nascar Racing?!?

Not really a huge thing but bought two brand new Cak II - 38 socket 370 coolers, one will be heading to a Tually 1.4s and the other a XP 3200+ 462 box, I think these Cak coolers should work really well on the 3200+ since its unlocked and I would like to see how high I can get it, I think 2.4 is the average for air so Im not expecting it to pull crazy numbers.

Not sure about overclocking the Tually, but should it hit 1.6ghz with one of these coolers ?

Tualatin overclocking is often about fighting the board as much as the chip.

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-03-05, 15:29:

Tualatin overclocking is often about fighting the board as much as the chip.

hmm, its a SiS 635t board so it should be plenty fast enough on its own, but if the bios will let me Ill see what options it gives me for overclocking.

On a side note I got given a bunch of AMD stuff, CPUs, Motherboards and memory so once I find a little spare time on my days off I will go thought it all and list it here, I dont have a lot of experience with 939/AM2 era AMD stuff and pointers for what parts would make a good AMD retro rig would be good.

I know there is an ASUS A8N-SLI-SE board in there which might be a good board to start with.

Heh since they were in a box near by

939
Asus A8N-SLI-SE - Athlon 64 X2 4200+
Spare Athlon 64 3000+ (Venice Single Core model)
AM2
Asus M2N6B-VM - Athlon 64 X2 4200+
AM2+
Asrock AOD790GX/128M - Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition ...This is an AM3 CPU in an AM2+ I think I might find it an AM3 board.