BitWrangler wrote on 2022-04-03, 02:55:

Tetrium wrote on 2022-04-02, 15:12:

RandomStranger wrote on 2022-03-31, 18:39:

Really? I never considered them to be all that rare. I have 3 and just got a 4th one though that 4th is a little on the weird side. It's from an industrial machine and the data cable connector is a little different.

They were pretty common, a LOT more common than for instance Voodoo cards.
But these drives were thrown out much sooner and much fewer of them ended up being saved. They are pretty bulky, harder to stack and reached obsolesce much sooner than optical drives because 3.5in FDDs were also a thing. And I reckon most people didn't bother saving them 'because this is a mass produced product and these will never run out and will never become rare! 😀 😀 😀'.

5.25 maintained high market penetration and high popularity in some areas more than others. I think for example in Germany MS were actually debating whether to put Windows 95 on 1.2MB 5.25 it was so popular, whereas in UK 3.5 adoption was strong enough I don't even think they had later UK versions of 3.x on 5.25

Definitely true, it would vary by region, though I'm mostly familiar with the situation here in The Netherlands.

Here 5.25in FDDs would usually be present in any 486 or older while 3.5in FDDs started becomming common in 486s as well. Generally speaking that is.
I don't remember well when optical drives started appearing but these were often present in 486 systems as well.
Doing this from memory though, I didn't keep tabs.
But I'm fairly sure that anything Pentium usually came with just the 3.5in FDD and a CDROM drive (a reader, SCSI optical drives seemed to be really rare or at least I didn't come across many, if any at all or I'd have them in my stash now).

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-04-03, 02:55:

5.25 maintained high market penetration and high popularity in some areas more than others. I think for example in Germany MS were actually debating whether to put Windows 95 on 1.2MB 5.25 it was so popular, whereas in UK 3.5 adoption was strong enough I don't even think they had later UK versions of 3.x on 5.25

In Germany, you think so?
My brother used to copy a lot of DOS games from a friend ca. 1993 and all came on (original) 3.5".
"Terror from the Deep", the successor of 1994's X-COM: Ufo Defense ("UFO: Enemy Unknown" here) came out in 1995, on CD-ROM as well. That's when we got a drive, NEC IDE 4X for DM 150. If we could afford that, anyone could.
I bought "Tie Fighter" on 3.5" - the CD-ROM release came a year later.
So, starting in 1993, 5.25 floppies already seemed arcane. No one used them.
Did not hear of anyone using 3.5 floppies for Win 95, but they did exist, that's crazy enough. If you had a mind to update to the new OS, how about a CD drive?
For 5.25 you'd have to write a letter, apparently:
https://forum.winworldpc.com/discussion/11002 … dows-95-version

Maybe the 5.25" stayed around somewhat longer because it was the format of choice for some of the non-PC platforms. Amiga, Atari, but I wouldn't know about that.
On ebay around here, it's not actually rare, merely surprisingly expensive, like past 30 €, if in any qualified state.

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-04-03, 10:18:

"Terror from the Deep", the successor of 1994's X-COM: Ufo Defense ("UFO: Enemy Unknown" here) came out in 1995, on CD-ROM as well. That's when we got a drive, NEC IDE 4X for DM 150. If we could afford that, anyone could.

I also had this, and still own it. The video introduction was amazing for its time.

"Jack? Jack? Come in Jack?
"No! No! Get me out of here!"

appiah4 wrote on 2022-04-03, 10:41:

I also had this, and still own it. The video introduction was amazing for its time. […]
Show full quote

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-04-03, 10:18:

"Terror from the Deep", the successor of 1994's X-COM: Ufo Defense ("UFO: Enemy Unknown" here) came out in 1995, on CD-ROM as well. That's when we got a drive, NEC IDE 4X for DM 150. If we could afford that, anyone could.

I also had this, and still own it. The video introduction was amazing for its time.

"Jack? Jack? Come in Jack?
"No! No! Get me out of here!"

That intro sure blew our young minds.
Also, the game taught us a lot, we only could borrow that CD for installation, but it was actually so little data that we could just about dump it on the HDD (without the full cutscenes, IIRC).
Also, executing the game file allowed you to batch in a CD drive letter like "E:" because some people back then used CD changers and the game would not find those. So, we could assign a letter to the folder with the CD data via the "subst" command, beating the game's copy protection.
No remorse!

Model M rescued from the recycling bin at my workplace. Now to source the six missing keycaps and give it a good cleaning.

MNrocketry wrote on 2022-04-03, 13:57:

Model M rescued from the recycling bin at my workplace.

Loved my Model M back in the day. Used to like going into work too instead of just VPN.

Here's my find: Dell Dimension XPS R450

Looks like someone formatted and installed Win98R2 in 2007.
Someone spilled a coke on it at some point too.
And left a couple lose screws floating around in the case for good measure.

Would have made your friends jealous as anything for about 3 weeks in December 1998 before it got buried under P3/Athlon, or Voodoo 3 / TNT.

Whatever, still looks like top of the line win98 lov'n for the time.

Parts:

1. 440 BX mobo with 450 PII & 128 MB Ram
2. 8MB AGP Nvidia Riva 128 by STB (Edit: Not 8GB (⌒_⌒;)
3. Turtle Beach Aureal Vortex 2 Audio
4. 60GB Maxtor Drive & IDE Zip Drive
5. 3C905 Ethernet & Broadcom Wifi cards
6. Us Robotics Sportster modem for good measure.

Has an AUX Power for the Mobo labeled "P7"

Probably has the proprietary Dell ATX like power too

douglar wrote on 2022-04-05, 21:27:

Yep, that's the non standard ATX connecter for sure. On the plus side the motherboard is made by Intel themselves so Intel + BX = stable as a rock.
If the non standard connector bothers you all you need to do is un solder the connecter and move it along a bit, There is post here detailing the steps.
I've 2 similar era dells (4100 and T500) and quite like them over all

douglar wrote on 2022-04-05, 21:27:

Probably has the proprietary Dell ATX like power too

You can also buy adapter cables on eBay if you don't own a soldering iron.

douglar wrote on 2022-04-05, 21:27:

1. 8GB AGP Nvidia Riva 128 by STB

That's one heck of a Riva 128 😃
Where's you get it? 😋

I just was digging in a box and found a Celeron SL2Y2. It is a Covington 300 with the newer A1 stepping.
Is this any good for? Can it be paired with a S3 Virge on a Legend QDI P6I440EX/ATX EXCELLENT 1?

Disruptor wrote on 2022-04-06, 22:14:

I just was digging in a box and found a Celeron SL2Y2. It is a Covington 300 with the newer A1 stepping.
Is this any good for? Can it be paired with a S3 Virge on a Legend QDI P6I440EX/ATX EXCELLENT 1?

Wasn't it that generation of Celeron that has great OC potential?

And sure, should it become too fast, you can always add an S3 Virge to cancel that out!

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-04-06, 22:57:

Disruptor wrote on 2022-04-06, 22:14:

I just was digging in a box and found a Celeron SL2Y2. It is a Covington 300 with the newer A1 stepping.
Is this any good for? Can it be paired with a S3 Virge on a Legend QDI P6I440EX/ATX EXCELLENT 1?

Wasn't it that generation of Celeron that has great OC potential?

And sure, should it become too fast, you can always add an S3 Virge to cancel that out!

🤣 😄

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-04-06, 22:57:

Disruptor wrote on 2022-04-06, 22:14:

I just was digging in a box and found a Celeron SL2Y2. It is a Covington 300 with the newer A1 stepping.
Is this any good for? Can it be paired with a S3 Virge on a Legend QDI P6I440EX/ATX EXCELLENT 1?

Wasn't it that generation of Celeron that has great OC potential?

And sure, should it become too fast, you can always add an S3 Virge to cancel that out!

Covington was the 1st (cacheless) Celeron and the lack of L2 cache made it quite the underperformer, but it was relatively easy to overclock.

I'd recommend SiS6326 btw 😋

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-04-06, 22:57:

Disruptor wrote on 2022-04-06, 22:14:

I just was digging in a box and found a Celeron SL2Y2. It is a Covington 300 with the newer A1 stepping.
Is this any good for? Can it be paired with a S3 Virge on a Legend QDI P6I440EX/ATX EXCELLENT 1?

Wasn't it that generation of Celeron that has great OC potential?

And sure, should it become too fast, you can always add an S3 Virge to cancel that out!

Or an Oak OTI-037 or even a Realtek RTG3105 based VGA card, if you really want to plumb the depths . 😉

Tetrium wrote on 2022-04-06, 19:28:

douglar wrote on 2022-04-05, 21:27:

1. 8GB AGP Nvidia Riva 128 by STB

That's one heck of a Riva 128 😃
Where's you get it? 😋

Good old days when video RAM was bigger than HDDs. 😁

I remember reading somewhere that there was a tool for DOS that would allow you to map unused portions of your video memory as a ramdisk. This was particularly useful if the work you did was generally done in text mode applications.

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-04-06, 22:57:

Wasn't it that generation of Celeron that has great OC potential?

It has a great OC potential too, but you surely have heared about the much more famous Celeron 300A with "Mendocino" core.

At that time the king of the hill was the Pentium II 450 with "Deschutes" core, running at 100 MHz FSB with a 512 kB half speed L2 cache running at 225 MHz.
The "Mendocino" Celeron 300A was running at 66 MHz FSB regularly with a 128 KB on die full speed L2 cache. It often was overclocked to 450 MHz by raising the FSB to 100 MHz.
The cheap Celeron 300A clocked at 450 MHz with its 128 kB 450 MHz L2 cache was faster than the expensive Pentium II 450 with its 512 kB 225 MHz L2 cache.
At this time the Socket 370 was born and the Slot 1 was about to die.

But without L2 cache the "Covington" Celeron (266 plus 300 without A) even was slower than the older Socket 7 based Pentium 233 MMX.

darry wrote on 2022-04-07, 03:02:

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-04-06, 22:57:

Disruptor wrote on 2022-04-06, 22:14:

I just was digging in a box and found a Celeron SL2Y2. It is a Covington 300 with the newer A1 stepping.
Is this any good for? Can it be paired with a S3 Virge on a Legend QDI P6I440EX/ATX EXCELLENT 1?

Wasn't it that generation of Celeron that has great OC potential?

And sure, should it become too fast, you can always add an S3 Virge to cancel that out!

Or an Oak OTI-037 or even a Realtek RTG3105 based VGA card, if you really want to plumb the depths . 😉

Please get some style. The Celeron is an original Intel processor, so please do not pair it with cheap OEM graphics cards. Use an IBM PS/2 Display Adapter instead.

mkarcher wrote on 2022-04-07, 09:59:

Please get some style. The Celeron is an original Intel processor, so please do not pair it with cheap OEM graphics cards. Use an IBM PS/2 Display Adapter instead.

Can it run Direct3D? 😁

Disruptor wrote on 2022-04-07, 09:46:

It has a great OC potential too, but you surely have heared about the much more famous Celeron 300A with "Mendocino" core. […]
Show full quote

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-04-06, 22:57:

Wasn't it that generation of Celeron that has great OC potential?

It has a great OC potential too, but you surely have heared about the much more famous Celeron 300A with "Mendocino" core.

At that time the king of the hill was the Pentium II 450 with "Deschutes" core, running at 100 MHz FSB with a 256 KB half speed L2 cache running at 225 MHz.
The "Mendocino" Celeron 300A was running at 66 MHz FSB regularly with a 128 KB on die full speed L2 cache. It often was overclocked to 450 MHz by raising the FSB to 100 MHz.
The cheap Celeron 300A clocked at 450 MHz with its 128 KB 450 MHz L2 cache was faster than the expensive Pentium II 450 with its 256 MHz 225 MHz L2 cache.
At this time the Socket 370 was born and the Slot 1 was about to die.

But without L2 cache the "Covington" Celeron (266 plus 300 without A) even was slower than the older Socket 7 based Pentium 233 MMX.

The Pentium II did have 512 KiB L2 cache, not 256. Never the less, you are absolutely right that in a lot of applications, the Celeron "450A" was faster than the PII