That's wonderful. I feel the same way about the Apple II. The IIGS though, not so much. I am allergic to rectangular pixels.

Whats the price range for Apple IIGS like these days? I have a small curiosity in owning one ever since i saw that LGR video on it years ago. I thought most Apples where getting a bit crazy.

Got this for a possible future Socket AM2/3 Windows XP Build. I recently tried making this happen as a sleeper PC in a Netvista case but finding a low power CPU turned out to be a big deal so I grabbed one for the future, just in case.

appiah4 wrote on 2022-04-18, 07:54:

Got this for a possible future Socket AM2/3 Windows XP Build. I recently tried making this happen as a sleeper PC in a Netvista case but finding a low power CPU turned out to be a big deal so I grabbed one for the future, just in case.

If you find a am2-am3+ board with the core unlocker find a $5 1 core Sempron 145. Guaranteed 2nd core for a 45watt dual core Athlon.

Won an ABIT BE6-II for aprox. $50 (225RON, to be exact) which ships tomorrow. Just the mobo, nothing else.

Now to decide what path should I go with it. Either 400MHz Deschutes, either a 500 or a 550 Katmai. And a recap is in order, of course.

PcBytes wrote on 2022-04-18, 08:43:

Won an ABIT BE6-II for aprox. $50 (225RON, to be exact) which ships tomorrow. Just the mobo, nothing else.

Now to decide what path should I go with it. Either 400MHz Deschutes, either a 500 or a 550 Katmai. And a recap is in order, of course.

Oooh 550 Katmai has my vote. Such a killer little sweet spot of a CPU. If you got suckered into a pre-Katmai p3/2 at the time the instant 1ghz release really seemed to make XP age horribly compared to Athlon, later P3's and what not by 2004.

ODwilly wrote on 2022-04-18, 08:55:

PcBytes wrote on 2022-04-18, 08:43:

Won an ABIT BE6-II for aprox. $50 (225RON, to be exact) which ships tomorrow. Just the mobo, nothing else.

Now to decide what path should I go with it. Either 400MHz Deschutes, either a 500 or a 550 Katmai. And a recap is in order, of course.

Oooh 550 Katmai has my vote. Such a killer little sweet spot of a CPU. If you got suckered into a pre-Katmai p3/2 at the time the instant 1ghz release really seemed to make XP age horribly compared to Athlon, later P3's and what not by 2004.

I got an LX board with a PII-300 and Voodoo 2 8MB in late 1998. It was a huge investment and the race to 1GHz and GeForce256 was PAINFUL. I eventually upgraded to a CUSL2-C board, PIII 800MHz and GeForce2MX400 in early 2001. I upgraded to Voodoo 3 3000 in 2000 though, that made soldiering on with the Pentium II less painful.

mpe wrote on 2022-04-11, 10:36:

Got this very late Socket 3 486 motherboard with pipelined-burst L2 cache. […]
Show full quote

Got this very late Socket 3 486 motherboard with pipelined-burst L2 cache.

I've always wanted to know if the cache can help it to beat more conventional 486 PCI boards with UMC, SiS and ALi chipsets.

Omg, I did not know that such a thing exists.
One cache chip 64kx32, so with a second it would be 512kb cache 😀
Does the board work?
Is there an option for ext 40MHz or 50MHz? If yes, you could take part of the "fastest 486 competition" with a Am5x86 at 160MHz or 150MHz (almost all of them run at the speed, without doing "crazy measures").

My dad spent mass money on 4 300-450 p2/3 rigs with whatever poop GPU's (integrated Rage ii on the Compaq) tnt 2 m64, ect. Back when "we cant go to 1ghz and slots are the new sockets" were the slogans. Later bought a bunch of open box AIW Radeon 7200's in 2001 as they were getting phased out, and built himself my current Soyo P4 for work. Cable + VCR /later DVD player was fun on a nice 17inch CRT 😁 even with the ol 450 p2 with XP 😁

Got this pretty thing a while ago (sellers pics).

ASUS P6NP5 mobo with a Pentium Pro 200 and 64MB mem.
SB32 (CT3600) sound-card, Intel ISA NIC and a decent S3 PCI graphics card.
A non original LG slot-in CD that has problems reading CDR's.
And what looks to be the original 10.2GB Seagate HDD (original software seems to be long gone tho).

The chassi is a neat AT version that clearly also must have an ATX variant.
In very good condition considering the age, just minor scratches.
No visible yellowing (or at least no uneven yellowing).
The original feet have been replaced, I'm guessing they turned sticky a long time ago.

The parts alone are worth way more then what i paid for it.
Not that it matters, wouldn't dream of parting it out =)

Just bought this one. Sellers pictures. I need some motion-plus or what it is called, to be able to play Wii Sports Resort. Personally I love these Nintendo sports titles, and I have two other titles of Wii-Sport-Games already. The games and the console is just a plus and I will be diving down into softmodding now. I think it would be a great little emulator machine if I manage to do it.

If it turns out that a Wii is a better emulator machine than my RaspberryPI machine, then I will be extra happy. But it is mostly to be able to play Wii Sports Resort that I bought this bundle. I have two white Wii's already, but no controller with motion plus.

Technically not bought since both were free, but got a retro case for my upcoming Katmai BE6-II build, as well as some nice IBM Infinity speakers.

FioGermi wrote on 2022-04-18, 01:50:

Whats the price range for Apple IIGS like these days? I have a small curiosity in owning one ever since i saw that LGR video on it years ago. I thought most Apples where getting a bit crazy.

I paid way under the prices I saw on ebay for a machine in such condition, not to mention they are not really that popular in Europe and in Poland they are unobtainable. I was really lucky I found these machines. I'm pretty sure I will have much fun with II GS yet upgrades will cost me.

A few days ago I bought Sony Trinitron PVM 2130QM.

Sellers photo:

Has SCART input but no speakers. Will do more testing on retro consoles soon 😁

Took delivery of an MSI MS5169 V4 board today (with K6-2 500 processor).

Unfortunately it had been shipped with the heatsink attached and it broke off during shipping. After a cursory inspection, I don't think there is any other damage. Which is fortunate considering it had a chunky metal heatsink tumbling around on top of it.

I'd like to repair it so that it can still use standard Socket 7 heatsinks. Not sure how to approach that here. Normally for plastics like this, I'd pin it, but I'm concerned about creating a short given its proximity to the board and pins.

Alternatively I suppose I could replace the whole socket.

kixs wrote on 2022-04-18, 22:08:

A few days ago I bought Sony Trinitron PVM 2130QM.
...
Has SCART input

Yay, now you need a CGA machine 🤣

kixs wrote on 2022-04-18, 22:08:

but no speakers.

Nice flat top for standing a boombox on top of though 😁 ... That was my favorite arrangement back in teh day, in through the aux, or if it didn't have one, cassette adapter (Which don't care about nasty pinch rollers or broken drive, but can sound muddy if the head isn't cleaned)

kixs wrote on 2022-04-18, 22:08:

A few days ago I bought Sony Trinitron PVM 2130QM. […]
Show full quote

A few days ago I bought Sony Trinitron PVM 2130QM.

Sellers photo:

Has SCART input but no speakers. Will do more testing on retro consoles soon 😁

Someone locally in my city is trying to sell a PVM like that for $1000 something. Never understood the cult following they have, but the picture quality is absolutely beautiful with the right cables. Can't deny that!

HanJammer wrote on 2022-04-18, 21:43:

yet upgrades will cost me.

Upgrades for such machines are always expensive. Are you going for old original era stuff, or modern/newly created solutions?

FioGermi wrote on 2022-04-18, 22:38:

kixs wrote on 2022-04-18, 22:08:

A few days ago I bought Sony Trinitron PVM 2130QM. […]
Show full quote

A few days ago I bought Sony Trinitron PVM 2130QM.

Sellers photo:

Has SCART input but no speakers. Will do more testing on retro consoles soon 😁

Someone locally in my city is trying to sell a PVM like that for $1000 something. Never understood the cult following they have, but the picture quality is absolutely beautiful with the right cables. Can't deny that!

1000? Dude! Jesus Christ.... 😳 Yup. At that price tag, money can be saved by getting a couple of good upscalers like OSSC and Retrotink.
And then there are enough money left to buy more vintage hardware. (Or just a good and solid night out)

Personally I am really happy with my Denver television. One of those 14 inch ones that have build in DVD player.
The good thing, or actually the greatest thing about it, is that it can take RGB signal through the Scart port.
It also has Scart-Video option on the same scart port. But it takes an RGB signal and that is great.

kixs wrote on 2022-04-18, 22:08:

A few days ago I bought Sony Trinitron PVM 2130QM. […]
Show full quote

A few days ago I bought Sony Trinitron PVM 2130QM.

Sellers photo:

Has SCART input but no speakers. Will do more testing on retro consoles soon 😁

Hope it takes RGB signal through that Scart port, and not just Video signal.