TrashPanda wrote on 2022-04-28, 13:29:

Tetrium wrote on 2022-04-28, 12:48:

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-04-28, 11:47:

Cards worthy of keeping in a safe place and only using in systems with verified PSUs ! (By verified I mean PSUs that have been tested to ensure working voltages and protection)

It would suck to see one of these cards get nixxed by a failed PSU.

Definitely never test with your valued parts with an untested/unchecked PSU.
I'm kinda surprised to sometimes see someone on youtube try to build a retro rig and try to use a PSU of which he has not even bothered to at the very least check the insides for any obvious signs of damage. It's like russian roulette 😋

99% of the time it runs 100% of the time it fails with a loud pop some magic smoke and very angry pixies going where they shouldn't. (Percentages pulled out of my ass)

My guess is that many times it may work fine at first, but I'm not very confident that an old PSU will still work perfectly fine after, say, 30 years or so even though it's probably still possible.
In most cases the system will simply not power on I reckon. In some cases (a minority), things will start popping, banging or starting a fire and even then it's not guaranteed other components are damaged (but definitely chances are beyond what I would want to wager at this point).
Then there's the types of killer PSU that seems to work fine or be calmly unresponsive while doing its destructive damaging in total silence.

Finally completed my bucket list of "wanted" items today, a 3DFX Voodoo5 5500 showed up on eBay tested and working for about half of what its normal price is for us Aussies paid ~320 quid for it and another 60 quid in Import and postage fees ...no idea why import fees on this one GPU are so stupidly high but no matter, for 300 quid its about as good as it gets for Aussies right now.

MMaximus wrote on 2022-04-28, 11:09:

You can understand losing someone dear, feeling overwhelmed while grieving and not wanting to deal with any of this, thus the wish to send everything to the dump. I say good on the OP for not only paying a fair price to the widow but also for salvaging all these vintage parts so they can find their way into the hands of other enthusiasts later down the road

I'm yet to write my testanemnt, but for now I have a deal with my friend - if any of us passes away - the other one will help with selling the stuff to a reasonable guys for a reasonable price.

Although I want at least a part of my collection to be donated to National Museum of Technology, as their computer collection can really use some new specimens (most of 80s/90s era machines they have are in way worse condition than mine counterparts).

Tetrium wrote on 2022-04-28, 16:13:

My guess is that many times it may work fine at first, but I'm not very confident that an old PSU will still work perfectly fine […]
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TrashPanda wrote on 2022-04-28, 13:29:

Tetrium wrote on 2022-04-28, 12:48:

Definitely never test with your valued parts with an untested/unchecked PSU.
I'm kinda surprised to sometimes see someone on youtube try to build a retro rig and try to use a PSU of which he has not even bothered to at the very least check the insides for any obvious signs of damage. It's like russian roulette 😋

99% of the time it runs 100% of the time it fails with a loud pop some magic smoke and very angry pixies going where they shouldn't. (Percentages pulled out of my ass)

My guess is that many times it may work fine at first, but I'm not very confident that an old PSU will still work perfectly fine after, say, 30 years or so even though it's probably still possible.
In most cases the system will simply not power on I reckon. In some cases (a minority), things will start popping, banging or starting a fire and even then it's not guaranteed other components are damaged (but definitely chances are beyond what I would want to wager at this point).
Then there's the types of killer PSU that seems to work fine or be calmly unresponsive while doing its destructive damaging in total silence.

Yes .. I have one or two chinesium PSUs that I dont dare fire up or hook up to anything remotely valuable, have had them for oh I guess 10 years now but they were not new when I got them either so they could be a lot older. I do have a Shaw 600 watt PSU that gives me the creeps when ever I pull it out of storage, its got amazing numbers for the +5v and +12v rails but ...The brand name just sends chills down my spine and it quickly gets shoved back in its dungeon.

From experience SHAW PSUs deserved their reputation for being powerful piles of shite that will happily fuck your week up with zero notice.

HanJammer wrote on 2022-04-28, 16:17:

MMaximus wrote on 2022-04-28, 11:09:

You can understand losing someone dear, feeling overwhelmed while grieving and not wanting to deal with any of this, thus the wish to send everything to the dump. I say good on the OP for not only paying a fair price to the widow but also for salvaging all these vintage parts so they can find their way into the hands of other enthusiasts later down the road

I'm yet to write my testanemnt, but for now I have a deal with my friend - if any of us passes away - the other one will help with selling the stuff to a reasonable guys for a reasonable price.

Although I want at least a part of my collection to be donated to National Museum of Technology, as their computer collection can really use some new specimens (most of 80s/90s era machines they have are in way worse condition than mine counterparts).

I quite like the idea of donating the more unique items to a museum, especially if the museum has poorly maintained versions or could simply use an injection of more unique exhibits.

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-04-28, 16:22:

Tetrium wrote on 2022-04-28, 16:13:

My guess is that many times it may work fine at first, but I'm not very confident that an old PSU will still work perfectly fine […]
Show full quote

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-04-28, 13:29:

99% of the time it runs 100% of the time it fails with a loud pop some magic smoke and very angry pixies going where they shouldn't. (Percentages pulled out of my ass)

My guess is that many times it may work fine at first, but I'm not very confident that an old PSU will still work perfectly fine after, say, 30 years or so even though it's probably still possible.
In most cases the system will simply not power on I reckon. In some cases (a minority), things will start popping, banging or starting a fire and even then it's not guaranteed other components are damaged (but definitely chances are beyond what I would want to wager at this point).
Then there's the types of killer PSU that seems to work fine or be calmly unresponsive while doing its destructive damaging in total silence.

Yes .. I have one or two chinesium PSUs that I dont dare fire up or hook up to anything remotely valuable, have had them for oh I guess 10 years now but they were not new when I got them either so they could be a lot older. I do have a Shaw 600 watt PSU that gives me the creeps when ever I pull it out of storage, its got amazing numbers for the +5v and +12v rails but ...The brand name just sends chills down my spine and it quickly gets shoved back in its dungeon.

From experience SHAW PSUs deserved their reputation for being powerful piles of shite that will happily fuck your week up with zero notice.

There will always be shitty units, regardless of age.
I never heard of "Shaw" before. I hope I never have to see one first hand 🙂

Tetrium wrote on 2022-04-28, 16:29:

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-04-28, 16:22:

Tetrium wrote on 2022-04-28, 16:13:

My guess is that many times it may work fine at first, but I'm not very confident that an old PSU will still work perfectly fine after, say, 30 years or so even though it's probably still possible.
In most cases the system will simply not power on I reckon. In some cases (a minority), things will start popping, banging or starting a fire and even then it's not guaranteed other components are damaged (but definitely chances are beyond what I would want to wager at this point).
Then there's the types of killer PSU that seems to work fine or be calmly unresponsive while doing its destructive damaging in total silence.

Yes .. I have one or two chinesium PSUs that I dont dare fire up or hook up to anything remotely valuable, have had them for oh I guess 10 years now but they were not new when I got them either so they could be a lot older. I do have a Shaw 600 watt PSU that gives me the creeps when ever I pull it out of storage, its got amazing numbers for the +5v and +12v rails but ...The brand name just sends chills down my spine and it quickly gets shoved back in its dungeon.

From experience SHAW PSUs deserved their reputation for being powerful piles of shite that will happily fuck your week up with zero notice.

There will always be shitty units, regardless of age.
I never heard of "Shaw" before. I hope I never have to see one first hand 🙂

Rather infamous cheap but powerful Chinesium brand of PSU here in Australia, pretty sure they were just a rebadged brand from one of the anon Chinesium factories but yeah .. they were terrible for just randomly killing PCs. (By powerful I mean the sticker says its 600 watts .. so it must be 600 watts right type of powerful 🤣)

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-04-28, 13:45:

aitotat wrote on 2022-04-28, 13:34:

RaiderOfLostVoodoo wrote on 2022-04-28, 07:57:

Holy Moly!
How much? Probably in the 4 digits.

Yes. They cost 1000€ so at least it is the best possible 4 digit price.

While I fail to see anything a sound card could do that would prompt me to pay more than 100, given these item's "nimbus" - it's probably a safe investment.
Just make sure your house doesn't burn down. Only for the sake of those cards, I mean. 😉

Many Demos from that era support only GUS. And the card does mixing of channels in hardware so you get better quality (higher sample rates) with less CPU load. So IMHO the GUS does a lot that no other card does. If that's still relevant today is another question 😀

I'm glad I have one already and don't need to pay the current prices. Who knows if any of this old hardware turns out to be such a safe investment 10-15 years from now...

HanSolo wrote on 2022-04-28, 16:54:

Who knows if any of this old hardware turns out to be such a safe investment 10-15 years from now...

I wondered that about vintage music synthesizer hardware 10 years ago, and they've continued to climb in price.

Shponglefan wrote on 2022-04-28, 16:55:

I wondered that about vintage music synthesizer hardware 10 years ago, and they've continued to climb in price.

Synths are totally different animals as vintage synths - unlike computers they can actually be used not only by hobbysts/enthusiasts but also by professionals for making money. That can't be said about vintage computers.

HanJammer wrote on 2022-04-28, 16:59:

Synths are totally different animals as vintage synths - unlike computers they can actually be used not only by hobbysts/enthusiasts but also by professionals for making money. That can't be said about vintage computers.

True, but vintage synth hardware isn't necessary for music productions given the availability of modern hardware. And that even includes recreations of vintage hardware.

For example, there are plenty of modern analog clones or emulations of the Roland TB-303 that can be had for hundreds of dollars. Yet that hasn't stopped vintage units from selling for $3000+.

From a strictly music production standpoint, the price of vintage units makes no sense. It's being driven by collectability.

MMaximus wrote on 2022-04-28, 11:09:

You can understand losing someone dear, feeling overwhelmed while grieving and not wanting to deal with any of this, thus the wish to send everything to the dump. I say good on the OP for not only paying a fair price to the widow but also for salvaging all these vintage parts so they can find their way into the hands of other enthusiasts later down the road

yeah most of the CRTs and some random things I have way too many of will be given away. I do both business and hobby so it's certainly investment for me too, but generally speaking local people can have stuff they need if they want it, if it's stuff I don't want to spend time shipping or whatever.

subnet_zero wrote on 2022-04-28, 13:24:

Instant Collection! 😮

by volume this is actually about the same as my existing collection, but my existing collection is almost all tested/hand picked stuff so is far higher market value. however, I have no idea what is in this mix so it'll be fun to catalog.

HanSolo wrote on 2022-04-28, 16:54:

Many Demos from that era support only GUS. And the card does mixing of channels in hardware so you get better quality (higher sample rates) with less CPU load. So IMHO the GUS does a lot that no other card does. If that's still relevant today is another question 😀

I'm glad I have one already and don't need to pay the current prices. Who knows if any of this old hardware turns out to be such a safe investment 10-15 years from now...

I know about those awesome properties of the GUS. Which puts it firmly in two digit € territory for me! 😉

Btw., we were making fun of hopeless ebay offers a few weeks ago (So far, it did not):
Re: Anyone want to bet if this sells :)
Including an ESS 688 ISA sound card that truly looked like rotten shit:
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/xKgAAOSws9FiTv7C/s-l1600.jpg
But I got curious and gave it a 1 € try. Turns out after a bubble bath, it really was mostly dirt:

Traces seem fine. Couldn't test it yet, but hopeful.
Arrived alongside a rather obscure 1995 vintage Sanyo quad speed that also had rust spots and I considered 95 % DOA. But, it runs just fine.
Weird little USB bracket - looks like ASUS, but will be fun to find out if it fits any of my motherboards. (I assume all those caps and diodes on it will improve my karma, or something...?)

Just won this on eBay, sorry if I beat any of you to it 😀

Not sure of the exact model, and not sure of my plans for it yet, but I'll certainly put in a CD ROM and a sound card at least. The BIOS photo appears to show it has 80MB RAM which is decent, so Windows 95 is probably destined for it... I could even try OS/2 Warp.

Seller's photos. Needs a good clean!

Audigy 2 ZS for my 98/XP machine. The back is a lot dustier than the front. Also got a $3 160gb hard drive because more storage is always betterererer.

For more projects ^-^

ooooh nice, I only got a surplus of the unbranded taller ones ^^

MadYoshi wrote on 2022-04-28, 21:15:

For more projects ^-^

IMG_20220428_225257_2.jpg

Very nice, the early twist mounts!
Just don't use them on Athlons =)
But that's probably common knowledge nowadays.

*crack*

...recently bought... also for projects...All are 256MB. All but two are some kind of Corsair Platinum/Ultra/XMS, whatever 'go-faster' branded.

7 sticks@500MHz
12 sticks@466MHz
3 sticks@400MHz (1 is Kingston HyperX)
4 sticks@375MHz (1 is Kingston HyperX)
1 stick@333MHz

bofh.fromhell wrote on 2022-04-28, 23:48:

Very nice, the early twist mounts! Just don't use them on Athlons =) But that's probably common knowledge nowadays. […]
Show full quote

MadYoshi wrote on 2022-04-28, 21:15:

For more projects ^-^

IMG_20220428_225257_2.jpg

Very nice, the early twist mounts!
Just don't use them on Athlons =)
But that's probably common knowledge nowadays.

*crack*

Sadly not just Athlons I remember seeing many mangled P3s with those twist lock heatsinks.