Made a small PowerVR Machine (PowerVR PCX2 based) on a MSI Desktop base.
It includes a 810 based motherboard, a Matrox M3D, 256MB 133MHz and a 1GHz Coppermine. Pimped with a PowerVR sticker and a slot-in Pioneer DVD reader. It's running cool and silent with WinME.
For now it's running with a SATA controller (SI 3512) on a 2.5" disk but I might migrate on a CF card. The freed PCI slot might be used either for a better primary card to be paired with a PowerVR (Tseng ET6000 or ATi Rage LT Pro PCI) or an exhaust PCI fan below the M3D card.
Onscreen : One of Videologic Apocalypse SGL Screensavers.

JustJulião wrote on 2022-07-10, 20:02:

Made a small PowerVR Machine (PowerVR PCX2 based) on a MSI Desktop base. It includes a 810 based motherboard, a Matrox M3D, 256M […]
Show full quote

Made a small PowerVR Machine (PowerVR PCX2 based) on a MSI Desktop base.
It includes a 810 based motherboard, a Matrox M3D, 256MB 133MHz and a 1GHz Coppermine. Pimped with a PowerVR sticker and a slot-in Pioneer DVD reader. It's running cool and silent with WinME.
For now it's running with a SATA controller (SI 3512) on a 2.5" disk but I might migrate on a CF card. The freed PCI slot might be used either for a better primary card to be paired with a PowerVR (Tseng ET6000 or ATi Rage LT Pro PCI) or an exhaust PCI fan below the M3D card.
Onscreen : One of Videologic Apocalypse SGL Screensavers.
20220710_215211.jpg
20220710_205815.jpg

THAT is an awesome desktop you put together. Where can I get one of those cases? I should I have asked 20 years ago???

Decided to test out the Sold Out version of Tomb Raider 1&2 which I bought recently. To my surprise, TR1 didn't play CD audio music. At first, I thought my sound card had somehow muted it, but nope, turns out someone else had the same issue with the Sold Out release.

I'm never buying a Sold Out game again. Despite their ultra cheap prices, it's just not worth the risk.

Meatball wrote on 2022-07-10, 20:30:

JustJulião wrote on 2022-07-10, 20:02:

Made a small PowerVR Machine (PowerVR PCX2 based) on a MSI Desktop base. It includes a 810 based motherboard, a Matrox M3D, 256M […]
Show full quote

Made a small PowerVR Machine (PowerVR PCX2 based) on a MSI Desktop base.
It includes a 810 based motherboard, a Matrox M3D, 256MB 133MHz and a 1GHz Coppermine. Pimped with a PowerVR sticker and a slot-in Pioneer DVD reader. It's running cool and silent with WinME.
For now it's running with a SATA controller (SI 3512) on a 2.5" disk but I might migrate on a CF card. The freed PCI slot might be used either for a better primary card to be paired with a PowerVR (Tseng ET6000 or ATi Rage LT Pro PCI) or an exhaust PCI fan below the M3D card.
Onscreen : One of Videologic Apocalypse SGL Screensavers.
20220710_215211.jpg
20220710_205815.jpg

THAT is an awesome desktop you put together. Where can I get one of those cases? I should I have asked 20 years ago???

Thank you.
I found mine in the office I work in that used to host an hardware reseller but it's not rare online, I came accross one of those twice without searching for it (I was searching for a replacement motherboard, MS-6351 if it can help).
I'll check if I see some marking.
I was wrong btw, it's 815 based, I was thinking that only 810's have an IGP.

JustJulião wrote on 2022-07-10, 20:42:

Thank you. I found mine in the office I work in that used to host an hardware reseller but it's not rare online, I came accross […]
Show full quote

Meatball wrote on 2022-07-10, 20:30:

JustJulião wrote on 2022-07-10, 20:02:

Made a small PowerVR Machine (PowerVR PCX2 based) on a MSI Desktop base. It includes a 810 based motherboard, a Matrox M3D, 256M […]
Show full quote

Made a small PowerVR Machine (PowerVR PCX2 based) on a MSI Desktop base.
It includes a 810 based motherboard, a Matrox M3D, 256MB 133MHz and a 1GHz Coppermine. Pimped with a PowerVR sticker and a slot-in Pioneer DVD reader. It's running cool and silent with WinME.
For now it's running with a SATA controller (SI 3512) on a 2.5" disk but I might migrate on a CF card. The freed PCI slot might be used either for a better primary card to be paired with a PowerVR (Tseng ET6000 or ATi Rage LT Pro PCI) or an exhaust PCI fan below the M3D card.
Onscreen : One of Videologic Apocalypse SGL Screensavers.
20220710_215211.jpg
20220710_205815.jpg

THAT is an awesome desktop you put together. Where can I get one of those cases? I should I have asked 20 years ago???

Thank you.
I found mine in the office I work in that used to host an hardware reseller but it's not rare online, I came accross one of those twice without searching for it (I was searching for a replacement motherboard, MS-6351 if it can help).
I'll check if I see some marking.
I was wrong btw, it's 815 based, I was thinking that only 810's have an IGP.

Thanks a lot!

And the 815s can have an IGP. The Intel D815EEA (which I own) has an IGP, for example.

JustJulião wrote on 2022-07-10, 20:02:

Made a small PowerVR Machine (PowerVR PCX2 based) on a MSI Desktop base. It includes a 810 based motherboard, a Matrox M3D, 256M […]
Show full quote

Made a small PowerVR Machine (PowerVR PCX2 based) on a MSI Desktop base.
It includes a 810 based motherboard, a Matrox M3D, 256MB 133MHz and a 1GHz Coppermine. Pimped with a PowerVR sticker and a slot-in Pioneer DVD reader. It's running cool and silent with WinME.
For now it's running with a SATA controller (SI 3512) on a 2.5" disk but I might migrate on a CF card. The freed PCI slot might be used either for a better primary card to be paired with a PowerVR (Tseng ET6000 or ATi Rage LT Pro PCI) or an exhaust PCI fan below the M3D card.
Onscreen : One of Videologic Apocalypse SGL Screensavers.
20220710_215211.jpg
20220710_205815.jpg

That is an awesome Power VR setup you built. That's a sweet desktop case you found.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2022-07-10, 20:36:

Decided to test out the Sold Out version of Tomb Raider 1&2 which I bought recently. To my surprise, TR1 didn't play CD audio music. At first, I thought my sound card had somehow muted it, but nope, turns out someone else had the same issue with the Sold Out release.

I'm never buying a Sold Out game again. Despite their ultra cheap prices, it's just not worth the risk.

Yep, the Sold Out version of TR1 is really shoddy. I remember when I bought it and discovered the missing audio, I ended up downloading the audio tracks and burning a backup copy of the CD with the audio tracks restored.

PTherapist wrote on 2022-07-11, 10:17:

Yep, the Sold Out version of TR1 is really shoddy. I remember when I bought it and discovered the missing audio, I ended up downloading the audio tracks and burning a backup copy of the CD with the audio tracks restored.

What really annoyed me was that they bothered enough to populate the TR1 disc with "empty" CD audio tracks. So the game actually appears to be playing something, but there is no sound. Windows Media Player can also "play" the tracks, but of course there is only silence.

This tripped me up and made me think that my sound card was somehow at fault. Even weirder, the TR2 disc from that same Sold Out release has all the CD audio tracks present and working fine, as far as I can tell.

Just yesterday I was messing about with Sold Out rerelease of Cannon Fodder or a redump cd image of it to be precise, and turned out the adobe acrobat files on the disc are corrupt. So either the guys at redump ripped the disc wrong and got wrong hashes for it or the Sold Out version has corrupt adobe acrobat installer in there.

Not the worst thing ever, but they clearly weren't big on quality control. What annoys me more is that the game still has the good old find the word from manual copy protection, and I'm pretty sure the manual exists only as a pdf on the disc.

And the SE/30 is done, at least for now. It’s usually running 7.1, but I have 8.1 running well for the sake of it. Because I can, really.

Managed to finally get the last few power supplies needed to get my midi switchbox setup going.

Now I can finally run my MT32/CM32L/SC-55/SC-55Mk2/MU80 at the press of two buttons.

Here's a better look , its turned into a bit of a rats nest though since I'm terrible at cable management.
For the audio I've got a 8 port RCA switcher at the moment though I might be better off getting a mixer in the future.

The cables from the MPU 105 go into the 401.

I also managed to find a switcher for my three sound cards : SB Pro 2 / AWE64 Gold / Gravis Ultrasound Clone.
I've also got a cmslpt or a tndlpt that could go on the fourth jack for a total of 4 sound devices.
It's quite handy.

Both the sound card audio and the synths audio go to an Altec Lansing ACS 45.1 speaker set with amp which lets you mix 2 audio sources.

I'm looking into acquiring some Yamaha MU2000EX units and any desirable PLG-150/100 boards that I can get my hands on, to fill them. The most plentiful/available boards seem to be the Virtual Accoustic Woodwind/Brass and Latin Drum boards, which are also the most desirable for composition and playback purposes. There is another Drum board that has assorted "Live" drums of various types, but it isn't one of the more readily available boards and is hard to come by. Based on what I have been able to learn about the boards, a good build-out for a multi-purpose unit would be one of the Latin Drum/Live Drum boards and two of the Virtual Accoustic boards. Beyond that, a unit filled with 3 of the VA boards would also be a useful build, but only for creative purposes and not playback of game MIDIs, as the VL feature of the XG spec was never used in any games.

One of the interesting things about these add-in boards is that the Piano, Drum, and XG-module boards all use the same chips and a dual-chip PCB design, but obviously have different respective ROM banks. The XG and Drum boards use a single chip build, but obviously use the same dual-chip PCB board as the Piano boards, making it possible to harvest another identical chip from a donor board of the same model and install it, thereby doubling the performance of the XG or Drum board installed in a unit, which is why the Piano boards have higher performance, due to their use of two processors, instead of one. On paper, you could even combine the respective banks from the Live Drum and Latin Drum modules into a single board and run it with two chips for max performance capability.

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-07-10, 18:44:

My personal preference, was to stop at 1200 grit with a satiny finish,

Good thinking ! All the original Intel and AMD CPU's and heatsinks were not "mirror" finish for a reason. Microscopically speaking: small imperfections give more surface area which can translate to more heat transfer with proper goop.

BetaC wrote on 2022-07-11, 11:11:

And the SE/30 is done, at least for now. It’s usually running 7.1, but I have 8.1 running well for the sake of it. Because I can, really.

Very nice !

Have created this meme:

Well...im on a losing streak with the VersaDock... Ordered a PSU on evilbay and it had the same burned up pcb.....maybe worse actually as the resistors fell out. Might just scrap the thing. I dont really need it with a desktop 486 with omi installed and a working xj10bt pcmcia network card...plus 802.11b phone tethering.

Bloody P75s screen got hit. Hoping I can order a replacement...or get a 640x480 and put the 800x600 in the p75.

Its been 102 degrees out there, otherwise Id be putting a new oil sump on the lawn mower im restoring.

Horun wrote on 2022-07-12, 02:00:

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-07-10, 18:44:

My personal preference, was to stop at 1200 grit with a satiny finish,

Good thinking ! All the original Intel and AMD CPU's and heatsinks were not "mirror" finish for a reason. Microscopically speaking: small imperfections give more surface area which can translate to more heat transfer with proper goop.

Perfectly flat mirror against mirror is always better than any goop. While you may have more surface area, you are filling it with goop and goop is always worse than metal itself. Therefore, filling the imperfections with metal is better over filling it with goop.

Usually the bigger problem is that even with mirror finish, the surfaces are not exactly flat but curved. If you can keep the surface flat, you really don't want any goop at all. (With 2 flat mirror-finish surfaces, the goop would be perfectly pushed out anyways)

i tried to put an Gainward Nvidia GeForce 6800 GS 512MB NA/6800GXTD52-PM8370 gpu into an abit vp6 but the bios didn't agree. I therefore put it in a hot Prescott machine (foxconn agp Socket LGA775) it runs at 8x but its set for 4x for stability with the slower than DDR2 memory running at 400mhz.
That tower came with windows 7 but driver support dried up in xp so it was so much happier when i put xp on it even the usb hubs built in started to work. I guess due to SATA 150 built in I may even set up a RAID 0 one day for a kick I mean it has 2 threads and a 1000 watt PSU it gets warm maybe kick out the prescott for something cooler i dunno but its stable anyhow so I am gonna have some more fun on mr prescott the hair dryer 🤣.
These Socket LGA775 / AGP 8X boards are not in abundance these days everyone moved onto vista and seven and forgot them or threw them away that time was when PCIE first came out all them old cards were simular sizes to agp like 128, 256 , 512mb 🤣 still under $20 on ebay those PCIE
i wonder if Socket LGA775 came out before PCIE

Just a question: what bench can i test this gpu for free to see if its healthy? under xp please?

zapbuzz wrote on 2022-07-12, 09:03:

i tried to put an Gainward Nvidia GeForce 6800 GS 512MB NA/6800GXTD52-PM8370 gpu into an abit vp6 but the bios didn't agree. I t […]
Show full quote

i tried to put an Gainward Nvidia GeForce 6800 GS 512MB NA/6800GXTD52-PM8370 gpu into an abit vp6 but the bios didn't agree. I therefore put it in a hot Prescott machine (foxconn agp Socket LGA775) it runs at 8x but its set for 4x for stability with the slower than DDR2 memory running at 400mhz.
That tower came with windows 7 but driver support dried up in xp so it was so much happier when i put xp on it even the usb hubs built in started to work. I guess due to SATA 150 built in I may even set up a RAID 0 one day for a kick I mean it has 2 threads and a 1000 watt PSU it gets warm maybe kick out the prescott for something cooler i dunno but its stable anyhow so I am gonna have some more fun on mr prescott the hair dryer 🤣.
These Socket LGA775 / AGP 8X boards are not in abundance these days everyone moved onto vista and seven and forgot them or threw them away that time was when PCIE first came out all them old cards were simular sizes to agp like 128, 256 , 512mb 🤣 still under $20 on ebay those PCIE
i wonder if Socket LGA775 came out before PCIE

Just a question: what bench can i test this gpu for free to see if its healthy? under xp please?

I ran this bench it raised its temps but survived i'm more confident my card is good.

Had a retro moment on my current Ryzen hexacore today. I still swear by Microsoft Trackball Explorers. They are great and they are fortunately solidly built. But after a couple of decades of daily use things start to fail.

The past few days, the right mouse button on my main unit was getting less and less responsive until today it basically completely failed. So disassembled it, found a loose connection and gunk. Cleaned, re-connected and started to re-assemble, until the plastic of buttons 4 and 5 shattered. I had been very gentle, it had just degraded to the point of being too brittle to be handled. Tried to super-glue it but that changed the length subtly and it no longer fit...

So I grabbed my for-parts spare, one that had had a cup of coffee poured over it then dropped. Bad scratches on the top, missing RMB plastic and lower PCB polluted, but otherwise much newer. Took both apart and basically merged lower half of the used-up unit with upper half of the spare. End result on the right, bad bits on the left.

It's alive again!

Some issues with scroll wheel though so need to open it up again. Worst-case I still have one more heavily used ones and two basically new spares. Am seriously considering finding a 3D scanning service so I can disassemble one of them to scan every case part for later manufacture if it fails - even unused plastic gets brittle and the day will come when the last unit crumbles. As there's no sign of a decent replacement (and yes, I've tried pretty much every alternative out there), I want to be ready.

Edit:
Yep, scroll wheel completely died after replacing the parts. Now had to re-replace with the old one. All working now, thankfully.

Messing around with Abit NF7-S with a 9600XT, took ages to find memory modules that would work with decent stability...