Baleog wrote on 2022-10-20, 09:53:

I finally got hold of a ZX Spectrum in really good condition. It even has the original plastic protection on the keyboard. I may be peeling that off. It however doesn't have the original outer box. I'm usually not so fussed about original packaging but in this case i may consider reproducing it.

That plastic protection is a godsend in this case, it'll be the reason why it is in such good condition. Most Spectrums you find nowadays are pretty scratched up or worn around the keyboard.

Whilst I already have 1 of the later Amstrad built Spectrums, I've always been tempted to get an original 48K model just for it's iconic looks (plus some minor game compatibility issues). They're pretty common in the UK for affordable prices, but I just know if I get 1 I'll end up spending more in the long run to spruce it up and get it looking pristine.

gmaverick2k wrote on 2022-10-20, 19:18:

a poormans amstrad cpc 😜

In the case of the many lazy Spectrum ports on the Amstrad CPC though, it was better to own the Spectrum as the CPC version of the games often ran very slooooooowwwwwww. 🤣

Got these bad boys today

2-2-3-5 timings are the best I was able to get stable, 2-2-2-5 just hangs shortly after post

old samsung kit

new corsair kit

Got me a nice boost in minimum framerates 😁

berenyi_kft wrote on 2022-10-21, 00:26:

Got these bad boys today […]
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Got these bad boys today

I have seen these before.
Really cool.

Got this Tatung CM-1322N EGA monitor (rebadged as an Inacomp 600 Pro).

I believe it may be the same model or at least very similar to our original family computer monitor. Though ours was branded Tatung and not Inacomp.

Picture quality on it is quite nice; sharper and brighter than my Tandy CM-11, so I may use this for my Tandy machines going forward. Though it does suffer from a little of bit of jitter, so it will need some repair work first.

Probably capacitors, but that monitor sure looks amazing.

Finally got a Quickshot joystick, model QS-202.
With manual and unopened plastic bag with 3.5" disk with drivers.

Beware of the lasers. Black cats that cross your path as you walk under a ladder will start to tackle you.

Won myself a Laser 128 Apple //c or //e clone.

bjwil1991 wrote on 2022-10-22, 07:18:

Beware of the lasers. Black cats that cross your path as you walk under a ladder will start to tackle you.

Screenshot_20221022-031529.png

Won myself a Laser 128 Apple //c or //e clone.

Very nice machine and also Adrian Blake approved!

bjwil1991 wrote on 2022-10-22, 07:18:

Beware of the lasers. Black cats that cross your path as you walk under a ladder will start to tackle you.

Won myself a Laser 128 Apple //c or //e clone.

Very nice! I've casually wanted one of these for my collection ever since I learned about it, but I have far too much already. I'm happy to see one go to someone who will truly appreciate it.

It looks to be in great condition. Good job.

I've been away for a bit without access to my collection of retro goodies, but during that time I managed to add a bit to it. Here are some highlights (beware of LONG post...)

ATi Rage Fury MAXX - saved from a scrapper. Missing both fans and heatsinks. Had 5 SMD capacitors broken off the back, but no PCB damage. I managed to replace the caps with ones stolen off a dead Rage Fury and she seems to run fine - in 2d at least. I haven't tested it in windows at all since I have no heatsinks for it. I'll do thorough tests when I manage to find a couple of heatsinks and fans that look similar to the ones it came with stock.

1998-1999 beige box - 266MHz pentium II, AT form factor slot 1 ZIDA mainboard with the LX chipset, crystal ISA sound card and a TNT2 M64 video card. The label in the pictures tells us it originally came with a SIS video card but it's been upgraded to the TNT2 at one point in it's life. To be perfectly honest I bought this for the case, AT PSU and hard disk drive. AT cases are getting rarer by the day and I save each and every one I can find - keep the ones I fancy and trade the rest to other people getting into retro-computing. *redneck accent* theeze young'ins ain't experienced dem Ay Tee form factour cases, an' I'm gunna' help' with that!

Biostar MB-8433UUD-A. haven't gotten around to testing her yet. Bought from a recycling center where I can get old hardware by the KG. Looks to be in good condition and came with an AMD 586 CPU.

Matrox G400 MAX - missing cooler. Heven't tested her yet but she looks in good condition.

Voodoo 3 3000. Good condition, works - despite picking her out from a pile of other hardware.

Voodoo 2 12MB. Horrible condition - plenty of corrosion, several SMD components missing, some bent pins. Might be able to fix it, but I don't have high hopes for this one. It will most likely end up as a parts donor for other defective voodoo 2 cards.

SiS 315 agp.... by ECS.... I have 3 of these... they all look good, but none of them work - including this one... I really wanted a working one to mess around with, but I guess this is just my luck. Same with Trident Blade 3D cards. I have two, both dead... Can't find anything physically wrong with my 3 SiS cards. I plug them in an AGP slot, the PC posts correctly, no missing video card beeps, but no image.

Zida 4DPS Rev 2.11. Found on top of some other boards at the Recycling center. A bit dirty but she works great. Gave this one to a friend who recently started collecting retro hardware.

Creative Sound Blaster 2.0 - got this one in trade from a friend.

Point of View Geforce 6800XT AGP / 512MB DDR2 - again, recycling center find. Unfortunately, she was pretty damaged. Missing and damaged SMD componends, some very tiny (1008 size). Luckily layout is similar to a Gainward card I have (also defective - bad GPU) so I managed to lift all damaged components off the Gainward and get the PoV card running! She unlocks to 12/6/12/12 shaders just fine, but she's not stable fully unlocked to 16/8/16/16 like my leadtek 6800LE AGP.

Asus P4P800 Deluxe i865 + socket 478 3GHz prescott pentium 4 + Silverstone Nitrogon NT02 tower cooler for socket 478. Wanted the cooler, but the recycling center would only sell me the whole kit as in the pic. Luckily everything works.

Asus P5QC + Core 2 Quad Q9650. I only wanted the CPU, but as above, the center would only sell it as is. Price was good tough. The CPU works, it replaced the q9550 in my second LGA775 rig. Haven't tested the motherboard yet.

Abit BH6. I love 90's abit boards, could not pass this one up. Came with a 333Mhz Pentium II and 64MB of PC100 SDRAM. I also have a BE6-II. I wonder what the differences between the two are.

S3 Vision PCI card made by Diamond. Haven't tested it yet.

Socket3 wrote on 2022-10-22, 16:12:

ATi Rage Fury MAXX - saved from a scrapper. Missing both fans and heatsinks. Had 5 SMD capacitors broken off the back, but no PCB damage. I managed to replace the caps with ones stolen off a dead Rage Fury and she seems to run fine - in 2d at least. I haven't tested it in windows at all since I have no heatsinks for it. I'll do thought tests when I manage to find a couple of heatsinks and fans that look similar to the ones it came with stock.

Don't bother. The aluminum-backed fans that came with these are absolutely terrible and are very loud. Use the next generation all-black variant in instead. Note that there will be two fans on this, so any kind of noise generator gets doubled.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-10-22, 16:34:

Socket3 wrote on 2022-10-22, 16:12:

ATi Rage Fury MAXX - saved from a scrapper. Missing both fans and heatsinks. Had 5 SMD capacitors broken off the back, but no PCB damage. I managed to replace the caps with ones stolen off a dead Rage Fury and she seems to run fine - in 2d at least. I haven't tested it in windows at all since I have no heatsinks for it. I'll do thought tests when I manage to find a couple of heatsinks and fans that look similar to the ones it came with stock.

Don't bother. The aluminum-backed fans that came with these are absolutely terrible and are very loud. Use the next generation all-black variant in instead. Note that there will be two fans on this, so any kind of noise generator gets doubled.

Thanks for the tip, I'll keep that in mind.

Thrift store fairy gave me a Zalman "9500" series, newest iteration is the CNPS9500 LED, can't see if this one has one until I juice it. These were a high dollar cooler around launch in 2005, and stayed competetive through the noughties. Initially, they were outperforming off the shelf liquid cooling setups. Also named "aero flower" in some marketting. This one looks unused or very lightly used, but I didn't get any mounting hardware. Not quite as much of a steal as I thought when I looked it up, as apparently Zalman are clearing stock through Newegg at only $30 a pop, which is quite reasonable, I think original was at inflation adjusted $120-ish in 2022 dollars.

Anyhoo, another solid performing cooler for the stable, prescott taming capabilities, Tech Report got 4.5Ghz out of one with this on it, 180W. Maybe it will go on the Pentium Dual and I'll try a Re: The Pentium D 995: A study into a world without Conroe for make benefit glorious forums of VOGONS type setup, then it can banjo it's heart out against my s939 X2. But of course I've gotta bit of workshop fiddling around to do to make mounting clips/brackets.

Here is a photo of the fan I was talking about. I find these to be a lot quieter. Of course, they're all very old now, so there is always the risk of getting a bad or worn out fan. Sometimes they can be revived with a drop of oil, if the bearings aren't too worn or have become damaged.

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-10-22, 18:05:

Thrift store fairy gave me a Zalman "9500" series, newest iteration is the CNPS9500 LED, can't see if this one has one until I juice it. These were a high dollar cooler around launch in 2005, and stayed competetive through the noughties.

I had the larger variant of this, and it was indeed a very good performer, as well as whisper quiet. They are challenging to store safely though when not in use, without an original box. Zalman's usual horizontal flower coolers were also very good.

I try to only buy coolers now that can mount standard sized fans, preferably something that can fit a Noctua. That way I can be confident with the longevity of the product. I will outlive the life of the solid aluminum and copper, but I have seen many, many fan bearings fail over the years.

Kahenraz wrote on 2022-10-22, 18:09:

They are challenging to store safely though when not in use, without an original box. Zalman's usual horizontal flower coolers were also very good.

I try to only buy coolers now that can mount standard sized fans, preferably something that can fit a Noctua. That way I can be confident with the longevity of the product. I will outlive the life of the solid aluminum and copper, but I have seen many, many fan bearings fail over the years.

Right, I'm actually quite astounded how this managed to go through the collection process and end up loose on a shelf and look so good still.

I could probably get another fan on it if I had to, would not look near as pretty, but it would work. But yeah, replaceable fans are best. Even because some coolers have quite lame fans on them and upping the CFM gives much better results.

Socket3 wrote on 2022-10-22, 16:12:

SiS 315 agp.... by ECS.... I have 3 of these... they all look good, but none of them work - including this one... I really wante […]
Show full quote

SiS 315 agp.... by ECS.... I have 3 of these... they all look good, but none of them work - including this one... I really wanted a working one to mess around with, but I guess this is just my luck. Same with Trident Blade 3D cards. I have two, both dead... Can't find anything physically wrong with my 3 SiS cards. I plug them in an AGP slot, the PC posts correctly, no missing video card beeps, but no image.

...
...

Abit BH6. I love 90's abit boards, could not pass this one up. Came with a 333Mhz Pentium II and 64MB of PC100 SDRAM. I also have a BE6-II. I wonder what the differences between the two are.

SiS 315 cards... I have one that works.... just.. it's not happy on anything but 1x AGP and low res, or it goes all muddy and can drop synch. I have ascribed this to the capacitors needing replacement, which I guess will only happen when all the more interesting cards have been fixed, deployed and tweaked.

BH6... solid board. Very stable. Give it it's PII 333 back and a banshee, or TNT and use for pre-98 stuff. Kinda boring really, no exceptional abilities, just a reliable donkey.

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-10-22, 18:40:

SiS 315 cards... I have one that works.... just.. it's not happy on anything but 1x AGP and low res, or it goes all muddy and can drop synch. I have ascribed this to the capacitors needing replacement, which I guess will only happen when all the more interesting cards have been fixed, deployed and tweaked.

You're giving me hope here man! I'm going to stick all of them in turn in an AGP 1X board (via MVP3 maybe?) and see if there are any signs of life.

BitWrangler wrote on 2022-10-22, 18:40:

BH6... solid board. Very stable. Give it it's PII 333 back and a banshee, or TNT and use for pre-98 stuff. Kinda boring really, no exceptional abilities, just a reliable donkey.

Interesting. In comparisson, the BE6-II is an overclocking beast. I run a 333MHz P2 at 500Mhz (5x100) at stock voltage on it. In fact all 4 of the 333Mhz P2 chips I have will run at 500Mhz on the BE6 (only one at stock voltage tough). Love Abit Softmenu.

Socket3 wrote on 2022-10-22, 16:12:

Abit BH6. I love 90's abit boards, could not pass this one up. Came with a 333Mhz Pentium II and 64MB of PC100 SDRAM. I also have a BE6-II. I wonder what the differences between the two are.

I'm kinda jealous you got a BH6. Mine gave up the magic smoke months ago and fleabay prices are pretty high.