TheAbandonwareGuy wrote on 2023-01-11, 19:08:

RetroPC_King wrote on 2023-01-11, 17:16:

Today's find was: -a Palit NVIDIA GeForce FX1200 128MB AGP 8X video card with black PCB and VGA + DVI-I output -a Alps 3.5 Inch […]
Show full quote

Today's find was:
-a Palit NVIDIA GeForce FX1200 128MB AGP 8X video card with black PCB and VGA + DVI-I output
-a Alps 3.5 Inch 1.44MB Black bezel floppy drive
-a Gigabyte GA-7Vt600P-RZ motherboard (VIA KT600 chipset) with I/O Shield, IDE 80-conductor cable and Floppy cable that have a AMD Athlon XP 3000+ Barton (AXDA3000KV4D) CPU in it + Ultra Fire CPU cooler (copper base + aluminium fins). Also motherboard have 3 bulging caps, that I plan to replace if I can.
So i was lucky today because that I got for cheap a AMD Athlon XP 3000+ Barton.
Any opinion?

I mean, you have the workings of an extremely fast Win9x machine or a very basic XP build (FX5200 might struggle with games newer than 2001/early 2002)

There's no such thing as a bad find these days. Not with hipsters trying to turn the retro PC market into the same kind of mess retro consoles are.

Also I thought about putting the AMD Athlon XP 3000+ in my ASUS A7V880. Opinion?

I've two Via chipset Socket 370 motherboards that I wanted to test to see if they will work with Tualatin CPUs, and I stumbled on an Ebay seller with some NOS Lin Lin adapters for a not ridiculous price ($40.00 shipped) so I bought one.

Drat. This was indeed NOS, and the package had never been opened. When I opened it, a pin fell out. I hoped that maybe it was something that had gotten in it by accident, so I tried both of the Tualatin CPUs I have in both of the P3 motherboards I have but I was never able to get one to POST. I looked it over very closely and I found an empty hole where the pin slides right in, so it seems it wasn't soldered correctly from the factory. I've sent the seller a message explaining this, but the sad thing is that he probably doesn't have another to replace it so the best I can hope for is a refund. If I get a refund and he doesn't want it back I'll try to solder the pin in place, but I'm not going to try that until I know I have nothing to lose. If you look closely you can see the pin that sits low and protrudes below the PCB.

Received some more sound devices this week.

Got a Yamaha MU50, adding to my growing collection of Yamaha sound modules.

Plus picked up another pair of Terratec Profimedia Gold 16/96 and a Roland SCC-1, which is IMHO, one of the best DOS soundcard combinations there is.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2023-01-10, 18:28:

ChrisK wrote on 2023-01-10, 13:30:

Additionally the PCI versions have a LDO regulator which adds "some" more heat to the game (that small part with the heatsink).
I once changed that to a DIY switching regulator leading to a decreased system power consumption of several Watts.
This regulator got untouchable hot and I still don't see how any of these cards could survive that long. The switching one don't even gets hand-hot.

I'm very curious about this. What part did you use to replace that ridiculously hot regulator? I know several Voodoo cards from this time period have similar issues with heat dissipation and regulators that run at least as hot as the graphics chip itself.

So here are some pictures of the card.

Have to dig in my archive for the PCB files since they obviously have disappeared on my main machine. Will append them here as soon as possible.

This is true board bodge modifications in good way and beautiful. This is commonly done on very expensive boards.

Cheers,

ChrisK wrote on 2023-01-11, 20:39:

So here are some pictures of the card. […]
Show full quote

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2023-01-10, 18:28:

ChrisK wrote on 2023-01-10, 13:30:

Additionally the PCI versions have a LDO regulator which adds "some" more heat to the game (that small part with the heatsink).
I once changed that to a DIY switching regulator leading to a decreased system power consumption of several Watts.
This regulator got untouchable hot and I still don't see how any of these cards could survive that long. The switching one don't even gets hand-hot.

I'm very curious about this. What part did you use to replace that ridiculously hot regulator? I know several Voodoo cards from this time period have similar issues with heat dissipation and regulators that run at least as hot as the graphics chip itself.

So here are some pictures of the card.

Riva TNT_switching reg_1.jpg
Riva TNT_switching reg_2.jpg
Riva TNT_switching reg_3.jpg

Have to dig in my archive for the PCB files since they obviously have disappeared on my main machine. Will append them here as soon as possible.

That's amazing! I would seriously suggest making a thread about this modification once you find the files.

These are the kinds of mods that can extend the useful life of parts. I'm sure more than a few people would do this if it isn't too difficult or expensive.

... I will say though, I've never worked with components like that, so I would definitely need some instructions to go with the PCB files.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2023-01-12, 01:11:

That's amazing! I would seriously suggest making a thread about this modification once you find the files. […]
Show full quote

ChrisK wrote on 2023-01-11, 20:39:

So here are some pictures of the card. […]
Show full quote

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2023-01-10, 18:28:

I'm very curious about this. What part did you use to replace that ridiculously hot regulator? I know several Voodoo cards from this time period have similar issues with heat dissipation and regulators that run at least as hot as the graphics chip itself.

So here are some pictures of the card.

Riva TNT_switching reg_1.jpg
Riva TNT_switching reg_2.jpg
Riva TNT_switching reg_3.jpg

Have to dig in my archive for the PCB files since they obviously have disappeared on my main machine. Will append them here as soon as possible.

That's amazing! I would seriously suggest making a thread about this modification once you find the files.

These are the kinds of mods that can extend the useful life of parts. I'm sure more than a few people would do this if it isn't too difficult or expensive.

... I will say though, I've never worked with components like that, so I would definitely need some instructions to go with the PCB files.

Would be great to have this available, there are plenty of cards with LODs that could use this mod, I have several in my collection. Might even be possible to simplify it further with newer components that are more integrated thus making it cheaper, soldering tiny SMD parts is a pain in the behind so anything that reduces the need for them is a bonus.

TrashPanda wrote on 2023-01-12, 01:28:

Would be great to have this available, there are plenty of cards with LODs that could use this mod, I have several in my collection. Might even be possible to simplify it further with newer components that are more integrated thus making it cheaper, soldering tiny SMD parts is a pain in the behind so anything that reduces the need for them is a bonus.

Yes, if there's a way to eliminate the SMD stuff that would be fantastic.

There are a lot of old Voodoo Banshee and Voodoo 3 cards with big brown spots on the PCB where the voltage regulators are located.

Mods like this would prevent that from happening.

Just got two of these plus one apple mouse which I still have to clean a little bit. As far as I got, these should be amstrad mices? Am I right? Guess also not compatible with x86 machines since the connector is male, for a normal pc should be female and guessing pinout and probably voltages are different.

Yah, might be Amstrad mice, they plug in the back of a PC1512 or PC1640 keyboard I think.

Edit: been too long since I last used them and was a bit n00bular on PC in general at the time, the amstrad PC mice, had their own driver, and worked for things that supported mice, but also worked for things that didn't as they seemed to emulate multiple cursor key presses and left button was enter maybe. They were a kind of bus mouse but involved with the KBC as well for that somehow.

editII: no my memories are scrambled, it was the joystick plugged into keyboard, digital, mouse had it's own port, but buttons were mapped to keyboard scancodes, and could be remapped by driver.

Bought this in a dirty condition for 25€. I think I snatched it just in time 😀
Just cleaned it,now need to test it...Overall it's in a pretty good condition. Spacebar has yellowed a bit.

Today's find is a MATSONIC MS8137C+ 2.0 VIA KT266a motherboard with a AMD Athlon XP 1700+ CPU with a Foxconn CPU Cooler. Also this board came with a I/O Shield.
Any opinions?

RetroPC_King wrote on 2023-01-13, 13:30:

Any opinions?

Have a nice time finding the latest BIOS 😀
You can do PC-133 vs DDR-133.

Martin85 wrote on 2023-01-12, 18:19:

Just got two of these plus one apple mouse which I still have to clean a little bit. As far as I got, these should be amstrad mices? Am I right? Guess also not compatible with x86 machines since the connector is male, for a normal pc should be female and guessing pinout and probably voltages are different.

I had that mouse, on an amstrad pc2086

RetroPC_King wrote on 2023-01-13, 13:30:

Today's find is a MATSONIC MS8137C+ 2.0 VIA KT266a motherboard with a AMD Athlon XP 1700+ CPU with a Foxconn CPU Cooler. Also this board came with a I/O Shield.
Any opinions?

Well, it looks like it has a Universal AGP slot, which can be nice.
And, what the ceck IS that loong black thin connector-thingie along the right side of the memory slots ? 😅

Other than that, it looks just like any other board from that era. Not sure what CPU support or settings are possible - perhaps some fast Athlon/Thunderbird can also be downclocked enough here if needing slow speed as well.
Could work as a nice Win98-XP dual boot board I suppose, with an optional possibility for a Voodoo5500 as well.

Nexxen wrote on 2023-01-13, 14:13:

RetroPC_King wrote on 2023-01-13, 13:30:

Any opinions?

Have a nice time finding the latest BIOS 😀
You can do PC-133 vs DDR-133.

I have a favorite BIOS for it, already flashed. BIOS from 01/18/2003. I keep it as is.

bestemor wrote on 2023-01-13, 17:21:

Well, it looks like it has a Universal AGP slot, which can be nice. And, what the ceck IS that loong black thin connector-thing […]
Show full quote

RetroPC_King wrote on 2023-01-13, 13:30:

Today's find is a MATSONIC MS8137C+ 2.0 VIA KT266a motherboard with a AMD Athlon XP 1700+ CPU with a Foxconn CPU Cooler. Also this board came with a I/O Shield.
Any opinions?

Well, it looks like it has a Universal AGP slot, which can be nice.
And, what the ceck IS that loong black thin connector-thingie along the right side of the memory slots ? 😅

Other than that, it looks just like any other board from that era. Not sure what CPU support or settings are possible - perhaps some fast Athlon/Thunderbird can also be downclocked enough here if needing slow speed as well.
Could work as a nice Win98-XP dual boot board I suppose, with an optional possibility for a Voodoo5500 as well.

That black thin connector thingie is for setting DRAM type. Now I have DDR SDRAM set on it. I plan to use it with DDR266

Finally found my "lost" PIII processors: one is 1200/256K 100 and other one is 1400S. Because I recently got a tualatin capable motherboard.

Cheers,

RetroPC_King wrote on 2023-01-13, 13:30:

Today's find is a MATSONIC MS8137C+ 2.0 VIA KT266a motherboard with a AMD Athlon XP 1700+ CPU with a Foxconn CPU Cooler. Also this board came with a I/O Shield.
Any opinions?

It's remarkably similar to this ECS P4 board I had, down to the large jumper blocks to choose between SDR and DDR memory. It was set up with SDR and a 1.7 GHz Celeron which must have been pretty sad - it wasn't exactly a high performing board when I tested it with a 2.4 GHz P4 and DDR.

My first NOS item. I'm very happy.