Yesterday I grabbed a CRT monitor locally.
I previously used an old 4:3 LCD and i was looking to replace it some day. The CRT was 10 minutes from my work for 10€. It's a modern one (2002) with on-screen display menu. Works well.

I also received my voltage blaster. Works well with the Pro Sonic 16 (Jazz16) that requires -5V.

Also found this super weird joystick a few weeks ago. 6€ inc. Shipping.
It's some kind of infrared controlled wireless joystick. Apparently works in a similar way to the Wii controller, but reversed (the joystick emits the IR and the base, connected to the joystick port, receive) Very nice box !

And a serial mouse. 5 or 6€ shipped.
(3 buttons, Not too yellow)

acl wrote on 2023-04-01, 08:53:

Yesterday I grabbed a CRT monitor locally.
I previously used an old 4:3 LCD and i was looking to replace it some day. The CRT was 10 minutes from my work for 10€. It's a modern one (2002) with on-screen display menu. Works well.

as much as i don't mind having let all my crts go, when its such a god deal as this and easy to pick up i can see the benefit 😀 Nice that's fairly modern too, hopefully in great shape

Hot from the thrift store, the cheap bug bit me. $3.99.... the funny thing was, I was just thinking as I walked into the place "I dunno why I come to this one, no real computer parts in months, years..." then about as I had that thought I saw the motherboard box on shelf (For some S370 board actually, it's in the box of it's replacement/upgrade most likely) and this deally was in it.... Seems to be a BCM IN5598 .. I didn't know that right then, I just rawdog reality without a data crutch. All I seent was 5598 and I like my M571, even tho it's quirky and thought it maybe was similar... and the RAM came in it, 16MB EDO matched set of 4. I was hoping it might have some high FSB settings but 83 is all she wrote, the ICS chip ain't special, however it might have a 7 mhz crawler gear, which I will have to test. At minimum it probably knocks out floppy and USB though, since it halves ref clock, not sure if the VGA will go down with it, or whether like some VGA boards has it's own ref. Voltage selection is pretty good though, can have something really low voltage and cool in. PCI lock available also.

More IBM CPUs for the collection, nothing special.

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-04-01, 20:31:

Hot from the thrift store, the cheap bug bit me. $3.99.... the funny thing was, I was just thinking as I walked into the place "I dunno why I come to this one, no real computer parts in months, years..." then about as I had that thought I saw the motherboard box on shelf (For some S370 board actually, it's in the box of it's replacement/upgrade most likely) and this deally was in it.... Seems to be a BCM IN5598 .. I didn't know that right then, I just rawdog reality without a data crutch. All I seent was 5598 and I like my M571, even tho it's quirky and thought it maybe was similar... and the RAM came in it, 16MB EDO matched set of 4. I was hoping it might have some high FSB settings but 83 is all she wrote, the ICS chip ain't special, however it might have a 7 mhz crawler gear, which I will have to test. At minimum it probably knocks out floppy and USB though, since it halves ref clock, not sure if the VGA will go down with it, or whether like some VGA boards has it's own ref. Voltage selection is pretty good though, can have something really low voltage and cool in. PCI lock available also.

I see an onboard ESS AudioDrive. That makes it a great little board in my opinion for mATX.

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-04-01, 21:12:

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-04-01, 20:31:

Hot from the thrift store, the cheap bug bit me. $3.99.... the funny thing was, I was just thinking as I walked into the place "I dunno why I come to this one, no real computer parts in months, years..." then about as I had that thought I saw the motherboard box on shelf (For some S370 board actually, it's in the box of it's replacement/upgrade most likely) and this deally was in it.... Seems to be a BCM IN5598 .. I didn't know that right then, I just rawdog reality without a data crutch. All I seent was 5598 and I like my M571, even tho it's quirky and thought it maybe was similar... and the RAM came in it, 16MB EDO matched set of 4. I was hoping it might have some high FSB settings but 83 is all she wrote, the ICS chip ain't special, however it might have a 7 mhz crawler gear, which I will have to test. At minimum it probably knocks out floppy and USB though, since it halves ref clock, not sure if the VGA will go down with it, or whether like some VGA boards has it's own ref. Voltage selection is pretty good though, can have something really low voltage and cool in. PCI lock available also.

I see an onboard ESS AudioDrive. That makes it a great little board in my opinion for mATX.

Yup, ES1869F. That was also a "hey those ain't bad" initial spot, it has a lot on the board for making a compact DOS system.

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-04-01, 20:31:

Hot from the thrift store, the cheap bug bit me. $3.99.... the funny thing was, I was just thinking as I walked into the place "I dunno why I come to this one, no real computer parts in months, years..."

I'm a little superstitious I guess, but it seems I never find something cool for dirt cheap if I walk into a store expecting it. I know it's dumb, but my Teac combo drive was a total surprise, $4, and Teac 55GFR perfect condition, $5, and new in box Casio organizer, $3.

eesz34 wrote on 2023-04-01, 22:42:

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-04-01, 20:31:

Hot from the thrift store, the cheap bug bit me. $3.99.... the funny thing was, I was just thinking as I walked into the place "I dunno why I come to this one, no real computer parts in months, years..."

I'm a little superstitious I guess, but it seems I never find something cool for dirt cheap if I walk into a store expecting it. I know it's dumb, but my Teac combo drive was a total surprise, $4, and Teac 55GFR perfect condition, $5, and new in box Casio organizer, $3.

A couple of times several months apart I found myself in a neighboring town and near a thrift I had not been in, first visit a cheap P4 with an LS-120, second visit months later an external LS-120, see other late parts there, and a stripped out system with nothing particularly tempting. Anyway made a mental note to go there more often, like monthly-ish, and last 3 visits, nothing. So yah, something in your theory, stuff turns up when least expecting. Stores seem to run hot and cold in short streaks as well. Weird thing this week was each of 4 stores had MULTIPLE Karaoke machines, and a variety of types too, CD+G with CRT in, DVD based, standalone microphone doohickeys, 2 and 3 of a type even, it's like some home fashionista talking head like Marie Kondo pronounced "Thou shalt not suffer a karaoke machine to live in thy abode" and everyone got rid of them at once.

edit: oh yah, I need to read up again on organizers, there's some really nifty ones that have a z80 and can load more programs on. I was a little fascinated by a Sharp one today, seemed to need a cradle though and maybe USB hookup which was I think a little past early pocket computer/organiser melding period.

Still not retro, but can´t resist - I bought the mysterious Phenom II (Deneb), hidden under the Athlon X2 5000 "cloak" - a once desirable piece of hw for unlocking on boards with ACC (NCC) feature.

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-04-01, 21:18:

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-04-01, 21:12:

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-04-01, 20:31:

Hot from the thrift store, the cheap bug bit me. $3.99.... the funny thing was, I was just thinking as I walked into the place "I dunno why I come to this one, no real computer parts in months, years..." then about as I had that thought I saw the motherboard box on shelf (For some S370 board actually, it's in the box of it's replacement/upgrade most likely) and this deally was in it.... Seems to be a BCM IN5598 .. I didn't know that right then, I just rawdog reality without a data crutch. All I seent was 5598 and I like my M571, even tho it's quirky and thought it maybe was similar... and the RAM came in it, 16MB EDO matched set of 4. I was hoping it might have some high FSB settings but 83 is all she wrote, the ICS chip ain't special, however it might have a 7 mhz crawler gear, which I will have to test. At minimum it probably knocks out floppy and USB though, since it halves ref clock, not sure if the VGA will go down with it, or whether like some VGA boards has it's own ref. Voltage selection is pretty good though, can have something really low voltage and cool in. PCI lock available also.

I see an onboard ESS AudioDrive. That makes it a great little board in my opinion for mATX.

Yup, ES1869F. That was also a "hey those ain't bad" initial spot, it has a lot on the board for making a compact DOS system.

+1.
Those ESS cards are more SB compatible than the SBs themselves. (Y)

Ydee wrote on 2023-04-02, 08:29:

Still not retro, but can´t resist - I bought the mysterious Phenom II (Deneb), hidden under the Athlon X2 5000 "cloak" - a once desirable piece of hw for unlocking on boards with ACC (NCC) feature.

Am I anywhere near right in thinking this was the predecesor of the Phenom II X2 550 in terms of unlocking? 😁

(probably not, but at least I tried 😀 )

PcBytes wrote on 2023-04-02, 09:52:

Am I anywhere near right in thinking this was the predecesor of the Phenom II X2 550 in terms of unlocking? 😁

(probably not, but at least I tried 😀 )

Yes, but X2 550 work with both DDR2 (AM2+) and DDR3 (AM3) , these X2 5000 with DDR2 only (AM2+). But both are in facts 4-core Phenoms CPU.

Found this pc module today in the street market. The AMIBIOS label in a DIMM module immediately caught my attention, but I was still not willing to pay the 4 € the seller wanted for it, but when I started walking away he said 3... and then I looked it up online.

It seems it is a DIMM-PC module for industrial applications. Being as I am completely ignorant of industrial hardware I think it is absolutely amazing to see that a 386 PC in a DIMM slot was made in 2003 (judging by the dates in the chips). Unfortunately making it into a functional PC costs a huge amount of money compared with what I usually spend on hardware, somewhere between 200 and 300 for the compatible base board, so I'm thinking about what I could do to with it besides keeping it as a very cool piece of my hardware collection, or just putting it on eBay and sell it for a healthy profit.

carlitosbala wrote on 2023-04-02, 12:25:

Found this pc module today in the street market. The AMIBIOS label in a DIMM module immediately caught my attention, but I was still not willing to pay the 4 € the seller wanted for it, but when I started walking away he said 3... and then I looked it up online.

It seems it is a DIMM-PC module for industrial applications. Being as I am completely ignorant of industrial hardware I think it is absolutely amazing to see that a 386 PC in a DIMM slot was made in 2003 (judging by the dates in the chips). Unfortunately making it into a functional PC costs a huge amount of money compared with what I usually spend on hardware, somewhere between 200 and 300 for the compatible base board, so I'm thinking about what I could do to with it besides keeping it as a very cool piece of my hardware collection, or just putting it on eBay and sell it for a healthy profit.

Interesting... I would be inclined to think of doing something like gluing a DIMM socket to the back of a cheap ISA riser, along with PS/2 ports, and power socket and "dead bug" wiring it all up. (Though that doesn't quite fit the definition as dead bug usually means putting components upside down rather than sideways but similar idea) ... That's one of the cheap/low effort ideas that occur, then a full tour of my fantasies if I suddenly got one, would include landmarks such as "DOS based smartphone" and "DOS PC game gear cartridge" etc

Edit: So I was curious about fleabay pricing, holy crap, so high I got a nosebleed.

editII: did you catch foone's twitter post yet? https://twitter.com/foone/status/1423078973064441858

Yeah, I did get to that twitter thread when I was trying to learn about this thing. My unit I think is newer, not sure if it has the same functionality included. On one hand, the manufacturer has detailed manuals, so it could be very interesting to play with. On the other... way too much money to even get a "generic" ISA board to see if something can be worked out. I usually go once per month to the flea market with 15 € in cash, so 150-200 is basically me not doing that for a year 😁

But who knows, I might find something related next time, and for sure if I see a seller with this kind of weird stuff (for example, somebody was selling a Brocade firewall motherboard today, and some kind of network rackmount device with 8 SPF ports) I'll make sure to ask where are they getting them from. There might be some e-waste recycler nearby that is willing to sell some gear, the ones I have asked about it do not.

I wonder if the pins on this are equivalent to a standard ISA backplane, but I'm a SODIMM form factor.

pinout is available, if you figure which connector is used you could design and order fully assembled board https://jlcpcb.com/parts/componentSearch for less than $20

Ydee wrote on 2023-04-02, 08:29:

Still not retro, but can´t resist - I bought the mysterious Phenom II (Deneb), hidden under the Athlon X2 5000 "cloak" - a once desirable piece of hw for unlocking on boards with ACC (NCC) feature.

2008 isnt it? thats now 15 years ago. it's kinda retro 😀

in 2015 we would have though of a year 2000 cpu as retro (though things were still moving fast back then)

anyway, this purchase could be the beginning of some adventures for you!

gerry wrote on 2023-04-03, 09:20:

2008 isnt it? thats now 15 years ago. it's kinda retro :) […]
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Ydee wrote on 2023-04-02, 08:29:

Still not retro, but can´t resist - I bought the mysterious Phenom II (Deneb), hidden under the Athlon X2 5000 "cloak" - a once desirable piece of hw for unlocking on boards with ACC (NCC) feature.

2008 isnt it? thats now 15 years ago. it's kinda retro 😀

in 2015 we would have though of a year 2000 cpu as retro (though things were still moving fast back then)

anyway, this purchase could be the beginning of some adventures for you!

I recently got the 5200 variant of this little CPU, cost a tenner with free shipping, I cant resist a good unlockable harvest CPU they make for fun little CPUs ! (Mine sadly isnt NIB)
Grabbed a X3 740 for the same reason, to play around with unlocking the fourth core, no idea if my 740 can do that yet but itll be fun to find out.

gerry wrote on 2023-04-03, 09:20:

2008 isnt it? thats now 15 years ago. it's kinda retro 😀

in 2015 we would have though of a year 2000 cpu as retro (though things were still moving fast back then)

anyway, this purchase could be the beginning of some adventures for you!

I bought it for the first time in 2010 when I look at my result at the time https://valid.x86.fr/show_oc.php?id=1018306
After switching to Sandy Bridge, I sold it to a friend. Then he upgraded, hw was lying in a box in the attic, and now there was a chance for a few pennies to get it back.