Turbo -> wrote on 2023-09-03, 13:13:

Got some strange-looking cards. I don't know if there will be any real use for them.

The cards with the 2 vga connectors look like framegrabbers or some kind of video editing cards.
I have a similar thing but for home users instead of high end cards like this. My card also has VGA connecors but uses slightly different pinout and special cables. Maybe a thing to keep in mind for experiments.

The card with the large connector looks interesting. Is that a 286 (maybe 8MHz because of the 16MHz crystal) in the TEXTOOL socket on the card? Maybe its interesting to read the 2 ROMS on the card (Maybe its a BIOS)...
That whole thing screams single board computer to me...
You could put it into a Backplane together with a vga card and see what happens...

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-09-01, 19:39:

acl wrote on 2023-09-01, 18:47:

What benefits does this provide over the integrated one ? (Considering HW accelerated sound was killed by Windows Vista)

Can't speak for their setup, but I still use dedicated sound cards to avoid interference and ground loop issues with integrated audio.

But I thought the source was digital these days.
Its only analogue at the last stage.

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-09-01, 19:39:

acl wrote on 2023-09-01, 18:47:

What benefits does this provide over the integrated one ? (Considering HW accelerated sound was killed by Windows Vista)

Can't speak for their setup, but I still use dedicated sound cards to avoid interference and ground loop issues with integrated audio.

But I thought the source was digital these days.
Its only analogue at the last stage.

An ewaste place within driving distance advertised some old cases for sale, so I had a look. A couple that interested me (they had a photo in the ad) were already gone, but they had some good stuff. I have limited space, so I chose to buy two, which came to $40.00.

One has a Gigabyte GA-K8U-939 with some bad caps. Video card is a bit disappointing, a 64 bit 6200, but the CPU is a 4200+ dual core. I will likely make this my 939 system as the Asus board I have has no overclocking options.

But the real score was this pizza box case - it has a Tyan S1854 with a 450 MHz P3 and a CT1740 with (I believe) a CT1910. I think the video card is a Radeon 7000 (bleh). I now have two of these very rare motherboards, though this one is the more desirable as it has an ISA slot. I've never cared for pizza box cases, though this appears to be a nice example of the type.

Both systems POST. Hard drives are supposed to be removed, but they missed one in the 939 system (edit: the drive is dead). And the 939 system smell like a thrift store, and the "Echo Star 480 watt" PSU is a flyweight piece of crap and will be disposed of.

The 939 looks good, but that atrocious PSU NEEDS to go.
The Tyan unit rocks a PC Power&Cooling PSU, later renamed as OCZ if I remember correctly.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2023-09-03, 19:29:

An ewaste place within driving distance advertised some old cases for sale...

Just the wavetable module by itself is worth the money...

That was an awesome deal.

There was a also 775 in a Lian Li case with dual 8800 video cards which I looked long and hard at, but the case had some cosmetic damage, and I already have a 775 system I'm perfectly happy with; there comes a point where you have to stop and say no more.

PcBytes wrote on 2023-09-03, 19:46:

The 939 looks good, but that atrocious PSU NEEDS to go.
The Tyan unit rocks a PC Power&Cooling PSU, later renamed as OCZ if I remember correctly.

The label alone was enough to warn me, then I took it out and it weighs about as much as a helium balloon. I have another system with a good PSU, but the ATX connector's locking clip is the later style that's too wide for some older motherboards (it was hitting a capacitor) so I tried trimming the retaining clip with a pair of side cutters; but the plastic was more brittle than I anticipated, and there's now barely any of the retaining clip left. At some point I will take the ATX connector from this featherweight PSU and replace the damaged one on the good PSU.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2023-09-03, 19:29:

But the real score was this pizza box case

That's a hell of a deep dish if that qualifies as a pizza box.

I dismantled the 939 system and cleaned the case. I cheated and replaced only the two popped caps because I only had two caps that were the correct voltage and capacitance, and they were generic unbranded Ebay ones (and they are scarily identical to the failed ones). So that'll do for now until I get some quality ones and replace all of them. Board is working fine, XP is installing while I'm typing this. My other 939 board has a Via chipset, so it's nice that this SATA controller works with an SSD.

The build of this thing wasn't good. Every drive in it was only held in place with two screws on one side, and the motherboard standoffs were mismatched with some being fine thread, while others were coarse thread.

It's too bad there are so many scratches as it's a nice color, and I like this case for sentimental reasons. Maybe if I get really ambitious I could paint it.

Managed to snag myself a project, and one of those weird cases that apple had right before they went with the G3/G4 style case.

It's a Beige G3 Minitower, complete with mostly functional everything, and seemingly only a bad CD and Zip drive.

BetaC wrote on 2023-09-04, 04:23:

Managed to snag myself a project, and one of those weird cases that apple had right before they went with the G3/G4 style case.
IMG_2228.jpg
It's a Beige G3 Minitower, complete with mostly functional everything, and seemingly only a bad CD and Zip drive.

Very cool! That screw through the front plastic is really something.

pete8475 wrote on 2023-09-04, 04:38:

BetaC wrote on 2023-09-04, 04:23:

Managed to snag myself a project, and one of those weird cases that apple had right before they went with the G3/G4 style case.
IMG_2228.jpg
It's a Beige G3 Minitower, complete with mostly functional everything, and seemingly only a bad CD and Zip drive.

Very cool! That screw through the front plastic is really something.

It's probably from a previous owner, 🤣. They don't normally have that. I'll figure out something on how to remove it at some point without losing the security of the plastic.

acl wrote on 2023-08-30, 21:52:

debs3759 wrote on 2023-08-30, 21:37:

tobiasrieper wrote on 2023-08-30, 15:52:

I managed to grab this Nvidia 5200 for under £20 shipped. I liked how it was boxed and an MSi card. I have no idea what LF means? I only noticed it after i won the auction...
It doesn't say LE anywhere I tend to avoid those.
I hope I haven't got the 64bit version and not the 128. What do you guys think? I thought I got a good deal. I like shiny new boxed things with early 2000s/late 90s 3d art.

It's 64-bit 128MB DDR. I got the info from the MSI website a few years ago. Unfortunately, the specs pages don't load in archive.org, or I'd provide a link.

But the box still looks nice.
And i must admit i bought several items in the past just because the box looked great.

I received the card! Was super excited and wow what I let down. As pete posted earlier LF=Low Framerate version.
Couldn't be more apt.. not only does it have a 64 bit address bus but clocks are even lower than the other models. We'll, at least it works and I learned something 😀

pete8475 wrote on 2023-08-31, 04:16:

tobiasrieper wrote on 2023-08-30, 15:52:

I managed to grab this Nvidia 5200 for under £20 shipped. I liked how it was boxed and an MSi card. I have no idea what LF means? I only noticed it after i won the auction...
It doesn't say LE anywhere I tend to avoid those.
I hope I haven't got the 64bit version and not the 128. What do you guys think? I thought I got a good deal. I like shiny new boxed things with early 2000s/late 90s 3d art.

LF stands for low frame rate. 🤣. JK

Yes...yes it does 😁 hopefully I have a Voodoo 3 2000 on the way soon. So I'll stick with this for now and sell 5200 on ebay to recoup my losses.

Always wanted to have a classic orange-and-blue Sound Blaster box, and I managed to get a couple of them.

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-09-04, 14:43:

Always wanted to have a classic orange-and-blue Sound Blaster box, and I managed to get a couple of them.

The orange/blue boxes are really the best looking ones. The black design before that is way to 80s and the boxes after the orange/glue ones are cool too but not that rememberable.
Years ago when they were still considered trash (and not gold plated diamonds) i picked up some of them. I even found a new original boxed creative CMS upgrade kit... Times have changed...

Repo Man11 wrote on 2023-09-04, 01:52:

I dismantled the 939 system and cleaned the case. I cheated and replaced only the two popped caps because I only had two caps that were the correct voltage and capacitance, and they were generic unbranded Ebay ones (and they are scarily identical to the failed ones). So that'll do for now until I get some quality ones and replace all of them. Board is working fine, XP is installing while I'm typing this. My other 939 board has a Via chipset, so it's nice that this SATA controller works with an SSD.

The build of this thing wasn't good. Every drive in it was only held in place with two screws on one side, and the motherboard standoffs were mismatched with some being fine thread, while others were coarse thread.

It's too bad there are so many scratches as it's a nice color, and I like this case for sentimental reasons. Maybe if I get really ambitious I could paint it.

Is that light in those side things? Looks sooooo 90's awesome!

DerBaum wrote on 2023-09-04, 15:04:

The orange/blue boxes are really the best looking ones. The black design before that is way to 80s and the boxes after the orange/glue ones are cool too but not that rememberable.
Years ago when they were still considered trash (and not gold plated diamonds) i picked up some of them. I even found a new original boxed creative CMS upgrade kit... Times have changed...

That's a lovely looking collection!

Though I will admit kind of like the earlier Sound Blaster boxes. The giant chrome logo, the mashup of random fonts, the goofy superlative text... it's so bad it's good. 😁

My favorite though is the original Game Blaster box. Love the cheesy illustration on it.

H3nrik V! wrote on 2023-09-04, 15:06:

Repo Man11 wrote on 2023-09-04, 01:52:

I dismantled the 939 system and cleaned the case. I cheated and replaced only the two popped caps because I only had two caps that were the correct voltage and capacitance, and they were generic unbranded Ebay ones (and they are scarily identical to the failed ones). So that'll do for now until I get some quality ones and replace all of them. Board is working fine, XP is installing while I'm typing this. My other 939 board has a Via chipset, so it's nice that this SATA controller works with an SSD.

The build of this thing wasn't good. Every drive in it was only held in place with two screws on one side, and the motherboard standoffs were mismatched with some being fine thread, while others were coarse thread.

It's too bad there are so many scratches as it's a nice color, and I like this case for sentimental reasons. Maybe if I get really ambitious I could paint it.

Is that light in those side things? Looks sooooo 90's awesome!

Yes, they are illuminated by LEDs. I found one nearly identical - mine is dark blue rather than black, and it has space for two 80 MM exhaust fans rather than just one. The lights look good with black, so I might try black wrinkle paint.