CharlieFoxtrot wrote on 2023-09-14, 18:57:

bearking wrote on 2023-09-14, 18:50:

... and here is what came in today:
20230914_212143.jpg
Roland MPU-IPC, about 45 Euros shipped

Nice! I thought you need to trade your kidney for these nowadays. If you manage to find one, that is.

I guess I was lucky with this one. First a saw it, like two months ago, on a local classified ads site for something like 70 Euros and put it on my watchlist. I totally forgot about it until this week. Now the seller asked 50 Euros + shipping(~5 Euros) but I just had to ask if he could do 40+shipping, and he accepted 😁

Just got this industrial DFI motherboard: ATX Socket 7 with six ISA slots.

I see another six sound card build in my future. 😁

And speaking of sound cards, also added this Terratec EWS64 XL to my collection.

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-09-14, 19:46:

Just got this industrial DFI motherboard: ATX Socket 7 with six ISA slots. […]
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Just got this industrial DFI motherboard: ATX Socket 7 with six ISA slots.

I see another six sound card build in my future. 😁

DFI 586ITOX REV C1.jpg

And speaking of sound cards, also added this Terratec EWS64 XL to my collection.

Terratec EWS64 XL.jpg

Onboard video + 2 PCI is perfect for SLI Voodoo 2 cards too!

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.

I was wrong - looking closely the Ebay capacitors I had, they weren't unbranded, they are KZG, and the reason they looked so much like the two that I replaced was because the failing caps on the board were also KZG! I replaced all five this time, using Nichicons.

One thing I noticed with this board is that the heatsink retaining bracket is held in place with push pins rather than screws (my Asus A8V uses screws). As a result, the bracket was a little loose, and this meant that some of the clamping force meant to press the HSF against the CPU was being wasted pulling the bracket tight. My solution was to use some blue masking tape to shim the retainer's back plate. It took about four layers to get it tight. I had never noticed before, but from AM2 on they switched to using a bracket that has four screws to hold it tight.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2023-09-14, 22:00:

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.

I was wrong - looking closely the Ebay capacitors I had, they weren't unbranded, they are KZG, and the reason they looked so much like the two that I replaced was because the failing caps on the board were also KZG! I replaced all five this time, using Nichicons.

One thing I noticed with this board is that the heatsink retaining bracket is held in place with push pins rather than screws (my Asus A8V uses screws). As a result, the bracket was a little loose, and this meant that some of the clamping force meant to press the HSF against the CPU was being wasted pulling the bracket tight. My solution was to use some blue masking tape to shim the retainer's back plate. It took about four layers to get it tight. I had never noticed before, but from AM2 on they switched to using a bracket that has four screws to hold it tight.

There are metal back plate with screws instead of type of what you have. Easily found on ebay.

Cheers,

pentiumspeed wrote on 2023-09-15, 15:28:

Repo Man11 wrote on 2023-09-14, 22:00:

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.

I was wrong - looking closely the Ebay capacitors I had, they weren't unbranded, they are KZG, and the reason they looked so much like the two that I replaced was because the failing caps on the board were also KZG! I replaced all five this time, using Nichicons.

One thing I noticed with this board is that the heatsink retaining bracket is held in place with push pins rather than screws (my Asus A8V uses screws). As a result, the bracket was a little loose, and this meant that some of the clamping force meant to press the HSF against the CPU was being wasted pulling the bracket tight. My solution was to use some blue masking tape to shim the retainer's back plate. It took about four layers to get it tight. I had never noticed before, but from AM2 on they switched to using a bracket that has four screws to hold it tight.

There are metal back plate with screws instead of type of what you have. Easily found on ebay.

Cheers,

That's certainly a better long term solution, but what I did worked, and it cost me nothing. I thought I had the perfect solution since I have a dead AM2 motherboard, but that's when I discovered that AM2 on use four screws to hold the bracket in place.

Just bought a Miniplus USB MIDI device to add to my MIDI music stack.

Not retro in itself but will join my older Roland/Yamaha/Korg stuff.
Is it any good?

Xanxi wrote on 2023-09-15, 17:07:

Just bought a Miniplus USB MIDI device to add to my MIDI music stack. […]
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Just bought a Miniplus USB MIDI device to add to my MIDI music stack.

Not retro in itself but will join my older Roland/Yamaha/Korg stuff.
Is it any good?

I tend to be a very harsh judge if MIDI synthesizers. Doom. Duke Nukem 3D. And Warcraft 2. These are my litmus tests. 👍

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-09-15, 17:10:

I tend to be a very harsh judge if MIDI synthesizers. Doom. Duke Nukem 3D. And Warcraft 2. These are my litmus tests. 👍

Youtube has a sample of Doom with this device. What do you think?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1STRYKY5_M

It's very much middle-of-the-road. Powered by a low-end DREAM chip and intended for performance/creation use. Perfectly adequate for GM gaming, but not anything special. A Dreamblaster unit would be a better buy, if you want something with a bit more quality and potential or Roland GS sound.

Xanxi wrote on 2023-09-15, 17:07:

Just bought a Miniplus USB MIDI device to add to my MIDI music stack. […]
Show full quote

Just bought a Miniplus USB MIDI device to add to my MIDI music stack.

Not retro in itself but will join my older Roland/Yamaha/Korg stuff.
Is it any good?

Sounds serviceable to me. Not as good as an SC-55 imo, but still decent. If you are looking into more midi options and aren't concerned with using actual retro hardware, you can't go wrong with a Raspberry Pi. MT32-pi is a great project and can be used for general midi as well:

https://github.com/dwhinham/mt32-pi

You could do a similar thing with a tablet or even a small pc or thin client. You're probably familiar with these, but I thought I'd mention in case you weren't.

Yeah actually i have all this already (MT32, SC55, SC88 - don't use this one at the moment, too bulky for my desk space, Yamaha MU-100 and Korg X5DR), but i like to add new blood to my MIDI tower and have sometimes them play together.
All this stuff is connected to two Amiga, to my retroPC, to my modern PC, and perhaps one day to an Atari Falcon, thanks to the Roland A880 is got lately.
So far, the SC55 is the better GM/GS synth all around and in most games, but the MU-100 is better in some like Dark Forces and sounding newer. The Korg one sounds like a console from the early 90's but is sometimes sounding odd.
MT32 is MT32.
I would also like to have a Casio GZ-50M.

The MT32 -pi i have one but it keeps complaining about low power with the different psu i have so i haven't really used it so far (with Rpi3A+).

Xanxi wrote on 2023-09-15, 19:06:

Yeah actually i have all this already (MT32, SC55, SC88 - don't use this one at the moment, too bulky for my desk space, Yamaha […]
Show full quote

Yeah actually i have all this already (MT32, SC55, SC88 - don't use this one at the moment, too bulky for my desk space, Yamaha MU-100 and Korg X5DR), but i like to add new blood to my MIDI tower and have sometimes them play together.
All this stuff is connected to two Amiga, to my retroPC, to my modern PC, and perhaps one day to an Atari Falcon, thanks to the Roland A880 is got lately.
So far, the SC55 is the better GM/GS synth all around and in most games, but the MU-100 is better in some like Dark Forces and sounding newer. The Korg one sounds like a console from the early 90's but is sometimes sounding odd.
MT32 is MT32.
I would also like to have a Casio GZ-50M.

The MT32 -pi i have one but it keeps complaining about low power with the different psu i have so i haven't really used it so far (with Rpi3A+).

Midi gear is a whole other rabbit hole to go down. Even though the emulation is really good, there's something special about having actual hardware. I recently picked up a Roland MT-300S and love it. It was meant to help people learn how to play piano and looks like a boombox with a floppy drive. Once I got it working, it has been a great poor man's SC-55.

Have you ever considered doing showdowns of different midi devices, especially the rare stuff you own?

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-09-14, 19:46:

And speaking of sound cards, also added this Terratec EWS64 XL to my collection.

Terratec EWS64 XL.jpg

I swear it looks like those caps are trying to spell out something.

Xanxi wrote on 2023-09-15, 19:06:

The MT32 -pi i have one but it keeps complaining about low power with the different psu i have so i haven't really used it so far (with Rpi3A+).

Use a better quality cable. or a shorter one. sometimes BOTH. I'm a fan of the ANKER Powerline+ cables.

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2023-09-15, 19:27:

Midi gear is a whole other rabbit hole to go down. Even though the emulation is really good, there's something special about having actual hardware. I recently picked up a Roland MT-300S and love it. It was meant to help people learn how to play piano and looks like a boombox with a floppy drive. Once I got it working, it has been a great poor man's SC-55.

Have you ever considered doing showdowns of different midi devices, especially the rare stuff you own?

You're right, this a lot of fun, especially hijacking old stuff from musicians (usually selling them cheap, except the great Yamaha MU-1000/2000 still selling for a lot) to use them with old computers and games.
I have nothing rare actually, but only the most common and known MIDI synths. Your MT-300S is way rarer.
Youtube has plenty of vids already about these devices and games.

luckybob wrote on 2023-09-15, 19:45:

Use a better quality cable. or a shorter one. sometimes BOTH. I'm a fan of the ANKER Powerline+ cables.

ok, will try that this week-end.

I got this little friend-shaped Compaq, been wanting one of these...but mine seems to be quite ill, the motherboard is just not initializing at all.

EvieSigma wrote on 2023-09-15, 23:11:

I got this little friend-shaped Compaq, been wanting one of these...but mine seems to be quite ill, the motherboard is just not initializing at all.

I used one of these when they were contemporary with Windows 95. They're little troopers and we're a delight to use. What are their specs?

Xanxi wrote on 2023-09-15, 17:55:

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-09-15, 17:10:

I tend to be a very harsh judge if MIDI synthesizers. Doom. Duke Nukem 3D. And Warcraft 2. These are my litmus tests. 👍

Youtube has a sample of Doom with this device. What do you think?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1STRYKY5_M

I would say that it's not bad for electric guitar for Doom.

I find the music from the first level of Duke Nukem 3D to be particularly challenging. Wait until, what I think are cymbals, to chime in. It's a real make-it-or-break-it moment for legacy synthesizers, and many fail terribly here.