Trashbytes wrote on 2023-11-12, 08:29:

Saw this odd little Socket 370 CPU on the bay and decided to grab it, at its core its a VIA C3 Samuel 2 running at 533 but normally its a BGA chip for embedded systems. This one has been mounted to a interposer and will run in any socket 370 board that supports the VIA C3, The seller had some info about it and only a few thousand were ever made for socket 370.

Normally I wouldn't bother with a VIA C3 but I do have a baby AT socket 370 board that supports the C3 and was thinking this little chip would make for an interesting low power DOS/Windows box, this CPU operates between 2.8 to 5 watts of power so with a Voodoo3 and a SSD it would be pretty much silent. (I have a passive MX400 that would also be a good fit)

VIA Eden ESP 5000.pngEden ESP 5000.png

Wow, that VIA chip is a nice collectable! I'm looking forward to see a system around it...

ChrisK wrote on 2023-11-13, 09:35:

I've seen this offering some time before and also read his arcticle description... yet I'm still wondering if this will really w […]
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Trashbytes wrote on 2023-11-12, 08:29:

Saw this odd little Socket 370 CPU on the bay and decided to grab it, at its core its a VIA C3 Samuel 2 running at 533 but normally its a BGA chip for embedded systems. This one has been mounted to a interposer and will run in any socket 370 board that supports the VIA C3, The seller had some info about it and only a few thousand were ever made for socket 370.

Normally I wouldn't bother with a VIA C3 but I do have a baby AT socket 370 board that supports the C3 and was thinking this little chip would make for an interesting low power DOS/Windows box, this CPU operates between 2.8 to 5 watts of power so with a Voodoo3 and a SSD it would be pretty much silent. (I have a passive MX400 that would also be a good fit)

VIA Eden ESP 5000.pngEden ESP 5000.png

I've seen this offering some time before and also read his arcticle description... yet I'm still wondering if this will really work on any Socket 370 having C3 support.
Reason is the very low voltage these CPUs require going down to 1.05V for a Eden ESP 3000.
I havent' checked in detail but I wonder if there are any regular Socket 370 boards beeing able to suppply such a low Vcore.
If you can confirm that this works any time soon it'd be really nice to know.

Im actually thinking of getting a dedicated Via C3 motherboard for it, I found a nice looking one that has a 800Mhz C3 in it, it should work better for the Eden, weirdly the board also supports Tualatin CPUs so in theory it should handle 1.2v CPUs. That failing I can always throw it on a Slotket and try the 4 or so Slot 1 boards I have here that can do 133Mhz FSB, Im curious if the BX133 Raid I have will support it as that board is currently not being used for anything, I have a BE6 II Rev2 that might also work.

If nothing works then I may have to mod a spare board that supports the C3 to give it the right voltage, I have a Gigabyte one to sacrifice if it comes to that 🤣.

bearking wrote on 2023-11-13, 09:40:

Trashbytes wrote on 2023-11-12, 08:29:

Saw this odd little Socket 370 CPU on the bay and decided to grab it, at its core its a VIA C3 Samuel 2 running at 533 but normally its a BGA chip for embedded systems. This one has been mounted to a interposer and will run in any socket 370 board that supports the VIA C3, The seller had some info about it and only a few thousand were ever made for socket 370.

Normally I wouldn't bother with a VIA C3 but I do have a baby AT socket 370 board that supports the C3 and was thinking this little chip would make for an interesting low power DOS/Windows box, this CPU operates between 2.8 to 5 watts of power so with a Voodoo3 and a SSD it would be pretty much silent. (I have a passive MX400 that would also be a good fit)

VIA Eden ESP 5000.pngEden ESP 5000.png

Wow, that VIA chip is a nice collectable! I'm looking forward to see a system around it...

Its an oddity and I love weird CPUs like this one, I have a Rise MP6 Dragon too that is also a BGA to PGA convert, Im determined to get this little Eden up and running even if I have to mod a board to do it.

A Compaq LTE Elite 4/75 CX off eBay. It boots just fine to BIOS, but is gonna need an LCD recap and a hard drive at the very least once it gets here. Gonna be fun.

3lectr1c wrote on 2023-11-14, 04:05:

A Compaq LTE Elite 4/75 CX off eBay. It boots just fine to BIOS, but is gonna need an LCD recap and a hard drive at the very least once it gets here. Gonna be fun.

The floppy drive in these laptops has a belt that is often perished by now. Replace it immediately if it has not, since it is very difficult to remove cleanly, once it turns to goo.

I'm unfortunately well aware of those Citizen troubles. I don't typically use the FDD much in my laptops, my main go-to is LapLink. I would like to make an attempt at bringing the one in this LTE back once I get it though, if only for the experience of trying. The only real problem is that the german belts for these cost like $30 to get to the USA... could be be worse but it is a good bit for something I'm rarely going to use.

At some point though, probably. They also need to be recapped as well...sigh.

Just bought a small lot of unused industrial Pc104 stuff… should include 4 cpu cards(intel Pentium 166mmx, and 486 type), 2 backplanes, 2x 3,5 and One 5.25 floppy , and some spare parts.
It was a little bit expensive with 115 euros. When it will arrive I will post pictures and you can tell me how much I overpayed 😂

This one made me furious. 😠

I'd bought a Matrox M3D via Ebay. Seller tossed it in a thinly padded bubble mailer with no added padding or protection. It appears to have been crushed during transport and arrived shattered in half.

There is even damage to pins on the main PowerVR chip which means that even from a parts salvage perspective, it's likely not even useful for that.

Hundreds of orders and I've never had something arrive in such a destroyed state.

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-11-14, 18:36:

This one made me furious. :angry: […]
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This one made me furious. 😠

I'd bought a Matrox M3D via Ebay. Seller tossed it in a thinly padded bubble mailer with no added padding or protection. It appears to have been crushed during transport and arrived shattered in half.

There is even damage to pins on the main PowerVR chip which means that even from a parts salvage perspective, it's likely not even useful for that.

Hundreds of orders and I've never had something arrive in such a destroyed state.

"Untested"

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-11-14, 18:36:

This one made me furious. :angry: […]
Show full quote

This one made me furious. 😠

I'd bought a Matrox M3D via Ebay. Seller tossed it in a thinly padded bubble mailer with no added padding or protection. It appears to have been crushed during transport and arrived shattered in half.

There is even damage to pins on the main PowerVR chip which means that even from a parts salvage perspective, it's likely not even useful for that.

Hundreds of orders and I've never had something arrive in such a destroyed state.

That's incredible. PCBs are extremely resilient and difficult to damage, but yours is split cleanly in half! Even the steel bracket has been flattened. I wonder how all of this happened.

Standard USPS insurance is only $100, so the seller is going to be losing money on this one.

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-11-14, 19:09:

That's incredible. PCBs are extremely resilient and difficult to damage, but yours is split cleanly in half! Even the steel bracket has been flattened. I wonder how all of this happened.

Standard USPS insurance is only $100, so the seller is going to be losing money on this one.

The mailer itself had some small puncture marks and signs of abrasion, but at first glance it wasn't in terrible shape. I was shocked when I opened it up and this half broken card fell out.

I also had to pay customs fees to import this to Canada. Even if I get a full refund from the seller, I'll be short those costs. I do intend to raise that with them and see if they'll otherwise compensate me for that.

What I really don't get is this particular seller specializes in old computer hardware and even seems to pride themselves on this (and has 99.9% positive feedback). I am mystified how they thought it was a good idea to ship such an expensive and somewhat rare graphics card via such poor packaging.

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-11-14, 19:09:

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-11-14, 18:36:

This one made me furious. :angry: […]
Show full quote

This one made me furious. 😠

I'd bought a Matrox M3D via Ebay. Seller tossed it in a thinly padded bubble mailer with no added padding or protection. It appears to have been crushed during transport and arrived shattered in half.

There is even damage to pins on the main PowerVR chip which means that even from a parts salvage perspective, it's likely not even useful for that.

Hundreds of orders and I've never had something arrive in such a destroyed state.

That's incredible. PCBs are extremely resilient and difficult to damage, but yours is split cleanly in half! Even the steel bracket has been flattened. I wonder how all of this happened.

Looks like it was sitting at the bottom of a pile and the corner of something really heavy was dumped with great force onto it.

That sucks most bigly...

In my estimation of forces required to do that, it looks like "vehicle ran over it" level of damage or someone 200lb plus did a full weight jump stomp with hard soles. If that were the case, I don't think anything short of highly paranoid packing, the kind that gets dismantled and left in useless state by customs inspectors*, would have done much for it on the first half of the trip if that's where it happened. I would say that in it's original product box, which I think was a plastic clamshell inside a double wall box, the impact or mighty crush would have still left it damaged beyond repair, like creased right across the PCB but maybe the bracket would be straightish still. Try to protect stuff "against anything" and you can inflate the package size such that you are paying volumetric weight equivalent to 50lb or worse, so ask yourself if you'd have even bought it if shipping was $80 because of the inflated postal fees from extra humungous box???

* I got stuff before, non returnable, which was packed well, but customs unwrapped each singly wrapped piece, then left them all in the box together with wrapping floating, and in subsequent transport the parts ground on each other and caused damage.

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-11-14, 19:21:

What I really don't get is this particular seller specializes in old computer hardware and even seems to pride themselves on this (and has 99.9% positive feedback). I am mystified how they thought it was a good idea to ship such an expensive and somewhat rare graphics card via such poor packaging.

Some days ago i ordered a slim line dvd drive from a seller with thousands of good reviews.
it also arrived in a thin bubblewrap envelope. the mail dude really wanted it inside my letterbox... so its now shaped like a banana...
But it was only 6 bucks shipped so not a huge loss like yours...

The forces needed to break a card in several pieces must be mechanical... maybe the sorting machine was bending it...

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-11-14, 18:36:

This one made me furious. :angry: […]
Show full quote

This one made me furious. 😠

I'd bought a Matrox M3D via Ebay. Seller tossed it in a thinly padded bubble mailer with no added padding or protection. It appears to have been crushed during transport and arrived shattered in half.

There is even damage to pins on the main PowerVR chip which means that even from a parts salvage perspective, it's likely not even useful for that.

Hundreds of orders and I've never had something arrive in such a destroyed state.

Holy crap! I've only seen PCBs shattered that bad when being cut with metal shears on purpose ... That's really a sad sight 🙁

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-11-14, 18:36:

This one made me furious. :angry: […]
Show full quote

This one made me furious. 😠

I'd bought a Matrox M3D via Ebay. Seller tossed it in a thinly padded bubble mailer with no added padding or protection. It appears to have been crushed during transport and arrived shattered in half.

There is even damage to pins on the main PowerVR chip which means that even from a parts salvage perspective, it's likely not even useful for that.

Hundreds of orders and I've never had something arrive in such a destroyed state.

I thought Halloween was past us this year. Aw man...

Got this first gen Tulip Vision Line DC Compact with 386 SX 16.

With FM tuner card, working in Windows 3.x (graphics set to monochrome because of the monitor it was hooked up to)

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-11-14, 18:36:

This one made me furious. :angry: […]
Show full quote

This one made me furious. 😠

I'd bought a Matrox M3D via Ebay. Seller tossed it in a thinly padded bubble mailer with no added padding or protection. It appears to have been crushed during transport and arrived shattered in half.

There is even damage to pins on the main PowerVR chip which means that even from a parts salvage perspective, it's likely not even useful for that.

Hundreds of orders and I've never had something arrive in such a destroyed state.

Looks like it was mishandled by warehouse and/or delivery persons, probably dropping a much heavier box or item onto it.

I just searched and watched some package mishandling videos caught on security cameras; those people were extremely unprofessional, treating packages like toddlers breaking their toys. I can't understand their minds: you get nothing from tossing packages around, and if you get caught you'll be fired or even sued.

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-11-14, 18:36:

This one made me furious. :angry: […]
Show full quote

This one made me furious. 😠

I'd bought a Matrox M3D via Ebay. Seller tossed it in a thinly padded bubble mailer with no added padding or protection. It appears to have been crushed during transport and arrived shattered in half.

There is even damage to pins on the main PowerVR chip which means that even from a parts salvage perspective, it's likely not even useful for that.

Hundreds of orders and I've never had something arrive in such a destroyed state.

That is just heartbreaking.

Another photo of the shattered M3D card with the packaging. It was shipped in an anti-static bag inside the pictured mailing envelope.

There were multiple punctures as pictured, and the bubble wrap on the envelope was flattened. It offered zero protection versus whatever happened to this card.

I paid approximately $15 USD to have this shipped. For $15, I'd at least expect a cardboard box, not a padded mailer.

I recently shipped a package to the U.S. from Canada. Cost of shipping was about $10 for a cardboard box measuring about 10 x 6 x 6 (inches).

There is no reason this couldn't have been at least shipped in a box.

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-11-14, 19:47:

In my estimation of forces required to do that, it looks like "vehicle ran over it" level of damage or someone 200lb plus did a full weight jump stomp with hard soles. If that were the case, I don't think anything short of highly paranoid packing, the kind that gets dismantled and left in useless state by customs inspectors*, would have done much for it on the first half of the trip if that's where it happened.

Judging by the damage, I wonder if it was potentially levered by something like a door. I could see the package having fallen somewhere and then been crushed by a mechanical door of some kind.

In that circumstance, a bulkier object like a box might restrict the amount of leverage available for such damage to occur.

This is only speculation, but I've never had a boxed package arrived completely flattened out the way this card was.