Shponglefan wrote on 2023-11-23, 23:16:

Lots of testing and benchmarking. Currently benchmarking the Pentium 200 vs Pentium MMX 200 vs Pentium Pro 200 in conjunction with various video cards.

I like where this is going 😀

Could you please give me the models' names of the fans on top of the coolers?
I do need a few to replace mine. Little ones are dead and dreadfully loud with the infamous rattling noise.

Nexxen wrote on 2023-11-24, 00:12:

I like where this is going :) […]
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Shponglefan wrote on 2023-11-23, 23:16:

Lots of testing and benchmarking. Currently benchmarking the Pentium 200 vs Pentium MMX 200 vs Pentium Pro 200 in conjunction with various video cards.

I like where this is going 😀

Could you please give me the models' names of the fans on top of the coolers?
I do need a few to replace mine. Little ones are dead and dreadfully loud with the infamous rattling noise.

The brown ones towards the front are the Noctua NF-A6x25 FLX (60mm).

The grey fan in the back is the Noctua NF-R8 redux-1800 (80mm).

I do like Noctua fans. They move a decent amount of air and remain relatively quiet. 😀

I'm a Noctua fan as well. Got 5 x NH-D14 and an NH-D15 cooler for systems from 775/AM2 and later. Need to buy fans for the coolers on older systems. Worth the expense to me.

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-11-24, 00:19:

The brown ones towards the front are the Noctua NF-A6x25 FLX (60mm). […]
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Nexxen wrote on 2023-11-24, 00:12:

I like where this is going :) […]
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Shponglefan wrote on 2023-11-23, 23:16:

Lots of testing and benchmarking. Currently benchmarking the Pentium 200 vs Pentium MMX 200 vs Pentium Pro 200 in conjunction with various video cards.

I like where this is going 😀

Could you please give me the models' names of the fans on top of the coolers?
I do need a few to replace mine. Little ones are dead and dreadfully loud with the infamous rattling noise.

The brown ones towards the front are the Noctua NF-A6x25 FLX (60mm).

The grey fan in the back is the Noctua NF-R8 redux-1800 (80mm).

I do like Noctua fans. They move a decent amount of air and remain relatively quiet. 😀

I found a 120mm Noctua NIB for $8 at Goodwill. It is an absolutely fantastic rear exhaust

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-11-23, 23:16:

Lots of testing and benchmarking. Currently benchmarking the Pentium 200 vs Pentium MMX 200 vs Pentium Pro 200 in conjunction with various video cards.

Nice ! Post your results please. The P.Pro was a bit held back on 16bit stuff but excelled on 32bit over Pentiums. Not sure if you can test 16bit versus 32bit of same app (if you can find them) but it would be interesting.

I swapped some ram in my oldest PC today. Of course it failed to post afterward, panicked, ran around in circles frothing at the mouth, reseated the ram about 20 times, then finally realized an old piece of tape the previous owner had used for cable mgmt had fallen sticky side down on the board. Removed the offending foul offal and it posted just fine.

DeathRabbit679 wrote on 2023-11-24, 03:26:

I swapped some ram in my oldest PC today. Of course it failed to post afterward, panicked, ran around in circles frothing at the mouth, reseated the ram about 20 times, then finally realized an old piece of tape the previous owner had used for cable mgmt had fallen sticky side down on the board. Removed the offending foul offal and it posted just fine.

I had a similar scare the other day. I removed a PCI card from a system I was working on that I had laid on its side and noticed that I had accidentally knocked a screw into the case from the table above. Luckily, it did not bridge anything and the system was no worse for wear.

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-11-24, 03:53:

DeathRabbit679 wrote on 2023-11-24, 03:26:

I swapped some ram in my oldest PC today. Of course it failed to post afterward, panicked, ran around in circles frothing at the mouth, reseated the ram about 20 times, then finally realized an old piece of tape the previous owner had used for cable mgmt had fallen sticky side down on the board. Removed the offending foul offal and it posted just fine.

I had a similar scare the other day. I removed a PCI card from a system I was working on that I had laid on its side and noticed that I had accidentally knocked a screw into the case from the table above. Luckily, it did not bridge anything and the system was no worse for wear.

20231119_164746.jpg

That picture alone makes me sweat, glad no magic smoke was let out of the board! I think my tape situation was bridging a few pins on an IC near the CPU (perhaps L2 cache?) but just enough to make it misbehave, as I assume tape conducts poorly.

Long post: Been testing twelve motherboards (two within complete systems) received from a befriended e-waste merchant. He asked me to clean, test, and sell them if working; I could get either a cut if sold or a discount if there's something I want to keep personally.

DFI P2XBL Rev.D + P2-350 + 64M SDRAM + APAC ST300A (S3 Trio3D) + Formosa MPB-000074 (ES1868F) + LM-P560TX + TEAC CD-540E. Working.

Epox KP6-BS 0.2 + two P3-450. Non-working.

Gigabyte GA-6BXC 1.7 + P3-450. Non-working.

Gigabyte GA-6BXD 1.6 + two P3-700 on slockets + 4x 256MB SDRAM. Non-working, but 3 out of 4 DIMM were fine, while the other reported only 128MB. 🙄

Gigabyte GA-6VTX 1.2 + P3-677. Working.

GA-6VX7-4X-AP 5.0 + P3-1000EB + 2x 128MB SDRAM + Gigabyte GA-622-32C (TNT2 M64) + RTL8139C NIC. Working.
This MB is labeled as "GA-6VX7-4X 5.0" on the PCB, yet it simply didn't match the layout of GA-6VX7-4X 1.2 or 3.2, not to mention that "rev. 5.0" was nowhere to be found. Turned out that Gigabyte "forgot" the "-AP" suffix on PCB AND the manual!

A mysterious "Wei Chih Electronics VT5226F" that I could not find any info online. Non-working.



I've combed through all Slot 1 MB using VT82C596B Southbridge but can't find any layout match.

Motherboards to be tested:

GA-945GCMX-S2 6.6

ECS P5VX-Be 3.0

Asus PI-P55T2P4 3.10 + K6-2-400 (which is not supposed to be fully supported by this MB unless downclocking it to 66 x 3.5 = 233 MHz)

GA-5AA 2.2 (replaced three bulging capacitors)

And finally, the cream of the crop: Asus P5A 1.06 + K6-2-300, with original box (but without accessories)

All motherboards together (without cased systems), plus two AT PSU:

That's a very nice haul of retro boards from your recycler.

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-11-24, 11:12:

That's a very nice haul of retro boards from your recycler.

Unfortunately (or, fortunately) no Slot 1 MB was functional, either by heavy corrosion, bulging capacitors, or just dead for no apparent reason: fans spun but the diagnostic card returned merely four dashes ("----") with no progress. I've tried cleaning with IPA and deoxy contact cleaner but nothing changed. Personally I really don't like Slot 1 as their plastic guiding rails / brackets are very prone to break, especially after more than two decades of aging.

Just returned from dinner; let's see if other MB work, especially those two SS7 boards with K6-2 processors.

I had my son wash a few of these items: Re: I recently found this hardware, AKA the Dumpster find thread.
Someday I'll have time to clean out the testbench and test some of these

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-11-23, 23:16:

Lots of testing and benchmarking. Currently benchmarking the Pentium 200 vs Pentium MMX 200 vs Pentium Pro 200 in conjunction with various video cards.

Love that workbench. And is that a PowerVR I see there?

debs3759 wrote on 2023-11-24, 02:29:

I'm a Noctua fan as well.

So, you're a fan fan? That's kind of meta 🤣 Sorry, it's Friday, I'm allowed to make bad jokes 😀

PcBytes wrote on 2023-11-19, 12:01:

brostenen wrote on 2023-11-19, 10:12:

Yup.... There are Sony branded wireless Ps2 controller out there in the wild. Found a few on eBay and Amazon.

Not sure what you found but they're not genuine.

Sony never released a wireless controller until the PS3. The only licensed wireless PS2 controller is the Logitech Cordless Action Controller.

Oh well.... I guess it were knockoff back in the 00's then?
Anyway. Some of them must be good enough, and at least you get wireless.

brostenen wrote on 2023-11-24, 14:33:

PcBytes wrote on 2023-11-19, 12:01:

brostenen wrote on 2023-11-19, 10:12:

Yup.... There are Sony branded wireless Ps2 controller out there in the wild. Found a few on eBay and Amazon.

Not sure what you found but they're not genuine.

Sony never released a wireless controller until the PS3. The only licensed wireless PS2 controller is the Logitech Cordless Action Controller.

Oh well.... I guess it were knockoff back in the 00's then?
Anyway. Some of them must be good enough, and at least you get wireless.

Yeah, Logitech's controllers were the best go-to for wireless PS2 controllers.
I seem to remember they were fetching quite a pretty penny over the standard PS2 controllers at one point but my memory is pretty rusty PS2-wise.

Horun wrote on 2023-11-24, 03:25:

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-11-23, 23:16:

Lots of testing and benchmarking. Currently benchmarking the Pentium 200 vs Pentium MMX 200 vs Pentium Pro 200 in conjunction with various video cards.

Nice ! Post your results please. The P.Pro was a bit held back on 16bit stuff but excelled on 32bit over Pentiums. Not sure if you can test 16bit versus 32bit of same app (if you can find them) but it would be interesting.

I intend to create a dedicated thread once I've gone through all the benchmarking.

Right now I'm still testing different games to see which ones I can use in the benchmarks. I'm trying to find more DOS games to benchmark than just the usual Quake, Doom, and Duke 3D.

H3nrik V! wrote on 2023-11-24, 13:55:

Shponglefan wrote on 2023-11-23, 23:16:

Lots of testing and benchmarking. Currently benchmarking the Pentium 200 vs Pentium MMX 200 vs Pentium Pro 200 in conjunction with various video cards.

Love that workbench. And is that a PowerVR I see there?

Thank you, I really should create a workbench thread one of these days. 😁

And yes, that's a Matrox M3D. It's the second Matrox M3D I acquired after the first one was sadly destroyed in transit.

dormcat wrote on 2023-11-24, 10:31:

GA-5AA 2.2 (replaced three bulging capacitors)

I don't recall seeing a motherboard that has a mounting hole underneath the CPU. Strange approach.

Benchmarking!!!! Its not just a hobby, its a way of life!!