I picked up an ATI AIW Radeon X1900. I had no idea how huge this card would be in person! Photos do not do it justice. The size is misleading because of the single-slot cooler. This card would be right at home with modern flagship cards if it had come double-slotted.

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-12-12, 01:27:

I picked up an ATI AIW Radeon X1900. I had no idea how huge this card would be in person! Photos do not do it justice. The size is misleading because of the single-slot cooler. This card would be right at home with modern flagship cards if it had come double-slotted.

20231211_202636.jpg

X1900 and 7800GTX 256mb were the last single slot "top of the line" cards iirc

acl wrote on 2023-12-12, 07:28:

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-12-12, 01:27:

I picked up an ATI AIW Radeon X1900. I had no idea how huge this card would be in person! Photos do not do it justice. The size is misleading because of the single-slot cooler. This card would be right at home with modern flagship cards if it had come double-slotted.

20231211_202636.jpg

X1900 and 7800GTX 256mb were the last single slot "top of the line" cards iirc

The 7950 GT 512mb has a single slot version, true its not a 7900 GTX but its certainly faster than the 7800GTX.

Why stop at the 7950 GT? The 9800 GT was also single slot and, as a successor to the 8800 GT, decimated everything before it when it came out.

Need a proper serial mouse for my 286, and wanted some adapters anyway so brought this off Ebay. Surprised how mint it is, wasn't really bothered by that but will now look after it as if it were my 1st born!

Its a Genius GM-F303 with 3 buttons, even comes with its own CAD and menu builder software! Will check to see if disks are archived, and upload if not.

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-12-12, 10:08:

Why stop at the 7950 GT? The 9800 GT was also single slot and, as a successor to the 8800 GT, decimated everything before it when it came out.

I stopped there because the 7950GT is the last AGP card that works under Win98se, but yes the 9800GT is certainly a single slot GPU.

IIRC wasnt the 9800GT the card that became the GTS250 ?

Edit - Nope that was the 9800GTX+ according to the Wiki, I was close though.

Trashbytes wrote on 2023-12-12, 11:26:

I stopped there because the 7950GT is the last AGP card that works under Win98se, but yes the 9800GT is certainly a single slot […]
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Kahenraz wrote on 2023-12-12, 10:08:

Why stop at the 7950 GT? The 9800 GT was also single slot and, as a successor to the 8800 GT, decimated everything before it when it came out.

I stopped there because the 7950GT is the last AGP card that works under Win98se, but yes the 9800GT is certainly a single slot GPU.

IIRC wasnt the 9800GT the card that became the GTS250 ?

Edit - Nope that was the 9800GTX+ according to the Wiki, I was close though.

I see your point with the 7950Gt. But I still think I'm correct 🙂

The GeForce 79XX was NOT the initial top of the line. The initial lineup topped with the 7800gtx in 2005. The 79XX came out later as a refresh (in 2006).
Just like Radeon 9700 pro was the top ATI card before the 9800pro/XT release a some months later.

The 7950 gt is undoubtedly faster than the 7800GTX, but by the time the 7950 came out, the 7900GTX was already here and was faster (and dual slot)

Regarding the 9800GT, yes they were single slot (I even had a passive one back in the day) but they were slower than the 9800GTX(+) (dual slot)

I think my point still stand : no flagship/top of the line versions were released with a single slot reference design later.

That is also probably why some early SLI compatible motherboards like MSI K8N-sli only have 1-slot-wide separation between the two 16x pcie slots. This was not a future proof design and later card had a minimum of 2-slots-wide gap between.

Way to make a good GPU feel bad 🙁 excluded because its not got them sleek dual slot cooler designs.

The 9800 XT and 9600XT were in a class of their own really, they didn't just have a powerful new GPU core version ATI went the whole hog and gave them a fully new PCB with active temp monitoring, heck they both used the same core and the 9600XT could haul ass when overclocked.

Amazingly good cards, I loved my 9600XT.

Bought a 3.5" floppy drawer by Posso. 😀
Classic grey drawer but I like it.

Got these today,
1. Octek VL-COMBO-2, I took off the sticker out of curiosity, what did I see, ARK1000VL 😉 UM82C863F IO controller, and the Op VIC3 423 IDE controller that I had never seen before?
It has two flying wires, the seller says it's manufacturer behavior, I noticed that the version number of this board is Rev 1.02, seeing that there is no flying wire on version 1.03 released by others.

2. V53C8256HP45 display memory chips, I bought 4 of them, upgraded the Paradise WD90C33 to 2MB, yes, I admit that upgrading to 2MB does not bring any benefits to DOS games, and subsequent tests have proved this 😀 but installing chips in free slots makes me happy.

zwrr wrote on 2023-12-13, 05:24:

Got these today, 1. Octek VL-COMBO-2, I took off the sticker out of curiosity, what did I see, ARK1000VL ;) UM82C863F IO contro […]
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Got these today,
1. Octek VL-COMBO-2, I took off the sticker out of curiosity, what did I see, ARK1000VL 😉 UM82C863F IO controller, and the Op VIC3 423 IDE controller that I had never seen before?
It has two flying wires, the seller says it's manufacturer behavior, I noticed that the version number of this board is Rev 1.02, seeing that there is no flying wire on version 1.03 released by others.

octek-combo-2_1.jpg
octek-组合-2_1_2.jpg
octek-combo-2_2.jpg

2. V53C8256HP45 display memory chips, I bought 4 of them, upgraded the Paradise WD90C33 to 2MB, yes, I admit that upgrading to 2MB does not bring any benefits to DOS games, and subsequent tests have proved this 😀 but installing chips in free slots makes me happy.

V53C256HP45_1.jpg
V53C256HP45_2.jpg

I used the T48 programmer to read the BIOS and dump the file.

What started out as an AST Advantage! Adventure 486 machine turned in to just this card and CD drive combo.

I can't complain too much about having a PAS 16, even if it came at the expense of lugging around a heavy yet small 486 system that inevitably revealed that it had FUBAR CMOS that just couldn't save data even with fresh batteries.

I assume the PAN means Panasonic? and is this a good variant? I know it's less versatile than my current card combo, but I'm still thinking I could put it somewhere.

BetaC wrote on 2023-12-13, 18:08:

I assume the PAN means Panasonic? and is this a good variant? I know it's less versatile than my current card combo, but I'm still thinking I could put it somewhere.

I don't know about the last 3 characters, but the first 3 mean it was made by MediaVision

debs3759 wrote on 2023-12-13, 18:10:

BetaC wrote on 2023-12-13, 18:08:

I assume the PAN means Panasonic? and is this a good variant? I know it's less versatile than my current card combo, but I'm still thinking I could put it somewhere.

I don't know about the last 3 characters, but the first 3 mean it was made by MediaVision

Pro Audio Spectrum 16 Panasonic

DerBaum wrote on 2023-12-13, 19:53:

debs3759 wrote on 2023-12-13, 18:10:

BetaC wrote on 2023-12-13, 18:08:

I assume the PAN means Panasonic? and is this a good variant? I know it's less versatile than my current card combo, but I'm still thinking I could put it somewhere.

I don't know about the last 3 characters, but the first 3 mean it was made by MediaVision

Pro Audio Spectrum 16 Panasonic

... CDROM interface.

Seller pic, presumably 'dead' Asus CUBX-E + P3 850E

Let's see if we can revive this BX beauty!

The CUBX is a nice board. Check for low hanging fruit like broken traces, bad capacitors, and all of the VRM voltages. Luckily, most of these failures are all pretty easy to fix.

I repaired a board recently that appeared completely dead. The problem ended up being a VRM that had detached from the motherboard. I noticed this while touching various components my finger to check for overheating from a short circuit. When I pressed on the VRM, there was a sudden burst of POST codes on my diagnostics card. All I had to do was solder it back down in place and the board was fine.

It's winter here, so I'm guessing that the rapid thermal compression and expansion from temperature swings during shipping was enough to crack the joint and free it from the board.

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-12-08, 21:59:

If that is the infamous brown adhesive, then it would be wise to replace the whole PSU. See here for more information: […]
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If that is the infamous brown adhesive, then it would be wise to replace the whole PSU. See here for more information:

PCB destroying adhesive found in my Roland Sound Canvas SC-55mkII (inspect your synthesizer!)

Here is a link to the Adrian's Digital Basement episode where he found a similar adhesive that had corroded parts of a circuit board he was working on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLVbmnViz7I&t=1089s

I got a used "tested" Delta brand PSU as a replacement for the brown gunk filled SFX model, and it feels much heavier and well built. It's also rated to 125w for the 3.3v and 5v rails combined, which might hopefully be a better fit for Socket A?

However, I opened it up and there look like there are two possibly bulging / vented capacitors?

Do these look bad enough to need replacing before I use it? (Or might it just be dirt?). Any ideas why the one on the left here has a little yellow jacket around it?

Any thoughts on the rest of the internals? Is the yellow goop dotted around safe? Or will it inevitably degrade into the brown crumbly gunk?

So far I've only tested it by shorting the green wire to ground - the fan spins up but only for a few seconds. I guess that's because there's no load.

justin1985 wrote on 2023-12-14, 09:28:

I got a used "tested" Delta brand PSU as a replacement for the brown gunk filled SFX model, and it feels much heavier and well b […]
Show full quote

Kahenraz wrote on 2023-12-08, 21:59:

If that is the infamous brown adhesive, then it would be wise to replace the whole PSU. See here for more information: […]
Show full quote

If that is the infamous brown adhesive, then it would be wise to replace the whole PSU. See here for more information:

PCB destroying adhesive found in my Roland Sound Canvas SC-55mkII (inspect your synthesizer!)

Here is a link to the Adrian's Digital Basement episode where he found a similar adhesive that had corroded parts of a circuit board he was working on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLVbmnViz7I&t=1089s

I got a used "tested" Delta brand PSU as a replacement for the brown gunk filled SFX model, and it feels much heavier and well built. It's also rated to 125w for the 3.3v and 5v rails combined, which might hopefully be a better fit for Socket A?

IMG20231214090655.jpg

However, I opened it up and there look like there are two possibly bulging / vented capacitors?

IMG20231214090854.jpg

Do these look bad enough to need replacing before I use it? (Or might it just be dirt?). Any ideas why the one on the left here has a little yellow jacket around it?

Any thoughts on the rest of the internals? Is the yellow goop dotted around safe? Or will it inevitably degrade into the brown crumbly gunk?

IMG20231214090818.jpg

So far I've only tested it by shorting the green wire to ground - the fan spins up but only for a few seconds. I guess that's because there's no load.

Any reason why you’re not using a brand new PSU? I wouldn’t trust and old PSU with expensive retro hardware.

zuldan wrote on 2023-12-14, 09:32:

Any reason why you’re not using a brand new PSU? I wouldn’t trust and old PSU with expensive retro hardware.

SFX format PSUs seem pretty scarce (at least in stock at UK retailers) and the better brand ~300w ones that are around from e.g. Seasonic or BeQuiet! at around £50 seem to be very weak on the 5v rail. It seems like you have to go right up to e.g. a full modular 500w Silverstone to get a 25A rating on 5v, but that costs £90 - about 3 x the value of the SocketA board and CPU!

So I was hoping that a used PSU from a brand generally regarded as good quality would be a good compromise...