Grabbed a couple of nice Low Power Cyrix 6x86 CPUs, one is a nice PR200 and the other is a rather odd Low Power P150 which I cannot find much info on at all, I suspect its one of the more uncommon versions.

CoffeeOne wrote on 2024-02-03, 19:12:

I don't understand the point in not using vintage computer parts. That is just hoarding. It is well possible, if you open it aft […]
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douglar wrote on 2024-02-02, 14:51:

I saw a drive controller on Ebay at a low price and ordered it. […]
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I saw a drive controller on Ebay at a low price and ordered it.

What showed up was still shrink wrapped.

Photo Feb 02 2024, 9 40 39 AM.jpg

I want to play with it, but I also don't want to open it.

I'd almost rather get a dirty board to clean up than to remove shrink wrap.

Am I weird?

I don't understand the point in not using vintage computer parts. That is just hoarding.
It is well possible, if you open it after a big amount of time, it does not work, for example a capacitor might have failed.
But that's just my personal opinion, a lot of Vogon users seem to have boxed stuff, and they are not planning to open it.
I suggest as a compromise: Open it, and then sell the original packing and all the stuff it came with on Ebay.
Somebody will buy it 😁

I think it's fine to buy one or two parts that you don't plan on using as backups. I keep a spare CRT around that I don't use because they are rare. That aside, I try to avoid hoarding stuff that I won't use, even if it's a good deal. While prices are going up, I'd still probably be better off waiting until I can use something before buying it. Even with increased cost, I'm going to save money over the long term because I know that the unused pile would be a lot larger than the pile of stuff that I waited for and paid extra.

Minutemanqvs wrote on 2024-02-03, 20:57:

CoffeeOne wrote on 2024-02-03, 19:12:

I don't understand the point in not using vintage computer parts. That is just hoarding. It is well possible, if you open it aft […]
Show full quote

douglar wrote on 2024-02-02, 14:51:

I saw a drive controller on Ebay at a low price and ordered it. […]
Show full quote

I saw a drive controller on Ebay at a low price and ordered it.

What showed up was still shrink wrapped.

Photo Feb 02 2024, 9 40 39 AM.jpg

I want to play with it, but I also don't want to open it.

I'd almost rather get a dirty board to clean up than to remove shrink wrap.

Am I weird?

I don't understand the point in not using vintage computer parts. That is just hoarding.
It is well possible, if you open it after a big amount of time, it does not work, for example a capacitor might have failed.
But that's just my personal opinion, a lot of Vogon users seem to have boxed stuff, and they are not planning to open it.
I suggest as a compromise: Open it, and then sell the original packing and all the stuff it came with on Ebay.
Somebody will buy it 😁

It’s like people buying Rolex watches and not wearing them. It’s for « future resale value ». But I’m the same as you, I enjoy using what I buy.

Buying old hardware to resell it later at a higher price seems like a terrible investment. It's like comic books and many other collector's items that way. In the vast majority of cases, you'd have been better off investing your money another way like mutual funds. I think you could probably say the same for the amount of time and work you spent buying, storing, and reselling old stuff. If you spend a lot of time on this, you might have been better off getting a part-time job or supplementing your income another way.

rkurbatov wrote on 2024-02-03, 21:02:

There is a big difference. One thing if you don't use any stuff you buy - that's hoarding or collecting - name it as you wish. […]
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CoffeeOne wrote on 2024-02-03, 19:12:

I don't understand the point in not using vintage computer parts. That is just hoarding.

There is a big difference. One thing if you don't use any stuff you buy - that's hoarding or collecting - name it as you wish.

Another one is opening the wrapped stuff. It gives you mixed feelings. On one hand it's something that can't be undone. Unlike opened stuff that can be used, moved to other parts, sold again. It's the only unique moment of unwrapping where stuff loses it's value.
On the other hand, with full package you lose that another part of the quest - cleaning, restoring, searching for manuals, drivers and jumpers.

And you still cannot resist buying something brand new 😀 Though old.

Like with rare/classic cars - buy one with a lot of miles if you want to drive it guilt-free. Leave the super low-mileage ones to the collectors to pay super high prices for.

rkurbatov wrote on 2024-02-03, 21:02:

Another one is opening the wrapped stuff. It gives you mixed feelings. On one hand it's something that can't be undone.

It can be undone if you have one of these. 😁

BTW, thanks for the feedback on my busted Voodoo 2. Very cool that the consensus is that it's repairable. Not with my level of skill though (I'm *just* getting in to recapping things), so I've sent it off to Kahenraz so they can have a crack at it. 😎

Confirmed that I will be attempting a repair on ubiq's Voodoo 2. I will be trying to salvage the damaged chip by attempting to reattach the broken legs. If that fails, I will have to locate a replacement chip.

It looks like a lot of fun either way, and I am looking forward to the challenge.

Shadzilla wrote on 2024-02-03, 19:30:

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2024-02-03, 18:33:

Shadzilla wrote on 2024-02-03, 18:30:

Picked up my 2nd CRT today. Well, 2nd CRT the 2nd time around of course. This is an LG 773N in a Tiny branded case. It's of particular interest to me as I try to re-create the Tiny system my family bought in 1997. This monitor is actually from 2003 but it will look the part, if I ever manage to find the case as well.

Lovely bright picture, no yellowing on the case, really great condition!

Ahh, the way it's buckled in is so cute (-:

That CRT will grow up well with a dad like you!

Safety first for the precious cargo!! They grow up so fast though, this one's already old enough to drink, even in the US. Where does the time go.

I inherited a lot of TRS80 model III & IV computers from my father in law years ago. I tried shipping them to buyers but the tube popped loose in shipping on the second which was a mess. I felt awful. I found a collector who would take the rest, and I ended up renting a car to deliver them. I had four of them belted in the seats like quadruplets. It was quite the trip, but I felt better knowing that they were safe.

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-02-03, 21:58:

Grabbed a couple of nice Low Power Cyrix 6x86 CPUs, one is a nice PR200 and the other is a rather odd Low Power P150 which I cannot find much info on at all, I suspect its one of the more uncommon versions.

Cyrix 6x86L-P150 GP.png
Cyrix 6x86L-PR200+.png

I have a P166+ in the 6x86L ... back in the day they seemed to arrive after the MX in the stores, so it was a little confusing who they thought would buy them, they were priced a bit higher than the non L, you couldn't pair them with a cheap single plane board, seemed it was only system integrators that bought any really, so they could save a buck on cooling, or build tightly boxed system. IDK if mine is gonna find a niche use, I suspect not, I've got a winchip that's both faster and cooler.

douglar wrote on 2024-02-04, 04:18:

I inherited a lot of TRS80 model III & IV computers from my father in law years ago. I tried shipping them to buyers but the tube popped loose in shipping on the second which was a mess. I felt awful. I found a collector who would take the rest, and I ended up renting a car to deliver them. I had four of them belted in the seats like quadruplets. It was quite the trip, but I felt better knowing that they were safe.

That's a shame about the first one, but I love the thought of them all strapped in like that, simply lovely! Shipping CRTs is just not worth the risk now, and anyone seriously interested in buying one will understand that.

Bought some cards. Nothing tested. Some bent pins and capacitors. I like the ATI 9600 XT 256 card. Is the Creative CT 4670 any good for Windows 98 / are the drivers user friendly?

Turbo -> wrote on 2024-02-04, 11:54:

Bought some cards. Nothing tested. Some bent pins and capacitors. I like the ATI 9600 XT 256 card. Is the Creative CT 4670 any good for Windows 98 / are the drivers user friendly?

Pretty sure that the last ATI cards supported under Windows 98 are the Radeon x700/x800/x850 using Catalyst 6.2 . 4670 is a very capable windows xp card that won’t fry your powersupply. Harer is some advice on HD4000 seriers drivers…

AMD Catalyst drivers for Windows XP - newer is NOT better

Turbo -> wrote on 2024-02-04, 11:54:

Bought some cards. Nothing tested. Some bent pins and capacitors. I like the ATI 9600 XT 256 card. Is the Creative CT 4670 any good for Windows 98 / are the drivers user friendly?

And Hercules GF2 GTS ?

Found these at the car boot sale:

- Mercury KOB 730s FSMx (PCChips M810LR rev7.1A) + AthlonXP 1700 + "Data Cooler" heatsink/fan - $2
- whole build consisting of MSI K7T266 Pro2-U, Athlon XP 2000+, Sparkle Geforce 4 MX440, NEC USB 2.0 card that I need to replace two ports on, Realtek RTL8169SC NIC (TP-Link branded), MS Industrial KY-400ATX PSU, LG CDRW and Sony DVDRW - $8, as I had to throw away the awfully heavy and ugly AOpen case it came with.
- fresh cold beer - $1.20 😁

miroSOUND PCM 10

acl wrote on 2024-02-04, 14:14:

Turbo -> wrote on 2024-02-04, 11:54:

Bought some cards. Nothing tested. Some bent pins and capacitors. I like the ATI 9600 XT 256 card. Is the Creative CT 4670 any good for Windows 98 / are the drivers user friendly?

And Hercules GF2 GTS ?

It looks like mine, except the color of the VGA connector (mine's not black).

Bought 60 ns memory chips (both 4x256k and 1x256k) to make 60ns memory out of existing simm 30 for my 286 as-much-as-possible 0 ws build.

Seems like I need one more 286 mobo. One for 10-12 MHz, external EMS card, EGA for DOS, maybe Xenix and games. And one with SVGA, 4MB SIMM (will try SIMM slots inserted in SIPP modules to not solder them) for early OS/2 and Netware/286.

I find pleasure in discovering and playing with tools and utils that became part of OSes or disappeared. Like Norton Utilites, QEMM, caching, compilers alternatives.

Im on a Cyrix kick of late, Im hunting the oddities and rarer socket 7 varieties.

Found this one today, I dont have a MX version and this one was going cheap, seems to be one of the more rare models. I do have a nice number of Cyrix and AMD socket 7 CPUs along with Winchip, Rise and Intel so perhaps its time to do some benching of the lower speed ones say sub 250Mhz and see how they all compare under DOS.

Have some nice PCI GPus for DOS too so might be fun do some comparisons to see which CPU perform the best with GPU types.

This marking style is the most "beautiful" I think. The ST ones are nice too.

Another random eBay SFF purchase arrived - a "Kiosk PC KP3 - B72" - which I found in a search looking around for badly described PCs. The tiny size really appealed to me - basically the same size as two normal 5.25" drives side by side!

This model is the Celeron M 1.5Ghz, and it comes with a 512Mb SODIMM of DDR-266 RAM, a 40Gb 2.5" HDD, and a slim DVD-ROM (both on the secondary IDE channel, which has a 44-pin header).

I've never seen a legacy PC like this quite so small! Clearly it was intended for public kiosks - the manual talks about optional wall mounting kits etc., but although there is some grime under the CPU fan, it is relatively clean inside, so can't have seen that much use. (In fact I think most of the dark visible dust came from the wool packaging the seller had used - it looked like the compostable wool insulation you get in some mail order meat / meal deliveries). It also seems interesting that it came with a not just the power brick but manual and driver CD - but the seller seemed to be private and mainly dealing in homewares, so I'm intrigued where it came from and what it had been doing for the last 20 years ... someone had clearly been looking after it. The HDD is unfortunately wiped and not even partitioned.

(I can't find the manual anywhere online at all, so I'll happily scan it to add to theRetroWeb if wanted?)

The Intel i852 chipset looks like it has official Win98 iGPU drivers, so it seems like a great candidate to replace my VIA EPIA as a super compact Win98 system ...

It looks like there might JUST be enough room to fit an ESS Solo-1 into the PCI riser for DOS sound (max size 124.5x81mm, according to manual) - is that likely to play nicely with the i852/ICH4 chipset combination? Or would SBEMU be a better bet?

What kind of reputation does the Celeron M have? Pentium M was pretty well regarded, I think? The Intel Extreme Graphics 2 on the i852 is going to be pretty poor though?