There is nothing wrong with a good 4:3 LCD. Dell made good panels for the time and, while they may appear a little dull compared to modern IPS panels, they are good workhorses. I keep a matched pair of small 15" Dell panels specifically for retro machines.

Those Dell Optiplexes are also good all around socket 775 Pentiun and Core 2 machines, although nothing particularly special. I believe those models are all 1x PCIe x16 and 3x PCI or 2x PCI and 1x PCI x1 (none have AGP). The power supplies are somewhat anemic and don't have dedicated PCIe power cables for graphics cards, at least not on any of the SFF ones that I've seen, and I expect the desktop power supplies to be very similar.

Any of those as a kit would make a fine no-frills Windows XP machine.

Also of note is that the motherboards are all non-standard and use headers specifically designed for those cases. So don't expect any of them to be useful as parts. Even if the ATX power connector is standard, the power supply mounts may not be. Again, I've only observed the SFF Optiplex machines from that era, but I wouldn't be surprised if the power supply in the pedestal tower does not provide mounting holes for a standard power supply.

CPU upgrades also need to be planned very carefully, as the heatsinks are often monolithic slabs of aluminum with ductwork and screw mounts that may not take a standard heatsink. So if you do plan to upgrade, it is best to stay within the same TDP envelope.

In an effort to thin out my collection, I have been exploring these old Optiplex SFF machines exclusively for a range of Windows XP era gaming, as they take up half as much space as a full system. They are excellent, but with caveats (several of which I mentioned). As long as your use case is narrow enough, they may be perfect. I find them to be particularly handsome, so I am definitely bias.

Here is a picture of the inside of one an Optiplex 580 where I've been testing and labeling compatible CPUs.

Kahenraz wrote on 2024-02-22, 23:54:

20240222_190930_resize_24.jpg

SFF are real space savers but never bought one as they are all non standard something... 🙁
I prefer mini-ITX.

It's about flavours I guess. 😀

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-02-22, 23:13:

Anything look worth giving space to here? Looks like all Core2 or late P4 even. It's going real cheap, but not sure if I see anything worth the gas...

Those Dell 1908's are great for Windows 98 retro gaming. You can buy a Dell AX510 SoundBar 10W that fit right under the monitor. Makes screen + sound very compact. I have 5 of these monitors.

Bought this 486 AT motherboard for a cheap price.

It was manufactured by ASEM: searching on Google, I found out that it is an italian industrial hardware manufacturer, active from the 70s.

It has a 486DX2-66 CPU, underclocked at 50Mhz, on board VGA, 2 ps/2 ports and a single ISA slot, so it's pretty unique.

Couldn't find any info on this, so if someone can identify it and/or has a manual, let me know 🙂
I would need it also to understand how to set the clock speed at 66Mhz (for now, I only found a jumper to switch the CPU type between 486SX and 486DX).

New. Old. Stock. You love to see it 😁

And my nForce2/Athlon XP build will love it too.

But wait, there's more! Found this bundle on eBay a while back. All complete in box, all the fold out sheets and manuals etc. Nice to add to the collection 😀

Demetrio wrote on 2024-02-23, 08:15:

Bought this 486 AT motherboard for a cheap price. […]
Show full quote

Bought this 486 AT motherboard for a cheap price.

It was manufactured by ASEM: searching on Google, I found out that it is an italian industrial hardware manufacturer, active from the 70s.

It has a 486DX2-66 CPU, underclocked at 50Mhz, on board VGA, 2 ps/2 ports and a single ISA slot, so it's pretty unique.

Couldn't find any info on this, so if someone can identify it and/or has a manual, let me know 🙂
I would need it also to understand how to set the clock speed at 66Mhz (for now, I only found a jumper to switch the CPU type between 486SX and 486DX).

Heh, it's a 486 board made like a 286 board... either early or they didn't upgrade their methods much because of low volume. I think you'll find that it is fixed frequency determined by one of the crystal oscillators, which I couldn't read on the photo. One of them is gonna be 50Mhz I would guess. (Twice the bus frequency on older boards, but the rumor may have got to them that they could use single speed on 486 and it's a 25mhz)

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-02-23, 14:41:

Demetrio wrote on 2024-02-23, 08:15:

Bought this 486 AT motherboard for a cheap price. […]
Show full quote

Bought this 486 AT motherboard for a cheap price.

It was manufactured by ASEM: searching on Google, I found out that it is an italian industrial hardware manufacturer, active from the 70s.

It has a 486DX2-66 CPU, underclocked at 50Mhz, on board VGA, 2 ps/2 ports and a single ISA slot, so it's pretty unique.

Couldn't find any info on this, so if someone can identify it and/or has a manual, let me know 🙂
I would need it also to understand how to set the clock speed at 66Mhz (for now, I only found a jumper to switch the CPU type between 486SX and 486DX).

Heh, it's a 486 board made like a 286 board... either early or they didn't upgrade their methods much because of low volume. I think you'll find that it is fixed frequency determined by one of the crystal oscillators, which I couldn't read on the photo. One of them is gonna be 50Mhz I would guess. (Twice the bus frequency on older boards, but the rumor may have got to them that they could use single speed on 486 and it's a 25mhz)

Thanks for the info 👍

Shadzilla wrote on 2024-02-23, 14:07:

But wait, there's more! Found this bundle on eBay a while back. All complete in box, all the fold out sheets and manuals etc. Nice to add to the collection 😀

That set looks to be in excellent condition too. I used to have that stuff but I think it got lost to the sands of time sadly

My random assortment of pulled untested CPUs arrived early. I was a little worried they'd be shipped scrap style as a "bag o' cpus" but they were all individually wrapped, though rattling in the box so may not have survived intercontinental air package, but did okay on the train from Quebec. A few of the pinned ones are a little tweaked, but nothing worrying, i.e. mashed flat or enough angle you think they'll break.

What I got...
AMD Phenom II x4 955 Black/unlocked, AMD Athlon X2 4200 "Windsor" AM2, AMD A6-3420 mobile, i3-540, xeon E5504, xeon E5310 two of, PDC E5400, PDC E5300, PDC E2160, PentiumD 940, P4 650, P4 630 two of diff step, P4 541, mobile T7300, mobile cel 420 two of, mobile cel 370.

I bought the lot on the strength of the 955 black, so fortunately that was what it was, pics were a tad fuzzy, and wanted a Windsor AM2, because I have mostly brisBANEs and to play with. Also spotted the A6 for very minor upgrade of one laptop and T7300 (said T7250 in prior post, not sure where I got that from) will be a minor upgrade to another... Socket 775s over 3Ghz, I didn't have any, IDK how, wanted one now got "some", pentiumD might solve the argument about whether to put the other I have in the Dell or a D101gcc. The wolfdale Pentium Dual cores might come in as scratch monkey testers for 45nm compatibility, though I am wondering too, if either do "instant insanity" overclocks at max bus speed of some boards, since if one does over 4ghz I might use it for an XP system. Also have an idea that they might minorly upgrade a Dell which started with a PDC but got a faster C2D, but I think one of these would do about 10-15% better, I mean it wouldn't be worth doing buying the CPU individually for most of this. Also I think I might be able to get a Celly 420 mobile working in a machine that has a Dothan, minor clock bump but gives it SSE3 maybe.

The i3 and Xeon E5504 I don't have boards for, but I also don't have others of those sockets to test boards if any turn up, so may come in handy. The celly mobile 370 and E2160 are the ones I don't really know if I have even a theoretical purpose for at the moment.

One thing I noticed about the PDC wolfdales when I looked them up, is that unlike other wolfdale cores they don't seem to have SSE4.1 listed, is this an omission at CPU World or was it really chopped out of them because lower end???

Edit: So the intel datasheet doesn't mention SSE4.1, so that an assumed "horses mouth" confirm that they don't do it right??? Well yeah, but something is a little hinky about the datasheet.... it uses a phrase like "supports all known SIMD streaming extensions..." then lists up to SSSE3 .... but wait, this didn't release until a few months after the top end Wolfdales right? So SSE4.1 was "known" when they came out.... which leads me to believe the whole section might be a careless cut and paste from previous generation of Pentium Dual Core datasheet, hmmmm.

EditII: see modern activity thread for deets, but after discovering the exceptional pin straightening ability of GUM flosspicks, and having a busy week and forgetting, I got the 955 POSTing and booting into windows in an AM2+ board, so that came pretty close to paying for the whole lot. (IDK some lower some higher on fleabay)

Shadzilla wrote on 2024-02-23, 13:02:

New. Old. Stock. You love to see it 😁

And my nForce2/Athlon XP build will love it too.

I bought those exact sticks from Newegg in 2002 for my Athlon XP build and I had to RMA them because they wouln't hit CAS2 for me. Newegg sent me a matched pair that said TwinX on them, which worked fine.

Bought a ECS KT600-A
https://www.ecs.com.tw/en/Product/Motherboard … A/specification
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/ecs-kt600-a

Price was a steal.

smtkr wrote on 2024-02-24, 00:41:

Shadzilla wrote on 2024-02-23, 13:02:

New. Old. Stock. You love to see it 😁

And my nForce2/Athlon XP build will love it too.

I bought those exact sticks from Newegg in 2002 for my Athlon XP build and I had to RMA them because they wouln't hit CAS2 for me. Newegg sent me a matched pair that said TwinX on them, which worked fine.

Funny you should say that, I couldn't get them running at CAS2 either yesterday. Going to start a thread asking for advice on that one but so far a bit disappointing.

Shadzilla wrote on 2024-02-24, 10:00:

smtkr wrote on 2024-02-24, 00:41:

Shadzilla wrote on 2024-02-23, 13:02:

New. Old. Stock. You love to see it 😁

And my nForce2/Athlon XP build will love it too.

I bought those exact sticks from Newegg in 2002 for my Athlon XP build and I had to RMA them because they wouln't hit CAS2 for me. Newegg sent me a matched pair that said TwinX on them, which worked fine.

Funny you should say that, I couldn't get them running at CAS2 either yesterday. Going to start a thread asking for advice on that one but so far a bit disappointing.

I think I also have the same sticks but was able to run them at cl2 on an nforce2 ultra MB.
I can check quickly if you want.

Also i wanted to present a laptop I bought a while ago. Not sure if I already posted it here.

It is mainly for my wife, because she wanted to play some retro games ... but on a laptop. The kids are sometimes allowed to play Midtown Madness or Pandemonium on it too.

Toshiba M40X 299.
Pentium M 1.6GHz, Radeon X600SE (PCIe), 1024MB DDR, 80GB drive, Wifi, XP Home

Found on EBay FR for 7€ tested OK, but sold without the power cable (ran on battery for the eBay pictures).

Nice system for early 2000's games.

I made a replacement cable out of parts I had in my garage and reinstalled the system. All the drivers were in a folder to the C: drive root. Changed the thermal paste and cleaned the dust inside. Runs much cooler.

Best 7€ I've ever spent.

Shadzilla wrote on 2024-02-24, 10:00:

Funny you should say that, I couldn't get them running at CAS2 either yesterday. Going to start a thread asking for advice on that one but so far a bit disappointing.

If I remember correctly they need extra voltage to be able to run at CL2 at the rated 400MHz.

My mistake, it's a different model.

CMX512-3200XLPT 2,2,2,5 timings

The stuff I received lately: a nice Sony laptop and a 16bit ISA mpeg1 decoder card, compatible with realmagic titles under Win3.x according to the manual, it's almost complete, only lacking the drivers and the bundled realmagic title.

Nexxen wrote on 2024-02-24, 01:48:

Bought a ECS KT600-A https://www.ecs.com.tw/en/Product/Motherboard … A/specification https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/ecs- […]
Show full quote

Bought a ECS KT600-A
https://www.ecs.com.tw/en/Product/Motherboard … A/specification
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/ecs-kt600-a

Price was a steal.

KT600 is very nice to have!

acl wrote on 2024-02-24, 12:32:

I think I also have the same sticks but was able to run them at cl2 on an nforce2 ultra MB. I can check quickly if you want. […]
Show full quote

Shadzilla wrote on 2024-02-24, 10:00:

smtkr wrote on 2024-02-24, 00:41:

I bought those exact sticks from Newegg in 2002 for my Athlon XP build and I had to RMA them because they wouln't hit CAS2 for me. Newegg sent me a matched pair that said TwinX on them, which worked fine.

Funny you should say that, I couldn't get them running at CAS2 either yesterday. Going to start a thread asking for advice on that one but so far a bit disappointing.

I think I also have the same sticks but was able to run them at cl2 on an nforce2 ultra MB.
I can check quickly if you want.

Also i wanted to present a laptop I bought a while ago. Not sure if I already posted it here.

It is mainly for my wife, because she wanted to play some retro games ... but on a laptop. The kids are sometimes allowed to play Midtown Madness or Pandemonium on it too.

Toshiba M40X 299.
Pentium M 1.6GHz, Radeon X600SE (PCIe), 1024MB DDR, 80GB drive, Wifi, XP Home

Found on EBay FR for 7€ tested OK, but sold without the power cable (ran on battery for the eBay pictures).

Nice system for early 2000's games.

I made a replacement cable out of parts I had in my garage and reinstalled the system. All the drivers were in a folder to the C: drive root. Changed the thermal paste and cleaned the dust inside. Runs much cooler.

Best 7€ I've ever spent.

IMG_20240224_131253.jpg
IMG_20240224_131105.jpg

Excellent find 😀 Good graphics and a cool running CPU make for a great little system. These Pentium M systems with good graphics cards (where the graphics chips haven't failed) are really excellent little systems, especially now there's SBEMU for DOS games. I've got an Acer Travelmate 8000 for a similar niche which has a 15" 1400x1050 panel and Mobility Radeon 9700 graphics. Looks like Toshiba and Dell both have a bunch of models with good graphics chips like the Inspiron 5150 - although that's a rather more toasty Pentium 4.

lolo799 wrote on 2024-02-24, 15:20:

The stuff I received lately: a nice Sony laptop and a 16bit ISA mpeg1 decoder card, compatible with realmagic titles under Win3. […]
Show full quote

The stuff I received lately: a nice Sony laptop and a 16bit ISA mpeg1 decoder card, compatible with realmagic titles under Win3.x according to the manual, it's almost complete, only lacking the drivers and the bundled realmagic title.

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Make sure to remove the battery bomb in there:

Cool little laptop, somehow I've always missed out on getting that one.

nos from ebay.
i have one of these already but, i guess i needed another one.
antec ks-282