zuldan wrote on 2024-08-20, 08:51:

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-08-20, 08:43:

Got this nice bit of Athlon XP kit, A Epox EP-8RDA+ Pro, and Unlocked 3200+ and a Thermaltake Silent Boost cooler. The Barton is a 0317 model which if my digging is right is the 17th week of 03 which is well before they started superlocking them, still I wont know for certain till I get it and test it out.

Very nice find. This will go well with it https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/256572349491 😉

Well now, thats a cool find 😁

🤣

zuldan wrote on 2024-08-20, 08:51:

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-08-20, 08:43:

Got this nice bit of Athlon XP kit, A Epox EP-8RDA+ Pro, and Unlocked 3200+ and a Thermaltake Silent Boost cooler. The Barton is a 0317 model which if my digging is right is the 17th week of 03 which is well before they started superlocking them, still I wont know for certain till I get it and test it out.

*snip*

Just between you me and the rest of this forum Im kinda excited to fire this kit up and submit myself to another marathon of Oblivion and Morrowind, been years since I last played either and Im hungry for some true Bethesda jank.

Might go dig out my Daggerfall Cd too ... now if they cant fill my jank meter Daggerfall will.

Karbist wrote on 2024-08-19, 19:42:

I bought a Gigabyte 8i875 ultra and three 8i865pe775-g-rh Rev4.9 motherboards, they were pretty cheap since advertised as not working.
I will find out what's wrong with them once they arrive.
the socket 775 boards support C2D E7600 and C2Q Q6700 with modded bios, really decent agp boards.

For the three 8i865pe775 board, at least one problem is obvious: bad/bulging capacitors. Let's hope that's all that's wrong with them, as that would make them an easy fix. Otherwise, I tend to be weary of stuff with LGA sockets, since they often get mistreated and get bent pins.

RetroAddict wrote on 2024-08-18, 18:09:

To keep the thread on topic, I have just acquired these three boards which potentially aren't retro enough but still -

This one above the seller didn't know what CPU was present but having taken the miniscule heatsink off... is a QX9650 so this should be a nice one to play with! If it had that cooler all its life it must have sat at thermal throttle all day long? 😀

Ouch!
I hate those slim stock Intel coolers. Aside from being barely adequate even for the Core 2 Duo chips, the push pin retention is surely to warp the board and possibly break the CPU socket BGA over time. So I hate these coolers with a strong passion. And yea, it probably sat at a very high temperature all it's life, even in idle mode. I don't want to try to imagine how hot it got with a large CPU load. Probably at thermal throttling or thereabouts, as you say.

Fairly recently, I picked up a similar era PC for my nephew. It had a Q8300 in it with a slim cooler like this. The thermal paste on one of the two cores inside seems to have degraded (probably from running hot all the time with that small cooler), because I consistently get high temperatures on one of the 4 cores, even with a much bigger cooler. The PC also had a decent GPU in it too. But going off of what was on the two original HDDs, there weren't any games on them. And from the lack of dust, I don't think the PC was pushed hard. So that probably helped a bit. Still, the CPU BGA on the motherboard is starting to go bad from the stock cooler, as some of the memory slots don't always recognize the RAM if the board is flexed or even touched a little more. Definitely running on its last run, but seems to have stabilized for now, so I gave my nephew this PC and he's been happy with it so far.
But hey, it was $2.50 for the entire PC combo: an ASUS high-end mobo, Q8300, 8 GB of DDR3, GTX 560 Ti 1GB, x HDDs (1x 500 GB and 1x 200 GB), a "500W" PSU (no name, but built OK enough for 250-300 Watts), and the case with a DVD drive. Not a bad deal at all, IMO.

RetroAddict wrote on 2024-08-18, 18:09:

which would you guys go for out of these two?

Whichever doesn't have an nVidia chipset. 🤣 🤣
Well, both are Intel X38 chipset, so I suppose both are pretty good boards.
I don't usually have any brand loyalties, but I tend to prefer Gigabyte boards... or at least it always seems I've had poor luck with ASUS boards and something not working (or the entire board not working / dying.)
Is that a water block on the NB on the Maximus Extreme? If yes, perhaps it would make more sense to go all the way and add a water cooling for the CPU too? Seems odd to me to have WC on the NB and nothing else in the system.

RetroAddict wrote on 2024-08-18, 18:09:

This poor, poor CPU is a victim of compound abuse. I'll begin cleaning this soon but it's a bit of a mess.

Also, beware of those brown electrolytic capacitors near the CPU - they look like Chemicon KZG series, which on old board like this tend to be problematic more often than not. At least these appear to be the 2200 uF (6.3V) ones and not the larger 3300 uF cousins, which have a very high failure rate.
The green KZE series can stay - these are the complete opposite of KZG in terms of reliability. They won't ever cause issues.

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-08-20, 08:43:

copper cooler !

I have a nice Lian Li PC60 case for this lot to go into with a 9800XT and 2Gb of DDR500 to complete a nice 2003 era build, Im thinking I may throw a 6800GT in there if the 9800Xt cant handle Oblivion well enough as this is a partly a throwback build to my XP system I had back in the day that I lost months to playing Oblivion and Morrowind on.

All this was ~150 AUD so not a bad price for some solid kit.

Just out of curiosity, is there any benefits with DDR500 on Athlon XP ?
These CPUs can't benefit much from higher bandwidth. I don't know it they overclock well (haven't tried OC mine)

For oblivion, well it depends. Will run for sure at low resolution and low details.
I used to play it on a A64 3000+ / 9600xt system. Later with a 7600gs and i considered OK the 20 ish fps at 1024x768 mid details.

I lanched Oblivion this week on a much higher end system... (Opteron 154 @3GHz, 7800GTX 512 SLI) and it ran badly too (but maxed out res and details + AA).

So really depends on the settings and expectations

acl wrote on 2024-08-20, 10:52:

Just out of curiosity, is there any benefits with DDR500 on Athlon XP ? These CPUs can't benefit much from higher bandwidth. I d […]
Show full quote

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-08-20, 08:43:

copper cooler !

I have a nice Lian Li PC60 case for this lot to go into with a 9800XT and 2Gb of DDR500 to complete a nice 2003 era build, Im thinking I may throw a 6800GT in there if the 9800Xt cant handle Oblivion well enough as this is a partly a throwback build to my XP system I had back in the day that I lost months to playing Oblivion and Morrowind on.

All this was ~150 AUD so not a bad price for some solid kit.

Just out of curiosity, is there any benefits with DDR500 on Athlon XP ?
These CPUs can't benefit much from higher bandwidth. I don't know it they overclock well (haven't tried OC mine)

For oblivion, well it depends. Will run for sure at low resolution and low details.
I used to play it on a A64 3000+ / 9600xt system. Later with a 7600gs and i considered OK the 20 ish fps at 1024x768 mid details.

I lanched Oblivion this week on a much higher end system... (Opteron 154 @3GHz, 7800GTX 512 SLI) and it ran badly too (but maxed out res and details + AA).

So really depends on the settings and expectations

Ya know IIRC I used to run it in 800x600 on 9600xt and I also seem to recall it running like shite back then, I figure that like most creation engine games itll run like a dog unless you outgear it. So 20 - 30 FPS will be just fine for a retro Athlon XP build Im not expecting Full HD Ultra details so no worry. (I remember having to use a graphics tool for Morrowind, pretty sure its still around too)

As for the ram no benefits other than I have it sitting around not being used, I have a small stash of DDR500 that I have collected and its not being used right now so may as well throw it in a system.

With overclocking with a Barton core you need to find one of the unlocked models otherwise you need to start doing pin mods and bridge mods to unlock them, but YMMV with how much more you get out of them, some 2500 Bartons can overclock quite a bit others not so much, Ive seen reports of the 2500+ hitting 2.7Ghz with golden chips, no idea how far a 3200 will go as Ive never overclocked one.

Also you are lucky to own a 154 been after either that or a unicorn 156 for quite a while, a FX-57 would also be just as nice to have, also have been on the hunt for a 185 or a 190 if it exists.

acl wrote on 2024-08-20, 10:52:

Just out of curiosity, is there any benefits with DDR500 on Athlon XP ? These CPUs can't benefit much from higher bandwidth. I d […]
Show full quote

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-08-20, 08:43:

copper cooler !

I have a nice Lian Li PC60 case for this lot to go into with a 9800XT and 2Gb of DDR500 to complete a nice 2003 era build, Im thinking I may throw a 6800GT in there if the 9800Xt cant handle Oblivion well enough as this is a partly a throwback build to my XP system I had back in the day that I lost months to playing Oblivion and Morrowind on.

All this was ~150 AUD so not a bad price for some solid kit.

Just out of curiosity, is there any benefits with DDR500 on Athlon XP ?
These CPUs can't benefit much from higher bandwidth. I don't know it they overclock well (haven't tried OC mine)

For oblivion, well it depends. Will run for sure at low resolution and low details.
I used to play it on a A64 3000+ / 9600xt system. Later with a 7600gs and i considered OK the 20 ish fps at 1024x768 mid details.

I lanched Oblivion this week on a much higher end system... (Opteron 154 @3GHz, 7800GTX 512 SLI) and it ran badly too (but maxed out res and details + AA).

So really depends on the settings and expectations

Oblivion is a bit of weird one, on a x1900xtx and a core 2 duo e6600 it runs maxed out at 1024x768 at around 50fps, i think the game favours ATI but it requires a way stronger CPU, like an athlon 64 4000+ and similar.

momaka wrote on 2024-08-20, 09:40:

For the three 8i865pe775 board, at least one problem is obvious: bad/bulging capacitors. Let's hope that's all that's wrong with them, as that would make them an easy fix. Otherwise, I tend to be weary of stuff with LGA sockets, since they often get mistreated and get bent pins.

The three 8i865pe775 boards arrived today,
one had a bent pin then it posted fine,
there wasn't anything wrong with the second one, not sure why seller said it's not working.
the third one had a dead ISL6520, it's a pwm IC for the memory rail, I've seen this IC fails a lot on gigabyte boards so I always keep bunch of them in stock.
and of course bunch of bulged caps on each of them.

I have a feeling the i875 socket 478 board which will arrive tomorrow is not going to be an easy fix like these 3 boards. 🤣

Karbist wrote on 2024-08-20, 12:23:

I have a feeling the i875 socket 478 board which will arrive tomorrow is not going to be an easy fix like these 3 boards. 🤣

If the 875 board is anything like my experience with the 8IK1100, expect a dead southbridge at the worst

PcBytes wrote on 2024-08-20, 14:26:

Karbist wrote on 2024-08-20, 12:23:

I have a feeling the i875 socket 478 board which will arrive tomorrow is not going to be an easy fix like these 3 boards. 🤣

If the 875 board is anything like my experience with the 8IK1100, expect a dead southbridge at the worst

Gigabyte made a whole range of these 478 865/875 boards and I dont think I have seen many of them without issues, normally its bad caps but it sounds like they have a wider range of problems if dead south bridge ICs are showing up.

Honestly sounds like they cheaped out on parts.

Warlord wrote on 2024-08-19, 02:00:

I bought this Auzentech prelude, because they dont pop up that often for sale anymore and not for the price I paid for it. I did notice the few bent pins.

It's so "clean" that it almost looks like a prototype. What is the DIP IC in the right corner?

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-08-20, 11:03:

With overclocking with a Barton core you need to find one of the unlocked models otherwise you need to start doing pin mods and bridge mods to unlock them, but YMMV with how much more you get out of them, some 2500 Bartons can overclock quite a bit others not so much, Ive seen reports of the 2500+ hitting 2.7Ghz with golden chips, no idea how far a 3200 will go as Ive never overclocked one.

That's impressive. I've read good results with mobile versions too. I think i have one or two somewhere. Will give them a try someday

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-08-20, 11:03:

Also you are lucky to own a 154 been after either that or a unicorn 156 for quite a while, a FX-57 would also be just as nice to have, also have been on the hunt for a 185 or a 190 if it exists.

It was total luck. My goal was to build a top 2005 system. I started gathering parts for that a bit before the pandemic i think. I had an Opteron 180 at first... but had an afterthought about single cores vs dual for games of that era. While 2 cores was clearly the future in 2005, games would still continue to favor fast single thread performance up until 2007 at least. And in 2005 i remember dreaming more of an Fx-57 than a dualcore CPU. So i was not 100% happy with the 180.

And then my Opteron 180 stopped working for no reason. And right at the moment i was looking for a replacement, i saw this 154 on ebay for less than 100€. So lucky with that.

There is currently a 185 for sale in a French classifieds site. For 95€. With a GPUZ screen capture claiming that it is 3.2 GHz capable. I'm semi interested... but this is a 2006 CPU and i want my system to be from 2005.
(https://www.leboncoin.fr/ad/ordinateurs/2141048227 (not afiliated and it's not an auction so i think i can share))
Never seen a 190.

iraito wrote on 2024-08-20, 11:55:

Oblivion is a bit of weird one, on a x1900xtx and a core 2 duo e6600 it runs maxed out at 1024x768 at around 50fps, i think the game favours ATI but it requires a way stronger CPU, like an athlon 64 4000+ and similar.

Yes but i think there was a problem with ATI cards too at some point. IIRC it was not possible to enable HDR rendering + AA. Not sure why. But you had to chose between sharp edges and nicer ambiant light.
For the e6600, Oblivion probably only benefits from the higher "instructions per cycles" of the core architecture. I don't think the 2nd core helps that much.

There are some details here (Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages is generally a very good source of info) : http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:System_Requirements

For older Processors, it should be noted that due to Oblivion's poor use of multiple cores, a faster-per-core single core processor will outperform a slower-per-core multiple core processor at a lower clock speed.

Oh and there is even a mod that allow the game to run on DX8 cards. GeForce 3/4 (Fx, cause they are DX8 cards right ?), Radeon 8500. It works by patching shaders in memory. (http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion_Mod:Oldblivion)

acl wrote on 2024-08-20, 17:10:

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-08-20, 11:03:

There is currently a 185 for sa […]
Show full quote

There is currently a 185 for sa

iraito wrote on 2024-08-20, 11:55:

Oblivion is a bit of weird one, on a x1900xtx and a core 2 duo e6600 it runs maxed out at 1024x768 at around 50fps, i think the game favours ATI but it requires a way stronger CPU, like an athlon 64 4000+ and similar.

Yes but i think there was a problem with ATI cards too at some point. IIRC it was not possible to enable HDR rendering + AA. Not sure why. But you had to chose between sharp edges and nicer ambiant light.
For the e6600, Oblivion probably only benefits from the higher "instructions per cycles" of the core architecture. I don't think the 2nd core helps that much.

There are some details here (Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages is generally a very good source of info) : http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:System_Requirements

For older Processors, it should be noted that due to Oblivion's poor use of multiple cores, a faster-per-core single core processor will outperform a slower-per-core multiple core processor at a lower clock speed.

Oh and there is even a mod that allow the game to run on DX8 cards. GeForce 3/4 (Fx, cause they are DX8 cards right ?), Radeon 8500. It works by patching shaders in memory. (http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion_Mod:Oldblivion)

I think the limit was more software based, at the time I remember using a told or some mod to overcome that, but yeah dual cores did barely anything, that's why I would go for an athlon 64 3800+ or stronger, I will test oblivion with my 6800+athlon 64 4000+ I want to see what I get out of it.

Picked up a GF3 Ti 500 on a bay purchase incorrectly listed as a Ti200👍.

acl wrote on 2024-08-20, 10:52:

Just out of curiosity, is there any benefits with DDR500 on Athlon XP ? These CPUs can't benefit much from higher bandwidth. I d […]
Show full quote

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-08-20, 08:43:

copper cooler !

I have a nice Lian Li PC60 case for this lot to go into with a 9800XT and 2Gb of DDR500 to complete a nice 2003 era build, Im thinking I may throw a 6800GT in there if the 9800Xt cant handle Oblivion well enough as this is a partly a throwback build to my XP system I had back in the day that I lost months to playing Oblivion and Morrowind on.

All this was ~150 AUD so not a bad price for some solid kit.

Just out of curiosity, is there any benefits with DDR500 on Athlon XP ?
These CPUs can't benefit much from higher bandwidth. I don't know it they overclock well (haven't tried OC mine)

For oblivion, well it depends. Will run for sure at low resolution and low details.
I used to play it on a A64 3000+ / 9600xt system. Later with a 7600gs and i considered OK the 20 ish fps at 1024x768 mid details.

I lanched Oblivion this week on a much higher end system... (Opteron 154 @3GHz, 7800GTX 512 SLI) and it ran badly too (but maxed out res and details + AA).

So really depends on the settings and expectations

Those games are way better on much newer hardware. Pretty sure I last ran them on an overclocked XEON x5675 (x58 LGA1366) with an overclocked HD7970 (had 2 in CFX).

The Antex Z1e does exist. After looking for one since 2017 I was beginning to think that none were ever sold or that all of them had been scrapped.

I am not sure if it will be usable for DOS games as the manual does not mention sound blaster support.

It does have OPL3 and a wave table header though and the Crystal 4236 ? gives me hope that it does.

Will post in my original Z1/Z1e thread once it arrives and I have done some testing.

4 spindles of 100 CD-Rs and 34 jewel boxes also with CD-Rs, together with a 10-pack of floppies ...

Finally I have enough to make a set of DOS 6.22 disks and install on my 386DX33@40

All for the equivalent of US$20

Baleog wrote on 2024-08-20, 16:04:

Warlord wrote on 2024-08-19, 02:00:

I bought this Auzentech prelude, because they dont pop up that often for sale anymore and not for the price I paid for it. I did notice the few bent pins.

It's so "clean" that it almost looks like a prototype. What is the DIP IC in the right corner?

It's probably not a prototype . It might have somthing to do with a rom to turn the LED on or off. I'm curious to see how much this card sounds better than a normal Xfi and if I can tell the difference or not. The card is essentially an XFI clone with better DACs and lower noise.

Warlord wrote on 2024-08-19, 02:00:

I bought this Auzentech prelude, because they dont pop up that often for sale anymore and not for the price I paid for it. I did notice the few bent pins.

I had one of those - I bought it from Newegg for almost $200.00 in late 2008 because after upgrading from a Socket 939 system to a P5Q Pro I discovered that my Philips Accoustic Edge refused to work with my new motherboard for some reason. I was happy with it, I wish I still had it (lost it in the fire).

cyclone3d wrote on 2024-08-20, 21:20:

acl wrote on 2024-08-20, 10:52:

Just out of curiosity, is there any benefits with DDR500 on Athlon XP ? These CPUs can't benefit much from higher bandwidth. I d […]
Show full quote

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-08-20, 08:43:

copper cooler !

I have a nice Lian Li PC60 case for this lot to go into with a 9800XT and 2Gb of DDR500 to complete a nice 2003 era build, Im thinking I may throw a 6800GT in there if the 9800Xt cant handle Oblivion well enough as this is a partly a throwback build to my XP system I had back in the day that I lost months to playing Oblivion and Morrowind on.

All this was ~150 AUD so not a bad price for some solid kit.

Just out of curiosity, is there any benefits with DDR500 on Athlon XP ?
These CPUs can't benefit much from higher bandwidth. I don't know it they overclock well (haven't tried OC mine)

For oblivion, well it depends. Will run for sure at low resolution and low details.
I used to play it on a A64 3000+ / 9600xt system. Later with a 7600gs and i considered OK the 20 ish fps at 1024x768 mid details.

I lanched Oblivion this week on a much higher end system... (Opteron 154 @3GHz, 7800GTX 512 SLI) and it ran badly too (but maxed out res and details + AA).

So really depends on the settings and expectations

Those games are way better on much newer hardware. Pretty sure I last ran them on an overclocked XEON x5675 (x58 LGA1366) with an overclocked HD7970 (had 2 in CFX).

Yup they are, but they are creation games so that's expected due to their reliance on single core speed but I did play them back in the day on a 2500+ with a 9600XT and it wasn't a terrible experience. Im not expecting 60 FPS silky smooth game play but rather something closer to what I used to play at with my old rig, itll be fun tinkering with the rig and the games to eek out as much performance as they can give me without making the games look like a pastel painting or a slideshow.

Morrowind does have a number of utils and mods that can greatly increase that games performance on low end hardware, not sure if Oblivion has similar mods but if it does Ill find them and try them out.

I mean all of this is what retro rigs and gaming is about right, taking that old hardware and enjoying what it offers even if its not the greatest experience.

cyclone3d wrote on 2024-08-20, 21:27:

The Antex Z1e does exist. After looking for one since 2017 I was beginning to think that none were ever sold or that all of them […]
Show full quote

The Antex Z1e does exist. After looking for one since 2017 I was beginning to think that none were ever sold or that all of them had been scrapped.

I am not sure if it will be usable for DOS games as the manual does not mention sound blaster support.

It does have OPL3 and a wave table header though and the Crystal 4236 ? gives me hope that it does.

Will post in my original Z1/Z1e thread once it arrives and I have done some testing.

I've never heard of this thing, interesting card design just stuffing more and more chips onto one ISA card instead of an ASIC, that QFP Yamaha IC is the MIDI controller?

AGP4LIfe? wrote on 2024-08-20, 18:17:

Picked up a GF3 Ti 500 on a bay purchase incorrectly listed as a Ti200👍.

Awesome find, I guess the ramsinks usually make it tough to tell which is which if there's no labelling on the card, though the VRM does look quite different on the Ti500

I finally received & tested out this Leadtek Winfast S320-II card that the seller thought was a TNT2-M64, but it's actually a regular TNT2 😀
With RAM chips on both sides its got 32MB SGRAM in total, the awesome animated POST screen actually counts up the RAM so you can be sure. The fan is decently quiet after cleaning and oiling although it vibrated because of the diagonal fan screws, some tape resolves that vibration noise.
I've been wanting a TNT2 card with 32MB and fan cooling to remind me of how my Creative 3D Blaster TNT2 Ultra card was back in the day, this S320-II card hits the spot 👍