PcBytes wrote on 2025-08-12, 22:45:

Best for retro? Sure, I didn't say otherwise.

Just don't cool them passively. Bumpgate chips (anything between GF6-GF8 era, some GF9 but mainly 6-8 series) don't like being used at temps higher than 70.

The 7800GTX-7900GTX cards are very well cooled. I posted pictures earlier. They are also in modern cases, with 12cm fans front and back.

Benchmarking old IDE hard drives from the mid-2000s using HD Tune, HD Tach and Roadkil's Disk speed. I found that most of them performed about the same, with read/write speeds between 20-70MB/s, and access times between 12-15ms. I'd like to get hold of a SCSI drive to compare as I've heard that they had the best performance back in the day.

Of course an SSD would wipe the floor with all of them but I choose not to use those in my DOS/9x machines, it just doesn't feel right. Besides that's not retro is it? 😀

PcBytes wrote on 2025-08-12, 22:17:

Geforce 6 and 7 have no business being passive period. Those are bumpgate era.

Yep, i absolutely agree. The only reason i like cards like this is that if they are still alive they can be easily modded to have very good and quiet cooling. This one even has fan connector.

Cards with small inadequate active coolers are harder to fix because finding good coolers for this cards is not easy at this point...

DarthSun wrote on 2025-08-12, 22:58:

PcBytes wrote on 2025-08-12, 22:45:

Best for retro? Sure, I didn't say otherwise.

Just don't cool them passively. Bumpgate chips (anything between GF6-GF8 era, some GF9 but mainly 6-8 series) don't like being used at temps higher than 70.

The 7800GTX-7900GTX cards are very well cooled. I posted pictures earlier. They are also in modern cases, with 12cm fans front and back.

7800GTX and 7900GTX are always active cooled. Geforce 6/7 in its entirety should NEVER be passively cooled.

PcBytes wrote on 2025-08-13, 00:18:

DarthSun wrote on 2025-08-12, 22:58:

PcBytes wrote on 2025-08-12, 22:45:

Best for retro? Sure, I didn't say otherwise.

Just don't cool them passively. Bumpgate chips (anything between GF6-GF8 era, some GF9 but mainly 6-8 series) don't like being used at temps higher than 70.

The 7800GTX-7900GTX cards are very well cooled. I posted pictures earlier. They are also in modern cases, with 12cm fans front and back.

7800GTX and 7900GTX are always active cooled. Geforce 6/7 in its entirety should NEVER be passively cooled.

I think even the 6800GT has pretty good cooling, and it's also in a semi-modern case, with 12cm fans. It would break down sooner in an old, poorly ventilated case.

My point is that the silent made GF6 and 7 cards (like a 7600GS Gigabyte AGP I recently scored, model GV-N76G256D-RH) need to have an active cooling installed ASAP. They come from the bumpgate era and as such must not hit more than 65-70*C, which requires active (fan) cooling. Similarly Archer57's 7300 AGP should have a HSF solution installed IMO.

Rebuilt the IBM model 70 from type 2 to type 3 motherboard that now 25MHz 386DX with 64K cache. I was lucky to find this board for good price with set of 4x 2MB SIMMs installed. Need to make a adapter cable to reuse the battery/speaker wire plug assembly. Have pinouts of both types pin type and edge connector from the famous website.

Cheers,

I thought bumpgate was from the GeForce 8 era.

Wavetable Pi PCBs arrived today from PCBWay! Ordered 10, they sent 11! Not going to complain.

I know what I'm doing this weekend!

Can't wait to get this built, attached to my PicoGUS, and back in my DOS system!

I've got enough parts on hand to build 4 of these (4 unused Pi Zero 2W on the shelf)....going to have seven extra PCBs. Oh well, I'll figure out something. 🤣

Kahenraz wrote on Yesterday, 16:08:

I thought bumpgate was from the GeForce 8 era.

6 and 7 too. Seen a lot of duds of the eras, similar in symptoms to GF8.

StriderTR wrote on Yesterday, 16:43:

Wavetable Pi PCBs arrived today from PCBWay! Ordered 10, they sent 11! Not going to complain. […]
Show full quote

Wavetable Pi PCBs arrived today from PCBWay! Ordered 10, they sent 11! Not going to complain.

I know what I'm doing this weekend!

Can't wait to get this built, attached to my PicoGUS, and back in my DOS system!

I've got enough parts on hand to build 4 of these (4 unused Pi Zero 2W on the shelf)....going to have seven extra PCBs. Oh well, I'll figure out something. 🤣

That purple board, is it an amplifier?

PcBytes wrote on Yesterday, 18:42:

Kahenraz wrote on Yesterday, 16:08:

I thought bumpgate was from the GeForce 8 era.

6 and 7 too. Seen a lot of duds of the eras, similar in symptoms to GF8.

With the exception of 130nm IBM manufactured GF6 chips, so most of 6800 cards.

dominusprog wrote on Yesterday, 22:30:

That purple board, is it an amplifier?

Stereo I2S DAC. 😀

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09C5QX228?ref=ppx_ … _fed_asin_title