Random thrift store purchase.

Kekkula wrote on 2025-10-23, 15:43:

Random thrift store purchase.

Don't tease us like that, spread the cards out so we can see them all. 😁

Genoa EGA card. I had something like that before. Not sure where it is now, unfortunately.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2025-10-23, 16:02:

Kekkula wrote on 2025-10-23, 15:43:

Random thrift store purchase.

Don't tease us like that, spread the cards out so we can see them all. 😁

Just grabbed the box because of the super ega card, and always good to have 16 bit io card.
Rest was just random 8 bit serial cards and weird network interface cards.

Kekkula wrote on 2025-10-23, 16:40:

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2025-10-23, 16:02:

Kekkula wrote on 2025-10-23, 15:43:

Random thrift store purchase.

Don't tease us like that, spread the cards out so we can see them all. 😁

Just grabbed the box because of the super ega card, and always good to have 16 bit io card.
Rest was just random 8 bit serial cards and weird network interface cards.

Of course, the SuperEGA is a nice card, I'd have grabbed it too. I was just wondering what was underneath. 😀

Also, the two cards in the back, on top, are both possibly CGA or MDA\Hercules + Parallel cards, not serial. The one on the left I'm about 95% sure of, the one on the right I am less sure of but it's still a good possibility. If the 9pin connector is female it is most likely a video card, and if it's male it's likely serial.

EDIT: Confirmed, the one on the right is also a CGA + Parallel card. https://www.dosdays.co.uk/topics/retro_review … cga_hgc_pt1.php

(Not 100% identical, but very similar)

So yeah, you got at least three video cards in that lot. 🥳

Lol.
Thanks, I just assumed they were serial cards, and was going to check them better in the weekend.

Kekkula wrote on 2025-10-23, 17:20:

Lol.
Thanks, I just assumed they were serial cards, and was going to check them better in the weekend.

Nice! Four 1980s video cards in a random box lot is a pretty good deal, and they don't even take up much space. 🙂

Kekkula wrote on 2025-10-23, 16:40:

[...]

Just grabbed the box because of the super ega card, and always good to have 16 bit io card.
Rest was just random 8 bit serial cards and weird network interface cards.

Given the misidentification of the CGA/Hercules cards, I'm sort of curious about the "weird network interface cards" now 😉

dionb wrote on 2025-10-24, 17:41:

Kekkula wrote on 2025-10-23, 16:40:

[...]

Just grabbed the box because of the super ega card, and always good to have 16 bit io card.
Rest was just random 8 bit serial cards and weird network interface cards.

Given the misidentification of the CGA/Hercules cards, I'm sort of curious about the "weird network interface cards" now 😉

I swear these are what I said 😝

I suppose there's a vague chance it's a network card, unless you hacked Stason.org to mislead us... 🤣
https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/network-cards/F/ … -BOARD-300.html

Went to a garage sale this morning and found this 2013 Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro for $1. It has EAX 5 printed on the side of the box. I’ve never owned one of these USB sound cards and have not done any research on it yet so not sure if it’s any good for XP gaming.

I also got this Dell 2007FPb (20” 4:3) LCD monitor with the sound bar add-on for $1 as well. Absolutely perfect for late 90’s / early 2000’s gaming.

welp, i have a client who had this speakers (VTC? Blowsound) disconnected in her office for like 15 years, today i asked her i she would sell them to me, i ended trading for a Logitech S150 since she only wants sound for hearing the whatsapp audios

i love how the JBL Pro sound but they are passive and gets the power from the very same 3.5mm connector so unless i had an amplified output card (Sound Blaster AWE64 and below) it just sound at 10% of the total volume with anything onboard, XFI, Audigy, Vortex 2, etc

all i had to do was clean and use a contact cleaner on the potenciometers.

zuldan wrote on 2025-10-25, 10:01:

Went to a garage sale this morning and found this 2013 Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro for $1. It has EAX 5 printed […]
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Went to a garage sale this morning and found this 2013 Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro for $1. It has EAX 5 printed on the side of the box. I’ve never owned one of these USB sound cards and have not done any research on it yet so not sure if it’s any good for XP gaming.

The attachment B5C832EE-3D27-4110-9F06-9A9C9B3C3101.jpeg is no longer available

I also got this Dell 2007FPb (20” 4:3) LCD monitor with the sound bar add-on for $1 as well. Absolutely perfect for late 90’s / early 2000’s gaming.

The attachment 0F243E93-AE98-41A5-AA20-8D7A6406EBA3.jpeg is no longer available

If thats anything like the USB X-Fi I had back in the day be aware it doesn't accelerate EAX in hardware. On an Athlon 64 @ 2.2GHz I remember EAX would lower my performance in games about 25 percent using it.

Mine was the Soundblaster X-Fi GO! Pro, which I only had because the integrated RealTek audio in the PC I had at the time died outright (to this day the only time I've had an integrated sound solution fail).

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2025-10-23, 16:52:

EDIT: Confirmed, the one on the right is also a CGA + Parallel card. https://www.dosdays.co.uk/topics/retro_review … cga_hgc_pt1.php

(Not 100% identical, but very similar)

So yeah, you got at least three video cards in that lot. 🥳

I would have thought it was a serial +parallel too. 😂

Living wrote on 2025-10-25, 12:23:

https://i.ibb.co/9HF29PK3/Imagen-de-Whats-App-2025-10-25-a-las-09-12-59-49b34664.jpg […]
Show full quote

i love how the JBL Pro sound but they are passive and gets the power from the very same 3.5mm connector so unless i had an amplified output card (Sound Blaster AWE64 and below) it just sound at 10% of the total volume with anything onboard, XFI, Audigy, Vortex 2, etc

all i had to do was clean and use a contact cleaner on the potenciometers.

Looks like those from Compaq Presario set?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/257138634980

Ydee wrote on Yesterday, 09:33:

Living wrote on 2025-10-25, 12:23:

https://i.ibb.co/9HF29PK3/Imagen-de-Whats-App-2025-10-25-a-las-09-12-59-49b34664.jpg […]
Show full quote

i love how the JBL Pro sound but they are passive and gets the power from the very same 3.5mm connector so unless i had an amplified output card (Sound Blaster AWE64 and below) it just sound at 10% of the total volume with anything onboard, XFI, Audigy, Vortex 2, etc

all i had to do was clean and use a contact cleaner on the potenciometers.

Looks like those from Compaq Presario set?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/257138634980

yes, they came with that very same monitor (wich didnt work) and this one amplified the output, so they are kind of useless. A shame because they sound really good, guess i will save them for a 486 with an ISA card.

A fully functional Radeon 9000 AIW 64MB - for science. It uses BGA memory, meaning that it is meant to have a dual rank setup (not common for 9000 series) if you have the 128MB version.

So i'll see if I get to a couple of experiments:
- Upgrade to 128MB by populating the missing memory ICs on the back
- Keep 64MB but replace the Memory with 2.8ns instead of 3.3ns and see what the overclocking headroom allows for

Thrifts have gone "cold" around here of late, not just chilly, polar deep freeze cold. Anyhoo, my thrift outing today netted a small prize, a GCN re-enlivenator, heh, new 75mm blower fan for GCN era Radeons, seems like an original spare since it's got AVC motor and Radeon Graphics sticker on, unlike some of the cheapy repros. Was sealed in bag and not a speck of dust in the moulding cracks so 99.9% sure it's a new new one. Though having said that, I haven't got any blower cards that are suffering at the moment, they get a little noisy and it's usually dust weight imbalance, clean them out and they go great again. Fans seem to die sooner. By little noisy, I mean noisier than they should be of course, they're not exactly quiet.

I got a few items today. A couple of rare-looking CPUs are the stars of the haul.

And this last thing... I still can't exactly pinpoint what it is. Closest I've come to identifying it is a Control Data Cyber 2000 Mainframe. Definitely just a show piece if true. Quite the looker!

Is this the best paper-weight ever, or a valuable specimen?

Top pic, bottom left, you've found Paradise and are now obliged to put up a parking lot, as per the song 🤣

I wish I had more Paradise cards after screwing around with ATi EGA wonder a while back.