Once every few years...
Bought a little lot of HW from someone apparently clearing the hobby parts of someone else.
Reason for buying was this:

A nice Medion branded Radeon 9800XL (MS8934) in almost perfect condition. Only one small SMD cap got a little hit during the last 20+ years. Was replaced in an instant.
Fan is good, card works like a charm.

Ending up with a couple more of a little less exciting stuff:

- HP Geforce GT 730 (PCIe)
- Sapphire HD 4350 (PCIe)
- ASUS X1650Pro (PCIe)
- PowerColor TurboDuo R9 270 OC (PCIe)
- MIRO 12 PD (Alliance ProMotion 3210) (PCI)
- Millenium II (PCI)
- MS-8951 / Radeon 9550 (AGP)

Everything working so far with mostly cosmetic flaws (missing/defective fans).
Only the Millenium only POSTs after some wiggling, may be some loose solder joint. Who would have thought a Matrox card can ever fail...

Other stuff:
Two mainboards with CPU (ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3, ASRock ALiveXFire-eSATA2), some NIB cpu coolers & case fans, a boxed i5-4460, three 8 GB DDR4-3000 modules, two very dirty PSUs, two 3.5" floppy drives, one optical drive and at last a box full of cables (IDE, SATA, Power, USB, most look unused).

Didn't look too much at what all the other stuff was after buying, so opening the box after delivery felt a bit like Christmas.
Opening one little packet after the other (everything was wrapped separately, big thank you, seller!) without knowing exactly what's inside.
All in all nothing spectacular for the world but some surprisingly good feeling minutes for me after a long time.

Rare IBM 4869 5.25" External Diskette Drive
Sold as a 360K version, but drive has no asterisk on a front panel. Based on a part number this should be 360K version.
Will do a closer inspection at home.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2025-10-05, 20:42:

It goes like this: Someone had listed a huge pile of scrap cards in ~July 2024.

Was this the lot of Amiga cards from “ kiknbutkustaknnamaths”?

evanretro wrote on 2025-10-27, 13:39:

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2025-10-05, 20:42:

It goes like this: Someone had listed a huge pile of scrap cards in ~July 2024.

Was this the lot of Amiga cards from “ kiknbutkustaknnamaths”?

Holy smokes...

PM sent. 🤯

Susanin79 wrote on 2025-10-27, 13:33:

Rare IBM 4869 5.25" External Diskette Drive
Sold as a 360K version, but drive has no asterisk on a front panel. Based on a part number this should be 360K version.
Will do a closer inspection at home.

A very nice find! These drives are hard to come by. Love that red switch!
Does it require a driver to work or it has a ROM?

I have now acquired a DX4, which in turn means I almost have the entire official 486 lineup. All I am missing is an SX2. Well, unless you want to be the kind of person who says it isn't complete without every single speed variation.

This in turn means I have updated my CPU collection. There's a few other things I have, like an NEC V20, that are otherwise in active use so they're not visible.

Couldn't resist when I saw this come up for sale.

MIDIMAN GMAN GM\GS Sound Module powered by a Crystal CS9233 and a Crystal\Dream SAM8905 Effects Processor

The mode switch on the front would not work right and kept getting stuck or not engaging properly. After messing with it a bunch, nothing worked to get the goofy plastic + metal spring switch mechanism to operate smoothly, so I sprayed the mechanism with some Deoxit D5 for some electronic-safe lubrication and it immediately fixed the problem. Nice! Though it is kind of funny that it has such a HUGE and elaborate switch to toggle between Mac and PC. How often were people doing this back in 1996? There isn't even a power switch! 😋

It is dated 1996, and I'm not sure if the samples would be "Cleanwave" or the direct copies of Roland samples. I hope to give it a test within the next day or two... I just have to make sure I have a 9v AC power adapter. I think I do...

I'll be curious to see how it compares to the ORLA MicroPartner I picked up a while back that is even smaller and is entirely based around a single Dream SAM9273M, seemingly with the ROM and any effects processing built in.

BetaC wrote on 2025-10-27, 21:14:

I have now acquired a DX4, which in turn means I almost have the entire official 486 lineup. All I am missing is an SX2. Well, u […]
Show full quote

I have now acquired a DX4, which in turn means I almost have the entire official 486 lineup. All I am missing is an SX2. Well, unless you want to be the kind of person who says it isn't complete without every single speed variation.

The attachment IMG_0016.jpg is no longer available

This in turn means I have updated my CPU collection. There's a few other things I have, like an NEC V20, that are otherwise in active use so they're not visible.

The attachment Collection.jpeg is no longer available

In USA the Pentium 90, Pentium 100, Pentium 133 Pentium 150, and Pentium 200 were popular among computer manufacturers.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2025-10-28, 05:11:

Couldn't resist when I saw this come up for sale. […]
Show full quote

Couldn't resist when I saw this come up for sale.

MIDIMAN GMAN GM\GS Sound Module powered by a Crystal CS9233 and a Crystal\Dream SAM8905 Effects Processor

The attachment 20251028_005142.jpg is no longer available

The attachment 20251028_004418.jpg is no longer available

The attachment 20251028_005204.jpg is no longer available

The attachment 20251028_005215.jpg is no longer available

The mode switch on the front would not work right and kept getting stuck or not engaging properly. After messing with it a bunch, nothing worked to get the goofy plastic + metal spring switch mechanism to operate smoothly, so I sprayed the mechanism with some Deoxit D5 for some electronic-safe lubrication and it immediately fixed the problem. Nice! Though it is kind of funny that it has such a HUGE and elaborate switch to toggle between Mac and PC. How often were people doing this back in 1996? There isn't even a power switch! 😋

It is dated 1996, and I'm not sure if the samples would be "Cleanwave" or the direct copies of Roland samples. I hope to give it a test within the next day or two... I just have to make sure I have a 9v AC power adapter. I think I do...

I'll be curious to see how it compares to the ORLA MicroPartner I picked up a while back that is even smaller and is entirely based around a single Dream SAM9273M, seemingly with the ROM and any effects processing built in.

Beautiful ! Nice buy

This aint no regular optical mouse. No siree bob. This here is an extremely rare internet optical mouse. Look at that craftsmanship.

liqmat wrote on Yesterday, 17:22:

This aint no regular optical mouse. No siree bob. This here is an extremely rare internet optical mouse. Look at that craftsmanship.

The attachment Internet_Ready.jpg is no longer available

From back when "Whistler" was the name of the next Windows version ... XP, I guess?

liqmat wrote on Yesterday, 17:22:

This aint no regular optical mouse. No siree bob. This here is an extremely rare internet optical mouse. Look at that craftsmanship.

The attachment Internet_Ready.jpg is no longer available

Steal of a deal! 🤣

H3nrik V! wrote on Yesterday, 21:48:

From back when "Whistler" was the name of the next Windows version ... XP, I guess?

Yesh.

pete8475 wrote on Yesterday, 23:01:

Steal of a deal! lol

Even worse... the mouse in the clear plastic box isn't the actual product. It's a ball mouse. ;-) Gotta love garage sales.

I'm loving all the neat and organized cables.

Found these 2 in a storage container almost a week ago, twin PIII 500 Dell Precision 410MT and a custom 604 xeon that was decommissioned and wiped about a month ago from a business that it's been churning butter at for the last 2 decades.

Had some fun with the 410 until the OEM power supply snapped and shut off, subsequently found out that the power connector wasn't ATX. gonna butcher up a more modern supply for it and see if its dead but Hopefully it'll still work esp because this is my first time being able to dick around with a twin slot 1 machine. I really want to get beos or haiku running on it!

The aopen case has an Asus PC-DL deluxe in it with a 2.4 prestonia xeon in one socket. 2 gigs of ECC DDR if I can remember correctly. I can get a matching set of chips to throw in it for somewhat cheap but 604 coolers are really expensive. I can't seem to find a decent one with the clips or mounting hardware for under 60 Canadian bones (if anyone knows where I can, please let me know). I think it would tear major ass equipped with twin chips and the 9800 XT I could steal out of my athlon that I can't currently use because none of my trusted power supplies have a beefy 5v rail.

liqmat wrote on Yesterday, 23:54:

Yesh. […]
Show full quote

H3nrik V! wrote on Yesterday, 21:48:

From back when "Whistler" was the name of the next Windows version ... XP, I guess?

Yesh.

pete8475 wrote on Yesterday, 23:01:

Steal of a deal! 🤣

Even worse... the mouse in the clear plastic box isn't the actual product. It's a ball mouse. 😉 Gotta love garage sales.

Tremendous.

There's a guy on my local kijiji adverstising an LG DVD-RW drive, except that the drve in the box is a Lite-On brand CD-ROM. 😁

H3nrik V! wrote on Yesterday, 21:48:

liqmat wrote on Yesterday, 17:22:

This aint no regular optical mouse. No siree bob. This here is an extremely rare internet optical mouse. Look at that craftsmanship.

The attachment Internet_Ready.jpg is no longer available

From back when "Whistler" was the name of the next Windows version ... XP, I guess?

Wow, I would totally have picked this up for that alone! Naming "Whistler" as a supported OS is such an obscure thing to find on a package. I had to look it up, but in July of 2000 MS announced that "Whistler" would be released in the second half of 2001, the first public beta was released October 31 and on February 5th 2001 the official name "Windows XP" was revealed. The fact that someone cared enough to name Whistler on the package of a three button (no scroll wheel...) mouse during that time frame before they knew it'd be called XP is just kind of funny to me.

Edit: Ah, just noticed that this wasn't the correct mouse for the package. Too bad! Still... I have never seen another package refer to "Whistler" support before.

pete8475 wrote on Today, 03:47:

liqmat wrote on Yesterday, 23:54:

Yesh. […]
Show full quote

H3nrik V! wrote on Yesterday, 21:48:

From back when "Whistler" was the name of the next Windows version ... XP, I guess?

Yesh.

pete8475 wrote on Yesterday, 23:01:

Steal of a deal! 🤣

Even worse... the mouse in the clear plastic box isn't the actual product. It's a ball mouse. 😉 Gotta love garage sales.

Tremendous.

There's a guy on my local kijiji adverstising an LG DVD-RW drive, except that the drve in the box is a Lite-On brand CD-ROM. 😁

Yeah don't buy that, it's the dead one that came out. At a thrift recently, found a coolermaster PSU box, had a thermaltake in it... haha, nope.... Sometimes if it looks like a big enough upgrade from what the box item was, it might be worth a risk... long time ago, but I've seen a Voodoo 3 sitting in a FX5500 box.... and I accidentally bought a 16x CD in a 52x16x8 or so CDRW box taped up, which turned out to work fine.