benny82 wrote on 2025-11-30, 06:28:

Hi All, Just wanted to share my latest tip find, I live in regional western Australia and I usually check out the e-waste bin […]
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Hi All,

Just wanted to share my latest tip find, I live in regional western Australia and I usually check out the e-waste bins at my local waste disposal site every couple of weeks. Surprisingly people in the bush throw out lots of vintage computers and parts, this time I hit gold ! A good condition working awe64 gold so out went the sound blaster value and in goes the gold in my Pii rig . The other card I'm not sure on is the gravis ultrasound max , is this a good card? I still have to test it but its look good as well. If it works what would it be worth if I was to sell?

Thanks

Yeah, those are both really nice finds. The Gravis Ultrasound Max 2.1 is a pretty desirable card. It is functionally very similar to the GUS (Gravis Ultrasound) Classic. If you want to get a rough idea of value, go to ebay and look at sold listings.

I would suggest doing some research on the Ultrasound and giving it a try. It has some interesting abilities that make it pretty unique compared to other sound cards of the time.

You really hit gold, both of those those cards are high on people's list for sound card builds. There was a bidding war on a GUS Max 1.8 on the 10th of november that went up to $377 AUD. It was tested working though. The AWE64 Gold in tested working state will also go for $320 AUD+. Of course most people would not buy at that price and wait for a better find but on the open market it is what it is.

If you sell to someone directly, you can bring the price down by 17-20% since you'd have to pay that in ebay and paypal fees.

Re: another tip find!
I will be defiantly keeping the awe64 gold, but the Gravis ultrasound is a little too old for my taste so if it works I'll sell it.
Any way might as well show off my arsenal 👌

benny82 wrote on 2025-11-30, 10:39:

I will be defiantly keeping the awe64 gold, but the Gravis ultrasound is a little too old for my taste so if it works I'll sell it.

You don't want at least one system that can play Epic Pinball, Jazz Jackrabbit, OMF2097 and Death Rally with pristine 44Khz 16-bit mixing?

NeoG_ wrote on 2025-11-30, 12:13:

You don't want at least one system that can play Epic Pinball, Jazz Jackrabbit, OMF2097 and Death Rally with pristine with 44Khz 16-bit mixing?

You can now also get that on a SB16, thanks to these fan made patches.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-11-30, 12:20:

You can now also get that on a SB16, thanks to these fan made patches.

With the patches it's a lot better but the software mixing even with ultra quality is still worse than GUS sadly

It's not just a find. This is a quest from above to build 2 retro PCs with great sound cards.

Reading the post and saw the pic of the AWE Gold and thought yep very nice find.
...
Then I scrolled down to the GUS!!!!
100% agree with Neo G
The GUS only really makes sense for a few games. Mostly Epic Megagame titles(Zone 66 is another example where its a completely different soundtrack then SoundBlaster)
But if you have a PC with spare ISA slot it's a very nice addition to cover all your bases.

The Demo scene also highly desire GUS cards if that's an interest.

At the very least I'd have a little play around with it then sell on to fund something else, It'll definitely earn you some spending money!

What are the specs of your rigs?

I guess I could put together a 486 or socket 7 build to try it out , I have a shed full of beige boxes and parts I've found .

My rigs in the picture from left to right are-
IBM aptiva
AMD K6300
voodoo 1
S3 virge 4mb
Sound Blaster Vibra 16xv CT4170
512mb
Promise Technology TX2 Ultra100 with ide to sd adaptor and 128gb sd card

Piii 700 slot 1 100FSB (after a 1000 but are impossible to find)
Geforce 4 Ti 4200
Sound Blaster Audigy 1
512mb
64gb cf card in StarTech ide adaptor
AOpen AX6BC Slot 1 Motherboard

Amd 64 3700 socket 754
DFI LANParty UT nF3 250GB motherboard
Geforce 7800GS
2gb
Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS
1TB SSD

ASRock 775i65G R2.0 Rev2.03 motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700
HIS Radeon HD4670 AGP
2gb
1Tb SSD
Asus Xonar DG sound card

Pii450
SOLTEK SL-62B Slot 1 motherboard
Voodoo 2 12mb SLI
geforce 2 GTS
512mb
64gb cf card in StarTech ide adaptor
An awesome creative infra cd rom drive with remote
And just recently a free Sound blaster awe64 gold!

So yes I have my retro gaming covered😁😁

eM-!3 wrote on 2025-11-30, 13:02:

It's not just a find. This is a quest from above to build 2 retro PCs with great sound cards.

One PC rather, with AWE64 and GUS head-to-head.

In fact, that looks a lot like my main late DOS retro box (I just added a third card - Aztech MMSN824 - for OPL3, WSS and bug-free MIDI)

benny82 wrote on 2025-12-02, 10:12:

I guess I could put together a 486 or socket 7 build to try it out , I have a shed full of beige boxes and parts I've found . […]
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I guess I could put together a 486 or socket 7 build to try it out , I have a shed full of beige boxes and parts I've found .

My rigs in the picture from left to right are-
IBM aptiva
AMD K6300
voodoo 1
S3 virge 4mb
Sound Blaster Vibra 16xv CT4170
512mb
Promise Technology TX2 Ultra100 with ide to sd adaptor and 128gb sd card

Piii 700 slot 1 100FSB (after a 1000 but are impossible to find)
Geforce 4 Ti 4200
Sound Blaster Audigy 1
512mb
64gb cf card in StarTech ide adaptor
AOpen AX6BC Slot 1 Motherboard

Amd 64 3700 socket 754
DFI LANParty UT nF3 250GB motherboard
Geforce 7800GS
2gb
Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS
1TB SSD

ASRock 775i65G R2.0 Rev2.03 motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700
HIS Radeon HD4670 AGP
2gb
1Tb SSD
Asus Xonar DG sound card

Pii450
SOLTEK SL-62B Slot 1 motherboard
Voodoo 2 12mb SLI
geforce 2 GTS
512mb
64gb cf card in StarTech ide adaptor
An awesome creative infra cd rom drive with remote
And just recently a free Sound blaster awe64 gold!

So yes I have my retro gaming covered😁😁

Beautiful collection, but surely room for a 386 or 486 system equipped with some OPL-3 sound card should you ever feel like some early LucasArts point and click?

Thanks for sharing.