Not my purchases but Holy cow I didn’t know prices had gone up that much for Roland LAPC-I‘s. Good time to be a seller 🤣

https://www.ebay.com/itm/287057618005
https://www.ebay.com/itm/236590552448

zuldan wrote on 2026-01-27, 07:37:

Not my purchases but Holy cow I didn’t know prices had gone up that much for Roland LAPC-I‘s. Good time to be a seller 🤣

Geez that's nuts, thank goodness for PCMIDI + McCake.

zuldan wrote on 2026-01-27, 07:37:

Not my purchases but Holy cow I didn’t know prices had gone up that much for Roland LAPC-I‘s. Good time to be a seller 🤣

https://www.ebay.com/itm/287057618005
https://www.ebay.com/itm/236590552448

Meh, still need a SB CT3990 and an Adlib Gold to fill in the gaps. 🤣

Though if something has been rarely listed for a while and you get a couple of real high dollar sales, it kind of acts as a "closet cleaner" incentive and it drags more out of hiding onto the market, word gets around and then there's several for sale and prices drop to about half. So if you want to be selling, act now, if you want to be buying, wait a month or two.

Damn though, the better AWE32s seem to have doubled in price since I last looked, sound cards in general on a rampage again? Wake me up when RAP10 and OP4001 go stupid tho., that's my "closet cleaner" bell.

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-01-27, 14:57:

Meh, still need a SB CT3990 and an Adlib Gold to fill in the gaps. :lol: […]
Show full quote

zuldan wrote on 2026-01-27, 07:37:

Not my purchases but Holy cow I didn’t know prices had gone up that much for Roland LAPC-I‘s. Good time to be a seller 🤣

https://www.ebay.com/itm/287057618005
https://www.ebay.com/itm/236590552448

Meh, still need a SB CT3990 and an Adlib Gold to fill in the gaps. 🤣

Though if something has been rarely listed for a while and you get a couple of real high dollar sales, it kind of acts as a "closet cleaner" incentive and it drags more out of hiding onto the market, word gets around and then there's several for sale and prices drop to about half. So if you want to be selling, act now, if you want to be buying, wait a month or two.

Damn though, the better AWE32s seem to have doubled in price since I last looked, sound cards in general on a rampage again? Wake me up when RAP10 and OP4001 go stupid tho., that's my "closet cleaner" bell.

Man, I've been keeping my eyes out for a Roland RAP10 for a while. Can never seem to find one and I am too cheap\poor to pay the deep-pocket-collectors price for something like that.

I think it's funny how original Adlib cards have become nearly impossible to find without paying out the nose. When I first started actively collecting hardware ~10 years ago no one was buying Adlib cards for much because they were still somewhat common and everyone knew that you could just get almost any old Sound Blaster or clone to get OPL2 or OPL3 music, plus digital effects. So I never bought one. Now, I probably never will unless it is some freak thing in a scrap lot (the chance of which has dwindled massively in the past 5 years).

I have also basically admitted defeat with regard to ever getting an original Pro Audio Spectrum (non-16). A few have popped up over the years. Some have sold for stupidly low prices simply because at the time there were no recently sales... but I miss them every time, or the list price is like $600 US (which is fair for their rarity but makes no sense for me). Not going to name any names but I'm pretty sure another user here snagged one in-box for peanuts a few years ago and it was probably listed an hour after I looked at my saved searches and an hour before I checked again. The chances of me missing it and someone else who knew what it was actually getting it were so low... it still sticks in my craw. I mean... I am happy for him as a fellow VOGONSer... yes. Happy. 😑😁

zuldan wrote on 2026-01-27, 07:37:

Not my purchases but Holy cow I didn’t know prices had gone up that much for Roland LAPC-I‘s. Good time to be a seller 🤣

https://www.ebay.com/itm/287057618005
https://www.ebay.com/itm/236590552448

Prices were north of $1000 USD a few years ago, but looks like they are still climbing. Would be a good time to sell off a LAPC-I card for sure.

Yoghoo wrote on 2026-01-26, 22:15:

I like the case as well. It's available in the Netherlands for 2 months or so. But in all shops it's exactly the same price (230 Euro). Almost looks like there are some kind of price agreements or something like that.

At 230 Euro I can't justify it as there are new cases half the price with similar specs. Unfortunately all in black though.

Yeah, they are pretty expensive. I don't know if it's because of the retro theme leading to lower volumes (thus higher relative cost) or just pricing them higher because people will pay. There isn't really any equivalent alternative for a modern beige tower case with retro aesthetics.

I wonder if these cases are successful if other manufacturers might take note and do something of their own.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-01-27, 07:21:

Man, the FLP02 is really nice looking. I just wish they had done some things differently. It has a lot of similarities to the Fractal Define R6 that I'm using now, so it would almost be a 1:1 swap for me to switch to a retro styled case on my main PC... but the air flow and filtering of this seems a lot less functional. For example, the Define R6 has a full length filter on the bottom that pulls out the front and the case supports 2x140MM fans down there, which adds significantly to the airflow while adding very little noise due to the location.

I have a Define R5 and it definitely has better airflow. It can do two 140mm front fans versus the FLP02's 120mm limit. And the Define R5 has less internal obstructions.

I did remove some of the hardware to see how much airflow there is. The top front 120mm fan can blow unobstructed onto the expansion slots, so that's good for cooling. But the bottom from 120mm fan is still mostly obstructed by the metal shroud around the PSU area.

It would also have been a huge improvement if the 5.25" drive cage and front panel utilized a more modular and modern design. Losing half of the front of the case to decorative plastic drive covers with no way to put fans behind them (and no filters if you were to DIY it) is unfortunate for a case this expensive. I do use the single 5.25" bay on my R6 for a dual SATA Icydock, while still leaving room for one 140MM fan to blow almost directly into the CPU fan and another below that blowing toward the GPU. I feel like if they'd done a similar layout with this and made the number of internal drive bays configurable to allow for more front ventilation up high it would have been a big improvement.

I agree. The 5.25 drive cage does look like it is removeable. However, it's also required for the hardware for the power switch, reset, etc. So it's not a practical option to remove it.

On a side note, the drive bay covers have functional levers. I thought they would just be a solid piece of molded plastic. But the levers are a mechanism to retract one of the slot tabs used to hold the covers in place.

It's a neat touch, although it also means that using other drive bay covers may not work.

I got some interesting, at least to me, items today.

I finally found Thermaltake Dragon Orb 3, even NOS and reasonable price. When I bought my 1400 T-bird and K7t266 Pro2 based system in autumn 2001, I got this same cooler for it and had it few months until I went to water cooling. It got pretty good reviews during the summer of 2001 when it came out and that is the main reason I opted it. It still looks fabulous and it is a heavy (for its time) beast.

By all modern standards it sucks, although it has copper core. Core has shallow fins at the bottom, which means that it is more or less a brute force cooler using 7000 rpm fan and thus it is very loud. I find these early socket A and P4 coolers still very interesting as manufacturers were still figuring out how to make a good cooler. Designs were often wild, although not necessarily that effective. One thing that still puzzles me is that it took pretty long for manufacturers to get that yes, you can actually make your heatsinks and fans larger than the socket without making unusable product 🤣. Of course 60mm heatsink/fan combos easily fit all motherboards with zero issues, but they just always compromised performance and noise a lot.

Second is this early NOS 3D shutter glasses. I really don't know much about these things, I only had (and have today) similar glasses for my Sega Master System, but never for PC. But i-Art glasses should be one of the better ones that were available in late 90s/early 2000s. I don't know if these work with later nVidia drivers, afaik it depends on the controller technology glasses used. I'm still curious to test these out. Even Master System glasses from 1980s produce a convincing effect, so the technology is simple but robust.

Last I have big box full of mostly cooling and case modding related stuff from early 2000s, all NOS.

I won't go through everything, but here are few (silly) samples:

Did you ever had led screws bakc in the day? Mei neither, now I have.

How about led case feet?

There are tons of more and less serious stuff from GPU water blocks and Papst fans to Unreal led fan grilles.

CharlieFoxtrot wrote on 2026-01-27, 17:22:

One thing that still puzzles me is that it took pretty long for manufacturers to get that yes, you can actually make your heatsinks and fans larger than the socket without making unusable product 🤣. Of course 60mm heatsink/fan combos easily fit all motherboards with zero issues, but they just always compromised performance and noise a lot.

There was some lobbying by hardware enthusiasts and strongarming from AMD to get motherboard manufacturers to conform socket design standards that allowed enough clear area around the socket for large heatsink mounting. In mid socket A era the reviews began to call out manufacturers who ignored this. So "because it all fits" later is not an indication that it all fitted earlier. Many late socket A 80mm sinks will not go on very early socket A, or on socket 7, whereas 60mm sinks will. There will be some boards where they fit by sheer accident rather than thoughtful design.

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-01-27, 20:37:

CharlieFoxtrot wrote on 2026-01-27, 17:22:

One thing that still puzzles me is that it took pretty long for manufacturers to get that yes, you can actually make your heatsinks and fans larger than the socket without making unusable product 🤣. Of course 60mm heatsink/fan combos easily fit all motherboards with zero issues, but they just always compromised performance and noise a lot.

There was some lobbying by hardware enthusiasts and strongarming from AMD to get motherboard manufacturers to conform socket design standards that allowed enough clear area around the socket for large heatsink mounting. In mid socket A era the reviews began to call out manufacturers who ignored this. So "because it all fits" later is not an indication that it all fitted earlier. Many late socket A 80mm sinks will not go on very early socket A, or on socket 7, whereas 60mm sinks will. There will be some boards where they fit by sheer accident rather than thoughtful design.

I remember the fitting issues reported back in the day, but these were also due to the design of the cooler although earlier boards were often the most difficult to work with.

The thing is that at somepoint heatsink manufacturers learned that heatsink doesn't need to be as wide from the bottom than it is on the top. I have one late socket A era Nexus cooler with sloped sides and 80mm (if not 92mm, can't remember outright) and it is very difficult to see big issues with that heatsink.

Another example could be Swiftech MCX462-V with sloped spikes. Later and modern heatpipe coolers do this same idea to extreme so that there is only a socket sized plate on the CPU and huge heatsink box is above the MB components. Although heatpipes weren't used, coolers moved towards this approach early 2000s so that larger thermal mass and fans could be installed.

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-01-27, 20:37:

CharlieFoxtrot wrote on 2026-01-27, 17:22:

One thing that still puzzles me is that it took pretty long for manufacturers to get that yes, you can actually make your heatsinks and fans larger than the socket without making unusable product 🤣. Of course 60mm heatsink/fan combos easily fit all motherboards with zero issues, but they just always compromised performance and noise a lot.

There was some lobbying by hardware enthusiasts and strongarming from AMD to get motherboard manufacturers to conform socket design standards that allowed enough clear area around the socket for large heatsink mounting. In mid socket A era the reviews began to call out manufacturers who ignored this. So "because it all fits" later is not an indication that it all fitted earlier. Many late socket A 80mm sinks will not go on very early socket A, or on socket 7, whereas 60mm sinks will. There will be some boards where they fit by sheer accident rather than thoughtful design.

I can remember well copper base coolers, 60x60, and "reverse pyramid"-shaped heatsinks that helped with clearance around the socket.
I know that reverse pyramid isn't correct but it sounds funnier 😀
They weren't exactly so but... 🤣

schmatzler wrote on 2020-11-02, 21:46:

My IBM ThinkPad A22p has arrived. That was quick - four days from the Netherlands to Germany. 🥰 […]
Show full quote

My IBM ThinkPad A22p has arrived. That was quick - four days from the Netherlands to Germany. 🥰

It's not perfect, but I'm happy I got one at all after many years.
Problems:
- screen has a few little spots, but not too noticeable
- flap for the PCMCIA slot is missing
- basecover has cracked because of stiff hinges ( a typical problem)

The hinges can be fixed by sanding them down and greasing them a bit, which I will do in the next days.
Broken parts are easily transferred from my A22m.

Most importantly - it completely works! The Rage 128 is handling Half-Life like a piece of cake and the UXGA resolution still is a dream in 2020. This was "Retina" before Apple called it like that.

I had one of these many years ago and I'm happy I've got one again.

Have you managed to get Windows 98SE running well on it, schmatzler?

I had an A22m for a while and recently got myself a Thinkpad A22p as well, hoping it would be a great Windows 98 / DOS machine as well. The sound works just as well and I do see a big improvement in video with Windows games, but whenever I try to run DOS games (within Windows 98SE) I just get a flickering screen. I used the driver from thinkpads.com (version M6.73.2 from 31 Oct 2002); could it be that it is too new?

If you have any advice or better drivers, I would be very happy. It is otherwise a great machine indeed...

InWin Q2000 (new old stock)

was not cheap, but gets me more excited than any modern piece of hardware I could buy today, will likely be the new house of a P2B-DS

Looks like a cool (if monstrous) case...Is that dual ATX power supplies?

framebuffer wrote on Yesterday, 21:58:

InWin Q2000 (new old stock)

was not cheap, but gets me more excited than any modern piece of hardware I could buy today, will likely be the new house of a P2B-DS

That thing is crazy.

I am a bit confused about the power supply situation though. It looks like two PSUs on the back, but one big one on the inside. And why do they have handles?

Ohhhh... is it like a hot-swap redundant power supply thing? Never seen anything like it personally.

EDIT: Yep! That's what it is. It can utilize both power supplies at the same time, but it will run on just one if there is a failure of some kind. And if that happens, the other can be hot-swapped out without shutting the system down apparently.

https://phred.org/~alex/pictures/servers/forsale/

https://www.ebay.com/itm/326959756733

A Nvidia NV1 just sold on eBay Germany for 200€. This one is hilarious because the seller clearly didn't know what he had, he sold it in a pile of random old graphics cards. He was probably shocked when he saw the final price. I've seen this card go for around 400€, but with the controller bracket and sometimes the bundled software, so it wasn't even that much of a steal - market value is probably around 250€.

asdf53 wrote on Today, 11:05:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/326959756733

A Nvidia NV1 just sold on eBay Germany for 200€. This one is hilarious because the seller clearly didn't know what he had, he sold it in a pile of random old graphics cards. He was probably shocked when he saw the final price. I've seen this card go for around 400€, but with the controller bracket and sometimes the bundled software, so it wasn't even that much of a steal - market value is probably around 250€.

Funny that it's really the only card in the lot that is worth much.

In the US that would sell for quite a bit more than $200 though. An EDGE 2120 (lower end model) sold for $800 a couple weeks ago. It was marked as "Brand New" but the seller seems to just put that on anything so it was likely just a bare, used card.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-01-27, 15:53:

Man, I've been keeping my eyes out for a Roland RAP10 for a while. Can never seem to find one and I am too cheap\poor to pay the […]
Show full quote

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-01-27, 14:57:

Meh, still need a SB CT3990 and an Adlib Gold to fill in the gaps. :lol: […]
Show full quote

zuldan wrote on 2026-01-27, 07:37:

Not my purchases but Holy cow I didn’t know prices had gone up that much for Roland LAPC-I‘s. Good time to be a seller 🤣

https://www.ebay.com/itm/287057618005
https://www.ebay.com/itm/236590552448

Meh, still need a SB CT3990 and an Adlib Gold to fill in the gaps. 🤣

Though if something has been rarely listed for a while and you get a couple of real high dollar sales, it kind of acts as a "closet cleaner" incentive and it drags more out of hiding onto the market, word gets around and then there's several for sale and prices drop to about half. So if you want to be selling, act now, if you want to be buying, wait a month or two.

Damn though, the better AWE32s seem to have doubled in price since I last looked, sound cards in general on a rampage again? Wake me up when RAP10 and OP4001 go stupid tho., that's my "closet cleaner" bell.

Man, I've been keeping my eyes out for a Roland RAP10 for a while. Can never seem to find one and I am too cheap\poor to pay the deep-pocket-collectors price for something like that.

I think it's funny how original Adlib cards have become nearly impossible to find without paying out the nose. When I first started actively collecting hardware ~10 years ago no one was buying Adlib cards for much because they were still somewhat common and everyone knew that you could just get almost any old Sound Blaster or clone to get OPL2 or OPL3 music, plus digital effects. So I never bought one. Now, I probably never will unless it is some freak thing in a scrap lot (the chance of which has dwindled massively in the past 5 years).

I have also basically admitted defeat with regard to ever getting an original Pro Audio Spectrum (non-16). A few have popped up over the years. Some have sold for stupidly low prices simply because at the time there were no recently sales... but I miss them every time, or the list price is like $600 US (which is fair for their rarity but makes no sense for me). Not going to name any names but I'm pretty sure another user here snagged one in-box for peanuts a few years ago and it was probably listed an hour after I looked at my saved searches and an hour before I checked again. The chances of me missing it and someone else who knew what it was actually getting it were so low... it still sticks in my craw. I mean... I am happy for him as a fellow VOGONSer... yes. Happy. 😑😁

Yeah that'd be me 😉 and I'm happy for me too 😁 the TZ difference worked in my favour for once, it was listed just as I woke up for the day. Recently missed out on an MV Thunder & Lightning - it was for about $30 I think? That lasted all of 15 minutes ...
Also after a RAP10 as I've somehow ended up with the dongle for one, but not the card ... not really desperate for it, and have most of what I *need* for now. So I wish you good luck in your quest for one Ozz!

JidaiGeki wrote on Today, 13:04:

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-01-27, 15:53:

Man, I've been keeping my eyes out for a Roland RAP10 for a while. Can never seem to find one and I am too cheap\poor to pay the […]
Show full quote

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-01-27, 14:57:

Meh, still need a SB CT3990 and an Adlib Gold to fill in the gaps. 🤣

Though if something has been rarely listed for a while and you get a couple of real high dollar sales, it kind of acts as a "closet cleaner" incentive and it drags more out of hiding onto the market, word gets around and then there's several for sale and prices drop to about half. So if you want to be selling, act now, if you want to be buying, wait a month or two.

Damn though, the better AWE32s seem to have doubled in price since I last looked, sound cards in general on a rampage again? Wake me up when RAP10 and OP4001 go stupid tho., that's my "closet cleaner" bell.

Man, I've been keeping my eyes out for a Roland RAP10 for a while. Can never seem to find one and I am too cheap\poor to pay the deep-pocket-collectors price for something like that.

I think it's funny how original Adlib cards have become nearly impossible to find without paying out the nose. When I first started actively collecting hardware ~10 years ago no one was buying Adlib cards for much because they were still somewhat common and everyone knew that you could just get almost any old Sound Blaster or clone to get OPL2 or OPL3 music, plus digital effects. So I never bought one. Now, I probably never will unless it is some freak thing in a scrap lot (the chance of which has dwindled massively in the past 5 years).

I have also basically admitted defeat with regard to ever getting an original Pro Audio Spectrum (non-16). A few have popped up over the years. Some have sold for stupidly low prices simply because at the time there were no recently sales... but I miss them every time, or the list price is like $600 US (which is fair for their rarity but makes no sense for me). Not going to name any names but I'm pretty sure another user here snagged one in-box for peanuts a few years ago and it was probably listed an hour after I looked at my saved searches and an hour before I checked again. The chances of me missing it and someone else who knew what it was actually getting it were so low... it still sticks in my craw. I mean... I am happy for him as a fellow VOGONSer... yes. Happy. 😑😁

Yeah that'd be me 😉 and I'm happy for me too 😁 the TZ difference worked in my favour for once, it was listed just as I woke up for the day. Recently missed out on an MV Thunder & Lightning - it was for about $30 I think? That lasted all of 15 minutes ...
Also after a RAP10 as I've somehow ended up with the dongle for one, but not the card ... not really desperate for it, and have most of what I *need* for now. So I wish you good luck in your quest for one Ozz!

I know we don't do "the memes" here, but I can't think of a more relevant use for this...

🤣

But seriously, that was an awesome find.

I'm pretty sure I also saw that Thunder and Lightning after it had sold. I can't find the listing now though... not sure when that was.

I have had more than my share of good finds in recent years though, so I can't complain. 🙂

(This one was really good! 😁)

Sorry for stupid question, but... what is so great about a Roland RAP10 ?
(genuinly curious)

I remember almost buying one many many years ago, while looking into Roland sound cards, but could not find a worthwhile usecase for its limited capabilities, so I left it alone.