Shader_BiH wrote on Yesterday, 11:23:

I've experienced this first hand... I got myself recently a Compaq Deskpro SFF with Celeron at around 200 MHz, and it had integrated Rage Pro Turbo (I suppose that is considered Rage 3?) It is indeed better, image quality is much better. I suppose a discrete Pro Turbo would also be faster. Do you have any advice concerning drivers for these... because I had many problems getting them right. Are they manufacturer dependant?

Use my Rage3 drivers if you want, they are the latest that work with ATi CIF, ATi Rage Pro Acceleration works at DDraw/3DCIF/Direct3D/OpenGL/GLUT/DVD + has GlideWrapper.
If this is RagePro or some other Rage3 AGP / PCI card, then drivers will work. These drivers only dont work with later released RageXL PCI (4752) and RageXC PCI (4753) i think.

Latest 5.40x modified drivers here:
Re: ATi RagePro drivers and software
download/file.php?id=239658

Nunoalex wrote on Yesterday, 22:09:

Soooo...
Time for the case reveal !

I love the chunky button on the case. I wish I had a case like that. I did see some when I went to the recyclers , but they were in terrible shape. Though I did get lucky and found a tower 486 like I wanted (see above) but man I want a chunky button

are youi going to retrobrite that case? I have never done it yet but I think its one thing I will try out this year.

PcBytes wrote on Today, 01:03:

If only there's a way to figure whether it's wored for 1.5v only or 3.3v as well, that wouldn't involve sacrificing a motherboard (and potentially the GPU itself)

There is:

https://www.playtool.com/pages/agpcompat/agp30.pdf (Page 40-41)
https://old.pinouts.ru/Slots/agp_pinout.shtml

TYPEDET = 1.5V capable, GC_DET = 0.8V capable

AGP 3.3V cards have GC_DET and TYPEDET pins open
AGP 1.5V cards have TYPEDET grounded
AGP 0.8V cards have GC_DET grounded
Universal cards can have both pins grounded, then the motherboard decides which voltage to use.

But this just specifies the minimum voltage, the maximum voltage is encoded using the keys. If the 3.3V notch is there but the chip doesn't support it, and there is no voltage translation circuitry on the card and it's inserted into a 3.3V mobo, it will be damaged. There's no way to determine if the card is safe or not unless you have a datasheet that confirms the RV350 is 3.3V tolerant.

MattRocks wrote on Today, 01:09:

Identical looking boards are sold as 9600 and 9600 Pro. Incidentally, my 9550 is on a different PCB and also double keyed. I suspect ATI's project managers had a bunch of CRs to circulate and didn't bother. Or worse - ATI knew these cards were cheap and making their way into poorer communities that didn't have a lawyer in the family.

the power colour radeon 9550 pcb is identical to the 9600pro, only difference seems to be the clocks/bios. i guess if they had to sell them at a reduced price they were gonna be assholes and sell them at a reduced speed as well.

MattRocks wrote on Today, 01:09:

I bought a Yamaha XG - not a fancy variant.

Lucky! i just lost out on a yamaha XG on ebay for cheap because im an even cheaper bastard. i already decided what i thought it was worth and what i wanted to pay and was outbid at the last second, i then found another XG card around the same price still cheep at £30 but a basic looking one compared to the one i was bidding on. anyway by the point i decided to buy it, it seems the seller removed the ad as there was an issue with the ad or something. 🤣

i seethed for a little while then bought another cmedia cmi8738, which is an unbranded typhoon acoustic 6, this is the second one i've found boxed with the optical add-on board, should arrive in a few days or so.
also still slightly seething because i wanted the actual typhoon branded acoustic 6 here with the XG softsynth on the driver cd
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/397435756996
£80+ for a cmedia card + £31 delivery to south coast UK, literally just across the water! LMFAO. be reasonable, why are computer parts from germany so expensive, especially on delivery? ive ordered heavy car parts from germany and its cost me next t0 nothing.

also if anyone has one of those Typhoon Acoustic 6 Sound Cards with the original driver cd please upload to archive, the cd that came with mine didnt have the XG softsynth.

Law212 wrote on Today, 19:49:

Nunoalex wrote on Yesterday, 22:09:

Soooo...
Time for the case reveal !

I love the chunky button on the case. I wish I had a case like that. I did see some when I went to the recyclers , but they were in terrible shape. Though I did get lucky and found a tower 486 like I wanted (see above) but man I want a chunky button

are youi going to retrobrite that case? I have never done it yet but I think its one thing I will try out this year.

Me too. I just can't justify an AT case right now. Here's the perfect rocker switch though (sold by one of the peeps mentioned in my next post) ...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275531673868?itmme … 9MAAOSw4udkPzEK

DudeFace wrote on 49 minutes ago:

Lucky! i just lost out on a yamaha XG on ebay for cheap because im an even cheaper bastard. i already decided what i thought it was worth and what i wanted to pay and was outbid at the last second..

I lucked out on an ALI Magic + Duron that exactly resembled my own missing PC parts. I negotiated the seller down to £15. Then I paused. Why? I don't know! During my hesitation someone else snagged it.

Then I lucked out on a Torch ATX case. Torch were one of the biggest public listed UK computer manufacturers in the 1980s. They entered administration after 1995 and were broken up, but the Torch brand persisted as a regional PC integrator hence the ATX case. That private limited company then closed down and their last office address on Google Maps now links to an eBay store filled with retro PC parts and other knick-knacks. How the mighty have fallen! I lucked out on that ATX case, which sold for £5 to someone who probably doesn't know what it represents.

Now I'm left thinking, what just happened? I could have rebuilt my Duron in a Torch case for around £20 and I let that go.. why did I do that?!

So I'm sorry I sniped you on the XG, but now you know karma gave me kicking afterwards.