Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-04-17, 09:59:

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-04-17, 00:27:

Bleh. […]
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BitWrangler wrote on 2026-04-16, 17:12:

It happened... went on thrift patrol in the neighbouring town because I was over there for other stuff...

Some months ago one of the volunteer thrifts put up a new glass cabinet, intended solely for digital and personal electronics, and one or two computer items made it in there, now, it has fallen to the old ladies, and is full of "pretty plates". ... despite 4 more cabinets and a couple of display shelves in the store also being full of "pretty plates". Gah.

Bleh.

I have some relatives that have been selling antiques for a few decades and they are mostly focused on glassware. They told me recently that the market for such things has basically vanished. Younger generations have absolutely zero interest in glass and the people who care(d) are trying to downsize and no longer want it. So, it doesn't surprise me that thrift stores would have more and more of it to sell. As people from the baby-boom generation die off and their used-to-be-super-valuable glassware is no longer worth trying to sell and ship on ebay, the stuff will go to thrift stores.

I wonder when that will happen with computer stuff... 😮

It's becoming a bit of concern... Most 90s computer stuff of collectors are nostalgia driven, and these generations will be on their way out in about 20-30 years. It's difficult to see how new generations are relating to this era, but it's safe to say they do not share our exact enthusiasm. Meanwhile my collection is getting bigger by the day, and some of these cards were very expensive... hundreds of dollars. It's not that I'm regreting it, it's just when I think long-term I can't see it getting more expensive, because that requires interest and I'd say we are at the peak just about now. If someone was to inherit my collection later, God knows what would he think of, or do with it, so.... I think our own satifaction with our hobby and interest in old hardware should be the only consideration regarding it's worth or "fate".

I think it will happen sooner than we think

my 16yo son has ZERO interest in computers even modern ones, all he cares are stupid free "tower defence" mobile phone games
When I was 16 I was devouring assembler , programming and hardware books.

Our generation is the last (and first) to be fascinated with mechanical clunky machines accessing data stored on magnetic materials

That said and if we look at our previous generations interests like a phonograph a typewriter, comics, coin collections those were much more "static" items you just collected and looked at them
A computer is something different, more interactive, more interesting, with many things to discover, its like an old car so I believe there will still be a significant interest in younger generations in vintage hardware but not to the level we are seing today with our generation

AaronS wrote on 2026-04-15, 14:03:

Absolute bargain for this PCI 6200 (£16.95) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/336535191948

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/evga-ge … ci-256-mb.b2273

What is your plan for it?

I also have a later era architecture in PCI format. Mine is a PCI Radeon 9200 twin GPU, which is an oddity that I don’t have an obvious use case for.

It’s too new for Win98 drivers - maybe WinME can be coerced into accepting later previously extracted drivers?

In Win11 and PCIe era systems it’s possible to have WinXP in an emulator and PCI pass through with supported drivers.

In WinXP and AGP era systems the PCI can drive extra monitors. Maybe there is some kind of A/B testing that can demo differences between GPUs in realtime but when I looked into that for Quake 3 it seemed I would need to change the code?

Not sure. Need a plan.

MattRocks wrote on 2026-04-17, 12:37:

What is your plan for it? […]
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What is your plan for it?

I also have a later era architecture in PCI format. Mine is a PCI Radeon 9200 twin GPU, which is an oddity that I don’t have an obvious use case for.

It’s too new for Win98 drivers - maybe WinME can be coerced into accepting later previously extracted drivers?

In Win11 and PCIe era systems it’s possible to have WinXP in an emulator and PCI pass through with supported drivers.

In WinXP and AGP era systems the PCI can drive extra monitors. Maybe there is some kind of A/B testing that can demo differences between GPUs in realtime but when I looked into that for Quake 3 it seemed I would need to change the code?

Not sure. Need a plan.

I have PCI Quadro FX600 which I'm curious which one will be faster, although I think looking at other peoples benchmarks the Quadro will have the slight edge (in addition to being able to use earlier drivers under 98 for better compatibility).

9200 should run fine under 98 with Catalyst 6.2 I believe? I would actually like to get a PCI Radeon at some point too, the 9100 is supposed to be the fastest ATI PCI card but are super rare.

My "retro machine" is a AM3+ board with 2 PCI slots, works great for 98, XP and Vista/7.

Nunoalex wrote on 2026-04-17, 12:34:

I think it will happen sooner than we think […]
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Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-04-17, 09:59:

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-04-17, 00:27:

Bleh.

I have some relatives that have been selling antiques for a few decades and they are mostly focused on glassware. They told me recently that the market for such things has basically vanished. Younger generations have absolutely zero interest in glass and the people who care(d) are trying to downsize and no longer want it. So, it doesn't surprise me that thrift stores would have more and more of it to sell. As people from the baby-boom generation die off and their used-to-be-super-valuable glassware is no longer worth trying to sell and ship on ebay, the stuff will go to thrift stores.

I wonder when that will happen with computer stuff... 😮

It's becoming a bit of concern... Most 90s computer stuff of collectors are nostalgia driven, and these generations will be on their way out in about 20-30 years. It's difficult to see how new generations are relating to this era, but it's safe to say they do not share our exact enthusiasm. Meanwhile my collection is getting bigger by the day, and some of these cards were very expensive... hundreds of dollars. It's not that I'm regreting it, it's just when I think long-term I can't see it getting more expensive, because that requires interest and I'd say we are at the peak just about now. If someone was to inherit my collection later, God knows what would he think of, or do with it, so.... I think our own satifaction with our hobby and interest in old hardware should be the only consideration regarding it's worth or "fate".

I think it will happen sooner than we think

my 16yo son has ZERO interest in computers even modern ones, all he cares are stupid free "tower defence" mobile phone games
When I was 16 I was devouring assembler , programming and hardware books.

Our generation is the last (and first) to be fascinated with mechanical clunky machines accessing data stored on magnetic materials

That said and if we look at our previous generations interests like a phonograph a typewriter, comics, coin collections those were much more "static" items you just collected and looked at them
A computer is something different, more interactive, more interesting, with many things to discover, its like an old car so I believe there will still be a significant interest in younger generations in vintage hardware but not to the level we are seing today with our generation

I wouldn't judge all future generations based on your son's preferences. It's not like everyone who is 40-50 years old now loves old computers. People just have different interests.

My daughter isn't even in middle school yet and she's into programming, making her own games, pixel art, animation, and lately she's been building and animating her own mobs for Minecraft and putting them into modpacks. She doesn't mind my old computer stuff and sometimes likes older games. Actually... in a few more years retro gaming will be the most popular form of gaming on earth if Minecraft continues to top the charts as it approaches 20 years old.

I have another relative who is in his early 20s who has been repairing and restoring typewriters for several years now. He has recently started working on phonographs too. His teenage brother is into '90s stuff, VHS tapes, cassettes, '90s cars, '90s music...

Whow knows, maybe glassware could even make a comeback if a bunch of popular people start ticking-and-tocking, X-tweeting, pint-arresting or you-shortsing about it... or whatever the kids do these days.

Interesting news at least for my retroHW collection, yesterday I ordered a motherboard of an HP 386/25 (Vectra), and the power supply with non-standard AT connector, will arrive next week, I don't know if they will be on time in the delivery 📦, because there will be some days of strike (due to skyrocketing fuel cost ⭐️).
Even the format of the card is not the usual AT, but it has some interesting new features for a 386, the PS/2 mouse and keyboard connectors, the 72 PIN RAM, all things that are usually found in newer PCs!
The motherboard should be from 1991, and it was sold to me with Intel 386DX25 CPU, Intel 387 FPU, and RAM, of the latter I don't know the total installed, however if it doesn't use particular modules, I can eventually expand it, but I think this won't be necessary.
The power supply is 150W, and it should be a Delta, so I would expect it to still be ⚓️ working, but just in case I will check it and try it, before using it.
If anyone has the same PC, I would like to know what VGA video card ISA had, just to be safe, and to possibly look for something similar, or even the same.

Unusual, and nice, to have the 387 installed..

NeilKnows wrote on 2026-04-18, 09:36:

Unusual, and nice, to have the 387 installed..

Thank you very much, it was probably a very expensive PC at the time and was used in offices where it was important to have the 387, to speed up the calculations.

I got curious EGA monitor. I know what you are saying, that's just IBM 5154, but I say that it isn't. Yes, the case is pretty much identical, to the point that the case screws together the same way, has the same plastic covers for top screws etc, but the insides are very different from the photos and videos I've seen of the 5154. Notable differences are: Nec tube (370MEB22-TC96, I've never heard of Nec tubes in 5154s), this uses single PCB design vs. dual PCB 5154 and the PSU is very different and this actually has 220V-120V switch in the supply and back of the monitor (5154 has monitors for different voltages).

The Express Computer logo and sticker is for a local brick and mortar computer store, which for the time had very good branding compared to many other similar clone outlets, so it is not a manufacturer. There is a sticker behind the monitor, but unfortunately there is nothing after the "Manufacturer" as the text has faded away. I didn't saw any manufacturing information on the PCB, but this is a EGA monitor and that means it has awfully lot of junk inside so small print is easily hidden on a busy PCB. PSU PCB has a date code 5186, so we know roughly the time this was sold, most likely early 1987.

I wonder if anyone could identify the monitor. I've tried to google different EGA monitors but so far I haven't found anything that looks like this. Besides 5154 of course. This looks like 5154, but I wouldn't call this a clone as the electronics is very different.

Here is a photo inside the case. With 5154 you would see a vertical PCB on the left and 5154 PCB PSU would also have signigicantly more shielding, this is practically open:

V.size pots needed some cleaning (or reflowing, I did both) as when I got this I couldn't adjust image vertically. I also washed the plastic case and worst of the dust from inside and it now looks awesome and works like a charm:

Congrats, that is seriously very good.

The image looks great. I've read that manufacturers in the mid-eighties were working with stricter regulations on electromagnetic emissions. Agree with you about the internal shielding being far less than the IBM 5154. Your LOCATION shows Europe so maybe it was less stringent there at that time vs North America.

AndrettiGTO wrote on 2026-04-19, 00:24:

The image looks great. I've read that manufacturers in the mid-eighties were working with stricter regulations on electromagnetic emissions. Agree with you about the internal shielding being far less than the IBM 5154. Your LOCATION shows Europe so maybe it was less stringent there at that time vs North America.

It is not just about shielding or lack of it, this has very different design in general starting from the single PCB vs dual PCB construction of 5154. And all the photos of european 220V 5154s I’ve seen look pretty much like the 120V or US version including the shielding. The biggest differences are probably only in the construction of PSU.

My initial theory is this: majority if not all 5154 for european market were made by Finnish electronics company Salora, later Salora-Nokia. Salora also made their own computer (and TV) displays and I’ve seen at least one of their EGA displays. As they had the tooling for IBM cases, they at some point manufactured their display inside IBM case that is at best just slightly modified in the back plate area.

I get that many companies imitated IBM looks, but this case is so similar to 5154 to the small details, that it just feels strange that the manufacturer would’ve copied everything so precisely as it is probably not even necessary. But then again, I’m not a manufacturing expert so what do I know.

I managed to acquire a Sound Blaster Pro 2—version number 079337. I’ve wanted to get my hands on one of these for a long time, and the $60 price tag was quite a good deal. According to the documentation, this is the "07" revision. When connected to powered speakers, it produces only very faint background noise; however, it does seem to be somewhat sensitive to system speed. When running games on my K6-3+ 450MHz system, the FM music playback was glitchy; however, after downclocking the CPU to 150MHz, it worked perfectly.

I bought a DFI brand socket 478 motherboard with ISA slots on ebay today, also a P4 2.8 533FSB processor.

I've wanted another P4 for a while and I specifically went with this board that has no AGP so I wouldn't be tempted to just slam in one of high end Geforce FX series cards I have yet again. This way I'll get some use out of the various PCI video cards I have and some ISA expansion cards too.

Hopefully it doesn't take months to get here, it's coming from Guangzhou, China.

pete8475 wrote on 2026-04-20, 05:05:

I bought a DFI brand socket 478 motherboard with ISA slots on ebay today, also a P4 2.8 533FSB processor.

I've wanted another P4 for a while and I specifically went with this board that has no AGP so I wouldn't be tempted to just slam in one of high end Geforce FX series cards I have yet again. This way I'll get some use out of the various PCI video cards I have and some ISA expansion cards too.

Hopefully it doesn't take months to get here, it's coming from Guangzhou, China.

I also have a PCI Geforce4 graphics card that seems to work only on this late "non-AGP" motherboards
I can't make it run on anything early like socket 7 or even P.II motherboards

do you know why ? it is a 33mhz card I think, because it only has the notch on the back part of the PCI connector

Bought a VLB disk controller / serial / parallel card from flea market for NT$50 (US$1.59)

Heck, I don't even have any VLB motherboard at this moment, but this card is in such a great condition and low price, so why not. 😉 The PCB dated 13th week of 1995 and the warranty sticker was applied in October 1995, which was a bit late for VLB lifespan.

zwrr wrote on 2026-04-20, 05:00:

I managed to acquire a Sound Blaster Pro 2—version number 079337. I’ve wanted to get my hands on one of these for a long time, and the $60 price tag was quite a good deal. According to the documentation, this is the "07" revision.

Yup, sound cards from Creative Labs use six digits to mark PCB revision and production date (in your case: year 1993, week 37).

dormcat wrote on 2026-04-20, 12:47:

zwrr wrote on 2026-04-20, 05:00:

I managed to acquire a Sound Blaster Pro 2—version number 079337. I’ve wanted to get my hands on one of these for a long time, and the $60 price tag was quite a good deal. According to the documentation, this is the "07" revision.

Yup, sound cards from Creative Labs use six digits to mark PCB revision and production date (in your case: year 1993, week 37).

Yes, and judging by the markings on the YMF262M chip, this card was likely manufactured during the 52nd week of 1993 or shortly thereafter. It represents a late-stage iteration of the SB Pro series; the placement of the chip features numerous modifications compared to earlier SB Pro models, a design change that likely played a significant role in reducing noise levels.

Nunoalex wrote on 2026-04-20, 11:40:

I also have a PCI Geforce4 graphics card that seems to work only on this late "non-AGP" motherboards I can't make it run on anyt […]
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pete8475 wrote on 2026-04-20, 05:05:

I bought a DFI brand socket 478 motherboard with ISA slots on ebay today, also a P4 2.8 533FSB processor.

I've wanted another P4 for a while and I specifically went with this board that has no AGP so I wouldn't be tempted to just slam in one of high end Geforce FX series cards I have yet again. This way I'll get some use out of the various PCI video cards I have and some ISA expansion cards too.

Hopefully it doesn't take months to get here, it's coming from Guangzhou, China.

I also have a PCI Geforce4 graphics card that seems to work only on this late "non-AGP" motherboards
I can't make it run on anything early like socket 7 or even P.II motherboards

do you know why ? it is a 33mhz card I think, because it only has the notch on the back part of the PCI connector

I have a number of PCI cards like that, my guess is that they are expecting 3.3V and the old boards can only deliver 5V. I could be wrong though.

Some folks on here did a neat mod to a card that has that limitation here btw - Chinese Rage XL PCI mods, improved compatibility and looking for a good overclock.

pete8475 wrote on 2026-04-20, 05:05:

I bought a DFI brand socket 478 motherboard with ISA slots on ebay today, also a P4 2.8 533FSB processor.

I've wanted another P4 for a while and I specifically went with this board that has no AGP so I wouldn't be tempted to just slam in one of high end Geforce FX series cards I have yet again. This way I'll get some use out of the various PCI video cards I have and some ISA expansion cards too.

Hopefully it doesn't take months to get here, it's coming from Guangzhou, China.

Looks like a perfect base for a Northwood build. Testing older PCI video cards on this thing would definitely push them to the limit.

Today I finally bought a card that was eluding me for quite some time. It's not that there weren't any around, it's just that you couldn't find one in great condition. I paid a premium price, but as an ATI fan, I decided I can live with it.

The Radeon X1950 XTX

If it arrives without problems and everything goes well... and I sincerely hope it does, I plan to make ATI case build with this card, probably pair it with high-end Core2Duo, or maybe even a single core Athlon FX.

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-04-20, 17:03:

Looks like a perfect base for a Northwood build. Testing older PCI video cards on this thing would definitely push them to the l […]
Show full quote

pete8475 wrote on 2026-04-20, 05:05:

I bought a DFI brand socket 478 motherboard with ISA slots on ebay today, also a P4 2.8 533FSB processor.

I've wanted another P4 for a while and I specifically went with this board that has no AGP so I wouldn't be tempted to just slam in one of high end Geforce FX series cards I have yet again. This way I'll get some use out of the various PCI video cards I have and some ISA expansion cards too.

Hopefully it doesn't take months to get here, it's coming from Guangzhou, China.

Looks like a perfect base for a Northwood build. Testing older PCI video cards on this thing would definitely push them to the limit.

Today I finally bought a card that was eluding me for quite some time. It's not that there weren't any around, it's just that you couldn't find one in great condition. I paid a premium price, but as an ATI fan, I decided I can live with it.

The Radeon X1950 XTX

If it arrives without problems and everything goes well... and I sincerely hope it does, I plan to make ATI case build with this card, probably pair it with high-end Core2Duo, or maybe even a single core Athlon FX.

Very nice, I always used Nvidia stuff back in that era but if I saw that for a reasonable price I'd buy it for sure.

This is definitely the first time I have gone out of my way to buy an Ensoniq\Creative AudioPCI, but I had the opportunity to grab this interesting little fella for a low price and went for it.
(These are the seller's pictures, not mine.)

While it is functionally just a normal Ensoniq AudioPCI ES1370, this one has a unique layout and was built, branded and sold by DCS as the S727. I just checked the contents of the CD and the newest files are from September 11th of 1997, which is about three months before the public announcement that Creative was going to acquire Ensoniq (the deal was done a month later in January 1998). So, for whatever reason, Ensoniq was selling chips to DCS at this point and they were making and selling their own retail boxed cards.

These seem to be fairly uncommon, with this page being one of only two pages where someone mentions having this specific card, along with a few scattered references to it on lists of sound cards online.

DCS (aka Acer, Sertek or Magitronic) seems to have had an interesting relationship with sound card companies back then, because there are a handful of cards that were sold with their branding (or Acer) that no other third parties sold. For example, the Acer Magic S30, which is based on the Vibra16. Or, this mystery card with a DCS logo that has eluded me for a few years now which seems to be a Vibra16 with Yamaha OPL4 wavetable onboard.

Anyway, I thought this was neat and I picked it up pretty cheap considering it was complete in box and seems to be unused. I have ripped the CD to an ISO and will try to get around to uploading it to Archive.org at some point.