zuldan wrote on 2026-04-22, 11:36:

tehsiggi wrote on 2026-04-21, 15:00:

Can't wait for it to arrive.

Can’t wait to see the repair process. When does it arrive?

Hopefully by end of the week. Another 9800Pro 128MB with XT PCB is coming as well.. similar story. Ohh.. and there is (don't judge) a Radeon X1300 Turbo AGP from HIS waiting to be picked up by me.

tehsiggi wrote on 2026-04-22, 12:27:

zuldan wrote on 2026-04-22, 11:36:

tehsiggi wrote on 2026-04-21, 15:00:

Can't wait for it to arrive.

Can’t wait to see the repair process. When does it arrive?

Hopefully by end of the week. Another 9800Pro 128MB with XT PCB is coming as well.. similar story. Ohh.. and there is (don't judge) a Radeon X1300 Turbo AGP from HIS waiting to be picked up by me.

Are there any you don't have?

MattRocks wrote on 2026-04-22, 12:32:

tehsiggi wrote on 2026-04-22, 12:27:

zuldan wrote on 2026-04-22, 11:36:

Can’t wait to see the repair process. When does it arrive?

Hopefully by end of the week. Another 9800Pro 128MB with XT PCB is coming as well.. similar story. Ohh.. and there is (don't judge) a Radeon X1300 Turbo AGP from HIS waiting to be picked up by me.

Are there any you don't have?

Ohh there are.. my "collection" is tiny compared to others.. I mainly have 9000 series cards, a few X and X1 and this and that, but not too many. Well. Not too many compared too others that is. I didn't have any XT PCBs around so scoring two in a week is an absolute win for me. But my repair backlog is at least 6-8 cards. So I'll stop for now..

Already ordered replacement memory chips for the Hercules, in case I need them.

I think I have all the 9000 series GPUs - mostly Sapphire, sometimes Gigabyte or other. Is Hercules more desirable?

MattRocks wrote on 2026-04-22, 13:41:

I think I have all the 9000 series GPUs - mostly Sapphire, sometimes Gigabyte or other. Is Hercules more desirable?

Hmm, they were pretty because they often had different coolers and a blue PCB. Also they were one of the smaller AIBs. From a collectors point of view they appear to clearly be more desirable.

tehsiggi wrote on 2026-04-22, 13:44:

MattRocks wrote on 2026-04-22, 13:41:

I think I have all the 9000 series GPUs - mostly Sapphire, sometimes Gigabyte or other. Is Hercules more desirable?

Hmm, they were pretty because they often had different coolers and a blue PCB. Also they were one of the smaller AIBs. From a collectors point of view they appear to clearly be more desirable.

Let's be honest, they are among most beautifull cards ever 😁 I particulary like the 9700 Pro with red PCB and gold memory heatsinks. It makes the devlish cooler sticker pop out.
Recently I got a hold of the cooler for one of these. It was pure luck, and the seller event noted I got the last one in stock

So this bad boy is going to replace the Zalman curently instaled on my 9700 Pro. The devlish sticker I plan to make myself and LED's remain a mystery I guess. I don't know if this TITAN reference cooler is lit. By what I've seen the Hercules printed ones are lit with either blue or red LED's, dominantly blue. So if my cooler ain't lit... I'll have to find some clever ways to add LED's to it. Still thinking about how to approach this...

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-04-21, 12:53:

Whooo nelly, that's a bad place to have a varta bomb, "downtown" as it were, vs the usual edge of the suburbs.

Agreed - unusual location. However it meant the keyboard connector survived for once...

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-04-22, 15:08:

Let's be honest, they are among most beautifull cards ever :D I particulary like the 9700 Pro with red PCB and gold memory heats […]
Show full quote

tehsiggi wrote on 2026-04-22, 13:44:

MattRocks wrote on 2026-04-22, 13:41:

I think I have all the 9000 series GPUs - mostly Sapphire, sometimes Gigabyte or other. Is Hercules more desirable?

Hmm, they were pretty because they often had different coolers and a blue PCB. Also they were one of the smaller AIBs. From a collectors point of view they appear to clearly be more desirable.

Let's be honest, they are among most beautifull cards ever 😁 I particulary like the 9700 Pro with red PCB and gold memory heatsinks. It makes the devlish cooler sticker pop out.
Recently I got a hold of the cooler for one of these. It was pure luck, and the seller event noted I got the last one in stock

So this bad boy is going to replace the Zalman curently instaled on my 9700 Pro. The devlish sticker I plan to make myself and LED's remain a mystery I guess. I don't know if this TITAN reference cooler is lit. By what I've seen the Hercules printed ones are lit with either blue or red LED's, dominantly blue. So if my cooler ain't lit... I'll have to find some clever ways to add LED's to it. Still thinking about how to approach this...

My 9700 Pro came with a Zalman cooler - any issues with it, or you swapping it out more for the looks?

Just received this Pentium 4 1.8A. The seller mailed it in a regular letter envelope. Padding consisted of being wrapped in a single piece of paper, with nothing to protect the pins from bending or ESD.

By some sheer miracle it arrived with only a handful of bent pins. I bent them back into shape and by a further miracle, the processor was working.

ubiq wrote on 2026-04-22, 18:48:

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-04-22, 15:08:

Let's be honest, they are among most beautifull cards ever :D I particulary like the 9700 Pro with red PCB and gold memory heats […]
Show full quote

tehsiggi wrote on 2026-04-22, 13:44:

Hmm, they were pretty because they often had different coolers and a blue PCB. Also they were one of the smaller AIBs. From a collectors point of view they appear to clearly be more desirable.

Let's be honest, they are among most beautifull cards ever 😁 I particulary like the 9700 Pro with red PCB and gold memory heatsinks. It makes the devlish cooler sticker pop out.
Recently I got a hold of the cooler for one of these. It was pure luck, and the seller event noted I got the last one in stock

So this bad boy is going to replace the Zalman curently instaled on my 9700 Pro. The devlish sticker I plan to make myself and LED's remain a mystery I guess. I don't know if this TITAN reference cooler is lit. By what I've seen the Hercules printed ones are lit with either blue or red LED's, dominantly blue. So if my cooler ain't lit... I'll have to find some clever ways to add LED's to it. Still thinking about how to approach this...

My 9700 Pro came with a Zalman cooler - any issues with it, or you swapping it out more for the looks?

No issues, it probably works better with it, but it looses that... Hercules look. My plan is to make an ATI display case in glass. Three cards will go there. The Red Hercules 9700 Pro, then X1950 XTX, and third card.... I'm still not sure about third one, it could be Radeon DDR, or maybe 2900 XT with flames cooler, or 3850 AGP. I wish I had space for all of them.

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-04-22, 15:08:

Let's be honest, they are among most beautifull cards ever :D I particulary like the 9700 Pro with red PCB and gold memory heats […]
Show full quote

tehsiggi wrote on 2026-04-22, 13:44:

MattRocks wrote on 2026-04-22, 13:41:

I think I have all the 9000 series GPUs - mostly Sapphire, sometimes Gigabyte or other. Is Hercules more desirable?

Hmm, they were pretty because they often had different coolers and a blue PCB. Also they were one of the smaller AIBs. From a collectors point of view they appear to clearly be more desirable.

Let's be honest, they are among most beautifull cards ever 😁 I particulary like the 9700 Pro with red PCB and gold memory heatsinks. It makes the devlish cooler sticker pop out.
Recently I got a hold of the cooler for one of these. It was pure luck, and the seller event noted I got the last one in stock

So this bad boy is going to replace the Zalman curently instaled on my 9700 Pro. The devlish sticker I plan to make myself and LED's remain a mystery I guess. I don't know if this TITAN reference cooler is lit. By what I've seen the Hercules printed ones are lit with either blue or red LED's, dominantly blue. So if my cooler ain't lit... I'll have to find some clever ways to add LED's to it. Still thinking about how to approach this...

Oh i envy you. My blue 9700 Pro had this one in broken. I replaced it with the same cooler. After 15 minutes this one lost a fan blade out of nothing as well. Now there is an arctic silencer on it.

bofh.fromhell wrote on 2026-04-21, 22:18:

Got a bunch of slotkets of various brands and probably around 10 of the MSI ones of different versions. And yea quality isn't st […]
Show full quote

Feallan wrote on 2026-04-21, 18:56:

I got the MS-6905 Master 2.3 slotket. Does anyone know if this black plastic piece on it is supposed to creak like crazy? It seems bo be under a lot of tension. I tried loosening the screws and repositioning the plastic a bit but it didn't help at all

The attachment IMG20260421162303.jpg is no longer available

Got a bunch of slotkets of various brands and probably around 10 of the MSI ones of different versions.
And yea quality isn't stellar, expect creaks =)
Tho it may just be cause its very old plastics now.

Alright, thanks 😀 I thought something may be wrong with this particular piece but I guess it's fine if they all do that. I think it may be just subpar fitting in case of MS6905, as the plastic doesn't creak at all when separated from the board - only after screwing the two together.

Shponglefan wrote on 2026-04-22, 19:05:

Just received this Pentium 4 1.8A. The seller mailed it in a regular letter envelope. Padding consisted of being wrapped in a s […]
Show full quote

Just received this Pentium 4 1.8A. The seller mailed it in a regular letter envelope. Padding consisted of being wrapped in a single piece of paper, with nothing to protect the pins from bending or ESD.

By some sheer miracle it arrived with only a handful of bent pins. I bent them back into shape and by a further miracle, the processor was working.

The attachment Pentium 4 1.8A.jpg is no longer available

The attachment Pentium 4 1.8A pins.jpg is no longer available

The attachment Pentium 4 1.8A working miracle.jpg is no longer available

Yeesh... I am amazed that it survived like that.

Also, this is one of those times that I have to wonder if some people just can't grasp basic physics and\or cause and effect. Like, even if you aren't familiar with this stuff... you have to notice that this isn't a solid chunk of metal and is made up of hundreds of tiny pins that are perfectly straight and probably very fragile... and even if it was a solid chunk of metal, why would you expect it to make it through the mail without busting through the envelope and getting lost? And even if you are so inexperienced with those things that you don't think about them (which is totally fine!), why wouldn't you consider your lack of experience with the situation and then err on the side of caution?

Just zero thought goes into it I guess.

I don't know. Maybe these are the same people you see staring straight down at their phone while driving through traffic or parking lots. "There are no consequences to consider because there is nothing out of the ordinary happening."

Picked up this beige beauty:

Inside we have:

ASUS P5K SE
Core 2 Duo E6850
2GB DDR2
ASUS GeForce 7600 GS (PCI-E)
+ a couple IDE HDs that sound crazy when they spin up (60GB and 200GB) but seem to work fine

A weird transitionary era for hardware (that I missed - I was fully OSX for most of the 00's). Visually, it looks straight out of the early 00's, gold-coloured ASUS board, beige case, rats-nest cabling and all. But it also has PCI-E, a dual core CPU, and on-board SATA. And if I want to upgrade the miserable 7600 GS I need to ditch the PSU since it lacks any PCI-E rails.

tehsiggi wrote on 2026-04-22, 19:43:

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-04-22, 15:08:

Let's be honest, they are among most beautifull cards ever :D I particulary like the 9700 Pro with red PCB and gold memory heats […]
Show full quote

tehsiggi wrote on 2026-04-22, 13:44:

Hmm, they were pretty because they often had different coolers and a blue PCB. Also they were one of the smaller AIBs. From a collectors point of view they appear to clearly be more desirable.

Let's be honest, they are among most beautifull cards ever 😁 I particulary like the 9700 Pro with red PCB and gold memory heatsinks. It makes the devlish cooler sticker pop out.
Recently I got a hold of the cooler for one of these. It was pure luck, and the seller event noted I got the last one in stock

So this bad boy is going to replace the Zalman curently instaled on my 9700 Pro. The devlish sticker I plan to make myself and LED's remain a mystery I guess. I don't know if this TITAN reference cooler is lit. By what I've seen the Hercules printed ones are lit with either blue or red LED's, dominantly blue. So if my cooler ain't lit... I'll have to find some clever ways to add LED's to it. Still thinking about how to approach this...

Oh i envy you. My blue 9700 Pro had this one in broken. I replaced it with the same cooler. After 15 minutes this one lost a fan blade out of nothing as well. Now there is an arctic silencer on it.

My advice would be to make a notice (save search) on e-bay with keywords of that cooler model. They must come up sometime. Mine appears to be in order, but you know, old plastics degrade with time... idk what will happen when that thing spins up, might be fine, might fall apart. I guess we'll find out xD

ubiq wrote on 2026-04-23, 01:16:

Picked up this beige beauty: […]
Show full quote

Picked up this beige beauty:

The attachment IMG_3384.jpeg is no longer available

Inside we have:

The attachment IMG_3385.jpeg is no longer available

ASUS P5K SE
Core 2 Duo E6850
2GB DDR2
ASUS GeForce 7600 GS (PCI-E)
+ a couple IDE HDs that sound crazy when they spin up (60GB and 200GB) but seem to work fine

A weird transitionary era for hardware (that I missed - I was fully OSX for most of the 00's). Visually, it looks straight out of the early 00's, gold-coloured ASUS board, beige case, rats-nest cabling and all. But it also has PCI-E, a dual core CPU, and on-board SATA. And if I want to upgrade the miserable 7600 GS I need to ditch the PSU since it lacks any PCI-E rails.

The case reminds me of early P4 builds, but the hardware inside is much more modern. The computer was probably upgraded along it's life a few times. Concerning PSU, you definitely need to replace that PSU asap. Codegen is a firehazard even with low power load. I had at least 4-5 of those failing, one even caught fire... took out a motherboard with it, the other took out a 4870 Radeon. Those 400-500W models were frequently packed with cheap Pentium Presscots builds (amp lovers) or boundled with cheap cases.

After years of searching, I finally found a Compaq Prolinea in perfect condition and good price. It has 12 MB of RAM and probably the original 300 MB hard drive, on which the German version of Windows 95 RTM was installed.
I now need to find a way to install a 5.25-inch floppy drive, but it’s missing some unusual mounting rails.

zuldan wrote on 2026-04-22, 09:22:

100%. It’s the identical motor make/model/power connector/size and blade shape. The only difference is the fan blades are transp […]
Show full quote

tehsiggi wrote on 2026-04-22, 03:56:

Meaning keeping the cooler and replacing the fan with a fitting part? I am all ears!

100%. It’s the identical motor make/model/power connector/size and blade shape. The only difference is the fan blades are transparent and there are blue LEDs. Looks bloody awesome in a case.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/591227465.html

The attachment 83B37385-5019-49BC-9AF2-802695C5C27D.jpeg is no longer available

The attachment 8538DB43-F559-4A97-93F6-E6B00B4E98EC.jpeg is no longer available

Neat, I guess I'll hunt a broken 9800XT from Hercules as well. If nothing else at least it'll be a donor to help turn my OEM 9800XT (Dell) into a Hercules card. (since they're both reference PCB.)

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-04-23, 03:54:

ubiq wrote on 2026-04-23, 01:16:

Picked up this beige beauty: […]
Show full quote

Picked up this beige beauty:

The attachment IMG_3384.jpeg is no longer available

Inside we have:

The attachment IMG_3385.jpeg is no longer available

ASUS P5K SE
Core 2 Duo E6850
2GB DDR2
ASUS GeForce 7600 GS (PCI-E)
+ a couple IDE HDs that sound crazy when they spin up (60GB and 200GB) but seem to work fine

A weird transitionary era for hardware (that I missed - I was fully OSX for most of the 00's). Visually, it looks straight out of the early 00's, gold-coloured ASUS board, beige case, rats-nest cabling and all. But it also has PCI-E, a dual core CPU, and on-board SATA. And if I want to upgrade the miserable 7600 GS I need to ditch the PSU since it lacks any PCI-E rails.

The case reminds me of early P4 builds, but the hardware inside is much more modern. The computer was probably upgraded along it's life a few times. Concerning PSU, you definitely need to replace that PSU asap. Codegen is a firehazard even with low power load. I had at least 4-5 of those failing, one even caught fire... took out a motherboard with it, the other took out a 4870 Radeon. Those 400-500W models were frequently packed with cheap Pentium Presscots builds (amp lovers) or boundled with cheap cases.

Ahh darn, that's the only "retro" ATX PSU I have and was a little excited it might be able to drive my X1950 Pro AGP. ☹️ It looks pretty mint, like it has very few hours on it (but maybe that's selection bias - if it had hours on it, it would be dead..). Thanks for the heads up!

So, anyway I gave the beige a glow up with that 9800 GTX+ I posted the other day:

Some may say that I ruined the purity of its former messiness, but it's my computer I can cable manage how I want! 😊

Also, check out this early innovation in case airflow:

(No, it doesn't line up with the CPU)

ubiq wrote on 2026-04-23, 01:16:

Picked up this beige beauty: […]
Show full quote

Picked up this beige beauty:

The attachment IMG_3384.jpeg is no longer available

Inside we have:

The attachment IMG_3385.jpeg is no longer available

ASUS P5K SE
Core 2 Duo E6850
2GB DDR2
ASUS GeForce 7600 GS (PCI-E)
+ a couple IDE HDs that sound crazy when they spin up (60GB and 200GB) but seem to work fine

A weird transitionary era for hardware (that I missed - I was fully OSX for most of the 00's). Visually, it looks straight out of the early 00's, gold-coloured ASUS board, beige case, rats-nest cabling and all. But it also has PCI-E, a dual core CPU, and on-board SATA. And if I want to upgrade the miserable 7600 GS I need to ditch the PSU since it lacks any PCI-E rails.

This reminds me of my Core 2 Duo build built in November 2007 which had an ASUS P5K motherboard, Core 2 Duo E4500, 2 GB DDR2, and an ASUS GeForce 7900GS. Other than the CPU and GPU, I still have the components, and they're now installed in a similar beige case with a Core 2 Quad Q6600 and ATI Radeon HD 5770.

informatyk wrote on 2026-04-23, 11:59:

After years of searching, I finally found a Compaq Prolinea in perfect condition and good price. It has 12 MB of RAM and probably the original 300 MB hard drive, on which the German version of Windows 95 RTM was installed.
I now need to find a way to install a 5.25-inch floppy drive, but it’s missing some unusual mounting rails.

I have 4/50@66 as well as Deskpro XE 466. Both use the same chassis, they have only slightly different front plates and naturally motherboards. I’m personally a big fan of these 93-94 Compaqs, they were still from the era when these big manufacturers hadn’t raced to the bottom and these systems still had high build quality. As LPX style computers, these also have nice small desk footprint. And as MB has all the important things integrated, the three ISA slots are usually just fine. I also have Presario 425 AIO with originial peripherals. I do wish that that system would have three ISA slots instead of the two.

I also originally installed 5.25 floppy drive on my system, but I changed it to PAS16 multimedia kit, that is PAS16 sound card and MediaVision branded Sanyo 2x SCSI cd-rom. I also have NIC and MPU-401 card installed in it, both of which are quite common with my 486 builds. In fact, I network all my vintage boxes as it just makes life so much easier with data transfers.

If you can access 3D printer, there should be printable rails in thingiverse (or printables, can’t remember which).

You also might be interested with this project, if you have the correct motherboard:
https://github.com/wichers/Compaq-Cache-Module-197005-001
Compaq (197005-001) cache module - open source reproduction

You most likely don’t have original cache module, so adding thah reproduction module gives a nice boost on some games and applications.