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 love that front power switch... Feels much better than these modern micro switches.

I picked up this old clone from a friends balcony today... The case is nothing to write home about but the hardware seems decent

It's been outside for a while so I'll give it 24h before firing it up. The PSU is definitely a weird one. No detailed specs to show but there is some diagram on the top

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-04-24, 16:16:

I love that front power switch... Feels much better than these modern micro switches. […]
Show full quote

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 love that front power switch... Feels much better than these modern micro switches.

I picked up this old clone from a friends balcony today... The case is nothing to write home about but the hardware seems decent

It's been outside for a while so I'll give it 24h before firing it up. The PSU is definitely a weird one. No detailed specs to show but there is some diagram on the top

Heh, I absolutely had that exact case back in the day. Came with a P75 - multiplier unlocked and able to run at 100 MHz no worries. Made it last until I was able upgrade to a PII-350.

CharlieFoxtrot wrote on 2026-04-24, 05:38:

I have 4/50@66 as well as Deskpro XE 466. Both use the same chassis, they have only slightly different front plates and naturall […]
Show full quote

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.

Awww, I momentarily got pretty excited as I have an identical-looking Deskpro XE 450 - but nope, that project only works with Presarios. ☹️ Pretty cool for those who can benefit though!

Got one of the most undesirable monitors of all time, the VGA monochrome. This one is a Sunshine MO-14 with a nice and bright CRT.

Mandrew wrote on 2026-04-24, 18:08:

Got one of the most undesirable monitors of all time, the VGA monochrome. This one is a Sunshine MO-14 with a nice and bright CRT.

I guess that one mixes the three color channels which makes it a little bit less undesirable.

Mandrew wrote on 2026-04-24, 18:08:

Got one of the most undesirable monitors of all time, the VGA monochrome. This one is a Sunshine MO-14 with a nice and bright CRT.

Don't know why it would be undesirable... but it's got a lot of charm. That "Low radiation" writing in the corner 🤣

weedeewee wrote on 2026-04-24, 18:37:

Mandrew wrote on 2026-04-24, 18:08:

Got one of the most undesirable monitors of all time, the VGA monochrome. This one is a Sunshine MO-14 with a nice and bright CRT.

I guess that one mixes the three color channels which makes it a little bit less undesirable.

Though Trident cards will do that if they only sense 75ohm load on the green pin.

Mandrew wrote on 2026-04-24, 18:08:

Got one of the most undesirable monitors of all time, the VGA monochrome. This one is a Sunshine MO-14 with a nice and bright CRT.

They were a little desirable back in the day for the following reasons, i) they were much shorter and lighter than colour, an advantage when space was a problem while still maintaining screen size. ii) they were low fatigue for poring over logs or dumps in console. iii) the discount over a colour monitor was relatively huge if you were trying to save a buck.

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-04-24, 18:54:

Mandrew wrote on 2026-04-24, 18:08:

Got one of the most undesirable monitors of all time, the VGA monochrome. This one is a Sunshine MO-14 with a nice and bright CRT.

They were a little desirable back in the day for the following reasons, i) they were much shorter and lighter than colour, an advantage when space was a problem while still maintaining screen size. ii) they were low fatigue for poring over logs or dumps in console. iii) the discount over a colour monitor was relatively huge if you were trying to save a buck.

I had a BW VGA monitor with my Amstrad PC 2086. The most annoying thing with it was that as most VGA software wasn't designed for BW, the palette used could cause issues with the BW display. For example, bright red looks like black on the BW monitor and if you have for example red font on black background... good luck.

Otherwise I found it a pleasant display to look at.

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-04-24, 16:16:

I love that front power switch... Feels much better than these modern micro switches. […]
Show full quote

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 love that front power switch... Feels much better than these modern micro switches.

I picked up this old clone from a friends balcony today... The case is nothing to write home about but the hardware seems decent

It's been outside for a while so I'll give it 24h before firing it up. The PSU is definitely a weird one. No detailed specs to show but there is some diagram on the top

You lucked into getting a legendary Socket 7 motherboard for free! Oldie Tuning: Asus P55T2P4 with AMD K6-2+/500

ubiq wrote on 2026-04-24, 17:34:

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-04-24, 16:16:

I love that front power switch... Feels much better than these modern micro switches. […]
Show full quote

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 love that front power switch... Feels much better than these modern micro switches.

I picked up this old clone from a friends balcony today... The case is nothing to write home about but the hardware seems decent

It's been outside for a while so I'll give it 24h before firing it up. The PSU is definitely a weird one. No detailed specs to show but there is some diagram on the top

Heh, I absolutely had that exact case back in the day. Came with a P75 - multiplier unlocked and able to run at 100 MHz no worries. Made it last until I was able upgrade to a PII-350.

A P75 doesn't need to be multiplier unlocked to run 100, that would be going from 1.5x50 to 1.5x66 MHz FSB. Must've felt like it was flying, since the rest of the system was faster too.

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?

Naive me hoped for today. It would have been. However upon delivering the parcel DHL decided it's not according to their delivery standards.

Sa, 25.04.2026, 08:41

Leider ist eine Zustellung der Sendung nicht möglich, da sie nicht unseren Versandbedingungen entspricht. Die Sendung wird an den Absender zurückgeschickt.

It's going back to the seller now. I am disappointed and my day is ruined 🙁 Perhaps I can pick at least the 9800Pro with XT layout up today.

tehsiggi wrote on 2026-04-25, 08:06:

It's going back to the seller now. I am disappointed and my day is ruined 🙁 Perhaps I can pick at least the 9800Pro with XT layout up today.

Oh no I’m devastated too 🤣. What bad luck man.

zuldan wrote on 2026-04-25, 08:30:

tehsiggi wrote on 2026-04-25, 08:06:

It's going back to the seller now. I am disappointed and my day is ruined 🙁 Perhaps I can pick at least the 9800Pro with XT layout up today.

Oh no I’m devastated too 🤣. What bad luck man.

Finally i can engage in mails again to get my order.. I missed it so much.. Not..

tehsiggi wrote on 2026-04-25, 08:06:

Naive me hoped for today. It would have been. However upon delivering the parcel DHL decided it's not according to their deliver […]
Show full quote

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?

Naive me hoped for today. It would have been. However upon delivering the parcel DHL decided it's not according to their delivery standards.

Sa, 25.04.2026, 08:41

Leider ist eine Zustellung der Sendung nicht möglich, da sie nicht unseren Versandbedingungen entspricht. Die Sendung wird an den Absender zurückgeschickt.

It's going back to the seller now. I am disappointed and my day is ruined 🙁 Perhaps I can pick at least the 9800Pro with XT layout up today.

So sorry to hear that... What can you do, it happens sometimes.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2026-04-24, 20:24:

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-04-24, 16:16:

I love that front power switch... Feels much better than these modern micro switches. […]
Show full quote

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 love that front power switch... Feels much better than these modern micro switches.

I picked up this old clone from a friends balcony today... The case is nothing to write home about but the hardware seems decent

It's been outside for a while so I'll give it 24h before firing it up. The PSU is definitely a weird one. No detailed specs to show but there is some diagram on the top

You lucked into getting a legendary Socket 7 motherboard for free! Oldie Tuning: Asus P55T2P4 with AMD K6-2+/500

Yeah, I noticed it's regarded very positively online... I fired it up today and it seems to work. I might make a build out of it.

H3nrik V! wrote on 2026-04-25, 06:49:

ubiq wrote on 2026-04-24, 17:34:

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-04-24, 16:16:

I love that front power switch... Feels much better than these modern micro switches. […]
Show full quote

I love that front power switch... Feels much better than these modern micro switches.

I picked up this old clone from a friends balcony today... The case is nothing to write home about but the hardware seems decent

It's been outside for a while so I'll give it 24h before firing it up. The PSU is definitely a weird one. No detailed specs to show but there is some diagram on the top

Heh, I absolutely had that exact case back in the day. Came with a P75 - multiplier unlocked and able to run at 100 MHz no worries. Made it last until I was able upgrade to a PII-350.

A P75 doesn't need to be multiplier unlocked to run 100, that would be going from 1.5x50 to 1.5x66 MHz FSB. Must've felt like it was flying, since the rest of the system was faster too.

Hah! To be honest, it was my older brother who got it, set it up, and told me that, and I never bothered to look in to the details (or I didn't understand them at the time). And yeah, it was upgrading from a miserable 486SLC so it was pretty amazing. The PII-350 was actually my first system that I bought and built myself, and I def messed with pushing past 100 MHz FSB with that one (before switching up to a Celeron 300a @ 450)

However, most of the ceramic P75s I have encountered can be set at either 1.5 or 2x multiplier, many are capable of 2x60=120, some of 2x66=133, and a few of 75x2=150. With a decent heatsink of course. Had I known how overclockable the 75 was, I wouldn't have been dissuaded by the "75Mhz pentiums are crap, save your money and get a fast 486" opinion that some sources opined in late 95 into 96. However, early adopters would have got a gold top that only maybe did 90, and available heatsinks were low profile and pathetic.

Edit: Intel did actually specify a 2x configuration 2x50 for the P100 for some reason. I think I saw a tech note somewhere about "if it's glitchy at 66mhz 1.5, stick it on 50x2.." ... so maybe some chipsets/boards were having trouble with the raw speed initially.

Anyhoo, could have been that the 2x jumper was easy to find and the FSB jumpers buried in a mass and a hard to decode settings mess in the manual, I hate it when they don't break out multiplier, bus speed, voltage, feature support etc seperately. Anyway, with poor information, possible complication, and a clear 1.5x/2x option, it could have made more sense just to flip that. Given that Intel 2x for P100 thing there might have been FUD about 66mhz working on everything.

Recently I learned on this board that PCI and, to a lesser extent, AGP cards are getting harder to get by. So I bought a lot. And there was a lot in this lot. Call it the mother lode. Anyway, now is the time to decide what to do with each item. The choices are:

-keep, if it's an upgrade for my XP PC (P4/Audigy 2 ZS/HD6850) or W98 DX7 PC (P3 1000/Audigy 2/Ti4200).
-Sell, in which case I'll best know if any of these cards are particularly sought after/valuable or if they have a good use case.
-Final option: I still have a P3 667 motherboard with ISA, PCI and AGP ports which I'll complete with a graphics and sound card before selling, so looking for suitable cards to put in there (goal is a nice retro rocket, preferably W98 compatible).
-Also tell me if I misidentify something. All those AGP variants, and then there are PCI variants... I don't need to know the detailed name, just if it's indeed PCI/AGP.

A pair of PCI S3 Trio64V+.

A pair of Matrox Millennium II. A 703-00 Rev A and a 708-01 Rev A. These seem to be quite sought after?

Three Geforce 2 MX-200 32MB AGP in packaging.

A bunch of AGP VGA-only cards. nVidia Vanta 16, Ati Rage Pro Turbo AGP, the Matrox MGA Millennium 2 with a daughterboard was for a Dell, a Diamond Viper V550 16mb AGP, ACER AOPEN PA740D.

A bunch of VGA cards with also composite and/or S-video out. DIAMOND FIRE GL 1000 PRO AGP ATX 8 MB, nVidia GeForce FX5200 128MB AGP, MX440, nvidia Riva TNT 2.

AGP cards with VGA + DVI, and one with 2x VGA. Medion Geforce 4 MX460 64mb, Abit Siluro FX5200DT Nvidia GeForce FX5200 128MB (looking quite a bit more spectacular than the Diamond in the previous pic), Asus V9520 128MB, RADEON 9200 SE 128MB R92LE, yet another FX5200 128.

An Audigy 2 ZS. As my PC's use an Audigy 2 ZS and Audigy 2 respectively (each with their breakout box), I think it's smart to just keep this one as an (untested...) spare? Or perhaps a good candidate for in the mentioned P3 mobo.

Hercules Muse LT sound card with CD. "Plays Windows Media"! With gameport. PCI. Nothing special?

Two PCI Conexant modem with mic/speaker connector. Do these act as sound cards or is it phone use only? Can they be used as relevant network card in a retro PC or are they useless for that?

Creative Labs CT4810 SoundBlaster 128 OEM PCI. Good one for the P3 mobo or rather the Audigy?

PCI parallel port. PCI TV card. Are these TV cards of any use today?

3x PS/2 ball mice. I have a lot of truly PS/2 compatible USB optical mice and a PS/2 optical mouse, so I think I'll only keep one of these ball mice in stock. The Microsoft one? Both the MS and the Logi are quite yellowed.

Software, a lot of it unrelated to the hardware. A W95 OEM. Not sure if the CD belongs to the booklet, which is quite relevant for knowing the CD key. AWE32 and AWE64 CD's. CD for the PCI Millennium II, nice. Two Diamond CD's. I have no idea what hardware one of them is for? The other one says "Trio" but the Trio cards are S3, not Diamond?

The ATI Rage XL and Rage 128 are both inexpensive and highly underrated. I always recommend them to anyone starting a collection. The Rage XL supports up to DirectX 5 and some OpenGL, with Windows 3.1 drivers available. The Rage 128 supports DirectX 6 and is a solid performer for 3D in Windows 9x.

Nicolas 2000 wrote on Yesterday, 19:36:

Recently I learned on this board that PCI and, to a lesser extent, AGP cards are getting harder to get by. So I bought a lot. An […]
Show full quote

Recently I learned on this board that PCI and, to a lesser extent, AGP cards are getting harder to get by. So I bought a lot. And there was a lot in this lot. Call it the mother lode. Anyway, now is the time to decide what to do with each item. The choices are:

-keep, if it's an upgrade for my XP PC (P4/Audigy 2 ZS/HD6850) or W98 DX7 PC (P3 1000/Audigy 2/Ti4200).
-Sell, in which case I'll best know if any of these cards are particularly sought after/valuable or if they have a good use case.
-Final option: I still have a P3 667 motherboard with ISA, PCI and AGP ports which I'll complete with a graphics and sound card before selling, so looking for suitable cards to put in there (goal is a nice retro rocket, preferably W98 compatible).
-Also tell me if I misidentify something. All those AGP variants, and then there are PCI variants... I don't need to know the detailed name, just if it's indeed PCI/AGP.

A pair of PCI S3 Trio64V+.

A pair of Matrox Millennium II. A 703-00 Rev A and a 708-01 Rev A. These seem to be quite sought after?

Three Geforce 2 MX-200 32MB AGP in packaging.

A bunch of AGP VGA-only cards. nVidia Vanta 16, Ati Rage Pro Turbo AGP, the Matrox MGA Millennium 2 with a daughterboard was for a Dell, a Diamond Viper V550 16mb AGP, ACER AOPEN PA740D.

A bunch of VGA cards with also composite and/or S-video out. DIAMOND FIRE GL 1000 PRO AGP ATX 8 MB, nVidia GeForce FX5200 128MB AGP, MX440, nvidia Riva TNT 2.

AGP cards with VGA + DVI, and one with 2x VGA. Medion Geforce 4 MX460 64mb, Abit Siluro FX5200DT Nvidia GeForce FX5200 128MB (looking quite a bit more spectacular than the Diamond in the previous pic), Asus V9520 128MB, RADEON 9200 SE 128MB R92LE, yet another FX5200 128.

An Audigy 2 ZS. As my PC's use an Audigy 2 ZS and Audigy 2 respectively (each with their breakout box), I think it's smart to just keep this one as an (untested...) spare? Or perhaps a good candidate for in the mentioned P3 mobo.

Hercules Muse LT sound card with CD. "Plays Windows Media"! With gameport. PCI. Nothing special?

Two PCI Conexant modem with mic/speaker connector. Do these act as sound cards or is it phone use only? Can they be used as relevant network card in a retro PC or are they useless for that?

Creative Labs CT4810 SoundBlaster 128 OEM PCI. Good one for the P3 mobo or rather the Audigy?

PCI parallel port. PCI TV card. Are these TV cards of any use today?

3x PS/2 ball mice. I have a lot of truly PS/2 compatible USB optical mice and a PS/2 optical mouse, so I think I'll only keep one of these ball mice in stock. The Microsoft one? Both the MS and the Logi are quite yellowed.

Software, a lot of it unrelated to the hardware. A W95 OEM. Not sure if the CD belongs to the booklet, which is quite relevant for knowing the CD key. AWE32 and AWE64 CD's. CD for the PCI Millennium II, nice. Two Diamond CD's. I have no idea what hardware one of them is for? The other one says "Trio" but the Trio cards are S3, not Diamond?

You have some beauties.

• PCI S3 Trio64V+ is optimal DOS/Win3x/VESA compatibility, common but very useful.
• Millenium II were premium Win95 desktop cards, for some period builds they are #1 to pair with 3Dfx and PowerVR 3D accelerators.
• Geforce 2 MX200 32MB AGP is a cut down 64bit VRAM version and possibly the slowest cards featuring T&L.
• Mixed bag group: Any daughterboards are rarer than the host cards, so that's immediately collectable. Diamond Viper V550 is a solid 128bit VRAM card and faster than newer M64/Vanta flavours. The Acer is an Intel i740, which would be the first AGP native chip (developed in collaboration with McDonnell Douglas defence contractor) so it's somewhat obligatory to have in any AGP collection.
• Fire GL 1000 Pro is a 3DLabs' Permedia 2, a very early 3D card that might have its own API and demos. I'm more drawn to the TNT2 and want to know: Is it a 128bit VRAM version? Pro? Ultra? I don't rate the FX cards, and the MX440 can only chase ...
• ...your Geforce 4 MX460 is the fastest DX7 card and you definitely must keep that. The rest are FX cards, and the 9200SE is a 64bit VRAM so one of the slowest Radeons.
• Audigy2 is boring but useful.
• I have never bought a CMI sound card.
• No, but yes. They might reproduce the narrow analog telephone voice distortion, and you might need to first link them "null modem" to communicate peer-to-peer, and it might be CPU efficient.
• SB CT4810 is not a chip I rate because it upsamples CD-quality game audio on the CPU, whereas the Audigy2 can push that work to the DSP, and some other cards can avoid the work entirely.
• You can use retro TV cards to capture video from certain retro cameras - and then one hobby becomes two hobbies 😉
• I love ball mouses! In the era of GLQuake, Unreal, etc. that's what everyone used and tactics change by era. The ball mouse gamer is constantly moving and spinning to make themselves hard to hit, whereas optical mouse gamer focusses more on targeting. I'd keep both because "pros" were swapping balls and shells to find the happiest match for their personal wrist actions, but now there's nobody to play against 🙁
• S3 supplied Trio chips to Diamond and WinFast and many other board makers.