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Bought these (retro) hardware today

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Reply 58980 of 58996, by Ozzuneoj

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Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-05-11, 00:52:
This was a pretty interesting find. I don't know how common these are but I have never come across one before and I got it for a […]
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This was a pretty interesting find. I don't know how common these are but I have never come across one before and I got it for a good price.

It is an MP-878S Avance Logic ALS4000 MiniPCI Sound Card with the connector panel\module, software and original box. A bit of googling led me to this one made by Commell. I recall Commell selling lots of compact or unusual form factor boards and systems back in the early 2000s, so this makes sense as an accessory for one of those systems.
...
Does anyone know of any specific computers that the little audio connector panel would have been designed to attach to?

I just realized something after looking at the pictures again. The little audio connector looks like it was designed to be a quick swap-in for a parallel port! So, I would assume that it will fit anywhere that a DB-25 can go. Very cool!

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

Reply 58981 of 58996, by bwann

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Major Jackyl wrote on 2024-09-01, 16:02:

Found this strange card, CTS-10, as well. Has the manuals/floppies (probably not usable, heavily warped) seemed like a good bit of screwing around, so I grabbed it (free, huzzah).

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Apologies for the very necro post, did you ever have any luck with the manuals or the disks with the CTS-10 card? I have recently been pondering how Novell Netware 3.x/4.x servers synchronized their clocks to external sources in the era before NTP/GPS. The CTS-10 card came up as an option in that time period, alternatively using a modem to call up NIST. Install a card in the Netware server, get regular time updates from the WWV radio broadcast, and then Netware could synchronize time to other clients.

--bwann

Reply 58982 of 58996, by bwann

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Major Jackyl wrote on 2024-09-01, 16:02:

Found this strange card, CTS-10, as well. Has the manuals/floppies (probably not usable, heavily warped) seemed like a good bit of screwing around, so I grabbed it (free, huzzah).

The attachment 20240901_092850.jpg is no longer available

Apologies for the very necro post, did you ever have any luck with the manuals or the disks with the CTS-10 card? I have recently been pondering how Novell Netware 3.x/4.x servers synchronized their clocks to external sources in the era before NTP/GPS. The CTS-10 card came up as an option in that time period, alternatively using a modem to call up NIST. Install a card in the Netware server, get regular time updates from the WWV radio broadcast, and then Netware could synchronize time to other clients.

--bwann

Reply 58983 of 58996, by Adrick10

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Karbist wrote on 2023-08-13, 13:15:
I bought this Soltek Qbic barebone pc in mint condition, motherboard is sl-b7a-f socket 462 with nforce2 IGP chipset. it came i […]
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I bought this Soltek Qbic barebone pc in mint condition, motherboard is sl-b7a-f socket 462 with nforce2 IGP chipset.
it came in original box with manuals and of course bulged caps.

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So cool! @karbist what did you do with this system? Did you recap it and get it back up and running?

Reply 58984 of 58996, by Shader_BiH

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Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-05-11, 00:52:
This was a pretty interesting find. I don't know how common these are but I have never come across one before and I got it for a […]
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This was a pretty interesting find. I don't know how common these are but I have never come across one before and I got it for a good price.

It is an MP-878S Avance Logic ALS4000 MiniPCI Sound Card with the connector panel\module, software and original box. A bit of googling led me to this one made by Commell. I recall Commell selling lots of compact or unusual form factor boards and systems back in the early 2000s, so this makes sense as an accessory for one of those systems.

The ALS4000 is actually a pretty great PCI card for DOS\9x gaming from what I can tell, so it is not only an interesting curiosity, it could actually allow a board with a miniPCI slot to have functional DOS compatible audio, assuming the chipset cooperates with it.

Interestingly, the same PCB seems to have been used for multiple devices and has unpopulated, but labeled, spots on the PCB. The BT879 is an A/V capture chip, and the ALC201A is an AC97 compatible audio chip. I think the DOS-compatible ALS4000 chip is by far the most interesting thing they could have put on this. 😁

(sellers pictures, not mine)

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Does anyone know of any specific computers that the little audio connector panel would have been designed to attach to?

The 4pin connector looks like it could be CD-ROM audio connector, but definitely try to lookup some manual for that card. It's a very interesting find though.

PD2JK wrote on 2026-05-12, 14:30:

Terratec Phono PreAmp Studio USB still sealed. The box is a bit warped though. Bought it for just under €2.

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Wow, now that is what I call oddware. It could acctualy be usefull besides collector value, for saving stuff from old tapes and such. I'll be looking out for such equipment in the future definitely. Great price btw!

Today I had another stroll through the fleamarket. Didn't find anything dazling, but still picked up a few items.

First, there was this PSU which I got for 3$. Now I'm not very familiar with "Apollo" brand, but it was very heavy duty (which is often a good sign for PSU), and from what little I could see from the outside, the capacitors look ok and it was never opened or tampered with.

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Tested it out with voltage tester and everything shows up good. It's also got a 6-pin power connector, and very respectable amps on 3.3 and 5V rails, and a -5V spec, so I think this one could be perfect for one of my future Pentium 1-2 rigs.

My next find was Office 2003... and I was very surrprised to find these in original packaging and keys.

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Picked up a Pro and a Basic edition. Both in great condition with keys and got them from 3$ together.

And for last I picked up two CPUs.

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One is a slot Celeron 333MHz... which I already have at least 2. Visually it dind't have any damage so I took it for a buck. The other one is the infamous Pentium D in opened box. As far as I could see never used... and took it for 5$.

Nothing really special but it's still interesting to pick up a few items for peanuts.

Reply 58985 of 58996, by devius

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Shader_BiH wrote on Yesterday, 08:51:

The other one is the infamous Pentium D in opened box. As far as I could see never used... and took it for 5$.

Seems to have signs of a heatsink having been installed at some point, judging from the pictures you shared. Still nice to have it in box.

Reply 58986 of 58996, by Shader_BiH

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devius wrote on Yesterday, 09:01:
Shader_BiH wrote on Yesterday, 08:51:

The other one is the infamous Pentium D in opened box. As far as I could see never used... and took it for 5$.

Seems to have signs of a heatsink having been installed at some point, judging from the pictures you shared. Still nice to have it in box.

Yeah now that you mention it... there are some signs of use. I've missed that. I guess whoever used it wasn't very happy with the results 😆

Reply 58987 of 58996, by PD2JK

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Yes, Intel slapped together two P4's and disabled hyper threading but it wasn't that bad. AMD just held better cards.

i386 16 ⇒ i486 DX4 100 ⇒ Pentium MMX 200 ⇒ Athlon Pluto 700 ⇒ AthlonXP 1700+ ⇒ Opteron 165 ⇒ Dual Opteron 856

Reply 58988 of 58996, by CharlieFoxtrot

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I got this assortment of stuff recently.

First, SB Pro 2 CT1600 and I think the last revision on of the card. I think CT1600 is easily one of the best if not the best Creative cards they made in ISA era. For around 50€ I couldn't pass this.

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These pop up extremely rarely locally, a Music Quest MQX-32M Midi interface card. This even has the breakout cable with it, these cards often seem to be sold without them as they get lost. For 30€ it wasn't a bad deal either.

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Third item is a Quantum HardCard EZ 170. This is one of the later and reliable hardcards Quantum manufactured and without any proprietary nonsense some of the earlier hardcards had. HDD is just regular 170 MB Quantum Pro Drive IDE, which I generally find reliable, and the included controller is practically just a regular 16-bit IDE controller, but it has BIOS similar to something like XTIDE. As a bonus, it has all the documentation and software floppies:

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Reply 58989 of 58996, by dormcat

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CharlieFoxtrot wrote on Yesterday, 16:48:

First, SB Pro 2 CT1600 and I think the last revision on of the card. I think CT1600 is easily one of the best if not the best Creative cards they made in ISA era. For around 50€ I couldn't pass this.

Wow, "089414"? That was the eighth revision PCB made in 14th week (early April) of 1994; mine was 039151 (late December). Didn't know Creative kept making so many different revisions.

Reply 58990 of 58996, by BitWrangler

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CharlieFoxtrot wrote on Yesterday, 16:48:

Third item is a Quantum HardCard EZ 170. This is one of the later and reliable hardcards Quantum manufactured and without any proprietary nonsense some of the earlier hardcards had. HDD is just regular 170 MB Quantum Pro Drive IDE, which I generally find reliable, and the included controller is practically just a regular 16-bit IDE controller, but it has BIOS similar to something like XTIDE. As a bonus, it has all the documentation and software floppies:

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I had some 170mb prodrives back in the day with disintegrating surface, I had to partition chunks out. I got them used so no idea if they were mistreated, maybe shocks while running kicked it off, maybe they had a bad batch of coatings. They were pretty fast for their era. But first sign of contiguous bad sectors, partition that out or it will grow. DO NOT try utilities that try to fix bad sectors.

Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.

Reply 58991 of 58996, by CharlieFoxtrot

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dormcat wrote on Yesterday, 18:54:
CharlieFoxtrot wrote on Yesterday, 16:48:

First, SB Pro 2 CT1600 and I think the last revision on of the card. I think CT1600 is easily one of the best if not the best Creative cards they made in ISA era. For around 50€ I couldn't pass this.

Wow, "089414"? That was the eighth revision PCB made in 14th week (early April) of 1994; mine was 039151 (late December). Didn't know Creative kept making so many different revisions.

I think Creative had 5 or 6 slightly different revisions of CT1600. I think yours is the first.

Reply 58992 of 58996, by BitWrangler

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Wow, it's real, new Pentium MMX in 2026...

I ordered these half expecting they'd either be out of stock, due to listing that was stale, or they would turn out to be reclaimed, but nope, look brand shiny new, no heatsink scuff, shipped in antistatic eggbox style CPU holder, so no whining about outer bubblewrap.

These might be a Canadian only deal on Amazon dot ca .Turn up with a search for MMX CPU I think, just under $25CDN each with free ship in Canada. There was only 9 left last I saw. Came out of Mississauga apparently so ship to me was just a couple of business days. I wasn't actually expecting them until Friday.

Edit: guess I should say NOS, New old stock, they're not making them still.. I suck at intel date codes so not sure when they rolled out the plant.
EditII: 13th week of 1999 if my quick and lazy lookup was right.
EditIII: Stock level showing as 10 at 6:30 not sure if they are just topping up their amazon storefront as required or had an order cancelled or what.

Last edited by BitWrangler on 2026-05-13, 22:40. Edited 1 time in total.

Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.

Reply 58993 of 58996, by Nexxen

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BitWrangler wrote on Yesterday, 20:57:
Wow, it's real, new Pentium MMX in 2026... […]
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Wow, it's real, new Pentium MMX in 2026...

I ordered these half expecting they'd either be out of stock, due to listing that was stale, or they would turn out to be reclaimed, but nope, look brand shiny new, no heatsink scuff, shipped in antistatic eggbox style CPU holder, so no whining about outer bubblewrap.

These might be a Canadian only deal on Amazon dot ca .Turn up with a search for MMX CPU I think, just under $25CDN each with free ship in Canada. There was only 9 left last I saw. Came out of Mississauga apparently so ship to me was just a couple of business days. I wasn't actually expecting them until Friday.

Edit: guess I should say NOS, New old stock, they're not making them still.. I suck at intel date codes so not sure when they rolled out the plant.
EditII: 13th week of 1999 if my quick and lazy lookup was right.

New production would have been crazy news 😀
But I hoped for it for a minute...
At least they are genuine cpus.

PC#1 Pentium 233 MMX - 98SE
PC#2 PIII-1Ghz - 98SE/W2K

- "One hates the specialty unobtainium parts, the other laughs in greed listing them under a ridiculous price" - kotel studios
- Bare metal ist krieg.

Reply 58994 of 58996, by zuldan

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tehsiggi wrote on 2026-05-02, 17:01:

Can't wait to give her a try and figure out what's wrong with her.

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The suspense is killin me 😉

Reply 58995 of 58996, by PcBytes

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Today:

- Gigabyte GA-6OXT + 2x512MB PC133 - easily top dawg contender alongside ABIT ST6, this thing can do stuff I genuinely didn't even expect FSB wise.

"Enter at your own peril, past the bolted door..."
Main PC: i5 3470, GB B75M-D3H, 16GB RAM, 2x1TB
98SE : P3 650, Soyo SY-6BA+IV, 384MB RAM, 80GB

Reply 58996 of 58996, by tehsiggi

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zuldan wrote on Today, 09:44:
tehsiggi wrote on 2026-05-02, 17:01:

Can't wait to give her a try and figure out what's wrong with her.

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The suspense is killin me 😉

well.. time is short right now 😁

However, a first look at it here: Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

AGP Card Real Power Consumption
AGP Power monitor - diagnostic hardware tool
Graphics card repair collection