Bought this Boston Acoustics BA7800 4.1 speaker set on the Bay, from what I've read it's one of the best sounding 4.1 sets money could buy back in the early 2000s. They are quite large! The sub is about a 15" cube. And they're in very good condition. I'm excited to try them with one of my Windows 98 PCs with a Live! sound card.

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-09-23, 16:45:

and the boxed card...

Something worries me about boxed cards with a remote included.... What is happening to any included AA/AAA batteries in there???

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-09-24, 04:14:

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-09-23, 16:45:

and the boxed card...

Something worries me about boxed cards with a remote included.... What is happening to any included AA/AAA batteries in there???

Usually the batteries, if not a coin cell are in plastic shrink-wrap. Sometimes they are in a zip lock or other bag as well.

I have not seen batteries leaking that have been included separately, even for very old items.

Dothan Burger wrote on 2026-09-20, 21:33:

An ebay seller clearing out military excess NOS 7950GT's sent me an offer for $55 plus 12 shipping so I just bought another. It's bulk though so no box art.

I love old Graphics card box art.

Nice collection. Love seeing another GPU Box art enjoyer!

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-09-24, 04:14:

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-09-23, 16:45:

and the boxed card...

Something worries me about boxed cards with a remote included.... What is happening to any included AA/AAA batteries in there???

I would have never thought about it... I will definitely have to open it just to inspect that. I'm not a reseller so box being sealed is really not that important to me. I will probably just shrink wrap it later for protection. Thanks for mentioning this! 😀

oldGPU wrote on 2026-09-24, 05:11:

Nice collection. Love seeing another GPU Box art enjoyer!

Thanks!

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-09-24, 04:14:

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-09-23, 16:45:

and the boxed card...

Something worries me about boxed cards with a remote included.... What is happening to any included AA/AAA batteries in there???

That's a good suggestion. Here is the AIW 8500 remote batteries after 25 years.

The bottom one is starting to go.

Dothan Burger wrote on 2026-09-24, 11:34:

Thanks! […]
Show full quote

oldGPU wrote on 2026-09-24, 05:11:

Nice collection. Love seeing another GPU Box art enjoyer!

Thanks!

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-09-24, 04:14:

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-09-23, 16:45:

and the boxed card...

Something worries me about boxed cards with a remote included.... What is happening to any included AA/AAA batteries in there???

That's a good suggestion. Here is the AIW 8500 remote batteries after 25 years.

The attachment IMG_1706.JPG is no longer available

The bottom one is starting to go.

They look better than my chinese light weight ones that came with the new sat decoder...

Nexxen wrote on 2026-09-24, 13:38:

They look better than my chinese light weight ones that came with the new sat decoder...

It appears these were the premium Golden Shower Chinese batteries.

Dothan Burger wrote on 2026-09-24, 15:53:

Nexxen wrote on 2026-09-24, 13:38:

They look better than my chinese light weight ones that came with the new sat decoder...

It appears these were the premium Golden Shower Chinese batteries.

I did a quick search for golden power batteries.
Quality isn't a joke. I sometimes use well known good brands and they deliver even if years past best before date.
When my grandfather died he left behind a huge stash of those good brands and I used them for years and they all were above or in spec.
Also duration was as expected, long.

Sometimes premium is really that.

Dothan Burger wrote on 2026-09-24, 11:34:

Thanks! […]
Show full quote

oldGPU wrote on 2026-09-24, 05:11:

Nice collection. Love seeing another GPU Box art enjoyer!

Thanks!

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-09-24, 04:14:

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-09-23, 16:45:

and the boxed card...

Something worries me about boxed cards with a remote included.... What is happening to any included AA/AAA batteries in there???

That's a good suggestion. Here is the AIW 8500 remote batteries after 25 years.

The attachment IMG_1706.JPG is no longer available

The bottom one is starting to go.

It doesn't look too bad... but I'd say that's about time to intervene.

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-09-24, 16:39:

It doesn't look too bad... but I'd say that's about time to intervene.

Now that I'm investigating closer it does look like the battery gassing out did tarnish the AGP contacts just a little. Don't want to touch it right now because I'm pissed off with myself. I dropped the card on my oak floor while pulling the batteries out of the bag, still works luckily.

gmaverick2k wrote on 2026-09-20, 20:52:

Scanned eBay, nothing of fancy lately. The number of beige systems has nose dived...

I haven't sold a thing on ebay in over 20 years

10% sale fee + 10% paypal fee is completely unacceptable for me ... it is like I am working for ebay inc.

If you are in europe there are far better places to get retro hardware

I sell on wallapop at 1/2 to 1/3 ebay prices

Dothan Burger wrote on 2026-09-24, 11:34:

Thanks! […]
Show full quote

oldGPU wrote on 2026-09-24, 05:11:

Nice collection. Love seeing another GPU Box art enjoyer!

Thanks!

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-09-24, 04:14:

Shader_BiH wrote on 2026-09-23, 16:45:

and the boxed card...

Something worries me about boxed cards with a remote included.... What is happening to any included AA/AAA batteries in there???

That's a good suggestion. Here is the AIW 8500 remote batteries after 25 years.

The attachment IMG_1706.JPG is no longer available

The bottom one is starting to go.

And this is what I found in my 8500DV box... Luckily, they were in bag with plastic remote, nothing was damaged. 🖖 Used this opportunity to replace damaged cellophane around the box. Now it looks great again 😁

Nunoalex wrote on Yesterday, 15:47:

10% sale fee + 10% paypal fee is completely unacceptable for me ... it is like I am working for ebay inc.

Wow, I'm accustomed to 10% eBay fee and 3% PayPal fee.

Got given a pair of tested and working Quantum Bigfoot TX 8Gb HDDs, thinking of a build that would fit them, how does this sound as a system that fits the 98/99 release date for these drives with a little wiggle room on dates. (By given it cost me my IT repair services as payment)

-Pentium III 1Ghz 100FSB Slot 1 (Its a 2000 release date but I have it sitting around doing nothing)
-Soyo SY-6BA+IV
-512Mb PC 100
-TnT2 Ultra (D3D/OpenGL) or ASUS V6800 Deluxe GeForce256 DDR 64Mb (This card is really nice but might be overkill here)
-Voodoo2 12Mb SLI (Pure Glide)
-MX300 (A3D)
-Sound Blaster Live Platinum (EAX)
-DVD Drive
-NOS Full Tower Beige Case ..this case is lovely.
-Likely use a 32Gb SSD via adapter I have to boot from to take some stress off the Bigfoot drives, if that wont work due to compatibility issues Ill use a CF setup, got a few large CF cards sitting around. I could also throw a Sata card in it I guess and use that.

I have a Voodoo5 5500 I could use but Im wary of using that as I don't want to kill the poor thing.

All this should work ok for 98SE but would work just as well under XP should 98 have a tantrum with it, If you are wondering why I would ever want a pair of BigFoot drives ...their sound is unique and I want their noise in this build, its a character thing and the BigFoot drives have it in spades. (MX300 wont work for XP but /shrug that's what the SBLive is for)

Brawndo wrote on 2026-09-24, 03:17:

Bought this Boston Acoustics BA7800 4.1 speaker set on the Bay, from what I've read it's one of the best sounding 4.1 sets money […]
Show full quote

Bought this Boston Acoustics BA7800 4.1 speaker set on the Bay, from what I've read it's one of the best sounding 4.1 sets money could buy back in the early 2000s. They are quite large! The sub is about a 15" cube. And they're in very good condition. I'm excited to try them with one of my Windows 98 PCs with a Live! sound card.

These look nice. Hopefully they sound just as good.

Slot1 MU440EX MATX motherboard with video and audio integrated : ATi Rage Pro 4MB 2xAGP and Yamaha YMF740 PCI. Also has 2xPCI and 1xISA.

ThinkPad 760XD....;

NeilKnows wrote on Today, 18:58:

ThinkPad 760XD....;

Very nice. How is the LCD? My 760E (XGA) has a tiny bit of degradation on 1 side, but it is much better than most of the others I have seen for sale.