A few more this week! 😀

VideoLogic Apocalypse 3Dx (PowerVR PCX2)

miroHISCORE² 3D (Voodoo2)

ASUS AGP-V3000 (RIVA 128)

ELSA Victory II (Voodoo Banshee)

That's the Videologic Apocalypse 3DX package I had back in the day, IIRC the games actually listed there were only demos, the actual free games were kinda crappy.

BitWrangler wrote on Yesterday, 14:39:

That's the Videologic Apocalypse 3DX package I had back in the day, IIRC the games actually listed there were only demos, the actual free games were kinda crappy.

I'm pretty sure you're right. That's how they trick you.

Well not Creative, they actually gave full versions of Incoming, Ultim@te Race Pro, G-Police and Actua Soccer 2 with the Voodoo² 12MB so that was quite some value in one box. I somehow lost the soccer CD, but hey if you're gonna loose any of those 4... I also bought a joystick in the 90's that came with the full version of Descent 2. The only thing missing was a nice big box with manual etc. So there were good offerings out there. Then there were also those "250 games" CD's where "accidentally" the 5 good games mentioned on the box were not on the CD but 250 crap games were. Well, 190 and 60 double entries. And when I say games I mean shareware. Be still, my beating heart.

Ozzuneoj wrote on Yesterday, 12:55:

Rubbing alcohol doesn't remove dirt or particles, it just dissolves oils and adhesives and then evaporates, leaving whatever was dissolved behind. A board scrubbed clean with soap and water (and dried properly!) can look almost brand new if it is in otherwise good condition. Just using alcohol will make them look cleaner when wet, but they'll still be cloudy and dirty looking after they dry.

Alcohol will also destroy pretty much any labels, stickers or markings other than screen printing, so you have to be extra careful with it. I only use alcohol to clean off flux or sticker residue, and even then the card usually benefits from a wash afterward.

I can vouch for this ... year or two ago i "washed" a mainboard for the first time (asus pw5dhdeluxe) i washed it in plastic container with demineralised water and some dish soap .. then dunked it in another container filled with 99% IPA and came out looking like sh*t. The IPA probably loosened a layer that was ontop of the board from manufacturing creating a cloudy,chalky white residue that is very hard to remove. Cannot recommend.

Though i'm still afraid of using just water and drying because the water gets behind/under every chip ... though probably the demineralised water has low enough conductivity that after drying it should not provide any problems.

I scored a very nice haul totally for free. Got a few drives and a very clean beige box with an Asus Slot A K7M motherboard and Athlon 800. After changing the faulty PSU and reflashing the BIOS, everything was working perfectly... It's crazy how much they go for on eBay!! I just had to slap in a nice Creative TNT2, Creative 52x and SB Live! I had laying around and I now have a perfect 1999 system.

Linoleum wrote on Yesterday, 19:53:

I scored a very nice haul totally for free. Got a few drives and a very clean beige box with an Asus Slot A K7M motherboard and Athlon 800. After changing the faulty PSU and reflashing the BIOS, everything was working perfectly... It's crazy how much they go for on eBay!! I just had to slap in a nice Creative TNT2, Creative 52x and SB Live! I had laying around and I now have a perfect 1999 system.

Slot A is rarer than Socket 462 for early Athlon, working systems do fetch big money on eBay.

For how long-lived Slot 1 was for Intel, Slot A always felt like a fart in the wind. I always forget that it ever existed.

G-X wrote on Yesterday, 18:54:

I can vouch for this ... year or two ago i "washed" a mainboard for the first time (asus pw5dhdeluxe) i washed it in plastic container with demineralised water and some dish soap .. then dunked it in another container filled with 99% IPA and came out looking like sh*t. The IPA probably loosened a layer that was ontop of the board from manufacturing creating a cloudy,chalky white residue that is very hard to remove. Cannot recommend.

Though i'm still afraid of using just water and drying because the water gets behind/under every chip ... though probably the demineralised water has low enough conductivity that after drying it should not provide any problems.

IPA doesn't dry cloudy. Methylated spirits do though. They smell very different but you could have been ripped off.

You don't need to stress too much about water. You're not soaking it for a week, or washing it every week for 20 years.
I've washed modern GPUs up to... 10 series/rx580 without issue.
Of all the things I've washed, NOTHING got worse, several got better.

Drying is far more important.

Kahenraz wrote on Yesterday, 21:15:

For how long-lived Slot 1 was for Intel, Slot A always felt like a fart in the wind. I always forget that it ever existed.

Slokets made them live way longer, Intel had it good there.
Amd just went for socket A and no sloket ever existed (unless it did and I never heard of it), no Athlon XPs on them.

myne wrote on Today, 00:08:

IPA doesn't dry cloudy. Methylated spirits do though. They smell very different but you could have been ripped off. […]
Show full quote

G-X wrote on Yesterday, 18:54:

I can vouch for this ... year or two ago i "washed" a mainboard for the first time (asus pw5dhdeluxe) i washed it in plastic container with demineralised water and some dish soap .. then dunked it in another container filled with 99% IPA and came out looking like sh*t. The IPA probably loosened a layer that was ontop of the board from manufacturing creating a cloudy,chalky white residue that is very hard to remove. Cannot recommend.

Though i'm still afraid of using just water and drying because the water gets behind/under every chip ... though probably the demineralised water has low enough conductivity that after drying it should not provide any problems.

IPA doesn't dry cloudy. Methylated spirits do though. They smell very different but you could have been ripped off.

You don't need to stress too much about water. You're not soaking it for a week, or washing it every week for 20 years.
I've washed modern GPUs up to... 10 series/rx580 without issue.
Of all the things I've washed, NOTHING got worse, several got better.

Drying is far more important.

All this but everyone has different water quality from their taps so if you are in a hard water area perhaps tap water isn't the best idea as its usually full of conductive salts and minerals that will remain behind once it dries. (Perhaps bottled water is better here and cheaper than Demin)

Nexxen wrote on Today, 00:51:

Kahenraz wrote on Yesterday, 21:15:

For how long-lived Slot 1 was for Intel, Slot A always felt like a fart in the wind. I always forget that it ever existed.

Slokets made them live way longer, Intel had it good there.
Amd just went for socket A and no sloket ever existed (unless it did and I never heard of it), no Athlon XPs on them.

I think a slotket for slot A would have been very difficult due to how AMD locked slot A down, they really didn't want people running their slot A CPUs faster than they advertised which is why you needed a Goldfinger to do any real OCing.

Not saying it would have been impossible mind you, I'm sure some clued in people could manage it even now.

The IPAs specifically sold as rubbing alcohol may have methyl salicylicate in, which helps exfoliate dead skin but doesn't do anything for electronics. I think that might leave cloudy marks.

Trashbytes wrote on Today, 00:55:

Nexxen wrote on Today, 00:51:

Kahenraz wrote on Yesterday, 21:15:

For how long-lived Slot 1 was for Intel, Slot A always felt like a fart in the wind. I always forget that it ever existed.

Slokets made them live way longer, Intel had it good there.
Amd just went for socket A and no sloket ever existed (unless it did and I never heard of it), no Athlon XPs on them.

I think a slotket for slot A would have been very difficult due to how AMD locked slot A down, they really didn't want people running their slot A CPUs faster than they advertised which is why you needed a Goldfinger to do any real OCing.

Exactly, goldfinger. Read about it back in the day but never got one.

Trashbytes wrote on Today, 00:55:

Not saying it would have been impossible mind you, I'm sure some clued in people could manage it even now.

If anyone wants to build it today it is possible, pcbs can be designed and produced.
But it is irrelevant if not for the sake of bragging that you made one 😀
In 1999 you had to buy from a shop. No creating a project and github it for the masses... Well, you get my point.

Nexxen wrote on Today, 01:19:

Exactly, goldfinger. Read about it back in the day but never got one. […]
Show full quote

Trashbytes wrote on Today, 00:55:

Nexxen wrote on Today, 00:51:

Slokets made them live way longer, Intel had it good there.
Amd just went for socket A and no sloket ever existed (unless it did and I never heard of it), no Athlon XPs on them.

I think a slotket for slot A would have been very difficult due to how AMD locked slot A down, they really didn't want people running their slot A CPUs faster than they advertised which is why you needed a Goldfinger to do any real OCing.

Exactly, goldfinger. Read about it back in the day but never got one.

Trashbytes wrote on Today, 00:55:

Not saying it would have been impossible mind you, I'm sure some clued in people could manage it even now.

If anyone wants to build it today it is possible, pcbs can be designed and produced.
But it is irrelevant if not for the sake of bragging that you made one 😀
In 1999 you had to buy from a shop. No creating a project and github it for the masses... Well, you get my point.

I got a Goldfinger clone a few years back took my 900Mhz Thunderbird Slot A to 1Ghz with little issue, may have gone further but I just wanted a 1Ghz Slot A system. I have a nearly identical Socket A 1Ghz Thunderbird and of the two the socket A is better due to the motherboard. Slot A motherboards even working ones tend to have stability issues due to age nowadays even with a full recap and mine wasn't a good one even back when it was new, one day Ill grab a better one if I ever see one listed for a reasonable price.

oldGPU wrote on Yesterday, 14:10:

A few more this week! :) […]
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A few more this week! 😀

VideoLogic Apocalypse 3Dx (PowerVR PCX2)

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miroHISCORE² 3D (Voodoo2)

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ASUS AGP-V3000 (RIVA 128)

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ELSA Victory II (Voodoo Banshee)

The attachment ELSA_ELSA_Victory_II_16MB_PCI_3dfx_Voodoo_Banshee.jpg is no longer available

I can't wait to see your collection on display.

Isn't goldfinger essentially just a jumper block?
I don't recall anything particularly special about it

Ghetto version = 2xN jumper, squish together onto fingers, and jump wires.
No?

myne wrote on Today, 04:09:

Isn't goldfinger essentially just a jumper block? I don't recall anything particularly special about it […]
Show full quote

Isn't goldfinger essentially just a jumper block?
I don't recall anything particularly special about it

Ghetto version = 2xN jumper, squish together onto fingers, and jump wires.
No?

IIRC some clones only allowed FSB/Multiplier OCing while others also had full voltage control for extended OCing ..mine just has Multiplier control ..the full versions are rather expensive. IIRC there was also one that had everything plus cache speed control so you could take a half FSB speed cache and OC it to a full FSB speed cache, I know the clone boards didn't have the cache OC capability.

There was quite a bit of OC capability locked down on Slot A by AMD, including finger modding to by pass hard locked CPUs.

myne wrote on Today, 04:09:

Isn't goldfinger essentially just a jumper block? I don't recall anything particularly special about it […]
Show full quote

Isn't goldfinger essentially just a jumper block?
I don't recall anything particularly special about it

Ghetto version = 2xN jumper, squish together onto fingers, and jump wires.
No?

As I recall (and understand), more or less, yes. Maybe some pull-up or pull-down resistors.

Honestly, I don't think AMD locked down overclocking of the Slot-A Athlon - on the contrary, there was an option, as opposed to Intel's cpus.

The lack of a kind of slotket for Slot-A is probably more due to the short-livedness of the platform compared to Slot-1 and thus no BIOS or VRM support etc. After all, Intel had like 4 or 5 chipsets released with Slor-1 boards?

Edit: https://www.cpu-world.com/forum/viewtopic.php … ight=goldfinger it seems that indeed it is a very simple device ..

H3nrik V! wrote on Today, 05:46:

As I recall (and understand), more or less, yes. Maybe some pull-up or pull-down resistors. […]
Show full quote

myne wrote on Today, 04:09:

Isn't goldfinger essentially just a jumper block? I don't recall anything particularly special about it […]
Show full quote

Isn't goldfinger essentially just a jumper block?
I don't recall anything particularly special about it

Ghetto version = 2xN jumper, squish together onto fingers, and jump wires.
No?

As I recall (and understand), more or less, yes. Maybe some pull-up or pull-down resistors.

Honestly, I don't think AMD locked down overclocking of the Slot-A Athlon - on the contrary, there was an option, as opposed to Intel's cpus.

The lack of a kind of slotket for Slot-A is probably more due to the short-livedness of the platform compared to Slot-1 and thus no BIOS or VRM support etc. After all, Intel had like 4 or 5 chipsets released with Slor-1 boards?

Edit: https://www.cpu-world.com/forum/viewtopic.php … ight=goldfinger it seems that indeed it is a very simple device ..

Locked down in the sense that you needed the extra stuff to make it happen on Slot A which really did stop casual overclocking from people who had no clue unlike say the Socket 370 and Socket 7 boards where you could do it right out of the box with nothing gatekeeping it.

I agree that Slot A was rather short lived and that was likely the biggest reason for no slotkets.