Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-10-30, 14:36:

It is an ESI Juli@ "4-in/4-out PCI Audio Interface with Swappable I/O Socket" […]
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MattRocks wrote on 2026-10-30, 09:30:

Purchased one of these to complete my NLE workstation, but I had not seen one before. Do you know what it is?

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-10-30, 12:59:

Looks like some form of high quality digitiser, but if it's not a scope card or signal processing, it has to be something to do with video???

It is an ESI Juli@ "4-in/4-out PCI Audio Interface with Swappable I/O Socket"

https://www.esi-audio.com/products/julia/

That's right - and it's the only reconfigurable PCI sound card I have found.

The clue for me is the two oscillating crystals by the main processor because that's the arrangement seen on ENVY24 processors to switch between native CD and native DVD frequencies without introducing resampling distortions - the current PCIe Juli@ does not have that.

The Juli@ has three possible configurations:

• Balanced I/O for professional audio equipment (like having error correction on the cables)
• Unbalanced I/O for amateur Hi-Fi audio equipment
• External DAC only (leave the whole daughterboard off and have the tiniest PCI card with maximum airflow)

Driver support is excellent. The only compromise for me is the Juli@ apparently uses the later ENVY24HT, which has no hardware mixer - that's not an issue for NLE work though.

The nearest rival in my collection is an earlier M-Audio Audiophile 24/96. Its older chip might have an edge when benchmarking 98/XP video games. I'll need to compare the two cards at some point.

PSU and fan came today. When i started the pc it froze on windows start. AI tells me the psu doesnt have -5v and sound card (solo-1) needs that. removed soundcard and torture tested psu, all good. fan ramps with pwm really nice flowrate. most importantly, zero funk now, clean. took off bracket from old psu to install on this (photos later when i can be arsed putting it together). solo-1 out of play, vortex 2 feedsmu90 but then normal sound stops working. ymf744, no line in for real dos mode so have to think about external mixer. still messing around with soundcards to get some dos support going for games

Tried ct4760 but in real dos mode keeps using internal midi. Won't feed MU90 in games under general midi 330

Alexraptor wrote on 2026-10-28, 15:29:

Picked up a pair of GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB GPU's today. It's wild that these are now officially 20 years old!!!

The attachment HVue8ltXgAEVI4U.jpg is no longer available

Clean looking 7900GTX's. I really do need to pick one of those up.

oldGPU wrote on 2026-10-28, 15:43:

Lots of paraphernalia, pre-release ads, packaging, and retail displays from ex-exployee of 3dfx, Creative, and Pinnacle.

That's a nice haul.

gmaverick2k wrote on 2026-10-30, 17:46:

PSU and fan came today. When i started the pc it froze on windows start. AI tells me the psu doesnt have -5v and sound card (solo-1) needs that. removed soundcard and torture tested psu, all good. fan ramps with pwm really nice flowrate. most importantly, zero funk now, clean. took off bracket from old psu to install on this (photos later when i can be arsed putting it together). solo-1 out of play, vortex 2 feedsmu90 but then normal sound stops working. ymf744, no line in for real dos mode so have to think about external mixer. still messing around with soundcards to get some dos support going for games

The numbers definitely don't add up; the -5V rail was only needed for early ISA sound cards—to my knowledge, PCI sound cards do not use -5V. Clearly, something is not working as it should.

gmaverick2k wrote on 2026-10-30, 17:46:

PSU and fan came today. When i started the pc it froze on windows start. AI tells me the psu doesnt have -5v and sound card (solo-1) needs that. removed soundcard and torture tested psu, all good. fan ramps with pwm really nice flowrate. most importantly, zero funk now, clean. took off bracket from old psu to install on this (photos later when i can be arsed putting it together). solo-1 out of play, vortex 2 feedsmu90 but then normal sound stops working. ymf744, no line in for real dos mode so have to think about external mixer. still messing around with soundcards to get some dos support going for games

As igna78 said, the AI is wrong. PCI slots don't even have a -5v pin. I'm not sure how it even came up with that answer. Out of curiosity I just told google's AI that my ESS Solo-1 wasn't working in a system with no -5v rail and the first thing it told me is that that can't have anything to do with the problem because PCI does not have a -5v pin at all.

I would say that it's either a defective card or, more likely, a resource conflict of some kind. You might be able to fix it by fiddling with BIOS PNP settings (or "resetting the configuration" in that same part of the BIOS), disabling any devices that might be conflicting or removing DOS or Windows drivers for another device that may be conflicting with the Solo-1.

Ozzuneoj wrote on Yesterday, 01:25:

gmaverick2k wrote on 2026-10-30, 17:46:

PSU and fan came today. When i started the pc it froze on windows start. AI tells me the psu doesnt have -5v and sound card (solo-1) needs that. removed soundcard and torture tested psu, all good. fan ramps with pwm really nice flowrate. most importantly, zero funk now, clean. took off bracket from old psu to install on this (photos later when i can be arsed putting it together). solo-1 out of play, vortex 2 feedsmu90 but then normal sound stops working. ymf744, no line in for real dos mode so have to think about external mixer. still messing around with soundcards to get some dos support going for games

As igna78 said, the AI is wrong. PCI slots don't even have a -5v pin. I'm not sure how it even came up with that answer. Out of curiosity I just told google's AI that my ESS Solo-1 wasn't working in a system with no -5v rail and the first thing it told me is that that can't have anything to do with the problem because PCI does not have a -5v pin at all.

I would say that it's either a defective card or, more likely, a resource conflict of some kind. You might be able to fix it by fiddling with BIOS PNP settings (or "resetting the configuration" in that same part of the BIOS), disabling any devices that might be conflicting or removing DOS or Windows drivers for another device that may be conflicting with the Solo-1.

Interesting, safe mode worked for the solo-1 so I'll put it back in and push for it to work.

safe mode, removed all sound cards from my computer, reinstalled, plays sound and immediately hangs pc. moved back onto ymf744. finally got it working changing ds.ini and also loaded MSCDEX properly in autoexec etc. NOLFB for graphics glitches in redneck. now machine is in good state 😀
LINE=77 ; Unmutes Line-In and sets volume to standard max
CD=77 ; Unmutes CD Audio and sets volume to standard max

PD2JK wrote on 2026-10-22, 17:24:

The attachment 20261022_125350878.JPG is no longer available

These Powerleap PL-iP3/T unicorns have seen better days. But I got them without losing a kidney.

Are you sure your kidneys are still there, cus I just checked on e-bay this thing goes for about 500 USD... I wonder how much this thing was back when it was manufactured, imagine telling them, hey this will sell for 500 USD one day 🤣

gmaverick2k wrote on 2026-10-29, 13:26:

A stinky SK41G w/ the worst damp basement funk. gutted it, removed duest, IPA swab cleaned like crazy removed front panel cables. cleaned fins with soapy water and ipa + brushed cheaned, ipa the aluminium parts too. waiting for an FSP270-60LE and ARCTIC P8 Max from amazon... The case is in good condition, caps are good and stable, just the funk in the room. so had to power down and go awol on stinky plastics. im sensitive to mould spores 🤮
only the front panel power cable remains as the other cables + stinky psu had a smell to them that spread through the room. bagged a lot things like the usb panel connectors (3 off), parallel cable, ide cables (2 off), stinky 80mm fan, stinky psu, stinky dvd drive and put them in the original box sealed shut. smell has almost disappeared. new fans and psu will make this a main retro pc that doesnt stink up the room with mould spores
public announcement to hoarders, cling film wrap your stuff plz

Good job on the cleaning. Managed to get one of those year or two ago ... let me guess yours is also missing the covers for the 5.25" and 3.5" bays? Mine had some scratches on the front acrylic but that polished out nicely ... the case could do with a respray but getting that original "brushed aluminium" look will be difficult (probably wont bother doing it).

What CPU did it come with?

Alexraptor wrote on 2026-10-28, 15:29:

Picked up a pair of GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB GPU's today. It's wild that these are now officially 20 years old!!!

Very nice! They look to be in mint condition (usually the acrylic cover is all scratched up from improper handling/storage.)

I had a 7900GTO back in the day and managed to find one few years back (even got a quadro 4500 in case i couldn't find one because it looks identical) hoping to still find a second GTO someday but these are somewhat rare since (i think?) only MSI made these and none of the other big board partners. Would really like a boxed one but probably easier to find hens teeth (unless paying stupid money)

oldGPU wrote on 2026-10-28, 15:43:

Lots of paraphernalia, pre-release ads, packaging, and retail displays from ex-exployee of 3dfx, Creative, and Pinnacle.

That's amazing! Great find. Love the Voodoo boxes and the Tomb raider stuff.

I made a bet on a very murky photo, and got a jumpered Aria16-based sound card. There's almost zero information about it online, based on FCC ID it's manufactured by Addtech Research, and the model is Sound Pro II. Obviously, I couldn't find any manual or software but made it working with the reference Aria16 driver.

MattRocks wrote on 2026-10-30, 09:30:

Purchased one of these to complete my NLE workstation, but I had not seen one before. Do you know what it is?

I have one of these, boxed even. Very nice thing, and works good in Win98SE and ME, although 192kHz is a pain because there's an OS level check that rejects sample rates above 100kHz, so to do 192kHz you need to set the rate manually in the driver applet to 192kHz and use 96kHz in the application and hope it won't mind time running twice as fast... 🤣

(I plan to make a new IO board for the card with modern DAC and ADC chips, to bring it to whatever current days have to offer as far as analog performance goes)

Shader_BiH wrote on Yesterday, 17:10:

Are you sure your kidneys are still there, cus I just checked on e-bay this thing goes for about 500 USD... I wonder how much this thing was back when it was manufactured, imagine telling them, hey this will sell for 500 USD one day 🤣

listed != sold. Both are broken in need of repair (recapping with optional restoration of pcb), and with current knowledge pretty obsolete. Back then people werent aware you could just run all Tualatins at 1.8V on any old slot1 board with slightly tweaked standard 370 slotket.
They arent even good enough as display piece without repair, look ugly with all that capacitor juice all over.

G-X wrote on Yesterday, 17:19:

Good job on the cleaning. Managed to get one of those year or two ago ... let me guess yours is also missing the covers for the […]
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gmaverick2k wrote on 2026-10-29, 13:26:

A stinky SK41G w/ the worst damp basement funk. gutted it, removed duest, IPA swab cleaned like crazy removed front panel cables. cleaned fins with soapy water and ipa + brushed cheaned, ipa the aluminium parts too. waiting for an FSP270-60LE and ARCTIC P8 Max from amazon... The case is in good condition, caps are good and stable, just the funk in the room. so had to power down and go awol on stinky plastics. im sensitive to mould spores 🤮
only the front panel power cable remains as the other cables + stinky psu had a smell to them that spread through the room. bagged a lot things like the usb panel connectors (3 off), parallel cable, ide cables (2 off), stinky 80mm fan, stinky psu, stinky dvd drive and put them in the original box sealed shut. smell has almost disappeared. new fans and psu will make this a main retro pc that doesnt stink up the room with mould spores
public announcement to hoarders, cling film wrap your stuff plz

Good job on the cleaning. Managed to get one of those year or two ago ... let me guess yours is also missing the covers for the 5.25" and 3.5" bays? Mine had some scratches on the front acrylic but that polished out nicely ... the case could do with a respray but getting that original "brushed aluminium" look will be difficult (probably wont bother doing it).

What CPU did it come with?

Alexraptor wrote on 2026-10-28, 15:29:

Picked up a pair of GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB GPU's today. It's wild that these are now officially 20 years old!!!

Very nice! They look to be in mint condition (usually the acrylic cover is all scratched up from improper handling/storage.)

I had a 7900GTO back in the day and managed to find one few years back (even got a quadro 4500 in case i couldn't find one because it looks identical) hoping to still find a second GTO someday but these are somewhat rare since (i think?) only MSI made these and none of the other big board partners. Would really like a boxed one but probably easier to find hens teeth (unless paying stupid money)

oldGPU wrote on 2026-10-28, 15:43:

Lots of paraphernalia, pre-release ads, packaging, and retail displays from ex-exployee of 3dfx, Creative, and Pinnacle.

That's amazing! Great find. Love the Voodoo boxes and the Tomb raider stuff.

Thanks, came with the 2.5".. will post some pics in post your battlestations thread (actually halloween thread). tried to get silver disk drive working but its dead and the psu doesnt give 5v to disk... came with 2200+, put a 1500+ athlon mobile 4 in thinking put less strain on old psu. tried a dead 2600+, asked google AI which is best chip I have on hand, it suggested 2200+ thorton was so that went in.
Had the win98 sticker for more than a decade ago, on it goes to this build. can finally move the two atx builds i have in here out (qdi advance 10t & a7v333)

rasz_pl wrote on Yesterday, 19:49:

Shader_BiH wrote on Yesterday, 17:10:

Are you sure your kidneys are still there, cus I just checked on e-bay this thing goes for about 500 USD... I wonder how much this thing was back when it was manufactured, imagine telling them, hey this will sell for 500 USD one day 🤣

listed != sold. Both are broken in need of repair (recapping with optional restoration of pcb), and with current knowledge pretty obsolete. Back then people werent aware you could just run all Tualatins at 1.8V on any old slot1 board with slightly tweaked standard 370 slotket.
They arent even good enough as display piece without repair, look ugly with all that capacitor juice all over.

I agree. Of course one can ask 500 USD, but these sellers are hoping for some buyer with too much money, and the patience of a toddler. Maybe prices are going down when the Hawk370 becomes available, who knows.

Repair went fine btw, bigger diameter caps, but it fits. Still have to revive the XU800 board though...

Tiido wrote on Yesterday, 18:14:

MattRocks wrote on 2026-10-30, 09:30:

Purchased one of these to complete my NLE workstation, but I had not seen one before. Do you know what it is?

I have one of these, boxed even. Very nice thing, and works good in Win98SE and ME, although 192kHz is a pain because there's an OS level check that rejects sample rates above 100kHz, so to do 192kHz you need to set the rate manually in the driver applet to 192kHz and use 96kHz in the application and hope it won't mind time running twice as fast... 🤣

(I plan to make a new IO board for the card with modern DAC and ADC chips, to bring it to whatever current days have to offer as far as analog performance goes)

Thank you for sharing your experiences. I wonder if the I/O board for PCIe Juli@ eX is cross-compatible with the PCI Juli@?

I am actually focussing on Windows XP RTE/SP1 for this particular build. Appreciating no Windows OS is ideal, risking Win9x BSOD on NLE work seems extra masochistic 😉

The amount of pins is different on one header and the smaller one has different pinout so no, it is not gonna be compatible and likely will produce some smoke if tried...

MattRocks wrote on 2026-10-30, 15:07:

The clue for me is the two oscillating crystals by the main processor because that's the arrangement seen on ENVY24 processors to switch between native CD and native DVD frequencies without introducing resampling distortions - the current PCIe Juli@ does not have that.

Interesting, on ESI Maya44 (same DSP ICEnvy24 HT-S) is crystals configuration different.

Shader_BiH wrote on Yesterday, 17:10:

PD2JK wrote on 2026-10-22, 17:24:

The attachment 20261022_125350878.JPG is no longer available

These Powerleap PL-iP3/T unicorns have seen better days. But I got them without losing a kidney.

Are you sure your kidneys are still there, cus I just checked on e-bay this thing goes for about 500 USD... I wonder how much this thing was back when it was manufactured, imagine telling them, hey this will sell for 500 USD one day 🤣

Actually sells for, or is listed at?

myne wrote on 43 minutes ago:

Shader_BiH wrote on Yesterday, 17:10:

PD2JK wrote on 2026-10-22, 17:24:

The attachment 20261022_125350878.JPG is no longer available

These Powerleap PL-iP3/T unicorns have seen better days. But I got them without losing a kidney.

Are you sure your kidneys are still there, cus I just checked on e-bay this thing goes for about 500 USD... I wonder how much this thing was back when it was manufactured, imagine telling them, hey this will sell for 500 USD one day 🤣

Actually sells for, or is listed at?

I see them listed for 450 to 500 USD on Evilbay but have never seen one sell for that, in fact the ones I see being listed are the same ones for months ..one of them has been listed around that price for the last two years ..same damn photos and seller.

So yeah listed price doesn't mean sale price and I doubt many move at 500 USD.

Im pretty sure you could reverse engineer one for cheaper than 500 USD