HunterZ wrote:

It doesn't matter now, but you could put your ISOs on a networked drive, and it would still be as fast as a classic CD-ROM drive (probably 6x or so for Samba over 100mbit ethernet).

You can run some installed games over LAN as well: I actually set up an X-Com install on a shared drive on my LAN this week and pointed D-Fend Reloaded at it from two different machines. The only time I notice any delay is when saving my game, and it's much more convenient than having to zip the game folder and copy it across every time I switch which machine I'm playing on.

At one point I did actually consider using my main PC to store the ISO's,
but later decided against it. It would certainly have been more convenient in
terms of loading new games, but most, if not all of my games are already
loaded to the 500GB drives. If I need to add anything, I just use a USB
Drive and connect it through Mousepad Hub.

One thing that does slow things down a bit is Alcohol 120%. On startup, it
takes about a minute and a half to index all my ISO's, but once it's finished
loading, it works great.

Another problem I encountered was that games that need CD-Audio for
music tend to freeze up if you only have 1 sound card, because CD-Images
use Directsound to play CD-Audio, which is where the
Vibra 128 comes in.

I think it may also be an ISA versus PCI sound card thing, as ISA sound cards tend to choke.

I believe Win98 (and maybe the DOS driver for my CD-ROM drive too?) had the option to stream audio from real CDs through IDE to my SB PCI128 on my PII-450, but I think I used a 2-pin digital CD audio cable connection instead because it was less resource intensive (and thus more reliable).

HunterZ wrote:

I think it may also be an ISA versus PCI sound card thing, as ISA sound cards tend to choke due.

I believe Win98 (and maybe the DOS driver for my CD-ROM drive too?) had the option to stream audio from real CDs through IDE to my SB PCI128 on my
PII-450, but I think I used a 2-pin digital CD audio cable connection instead because it was less resource intensive (and thus more reliable).

Yes, that's correct, the physical CD-Rom Drives are connected to the AWE64's
CD-Audio input, but the problem comes in when using Virtual CD's. The
AWE64 tends to choke if it has to play the game's audio and digital CD-Audio.
So I put the Vibra 128 in to play back the CD-Audio from Virtual CD's when
required.

I'm surprised that you would want to use the AWE64 for anything other than MIDI with Win9x games.

HunterZ wrote:

I'm surprised that you would want to use the AWE64 for anything other than MIDI with Win9x games.

The AWE64 probably wasn't the best call for Win98 Games, but I play a lot of
DOS Games as well, and it works very well for that.

I am able to switch between the AWE64 and Vibra 128 as my primary sound
card in Windows, but that tends to affect the DOS games I still run within
Windows. In MS-DOS Mode, the Vibra 128 isn't installed for obvious reasons,
so only the AWE64 gets used there.

I'm sure there are probably cheaper single card alternatives which would
work just as well, like a Sound Blaster Compatible PCI ESS Audiodrive, but
I'm not unhappy with the route I decided to take.

It sounds like as good a solution as any to me. There's no perfect way to handle that era where both late DOS and early Win9x games were being released around the same time, and PCI sound cards were becoming common.

I just moved to a new place.

Finished the project of my all-in-one multimedia/entertainment room. The only missing thing is a CRT monitor. Right now I'm looking for one good and preferably black.

This room got a retro PC in it, though it may be not as apparent. It's the one to the right. I was planning on creating a separate thread with pictures and making-of details but then I thought this system got absolutely nothing special about it and it's not as retro as some systems with separate threads for them, so I decided to dump all the photos of the system I made into the 'Retro Rig Photo Thread' and this one photo here, as it would be more appropriate 😀

This retro rig got Asus TUSL2-C, P3-S 1.4ghz, 512mb PC133 SDRAM, Aureal Vortex 2 sq2500, SB Audigy 2, and bunch of videocards which I can swap around very quickly since the PC case allows me to do it without messing with any screws. Those cards are Voodoo 5 5500 (for high-end glide), GeForce 4600 Ti (main card, use it almost for everything), GeForce 6800 Ultra (I think I'm gonna sell it, have no use for it), Radeon 9600 Pro (for checking out the ATI TruForm technology), Voodoo 3 2000 and Matrox g450.

The part I am most proud of is that all this connected to a receiver with Hi-Fi grade 5.1 sound system hooked up, so I can evaluate all those A3D environmental effects, wave tracing, etc.

Also, thanks to the DVI->HDMI converter it is possible to output video to that hanging tv, connect that old ff steering wheel and enjoy some of NFS5! Or plug a Xbox360 controller and thanks to those custom drivers enjoy some arcade racers, adventures or platformers 😀

Right now I'm extremely happy with it!

The monitor is Asus 27'' VK27Q, the black box to the right is Asus RT-n56u. The main system was built by me relatively long ago and I'm planning the upgrade. Right now it is a Core i7 2600k @ 4.6ghz, Asus P7Z68 Pro and an Asus GeForce ENGTX580. The receiver is Sony STR 2400ES and the sound system is JBL's renewed Northbridge series - 2xES80+2xES40+ES25 and ES150 subwoofer.
Edit: on a second note gonna create a separate thread for it since I got a few questions about the system itself. I'm afraid that they'll be buried in that massive thread. 😀

That looks like a fantastic setup. Mine is much more "industrial" looking. 🤣

Here's my workstation-ish area. Gotta replace my crappy old temporary chair with a nice new office chair and I need to put in a table and some stackable containers or shelving in the corner where that box is so I can work on my rigs without hogging my dining room table.

Still need to finish Xeon Prime's refit along with setting up the monitor, keyboard and mouse for it on a KVM switch so I can get another project rig running.

Never managed to snap a pic of my "man cave" before I moved a couple months ago, but here is my setup in the new house:

My wife let me take over her office desk, so it looks very grown-up 😀

On the left is my formerly-headless Xubuntu 12.04 x64 workstation (old AMD 64 X2 4200 dual core 2.2GHz, 2GB RAM, nVidia 7800GTX PCIe, a bunch of old IDE and SATA HDDs). You can see the windowed case in a cubbyhole under the desk.

On the right is my Win7 x64 gaming machine (Core i7-860 overclocked to 4.2GHz, 8GB RAM, XFX Radeon 5870, Xonar DX, 24" 1920x1200 LCD, 300GB VelociRaptor HHD, 2TB Caviar Green HDD, Logitech G15 keyboard, Razer DeathAdder mouse, Logitech Z-5500d 5.1 speakers). The case is a gigantic Cooler Master Storm Sniper which sits behind the monitor.

The glowing amber and green devices in between the two monitors are my Roland SC-88 and MT-32 synthesizers, which are connected to my gaming desktop for use with DOSBox and ScummVM.

Just left of the gaming monitor is my trusty old WRT54g router, currently acting as an ethernet switch + wireless AP. It is bridged to the Asus RT-N16 in the family room via ZyXel HomePlug AV 200 powerline ethernet adapters, which I'd like to eventually replace with a CAT 5e cable run in the crawlspace under the house. Both routers run Toastman TomatoUSB.

These days I spend more time on my laptop in front of the TV. I should probably take a pic of that area so you can see all the geeky stuff we have connected 😀

Nice setup! I see you have two chairs on the photo. What do you use them for? Some sort of LAN parties between the workstation and the gaming machine? 😀

And that other area sure sounds interesting!

Also, m1919 I see almost no wires on the floor or behind the desk? What have you done to them? I was murdering mine by having them duct-taped to the back of the desk 😁 Left the power cords on the floor though for safety reasons. You know, a quickly accessible power switch is a good thing 😀

Actually there are 3 chairs in the office at the moment. My wife owns 2 of them, and I own 1. We just haven't managed to reduce down to 1-2 of them yet 😀

I also forgot to mention that my old DOS floppies are in the cabinet above the left-side monitor. In the upper-left corner of the photo is a pink DOS 1.0 box with original manuals and 5.25" floppies.

Zoomer wrote:

Nice setup! I see you have two chairs on the photo. What do you use them for? Some sort of LAN parties between the workstation and the gaming machine? 😀

And that other area sure sounds interesting!

Also, m1919 I see almost no wires on the floor or behind the desk? What have you done to them? I was murdering mine by having them duct-taped to the back of the desk 😁 Left the power cords on the floor though for safety reasons. You know, a quickly accessible power switch is a good thing 😀

Most of my cables are behind the monitors on my desk and behind the case and UPS on/behind the dresser that also serves as an extended desk area.

Here's some of the older computers I use most frequently:

And some of my synths/software etc:

I have a lot more computers (5150, 5160, thinkcentres, intelistations etc), but am strapped for space, so not all are set up of course. Some day... 😀

What MIDI/synth keyboard models are those? I see the top one is a Roland.

I've got a cheesy Yamaha MIDI keyboard that I used to use to doodle in Cakewalk 😀

HunterZ wrote:

What MIDI/synth keyboard models are those? I see the top one is a Roland.

I've got a cheesy Yamaha MIDI keyboard that I used to use to doodle in Cakewalk 😀

The top one is a JUNO-60 and the bottom on is a Jupiter-4 (which it does have MIDI). But because it's only 49 keys, it doesn't make the best MIDI controller in the world :p

Oddly enough, I just write the notes in sequencers visually, opposed to playing them out most of the time... notes can arrange themselves in certain visual patterns which have a pleasing sound.

I have a Yamaha CS2x which I fixed up. Was always wanting to give it to someone who'd use it, but would be far too expensive to ship... ah well.

This might be a bit unfair since I don't have this setup anymore, but I do still have all the computers shown (and more). Most of them are currently packed up waiting for the day when I can dedicate a room to them.

Not shown: my homemade 486, Pentium, and P-III minitower systems, a Quadra 700, a Macintosh 512k in original box, a dual-CPU Power Mac G5, an SGI Crimson (not working), about a half-dozen laptops, and my current "daily driver," an Intel Core 2 Extreme 3.4GHz system. Also, dozens of software boxes, mostly vintage graphics apps (3D Studio, LightWave, Deep Paint, etc) and lots of old DOS games.

I've also got a few vintage printers - a LaserJet 4M Plus, a DeskJet 1200C, and a DeskJet 870Cse, plus a couple of old Imagewriters and an OkiMate 20. Actually been meaning to thin the herd a bit, but who has the time? 😉

Neat! I'm sorry for possibly noobish question but what are those huge boxes under the table? (the teal one, the blue (is it blue?) and the black with violet one)

I also can't identify that violet thing in upright position to the right and that blue thingy next to it.

Uhm, well ok, I admit, your setup is mystery to me. 😁 Could you please describe it?

Those are all SGI machines. Old Unix-based graphics workstations.