Just picked up a Philips 21BA9 monitor for free. It's a 21 inch shadow mask CRT with LCD menu. Has been in a fire though, so it's covered in soot and filled with water... Let's hope it can be fixed.

edit, picture:

Manufactured November 1996 ( 😳 ) in Italy, according to the sticker on the back. This must've been a serious high-end monitor back then.

dirkmirk wrote:

Its amazing value for money to think you can get full MPU-401 & soundblaster compatibility for next to nothing, only downside is lack of true OPL3(if your into that) but its no big deal, trying to determine whether to keep my Roland MPU-IPC-T for a 386DX40 system to drive an MT-32, IF I can find a soundcard that will do MPU-401/genuine OPL3 & obviously good soundblaster compatibility I see no reason to keep such an expensive piece of history.

The creative OPL3 equivalent on the AWE's sounds 'OK', and applying effects to it is fun, but I'd prefer the real thing in a 386. I'm using my AWE64 in a Pentium, so it's mostly MIDI music.

Have you tried an ESS Audiodrive for your 386? You can get them with a real OPL3 but even without one they do a pretty good OPL3 clone. I use this one:

ESS AudioDrive (ES1868) - a surprisingly good ISA sound card

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SoftMPU works just fine, no need for a Roland MPU

I picked up another Diamond Voodoo 1 with driver CD and pass through cable for $25 shipped. Prices keep going up on them, it's hard to find one under $40 anymore with the cable and CD.

Testing 175 floppies from the flea market 🤣

Make sure you clean those drive heads when you're finished...

Tested 80 of them. only 24 with bad sectors. These will be enough for a long time.
What is the best way to clean the drive head? Cleaning floppy?

badmojo wrote:

The creative OPL3 equivalent on the AWE's sounds 'OK', and applying effects to it is fun, but I'd prefer the real thing in a 386. I'm using my AWE64 in a Pentium, so it's mostly MIDI music.

Have you tried an ESS Audiodrive for your 386? You can get them with a real OPL3 but even without one they do a pretty good OPL3 clone. I use this one:

ESS AudioDrive (ES1868) - a surprisingly good ISA sound card

I only tried an ESS card once and gave up, might have been faulty, I actually have the SB32 3670 I like it a lot, I was thinking I could use a cheap and nasty AWE64 and use it to drive an SC-55 for a later dos build.

I do want genuine OPL3 for the 386 and I have lying around an Audician 32, PAS16 & SB16 cards, I guess it comes down to softMPU with the SB16 or one of the other 2 cards.

Stojke wrote:

Testing 175 floppies from the flea market :lol:

You need this robot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5lkxSY7QsI

Stojke wrote:

Tested 80 of them. only 24 with bad sectors. These will be enough for a long time.
What is the best way to clean the drive head? Cleaning floppy?

Use isopropyl alchohol and a q-tip.

ATI R300 - ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 128MB AGP (Boxed) #2 (2002)

Matrox Mystique 220 - MY220P-BIZ4BN-5 (1164SG) 644-03 Rev.A 4MB PCI (NOS) (1997)

Scored a IBM Thinkpad X30, battery appears to be good and has 1gb installed (surprised). Pentium 3 Tully in a 12.1in form factor on the go 😀

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PeterLI wrote:

Bought a ZR30w yesterday. Got a good deal but had to drive to Queens, NY for it. Working with 2X 24" LEDs on my W520 was giving me neck cramps. This should work a lot better @ 2560X1600.

How is a 30" IPS monitor "retro hardware"?

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I tried 3x 24" on my desk and I didn't like it. Went with a single 27". Might go 30" or with one of these super wide screens that are starting to become popular.

PeterLI wrote:

It does not have to be retro. The topic title reads "Bought these (retro) hardware today".

Obviously there's no "rule" on the matter, post whatever you want, but it's clearly intended to be a retro hardware thread. The word retro is right there in the name!

I bought four 3TB HDDs last week, but that's boring, who cares about that?

Pfft SATA. If it were SAS THAN it would have been awesome 😜

I never liked that clown on the Matrox Mystique box. I'm not one of those people that fear clowns but that one just freaks me out. look at that smile....I don't trust him at all. I feel like if I install that card hes handing me 5 minutes after boot a bunch of "BANG" flags are going to bust out of my PC before it spontaneously combusts in flames.