luckybob wrote:

oshit. an actual apple ii+

those things fetch a pretty penny online! Like car payment level of money. I recently got Apple ii's myself. They are surprisingly fun machines.

Yeah, looking forward to getting into this thing! I wasn't actively looking for one, but it fell into my lap at the right time. 😉 As I said I've never had one of these so this will be a whole new ecosystem for me to explore. Assuming I can get it going. The homebrew scene on the "//" is massive.

It looks like the fault is in the ROMs or the RAM chips, unfortunately as I was *GENTLY* pulling out the ROMs to try and reseat them some of the pins just started crumbling in my hand. Gonna see what I can do about this.

I haven't pulled the 6502 yet but its pins look just as bad, so that's gonna be fun. Aside from that it looks pretty clean on the inside (& cleaned up nicely on the outside with a little scrubbing!)

These things are remarkably simple inside; no RF shielding, no heat sinks, no ugly ribbon cables or bodge wires connecting things, just one mainboard, a speaker, & a PSU. (And a couple expansion cards.)

liqmat wrote:

Who's the DJ? I see that in the background. 😉

That would be me! I play vinyl, a modern setup using Live, or sometimes two '90s laptops running Impulse Trackers with a mixer inbetween & a bunch of outboard effects. 😉

This replacement chip for my Tulip at compact 3. I hope it does anything to fix the weird issues the system has.

My brother gave me this, with an unknown CPU. A bit too new for my taste, not sure what I'm going to do with it.

I responded to an ad with a free pentium 3 system, and picked up this nice system + some extra parts for free!

Really pretty case 😉

Asus CUV4X, unknown CPU

SoundBlaster CT3670 (AWE32 I think?)

Leadtek WinFast Geforce256

Nice Geforce256! Still like those old Nokia inspired Cases...

Cyrix200+ wrote:

My brother gave me this, with an unknown CPU. A bit too new for my taste, not sure what I'm going to do with it. […]
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My brother gave me this, with an unknown CPU. A bit too new for my taste, not sure what I'm going to do with it.

Hilarious how literally EVERYONE who had a Lanparty, ditched that jet turbine of a fan on the chipset and bought that blue zalman heatsink just to cut the half of it to fit a GPU 😊
Let me know if you decide to sell it, though. My Opteron 185 would fit there nicely 😉
They were 'creme de la creme' OC boards but absolute PITA's to work with, often unstable on default settings and a nightmare to match RAM to.

Last night I've been thinking that I want to finally build an ATX system — either a Slot 1 or a Super Socket 7. AT cases are not a huge problem in Russia, and I've been sticking to AT up until now, but I realised that I want a faster system, and AT does impose a lot of limitations here. So I've thought "yeah, I lose a bit of a cool factor, but I do get a much wider choice of peripherals". A quick glance at the local classifieds and I found this:

So today I finally got myself an IBM Model M! It's a 1995 unit 1396790 — so it's PS/2 (cable non-detachable). It's currently plugged into my LPX Pentium Pro build and I really like the feel. I wonder if I'll get tired from the noise eventually, but pressing those keys does feel really satisfying. It cost me $50 which is not exactly a bargain, but seems cheaper than average. I guess it was cheap because it doesn't have Russian letters, but that's actually a plus for me.

So now I actually want to find a "retro" beige desktop case, like an InWin H500 and I'll start looking for an ATX motherboard.

Most of the super 7 boards are Baby AT (and also cheaper as the ATX versions) and slot1 can be found in Baby AT form as well. So, lame excuse! You just want to get ''modern'' ! 🤣

meljor wrote:

Most of the super 7 boards are Baby AT (and also cheaper as the ATX versions) and slot1 can be found in Baby AT form as well. So, lame excuse! You just want to get ''modern'' ! 🤣

Don't forget the Socket 370 AT motherboards (rare in existence).

meljor wrote:

Most of the super 7 boards are Baby AT (and also cheaper as the ATX versions) and slot1 can be found in Baby AT form as well. So, lame excuse!

Somewhat true for SS7 boards (both AT and ATX seem pretty rare to me, though). With Slot 1 — not so much. In my city, if you want to get a 440BX board from a nice brand, ATX seems to be much easier to find than AT, and cheaper too — you definitely can find Asus/Abit/MSI/Gigabyte for 5 bucks. I have an Asus P2B-B board myself, but it's an early revision, so it won't take anything faster than a Pentium II@450 for some reason. Also it uses an ATX form card for PS/2 instead of a standard header, so I'm limited to COM mice — I've never seen those cards for sale.

Otherwise most AT Slot 1 boards I've seen are either using VIA chipset or come from some obscure brands. I think that's easy to explain. If you were that desperate to upgrade an AT system to Slot 1, you'd probably want a cheaper board, too.

Finally, with faster systems you really need more PCI slots than a typical AT board can offer. A PCI soundcard, a NIC — and you are already stuck with only one free slot. And I'd like to maybe install a Creative DXR2 for Wing Commander 3, or even Voodoo 2 SLI (I have two identical cards) and use an Nvidia in my AGP slot.

You just want to get ''modern'' ! 🤣

Well, that, too. There are definitely some games I'd like to play on a Pentium 2+ level hardware. 😀

Cyrix200+ wrote:

My brother gave me this, with an unknown CPU. A bit too new for my taste, not sure what I'm going to do with it. […]
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My brother gave me this, with an unknown CPU. A bit too new for my taste, not sure what I'm going to do with it.

I know a YouTuber that has that board as well that a hospital used (weird, yet exciting). That board supports the Athlon 64 X2 (dual-code), Athlon 64 FX, or Athlon 64 (single-core) Socket 939 processors and DDR-400 memory. Plus, SLI support (2 of the same GPUs for gaming, even a GTX 1080 or two will be amazing for that system).

bjwil1991 wrote:

Cyrix200+ wrote:

My brother gave me this, with an unknown CPU. A bit too new for my taste, not sure what I'm going to do with it. […]
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My brother gave me this, with an unknown CPU. A bit too new for my taste, not sure what I'm going to do with it.

I know a YouTuber that has that board as well that a hospital used (weird, yet exciting). That board supports the Athlon 64 X2 (dual-code), Athlon 64 FX, or Athlon 64 (single-core) Socket 939 processors and DDR-400 memory. Plus, SLI support (2 of the same GPUs for gaming, even a GTX 1080 or two will be amazing for that system).

UXWBill? 😁

Throw a LAN party, duh

Another card came in the mail today, A Diamond Monster II 3D 8MB PCI card.

After patiently searching the usual sites weekly I finally got my first Voodoo card at a reasonable price, I'm excited to test this out and see if any of my games support Glide (I know for sure NFS4 does), if it does work, I'll get three 25mm heatsinks to make it last longer.

bjwil1991 wrote:

meljor wrote:

Most of the super 7 boards are Baby AT (and also cheaper as the ATX versions) and slot1 can be found in Baby AT form as well. So, lame excuse! You just want to get ''modern'' ! 🤣

Don't forget the Socket 370 AT motherboards (rare in existence).

I happen to have one in new old stock heh. Thought it was rare when I got it. Glad I was right.

I forgot this one. What's the weird AGP like connector on the bottom? (could Google it but asking is more fun 😀)

Not sure but my guess would be some kind of PCI extender

Cyrix200+ wrote:

I forgot this one. What's the weird AGP like connector on the bottom? (could Google it but asking is more fun :)) […]
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I forgot this one. What's the weird AGP like connector on the bottom? (could Google it but asking is more fun 😀)

I have a Asus Socket A board with the same exact type of connector. As mentioned, I believe it would be used for a riser\extender in a low profile desktop computer. Would be somewhat interesting to see one plugged into an AGP slot and powered on though... 🤣

I've seen those on OEM boards manufactured for Compaq/HP desktops (my Pavilion 7955 has that connector as well), and as Ozzuneoj mentioned, it's for a riser card if the board is installed in a low-profile desktop instead of the tower. Back then, there were two different boards: riser card required, or full expansion ports. That type of connector was common for Pentium 3 and Pentium 4 motherboards at that time (and possibly the LGA775 and equivalent systems as well).

jheronimus wrote:

Last night I've been thinking that I want to finally build an ATX system — either a Slot 1 or a Super Socket 7. AT cases are not […]
Show full quote

Last night I've been thinking that I want to finally build an ATX system — either a Slot 1 or a Super Socket 7. AT cases are not a huge problem in Russia, and I've been sticking to AT up until now, but I realised that I want a faster system, and AT does impose a lot of limitations here. So I've thought "yeah, I lose a bit of a cool factor, but I do get a much wider choice of peripherals". A quick glance at the local classifieds and I found this:

IMG_3937.JPG

So today I finally got myself an IBM Model M! It's a 1995 unit 1396790 — so it's PS/2 (cable non-detachable). It's currently plugged into my LPX Pentium Pro build and I really like the feel. I wonder if I'll get tired from the noise eventually, but pressing those keys does feel really satisfying. It cost me $50 which is not exactly a bargain, but seems cheaper than average. I guess it was cheap because it doesn't have Russian letters, but that's actually a plus for me.

So now I actually want to find a "retro" beige desktop case, like an InWin H500 and I'll start looking for an ATX motherboard.

That was a pretty good deal for a Model M, actually - they're fantastic keyboards, and they're still in current production. From Unicomp; these are not copies but just re-branded, made on the same tooling as the originals. Current production ones are more than $50, so, not too bad all in all. They're still some of the best keyboards made for typing, right up there with Matias and the old Northgate and Acer boards with Alps switches.

jade_angel wrote:

That was a pretty good deal for a Model M, actually - they're fantastic keyboards, and they're still in current production. From Unicomp; these are not copies but just re-branded, made on the same tooling as the originals. Current production ones are more than $50, so, not too bad all in all. They're still some of the best keyboards made for typing, right up there with Matias and the old Northgate and Acer boards with Alps switches.

Unicomp...that was new to me! Good to know if my 80s Model M die which will hopefully not happen during my lifetime 😀 Took a quick look at them. What I dont like that they have the Windows keys which is not really retro.

Predator99 wrote:

jade_angel wrote:

That was a pretty good deal for a Model M, actually - they're fantastic keyboards, and they're still in current production. From Unicomp; these are not copies but just re-branded, made on the same tooling as the originals. Current production ones are more than $50, so, not too bad all in all. They're still some of the best keyboards made for typing, right up there with Matias and the old Northgate and Acer boards with Alps switches.

Unicomp...that was new to me! Good to know if my 80s Model M die which will hopefully not happen during my lifetime 😀 Took a quick look at them. What I dont like is that they have the Windows keys which is not really retro.