starcube wrote:

Thanks! What are your specs? […]
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mothergoose729 wrote:

I love it!

I am building up my own retro rig fleet 😀. My DOS machine is configured basically the same as your middle box.

Love the retro cases. I decided to go all modern ATX cases for uniformity myself, but there is nothing like a beige beauty with a turbo button 🤣

Thanks! What are your specs?

One thing I could not work out in that box is getting a DVD decoder card working.

I have a Monster DVD-1000 card, I connected it to the LPB connector on the S3 Virge card, installed the drivers and player software, and it only plays sound. I get a solid purple screen instead of video. Tried different ribbon cables, refresh rates, color depths, and no dice. Using the last S3 driver released from December 1997 which has DirectDraw.

Mine is an SIS board with a pentium 233mmx, a Cirrus Logic 5446 and a Diamond Voodoo 1 4mb. I haven't spent much time with CD rom games yet. I am currently distracted with my IBM XT clone PC 😀.

starcube wrote:

Here's my triple-box battlestation!

i hate to be the bearer of bad news but, it appears you missed one.

the box in the middle still has an available 3.5" bay. 😜

wirerogue wrote:

starcube wrote:

Here's my triple-box battlestation!

i hate to be the bearer of bad news but, it appears you missed one.

the box in the middle still has an available 3.5" bay. 😜

If they only had an internal version of the Avatar Shark drive, I'd stick it in there. 😜 I don't like ZIP drives or LS-120 drives... not sure what else would go in there.

Caluser2000 wrote:

https://www.vogons.org/download/file.php?id=63631&t=1 […]
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Caluser2000 wrote:

https://www.vogons.org/download/file.php?id=63653&t=1 […]
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Nice to see some love for Acorn! Eventually I hope to import an Acorn Archimedes A5000 to Canada, I grew up in the UK so still have boxes of old Acorn floppy disks, but no system to run them on.

And here is my recently completed 386SX build. I will use it as a stand-in 286 for 1987-189 era games, mostly for stuff with SVGA and/or MT-32 support as I have a beefed up Amiga for better graphics and sound for the rest.

Dell Dimension XPS T500 motherboard
FSP Group 400W 80+ Bronze ATX power supply
Arctic F9 PWM fan
HP Compaq Elite 8200 ATX motherboard
Intel i5 2500 3.3GHz quad core processor
16GB DDR3 RAM (4x4GB)
ATI FirePro V5800 1GB PCIe video card
USB 3.0 PCIe card
LG GH24NS95 DVD-RW drive
120GB SanDisk X110 SSD
640GB Western Digital 7200RPM HD
Windows XP Professional on HD
Windows 7 64-bit Professional on SSD
3.5" floppy drive (disconnected)
PS/2 ports
Serial ports
6xUSB 2.0 ports rear
2xUSB 3.0 ports rear
2xUSB 3.0 ports front
Gigabit ethernet
Audio in/out jacks
DVI
2xDisplayPort

the rear

side

side panel removed

dat firepro

dem LEDs

BIOS screen

Windows XP desktop

Programs and games

Windows 7 desktop

Speccy

The group photo...

The mouse is my original Intellimouse Explorer that I bought when they first came out. I also had a natural elite keyboard, but I got rid of it. I bought this one "NIB" on ebay.
The one that's on display:

These are all rebuilds of computers I owned in the past. It's not complete, some are impossible to find now (Gateway Destination, ALR Revolution 6x6...). They all have modern power supplies, Corsairs or Seasonics...which ever was cheaper when I was shopping.

Explorer
Gateway 2000
Intel 486 DX4-100
16MB RAM
2GB CF + 8GB CF
ATI Rage II+DVD
3COM 3c509
Soundblaster AWE32
Adaptec AHA 1540
HP 7200 CD-Burner
??? CD-ROM
Pinnacle Micro Apex 4.6GB MO drive
Windows NT 4.0 Workstation

Inquisitor
Addtronics 7896A full-tower case
Abit BP6
2x Celeron 533Mhz
768MB RAM
16GB + 32GB CF
Geforce 2 GTS
Matrox Millenium II
Intel Pro 1000
Promise FastTrak (the Highpoint on the BP6 doesn't like booting with flash drives attached)
Soundeblaster AWE64 Gold
Windows 2000 Professional

Vindicator
clearpc.ca briefcase case
Abit VP6
2x Intel Pentium III 1000Mhz
2GB RAM
16GB + 32GB CF (the HDD in view has been removed to the Adjudicator)
PNY Geforce 3
Intel Pro 1000
Adaptec AHA 2940
Fortissimo III (Should be in Avenger, but the TBSC doesn't fit in the clear briefcase)
Plextor Ultraplex SCSI 40X CD-ROM
Pinnacle Micro Apex 4.6GB MO drive
Windows 2000 Professional

Avenger
Foxconn Turqoise Swoosh special
Asus PC-DL
2x Intel Xeon 3.06
2GB RAM
WDC Raptor 300GB
WDC 640GB (Blue)
Matrox Millenium G450
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
Generic DVD-ROM
Sony DVD/CD Burner

Adjudicator
Generic black desktop case
Abit VP6
2x Intel Pentium III 933MHz
2GB RAM
16GB CF
Seagate Barracuda 9.1GB
ATI RAGE 128pro
Intel Pro 1000
Adaptec AHA 1000
Soundblaster AWE64
Windows 2000 Server

Nike
Phanteks case (model unknown, I bought it from the local university surplus store)
MSI X58 Pro-E
Intel i7 920
12GB RAM
80GB 2.5" drive
3x 500GB Samsung 3.5" drives in RAID 5
2x PNY Vertio 9600GT
Windows 7 Ultimate

"recent" acquisitions:
Dell Optiplex 925 I bought for $5 from the university surplus store. No os yet
IBM thinkstation - got it from my last job, the only "modern" I had with a floppy drive. Unexpectedly it had vista on the hard drive.
Dell precision T7400 - if I can ever find a USB 3 card compatible with my capture dongle, I'll use this to capture video.

Really digging that Addtronics full tower case. Kind of looks like Enlight cases of the time.

Some shots of the New to me NEC Versa 40 EC I just bought and am restoring. My phone photos are too big .....darnit.

Meh, I wouldn't say they look too big. I think those photos are the best size suited for forum threads. Anyway, interesting find.

Not big. thicc.

I have built quite a few a retro PCs by now, but I usually don't make them into complete systems. Most of the time I assemble the box and test it with generic peripherals. Once in a while however I chance upon some interesting pieces which cry out for a complete retro setup. It has happened with the MidiLand 4030 2.1 speaker system. It has a control module which can be installed in a standard 5,25 inch drive bay. So it is strongly attached to the PC you are using it with. Therefore I collected the necessary period correct hardware (from the year 1999) and built a complete system around it. I believe it was worth it. I had to use some retr0bright techniques on some yellowed parts (the front of the case, the DVD and floppy plates and the keys on the Microsoft Natural Keyboard). The hardware is Abit ZM6, Celeron 533Mhz, 128MB SD-RAM, Ati Rage 128 Pro AIW, SB Live!, 40GB HDD, DVD and 3,5 inch floppy. It's running Windows 98SE. I placed greater emphasis on the audio so it has Yamaha, Roland and Casio softsynths along with the Live!-s great EMU10K hardware. The MidiLand 4030 works perfectly and I also intend to improve on its performance especially in the area of bass response.

I know that this setup is not as old as some really great pieces in this thread but it is from an era which was definitive in PC multimedia and gaming. So I believe it has a place here.

The system:

Ready to rock:

The control module:

Internals:

black_baron wrote:

The group photo... https://i.imgur.com/fGYK9nj.jpg The mouse is my original Intellimouse Explorer that I bought when they first […]
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The group photo...

The mouse is my original Intellimouse Explorer that I bought when they first came out. I also had a natural elite keyboard, but I got rid of it. I bought this one "NIB" on ebay.
The one that's on display:

That clearpc case is awesome 😮
Very nice builds, indeed.
I also like your wire stand 😉

Montgomery wrote:

I have built quite a few a retro PCs by now, but I usually don't make them into complete systems. Most of the time I assemble th […]
Show full quote

I have built quite a few a retro PCs by now, but I usually don't make them into complete systems. Most of the time I assemble the box and test it with generic peripherals. Once in a while however I chance upon some interesting pieces which cry out for a complete retro setup. It has happened with the MidiLand 4030 2.1 speaker system. It has a control module which can be installed in a standard 5,25 inch drive bay. So it is strongly attached to the PC you are using it with. Therefore I collected the necessary period correct hardware (from the year 1999) and built a complete system around it. I believe it was worth it. I had to use some retr0bright techniques on some yellowed parts (the front of the case, the DVD and floppy plates and the keys on the Microsoft Natural Keyboard). The hardware is Abit ZM6, Celeron 533Mhz, 128MB SD-RAM, Ati Rage 128 Pro AIW, SB Live!, 40GB HDD, DVD and 3,5 inch floppy. It's running Windows 98SE. I placed greater emphasis on the audio so it has Yamaha, Roland and Casio softsynths along with the Live!-s great EMU10K hardware. The MidiLand 4030 works perfectly and I also intend to improve on its performance especially in the area of bass response.

I know that this setup is not as old as some really great pieces in this thread but it is from an era which was definitive in PC multimedia and gaming. So I believe it has a place here.

The control module:

006.JPG

Wow, it's great to see that case so pure white. I have a similar one that is yellowed. What do you use for retr0brighting?

Montgomery wrote:

I have built quite a few a retro PCs by now, but I usually don't make them into complete systems. Most of the time I assemble the box and test it with generic peripherals. Once in a while however I chance upon some interesting pieces which cry out for a complete retro setup. It has happened with the MidiLand 4030 2.1 speaker system. It has a control module which can be installed in a standard 5,25 inch drive bay. So it is strongly attached to the PC you are using it with. Therefore I collected the necessary period correct hardware (from the year 1999) and built a complete system around it. I believe it was worth it. I had to use some retr0bright techniques on some yellowed parts (the front of the case, the DVD and floppy plates and the keys on the Microsoft Natural Keyboard). The hardware is Abit ZM6, Celeron 533Mhz, 128MB SD-RAM, Ati Rage 128 Pro AIW, SB Live!, 40GB HDD, DVD and 3,5 inch floppy. It's running Windows 98SE. I placed greater emphasis on the audio so it has Yamaha, Roland and Casio softsynths along with the Live!-s great EMU10K hardware. The MidiLand 4030 works perfectly and I also intend to improve on its performance especially in the area of bass response.

I know that this setup is not as old as some really great pieces in this thread but it is from an era which was definitive in PC multimedia and gaming. So I believe it has a place here.

That speaker system was also sold together with Packard Bell Platinum pc's, under the name of Diamond Promedia. It is an excellent 2.1 set, not just for gaming and movies, but also for music.

svfn wrote:

Wow, it's great to see that case so pure white. I have a similar one that is yellowed. What do you use for retr0brighting?

I use a very simplified method of whitening. After disassembly and cleaning I paint the plastic surfaces with 12% hydrogen peroxide gel (something like Salon Care 40 Volume Creme Developer) and put them on the sun without any cover. I believe the direct lighting and access to oxygen makes the process faster since on a sunny day it only takes 2 hours for a mildly yellowed piece to regain its original color. It is important to check the plastic every 15 minutes and paint over the dried parts or it could get spotty. Depending on the angle of the sun and the shape of the plastic it might be necessary to rotate it a few times giving it even UV lighting.

SpectriaForce wrote:

That speaker system was also sold together with Packard Bell Platinum pc's, under the name of Diamond Promedia. It is an excellent 2.1 set, not just for gaming and movies, but also for music.

Yes I've found some old ads of them searching the web for MidiLand 4030 info. How happy I would have been to get such a system back then. 😀

Here's one I got recently that I'm really loving:

It's a Dell Inspiron 4150 (also sold as the Latitude C640). I love my old Dells 😀

It has a 1.7GHz Pentium 4M, ATi Radeon 7500 16MB graphics, the optional 1400 x 1050 display (came standard with a 1024 x 768 display), the original 30GB hard drive, and I just upgraded it to 1GB of RAM yesterday. It also had the original Dell TrueMobile 1180 wireless card in it (which you can actually see sitting under those two sticks of RAM to the left on my IBM XT!), but it only supported WEP security, so I upgraded that to a newer card with WPA2 support.

I can tell this laptop has definitely been used quite a bit, but not abused. It's got some scratches, and wear on the keyboard, but nothing I'm too worried about. You can actually still get NOS keyboards for these, so I may get one of those.

This machine is the little brother to the Inspiron 8200 (which I also have, and love). The Inspiron 8200 is a larger, desktop-replacement-class machine,while the 4150 is a smaller, lighter machine, with not quite the graphics power of the 8200.

It's a very nice little Windows XP machine. One really cool thing about the Inspiron 4150/Latitude C640 is that they can run Windows 98! Dell actually offered 98 drivers for these. A Pentium 4M would make a super fast Windows 98 machine.

It has a Windows XP Home Edition COA on it, but I decided to put XP Pro on it. I may get a bigger hard drive for it and dual-boot 98/XP or 2000/XP on it. Hell, I might even upgrade the RAM to 2GB and try Windows Vista or 7 on it! I've actually got Vista on my Inspiron 5100 (which uses a desktop Pentium 4), and it runs fine.

I need to sit all of my old Dell laptops out and get a family photo. I've got quite a few now! I've also got one on the way that I've been wanting for almost a decade, and am super exited about! I'll post pics when I get it.

Behold the glorious Dell Optiplex GXM 5133

Nice! That’s a great Windows 95 box.