Time to break out the soldering iron:

Unfortunately Reichelt sent me DIP-28 instead of DIP-32 sockets, so can't finish the XT-CF yet - but my EPROM was sourced separately and hasn't arrived either.

The Gravis Gamepad and 2004-vintage Eizo L768 (19" PVA panel) are also new acquisitions.

imi wrote:

I'm using a forwarding service from germany, hence why I usually pay exorbitant amounts of shipping

Could you tell me what it is? I might be interested.

LogoiX, I think they only do Austria though.

dionb wrote:

The Gravis Gamepad and 2004-vintage Eizo L768 (19" PVA panel) are also new acquisitions.

nice 😁 I think I need to get myself some old EIZOs before they become extinct.

imi wrote:

LogoiX, I think they only do Austria though.

dionb wrote:

The Gravis Gamepad and 2004-vintage Eizo L768 (19" PVA panel) are also new acquisitions.

nice 😁 I think I need to get myself some old EIZOs before they become extinct.

Every couple of months a local thrift shop gets one in. They tend to price them lower because blocky looks and no flashy buttons 😵

My sons have much better peripherals on their PCs than I ever had - or they realize: old Compaq-branded Cherry G80-1800 MX Black keyboards, Eizo PVA monitors and Kensington Orbit Scroll trackballs.

Still waiting for a 1600x1200 Eizo to turn up somewhere (and the one Dell with that resolution I found was DOA), the DPI and 5:4 aspect ratio of these 1280x1024 screens means I won't use them myself.

yeah, I'm on the lookout for a S2100... also I guess I need to be faster on ebay... I was just browsing through ebay and saw an interesting motherboard... newly listed, clicked on it... already sold 🤣

dionb wrote:

Damned shame that there aren't similar lots on other eBay instances, and that the German sellers never ship outside the country...

I have several experiences with German ebay.de sellers who did want to ship to my Dutch address after asking them in German. No problemo. Furthermore they like to get paid in cash on their bank account. The real issues are that some, mostly private, sellers want to save 5p, ship with Hermes aka 'Herpes' and don't take much effort nor use the right materials to pack stuff 😵

Ebay.co.uk and ebay.fr can also be interesting sources if you use the right search terms, know some ebay store names and write in a foreign language.

Stuff I've gotten over the last month:

Lot of Geforce 3 cards and a Geforce 256. Surprisingly they all worked and posted with no artifacts. Haven't fully tested them with drivers/games yet.

Sealed Monster Fusion (Voodoo Banshee)

Lucked out and got this boxed HD3850 AGP for ~$35 shipped. Haven't tested it yet.

Santa Cruz and Savage IV Extreme to put in a Win98 build.

And an odd one. An Abit TH7 Raid socket 423 motherboard that appears to be new. Bought this off of Amazon because it was listed as an Abit BE6-II that I was going to keep as a backup to my current Win98 computer, but I may use this now since it's odd 🤣

FX 5600 Ultra. Hoping this works. RE-PC has been a dud for the past few months. I want to go through their Mobo bins, but they charge lowest ebay prices. AGP graphics cards are $2.95 all day.

Does a 9800GT count as retro?

New parcel from the "screwdriver-man". This time he asked if I am interested before applying the screwdriver - and yes, I was. Increased price this time but 60€ is still OK...

Hahah, he's holding the boards for ransom "pay up or the Voodoo 3 gets it".

That's a great price for that lot though 😁

Predator99 wrote:

New parcel from the "screwdriver-man". This time he asked if I am interested before applying the screwdriver - and yes, I was. Increased price this time but 60€ is still OK...

🤣 well at least they're safe now

I just got a slew of e-mails from my forwarding service that there's like 100kg of packages on the way to me... next week is going to be interesting... not liking the invoice so much though 😵
I think I need to clear some space in the basement.

Good day today on my thrifting/computing adventures. Bought an HP/Compaq NX5000 laptop (tested it before I bought it and it works, needs a new clock battery and the non-system error showed up before, but rebooting the laptop got it to boot up to XP), ASUS P2B-F Slot 1 motherboard (supports Pentium II up to 450MHz, Celeron and Pentium III up to 800MHz (either Slot 1 or Sloket 370)), Slot 1 Celeron 400/66 SL39Z, ATi Radeon AGP, GeForce2 MX400 AGP (MSI), Creative Labs Audigy 2ZS, and AT to PS/2 keyboard adapter.

Also bought a telescope bundle (almost has everything, minus 1 lens).

Predator99 wrote:

New parcel from the "screwdriver-man". This time he asked if I am interested before applying the screwdriver - and yes, I was. Increased price this time but 60€ is still OK...

IMG_7080.JPG

If that V3-3000PCI works, EUR 60 is a steal. But yeah, best bit is that he's learnt he can get more cash if he doesn't ruin the stuff. That can only end well - even if he turns into a "EUR 300 for V3" eBay seller, it's still better than the screwdriver.

imi wrote:

[...]

I just got a slew of e-mails from my forwarding service that there's like 100kg of packages on the way to me... next week is going to be interesting... not liking the invoice so much though 😵
I think I need to clear some space in the basement.

Ooh, pics plz once they arrive. Sounds like fun! 😜

Went thrifting today:

A crappy Inspiron 530s - useful as a disposal testbed
soundblaster midi/joystick cable.
nice analog multimeter
A "killer network card"
10-pack of BD-ROM disks (just need a drive)

All for ~$30.

luckybob wrote:

Went thrifting today: […]
Show full quote

Went thrifting today:

A crappy Inspiron 530s - useful as a disposal testbed
soundblaster midi/joystick cable.
nice analog multimeter
A "killer network card"
10-pack of BD-ROM disks (just need a drive)

All for ~$30.

At that price you can't go wrong. That said, resell/give away/kill with fire the 'killer' network card. They use decent Qualcomm-Atheros chips but ruin them with awful driver that completely mess up networking. You're better off with bargain-basement Realtek and any Intel completely blows this stuff away.

I just did one of those impulse buy things one does when on eBay with lowered inhibitions due to a whole bottle of Romanian wine. Should be able to show the results next week...

Today was a good day. Woke up, checked my notifications from the local ad sites, and basically stormed out of the house without even taking a shower or eating breakfast. Here is my haul:

Gravis Ultrasound Max 2.1. My third GUS after Primax Soundstorm Wave (a Classic/CD3 clone) and PnP Pro.

Turtle Beach Tropez Plus. I've passed on a free TB Tropez three years ago when I've just started collecting. Didn't understand that it's a pretty interesting card at the time, and I've been angry at myself ever since 😀 Not sure how much RAM is installed.

Tomato Zida 4DPS. Admittedly, I'm not a fan of 486/PCI boards, and this is the first revision of the board (I remember reports that it was fairly crappy). However, it was nice to get two AMD DX4s, both with write-through and write-back cache.

The whole thing cost me 45 bucks which is definitely a steal. I've been really nervous until I got to the seller's house because I was afraid that he'd get a lot of phone calls and someone would offer more money. Because of that I forgot to ask him about his story with these cards. I'm fairly sure he had to do some music on his 486 back in the day with this kind of equipment.

Tested both cards and they are working beautifully.

luckybob wrote:

Went thrifting today: […]
Show full quote

Went thrifting today:

A crappy Inspiron 530s - useful as a disposal testbed
soundblaster midi/joystick cable.
nice analog multimeter
A "killer network card"
10-pack of BD-ROM disks (just need a drive)

All for ~$30.

Hey, I have that exact same PC as the one you got, in my small collection of some computers.

How do the hard drives mount? Mine were removed. Is it just special screws?

dionb wrote:

Predator99 wrote:

New parcel from the "screwdriver-man". This time he asked if I am interested before applying the screwdriver - and yes, I was. Increased price this time but 60€ is still OK...

IMG_7080.JPG

If that V3-3000PCI works, EUR 60 is a steal. But yeah, best bit is that he's learnt he can get more cash if he doesn't ruin the stuff. That can only end well - even if he turns into a "EUR 300 for V3" eBay seller, it's still better than the screwdriver.
[...]

Indeed, I would also have been happy if somebody else buys these cards. Most important they dont get destroyed anymore.

dionb wrote:

imi wrote:

I just got a slew of e-mails from my forwarding service that there's like 100kg of packages on the way to me... next week is going to be interesting... not liking the invoice so much though 😵
I think I need to clear some space in the basement.

Ooh, pics plz once they arrive. Sounds like fun! 😜

Yes, also looking forward for your pics 😀