canthearu wrote on 2020-05-14, 14:57:

I've decided to go a bit crazy and get a more powerful cirrus logic card to supercharge my 386-DX40: […]
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I've decided to go a bit crazy and get a more powerful cirrus logic card to supercharge my 386-DX40:

GD5428.jpg

My first (and probably only, but hopefully not) ISA accelerator card.

Will definitely compare it to the ET4000 I am currently using, in both windows and DOS.

Now have to wait a month for it to get here.

Good find! I have the exact same card, also, in my 386DX-40. It's been a really good card for that system with probably the clearest output to an LCD display of all ISA cards I have. Most of my ISA VGA card will display some sort of vertical interference, including my ET4000 ISA. I guess it's a display timing thing. But this card is great, and fast!

I also have the ET4000 ISA but haven't test performed it against this CL card. I do have an ET4000 VLB in my 486DX-40 though, also super crisp output... 😀

it probably depends on component quality and the DAC more than the graphics chip itself, the diamond ET4000AX I have has one of the clearest pictures on VGA I've experienced, while another "budget" ET4000AX has the usual slight "ripples" on an LCD.

imi wrote on 2020-05-14, 18:08:

it probably depends on component quality and the DAC more than the graphics chip itself, the diamond ET4000AX I have has one of the clearest pictures on VGA I've experienced, while another "budget" ET4000AX has the usual slight "ripples" on an LCD.

That's quite interesting to know - It'd be great to complile some sort of list of the "good" ISA cards that don't give any vertical banding on LCD displays.

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote on 2020-05-14, 16:09:

I just ordered an ASUS V6800 DDR PURE (NVIDIA GeForce 256 DDR) for $50 total.

I was born on Oct 11, 1999. The same day the 256DDR released onto the market. It is my destiny to own one.

Nice! You're a youngin' around these parts. At least by my standards anyway.

Guess what? I somehow ended up with two other PVM-9042QMs all of that for 20 euros. I guess, 3 is the charm?

The seller also had a BVM but it wasn't working, what a pity.

Now I'm going to give one to a friend and keep the other one among with the rack shelf. I already have a 9042QM that isn't as beaten up as these two.

Bought remains of Compaq 486-based XL, important item is power supply, unfortunately it is not working but this is my least worries. This way, I can document the deskpro XL power supply!

Now next thing to purchase is Deskpro M to find one with power supply. "Holy grail".

Cheers,

Picking up this lot tomorrow for £20. Anything interesting?

Board is both Slot1/Socket370, not many of those around.
Is the second drive from the top a ZIP disk?

Is that a voodoo 3 I see?

cyclone3d wrote on 2020-05-14, 18:43:

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote on 2020-05-14, 16:09:

I just ordered an ASUS V6800 DDR PURE (NVIDIA GeForce 256 DDR) for $50 total.

I was born on Oct 11, 1999. The same day the 256DDR released onto the market. It is my destiny to own one.

Nice! You're a youngin' around these parts. At least by my standards anyway.

Yeah, most of my generation is so pompous and arrogant in regards to history, and we take way too much shit for granted. It is remarkable to not only be able to read about how we went from towering sub 1-mhz sub 1MB of RAM computers that took up entire rooms to having teraflops of proccesing power in our pockets, but to be able to interact with much of that history. Personally, I focus on the history of 3D gaming, hence why I own an absolutely retarded amount of GPUs. I also own a ton, i mean a boatload, I mean a cargoship full, I mean a Galaxy Class starship worth of PC games because the physical disc is also being too easily forgotten, as is the idea of gameplay over graphical prowess. I'm actually havin somewhat of an issue right now because I'm realizing short of somehow becoming immortal I will never be able to play (for any meaningful amount of time) every game ever, and that bugs me somewhat. Even limiting it to every major game would be an almost insurmountable task. And that would be if I deleted my interests in vintage film, TV and music. Basically I don't have enough time to experience everything, much less make sure everything is preserved for all time. Not to mention I obviously have to work to support myself during all that. My methods have even pissed Jason Scott off because I'm too aggressive. I am the islamic terrorist of data preservation. "No mercy from the edge of my optical lasers" is my motto right now. Time is the fire in which we burn, and its always running out. Minute by minute, second by second. I believe computing history is the most important part of human history, because nothing has changed the way human civillization exists more than the microprocessor (and the things it enables). It is a gateway to worlds that can never exist, it is a device of virtually unlimited possibilities, it is the method through which the totality of human knowledge can be easily translated and transmitted.

On a side note I've been trying to catch my inventory spreadsheet up to what I actually own. The GPU section is the most complete at around 60 percent, CPUs are less than 25 percent documented, soundcards are 60ish percent documented. Motherboards are probably around 35 percent documented. I'm not even going to attempt to document what RAM and HDDs I have, thats a lost cause and a massive waste of effort. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f7e_H9MJs8YA … iew?usp=sharing

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2020-05-14, 21:29:

Is that a voodoo 3 I see?

yep 😁

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2020-05-14, 21:29:

Is that a voodoo 3 I see?

Looks like it to me! The Slot 1/Socket 370 combo board is pretty cool too, the drives, NIC, USB card and RAM are always handy, and that soundcard appears to be a CMI8738 based card, with digital out, which is interesting for its FM Synth capabilities that might be able to be routed through that port.

NICE!! All in all that's a nice haul you got there!

LewisRaz wrote on 2020-05-14, 21:19:

Picking up this lot tomorrow for £20. Anything interesting?

carpet D: not like this!

imi wrote on 2020-05-14, 22:20:

LewisRaz wrote on 2020-05-14, 21:19:

Picking up this lot tomorrow for £20. Anything interesting?

carpet D: not like this!

Lets just hope 😁

No pictures yet because it has not yet arrived, but today i ordered the second part of my retro gaming time machine setup that has been inspired by philscomputerlab.
A AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ 2,2 GHz (ADA4200DAA5BV) , which hopefully will be a CPU that is fast enough to run some early Windows XP games.
The CPU will be paired with the first part i ordered which is a Asus A8V, an early Socket 939 board with the VIA chip that still has great Windows 98 compatibility.
I specifically picked VIA due to the likelyness of my Yamaha YMF744 working in it combined with the extra throttle options VIA provides on top of the standard spec.

With this combination i hope to build the ultimate time machine, one fast enough for the 2004 era of gaming which is my favorite year with classics like Half-Life 2, Unreal Tournament 2004, Far Cry and F.e.a.r. 1.
Stable in Windows 98 for the 90's games with native A3D and EAX provided by the soundcard.
But because of the many ACPI Throttle options and support for downclocking combined with software slowdown if need be i hope it will also extend to the 386 era of DOS Gaming or even lower.

The whole project is designed around the challenge of building a machine that can cover as many era's of gaming as i can get away with, i love tinkering with software so i actually enjoy having to install a few patches and tweaks to get it going rather than designing a machine specific for one time. In the dream scenario ill be able to play F.e.a.r. 1 and reboot to MS-Dos to play some 8088 games. With the machine smoothly scaling between the amount of available ram trough ram limiters and patches and the CPU performance trough batch scripts or if need be bios settings.

henk717 wrote on 2020-05-14, 23:44:

No pictures yet because it has not yet arrived, but today i ordered the second part of my retro gaming time machine setup that has been inspired by philscomputerlab.
A AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ 2,2 GHz (ADA4200DAA5BV) , which hopefully will be a CPU that is fast enough to run some early Windows XP games.

Oh, it will be more than sufficient...here's how it compares to a Pentium D that's a full 1GHz faster. Equals or betters it in every test while running cooler.

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/836/AM ... D_940.html

LewisRaz wrote on 2020-05-14, 22:29:

imi wrote on 2020-05-14, 22:20:

LewisRaz wrote on 2020-05-14, 21:19:

Picking up this lot tomorrow for £20. Anything interesting?

carpet D: not like this!

Lets just hope 😁

Nice batch ! but...cough -static -cough -carpet.

Bought three new in box P2 heatsink+fans a few days ago and they arrived today. Actually they are better of quality than the seller pics showed them so am happy ! Only needed two but always good to have a spare 😁

Lucked into memory expansion card 32bit with correct speed rating memory (80ns) instead of 100ns for my Compaq 386/25e, made by kingston and is either 1MB or 4MB 32bit parity card with 2 spots for compaq plug in style 1 or 4mb modules. Hope that is compatible with mine, was not expensive. Not described well enough but was lucky to keep exploring their seller's websites.

If works, I'll try to convert 1MB card to 4MB version, requires large batch of 1MB x 1bit 80ns DIP chips.

Cheers,

pentiumspeed wrote on 2020-05-15, 01:38:

Lucked into memory expansion card 32bit with correct speed rating memory (80ns) instead of 100ns for my Compaq 386/25e, made by kingston and is either 1MB or 4MB 32bit parity card with 2 spots for compaq plug in style 1 or 4mb modules. Hope that is compatible with mine, was not expensive. Not described well enough but was lucky to keep exploring their seller's websites.

If works, I'll try to convert 1MB card to 4MB version, requires large batch of 1MB x 1bit 80ns DIP chips.

Cheers,

Nice ! Think you will need 72 of those chips if memory serves me right (fixed my boo-boo). Hope it works !!