EvieSigma wrote on 2020-06-26, 02:56:

Dual floppies but no CD-ROM suggests this is probably a 386SX or perhaps a DX-33/DX-40, to me anyway.

Took a photo of the innards and it's a 386 board with a Cyrix Cx486DLC-33GP, plus it has a 387 math co-processor. It also has 2 EISA slots and the battery had leaked, but I don't see a lot of damage. It'll definitely get TLC, battery swap to a CR2032 with a diode to prevent the charging circuit from blowing the battery up, trace repairs if necessary, and lots of testing. For $10, I'd say that's worth it.

bjwil1991 wrote on 2020-06-26, 02:51:

Bought this mystery box today for a damn good price. […]
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Bought this mystery box today for a damn good price.

More pics to follow plus a YouTube video.

Awesome, I have that exact case, mine has a 286-20MHz in it currently, but the machine originally had a 386 DX 25, the build date was 1990 as I recall.

cyclone3d wrote on 2020-06-26, 03:35:

Until I saw it, I had no idea Sierra Semiconductors ever made a vga chip. The only other card I could find pictures of with the […]
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Until I saw it, I had no idea Sierra Semiconductors ever made a vga chip. The only other card I could find pictures of with the same chip is the STB Horizon 64 PCI.
I did find the datasheet and the chip is supposed to support 4MB though I don't think any were made with more than 2MB, which is what this card has.

Also found the drivers on the archived STB site.

Here is the archived TechWorks site:
http://web.archive.org/web/19980705223719/htt … .com/index.html

I have an urge to build a system with this and an Aria16 sound card.

Attached the brief datasheet for the main IC, for common reference. It looks like it was aimed to be a market contender for the S3 Trio64, it has almost the same charateristics, pinout and board layout of the S3 chip.

Madowax wrote on 2020-06-26, 05:45:

cyclone3d wrote on 2020-06-26, 03:35:

Until I saw it, I had no idea Sierra Semiconductors ever made a vga chip. The only other card I could find pictures of with the […]
Show full quote

Until I saw it, I had no idea Sierra Semiconductors ever made a vga chip. The only other card I could find pictures of with the same chip is the STB Horizon 64 PCI.
I did find the datasheet and the chip is supposed to support 4MB though I don't think any were made with more than 2MB, which is what this card has.

Also found the drivers on the archived STB site.

Here is the archived TechWorks site:
http://web.archive.org/web/19980705223719/htt … .com/index.html

I have an urge to build a system with this and an Aria16 sound card.

Attached the brief datasheet for the main IC, for common reference. It looks like it was aimed to be a market contender for the S3 Trio64, it has almost the same charateristics, pinout and board layout of the S3 chip.

It could be licensed from S3 . Do S3 drivers work with it ?

Madowax wrote on 2020-06-26, 05:45:

cyclone3d wrote on 2020-06-26, 03:35:

Until I saw it, I had no idea Sierra Semiconductors ever made a vga chip. The only other card I could find pictures of with the […]
Show full quote

Until I saw it, I had no idea Sierra Semiconductors ever made a vga chip. The only other card I could find pictures of with the same chip is the STB Horizon 64 PCI.
I did find the datasheet and the chip is supposed to support 4MB though I don't think any were made with more than 2MB, which is what this card has.

Also found the drivers on the archived STB site.

Here is the archived TechWorks site:
http://web.archive.org/web/19980705223719/htt … .com/index.html

I have an urge to build a system with this and an Aria16 sound card.

Attached the brief datasheet for the main IC, for common reference. It looks like it was aimed to be a market contender for the S3 Trio64, it has almost the same charateristics, pinout and board layout of the S3 chip.

Huh, I'm surprised vlask doesn't have that datasheet on his website - I put together a killer collection of them for him several years ago. Guess that means I need it too...

Anyhow, here's his page about it: http://vgamuseum.info/index.php/component/k2/ … sierra-falcon64

The Falcon64 is amazing find.

The pinout doesn't look like Trio64. The feature set looks identical though.

I made an offer of $14 for this PC; I just wanted the nice mATX horizontal case and 15" VGA LCD monitor. I will sell of probably everything else inside and make it back. I am not sure what to do with it though. Most likely a Socket 7 or Slot-1 mATX build..

I want to remove the OEM logo (and possibly model number) on the case and monitor though, what would be a good way to remove it? Force it off with a magic eraser? Or something chemical?

Isopropyl alcohol and lots of elbow grease.

Out of anger, because of the wrong delivery (P55T2P4 instead of XP55T2P4) and subsequent silence by the businesslike seller from Poland, I bought an ASUS P5A Rev. 1.06 with 128MB of RAM and an AMD K6-2 from a seller from Spain today. (Calm down and buy another one…)

bjwil1991 wrote on 2020-06-26, 05:23:

EvieSigma wrote on 2020-06-26, 02:56:

Dual floppies but no CD-ROM suggests this is probably a 386SX or perhaps a DX-33/DX-40, to me anyway.

Took a photo of the innards and it's a 386 board with a Cyrix Cx486DLC-33GP, plus it has a 387 math co-processor. It also has 2 EISA slots and the battery had leaked, but I don't see a lot of damage. It'll definitely get TLC, battery swap to a CR2032 with a diode to prevent the charging circuit from blowing the battery up, trace repairs if necessary, and lots of testing. For $10, I'd say that's worth it.

Hell yeah that's worth it! I paid 50 bucks for my 386DX-33 tower...

cyclone3d wrote on 2020-06-26, 03:35:

Have this video card on the way: TechWorks_Falcon_64.jpg […]
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Have this video card on the way:
TechWorks_Falcon_64.jpg

Until I saw it, I had no idea Sierra Semiconductors ever made a vga chip. The only other card I could find pictures of with the same chip is the STB Horizon 64 PCI.
I did find the datasheet and the chip is supposed to support 4MB though I don't think any were made with more than 2MB, which is what this card has.

Also found the drivers on the archived STB site.

Here is the archived TechWorks site:
http://web.archive.org/web/19980705223719/htt … .com/index.html

I have an urge to build a system with this and an Aria16 sound card.

Now THIS is interesting. You don't see many unique cards like this for VLB nowadays. I remember a big stink about these, but they almost seemed like vapourware. I think I saw another falcon64 based card recently, but the card also had circuitry for video decoding or something. I'm really curious about performance and compatibility.

darry wrote on 2020-06-26, 07:09:

Madowax wrote on 2020-06-26, 05:45:

cyclone3d wrote on 2020-06-26, 03:35:

Until I saw it, I had no idea Sierra Semiconductors ever made a vga chip. The only other card I could find pictures of with the […]
Show full quote

Until I saw it, I had no idea Sierra Semiconductors ever made a vga chip. The only other card I could find pictures of with the same chip is the STB Horizon 64 PCI.
I did find the datasheet and the chip is supposed to support 4MB though I don't think any were made with more than 2MB, which is what this card has.

Also found the drivers on the archived STB site.

Here is the archived TechWorks site:
http://web.archive.org/web/19980705223719/htt … .com/index.html

I have an urge to build a system with this and an Aria16 sound card.

Attached the brief datasheet for the main IC, for common reference. It looks like it was aimed to be a market contender for the S3 Trio64, it has almost the same charateristics, pinout and board layout of the S3 chip.

It could be licensed from S3 . Do S3 drivers work with it ?

I don't know as it hasn't arrived yet.
The archived STB site says to use the included Cirrus Logic 5434 drivers for NT3.5 and NT4.0

I have one of these STB Horizon 64 cards too I believe. I can take a look once I'm back home this evening and check it under Windows 98.

ODwilly wrote on 2020-06-25, 00:44:

EvieSigma wrote on 2020-06-25, 00:34:

I sure hope that 5200 is a full on 128-bit "Ultra" card. I don't think they made a 128MB version of the ultra-gimped base 5200 though so you're probably safe.

I have 2 Dell OEM 128mb fx 5200's that Im 99% sure are 64bit. Could be wrong, il have to throw one in a machine and check!

There's one area where they suck slightly less, and that is that despite Dell stating dual monitors are not supported by these cards they sometimes do support dual monitor use...

Gravis Ultra Sound Extreme - Synegy ViperMAX GUS32SB Rev. 3.0 1MB ISA (Boxed) (1995)

Cyrix 5x86 133-4X (Evergreen 486 to 586 CPU Update) (Sept, 1996)

Creative CT1900 - Creative Wave Blaster (I) (Boxed) (1994)

3DFX Voodoo - Gainward CardExpert Dragon 1000 4MB PCI (NOS) (1996)

3DFX Voodoo - TechWorks Power3D 4MB PCI (Boxed) (1996)

Beautiful finds Artex!!

just where do you find these things x3

@artex
ohlala!

imi wrote on 2020-06-26, 18:19:

just where do you find these things x3

That would be very interesting to know ... on the other hand that would probably reduce his findings 😉

😉

meanwhile I found this Guillemot Maxi Sound Fortissimo... without box obviously ^^