VPX chipset should usually work pretty well, even if it's PCChips. Hope it doesn't have fake cache.

dionb wrote on 2020-07-05, 22:08:

And if there's some higher being, it doesn't want my old computer stuff tidied up. Next to the bin I found this:

Ugh got to hate when that happens 😉
I'm not sure if the retro gods were rewarding you or mocking you. I hope you made a blood sacrifice when working on that case just to play it safe!

appiah4 wrote on 2020-07-06, 06:40:

Selling 6x86 PR200s as Pentium 200s appears to have been commonplace in the day..

Possibly - and it would have given better performance in everything except Quake - but given the lower price of PR200 vs P200, this is plain fraud getting the user to pay for Pentium and give him the cheaper PR200+.

PcBytes wrote on 2020-07-06, 07:44:

VPX chipset should usually work pretty well, even if it's PCChips. Hope it doesn't have fake cache.

True, far from the worst PC Chips stuff (Utron chipsets... brrr), but slow as hell and the same SDRAM limitations as i430VX. I don't see myself using this board for any length of time. Haven't had time to test whether it works yet - and if whether those black squares are cache or plain plastic.

chinny22 wrote on 2020-07-06, 08:50:

Ugh got to hate when that happens 😉
I'm not sure if the retro gods were rewarding you or mocking you. I hope you made a blood sacrifice when working on that case just to play it safe!

I made the blood sacrifice earlier in the day when cleaning up. A clear case of do ut des

Were Utron chipsets really that bad? I've had a M559 once but it was DOA.

As for VPX, I've had a EFA/EpoX VPX mobo, and it was actually rock stable w/ about 48MB worth of EDO SIMM sticks, and ran at a decent speed with 98SE, though I didn't have anything better than a S3 Trio 64V+ 🤣

Those VXPro PCChips motherboards were legendary around 1996-1997 due to how incredibly cheap they were compared to the alternatives. Everyone I knew that wanted to upgrade their PC but didn't have a lot of money got one at the time. I had one myself of course, paired with a 6x86 PR150+ (which was later replaced by a 6x86MX) and a PCI Trident 9680, the ultimate "el cheapo" combo of that era.

I don't recall any major instability or similar problems, and performance-wise it was OK for my purposes (gaming and some school work), but coming from a DX4-100 it was a really noticeable increase in speed. My board definitely had real 512K PB cache, maybe I'm wrong but I believe PCChips had already abandoned their fake cache phase by that time.

PcBytes wrote on 2020-07-06, 16:04:

Were Utron chipsets really that bad? I've had a M559 once but it was DOA.

Biggest problem was that nobody supported them, so basically they only worked via BIOS calls under DOS/Win9x. Any OS that bypassed BIOS (Linux, WinNT/2k) completely failed to work. In DOS they were slow as hell too, 15% slower memory performance than VPX (on an M537 like this one), almost 25% slower than i430VX - it's the slowest chipset with PLB I tested.

As for VPX, I've had a EFA/EpoX VPX mobo, and it was actually rock stable w/ about 48MB worth of EDO SIMM sticks, and ran at a decent speed with 98SE, though I didn't have anything better than a S3 Trio 64V+ 🤣

I had a FIC PA-2010+, which was an utterly beautiful, solid motherboard. Still as slow as hell, but stylish as it crawled past. I miss FIC motherboards.

appiah4 wrote on 2020-07-06, 06:40:

Selling 6x86 PR200s as Pentium 200s appears to have been commonplace in the day..

Scummy at the time, but it does give us more variety at the curbside these days.

Not really a dumpster find, but got these babies for free a couple of weeks ago. Actually, a good friend of mine has a nonprofit organization and he is collecting all king of electrical, paper, PET, etc. waste and sells it to the recyclers. With the money he makes out of it, he is organizing summer camps, or trips for children coming from poor families. Until now he was giving the electronics(mostly PCs and laptops) to the recyclers assembled for like 10-15 cents per kg! Almost nothing... I made some research and I found out, that if we are giving only parts to the recyclers, they are paying a lot more money for the waste.
So, I'm helping him to disassemble all the PCs and laptops, removing even the aluminium heatsinks, the metal brackets, and so on, everything sorted by its category. This way he gets like 3 euros per kg for mainboards, 4 euros per kg for expansion cards, 5 euros for HDD electronics, RAM sticks and so on... This makes a huge difference in his income for the NPO. For this, I can keep everything I want 😁
Most of the PCs are newer generations, socket A, 478, LGA 755 and up, but I also found a few nice piece of hardware... So lets begin:

The desktop is a DIGITAL PC 3100 6233KL with an AMD-K6-233ANR, 128 Mb SDRAM, S3 Trio64V2/GX on-board video, ESS ES1869FC Audiodrive ISA sound card, and an ISA modem. The VRM module it has a little bit o damage, two of the capacitors are broken. Should be an easy fix. The mainboard supports up to 366 MHz CPU, at least that's on the sticker from the inside of the case. It also has two ISA and two PCI slots on the riser board.

The first minitower from the left is a generic socket 7 system. It has a J 656C mainboard from J-MARK COMPUTER CORPORATION(???) with Intel 430FX chipset, Intel P133 CPU, 32 Mb EDO RAM, Trident TGUI9440-1 with 1 Mb PCI graphics card(model PM-P523 REV:A) and a some 2 Gb HDD. I like about this case the light blue power button and the 3 digit(max 199) MHz display.

The second minitower is actually a Fujitsu ICL branded machine. It has a Biostar MB-8500TAC-A Rev 6 socket 7 mainboard, Intel P100 CPU, 64 Mb EDO RAM, ExpertColor DSV3365 ver 2.2 S3 Trio64V+ 2Mb PCI graphics card, SB CT2960 Vibra 16C ISA sound card. The case is in a great shape(only a little bit dirty) but the mainboard has a soldered Dallas real time clock chip...

The middle tower from the right is an ATX box, but with the old AT style U shaped metal cover, not the newer design with two side panels. I like it, because it is a solid build an it has a removable mainboard plate(like the AT style cases). It has a socket A mainboard with one ISA slot, Fastfame(??) 8VTAV, VIA KT133; Athlon 800 MHz, 1 Gb(2x512Mb) SDRAM, Radeon HD3450 512 Mb AGP graphics card.

Also got this Siemens Nixdorf Scenic Mobile 700 laptop with a Pentiun 133, 8 Mb of RAM, 1.35 Gb HDD, 12,1" TFT SVGA and CD-ROM drive. At least these are at the label, I don't have a power supply to test it...

Jealous of the Digital. By this time they were just clone PC's but even still well built.
oh and the 199Mhz display, it's the small things in life

The E waste place that was nearby me closed about 3 months ago. Cruising by it before and after work to see if there was anything good left outside where I could rescue it had the potential to be the highlight of my day. Ah well, I nabbed some good things - it was fun while it lasted. The nearest one is not conveniently close by, but what's worse is that it's a larger facility with a large fenced in area with a very high fence. Unlike the small one that closed, they have so much room that they have no need to use an unfenced area as overflow.

Some i945 intel branded motherboard.
Bad caps, and very weird way installed mosfets.
I would never buy one for myself.

Not exactly computer hardware, nor a dumpster find, but what the heck, I'll post anyway:

So, a few days ago I went to a good friend's house to try to fix up his bicycles. Now, I'm no bike mechanic, but I can do some basic repair and maintenance work without the bike falling apart. And sure enough, I got one of them to brake properly, although it doesn't shift right, and the tubes hold air just fine. It was good enough for him to ride it all the way to my home and back to his without issues (other than shifting like garbage, but I don't really know how to fix that)
After we were done, he asked me if I knew how much he should sell an old PSP he had laying around. I told him I was interested in getting one myself, and he proceeded to just give it to me, along with 3 games and its charger. He even dug up a Gameboy Advance SP AGS-101 he had as a kid, although he lost the charger for that one a long time ago. All of that for free, and in good working order. He didn't want them anymore, and said he might as well just give them to someone he knows will enjoy them. We have to go for drinks or some good food one day, my treat obviously.

Installing CFW and homebrew apps is a breeze on this, and Tyrian plays great. Emulators play great too. You don't even have to make the CFW permanent!

The AGS-101 is simply the best Gameboy IMO, because it has backwards compatibility with GB/GBC, clamshell design making it very easy to carry everywhere, a rechargeable battery and an actual backlit display that doesn't have the weird discoloration of the frontlit AGS-001 display, nor the washed-out colors of the original GBA. It does however require a dongle if you want to use headphones with it. Even Nintendo did that before Apple did 😜

Back in the 1990’s there where a few people dumpster diving for used electronics in Silicon Valley.
But what ever they found was broken. I hope these people dont try to resell on internet.
Today most old electronics goes to recycle center.
I dont think there are many dumpster divers left in Silicon Valley.

GB micro is my favorite but the clamshell is also OK.

I found this TV in my neighbor's trash, did some external (and internal cleaning), and got it working. It's a 20" Phillips, with S-video and component inputs.

I'm pretty sure I had that same Philips tv and the picture quality was very good. I used it with the advanced av box for my original Xbox with the component input and it was beautiful.

I still have this exact same model, it's at my parents house. I bought it in 2003 or 2004, it is not used enymore, but it's working. And yes, the picture quality is very good, but not as good as the Sony Trinitron's...

bearking wrote on 2020-08-15, 20:09:

I still have this exact same model, it's at my parents house. I bought it in 2003 or 2004, it is not used enymore, but it's working. And yes, the picture quality is very good, but not as good as the Sony Trinitron's...

Funny you say that, the other CRT mostly out of frame is a Sony Trinitron KV-27FS13, which I am actually getting rid of as I don't have space for it. I also have a much earlier KV-20XBR from 1986 that's already in the house, that one's staying.

This thing has been running for the last ~15-16 years in a rather dirty place, 24/7.
ecs k7s5a
palomino 1700+
128mb pc133 ram
acorp tnt2 m64
very era-incorrect hdds
weird connector on psu ( half of AT power? )

No bad caps on mobo