That's a nice looking board. Is that a giant heatsink next to the VLB slot?

Yep.

Nice. I'm going to assume that it's for the vrm which should keep it running nice and cool. But it does limit your Isa card length for the two slots but it shouldn't be a big deal.

I don't think that board has a VRM, seeing how there's a 387 on it and the solder pads are unpopulated I'd assume the cpu to sit under that 😉

Predator99 wrote on 2021-01-06, 07:12:

Yes, you won the 1st price! :-D Good research work! […]
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Ozzuneoj wrote on 2021-01-06, 03:30:

At first I thought that was an IBM PGA, but it's not. Has a lot of the same features but a lot of differences as well. What on E […]
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Predator99 wrote on 2021-01-05, 16:59:

😀

IMG_2949.jpg

At first I thought that was an IBM PGA, but it's not. Has a lot of the same features but a lot of differences as well. What on Earth is it?

Is it a PGA clone?

Edit: I think I'm right... Is it a Vermont Microsystems IM-1024, which is an IBM PGA clone? Seems like the label on the back agrees, but I can't find a picture of one. That must be super rare!

Yes, you won the 1st price! 😁 Good research work!

Yes, I have been looking very long for a PGC card to fire the PGC input of my EGA-Monitor. However, as far as I can see, this one seems not to be suitable as it displays 1024x800 pixel and not 640x480 as the IBM PGC does.

Anyway, very nice card.

IM1024.jpg
IMG_2949.jpg
IMG_2950r.jpg
IMG_2951r.jpg

mhh that's a beautiful card nonetheless :3

imi wrote on 2021-01-07, 04:44:

I don't think that board has a VRM, seeing how there's a 387 on it and the solder pads are unpopulated I'd assume the cpu to sit under that 😉

It's a socket 1 486 board with a 387 in the 486 socket. If it's capable of taking a 386, it would be a QFP 386 in the unpopulated area top right.

The heatsink by the ISA slots houses a 386 PGA-132. The empty QFP can take either a 386 or 486 (usually occupied by a CPU in some cases).

Seems my assumption was wrong then. Never known a 386 to have a heatsink, let alone one so large 😀

I bought IDT WinChip C6 200 MHz for $10 incl ship. The processor legs are not straight, but the CPU itself is in working condition. My plan for the CPU is to fix the legs and get rid of that sticky glue from top.

The second item is the motherboard - Gigabyte GA-7N400S with yellow Socket 462 😁 It is brand new condition, but I/O ports cover is missing for some reason. It is nForce 2 mobo, supports Athlons, Durons, Athlon XPs and Semprons.
Price: ~ $9

debs3759 wrote on 2021-01-07, 06:32:

Seems my assumption was wrong then. Never known a 386 to have a heatsink, let alone one so large 😀

They must've put a heatsink on there to prevent the CPU from cooking itself if left powered on for hours on end.

I did find a heatsink fan combo for PGA-132 386 CPUs on eBay before, but it's been a while.

Yesterday, the "day of kings", I found a pc parts bundle @ 35€.

A mundane multi-IO VLB card:

.... And a horrible, yet missing in my "collection", OPTi 82c931 variant from Expertcolor:

A somewhat nice Aztech combo sound card, with licensed OPL:

And at last, the most interesting item was a rare Octek Hippo DCA2 motherboard (Am486DX4-100 included) :

The cherry on top was the 2 EDRAM simm's, 4mb only each, but better than none !!!!

Ugh! MR BIOS! Please dump the rom!

I just received SO-DIMM 2MB SGRAM expansion for my Dell Optiplex GXa.
I paid 6 euros from electromyne Germany. I installed the memory into slot and it worked out of the box - 4 MB total of memory. Now the graphic card can do 1600x1200 at 16bit or 1024x768 at 32 bit. The problem is, the card output quality at 1600x1200 is a tragedy 😁
Also I wonder if put 4MB SO-DIMM would it work? It's ATI 3D Rage PRO

GigAHerZ wrote on 2021-01-07, 12:49:

Ugh! MR BIOS! Please dump the rom!

That was literally the first thing I did after removing the evil varta.
Here it goes, the dump of my rom (27c512):

Is there any use besides recovering another identical MB ?

Xicor wrote on 2021-01-07, 15:15:

That was literally the first thing I did after removing the evil varta. Here it goes, the dump of my rom (27c512): Mr_bios_octe […]
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GigAHerZ wrote on 2021-01-07, 12:49:

Ugh! MR BIOS! Please dump the rom!

That was literally the first thing I did after removing the evil varta.
Here it goes, the dump of my rom (27c512):
Mr_bios_octek_hippo_DCA2_2.zip

Is there any use besides recovering another identical MB ?

As much as i've understood MR BIOS universe, then this bios is universal for all the motherboards using the same chipset. It doesn't have to be identical board itself.
But of course, it's also useful for people with identical motherboard but with non-MR BIOS on it.

Managed to win this nice desktop/horizontal case on a certain well-known auction site.

Since I got my 19" rack I've been looking for something to house my current PC that will sit on the rack shelf better than the old Fujitsu tower. Most desktop cases out there are full ATX and beige, while the ones that aren't have low profile slots and only fit an SFX PSU - this meets my µATX + full height slots + ATX PSU + stealth black citeria.

It was obvious from the seller's photos there was some kind of P4 in there. Seems it was custom built with off-the-shelf parts in February 2004 to process security camera feeds to log number plates at some installation. It's a plain old Intel board in there (southbridge is ICH5 so north is probably an i865 variant) with two linked 'Neurodynamics Videomux' PCI cards. I haven't powered it up, though, because the capacitors are clearly bulging. No dust inside and it came in the original box, so I have to wonder if it was ever used for its intended purpose.

Bought those new NiMH batteries for old motherboards to replace old and leaky NiCd batteries.

Huh. That's interesting. I was thinking about doing that myself for a few boards I have.

So on another ewaste trip I found a very sad looking PC XT:

Pulled it out and it was connected to a NEC Multisync JC-1401P3A still, and besides everything looking a bit dusty it's in good shape. I wound up getting the XT + NEC for a pretty good deal! Right now it's not syncing to the monitor but I'm suspecting the cable got damaged. Card wise it looks to be pretty standard.

Another 1980's computer and monitor getting rescued. This pleases me. The PC XT looks to be in pretty good shape for its age as well.

Yep. Wonderful stuff.