VOGONS


post up pics of your "computing area"

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Reply 1740 of 2202, by gerry

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wrexroad wrote on 2021-03-03, 21:46:

My office mate is starting to worry... Also, nothing makes you realize how bad your cable management is like taking a picture of your desk. Yeesh!

cable management is good, when they wear the outer layer and start shorting each other it's time to tidy up!

I like the gear under the desk, oscilloscope? other things intrigue too, could 'zoom' in enough to recognise or see model name/numbers though

Reply 1742 of 2202, by wrexroad

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Miphee wrote on 2021-03-04, 10:29:

That LSI terminal is a beauty!

Honestly, that terminal is one of the things that got me interested in retro hardware, it's just such an amazing design. After seeing photos of it and learning a bit about its history I really wanted to pick one up. Eventually found that one at a local junk shop for $40... untested. I assumed I would have to fix something, turned out to have a cracked CRT neck. I now have a few donar candidates and hope to finally get it up and running soon (or at least find the next problem). Also, it's an ADM-3 (not an ADM-3A) so I'm hoping to figure out how to upgrade the board for upper case and lower case letters along with 24 rows instead of 12... but that might just be a dream.

Last edited by wrexroad on 2021-03-04, 20:52. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1743 of 2202, by wrexroad

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gerry wrote on 2021-03-04, 09:51:
wrexroad wrote on 2021-03-03, 21:46:

My office mate is starting to worry... Also, nothing makes you realize how bad your cable management is like taking a picture of your desk. Yeesh!

cable management is good, when they wear the outer layer and start shorting each other it's time to tidy up!

I like the gear under the desk, oscilloscope? other things intrigue too, could 'zoom' in enough to recognise or see model name/numbers though

Starting on the left my under desk area has:
Heathkit AG-10 Sine-Square Gererator - Currently the only thing it outputs is a triangle-ish wave from the square output
Color VGA monitor for IBM PS/2 - Was on my desk last week until something popped in (I think) the power supply.
Heathkit IT-11 Capacitor Checker - Works great, but needs some cleaning/replacement hardware
Biomotion 910-D Digital Logic Recorder - Gives you 8 inputs to connect to logic lines and has X, Y, Z outputs to draw a graph on an oscilloscope. Its a hillariously complicated way to do something that a $20 pocket-sized meter from Ali Express can do. This is a new addition and I need the antiquated AC power cable before I can test it (Or I might just replace it with a standard IEC connector).
JDR Instruments 3500 Oscilloscope - 35MHz, like the capacitor checker it could use some cleaning, but is functional.

Typing this up has really reminded me how many projects I have sitting around.

Reply 1744 of 2202, by pan069

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Not so much my computing "area" as such, just my systems. I recently moved house and I've opted for a different set up than I had previously. Before I had a KVM set up. This resulted in a massive amount of cables. Power cables for all systems, KVM cables, audio cables, etc. Quite messy.

So, after I moved and I had some time to dedicate to my new retro set up I thought I try something different. Rather than having all systems set up (attached) all at once, I just want to be able to "slide out" the system I want to mess around with. For easy sliding on the freshly laid carpet, I'm putting the desktop cases on the side and the tower case sit on a bit of cardboard covered in duct-tape (easier for sliding).

This works quite well. I have a display on my desk (not shown) and a wireless PS/2 mouse (a ball variant for authenticity).

These are the systems, left to right:

286/16-1MB with SoundBlaster 2.0 (+C/MS) and ET4000 VGA
386DX/40-16MB with SoundBlaster Pro and Cirrus Logic 5422
386SX/20-8MB with Pro audio Spectrum 16 and Trident VGA
486DX4/100-64MB with SoundBlaster 16 (CT1740), Gravis Ultrasound Classic and ET6000 (4MB/PCI)
Pentium MMX 233, not build yet but it's going to have a Voodoo2 😎

Pentium 4/2.8-4GB, GeForce 7300 GT running Windows XP
Pentium 2/350-512MB , Riva TNT 16Mb running Win98SE (it's a desktop case)

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Reply 1745 of 2202, by vellu

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pan069 wrote on 2021-03-05, 03:27:
Not so much my computing "area" as such, just my systems. I recently moved house and I've opted for a different set up than I ha […]
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Not so much my computing "area" as such, just my systems. I recently moved house and I've opted for a different set up than I had previously. Before I had a KVM set up. This resulted in a massive amount of cables. Power cables for all systems, KVM cables, audio cables, etc. Quite messy.

So, after I moved and I had some time to dedicate to my new retro set up I thought I try something different. Rather than having all systems set up (attached) all at once, I just want to be able to "slide out" the system I want to mess around with. For easy sliding on the freshly laid carpet, I'm putting the desktop cases on the side and the tower case sit on a bit of cardboard covered in duct-tape (easier for sliding).

This works quite well. I have a display on my desk (not shown) and a wireless PS/2 mouse (a ball variant for authenticity).

These are the systems, left to right:

286/16-1MB with SoundBlaster 2.0 (+C/MS) and ET4000 VGA
386DX/40-16MB with SoundBlaster Pro and Cirrus Logic 5422
386SX/20-8MB with Pro audio Spectrum 16 and Trident VGA
486DX4/100-64MB with SoundBlaster 16 (CT1740), Gravis Ultrasound Classic and ET6000 (4MB/PCI)
Pentium MMX 233, not build yet but it's going to have a Voodoo2 😎

Pentium 4/2.8-4GB, GeForce 7300 GT running Windows XP
Pentium 2/350-512MB , Riva TNT 16Mb running Win98SE (it's a desktop case)

PXL_20210305_011600220.jpg
PXL_20210305_011616692.jpg

nice systems! hardly any yellowing. I know it's also a matter of taste but voodoo2 won't be stressed much with the P233MMX. Pair it with the P2 system for games such as Half-Life and Unreal and get a voodoo (one) for the P233MMX.

retro rack

Reply 1746 of 2202, by pan069

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vellu wrote on 2021-03-05, 07:20:

I know it's also a matter of taste but voodoo2 won't be stressed much with the P233MMX. Pair it with the P2 system for games such as Half-Life and Unreal and get a voodoo (one) for the P233MMX.

Unfortunately I tossed out my Voodoo1 about 15 years ago, the Voodoo2 has to substitute... 😉

Reply 1747 of 2202, by CBM

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sometime this year when the new dual garage in my summerhouse is ready and all my old stuff is sorted then I will post pictures of my new main retrolab that will be residing in that garage. I have around 25 old CRTs some video, some TVs, some monochrome, some vga, most are svga etc

also two pentium ii systems, a 8086, a 386dx40, a pentium mmx, an athlon xp, 8 pentium 4 ibm desktops, very old ibm 1u server, ibm x3400 m3, two very old desktop compaqs, 6 c64, 2 vic20, 2 c16, 2 a500, a1200, c116, and perhaps more that I have forgot about

at home I have my new xp era dell, a core2duo hp desktop, a sleeper i7 with gtx1080, a modern ryzen pc, an hp aio, a pair of ryzen 3 apu based systems in sleeper cases, a wyse thin client, a desktop a1200, a c64, a athlon64 without case, pentium 4 without case, a duron without case, some pi based stuff, some modern celeron pc and a huge array of old and new laptops

likely forgot stuff in the main office as well

Main PC SPECS:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600
GPU: Powercolor Red Devil Radeon RX 5700 XT
RAM: 8GB*4 Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200MHz
Motherboard: ASUS Prime B450M-A
PSU: Corsair RM850

Reply 1748 of 2202, by wrexroad

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pan069 wrote on 2021-03-05, 03:27:

These are the systems, left to right:

286/16-1MB with SoundBlaster 2.0 (+C/MS) and ET4000 VGA
386DX/40-16MB with SoundBlaster Pro and Cirrus Logic 5422

I really like the look of these two cases, do you know the name/manufacture of them?

Reply 1749 of 2202, by pan069

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wrexroad wrote on 2021-03-10, 19:06:
pan069 wrote on 2021-03-05, 03:27:

These are the systems, left to right:

286/16-1MB with SoundBlaster 2.0 (+C/MS) and ET4000 VGA
386DX/40-16MB with SoundBlaster Pro and Cirrus Logic 5422

I really like the look of these two cases, do you know the name/manufacture of them?

Unfortunately I do not, there is no branding or anything similar on it on it whatsoever. They are as generic as you can get 😀

I got them of eBay about a year and a half ago. They were sold as brand new, one arrived without the accessories (most annoyingly the ISA riser) but luckily I had one laying around that matched this case.

I'd love to find one or two more myself 😀

Reply 1750 of 2202, by gerry

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wrexroad wrote on 2021-03-04, 20:52:
Starting on the left my under desk area has: Heathkit AG-10 Sine-Square Gererator - Currently the only thing it outputs is a tri […]
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gerry wrote on 2021-03-04, 09:51:
wrexroad wrote on 2021-03-03, 21:46:

My office mate is starting to worry... Also, nothing makes you realize how bad your cable management is like taking a picture of your desk. Yeesh!

cable management is good, when they wear the outer layer and start shorting each other it's time to tidy up!

I like the gear under the desk, oscilloscope? other things intrigue too, could 'zoom' in enough to recognise or see model name/numbers though

Starting on the left my under desk area has:
Heathkit AG-10 Sine-Square Gererator - Currently the only thing it outputs is a triangle-ish wave from the square output
Color VGA monitor for IBM PS/2 - Was on my desk last week until something popped in (I think) the power supply.
Heathkit IT-11 Capacitor Checker - Works great, but needs some cleaning/replacement hardware
Biomotion 910-D Digital Logic Recorder - Gives you 8 inputs to connect to logic lines and has X, Y, Z outputs to draw a graph on an oscilloscope. Its a hillariously complicated way to do something that a $20 pocket-sized meter from Ali Express can do. This is a new addition and I need the antiquated AC power cable before I can test it (Or I might just replace it with a standard IEC connector).
JDR Instruments 3500 Oscilloscope - 35MHz, like the capacitor checker it could use some cleaning, but is functional.

Typing this up has really reminded me how many projects I have sitting around.

i looked up the oscilloscope on radiomuseum - mid 80's tech, i'm that used to look modern to me! yes, you sure do have some projects there

Reply 1751 of 2202, by kepstin

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Got this cleaned up… enough, I guess.

DSC_0006_720.jpg

From left to right on top of the table:
  • Pentium-MMX 233MHz build on an Intel AN430TX board (Yamaha OPL3-SA3 + OPL4 midi onboard audio), plus a Matrox Millenium II, 3Dfx Voodoo 2, and Creative Awe64 Gold expanded to 28MB using a Simmconn. Dual boot Win98SE and Win2k. 128GB SATA SSD. This build is desperately in need of a nice NOS late 90s ATX case so it can look as awesome as it actually is.
  • Intel Xeon X5675 on an X58 board, 12GB ram, with a Radeon RX 560 (originally had an i7-920 & HD 7850). This PC was my main back in university. 500GB SATA SSD, Windows 10. (Win Vista would be period appropriate.)
  • IBM Aptiva 2137-E46. Kept reasonably close to original, and still has the original stickers on the front. "IBM K6 266MHz" CPU, onboard Crystal CS4237B audio & ATI Rage II+ video. Upgraded to 64MB ram, a larger more modern HDD, and there's a newish DVD drive in there until I find something more accurate. Windows 95 - thanks to some folks on this forum for finding the original IBM wallpaper/branding!
  • (on top) A boring Intel i5-3450S mini-itx box with a 1030GT. I use this for Linux distro testing mostly.
  • (in front) A Behringer XENYX 1002 mixing board. A few of the PCs with interesting sound cards get direct connections, but most of the PCs are routed through the KVM stack and share one input. Audio output is connected to both the local speakers and a nearby stereo system.
  • Logitech Z4 stereo speakers.
  • A Sony CDP-E200 17" CRT. Rescued from a University computer lab, and the anti-glare coating is wrecked 😒 Had to replace some PSU caps as well. I typically run it at 1440x1080 resolution, 75Hz on the newer PCs - I've loaded a customized EDID with that resolution added into my KVM switches using a programmable EDID emulator.
  • Speaking of KVM switches - computers with digital outputs are connected to an IOGEAR GCS1104 with a DVI EDID loaded. The signal from that is routed through a DVI→DP then DP→VGA adapter chain into the IOGEAR GCS1804, which handles all the vintage PCs, and connects to the monitor. The GCS1804 is nice because it can be used with either PS/2 or USB cables to the PCs - it has built-in PS/2 input emulation.
  • DURGOD Taurus K320 keyboard with Cherry Clear switches and Matt3o MT3 /dev/tty keycaps.
  • (far right) An AMD Ryzen PRO 4650G system with 32GB ECC 3200MHz ram, NVMe SSD, Blu-ray drive, etc. A current-gen PC built into the case of a ThinkCentre M92p as a sleeper style rig. Windows 10 / Linux dual boot.

The box of floppy disks are The Official Floppy Disk of World Cup 1990! (picked up NOS, they're unformatted & I had to re-learn how to do a low level format on floppy disks when I got them…)

And below the table:
  • I didn't want to lift an Antec P182 onto the table. Contains a s939 Athlon 64 X2 3800+ on an Asus A8N-E NForce 4 board, 4GB ram, SATA SSD. SB Audigy 2 ZS. Currently has a Radeon 7850 installed, but I also have the original Geforce 7600 GT. My main PC in High School. Currently dual boots Win 10 32bit and Linux. (Win XP would be period appropriate)
  • I've made a thread for this PC before, but it's been updated a bit since then. AMD K6-3+ at 500MHz on an MS-5169 v4 board with 1GB ram. The motherboard has been recapped (with poly caps because why not) since the last update, and it now is perfectly stable… although I think I busted the onboard USB 😒 I switch it between a Voodoo 3, Radeon 9200SE, GeForce 4 MX depending what I'm up to. Also has a SB Live 0200 (Dell OEM) - because it has a front panel audio connector that is "HD Audio" compatible for the modern case. SIL3114 SATA card with an SSD and a HDD connected. (The old OCZ Vertex SSD failed, so it's using a modern SSD now.) Dual boots Win98SE… and a modern Linux distro.
  • An absolute mess of KVM cables, Power cables, and Network cables. Every PC on and under the table is wired up to my LAN with Ethernet 😀
  • The woofer from the Z4 speaker set.

And hiding over on the far left… a TRS-80 Color Computer, currently in its boxes. I need to find somewhere to set this up. The CoCo is upgraded to 64K ram, aftermarket keyboard, and has dual double-sided 40-track floppy drives.

Reply 1752 of 2202, by LewisRaz

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My spot under the stairs. The Mrs is surprisingly forgiving of the mess that often happens in this area when builds are going on!

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My retro pc youtube channel
Twitter

Reply 1753 of 2202, by gerry

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LewisRaz wrote on 2021-03-22, 15:40:

My spot under the stairs. The Mrs is surprisingly forgiving of the mess that often happens in this area when builds are going on!

that's a great way to use an otherwise awkward space! I had a case like the one on the right many years ago, i think it was a cyrix PR200 or something from that era

btw, nice Indesit minicomputer lower right! based on the PDP11 i believe! 😀 Anyway, sharing your corner with a utility machine makes the good use of space even more apparent

Reply 1754 of 2202, by GuillermoXT

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My nearly completed and fully updated Tandon Target 40 8mhz system 🙂

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My Retrosystems:
PIII on GA-6BA running Win98SE
AMD K6 233 on GA-586HX with Win95
Tandon 286-8MHZ Running DOS 6.22 on XTIDE-CF
M326 486DLC + 4c87dlc (Dos+Win3.11)
ECS UM4980 AMD DX2 80 5V (Dos & Win3.11)

Reply 1755 of 2202, by pan069

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Is that a mini tower on its side?

Edit: I guess it was made to be used both upright and sideways. I assume the that three drives could also be inserted 90 degrees rotated? It's delicious looking box nonetheless. 😀

Reply 1756 of 2202, by GuillermoXT

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Yes you can put it both ways but when upright you have to attach the cd's in the drive with the plastic holders🙃

My Retrosystems:
PIII on GA-6BA running Win98SE
AMD K6 233 on GA-586HX with Win95
Tandon 286-8MHZ Running DOS 6.22 on XTIDE-CF
M326 486DLC + 4c87dlc (Dos+Win3.11)
ECS UM4980 AMD DX2 80 5V (Dos & Win3.11)

Reply 1757 of 2202, by elfoam

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Always a few CRTs on the corner of my "desk" which is a kitchen table for my son to play on.

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Reply 1758 of 2202, by OldSkoolKiwi

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My garage command centre..
Dos 6.22 , p2l97 slot1 333mmx, tnt2 64, aztech mmpro16
Win98 se, 8ipe1000 pro2, p4 2.0, 9600xt, sb live, 120gb ssd
Win10, x570, ryzen3600, 1080ti

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