Angels cry when CRT-pixels are sad.

Here is a recent purchase I made from a FB Marketplace ad for a box of motherboards and video cards:

Motherboards
- Gemlight GMB-P56IPS v2 Socket7 with a P90
- Unbranded (?) Slot1 440BX with a P2-450 Deschutes
- AOpen AX6BC Slot1 440BX with a P3-800/100 Coppermine
- Shuttle AV11 s370 with a P3-850/133
- ASUS A7V600 SocketA with an AthlonXP 3200+
- ECS K7S5A SocketA, no CPU, one cap looks bad
- ECS P4S5A/DX+, s462 with a 1.8ghz P4
- Gigabyte GA-8IP900 v1.1, s462 with a 2.4ghz P4

Video Cards
AGP: GeForce2GTS, TNT2, FX5200, FX5600XT, FX6200, GF2/GF4 MX (several), TNT2 M64 (several), Sis305
PCI: 8400GS, FX5500, Radeon 9250

During communication with the seller, they also mentioned that they had some vintage systems they were willing to sell. I ended up purchasing the following:
- Dell Optiplex 4100/MXe: 486DX4/100, 32MB ram, cache, 3.5/5.25 combo floppy, SB16 Value
- Packard Bell 486/66, 12MB ram, Aztech sound card, 2.3GB IDE drive

And there was one more item thrown in, an Enermax CS-3051L silver case.

So far, everything I have tested has worked. The 486s now have CF cards and new batteries in them and are working fine to the extent that I have tested them. I built a rig using the A7V600/3200+ in the Enermax case with a GF4 ti 4600 to replace my previous Athlon XP/2400 system. I also put the 8400 GS in my file server to free up a PCIe slot.

I will post a few more pics if there is any interest.

mistermister wrote on 2021-03-22, 23:39:

Here is a recent purchase I made from a FB Marketplace ad for a box of motherboards and video cards: […]
Show full quote

Here is a recent purchase I made from a FB Marketplace ad for a box of motherboards and video cards:

Motherboards
- Gemlight GMB-P56IPS v2 Socket7 with a P90
- Unbranded (?) Slot1 440BX with a P2-450 Deschutes
- AOpen AX6BC Slot1 440BX with a P3-800/100 Coppermine
- Shuttle AV11 s370 with a P3-850/133
- ASUS A7V600 SocketA with an AthlonXP 3200+
- ECS K7S5A SocketA, no CPU, one cap looks bad
- ECS P4S5A/DX+, s462 with a 1.8ghz P4
- Gigabyte GA-8IP900 v1.1, s462 with a 2.4ghz P4

Video Cards
AGP: GeForce2GTS, TNT2, FX5200, FX5600XT, FX6200, GF2/GF4 MX (several), TNT2 M64 (several), Sis305
PCI: 8400GS, FX5500, Radeon 9250

During communication with the seller, they also mentioned that they had some vintage systems they were willing to sell. I ended up purchasing the following:
- Dell Optiplex 4100/MXe: 486DX4/100, 32MB ram, cache, 3.5/5.25 combo floppy, SB16 Value
- Packard Bell 486/66, 12MB ram, Aztech sound card, 2.3GB IDE drive

And there was one more item thrown in, an Enermax CS-3051L silver case.

So far, everything I have tested has worked. The 486s now have CF cards and new batteries in them and are working fine to the extent that I have tested them. I built a rig using the A7V600/3200+ in the Enermax case with a GF4 ti 4600 to replace my previous Athlon XP/2400 system. I also put the 8400 GS in my file server to free up a PCIe slot.

I will post a few more pics if there is any interest.

That Optiplex is a cool beast. Does the dual floppy drive work ok?

Gotta love the dual floppy drives. Sweet haul, man.

Received the male to male serial straight-thru cable (says all 9 pins are connected) and the NEC V20 8MHz today and will test out the CPU and start to build the video capture slowly but surely for streaming games live online via Twitch.

The 3.5" A: drive works great, I used it for set up, it even sounds good. I don't currently have any 5.25" discs to test the B: drive, I suppose I should do something about that. The CDR that came with it was broken, I replaced it with a 16x SCSI 5-CD changer that I picked up recently. Also replaced the SB16 with my PAS16, which I am the original owner of (purchased new for my 1st 486 in about 1993). Video is onboard Cirrus Logic 1MB (expandable to 2MB). For now I am planning a DOS only system like my old 486 was (well, until I started experimenting with OS/2 Warp).

Damn, I wish I could find old Trinitron and Multisync CRTs in Hong Kong. Everything I see on Ap Liu Street in Sham Shui Po is fit either for garbage or the recyclers...

Wish I could find a decent CRT myself. The only system that has a CRT is my Compaq Portable 1 and a couple of TV/PVM sets: Toshiba TV/VCR and a Sony PVM-9L1.

It could just be dirty. It probably won't be that noticable when being used but I would try to clean it.

Most people I have seen who try to clean anything glass have no idea how to not leave streaks or residue.

Just use a damp cotton cloth

Then dry it off with a dry cotten or microfiber cloth.

I'm not sure how hardy the anti- glare is on those old monitors or else I would just say to use windex and paper towels.

pixelatedscraps wrote on 2021-03-23, 02:03:

Damn, I wish I could find old Trinitron and Multisync CRTs in Hong Kong. Everything I see on Ap Liu Street in Sham Shui Po is fit either for garbage or the recyclers...

If there is one place in the world you'd expect to find an NOS stash then it probably be Hong Kong 😆

pan069 wrote on 2021-03-23, 06:41:

pixelatedscraps wrote on 2021-03-23, 02:03:

Damn, I wish I could find old Trinitron and Multisync CRTs in Hong Kong. Everything I see on Ap Liu Street in Sham Shui Po is fit either for garbage or the recyclers...

If there is one place in the world you'd expect to find an NOS stash then it probably be Hong Kong 😆

Right? I must be looking in the wrong places. Doing another trip tomorrow to Golden and New Capitol Computer Plaza (this one a tip from a friend for vintage stuff) so am hoping to find something good there.

luck has struck today so im very very happy

NOS DFI CA64-TC S370 VIA chipset with ISA slot... capacitors are gonsky but that is not an issue
ASUS V6600MX geForce 256 SDR agp
(details pointing out that those are 64bit models but all pictures i found on net has 4 memory chips while this one has all 8 fitted so i hope its 128bit card)
Inno3D geForce 6200 agp (caps are bad but that is not issue)
Creative Audigy2 ZS front panel only

I bought a lot of 8pcs old HDDs for some 11 EUR - the "untested and no warranty" kind of deal...The guy was kept repeating that they seem fine but that he did not test them, so he is selling them for parts. Today the package showed up, well, what the guy failed to mention that 7 of 8 them were broken into, torn open, ripped apart pieces of scrap which fell apart right as I took them from the box....except for one - Seagate Medalist 1,7GB - this poor old goat had his control PCB torn away but in the box, and bears obvious scars and marks of somebody trying to break into it, but after assembly, it miraculously works! Some people, meh...but silly me, although its a good learning experience...at least the one poor hard drive working is keeping me from being totally pissed off

assasincz wrote on 2021-03-23, 19:34:

I bought a lot of 8pcs old HDDs for some 11 EUR - the "untested and no warranty" kind of deal...The guy was kept repeating that they seem fine but that he did not test them, so he is selling them for parts. Today the package showed up, well, what the guy failed to mention that 7 of 8 them were broken into, torn open, ripped apart pieces of scrap which fell apart right as I took them from the box....except for one - Seagate Medalist 1,7GB - this poor old goat had his control PCB torn away but in the box, and bears obvious scars and marks of somebody trying to break into it, but after assembly, it miraculously works! Some people, meh...but silly me, although its a good learning experience...at least the one poor hard drive working is keeping me from being totally pissed off

4.jpg
5.jpg

11 EUR for a working drive of that era is reasonable. Shame about all the others though - he really should have mentioned that everything was stripped down.

assasincz wrote on 2021-03-23, 19:34:

I bought a lot of 8pcs old HDDs for some 11 EUR - the "untested and no warranty" kind of deal...The guy was kept repeating that they seem fine but that he did not test them, so he is selling them for parts. Today the package showed up, well, what the guy failed to mention that 7 of 8 them were broken into, torn open, ripped apart pieces of scrap which fell apart right as I took them from the box....except for one - Seagate Medalist 1,7GB - this poor old goat had his control PCB torn away but in the box, and bears obvious scars and marks of somebody trying to break into it, but after assembly, it miraculously works! Some people, meh...but silly me, although its a good learning experience...at least the one poor hard drive working is keeping me from being totally pissed off

oh wow I feel you, almost the same thing happened to me once... and the seller even said to me "it's not like these are trash" only for me to receive a bunch of disassembled drives and others that were heavily rusted in the back.

Thats just one of the many reasons I avoid old HDDs. I generally won touch anything older than some UDMA 5 seagate, or any other brands beside Seagate and WD. With Seagate being quite a bit better than WD of that vintage. Hitachi Death stars are probably the worst

I use a 15 years old Hitach (160 GB) in my main retro Win98SE/WinXP retro PC since forever. The most reliable HDD I ever bought.

No the worst is Maxtor... They drop like flies.

H3nrik V! wrote on 2021-03-22, 09:42:

Probably paid WAY too much, but searches to this forum didn't give me any pointers to price, only "searching for years" and "never shows up", so I took it ..

Oh my! If THAT (199 euro) is what the public is willing to pay for this one, I'd probably better start selling all of mine.... 😂

But yes, they are pretty rare now in the wild - makes me wonder what happened to all those sold on ebay some years ago .
(this (ASUS?) guy in Thailand had crates full, selling them NiB at $19 a pop inkl shipping)...

Edit: 'this' is an ASUS CT-479 cpu adapter for socket s478...

Serendipity today 😀

I was suggesting to someone that a BX board with lots of ISA and PC-PCI was more interesting than a similar board with less ISA and more PCI if you already have a Tualatin system. And then the doorbell rang and mine arrived:

A Tekram P6B40-A4X.

Panned in 1998 for being too slow with too much legacy, it's exactly what I want now. I needed to upgrade BIOS to get it to support Coppermine and it had a weird boot issue where it shut down after a few seconds for the first two or three attempts. Turns out it does that when the CMOS battery is empty. Now happily purring away with an underclocked P3-866 with Zalman CNPS heatsink, a 16GB DOM, a Trio64 and GUS, AWE64 and EWS64XL.

Tomorrow I get software working, more specifically work out settings of the three cards. Nice little challenge there 😉

The other parts are less interesting - P3-450, generic RTL8139 NIC and a Hercules Muse LT CMI8378 sound card. Not bad, but hardly in the same league as my other cards.

On today's episode of "Shit I bought for no reaseon" I have my nth S3VirgeDX cards and the worst 3D accelerator ever made.

Individiual photos can be found on my website.

pixelatedscraps wrote on 2021-03-23, 09:00:

pan069 wrote on 2021-03-23, 06:41:

pixelatedscraps wrote on 2021-03-23, 02:03:

Damn, I wish I could find old Trinitron and Multisync CRTs in Hong Kong. Everything I see on Ap Liu Street in Sham Shui Po is fit either for garbage or the recyclers...

If there is one place in the world you'd expect to find an NOS stash then it probably be Hong Kong 😆

Right? I must be looking in the wrong places. Doing another trip tomorrow to Golden and New Capitol Computer Plaza (this one a tip from a friend for vintage stuff) so am hoping to find something good there.

Toured through the whole of New Capitol Computer Plaza today just behind Golden Shopping Arcade. Let me tell you, this is THE PLACE to buy older computer hardware in Hong Kong - anything from 2008 onwards I would say. I came across one display model G4 Cube (not for sale) and a couple of Macintosh Color Classics (may go back for one of them). I also found a couple of HD 5870 GPUs, a bunch of 285, R9 270 and a whole corridor of what seemed to be only second hand PSUs. Saw plenty of HX, TX and CX units.

But vintage-vintage? Hardly anything.

Certainly nothing older than a Pentium III and a 6600GT, I was quite disappointed I have to say. And not a single CRT monitor in sight...