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

I bought a lot of 8pcs old HDDs for some 11 EUR

Did you buy it in the Czech Republic?

This nice little PC came in yesterday , I bought it mainly for the case for a low price, even for my country. 35 euros/40 USD shipped.

It is the same case as the one in this post, but the internals are different.

Older 386 mainboard with Headland HT18/B chipset and a soldered AMD Am386 SX/SXL-25 CPU
8 sticks of 256 KB RAM
Macronix GW86000 16 bit ISA graphics card with MX86000FC chip and 512 MB RAM
Ambition Technology AB-862 SUPER I/O PLUS ver 1.1, 16 bit ISA I/O controller card
Seagate ST3144A 131 MB IDE HDD
MITSUMI CRMC-FX400E 4x CD-ROM drive
SAMSUNG SFD-560D 1.2 MB 5.25" floppy drive
SONY MP-F17W-02 3.5" floppy drive
some Senstron 200W PSU

I was really exited to open up the case and see the internals, but my excitement faded a little bit when a saw the barrel battery...

I've got rid of the Varta and cleaned it up a little bit with some IPA 99 before testing the board , but the damage was already done!

Still the board started once, I managed to enter de BIOS, but when I rebooted the system, it was just dead. No beep and no POST code on the test card... But I still have some hope to recover this board, because I saw it working.
Also the PSU is dead, but the rest of the components are working great! Even found 25-30 old DOS games on the HDD 😁

Overall, I'm really happy for this purchase, specially for the case with the MHz display and it's small size. Almost a year ago I paid half of the price only for an identical MITSUMI CD-ROM drive...

Ydee wrote on 2021-03-24, 11:47:

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

I bought a lot of 8pcs old HDDs for some 11 EUR

Did you buy it in the Czech Republic?

Yes

Received this today -

Another retro console to add to my collection. I never owned one myself back in the day, but friends had them and it was often played a get togethers. To be absolutely honest, I wasn't a big fan of this console back in the day and hated the controller.

I've got a Chinese clone Everdrive cartridge on the way, ordered from Aliexpress. Also awaiting delivery of an SVideo cable, plus a couple of rumble packs and a memory card. I intend to purchase the RAM expansion shortly, too.

Also today I bought an ElkSD64 expansion for my Acorn Electron (64K RAM expansion & SD Card reader). I received an AC adapter that I ordered today, to power the Electron. I didn't fancy trying to feed DC straight to the expansion slot, when it is expecting AC. The computer was otherwise perfectly happy running from a 12V DC adapter with no expansions connected and I didn't want to risk frying the ElkSD64 when it arrives.

appiah4 wrote on 2021-03-24, 08:31:

... and the worst 3D accelerator ever made.

I thought a Trident 3DImage would take that "crown".

PTherapist wrote on 2021-03-24, 17:08:

I've got a Chinese clone Everdrive cartridge on the way, ordered from Aliexpress. Also awaiting delivery of an SVideo cable, plus a couple of rumble packs and a memory card. I intend to purchase the RAM expansion shortly, too.

While the clone ever drives work, don’t expect to be given help from most outlets with them. Also, give Beatle Adventure Racing a shot when you can.

BetaC wrote on 2021-03-24, 17:36:

PTherapist wrote on 2021-03-24, 17:08:

I've got a Chinese clone Everdrive cartridge on the way, ordered from Aliexpress. Also awaiting delivery of an SVideo cable, plus a couple of rumble packs and a memory card. I intend to purchase the RAM expansion shortly, too.

While the clone ever drives work, don’t expect to be given help from most outlets with them. Also, give Beatle Adventure Racing a shot when you can.

For me, the clones are fine for my needs and certainly more cost effective. They obviously lack the extra advanced features & bells and whistles of the more expensive official ones, but I don't really need those.

Will check out that game, looks interesting. I think I've only played about 4 N64 games before, particularly multiplayer games at friends' houses ie. Mario Kart, Goldeneye etc.

On this episode of hardware purchases: an NEC Versa M/75

The elusive Cyrix MII 350

PTherapist wrote on 2021-03-24, 19:02:

For me, the clones are fine for my needs and certainly more cost effective. They obviously lack the extra advanced features & bells and whistles of the more expensive official ones, but I don't really need those.

Then I would look in to what specific firmware is best for your device, and I would get used to pressing reset to save games that have on-cart saving. My legit ED64 2.5 has that issue as well, so I can tell you it's not an issue once you're used to it.

Delivery 1 of x from Mouser arrived yesterday. I can start recapping some mainboards and PSUs now.
Some parts for my A500++ projects were included, too.

Took me about a hour to check the 16 page packing list.

CMB75 wrote on 2021-03-25, 07:14:

Delivery 1 of x from Mouser arrived yesterday. I can start recapping some mainboards and PSUs now. Some parts for my A500++ proj […]
Show full quote

Delivery 1 of x from Mouser arrived yesterday. I can start recapping some mainboards and PSUs now.
Some parts for my A500++ projects were included, too.
Mouser-delivery-1-x-box.jpg
Took me about a hour to check the 16 page packing list.
Mouser-delivery-1-x-pile.jpg

I think about bundling some of my projects together to reduce postage costs.

But never to this degree!

Did you have a long delay on your Mouser order fulfilment? I saw a ton of people on EEVblog complaining. My last two orders I made (both over 10 days ago) still aren't even picked yet. Usually they get things shipped out within a day.

Today I got 2 of my recent orders:

The CMR-225 is hardly retro, but I'm planning on using it on my XP/Vista or 7, but probably Vista build. The point is, I can slot in two 2.25" drives into one 3.5" bay and physically disconnect the one I'm not planning to boot.

The other supposed to be an S3 Savage 3D 8MB. I have a soft spot for S3 graphics cards and this one was something I was looking for a while now. I didn't find anything about this exact model. Maybe an OEM version?
I'm still missing some I'd like to find. A Savage 4 16 or 32MB, a Savage 2000 and a DeltaChrome S8. The firs one is common, but I doubt I'll ever find the last one.

wiretap wrote on 2021-03-25, 11:16:

Did you have a long delay on your Mouser order fulfilment? I saw a ton of people on EEVblog complaining. My last two orders I made (both over 10 days ago) still aren't even picked yet. Usually they get things shipped out within a day.

Well, it depends. I placed the order on March 2nd keeping the delivery on hold until all parts are in stock. I received daily updates about an expected delivery date which slowly changed into 2022. That's why I asked them to deliver the parts which are available on March 10th. Pickup by FedEx was on March 19th, I received the package yesterday, so I'd say they picked the parts carefully and delivered fast (I ordered the parts from Mouser in Munich but the parts were delivered from Grand Prairie). The delivery times for the parts they didn't ship range from being "in stock" to late October 2021. So I'll rearrange my projects to start with the ones I do have the components for. Once I'm done I'll reconsider waiting or getting the parts from someone else.

canthearu wrote on 2021-03-25, 11:04:

CMB75 wrote on 2021-03-25, 07:14:

Delivery 1 of x from Mouser arrived yesterday. I can start recapping some mainboards and PSUs now. Some parts for my A500++ proj […]
Show full quote

Delivery 1 of x from Mouser arrived yesterday. I can start recapping some mainboards and PSUs now.
Some parts for my A500++ projects were included, too.
Mouser-delivery-1-x-box.jpg
Took me about a hour to check the 16 page packing list.
Mouser-delivery-1-x-pile.jpg

I think about bundling some of my projects together to reduce postage costs.

But never to this degree!

One of the advantages of bundling your projects is quantity which in return leads to free shipping.

wiretap wrote on 2021-03-25, 11:16:

Did you have a long delay on your Mouser order fulfilment? I saw a ton of people on EEVblog complaining. My last two orders I made (both over 10 days ago) still aren't even picked yet. Usually they get things shipped out within a day.

if you check on the mouser main page on announcement "Shipping Status" they claim 2~5 additional days due to covid
I've also had delays , instead of next day they would ship after 8.... it's just how things are atm I guess

RandomStranger wrote on 2021-03-25, 12:00:

The other supposed to be an S3 Savage 3D 8MB. I have a soft spot for S3 graphics cards and this one was something I was looking for a while now. I didn't find anything about this exact model. Maybe an OEM version?
I'm still missing some I'd like to find. A Savage 4 16 or 32MB, a Savage 2000 and a DeltaChrome S8. The firs one is common, but I doubt I'll ever find the last one.

Can you upload a photo of the back of the card?

Bought a few things local: MS Intellimouse Optical 1.1A USB and PS/2 Compatible (beige and grey colored) for $3, works great and very clean.
Did not include the original USB-PS/2 adapter but have a few spares...Identical to ebay listing 184267944409
Also picked up some stuff for older 10/100 network usage for working with the old ISA NIC's in the 386 and 486...

Nobody can have too many Socket 5 so I bought this FIC PA-2000.

It is going to be first VIA chipset covered in my Pentium Chipset comparison. Several people asked be to add VIA.

This one has Via Apollo Plus (575MV) which is actually cost reduced version of the Apollo Master (575M) chipset without pipelined burst support. So I might eventually add also FIC PA-2001 with full version of the chipset.

Also buffered RAM and 8 SIMM slots so I don't have high hopes for performance....