Spending the last couple days finally sorting all of my games. It's an off and on project as I decide how I'm going to approach this (what do I sort with what as there's too many to just keep in the livingroom). I've always had all of my hardware sorta neatly sorted, but the games often just ended up in large shopping bags largely at random, but now the time has come to finally set things right (and to do a headcount as I otherwise have no idea how many boxed games I even have laying around).

I'm taking my time with it, enjoying every minute of it due to the nostalgia 🤣.

Claris wrote on 2021-11-19, 05:24:

Ended up getting the $5 RE PC Voodoo 3 working. Seems fine so far! Definitely a find I'll never forget.

On a sidenote. Why do Voodoo 3s get so friggen hot!? Its like a mini fire place. I only had the computer on for a few minutes before i could feel the case getting mega toasty.

Dude not even a Voodoo 2 SLI setup without fans got this hot so quickly. Yikes

Interesting observation. I've never checked because I wouldn't expect them to get hot. Maybe I can connect my Voodoo 3 machine up soon and measure it using an infrared meauring tool.

On the other hand, could it be that the thermal paste has dried up? I have a GeForce 2 GTS that clearly benefited from a new layer of paste.

Finished up hydro-dipping my SBC MS-DOS build.. 233MHz Pentium MMX SBC, AWE64 Gold, Gotek, 4-ISA SBC case.

Impressive, does that kind of finish scratch up easily, or do you do multiple clear coats on top to protect it or what?

You realise now though that you'll have to do a Mulder case to complete the pair with Skully 🤣

haha. The hydro-dip film goes on like paint, so it can scratch. I put clear coat on it for protection.

wiretap wrote on 2021-11-19, 16:27:

Finished up hydro-dipping my SBC MS-DOS build.. 233MHz Pentium MMX SBC, AWE64 Gold, Gotek, 4-ISA SBC case. […]
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Finished up hydro-dipping my SBC MS-DOS build.. 233MHz Pentium MMX SBC, AWE64 Gold, Gotek, 4-ISA SBC case.

Did you use any vinyl or stickers at all for the logo? Or was that all hydrodipped?

Iv been wanting to get into case wrapping, iv seen hydrodipping but never really understood how it worked.

It's kind of a fancier version of putting decals on your airfix kit Spitfire.

Claris wrote on 2021-11-19, 19:35:

wiretap wrote on 2021-11-19, 16:27:

Finished up hydro-dipping my SBC MS-DOS build.. 233MHz Pentium MMX SBC, AWE64 Gold, Gotek, 4-ISA SBC case. […]
Show full quote

Finished up hydro-dipping my SBC MS-DOS build.. 233MHz Pentium MMX SBC, AWE64 Gold, Gotek, 4-ISA SBC case.

Did you use any vinyl or stickers at all for the logo? Or was that all hydrodipped?

Iv been wanting to get into case wrapping, iv seen hydrodipping but never really understood how it worked.

The Doom sticker is a vinyl decal.

Cleaning a couple of old AT PSUs (Tosin & Elna caps) - https://web.archive.org/web/19970618170748/ht … ply/008/008.htm

I spend a whole $17.95 to obtain 1MB of L2 Cache for my 486 DX2! KICKASS
I was trying to figure out what the price for that would have been back when the board was released.

Before internet commerce really got going in last half of late 90s, cache always seemed very difficult to source at all. The 256K chips were $10 a chip if you could get them. It may have been more practical at the time to order a new motherboard with the required amount installed than try to install it in the board you already had.

Tested an unknown PCI-EX video card built 2008 and ended up being an oem AMD HD4650 (RV730 PRO) 1GB (probably) that needed a good heatsink and fan cleaning. It works perfectly and ended up into a new test build I'm trying a Pentium 4 HT 3,6Ghz (SSSE3@65nm), 4GB DDR2, G31 chipset and latest Linux o.s.
Open Radeon kernel module works incredibly well and the card runs cool and ironically it seems even faster than the GT610 I have on the Core2 machine, thing I wasn't expecting on a Pentium4 machine. I wanted to see how such an old machine but with enough compatible cheap components might works as an everyday machine and I can say it does perfectly its job.
I don't know if it's better to use a pentium4 clock module or the generic acpi one to save power demand. At the wall the system pass from 85 watts to 150 watts and more. Already enabled the radeon dynamic power management in the kernel.

Tracked down an Altec Lancing speaker set on FB marketplace for $15 and then bought a Roland SC-55mkii from Japan on eBay.

Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-11-21, 03:55:

Welcome to the P4 HT appreciation society. .

Are these cpu not appreciated or just the HT function itself? In the far past I was more an Athlon XP fan myself and never really followed the Pentium IV evolution until some years ago testing the Socket 478/775 many options with SSE2 supported cpus, SSE3 and even SSSE3 as a last improvement for that brand. I wish I could rebuild a Socket 478 high end Prescott but I need a new mainboard; now I'm using this last core version and feel quite powerful on this full atx G31 Asus board on a very old 2000 full atx case.
Speaking of YouTube VP9 codec videos while not accelerated by the GPU (beside maybe the basic support I suppose), seems anyway running @480p quite well and with high cpu usage even 720p VP9 encoded videos.
What really impressed me was running the Unigine Valley benchmark on linux better than a more modern config. Also the o.s. with most sw runs quite well. The video card costed me like 5 euros untested and not even understanding which model it was without any brand names or numbers indication. Other components I had are really old too, a 54Mbps WiFi adapter, an XGA 15" LCD and I was thinking even using a Creative Audigy on this but the Realtek onboard audio seems more than enough. Added IDE DVD/CD readers and only a "modern" SSD to boost the whole config and the 4x1GB DDR2 800 Dual Channel modules. 😉

386SX wrote on 2021-11-21, 15:32:

Are these cpu not appreciated or just the HT function itself? In the far past I was more an Athlon XP fan myself and never reall […]
Show full quote

Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-11-21, 03:55:

Welcome to the P4 HT appreciation society. .

Are these cpu not appreciated or just the HT function itself? In the far past I was more an Athlon XP fan myself and never really followed the Pentium IV evolution until some years ago testing the Socket 478/775 many options with SSE2 supported cpus, SSE3 and even SSSE3 as a last improvement for that brand. I wish I could rebuild a Socket 478 high end Prescott but I need a new mainboard; now I'm using this last core version and feel quite powerful on this full atx G31 Asus board on a very old 2000 full atx case.
Speaking of YouTube VP9 codec videos while not accelerated by the GPU (beside maybe the basic support I suppose), seems anyway running @480p quite well and with high cpu usage even 720p VP9 encoded videos.
What really impressed me was running the Unigine Valley benchmark on linux better than a more modern config. Also the o.s. with most sw runs quite well. The video card costed me like 5 euros untested and not even understanding which model it was without any brand names or numbers indication. Other components I had are really old too, a 54Mbps WiFi adapter, an XGA 15" LCD and I was thinking even using a Creative Audigy on this but the Realtek onboard audio seems more than enough. Added IDE DVD/CD readers and only a "modern" SSD to boost the whole config and the 4x1GB DDR2 800 Dual Channel modules. 😉

P4s in general. Post something about them and duck for cover immediately 😉 Especially if Linux is involved he he .

It's not very often that these two cards get to sit together nowadays, or at least as much as I'd like them to. So, I thought I should take a photo opportunity while they are.
They've spent a few days in my Dell Dimension XPS M200s, playing some classic MS-DOS games that take full advantage of their native 3D APIs.

Well. Did finally break out the Versa M/75 for the first time in a long while and took a stab at using something I just bought.

Found a C.I.B. NEC VersaVideo card (Basically a Nogatech NV256 with audio) DV capture card. Still figuring out how to get this darn thing working. Seems I was able to get FullTV to see the card (but not the input), but VersaVideo app in Windows 3.11 For Workgroups is whining "You need a Newer Version of Windows" to run this - odd since this card's box is marked (c) 1994 and the program was designed for Windows 3.1x.

Program runs under 95, but no video. Also found the installer was unable to copy UDH.DLL over so I had to snag that off another driver. Still not sure what would be triggering that error though. But once I do get this working, will be cool to record some YouTube footage using the Versa from Windows 3.1x or 95 if I Can get the 95 Drivers for this device. Guess some playtime is in order. Not in a rush though....looks like more quiet banality over Thanksgiving since I have been spending more family time and less computer time.

Attempted to use my KXL-DN745A on my Austin PN/312TFT laptop, however, I hit a snag: doesn't load with my PCMCIA drivers, even though another CD-ROM drive works with it.

My other laptops don't have a way to either disable the on-board sound, the CD-ROM drive, or both. Plus, my Versa M/75 still doesn't power on (has issues with the FDD, HDD, and other items, and it's basically like my mom's 1991 Dodge Spirit at 25K miles: thinking about working).

Today still testing this Pentium 4 3,6Ghz machine with latest linux sw possible to see how it works. The difference in speed enabling the HT feature is quite visible on web browsers page rendering but also the cpu temperature with the same cooler easily increase up to +10°C I'd say or at least the sensor clearly read higher temps.
To stay 'time correct' I'm trying also an old dial-up early HSDPA phone internet connection and after some testing with a bandwidth of 3.0Mbps in download and 0,4Mbps in upload. I suppose that remote video job interviews might work with some old style webcam with 176x144 video resolution. 😁 The only problem would be the stability of the dial-up old modem connection but it'd interesting to talk in a job interview with which config you're working on compared to some high end company style 4K expensive config. 😁

Recently replaced my Soyo 025P2 motherboard with the QDI V4S471/G, as that one can have 1024kB of L2 cache.
Also used 9x1024kb chips, 10 and 12ns, that i got from aliexpress. (probably timings are fake, but don't care that much)

As a result, i made some benchmarks, too:

QDI @ 3x50 seems to be a pretty kick-ass result for a strictly non-PCI 486. 😀 For 50MHz FSB, i had to increase the timings for RAM and L2 cache and couldn't tighten the video card's timings as much either. For other setups, everything was maxed out.