One cool thing you can do as a variety with old gear is pushing them to the limit. Core2 duos is interesting, they can run Haiku (OS). Maybe not 4k youtube able but but still interesting.

geertjanb wrote on 2025-01-19, 19:13:

So i was living in a small appartment for aprox 8 years. I collected a lot of retro hardware in these years. Now i've been able […]
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So i was living in a small appartment for aprox 8 years. I collected a lot of retro hardware in these years.
Now i've been able to buy a proper house with an entire 16m2 room for my retro hobby.

I've build my first retro pc with the parts i've collected over the years.

AMD K6, awe64, sc55 and a voodoo1.

Windows 98 brings back nice memories; Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, The Sims, etc.

But now everything is working I can't say I'm really having fun.

Maybe the idea of building this machine and playing the old games of my youth was more appealing in my mind then in reality?

I find the journey in getting it setup is often more rewarding than messing around with the finished product. I'm still in the procurement and modification phase with my PS/1 resurrection (done) and upgrade (in the works) project, but I have several systems that I've been assembling and getting them operating is the fun part.

I have an old Macbook (clamshell) that I finished, my old TI Win486SLC25 that I loaded 3.11 on, two IBM ThinkPads, one with Windows 2000, the other with Windows 98SE. I have Windows 95C on an HP Vectra Pentium II and Windows XP on a Dell Pentium 4, all with "period correct" OS's (have the respective "designed for" stickers on them).

While the 486 PS/1 project waits on its Overdrive CPU, I've ordered a Pentium 233 MMX from the Ukraine that I'm going to put in an old Socket 7 board I have here that I don't have a case for yet. Not sure what OS to put on it yet, may try and find a Voodoo for it and do Windows 98SE.

Maybe try your hand at another project? I still have my 8088 to resurrect (let the smoke out of something on the motherboard when power was applied to it), see if that helps?

OVERK|LL wrote on 2025-02-06, 20:34:

While the 486 PS/1 project waits on its Overdrive CPU, I've ordered a Pentium 233 MMX from the Ukraine

Lol, I was considering buying Pentium Overdrive in Canada recently but bought it in US with working fan but slightly bended pins. Because (tada) it is hell expensive in Ukraine 😀 I love the flow of the components across the world. Especially rare ones, that probably were donated to our government structures rather than bought by some private users (especially, say, pre-1995 stuff). Now this (once) old stuff became real treasure, returning home.

rkurbatov wrote on 2025-02-08, 00:45:

OVERK|LL wrote on 2025-02-06, 20:34:

While the 486 PS/1 project waits on its Overdrive CPU, I've ordered a Pentium 233 MMX from the Ukraine

Lol, I was considering buying Pentium Overdrive in Canada recently but bought it in US with working fan but slightly bended pins. Because (tada) it is hell expensive in Ukraine 😀 I love the flow of the components across the world. Especially rare ones, that probably were donated to our government structures rather than bought by some private users (especially, say, pre-1995 stuff). Now this (once) old stuff became real treasure, returning home.

Go figure! I just received (and installed) my 486DX4100 ODP from Australia, 🤣, because there were none in Canada and the US ones on ebay were insane.

There are some POD83 chips selling for less than the 486-100 overdrive and 486-133 upgrade chips. Weird.

Here’s the deal. It would be great fun for me if I could sell prebuilt retro systems but there’s not much of a market for that. Systems sell for less than the sum of the parts. Much less. People want parts. Why? Because they know the fun is putting the parts together.

douglar wrote on 2025-02-09, 20:59:

There are some POD83 chips selling for less than the 486-100 overdrive and 486-133 upgrade chips. Weird.

Here’s the deal. It would be great fun for me if I could sell prebuilt retro systems but there’s not much of a market for that. Systems sell for less than the sum of the parts. Much less. People want parts. Why? Because they know the fun is putting the parts together.

Yes. Usually they want some specific parts (prebuilt system quite often are strange). Original parts (many old PCs are upgraded). Some prefer to recreate the exact configuration. Or try something new, rare and shiny. That's why preassembled computer is often much cheaper.

rkurbatov wrote on 2025-02-12, 21:06:

douglar wrote on 2025-02-09, 20:59:

There are some POD83 chips selling for less than the 486-100 overdrive and 486-133 upgrade chips. Weird.

Here’s the deal. It would be great fun for me if I could sell prebuilt retro systems but there’s not much of a market for that. Systems sell for less than the sum of the parts. Much less. People want parts. Why? Because they know the fun is putting the parts together.

Yes. Usually they want some specific parts (prebuilt system quite often are strange). Original parts (many old PCs are upgraded). Some prefer to recreate the exact configuration. Or try something new, rare and shiny. That's why preassembled computer is often much cheaper.

Definitely on the specific parts bit, that's what heavily influenced what I've done with the PS/1, stuff I did or wanted to do with it (the ODP) when I was a teen in high school and couldn't afford the mods, 🤣. I still have the Reveal 28.8 modem that I used back then, but it's not in the computer.