Law212 wrote on 2023-10-17, 18:36:

The last 3 computers I have found are Pentium 3's. This is the latest one. It is a Dell Dimension 4100. It had 128 Megs of RAM. […]
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The last 3 computers I have found are Pentium 3's. This is the latest one. It is a Dell Dimension 4100. It had 128 Megs of RAM. No HDD, anda P3 933 mhz CPU. I really like this case, so I might transplant a 1ghz cpu into it and more ram. It also had an ATI rage 128 pro in it.

THen I have this NetVista P3, which has a 1 ghz CPU , 500 megs of ram and I had a voodoo 3 2000 installed. This is the machine I was playiing Max Payne 1 on .

I also have this Black NetVista. Well the cover is black, but not shown in the pic. Its a 1.3 ghz celeron with 256 megs of ram. I recently put the voodoo 3 in it to test it and it runs very nicely.

Is the 933 a Slot 1 or FCPGA-370?

Its a 370

curggles@gmail.com wrote on 2023-10-18, 01:20:

Well here is the oldest of my 5 retro machines. AMD am386dx40 Cyrix fasmath 40 PCChips M321 rev 3.1 motherboard 256mb cache (cac […]
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Well here is the oldest of my 5 retro machines.
AMD am386dx40
Cyrix fasmath 40
PCChips M321 rev 3.1 motherboard
256mb cache (cachechk reports it as good)
4MB of ram
Trident 8900 VGA card 1mb
Sound blaster 16
SD to ide card adapter
8x mitsumi cd ROM.

It's been a fun unit to play with. I still would like to add an xtide card in as right now I'm using ontrack to use drives as it has the 500MB limit.
I use a floppy emulator on it most the time too but I only have one I swap between machines.

What's the top bay cover? Just a DYI one?

Here are a bit of my old builds - although most of my builds are somewhat newer. However one of my "favourites" might be my IBM NetVista which I decided upon as I wanted a rig running OS/2 - and what's better to do that than an IBM?
This was originally supposed to be a Windows 98 build for me, but the other, little newer, IBM I had died (seems to happen a lot to that particular motherboard), but this one was still going strong. I added a 5.25" floppy drive I had from one of my Amiga 2000s (with PC daughterboards) so get the full era of DOS, but I might remove it again and keep it slick and black. I had an original mouse, so I went to get a fitting screen and now just need to get my hands on an original keyboard; the computer and screen are both from 2002.

A cool thing about these old NetVistas are that they are toolless, and fun to work on - in a bit quirky way:

Working on and off on an old Compaq DeskPro 590 which was laying in the summer house for years! The harddrive was dead (so was the FDD, so I changed that), but the CPU and RAM had been upgraded.

I added more RAM, a graphics card and a sound card as I wanted to build it a little stronger for some W98 and DOS running (and games) - but some of this have changed as I got another oldie which I would rather work on- my Digital Venturis 575:

Both the Compaq and the Venturis will be getting an IDE-to-CF "upgrade" as I don't have a harddrive small enough for the Compaq (max 8 GB) and I would like a little bigger harddrive for the Venturis (800 MB but can take up to 2 GB), the graphics card originally intended for the Venturis (nVidia Riva TNT2 M64) is now in the Compaq and the PNY GeForce 4 MX420 bought for the Compaq is in the Venturis. The Venturis also got all four RAM slots filled with 16 MB blocks (the Compaq have a few more RAM - and two extra slots), and I am doing some "Creative" thinking by trying to brand match things for the Venturis by giving it as many Creative items as I can without getting overboard; it has a Creative SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 SB0220 (Dell OEM - little too new, perhaps), Creative PC-DVD (but running DVD on this will not happen - just wanted the Creative logo there), Creative CS-100 speakers (ordered), Creative mouse - and possibly an IBM Model M keyboard...
The original but removed parts have all been saved for a full documentation.

The reason for keeping the DEC instead of the Compaq is partially it's history (although the Compaq has some personal history too, although I do not remember we ever had a Compaq at home, only IBMs and home builds - and before that ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amiga 500 and Commodore CDTV), but mainly it's upgradeability as it has two PCI slots and an ISA slot, compared to the Compaq only having one PCI slot. Besides I also like the smaller form factor.

I might create a more detailed writing on the machines later on.
... and might add a few other older machines later - including a few laptop computers without Pentium processors.

CrazyCatman wrote on 2023-10-23, 09:56:

Here are a bit of my old builds - although most of my builds are somewhat newer. However one of my "favourites" might be my IBM NetVista which I decided upon as I wanted a rig running OS/2 - and what's better to do that than an IBM?
This was originally supposed to be a Windows 98 build for me, but the other, little newer, IBM I had died (seems to happen a lot to that particular motherboard), but this one was still going strong. I added a 5.25" floppy drive I had from one of my Amiga 2000s (with PC daughterboards) so get the full era of DOS, but I might remove it again and keep it slick and black. I had an original mouse, so I went to get a fitting screen and now just need to get my hands on an original keyboard; the computer and screen are both from 2002.

is that a period correct IBM coffee cup? 😀

the set up looks great

gerry wrote on 2023-10-24, 09:56:

is that a period correct IBM coffee cup? 😀

the set up looks great

Nicely spotted! Probably a little older than the Netvista - but I love having it around when seeing up this system (I even have a spare cup for a guest) - the IBM shirt I have is a bit more fitting for the 2002 setup I have.

I would love to get my hands on an old Aptiva like my father had, there the cup would match perfectly (white and blue).

Another missing item (apart from IBM speakers and keyboard) is an IBM mousepad - the closest I have is a foam one with blue fabric on top without any text; originally planned for using with my Amigas, but I might use it with the Netvista instead

Here's my pride and joy

And here's the specs:

Motherboard: NewTech/SMT TS-486 Terminator (Socket 3)
CPU: AMD Am5x86 133Mhz
RAM: 64 Mb Edoram
HDD: 8Gb Seagate HDD; Compact Flash 4Gb
Som: Soundblaster AWE 64 Gold
MIDI: Musicquest MPU401 + Roland MT-32 + Yamaha MU80 GM
VGA: S3 Trio 64V2-DX 2Mb
CD: HP CD Writer Plus 8200 Series
Floppy drive: 1 x 5,25 Mitsumi Floppy drive; 1 x 3,5 Epson Floppy drive
ZIP: IOMega 250Mb Zip drive

paulo_becas wrote on 2023-11-08, 23:31:

Here's my pride and joy […]
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Here's my pride and joy

Holy effing ef, it looks cool! You're definetly allowed to take pride in that beauty! I absolutely LOVE the graphics on the case!

Case: Chieftec LF-02B-OP
Motherboard: QDI SynactiX 5EP v2.0
Processor: Intel Pentium 3-S (1400 Mhz)
Memory: 2x 256 MB Transcend PC133 CL2
Graphics Card: Nvidia Geforce 3 (Detonator 16.30)
Sound Card I: Yamaha WaveForce 192XG (YMF-724) + PC/PCI
Sound Card II: Labway ESS Solo-1 + X2GS Wavetable MIDI
Network Card: Realtek 8139/810x Family Ethernet NIC
Storage: 1x 500 GB Samsung 870 EVO (Motherboard / BIOS unfortunately does not support 48-bit LBA but a single 120 GB partition is enough for Windows 98 and DOS)
Optical Drive: SONY DVD RW AD-7200A
Floppy Drive: Generic NEC Floppy Disk
Power Supply: Corsair RM550x
Fan Controller: AKASA FC.SIX
Fans: 5x Corsair ML120 Elite Blue
Keyboard: Logitech PS/2
Mouse: Dell WYSE PS/2 Optical
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition

My goal with this system is to play a lot of old Windows 98 and DOS games in hi-res with decent performance and so far it really does not disappoint. The reason I combined the YMF-724 with a Solo-1 is because I love ESFM and I wanted to use MIDI in a pure DOS environment. The Yamaha card is connected via SB/Link using the modified setupds for ICH2 based motherboards and it works nicely with the PC/PCI and S-IRQ combo, all I had to do was set IRQ 5 to "reserved" in the BIOS. After adding the Solo-1 things got a little more complicated as the two didn't seem to like each other very much so I'll briefly try to explain what I did to get this to work. First I removed ESSOLO.SYS from the config system file and then set its file attributes to read only, this stops the card from trying to "steal" IRQ 5 which is already in use by the YMF. Then I used a HEX-editor to edit ESSOLO.INI to force ESSOLO.COM to use Port 240, IRQ7 and DMA3 and this seems to work fine. After that, I disabled the FM-port for the Yamaha card using SETUPDS and after doing so I fired up Wolfenstein 3D and the music was playing from the Solo-1 and the sound effects were played by the YMF724 which is exactly what I wanted. I still had crashes in Windows 98 but I actually figured it out, I added SETUPDS /S to AUTOEXEC.BAT and used POWERYMF to disable legacy sound in Windows and to my surprise sound effects still work in Windows 98 DOSBOX even though its supposedly disabled and no longer visible in device manager. Whats unique about this is that I can now play Duke Nukem 3D with 44Khz stereo sound effects and MIDI in Windows 98 which would previously either blue screen or reboot the machine.😁

paulo_becas wrote on 2023-11-08, 23:31:

Here's my pride and joy […]
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Here's my pride and joy

And here's the specs:

Motherboard: NewTech/SMT TS-486 Terminator (Socket 3)
CPU: AMD Am5x86 133Mhz
RAM: 64 Mb Edoram
HDD: 8Gb Seagate HDD; Compact Flash 4Gb
Som: Soundblaster AWE 64 Gold
MIDI: Musicquest MPU401 + Roland MT-32 + Yamaha MU80 GM
VGA: S3 Trio 64V2-DX 2Mb
CD: HP CD Writer Plus 8200 Series
Floppy drive: 1 x 5,25 Mitsumi Floppy drive; 1 x 3,5 Epson Floppy drive
ZIP: IOMega 250Mb Zip drive

The case graphics are exceptional..I'm curious, how did you do it? Is this a personalized sticker?

The machine itself is a retro PC concentrate, I would say perfect for playing in DOS and also Win9x from 1990 to 1996 maybe even 1997

My most sincere compliments 😄

igna78 wrote on 2023-11-09, 11:48:

The case graphics are exceptional..I'm curious, how did you do it? Is this a personalized sticker? […]
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paulo_becas wrote on 2023-11-08, 23:31:

Here's my pride and joy […]
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Here's my pride and joy

And here's the specs:

Motherboard: NewTech/SMT TS-486 Terminator (Socket 3)
CPU: AMD Am5x86 133Mhz
RAM: 64 Mb Edoram
HDD: 8Gb Seagate HDD; Compact Flash 4Gb
Som: Soundblaster AWE 64 Gold
MIDI: Musicquest MPU401 + Roland MT-32 + Yamaha MU80 GM
VGA: S3 Trio 64V2-DX 2Mb
CD: HP CD Writer Plus 8200 Series
Floppy drive: 1 x 5,25 Mitsumi Floppy drive; 1 x 3,5 Epson Floppy drive
ZIP: IOMega 250Mb Zip drive

The case graphics are exceptional..I'm curious, how did you do it? Is this a personalized sticker?

The machine itself is a retro PC concentrate, I would say perfect for playing in DOS and also Win9x from 1990 to 1996 maybe even 1997

My most sincere compliments 😄

Thanks, my goal is to have a full DOS machine and this one is perfect.
I also have a 95 machine and also a 98 machine and a windows XP machine... i don't like to cut corners so what the hell... why not have the ultimate machine for each OS? Also helps that i work full time for over 20 years in the computer industry...
The graphics were made by me and they were printed to size on vinyl sheet... it turns out great... the front stickers were bought from https://geekenspiel.com/ but the Music quest, S3 and 3COM stickers were made by me... 😁

I can only congratulate you again for the work done: beautiful graphics! And then what about the front of the PC: all the components seem to have just been installed and the plastics seem new. The components are top notch, in short, truly an exceptional build! Thanks again for sharing it 😄

igna78 wrote on 2023-11-09, 22:28:

I can only congratulate you again for the work done: beautiful graphics! And then what about the front of the PC: all the components seem to have just been installed and the plastics seem new. The components are top notch, in short, truly an exceptional build! Thanks again for sharing it 😄

Thanks for the kind words... this is the result of a few years sorting components but now i can say it's finished... this is indeed a great build... more than i could ever dream back in the day.

Allow me to introduce one of my retro rigs and the story behind it!

I originally set out to recreate the computer I had built myself in high school (2003-04?), but I quickly ran into a couple problems. First being, my memories of that time are... vague at best... and thus I can't actually remember most of the details about that computer. Second being, the parts I do remember or have a photo of, like the case, I have not been able to track down yet. And third, I realized that system would be basically useless for what I want to use it for today. I always had second-hand parts that were a generation or so behind, and while I did put many hours of gaming time on this rig, and I was very proud of my build back then, I must admit that it gave me laughably slow framerates and performance compared to the latest (and expensive) stuff.

Some thoughts:
AMD Athlon XP 1700+ CPU. I remember playing with overclocking but don't remember how far I was able to push it.
384MB SDRAM eventually upgraded to 768MB which may have been max supported
First motherboard manufacturer and model have been lost to time. The PCB was tan and yes, it took PC133 SDRAM! It was not actually an Athlon XP board.
That MB had some capacitors fail, so I replaced it with a Gigabyte GA-7 (GA-7VTXE maybe). I liked how this MB was blue, and it used DDR memory.
I believe I eventually ended up with 1GB DDR memory.
Started with a 20GB Seagate IDE HDD (the one with the black rubber bumpers or whatever they were). Upgraded to a 120GB Maxtor IDE HDD*
Started with CD-RW and DVD-ROM drives, then got a DVD burner
No idea at all what graphics card(s) I had back then. I do remember being in the ATI camp and not really a fan of nVidia for whatever reason.
Pretty sure I started with a 64MB AGP card of some sort, and then eventually got a 128MB card. None of them were ever high end or high performance cards. BUT I COULD PLAY DOOM 3 on low settings!
The case was black, with a small rectangle of silver on the front, and an acrylic window shaped like an "X".
I had green 80MM LED fans, blue cold cathode lights, a UV cold cathode light, and a bunch of UV reactive parts like PCI slot covers, IDE cables, and ??
Stock CPU cooler - loud and hot

So what I ended up doing is basically a "tribute" to that PC, and not an accurate reproduction. I really would love to find that case some day, but it's been really elusive, especially not knowing the manufacturer.

The tribute system:

Antec Three Hundred "illusion" ATX case with its original Antec blue LED fans. A newer case obviously, but it definitely follows the aesthetic I like. (Craigslist)

Shuttle AK31 v3 motherboard, on which I replaced 5 blown capacitors, and then flashed with the official "performance" BIOS. (eBay)

AMD Athlon XP 1700+ 1.46 GHz OC to 1.61GHz, which is about a 1900+. (eBay)

An enormous Thermaltake Silent Tower heatsink that mounts using the 4 holes in the MB. This is WAY overkill and very unnecessary, but why not! (eBay)
Slowed down the Thermaltake CPU fan with a Noctua low noise adapter.

1 GB OCZ DDR400 with the copper heat spreaders (local sale)

Maxtor 120 GB IDE HDD - the EXACT one I bought brand new retail back in 2004! Somehow it traveled with me all these years and I never threw it away. It still works fine and has no bad sectors.

ATI Radeon X800XL 256 MB AGP graphics card. A little newer (2005), a bit overkill, and I would never have been able to afford this back in the day. But this enables me to play games at more comfortable framerates. The X800 has an Arctic Cooling Silencer 5 aftermarket cooling solution. The fan always ran at full blast so I spliced into the wire and connected it to a fan controller to slow it down a bit. (local sale)

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2ZS sound card. I don't remember what sound card I had back then, but this is an upgrade for sure. (local sale)

Noctua 40mm chipset fan with a Noctua low noise adapter

Blue cold cathode lighting (Amazon)

Kingwin 1000W PSU (local sale)

I wanted to run Windows 2000 Professional because I enjoyed that back in the day. However, I started having trouble with it and installed XP instead. Worked fine for a while and then got more BSOD. Turns out it was bad RAM! I don't think brand new DDR memory purchased on Amazon is actually brand new. I had bought 2 sticks, expecting a matched pair, and when they arrived they were not. Plus, one turned out to be failing. My guess is that the seller just "tests" some used memory and slaps on a new label for resale. I might eventually take it back to Windows 2000, but for now all my games are installed on XP.

Not sure what else to say about it! I'm not an expert at cable management as you can see, and the placement of the ATX power connector on the Shuttle AK31 is problematic, so the main lead crosses over top of all the components to reach the connector. But I did the best I can, and airflow is not an issue in this Antec case. I may eventually like to cut a window into the side panel but so far have not found the courage to cut up such a nice case.

The "biohazard" is a custom case badge I made myself in Photoshop many years ago. I used to stick one on every PC I built as my own "brand" or whatever. Now I add them to all my retro systems for some extra nostalgia.

Nice!! I can relate 😀
Btw, DDR isn't that expensive, mabe buy a lot on Ebay.

Nexxen wrote on 2023-11-16, 00:51:

Nice!! I can relate 😀
Btw, DDR isn't that expensive, mabe buy a lot on Ebay.

Well... I have since acquired a "little bit" of spare RAM for my retro projects in addition to those two nice OCZ 512 sticks in the machine above.

Nice mix here of PC100 and PC133 SDRAM, DDR, some DDR2, plus some Rambus RDRAM and a bunch of laptop SODIMM modules too! Got real lucky and found a local guy looking to thin out his stash.

nezwick wrote on 2023-11-16, 02:26:

Well... I have since acquired a "little bit" of spare RAM for my retro projects in addition to those two nice OCZ 512 sticks in […]
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Nexxen wrote on 2023-11-16, 00:51:

Nice!! I can relate 😀
Btw, DDR isn't that expensive, mabe buy a lot on Ebay.

Well... I have since acquired a "little bit" of spare RAM for my retro projects in addition to those two nice OCZ 512 sticks in the machine above.

IMG_0330.jpg

Nice mix here of PC100 and PC133 SDRAM, DDR, some DDR2, plus some Rambus RDRAM and a bunch of laptop SODIMM modules too! Got real lucky and found a local guy looking to thin out his stash.

🤣 🤣 🤣

Here's my retro PC #2.

It was a FB Marketplace find - paid $25 for it in "unknown working condition" with no hard drive or graphics card. I promise you it did not look like these pictures when I bought it. It was a complete disaster with wires and cables and plugs and loose parts everywhere, and of course packed with dust.

At the time, I had just completed my Athlon XP 1700+ tribute system and did not really have a use for another Socket A rig, especially one as ridiculous looking as this. I always considered these types of cases to be gaudy and obnoxious and unnecessarily huge.

I had actually considered parting it out and selling everything on eBay for a profit, but decided to give it a chance and see what I could do with it first. I'm glad I did, because the style has really grown on me and it feels perfectly mid-2000s.

Aside from a general cleaning and a whole lot of time spent on taming the cable mess, it really didn't need much to get going aside from a fresh CMOS battery, graphics card, and a SATA HDD. I installed XP Pro and started taking inventory of the specs.

-

Case: Thermaltake Xaser III w/ original Thermaltake Hardcano fan controller
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 3000+ (Barton core 400FSB version!) at stock speed
MB: ASUS A7N8X Deluxe, nForce2 chipset, with all the accessory PCI slot brackets
RAM: 1GB Corsair TWIN X DDR 400 (2x 256 and 1x 512, runs in dual channel)
HDD: Seagate 160GB SATA - added from my personal stash
Sound: onboard nVidia nForce2 "SoundStorm"
GPU: Gainward nVidia GeForce FX 5700 256MB AGP 8x - also added from my personal stash
Case cooling: (5x) original Thermaltake 80mm fans, (2x) generic blue LED fans - total of 7 fans
CPU cooling: Thermaltake Volcano7 with a blue LED fan
Lights: Green cold cathodes
Storage: IDE DVD-ROM and CD-RW, and a 3 1/2 floppy
Other: Cooler master round/clear IDE cable and generic round/black floppy cable

I did the best cable management job that I knew how. There are SO many wires to deal with (pertaining to the fan controller, 7 fans, and front panel illumination) and with no cable management pathways, I hid what I could behind the left panel and inside a black sleeve. It doesn't measure up to modern cable management practices, but it's better than what I probably would have come up with in 2003, and it honestly looks period appropriate.

I added the green lights and blue fans. I also upgraded the CPU cooler. It was a stock AMD cooler and the 60mm fan was SO loud. The Thermaltake Volcano7 that I originally had in my 1700+ machine fits pretty nicely in here.

So aside from possibly upgrading the graphics card when I come across a better one, this rig is in its final form. I don't really use it much right now, but I'm definitely hanging onto it. I do enjoy how the blue LED fans and green cathode lighting look together.

nezwick wrote on 2023-11-17, 13:28:

I did the best cable management job that I knew how. There are SO many wires to deal with (pertaining to the fan controller, 7 fans, and front panel illumination) and with no cable management pathways, I hid what I could behind the left panel and inside a black sleeve. It doesn't measure up to modern cable management practices, but it's better than what I probably would have come up with in 2003, and it honestly looks period appropriate.

I added the green lights and blue fans. I also upgraded the CPU cooler. It was a stock AMD cooler and the 60mm fan was SO loud. The Thermaltake Volcano7 that I originally had in my 1700+ machine fits pretty nicely in here.

So aside from possibly upgrading the graphics card when I come across a better one, this rig is in its final form. I don't really use it much right now, but I'm definitely hanging onto it. I do enjoy how the blue LED fans and green cathode lighting look together.

Sweet setup! It is a lot like my period-correct P4-HT system. Except I never bothered with cable management. 😌

My case is the Lanmoto - a variant of the Xaser III with a slightly modified Hardcano unit. Because the Lanmoto has only 3 fans (120mm front, 120mm rear, 90mm side), just two knobs on the Hardcano are enough to control them reasonably (for example, put both intake fans on one knob and the exhaust on the other). Because of this, the front panel connectors are integrated into the Hardcano and not into a separate panel on the case.

Originally, the only the rear fan on the Lanmoto is blue LED, but I upgraded them all to match. Not as awesome looking as your LED/cathode combo, but still nice.

I do feel 7 case fans are quite a bit overkill. How is the noise on those 80mm ones? My TT fans were never super quiet. With the speed set to lowest, they are far from loud, but still very much audible. Smaller fans tend to be louder, but the Xaser III 80mm fans were touted as "silent fans", so I don't know.

dr_st wrote on 2023-11-17, 21:07:

My case is the Lanmoto - a variant of the Xaser III with a slightly modified Hardcano unit. Because the Lanmoto has only 3 fans (120mm front, 120mm rear, 90mm side), just two knobs on the Hardcano are enough to control them reasonably (for example, put both intake fans on one knob and the exhaust on the other). Because of this, the front panel connectors are integrated into the Hardcano and not into a separate panel on the case.
...

I do feel 7 case fans are quite a bit overkill. How is the noise on those 80mm ones? My TT fans were never super quiet. With the speed set to lowest, they are far from loud, but still very much audible. Smaller fans tend to be louder, but the Xaser III 80mm fans were touted as "silent fans", so I don't know.

Nice! I knew there were a bunch of variants of the Xaser III, but I don't think I've come across the Lanmoto before. I've seen a few Xasers on eBay, and most are priced very high.

I agree that (7x) 80mm fans - actually 10 total, if you include the CPU fan and the two in the PSU - is a little bit outrageous. Especially in this instance where it's a pretty tame build with only one spinning HDD and a mediocre GPU. But honestly it's not *that* loud when the fan speeds are all turned down low. I wouldn't call them "silent", but at least they do make a pleasant whirring sound as opposed to whining or rattling or anything like that. And truly, I can hear the noisy little fan on the FX 5700 over and above the case fans anyway. One of the things I did during the initial teardown/rebuild phase was to disassemble each of the orange fans to clean and lubricate. I figured that would both reduce any noise and extend their life.