Got this Turtle Beach Tropez Plus for 45€, is it a good deal? It's hard to value those things due to low volume of past sales.

AGP4LIfe? wrote on 2025-01-14, 22:16:

G-X wrote on 2025-01-14, 21:31:

AGP4LIfe? wrote on 2025-01-14, 16:09:

Picked up this nice boxed Radeon 3850 AGP for just under 100$. Yea kinda spendy, but it's in really nice condition with the box and all accessories, including the case sticker!
Tested and works great 👍 I finally have the fastest agp card in the collection 😀

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Looks mint! Not cheap indeed (was lucky to have scored both of mine under 50, one boxed the other isn't) but yours looks like it was hardly ever used. Are you going to do anything cooling wise on the bridge chip? Most people suggest to add cooling but i haven't used mine yet except for some testing.

Yea its quite minty fresh, still even has some new electronics smell to it. 😁 It will mostly go on the wall, but I will run some Crysis on it using my FX-60 NF3 System first!

As far as the bridge chip , I am not too concerned about adding extra cooling to it. I'm sure if they engineered it to be used without a heat sink its probably just fine. Its also directly by my CPU cooler so it will have air running over it.

It needs some passive cooling, they get super hot and are known for dying due to that heat, ATI was also know for cutting corners on their cooling setups just look at the 9700 Pro and 9800 Pro cards for a good example or the woefully inadequate cooling on their X850 cards.

Throw a heatsink on it, ATI engineers were utter morons at cooling and prevention is cheaper than replacing that card or the bridge chip.

Any ATI card with a bridge chip IS REQUIRED to have a heatsink installed by their users. ATI's engineers were dum enough that they thought a bridge chip that runs hotter than the sun wouldn't need some form of cooling.

kalgon wrote on 2025-01-15, 07:02:

Got this Turtle Beach Tropez Plus for 45€, is it a good deal? It's hard to value those things due to low volume of past sales.

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If you don't care about it, but you want to keep it, it's a bad deal. Even 1€ is a bad deal. If you like it...it depends how much you like it...
If you want to sell it for a profit, yes, it's a very good deal. You can easily get double that price from someone who collects soundcards.

PcBytes wrote on 2025-01-15, 08:47:

Any ATI card with a bridge chip IS REQUIRED to have a heatsink installed by their users. ATI's engineers were dum enough that they thought a bridge chip that runs hotter than the sun wouldn't need some form of cooling.

Hey at least they wrapped it in that lovely silly foam padding stuff that did exactly zilch in helping it cool down.

or was that nVidia ...either way it was one of them that made that Faux pas.

ATI did, nVidia at least knew enough to use heatsinks over them.

Anyways, courier came in today.

kalgon wrote on 2025-01-15, 07:02:

Got this Turtle Beach Tropez Plus for 45€, is it a good deal? It's hard to value those things due to low volume of past sales.

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Holy smokes, yeah, that's a fantastic deal. I would LOVE to find one of these myself.

http://www.amoretro.de/2013/06/turtle-beach-t … or-4mb-rom.html

The Tropez Plus is probably one of the most interesting ISA sound cards ever made. You've got an ICS Wavefront hardware MIDI synth with 4MB of ROM onboard (plus RAM slots to play around with higher quality samples), a real OPL3 for authentic FM music, a fantastic Crystal CS4232 audio chip for excellent game compatibility, apparently that Yamaha YSS225 DSP can apply lots of effects to the card's output (no idea how to use this)... and on top of that the card just needs a very simple startup program to load the firmware in DOS and then it "just works"... MIDI and all. Plus, it looks amazing with all of those huge chips and slots.

EDIT: Ugh! And it gets even better... I just realized it has no aluminum electrolytic caps. They are all either ceramic or tantalum. So, just be careful the first time you power it on in case a tantalum has failed (or better yet, check it for shorts, then power it on and off real fast and check it for shorts again). If the tantalums last the first couple minutes of testing the card will probably function exactly as it did the day it was built and will likely never need any components replaced.

PcBytes wrote on 2025-01-15, 11:25:

Anyways, courier came in today.

Leave some retro gear for the rest of us, yeah? 😂

Spent a few hours today trawling Evilbay for some Chomper XT K6-2 CPUs .. managed to snag two of them for 50 bucks, a nice 550 model and a 333 version, I wonder if the 550 will hit 600 as its the 2.3v version and may already be at its max. The 333 version has the AFR-66 tag, Im not sure what this means .. could it be a 66Mhz FSB locked model ? would be cool if it was.

Also grabbed a 1.6v K6-2+400 for 19 bucks which should overclock much better and might be able to be modded into a full K6-3+, good thing the entire process is here on Vogons.

Since its not exactly retro but Ill mention it in passing, grabbed what was listed as a used EVGA 1080ti FTW3 that when it arrived .. came still sealed in original box with all accessories still in their sealed bags. Not everyday you can buy a 1080ti new listed as used, card is spotless and still has its PCI connector cover. It'll need its pads replaced at it does suffer from that leaky thermal pad issue EVGA was known for but for the price I got it for I cant complain, Ill take the wins when life throws them at me !

I dont normally buy modernish GPUs but the 1080ti is a beast and its worth having one around.

Edit for legibility, I cant English apparently.

That K6-2+ is a very good value.. I have no -2+ CPUs in my collection, just a lot of regular -2s. I'd be happy to come across one and try them out some day, but they seem to be very rare where I live. It seems the K6-2 was a budget alternative to going Slot-1 for a while but it never really took off enough for the 2+ or -3/3+ CPUs to ever have any volume. Most people seem to have flocked over to Slot-1 Celerons..

appiah4 wrote on 2025-01-16, 06:07:

That K6-2+ is a very good value.. I have no -2+ CPUs in my collection, just a lot of regular -2s. I'd be happy to come across one and try them out some day, but they seem to be very rare where I live. It seems the K6-2 was a budget alternative to going Slot-1 for a while but it never really took off enough for the 2+ or -3/3+ CPUs to ever have any volume. Most people seem to have flocked over to Slot-1 Celerons..

Yeah the low voltage E models are harder to get but there are a good number of people selling new old stock ones, but not at 19 bucks usually, perhaps their low volume was due to them being versions for laptops and kiosks so their volume was never going to be huge.

IIRC any K6-2/3 model under 2.0v is one of the mobile versions and will overclock much better.

The +models also came relatively late to the market. Most of them I have are made 2001-2003 whereas the non+ models are 1998/99 and 2000 at most.
First Tualatin Pentium 3 are from 2001, so 2002/03 must already have been fading Pentium 3 era. Who would have bought a K6-2/-III for desktop use at that time?
I think to remember the K6-2+/III+ were mostly made by AMD because their newer Athlon wasn't suited for mobile/embedded applications yet because of their power draw. But not totally sure about that.

ChrisK wrote on 2025-01-16, 09:06:

The +models also came relatively late to the market. Most of them I have are made 2001-2003 whereas the non+ models are 1998/99 and 2000 at most.
First Tualatin Pentium 3 are from 2001, so 2002/03 must already have been fading Pentium 3 era. Who would have bought a K6-2/-III for desktop use at that time?
I think to remember the K6-2+/III+ were mostly made by AMD because their newer Athlon wasn't suited for mobile/embedded applications yet because of their power draw. But not totally sure about that.

It does sound like something AMD would have done back in the day, and honestly the E models were perfect at the time for kiosks and laptops till Intel released the Pentium M chips.

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-01-15, 07:32:

AGP4LIfe? wrote on 2025-01-14, 22:16:

G-X wrote on 2025-01-14, 21:31:

Looks mint! Not cheap indeed (was lucky to have scored both of mine under 50, one boxed the other isn't) but yours looks like it was hardly ever used. Are you going to do anything cooling wise on the bridge chip? Most people suggest to add cooling but i haven't used mine yet except for some testing.

Yea its quite minty fresh, still even has some new electronics smell to it. 😁 It will mostly go on the wall, but I will run some Crysis on it using my FX-60 NF3 System first!

As far as the bridge chip , I am not too concerned about adding extra cooling to it. I'm sure if they engineered it to be used without a heat sink its probably just fine. Its also directly by my CPU cooler so it will have air running over it.

It needs some passive cooling, they get super hot and are known for dying due to that heat, ATI was also know for cutting corners on their cooling setups just look at the 9700 Pro and 9800 Pro cards for a good example or the woefully inadequate cooling on their X850 cards.

Throw a heatsink on it, ATI engineers were utter morons at cooling and prevention is cheaper than replacing that card or the bridge chip.

Regarding the heatsink for the bridge chip: is there any proven good method of adding some more passive cooling to it?
I've read somewhere that this gap pad they've put on it is just there to protect the chip from chipping. I could believe this but it doesn't help with cooling.
I'm in the same boat (different card, same problem) but just don't see any elegant solution to fix a passive heatsink (yet).
Maybe someone here has already (positive) experience!?

ChrisK wrote on 2025-01-16, 09:20:

Regarding the heatsink for the bridge chip: is there any proven good method of adding some more passive cooling to it? I've read […]
Show full quote

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-01-15, 07:32:

AGP4LIfe? wrote on 2025-01-14, 22:16:

Yea its quite minty fresh, still even has some new electronics smell to it. 😁 It will mostly go on the wall, but I will run some Crysis on it using my FX-60 NF3 System first!

As far as the bridge chip , I am not too concerned about adding extra cooling to it. I'm sure if they engineered it to be used without a heat sink its probably just fine. Its also directly by my CPU cooler so it will have air running over it.

It needs some passive cooling, they get super hot and are known for dying due to that heat, ATI was also know for cutting corners on their cooling setups just look at the 9700 Pro and 9800 Pro cards for a good example or the woefully inadequate cooling on their X850 cards.

Throw a heatsink on it, ATI engineers were utter morons at cooling and prevention is cheaper than replacing that card or the bridge chip.

Regarding the heatsink for the bridge chip: is there any proven good method of adding some more passive cooling to it?
I've read somewhere that this gap pad they've put on it is just there to protect the chip from chipping. I could believe this but it doesn't help with cooling.
I'm in the same boat (different card, same problem) but just don't see any elegant solution to fix a passive heatsink (yet).
Maybe someone here has already (positive) experience!?

I cleaned some of the pad off to get a clean surface and then used some thermal epoxy to attach it, its not the perfect solution but it did keep it in place as there isn't an easy way to physically attach it.

Finally found and hope to reunite with my first PC's case from when I was 4 years old. As it stands currently this one has a E6500, though badges say it originally had a Celeron D.

Hope it survives shipping, all the way from Kaunas, Lithuania to here. I plan to rebuild what was my first PC, more or less accurate, albeit a bit more "upgraded".

It would have been absolutely complete if I had an IBM 8515 VGA CRT monitor but in retrospective I don't really miss that CRT - it was pretty weak for what it could do and died a slow and painful death after my dad tweaked with its insides, to supposedly "get it run at higher refresh rates" (is that even possible?) than it could do. For that reason, I have a HP Ultra VGA 1280 to take its place - a lovely 17 inch CRT OEM'd by Samsung for HP.

It'l be quite the hard time choosing what parts to go with, but it'll be fun.

Choices I have:

- Epox EP-51MVP3E-M/K6-2+ 500/Banshee 16MB
- FIC PA-2013 1MB/ K6-3 of any type/Banshee 16MB
- MSI K7Pro 6195/Athlon 700MHz/V3 3000
- MSI 6163 v2 / Katmai 500MHz/ either S3, Rage, TNT2 or G200 paired with Voodoo 2 12MB
- MSI 6168/ Coppermine 650/ V3 2000 16MB onboard
- MSI 815EM Pro v5/ Tualatin of any kind/ Geforce 3 64MB
- ABIT KG7-RAID / Athlon 1133 /Radeon 9700 Pro or 9800AIW

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-01-16, 09:16:

ChrisK wrote on 2025-01-16, 09:06:

The +models also came relatively late to the market. Most of them I have are made 2001-2003 whereas the non+ models are 1998/99 and 2000 at most.
First Tualatin Pentium 3 are from 2001, so 2002/03 must already have been fading Pentium 3 era. Who would have bought a K6-2/-III for desktop use at that time?
I think to remember the K6-2+/III+ were mostly made by AMD because their newer Athlon wasn't suited for mobile/embedded applications yet because of their power draw. But not totally sure about that.

It does sound like something AMD would have done back in the day, and honestly the E models were perfect at the time for kiosks and laptops till Intel released the Pentium M chips.

And it does make perfect sense from a technological standpoint. Performance was still fine enough for light/controllable tasks, such as POS terminals or some mobile office machines (which is why most +models are within the 350-450MHz range imho), and why throw away a working design if you have nothing else to replace it? All other mobile CPUs AMD had at that time were still much higher TDP although they were more "Pentium 3-compatible" in performance terms.

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-01-16, 09:24:

ChrisK wrote on 2025-01-16, 09:20:

Regarding the heatsink for the bridge chip: is there any proven good method of adding some more passive cooling to it? I've read […]
Show full quote

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-01-15, 07:32:

It needs some passive cooling, they get super hot and are known for dying due to that heat, ATI was also know for cutting corners on their cooling setups just look at the 9700 Pro and 9800 Pro cards for a good example or the woefully inadequate cooling on their X850 cards.

Throw a heatsink on it, ATI engineers were utter morons at cooling and prevention is cheaper than replacing that card or the bridge chip.

Regarding the heatsink for the bridge chip: is there any proven good method of adding some more passive cooling to it?
I've read somewhere that this gap pad they've put on it is just there to protect the chip from chipping. I could believe this but it doesn't help with cooling.
I'm in the same boat (different card, same problem) but just don't see any elegant solution to fix a passive heatsink (yet).
Maybe someone here has already (positive) experience!?

I cleaned some of the pad off to get a clean surface and then used some thermal epoxy to attach it, its not the perfect solution but it did keep it in place as there isn't an easy way to physically attach it.

Did you use some RAM chip cooler or something?

ChrisK wrote on 2025-01-16, 10:23:

And it does make perfect sense from a technological standpoint. Performance was still fine enough for light/controllable tasks, […]
Show full quote

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-01-16, 09:16:

ChrisK wrote on 2025-01-16, 09:06:

The +models also came relatively late to the market. Most of them I have are made 2001-2003 whereas the non+ models are 1998/99 and 2000 at most.
First Tualatin Pentium 3 are from 2001, so 2002/03 must already have been fading Pentium 3 era. Who would have bought a K6-2/-III for desktop use at that time?
I think to remember the K6-2+/III+ were mostly made by AMD because their newer Athlon wasn't suited for mobile/embedded applications yet because of their power draw. But not totally sure about that.

It does sound like something AMD would have done back in the day, and honestly the E models were perfect at the time for kiosks and laptops till Intel released the Pentium M chips.

And it does make perfect sense from a technological standpoint. Performance was still fine enough for light/controllable tasks, such as POS terminals or some mobile office machines (which is why most +models are within the 350-450MHz range imho), and why throw away a working design if you have nothing else to replace it? All other mobile CPUs AMD had at that time were still much higher TDP although they were more "Pentium 3-compatible" in performance terms.

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-01-16, 09:24:

ChrisK wrote on 2025-01-16, 09:20:

Regarding the heatsink for the bridge chip: is there any proven good method of adding some more passive cooling to it? I've read […]
Show full quote

Regarding the heatsink for the bridge chip: is there any proven good method of adding some more passive cooling to it?
I've read somewhere that this gap pad they've put on it is just there to protect the chip from chipping. I could believe this but it doesn't help with cooling.
I'm in the same boat (different card, same problem) but just don't see any elegant solution to fix a passive heatsink (yet).
Maybe someone here has already (positive) experience!?

I cleaned some of the pad off to get a clean surface and then used some thermal epoxy to attach it, its not the perfect solution but it did keep it in place as there isn't an easy way to physically attach it.

Did you use some RAM chip cooler or something?

The bonus is the K62/3+E models all had on board cache so they didnt need to spend extra putting that on the motherboards, they made some truly compact passively cooled POS/Kiosk terminals using them. If I had know better I would have grabbed some of them that were going to Ewaste and saved the CPUs from them but being young and stupid at that time I didnt care to collect old junk....20 years later and how the tables have turned !

As for the heatsinks I bought a bunch of small square copper heatsinks for ram chips from China a few years back when it cost almost nothing to buy them in bulk, they are useful for more than just PC stuff and work amazingly well in RC gear to cool motors and controllers.

You can still buy them now from places like Alli express, even the ally ones would work just fine if you cant get copper ones, thermal epoxy can also be sourced fairly cheaply and works just fine for this application since you will never want to remove these heatsinks once on the bridge chip.

Another win, a 400MHz K6-III+, at 22 euros.

PcBytes wrote on 2025-01-16, 12:00:

Another win, a 400MHz K6-III+, at 22 euros.

heh, starting a trend !