Let's see... this weekend's car boot sale hunt was kinda scarce in terms of retro PC hardware. Only things I bought were two Bestec ATX PSUs and a silver-plated Sony IDE CD-DVD-RW drive... all for the grand total of about $1.50. 🤣
However, the coolest find (IMO) this weekend was: original Half-Life, Counter-Strike (1.5), and Opposing Force CDs. The best part about them was that they were beneath a pile of 2nd hand clothes leftover from someone that abandoned their stand. And what's funny is that people had already picked through everything that was leftover on that stand. So it's like these CDs were waiting there for me to take them - a classic case of "the right person at the right time", I suppose. 😀
Now, I already do have Half-Life and CS, but not Opposing Force (only have it on Steam.) So this is a nice little addition to my CD hoard collection.
I also found someone's bootleg copies of Unreal Tournament, GTA VC, Diablo, Diablo II, and a few others games whose names escape my mind now - again, all abandoned stuff for the price of just having to bend over to pick them up off the ground.
And that's pretty much it. Some of the things I saw that I thought were cool but didn't buy for various reasons:
- Slot A board + slotket + socket 7 CPU shoved into the slotket. Didn't buy it because I don't like the "seller" who had this. In retrospect (hehe), the price wasn't too bad ($10, which is probably laughable for some of you here)... but that kind of money can get me 2-3 old/retro PCs on this place. Moreover, the mobo had every single cap bulged and was handled very very roughly, with one of the ISA slots having a few destroyed pins. I showed this to the seller, but he didn't want to budge from the price and said this is how much they go for online. I mean, yeah they do, but most of those are at least not as damaged as his. He is literally selling scrap boards at the price of working stuff, so that's why I avoid buying anything from this guy. But I might check it again next weekend. If the socket 7 CPU is anything interesting, I might go for it, as that alone could be worth the price, I think.
- somewhat decent socket A heatsink with 80 mm fan by Titan - a popular one from back in the days. Was the all-aluminum kind, though, with no copper insert. So I passed on it. And the price was somewhat high at $3, considering it was dirty and a bit dinged up. Normally I get similar CPU coolers for $1-2 max here.
- two FSP350-PNR/PNF ATX PSUs - one with APFC and the other with PPFC. Didn't ask about the price as the seller there didn't seem like one that would give me a good price. And moreover, I wasn't too interested in buying the APFC unit. Meanwhile, the PPFC unit was quite heavy... which was a concern, given my back pack was already starting to weigh down on me quite a bit. Not sorry about this one either, as these units typically require a recap and aren't such a great design for oldschool 5V-heavy retro PCs IMO.
marxveix wrote on 2025-02-10, 21:18:
Bought today Chaintech CT-7AIV, but i have one question. CT-7AIA did get many bios updates, but the CT-7AIV did none. Is it possible to flash newer CT-7AIA (KT133) bios to CT-7AIV (KM133)? They have same specs and same product page, just KM133 has integrated VGA, i will use AGP card anyway. Possible to crossflash them or not? https://web.archive.org/web/20020219041443/ht … ocketA/7AIA.HTM
Whatever you do... if that picture above is of your board, MAKE SURE to recap it first *BEFORE* attempting any flashing.
With those electrolytic caps in such poor/failed condition, it's asking for a bad flash to happen and brick your board.
I suppose if you have one of those programmers, then OK, not that big of a deal if that happens. But if you don't, then you'd be kinda screwed.
