I watch UXWBill's YouTube channel, so I appreciate the PS/2 line as well. The Model 30 looks a little sad with the gaps like that (I've never actually seen a PS/2 like that).

Skyscraper wrote:

You will have a hard time tracking down a MCA sound card if you want something more than PC-speaker sound.

The MPU-IMC is a bit easier to find, so then you can use the MT32 as a sound source. Also I guess the Covox Sound Thingy works off the parallell port on these MCA machines?

Nothing special, well sorta but not really.

An STB S3 Virge VX, the one with SDRAM and the slowest Virge. Those chips say IBM on them 🤣
its missing its Memory expansion module too so its only 4mb instead of 8mb, to bad, got it for free with a bunch of other PCI cards, this was the most interesting one in the lot.

The memory expansion module only works in supported applications, so it can't be used in Windows.

soviet conscript wrote:

I know there isnt a whole lot of love out there for the IBM PS/2 line but […]
Show full quote

I know there isnt a whole lot of love out there for the IBM PS/2 line but

a MCA based model 55sx and a ISA model 30 286. unfortunately the 286 needs a floppy drive and a cover for the HDD but it boots up OK. no real issues with the model 55sx. boots up as well.

I have a PS/2 model 35SX (so 386/20MHz, 4MB ram, 200MB upgraded HDD, ISA), that works like brand new. I even installed an SB16 CT2770 with OPL, non PnP.
I replaced the dead Dallas RTC and cleaned the plastics, but from then it just sits in my wardrobe and I won't be playing with it anytime soon.
Doctor, what should I do with this? 😢

Skyscraper wrote:

I used to own a IBM 55 SX exacly like that one :) I got it back in the summer of 91. The 55 SX works surprisingly well as a DOS […]
Show full quote

soviet conscript wrote:

I know there isnt a whole lot of love out there for the IBM PS/2 line but

a MCA based model 55sx and a ISA model 30 286. unfortunately the 286 needs a floppy drive and a cover for the HDD but it boots up OK. no real issues with the model 55sx. boots up as well.

I used to own a IBM 55 SX exacly like that one 😀 I got it back in the summer of 91.
The 55 SX works surprisingly well as a DOS gaming system although its only a 386 SX 16 Mhz.
You will have a hard time tracking down a MCA sound card if you want something more than PC-speaker sound.

I knew about the difficulty of the mca sound card. I'm surprised though the MPU card is actually easier to find. all the Video cards for MCA look very generic and i'm not sure what to look for or if any are acually any better then the built in VGA. I saw some XGA cards which I assume is better? so as for the third mca slot I dunno, I was thinking maybe a scsi card for an external CD drive if I wanted or to upgrade the hard drive to scsi but I dunno, maybe one of those memory expansion cards, they seem cheap.

as for the 286 its kind of neat to have a 286 with ps/2 ports. The ISA ports also make things a lot easier as far as expansion goes but I have a bad feeling finding plates for the front is going to not be easy unless I luck out and find a dead unit for free or cheap. with my current limited room i'm not sure if i'll keep the 286 in the long run. Id like to at least restore it fully first. the 55sx I may keep just for the novelty of having an MCA machine.

-

Bought a few expansion cards at Goodwill.

Media Vision Jazz 16 ISA card. Can't find a lot of info about this, so it's probably pretty crummy.
and
Matrox G400 model G4+MVTA16GRN. It has a strange DA-26 port labeled as Video. I guess this was a port for a custom dongle to support the TV functions with an included Matrox Marvel box. Yeesh, looks awful.

3 more of these 😊

Best Voodoo card IMO. Crystal sharp image, very fast, cheap and centred image compared to other Voodoo cards.

3 cards on the same day? Good work. Time to clean cards now. 😀
Hope you got them cheap, wich would be even more cool.

brostenen wrote:

3 cards on the same day? Good work. Time to clean cards now. 😀
Hope you got them cheap, wich would be even more cool.

I bought all 3. Got 3 already. Can't get enough. Just like with these NEC / Yamaha cards. Wish I bought more 😒

How fast ram chips? 😁

Got this for my Slot A machine without ISA:

Was advertised as "PCI sound card" on ebay 😁

I do have a stack of Creative and M-Audio PCI sound cards, but I'm a Yamaha fanboy and this has the advantage of being period-correct. No idea if the mainboard will be able to support it in DOS, though, but the machine's mainly for 98SE so, not a concern.

GeorgeMan wrote:

How fast ram chips? 😁

5.5 ns. These are non TV-out Compaq OEM Voodoo 3 3500 AGP cards.

So, rated for 183MHz. Just overclock them to 3500 levels! 😁
I had a total of 5 voodoo3, 2x2000, 3x3000. (4xSTB, 1x unknown! all of them totally different that yours)
Now I only have 2, which I plan to also sell together with complete retro systems locally.
You see, they occupy my precious AGP slot! 😜

183 IS 3500 level 😀 This card IS a V3 3500. 166 is 3000 and 143 is 2000.

Argh, I wasn't planning on buying a V3, but you're making me want one 🙁 Where are you finding those?

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

183 IS 3500 level 😀 This card IS a V3 3500. 166 is 3000 and 143 is 2000.

I know the clocks. Just not read carefully the previous post 😜 I pretty much don't like OEM cards at all. 😵
Was there any Voodoo3 with 5ns ram? All 5 of mine had 5.5 or 6ns, even the 2000.

oerk wrote:

Got this for my Slot A machine without ISA: http://i.imgur.com/g9W5vjQl.jpg […]
Show full quote

Got this for my Slot A machine without ISA:

Was advertised as "PCI sound card" on ebay 😁

I do have a stack of Creative and M-Audio PCI sound cards, but I'm a Yamaha fanboy and this has the advantage of being period-correct. No idea if the mainboard will be able to support it in DOS, though, but the machine's mainly for 98SE so, not a concern.

I have a Yamaha XG soundcard, or had one, in one of my older systems at home. Pretty decent little cards in 98SE, never used it with DOS though.

Yep, that's why I bought it! 😀