LewisRaz wrote on 2022-12-03, 12:37:

Sold my one only a couple of months ago and regretted it a lot.

Was extremely excited to have an offer of £20 accepted on this one 😀

I wouldn't even dare to put such a low ball offer 🤣

Another from my recent grab bag: an ECS 741GX-M. This is a late Socket 462 motherboard, a tail ender from a time when Socket A was no longer a top performer. It's a decent performing board though. Apparently, it was a Fry's Electronics deal (the POST screen had a line that said "For Fry's" but that went away when I updated it to the last BIOS), probably part of a bundle. One of the hits that comes up with a search is a Newegg deal that included a Sempron 2200+.
I was able to overclock my XP2500+ to just over 2,000 MHz before I hit the wall; it has no options for changing the voltage. I contemplated checking the BIOS with Modbin to see if there were any hidden voltage options, but then I remembered that it has a soldered BIOS chip, so I dropped that idea. The onboard video port is broken off, so I guess maybe someone tripped over the monitor cable when it was attached, but everything else worked fine.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2022-12-04, 20:08:

Another from my recent grab bag: an ECS 741GX-M. This is a late Socket 462 motherboard, a tail ender from a time when Socket A was no longer a top performer. It's a decent performing board though. Apparently, it was a Fry's Electronics deal (the POST screen had a line that said "For Fry's" but that went away when I updated it to the last BIOS), probably part of a bundle. One of the hits that comes up with a search is a Newegg deal that included a Sempron 2200+.
I was able to overclock my XP2500+ to just over 2,000 MHz before I hit the wall; it has no options for changing the voltage. I contemplated checking the BIOS with Modbin to see if there were any hidden voltage options, but then I remembered that it has a soldered BIOS chip, so I dropped that idea. The onboard video port is broken off, so I guess maybe someone tripped over the monitor cable when it was attached, but everything else worked fine.

That's a nice looking socket A board. You should be able to use a clip on chip programer with it. I've done that with a few graphics cards.

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2022-12-04, 20:16:

Repo Man11 wrote on 2022-12-04, 20:08:

Another from my recent grab bag: an ECS 741GX-M. This is a late Socket 462 motherboard, a tail ender from a time when Socket A was no longer a top performer. It's a decent performing board though. Apparently, it was a Fry's Electronics deal (the POST screen had a line that said "For Fry's" but that went away when I updated it to the last BIOS), probably part of a bundle. One of the hits that comes up with a search is a Newegg deal that included a Sempron 2200+.
I was able to overclock my XP2500+ to just over 2,000 MHz before I hit the wall; it has no options for changing the voltage. I contemplated checking the BIOS with Modbin to see if there were any hidden voltage options, but then I remembered that it has a soldered BIOS chip, so I dropped that idea. The onboard video port is broken off, so I guess maybe someone tripped over the monitor cable when it was attached, but everything else worked fine.

That's a nice looking socket A board. You should be able to use a clip on chip programer with it. I've done that with a few graphics cards.

But it works fine as it is, and I have other Socket A motherboards that already have overclocking options, so for me the risk/benefit analysis makes it not worth the effort. But yes, the ECS purple is nice.

mrzmaster wrote on 2022-12-03, 20:43:

Just bought this neat baby AT system from a local seller with whom I've done business in the past for $50. […]
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Just bought this neat baby AT system from a local seller with whom I've done business in the past for $50.

Pentium MMX 233MHz
Asus P5A-B
S3 Trio 3D 8MB

I had no real intention of doing an AT based project, however, it could be a fun challenge to restore and upgrade this computer. The first thing I'll have to look at is replacing the old PSU with a modern ATX one (the P5A-B fortunately has an ATX power connector).

Oh man, I saw that one pop up on CL, figured it would not last long

acl wrote on 2022-12-04, 19:00:

And (almost) same one here.
I bought a similar one yesterday... But not delivered yet.
Diamond viper V770 Ultra in my case

I picked up a PCI TnT2 Pro a few weeks back ..clocks higher than the Ultra weirdly, not sure if the PCI bus will impact its performance significantly but the TnT2 cards were very solid cards back int eh day.

Got these stuff for free from a guy, that did not need them, since he know i will care for them and store them properly.
IBM good stuff, right the last models IBM did ever produce...

IBM ThinkPad T60
IBM ThinkPad T61
IBM ThinkPad R60
Thinkpad Bag (non IBM dafuq..)

The laptops are in great state both T60 are fine, only the T61 is missing the HDD cover, aside from that cant find other problems, it works fine. The T60 seems have a fan problem, so it shuts down, some co enthusiast told me, that T60 dont like dust in the fan, so prob that is the problem, when cleaned will work as intended... Now the R60 is a bit shitty (the T60 looks more shitty, but is all dirt inside, nothing too bad), there is one broken key on the keyboard + is missing, also laptop mouse seems totaled, the buttons dont work at all, specially the left one, the touch is ok i think.. The 2 bags one is original ThinkPad and some HP from some HP from somewhere... Only 1 power brick, but that is fine, since all 3 laptops use this exact brick... I think i will clean them all 3, and the R60 will be sold for sure, since it is inferior build quality compared to the T series, also it have broken stuff, so is not for my collection... I believe these laptops was brand new, so i get them from first owner, and that is great i love to get stuff from first or second owners, since 80% of the time, they are very well preserved... The T60 have ATi Radeon card inside, and that is great, since the rest are with shitty Intel GMA, that suck ass...

Heard from an co enthusiast that the IBM T60 series are very good, and so far from my little time spend with these machines they really look well build, the mechanism for the display lift seems ALOT more durable, then most garbage laptops out there... Is funny since i did found some months ago on the dumpster newer Lenovo M30-70 low end class, and yes that thing compared to these laptops sucks ass hard in build quality is not even night and day difference, but is even more.... Too bad IBM did sell everything they did own, except the corporate servers, but is understandable, as company they want profit, and they CANT make profit, unless they lower quality, and that will result in lose of good faith and reputation...

Is interesting, as only the ThinkPad R60 have IBM stickers, while the T60/61 both have only ThinkPad logos, while all 3 have lenovo on the back and inside of them...

acl wrote on 2022-12-04, 19:00:

And (almost) same one here.
I bought a similar one yesterday... But not delivered yet.
Diamond viper V770 Ultra in my case

Intel ARC A770 enters the chat...

This cutie. It came in a very cheap mixed lot with other bunch of cd/dvd-rom drives, a Logitech Wingman Light and a HP 620LX pocket PC.

It uses SCSI and it has an IBM sticker. Searching the FRU seems that it was sold with PC Server line of IBM's machines.

Sadly I couldn't find a sort of adapter for a normal height 5.25'' bay (well normal by current standards, since it is already half of the very original height).
I guess I should try cut some bay cover. Or 3D print it.

P.S.: The Wingman is my first joystick, I only ever owned gamepads, and of course Star Wars Tie Fighter was the first game I fired up for trying it! Very nice indeed.
And the HP pocket PC works but there isn't much I can't do with it. It doesn't have DOS but Windows CE and futhermore it is installed in a rom.

EDIT: Corrected the joystick name, I did a mash-up between Microsoft Sidewinder and the actual Logitech Wingman 🤣.

mrfusion92 wrote on 2022-12-05, 18:12:

This cutie. It came in a very cheap mixed lot with other bunch of cd/dvd-rom drives, a Logitech Wingman Light and a HP 620LX poc […]
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This cutie. It came in a very cheap mixed lot with other bunch of cd/dvd-rom drives, a Logitech Wingman Light and a HP 620LX pocket PC.

It uses SCSI and it has an IBM sticker. Searching the FRU seems that it was sold with PC Server line of IBM's machines.

Sadly I couldn't find a sort of adapter for a normal height 5.25'' bay (well normal by current standards, since it is already half of the very original height).
I guess I should try cut some bay cover. Or 3D print it.

20221205_185243.jpg
20221205_185300.jpg

P.S.: The Wingman is my first joystick, I only ever owned gamepads, and of course Star Wars Tie Fighter was the first game I fired up for trying it! Very nice indeed.
And the HP pocket PC works but there isn't much I can't do with it. It doesn't have DOS but Windows CE and futhermore it is installed in a rom.

EDIT: Corrected the joystick name, I did a mash-up between Microsoft Sidewinder and the actual Logitech Wingman 🤣.

That's a nice and reliable CD-ROM. IBM used it also with it's docking station 3545-001, but with a different face plate.

Got some hardware from a friend who's also into collecting. Two gorgeous AT cases. One looks like it came from the 286 era, the other looks like an early to mid 90's AT case - a model I've never come across before. They also came wit PSUs. The older Desktop AT case also came with a 40MB Seagate ST-251 MFM drive. I really hope the HDD works, if it does it's going into my Hyundai Super 16 XT replacing the 10MB drive it's running right now. I'd love to run both drives in my XT, but I only have one MFM cable and I'm pretty sure the controller in the machine right now only supports one disk drive.

I also got a 25Mhz harris 286 CPU, a trident Blade 3D and a PCI voodoo 3 2000.

Just got this in the mail today (seller's picture):

"Aristo" 586GX Lite Rev:2.0

Baby-AT board powered by a Cyrix MediaGX GXi-166BP SOC... strangely, with NO way to use the GXI's integrated video or audio? Closest I can find to this board is this post at Vogons 6 years ago for a somewhat similar board that had all the hallmarks of a PCChips board/travesty against computing. It appears that Aristo is another brand that PCChips used, so it's probably just the slightly less sketchy version of that board. Still... kind of hilarious to use an SOC without using the built in graphics.

I kind of doubt this is useful but it's an interesting oddity and appears to be in excellent condition now that I have my hands on it.

Grabbed this off evil bay last week. I wasn't shopping specifically for one, and don't have an active project for it, but for only $24 and free express shipping, I was thinking, "I don't want to lose money on this . . ."

Jaron wrote on 2022-12-06, 01:50:

Grabbed this off evil bay last week. I wasn't shopping specifically for one, and don't have an active project for it, but for only $24 and free express shipping, I was thinking, "I don't want to lose money on this . . ."

Nice! I always found this series interesting for some reason. I remember going from an 8800GTX to a GTX 260 (192 core version). It was a good card but things were moving quite fast at that point after the 8000\9000 series had dominated for a couple of years. Suddenly we had the GTX 2xx (with the GT 240 being the first card with GDDR5), Radeon HD 4xxx, GTX 4xx, HD 5xxx and DirectX 11 in the span of a couple years. I guess in a way the 285 feels similar to the final flagship cards from other "eras"... the Geforce 2 Ultra (DX7), Ti 4600 (DX8), 7900 GTX (DX9), GTX 285 (DX10), 780 Ti (DX11\12)...

I would be curious to know how the last flagship DX 10.0 + GDDR3 card from nvidia handles modern software. Obviously anything that won't function without DX11 or 12 support is out of the question, but I'm sure there would be some games that work surprisingly well.

Socket3 wrote on 2022-12-05, 22:33:

Got some hardware from a friend who's also into collecting. Two gorgeous AT cases. One looks like it came from the 286 era, the […]
Show full quote

Got some hardware from a friend who's also into collecting. Two gorgeous AT cases. One looks like it came from the 286 era, the other looks like an early to mid 90's AT case - a model I've never come across before. They also came wit PSUs. The older Desktop AT case also came with a 40MB Seagate ST-251 MFM drive. I really hope the HDD works, if it does it's going into my Hyundai Super 16 XT replacing the 10MB drive it's running right now. I'd love to run both drives in my XT, but I only have one MFM cable and I'm pretty sure the controller in the machine right now only supports one disk drive.

case 1.jpg

st251.jpg

case 2.jpg

I also got a 25Mhz harris 286 CPU, a trident Blade 3D and a PCI voodoo 3 2000.

Nice the top one looks real familiar, like I've got/had one somewhere. The bottom one, I've seen that style with 2 figure Mhz display, having the extra half digit, I would assume that was more towards mid 90s at purchase new, even if base style was first seen a bit earlier.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2022-12-06, 03:16:

Nice! I always found this series interesting for some reason. I remember going from an 8800GTX to a GTX 260 (192 core version). It was a good card but things were moving quite fast at that point after the 8000\9000 series had dominated for a couple of years. Suddenly we had the GTX 2xx (with the GT 240 being the first card with GDDR5), Radeon HD 4xxx, GTX 4xx, HD 5xxx and DirectX 11 in the span of a couple years. I guess in a way the 285 feels similar to the final flagship cards from other "eras"... the Geforce 2 Ultra (DX7), Ti 4600 (DX8), 7900 GTX (DX9), GTX 285 (DX10), 780 Ti (DX11\12)...

I would be curious to know how the last flagship DX 10.0 + GDDR3 card from nvidia handles modern software. Obviously anything that won't function without DX11 or 12 support is out of the question, but I'm sure there would be some games that work surprisingly well.

I have no experience with them, I just know their reputation as a great GPU for WinXP compatibility. I had a Radeon 9000 then X1600 for a long time during my college years where I couldn't afford much tech or games. Was briefly able to borrow an 8600 or 8800 ( can't remember which ) around 2008. But most of the later WinXP years was on PS3 ( no worry about buying new hardware every other year ). It wasn't until I bought my 6870 in 2011 I was able to get back into serious computer hardware for Win7.

I'll probably drop this in my WinXP machine and see how it does compared to the 750 Ti that's currently in there. It won't match sheer performance of course, but we'll see if it plays nicer with the older games.

Jaron wrote on 2022-12-06, 04:25:

I'll probably drop this in my WinXP machine and see how it does compared to the 750 Ti that's currently in there. It won't match sheer performance of course, but we'll see if it plays nicer with the older games.

That should be a pretty interesting comparison!

In games that aren't shader-heavy and rely more on raw raster performance it's possible the 285 might be faster. I know that each generation there are improvements made so you can't compare hardware specs 1:1, but on paper the 285 has a pretty substantial advantage in fill rate and bandwidth:

GTX 285:
20.736 GP/sec
51.84 GT/sec
159.0 GB/sec

GTX 750 Ti:
16.3 GP/sec
40.8 GT/sec
86.4 GB/sec

If you can, make a post about your findings. Game benchmarks would be preferable, but a couple period-correct synthetics would be okay too. 😀

I've got the holy trinity for a very good price.
Now all I need is a boxed copy of Windows 95 and I'll be happy.

Sehr Geil. Always wanted to use that word. 😉
Any systems paired with those OS's?

Was looking for one of these at a semi-decent price and finally found one sold as untested and fortunately it works!

Unfortunately one of the sides was broken during the trip here, even though the seller packed it really well. I'll try to repair it as best as possible some day.

schmatzler wrote on 2022-12-06, 18:50:

I've got the holy trinity for a very good price.
Now all I need is a boxed copy of Windows 95 and I'll be happy.

windows_boxes.jpg

Trinity? I'd call that "attack of the clones", "revenge of the sith" and "a new hope" 🤣