PcBytes wrote on 2024-03-20, 00:27:

Been selling most of my inventory to make place for a few new exquisite acquisitions. […]
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Been selling most of my inventory to make place for a few new exquisite acquisitions.

Boards to sell so far:

- Intel D865GLC
- DTK PRM 27I E0 "Laplus Deskstar"
- ASUS A7N8X-X
- Gigabyte EX58-UD5.

Names to take on their place: Jetway, ABIT, Soltek 😁

What 'exquisit acquisitions' do you have in mind? Or are you keeping it under the hat for now?

Dan386DX wrote on 2024-03-20, 06:24:

PcBytes wrote on 2024-03-20, 00:27:

Been selling most of my inventory to make place for a few new exquisite acquisitions. […]
Show full quote

Been selling most of my inventory to make place for a few new exquisite acquisitions.

Boards to sell so far:

- Intel D865GLC
- DTK PRM 27I E0 "Laplus Deskstar"
- ASUS A7N8X-X
- Gigabyte EX58-UD5.

Names to take on their place: Jetway, ABIT, Soltek 😁

What 'exquisit acquisitions' do you have in mind? Or are you keeping it under the hat for now?

I prefer to keep them under the hat for now... they're from the 1998-2003 timeframe - that'll be the only hint for the time being.

I have an ST318451LW (first series Seagate Cheetah x15) which was no longer spinning up.
I've ordered an ST318451LW from Canada (for ~ 80€ including shipping to EU), which was working properly.
I've swapped the electronics from the Canadian HDD to mine.
Mine was spinning up then, but the other no longer.

So, to have another 15k RPM HDD I just need another working PCB from a HDD where the platters may be defective.
I have no clue where to obtain such parts for a reasonable price.

Who thought I'd be gifted a free CRT of all things. Tested it out, runs fairly well.

I mean, it's a 15 incher, probably nothing special. But for free, I ain't complaining.

PcBytes wrote on 2024-03-20, 12:11:

Who thought I'd be gifted a free CRT of all things. Tested it out, runs fairly well. […]
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Who thought I'd be gifted a free CRT of all things. Tested it out, runs fairly well.

I mean, it's a 15 incher, probably nothing special. But for free, I ain't complaining.

I looked it up for you and it's indeed quite a basic screen considering how modern it looks. It does 1024x768 at most and all resolutions run at 75Hz which is just about bearable to the eyes. Still, if the image is sharp & bright, it's better than nothing and CRTs are becoming harder to find in good condition.

My main retro CRT is a Dell CRT which goes up to 1280x1024 and does 1024x768 at 85Hz, 800x600 and lower at 100Hz. It works great for "modern" resolutions such as 1280x800 or 1280x720 - I have a Windows 7 laptop hooked up to it to run indie games on, makes them look amazing!

My own retro activity:

I decided to push the limits of fusing retro with modern. I got a USB C dongle with a VGA connector and hooked it up to my CRT using my ROG Ally handheld.

I connected the 8bitDo retro keyboard (a Commodore 64-style keyboard that feels very retro to the touch) and hooked up a mouse. To my surprise, AMD fully supports old school CRTs and all their Hz & resolutions. I did a similar test on an Nvidia laptop and there the results were less stellar - the most I got was 75hz and the software would freeze if I tried to go to 1280x1024 resolution. On the ROG Ally (AMD chipset) it worked great.

While Windows 11 has its issues, it's a lot of fun being able to play tons of GOG games & DOSBOX games on a native CRT for an authentic experience. I know it's "cheating" but being able to unhook the ROG Ally & continue to play on the move is quite a nice thing.

Disruptor wrote on 2024-03-20, 11:37:

I have an ST318451LW (first series Seagate Cheetah x15) which was no longer spinning up. I've ordered an ST318451LW from Canada […]
Show full quote

I have an ST318451LW (first series Seagate Cheetah x15) which was no longer spinning up.
I've ordered an ST318451LW from Canada (for ~ 80€ including shipping to EU), which was working properly.
I've swapped the electronics from the Canadian HDD to mine.
Mine was spinning up then, but the other no longer.

So, to have another 15k RPM HDD I just need another working PCB from a HDD where the platters may be defective.
I have no clue where to obtain such parts for a reasonable price.

Try ebaying for HDD control card or some such, these things tend to pop up on my local classifieds a lot, but they are usually for newer IDE drives. You never know.

red_avatar wrote on 2024-03-20, 12:24:

It does 1024x768 at most and all resolutions run at 75Hz which is just about bearable to the eyes.

I once encountered a CRT running at 40Hz in the wild. Even glancing in that general direction felt like daggers in my eyes. I always carried a little tool on a floppy disk or a USB drive to adjust the refresh rate to the maximum around that time, until everything finally matured to LCD.

Kahenraz wrote on 2024-03-20, 12:55:

I once encountered a CRT running at 40Hz in the wild. Even glancing in that general direction felt like daggers in my eyes. I always carried a little tool on a floppy disk or a USB drive to adjust the refresh rate to the maximum around that time, until everything finally matured to LCD.

This wasn't per chance 43Hz interlaced? I always remember that was an option on some old computer/monitor we had for 1024x768. It was actual torture. I have absolutely no idea who could tolerate it. Growing up in 50Hz TV land was bad enough. I seem to be really sensitive to flicker. We had a double scan Philips TV. I used to want to throw up watching TV at other people's houses.

Also, in the early 2000s when those "midnight grey" Dell towers with P4s and Celerons were everywhere complete with 15" or 17" cheap CRTs as LCDs were still not a budget option, I was a teenager fixing computers around town. The amount I used to encounter that somehow had been stuck at 60Hz (I'm pretty sure they shipped set to 85Hz). I'd change them all to 85Hz before even working on them.

It was a generic white CRT in a computer lab in my high school. To make it even worse, the room was lot by cheap CFL lights. It was not interlaced.

I had to squint and work on the screen at a glance until I could fix the refresh rate. Pure torture.

appiah4 wrote on 2024-03-20, 12:33:

Disruptor wrote on 2024-03-20, 11:37:

I have an ST318451LW (first series Seagate Cheetah x15) which was no longer spinning up. I've ordered an ST318451LW from Canada […]
Show full quote

I have an ST318451LW (first series Seagate Cheetah x15) which was no longer spinning up.
I've ordered an ST318451LW from Canada (for ~ 80€ including shipping to EU), which was working properly.
I've swapped the electronics from the Canadian HDD to mine.
Mine was spinning up then, but the other no longer.

So, to have another 15k RPM HDD I just need another working PCB from a HDD where the platters may be defective.
I have no clue where to obtain such parts for a reasonable price.

Try ebaying for HDD control card or some such, these things tend to pop up on my local classifieds a lot, but they are usually for newer IDE drives. You never know.

Nah, that did not work. At least not in the bay.

Gosh, I remember now, why I definitively need active cooling for the Seagate Cheetah X15.

Tonight I was going to try the BXCEL motherboard, which would be a PCChips M726 (if I'm not mistaken), I looked for various video cards, I have only two available, which fit that AGP slot, one is the i740 and the other is a G200, for the moment I will try the i740, later we will see if to look for other AGP 2X cards, I definitely have two or three more, I think they are ATi, however the i740 is working and I use it in the old MB when I need one.

I put a PC100 memory module, exactly I don't know how many MB it is, maybe 32 MB, if I have a BIOS screen at startup, I will be able to add two more modules, for a total of three total.

I prepared the ATX power supply, unfortunately I saw a swollen capacitor inside, after opening it there are two to be changed, unfortunately today I can't fix it, and I have to postpone the test of the BXCEL.

red_avatar wrote on 2024-03-20, 12:24:

PcBytes wrote on 2024-03-20, 12:11:

Who thought I'd be gifted a free CRT of all things. Tested it out, runs fairly well. […]
Show full quote

Who thought I'd be gifted a free CRT of all things. Tested it out, runs fairly well.

I mean, it's a 15 incher, probably nothing special. But for free, I ain't complaining.

I looked it up for you and it's indeed quite a basic screen considering how modern it looks. It does 1024x768 at most and all resolutions run at 75Hz which is just about bearable to the eyes. Still, if the image is sharp & bright, it's better than nothing and CRTs are becoming harder to find in good condition.

My main retro CRT is a Dell CRT which goes up to 1280x1024 and does 1024x768 at 85Hz, 800x600 and lower at 100Hz. It works great for "modern" resolutions such as 1280x800 or 1280x720 - I have a Windows 7 laptop hooked up to it to run indie games on, makes them look amazing!

Thanks and sorry if I was sounding lazy! I was actually busy sending retro packages left and right.

Yeah, it runs just fine. I got it for free from a client who picked up my DTK PRM-27I E0. He also gave me a Syntax SV266A (oh the horrors.
If you thought PCChips was bad, this is one level above rock bottom. (rock bottom being Kobian-Mercury.)
The other is a standard ASRock P4VM800 w/ a Celeron D.

Bought a new chassis for the Socket 370 build, still in keeping with the retro theme of course. Also some eBay hunting for a VIA C3 processor.

Did a bunch of partitioning as I figure out how to squeeze even more Windows installs into this build...

Spent an entire evening battling a crashing early P2 system (P2L97-S with a 233MHz) only to realize that my trusty test-bench PSU barely manages any power on the +5v anymore.
All memtests were fine, Windows (98) was fine until graphics drivers loaded, then instant crash.
So weird.
Anyways another PSU and it obviously works just fine.

Making a 97 system.
Which made me realize (again) that its a weird year for retro gaming.
You have the pretty decent LX platform with up to 300MHz P2's.
But if you want 3D acceleration its Riva 128 (not the ZX!) and a VooDoo "1" card, so not really that advanced.
The Riva 128 is better then I remembered but limits the OS to W9x.
The VooDoo is worse. Performance is good but IQ is way worse then i remembered.
HDD's were around 4-6GB, topping out at 10 ish GB (?). but they all seem to be of pretty poor quality cause they are a lot rarer then both earlier and later drives (atleast where I do my retro-foraging).
Memory is another issue.
Its gotta be PC66, using a pc133 stick that can handle all settings maxed is no fun, and no huge capacities either.
I reccon 64MB is what even a low end P2 would have had in 97.

My plan with the system is to slowly upgrade it piece by piece while documenting (for myself) any and how large gains I get and any troubles it causes.
Trying my best not to nuke the Windows installation =)

I've asked in another thread but I hope to find more users who already made some experience:
since the micro ATX standard is 244mm x 244mm would (for example) the PcChips M326 with 220mm height x 170mm fit in an mAtx case (or even some ITX cases) if a custom IO shield is made for the AT Keyboard connector ? Maybe some new screw holes are necessary to align the board on the top left of the case.
And if that's the case, could I also use riser cables to use the additional slots that were actually intended for modern triple slot graphics cards?

GuillermoXT wrote on 2024-03-21, 11:39:

I've asked in another thread but I hope to find more users who already made some experience:
since the micro ATX standard is 244mm x 244mm would (for example) the PcChips M326 with 220mm height x 170mm fit in an mAtx case (or even some ITX cases) if a custom IO shield is made for the AT Keyboard connector ? Maybe some new screw holes are necessary to align the board on the top left of the case.
And if that's the case, could I also use riser cables to use the additional slots that were actually intended for modern triple slot graphics cards?

Have you seen the threads like this one for more info? Is it possible to mount a small Baby AT motherboard in a mATX case?

I am thinking that trying to plug a PCIe graphics riser into an ISA slot isn't going to get you very far though. Some of the brackets you can buy for holding the cards might be adaptable but the cable, no.

So usually you'll only get the last 4 slots lined up. If you get a very flat right angle riser, you might be able to line up another from the 5th slot into the backplate hole.

Installed my new SRAMS and failed. Mootherboard does not boot.

bofh.fromhell wrote on 2024-03-21, 01:58:

Making a 97 system. Which made me realize (again) that its a weird year for retro gaming. You have the pretty decent LX platform […]
Show full quote

Making a 97 system.
Which made me realize (again) that its a weird year for retro gaming.
You have the pretty decent LX platform with up to 300MHz P2's.
But if you want 3D acceleration its Riva 128 (not the ZX!) and a VooDoo "1" card, so not really that advanced.
The Riva 128 is better then I remembered but limits the OS to W9x.
The VooDoo is worse. Performance is good but IQ is way worse then i remembered.

That period was a time of significant changes. You also had the transition from DOS gaming to Windows gaming. I think 1997 was the first year when there were more Windows-based games than DOS. It was also around the time of transition from AT-form factor to ATX.

And for 3D it was a time before the standards all shook out and Direct3D (and nVidia) became more dominant.

Interesting time period for sure.