I installed my recently purchased Akasa card cooler on my 6800 Ultra today. It was very easy, it fit the card perfectly. I was relieved to find that it came with thermal pads for the memory chips, there was no chance of reusing the originals.

Picked up a pair of GPUs, Got a nice looking MX440 PCI and a X850 XT untested. The X850 is one of the PCIe models so hopefully it fires up ok, still looking at a board to throw it at, a Socket 754 setup should fit it well enough.

Going to put this MX440 into my Dual Tualatin board which only has PCI available, it should be more than capable for that setup.

If this beast works then I have a 754 setup for it, has a nice Semperon 3400+ 2Ghz in it which should be more than enough with a little Overclock. (ASRock K8NF4G-SATA2 is the board, works just fine with 98SE and a PCI sound card)

What do others here think of Semperons? I dont have many Athlon 754 CPUs, I think I have a 3000+ somewhere and a 3700+ that may or may not work in the post. Id like to think that a 3400+ should make for a nice setup.

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-05-10, 06:30:

Picked up a pair of GPUs, Got a nice looking MX440 PCI and a X850 XT untested. The X850 is one of the PCIe models so hopefully i […]
Show full quote

Picked up a pair of GPUs, Got a nice looking MX440 PCI and a X850 XT untested. The X850 is one of the PCIe models so hopefully it fires up ok, still looking at a board to throw it at, a Socket 754 setup should fit it well enough.

MX440 PCI 128Mb 128bit.jpg

Going to put this MX440 into my Dual Tualatin board which only has PCI available, it should be more than capable for that setup.

X850 XT Fixed.jpg

If this beast works then I have a 754 setup for it, has a nice Semperon 3400+ 2Ghz in it which should be more than enough with a little Overclock. (ASRock K8NF4G-SATA2 is the board, works just fine with 98SE and a PCI sound card)

What do others here think of Semperons? I dont have many Athlon 754 CPUs, I think I have a 3000+ somewhere and a 3700+ that may or may not work in the post. Id like to think that a 3400+ should make for a nice setup.

I have the same X850XT. The noise level is really high and really sound like "hollow hard plastic" (I cant describe this in other words)

I'm still looking for a "PE" version for my ATi collection. It was a card I dreamt about back in the days.

S754 is funny because it can run "non 64bit" CPUs (some sempron are 32 bit only). But your's is the top Sempron for s754 and is 64bit compatible.

Of course the p-rating of a sempron cannot be compared with one of an Athlon and a Sempron 3400+ (2GHz/256k/800ht) would be comparable to an Athlon64 2800 (1.8GHz/512k/800) or maybe an hypothetical Athlon64 2700+

Your A64 3000+ and 3700+ would definitely perform better (it they work). And since the X850xt is a highend part I would pair it with a highend CPU (3700+.... which is from 1y before but is the most powerful s754 CPU... if you don't count the mobile 4000+ for 754...)

acl wrote on 2024-05-10, 07:30:

I have the same X850XT. The noise level is really high and really sound like "hollow hard plastic" (I cant describe this in othe […]
Show full quote

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-05-10, 06:30:

Picked up a pair of GPUs, Got a nice looking MX440 PCI and a X850 XT untested. The X850 is one of the PCIe models so hopefully i […]
Show full quote

Picked up a pair of GPUs, Got a nice looking MX440 PCI and a X850 XT untested. The X850 is one of the PCIe models so hopefully it fires up ok, still looking at a board to throw it at, a Socket 754 setup should fit it well enough.

MX440 PCI 128Mb 128bit.jpg

Going to put this MX440 into my Dual Tualatin board which only has PCI available, it should be more than capable for that setup.

X850 XT Fixed.jpg

If this beast works then I have a 754 setup for it, has a nice Semperon 3400+ 2Ghz in it which should be more than enough with a little Overclock. (ASRock K8NF4G-SATA2 is the board, works just fine with 98SE and a PCI sound card)

What do others here think of Semperons? I dont have many Athlon 754 CPUs, I think I have a 3000+ somewhere and a 3700+ that may or may not work in the post. Id like to think that a 3400+ should make for a nice setup.

I have the same X850XT. The noise level is really high and really sound like "hollow hard plastic" (I cant describe this in other words)

I'm still looking for a "PE" version for my ATi collection. It was a card I dreamt about back in the days.

S754 is funny because it can run "non 64bit" CPUs (some sempron are 32 bit only). But your's is the top Sempron for s754 and is 64bit compatible.

Of course the p-rating of a sempron cannot be compared with one of an Athlon and a Sempron 3400+ (2GHz/256k/800ht) would be comparable to an Athlon64 2800 (1.8GHz/512k/800) or maybe an hypothetical Athlon64 2700+

Your A64 3000+ and 3700+ would definitely perform better (it they work). And since the X850xt is a highend part I would pair it with a highend CPU (3700+.... which is from 1y before but is the most powerful s754 CPU... if you don't count the mobile 4000+ for 754...)

I have a replacement ATI Silencer 4 cooler for it which should reduce the noise it makes 😁, I will be testing the 3700+ when it arrives the lot its part of is listed as not working and for parts so it may require some pin work or it may be just fine and they simply cant test it.

It for Win98 so honestly both CPUs are overkill along with the X850 but I want to see just how janky the X850 is under 98 so this rig is more for whether I cant and not whether I should 😁 so no issue if it falls over and requires a bit of brute force to get it into a usable state. (98SE with PCIe is likely to need a bit of coaxing along with getting sata to work)

The other thing is that if it all works, the Semperon is a bit different from your run of the mill Athlon64, I also want to see how much it will overclock.

Grabbed this cool Pro Audio Spectrum 16 sound card off Facebook Marketplace, I believe I actually have a LMSI CD-ROM drive I can plug into it too.

Got this Advantech AIMB-742 motherboard today.

It's definitely seen better days. A few of the capacitors are bulging and the inductors by the CPU socket are coated in rust.

Interestingly, there isn't much rust anywhere else. The underside of the board looks immaculate in comparison. Fortunately there doesn't look to be any scratches or missing components.

I'm guessing there was little airflow around the base of the CPU socket compared to the rest of the board.

I'm going to give it a clean and partial re-cap and hopefully can get it working.

Asus PCI-AV264VT MediaBus 2.0

Triplex (啓亨) Tseng ET6000

Today I received not just one but 2 gameport midi cables ! 2 euros each + shipping. I am super happy because those cables are not easy to find at a reasonable price.

On the down side, I lost an auction on a PS/2 bracket that connects to the 5 pins headers of my Socket 7 mobo. I was quite disappointed, these cables also are super hard to find, and obviously I am not the only one looking for it!

Today's flea market finds:

Gigabyte GA-7IX rev 1.1 - cool board! My first ever Slot A mainboard, now I need to find a CPU

Creative Sound Blaster AWE32 Value CT3910
and below a
3dfx Voodoo 4 MB A-Trend Helios 3D

Found another Dell Pentium 2 233 today. Its bios password protected so I need to reset it. Anyone have advice on that?
Is the riva 128 a good card? Is the awe 64 good?

Thanks

Law212 wrote on 2024-05-11, 22:29:

Found another Dell Pentium 2 233 today. Its bios password protected so I need to reset it. Anyone have advice on that? Is the r […]
Show full quote

Found another Dell Pentium 2 233 today. Its bios password protected so I need to reset it. Anyone have advice on that?
Is the riva 128 a good card? Is the awe 64 good?

Thanks

I think the Riva is an interesting relic but not necessarily "good".

AWE64 is of course a great soundcard.

Law212 wrote on 2024-05-11, 22:29:

Found another Dell Pentium 2 233 today. Its bios password protected so I need to reset it. Anyone have advice on that? Is the r […]
Show full quote

Found another Dell Pentium 2 233 today. Its bios password protected so I need to reset it. Anyone have advice on that?
Is the riva 128 a good card? Is the awe 64 good?

Thanks

Pretty sure this BIOS password removal process will work:
https://dewagdkasl.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/h … -bios-password/

Got this neat ISA extender/proto board off ebay.

It has some interesting features:
- hot swap ISA cards while PC is booted
- set power limits for ISA card
- power ISA card from external sources
- software or manual control of the above

kingcake wrote on 2024-05-12, 02:11:

Got this neat ISA extender/proto board off ebay. […]
Show full quote

Got this neat ISA extender/proto board off ebay.

It has some interesting features:
- hot swap ISA cards while PC is booted
- set power limits for ISA card
- power ISA card from external sources
- software or manual control of the above

IMG_2120.jpg
IMG_2119.jpg

Honestly I would buy this just because it looks damn cool, not sure I would care a whole lot if it worked or not but it would make a pretty awesome display piece.

I do love that pretty much everything is labelled on that board and that they thought to leave a bodge board on the end for tinkering or extending what this little board could do.

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-05-12, 03:00:

kingcake wrote on 2024-05-12, 02:11:

Got this neat ISA extender/proto board off ebay. […]
Show full quote

Got this neat ISA extender/proto board off ebay.

It has some interesting features:
- hot swap ISA cards while PC is booted
- set power limits for ISA card
- power ISA card from external sources
- software or manual control of the above

IMG_2120.jpg
IMG_2119.jpg

Honestly I would buy this just because it looks damn cool, not sure I would care a whole lot if it worked or not but it would make a pretty awesome display piece.

I do love that pretty much everything is labelled on that board and that they thought to leave a bodge board on the end for tinkering or extending what this little board could do.

Same, I bought it on sight! It was priced very low for an oddball vintage ISA card.

The manual is amazing, too. They even tell you how to mod the card with different resistors if you really want to get crazy with the power delivery. They also tell you how to talk to the card via DOS debug command and stuff.

cyclone3d wrote on 2024-05-12, 01:32:

Law212 wrote on 2024-05-11, 22:29:

Found another Dell Pentium 2 233 today. Its bios password protected so I need to reset it. Anyone have advice on that?
Is the riva 128 a good card? Is the awe 64 good?

Pretty sure this BIOS password removal process will work:
https://dewagdkasl.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/h … -bios-password/

This worked like a charm.

Law212 wrote on 2024-05-11, 22:29:

Found another Dell Pentium 2 233 today.
Is the riva 128 a good card? Is the awe 64 good?

Sweet system, lovely case!

Two eBay-purchases of late; Abit BX6r2 and a computer with Asus P2B. The latter has not shipped yet - so still waiting for both.

Today's flea market finds:

- FIC P4M-RS350/L
- SB Audigy LS (which IMO looks like a souped up Live 5.1)
- Promise Ultra100 TX2 PCI
- Radeon HD3870 512MB PCI-E
- KFA2/Galaxy Geforce GTX275 896MB
- Seagate Cheetah ST336607LW 36GB Ultra160 SCSI - New Old Stock
- Epox EP-P55-VX + 4x 8MB EDO + Pentium 166 ceramic non-MMX
- Fujitsu MPB3064AT
- Philips DVD-RW
- Plextor PX-116A DVD-ROM
- ASUS K8N w/ Sempron 3000 - needs new caps
- Forsa Geforce FX5500 256MB 128BIT w/ blown Sacon FZ caps

nfraser01 wrote on 2024-05-12, 09:38:

Law212 wrote on 2024-05-11, 22:29:

Found another Dell Pentium 2 233 today.
Is the riva 128 a good card? Is the awe 64 good?

Sweet system, lovely case!

Yeah, I love the case. I have found at least 3 Dell Dimension machines, but I love the way this one looks compared to the others.