Linoleum wrote on 2024-08-18, 15:24:

Pretty happy I could get my hands on The Dig for only $2... GPU is a S3 Savage 4 and I am really hoping it's the Pro version. Still, it's not gonna replace my TNT 2 Pro...

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Nice, you gotta let us know how Battlefield 1942 runs on that.... okay Nascar I guess.

progman.exe wrote on 2024-08-16, 16:59:

Tell me about it :) […]
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BitWrangler wrote on 2024-08-16, 14:11:

Yeah but hear me out... blinky lights. 🤣

Tell me about it 😀

When I got ISDN with a PCI terminal adapter card, I enabled some little network status widget on NT4. Maybe it was a small piece of freeware? Software TX/RX boxes on screen, because I longed for the warming flicker of the fire USR 56K.

I moved the LEDs off a NIC to the front of a case too, and ran an extension on a CDROM audio cable.

In my mind, it was like Mother off Alien 😀

I just recalled an idea I had a few months ago..

Collect WRT54 routers.
???
Profit.

Heh, I mean collect a whole stack of WRT54 style routers, can be the crap ones as long as they got that sexy sexy case. Then stack a load up as high as a mini tower... (okay have you guessed it yet?) and permanently attach a stack together and hollow it out to make a case, need some extension out back for length probably. Then attempt to get all LEDs hooked up in a matrix that you can program patterns on with a microcontroller, like random "network" activity, "waterfall" pattern, playing pong, stuff like that.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-08-18, 12:44:

Actually yeah, I just hadn't noticed how many of the common ISA VGA had cranked up in price, last time I was paying attention it […]
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MikeSG wrote on 2024-08-18, 07:42:

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-08-17, 16:00:

Heh, only the SHIPPING was too high? 🤣

They're $126USD. On eBay CL-GD5429's start at $165USD... so sort of good value for money

All the CL-GD5434's are gone or $430USD..

Actually yeah, I just hadn't noticed how many of the common ISA VGA had cranked up in price, last time I was paying attention it was only ATI Mach32 and S3 cards much over $100, now everything is clustering around there. Hell even, rhymes with, Scream Bardwear, has some listings that look reasonable in that environment.

Though I don't think I've ever seen GD5429 on ISA benchmarks, only maybe GD5422, GD5426 and they mostly seemed to hang with the Trident TVGAs.

It's kinda sad though that ISA 486 builds are no longer a cheap option.

They aren't all expensive, I picked up a CL-GD5429 card a few months back for £11 - not even a mislabeled item. But it was an auction rather than a set price, that's the fun thing about rare items like a fast ISA VGA card that's not a Tseng ET-4000, they're not well known so the bids often remain pretty low.
The ones that are available at fixed prices are usually from radwell / dreamhardware which I think are selling to industrial system customers that just need a VGA card to match one that failed, at any price.

I think I tested the GD-5429 but it's not any faster than a CL-GD5424 for DOS games, the main draw is Windows acceleration.

Tiido wrote on 2024-08-18, 00:07:

Baleog wrote on 2024-08-15, 13:01:

First I got a Yamaha SW60XG. Sounds amazing but IC16 (circled) gets really hot. I would appreciate if anyone could check if their card behaves the same!

That chip does get pretty toasty, I have heatsinked it on all my hardware using this chip.

Thanks, that's a relief! Heatsinks are not a bad idea at all. I have to dig around in the pile and see what i can find.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-08-16, 14:11:

Yeah but hear me out... blinky lights. 🤣

I have two Diamond Supra in the loft that I can't bring myself to get rid of, because of the blinky lights! No idea what to do with them realistically though! 😀

To keep the thread on topic, I have just acquired these three boards which potentially aren't retro enough but still -

This one above the seller didn't know what CPU was present but having taken the miniscule heatsink off... is a QX9650 so this should be a nice one to play with! If it had that cooler all its life it must have sat at thermal throttle all day long? 😀

This one has a Core2Duo e8600 which I may well remove to put in an old Mac I have as it's the fastest supported cpu. Looks to be a nice board though - which would you guys go for out of these two?

This poor, poor CPU is a victim of compound abuse. I'll begin cleaning this soon but it's a bit of a mess.

Finally this wasn't a purchase but was given to me - I'm keen to use it though so am adding to this post!

Is that last one a Geforce 2 Ultra, or a Geforce 3? It looks pretty barebones, so guessing geforce 3?

smtkr wrote on 2024-08-18, 20:01:

Is that last one a Geforce 2 Ultra, or a Geforce 3? It looks pretty barebones, so guessing geforce 3?

Creative Annihilator2 Ultra (Geforce 2 Ultra) 😀

https://www.anandtech.com/show/643/2

Thermalwrong wrote on 2024-08-18, 17:34:

I think I tested the GD-5429 but it's not any faster than a CL-GD5424 for DOS games, the main draw is Windows acceleration.

Do you know if a CL-GD5446 is any good?

zuldan wrote on 2024-08-18, 20:44:

Thermalwrong wrote on 2024-08-18, 17:34:

I think I tested the GD-5429 but it's not any faster than a CL-GD5424 for DOS games, the main draw is Windows acceleration.

Do you know if a CL-GD5446 is any good?

DOS compatibility should be good and performance should be fine, but the 5446 are PCI cards so there are tons of other options out there. Most likely if you are using it on a machine from the mid 90s for DOS games and Windows (not for 3D) it will be fast enough to not be a bottleneck, but the 5446 doesn't really have any particular strengths that I am aware of.

zuldan wrote on 2024-08-18, 20:44:

Thermalwrong wrote on 2024-08-18, 17:34:

I think I tested the GD-5429 but it's not any faster than a CL-GD5424 for DOS games, the main draw is Windows acceleration.

Do you know if a CL-GD5446 is any good?

In PCI, not ISA, seems to beat a few S3 cards PCI Graphics Roundup - DOS

RetroAddict wrote on 2024-08-18, 18:09:

This one above the seller didn't know what CPU was present but having taken the miniscule heatsink off... is a QX9650 so this should be a nice one to play with! If it had that cooler all its life it must have sat at thermal throttle all day long? 😀

Asus Maximus Extreme + Core 2 Extreme QX9650 was probably the most powerful combination a normal consumer could buy for the holiday season of 2007 till Q1 2008. Hard to believe that the seller didn't even know the CPU spec; could it be a rich boy or a boss (using corporate money) simply asked "build me the best computer possible today; money is not an issue"?

I bought this Auzentech prelude, because they dont pop up that often for sale anymore and not for the price I paid for it. I did notice the few bent pins.

I bought a Gigabyte 8i875 ultra and three 8i865pe775-g-rh Rev4.9 motherboards, they were pretty cheap since advertised as not working.
I will find out what's wrong with them once they arrive.
the socket 775 boards support C2D E7600 and C2Q Q6700 with modded bios, really decent agp boards.

RetroAddict wrote on 2024-08-18, 18:09:

I have two Diamond Supra in the loft that I can't bring myself to get rid of, because of the blinky lights! No idea what to do w […]
Show full quote

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-08-16, 14:11:

Yeah but hear me out... blinky lights. 🤣

I have two Diamond Supra in the loft that I can't bring myself to get rid of, because of the blinky lights! No idea what to do with them realistically though! 😀

To keep the thread on topic, I have just acquired these three boards which potentially aren't retro enough but still -

The attachment Asus QX9650.jpg is no longer available

This one above the seller didn't know what CPU was present but having taken the miniscule heatsink off... is a QX9650 so this should be a nice one to play with! If it had that cooler all its life it must have sat at thermal throttle all day long? 😀

The attachment Gigabyte 775.jpg is no longer available

This one has a Core2Duo e8600 which I may well remove to put in an old Mac I have as it's the fastest supported cpu. Looks to be a nice board though - which would you guys go for out of these two?

The attachment Horrific compound application.jpg is no longer available

This poor, poor CPU is a victim of compound abuse. I'll begin cleaning this soon but it's a bit of a mess.

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Finally this wasn't a purchase but was given to me - I'm keen to use it though so am adding to this post!

Ooh i'm liking the Maximus board. Makes my P5WDH-Deluxe look a bit underwhelming. You got lucky with the CPU! I've been trying to get hold of one (at below ebay prices and also not ordering from China) for some time now.

Are you going to go liquid cooling on it? I'm very tempted for doing this but then again liquid on a retro pc that will hardly get used or stashed away is not a very good choice?

Bought recently: Some casemodding stuff (i used to love casemodding back in the Lanparty day's) most of it is off-brand stuff except for the Thermaltake fans ... but then again most of that stuff was back in the day. It's not really what i was looking for but the urge to buy it beat the urge to stop buying crap. Also got a brand new (black) original windowed sidepanel for a CM stacker. Back in the day i made my own window in my stacker but having an original again ..i coudn't pass it up.

Also included was 2 Lian-Li 5.25 inch cd-rom drive panels ... i was going to use one in a Shuttle but then again it's kind of a waste of a specific part for a specific brand case. Perhaps the Lian-li guy on here (@shadzilla?) would scream heresy if i did 😁

Karbist wrote on 2024-08-19, 19:42:

I bought a Gigabyte 8i875 ultra and three 8i865pe775-g-rh Rev4.9 motherboards, they were pretty cheap since advertised as not wo […]
Show full quote

I bought a Gigabyte 8i875 ultra and three 8i865pe775-g-rh Rev4.9 motherboards, they were pretty cheap since advertised as not working.
I will find out what's wrong with them once they arrive.
the socket 775 boards support C2D E7600 and C2Q Q6700 with modded bios, really decent agp boards.

The attachment 8i875.jpg is no longer available

The attachment 8i865.jpg is no longer available

Itll be bad caps, have had one of these 775 boards myself and two of the 478 titan series and in all of them it was the caps that caused them to stop working. The three 775 ones look like the big caps next to the north bridge are bloated the 478 one looks like a stock photo but Im willing to put money on it too having bad caps.

The P4 titan era for Gigabyte must have had a lot of bad caps, see a lot of these boards on Evil Bay, most need recapping.

The 478 one seems to have Rubycon/Sanyo, so not an issue. Unless the Sanyo series used on those is WF.

Sigh .. Vogons software being its usual flakey self.

Got this nice bit of Athlon XP kit, A Epox EP-8RDA+ Pro, and Unlocked 3200+ and a Thermaltake Silent Boost cooler. The Barton is a 0317 model which if my digging is right is the 17th week of 03 which is well before they started superlocking them, still I wont know for certain till I get it and test it out.

The motherboard looks in good condition and none of the caps at a glance appear to be bad but itll get a good cleaning and inspection once its here. I do have one of these Epox boards but its caps have all gone bad and itll become a spares board for this new one that does need a little work on the PS2 connector. (Ill be using a USB keyboard and mouse so I doubt Ill mess with it much)

Fingers crossed its fully unlocked.

Nice copper cooler !

I have a nice Lian Li PC60 case for this lot to go into with a 9800XT and 2Gb of DDR500 to complete a nice 2003 era build, Im thinking I may throw a 6800GT in there if the 9800Xt cant handle Oblivion well enough as this is a partly a throwback build to my XP system I had back in the day that I lost months to playing Oblivion and Morrowind on.

All this was ~150 AUD so not a bad price for some solid kit.

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-08-20, 08:43:

Got this nice bit of Athlon XP kit, A Epox EP-8RDA+ Pro, and Unlocked 3200+ and a Thermaltake Silent Boost cooler. The Barton is a 0317 model which if my digging is right is the 17th week of 03 which is well before they started superlocking them, still I wont know for certain till I get it and test it out.

Very nice find. This will go well with it https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/256572349491 😉