H3nrik V! wrote on 2025-03-03, 13:56:

PcBytes wrote on 2025-03-01, 11:06:

I'm unfortunately down with a (rather severe) cold but hopefully I'm getting one of the 2 job lots from my scrapper the following weeks.

I also saved an ad on the bay for Xeon P3s (550/100/512 I think?) for one of the boards - an XG-DLS. I have absolutely ZERO (both physically and in knowledge) of those Slot 2 beasts yet I'm not giving up on getting it working.

There's something about voltage on the Xeon P3s. Some are 5/12V, others are 2.8V (AFAIR) depending on if they have internal supply circuitry or not. I don't know how catastrophic it would be to use the wrong one, and which version the XG-DLS uses.

And if it's even an issue on the Tanners Xeons or only applies to Cascades (which is somewhat Coppermine based).

100%

You cannot mix the 5/12v chips and the 2.8v ones. You are likely to fry a 2.8v board if you put in a 5/12v chips. At least the VRM section. And the opposite is true if you put a 2.8v chips in a 5/12v board. I want to believe Intel put in safegaurds to prevent damage to the board/chip if you get them swapped. But the parts are rare enough now that the risk/reward is just not there.

The saving grace is, AFAIK 99.999% of the 5/12v chips and boards are limited to the giant OEM servers. Dell, Compaq, IBM, etc. The only crossover is likely to be from Supermicro or Tyan, and I am 110% sure they will dictate in the manual what processors you can or cannot use.

I'll look forward to it in the following weeks. At best I do have Slot 1s to test out the OR840 when it arrives, but the XG-DLS might be a feat to get running I'd guess.
Still, new territory and new stuff for me - if you asked me a few years ago, I'd be totally clueless about ALi Aladdin V - yet here I am today with not one but FOUR Aladdin 5 boards - one AT (Acorp 5ALI61, aka RedFox AGP-ALI) and three ATX (MSI MS-5169 and 2x Gigabyte GA-5AX rev4.1).

Glad to have finally found my own "recycler contact". A bit on the "expensive" side but I honestly don't mind. There's stuff I got from him that I wouldn't have dreamed of ever finding at affordable prices alone.

I'm here if you need me, I have both boards. ^.^

I've been stewing over this for a few days. I might not ever forget about it. I blew it, big time.

Money is tight, so I have been in a mindset of not spending money on anything I don't have to.
A few days ago I went browsing in a thrift store and saw this:

At the time, I didn't really know anything about Tandys. So I looked it up on my phone and got the basic idea. The Tandy 1000 SL is a traditional Tandy PC with the Tandy graphics+sound features that many older games support. This one has an 8086 @ 7.16MHz, the internet says.
At that moment, I had some thought that early Tandys were clunky and incompatible or something, and that some 2nd-gen model range was preferred, but I think that was just plain wrong. Probably mixing it up with Compaq or something else.

For about the past year I've been yearning for a good system to run pre-VGA 1980s era games on. I remember a lot of them from other systems (Commodore, Apple, etc) but some also on IBM, and I've come around to thinking that an IBM compatible would be the most convenient and practical solution nowadays, and almost everything was ported to it.
I had never thought about Tandy graphics+sound support before seeing this. There's no obvious turbo switch, but upon later research, apparently you can toggle speed at the command line.
This machine was pretty damn ideal, even coming with the monitor, but on that day I had cold feet.

The monitor port has a note about pushing a key combination to put the system into black&white. Is that Hercules support, or is it just killing CGA color to eliminate aliasing on text?

One bummer is that this thing doesn't have an IBM style parallel port, and even if it were adapted, apparently it's very limited in what it can do. So it probably would not work with my EPROM programmer that would otherwise be cool to run from this thing. But an expansion card could probably fix that.
It also needs an XT keyboard.
Joysticks are nonstandard, and on some models they will conflict with an addon card - but on this one I think they can be disabled so a card will work.
Upside is that this model *does* have a conventional serial port, which apparently some Tandy 1000s didn't. So a serial mouse can be used, which solves at least one of the "Tandyisms" on these machines.
Those Tandyisms are the price to pay for Tandy graphics+sound support, which I think would be pretty awesome to have for the pre-VGA era.

The most daunting thing would be needing a CGA monitor. But it was included:

Which after looking into it, is apparently the better quality option of the monitors Tandy sold for these computers.

The price for the whole combo was $100. And I hesitated.
I didn't want to jump into blowing money on something this random and unexpected, and it also takes up space. So I took pictures and told myself I'd sleep on it - a cooling off period. Research it, figure out how much I really wanted it, and figure out how to offset the cost. The price tag was dated like 10 days prior, so it had been sitting there for a while. So I figured only a few rare oddballs care about things like this, and it would still be there the next day.
That night I decided Hell Yes I'm Buying It and came back.
It wasn't there. I can't believe I let it get away, I seriously doubt I'll ever find something like this in the wild again.

I checked eBay but of course things like this are much more expensive on there. You're competing with a national audience, and have to pay for shipping and eBay's (very high) fees, and the seller's risk of fraud/claims/damage/returns, and their desire to make money after all those factors are accounted for.

A new one was just posted. In fact, it's the same one. They also have the monitor.
I don't want to be mad about that - I've sold plenty of things on eBay so I'd be a hypocrite if I complained about it. But damn, it's frustrating to have blown this one.
I'd say there's a lot of room in the seller's price, but it really just depends what offers they get. I can say it *did* look to be in very good condition. Whoever owned it apparently kept it inside, it wasn't laying in a shed somewhere.

AGP4LIfe? wrote on 2025-03-04, 16:37:

Picked up this Herc Dynamite TNT from the Bay for 25$. Pretty neat, I believe it's the fastest stock TNT Gen 1 produced at 98Mhz Core 125Mhz Mem. The active cooling is nifty as well.

The attachment PXL_20250304_034553234~2.jpg is no longer available

My first ever AGP card! Think it did cost way too much back when I bought it in November 1998, but it was my only graphics card until summer of 2002.
That is when this strange and wonderful killer app appeared, which my hard working TNT barely could start up on my overclocked Celeron 566mhz.
(moving inside the hull was a slideshow, and the second I clicked on the hatch to get out to Seyda Neen, it totally crashed!)

PS: Funny thing, I had done months of research on Anandtech and TomsHardware to figure out what should go into my planned slot1 computer (coming from a socket5! Penium 100), and had ordered the Creative TNT version.
My local seller, who was building the PC for me, told me that those were a no-show, but he happened to have this unknown Hercules one, if I wanted it... Oh well.

Found this on eBay. Not the correct box for the card.
CMS 404 midi interface:

Had the seller send me better pics of the card before shipping:

This looks like it can be upgraded to a CMS-444 so it can be used with a CMS 444 / EX (External 4-in 4-out breakout box with intelligent mode built in since the card looks to lack required stuff to have intelligent mode ?)

While trying to look this card up, I ran across a CMS 444 / EX for cheap and promptly purchased it.

Tried to go back and get the store pics of the CMS 444 / EX but they apparently scrub listings after they sell, so pics for that will have to wait till it arrives as I cannot find a single picture or any other information online except that it is MPU-401 compatible.

Found an old usenet post that mentions the CMS 404, 333, 444. Sounds like the 404 is not intelligent mode by itself at least??? Still looking for any real info on the CMS-444 / EX as it has two DB 25 connections. One for the CMS-401 and one for the CMS 333 , 444:
https://www.usenetarchives.com/view.php?id=re … ya2VsZXkuRURVPg

shamino wrote on 2025-03-05, 00:56:

I've been stewing over this for a few days. I might not ever forget about it. I blew it, big time. […]
Show full quote

I've been stewing over this for a few days. I might not ever forget about it. I blew it, big time.

Money is tight, so I have been in a mindset of not spending money on anything I don't have to.
A few days ago I went browsing in a thrift store and saw this:

The attachment front_all.jpg is no longer available

The attachment front_1000SL.jpg is no longer available

At the time, I didn't really know anything about Tandys. So I looked it up on my phone and got the basic idea. The Tandy 1000 SL is a traditional Tandy PC with the Tandy graphics+sound features that many older games support. This one has an 8086 @ 7.16MHz, the internet says.
At that moment, I had some thought that early Tandys were clunky and incompatible or something, and that some 2nd-gen model range was preferred, but I think that was just plain wrong. Probably mixing it up with Compaq or something else.

For about the past year I've been yearning for a good system to run pre-VGA 1980s era games on. I remember a lot of them from other systems (Commodore, Apple, etc) but some also on IBM, and I've come around to thinking that an IBM compatible would be the most convenient and practical solution nowadays, and almost everything was ported to it.
I had never thought about Tandy graphics+sound support before seeing this. There's no obvious turbo switch, but upon later research, apparently you can toggle speed at the command line.
This machine was pretty damn ideal, even coming with the monitor, but on that day I had cold feet.

The attachment rearTandyLabel.jpg is no longer available

The attachment rear_Vidout_Expansion_LPT.jpg is no longer available

The monitor port has a note about pushing a key combination to put the system into black&white. Is that Hercules support, or is it just killing CGA color to eliminate aliasing on text?

One bummer is that this thing doesn't have an IBM style parallel port, and even if it were adapted, apparently it's very limited in what it can do. So it probably would not work with my EPROM programmer that would otherwise be cool to run from this thing. But an expansion card could probably fix that.
It also needs an XT keyboard.
Joysticks are nonstandard, and on some models they will conflict with an addon card - but on this one I think they can be disabled so a card will work.
Upside is that this model *does* have a conventional serial port, which apparently some Tandy 1000s didn't. So a serial mouse can be used, which solves at least one of the "Tandyisms" on these machines.
Those Tandyisms are the price to pay for Tandy graphics+sound support, which I think would be pretty awesome to have for the pre-VGA era.

The most daunting thing would be needing a CGA monitor. But it was included:

The attachment monitor_CM-11.jpg is no longer available

Which after looking into it, is apparently the better quality option of the monitors Tandy sold for these computers.

The price for the whole combo was $100. And I hesitated.
I didn't want to jump into blowing money on something this random and unexpected, and it also takes up space. So I took pictures and told myself I'd sleep on it - a cooling off period. Research it, figure out how much I really wanted it, and figure out how to offset the cost. The price tag was dated like 10 days prior, so it had been sitting there for a while. So I figured only a few rare oddballs care about things like this, and it would still be there the next day.
That night I decided Hell Yes I'm Buying It and came back.
It wasn't there. I can't believe I let it get away, I seriously doubt I'll ever find something like this in the wild again.

I checked eBay but of course things like this are much more expensive on there. You're competing with a national audience, and have to pay for shipping and eBay's (very high) fees, and the seller's risk of fraud/claims/damage/returns, and their desire to make money after all those factors are accounted for.

A new one was just posted. In fact, it's the same one. They also have the monitor.
I don't want to be mad about that - I've sold plenty of things on eBay so I'd be a hypocrite if I complained about it. But damn, it's frustrating to have blown this one.
I'd say there's a lot of room in the seller's price, but it really just depends what offers they get. I can say it *did* look to be in very good condition. Whoever owned it apparently kept it inside, it wasn't laying in a shed somewhere.

Dang, a Tandy 1000 in a thrift store for $100 with monitor? That's an absolute steal. And no worries about shipping damage. I would have bought it even though I don't have much room to add to my small collection. Space is my biggest issue and also how much is ever enough, right? It's a slippery slope.

Great to see a system in this thread that doesn't have PCI or AGP.

bestemor wrote on 2025-03-05, 01:31:

My first ever AGP card! Think it did cost way too much back when I bought it in November 1998, but it was my only graphics card […]
Show full quote

AGP4LIfe? wrote on 2025-03-04, 16:37:

Picked up this Herc Dynamite TNT from the Bay for 25$. Pretty neat, I believe it's the fastest stock TNT Gen 1 produced at 98Mhz Core 125Mhz Mem. The active cooling is nifty as well.

The attachment PXL_20250304_034553234~2.jpg is no longer available

My first ever AGP card! Think it did cost way too much back when I bought it in November 1998, but it was my only graphics card until summer of 2002.
That is when this strange and wonderful killer app appeared, which my hard working TNT barely could start up on my overclocked Celeron 566mhz.
(moving inside the hull was a slideshow, and the second I clicked on the hatch to get out to Seyda Neen, it totally crashed!)

I'm impressed! I never heard of anyone running Morrowind on a TNT before. 😀
I assume it had 16MB RAM, and I think that game calls for 32MB so that's probably what crashed it. I wonder if it could actually run with some "demodding" - but it would still be slow.

Played Morrowind on a 1.4Ghz Pentium 4 with a GeForce 2 Ultra and 256MB of RAM. It played alright, but I think the CPU and possibly the memory is what was holding it back.

eesz34 wrote on 2025-03-05, 12:54:

Dang, a Tandy 1000 in a thrift store for $100 with monitor? That's an absolute steal. And no worries about shipping damage. I would have bought it even though I don't have much room to add to my small collection. Space is my biggest issue and also how much is ever enough, right? It's a slippery slope.

Great to see a system in this thread that doesn't have PCI or AGP.

If I'd had my head screwed on straight I should have just bought it and figured out the details later. Going home to research more and think about it was insane. I had enough basic information to know that it was a good gamble.
I'm overflowing with computer parts as well, but I don't have any PC stuff close to this vintage. I have plenty of redundant newer stuff I could have sold to pay for it. Ugh.

I think most of us here have at least one story of missing opportunities to acquire old hardware. Maybe you'll get another chance in the future!

shamino wrote on 2025-03-05, 13:01:

bestemor wrote on 2025-03-05, 01:31:

My first ever AGP card! Think it did cost way too much back when I bought it in November 1998, but it was my only graphics card […]
Show full quote

AGP4LIfe? wrote on 2025-03-04, 16:37:

Picked up this Herc Dynamite TNT from the Bay for 25$. Pretty neat, I believe it's the fastest stock TNT Gen 1 produced at 98Mhz Core 125Mhz Mem. The active cooling is nifty as well.

The attachment PXL_20250304_034553234~2.jpg is no longer available

My first ever AGP card! Think it did cost way too much back when I bought it in November 1998, but it was my only graphics card until summer of 2002.
That is when this strange and wonderful killer app appeared, which my hard working TNT barely could start up on my overclocked Celeron 566mhz.
(moving inside the hull was a slideshow, and the second I clicked on the hatch to get out to Seyda Neen, it totally crashed!)

I'm impressed! I never heard of anyone running Morrowind on a TNT before. 😀
I assume it had 16MB RAM, and I think that game calls for 32MB so that's probably what crashed it. I wonder if it could actually run with some "demodding" - but it would still be slow.

haha....! 😆
No, 'running' is definitely NOT the word I would chose, no-no.

I was able to:
- install it
- start it
- 'move' (2-3 frames per second or so) inside the first 'dungeon' (ships's hull/cargo space)
- click on the 'door' (hatch) to Seyda Neen
- !boooom! .....END 'gameplay' !
Every single time.

Mind you, the CPU was a Celeron 566mhz on an ABIT BH6, not sure if that also was impacting the 'performance'.

And yes, didn't ALL the TNT cards have 16mb ?

The TNT2 could have up to 32MB. I'm not sure about the TNT.

Now, I had a great plan of not buying any more 'retro' hardware, as in several decades old I mean.
(as opposed to the retro stuff from just 10 years or so)

But, saw this Turtle Beach Montego II sound card with an AU8830A2 chip, unassumingly hiding in a dark corner of the internet.
And figured; whatever, ok, fine... I can 'rescue' that one at least.

But, it also came with a bunch of other stuff, so not sure if that was such a good idea after all.
I am now stuck with this lot (still in transit):

- Montego II sound card
- Gainward GeForce4 Ti 4800 128mb
- Asus P4T socket 423 mobo
- 8x 128mb RAMBUS
- 4 sticks of CRIMM dummies/continuation RAM
- Pentium4 CPU 1.5ghz (s423/installed)
- Pentium4 CPU 1.9ghz (s423)
- Pentium4 CPU unknown (s423/covered in paste)
- and most likely also a random old PSU, but WITH an AUX connector
(still no idea if it is really needed though)

Motherboard/RAM and graphics card is working fine, judging by the desktop screenshots from the seller.
Funnily enough, I have no idea yet if the sound card actually works though. 😆

No idea what to really do with that s423-board etc, some quick research tells me I can use all that RAM to make a fine space heater apparantly!
But never ever owned one of these quirky boards before, skipped straight to socket 478 from slot1, so that makes for a new 'experience' I guess. 🤔

Oh well, wasted a good 20 euros on this random pileup, not sure if I will regret it - we'll see when it all arrives I suppose.

Sellers picture:

The GeForce 4 Ti 4800 128mb is a good card. That's a nice bonus to come along with the Aureal Vortex. Everything else is pretty so-so.

I had a Pentium 4 1.4Ghz with 256MB of RAM for years, later upgrading to 1.8Ghz, and it was excellent in Windows 98/ME and had great compatibility with 2000 and XP. Although I wished I could have upgraded to 512MB of RAM for XP; 256MB was pretty tight. You've got four slots there, so a P4 at 1.9Ghz with 512MB of memory is a good setup, especially with the GeForce 4. Add the Aureal and an Audigy 2 for EAX and you're golden.

My vote goes to a Windows ME oriented build with RAMBUS. Windows ME definitely needs more recognition - it wasn't bad if you knew your way around it, and so far it never caused me troubles, interestingly enough, although my ME machine is much older than your parts - Celeron 300A @ 450 on a ABIT BH6 and with a 3d Prophet 4500 (Kyro II) GPU. (I'm awaiting the storm as to how I should use 98SE with such a combo 🤣)

PcBytes wrote on 2025-03-05, 23:41:

My vote goes to a Windows ME oriented build with RAMBUS. Windows ME definitely needs more recognition - it wasn't bad if you knew your way around it, and so far it never caused me troubles, interestingly enough, although my ME machine is much older than your parts - Celeron 300A @ 450 on a ABIT BH6 and with a 3d Prophet 4500 (Kyro II) GPU. (I'm awaiting the storm as to how I should use 98SE with such a combo 🤣)

I can second this. Windows ME is highly underrated and is otherwise excellent, unless you plan on playing DOS games from within Windows.

I made a short list of usability differences I experienced compared to Windows 98:

Unique problems of Windows ME as an alternative to Windows 98

The biggest issue I have with Windows ME is that there is no longer a checkbox to disable "Suggest MS-DOS mode as necessary" in .PIF file properties. This is completely artificial and very annoying. I suspect that this feature can be restored by modifying some files or replacing them with ones from Windows 98.

PcBytes wrote on 2025-03-05, 23:41:

My vote goes to a Windows ME oriented build with RAMBUS. Windows ME definitely needs more recognition - it wasn't bad if you knew your way around it, and so far it never caused me troubles, interestingly enough, although my ME machine is much older than your parts - Celeron 300A @ 450 on a ABIT BH6 and with a 3d Prophet 4500 (Kyro II) GPU. (I'm awaiting the storm as to how I should use 98SE with such a combo 🤣)

Yes ME for sure!

It's great on my P4 3.06. 512MB of 1066 RD-RAM in there along with a Quadro that's about the same as an FX5900.

bestemor wrote on 2025-03-05, 22:46:

Now, I had a great plan of not buying any more 'retro' hardware, as in several decades old I mean. (as opposed to the retro stu […]
Show full quote

Now, I had a great plan of not buying any more 'retro' hardware, as in several decades old I mean.
(as opposed to the retro stuff from just 10 years or so)

But, saw this Turtle Beach Montego II sound card with an AU8830A2 chip, unassumingly hiding in a dark corner of the internet.
And figured; whatever, ok, fine... I can 'rescue' that one at least.

But, it also came with a bunch of other stuff, so not sure if that was such a good idea after all.
I am now stuck with this lot (still in transit):

- Montego II sound card
- Gainward GeForce4 Ti 4800 128mb
- Asus P4T socket 423 mobo
- 8x 128mb RAMBUS
- 4 sticks of CRIMM dummies/continuation RAM
- Pentium4 CPU 1.5ghz (s423/installed)
- Pentium4 CPU 1.9ghz (s423)
- Pentium4 CPU unknown (s423/covered in paste)
- and most likely also a random old PSU, but WITH an AUX connector
(still no idea if it is really needed though)

Motherboard/RAM and graphics card is working fine, judging by the desktop screenshots from the seller.
Funnily enough, I have no idea yet if the sound card actually works though. 😆

No idea what to really do with that s423-board etc, some quick research tells me I can use all that RAM to make a fine space heater apparantly!
But never ever owned one of these quirky boards before, skipped straight to socket 478 from slot1, so that makes for a new 'experience' I guess. 🤔

Oh well, wasted a good 20 euros on this random pileup, not sure if I will regret it - we'll see when it all arrives I suppose.

Sellers picture:

The attachment TurtleBeachSoundcard.jpg is no longer available

20€? I'd pay that for the P4T/RDRAM combo any day. That's a real bargain!

H3nrik V! wrote on 2025-03-06, 06:36:

bestemor wrote on 2025-03-05, 22:46:

Now, I had a great plan of not buying any more 'retro' hardware, as in several decades old I mean. (as opposed to the retro stu […]
Show full quote

Now, I had a great plan of not buying any more 'retro' hardware, as in several decades old I mean.
(as opposed to the retro stuff from just 10 years or so)

But, saw this Turtle Beach Montego II sound card with an AU8830A2 chip, unassumingly hiding in a dark corner of the internet.
And figured; whatever, ok, fine... I can 'rescue' that one at least.

But, it also came with a bunch of other stuff, so not sure if that was such a good idea after all.
I am now stuck with this lot (still in transit):

- Montego II sound card
- Gainward GeForce4 Ti 4800 128mb
- Asus P4T socket 423 mobo
- 8x 128mb RAMBUS
- 4 sticks of CRIMM dummies/continuation RAM
- Pentium4 CPU 1.5ghz (s423/installed)
- Pentium4 CPU 1.9ghz (s423)
- Pentium4 CPU unknown (s423/covered in paste)
- and most likely also a random old PSU, but WITH an AUX connector
(still no idea if it is really needed though)

Motherboard/RAM and graphics card is working fine, judging by the desktop screenshots from the seller.
Funnily enough, I have no idea yet if the sound card actually works though. 😆

No idea what to really do with that s423-board etc, some quick research tells me I can use all that RAM to make a fine space heater apparantly!
But never ever owned one of these quirky boards before, skipped straight to socket 478 from slot1, so that makes for a new 'experience' I guess. 🤔

Oh well, wasted a good 20 euros on this random pileup, not sure if I will regret it - we'll see when it all arrives I suppose.

Sellers picture:

The attachment TurtleBeachSoundcard.jpg is no longer available

20€? I'd pay that for the P4T/RDRAM combo any day. That's a real bargain!

Well, truth be told, there was actually another 5 euro in shipping cost on top, hence ca 25 euro total.
So, perhaps not quite the bargain after all... 😝