Soldato
Top drawer!Had a best offer of £5 accepted on big box AoE2. One of the last ones I needed for my big box collection!
Did an install shot for the socials and then ended up playing it all evening
That is a complete result for the money mate
That is a complete result for the money mate
Soldato
Sat feeling sorry for myself today I started browsing the bay and ended up getting a 7600gt 256mb Fatality edition and a 7900GS 512mb for £10 delivered each after having offers accepted.
So that's me sorted for a starting point on the 939 systems graphics, feels like either are nicely period correct. Just need to keep an eye out for matching SLI partners over time now
So that's me sorted for a starting point on the 939 systems graphics, feels like either are nicely period correct. Just need to keep an eye out for matching SLI partners over time now
Soldato
I do have a thing for period correctness! Seems more interesting to me than best in slot type of builds
The only thing is finding a period correct IDE HDD that works.
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Caporegime
Oh I'm jealous!!Had a best offer of £5 accepted on big box AoE2. One of the last ones I needed for my big box collection!
Did an install shot for the socials and then ended up playing it all evening
I might have to hunt for one of those, AOE2 was one of my childhood games.
Soldato
thats where its been helpful to hoard them over the last few years
I fancied doing another retro build today. I choose the PC case that I previously took a photo of above. I decided to take that more modern motherboard out and I've gone with a more period correct board with IDE and AGP at least then I can use the drives now on the front of the PC case & I can install Windows 98SE I've put in a new BIOS battery and re-did the thermal paste on the CPU and it has a new old stick 256MB RAM stick. I have 5 GPU's to choose from although I haven't made up my mind yet on which one to go for. I have a Sound Blaster LIVE with the driver CD to put on it as well.
Soldato
So FB Marketplace strikes again hopefully
Should be picking up an immaculate Antec P182 tomorrow after work for £10 which feels like a lovely home for a 939 build
Still has the film on the side panels it's been that well looked after. Going to need to fill the boot with bubble wrap for the journey home
Should be picking up an immaculate Antec P182 tomorrow after work for £10 which feels like a lovely home for a 939 build
Still has the film on the side panels it's been that well looked after. Going to need to fill the boot with bubble wrap for the journey home
Caporegime
I bought 5 or 6 8GB hard drives from old XBoxes. Western Digital Protege WD80.
They are IDE, the correct sort of capacity, nothing looks out of place when you boot an old machine with one fitted, but they are considerably newer than most lower capacity drives, so hopefully more reliable. (So far so good!)
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I was thinking what could be done with an old iMac G3 retro wise. I have two of them that have been sitting in a cupboard for well over a decade... I hope the hard drives are still good in them because I could really use one for my DOS/WIN95 build.
I'm not really a mac fan... I did look into the possibility of seeing if anything could be done with the CRT, using it as a monitor but it be way too much work involved and money in regards to converting it. The iMac G3 have very nice designs. Its a shame they aren't useful for anything other than maybe working as a jukebox sort of thing / storing music. I will hang on to them tho because they will become desirable at some point I'd imagine. They are both slot loading models
I'm not really a mac fan... I did look into the possibility of seeing if anything could be done with the CRT, using it as a monitor but it be way too much work involved and money in regards to converting it. The iMac G3 have very nice designs. Its a shame they aren't useful for anything other than maybe working as a jukebox sort of thing / storing music. I will hang on to them tho because they will become desirable at some point I'd imagine. They are both slot loading models
Soldato
It's normally a minefield of junk, just got very lucky recently.....
There is an absolute monstrosity of a desktop with for some reason the whole rear connectivity looks to have been deformed and cut out with tin snips for no reason and the GPU is just hanging there! (It was located Kettering I think if you fancy a look lolol, just named PC)
Soldato
Not pictured are about 20 GBA and DS games.
Next step, skirting and carpet lol
Soldato
My adventures with OS/2 Version 4 are coming to an end.
In a nutshell, it sucked.
I loved the hype of what OS/2 Version 4 was trying to do. But, the lack of support for hardware and peripherals in a time where in Windows, it 'just worked' is still true today.
The victim of the upgrade was a nifty ASUS A7N8X-VM. This is home to an AMD Athlon XP 2500 CPU.
From the off, the OS/2 software wouldn't boot. It didn't like the hard drive and the data that was on it. I guess, it was trying to be clever and dual boot, but not have the right sized partition as a boot manager drive.
I found some excellent software called PartLogic and used this to format part of the drive as '2GB' and hide the rest. This worked, but ultimately, the mechanical hard drive was failing. This was then replaced with an SSD drive and an IDE to SATA adapter. After a lot of effort, I managed to get the system booting without sound or ethernet.
I found an OS/2 project called uniaud. Long story short, sound worked in a default AVI and no other sounds would play.
By now, I was giving up.
In my journey, I rekindled some old software to ensure everything was working. Knoppix 7.2. It's ironic, that my chosen OS/2 is useless, and the overlooked, rescue/live boot CD that was helping me out recognised everything including sound and ethernet.
I also found an Oracle VM Image that contained a working sound OS/2 install. I'll have a play with that for now.
The final options would be getting a supported PCI Sound and Ethernet soundcard and trying again.
Goodbye OS/2, hello Windows 2000 Professional.
In a nutshell, it sucked.
I loved the hype of what OS/2 Version 4 was trying to do. But, the lack of support for hardware and peripherals in a time where in Windows, it 'just worked' is still true today.
The victim of the upgrade was a nifty ASUS A7N8X-VM. This is home to an AMD Athlon XP 2500 CPU.
From the off, the OS/2 software wouldn't boot. It didn't like the hard drive and the data that was on it. I guess, it was trying to be clever and dual boot, but not have the right sized partition as a boot manager drive.
I found some excellent software called PartLogic and used this to format part of the drive as '2GB' and hide the rest. This worked, but ultimately, the mechanical hard drive was failing. This was then replaced with an SSD drive and an IDE to SATA adapter. After a lot of effort, I managed to get the system booting without sound or ethernet.
I found an OS/2 project called uniaud. Long story short, sound worked in a default AVI and no other sounds would play.
By now, I was giving up.
In my journey, I rekindled some old software to ensure everything was working. Knoppix 7.2. It's ironic, that my chosen OS/2 is useless, and the overlooked, rescue/live boot CD that was helping me out recognised everything including sound and ethernet.
I also found an Oracle VM Image that contained a working sound OS/2 install. I'll have a play with that for now.
The final options would be getting a supported PCI Sound and Ethernet soundcard and trying again.
Goodbye OS/2, hello Windows 2000 Professional.
Soldato
P182 is home and VERY tidy
Just need to get the 939 gear tested and in there now
Just need to get the 939 gear tested and in there now
Soldato
Kind of had to get it now I have the base game
Soldato
Fun and productive lunch today on the 939, board has been removed from the cheapo case, cooler remove and thoroughly cleaned as it had a carpet in it and then surfaces cleaned and new paste added.
Board and CX500m PSU i got cheap from the same guy who sold me the P182 are now both in their new homes and have test fired it quickly to post screen. Might have a dodgy cable on the power button header so need to investigate that later
First successful boot in the old case, had a bit of a GULP moment as powered on but no image, turns out my GTX650 is picky and wouldn't detect, threw in 260x and up it came first go
Lord only knows how long this paste had been on for
Came up lovely though as did the cooler
All cleaned up
And in the P182
No idea why the CPU is reading that speed in BIOS - need to make sure i reset all defaults, not sure if weird anomoly......surely an x2 wouldnt boot at all at 3.2GHz lol (EDIT - Looking online it appears this is a known issue with most BIOS versions when the system has had its BIOS reset or dead battery is present. Hopefully easy fix!)
Next up is new BIOS battery, work out these headers (now sorted), route the HD audio cable and also have a package at work that should either be the 7600GT or 7900GS so excited to get that in there.
Then its a few drives and a nice fresh installation of XP Pro
Shopping list:
2nd matching 7600GT Fatality or 7900GS (not sure of exact version)
correctly suited soundcard
DVD drive as just realised i no longer have a single one
Board and CX500m PSU i got cheap from the same guy who sold me the P182 are now both in their new homes and have test fired it quickly to post screen. Might have a dodgy cable on the power button header so need to investigate that later
First successful boot in the old case, had a bit of a GULP moment as powered on but no image, turns out my GTX650 is picky and wouldn't detect, threw in 260x and up it came first go
Lord only knows how long this paste had been on for
Came up lovely though as did the cooler
All cleaned up
And in the P182
No idea why the CPU is reading that speed in BIOS - need to make sure i reset all defaults, not sure if weird anomoly......surely an x2 wouldnt boot at all at 3.2GHz lol (EDIT - Looking online it appears this is a known issue with most BIOS versions when the system has had its BIOS reset or dead battery is present. Hopefully easy fix!)
Next up is new BIOS battery, work out these headers (now sorted), route the HD audio cable and also have a package at work that should either be the 7600GT or 7900GS so excited to get that in there.
Then its a few drives and a nice fresh installation of XP Pro
Shopping list:
2nd matching 7600GT Fatality or 7900GS (not sure of exact version)
correctly suited soundcard
DVD drive as just realised i no longer have a single one
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Soldato
My 2007FPb arrived and shocked pikachu face - its 16ms response time results in subtle but noticeable ghosting that bugs me.
My solid colour background also immediately showcased the panels uneven backlighting or constrast or whatever as there were vertical patches that are a bit darker.
The svideo input is surprisingly good however with ‘no’ noticeable input delay. It doesn’t look terrible for whatever analogue to digital conversion it is doing.
The screen and stand look in decent condition though at least.
My solid colour background also immediately showcased the panels uneven backlighting or constrast or whatever as there were vertical patches that are a bit darker.
The svideo input is surprisingly good however with ‘no’ noticeable input delay. It doesn’t look terrible for whatever analogue to digital conversion it is doing.
The screen and stand look in decent condition though at least.
The Windows 98 retro build I'm working on I'm going to try out a CF Card and see how long it lasts with Windows 98SE and lots of games installed onto it. I've never had much luck with them in the past but I will give it another shot just to see how things go. I have a dedicated 80GB SATA drive for it just encase. Not much I can do until my adapters arrive but everything else is ready. I just need to get a new/old game pad. The board I used is well known for being good with CF Cards.
Soldato
Am I right in saying that with SLI the cards adjust to match the lowest core / memory clock of the 2 cards?
Slightly regretting getting the fatality passive 7600gt despite it appearing to be a pretty rare thing to get hold of. Finding a second one could be a monster pain so I have to end up with non matching cards.....which makes my eye twitch
Slightly regretting getting the fatality passive 7600gt despite it appearing to be a pretty rare thing to get hold of. Finding a second one could be a monster pain so I have to end up with non matching cards.....which makes my eye twitch