What retro things have you done today?

I've done the very minor task of replacing the Pentium D sticker on my Optiplex 320 with the correct Core2 Duo sticker, such a minor thing but it's annoyed me for so long lol
 
Now I'm back from holiday I've spent some time tidying up and thought I should give the Lanparty NF4 SLI I bought recently a test out. I have accumulated an enormous amount of PC crud in my life so I wonder why I am revisiting the old days...must be a midlife "crysis".

First, I took a good look at the board and that chipset fan looks manky.

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It was absolutely filled with crud, so I got the air out and gave it a clean and then pondered on the memory choice. I didn't faff about and just picked the first matached pair in the rack.

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I also got myself a "new old stock" Athlon 64 3700, but decided to go with a 3500 I have that was opened already.

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Then of course to choose a GPU. I've been mucking about with socket 462 for a bit so have been limited to the AGP collection, so was very happy to look at "period" PCI-E. I decided on going ATI, specifically the X1950XT

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It's my lucky day, booted first time!!!!! Remarkable.

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After the usual XP install, checking temps and the usual faff with the ATI drivers (lessons learnt below) I did the required default test and ran 3dMark2001SE. Everything stock as you'd expect.

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So some useful things to note:

1 - Catalyst Control Centre requires dotnet 2.0, so install that first.
2 - Getting the right ATI drivers for XP takes some googling
3 - Internet Archive may have the ISO for your MB Drivers (e.g. https://archive.org/details/dfi_nf4). That DFI interface is hillarious though.
4 - Always make sure you switch off the PSU rather than just switch off :-) I think I dodged a bullet.
5 - Replace the chipset fan....
 
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That will make one seriously nice XP machine!
I remember too well how hard it was trying to get ATI drivers to play nicely on an XP build I did a while back
 
LewisRaz said:
That will make one seriously nice XP machine!
I remember too well how hard it was trying to get ATI drivers to play nicely on an XP build I did a while back
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Thanks and I think so yep - needs 4 sticks of XMS 2-2-2-5 and a new chipset fan first! I can see what's going to happen though, I am going to need some cases at some point, seems a shame to have these PCs sitting on test benches.

The ATI drivers almost made me want to swap to Nvidia, however I think I'll save that for the next one (Asus Commando and a Q8300) for Win 7 (after digging around, I found - 1 Vista, 2 Win 7, 3x Win 8.1 originals!) just need to consider if that should go with a GTX690 or an 8800GTS which is more in keeping I think.
 
I used to have that NF4 Lan Party mobo. That and my old Epox 8RDA+ are my two favourite boards of those days. I still have a couple of the UV sata cables from the Lan Party which I've used in all my builds since.
 
Still have my DFI board in the attic fitted with an Opteron 144. Must get around to sorting it out and fitting the SW1000xg soundcard to it.
 
Despite not being involved with it much, I've always found DOS games charming/intriguing for some reason.
I briefly did the 800gb? Or whatever it was install of Exodos including all the magazines etc but decided I need to host it on an external drive really.
The effort that went into it is staggering.
 
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cee-S-dee said:
That will be intersteing to see the results. I have a few yellowed CD-Roms. Keep us updated.
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The de-yellower arrived on Saturday and turned out to be a cream rather than a spray like in their photo.

Spent over an hour trying it... not even a slight improvement. (it has a nice smell though! very much like the old VHS head cleaner fluid)

I've sent them a message and told them they've sent a cream rather than a spray - so if I actually get sent a spray instead I'll post an update.
 
Rocky-Roader said:
The de-yellower arrived on Saturday and turned out to be a cream rather than a spray like in their photo.

Spent over an hour trying it... not even a slight improvement. (it has a nice smell though! very much like the old VHS head cleaner fluid)

I've sent them a message and told them they've sent a cream rather than a spray - so if I actually get sent a spray instead I'll post an update.
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Thats a shame. Hopefully you'll get what you ordered on the 2nd try.
 
Rocky-Roader said:
Spent over an hour trying it
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I think I may have spotted what went wrong.

I am no expert in this but I gather you have to smear the item with the cream, helps to wrap it in cling film after to keep it together, then put it outside in the sun for like a minimum full daysworth of bright actual sunlight. I.e. don't do it on a cloudy day.
 
I don’t post that much these days but thought I would share this one. To be honest I’m working on quite a few builds at the moment, they all overlap it’s just stuff I always wanted when I was younger. Slowly putting together parts as and when they come up, I will share some more at some point as they are quite nice (3200XP + 5900 Ultra for example).

But this particular one is a 478 Prescott build with a 3.4 P4, 2GB DDR400, a GeForce 6800 GT AGP and some nice other bits like a Gigabyte 865PE based board and a matching cooler. It isn’t finished yet but…

I got hold of a blue Coolermaster wavemaster which inspired me to put the Intel based system together. Unfortunately the seller literally wrapped it in a black bag and posted it to me despite me sending him a box BEFORE hand to send it to me in. Long story and I wasn’t happy but as you can imagine it turned up damaged, bent panels, blown rivets…so I’ve spent a while repairing it. Fixed the rivets, repaired the bent panels, had some paint mixed up and then machine polished the entire case. It’s come up incredible.

imgur.com

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rare said:
I don’t post that much these days but….
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Really appreciated this post. Great work. So many of those component choices take me back to building and selling machines in that era. Spec is very close to my first ‘gaming’ machine, I think it may be the exact same mobo but I had an ATI Radeon 9600 Pro and a cheap case with a window and blue cold cathodes… I finished Half Life 2 on it and it was epic.
 
My Dell Dimension Pentium 90t is back!

Thanks to a wonderful UK auction seller that builds PSU specifically for these Dell 20 pin ATX machines.

Initially I had found a company in the USA with the exact PSU, and in stock. I bought it and then received an email saying no stock.

I'm so happy. I thought she was a gone-er.
 
Been playing God of War on my RP5, got to Pandoras box, pulled back the orb and the box isn't there :cry: A known glitch apparently...so I will be spending this evening sorting out getting past this point!!
 
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I'm playing with a P4 myself at the moment. I picked up an MSI 865 Neo (new) and 2x512 Crucial Ballistix (new) and a 9800XXL (not new!) and with a P4 2.8 it's running as great as I remember my original back in 2003/4.

I'm looking to put "bundles" together for playing with later. I think I've reached my "max retro year" limit of 2010. I've been lucky to pick up some real bargains for this one.

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Also, hopefully this is rules compliant (I last got XMS3200 on OCUK in 2004 I think) but there is some "new old stock" Corsair XMS 3200 up on ebay at the moment. It's just the v4.2 TCCD and v.5.2 Promos (I did the hard work for you!) but it's in packaging and does look new. Only 20 quid a pair. Heads up!
 
Bubo said:
I think I may have spotted what went wrong.

I am no expert in this but I gather you have to smear the item with the cream, helps to wrap it in cling film after to keep it together, then put it outside in the sun for like a minimum full daysworth of bright actual sunlight. I.e. don't do it on a cloudy day.
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The instructions on the bottle said to just put it on a cloth and rub it in,

Although nothing to lose so will definitely give it a try and see what happens on a sunny day,

Do you think that one of these reptile UV lamps could be used to replicate the UV from the sun?
 
Rocky-Roader said:
The instructions on the bottle said to just put it on a cloth and rub it in,

Although nothing to lose so will definitely give it a try and see what happens on a sunny day,

Do you think that one of these reptile UV lamps could be used to replicate the UV from the sun?
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You can use UV lights to make an indoor retrobright setup I believe. Again, not an expert, but the idea is you literally cake a suitable plastic box with UV LED strips, smear on your hydrogen peroxide cream wrapped in clingfilm, or a peroxide bath of some sort, and leave it for days on end. It apparently is slower than sunlight but because it can simply be left on 24/7 you just leave it till it has done the job. Something like this.


That lizard lamp you link I would think is more for heat, and I think you should be avoiding heat when de-yellowing plastic, plus the idea is to surround the item with UV light, rather than having one spot lamp.
 
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