What retro things have you done today?

My other ongoing project and labour of love.

Was thrown together quickly to get it all running and test everything but have plans to completely rebuild it and add the new parts I have to go in.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_vzOCtvPZDTNetsyU5RTtHl5GlWjumBE/view?usp=drivesdk
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a3iqghfYqVwSXz-yyO0KtL0PXq8ZSPpB/view?usp=drivesdk

Currently:
Athlon XP 2500+
Zalman LED copper heatsink
512mb DDR 333
Medion Radeon 9800 XXL 128mb w/zalman flower cooler
Sound blaster live
Thermaltake soprano piano black
Dual boot Windows 95 / XP

Planned upgrades:
1GB GEIL DDR400
X800XL AGP 256mb
Sound Blaster Audigy ZS
Windows XP Pro
All fans replaced
New ABIT Northbridge cooler
Proper cable management!!!!
Maybe a new PSU if I am feeling flush

After that I have a hankering for a 486 Dx2 66 or DX4 100 like the first machine my dad and I build, so that will become the Windows 95 box.......you know, because I need another rig and all that
 
Last edited:
QDI board turned up. :)

LN0NXat.jpg

You'd never guess I only planned on building one socket 478 PC would you...

wD2GZJo.jpg

Since I've ended up with almost two of everything by accident, I'm now building two... :p

One will be:

Pentium 4 Northwood 2.8C (HT)
QDI PlatiniX 2PE/800
2GB Corsair TwinX PC3200 (?)
Radeon X800XT
Tagan TG330-U01
200GB WD2000
Coolermaster ATC220B-AX1
Windows XP

The other will be:

Pentium 4 Northwood 2.8A (non-HT)
Asus P4R800-VM
1GB Zeppelin PC3200
Radeon 9550
SanSun SN500-ATX
80GB WD800
ACME retro case
Windows ME
 
@Acme i really like the QDI boards. Really good quality. There is a variant of their 845 board I think which has the SB-Link connector which is great for PCI sound cards like the Yamaha YMF7XX range and also the ESS-Solo1 for dos compatibility.

What's the Aopen board out of interest?
 
cee-S-dee said:
@Acme i really like the QDI boards. Really good quality. There is a variant of their 845 board I think which has the SB-Link connector which is great for PCI sound cards like the Yamaha YMF7XX range and also the ESS-Solo1 for dos compatibility.

What's the Aopen board out of interest?
Click to expand...

I have an old Soundblaster somewhere to go on the QDI board, assuming it works. None of it is tested yet! I prefer the crossed fingers approach to begin with. :p

The AOpen board is an AX4PER-GN. It was in the first computer I actually owned, that wasn't a family PC. The 2.8GHz non HT P4 is out of that PC.

It had 2x 512MB PC2700, an NVIDIA FX5200, EZ-Cool 400W PSU, and the 80GB WD800 I'm also using.

That board has suffered a lot of abuse, including being part of a PC build inside a standard size shoebox. The network port is dead, but apart from that I remember it being OK!
 
cee-S-dee said:
I have two SW60XG's and a DB50XG also. But i only need one SW60XG hence it going up on the bay. I also have a MU10 which is actually a DB50XG in an external midi box.
Click to expand...
Are you sure you need the DB50XG? :D

I've been playing some more Doom 1 Episode 1 with headphones from my SB16 CT2230 and loving it

This is one of the reasons I think the AWE32 and daughter boards are not as 'good'

Sure, the AWE32 sounds better but it's lacking the rawness of the plain SB16, which was how I remembered games sounding. The CT2230 sounds very much like the CT1740

AWE32

SB16 CT1740

I'll just add, what a fantastic track. This scared the **** out of me as a kid. Where is this dark music in the new games? They are not just big flashing guns and lots of colours. Not Doom
 
I dont actually know what I'm going to do with these computers. I want to play through Half Life 2 on the better of the two, and I might try and play a few new games to see if I can get them to run.
But past that, they will probably sit under my desk, as ornaments.

I am really enjoying sourcing the parts, piecing them together. It feels like the end goal is getting them to post successfully! Its the sourcing and building process I'm enjoying the most!

Anyone the same? I think I might try and source all the parts to a socket 370 PC after this, because I have a VIA Cyrix III sat in a box. :)
 
Acme said:
I dont actually know what I'm going to do with these computers. I want to play through Half Life 2 on the better of the two, and I might try and play a few new games to see if I can get them to run.
But past that, they will probably sit under my desk, as ornaments.

I am really enjoying sourcing the parts, piecing them together. It feels like the end goal is getting them to post successfully! Its the sourcing and building process I'm enjoying the most!

Anyone the same? I think I might try and source all the parts to a socket 370 PC after this, because I have a VIA Cyrix III sat in a box. :)
Click to expand...
I’m mainly in the hobby for the same reason, my collection is pretty large only a handful of built machines at any one time, but enough components to keep building unique machines for a while.

Pretty much all of my builds have something unique or interesting though, like my Socket A build that uses an AGP GeForce 7900GS, or my Slot 1 build with a PowerLeap Tualatin slocket adapter in it, along with SLi Voodoo IIs. My K6-3 build that houses a Voodoo 3, or my Dual Socket 370 build that uses a PCI-X Matrox Parhelia.

Always a twist on the obvious as that’s what keeps it interesting, hence the upcoming dual Socket 604 Xeons!

Still need to get around to doing a Socket 8 and Slot 2 builds.
 
Acme said:
I don't actually know what I'm going to do with these computers. I want to play through Half Life 2 on the better of the two, and I might try and play a few new games to see if I can get them to run.
But past that, they will probably sit under my desk, as ornaments.

I am really enjoying sourcing the parts, piecing them together. It feels like the end goal is getting them to post successfully! Its the sourcing and building process I'm enjoying the most!

Anyone the same? I think I might try and source all the parts to a socket 370 PC after this, because I have a VIA Cyrix III sat in a box. :)
Click to expand...

Absolutely the same boat lol.

The enjoyment of revisiting this old tech is actually the most enjoyable bit and reliving the memories around it all.

I am doing it on a budget around everything else that needs my money, but its still been a good laugh

Much to my wife's delight the house now has a Pentium MMX, Pentium III, Athlon XP, Core2 and most likely soon either a 478, 754 or 486 to join them.

Man, the 7900GS AGP......I was given a 7800GS AGP in a full 939 build which was on a AV8 board too. When I had a blip with jobs a while back had to sell it along with some Retro console stuff I also now regret losing :(

There she is! - NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GS video card benchmark result - AMD Athlon 64 X2 Processor 4200+,http://www.abit.com.tw/ AV8 (VIA K8T800P-8237) (3dmark.com)
 
I’ve honestly lost count of how many pieces I’ve got, but I know it’s over 50 video cards now. Got to the point where I only really lust after obscure stuff like Evans & Sutherland SimFusion cards or the like.

I’ve got a top-tier card from every generation of nVidia between TNT2 and present day (with the exception of GTX 580 as they are too similar to the 480 that I have three of!), the jewels being my GeForce 256SDR and my GF4 Ti4800. Same goes for ATI, I’ve got cards from the Rage series through to my RX480, my Radeon DDR AIW is my favourite there! Also every (retail) generation of 3DFx card, where obviously the 5500 PCI is the king of the crop.

I really want the space to put them on display.
 
paradigm said:
I’ve honestly lost count of how many pieces I’ve got, but I know it’s over 50 video cards now. Got to the point where I only really lust after obscure stuff like Evans & Sutherland SimFusion cards or the like.

I’ve got a top-tier card from every generation of nVidia between TNT2 and present day (with the exception of GTX 580 as they are too similar to the 480 that I have three of!), the jewels being my GeForce 256SDR and my GF4 Ti4800. Same goes for ATI, I’ve got cards from the Rage series through to my RX480, my Radeon DDR AIW is my favourite there! Also every (retail) generation of 3DFx card, where obviously the 5500 PCI is the king of the crop.

I really want the space to put them on display.
Click to expand...

What about a nice illuminated cube glass cabinet and get some little 3d printed stands knocked up that fit the connectors so they sit upright. seen some on ebay but they are quite expensive for what they are and seem PCI Express focused.

I have a few things that I want to try and get hold of again, missed out on a Leadtek A400 6800LE on here few months back which I was utterly gutted by. Had that card and was awesome and the first real card I did proper unlocking and clocking on as part of a community thing on here.

There was an Abit model of the Radeon 9550 called the XT Turbo-Guru. I had one in a 478 build I did for my dad in his old DELL Dimension case years ago. Had dual BIOS that basically jumper switched it between a 9550 and a 9600XT with an OC and thanks to a massive heatsink package it overclocked like a complete nutter!

I know they were not that great but I have a massive need to get an ASUS star ice cooler too, they were just cool....end of!

EDIT - oh and a Voodoo card of some flavour.....I swear somewhere in my parents house our original 4MB is kicking around but I have yet to find it
 
Are people crazy, possibly £200+ for a card that's probably dead

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/STB-3dfx-Voodoo5-5500-64MB-PCI-Accelerator-Voodoo/224388573172

"Firstly this is sold as is, untested and as it, no returns."
"but I have no way to test it so will sold as see with no guarantees."

I'm presuming people sell high value items like this as "untested" if they are knackered. He/she could quite easily find a machine to test it or even buy a machine for less than £100, test it then sell it for way more as a working item and show it working.
The the IT equipment i've sold I show working with pictures of device manager, benchmarks and a game or two

This whole "sold as seen" "untested" is blatent lies in my opinion. They should be really listed as parts / spares and repairs
 
Acme said:
I dont actually know what I'm going to do with these computers. I want to play through Half Life 2 on the better of the two, and I might try and play a few new games to see if I can get them to run.
But past that, they will probably sit under my desk, as ornaments.

I am really enjoying sourcing the parts, piecing them together. It feels like the end goal is getting them to post successfully! Its the sourcing and building process I'm enjoying the most!

Anyone the same? I think I might try and source all the parts to a socket 370 PC after this, because I have a VIA Cyrix III sat in a box. :)
Click to expand...

What C3 do you own acme? My main retro PC is built around a Via C3 1200mhz Nehemiah and a Voodoo 3! Its on a Gigabyte Slot1 BX motherboard with a MSI sloket. Its defining feature is it's slowdown capabilities.

9lCihvTl.jpg
 
So, I’m about to start the build for the dual s604 machine but I’m having a bit of a case crisis.

Do I:

a) Use an unassuming (but period correct) beige box that I’ll need to mod for a radiator (by losing the 3.5” bays)

b) Use a modern black case (bitfenix shinobi XL) that will happily fit both the radiator I was planning to fit, but also a second).

c) Wait a bit longer and find another period correct, but larger case than a)? The problem with period correct is finding something that’ll take 120mm fans.
 
cee-S-dee said:
@paradigm I'd use the something like the Shinobi. S604 was released 2002 I think which is when Beige boxes had passed and it was moving more into Lian Li / Coolermaster Cases.
Click to expand...

Yeah it was around that point that the cutover happened, though your lower end cases were more like the “Nokia” style case whereby they were still mainly beige but had lighting in the front panel and chrome/transparent bling!

I’d use one of my Coolermaster cases but they are all near (or are) mint, so don’t want to go modifying them for 120mm.

I’d been eyeing up a mid 2000s Lian Li, but they still command a fair price and don’t hold any nostalgia for me as I was a Coolermaster fanboi.

There’s a white Chieftec Dragon on the bay, but I’m not sure I want white, think I’d prefer beige!
 
Kurgen said:
piiiiccssss
Click to expand...
PXL-20210320-074503179.jpg


PXL-20210320-074812620.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom