What retro things have you done today?

Got an nVidia Quadro FX 3000 256MB on the way which should sit somewhere between FX5900 and FX5900 Ultra performance wise (going to see if it’ll clock to at least Ultra speeds).

No idea what I’ll be using it for, I seem to have inadvertently become more of a collector than a user of retro kit, but c’est la vie!

I’d like to do some kind of “Pixel Pipes”-esque comparisons and/or reviews, but I’m really not the type to be putting stuff on Youtube, I can’t stand the sound of my own voice when recorded!
 
You definitely are massing a collection! Do you have some on display? I think thats the difference between collecting and hoarding :P

I still cringe at my voice on my other channel. But there are worse voices out there with much bigger channels! Just get used to them after a while.
 
LewisRaz said:
You definitely are massing a collection! Do you have some on display? I think thats the difference between collecting and hoarding :p

I still cringe at my voice on my other channel. But there are worse voices out there with much bigger channels! Just get used to them after a while.
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I currently don’t have any on display but that is due to lack of space. Once we move house into somewhere I’ve got a sizeable study/cave, the plan is for the better looking and/or notable cards to be on display. I’ve 3D printed a load of stands, I just don’t have anywhere for said stands to live!

The end goal is for something with the aesthetic of Technology Connections set backdrop, only less generic electronics focussed and more retro GPU, case, motherboard and sound card focussed.
 
I bought The Movies. A game that you can't find on any digital storefront and doesn't like running on Windows 10 so it's a pretty good example of why you need 6 Windows XP computers available. I'll probably try out my capture card with it!
 
paradigm said:
Got a sizeable bonus from work today so decided to put in an offer on the £75 Kyro 4000XT PCI that was on eBay. £50 seemed to be enough. Yes that’s more than double the AGP version, but they are rarer and PCI variants of GPUs always command a premium for some reason.
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Someone literally gave away one to LGR in his latest unboxing video!

Some of the free stuff he gets is mad
 
LewisRaz said:
Someone literally gave away one to LGR in his latest unboxing video!

Some of the free stuff he gets is mad
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It is mental, you see the stuff that gets sent to say Adrian in his digital basement, and you wonder just how rich the donors are. Some of the stuff is rare and worth decent coin!
 
He gets sent serious stuff too but something about him makes me feel he doesnt always appreciate it as much as LGR.

I think it was him who was sent one of those roland midi daughterboards,, Who just gives those away???

Did anyone here see the guy who loaned LGR the adlib gold is now selling it for big bux? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rare-Adl...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649
paradigm said:
It is mental, you see the stuff that gets sent to say Adrian in his digital basement, and you wonder just how rich the donors are. Some of the stuff is rare and worth decent coin!
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Tested out something I've had in my mind for a while now with my 233mmx machine.

I installed two switches (Just to test) for changing the Multipliers. The board has a 8 switch DIP to mess with multi/volt/fsb and 2 of those switches control the multi. I had some switches knocking about so I connected them to the board with some wire. Works as I imagined. I have 4 possible positions, which gives me 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 & 3.5. This board also has a working turbo header which sets the fsb on the fly to 50mhz which is unusual for Pentium board. Also one of the Dip's controls 60/66mhz so I'm going to come up with a solution to mount the switches neatly on the front panel of the case (I'm thinking the space for the case badge) so I can manipulate all the multis and fsb from the front of the case.

The lowest I can go with the 233mmx is 100mhz, but combined with the setlmul registers should give a wide range of speeds. I know Phil's Computer Lab did a project with the speed range of the 233mmx. It takes a reboot to apply the multi but the fsb changes in real-time.

sb13yVYl.jpg
 
Talking of P233 MMX systems I have finally finished setting up my Compaq Deskpro 4000

CPU - Intel Pentium 233 MMX
RAM - 128 MB 60ns EDO Memory (4 x 32Mb)
VGA - S3 Virge GX 4Mb
VGA 2 - TechWorks V21200 Power3D 3DFx Voodoo 2 12mb
Soundcard - Creative AWE64 CT4500 - ISA
Soundcard 2 - Yamaha YMF724F-V (MPU-401 & FM)
HDD - 16GB SD Card Adaptor
OS - DOS 6.22

DtyHeIk.jpg

xKJHyeD.jpg

Overall im really happy with it and was generally surprised I could get the Yamaha card to behave nicely in DOS, especially with it being a PCI card.

I do want it on record though the BIOS on this thing if you can call it that is a disgrace :rolleyes:

Chris
 
Thanks, no particular reason for the 128mb of Ram other than just going a bit overboard on eBay lol

Would reducing the amount make that much of a difference performance wise? The so called BIOS has no real memory settings to speak of

Chris
 
Hi LewisRaz, I did try Win 95 on a separate SD Card but forgot how much of a pain in the rear end it is and have pretty much given up with it.

I do have a P3 system which has Win 98SE installed which plays all of the Windows games I want really.

Chris
 
cee-S-dee said:
Tested out something I've had in my mind for a while now with my 233mmx machine.

I installed two switches (Just to test) for changing the Multipliers. The board has a 8 switch DIP to mess with multi/volt/fsb and 2 of those switches control the multi. I had some switches knocking about so I connected them to the board with some wire. Works as I imagined. I have 4 possible positions, which gives me 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 & 3.5. This board also has a working turbo header which sets the fsb on the fly to 50mhz which is unusual for Pentium board. Also one of the Dip's controls 60/66mhz so I'm going to come up with a solution to mount the switches neatly on the front panel of the case (I'm thinking the space for the case badge) so I can manipulate all the multis and fsb from the front of the case.

The lowest I can go with the 233mmx is 100mhz, but combined with the setlmul registers should give a wide range of speeds. I know Phil's Computer Lab did a project with the speed range of the 233mmx. It takes a reboot to apply the multi but the fsb changes in real-time.

sb13yVYl.jpg
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Does the PC crash if you change multi while its on or does it just not take effect?

@Chris thats fair enough mate! Very strong dos pc :)
 
cee-S-dee said:
It doesn't mate. Has no effect until you reboot. The thing now is to sit down and map out all the possible speeds... but urghhhh man its sooo boring hahahaha!
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I find it really interesting but at the same time have 0 use for it. Which is nice that I can read about others exploring the possibilities :)
 
Chris said:
@cee-S-dee probably an obvious answer but have you thought about using SetMul, I have it setup with mine using the pre-set's Philscomputerlab made and it managed to cover quite a large amount of older systems

Chris
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Yeah I will combine SETMUL with the switching. In https://www.philscomputerlab.com/136-in-1-pentium-mmx.html you can see phil has used a number of different speeds in his test. With the switches I will be able to fine tune it even more. Eventually I'd like to do a txt document I can refer to on the pc with the best setting for the games I'd like to play combined with batch files.

To be fair, the 233mmx is my longest built machine, and one I'll never likely dismantle.

In regards to the 128mb ram and cache, i read anything over 64mb can hurt performance as most boards had 256k of cache onboard. Maybe try and see if you see any difference using the dosbench suite with different ram configurations.
 
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