What retro things have you done today?

LewisRaz said:
AT cases seem to be worth more than the systems that go in them!
Surprised nobody has jumped on this with a kickstarter for them.
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And as if by some magic coincidence I’ve just stumbled across a socket 7 PC in an AT desktop form factor case, complete with some kind (no idea what exactly) of video card, SCSI card, sound blaster stamped ISA card, and an AT PSU. £40, job jobbed. Might ditch the 486 and replace with this Pentium MMX instead.

Also, with regards to a kickstarter, isn’t the Checkmate case suitable if you want to buy new?
 
paradigm said:
And as if by some magic coincidence I’ve just stumbled across a socket 7 PC in an AT desktop form factor case, complete with some kind (no idea what exactly) of video card, SCSI card, sound blaster stamped ISA card, and an AT PSU. £40, job jobbed. Might ditch the 486 and replace with this Pentium MMX instead.

Also, with regards to a kickstarter, isn’t the Checkmate case suitable if you want to buy new?
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Nice find!

I have saved searches for gumtree, ebay local and facebook but all have been a bit rubbish lately. There is one lot with a couple of beige CD drives and an external zip drive but its too far a drive for those random things.

I had not seen or heard of that kickstarter! Dont know how none of my youtube people have not spoken about it. Quite pricey tho. Could pick up 2 or 3 entire systems for that on BiN prices!
 
paradigm said:
Not a RetroManCave subscriber then?!
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Only recently. I really like his trash to treasure series but many of his videos are before my time and interests. My first pc was an ibm 286 or 386 (Too young to remember anything except the game I played and that it had 2x 5 1/2 inch floppy drives. I cant really recall much about that PC tho, my first real memories and actual tinkering was on a 486 dx4 100 that we was sold super cheap by someone that had bailiffs coming over... Bad day for them but possibly the biggest impacting day on my life for becoming a PC gamer.
 
Well still no sign of this month’s purchases of a 200W AT PSU, the Socket 3 board/CPU combo and the Socket 7 PC, but the last of December’s purchases has finally arrived.

I now have two water blocks that are the right size to sit on my dual socket 370 build. I can finally start to get it under (hard lined) watercooling!
 
My Socket 7 AT PC turned up, it's badged as a "Thoroughbred Systems" (can't find anything out about them so far) PC, based on an Asus SP97-V motherboard (which takes both AT and ATX PSUs). Add-in cards appear to be a Sound Blaster 16 (CT4180) 16-bit ISA card, a DTCT-436P 16-bit ISA SCSI card (external SCSI only through a DB25 connector), an 8-bit ISA "Micro 2000" Dallas DS12887 RTC board (really not sure why, as the motherboard has an onboard CMOS battery and thus I assume RTC) and a Rockwell 56K PCI modem.

Memory is 72-Pin EDO, 2 sticks totalling 32MB.

CPU is a Genuine Intel Pentium MMX 200MHz (2.8v)

Video is on-board via riser cable to typical DSUB 15-pin VGA, powered by the SiS 5598 utilizing 1-4MB of system RAM.

Not booted it yet and I'm still not sure if it's staying in the case or my Socket 3 components are going to take up residence in there.

thoroughbred-1.jpg


thoroughbred-2.jpg


thoroughbred-3.jpg
 
Also my 486 board/CPU combo arrived. Some slight corrosion caused by (an already removed) battery which is going to need me to run some jumper wires to fix broken traces. I've already used vinegar to neutralise the corrosion and checked some traces with my microscope, there are at least 3 broken, one of which is under the DIN socket for they keyboard, so that'll have to be removed to fix the board.

Tomorrow is going to be full of soldering and hot air rework station fun.

IMG-20200117-200421.jpg


Also, can anyone identify this board?
 
Well my weekend just took an unexpected but quite exciting turn!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Job-Lot-...-386-Core2-P3-ASUS-P2B-amp-MORE-/184132247435

Could not chance leaving that to auction so hit buy it now. The picture of the add on cards also looks to have a yamaha soundcard.

More than anything I will finally have a desktop case! :D

The 386s battery doesnt appear to have started eating from the side you can see. Could be bad the otherside but we shall see.
 
LewisRaz said:
Well my weekend just took an unexpected but quite exciting turn!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Job-Lot-...-386-Core2-P3-ASUS-P2B-amp-MORE-/184132247435

Could not chance leaving that to auction so hit buy it now. The picture of the add on cards also looks to have a yamaha soundcard.

More than anything I will finally have a desktop case! :D

The 386s battery doesnt appear to have started eating from the side you can see. Could be bad the otherside but we shall see.
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Well that could turn out to be a decent treasure trove. Will be interesting to get a detailed inventory once you bring it home!
 
I have managed to get the model number for the soundcard as "Yamaha OPL3 MF-719 Rev:1.0"

Now I have to work out how to sneak out for 2 hours and then sneak all of this back into the house past the Mrs :D
 
So first issue, I’ve just realised I have no DIN to PS/2 adapters and both new machines are DIN, all my keyboards are PS/2 or USB.

The Pentium booted straight up to the BIOS, but I cannot see if it’ll boot beyond that due to the whole “press F1 to continue” thing.

So far no luck getting the 486 to do diddly squat, but I’ve not fixed the traces yet.
 
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