What retro things have you done today?

I got out my old sleeper PC build which was working fine when it was put away but it failed to turn on, It turns out the GPU is dead I changed the BIOS battery & I had to find another GPU to put in it, The BIOS also freezes so I can enter the BIOS just fine but as soon as I try to set the date and time it freezes but an OS runs fine on it with out issues. I had Linux on this machine but now I'm installing Windows 2000 SP4 just to see how it runs. I am tempted to switch the board but for now I'll just see what the current board can do retro wise. If I do decide to switch the motherboard I will install Windows 98 SE on it.

M05PDkE.jpeg


BZ3RwQx.jpeg
 
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I've manged to unclog the holes on that problematic 370 motherboard so I can now solder in the new caps. My new braid and flux arrived today and it made the job much easier. I'm quite impressed with how resilient these motherboards are in terms of heat.
 
Box collected today and the board looks in good condition. Has what looks like 4x512mb RAM in it which is nice.

Need to locate a PSU to fire it up and test now before I try anything SLI related. Fingers crossed
 
Retro6 said:
I got out my old sleeper PC build which was working fine when it was put away but it failed to turn on, It turns out the GPU is dead I changed the BIOS battery & I had to find another GPU to put in it, The BIOS also freezes so I can enter the BIOS just fine but as soon as I try to set the date and time it freezes but an OS runs fine on it with out issues. I had Linux on this machine but now I'm installing Windows 2000 SP4 just to see how it runs. I am tempted to switch the board but for now I'll just see what the current board can do retro wise. If I do decide to switch the motherboard I will install Windows 98 SE on it.

M05PDkE.jpeg


BZ3RwQx.jpeg
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have your guinea pigs escaped? seems to be a lot of straw about
 
Any thoughts on the PCi ATi XL RAGE 8MB 2D/3D VGA Card from 1998?

I thought I would buy one to see what it is like in early retro gaming. I paid 10 pounds for mine

3bpEcVm.jpeg


The good thing is its PCi so if you have a board with no AGP or ISA then this card maybe a good candidate for a budget retro build.
 
Retro6 said:
Any thoughts on the PCi ATi XL RAGE 8MB 2D/3D VGA Card from 1998?

I thought I would buy one to see what it is like in early retro gaming. I paid 10 pounds for mine

3bpEcVm.jpeg


The good thing is its PCi so if you have a board with no AGP or ISA then this card maybe a good candidate for a budget retro build.
Click to expand...

That doesn't look anything like a real Rage XL - looks like a cheap and nasty modern board that happens to use a Rage XL chip (probably one of the chips commonly used on Server motherboards).


Real examples here:
www.vgamuseum.info

VGA Legacy MKIII - ATI Rage XL

Die shrinked Rage Pro Turbo with integrated TMDS for flat panels and motion compensation. Also known as mach64 GM.ProLiant ML330 Server Feature Board info, manual (Pdf), Remote Insight Lights-Out Edition II info Palcal's cards: Vlask's cards: Compaq Server Feature Board is from...
www.vgamuseum.info www.vgamuseum.info
 
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GR63 said:
Should be period appropriate.. I remember how ATI had all the cool names like Rage Fury Maxx and the like... but the cards were a bit tame
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The Maxx was the very much not tame one, the dual chip big daddy.

But that is true of other Rage Fury cards, as well as most cards of that era honestly...
 
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Akagi said:
The Maxx was the very much not tame one, the dual chip big daddy.

But that is true of other Rage Fury cards, as well as most cards of that era honestly...
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Maxx never excited me BITD.... I always thought the best (not fastest) ATI cards were the All-in-Wonder versions as I used to do a lot of video capture in those days
 
LewisRaz said:
Those are brand new ones from china, was tempted to see what they are like but never did get around to it
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They are new cards or at least the PCB is but the chips are from 1998. There not bad although they are not the best but they do the job for a budget build. Maybe we will see more New retro PC stuff coming from China as more vintage hardware becomes more expensive and harder to find.
 
Retro6 said:
They are new cards or at least the PCB is but the chips are from 1998. There not bad although they are not the best but they do the job for a budget build. Maybe we will see more New retro PC stuff coming from China as more vintage hardware becomes more expensive and harder to find.
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You can get re-mfred Soundblasters in PCIE bus too
 
Retro6 said:
Any thoughts on the PCi ATi XL RAGE 8MB 2D/3D VGA Card from 1998?

I thought I would buy one to see what it is like in early retro gaming. I paid 10 pounds for mine



The good thing is its PCi so if you have a board with no AGP or ISA then this card maybe a good candidate for a budget retro build.
Click to expand...
Don't buy these new cards, all the ones I see on Ebay are exactly the same with the new PCB. They got a new BIOS that break compatibility with old motherboards. I bought one a couple years ago and can confirm that.
If you're looking for a PCI card, get it from this guy, I got an offer for it, but I don't need it, I already got enough cards - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/395227648488
Also, more info here - https://www.vintage3d.org/rageXL.php
 
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