What retro things have you done today?

phatboy · 19 Nov 2025 at 07:18

CapitalOne said:
Been busy at work so I haven't done much recently, however I did go up in the loft just now and I have a whole load of crud up there

This is my old board though, genuine "loft find", needs some TLC but I think I even have the LN2 bucket these came with (it's only a 920 in there)

The branding and marketing on older PC hardware never disappointments does it!

Bloodrage and Quantum Force on the same board

. It's like 2 Jean Claude Van Damme movies!

My next build is going to be on the 1366 socket. It's one I never had the money to get when it was officially on sale and the Xeon 5650 looks like a fun chip to use as a base and overclock

CapitalOne · 21 Nov 2025 at 10:01

phatboy said:
The branding and marketing on older PC hardware never disappointments does it!

Bloodrage and Quantum Force on the same board . It's like 2 Jean Claude Van Damme movies!

My next build is going to be on the 1366 socket. It's one I never had the money to get when it was officially on sale and the Xeon 5650 looks like a fun chip to use as a base and overclock

I love it

Once i've dusted of the "Quantum Force Bloodrage GTI" and got it working I'll post the details.

Fonz-Valo · 21 Nov 2025 at 21:22

I may have finally folded and purchased a Voodoo 2 for the Packard Bell... Pics will eventually follow lol

phatboy · 22 Nov 2025 at 07:00

Fonz-Valo said:
I may have finally folded and purchased a Voodoo 2 for the Packard Bell... Pics will eventually follow lol

In fairness you won't regret it. Such great cards

The boost they give a system is nuts

CapitalOne · 22 Nov 2025 at 11:22

Did a bit of tidying. I think I have an inner "shopkeeper". My Athlon "collection" is probably too much. The FX60 is in a build. The FX62 is new and sealed.

I did not specify what I tidied, and it obviously wasn't the desk!

LewisRaz · 22 Nov 2025 at 14:17

Seeing those sempron gives me some nice nostalgia vibes. I remember being bored one day and driving to PC world and building a PC that I didnt want or need but the cost was so low so I did it for the fun of it!

CapitalOne · 22 Nov 2025 at 14:48

LewisRaz said:
Seeing those sempron gives me some nice nostalgia vibes. I remember being bored one day and driving to PC world and building a PC that I didnt want or need but the cost was so low so I did it for the fun of it!

I'm glad I am not the only one who's done that, in fact it appears I am still doing it

PC World on Purley Way got the occasional Sunday hammering.

cee-S-dee · 22 Nov 2025 at 17:31

I still have a Socket 754 Board Knocking about somewhere. Some VIA Chipset MSI one with a 3500+ chip

Fonz-Valo · 24 Nov 2025 at 13:06

phatboy said:
In fairness you won't regret it. Such great cards

The boost they give a system is nuts

Just seeing Quake playing at such a smooth frame rate on it has been amazing, I used to play online via wireplay on that exact PC but obviously using the S3 video and that seemed ok at the time... Boy I was wearing some low fps glasses to think that was smooth at the time lol

Just for the fun of it I installed Quake 3 to see how it would run, it wasn't a great experience but I managed to beat crash and ranger lol It's just funny to see Quake 3 running on a Pentium 1 in the first place.

LewisRaz · 24 Nov 2025 at 20:04

You had quake 3 running on a pentium 1? Wow haha

Fonz-Valo · 25 Nov 2025 at 09:47

LewisRaz said:
You had quake 3 running on a pentium 1? Wow haha

It literally just scrapes base recommendations but even then I think it may mean Pentium 2 233 not Pentium 1 lol It does go to show how much grunt work the Voodoo 2 does though.
I should give UT99 a shot as according to the box it has a Pentium 1 mmx 200mhz as the minimum processor, i'm not expecting much from it but could be amusing

RevBillyG · 27 Nov 2025 at 11:38

Fonz-Valo said:
It literally just scrapes base recommendations but even then I think it may mean Pentium 2 233 not Pentium 1 lol It does go to show how much grunt work the Voodoo 2 does though.
I should give UT99 a shot as according to the box it has a Pentium 1 mmx 200mhz as the minimum processor, i'm not expecting much from it but could be amusing

Installed Unreal when it first came out on my Pentium 166mhz non-mmx.
The CD went back into the drawer until I could uprade to a Pentium 200mmx

phatboy · 27 Nov 2025 at 22:04

LewisRaz said:
You had quake 3 running on a pentium 1? Wow haha

I did this too for fun, it "ran" if you will. But it really needs the extra grunt

syks · 29 Nov 2025 at 09:03

Been playing a bunch of retro games on my steam deck using batocera which i really like, at the moment im going through kingdom hearts 2 for the ps2 which runs amazing 2.5x resolution ( could go higher) and a few other things tweaked.

Man the steam deck is a emulation beast!

CapitalOne · 29 Nov 2025 at 16:00

CapitalOne said:
I love it

Once i've dusted of the "Quantum Force Bloodrage GTI" and got it working I'll post the details.

@phatboy - all done!

First, look how filthy it is...

Removed all the heatsinks etc and gave them a good clean. Paste not too much a chore to remove

Gave it a blast, polish and brush and looking much better now

Which one to choose? I've not tested any of these

Only one choice!

Looked in the stash for some age appropriate components and picked these

Ok, all ready to go. Fingers crossed.

Bingo!

Correct OS for this I think, 64 bit for the 6GB triple channel.

Lots of faffing (pfaffing?) with drivers later (note, the right one that works is 285.62, anything in the 300.x just led to BSOD) - the money shot!!!

Ravenger · 2 Dec 2025 at 17:09

Paid for my pledge in the Vectrex Mini kickstarter which ended today, fully funded, including all stretch goals.

phatboy · 2 Dec 2025 at 18:11

CapitalOne said:
@phatboy - all done!

First, look how filthy it is...

Removed all the heatsinks etc and gave them a good clean. Paste not too much a chore to remove

Gave it a blast, polish and brush and looking much better now

Which one to choose? I've not tested any of these

Only one choice!

Looked in the stash for some age appropriate components and picked these

Ok, all ready to go. Fingers crossed.

Bingo!

Correct OS for this I think, 64 bit for the 6GB triple channel.

Lots of faffing (pfaffing?) with drivers later (note, the right one that works is 285.62, anything in the 300.x just led to BSOD) - the money shot!!!

Sorry for the delayed reply, that is awesome!

What a board, even the splash screen is cool

Also beautiful pairing with the 8800GTX. Still one of my favourite looking cards ever, that design, especially the XFX one is timeless with the "alpha dog" graphics

Fonz-Valo · 3 Dec 2025 at 17:15

phatboy said:
especially the XFX one is timeless with the "alpha dog" graphics

The XFX boxes from that era were great! I bought a 6800gt from a work mate and it came in one of those funky X shaped boxes they would sometimes use! Of course the first thing I stupidly did was get rid of the box

idiot lol

Akagi · 4 Dec 2025 at 07:28

I have this very ugly but immaculate P4 system.
The system builder logo on the front is really on there, I'm not sure how it has been printed.
Any ideas of what I could try to remove it without destroying the plastic?

https://images2.imgbox.com/3b/d7/4Mxb1aJs_o.jpg

Obviously if its dye-sub then there is no getting it off, but we'll see... I haven't tried much, just IPA and a magic eraser, when that did absolutely nothing I left it and put it in the loft.

CapitalOne · 4 Dec 2025 at 09:07

Fonz-Valo said:
The XFX boxes from that era were great! I bought a 6800gt from a work mate and it came in one of those funky X shaped boxes they would sometimes use! Of course the first thing I stupidly did was get rid of the box idiot lol

Dammit! Do we think XFX would honour the Alpha Dog dual lifetime warranty still?

AGP 6800GT, PCIE 7800GTX, 8800GT, 8800GTS (Wendel special), 9800GTX+, 2x8800 GTX