What retro things have you done today?

I had a nice system turn up today. I don't normally buy full systems, but this looked in great conditions and the parts looked to be really good also.

Its a Dan Micro Tower Intel 486 DX2 66mhz built in '94

Intel 486 DX2 66mhz
20mb ram (8x30pin Simm Modules)
Asus isa-486sv2 Rev 3.10 VLB motherboard (battery removed, no apparent damage)
Sound Blaster 16 CT-2830 SB16IDE (Genuine OPL3 onboard)
Promise VLB IDE Controller with 4mb cache
345MB Hard Disk
Cirrus Logic AcuMos ISA VGA Board
Serial/Parallel Card
Logitech Mouse Controller
Panasonic CD-Rom

Case is in lovely condition for its age. I've always liked these upside down towers. Bezel on the CD-ROM is yellowed so will try and sort that out.

I will upgrade the VGA Card to a Cirrus Logic VLB one i have and maybe fit a larger hard disk (1 or 2.1 gig)

dlDAEYTl.jpg
4vtZo45l.jpg
 
cee-S-dee said:
I had a nice system turn up today. I don't normally buy full systems, but this looked in great conditions and the parts looked to be really good also.

Its a Dan Micro Tower Intel 486 DX2 66mhz built in '94

Intel 486 DX2 66mhz
20mb ram (8x30pin Simm Modules)
Asus isa-486sv2 Rev 3.10 VLB motherboard (battery removed, no apparent damage)
Sound Blaster 16 CT-2830 SB16IDE (Genuine OPL3 onboard)
Promise VLB IDE Controller with 4mb cache
345MB Hard Disk
Cirrus Logic AcuMos ISA VGA Board
Serial/Parallel Card
Logitech Mouse Controller
Panasonic CD-Rom

Case is in lovely condition for its age. I've always liked these upside down towers. Bezel on the CD-ROM is yellowed so will try and sort that out.

I will upgrade the VGA Card to a Cirrus Logic VLB one i have and maybe fit a larger hard disk (1 or 2.1 gig)

dlDAEYTl.jpg
4vtZo45l.jpg
Click to expand...

Wowzer, where you get that from in that condition? If that CD rom works get that bezel off and soak it under the sun. :)
 
That's a great find but what the hell, it's upsidedown!

I've got two AVGA 2 cards which are also cirrus logic chips. They're some of the faster ISA cards but not up there with tsengs I think. Are you going to drop a VLB graphics card in there?
 
So I've recently become annoyed with either having to drag the 14" CRT from the garage to the office if I want to work on a "non project" machine (like the K6-3 now is), or having to use a modern 16:10 or 16:9 1080p/1200p/1440p display.

Enter today's bargain, the £6.95 5:4 (1280x1024) beige LCD:

retrolcd1.jpg


retrolcd2.jpg


It's in really nice condition (though it has had a clean in those photos using a combination of Isopropyl Alcohol, Meguires ScratchX (plastic polish), Aytoglym Fast Glass, and a Magic Eraser.

Also fresh off the delivery van is the cleanest Geforce 2 GTS/PRO I've ever seen!

gf2-pro1.jpg


gf2-pro2.jpg


gf2-pro3.jpg


And some new old stock chips for the Tag Cache Ram on my 486 board.

486-tag-ram.jpg
 
Thats a nice monitor, someone gave away a whole pc with one a on FB market a few days ago but it was a little too far to try during lockdown.

Is that GTS even used? Looks super clean!
 
mrbell1984 said:
Wowzer, where you get that from in that condition? If that CD rom works get that bezel off and soak it under the sun. :)
Click to expand...

eBay of all places. I saw it and it had no bids so asked the seller if he was listening to any offers and we come to an agreement! Yep i will certainly be looking to give it some sun bathing to bring it to its more normal colour!

almoststew1990 said:
That's a great find but what the hell, it's upsidedown!

I've got two AVGA 2 cards which are also cirrus logic chips. They're some of the faster ISA cards but not up there with tsengs I think. Are you going to drop a VLB graphics card in there?
Click to expand...

I will be putting in a Cirrus Logic CL-GD5428 with 2mb Ram. Can't have a VLB system and not use a VLB card :-)
 
ebay gets a bad rep for prices but if you are patient and look closely there can still be good deals.

I got that whole dx4vlb system + case for £80 and it came with a soundblaster 2.0... Those things sell for over 100 on thier own!
 
I find that 9 times out of 10 buying a system ends up being better value for money than individual components, as more often than not whole systems are sold by people who aren't 100% sure what they have. Components are sold by sellers who know the market. The exception to this is badly advertised components, like my K6-2 in the Socket 7 Interposer/VRM board. It was listed as something obscure like "old processors" which meant I got the CPU and VRM module/interposer for under £15 rather than the $80-100 the interposers go for on their own!
 
paradigm said:
Looking at the AGP pins, possibly not. It's a Dell OEM card I think.

It'll be used in a minute though :p

Need to see what difference it makes vs the Voodoo 3 with the K6-III.
Click to expand...

I'd expect a noticeable uplift in performance, plus other benefits I'm sure you're aware of (supports larger texture sizes, 32-bit colour, double the RAM, etc). Voodoo 3 will have the edge in compatibility with older stuff though of course. Be interested to see your benchmark results!
 
So whilst getting ready to put the GF2 into the K6-3 machine I decided to mod and flash the Voodoo 3 BIOS to reflect the overclock that I know it can handle (so I don’t have the drivers decide to revert the clocks if the PC crashes for another reason). Dumped the original ROM just fine, modded it in the editor I downloaded, saved the new modded file as a copy, and rebooted to a flashing floppy that uses DOS4GW. The bloody flash failed and now the card is dead :(

Seems quite a common occurrence for Voodoo cards to simply refuse to flash *after* erasing the ROM completes successfully. Bugger.

Looks like I’ll be desoldering the PLCC and flashing it in my minipro.

:rolleyes:
 
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