What retro things have you done today?

paradigm said:
Dual-P3 1GHZ. Tyan Apollo Pro 133a board. 2GB RAM, SB Live 1024, Geforce 4 Ti4200, 2x 80GB HDD in RAID0. Currently running Windows 2000, housed in the ATCS-201.

Shuttle SB51G, Socket 478 Pentium 4 2.8GHz @ 3.15GHz. 2GB RAM, Quadro FX1000 (Geforce FX5800), 40GB HDD. Running XP SP1a.

Sun Ultra 40 Workstation. Dual Socket 940 Opteron 280 (2.4GHz), 16GB DDR, SLI GTX 480, 4x 500GB HDD in RAID 5. Running Server 2008 (not R2, so Vista).
Click to expand...

Those would be my choices to get rig of. I'd keep the Epox dually rather than the Tyan just because Tyan stuff is so common. P4 doesn't really offer anything not already covered by either the remaining P3 dually or the AM2 Shuttle. Sun Ultra 40 whilst slightly interesting, is still just a relatively modern dual x86 box, rather than their more interesting earlier SPARC stuff.

No idea on Mac stuff, but possibly over represented there as well.

paradigm said:
I’ve got a matched pair of S604 P4 Netburst Xeons that I was going to do something with.
Click to expand...
Don't - they aren't big and aren't clever :)
If you really want another Dual (or even Quad!) project, track down some Pentium Pros. (Which reminds me, I'm fairly sure I still have an old Dual Socket 8 RM? Server at my parents house)


EDIT:
Ouch... but if money was no object then I reckon I would:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intel-Pe...ollection-150mhz-200mhz-Keychain/183810711083
 
Last edited:
That seems about right, it's certainly gone up over the few years I've been building from "trash" to, well, £8.

(Note that Windows 98 can only handle 512Mb and the unofficial patch that gets round that limitation brings quite a few issues itself)
 
paradigm said:
snip
Click to expand...


We all have different goals but personally from your collection I would probably keep the 233mmx as I really lusted over MMX back in the day when I was still using my dx4(I was using dx4 until 2000s!!). Probably wouldnt get used much tho!
Then probably make the fastest P3 you can with an isa slot for sound and then a voodoo 3.
And one of the shuttles for the XP stuff.

That would nicely cover dos/95 with the mmx. 98 with the p3 and xp with the shuttle!

My machines (currently built. Still have this 2003 build to do...)
Trigem OEM mobo/case with dx2 66 and 32mb ram. SB 2.0. 500mb CF. Dos 6.22/win3.11. This machine is a little special to me as I got it from a terrible state to one that is really usable but the case is a bit beaten up and I have spent out more than I think I could get back on it.

AT desktop case with 3digit speed display. 486 dx4 100 32mb ram. 2gb CF. VLB i/o and vga. Sound galaxy NX pro. Win 95. This machine while a pleasure to build and get running is just awkward. Its interesting but a bit sluggish. I could probably make good money on this one splitting it for parts...

Toshiba satellite 4000CDT. p2 233mhz with 32mb ram. onboard yamaha audio and 2mb chips & tech gpu. Windows 98. This is actually a great little laptop but the cmos battery has gone in it and its a fiddly job to sort. I really should get on it because they can leak.

Compaq deskpro. P2 450mhz with 192mb ram. onboard audio and an odd form factor ati rage turbo 8mb. Windows ME. This is actually a really nice machine to use and is another one I was pleased to restore even if it was only a strip down and clean. it is however HUGE and heavy.

NoS desktop case. P3 @ 950mhz. 512mb ram. 16gb CF. AWE32 and voodoo 3. Windows 98. This machine is my go to rig. Everything about it is great its so compatible and runs flawlessly. If not a little bit loud. It could also be considered that is cost me nothing as every piece was part of a "lot" where the other parts will sell for more than the outlay.

Compaq deskpro. p3 1ghz with 512mb ram. built in audio and TNT2 pro. 1gb HDD. Windows 98. This is a strong machine really and is SFF but no AGP or ISA just make it seem a bit dull. Even if it is perfectly fine without them.

Mesh beige tower case. Athlon 1ghz. 512mb ram. SBLive. GF3 ti 200. 40gb hdd. Windows 98. Perfectly fine machine but ISA is now gone so we are done with DOS and moving forward to XP ERA performance. Does not compete with other systems I have(or will have) for XP so is collecting dust.

very cheap black case. Athlon 1600xp+(I think) 256mb ram. (this board is really fussy with memory) GF4 mx440. Audigy 2. 20gb HDD. Windows XP. Built from random parts. Runs great but quite slow for XP Era systems.

I think I should lose at least the compaqs and the athlons. probably 1 or both 486s too but I am slightly attached to them.
 
almoststew1990 said:
That seems about right, it's certainly gone up over the few years I've been building from "trash" to, well, £8.

(Note that Windows 98 can only handle 512Mb and the unofficial patch that gets round that limitation brings quite a few issues itself)
Click to expand...

Thanks, seemed expensive vs what i remember a few years back!

Was running 768mb back in the day, i presume either ME (cant remember when i switched from 98SE) or XP, but will find out!
 
I don't like having too many systems on the go and only have two power supplies, three cases, one spot for a PC that is permanently set up and one "workbench" spot on top of my desk. So only ever have two assembled retro PCs, usually an XP or 7 PC and a W98/DOS PC. Hence my love of having one PC that can do a wide range of games!

I do have quite a few parts and I've been meaning to have a clear out - maybe a couple of sound cards, a couple of ISA video cards. A motherboard or two (I don't need three 775 motherboards!) Also test all my RAM so I can no doubt bin half of it!
 
paradigm said:
Apple PowerMac G4 Cube. Dual G4-500MHz CPUs, 768MB RAM, 80GB HDD, Geforce 2MX, airport card. Also have the 20” Cinema display, keyboard and mouse for this. Running OS X 10.4.
Click to expand...

Awesome, I've had my eye on one of these forever. Have no use for it really, other than to look at and say "that's awesome and way ahead of it's time." :D
 
This morning I gave up with my dumb soundcard idea and put my Slot 1 PC back in. I never really got stuck into testing out the 800MHz (oc to 900) CPU so that is my plan at 'lunchtime'. Considering all the problems I've had lately with my retro and not-particularly-retro PCs, everything installed first time which was nice. I've now games ranging from Fury 3 to Battlefield 1942 installed on it, and DOS set up perfectly using Phil's easy DOS set up thing with the AWE32. It's in the boring case as it has an exhaust fan which I thought would help it along!

Here is my set up in general...

hFmA0Rfh.jpg

Work laptop on the right (and on-screen), main desktop on the right, Windows 7 desktop on the left (for halo 2 primarily, then it will be replaced by something) and the Windows 98 PC I made today top left. So not much space for excess computers! It also gets confusing with four mice on one desk...
 
Last edited:
Dear eBay sellers,

When you send components sensitive to electrostatic discharge through the post, bubble wrap or an envelope is not sufficient. You would send a Ming vase in a carrier bag would you? Grr.

Two sellers, one sent RAM in a plain paper brown envelope and the other sent a CPU in bubble wrap resulting in bent pins. What goes through some people's skulls?

/Rant
 
randal said:
Dear eBay sellers,

When you send components sensitive to electrostatic discharge through the post, bubble wrap or an envelope is not sufficient. You would send a Ming vase in a carrier bag would you? Grr.

Two sellers, one sent RAM in a plain paper brown envelope and the other sent a CPU in bubble wrap resulting in bent pins. What goes through some people's skulls?

/Rant
Click to expand...
Oh yes people just don’t seem to care. The last one was my Voodoo 3 3000, a card that sells for a fair price rather than a pittance. It was sent between two sheets of card, and an A4 envelope.

Madness. It’s not as if I wouldn’t have claimed if it was DoA. Would a box really have cost too much to source?

Even when I sent @LewisRaz a 486 for free, it was packaged properly.
 
@paradigm that was packed well enough to survive anything!

I too am the same with packing. I save every piece of packing material that I can, much to the annoyance of the Mrs. I hate to think of things getting wasted by couriers breaking them. The last 2 vintage sytems I purchased whole both were damaged in shipping.

The VLB VGA card I received recently was just in a jiffy bag. The pci bracket had actually pierced it and was outside of the bag...

@randal are you able to repair the bits that you got?

Just got outbid on this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1431.l2649
Geforce 256 and geforce 2 GTS in there.

Last night I installed tony hawks 2 as I saw it had 3dfx support... And is also one of the greatest games ever. Plays lovely in 1024x768
 
Well that's my mind blown! How do you get 3DFX support on THPS2? I spent much of my childhood playing that (fortunately on a TNT of some kind otherwise I'd be very annoyed that I didn't enable Glide if I had had a Voodoo of some kind...). my PlayStation friends didn't understand how I could work the "C V B Space controls" so well! I reckon I've still got the memory muscles so I might have to track down a copy!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom