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TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

stinger608 just messaged me and told me about this thread. Wow, I'm loving this stuff! I got into computers when my dad bought his first 486, which I still have around and is currently hooked up. Then I ran a super socket 7 and a socket 370 system for years, I think I ran Win98 till 2006! I didn't even have an XP system till I built my first gaming rig, which then a year later Vista came out. Then I went back and "maxed out" the socket 7 and 370, and both of them are still running. Mainly I just always wanted these rigs to fly back when I first used them, and now they do.

When I get a chance I'll get some pictures and go a lot deeper into specs and stuff. I can tell you guys this though: Those modern PCI nvidia cards, like ZOTAC ZT-60604-10L GeForce GT 610 512MB 64-bit DDR... will work on boards as old as socket 7 (you just need a pci 2.3 slot I believe and an OS for the drivers). But ideally you'll want to go no older than socket 370, cause you'll want the SSE instructions on the CPU (pentium III is the oldest to have this). So for a system with a AMD k6 (no SSE), you won't be able to run anything 3d- the drivers bluescreen. Modern ATI/AMD cards, in my experience, won't go on anything older than a socket 370.

And for OS, WinXP will run on socket 7 if you have at least 512 ram. Vista and Win7 will run on socket 370/Pentium III rigs, only you probably won't like it. Win8 WANTS SSE2, so I wouldn't bother, however I did get it running on a socket 370 but it crashed every so often. So I use Fedora 19 i686 instead, and it works pretty well.

For older systems, I use the fanmade "Unofficial Windows 98 SE Service Pack"

or
Random Murderer said:
You might want to try Damn Small Linux.
Click to expand...

^That. I have gotten Damn Small Linux to boot and run on a 486 with 16mb ram (I later maxed it out to 36mb). These older rigs though have shoddy old cd-rom drives that have trouble running live cds, so I'd replace them first to make installation quicker and less error prone.

There's also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_Core_Linux which seems to be more frequently worked on.
 
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Veeshush said:
For older systems, I use the fanmade "Unofficial Windows 98 SE Service Pack"

or


^That. I have gotten Damn Small Linux to boot and run on a 486 with 16mb ram (I later maxed it out to 36mb). These older rigs though have shoddy old cd-rom drives that have trouble running live cds, so I'd replace them first to make installation quicker and less error prone.

There's also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_Core_Linux which seems to be more frequently worked on.
Click to expand...

I love DSL. I had it running on a 486DX with 16MB RAM for a while.
 
The DSL is it like Xubuntu on the way it looks and icons and functions work? If yes I could possibly put into an older Dell for a kid.
 
Dell P4-478 2.53 celeron 512megs ddr333 with onboard graphic. It needs to be easy enough to be understood by a 10 yo kid that I am not living near. So I can't go there each time to explain.
 
Oh, don't go DSL if it's actually for a 10 year old.

Just put Ubuntu or Fedora on, I know Fedora doesn't chew up more than 512 ram normally. The CPU is beefy enough for sure. Both will do anything Windows will, besides heavy gaming. You may even be able to play something like Minecraft on it, maybe Cube 2: Sauerbraten (and this only depending how good the onboard is) And Flash for youtube and games for sure.

The kid is probably going to want games. Hell, I'd want games.
 
Veeshush said:
Oh, don't go DSL if it's actually for a 10 year old.

Just put Ubuntu or Fedora on, I know Fedora doesn't chew up more than 512 ram normally. The CPU is beefy enough for sure. Both will do anything Windows will, besides heavy gaming. You may even be able to play something like Minecraft on it, maybe Cube 2: Sauerbraten. And Flash for youtube and games for sure.

The kid is probably going to want games. Hell, I'd want games.
Click to expand...

The computer is jamming even on Google Chrome. So I need to find something good. My bad about GPU its a 64megs AGP 4X...still better than the onboard.
 
The web browsers are ram hungry, so it's probably the ram doing it.

Whatever you pick though, even if it's easy to understand- if it's boring as piss then no ten year old is going to use it anyway.

edit

Try this for a web browser as a last resort:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dillo
 
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Veeshush said:
stinger608 just messaged me and told me about this thread. Wow, I'm loving this stuff! I got into computers when my dad bought his first 486, which I still have around and is currently hooked up. Then I ran a super socket 7 and a socket 370 system for years, I think I ran Win98 till 2006! I didn't even have an XP system till I built my first gaming rig, which then a year later Vista came out. Then I went back and "maxed out" the socket 7 and 370, and both of them are still running. Mainly I just always wanted these rigs to fly back when I first used them, and now they do.

When I get a chance I'll get some pictures and go a lot deeper into specs and stuff. I can tell you guys this though: Those modern PCI nvidia cards, like ZOTAC ZT-60604-10L GeForce GT 610 512MB 64-bit DDR... will work on boards as old as socket 7 (you just need a pci 2.3 slot I believe and an OS for the drivers). But ideally you'll want to go no older than socket 370, cause you'll want the SSE instructions on the CPU (pentium III is the oldest to have this). So for a system with a AMD k6 (no SSE), you won't be able to run anything 3d- the drivers bluescreen. Modern ATI/AMD cards, in my experience, won't go on anything older than a socket 370.

And for OS, WinXP will run on socket 7 if you have at least 512 ram. Vista and Win7 will run on socket 370/Pentium III rigs, only you probably won't like it. Win8 WANTS SSE2, so I wouldn't bother, however I did get it running on a socket 370 but it crashed every so often. So I use Fedora 19 i686 instead, and it works pretty well.

For older systems, I use the fanmade "Unofficial Windows 98 SE Service Pack"

or


^That. I have gotten Damn Small Linux to boot and run on a 486 with 16mb ram (I later maxed it out to 36mb). These older rigs though have shoddy old cd-rom drives that have trouble running live cds, so I'd replace them first to make installation quicker and less error prone.

There's also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_Core_Linux which seems to be more frequently worked on.
Click to expand...


WELCOME! :toast: and i LOVE DSL too!
 
Windows is surprisingly tolerant of slow hardware. Not quite to the extent that Linux can be (I really have to emphasize can though). I have a Socket 370 which is actually quite fun to play with. 1,400 MHz Pentium III-S. Not a big deal or anything. Just the fastest mass produced Socket 370 processor EVER MADE.
 
xvi said:
I have a Socket 370 which is actually quite fun to play with. 1,400 MHz Pentium III-S. Not a big deal or anything. Just the fastest mass produced Socket 370 processor EVER MADE.
Click to expand...

YEP I am home here! I got one too, granted I bought it in 2008 or so for very cheap compared to back then. Love that thing though.
 
:toast: First, welcome to the club Veeshush! :respect:

Can't wait to see some pictures of the ole hardware bro! :respect::respect::respect:
 
_JP_ said:
Alright, more old hardware.

Assorted SDRAM DIMMs
http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/6277/sany0204f.jpg
From left to right: 3x 256MB 133MHz SS and 2x 128MB 133MHz DS.

http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/8528/sany0202.jpg
Matsonic MS7117C (A.K.A. ECS P6BAP-A+)

http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/2474/sany0200.jpg
Coppermine 800EB

http://img810.imageshack.us/img810/4523/imgp0004ja.jpg
And I'll let you guess this last one. I'll post a pic with the cooler after it's recognition. :)
Click to expand...

Radeon X1650 Pro 512MB agp 8x
 
xvi said:
Windows is surprisingly tolerant of slow hardware. Not quite to the extent that Linux can be (I really have to emphasize can though). I have a Socket 370 which is actually quite fun to play with. 1,400 MHz Pentium III-S. Not a big deal or anything. Just the fastest mass produced Socket 370 processor EVER MADE.
Click to expand...

well my PIII Slot1 run flawlessly under XP home with "only" 256mb and a Rage LT for my other "old" rig XP does fine too (what do you expect ... its a Athlon "XP" rig xD)

xenocide21 said:
Radeon X1650 Pro 512MB agp 8x
Click to expand...

damn i need to be more active i missed that guess competition :D

also i revived a ACER Aspire 5735Z using win XP and a Core 2 Duo T7250 (originaly it come with a Pentium T3200) i love my local dump :D like new but under 7 the LCD Inverter was going disco while under XP it doesnt ... i need to DL a image of vista to try it also xD

before
cpu-z.jpg


after
http://valid.canardpc.com/mceveb
 
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I got a cfl tube for 15$ and another 15$ for an inverter shipping included on ebay. 30$ to revive the screen.
 
bump this up for the new forums :p
 
xvi said:
Windows is surprisingly tolerant of slow hardware. Not quite to the extent that Linux can be (I really have to emphasize can though). I have a Socket 370 which is actually quite fun to play with. 1,400 MHz Pentium III-S. Not a big deal or anything. Just the fastest mass produced Socket 370 processor EVER MADE.
Click to expand...

I ran Windows 7 Ultimate for a time on dual 700Mhz P3 Xeons. Pretty snappy for a 15-year-old platform.
 
Veeshush said:
YEP I am home here! I got one too, granted I bought it in 2008 or so for very cheap compared to back then. Love that thing though.
Click to expand...
Oh, yes. I bought mine off eBay for approximately $5 a couple years ago, I believe. They're not practical by any means, but they're fun. I think the P3-S works in dual-cpu boards too. I'd like to do a nostalgia build some day like that.

m1919 said:
I ran Windows 7 Ultimate for a time on dual 700Mhz P3 Xeons. Pretty snappy for a 15-year-old platform.
Click to expand...
We have a dual P3 server at work that I stuck Debian on and it did a rather good job as an internal server until the head honcho came down and said "Why are you still using that thing? Stick that upstairs. You can't do anything with that!"
 
Now I'm looking for oldskool tower cases. Specifically the old Gateway 2000 stuff.

gateway2000.JPG


2c1abcd7_vbattach76423.jpeg
 
That is a dream. Beige cases are going to make a comeback someday
 
Awesome!
IIRC, akasa had a 3.5'' card reader with a beige cover...would go neat in one of those cases.
 
I used to have a P5-100, but I was like 9 at the time and ripped it apart and now I have nothing left to show of it.

It was a pretty decent case though, had enough room for a Dual Athlon MP system I threw into it at one point and then some.
 
Frick said:
Windows XP on a P2 233Mhz is quite slow.

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/867yy/ - PRODUCT OF MEXICO
http://valid.canardpc.com/5n9w6i

Will sort out some pictures later, didn't have a mouse so I didn't bother with screenshotting.
Click to expand...
agreed, my 2 laptop with PII : linux only but PIII starting with 450mhz to XXXXmhz run fine with XP, just like my Veriton board and "only" 256mb ram + a RageLT

sidenote: that would be weird that a PIII would not run fine XP and a Athlon Pluto core would ... i know intel suck big time ... oh wait nonononono NO i did not mean that! i meant AMD was a BIG shot with the K7 ... then ... void and emptiness, still good but not the excellency from the K6-2/III, Athlon and Athlon XP, sad sad ... so now everytime i think about AMD im filled with nostalgia of the past time when they where a good competitor for Intel
 
AMD was pretty rare here until the XP:s came along and crapped all over the P4:s.
 
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