TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[Trekkie4]

Wow, lifetime warranty... Even if it's limited, I'm still genuinely and honestly surprised! Especially considering how hot these things could get! Heck, one of the most common mods to Voodoo3 cards was adding a small (30x30) fan to the original heatsink, to prevent GPU damage

 

[Retrorockit]

You'd have to open it to register the warranty. Hers is creepier because it's bigger than life. Full size images in my album at http://www.overclock.net/g/a/1298590/default#
They can be expanded to full screen there, click image then select original.

 

[R-T-B]

I remember old operating systems (Windows 9X) which came in bulky cardboard boxes ... especially Windows 95 which had two stacks of floppy disks

Meh, got nothing on OS/2 Warp 3:

That's the small "red spine" edition that didn't come with integrated windows 3.1 support.

I think the blue spine one I had had around 72 floppy disks. Yes, it wanted them all, and to make matters worse, if you inserted the wrong floppy, the installer started over!

Warp 4 got smart and went to CD, but still had the option of custom making a floppy disk set. It took over 100 floppies. Good times.

Of course IBM never got the advertising right. Warp speed? Nah! Let's tell the users to WARP THEIR COMPUTER PHYSICALLY! WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG WITH THIS ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN?

Only people with warped minds bought it, like me... Or maybe that was just all the floppies...

 

[Retrorockit]

That was the OS at Penske Truck Leasing (oops Hertz- Penske back then) for their entire operation when I stared there. They stuck with it for a long time too. I don't remember ever seeing Win 98, I think XP Pro was the first Microsoft they used. It seemed very stable and reliable.
I bought that set, but never found a reason to use it. It's long gone now.

 

[R-T-B]

That was the OS at Penske Truck Leasing (oops Hertz- Penske back then) for their entire operation when I stared there. They stuck with it for a long time too. I don't remember ever seeing Win 98, I think XP Pro was the first Microsoft they used. It seemed very stable and reliable.
I bought that set, but never found a reason to use it. It's long gone now.

Warp 4.52 (last version) was indeed pretty solid. In many ways it held it's ground with windows 2000. Not bad for something no one seemed to develop for.

 

[Retrorockit]

I don't think anybody developed malware for it either. It really was pretty solid for business use. IBM you would expect that

 

[micropage7]

Meh, got nothing on OS/2 Warp 3:

That's the small "red spine" edition that didn't come with integrated windows 3.1 support.

I think the blue spine one I had had around 72 floppy disks. Yes, it wanted them all, and to make matters worse, if you inserted the wrong floppy, the installer started over!

Warp 4 got smart and went to CD, but still had the option of custom making a floppy disk set. It took over 100 floppies. Good times.

Of course IBM never got the advertising right. Warp speed? Nah! Let's tell the users to WARP THEIR COMPUTER PHYSICALLY! WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG WITH THIS ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN?

Only people with warped minds bought it, like me... Or maybe that was just all the floppies...

omg, but its great you keep them nicely
the last time i used floppy when i was on college about 2000s

 

[Red_Machine]

My Voodoo5 is currently rotting in the box, as I have no motherboard capable of taking it.

 

[Trekkie4]

You'd have to open it to register the warranty. Hers is creepier because it's bigger than life. Full size images in my album at http://www.overclock.net/g/a/1298590/default#
They can be expanded to full screen there, click image then select original.

Seriously! This thing belongs to a museum! Creepy or not, some collectors would be willing to pay top dollar for a card such as this one! I know I would... If I could afford it Don't get me wrong, I do have my share of Voodoo3 cards (2x 2000, 2x 3000 and 1x 3500) but this one is just perfect in every way!


On a side note - got the 486! Apparently I was the 1st (and only?) one to call lol Still have to go pick it up, so you'll have to wait for a day or two before I'll be able to post any pics.

EDIT
@Red_Machine You know, I would give you an offer for that unused Voodoo5 of yours since we are both in EU, but since I'm not in the best financial situation right now, I'll have to keep waiting & hoping for the best.

EDIT2
Speaking of 3dfx, here's something interesting to watch on YT... Kinda sad that they had to rip it open, but I can understand why.

 

[Retrorockit]

I'm sure you know this, but for others who may look here. The Voodoo 5500 AGP cards were 3.3V. AGP 1.0, Voodoo 5500s were known for "letting the smoke out" of later 1.5V. AGP 2.0, and .8V. AGP 3.0 Motherboards. Some boards were backwards compatible, many were not. So if you get your hands on one of these don't think you can put in any AGP slot motherboard. Other Voodoo cards just wouldn't run due to lack of voltage, but the 5500 with it's Molex connector could do some damage.

 

[Red_Machine]

I used to have a Gigabyte universal AGP board, but I threw the system out when I got bored and wanted to move onto something else. Really wish I hadn't now, as that was the only board I've ever owned that was compatible with the Voodoo5.

 

[Frick]

Meh, got nothing on OS/2 Warp 3:

That's the small "red spine" edition that didn't come with integrated windows 3.1 support.

I think the blue spine one I had had around 72 floppy disks. Yes, it wanted them all, and to make matters worse, if you inserted the wrong floppy, the installer started over!

Warp 4 got smart and went to CD, but still had the option of custom making a floppy disk set. It took over 100 floppies. Good times.

Of course IBM never got the advertising right. Warp speed? Nah! Let's tell the users to WARP THEIR COMPUTER PHYSICALLY! WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG WITH THIS ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN?

Only people with warped minds bought it, like me... Or maybe that was just all the floppies...

I assume you've read this.

http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/11/half-an-operating-system-the-triumph-and-tragedy-of-os2/


It's a good read.

 

[Trekkie4]

The guy who owns that 486 is complicating things too much for my taste... Oh well, at least I got the case for Celeron build! Still have to go pick up that Pentium 2 board as well, we'll see how this one turns out (or doesn't)

 

[Retrorockit]

I just remembered the brand of my old 486. It was an AST 33sx. Form factors weren't nailed down yet back then. It had a proprietary riser card so the CPU socket could be updated separately from the motherboard. There may have been Pentium 60/66 versions but they were very expensive and hard to get. So I went with the cost effective Evergreen "586" 133mhz. adapter.

 

[Trekkie4]

I just remembered the brand of my old 486. It was an AST 33sx. Form factors weren't nailed down yet back then. It had a proprietary riser card so the CPU socket could be updated separately from the motherboard. There may have been Pentium 60/66 versions but they were very expensive and hard to get. So I went with the cost effective Evergreen "586" 133mhz. adapter.

Don't know if I have mentioned this, but I have a 486 in my collection already, DX4 @ 100MHz. Quite modern unit (for 486 system), even has PCI slots and uses standard, button CMOS battery rather than those bulky, rechargeable batteries which are known to leak & cause damage. Overall, it looks more like a Pentium than 486 but there IS a real 486 inside nevertheless! And I actually paid it quite a lot (approx. 15$), comparing to my other systems which I got for almost nothing! Apparently it's been used as office workstation for years, so it didn't have sound, or even CD-ROM drive, but it came with modem (or network card, don't remember). Either way, I took it out & installed "multimedia upgrade package" as they used to call it back in a day, aka CD + sound card.

This other, new 486 which I might get (not likely though) is 80MHz, I'm guessing DX2? Other than that, I have absolutely no details on this thing, other than the fact it runs & has multimedia package already installed. No mention of HDD however, but the guy said it comes Win95 & Office 95 so there has to be something inside. IDK, this guy is kinda dodgy, the entire deal seems too good to be true IMHO

 

[dorsetknob]

Voodoo 5500 AGP cards were 3.3V. AGP 1.0,

Acording to wilki
The Voodoo 5 5500 comes in three flavors: a universal AGP version (AGP 1/2x, prototypes were made with AGP4x-interface) with full sideband support, PCI, and the Mac Edition, which is only available for PCI, though could run in 66 MHz PCI slots. The Mac Edition has dual link DVI-D and VGA-A outputs, the other versions just have one VGA-out.

still a rare card and even rarer if its a mac compatable card

 

[Retrorockit]

I'm not sure that's the same thing as AGP 1.0, AGP2.0, and AGP 3.0 I think the 1x,2x. and 4x were speeds data went through the bus (like PCIe 1x, 4x, and 16x cards on same slot). I think AGP1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 were different generations of motherboard architecture. But it was a long time ago and I certainly wasn't an expert back then. I think all 5500s were 3.3V.
As far as the 486 100DX4. Did you ever look into the Evergreen 586? It was an adapter card with an AMD CPU and had some multiplier jumpers to set it to run 133mhz it's possible to get it to run faster by setting it "wrong". It fits normal 486, and Overdrive sockets ( jumper for that too). I saw some available on Amazon. But you might look out for a used one. That's how AMD got started, cloning Intel CPUs. They kept it up through the socket 7 years until Intel started to patent their Slots, and sockets.

 

[Trekkie4]

I'm not sure that's the same thing as AGP 1.0, AGP2.0, and AGP 3.0 I think the 1x,2x. and 4x were speeds data went through the bus (like PCIe 1x, 4x, and 16x cards on same slot). I think AGP1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 were different generations of motherboard architecture. But it was a long time ago and I certainly wasn't an expert back then.
As far as the 486 100DX4. Did you ever look into the Evergreen 586? It was an adapter card with an AMD CPU and had some multiplier jumpers to set it to run 133mhz it's possible to get it to run faster by setting it "wrong". It fits normal 486, and Overdrive sockets ( jumper for that too). I saw some available on Amazon. But you might look out for a used one.

Yeah, I heard about those but never got to see one for sale (at least not locally, since I usually don't buy stuff online through Amazon or ebay) In fact, I remember someone posting a picture of this thing, but at this point I honestly don't remember when & where exactly. Wasn't on TPU, that's for sure... Might have been Overclock.net or even YT.

Speaking of which, here's something really cool ... A guide on "buying a Computer in 1995" - LINK
More on "Multimedia upgrade package", 486 & old tech - LINK

EDIT
Woohoo!! Found it!!

 

[Retrorockit]

Here's a fun page I found full of weird old stuff.
http://www.cpushack.com/UpgradeProcessors.html#evergreen
The Evergreens could run 4X40Mhz. for 160 486 speed.

 

[Trekkie4]

Ha, was just looking at the same page couple of minutes ago What caught my attention was S423 to S478 adapter card, as I once owned S423 Pentium system (Asus P4-T) and couldn't upgrade to anything better (due to unusual socket and/or expensive rambus memory)

 

[Retrorockit]

Powerleaps ISA single board computers look pretty cool.
I wonder if you could put 3-4 of them in a 486 and drive a bunch of monitor at once.

 

[dorsetknob]

that's one nostalgia CPU i lack a socket 423 P4 went to a P111 370 800Mhz bypassed p4 s423 and straight to 2.0ghz P4 s478

 

[Trekkie4]

that's one nostalgia CPU i lack a socket 423 P4 went to a P111 370 800Mhz bypassed p4 s423 and straight to 2.0ghz P4 s478

Like I said - had one and it's been way overrated IMHO! I remember buying this thing in 2001, every magazine and tech folks were talking about it. It had 1500MHz on previously mentioned Asus P4-T, in combination with newly introduced RIMM RAM modules. I had two of them in 2x 64mb configuration, therefore 128mb in total... This all seemed very cool until it was the time to upgrade 1st I wanted to OC, so I needed to upgrade my cooling solution to something better. Of course, you'd think finding a S423 would be easy (especially in 2003, 2004) but nope - couldn't find one for months, they've all been S478 or S370! Then, FINALLY one day, a friend of mine gave me his Thermaltake GoldenOrb, adopted for S423. Wasn't much of an upgrade honestly, but it looked better than the original thing!

Few months later, I've noticed that XP is slowing down, especially during gaming so I figured it's finally time to upgrade RAM. That is, until I saw the price tag for RIMM modules! Of course, at first I couldn't find any - just like I couldn't find S423 CPU cooler, but eventually stumbled upon small hardware shop online. Their price was unreasonable, so I never did get the RAM upgrade for this thing & eventually sold the entire mobo, with CPU, cooler & RIMM all bundled together.

Now looking back, I do feel kinda sad for selling it, but then again, this P4-T brought me nothing but trouble And apparently I'm not the only one to feel this way, as neither S423 or RIMM got to "stick" around, for years to come! Even today, you can still find the running systems which use either S370, Socket A or even Slot-1 along with SD-memory, while S423 & RIMM are almost impossible to find! Therefore, being old & obsolete is not an excuse.

 

[Retrorockit]

I just came across a post that 5X86 performs better at 3X50Mhz= 150 than at 4x40Mhz.=160 due to faster memory bus.

 

[Trekkie4]

No words to describe these pics!



Now my head is full of ideas on what to do with this thing. Shall I rip the mobo out & swap it for the "real" thing with external controllers & VESA graphics? Because I DO have a real thing in one of the boxes, it even has a 66MHz 486 already on it This one is somewhat faster, 80Mhz but the modern-ish mobo kinda ruins the retro atmosphere. IDK, what do you guys think?