TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[biffzinker]

yesterday where the PSU suddenly stopped working makes me wonder... I suppose the only way to find out would be to power them all up, one at the time & see if they'll boot up or not.

That's one of the gotchas about the older wet capacitors on old hardware is reliability.

Edit: A little more info about the 5x86 System?

 

[Trekkie4]

Indeed... Especially when you work on a large scale, it's only a matter of time before one of these will have a fault of some sort (statistically speaking). But there's actually a good reason why I made so many systems over the years - you see, instead of stockpiling parts inside the boxes I've decided to mount them inside the case(s).

This way I can prevent (or reduce the chances) of damaging something, while the actual PC case serves as a "crate" to hold my parts. In fact, all my 3dfx cards with the exception of Voodoo3 3500 had been built into various systems, otherwise I would probably stack them inside cardboard boxes & risk chipping-off SMD components & causing damage to PCB.

Edit
Sure thing, check out the page(s) 157 & 158 for more info on 5x86 project

 

[Vario]

I got a Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 S3 Virge, might want to sell it. Its a PCI card, circa 1996. Anyone know the value?

I think I sold my Voodoo 3 about 9 months ago for around $150, eBay. If anyone here was the buyer?

 

[dorsetknob]

I got a Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 S3 Virge, might want to sell it. Its a PCI card, circa 1996. Anyone know the value?

Best idea of finding an Approx value is to see what they go for on Ebay then Sell it for slightly less ( it will go faster if less than the average price )

 

[buzzi]

@Trekkie4 let's build a retro lan party with those pcs!!!

 

[Trekkie4]

@Trekkie4 let's build a retro lan party with those pcs!!!

Funny thing, with all my experience & over 30 machines fully assembled, tested (and repaired), I never quite understood the term "lan party" ... I know they used to make motherboards with "lan party" written all over the box, but since I never had any online friends for multiplayer games, this is completely new to me.

What's the difference between a system with external (or even onboard) LAN card and "LAN Party" one?

 

[buzzi]

for lan party I mean a place where everybody carry in his computer with keyboard and mouse and they play all toghether in the same location.

lan party motherboards (i.e. DFI) as far as I remember should be the ones designed to fit in small/light cases so the rig can be easily moved around. (so the question now is: why lan party and not micro-atx?)

 

[dorsetknob]

for lan party I mean a place where everybody carry in his computer with keyboard and mouse and they play all toghether in the same location.

Really
just how many games can you get these days which you can play via a LAN (over LAN )
every game and its dogs dinner Set up almost always require you to connect via Steam or some other Internet Server
Thats not LAN that's WAN

PS LAN= Local Area Network
WAN =wide Area Network (internet conection needed)

 

[buzzi]

just how many games can you get these days which you can play via a LAN (over LAN )

none, in fact I specified retro lan party (i.e. original quake 3)

 

[dorsetknob]

you can add Descent 1 & 2 & 3
Freespace & Freespace 2
Doom doom 2
to that short list

 

[Trekkie4]

Trust me, I've seen a lot of LAN Party motherboards and there's nothing compact about them And yeah, you're right - most of them (if not all?) were DFI... Which is why I'm confused, I always figured that the LAN party system would be the same to having a LAN card inside (any) gaming rig...

As for the games, I'm pretty sure that Half-Life had a LAN multiplayer... And Carmageddon 2, those are some of the games which I'd LOVE to play on network!

Edit
Ah, OK... This is actually starting to make sense! Apparently only DFI holds the right to use and license products under "LAN Party", so I'm starting to wonder if this is some sort of marketing scheme, to improve sale rate?

Edit2
OK, so it seems that the LAN party boards have two RJ45 connectors on the back... Again, I don't see the point in buying DFI board, when I can just stick two network cards inside any ATX system & call it a "LAN party" In fact, you know what? I'll do it, I already got too many of these things laying around & doing nothing! I'll grab two identical ethernet adapters & place them inside Savage4 system, once I put it together.

 

[buzzi]

...and all quake3 related!

 

[AsRock]

none, in fact I specified retro lan party (i.e. original quake 3)

Yes today none but retro games lots .

 

[stinger608]

The DFI Lan Party series of motherboards were mainly made to cater to the "gamers" crowd.

They really weren't made compact, just a lot of flashy colors for "gamers" to install in windowed cases and show off the systems when going to "Lan Parties." Hence the name of DFI's series of motherboards.

They were usually very overclockable and had tons of features in the BIOS' for overclocking.


Talking retro Lan Parties and games; Unreal Tournament 2k3/2k4 or the original Unreal Tournament. All awesome games and still a lot of fun to mess with.

 

[Vario]

Best idea of finding an Approx value is to see what they go for on Ebay then Sell it for slightly less ( it will go faster if less than the average price )

Yep yep looks like $25 is the value.

Well if anyone wants it let me know otherwise I'll throw this thing up.

The DFI Lan Party series of motherboards were mainly made to cater to the "gamers" crowd.

They really weren't made compact, just a lot of flashy colors for "gamers" to install in windowed cases and show off the systems when going to "Lan Parties." Hence the name of DFI's series of motherboards.

They were usually very overclockable and had tons of features in the BIOS' for overclocking.


Talking retro Lan Parties and games; Unreal Tournament 2k3/2k4 or the original Unreal Tournament. All awesome games and still a lot of fun to mess with.

My college roommate in 2005 had the DFI lan party, was a badass motherboard with some pretty stellar OC achieved on his 939.

We played a lot of Lan UT 2k4, BF2, and Warcraft 3.

On a related note, I played some of the newest UT and didn't like it. I think UT99 was perfection. I don't like the 2K16 guns, the bots are idiotic compared to UT99, and the amount of extra APM required to constantly dodge in UT2K16 is just too much on my 30 year old hands.

 

[Trekkie4]

Yep yep looks like $25 is the value.

Well if anyone wants it let me know otherwise I'll throw this thing up.



My college roommate in 2005 had the DFI lan party, was a badass motherboard with some pretty stellar OC achieved on his 939.

We played a lot of Lan UT 2k4, BF2, and Warcraft 3.

On a related note, I played some of the newest UT and didn't like it. I think UT99 was perfection. I don't like the 2K16 guns, the bots are idiotic compared to UT99, and the amount of extra APM required to constantly dodge in UT2K16 is just too much on my 30 year old hands.

IMHO, it's not just Unreal Tournament... Pretty much most of the games nowdays suck in the terms of gameplay (and mechanics), comparing to the Voodoo days They are trying to make up for that by introducing HD graphics, which seems to be becoming more & more detailed every day, but during this time & process, the games lost their identity, personality. If you know what I mean, Grand Theft Auto is a perfect example...

Edit
Sooo, when was the last time you got to see someone working on a CD-ROM drive restoration?

Speaking of which, this one wasn't reading any CDs when I 1st got it inside that Athlon 1000 system, long time ago. It's been sitting around ever since, but I've decided to clean the lens, hoping it would bring it back from the dead


Model number is Teac CD-524E, it seemed way too cool to just scrap it, even though I don't usually fix these things... Personally, I consider ODDs to be "disposable" material, but this one is way too old & kinda unique to be wasted, so I gave it a fighting chance to live. Seriously, just take a look at that laser pickup, it even says "Sanyo"

 

[buzzi]

did cleaning lens work??

 

[Trekkie4]

Don't know yet Didn't have the time to hook it up, but I'm going to test it next time I get the chance. Probably when I get to finish that Savage4 system, so I'll make sure to give it a try.

Probably works OK, there was a thick layer of black dust all over the laser pickup, to the point where the lens lost their shiny (glossy) finish.

 

[buzzi]

could be dust to blame for reading DVDs but not CDs?

 

[Trekkie4]

No, this is CD-ROM unit we're talking about here. That DVD-RW is a whole other story and no, I've tried cleaning the lens but it didn't do anything. Most likely something to do with laser pickup or internal components, primarily PCB. At this point I really don't care what happened to it, as I already swapped it for two identical Pioneer DVD-RW drives. Like I said in my previous post, these things are disposable, there's tons of DVD drives out there, so there's no need to waste my time & money on repairing the old ones which doesn't work. Unless it's something trivial of course, such as worn driving belt for the eject mechanism

 

[AsRock]

Be careful with newer ones as they stopped using glass on newer ones.

 

[Trekkie4]

Not sure I understood you, you mean inside CD/DVD units?

 

[biffzinker]

Not sure I understood you, you mean inside CD/DVD units?

Probably was pointing too the Pioneer DVD-RW drives? What better way to cut costs than by changing from glass to plastic. After all you can get corrective eye-wear that uses plastic for the lenses, it's more about the coatings (prescription) on the plastic lens. I forgot contact lenses.

 

[Trekkie4]

Be careful with newer ones as they stopped using glass on newer ones.

Probably was pointing too the Pioneer DVD-RW drives? What better way to cut costs than by changing from glass to plastic. After all you can get corrective eye-wear that uses plastic for the lenses, it's more about the coatings (prescription) on the plastic lens. I forgot contact lenses.

Ah, OK! Now I get it, thanks for the tip, but no these "new" ones are older units I had to use the older models due to analog sound (music) output on the back, because they're a hardware requirement for most of the older games, such as original Half-Life, Driver & Carmageddon 2 (probably many others, as well) While on the newer models, they either no longer have it at all, or simply says "audio reserved", whatever that means

Here, I posted a pic on page 184...


Model number is Pioneer DVR-110DBK

 

[biffzinker]

Any updates @Trekkie4?