TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[Trekkie4]

Moving on, as promised

Just a Pentium 4 machine, not much to say about this one. The only special thing about it is that I've used my own, original parts from a Pentium 4 system which I had back in a day & did my best to recreate it from scratch, since I sold my Asus P4-T mobo & 1.4GHz P4 decades ago (it had 128MB of RIMM memory, in 2x 64MB configuration) This one on the other hand is P4-B, S478 and has 512MB of SD-RAM. I took the liberty of boosting up the RAM, but the video card (Matrox Millennium G450 DualHead), DVD-ROM drive, CD-RW drive, Iomega ZIP100 & Hauppauge TV tuner are original, taken from the actual system which I had back in a day. I also have the original SB128 card, since P4-T didn't have on-board sound but this one, "-B" does so I used SB128 for another, Slot-1 build instead.


Here we have yet another Voodoo3 3000 system. Very similar to the one from yesterday, except this one has more powerful CPU (933MHz) and the mobo is S370 instead of Slot-1. The other card is dial-up modem ... comes in handy for calling AOL to register my new copy of Windows 98


1st one of several Voodoo2 rigs... I got 5 sets, but only 4 of them had been put away (and therefore will have to be taken apart), while my signature rig RetroMaster 2500 remains as it is This one uses combination of 2x Diamond Monster 3DII (8MB each), along with TNT2 Pro AGP card. Also, this system is the only one to feature uniquely designed CPU speed controller. I'm guessing the former owner made it from scratch (or from some sort of electronic kit), but it was unique & pretty cool so I decided to hold onto it. Gives it more character, and looks pretty neat from the outside! Unfortunately, you can tell by the pics that it was exposed to damp environment because close inspection reveals small particles & traces of rust.


One of the 3 Pentium MMX builds... Speaking of damp environment, this one got it really bad, I noticed rust traces along the case, where it was dripping onto the bottom plate Again, don't know if it works or not, I gave it a quick try, powered it up without the monitor, and it DOES light (and spin) up, but doesn't do anything... So either CMOS battery is dead, keyboard error kicked in (since I didn't have one properly connected) or the mobo entirely stopped working. I guess we'll find out soon!


Athlon 1000, you guys might remember this one from that pic where the entire CPU was coated into TIM... And yes, caps are bulging pretty badly, so it's only a matter of time before it'll break down. So I'll either have to swap the mobo OR replace the caps...


One of my latest finds, before I "retired" - Pentium 3 600! Has Abit BE6-II, Slot-1 mobo and ATI Rage128 Pro card, along with PCI sound & dial-up modem. It's running Windows 98 & has more than enough muscle to pull almost any game up to 2002, 2003.


My one and ONLY "business class" retro system. Business class as in retro system that's not designed for retro gaming. I only made this one for the sake of statistics, so that I could have at least one system that's not intended for playing games. With that being said, I got absolutely no purpose for it, other than gathering dust & taking up space Powered by Asus TUSI-M mobo, in combination with Celeron (@ 1000MHz, Tualatin) and 512MB of RAM. Has on-board graphics and sound, and it's running Windows 2k


Remember what I said yesterday, about Dell Optiplex GX110, how I have both desktop & tower design? Well this one here is the other one, so called "pizza box" Pretty cute IMHO, I got it years ago but it was missing certain parts which I eventually replaced & gave it a new life. Video is TNT2 Vanta (PCI), and it has SB Live! 0220 underneath (but you can't really see it in these pics) CPU is identical to the one from 1st Voodoo3 3000 system, mentioned yesterday. Passively cooled P3, running at 733MHz. I bought a matching pair years ago, these probably came from a HP workstation or server-type system which had 2 identical CPU cartridges.


Another "desktop" case, this time Pentium MMX. Identical to the one mentioned above, except this one uses SCSI hard drive & Adaptec controller. Just like the 1st one, this system also has Voodoo1 inside (Diamond Monster 3D, 4MB), along with ATI Mach64 PCI


And last but not least, my RetroMaster 1000. You'll have to excuse me for this particular pic, my phone battery died just as I was taking last couple of pics, so I wasn't able to use flash. Which is why I only took one pic, but even in all this darkness you can still (kinda) recognize what's going on inside... Powered by Pentium II, 350MHz it has a matching pair of Creative 3D Blaster (Voodoo2, 12MB) cards and SB Live audio. Originally it was designed with Aureal Vortex 2 in mind, but I moved this card into my other RetroMaster, the current one "2500" when I upgraded to new mobo several months ago. I'm also planning to upgrade AGP graphics at some point to GeForce2 MX200 or even something simple as Savage4 to take advantage of both AGP and PCI. The current card is Rage IIc, pretty basic model which was based off my personal Pentium 2 system from back in a day (also mentioned & shown yesterday) which also had Rage card.


Again, so much for now... Got 8 more systems to go, along with 2 more systems which I might take apart as preventive measure even though they hadn't been in the same storage as all the other ones.

 

[Disparia]

Cool, I had a P3B-F as well as that BE6-II.


Not as old, a couple 3COM 3C996B-T.

 

[Trekkie4]

I used to have both BE-6 and BE-6II ... or I still do, quite frankly I don't remember. I DO know for certain that one Abit BE6 board got scrapped, but I don't remember if it was BE-6 or BE-6II. Either way, what I do know is that I have two - either one of each or two "II" ones.

 

[Trekkie4]

Since there's not much interest into these, I won't be going into details today. In other words, just a basic description & pointing out the obvious facts

AMD 5x86 machine, which has its own, dedicated post(s) with more information pages ago...


Apart from that unfortunate HP Visualize, this here was my latest build. Just a cheap AMD chip paired up with Vanta card. Was meant to be Savage4 rig, but for some reason it just wasn't compatible with ALI chipset.


Pentium III 550, which literally fell apart earlier today & dropped onto the floor, while I was cleaning the case. Had to bolt the front face plate back on, but it looks good as new! Uhh, right? The card inside is Voodoo3 2000, AGP


Speaking of Abit BE6 & BE6-II from yesterday, here's yet another Abit board... I really hate these things, because Abit (from this era) is prone to serious capacitor failures, so it's only a matter of time I suppose This one ALSO features previously mentioned Voodoo3 2000 card.


Yet another Voodoo2 SLI rig, once again 8MB powered by Pentium 3, 500


Duron 1200, a fine example of AMD engineering (thanks to @Mr.Scott for generous donation)


Don't think I ever uploaded this one before... It's an early Slot-1 Celeron (333MHz) running Voodoo Rush (6MB). Come to think of it, I might move this card over into my Pentium Pro machine & have this one adapted, converted to Savage4 Pro! Will have to think about it


And last but not least, this one here is yet another Duron, this time "750" model. It was the very 1st retro gaming machine to obtain, apart from my own Pentium II which I owned from the very 1st day, and is currently paired with Matrox G450

 

[Trekkie4]

The OLDEST motherboard in my entire collection!


And yes, that is cassette deck mechanism with loose rubber belt

 

[Trekkie4]

Still working hard, this time replacing the bad power supply on one of my Voodoo2 SLI rigs. This particular one is powered by a Pentium 2, running at 350MHz.



You might remember this one from way back... If not because of the 3dfx card(s), then at least because of this awesome ISA sound card...


With the PSU out of the way, you can clearly see the CPU module, I LOVE these things!


The new PSU is already back inside, and I even made (somewhat) decent cable management. Perhaps not the best one yet, but it'll do just fine



Anyhow, moving on... Remember this system here?


Yes, this is HP Kayak XU800 system, which I never got around to finish. It actually went through several stages of upgrades (and downgrades), even tried running the matching pair of 1000MHz P3 CPUs from that P-Class workstation but they kept overheating due to heatsinks being too large to fit under the fan shroud. And besides, the whole thing basically "screams" into your face "800", it's written all over the case & board, so in the end I gave up on dual CPU configuration & restored it to single CPU (along with slot-1 terminator in the other slot). Unless I happen to source another, identical Pentium 3 800 in which case I will place it inside.

With that being said, I also restored the original graphics, Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead. My very 1st G400 card to own, and so far I have mixed feelings about it... Seems to be very similar to Voodoo3 3000 in the terms on 3D performance, but it lacks OpenGL and Glide which is a HUGE setback in my opinion.


But once again, G400 was indeed a factory choice, and I wanted to keep this one as original as I possible, sooo... *shrug* Overall, it doesn't look that bad on the inside, and delivers quite the performance! Not to mention it actually WORKS, unlike that unfortunate Visualize so I just want to get it over with & preserve it as it is!

 

[stinger608]

Just frigging epic @Trekkie4 !!!!!!!

 

[Trekkie4]

Just frigging epic @Trekkie4 !!!!!!!

Thanks, I'm quite happy with the way Kayak turned out in the end. Still hoping I might find a replacement motherboard for P-Class Visualize, but to be perfectly honest I doubt that will ever happen. Nevertheless, all the parts are still here, so if I DO find one, it'll be a matter of swapping the old one out & new one back inside

As for the overall cleaning project, it had to be done I'm afraid. Damp caused a lot of damage on my wall, even some of my retro rigs. There are signs of rust all over the machines, of which some seem to be in much worse shape than the other ones. So before I get to finish with these, I'll have to test each & every one *sigh* And of course, fix all the problems & issues (if any) or alternatively swap the old parts for new ones.

 

[KingPing]

Love the RAM on it's own board! Wish mine was like that, instead the ram slots eat a lot of room on the mobo.

This is one of my retro rigs, it's based on a Compaq AP550 workstation.

specs:
dual P3 coppermine 1GHz
dual channel 512 MB RDRAM 800MHz
Dual OS: one SCSI 18GB HDD with WinXP and one SCSI 18GB HDD with Win98SE
top VGA:3dfx Voodoo 4 4500
middle VGA: ATI 7500 PCI (server vga)
lower VGAs:3dfx Voodoo 2 12MB SLI (Diamond ones)
sound card: Turtle Beach Santa Cruz

 

[Trekkie4]

Love the RAM on it's own board! Wish mine was like that, instead the ram slots eat a lot of room on the mobo.

This is one of my retro rigs, it's based on a Compaq AP550 workstation.

specs:
dual P3 coppermine 1GHz
dual channel 512 MB RDRAM 800MHz
Dual OS: one SCSI 18GB HDD with WinXP and one SCSI 18GB HDD with Win98SE
top VGA:3dfx Voodoo 4 4500
middle VGA: ATI 7500 PCI (server vga)
lower VGAs:3dfx Voodoo 2 12MB SLI (Diamond ones)
sound card: Turtle Beach Santa Cruz

*DROOLS all over the keyboard*

Wow, that's a fine sample of slot 1 engineering! Theoretically, I could build one of these myself, I got all the parts I need, and could use Kayak XU800 as base, but I just don't see the the point. From what I got to see (and experience) in my brief encounter with HP P-Class Workstation (before the mobo stopped working), dual CPU config is way overrated imho. It only works with selected apps & operating systems, and even when it does I'm hardly seeing any benefits for 3D animation & gaming... Nevertheless, it looks absolutely awesome, and would make awesome display piece (and conversation starter) any time!

And yes, Kayak uses a separate "rack" for Rambus memory. Actually it's a card-like component which goes all the way from PCI bracket to the front of the case, where the air scoop is located and is plugged into the mobo somewhere in between, through the unusually-looking interface which resembles RAM slot. It even has those two catches, so it's kinda annoying to take it out & plug it back inside because it takes time. But thanks to this particular design, the motherboard has a better layout & is easier to service (and replace) if necessary. From what I heard, there was even the alternative kit, to convert RIMM into SD-RAM, so you'd use the same memory as Visualize workstations.

 

[KingPing]

Yeah it's hugely overrated... most games won't see any benefit... unless you play Panzer Elite... i play Panzer Elite (not modded) a lot

PE runs 10fps faster in XP with dual P3 than in win98 with single P3, form 23 to 33fps, it's a huge difference imo. Max Payne runs faster too i think.

PS: i too have a Matrox G400 max, and i too have mixed feeling about the thing lol, i prefer 3dfx cards as their drivers have a lower cpu overhead.

 

[Trekkie4]

Agreed, Matrox was always known for professional solutions, and NOT something you'd want to have inside your gaming rig. I'm speaking from my own, personal experience since I had G450 DualHead back in 2001. It was a very good GPU for what it's worth, but terrible with newer games. I clearly remember all the problems & difficulties, just to get Trainz 2004 up & running. In the end I had to give it up & buy nVidia based Abit Siluro FX5600 card...

Status Update:
Currently in the process of testing all the previously-mentioned retro rigs... So far so good, the worst issues I've encountered so far are dead CR2032 batteries and BIOS settings causing system hangs & crashes.

 

[Trekkie4]

Just a small update... While still working on my retro collection, I figured this would be a perfect time to make certain changes & upgrades. And so therefore RetroMaster 1000, the 1st one received this AGP upgrade over the previous Rage IIc card, as difference(s) and benefits are hugely noticeable!


Voodoo2 SLI is still somewhat better than GeForce2 MX200, but considering Rage IIc barely scored 1-2FPS (at its best) on 3DMark 99, it was certainly a power boost & offers alternative choice to 3dfx for those games which are not supported by 3dfx (or are having problems with it, such as Half-Life: Blue Shift for example)

Moving on... One of the two Pentium III, 933 systems had corroded (or contaminated) RAM contacts, so it was throwing random errors & wasn't booting up properly, and it also had a dead CMOS battery. So after cleaning the RAM banks with contact-cleaning solution & giving it a brand new CR2032 it now boots up & works as it should!

I also got to boot up (and test) my own Pentium II 350 from back in a day... As you can tell from the image below, I even left a small "memo" of the last time I've had it running & did a small RAM modification, restoring the amount of RAM from 128 back to original "64"MB

 

[hrp32]

I've had many ATi cards so far.
After all those years somehow I feel a bit weird calling them AMD!

 

[dorsetknob]

I've had many ATi cards so far.
After all those years somehow I feel a bit weird calling them AMD!

"you Are Weird"
If they were made by ATI then they are ATI
If they were marketed By AMD as ATI then they are still ATI
If they were marketed By AMD as AMD then they are AMD

next your be calling all 3DFX Made Cards Nvidia

 

[GreiverBlade]

"you Are Weird"
If they were made by ATI then they are ATI
If they were marketed By AMD as ATI then they are still ATI
If they were marketed By AMD as AMD then they are AMD

next your be calling all 3DFX Made Cards Nvidia

YEP! (my 4870 is AMD on the PCB but ATI on the silicon )

 

[Trekkie4]

So, I went out earlier today & met a guy who was giving away "nostalgic" stuff... No questions asked, he had 4 complete systems (pics coming up tomorrow, or at least some time this week - mainly S478 machines), along with HP all-in-one network printer/scanner, and some of the additional "extra" parts laying around It feels like early XMAS!

And yes, this here is nVidia 7600GT, AGP edition. Assuming it works OK, it's the most powerful AGP card in my entire collection!


All this (and more), for the wonderful price of one "thank you"!

 

[dorsetknob]

nVidia 7600GT, AGP edition.

Pity it was not the 512m/b version

 

[Trekkie4]

Yeah, I suppose so... Still, these things are selling for quite a lot (considering it's AGP & how old they are), so just the fact I got one for nothing is pretty impressive!

I'm pretty sure it originated from the unknown S775 machine, one of the 4 rigs I got today. Probably single-core Pentium 4, 3GHz maybe Dual-Core but I wouldn't want to over exaggerate. Mobo is Asus branded, mATX but it's in pretty bad condition as most of the caps are bulged, some of them are even leaking. So I still have to decide if it's worth the repairs or not, but assuming I can get it working again it would be perfect match with this 7600GT! The most powerful AGP system, for playing not-so-old retro games

 

[hrp32]

"you Are Weird"
If they were made by ATI then they are ATI
If they were marketed By AMD as ATI then they are still ATI
If they were marketed By AMD as AMD then they are AMD

next your be calling all 3DFX Made Cards Nvidia

Don't make it complicated.
I just wanted to say I loved ATi name and it was both a good and bad decision to ditch ATi.
And yes I think they are still made by ATi team as Radeon technologies group :

Raja Koduri is kind of a big deal. In ATI's glory days, he was the principle architect of the R300 GPU -- the world's first DirectX 9-capable graphics card -- which put the company on a path to be extremely competitive against Nvidia. Under Steve Jobs as Apple's director of graphics architecture, he was instrumental in bringing their Retina Display to market. More recently at AMD, Koduri has been directly responsible for innovative new products like the Radeon Nano. So when I tell you about AMD's freshly formed Radeon Technologies Group, and the fact that Koduri is being crowned as the group's chief architect...

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

I missed my CPU s birthday, she was 7 years old in February. She is very happy running at 50 % over her rated clock speed and i love her very much.

 

[biffzinker]

i love her very much.

But more than you Wendy?

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

But more than you Wendy?

I did try to overclock her once but it was tricky getting into her BIOS and i ended up tweaking all the wrong places.


Note my PC is called " Wendys Nightmare"

 

[Trekkie4]

Unfortunately, it's official... My previously-mentioned damp related problem took its 1st "victim"...



I've spent over 12hrs trying to figure out why it doesn't boot, was hoping it would be something easy to fix like a problem with RAM contacts for example, or video card that's not fully seated into the slot. But no, even after I removed everything it still wouldn't boot. It DOES start up, goes through the floppy seeking cycle & then simply halts (as in freezes) without any feedback from the keyboard or any other input device. I DID get it to boot up from HDD once, it was almost there & just about to log on into W95, but it froze in between, with the blue Windows loading pic across the entire screen. Oddly enough, this here was the one and only (thank goodness) machine to show really bad water damage, due to condensation & too much humidity. When you look inside the case, you can actually see the rusted spots, around the motherboard & other components. What happened is that the water probably got into CMOS battery (or at least energized parts) & shorted it. Either that or it caused physical damage to the PCB itself due to rust particles, even though I can't really see any obvious damage on the motherboard.



Oh well... One way or another, the "new" Socket 7 motherboard is already inside the case & will be powered up tomorrow. There's a lot of problems with power connectors inside this thing, since I had to hook up the CPU fan directly into the 12V molex lead as you can tell from the picture above. And since the old CPU fan would sometimes make a racket due to dried up bearings, I took the opportunity to replace it with brand new one, "Xilence" branded. Of course, I still have to remove the old fan tomorrow, & hook the new one into its place but one step at the time... It's a real shame though, as this here was my one and ONLY extra Socket 7 board. So with this one being mounted inside the case, I don't have any other boards to use, in case anything goes terribly wrong Something to keep in mind, next time I go shopping for retro parts *sigh*

And yes, before someone points out the obvious - the Voodoo card inside the 1st slot is indeed warped & pointing downwards. I'm afraid there's nothing I can do about this problem, as this particular card went through hell & back. It even "died" at one point, due to a nasty chip/crack in PCB layer before I bridged it back together with the soldering iron & insulated patched (and exposed) area with electric tape, truly giving it a well-deserved name "Voodoo"

Speaking of repairs, I'm also working on this all-in-one HP 3210 unit... I've successfully diagnosed the problem and (theoretically, at least) know how to fix it, but getting the right parts might be impossible. So stay tuned for more info, I have to get in touch with HP part distributors.

 

[illli]

Not sure what happened to my previous post in this topic, but I still have a lot of old parts to give away.
I decided to make a topic about it in the fs/t forum