TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[Bungz]

It had two different colour thermal paste so it had obviously been off and then on again at some point too.

 

[stinger608]

Wow, that is insane!!!!!

 

[Trekkie4]

Well, so much for my big plans to use Shure M94E phono cartridge, it didn't take long for 16yr old stylus to break down. First I noticed sound distortion on right channel, then the same channel started to crackle & hiss (true, there was a lot of dust, still it was far more obvious when comparing to left channel) and then it started skipping & skating all over the place. Sadly, I don't have the microscope here to check the actual diamond tip, but macro mode on my phone's camera answered pretty much all the questions & any doubts - this one is completely shot Once shiny & straight cantilever now seems completely rotten, even bent (if you look closer).


So, here's the big question - how to replace a 16yr old stylus, especially since the whole model series was discontinued by Shure & is no longer in production? Fortunately, I stumbled upon "Jico" replacement styli, from what I understand highly respected & experienced company that's producing aftermarket replacement, even upgrades. And so I bought (well, ordered) a replacement stylus earlier today, which is a huge step-up from my previous (and original) elliptical one. This one is called N110HE, and is hyper elliptical model, also known as "S.A.S." or Super Analog Stylus... Pretty fancy model from what I understand that features more expensive cantilever materials such as boron, along with highly polished finish. Overall, not bad for a budget table & average cart! Will post more info (and sound sample, if anyone's interested) once I receive the package, some time next week !

Edit
Fixed the link to N110HE website, sorry

 

[Apocalypsee]

Hey guys Im planning to buy/build a WinXP gaming PC, what sort of CPU would be nice? I found a cheap AthlonXP 2800+ system with GeForce 7300GT but I wonder would it be enough? I also wonder if Pentium 4/D would be good enough since its dirt cheap.

The game I'm going to play is typical game of the era; GTA series, CnC series, Doom3, NFS series

 

[Trekkie4]

Question, which XP are you planning to use? Because not all XP installations are the same in the terms of system requirements... If you're going for old-school gaming, I would recommend XP Home edition, SP1 or maybe SP2 at most. But if you want the latest experience, all the XP features then I would recommend Professional Ed. SP3 which is the latest one.

Just for the sake of comparison & system requirements - Home Edition, SP2 ran perfectly fine on my Pentium II, 350MHz (256MB of RAM) back in a day, but once I upgraded to Pro edition, it slowed the system down to a crawl. As for the CPU you mentioned, it SHOULD be more than powerful to run all those games you mentioned. I have AthlonXP 1800+ in my RetroMaster rig here, and it runs games like GTA III, Vice City &/or even Half-Life 2 without any lag whatsoever. Therefore, your 2800+ will be even better in the terms of performance The ONLY title I'm not so sure is Doom3, from what I remember it had some heavy requirements. So you should probably Google & check for system specs, just to be absolutely sure!

 

[Apocalypsee]

Question, which XP are you planning to use? Because not all XP installations are the same in the terms of system requirements... If you're going for old-school gaming, I would recommend XP Home edition, SP1 or maybe SP2 at most. But if you want the latest experience, all the XP features then I would recommend Professional Ed. SP3 which is the latest one.

Just for the sake of comparison & system requirements - Home Edition, SP2 ran perfectly fine on my Pentium II, 350MHz (256MB of RAM) back in a day, but once I upgraded to Pro edition, it slowed the system down to a crawl. As for the CPU you mentioned, it SHOULD be more than powerful to run all those games you mentioned. I have AthlonXP 1800+ in my RetroMaster rig here, and it runs games like GTA III, Vice City &/or even Half-Life 2 without any lag whatsoever. Therefore, your 2800+ will be even better in the terms of performance The ONLY title I'm not so sure is Doom3, from what I remember it had some heavy requirements. So you should probably Google & check for system specs, just to be absolutely sure!

I think at most I'll be running Pro SP2 but with extra power I dont mind SP3.

Thanks for your experience. Doom3 minimum requirement are 1.5GHz P4 or Athlon 1500+ with Radeon 8500/GeForce 3 so yeah it should be sufficient enough for this game. I'm going to need XFi or Audigy for EAX goodies as well

 

[Red_Machine]

I'm going to need XFi or Audigy for EAX goodies as well

I'd recommend an Audigy myself. Either a 2 or a 4. They're the same thing, just with slight improvements on the 4. It's more compatible with older games and has less buggy drivers. I'd recommend daniel_k's Audigy Support Pack drivers.

 

[Retrorockit]

Some Dells came with XP Media Center edition.
As far as P4 goes some of the LGA775 systems supported both P4, Pentium D and Core2 up to QX6800. Maybe even QX6850. I specialize in Dell BTX so that's all I can offer, Dimension 9200, XPS410,(mid towers) Dimension E520, Optiplex 745 (mini towers), and XPS210, Dimension 9200c (SFF) all originated with Pentium4/Pentium D and later supported 65nm Core 2 Extremes due to their 130W Pentium D capacity. There are probably some Precision workstations I'm missing that this applies to also. If you do a Wiki search on chipsets, you can find what CPUs they support. Then you can get a good idea what motherboards might have this capacity. So not only can you play with P4/D you can later upgrade considerably and overclock also if you like.
Some of this is dependent on BIOS updates to support the newer CPUs. A vist to userbenchmark.com will let you see if others have had success with this or not.
http://www.userbenchmark.com/?redirFrom=userbenchmark.com&

 

[Apocalypsee]

The guy with AXP PC is quiet, dont know if he already sold it. Anyway I found someone selling sweet pair of HIS IceQ4 HD 4850. Going to meet him this Tuesday.

 

[Apocalypsee]

I'm at my wife hometown, found an ads online and managed to get an Athlon XP 2500+ with Thermaltake cooler, Abit AN7 and an MSI FX5500 256MB for RM70 about USD18. Cant seem to attach files on my phone, I'll post some when I get back home tomorrow.

 

[Mr.Scott]

I'm at my wife hometown, found an ads online and managed to get an Athlon XP 2500+ with Thermaltake cooler, Abit AN7 and an MSI FX5500 256MB for RM70 about USD18. Cant seem to attach files on my phone, I'll post some when I get back home tomorrow.

You stole that.
Great buy.

 

[dorsetknob]

I'm at my wife hometown, found an ads online and managed to get an Athlon XP 2500+ with Thermaltake cooler, Abit AN7 and an MSI FX5500 256MB for RM70 about USD18.

wifes Hometown Deep in the Jungle where progress and newer hardware has yet to appear
Oops Sorry >>>> good find for the Price Hope it works well

 

[Robert B]

Fresh meat from the grinder

Tualatin: Celeron 1200MHz - SL6C8, Celeron 1200MHz - SL68P, Celeron 1300MHz - SL6C7
SIMM 2x16MB ACorp / 2x32MB IBM FRU: 92G7295
JATON TSENG LABS ET4000/W32P PCI - KY2-JAX-EVGA32PCI - 8248D/V2
Ati Radeon 9800 PRO 256MB - PN 109-A09400-00
Quantum Fireball SE / Quantum Fireball

Untested.



gallery: https://postimg.org/gallery/r1a0i4ck/

gallery:

https://imgur.com/a/y7AC2

More later.

 

[Trekkie4]

Nice catch, @Robert B

I once got Asus tusi-m board with 1.00GHz Celeron (Tualatin) & still have both of them together inside one of my retro units. TBH, I didn't know what to do with it (especially since tusi-m doesn't have AGP slot) so I converted it into "business" class Windows 2k system & am using on-board graphics. Was going to turn it into a server or router but eventually decided to leave it as it is & never bothered to use it again.

It's been stored in my closet ever since, but it DOES work! In fact, I gave it a brand new CMOS battery not so long ago, when I tested all my retro rigs & worked out all the issues due to water damage from 2016/2017. I talked about this in one of my previous posts...

 

[Mr.Scott]

I have a TUSI-M also.
Working one's are becoming a scarcity.

 

[Apocalypsee]

Here's the motherboard and graphics. Too bad I didn't have any DDR RAM, I only have EDO, SD, DDR2 and DDR3 RAM After I bought the HD 4850 pair tomorrow, I'm gonna look for some DDR RAM as well. The graphics card works well in my Optiplex GX240 system.

 

[Trekkie4]

I have a TUSI-M also.
Working one's are becoming a scarcity.

Oh, I know! The guy who gave me his TUSI-M kept it inside the bubble wrap bag for years, and was super protective about it! But he was moving to another location & was giving away his Core2 Duo system (along with an older AthlonXP 2800+) so I took both of them. And then he found TUSI-M & asked me if I'd be interested, otherwise it would have most likely ended up in the junk bin

But like I said, I didn't have much luck with TUSI-M either, so I mounted it inside the case & put it aside. I remember trying to run "Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone" under Win2k, onboard graphics & the poor thing was falling apart, it couldn't even keep up with the opening cutscene. But then again this is not exactly gaming class hardware, so I'm OK with that. It would make a nice hub, router, or even HiFi, but otherwise it's what it is - a nice conversation starter

Here's the motherboard and graphics. Too bad I didn't have any DDR RAM, I only have EDO, SD, DDR2 and DDR3 RAM After I bought the HD 4850 pair tomorrow, I'm gonna look for some DDR RAM as well. The graphics card works well in my Optiplex GX240 system.

View attachment 97418View attachment 97419

Back, when I 1st started with retro hardware, I used to think (and remember) DDR memory as very expensive, hard to find piece of hardware. Especially DDR400, 512MB & 1GB modules! But not any longer, you can find brand NEW 1GB modules on AliExpress for as low as $5.92. I bought 3 or 4 of these, don't really remember. Two modules went into my S775 Pentium4 RetroMaster 4000 system (running Vista SP1), where the one other module ended up inside AthlonXP 2800+, same system that I mentioned above, in my answer to @Mr.Scott The 4th module is still inside the original box, sealed up & has never been used ... so far At least I think so, because I've been moving RAM modules between the systems several times, to optimize the speed & differences between the modules themselves.

 

[_JP_]

Here's the motherboard and graphics. Too bad I didn't have any DDR RAM, I only have EDO, SD, DDR2 and DDR3 RAM After I bought the HD 4850 pair tomorrow, I'm gonna look for some DDR RAM as well. The graphics card works well in my Optiplex GX240 system.

View attachment 97418View attachment 97419

I love how the cooler has "Silent boost" on the side, when the fan probably runs at 3500rpm. I had a TT Vulcano 9+, so yes, it would silent compared to that one.

 

[Mr.Scott]

I used a SP-97 and a Tornado. I know about loud. lol

 

[Apocalypsee]

I love how the cooler has "Silent boost" on the side, when the fan probably runs at 3500rpm. I had a TT Vulcano 9+, so yes, it would silent compared to that one.

I have Thermaltake Volcano 7+ too, loud as hell, thankfully there is a speed controller. I'm not surprised if this so-called 'Silent Boost' is as noisy as the Volcano

Back, when I 1st started with retro hardware, I used to think (and remember) DDR memory as very expensive, hard to find piece of hardware. Especially DDR400, 512MB & 1GB modules! But not any longer, you can find brand NEW 1GB modules on AliExpress for as low as $5.92. I bought 3 or 4 of these, don't really remember. Two modules went into my S775 Pentium4 RetroMaster 4000 system (running Vista SP1), where the one other module ended up inside AthlonXP 2800+, same system that I mentioned above, in my answer to @Mr.Scott The 4th module is still inside the original box, sealed up & has never been used ... so far At least I think so, because I've been moving RAM modules between the systems several times, to optimize the speed & differences between the modules themselves.

Wow that's really cheap! If the local second hand shop is expensive I'm going to buy those. I hope the shops have some good selection of old video cards and sound cards.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Fresh meat!

1. 3dfx Gainward Dragon 4000 Voodoo Banshee AGP3. 3V 16MB ICUVGA-GW816D - missing one capacitor - easy fix
2. P4 RAMBUS: Intel D850EMV2 + 4x128MB RIMM PC800 + Pentium 4 SL683 2.26GHz + cooler - needs two new capacitors - easy fix.



gallery: https://postimg.org/gallery/mizfb3da/

imgur:

https://imgur.com/a/9Ph2Q

That's a good old-school rig. It'd be perfect for a classic Win9x or XP gaming setup. Had a similar system BITD, but had 4x256MB rdimms, a 2.8ghz P4 and a Radeon GPU(can't remember which one, maybe a 9700Pro?). It was a monster at the time. Ah, good times!

 

[Apocalypsee]

Just got back from the shop, they got new old stock Corsair DDR400 1GB for RM45 around USD11. Good enough, it still have the sticker of the original price back then! RM160 around USD41.

Quickly assembled it on old case without any side panel. The card looks new without any dust, and the CPU cooler also have minor dust with a bit of spider webs all around. Yep this Thermaltake fans is loud, its not obnoxiously loud like FX 5800 but compared to any new fan noise this one is definitely loud!

It boots! It lives! Yes, I felt like I'm a youth again, I miss those days. And this is my very first Athlon XP system. Abit BIOS is quite good, I can reduce fan voltage to tame that Thermaltake fan. There are still some things I need to dig in but I just leave it at default. Temperature seems fine at 35C idle. I didn't even repaste it.

Installing Windows XP now. I use my trusty 160GB Seagate 7200.9 from the storage and install it via USB drive.

 

[_JP_]

Abit were leagues ahead for the time. You an control the fan in windows with Abit's software, or just speedfan
If you're interested in taming that cooler: after some time, I got tired of having to shift the Tt fan to 5000rpm every time I wanted to play (idle was good @ 2500rpm), so I got this one. Way more efficient and comfortable to hear @3200rpm, fully able to keep the chip within limits. If you can find something similar, the retro aesthetic will be there...minus the 727 taxiing-like noise.

 

[phill]

I used a SP-97 and a Tornado. I know about loud. lol

I thought those fans where the norm for when you were overclocking back in the day??!! 5000rpm or bust

 

[_JP_]

Water loops where already a thing back in socket A days, however for air it was, until tower-type coolers started to show-up. Bigger fans, higher fin density and noise started to drop.