TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[Apocalypsee]

I've been looking at a Dell Dimension 4100 at local forum that someone selling for MYR 150 (~USD36). It was mostly running stock, Pentium !!! 1GHz Coppermine, Intel 815e chipset, 512MB RAM, ATi Rage Pro 128 16MB graphics card, SB Live! Value soundcard and the only thing he changed is from 40GB to 160GB harddrive. Looks good for Windows 98, you think its worth it for the price? Kinda steep IMO.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Looks good for Windows 98, you think its worth it for the price?

Yup, seems a reasonable price for what you'll be getting.

 

[Trekkie4]

Hmm... You know, I've had a similar discussion regarding audio gear, just couple of days ago. It all comes down to your location, availability, supply and/or demand. TBH, it does seem to be too expensive for my taste, as I managed to pick up far more better, older & fancier systems for nothing (as in literally free of charge, just take it & leave).

On the other hand, if SB Live (or one of the other components) is considered rare in your area, or if you can't find a decent S370 system for less money, then I would probably be tempted to go for it. But in general, I don't pay (much) money for old hardware. Not because I'm a cheapskate, but because every investment in old technology is a gamble. You can get lucky & score an old system that will work for another 15, 20 years without any issues. In which case, the money invested is worth the hardware received. On the other hand, you can get a "lemon" & PSU will blow up the next time you plug it into the mains, destroying all the internal components. You just never know for sure *shrug*

@lexluthermiester It would appear that we both posted at the same time... Interesting to see your point of view, which kinda fits the overall description, philosophy of what I said in my post above. It all comes down to locations, availability, and how much supply/demand there is for particular item.

 

[Ruru]

Trying to record a game clip but I keep dying! Well, I love that bossmatch, so no problems I guess.

 

[Aaron_Henderson]

I've been looking at a Dell Dimension 4100 at local forum that someone selling for MYR 150 (~USD36). It was mostly running stock, Pentium !!! 1GHz Coppermine, Intel 815e chipset, 512MB RAM, ATi Rage Pro 128 16MB graphics card, SB Live! Value soundcard and the only thing he changed is from 40GB to 160GB harddrive. Looks good for Windows 98, you think its worth it for the price? Kinda steep IMO.

I bought a Dimension 4100 for my retro Win98 SE rig...paid $13 for mine with a nice keyboard and ball mouse. Mine came with a newer 9600XT vs a more period correct card like yours. Also came with a Sound Blaster PCI card. Cleaned mine all up using the diy "retrobright" method and it came out looking nearly new! If I can remember correctly, I added an 80GB HDD and runs either 1 or 2GB RAM. The PC has served me well so far, I think it's an ok buy! For reference, older PC parts are not so easy to come by in my area...not for reasonable prices, at least. I got mine at a local PC recycler / refurbishing center...they usually won't sell untested PC, and most that " don't work" are sold for scrap...I had to haggle the crap out of the guy running the place to even consider selling me anything that wasn't already refurbished and overpriced...but after annoying him for awhile he finally gave in and sold it to me...$10 for the PC "untested" and HDD removed...$2 for the keyboard and $1 for the mouse. For some reason he was very reluctant to sell what I assumed would be sold for scrap value...but whatever.

 

[Red_Machine]

ATi Rage Pro 128 16MB graphics card

That card was the lowest of low budget cards for the era of this computer. Dell bought a crapton of them back in the 90s, and were still selling their stock well into the early 2000s. I've seen relatively decent Pentium 4s with those cards in them.

 

[lexluthermiester]

That card was the lowest of low budget cards for the era of this computer. Dell bought a crapton of them back in the 90s, and were still selling their stock well into the early 2000s. I've seen relatively decent Pentium 4s with those cards in them.

True, but again, for he's paying and what he'll be using it for, that card will be good. It's also an easy upgrade should the need arise. Still saying go for it. I would.

 

[Ruru]

Got this puppy finally, let's clean it!

 

[8bitgamer757]

AGP?

 

[Red_Machine]

Yes, AGP 8X.

 

[agent_x007]

Watch out for that Rialto bridge.
They like to go very hot.

 

[Trekkie4]

Just got this, earlier today... I know there's a glare across the model name label (unfortunately, I realized that too late), the model is Asus P4P800SE, S478 featuring P4 processor (at around 2.80GHz if I'm not mistaking...

It also has a Radeon 9600Pro, 1GB DDR400, 120GB hard drive, TV Tuner, DVD-ROM & CD-RW. Oh, and I also received Lenovo 15" LCD monitor, all that for the wonderful price of absolutely nothing

I really don't have much (any) use for yet another S478 rig, so instead of adding it to my retro fleet, I will most likely strip it apart (for parts) and probably add a dual S370 board eventually. Or not, we shall see

 

[Ruru]

Good old times when everything got beige in some point.

AGP?

Yep, AGP like said on upper post. The fastest AGP card.

 

[8bitgamer757]

i used to have a p3 board with a 16mb nvidia agp card, a couple pci cards and no cpu or ram

iBook g4

 

[Susquehannock]

Yep, AGP like said on upper post. The fastest AGP card.

Isn't the 3870 slightly faster? Not up on Radeon like I should be.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Isn't the 3870 slightly faster? Not up on Radeon like I should be.

3870 was never released to the public (retail). Only a few samples were ever given out.

 

[Trekkie4]

3870 was never released to the public (retail). Only a few samples were ever given out.

*cough* Voodoo 6000... *cough*

Here's something I'm working on... It's a Pentium 4 system for a family friend, an older gentleman who needs something to check his email, watch a YT video or two and maybe play Solitaire He owns a very old Apple system which is now seriously outdated (in fact, running at ONLY 550MHz I'd say that thing belongs to a museum, or at least this thread here, but that's a whole other story)

Sooo, I offered him something better. Remember that Asus P4P800-SE board, running P4 chip at 2.6GHz? Took me a while to set it up & get everything up & running, but it's mostly finished now & ready for its new owner. Or at least temporary one, as he might buy something better eventually, in which case I'll probably be seeing this one again at some point

[url=https://postimg.cc/dLH5GZhg] [/URL]

Now, here's the problem I've ran into, while setting up Vista ... despite being way more faster & powerful than what MS recommended for Vista in their requirements, this thing ran terribly slow. YouTube wouldn't play properly, windows (and apps) took way too long to load up, etc. You get the picture, so I added more RAM. Upgraded from 1GB to 1.5. This made it somewhat faster, but the system STILL ran too slow, so I did something I don't like or normally approve - I OCed Pentium to 3GHz. That's 340MHz overclock gain, which is approx. the speed of a Pentium II! It seems to be running stable, but only after I raised the voltage to 1.60V... So now this thing is spewing out hot air & idling around 136F. Not good for the hardware inside the case I know, but TBH I didn't have much of a choice *shrug* Here's the 3DMark2001 result after the initial OC, as I managed to get the final result even higher, up to 5,100 3D marks


Full system specs:

Asus P4P800-SE, S478
Intel Pentium 4, 2.6GHz
2x 512MB DDR400/PC3200, 2x 256MB DDR400/PC3200 in dual-channel mode
ATI Radeon 9600Pro, 256MB AGP8x
Pinnacle analog TV tuner card (simply because it came with the case & old system inside it)
Western Digital 120GB ATA HDD
DVD-ROM, CD-RW & Floppy
400W Generic PSU
Windows Vista Ultimate, SP1

Anyhow, I was looking for this post, here (see above). This is the system which I got (back), yesterday. Jeez, it feels like yesterday!

 

[Susquehannock]

I know PCI Voodoo4 are rare, but wow.
Bet that puppy never even gets powered up.

 

[Ruru]

Didn't know that they are THAT rare I can't even imagine how much an unopened wrapped one would cost..

 

[Susquehannock]

This one blows my mind too. Then again I do not have that collector mindset.

Rare, but not that rare. Bid action on this one looked rather suspect. Probably shill bidding to inflate perceived value.

The SiS cards were poor performers relatively speaking. For some nostalgic reading, here is a comprehensive Xabre 600 review with several benchmarks.

 

[Trekkie4]

Where there is demand, there will always be supply. And if the supply is being limited (being a collector's item, or just simply rare) prices will go through the roof...

In another 10, 15 years from now, the same thing will most likely going to happen with Voodoo 1 & Voodoo 2 cards, probably Slot-1 motherboards & CPUs eventually, as well. just give it some time

 

[Mr.Scott]

Where there is demand, there will always be supply. And if the supply is being limited (being a collector's item, or just simply rare) prices will go through the roof...

Beat me to it.
Capitalism at it's finest.

 

[micropage7]

Got this puppy finally, let's clean it!

Looks cool, the ugly just the sticker
But in that era ATI radeon cards using that

 

[Apocalypsee]

USD960 for Xabre 600? That's some weird investment right there! I remember reading magazine reviews regarding Xabre GPUs back then, from what I recall it have DirectX 8 compliant Pixel Shader but Vertex Shader is done on software (CPU) if I'm not mistaken. The major problem with this card is the driver and lack of optimization on game of its times. But the buyer won't probably care as it most probably be displayed in a box or behind glass/perspex

 

[Mr.Scott]

USD960 for Xabre 600? That's some weird investment right there! I remember reading magazine reviews regarding Xabre GPUs back then, from what I recall it have DirectX 8 compliant Pixel Shader but Vertex Shader is done on software (CPU) if I'm not mistaken. The major problem with this card is the driver and lack of optimization on game of its times. But the buyer won't probably care as it most probably be displayed in a box or behind glass/perspex

Semi rare/rare card does not make it a good card. Just desirable due to lack of availability.