TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[Courier 6]

Don't know if anyone in this thread would be interested in playing one of the Unreal Tournament versions, but I started a thread regarding the possibility of starting a server:

TPU Unreal Tournament Server?????

EDIT: April 16, 2022: Rented a UT2004 server for a month to test it out!!! It is a public server. Name on the server is: TPU-UT2004 IP address is: 108.61.104.100 You can add that IP address in your favorites within the game to make it easier to find. It has been a ton of years since...

www.techpowerup.com

Does it rum in modern hardware? I still have my PIII 550 and ahtlon 64 single core, both are still built, but I don´t have PSUs for them, have my ahtlon XP 2100+, but it´s in a bag somewere, haven´t looked at it for ages lol

 

[Ruru]

I have a TEAC 2X Floppy. It's pretty quick. Copies data at 61kps so it's actually a bit faster than 2X speed.

Never even imagined that a double speed floppy drives a thing, I mean, even though a FDD is slow but I thought that it's quick enough for 1.44MB medium..

On the other hand, if you have older software which has multiple disks, then it pays off when it installs at half the time as usual.

 

[stinger608]

Does it rum in modern hardware? I still have my PIII 550 and ahtlon 64 single core, both are still built, but I don´t have PSUs for them, have my ahtlon XP 2100+, but it´s in a bag somewere, haven´t looked at it for ages lol

Yeah, heck, I've ran UT99 on a Ryzen 3700X without any issues. Solid game. Online connections still work great as well.

 

[lexluthermiester]

rebuilding my X58 to my original config and going to use the EK Supreme HF but found these in the water cooling stash... a few Danger Den

View attachment 243445

Haven't seen those in a long while! Damn!

Never even imagined that a double speed floppy drives a thing, I mean, even though a FDD is slow but I thought that it's quick enough for 1.44MB medium..

On the other hand, if you have older software which has multiple disks, then it pays off when it installs at half the time as usual.

Oh yeah, even 3x and 4x drives were a thing and they were excellent!

 

[Ruru]

Oh yeah, even 3x and 4x drives were a thing and they were excellent!

Damn, I guess I'm still few years too young as I barely remember the competition with the multipliers in optical drives.

Still burned cds and dvds with low speed though even in the later 2000s.

 

[QuietBob]

I cannot get it to install 11 even with these requirements bypassed. Any ideas.

The official minimum requirements for Win11 call for a DX12 compatible GPU with a WDDM 2.0 (=Win10) driver. The video card may be the culprit. Also, Win11 needs 4 GB RAM at minimum. While I was able to boot Win7 on a quarter of the required memory (i.e. 512 MB), it was completely unusable. I wouldn't expect Win11 to even load on less than 2 GB.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Still burned cds and dvds with low speed though even in the later 2000s.

I still do. CDs I burn at 4x or 6x max, DVDs at 2x or 4x max and BDRs at 2x always. I don't mind the longer recording times.

The official minimum requirements for Win11 call for a DX12 compatible GPU with a WDDM 2.0 (=Win10) driver.

That's not a hard coded limitation. I have tested Windows 11 running on a Sony VIAO laptop that had a Geforce Go7600, which is only DX9c and it ran well.

 

[Ruru]

I still do. CDs I burn at 4x or 6x max, DVDs at 2x or 4x max and BDRs at 2x always. I don't mind the longer recording times.

Totally agree. With today's machines you can do whatever you want and the burn won't fail like back in the day when you barely could have Winamp playing tunes at the same time.

 

[Trekkie4]

Me again I need your opinion on something...

For the sake of argument, let's say that you've been searching for the certain keyboard over the last decade or so. And nothing ever came up ... OR the seller asked for too much money. Or you encountered a dodgy deal & circumstances (right here on TPU actually) and backed off. And nothing ever came up again. Not until few days ago, that is.

Model number is BTC 8110M and I found it on ebay, but the seller turned out to be local and therefore agreed to sell 8110 for the price without international postage & customs.


So, what's the problem I hear you asking...? Yes, well the asking price is around 55USD, or 50€. Would you spend that much money for an old keyboard OR would you keep on searching & hoping to find one locally for the price of a beer or coffee?

 

[68Olds]

Trekkie, that entirely depends on your personal current level of disposable income. IMHO 50€ is a lot for an old keyboard, but it seems you've been looking a long time for a part to match your BTC restorations.

 

[Trekkie4]

Trekkie, that entirely depends on your personal current level of disposable income. IMHO 50€ is a lot for an old keyboard, but it seems you've been looking a long time for a part to match your BTC restorations.

"BTC" keyboard does correspond to the same system which had (and still has, today) BTC CD drive but other than that there's no connections between the two ... just a bizarre coincidence

But yes, you're right. 50€ IS a lot of money and I'm having second (and even third) doubts about the whole thing. But then again I couldn't find the damn thing anywhere else... After 22+ years, would it make sense to hope that one of these would suddenly pop up somewhere cheaply & still be in perfect (and working) condition?

 

[Robert B]

Space - Magic Fly Music Video

SNAKE EYES!!!

The OG Pentium 60 Socket 4! This time without FDIV BUG.

 

[Greenslade]

Me again I need your opinion on something...

For the sake of argument, let's say that you've been searching for the certain keyboard over the last decade or so. And nothing ever came up ... OR the seller asked for too much money. Or you encountered a dodgy deal & circumstances (right here on TPU actually) and backed off. And nothing ever came up again. Not until few days ago, that is.

Model number is BTC 8110M and I found it on ebay, but the seller turned out to be local and therefore agreed to sell 8110 for the price without international postage & customs.


So, what's the problem I hear you asking...? Yes, well the asking price is around 55USD, or 50€. Would you spend that much money for an old keyboard OR would you keep on searching & hoping to find one locally for the price of a beer or coffee?

It is a weird looking Keyboard Seems a lot for such a old keyboard.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Seems a lot for such a old keyboard.

He is going for period correct items that match the rest of the systems he already has. You might have missed some of that discussion which has been on-going for almost 2 years now. And for what it is, it's a fair price.

Space - Magic Fly Music Video

SNAKE EYES!!!

The OG Pentium 60 Socket 4! This time without FDIV BUG.

WOW! Rare indeed!

 

[Greenslade]

He is going for period correct items that match the rest of the systems he already has. You might have missed some of that discussion which has been on-going for almost 2 years now. And for what it is, it's a fair price.


WOW! Rare indeed!

Yes you are right there i have missed the on going discussions you talk about.

 

[Trekkie4]

It is a weird looking Keyboard Seems a lot for such a old keyboard.

It sure is ... which is one of the reasons I can't seem to find it anywhere

That ... plus it was made by the company "BTC" (Behavior Tech Computer) ... which according to some people had a bad reputation due to producing cheap(er) and low budget hardware. Whenever this attitude was justified or not is open for debate - personally I've seen my share of BTC optical drives & I can tell you that there was absolutely nothing "cheap" or low budget about them.

He is going for period correct items that match the rest of the systems he already has. You might have missed some of that discussion which has been on-going for almost 2 years now. And for what it is, it's a fair price.


WOW! Rare indeed!

True. And not just period-correct but literally a copy of the exact same setup from back in a day Soo ... you think that the price is right?

 

[lexluthermiester]

Soo ... you think that the price is right?

That depends. I would be ok with it because it's not something you're going to cross paths with often AND it looks like it's in good condition. So for somewhat rare and vintage keyboard, I think you got a fair and reasonable deal. Not great, but not bad either.

 

[Trekkie4]

That depends. I would be ok with it because it's not something you're going to cross paths with often AND it looks like it's in good condition. So for somewhat rare and vintage keyboard, I think you got a fair and reasonable deal. Not great, but not bad either.

Thanks... I was hoping someone would "approve" my totally unreasonable madness

 

[lexluthermiester]

Thanks... I was hoping someone would "approve" my totally unreasonable madness

Collecting parts for a system that's not just retro but vintage is not cheap with old parts getting rare, especially if you want to be authentic.

 

[Trekkie4]

Collecting parts for a system that's not just a retro but vintage is not cheap with old parts getting rare, especially if you want to be.

True... Besides, you & Stinger here (of all the people here on TPU) already know how much sanity & money these things cost me so far. Compared to that, the keyboard seems like pocket change

By the way, @Greenslade I found couple of pics with the exact, same keyboard from back in a day:
Taken in 2000...


Taken in 2004... (on the right, inside the sliding tray)


...along with the promotional brochure


Apart from the keyboard above, the only other thing that's missing to complete the set is Shamrock C509-DA, 15" CRT monitor. I still have the original one from back in a day, but unfortunately it would seem that the flyback transformer is toasted. I asked @r0x to take a closer look & (hopefully) get it working again, but that's a work in progress

 

[Greenslade]

Space - Magic Fly Music Video

SNAKE EYES!!!

Chech The OG Pentium 60 Socket 4! This time without FDIV BUG.

Nice tune ,a charity shop had chucked some records out in a bin outside the shop and that was one of the LP,s along with this one from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BigBambu.jpg and a number of other LP,s
which were in exealant condition. And the local market when they don,t sell stuff they leave the stuff not sold on the Floor ,i got a bag full of DVD,s.And one of them was Cheech & Chong,s Up in Smoke (1978).I see the old chaps are still alive and touringCheech is 75 and Chong is 83?

 

[Mr.Scott]

Nice tune ,a charity shop had chucked some records out in a bin outside the shop and that was one of the LP,s along with this one from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BigBambu.jpg and a number of other LP,s
which were in exealant condition. And the local market when they don,t sell stuff they leave the stuff not sold on the Floor ,i got a bag full of DVD,s.And one of them was Cheech & Chong,s Up in Smoke (1978).I see the old chaps are still alive and touringCheech is 75 and Chong is 83?

 

[RyzenMaster.sys]

You're definitely correct, I found this AM3 VRM spreadsheet which I had previously looked over because I was focused on the AM3+ list, and it confirms it's an 8+1 phase. Also, confirms that the M4A89GTD Pro/USB3 is 8+2 Source w/ other sockets too


I didn't know that about the Sabertooth revisions, thank you for sharing.

A word of caution if you didn't already know: MSI usually had terrible VRMs from the 700-900 ATI/AMD chipset series (until late in the 900 life cycle), they were poorly engineered and I personally experienced a VRM failure out of the blue years ago using an FX-8350 on a 970A-G43 (not overclocked). The 890FXA GD70 suffers from some VRM issues as well, mainly no VRM thermal throttling/shutdown and some failures with overclocking Phenom II 6-core parts (and presumably, 6/8c FX parts). This is not to degrade your purchase whatsoever, just advice, I would rather you not break such a pretty board or any valuable CPU. And it's not that bad, you can definitely OC, you just gotta point a fan at the VRM and make sure it's not going over 100°C and that's fixed The links I gave above to @lexluthermiester have spreadsheets with all brands' boards of a given socket, in case you would like to read up. For convenience here's MSI.

I'm betting this VRM is a lot better. Can you confirm?

Got an Asus m5A97 R1.02 + Phenom ii x4 945 for 10 bucks on an eBay auction, supposedly either the CPU board or both was faulty but they didn't know which.

I plugged it in and it just booted straight up. No clue why it was sold as parts. Knock on wood it seems to work perfectly.

Despite being AM3+ and 970 chipset, it supports core unlocking and probably is a better overclocked than the MSI. This might be my new go-to for AM3 tinkering.

 

[MachineLearning]

I'm betting this VRM is a lot better. Can you confirm?

Got an Asus m5A97 R1.02 + Phenom ii x4 945 for 10 bucks on an eBay auction, supposedly either the CPU board or both was faulty but they didn't know which.

View attachment 243527View attachment 243528

I plugged it in and it just booted straight up. No clue why it was sold as parts. Knock on wood it seems to work perfectly.
View attachment 243530
Despite being AM3+ and 970 chipset, it supports core unlocking and probably is a better overclocked than the MSI. This might be my new go-to for AM3 tinkering.View attachment 243529

It definitely is better, it's a 4+1 on the M5A97 (and R2.0). I own the R2.0 and it's not a bad board at all, it also has core unlocking as you mentioned. Iirc it's two high side / two low side MOSFETs from when I repadded + repasted.

Two things to keep in mind for 970:
- you probably won't be able to get CPU NB frequency as high as 990FX, with an identical chip (FX-6300) and voltage I reached 2800MHz vs 2600MHz max on 970.
- second PCIe slot is x4, so Crossfire is sub-optimal but achievable. I've done it with 2x HD 7750's and they still perform well, but if you for example want high-end crossfire w/o bridges that will be an issue.

Otherwise just pay attention to the VRM temperature and you'll be fine, shouldn't surpass 105⁰c. Btw a huge help with FX / PhII is pointing a fan at the back of the CPU socket, a huge amount of heat is dissipated there. If you have random shutdowns while overclocking, increase the CPU overcurrent % (I think 140% is the max?) and again check VRM temps. For Phenom II though I wouldn't even be concerned as long as there's airflow in the general area.

Also interesting thing I noticed from staring at motherboards, the M5A97 R1.x has the ChV-Z NB+VRM layout and the R2.0 has the Sabertooth layout.

 

[Audioave10]

I've bought a FX-6300 for this board...