TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[80251]

Find another one.

Where? Baby-AT PSU's aren't manufactured anymore.

 

[hckngrtfakt]

Where? Baby-AT PSU's aren't manufactured anymore.

You can get a regular 20pin atx PSU, and put a P9+P8 adapter in it with the two active leads.

Just make sure you don't need the aux PCI cable because that's only found on some P4 "compatible" PSUs and is a whole mess because at one point Dell tried making it proprietary ....

 

[Trekkie4]

Where? Baby-AT PSU's aren't manufactured anymore.

Pretty sure that he meant find another *used* one. I've been using old, rusy, sometimes even moldy AT power supplies for decades & never had a problem with any of them. That being said, if you prefer brand new units over the old ones (or perhaps want to be on a safe side, Justin Case), you can always convert ATX to AT using one of those adapter kits which I linked on the previous page.

You simply plug the ATX connector into one end, two separate connectors into the motherboard & hook the green wire across the power switch.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Socket 7, what do you do if your baby-AT PSU fails?

Super Socket7 motherboards were almost universally ATX. So, not really an issue.

 

[framebuffer]

Any ISA sound card expert over here?

Got this MiroSound PCM1 Pro recently, is it any good?

 

[Mr.Scott]

Any ISA sound card expert over here?

View attachment 272063

Got this MiroSound PCM1 Pro recently, is it any good?

High end Yamaha ISA 16bit sound card. Nice find.

Ah cool, I was gathering some info about the Barton-Sempron because I just got a nice little system with a Sempron 3000+, ASUS A7V600-X and a single stick of HyperX KHX3200 (non A or AK) so it should be BH-5
Guess he's stock-freq. times are ending... now

That VIA chipset board will hold you down on FSB. Find a nice NF2 board.

 

[framebuffer]

High end Yamaha ISA 16bit sound card. Nice find.

OK... I'm not very much into DOS gaming, I'll probably sell it and use the money for something else, any clue about the value?

That VIA chipset board will hold you down on FSB. Find a nice NF2 board.

ye I know, but since it's already on the bench table will see how far it can go and then will switch to NF2

 

[Mr.Scott]

OK... I'm not very much into DOS gaming, I'll probably sell it and use the money for something else, any clue about the value?

Niche market. $20-$30

 

[lexluthermiester]

Any ISA sound card expert over here?

View attachment 272063

Got this MiroSound PCM1 Pro recently, is it any good?

The Yamaha and OPTi chips effectively guarantee a very wide level of DOS game compatibility. If that's your goal, you've scored!

I'll probably sell it and use the money for something else, any clue about the value?

Oops.. Oh well.... If you're thinking about Ebay, $75 shipping included is a fair price for such a solid card.

Niche market. $20-$30

For THAT chipset and in such good shape? That card is worth much more.

 

[Mr.Scott]

The Yamaha and OPTi chips effectively guarantee a very wide level of DOS game compatibility. If that's your goal, you've scored!


Oops.. Oh well.... If you're thinking about Ebay, $75 shipping included is a fair price for such a solid card.


For THAT chipset and in such good shape? That card is worth much more.

Worth is in the eye of the beholder.
Like I said, niche market.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Worth is in the eye of the beholder.
Like I said, niche market.

True.

 

[MachineLearning]

Not quite a review this time, more of a physical overview and quick OC.

ASUS Crosshair (AM2, nVidia 590 SLI), kindly given to me by @phill .
Packaging and shipping speed were both fantastic. Phill packed everything carefully and individually, and DHL somehow managed to get it from Great Britain to Connecticut within a weekend.
He also sent over a bunch of DDR2, a very nice copper ASUS CPU cooler, an Athlon 64 x2 6000+, and a boatload of add-in-cards.

<--- lol @ that last one

As it arrived.

After a quick brushing, and HS removal.

nVidia 590 SLI SPP, manufactured Wk31/2006, and 570 MCP, manufactured Wk04/2007.

Full heatsink assembly as it came off. I don't have any way of knowing for sure, but the stock thermal paste reminds me of that Dow Corning stuff Intel uses for their stock coolers. It's relatively stable in terms of performance over time, but it's not a fantastic performer in the first place.

Each of the VRM's 8 power stages is organized as shown above. 1 low-side MOSFET (Infineon 32N03S) rated for 100A @ 25°C & 77A @ 100°C; 1 high-side MOSFET (Infineon 79N03S) rated for 40A @ 25°C-100°C; and an Analog Devices ADP3110A driver. (ON Semiconductor purchased Analog Devices' thermal monitoring / VRegulator division in 2008).

The VRM controller is the Analog Devices ADP3186, which is a 2-4 phase controller. I believe this controller is operating in a 4-phase configuration, controlling two power stages per phase. No doublers were immediately noticed.

All solid aluminum polymer capacitors are from Fujitsu. Rubycon & Nippon Chemi-Con supply the electrolytics; I'm unsure who produced the solid SMD tantalum capacitors.

The board uses a 6-layer PCB, produced Wk39/2006.

I gave the NB & SB MX-4, & the VRM 0.5mm APT2560 (TP-2) thermal pads.

All done.

435.92MHz on ASUS ROG Crosshair I
CPU-Z validation
#1 for ROG Crosshair I, #2 for 590 SLI
Warp9 nForce OC Wall

I went through all of my CPUs, except for the Athlon 64 x2 3250e (incidentally my #1 for bus clock...) which I can't find right now.
Like my 790X & 780a boards, raising the NB voltage does basically nothing in the way of helping BCLK OC; it's all luck-of-the-draw and CPU-limited.
I'm quite happy with this result as it is, but of course if I find that 3250e I'm pushing it again. It honestly surprises me that almost nobody gets past 400MHz on the Crosshair. I sincerely believe every Crosshair out there should hit 400MHz minimum with a halfway decent CPU.
Massive thanks to @phill for hosting such a generous giveaway, and for kindly sending all of these parts over.
~~~
I have a number of board overviews coming in due time:
- Abit AN7 (thank you @Mr.Scott )
- Abit IS7-E v1.2
- MSI K8N Neo3-F
- ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe
Once I feel comfortable with each board, I'll post a write up here. The Crosshair (and Bad Axe 2, for that matter) both had absurdly quick turn-around times since I'm familiar with AM2 & 775. I've been working backwards for AMD & Intel OC, essentially from Zen 3 to K8 on AM2 & from Sandy Bridge to Netburst respectively. The A8N32-SLI Deluxe has a bizarre issue where Windows XP (whether installed or in the installer) always freezes up after about 5-10 seconds. I've tried almost everything, however I will solve this eventually and continue marching forward.
It usually takes me a long time to truly learn a platform. But, once I do...

 

[80251]

Super Socket7 motherboards were almost universally ATX. So, not really an issue.

I NEVER had a super socket 7 motherboard that was ATX compatible and neither did any of my friends. I don't ever remember even seeing a socket seven motherboard that was ATX compatible.

My FIC VA503+ had both baby-AT and ATX PSU connectors, but my FIC pa-2007 only had baby-AT. I still think most socket 7 motherboards (incl. super socket 7) only had baby-AT PSU connectors.

 

[Trekkie4]

I NEVER had a super socket 7 motherboard that was ATX compatible and neither did any of my friends. I don't ever remember even seeing a socket seven motherboard that was ATX compatible.

My FIC VA503+ had both baby-AT and ATX PSU connectors, but my FIC pa-2007 only had baby-AT. I still think most socket 7 motherboards (incl. super socket 7) only had baby-AT PSU connectors.

I got my hands on Asus P5A-B Super Socket 7 quite recently, which (as you can probably tell from the photo) has both AT & ATX power connectors:


I would have gladly used the ATX PSU over the AT one, but unfortunately I don't have any momentary mechanical switches to replace traditional on/off one. Even though pretty much every single case uses industry standards, therefore allowing you to replace the switch with another one.

 

[80251]

@Trekkie4 I was wondering about that, if you use the ATX to Baby-AT PSU adapter how do you power on the system? There is no facility for a momentary switch on motherboards built for Baby-AT PSU's and no stand-by power either.

 

[Trekkie4]

@Trekkie4 I was wondering about that, if you use the ATX to Baby-AT PSU adapter how do you power on the system? There is no facility for a momentary switch on motherboards built for Baby-AT PSU's and no stand-by power either.

First of all, you need to understand how the ATX power supply works, and which wires you need to bridge, in order for the PSU unit to power up. Those would be the green wire & one of the black ones, for the ground.

Therefore, the answer to your question is quite obvious. ATX plug is being converted, separated into individual P8 & P9 leads, but the green wire (which normally activates the actual PSU) is being routed through the mechanical power switch. So, when you press the switch on your computer case, the power supply immediately comes to life & performs like any other traditional "AT" power supply, until the switch is deactivated, which is what normally happens when you "Shut Down" your ATX system. The only difference is that you manually control the switch yourself, where the ATX one uses relay to do it automatically.

On the other hand, if your motherboard supports ATX power supply right out of the box, you could simply swap the AT for ATX one without the need for conversion. However, in that case you need to replace the actual power switch on your case with the one I linked/posted yesterday. Because the ATX power switch is momentary, meaning that when you press the button it will self-reset into original (off) position ... kinda like the door bell or the horn on your steering wheel for example. Where on the other hand, AT is a toggle switch. Meaning that when you press the switch it will remain in either 0 or 1 position, until you press it again. Same mechanics as the lamp switch, or any other household appliance which can be turned on & off. Therefore not compatible with ATX power supply.

 

[Jacky_BEL]

Anyone here have any of the IBM models with a 486 DX2/66? How about Qemm?

I just dug up my old Valuepoint 6472 from the basement.
I had been looking for it , but could not find it anymore , so i figured i must have got rid of it and somehow forgot about it.
And now to my surprise I found it hidden in a hard to reach closet

486 DX4/100 with VRM module , 32 MB of Ram.
2 GB HDD with Falcon 3 installed

 

[80251]

@Trekkie4
Don't ATX PSU's also need a power good signal or they shut down? Or is it the ATX motherboard that needs a power good signal? But if an ATX motherboard needs a power good signal then how can they have super socket 7 motherboards that can use both ATX and Baby-AT PSU's?

 

[droopyRO]

Falcon 3

The flight sim ?

 

[Trekkie4]

@Trekkie4
Don't ATX PSU's also need a power good signal or they shut down? Or is it the ATX motherboard that needs a power good signal? But if an ATX motherboard needs a power good signal then how can they have super socket 7 motherboards that can use both ATX and Baby-AT PSU's?

No, not really. As I already explained above, ATX power supply doesn't "think" or need any feedback from the motherboard and can easily be activated simply by shorting the two wires together. The component which does all the "thinking" is the motherboard, which under the normal circumstances activates or deactivates the relay (which is part of the motherboard, NOT the power supply) and therefore activates or deactivates the power supply. And since the AT motherboard doesn't have that feature, that signal is routed through the mechanical (power) switch instead which literally serves as Power On/Off switch just like with the original AT-factor power supply.

Think of it this way... With the ATX to AT PSU converter in place, you wouldn't be able to tell anything unusual as the two behave completely identical. In fact, the PSU converter doesn't have any disadvantages or side effects (that I know) apart from adding crapload of extra wires, cables inside the case which is going to make cable management a lot more challenging. Especially if it's the smaller baby AT case. Other than that, it's as good as the original thing if not even better. Apart from allowing the user to replace the PSU with newer model, I find this method a lot more safer & efficient, since there's no longer the need for live voltage cable, going from the PSU all the way to the front & Power on/off switch. The actual "wake" signal for ATX PSU is somewhere around +5V DC, which makes it a lot more safer than 120V or 240V AC for those of us who live in Europe.

Edit
Thought I'd drop this ATX power connector pinout for more detailed explanation. For the ATX power supply to turn on, all you have to do is bridge PWR_OK & COM (ground) and you're good to go. Again, this is usually accomplished through the ATX motherboard which does that sort of work through the relays, but it /is/ possible to do it manually. Either by shorting the two pins with the piece of wire or routing them through the power switch. Such as the one on AT-styled computer case for example

Edit2
Correction - just noticed a mistake on my behalf. You need to short PS_ON and Common Ground (COM), NOT the "PWR_OK".

 

[Jacky_BEL]

Yes, Falcon 3 Gold with MiG 29 and F/A 18 Hornet expansions.

From Spectrum Holobyte

With "Art of the kill" video on CD : Art of the kill

 

[Bones]

First of all, you need to understand how the ATX power supply works, and which wires you need to bridge, in order for the PSU unit to power up. Those would be the green wire & one of the black ones, for the ground.

You can acheive the same by simply going from the green wire to a 2 position (On/OFF) switch and then from that directly to ground.
As long as it's a suitable ground the PSU will turn on whenever you flip the switch to "ON" and will shut down when you flip the switch to "Off".

My point is you don't have to use the ground wires in the PSU's ATX plug if you don't want to or cannot for some reason.

The way I described it was how my cooling tower's PSU was controlled.

 

[RyzenMaster.sys]

I bought another CPU lot from a recycler. Not a bad lot for what I paid. Gives me a good assortment from slow to fast as far as A CPUs go.

Athlon: 1700+, 1900+ (2), 2000+ 2200+, 2800+, 3000+
Sempron: 3000+

Currently going through and testing each individually.

Update, tested each individually just for post and they all appear to work. Pretty good score for a 99 cent lot.

 

[80251]

IBM S/390 mainframe, the state of the art in mainframe tech when I started out in IT. I only peripherally worked with it by installing and supporting special coax ISA cards (that would connect to the terminal controller) and software that would emulate an IBM 3270 terminal on a PC. This so mainframe users wouldn't have to have a desk with a gigantic 3270 terminal and a PC on it. I seem to remember the service contract on this piece of Big Iron (and its peripherals) was a $100k a year.

 

[Bones]

I bought another CPU lot from a recycler. Not a bad lot for what I paid. Gives me a good assortment from slow to fast as far as A CPUs go.

Athlon: 1700+, 1900+ (2), 2000+ 2200+, 2800+, 3000+
Sempron: 3000+

View attachment 272523

Currently going through and testing each individually.

Update, tested each individually just for post and they all appear to work. Pretty good score for a 99 cent lot.

Next time you pop in, grab me a bundle of those will ya?
The "E" chip at the top-right corner is a potentially good one and the "D" chip at the top-left is the potentially decent one but TBH they all look good - Esp for that price!