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TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

LGR tries an Intel A380 video card with Retro games...and a weird case.


Windows 98 Retro Gaming PC...
 
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Repasted the chipsets on the ROG Commando today. Took awhile, paste was harder than a rock.
20230101_145155~2.jpg

Wanted to tinker with my Pentium D 925. Didn't do anything exotic to cool it, and am not doing suicide runs or anything.
20230101_162237~2.jpg

Multiplier is a fixed 15 on this board. It got to about 295 fsb before it didn't really want to go further.
20230101_180136~2.jpg

With some tinkering and a lot more voltage I did get it to 305 fsb. Windows 8.1 does run a good bit faster at 4.575ghz rather than the default 3.0ghz, and cinebench shows a pretty good improvement as well.
20230101_184316~2.jpg

I do feel like I should be able to get more out of this CPU though, I might try a different board and perhaps a different cooling solution tomorrow.
 
I have been waiting patiently to find another IX48 Max for sale in the wild. Haven't seen one on eBay in almost two years now. Not sure where else to look or ask.
 
I have been waiting patiently to find another IX48 Max for sale in the wild. Haven't seen one on eBay in almost two years now. Not sure where else to look or ask.
One rare board... I wish you luck.
 
Repasted the chipsets on the ROG Commando today. Took awhile, paste was harder than a rock.
View attachment 277109
Wanted to tinker with my Pentium D 925. Didn't do anything exotic to cool it, and am not doing suicide runs or anything.
View attachment 277110
Multiplier is a fixed 15 on this board. It got to about 295 fsb before it didn't really want to go further.
View attachment 277111
With some tinkering and a lot more voltage I did get it to 305 fsb. Windows 8.1 does run a good bit faster at 4.575ghz rather than the default 3.0ghz, and cinebench shows a pretty good improvement as well. View attachment 277112
I do feel like I should be able to get more out of this CPU though, I might try a different board and perhaps a different cooling solution tomorrow.
looks like a nice board, there is a lot going on there. :)
Some people would think it was an ugly case I do myself, I dare say 68olds would agree with me :)It looks good inside the case though. :)Showing the temperature on the front cool. :)

I have been waiting patiently to find another IX48 Max for sale in the wild. Haven't seen one on eBay in almost two years now. Not sure where else to look or ask.
Here is a video about it.
 
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My first opinion of the outside of that case... lol
However, yeah it turned out to be a pretty nice vintage system. I'd definitely put the thermal probe under the back of the GPU heatsink.
 
Repasted the chipsets on the ROG Commando today. Took awhile, paste was harder than a rock.
View attachment 277109
Wanted to tinker with my Pentium D 925. Didn't do anything exotic to cool it, and am not doing suicide runs or anything.
View attachment 277110
Multiplier is a fixed 15 on this board. It got to about 295 fsb before it didn't really want to go further.
View attachment 277111
With some tinkering and a lot more voltage I did get it to 305 fsb. Windows 8.1 does run a good bit faster at 4.575ghz rather than the default 3.0ghz, and cinebench shows a pretty good improvement as well. View attachment 277112
I do feel like I should be able to get more out of this CPU though, I might try a different board and perhaps a different cooling solution tomorrow.
You might be able to reduce the multiplier of Netburst CPUs on your Commando using this trick Antinomy shared:
My boards don't work with it, they boot just fine but still at the regular multiplier. Haven't tried the AB9 QuadGT yet however.
 
Here is a video about it.

I've seen that. Earlier days of Youtube. I've collected as much info as I can on them. They're just darned rare, and most were sold in Europe I think.

My IP35 Pro would get jealous if I ever got one though. Big bro X48 would beat up on it.
 
Restored the most useless card I guess. An 64 bit 512MB DDR2 HD4650.

And yes, that dinky cooler is from a HD3450 no less. It's due for replacement anyways.
20230103_161041.jpg


20230103_161054.jpg
 
Does anyone know where the Power SW cable goes on this Hp board? I want to know because I want to test an old PSU. I realize some of the caps have gone on there.
 

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The pins in the lower right corner of the board. Bottom row pins 3 & 4 counting from the right seem to be labeled PWR ON.

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Repasted the chipsets on the ROG Commando today. Took awhile, paste was harder than a rock.
View attachment 277109
Wanted to tinker with my Pentium D 925. Didn't do anything exotic to cool it, and am not doing suicide runs or anything.
View attachment 277110
Multiplier is a fixed 15 on this board. It got to about 295 fsb before it didn't really want to go further.
View attachment 277111
With some tinkering and a lot more voltage I did get it to 305 fsb. Windows 8.1 does run a good bit faster at 4.575ghz rather than the default 3.0ghz, and cinebench shows a pretty good improvement as well. View attachment 277112
I do feel like I should be able to get more out of this CPU though, I might try a different board and perhaps a different cooling solution tomorrow.
What you use for cooling? I have a D935 which was rock stable @ 4800MHz with custom loop. P5Q Pro as motherboard.

I may try it one day if it can reach 5GHz :)
 
What you use for cooling? I have a D935 which was rock stable @ 4800MHz with custom loop. P5Q Pro as motherboard.

I may try it one day if it can reach 5GHz :)
At the moment a Corsair a50 air cooler with a 20w delta 120mm zip tied to it.

I tried the 925 on my Asus P5W DH Deluxe which has some additional overclocking bios features but is also missing a few the commando has. Got to the exact same point before it just walls at 305fsb and will not push past even if I cranked the voltage to the maximum of 1.7v both boards can push.

20230102_154514.jpg

I might buy another pentium d that hopefully has a higher fsb wall and use some more fancy cooling like I did below chasing records (and not succeeding) with some westmere xeons.
Screenshot_20230103-113927_Photos.jpg
 
At the moment a Corsair a50 air cooler with a 20w delta 120mm zip tied to it.

I tried the 925 on my Asus P5W DH Deluxe which has some additional overclocking bios features but is also missing a few the commando has. Got to the exact same point before it just walls at 305fsb and will not push past even if I cranked the voltage to the maximum of 1.7v both boards can push.

View attachment 277361
I might buy another pentium d that hopefully has a higher fsb wall and use some more fancy cooling like I did below chasing records (and not succeeding) with some westmere xeons.View attachment 277363
Gotta love that ice cooling :laugh:
 
Not at all useless. It makes for a great spare card for testing and whatnot.
I already have a 9500GT 1GB for testing. Not sure what would a 64-bit crippled HD4650 help with, but if so, I guess I can scrounge some parts and patch it up to look good enough.
 
At the moment a Corsair a50 air cooler with a 20w delta 120mm zip tied to it.

I tried the 925 on my Asus P5W DH Deluxe which has some additional overclocking bios features but is also missing a few the commando has. Got to the exact same point before it just walls at 305fsb and will not push past even if I cranked the voltage to the maximum of 1.7v both boards can push.

View attachment 277361
I might buy another pentium d that hopefully has a higher fsb wall and use some more fancy cooling like I did below chasing records (and not succeeding) with some westmere xeons.View attachment 277363
Those coolers, look cool:) but a bit on the expensive side for me. o_O
 
I already have a 9500GT 1GB for testing. Not sure what would a 64-bit crippled HD4650 help with, but if so, I guess I can scrounge some parts and patch it up to look good enough.
As most HD 4650s have already DDR2 I can just imagine what that 64bit memorybus does to it..
 
My first opinion of the outside of that case... lol
However, yeah it turned out to be a pretty nice vintage system. I'd definitely put the thermal probe under the back of the GPU heatsink.
"Fra-gile ... must be Italian" :D Cracks me up every time, love that movie!

On a side note, I FINALLY found something which I've been searching for over a decade. This:


The model (and brand name) is BTC 8110W. And yes, the keyboard is indeed yellowed pretty badly, which unfortunately someone tried to address with aggressive chemical at some point. Most likely acetone or paint stripper of some sort, because the plastic is literally polished up in some areas & therefore permanently destroyed.

Long story short, I took the whole thing apart, showered all the chunks of dust & debris and then put the whole thing into dishwasher for a full cycle.


After carefully reassembling everything back together again, the finishing result leaves something to be desired even though it's not THAT bad, as it would seem (and appear) on digital camera.


The keyboard is fully operational, all the keys are working OK so now I can only hope to "Retrobrite" rest of the keyboard at some point OR to merge it with another, non-functional one which doesn't have any cosmetic issues. The only problem is that BTC 8110 (or 8140 for that matter) are both incredibly rare nowdays and highly expensive. No one is willing to just give them away (actually someone in here, on this very forum - and I'm not going to say who, offered me one for "free" long time ago, only to suddenly change his attitude towards me & eventually have me blocked), and finding one on ebay with all the shipping & handling would easily cost over $50, and that's without the customs & other fees.
 
"Fra-gile ... must be Italian" :D Cracks me up every time, love that movie!

On a side note, I FINALLY found something which I've been searching for over a decade. This:


The model (and brand name) is BTC 8110W. And yes, the keyboard is indeed yellowed pretty badly, which unfortunately someone tried to address with aggressive chemical at some point. Most likely acetone or paint stripper of some sort, because the plastic is literally polished up in some areas & therefore permanently destroyed.

Long story short, I took the whole thing apart, showered all the chunks of dust & debris and then put the whole thing into dishwasher for a full cycle.


After carefully reassembling everything back together again, the finishing result leaves something to be desired even though it's not THAT bad, as it would seem (and appear) on digital camera.


The keyboard is fully operational, all the keys are working OK so now I can only hope to "Retrobrite" rest of the keyboard at some point OR to merge it with another, non-functional one which doesn't have any cosmetic issues. The only problem is that BTC 8110 (or 8140 for that matter) are both incredibly rare nowdays and highly expensive. No one is willing to just give them away (actually someone in here, on this very forum - and I'm not going to say who, offered me one for "free" long time ago, only to suddenly change his attitude towards me & eventually have me blocked), and finding one on ebay with all the shipping & handling would easily cost over $50, and that's without the customs & other fees.
Normally I'm not interested in retrobrighting but I have one Logitech Internet Keyboard (my uncle's old daily driver) which is so yellowed that it truly needs a treatment :D
 
Normally I'm not interested in retrobrighting but I have one Logitech Internet Keyboard (my uncle's old daily driver) which is so yellowed that it truly needs a treatment :D
Same here, this one was just mess. Having somewhat yellowed keyboard wouldn't be an issue, but this one was just asking for wash & complete disassembly.
 
Did some more digging...

jtkWdbM.jpg


PraSvCC.jpg


I don't have the ZS Gamer anymore. Not sure what happened to it. Maybe it died?

After this I had a Xonar DX and I always enjoyed the sound of the relays clicking when booting into Windows. That also died, then I had the Xonar U7 and I don't remember what happened to that either. Anyway. moving on!

9cRYCBn.jpg

I wonder what this could be...

3cIg6tp.jpg


O9u6Jmz.jpg

Apologies for the gore. I wasn't expecting the pad to decay like that in the box for 15 years or however long it's been.

cxTOBFm.jpg


MQYTwtB.jpg

Anyone else have one of the bad boys back in the day?

0SFjEWF.jpg


PJ6ofdK.jpg

Autobots, roll out! Sorry but I've never been able to see that as anything other than the Autobots logo.
 
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