TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[Ruru]

Yeah, the 9550 I had years ago could be soft-modded into some model of 9600 or maybe even a 9700. I don't remember which anymore.

9550 uses the same RV350 as the 9600 series (except XT which uses RV360) so it's practically an underclocked 9600. My 9550 OC's above 9600 Pro clocks (Club 3D 256MB model)

edit: 9500 is a totally different story, it uses the same R300 chip as 9700 so yeah, the 128-bit 9500 can be soft-modded to a 9500 Pro and 256-bit 9500 to 9700

 

[MaxiPro800]

Don't forget Medion's 9600TX, which uses the same R300 as 9500 and 9700.

As for the 9550 I have - it's technically a 9550 on a 9600XT PCB . Guess it might OC to XT levels?

Anyways, that BTC drive really needs some TLC. It opens and closes properly, but god the gears sound awful.

 

[Trekkie4]

Don't forget Medion's 9600TX, which uses the same R300 as 9500 and 9700.

As for the 9550 I have - it's technically a 9550 on a 9600XT PCB . Guess it might OC to XT levels?

Anyways, that BTC drive really needs some TLC. It opens and closes properly, but god the gears sound awful.

Probably needs a new belt, that's all. It uses unusually large one, since the two pulleys are kinda spaced apart. Anyhow, this one is sadly no longer a genuine "BTC". If you take a closer look, you may notice that it reads "Manufactured by TOP-G", aka Top Glory Electronics, China. At this point in time, the old & authentic BTC gave up on CD & DVD drive production

 

[MaxiPro800]

At this point I honestly would take anything, even if it's Top Glory. BTC drives are pretty scarce here as is, about as much as the mobo itself (EPoX).
Most ODDs I've seen for sale are those generic Hitachi-LG DVD-RW drives, with occasional DVD-ROM/CDRW units showing up.
Occasionally I'd stumble upon NEC/Optiarc and TSSTCorp, but anything outside those three is pretty hard to come by (e.g Ultima, MSI, Plextor, BTC, TEAC, and I could list a lot more I've been having rough times finding)

Anyhow, I'm a bit unsure about the belt being the culprit here - it does open and close without smacking, but there's some grinding noise whenever I close the drive, as if some gears are moving incorrectly.
Later edit: Nevermind, replacing the belt indeed did it. I used a slightly smaller belt that was more elastic than the old one, and it's working fine now.

 

[Ruru]

Don't forget Medion's 9600TX, which uses the same R300 as 9500 and 9700.

As for the 9550 I have - it's technically a 9550 on a 9600XT PCB . Guess it might OC to XT levels?

Anyways, that BTC drive really needs some TLC. It opens and closes properly, but god the gears sound awful.

Totally forgot that one. Looks pretty similar to a 9500 Pro with its 128-bit bus.

 

[Trekkie4]

At this point I honestly would take anything, even if it's Top Glory. BTC drives are pretty scarce here as is, about as much as the mobo itself (EPoX).
Most ODDs I've seen for sale are those generic Hitachi-LG DVD-RW drives, with occasional DVD-ROM/CDRW units showing up.
Occasionally I'd stumble upon NEC/Optiarc and TSSTCorp, but anything outside those three is pretty hard to come by (e.g Ultima, MSI, Plextor, BTC, TEAC, and I could list a lot more I've been having rough times finding)

Anyhow, I'm a bit unsure about the belt being the culprit here - it does open and close without smacking, but there's some grinding noise whenever I close the drive, as if some gears are moving incorrectly.
Later edit: Nevermind, replacing the belt indeed did it. I used a slightly smaller belt that was more elastic than the old one, and it's working fine now.

You were saying...?


Just kidding, it actually took me a LONG time to get (and repair) these drives. But yes, BTC in either shape or form is becoming scarce nowadays. And yup, I KNEW it would fix the problem. Don't mean to brag, but I got some experience with these things, both the older models using Philips loader & these modern ones, made by TOP-G.

Speaking of which, these are actually pretty reliable drives - I didn't mean to suggest otherwise. Just that they're not "true" or original BTC models.

 

[MaxiPro800]

No biggie, figured I'd be double sure it's the belt before anything else.

It needs a lens cleaning (couldn't get a slipstreamed XP DVD to read) and I guess it'll be ready to be put to work.

The TEAC drive works (although it kind of struggles reading) although that speed-up sound is pretty haunting, ngl.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Soooo, my latest purchase is certainly old and nostalgic. Whether or not is fits in this thread will be up to everyone here. Here we go..

The Super Famicom!

It has some yellowing and needs a bit of RetroBrighting. It also needs a cap job(2 cap kits on the way), but runs OK. The composite video output is showing that the caps need doing. SVideo is ok which is a good indication of caps going bad. Before anyone asks, I bought a Super Famicom instead of the North American SNES because I LOATH the look of the blocky, purple and lavender mess Nintendo of America inflicted on North America. I refuse to have anything but the best looking version of Nintendo's excellent 16bit system in my home.

This are my very favorite controllers from the SNES era and I was lucky enough to find a few of them on Ebay. There should be another gray model, but it's still on the way(UPS might have lost it...). These controllers are wonderfully comfortable and great for people with big hands as well as fighting games like Street Fighter and Samurai Showdown!

This is a rare thing. The Game Wizard is like a cross between a Pro Action Replay(with code finding functionality intact), a Game Genie, a region decoder/unlocker and a cart adapter(allows one to play North American SNES games on a Super Famicom) all in one unit! I paid a bit much for it, but was worth the purchase! I found this after having already bought the games below...

Here is both the Japanese version of Final Fantasy V and the English translation. Did a PCB swap so I could play the English version in the Super Famicom. Been waiting 25years to play FF5 in English natively on the SNES! BOOYAH!

If you know me, you know Secret of Mana is my favorite game of all time(still!!). Got the USA version and the Japanese version(Seiken Densetsu 2) as well. Did a PCB swap so I could play the USA version in the Super Famicom.

This is Secret of Mana 2 alongside it's Japanese counterpart, Seiken Densetsu 3. Did a PCB swap so I could play the English version in the Super Famicom. Also been looking forward to playing this one natively on the SNES for 25 years.

What SNES collection would be complete without the timeless Super Mario World. Picture is the PAL and USA versions. I have done a PCB swap so I can play the USA version natively in the Super Famicom.

This is just the first wave of games for the SNES. I have Chrono Trigger and Terranigma on the way and several more in my wish list...

EDIT: The cap kits arrived today. I have some soldering in my near future!

Thank You Console5! You guys rock!

EDIT2:
I think the problem with the composite video output is plainly evident;

And there we have it! Luckily, no caps are leaking. Still, it's always best to do a cap job for a system this old.

 

[MaxiPro800]

Well, I did find my ole PSone slim. I do have the gray ones as well (3 of them - 1002, 5502 and 9002) but they're harder to access at the moment.

As for why it's booting in NTSC mode - ONECHIP mod. That's how I got it from the flea market ~ 2013-14, after my first PS1 gave up the ghost.

 

[Ruru]

Never been a fan of the PSOne myself. I had the classic PS1 and then I got a PS2

 

[Retrorockit]

Well I'll be damned! I managed to get my Xeon X3230 (practically a Q6700) to work on that Asus P5B-VM. NOW I have a dream WinXP mATX build!

You might try the old Q6600 333fsb tapemod on that Xeon. That should be the better G0 stepping and the lower TDP might allow enough headroom for it to work where the Q6700 usually didn't. 10x333=3.33GHz. Real LGA775 Xeon speed there.
Userbenchmark is a very soft target, but it lets you compare to systems like your own. I find is useful for overclocking Dells and such. It's fun to post the only overclock on a system. I t also lets you see what parts like RAM, and GPUs have worked for others.

 

[A Computer Guy]

You might try the old Q6600 333fsb tapemod on that Xeon. That should be the better G0 stepping and the lower TDP might allow enough headroom for it to work where the Q6700 usually didn't. 10x333=3.33GHz. Real LGA775 Xeon speed there.
Userbenchmark is a very soft target, but it lets you compare to systems like your own. I find is useful for overclocking Dells and such. It's fun to post the only overclock on a system. I t also lets you see what parts like RAM, and GPUs have worked for others.

I thought it's kind of interesting too see the CPU utilization there when tuning ram. When you do it wrong you can see your CPU utilization drop even if you are benching better in ram.

 

[Retrorockit]

I thought it's kind of interesting too see the CPU utilization there when tuning ram. When you do it wrong you can see your CPU utilization drop even if you are benching better in ram.

There is a lot of info there that you don't usually get other places, and it's all relevant to the system you're working on. Pretty good deal, especially for oddball setups.
An example would be my bottom feeder Dell Optiplex 380MT. Listed by Dell as a 2 core, 4GB machine. It ended up with an X5470 3.33GHz, 8GB DDR3 1066, and a GTX1060-3GB.
The OEM WIN 7 license was worth the $20 I paid for the computer.
They did pull my results there down after a while. So I can't link to that one. Maybe I was setting a bad example?
Here it is tearing up the Supersposition benchmark. #1977 in the Medium 1080p leaderboard!

Created:22 November 2019 (12:50)CPU Name:Intel Xeon X5470Physical / Logical CPUs:4 / 4CPU Clock (max):3333 MHzMotherboardell 0HN7XNOS:Windows 7 (build 7601)Graphics APIirectXGPU Driver:441.2GPU Name:
GeForce GTX 1060 3GB (GP106)GPU Vendor:MSIGPU Memory:3072 MB# of Cards:1GPU Memory clock (max):4406 MHzGPU Core clock (max):2050 MHzGPU Temp min/max:48/84 C°
FPS min/avg/max:39.42/60.7/78.82

They also pulled the OC Dimension E520 in my sig. and the ones by others. So if you get an OC there it will be pulled down at some point for some reason.
The Unlocked Xeons in the t3500 workstation still seem to be there. Maybe they missed it because it's not an official unlocked CPU. SHHHHH it's a secret.

Please click the green human to continue - UserBenchmark

 

[Ruru]

You might try the old Q6600 333fsb tapemod on that Xeon. That should be the better G0 stepping and the lower TDP might allow enough headroom for it to work where the Q6700 usually didn't. 10x333=3.33GHz. Real LGA775 Xeon speed there.
Userbenchmark is a very soft target, but it lets you compare to systems like your own. I find is useful for overclocking Dells and such. It's fun to post the only overclock on a system. I t also lets you see what parts like RAM, and GPUs have worked for others.

Doesn't work. The Xeon started work on that board after I took the old mod from the pins. And that's also G0 so no need for another.

Also I'm not getting any LGA775 chips anymore, I have everything I need (from Celeron D to Q9550/E8500)

 

[Retrorockit]

Knowing something doesn't work is also useful information.

 

[Greenslade]

I am thinking of buying either this one KAIWEETS Digital Multimeter, DC AC Voltmeter, Ohm Volt Amp Test Meter and Continuity Test Diode Voltage Tester for Household Outlet, Automotive Battery Test (Anti-Burn with Double Fuses which is the cheapest one on Amazon at only £7.50 and it is rated the highest in there. Would this work for testing a motherboard?

h

Soooo, my latest purchase is certainly old and nostalgic. Whether or not is fits in this thread will be up to everyone here. Here we go..

The Super Famicom!
View attachment 306054
It has some yellowing and need a RetroBrighting. It also needs a cap job(2 cap kits on the way), but it runs OK. The composite video output is showing that the caps need doing. SVideo is ok which is a good indication of caps going bad. Before anyone asks, I bought a Super Famicom instead of the North American SNES because I LOATH the look of the blocky, purple and lavener mess Nintendo of America inflicted on North America. I refuse to have anything but the best looking version of Nintendo's excellent 16bit system in my home.

View attachment 306049
This are my very favorite controllers from the SNES era and I was lucky enough to find a few of them on Ebay. There should be another gray model, but it's still on the way(UPS might have lost it...). These controllers are wonderfully comfortable and great for people with big hands as well as fighting games like Street Fighter and Samurai Showdown!

View attachment 306051
This is a rare thing. The Game Wizard is like a cross between a Pro Action Replay(with code finding functionality intact), a Game Genie, a region decoder/unlocker and a cart adapter(allows one to play North American SNES games on a Super Famicom) all in one unit! I paid a bit much for it, but was worth the purchase! I found this after having already bought the games below...

View attachment 306050
Here is both the Japanese version of Final Fantasy V and the English translation. Did a PCB swap so I could play the English version in the Super Famicom. Been waiting 25years to play FF5 in English natively on the SNES! BOOYAH!

View attachment 306052
If you know me, you know Secret of Mana is my favorite game of all time(still!!). Got the USA version and the Japanese version(Seiken Densetsu 2) as well. Did a PCB swap so I could play the USA version in the Super Famicom.

View attachment 306053
This is Secret of Mana 2 alongside it's Japanese counterpart, Seiken Densetsu 3. Did a PCB swap so I could play the English version in the Super Famicom. Also been looking forward to playing this one natively on the SNES for 25 years.

View attachment 306055
What SNES collection would be complete without the timeless Super Mario World. Picture is the PAL and USA versions. I have done a PCB swap so I can play the USA version natively in the Super Famicom.

This is just the first wave of games for the SNES. I have Chrono Trigger and Terranigma on the way and several more in my wish list...

EDIT: The cap kits arrived today. I have some soldering in my near future!
View attachment 306163
Thank You Console5! You guys rock!

It certainly does Lex

 

[Trekkie4]

It's been a while since I bought anything hardware-related, so here's my latest acquisition:


Asus A7N8X, nVidia based S462 board complete with AMD AthlonXP 2400+ ... so far both in unknown & nonworking condition (considering that A7N8X is having serious capacitor issues)

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

It's been a while since I bought anything hardware-related, so here's my latest acquisition:


Asus A7N8X, nVidia based S462 board complete with AMD AthlonXP 2400+ ... so far both in unknown & nonworking condition (considering that A7N8X is having serious capacitor issues)

Nice! I still have the box my A7N8X came in. It holds random documents, as the motherboard died about 2 decades ago!

 

[Ruru]

I have only the A7N8X-X which is a single channel version. Though on Socket A, dual channel is mostly significant with IGP, not that much otherwise.

Though I can't complain as I got the board for free

 

[Trekkie4]

I have only the A7N8X-X which is a single channel version. Though on Socket A, dual channel is mostly significant with IGP, not that much otherwise.

Though I can't complain as I got the board for free

This one cost me approx. $7 or €6.5. One of the cheapest boards out there, ever since the prices literally "exploded". It's literally impossible to find anything "for free", unless you are either incredibly lucky or someone (another retro enthusiast) give it to you for free.

I also picked up ATI Rage128, AGP card for €3. Again, true bargain ... I remember the times when people had & gave away cards like these for nothing, but now they are being advertised on ebay for as high as €30. Seriously, I remember someone asking €30 ($33) for ATI Rage IIc. And it was AGP model, it wasn't even a PCI.

I was ready to turn my back & walk away almost empty handed, when I noticed something else among all the junk... There was a small white box with red stripes at the bottom, beneath all the mangled CPU coolers & hard drives. I took it out to have a closer look & got pleasantly surprised to see a brand new (never used nor mounted) Ortofon OM10 phono cartridge. The box has seen better days, but the actual cartridge inside was in perfect condition!


It cost me €10, which is not bad at all! You can still buy brand new ones from the store, for approx. €65. So it was really a no-brainer for me

 

[Greenslade]

This one cost me approx. $7 or €6.5. One of the cheapest boards out there, ever since the prices literally "exploded". It's literally impossible to find anything "for free", unless you are either incredibly lucky or someone (another retro enthusiast) give it to you for free.

I also picked up ATI Rage128, AGP card for €3. Again, true bargain ... I remember the times when people had & gave away cards like these for nothing, but now they are being advertised on ebay for as high as €30. Seriously, I remember someone asking €30 ($33) for ATI Rage IIc. And it was AGP model, it wasn't even a PCI.

I was ready to turn my back & walk away almost empty handed, when I noticed something else among all the junk... There was a small white box with red stripes at the bottom, beneath all the mangled CPU coolers & hard drives. I took it out to have a closer look & got pleasantly surprised to see a brand new (never used nor mounted) Ortofon OM10 phono cartridge. The box has seen better days, but the actual cartridge inside was in perfect condition!


It cost me €10, which is not bad at all! You can still buy brand new ones from the store, for approx. €65. So it was really a no-brainer for me

It just shows you, if you look through the junk you could find a bargin What deck are you using?

 

[Trekkie4]

It just shows you, if you look through the junk you could find a bargin What deck are you using?

Ha, that is absolutely true! The last thing I'd expect to find beneath all the hardware junk is turntable accessory, that's in mint condition. Turntable is Audio Technica AT-LP140XP. Obviously inspired by Technics SL1200 (Mk.7) which unlike the previous models also has blue LEDs and tonearm painted in black.

 

[Greenslade]

Ha, that is absolutely true! The last thing I'd expect to find beneath all the hardware junk is turntable accessory, that's in mint condition. Turntable is Audio Technica AT-LP140XP. Obviously inspired by Technics SL1200 (Mk.7) which unlike the previous models also has blue LEDs and tonearm painted in black.

Good turntable and good make Audio Technica that is There prices haven,t taken a hike unlike other makes who,s prices have gone through the roof. Direct drive rules.

 

[Ruru]

This one cost me approx. $7 or €6.5. One of the cheapest boards out there, ever since the prices literally "exploded". It's literally impossible to find anything "for free", unless you are either incredibly lucky or someone (another retro enthusiast) give it to you for free.

Yeah, I had to pay only for the postage. I also got a 6800 Ultra AGP with it, its only defect is that the analog signal has weird colours etc., but with a DVI monitor it works flawlessly.

 

[Trekkie4]

Good turntable and good make Audio Technica that is There prices haven,t taken a hike unlike other makes who,s prices have gone through the roof. Direct drive rules.

You're right, it's about the same as it was before. Slightly more expensive nowadays, but in all the honesty not much. Still 1/2 the price of the real thing, a brand new SL-1200 so I'm not complaining, and it sounds great. To my knowledge, 140 is the ONLY model in their entire lineup without the internal preamp and/or USB encoder, which makes it truly & entirely analog just like any other "vintage" deck.

Yeah, I had to pay only for the postage. I also got a 6800 Ultra AGP with it, its only defect is that the analog signal has weird colours etc., but with a DVI monitor it works flawlessly.

Sounds like a bad solder joint ... or possibly a bad connection within the VGA port. You could also use DVI to VGA converter & hook up older VGA monitor that way.