TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[Apocalypsee]

Right, those loading times almost feel necessary lmao

Old games have little loading time, its not like they eat lots of space to begin with. Also loading time is more of harddisk speed not processor speed

 

[Apocalypsee]

Today is a great day, I got a deal of not one but two CRT monitor. It was a generic 17 inch CRT but I'm happy. Both were untested as it was found inside a store room and the owner wanted to move houses so instead of dumping it to junkyard I better buy them for RM20 (around USD 4). Luckily both CRT works! Look at that glorious CRT images when playing NOLF it was as good as I remember, maybe I haven't seen CRT images in over 20 years. It's so nostalgic

The 2nd monitor got some problem but I try to clean the VGA connector a bit as it was corroded a little (ignore the flickering as the image is fine just the edge isn't straight and the OSD adjustment don't make any difference)

As a bonus I got 1.5GHz Pentium 4 socket 478 with Matsonic MS9138D motherboard. So many wrong with this PC, the front connector is wired incorrectly where the reset button is wired to power header look how yellow the front of the PC is. I think the CDROM and floppy still works as it didnt make any weird noises when boot up.

Bad news is the SDRAM is dead, but these are dual type RAM motherboard so I plug in the DDR RAM and it boot right up. Harddisk was Maxtor and that one is clicky af and dead as well. No matter. Also it was AGP universal so maybe I could plug my 3DFX Voodoo Banshee on it and make Windows98SE gaming PC? Maybe? PSU old too as you can see the AT connector. Though as you can see the inside of the PC is relatively clean from very little dust bunnies.

 

[QuietBob]

Old games have little loading time

That's true in general, but some games can be modded, which may increase loading times substantially.

I'm playing a 21-year-old game right now with a 3 GB texture pack installed. Initial level loading times are up to 45 seconds on the rig in my profile. However, the game looks really good now in 4K. The engine can even display 8K, but the difference is hard to notice on my 27" screen.

 

[Greenslade]

They all look very clean and dust free.It seems old Packard Bell were made very well.I dare say a few of you had one of these Packard Bell,s back in the day.

 

[80-watt Hamster]

They all look very clean and dust free.It seems old Packard Bell were made very well.I dare say a few of you had one of these Packard Bell,s back in the day.

Emphasis on "old" is warranted here. Later PB (Pentium-era IIRC?) were... not great, basically turning into a proto-eMachines.

Though I never had one. A close friend's family in the early '90s did, as well as a freshman roomie in the late '90s. I was a pretty serious PC noob at the time, and messed up the display settings of the latter. PB support was actually very helpful, which surprised me given how much PB's overall rep had slipped by that point.

 

[Greenslade]

I bought sone Amega floppy games discs yesterday ,i put them in my floppy drive on XP and and it said format them I was hoping they would work.Is there any way of getting them to work, or have i wasted my money.At least i know that the floppy drive i thought was not working is working and the one i got on eBay is fine to.

 

[Apocalypsee]

I put the CRT on my main PC, by using iGPU since that one have VGA out. All I can say is, this is great! Pictures don't do justice how great CRT was for gaming. Contrast is miles ahead of LCD dark areas looks sharp and not muddy, and because each resolution is native resolution I can just play at 1024x768 on this monitor and play cyberpunk2077 just fine. Pictured is The Outer Worlds, really taking pictures don't do justice, well you guys who used CRT before should know. LCD image quality that for me come close to this CRT was my Eizo Radiforce MX215 and that was medical grade LCD, this was the cheap run-on-mill CRT not even aperture grille ones.

 

[Greenslade]

I was thinking if i were to get a Amiga 500 mini could i use a external floppy drive to put the games i bought the other day to put them on there.?

 

[MaxiPro800]

Welp, took me long enough but I fixed my backwards compat PS3 I had gotten last month or so.

What you're seeing in the first two photos, are the syscon log I got from it. 1001 and 1002 errors galore - this easily meant some of the NECs were cooked. And indeed they were - the ones on the bottom of the CELL and RSX showed visible burn marks upon removal.

I used 16x 330uF tantalums harvested off two laptop mainboards (Acer 5737 and a HP dv6-2100 I think).

Unit now powers on and shuts off properly, as well as is stable in some previously unstable games, such as Abe's Oddysee (PS1), where it had shut off during the first FMVs, and Ford Racing 3 for the PS2, where it would flicker every now and then (which besides caps turned out to be a bad HDMI cable as well.).

Upcoming: another gorgeous back-compat PS3 - this time though, a full HW one - a japanese, all-black (even trim on it is black) CECHB00 model.

 

[68Olds]

I bought sone Amega floppy games discs yesterday ,i put them in my floppy drive on XP and and it said format them I was hoping they would work.Is there any way of getting them to work, or have i wasted my money.At least i know that the floppy drive i thought was not working is working and the one i got on eBay is fine to.

I was thinking if i were to get a Amiga 500 mini could i use a external floppy drive to put the games i bought the other day to put them on there.?

You can try installing an Amiga 500 emulator on your WinXP PC. If you set it up correctly you should be able to play those Amiga games from a floppy on your PC.
Here's the first site I came across after googling Amiga 500 emulator for PC.
It says you want the 32bit version 4.2.1 for WinXP. I think you want WinUAE4210.zip for XP.
They have a support forum there too, which you probably want to join.

 

[Greenslade]

You can try installing an Amiga 500 emulator on your WinXP PC. If you set it up correctly you should be able to play those Amiga games from a floppy on your PC.
Here's the first site I came across after googling Amiga 500 emulator for PC.
It says you want the 32bit version 4.2.1 for WinXP. I think you want WinUAE4210.zip for XP.
They have a support forum there too, which you probably want to join.

Thanks for that 68Olds i will give that a go later on.I am in the proces of getting ready for a move in a couple of weeks time.It is a nightmare as like the rest of you i have so much stuffWhat with PC cases and motherboards , monitors CD,s LPs.And a load of Hifi equipment.I am getting a friend to hire a van as i don,t drive.The guy is 79 he seems very fit for his age hope he doesn't have a heart doing this.i used to do household clearances up to eight years ago i think i am fit for my age to. I have five more boxs of stuff and bags of clothes. I have been in this place 17 years ,hopefully i want have to move for many years after this.I don,t have any furnature bit i will see if my landlady will sell me the bad.I am the only
tenant here who has a single bed.

 

[Canned Noodles]

Here it is! The price sticker said "Quite Broken" and "$50?" so I got it for $25. This is my first desktop 486 computer.

Spoiler: chassis picdump

View attachment 318231View attachment 318233View attachment 318234

Beautiful board! 16MB RAM, 256K cache, 486DX2 @ 66MHz
It's amazing the CMOS battery hasn't leaked yet! I removed it shortly after taking this photo.

Spoiler: big mobo photo

View attachment 318238

The video card: Orchid Technology Fahrenheit 1280 Plus/VLB with 1MB RAM
View attachment 318240

Does anyone know what this card does? I can't find any pictures or manuals for it online.
View attachment 318241View attachment 318242
Its connector has 37 pins.
View attachment 318243

To top it off, it works!!! I need a 5-pin DIN connector to get any further. It's ordered and on its way.
View attachment 318246

Not pictured: generic serial card and 5.25" floppy drive.
I replaced all of the rusted slot covers and most of the screws with shiny new ones.

It's been a month since my last post about this computer - that's how long I've waited for parts to arrive. I received a 5-pin DIN to PS/2 connector along with an ATX to AT power supply adapter.
The hard drive in here, an 85MB Conner CP30084E, was making some noises upon POSTing but wasn't loading an OS or getting detected by the BIOS. I tried many things: swapping the PSU (original has 11v on 12v rail), changing cable position, changing many different BIOS settings, etc. In a last-ditch effort, I took off the cover, powered it on, and saw the head wasn't moving. I nudged it to let the old grease break free, and, lo and behold, it works!
It begun loading DOS, but this application loads first:

It looks like the mystery card in the introductory post to the PC has something to do with testing network cable continuity, or something like that.
In the "Diagnostics" menu, I found a little bit more information on what might be the card model at the top of the screen.

I did try exiting to DOS, but all of the options with green lettering on the first page indicate the requirement of a password. Any ideas?

In another menu, the names of many different products compatible with this software are listed. Additionally, it says ~70 MB is still free on the disk, so I kind of doubt there is any other software on here.
I will put this into a Pentium II rig with Windows and see what's on the disk from there.

Lastly, I also ordered a couple goodies for the big Compaq Portable
Fastest portable in the west

 

[Trekkie4]

So guys, let me ask you something... Is it possible to modify the existing Cross Fire compatible motherboard and convert it into SLI one? I am currently working on something which includes a pair of identical 8600 GTS cards in SLI, but the motherboard is not making it easy for me, since it only supports CF feature.

 

[68Olds]

So guys, let me ask you something... Is it possible to modify the existing Cross Fire compatible motherboard and convert it into SLI one? I am currently working on something which includes a pair of identical 8600 GTS cards in SLI, but the motherboard is not making it easy for me, since it only supports CF feature.

There is a hack to enable SLI on XFire boards, but the board needs to have 8x8x PCIe slots at a minimum. If the board is 16x4x or 8x4x you won't be able to get it to work.

Not sure how many working links you'll be able to find...
SLI with different cards | TechPowerUp Forums
HyperSLI (Enabling SLI on non-sli motherboards) | TechPowerUp Forums

 

[Trekkie4]

There is a hack to enable SLI on XFire boards, but the board needs to have 8x8x PCIe slots at a minimum. If the board is 16x4x or 8x4x you won't be able to get it to work.

Not sure how many working links you'll be able to find...
SLI with different cards | TechPowerUp Forums
HyperSLI (Enabling SLI on non-sli motherboards) | TechPowerUp Forums

Thanks a lot for the info! Unfortunately, mine is running 16x4 config so I'm guessing that SLI is out of the question then

Instead, I will most likely grab another Radeon X1650 XT & pair the two cards together in Cross Fire.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I am currently working on something which includes a pair of identical 8600 GTS cards in SLI, but the motherboard is not making it easy for me, since it only supports CF feature.

You are very unlikely to get SLI working on the board pictured, even with hacks..

 

[Trekkie4]

You are very unlikely to get SLI working on the board pictured, even with hacks..

Yeah, I figured *sigh*

Model number is Gigabyte GA-MA78G-DS3H, revision 1.0. Which is why I'm going to replace the two 8600 GTS cards with Radeon X1650 XT, as soon as I find other (identical) card for the Crossfire setup.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Yeah, I figured *sigh*

Model number is Gigabyte GA-MA78G-DS3H, revision 1.0. Which is why I'm going to replace the two 8600 GTS cards with Radeon X1650 XT, as soon as I find other (identical) card for the Crossfire setup.

If you can find them, a pair of HD 2600's would give you much better bang for your buck and they're much easier to find.

VisionTek ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro, 256MB DDR2, Graphics Card 2600P256pcie | eBay

Used, working condition VisionTek ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro, 256MB DDR2, Graphics Card. Nothing else is included, only what is seen in the pictures. No cables or accessories included.

www.ebay.com

I know that listing says APG, but the photos show a PCIe Crossfire card.
Here's another.

Visiontek Radeon HD 2600 PRO 512MB PCIe Graphics Card Mac / Windows | eBay

Works great. Actual photos.

www.ebay.com

The 512MB versions are the ones to aim for.

 

[Trekkie4]

If you can find them, a pair of HD 2600's would give you much better bang for your buck and they're much easier to find.

VisionTek ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro, 256MB DDR2, Graphics Card 2600P256pcie | eBay

Used, working condition VisionTek ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro, 256MB DDR2, Graphics Card. Nothing else is included, only what is seen in the pictures. No cables or accessories included.

www.ebay.com

I know that listing says APG, but the photos show a PCIe Crossfire card.
Here's another.

Visiontek Radeon HD 2600 PRO 512MB PCIe Graphics Card Mac / Windows | eBay

Works great. Actual photos.

www.ebay.com

The 512MB versions are the ones to aim for.

A real shame though... Those two 8600 GTS are Gigabyte branded, so they fit perfectly into this Gigabyte-styled system. Everything is Gigabyte - from the case, motherboard, ATA & SATA cable(s), two original 120 fans (the rear one even has blue LEDs, to match Gigabyte's color scheme), etc.

As for the cards you linked, I probably won't be buying anything from ebay for this project ... I was primarily just being curious, that's all. Never had SLI or CF setup before, and since I already had a pair of these cards for years I wanted to put them together. Alas, the true SLI capable motherboards are almost non existent, everything is exclusively for ATI & AMD, Crossfire based.

 

[lexluthermiester]

A real shame though... Those two 8600 GTS are Gigabyte branded, so they fit perfectly into this Gigabyte-styled system.

True! Have you given thought to a Gigabyte 8800 GT or 9800 GT? They would be period correct and match the branding. Just a though.

Never had SLI or CF setup before, and since I already had a pair of these cards for years I wanted to put them together. Alas, the true SLI capable motherboards are almost non existent, everything is exclusively for ATI & AMD, Crossfire based.

Ah, right. Let's be honest, even BITD, CF/SLI was very fun, when it worked. It didn't always work because not all games were optimized. Even at the best of times it was fiddly. But when it worked, WOOOOOWOOOO was it fun!

Alas, the true SLI capable motherboards are almost non existent, everything is exclusively for ATI & AMD, Crossfire based.

Sadly, during that period of time, you needed an NVidia chipset or highend Intel chipset for SLI to work.

 

[Trekkie4]

True! Have you given thought to a Gigabyte 8800 GT or 9800 GT? They would be period correct and match the branding. Just a though.


Ah, right. Let's be honest, even BITD, CF/SLI was very fun, when it worked. It didn't always work because not all games were optimized. Even at the best of times it was fiddly. But when it worked, WOOOOOWOOOO was it fun!


Sadly, during that period of time, you needed an NVidia chipset or highend Intel chipset for SLI to work.

I don't have a Gigabyte-branded 8800GT, but then again from what I remember I probably wouldn't want one, either. Those things easily overheated and most of them ended up as paper weights. I do, however own a single Gainward 8800GT that's still in service ... kind of.


I suppose I could find another one like that & pair them together, but once again I really don't see the point since I can't seem to find SLI-compliant motherboard. Not to mention the fact that the board absolutely needs to support DDR2, have 4 banks for the RAM in 2+2 configuration and it needs to be AMD based, for the Phenom X4 9550 CPU that I have & used for this purpose.

And yeah, I've been told the same by several individuals... Once again, it's a shame that SLI and CF never really worked out. But then again I'm really not that much surprised considering the amount of problems & issues these things had. When you think about it nowadays, the Voodoo2 SLI is still probably the best & most reliable way to go. You don't need SLI compliant motherboard, you can even use mismatched cards from different vendors AND you don't need a small power plant to run both cards on full load - 300W is probably more than enough in most situations

 

[68Olds]

Do you have any Radeon HD 3400 series GPUs? You could try playing with the hybrid Xfire on the motherboard.

I have an AM2 A10-6800k with HD 8000 series integrated and an HD 7750 that pairs for hybrid XFire. I need to get back to playing with it & see if I can get it working as it should. 3DMark scores were lower running hybrid vs running the 7750 alone.

 

[Trekkie4]

Do you have any Radeon HD 3400 series GPUs? You could try playing with the hybrid Xfire on the motherboard.

I have an AM2 A10-6800k with HD 8000 series integrated and an HD 7750 that pairs for hybrid XFire. I need to get back to playing with it & see if I can get it working as it should. 3DMark scores were lower running hybrid vs running the 7750 alone.

I got on-board HD 3400, if that is what you are referring to? But no, I do not have any HD 3400 cards.

 

[68Olds]

I got on-board HD 3400, if that is what you are referring to? But no, I do not have any HD 3400 cards.

Yes, I meant a 3400 series card that you could pair with the 3400 onboard. Too bad you don't have one, just for the experience of playing with hybrid xfire.

 

[Audioave10]

So much great Computer History in some of Usagi Electric's videos...