TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[INSTG8R]

I love the oldschool look anyway so that's why I go with soft ones, 13/10 here.

That was my first water rig and I’ve never been on air since and yes absolutely prefer the classic style

 

[Ruru]

That was my first water rig and I’ve never been on air since and yes absolutely prefer the classic style

These days I have even my 2nd PC on water

 

[INSTG8R]

These days I have even my 2nd PC on water

This is the way

 

[Ruru]

This is the way

No anything special, just tap water dammit.

 

[INSTG8R]

No anything special, just tap water dammit.

Well my last build I learned to never ever use coloured coolant. My switch to clear still comes out pink Despite flushing it multiple times with vinegar and rinsed with water...and what I found in my already restrictive block....

 

[Ruru]

Well my last build I learned to never ever use coloured coolant. My switch to clear still comes out pink Despite flushing it multiple times with vinegar and rinsed with water...and what I found in my already restrictive block....View attachment 170849

Never had damage but color coolant built hella lot shit to the loop. I wondered why my ex-R9 290 jumped instantly to 94C and started throttling when gaming, there was hella lot of gunk on the block, similar as yours. :/

Nowadays I just use distilled water. The tap water is just if I don't have anything else and only a temporary solution.

 

[INSTG8R]

Never had damage but color coolant built hella lot shit to the loop. I wondered why my ex-R9 290 jumped instantly to 94C and started throttling when gaming, there was hella lot of gunk on the block, similar as yours. :/

Nowadays I just use distilled water. The tap water is just if I don't have anything else and only a temporary solution.

well that was basically blocked . I just use clear Cryofuel

 

[Ruru]

well that was basically blocked . I just use clear Cryofuel

The same was with my EK-Supremacy VGA drained the loop, cleaned the blocks and daaaamn the temp drop.

 

[Trekkie4]

Sorry, understood wrong ur post... I'd just get a Pentium if I want a Win95 PC as those 486 ones are hella expensive


And still is, my mental health doesnt go with 1:1 with the hardtubes.. I can swear if I'd go with hardtubes, I'd probably think that is this hell.. oh hell no for me, soft tubes look so much cooler as in old school way and they're just so easy as u don't kink them.

Nah, it's all good

But here's the thing... If you get a Pentium over 386, 486 or 586, you don't get to use the Turbo. And let's be honest, who wouldn't want to have a Turbo boosted PC?!

My first ones were curbside finds

A while ago, back in 2014 I actually BOUGHT an old 486, DX4 (100MHz) for around $15. I didn't have much of a choice because I was hosting an exhibition, and people wanted to see (and experience) 486, which (at the time) I did not have available. I even documented it here in this thread, I'll see if I can dig it up. That being said, I sold that same DX4 in 2019 for $62! I don't necessarily feel bad or sad, since according to my standards, it wasn't a genuine 486 to begin with. It had a modern motherboard, combining both PCI & ISA, along with integrated controllers & lithium CR2032 battery.

But yes, I prefer free stuff ... just as much as anyone else I guess you just have to be at the right time in the right place for it to happen.

Edit - found it! I sold the 5x86 from the picture as well as DX4, but I kept the other 5x86, since I had two identical setups

OK, so I finally tested the first two of upcoming 4 systems, which I picked up last week... 1st one booted up OK, but the hard drive was stuck & making squealing noises. And surprise, surprise - it was a Maxtor unit, would you believe that?!

Anyhow, the 1st Celeron system is just a basic one... Not much to tell, Intel Desktop board & S478 Celeron running at 2.0GHz. However, the 2nd one ... turned out to be quite a surprise actually. Asus P4P800 SE, with dual DDR memory channels, SATA interface, etc. The system wasn't turning on, and you could tell just by looking at the hardware inside that someone picked it clean, thinking it's completely toasted. The CMOS battery was missing, hard drive(s) removed, along with the video card & anything useful. However, it occurred me that the problem I'm having might had been related with fancy China-made computer case, which has one of those LCD panels & tons of buttons built into the front panel. So when I disconnected the actual "hardware" power switch & shorted the power-on pins with the screwdriver, system booted up perfectly fine! Woohoo, this is going to make awesome toy, for me to play with! It has a 2.8GHz Pentium 4 chip, and I already mounted 512MB of RAM, might add additional pair into the other two banks, upgrading it to 1GB in total.


On a side note, I took the liberty of checking my Intel 4x86 DX4 system here for CMOS battery charge & dust inside the case... it's been years since the last time I've had it up & running, but as you can see here, it's still working the way it should! In fact, I don't think I ever had this one posted here on TPU (not to be confused with AMD 5x86), so enjoy this true oldtimer!


Time to play some old school DOS games!



Anyone up for Windows 3.11?


Oh, no!!

 

[INSTG8R]

The same was with my EK-Supremacy VGA drained the loop, cleaned the blocks and daaaamn the temp drop.

Yeah I switched to AM4 so I have an EK Velocity AM4 but in my excitement to assemble it all I didn‘t check it or flush it. the very next day I was doing some final tidying and I turned it off. A “floaty” came out of the block. The thought of having to drain it and tear it apart 24 hours after putting it all together won out. Everything is running as expected but I still know that somewhere in my loop is a foreign object....

 

[Dinnercore]

Is anyone here still running an E7300? Or basically any dual core from that E7XXX line. I was an idiot and delidded all of mine before doing any thermal testing and now I have no idea if I improved things or not.
Has to be an E7XXX since those are NOT soldered but use TIM and they are 45nm.

 

[kiriakost]

Due this thread and my own memory of my first CPU 486 DX100 it was killing me thought that I was not remember the motherboard maker... and after a week of defraging my brain cells, then it came to me..
Its the damn SOYO

And my first ever OS was Win 3.1 for work-group

 

[debs3759]

Due this thread and my own memory of my first CPU 486 DX100 it was killing me thought that I was not remember the motherboard maker... and after a week of defraging my brain cells, then it came to me..
Its the damn SOYO

And my first ever OS was Win 3.1 for work-group

I have no idea what my first MoBo was (might have been a Tomato board, but not sure). I only remember it was cheap. I know I had a 486SX25 (had no idea of the difference between an SX and a DX for the first couple of years) and a Tseng ET4000

 

[kiriakost]

(had no idea of the difference between an SX and a DX for the first couple of years)

This information its hard to find, this is stored at printed press of 90s (magazines).
DX this is latest development and a step up regarding performance.

 

[stinger608]

Is anyone here still running an E7300? Or basically any dual core from that E7XXX line. I was an idiot and delidded all of mine before doing any thermal testing and now I have no idea if I improved things or not.
Has to be an E7XXX since those are NOT soldered but use TIM and they are 45nm.

I might have one. I'll have to look in my stock pile of old CPUs bro.

DX this is latest development and a step up regarding performance.

The DX chips had a math coprocessor where the SX did not. Made a difference in speed on processing a lot of apps and games.

 

[kiriakost]

The DX chips had a math coprocessor where the SX did not. Made a difference in speed on processing a lot of apps and games.

And therefore I do belong at the generation which started computing with math co-processor within the CPU.
The most breathtaking action game of this period it was Chess at 2D.

 

[Chomiq]

I have no idea what my first MoBo was (might have been a Tomato board, but not sure). I only remember it was cheap. I know I had a 486SX25 (had no idea of the difference between an SX and a DX for the first couple of years) and a Tseng ET4000

Same here, we upgraded sx25 to dx4/100 later. It served me well until early 2000's. It then was used by my dad for office work at our family shop. Sadly he threw it away at some point.

 

[xrobwx71]

We will need Virtual Reality 3D demo for actual benchmarks
I has own the Voodoo3 3000, it was a more popular choice due pricing, for us 3D world explorers.

Will, it run Crysis Remastered? Or MS Flight Sim 2020 ?

Hi everybody, first time poster Glad I found this thread and the fantastic community within! I've read all the 395 pages and witnessed some amazing hardware - and people - on these very pages

Anyway, a bit late to the party, but here's my current "retro" rig built about five years ago. I didn't go for the bling with this one. Just wanted a Windows XP PC which could also be used for most everyday tasks in a pinch:

View attachment 169484 View attachment 169485

Now, would anybody care to identify the components before I list them?

Welcome aboard! It is a great community!

 

[Ruru]

Yeah I switched to AM4 so I have an EK Velocity AM4 but in my excitement to assemble it all I didn‘t check it or flush it. the very next day I was doing some final tidying and I turned it off. A “floaty” came out of the block. The thought of having to drain it and tear it apart 24 hours after putting it all together won out. Everything is running as expected but I still know that somewhere in my loop is a foreign object....

I know exactly that feeling, the "floaties" always disturbs me.

 

[QuietBob]

The DX chips had a math coprocessor where the SX did not. Made a difference in speed on processing a lot of apps and games.

Specifically, that would be true of the 486 line (with the single exception of the i487SX). The 386DX did not have an integrated FPU.
Still, not having a math coprocessor didn't really matter to the average user. It wasn't until around 1995 and the onset of the 3d revolution that the FPU started to make a difference.

Welcome aboard! It is a great community!

Thanks for the welcome!

 

[Ruru]

Thanks for the welcome!

Yeah, welcome it's always nice to see new faces on my favourite threads here.

 

[kiriakost]

Same here, we upgraded sx25 to dx4/100 later. It served me well until early 2000's. It then was used by my dad for office work at our family shop. Sadly he threw it away at some point.

The wise upgrade sequence was 486 DX100 => AMD 133 => Slot 1 Celeron 266 this able to be clocked at 400MHz with the help of a large Cooling brick
Then with a Voodoo2 you were capable to run the 3D demo of Star Wars.

OMG more memories.

 

[NoJuan999]

I bought a 386 when I started college in 1990 (studying Electrical and Computer Engineering) and then a few years later sold it and got a 486DX2 and the difference was huge for me.
I was using PSpice to simulate electronic circuits and it took 3 to 4 days to finish a simulation on the 386 and with the 486 they would complete in about 24 hours.
So for me at least that on chip FPU made a world of difference.

 

[Ruru]

I bought a 386 when I started college in 1990 (studying Electrical and Computer Engineering) and then a few years later sold it and got a 486DX2 and the difference was huge for me.
I was using PSpice to simulate electronic circuits and it took 3 to 4 days to finish a simulation on the 386 and with the 486 they would complete in about 24 hours.
So for me at least that on chip FPU made a world of difference.

Technology had huge leaps in every generation back then. I'm too young to had experienced those but countless hours of youtube videos about the hardware from back in the day makes that more than clear.

 

[Trekkie4]

Due this thread and my own memory of my first CPU 486 DX100 it was killing me thought that I was not remember the motherboard maker... and after a week of defraging my brain cells, then it came to me..
Its the damn SOYO

And my first ever OS was Win 3.1 for work-group

Mine was exactly the same! Intel 486 DX2, 66 with the Soyo board. It was running MS-DOS v6.22 & Windows for Workgroups 3.11. Didn't have the sound and/or CD-ROM at first, those two came couple of years later when we finally upgraded the system with GoldStar 16X CD drive & Audio Excel sound card, with Target-branded speakers.

This information its hard to find, this is stored at printed press of 90s (magazines).
DX this is latest development and a step up regarding performance.

Strictly said, you are right. What others said (@stinger608 ), DX line had a math co-processor built in where the SX did not. I never had 386 before (or 286, for that matter) - my first system was previously mentioned 486 DX2, which is part of the reason why I wanted to get my hands on 386 system nowdays, to see how it compares against DX2