TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[dorsetknob]

Its Suggested that some of the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci were made from the use of pin hole camera's

Leonardo da Vinci in the 16th century gave a clear description in his notebooks: "When the images of illuminated objects pass through a small round hole into a very dark room…you will see on paper all those objects in their natural shapes and colours." "Who would believe that so small a space could contain the image of all the universe? O mighty process! What talent can avail to penetrate a nature such as these? What tonque will it be that can unfold so great a wonder? Verily, none! This it is that guides the human discource to the considering of divine things. Here the figures, here the colors, here all the images of every part of the universe are contracted to a point. O what a point is so marvelous!.
wilki

 

[Trekkie4]

More stuff coming up...

Now, here's something slightly different. I bought this next motherboard long time ago, and it was part of that "3-system" deal I got back in 2014, when I gave one of the systems away for charity. I had it around the room for months, before I decided to use it for one of the AMD builds. In fact, this motherboard WAS, at one point paired up with that black Cooler Master case, from my profile rig. So, what happened, you may be asking? At one point, while I was still putting this thing together, I've noticed that the system (with Athlon 1700+) had weird problems, and that the motherboard would sometimes turn on normally and sometimes it wouldn't. It also had tons of other issues, so I took it apart & started fiddling with the settings & RAM modules. At some point, I did one of those stupid, rookie mistakes & removed the CPU cooler from this thing, so that I could quickly swap the CPU for other one (for the sake of testing, if necessary) and placed a temporary, small passive chipset cooler across Athlon 1700. Here's the thing... Ordinarily CPUs such as Intel Pentiums 1, 2, 3 & newer probably wouldn't mind something like that, and would simply keep on working. However, this is Socket A we're talking about, and these ones (as you know) have exposed components on the actual CPU, something which I entirely forgot about. As you might have guessed, the small chipset cooler caused the short across Athlon 1700, which simply died in a puff of smoke, right in front of my eyes! I remember testing the board afterwards, with one other Athlon (750MHz) and it did't work, so the board ended up on the scrap pile & almost got thrown into trash. Well, almost - you see after couple of weeks, as I was gathering stuff to recycle & get rid of it, I've decided one more time to give it a go with Sempron CPU & see if it'll boot up or not. In fact, the board (at this point) was already picked clean, I removed the CMOS battery, all the jumper caps, even removed those plastic clips for the sound input (TAD, CD-IN & AUX) because I needed those for one other board. Surprisingly enough, board booted up perfectly fine ... which left me stunned & wondering what the heck is going on. Of course, I restored all the jumper caps & placed one of the plastic hooks back on the board, saving the board from its terrible fate.

Although I kept this particular board, I never really used it again so after couple of months, I gave it a "new" Athlon CPU, placed a brand new CPU cooler & traded it with someone for one other piece of hardware. That was 2 years ago, and I never heard about that board again - until yesterday. When I got the call from the same person who gave me the board back to me, because he's no longer interested in it. In the meantime, it seems that the board has been tossed, scraped, abused & crushed under a whole bunch of other parts, but it does seem to be OK. Don't really know for sure, as I didn't have the time to actually test it but I'm starting to wonder just how many lives this thing has?!

(to answer my own question) Apparently more than I ever imagined Yes, the board does seem to be working OK. CPU on the other hand does not, which is something you don't get to see every day! Last time I've had a bad CPU was with one of the Slot-1 builds, when passively-cooled Pentium 3 500 "cooked" itself under the heatsink, I was literally playing the game when it happened! (Need for Speed 3, Hometown track on that sharp 90 degree corner)

Anyway, this thing got a new CPU now (Duron 750, which is exact duplicate of that another rig that I've mentioned on the last page), but it received a total makeover - new heatsink, thermal compound, 256mb of RAM and Evil Kyro card, which indeed DOES also seem to be working perfectly fine I'm hoping to swap Duron 750 for something better in couple of months, when I get my hands on faster model. Not too fast though, because I once tried running Athlon 1700+ on this thing and it didn't work - in fact, this is how all the problems with this board started in the first place!

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

I showed this some time ago........the oldies are the goodies...

Piccolo 9.5mm film projector.




I am going to make a determined effort to make this work.....LED's should do it. I can remember watching all of these "shorts" as a child, the whole assembly got very hot from the bulb, hence the vents. The cable was the old brown twisted type which a few of us will probably remember. There isnt much info available so i havent provided a link.

i have tried my best with the pics, my feculant son is reluctant to lend me his 60D and tripod.

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Back to the old stuff, this is 2002.

Albatron Ti4680P-Turbo GeForce4 Ti4200-8X

 

[Artex]

Newbie here on this forum but I thought I'd share my retro collection after finding this thread. I've been a passionate collector since about 2011 but I've been passionate about PCs/PC gaming since about 1992 when my family bought their first PC - a Packard Bell 386SX 16Mhz. Anyway, greetings and enjoy a bit of nostalgia!


The video cards..(3DFX)






The video cards..







The Processors..





The Audio Stuff..







The Audio Stuff (Creative Lovin')..



The Audio Stuff (Roland, Ensoniq SoundScape/SoundScape Elite/Creative CMS)..







The Audio Stuff (Let there be GUS!)..and my CM-500





The "Artex's Build of the Week" Beasts!! + OEM Favorites

 

[uuuaaaaaa]

Newbie here but I thought I'd share my retro collection.


The video cards..(3DFX)






The video cards..







The Processors..





The Audio Stuff..







The Audio Stuff (Creative Lovin')..



The Audio Stuff (Roland, Ensoniq SoundScape/SoundScape Elite/Creative CMS)..







The Audio Stuff (Let there be GUS!)..and my CM-500





The "Artex's Build of the Week" Beasts!! + OEM Favorites

This is an absolutely and utterly epic collection!

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

@Artex

 

[Mr.Scott]

You have many awesome goodies. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Artex]

Thanks all! So much fun to look at all the old-school, colorful box art. It's like Christmas right?!

 

[uuuaaaaaa]

Thanks all! So much fun to look at all the old-school, colorful box art. It's like Christmas right?!

Indeed!

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Thanks all! So much fun to look at all the old-school, colorful box art. It's like Christmas right?!

Its like Xmas at your house.....

Not mine........

 

[Trekkie4]

Back to the old stuff, this is 2002.

Albatron Ti4680P-Turbo GeForce4 Ti4200-8X


View attachment 72055

Old?! Heh, this is new stuff! Got the same card in my signature rig, except mine is manufactured by LeadTek maybe? Don't really remember for sure, but it sure looks like Leadtek WinFast...

@Artex Holy crap! Wow, and I repeat - WOW!

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Old?! Heh, this is new stuff!

my previous post showed a film projector from the mid 1950's

 

[Trekkie4]

my previous post showed a film projector from the mid 1950's

I know, pretty awesome stuff! Pretty sure you could sell some of that stuff to a museum(s) (or collectors) for big buck!

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

I know, pretty awesome stuff! Pretty sure you could sell some of that stuff to a museum(s) (or collectors) for big buck!

Some stuff you just cant sell. I have many other such curios but they all come with memories and no-one could pay enough for them.....

The last time i watched those films i was about 10 at the most, (40 years ago), a family Xmas gathering with all my cousins and they havent been watched since.

I will get it going, i tested the shutter earlier, @dorsetknob has furnished me with some useful info and before long i will watch and record the films with my own kids then i will send a copy to everyone who was there all those years ago.

 

[Trekkie4]

Some stuff you just cant sell. I have many other such curios but they all come with memories and no-one could pay enough for them.....

The last time i watched those films i was about 10 at the most, (40 years ago), a family Xmas gathering with all my cousins and they havent been watched since.

I will get it going, i tested the shutter earlier, @dorsetknob has furnished me with some useful info and before long i will watch and record the films with my own kids then i will send a copy to everyone who was there all those years ago.

Agreed, some things (like my Pentium 2 from back in a day) simply don't have a price tag. Which reminds me of that other saying, "one person's trash is another's treasure"

 

[dorsetknob]

@ArtexSo much
there are a few of us here now got geriatric E-peen envy your post is that's me the yellow one

 

[debs3759]

@Artex That is an awesome collection! Seeing everything boxed must have taken a lot of time to find

 

[Artex]

Thanks again all! Yes, I have to admit, I probably spend too much time hunting these things down primarily because most of them are in the original boxes, a lot of them still factory sealed. For me, a big chunk of the nostalgia with this stuff comes from the original packaging, and the feeling I got way back when when buying this stuff. It reminds of the time period I loved the most growing up, when I first got into computers and when there were more players in the game vying for market share - whether it's Cyrix vs AMD vs Intel, Rendition vs. 3DFX vs. nVidia, or Creative vs. Advanced Gravis vs. Media Vision. It was certainly an interesting time to jump into the hobby, and after seeing how much stuff was available back then (even if for a short while), the more I realize how lucky I was to be a part of it.

 

[Trekkie4]

Yes - in a lot of ways, I feel the similar passion for old technology, that's why I decided to get as much hardware and experience while I still can Not to mention the fact that most of the stuff that I do (and collect) reminds me of my childhood in the 90's, which is a huge bonus by itself, just like you said!

But once again, wow! I'd have to agree with @dorsetknob on this one, I do envy you a little bit As if finding 3dfx products nowdays is not hard by itself, but having the entire collection boxed & sealed-up? That's just crazy! And not just 3dfx, pretty much the entire collection! Seriously, how often do you get to find sealed up copy of IDK, 486 upgrade kit or Matrox Mystique?

 

[Artex]

And not just 3dfx, pretty much the entire collection! Seriously, how often do you get to find sealed up copy of IDK, 486 upgrade kit or Matrox Mystique?

Some of the items are more rare than others. The 3dfx stuff, for example, is always a challenge because the boxes are different for the US vs EU, and other regions of the world. I still need to find a Voodoo4 4500 PCI (EU) - aka VoodooMAC in the beautiful red/pink box, so I'm still hunting for this stuff. On the processor side of things, I think my most prized item is the sealed Pentium 60 with the FDIV bug - it's the gold top original Pentium! Of course, I always love Cyrix stuff and view them as the underdogs back then.

 

[Trekkie4]

Well, I've been collecting old 3dfx cards & other PC stuff for a while now (couple of years, at least) and never got to see a Voodoo card that's still in the original box, especially sealed one! Over the time, I scored 20-something of them so far (3x Voodoo1, 14x Voodoo2 and 4x Voodoo3) + couple of other cards that are either missing something (Voodoo3 3500 for example that's missing the AV adapter cable) or have bad EDO VRAM that needs to be replaced (maybe, some day). Also have Voodoo Rush that has a weird problem with 2D board, which causes "shadows" on the screen, around the icons & window borders. Other than that it's fully functional

 

[stinger608]

@Artex you da man!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is an amazing collection of some of the most awesome nostalgic hardware I've ever seen! Hands down!!!!!

Like your story about growing up, I feel much the same way other than probably the age. I was much older than a "child" when most of this type of technology was beginning to surface but had an almost child like excitement when I would purchase a new stick of ram, hard drive, video card, or any upgrade. It was amazing!
The first true computer that I built for my self was using an Asus P5A Super Socket 7 motherboard and an AMD K6-2 350mhz processor. I installed a Diamond Monster 12mb card that I had in a previous Packard Bell. I'll never forget, as long as I live, the feeling I had when I hit the power button and that new system came to life!!!!!!!

Just amazing time to have been into computers!!!

Oh yea, and I actually still have that first motherboard and processor.

 

[Retrorockit]

Amazing. I saw a Voodoo5500 AGP still in the shrink wrap. The pile of gateway desktops was cool too. You collection looks like one of the Computer trade shows they used to have back then. It was a carnival atmosphere where everyone would go to see what the next big thing was going to be.

 

[hertz9753]

Who left the door open and let me in?