TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[GreiverBlade]

YES i was right !

4x AMD Opteron 275 Dual Core 2.20GHZ (SKT 940 obviously YAY 2 for the SM H8DCE 2 for the shelf! )
2x AMD Opteron 8356 QUAD CORE 2.40GHZ (SKT Fr2 i noticed that because the IHS is squared while the F2 are rounded )
2x AMD Opteron 2218 Dual Core 2.60GHz (SKT F2)
2x AMD Opteron 2214 Dual Core 2.00GHZ (SKT F2)


940 left to right : 2x 275 2X 250 2x 248 1x 246 and a spare AM2 4850E Fr2 and F2: 2x 8356 2x 2218 2x 2214



need more pieces to finalise the H8DCE build ... and a lots of praying that the 275 is compatible



seems compatible after a little searching

image: http://www.ixbt.com/cpu/images/amd-cmp-vs-smp/smicro-small.jpg




Supermicro H8DCE motherboard with
Opteron 275 processors
and Supermicro SNK-P0014AP4 coolers
The subject of pleasantry of gurus, who remember the times of AMD Athlon Slot A, is the fact that the OEM motherboard has been shipped in a classic (for those who remember...) white "badgeless" box, bundled only with a driver CD and a small green piece of paper containing the name of this motherboard (no mention of a manufacturer!) But it was still no problem for us to find out that this motherboard was most likely manufactured by Supermicro. So one of the last bastions of faithful Intelers among the motherboard manufacturers seems to fall soon.


Read more at http://ixbtlabs.com/articles2/cpu/amd-cmp-vs-smp.html#C6l0ZRBzjxRuvidx.99

 

[Robert B]

I moved shop to vogons.org Updates will be posted there. I'll keep an eye on this thread too.

https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=48835

Episodes left to post:

1. The GREAT Voodoo 3 3000 16 MB rescue (Made in China )
2. A not so lucky Asus Geforce 4 4600 Ti
3. The 5,6,7 AGP trio
4. What's left in my stash?
5. Little bent PIN
6. How I clean and store my stuff

 

[Jetster]

Anyone want this Creative Labs V90 56k Modem Blaster Hardware modem?

ISA slot

Just pay the shipping US only

I think I paid $90 for it

 

[Trekkie4]

Well guys, it's finally done! This project took me way, way too long to finish but now I'd like to proudly present you with my latest (and final) retro build - Duron 1200 With (once again), special thanks to @Mr.Scott for providing me with Duron CPU & protective shim.


Just to show that I DO like my AMDs, regardless of how it might have seemed from some of my previous posts, although I STILL consider them to be far more problematic than Intel. In fact, this one was PITA to set up, because I fried couple of motherboards & RAMs in the process! Long story short, my partially damaged mobo from couple of years ago caused damage to other components, which then caused damage to a brand new motherboard once I moved these other (obviously damaged) components over to the new mobo...

Efficient cooling was also a must have for AMD, so I took the liberty of upgrading the heatsink & adding additional 80x80 fan on the back panel. Actually I've done the same thing to both Duron and Athlon 1000 systems, as the other (Athlon) one was overheating to the point where the entire case panel got pretty warm to the touch!


So now the Athlon build and its "big" brother Duron are both completely operational & ready to go I still didn't have the time to set up Win2k and/or any of the games, but I'm hoping to have the software portion done & completely finished by the next Friday! So stay tuned for that, I'm probably going to include a lot of screenshots!

On a side note, I've decided to retire from retro computer builds. In other words, I'll still be here to discuss occasional (and rare) hardware finds, but at the moment I'm not planning to make any more systems. With the latest Duron rig, I'm just above "30" mark and am basically running out of room to keep all this stuff lol. Besides, how much do you really need, even this much would be considered absurd to most of the ppl

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Japan will make its last-ever VCR this month


Japan's Funai Electric, which has been making VCRs since 1983, used to sell 15 million VCRs a year in its heyday.

But last year the company sold just 750,000 as the video cassette market continues to shrink.

According to Japanese newspaper Nikkei, Funai Electric will shut down its VCR operations by the end of August.

Alongside a shrinking demand from consumers, Funai said it is also having difficulty getting the correct parts to manufacture VCRs with, as the technology is so dated.

Rival Panasonic stopped making VCRs in 2012, but Funai was still making the tape machines for Sanyo in China, which then sold them on to customers in the United States and other markets.

 

[R-T-B]

Japan will make its last-ever VCR this month


Japan's Funai Electric, which has been making VCRs since 1983, used to sell 15 million VCRs a year in its heyday.

But last year the company sold just 750,000 as the video cassette market continues to shrink.

According to Japanese newspaper Nikkei, Funai Electric will shut down its VCR operations by the end of August.

Alongside a shrinking demand from consumers, Funai said it is also having difficulty getting the correct parts to manufacture VCRs with, as the technology is so dated.

Rival Panasonic stopped making VCRs in 2012, but Funai was still making the tape machines for Sanyo in China, which then sold them on to customers in the United States and other markets.

I'd better take really good care of my SVHS JVC deck I got from the surplus store... VHS->DVD conversion is one of the few income sources I have these days... lol

 

[Trekkie4]

Too bad... Most ppl don't seem to realize that, but back in a day Funai was known for its high quality & reliable decks. IMHO, Funai 3 (as in Mk3) was their last decent deck, before the production line moved from Japan to China & became a joke, which gave them all the bad reputation that's known world-wide today. In fact, Funai was the FIRST company to develop & come up with geared idler system, rather than using "tires" like JVC & Sony, which were causing a lot of problems & faults on pretty much all VHS units.

But then again it's to be expected... Personally speaking, I'm ready! I happen to own 9 or 10 VHS machines, all in working condition. 6 of them are "modern", manufactured after 2000s, while 4 units are from 80's and early 90's. I also had a modern Grundig Vivance unit but gave it away to a friend, who might eventually even give it back to me, since she only needed it to copy some of her personal tapes onto the HDD. I also service & keep these things in working condition, which is why I'm able to afford to stockpile VCRs (most of them will go bad even if you don't use them, as the rubber belts inside will disintegrate & fall apart)

 

[Trekkie4]

Still didn't have the time to play with that Duron 1200 build, however I did get to finally hook up & properly test some of the motherboards which I had laying around. Including that Chaintech Summit 7NIF2 (turned out to have a problem with onboard video, it's throwing artifacts - otherwise in fully working condition) and Gigabyte (don't remember the model number), but it's a S478 board that was completely restored & brought back from the dead. It suffered from bulged caps & water leak, so it took me a while to get it working again but it was worth it Both of these are mATX factors...

Speaking of old hardware, I was recently donated Savage AGP card which has the support for compressed textures. First "useful" S3 card in my collection, as the other two are old ISA & AGP 1x models with barely 2-3mb of VRAM. Also got another SIS6326 and Fujitsu branded GeForce2 MX

I can post some of the pics if anyone's interested..?

 

[Mr.Scott]

Pics are always welcome.

 

[Trekkie4]

Sure thing, I'll post some tomorrow

 

[Trekkie4]

Alrighty then... As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I was donated couple of old school video cards S3 Savage 4 Pro is one of them, and I'm anxious to see it working under Unreal Tournament (GOTY edition), since it supports & features S3 compressed texture technology, specifically designed for Savage 4 video cards.


Other than Savage, I also got the following models:

SIS 6326, AGP


The Original GeForce (GeForce256) from Inno3D


GeForce2 MX from Fujitsu Siemens


...and last but not least this GeForce4 4200 without the cooling fan. I actually pulled this one from a scrapped system a while ago & wasn't even sure if it works, considering it got wet & was operating without the cooling fan for quite some time... But hey, it does boot up, no artifacts and/or flickering whatsoever, so it's most probably fine.


Now, the motherboards...

First to start off with this Chaintech Summit 7NIF2, which I previously uploaded here on TPU but never got around to actually test it. That is until yesterday, and yes the board does indeed seems to be working, but the onboard video is giving me artifacts, something must have gone wrong... Oh well, the AGP is doing its job and I'm not getting any problems with external video card, so it's not much of an issue I guess.


This Gigabyte GA-8SIMLFS board was the one which had water damage & bulged caps. If I'd have to guess, I'd say that the previous owner ran the board without appropriate CPU cooler because the one I pulled off the board was holding with plastic-wrapped wires, rather than (at least) using plastic zip ties or some sort of mounting bracket. Actually I'm surprised it didn't short anything and/or fried the entire board, but considering the overall state of the system I'm not surprised it ended up in water-flooded basement & had water marks (and rust) everywhere! One way or another, the board had been fixed & given another chance It's running 1.8 Celeron, although I'm pretty sure that I still have a 2.0 one somewhere among the spares...


And last one for now, I just got this Asus A7M266 board earlier today! True retro beauty, fully operational & currently paired up with Duron 950. Jumpers were configured to use DIP switches & onboard config, rather than BIOS, so I downloaded the reference manual & reset all the jumpers to their factory values. What I like about Asus is "Jumper Free" option, because it makes my life as a computer tech a whole lot easier!


Edit
Speaking of Duron 950... Enjoy!

 

[Trekkie4]

Frankly, I was hoping someone would post something in between so that I once again wouldn't have to triple-post lol, but anyhow... Proudly presenting my Duron 1200 build, which is still not 100% finished at the moment but it's slowly getting there

Starting off with simple memory test. After all, I've had too many RAM problems over the years, which would pop up eventually & cause problems with something down the road, forcing me to backtrack & waste time on tracing the source, so I figured this is the best way to start - and good thing I did! Because I totally forgot all about the AMD chipset issue & 3rd memory module "rule"... Oh well, another disaster successfully avoided!


Windows 2k is booting up...


Almost there!


At this point you really wouldn't expect to see me taking that Duron apart - but instead here we have a TV tuner card that's been removed from the case. So what went wrong?! To put it simple, absolutely nothing! I couldn't get the video capture component to recognize & install (Asus BDA Analog Capture), so I assumed that it must be something to do with the tuner card. But nope, it turned out to be DirectX9 problem!


Finally, all the hardware is up & running! Now, to see what this thing is capable of...


3849 3D marks? Not bad I guess... True, I've seen better, but also far more worse which makes this pretty decent score IMHO


Some of the tech specs & hardware details...


Driving Misty around the streets of Liberty City since 2001 Frame rate is decent enough for GTA3, although it tends to lag at certain points. Probably due to RAM, only running 384MB to be more precise. Vice City on the other hand runs much better & smoother, but I forgot to take the pics


Having said that, why don't we try something a bit different - some of you guys probably remember RealGTA3 mod for GTA3, one of the most famous mod packs from back in a day? (Looks good enough to me)


Speaking of mods, I've decided to try something else. This one is called Hotel Carone, and it's one of the more famous mission packs (unofficial mod, of course) for the original Deus Ex game.


Although I already had Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets up & running at this point, I didn't bother taking any pics, so here's couple from Prisoner of Azkaban instead, which had been maxed out & runs perfectly!


Followed by Broken Sword 3 - The Sleeping Dragon


FlatOut...


Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004...


And NFS Underground, drifting around in Peugeot 206. And yes, the game is once again completely maxed out, runs smoothly & accurately. No lag from what I can tell, whatsoever.


Speaking of Need for Speed series, I also took the liberty of installing Hot Pursuit 2, even though I don't like the game. Nevertheless, this one belongs here IMHO, it just seemed right & appropriate somehow.


At this point I've decided to go back a bit & try with older titles... So therefore here we have Unreal Gold, Unreal Tournament, Half Life Opposing Force, HL Blue Shift and last but not least Quake 3 Arena.

So much for now, stay tuned for more updates within the next couple of days

 

[Recon-UK]

 

[Trekkie4]

Oh and by the way... Regarding that previous post about VHS recorders. Here are some of the units from my personal collection


I've tried to update the existing post (because it would make more sense that way), but for some reason it's not letting me... Maybe because it was posted 5 days ago?

 

[Recon-UK]

Oh and by the way... Regarding that previous post about VHS recorders. Here are some of the units from my personal collection


I've tried to update the existing post (because it would make more sense that way), but for some reason it's not letting me... Maybe because it was posted 5 days ago?

Nice!i have a 20" CRT with built in VHS combi. Good job i'm strong lol it weighs a tonne...

 

[Trekkie4]

Oh wow, no kidding! I had a 19" CRT monitor at one point, and was really REALLY heavy - too heavy for me to carry & move around on my own

As for the VCRs, those units from the previous post were the ones which are currently not in service. They're all serviced & completely operational (in fact the LG one had the idler drive belt replaced just couple of months ago) but since I got better ones, they're just sitting there & waiting for rainy days

Oh and almost forgot, here's one more ... Also Telefunken, this one was going to be donated to a museum, but due to unfortunate set of circumstances it never did, so now it's just collecting dust JVC mechanism, 2-head mono unit with direct drive. This thing is powered by 5 individual motors, one for each operation (capstan, idler, cam gear, cassette loading elevator & head drum)


Here's couple of more units, and (unlike the previous 4 VHS recorders) these are actually being used on a regular basis. Wouldn't necessarily say every day, but I DO use VHS far more often than CDs and DVDs together!

Anitech 6002 (Re-branded Funai 3 aka Shintom) 2-head, mono


Daewoo ST767 6-head, hifi stereo


LG LV4981 6-head, hifi stereo


Hitachi VT-F550 EMKII 6-head, hifi stereo


Samsung DVD-6700, DVD/VCR 6-head, hifi stereo Combo unit

 

[Red_Machine]

I'm currently in the process of building a Cyrix 5x86 machine, with an Orchid ProDesigner IIS video card. Will post pics and maybe a video when it's done.

 

[dorsetknob]

Cyrix 5x86 machine,

even in this thread you don't see many cyrix chips
which one you using ?
I have a Nice Gold Cyrix M350 in my collection

 

[GreiverBlade]

even in this thread you don't see many cyrix chips
which one you using ?
I have a Nice Gold Cyrix M350 in my collection

well ... that make 3 ? ... i saw quite a lot on that thread ... tbh more than i saw elsewhere (i have a MII-300GP, i posted a pics iirc )

 

[Red_Machine]

It's a 5x86 100GP.

 

[Keullo-e]

One of the best soundcards ever

 

[GreiverBlade]

One of the best soundcards ever

i have 2 of them, one like yours (corroded contact on mine ... ) and another with golden contact ... i guess they did a cheap series

found back the pics i posted here a while ago
side by side



detailed, the cheap and the perfect

 

[Random Murderer]

i have 2 of them, one like yours (corroded contact on mine ... ) and another with golden contact ... i guess they did a cheap series

found back the pics i posted here a while ago
side by side
View attachment 77379


detailed, the cheap and the perfect
View attachment 77377 View attachment 77378

I have one of each as well. The cheaper of the two cards is the Audigy 2, the one with the gold-plated contacts is the Audigy 2 ZS. They're identical in circuits and features, even detected as the same hardware ID, but the ZS used gold-plated connectors for all of the jacks and the 1394 connector, a gold-plated PCI cover, and some of them had better op-amps than the base model. The ZS also came with more accessories, and in a lot of cases, games. Mine, when bought new, came with a ton of cables and five games (Halo: CE, Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield, Star Wars Jedi Academy, and Splinter Cell).
I can solidly say that the Audigy 2/2 ZS was one of my favorite sound cards of all time. My ZS served me well for almost a decade, including all of the mods I put it through (op-amp swap, ADC swap, decoupling bypass, EMI shield, complete re-cap, etc.)

 

[Trekkie4]

Well, I suppose it is the time to finish that Duron 1200 project...

Successfully booted up GTA San Andreas, which seems to be working OK. Far from perfect, but it is half way there, decent enough to play the game Getting the actual game to install was a whole other story, since I forgot to include a DVD drive on this thing - it has a CD-ROM & CD-RW combo therefore none of the ODDs were able to recognize DVD installation disc. That means I had to "cheat" & use Daemon tools instead.


Speaking of 3rd person shooters, can you identify this one?


Yup, it is "Driv3r" aka Driver 3 which (to be completely honest) I never expected to boot up & get it to work decently on this machine! Especially since I clearly remember experiencing lags & slowdowns even on a "modern" P4 3.00 Prescott system, with 2GB of DDR2 RAM and Radeon X1550 video card. Obviously, I had to lower down the specs down to a bare minimum, but it's mostly playable. Sometimes (during the scripted events) it tends to lag a bit, but that's to be expected - right?

Here's nVidia control panel overview, all the specs & driver info on that FX5700 inside Not a huge fan of FX series (I'd pick GF4 Ti Series any time!) but it does the job... And it has a DX9 support, something which even the best of GF4 cards couldn't deal with.


And that's pretty much it, I hope you guys enjoyed going through all my stuff & projects over the last couple of months & years

I might revisit some of my builds later on, and fix some of the remaining issues & problems that I'm having with certain hardware components, in which case I will upload more pics & explain what's going on. In fact, I could use your help with this particular thing... One of the problems I'm having (with the last 2 builds to be exact) is finding compatible & working TV watching app, compatible with Win 2k (Duron1200) and Win98 (Celeron466). I got the drivers installed & recognized, but the only known and compatible TV watching software Cyberlink PowerCinema 5.00 will only work under Windows XP and newer, which means I'm out of luck. So if anyone can provide me with free and working alternative, I'd be really grateful!

 

[Trekkie4]

Oh and by the way - while cleaning all the previously uploaded screenshots from the hard drive, I found couple of new, never seen before pics They're kinda random, so I'll have to address each group at the time

My very own Primax Raptor 3D joystick from back in a day. This one may had already been uploaded (not sure), but one way or another it's retro & nostalgic enough to be mentioned I was never a fan of joysticks, TBH I never even used this thing, but for some odd reason I just had to own one in 1998 lol, so here it is. Currently paired up with my signature machine RetroMaster 2000 & it's working OK. Some buttons are acting up & it seems to lost some of its precision but like I said, it works OK.


DIY cooling solution for the Pentium MMX processor The problem with this one is that the mounting tabs on the mobo broke off, meaning I couldn't place a standard Socket 7 heatsink on top of the CPU. Sooo had to improvise, but rest assured this had been replaced by the real Pentium heatsink later on, which clips directly on the CPU itself.


The original Pentium 2 build, which was going to be the actual retro system for playing older games. Before previously mentioned RetroMaster 2000 came in It's a pretty hefty system by any standards, except it only runs Pentium 2 @ 350MHz and is severely underpowered in the terms of AGP graphics, because it runs a standard Rage IIc card. Meaning the entire system is pretty much powered by the Voodoo cards alone, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but because of that reason it's not compatible with newer titles. However, even today, this particular system was (and still is) the ONLY system in my entire collection to have a Aureal Vortex2 sound card (Diamond Monster MX300, to be exact), which had also been "upgraded" with Creative WaveBlaster MIDI extension, also the only one in my entire collection. I also replaced the CD drive & added one of those 5.25" drawers into the front bay at some point, but otherwise it's been taken out of service & makes a nice decoration in the background


Me testing (and playing) Lotus the Ultimate Challenge on what seems to be either Pentium Pro machine or AMD 5x86 one