TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[HUSKIE]

new toy with 4930k

 

[Trekkie4]

new toy with 4930kView attachment 105951View attachment 105952

Official TechPowerUp-licensed hardware?!


Edit
So, this came in my mail earlier today... Yes, I finally got around to fix (and upgrade) my M75 ... and all I can say is that it sounds absolutely amazing! Usually people say how one model sounds better over the other one, when in fact they are mostly the same. But not this time, sound coming through is clear, balanced & strong


Japanese company JICO claims it to be 0.3x0.7 mil tip, but really - from my personal opinion it might as well be 0.2x0.7, because it sounds (almost) the same as my "modern" Shure M94 from 2001, while it still had the original 0.2mil stylus.


And this here is my entire collection, including some of the old, worn & torn styli which I already discarded. I find Shure M94 with generic N92/N99 stylus to be perfect for occasional playback, especially on badly worn albums. Audio Technica 95E is a fine cartridge & gives out decent sound, but I always preferred Shure due to nostalgia & memories

 

[Robert B]

FRESH MEAT! (again) Flea market perfume! (as usual)

1. PoweColor CTNT2SD V2.0 - RIVA TNT 2 PRO
2. Gigabyte GA-660 PLUS REV1.4 - RIVA TNT 2 PRO
3. Guillemot MAXI GAMER PHOENIX - 3dfx VooDoo Banshee PCI ( A story with a TWIST )

All tested OK!

 

[phill]

I love this thread

Some lovely hardware turning up here @HUSKIE , I had the exact same setup as that above!! 4930k, the Asus board and I think I had 8Gb or 16Gb of ram with it Shame the 4930k sucked when it was overclocked!! Still

 

[Durvelle27]

Hopefully this fits

Athlon 64 X2 4200
4x1GB DDR
ASUS A8N32-SLI
GeForce 9400 GT 512MB

Definitely an ancient gamer

 

[MaxiPro800]

Quite there, but this would make an good ancient gamer.

Pentium 3 450MHz (Katmai), 256MB RAM. MB is a Jetway J-7BXAN.

 

[Disparia]

Hopefully this fits

Athlon 64 X2 4200
4x1GB DDR
ASUS A8N32-SLI
GeForce 9400 GT 512MB

Definitely an ancient gamer

View attachment 106130View attachment 106131View attachment 106132View attachment 106133View attachment 106134View attachment 106135

Very nice. I have fond memories of my 3800 X2 @ 2.5Ghz + DDR-500. It was a leap and a bound ahead of my P4D system @ 4Ghz+.

 

[Trekkie4]

Quite there, but this would make an good ancient gamer.
View attachment 106141

Pentium 3 450MHz (Katmai), 256MB RAM. MB is a Jetway J-7BXAN.

Now, THAT is a proper ancient gamer

 

[MaxiPro800]

Now, THAT is a proper ancient gamer

Thank you

I also have a 500MHz Katmai and a 550MHz one, but both are just the bare CPU card, no plastic or anything.
I'm currently looking for some stock Pentium 2 heatsinks to attach to them, and possibly some quiet 50mm fans. Until then, the 450MHz will do as well

 

[Trekkie4]

Nope, it won't work I'm afraid. You see, PII & PIII had heatsink mounting posts in different locations. Therefore heatsink for PII will not fit PIII & vice versa. Unless you're willing to hack them up & tie with zip ties or something, which I don't recommend (both Pentiums deserved better IMO)

 

[MaxiPro800]

Nope, it won't work I'm afraid. You see, PII & PIII had heatsink mounting posts in different locations. Therefore heatsink for PII will not fit PIII & vice versa. Unless you're willing to hack them up & tie with zip ties or something, which I don't recommend (both Pentiums deserved better IMO)

They work on P II heatsinks, just that the back plastic won't fit, but I don't think that plastic would be needed.

This is the mounting style I am talking about.

What you're saying applies to the Slot A Athlon CPUs though.

 

[Trekkie4]

They work on P II heatsinks, just that the back plastic won't fit, but I don't think that plastic would be needed.

This is the mounting style I am talking about.
View attachment 106153

What you're saying applies to the Slot A Athlon CPUs though.

I remember trying a P3 heatsink on a Pentium 2 cartridge long time ago... didn't work. *shrug* IDK, maybe the one I had was different (only designed for P3?)

 

[MaxiPro800]

I remember trying a P3 heatsink on a Pentium 2 cartridge long time ago... didn't work. *shrug* IDK, maybe the one I had was different (only designed for P3?)

Probably, as that one in the picture (minus the clips so I could anytime replace the CPU) is what I used to test the 500 and 550 models. I remember having another one from a PII 233 but couldn't find it.

 

[Trekkie4]

Finally went out & picked up that Pentium 133 build...

Don't have a single clue what's going inside the case (didn't have time to open it up), but the video card came separate and it reads "VC962C", S3 Trio64V+. More info is yet to come, but overall this thing is a blank canvas, so needless to say I got big plans for it. AWE64, USB controller, SCSI kit and/or better graphics are only some of them, so stay tuned!

 

[Dinnercore]

I just found someone on the german ebay selling a Voodoo 5 5500 Dual GPU. Thought I´d watch it and maybe take shot at it. Then it was already at 80€ 3 hours later and I googled the last prices on those and NOPE, not for me. How rare are these exactly? Or are there just THAT many collectors after them that as soon as one shows up they swarm it?

 

[Retrorockit]

Voodoo was on the skids when those were made. They weren't available for very long. The PCI version seems more poular than the AGP. It was AGP1.0 and later AGP versions were lower voltage. So only the earliest AGP board (Socket7) can run those. Just about any MB has a PCI slot on it.
Originally Voodoo sold it's GPUs and SLI tech to any GPU mfg. Then they bought STB and cut everyone else out of the market they created. The Voodoo Glide API was preferred to Microsofts DirectX for most games back then. This made a lot of enemies in the gaming business. The 5500 only came in the 3DFX house brand. Nvidia bought out Voodoo in a hostile takeover and killed it off including SLI for a number of years. So yes they were always rare. When Nvidia bought Voodoo they actually pulled the cards off of the store shelves as I recall.
Voodoo cards were always interesting. The first ones were add in 3d cards that piggybacked onto a 2D video card. Then I think you could add 2 of them. The single GPU cards supported SLI also if my memory is correct. But the Voodoo 5500 was the first 2 GPU consumer video card, and the first to need an external power cable (Molex 4 pin).
Rare, historic, high performance and expensive.
If you want to look for the rarest of the rare, there was a company named Obsidian I believe that built custom multi GPU Voodoo2 cards for commercial Video Arcade machines before the Voodoo 5500. This stuff seems to be in German, but a picture is wurth a thousand words.
https://pctuning.tyden.cz/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4814&Itemid=44&pop=1&page=4

 

[Red_Machine]

I was lucky, I got my boxed complete card a few years ago for just £55.

 

[dorsetknob]

i got my 3500TV new and it cost £178 had many years of fun /productivity from it and now it sits in its Retail box with all bits inc. and its stored in a wardrobe

 

[Midland Dog]

The oldest hardware i have is an old geforce 4 mx 400

 

[Mr.Scott]

I just found someone on the german ebay selling a Voodoo 5 5500 Dual GPU. Thought I´d watch it and maybe take shot at it. Then it was already at 80€ 3 hours later and I googled the last prices on those and NOPE, not for me. How rare are these exactly? Or are there just THAT many collectors after them that as soon as one shows up they swarm it?

I had 4 of them.
FWIW, sold 2 last year for $200 USD each.
I had no trouble getting that price.

 

[Robert B]

In my country the v5 5500 AGP sells for 100-130EUR if you can find them.

A boxed V5 5500 AGP was 220EUR this year.

 

[phill]

I'd love to find a good Voodoo 5500 for keeps... Would sadly have to be boxed though and I ain't got the cash for that lol

 

[Dinnercore]

It´s at 150€ already today, with 6 more days to go.... I saw some ending closer to 1.000€. I envy you for those prices.

 

[Trekkie4]

IMO, Voodoo 5 (especially 6000) are way overrated. I remember talking about this before, but I'm not sure if I ever specified why.

When the Voodoo1 came out, it was the revolutionary new product. Everyone went crazy for Voodoo & their new Glide system, some game developers even introduced new games featuring Glide support. Then the 2nd generation came out & once again introduced this new & insane feature called "SLI". At the time, 3dfx was at their best/peak efficiency and they've been making a lot of money & attracting a LOT of attention from their competitors & game developers.

But then things went downhill... Just before Voodoo3 came out, 3dfx acquired "STB" and things suddenly backfired. To make things even worse, a lot of their customers were frustrated because of the Voodoo3 & their prices (compared to dual Voodoo2 configuration in SLI). Then the Voodoo4 came out & soon after that Voodoo5... At this point 3dfx was seriously running behind its competitors, mainly ATI & nVidia, and was trying to gain advantage one more time by introducing Voodoo5. Which (as much as I hate to admit) was a failure right from the very beginning, but instead of realizing their mistake 3dfx only doubled it by introducing the famous "6000" model (which was, according to some sources going to be a whole new generation of the Voodoo cards, Voodoo 6).

At this point, even the budget cards from nVidia had better features & higher compatibility support ... not to mention the fact they've only had ONE GPU core and did not require external power supply to operate. Most IMPORTANTLY, at this stage most of the game engines developed (or modified) exclusively for Glide were changed, updated for DirectX, which was on the rise & catching up fast. OK, true ... some titles still featured Glide as one of the choices, but most of them moved on. To make things even worse, the unfinished Voodoo5 6000 only featured Direct3D support, because of their drivers & unfinished design. Which doesn't make ANY sense, since it was 3dfx who designed & introduced Glide in the first place!

So, in short ... Voodoo5 was a Glide's failure and DirectX disaster. Yes, you could buy one of them nowdays & keep it as a souvenir on your desk, but that's about it I suppose, a relic from another time & era. Because if you want to play the games from early 2000s, you'd be so much better with nVidia's 4200, 4600 & 4800 Titanium series.

But please, don't get me wrong... I still love 3dfx, and will always look for a way to obtain their cards. Mainly Voodoo1, 2 & 3, because those are the cards which made difference & were true gems IMO

Anyhow, time to update you guys on that Pentium 133 project!


As you can probably see, this thing is a rust bucket. At some point the water found its way inside the case, causing surface damage. CD-RW drive got it really bad, but again this is not a huge issue as I'm going to replace it for something more appropriate either way... Other than that It's mainly empty & without anything interesting going on, but that's what I expected.


In fact, I already began tearing it apart, cleaning out all the rot & dust. Not to mention testing the essential components, but I'll get to those later!


...and upgrading, expanding & modifying with new components. This here was the 1st system ever for me to test just by plugging it into the mains (and listen to POST signals from the internal speaker), rather than hooking it to the monitor. Oddly enough, I wasn't getting ANY feedback! So I removed everything, cleaned the board with contact cleaning solution & tried one more time - still nothing! And then, just as I was about to scrap the entire board (and replace it for another Pentium 133, which I got laying around in parts) I came up with the idea to try another speaker. Because why not, right? And it paid off, turns out there's nothing wrong with it! So I took the liberty of replacing the internal speaker as well. Probably the rusty water & dirt got inside coils & damaged the speaker *shrug*

More updates soon, throughout these next couple of days. But the plan is to take it easy & enjoy every minute of it

 

[Retrorockit]

Voodoo was King of the Hill in PCI video days. But when dedicated graphics slots came out their history of add on and SLI cards didn't prepare them to compete with ATI and Nvidia in the single GPU market. The 5500 was their only answer to the newer cards coming out. But it cost too much to produce to be competitive. Intel's anouncement of AGP 2.0 having a lower Voltage made it instantly obsolete. Voodoo pretty much invented 3D gaming, and the 5500 was the best they ever made. Any collector of Voodoo cards will want to have one.