some retro hardware stuff

[66671b5622f31voodoo47]

also holy crap. I know it's a proto (V5 5000 32MB agp 4x), but still, 4K is insane.

[66671b562323eValet2]

also holy crap. I know it's a proto (V5 5000 32MB agp 4x), but still, 4K is insane.

A friend of mine got the same card for about $30 on a second-hand market several years ago. I'm gonna meet him and make a photo of it.

[66671b5623358voodoo47]

if he really has a V5 5000 32MB agp4x prototype, and paid $30, then you can tell him he just won a jackpot.

[66671b562344aValet2]

Oh, sorry, he's just realized it's an usual 5500. You can remove these posts, sorry

[66671b562352fvoodoo47]

no need. also still, if the card works, he can do $200+ easily on ebay.

[66671b562364bValet2]

Oh, by the way, here in Russia we make retro exhibitions where people can come and play a variety of working retro-computers and consoles. Here are photos from our events:

https://vk.com/albums-130065327

[66671b562374avoodoo47]

those do happen around here as well every once in a while, and despite my general unwillingness to leave the basement, I actually attended a few (mostly the private ones). I mean being able to directly see and hold the Rampage, the one 3dfx card no money can ever buy is not something I would want to miss.

[66671b5623867Valet2]

Ah I know what you mean.

Once I've managed a big trip overseas to see this thing and hold it:

https://vk.com/seganeptune

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrcEwhQblB4

[66671b56239b4voodoo47]

woah, the FalconFly 3dfx Archive has been shut down - I doubt anyone from here knew the place, but it was the last real bastion of all the things 3dfx, and it pains me to see it gone. felt like it will be around forever, but in the end, all is just ashes and dust, destined to crumble sooner or later, I suppose.

thankfully, Vogons did manage to mirror most of the downloads, and even saved a read-only copy of the forums, so nothing was lost as far as knowledge is concerned.

[66671b5623b23voodoo47]

something really interesting if you are thinking about a bit of win9x/3dfx retro gaming, and have a spare Voodoo3 pci card in your closet - a Terra TK-3772 thin client, which makes a really small and silent retro machine once you pop the 3dfx card in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXNA3suV7us

the 1GHz version can be obtained for as low as $30 shipping included (EU only though).

[66671b5623c61voodoo47]

almost unbelievable how perfectly the card (Voodoo3) fits.

needs the original pci riser though - the aftermarket part I've got moves the card away from the backplate just enough so that it can't be secured properly.

[66671b5623dbavoodoo47]

on a slightly related note, Firefox and Skype are cutting their WinXP support completely (steam will follow shortly, or so I've heard), marking the final end of the most successful ms os of all time. so goodbye xp, it's been fun.. well no, it mostly wasn't - ms oses are never fun, but you were kind of ok after three service packs. have a happy retirement in the area of retro computing.

the downside of this is that all the old folks will have to be migrated to win7, so time to go hunting for cheap ram modules, I guess.

[66671b5623ec6voodoo47]

woah, you know your computer is old when the BIOS battery goes flat. but can't say I mind too much this being the only problem in the last decade - guess Gigabyte wasn't kidding when adding the "ultra durable" moniker to the series.

[66671b5624222Olfred]

When you are unlucky the battery is soldered in. At this point you might actually want to solder in prober socket instead of just resoldering a new one. You can usally find a fitting one for the most pinholes.
You know, just in case you need to change it again in 15 years.

[66671b5624395voodoo47]

yeah. I don't think I've ever seen a regular motherboard (ATX, mATX) without a proper battery socket - this one has it as well, so it was just a question of taking the old battery out and popping a new one in really.

laptops are a mixed bag in this regard (more often than not soldering the batteries onto the board happily, or using nonstandard sockets and connectors if nothing else), but I don't really need those in my life.

[66671b562449dOlfred]

I've usually seen soldered batteries on these old desktop style motherboards and embedded solutions. But good that you don't need to put in any extra work.
And yeah, laptops like you already mentioned.

[66671b562463cvoodoo47]

hmmh.. can't say I remember seeing that even on the very odd ones, and I've seen a fair share of weird stuff in the last two or so decades. most manufacturers figured out pretty swiftly that nonstandard parts are a pita no matter where you stand, even when you are doing a custom build - like the ultraslims from hp, I've seen them drop more and more of the nonstandard bits like risers, proprietary optical drive connectors, cables etc with almost every new generation.

that reminds me, just migrated a hp dc7700 ultraslim to win7, and with the memory maxed out (3GB) and a ssd installed, the pc now runs better than it did with xp - not something you see too often (usually, a newer os will slow you down even if you throw some hw upgrades at it, whether you want to admit it or not).

[66671b56249a0RocketMan]

I just had to change the battery in a motherboard, where the battery wasn't just soldered in... it wasn't visible at all because it was actually potted inside the RTC chip.  Fixing this required removing the RTC, dremelling the casing away and digging out the battery so I could solder in a battery holder and reconnect the entire assembly.  Now that's an example where nobody though the computer would outlive the battery - and they were essentially right.  This computer was from the early 90s and just died last year due to the battery.

[66671b5624a91voodoo47]

I'm having a hard time imagining how that even looks. would love to hear the reasoning behind that decision.

[66671b5624b7aRocketMan]

Burying a button cell inside an rtc that has the form factor of a common relay?  I'd like to know that too.

[66671b5624de3fox]

Probably something like a DS12CR887.

I think they are meant to be socketed so the whole unit can be swapped easily.

"The  DS12CR887  EDIP  integrates  a  DS12R885  die  with a  crystal  and  battery.  The  charging  circuit  on  the DS12R885  die  is  disabled.  The  battery  has  sufficient capacity  to  power  the  oscillator  and  registers  for  five years in the absence of VCC at +25°C."

I suppose the dual use for planned obsolescence is considered a feature by some too.

[66671b5624f20voodoo47]

was tasked with putting together a minimal cost s478 P4 based win7 system - I can now safely say that this is not a good idea, the parts may be dirt cheap, but you'll still be paying about 40 bucks for something that can barely handle basic browsing (youtube is kind of watchable on 480p, with the cpu running at 100%), even if you manage to grab a SSE3 capable prescott cpu. the t5740 thin client and its atom cpu can do a better job for the same money once you pop a cheap half size ssd in, with zero noise and much less energy consumption.

[66671b5625017RocketMan]

I tried to run internet on a 700mhz based machine and found that it was heavily memory bottlenecked, not so much CPU.  Did you try K-Meleon ?  Even with that, most internet content will want half a gig of ram or more.

[66671b5625143voodoo47]

2GB of ram should be enough for one chrome tab, and browsing was ok, but as soon as you try to play a youtube video, the cpu use will be 100% and you are done.

was just messing around, nothing important (basically just confirming that any future requests for making a p4 system work by some dark voodoo magic should be denied, and an upgrade to at least core2duo cpu based system offered straight away).