The Retro PC Thread

[noiseredux]

Yeah, I'm excited.

[samsonlonghair]

I love when retro PCs collide with Sega. Currently playing:

It warms the cockles of my heart.

[noiseredux]

I love when retro PCs collide with Sega.

I'm the same way. A while back I started trying to make lists of all the Sega CD, Saturn and Dreamcast games that were released on PC. At least for the US libraries to start. But I never finished them.

[Ziggy]

I love when retro PCs collide with Sega.

I would totally get this if it wasn't super rare and expensive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jChtlWNIAL4

edit: Just the card: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Diamond-Edge-3D ... SwhOBXUJYU

[noiseredux]

I would totally get this if it wasn't super rare and expensive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jChtlWNIAL4

haha, yeah I've looked into that as well.

I've also looked into those old Soundblaster cards that had 3DO hardware built in.

[noiseredux]

so of my two Win98 boxes... one won't boot at all. Just freezes on mobo screen. Can't even get into the BIOS. Which sucks as that was the nicer looking box in general and appeared to be custom built.

I'm wondering if maybe this one's issue is the HDD? Maybe I should try booting it w/ no HDD hooked up and see if that works. If so, then I'd rather use this one as the base of my retro system as it's a full size tower. If I have some time tonight, I'll give it a go.

Also, after doing some reading it seems like a bad idea to use an HDD larger than 137GB, so I'll use a smaller one.

[isiolia]

A non-functioning drive or (possibly) a bad connection to some hardware could cause it to halt like that. Might also be something like bad BIOS settings, so I would try pulling the CMOS battery out for a bit to see if you can reset them. Might also need to replace it with a new one.



I don't have most of my old computers, since I tend to give stuff away when it still has some useful life left. I do have my P4 mobo/CPU/ram, and I think enough stuff to put that together for Windows 98 or so era stuff. Maybe. I have a couple Macs for Classic OS stuff, and a SE/30 that needs new caps (I think), but PC hardware not so much.

[Ziggy]

A little bit about my computer lab that I wanna set up...

Compaq Deskpro EN:

This was the first computer that I ever bought. Pentium 4 was out, and I got this Compaq for about $100 shipped off eBay. Best I could tell it came stock with the exception of a 20GB WD HDD, which I had in there until recently when it died. I need to check the CPU speed again, but I'm pretty sure it's 300MHz. These things came with an ATI Rage Pro AGP card.

When I first got it, I installed Windows 98SE on it and ran that for a while. But some how, I was able to install XP Home and it registered. So I ran XP on this thing with a PII CPU and the RAM maxed out at 384MB. I swapped the CD-ROM drive out for a burner, and thought I was hot shit making mixed CDs in high school.

In recent years, this is my main Win98 machine for retro PC gaming. I put the regular old CD-ROM drive back in it, as to be more period correct. I installed a 5.25" floppy drive in the empty bay slot. When the HDD started dying, I luckily had a backup 20GB drive for it (anything bigger than that would just be a waste in this PC). Some where along the line I upgraded the video card, I forget what it is, but I might put the Rage Pro back in. I might also install a Sound Blaster, since it lacks a midi port (this was a business machine).

Custom1:

This was the first PC that I ever put together. I had no idea what I was doing, but gaming wasn't working out so well on my Deskpro and I was sick of how slow XP ran on it. Being in high school, I couldn't afford to buy a computer, so I took to eBay.

I had no idea what I was doing, so I jumped on an auction that had a low BIN. A DFI WT70-EC motherboard with a 1.5Ghz P4 and some amount of RAM I can't remember. The price was cheap, and I was happy that the CPU and HSF would come installed. I never installed a CPU myself before, so I was scarred I would screw it up. Little did I know that these were the first gen P4's, in the 423 socket which didn't last long. And RD-RAM, which turned out to be the most expensive RAM ever that held it value on the used market way longer than anyone would expect.

But, being that I had no money, I had to make due with what I had. I got the cheapest piece of shit case, which I still have for it, and the cheapest power supply. I bought a legit copy of XP Home. I named the computer Custom1. I can't go over the upgrades I did to it, there's too many to list. Suffice to say, I made so many upgrades to it that I was able to buy another 423 mobo and build another PC from all the spare parts, and I named it Custom2.

The DFI mobo died, so I ended up dismantling Custom2 and using that mobo, an Abit TH7-RAID. The final specs ended up being a 3Ghz CPU (via a PowerLeap CPU socket adapter), 1GB RAM, 80GB HDD, a 460w Enermax PSU, and a GeFroce 7600 GPU. I used this PC for gaming during the XP days. I played Doom 3, Far Cry, Halo, etc.

That PowerLeap adapter was expensive, so I sold it off some time ago. I Have a 1.7GHz P4 in there now, I have a 1.9Ghz but it wont boot with it for whatever reason. It now only has 512MB of RAM, I'm using the larger sticks in another PC (my main XP machine). I gotta swap out the video card for something compatible with Win98, I wanna put this PC back together and make it a dual boot Win98/XP machine. I plan to use a KVM switch for Custom1 and the Compaq Deskpro.

The rest of my computers are less interesting...

I have two Dell Optiplex like this one, they have a 500Mhz PIII. They're better all around than the Compaq Deskpro, but I'm sentimental about the Deskpro. They're Dell, so if you use a Dell XP disc, the OS will install and register without asking for a key. I ran a ton of different OSes on these things. 98, 2000, ME, XP, and Ubuntu. I'm gonna keep one as a spare, and set the other up to dual boot 98 and 2000. I'll have another KVM switch with...

A Dell Dimension, like this one. This is my main XP computer (that might change). I have the 3Ghz CPU from Custom1 in there, because it's a 478 socket. And this is where that gig of RAM went. I might put the GeForce 7600 in this PC and use it for XP gaming. Or maybe I'll see if I can get a better GPU for cheap, since my 7600 is fanless and runs super hot.

I have another computer, some sort of Compaq that came with XP, that I also plan to set up. I have a newer HP and Dell, small desktop computers, that I might dual boot XP with a Linux OS. It'd be nice to have something newer (faster) that I wouldn't mind going on the internet with. Since I plan to network all these together, I can use the Linux computer to grab drivers or programs or something, then transfer them to the PC I need them on. That would beat having to run upstairs to grab my laptop, or worrying about going online with XP.

Why set up so many PCs? Well, I have them, and I have the room in my basement, so why not? I thought it'd be cool to have them all set up and networked together, then I can play LAN games. Doom II, Counter Strike, Halo, and The Typing of the Dead are a few I'd like to play multiplayer.

[noiseredux]

nice stories man. Appreciated. Makes me wish I had kept my old PC's growing up. But there was a lot of moving around and things just get tossed to yard sales.

Anyway, granted I can get one of these two Win98 boxes up and running - is there anything I need to keep in mind while shopping for a 5.25" floppy drive?

[Ziggy]

Anyway, granted I can get one of these two Win98 boxes up and running - is there anything I need to keep in mind while shopping for a 5.25" floppy drive?

Watch some YouTube videos on how to repair them. "Clean/tested/works" is always the best when shopping on eBay, but you'll pay more that way. If you don't mind picking up one that's untested, you can get one a little cheaper.

I don't know nearly enough about 5.25" drives to be able to recommend brands and models whatnot, but I'd love to hear if others know.