IO Sam
@iosam
DIY PC enthusiast — Vintage PC peripherals collector
I thought I was crazy to pay 200 bucks for one of these 3 years ago, only to realize now that these things just keep getting more expensive: in the $300 range nowadays (I also had the benefit of avoiding tariffs back then 🙏). But yeah... Definitely a required piece for MIDI afficionados!
I always loved Quake 4 (like much of Raven's games), despite its poor sales. I think it failed mostly due to its bad timing... going against F.E.A.R. and Call of Duty 2 (and not too far from Half-Life 2) probably didn't help. But hey... I, for one, am happy to get this "DLC" if it turns out legit!
Got this Leadtek WinFast A250 Ultra (GeForce 4 Ti 4600) two years ago, but only now got around to restore it to its former glory. Replaced all electrolytics with Panasonic FR caps, repasted with Artic Silver and thoroughly cleaned it. Should be in back in service (Win98SE) soon.
First time playing with a Slot A setup (I went from Slot 1 to Socket A back in the day). This is a 750 Mhz "Pluto" core (180 nm) Athlon CPU from 1999, with 128 Kb L1 and 512 Kb external L2 cache, on a Gigabyte GA-7VM Slot A motherboard with a VIA KX133 chipset and universal (1/2/4x) AGP slot.
Yeah, vertical scrolling was one massive upgrade over the MSX1 (that had neither). As someone who grew up in Brazil in the 80s, the MSX will always have a special place in my heart! So many afternoons playing Gradius and Goonies on a Gradiente Expert on that creaky joystick 😂 Good times...
I raise you one extra disc with one of my favorite bits of retro kit: Nakamichi MJ-5.16 16× 5-Disc CD-ROM Mini Changer The mechanical sounds it makes when switching discs is like an Autobot transforming inside your PC!
Guess what is on sale on Steam now? (I will not buy another game! I will not buy another game!!🥶)
Just found these old pictures of my 2014 incredibly busy "battlestation"... Head spins just to think about the amount of stuff I managed to put in a single corner desk 😂
My Smurve80: a modern keyboard inspired by the IBM Model M SSK, designed by Play Keyboard & Swagkeys (sold by @novelkeys.com). It has both 2.4Ghz and Bluetooth. Mine came Cherry MX2A "Honey" (damped tactile switch with stronger tactility than "Brown"). Keycaps by Domikey ("Astronaut" cherry set).
Which can be particularly nasty on a power supply (of all things)... XD Shout out to Enermax, which I recently recapped two vintage Noisetaker models from the early 00s (EG425P-VE v1.3 and EG425P-VE 24pins) and both had every single one of their polarity stencils spot on (I triple checked 😅)!
Here, on the other hand, he seemed pretty confident that the magneto-optical drive was a great idea.
What a beautiful Roland shrine! (the sight of "MIDI mountains" make me happy! :)
What a difference 2 years can make on Hard Drive prices! Ended up buying a simple USB dock from Sabrent this week (Prime Day), to bring some old 8TB (from 2021) and 3TB (from 2011!) HDs out of retirement, since $600 is a bit too much for a new >10TB HDD. Desperate measures for desperate times :P
Any PS/2 in good condition today will be in the hundreds (possibly over a thousand if it includes all peripherals). Paid over $300 myself for a pristine PS/ValuePoint (with no peripherals) a few years ago...
Caps were not leaking yet; this board predates the capacitor plague era by several years (1998). But the larger ones near the CPU where bulging (pic). Considering the board's age and the infamous brand (Tayeh), I decided to replace them all to ensure this mobo (my only super socket 7) keeps going.
I know... I already had another version of the stick and was looking for the throttle for a while. But when I saw this whole kit NIB on wooden crate... I just couldn't help myself! 😂 Now I need to find a mounting solution like you did for your Saitek.
Capacitors, capacitors and more capacitors! New fresh batch from Mouser just arrived today for recapping two nice looking NOS purple motherboards: a 2003 ECS K7S5A Pro (Socket A) and a 2006 ECS P4M800PRO-M (LGA 775) So, @vswitchzero.com will have company on "recapping duty" this weekend!
Actually, the one I linked to is the N61-02 (SS shape), but I also have the N61-11 (with the long nozzle) you mentioned, that is super helpful in some cramped areas.
Yes, that's the one. The SS tip has the smallest area/footprint on the PCB of all Hakko tip styles. And 0.8 mm is the smallest diameter that works even with the largest motherboard caps in my experience.
Talking about the plague era, here I have two NOS/NIB LGA 775 boards from 2006 (possibly the worst year)... And look at their caps! There goes another weekend to catalog/order the caps and then another one to replace them! 😒
I had the same issue with this drive on Win98 (+ a blue screen saying it can't access a disc as soon as you eject one). So, I moved it to a Win95 PC and now I no longer have issues (much shorter lag when changing discs). My theory for why: Win95 doesn't try to load each disc icon (only label) as 98.
The Number 9 Revolution IV was my first AGP video card on my 1998 Pentium 2. Not the best for gaming at the time (3dfx and RivaTNT smoked it), but it was great for workstation duties (beats Matrox IMHO, with great ramdac and excellent windows drivers!) I recently snatched a PCI version to play with.
I loved my 17" Panasonic PanaFlat PF70 CRT (from late 90's to the early 00's), until its flyback died. That prompted me to spend a small fortune at the time to "upgrade" to a new 19" LCD, an LG Flatron. I loved the small footprint on my desk (and its cool looks), but hated everything else about it.