X86 Discussion

[rare_j]

Originally Posted by appiah4

Just wanted to drop a link to my x86 collection web gallery

Nice, the Butterfly 6326-TV2I looks suspiciously like an Xpert@work though!

[rare_j]

Looks like the photos for the first 5 builds have gone astray.
Really nice gallery by the way.
What hardware are you on the look out for?

[appiah4]

Hey, thanks for the nice words.

The Butterfly is a SiS6326 PCI card, the image was wrong! I fixed that

I don't have updated photos of the first five builds, they have had their housings or their components switched around from time to time, I will get to taking new photos soon.

I also have a fourth Banshee AGP in the mail..

I'm on the lookout for a Voodoo 3 PCI or a Banshee PCI, exotic ISA sound cards and more ISA/VLB VGA adapters

I can trade multiple AGP 3dfx cards for PCI 3dfx cards for example.

[nathanm1991]

Just a PCI Graphics Card would be Nice :-) the amount of times I have needed one lol

[nathanm1991]

What has Happened to the Used GPU Market just lately! Overpriced and Understocked :-(

[Glen M]

I think people are starting to jump on the retro PC bandwagon. I've noticed prices in general are starting to rise for older cards. I've been on the lookout for an ISA sound card, but prices are getting silly for anything you'd want.

[appiah4]

Prices on even Socket 370 stuff have started to go up surprisingly of late. Even though I wouldn't really bother with it, even Socket 478 is starting to heat up. Socket A has been very expensive for a while, particularly KT133 stuff that have universal AGP and ISA support. Socket 7 and below are really expensive unless you know where to look.

ISA VGA cards and most PCI stuff are fairly uncommon to rare these days. VESA Local Bus is mostly gone, as are 3dfx cards.

I would urge you to stock up on these while they are still relatively common:

Socket 370 boards with ISA (Particularly VIA Apollo 133Pro stuff are cheap and fairly useful)
Any decent ISA sound card you can find (Don't bother with overpriced Creative stuff, ESS Audiodrive ES688/1688/1868, Crystal CS4232/4236/4237 and Yamaha YMF718/79 cards are abundant and still fairly priced, but not for long I feel)
TNT2 M64, GeForce 2 MX400, GeForce 4 MX440 are still cheap AGP options that re very good for both DOS and Win9x gaming

Prices for some stuff (particularly 3dfx) are reaching levels where I can easily see myself swapping some PC hardware for Amiga stuff like an X-Surf or an A1200 accelerator etc.

[nathanm1991]

I am reconfiguring my P2, P3 And P4 So any Suggestions Would be Fantastic am thinking of Keeping The p4 Strictly XP

[lesta_smsc]

I did come across some very rare specimens but bare in mind that whilst the majority of sellers are looking to cash in, there are a few people who literally have no clue and bundle the cards together - so worth searching for job lots!

[005AGIMA]

1998: Saving money up for a 3dfx Banshee card
2020: Saving money up for a 3dfx Banshee card

On a more serious note:

Originally Posted by lesta_smsc

I did come across some very rare specimens but bare in mind that whilst the majority of sellers are looking to cash in, there are a few people who literally have no clue and bundle the cards together - so worth searching for job lots!

^^^This.

ebay is a waist of time and money for old PC bits. For Amiga it makes sense as it's getting hard to find. But old PC bits people almost throw stuff away at garage/car boot sales etc.

Patience.

[appiah4]

I wouldn't mind trading away a Banshee AGP for some other x86 or Amiga hardware at this point, I have too many.

[Glen M]

Originally Posted by nathanm1991

I am reconfiguring my P2, P3 And P4 So any Suggestions Would be Fantastic am thinking of Keeping The p4 Strictly XP

Pentium 4 machines just don't interest me personally but from what I see you can build a decent Windows 98 rig with them. That said I'd probably stick with XP.

The P2 and P3 are probably best as 98 builds.

In terms of buying stuff what I'm really looking for an an old system. Would love an AT or big box 286/386/486. I have mine 386 olivetti but it's a compact system with not much room for upgrades etc. Also have my 286 that needs built but again it's a compact thing. In fact it's a full 286 system on a single isa card.

[dreadnought]

Originally Posted by 005AGIMA

Saving money up for a 3dfx Banshee card

Wasn't Banshee a bit of a turd? I seem to recall it had a bad rep when we had it in stock in our shop back in the day.

I guess retro PCs went under the scalping radars for quite some time but yeah, the prices for the <Pentiums and some components have indeed skyrocketed recently.

I'm in the market for a DOS gaming machine atm but refuse to pay any silly prices. Luckily you can run it with very high compatibilty on any old early Pentium, just use some soft to slow it down a bit.

[rare_j]

I’m on the lookout for a Voodoo 3 PCI just for a bit of fun. The prices are silly.

[nathanm1991]

Originally Posted by Glen M

Pentium 4 machines just don't interest me personally but from what I see you can build a decent Windows 98 rig with them. That said I'd probably stick with XP.

The P2 and P3 are probably best as 98 builds.

In terms of buying stuff what I'm really looking for an an old system. Would love an AT or big box 286/386/486. I have mine 386 olivetti but it's a compact system with not much room for upgrades etc. Also have my 286 that needs built but again it's a compact thing. In fact it's a full 286 system on a single isa card.

I Must Admit my Love for the P4 Dwindled when I got the P3 Way Less Buggy Behaviour under 98se and Dos Mode

The P2 needs a Bit of Loving to Iron issues out but other than that what a Find!

[appiah4]

Originally Posted by dreadnought

Wasn't Banshee a bit of a turd? I seem to recall it had a bad rep when we had it in stock in our shop back in the day.

I guess retro PCs went under the scalping radars for quite some time but yeah, the prices for the <Pentiums and some components have indeed skyrocketed recently.

I'm in the market for a DOS gaming machine atm but refuse to pay any silly prices. Luckily you can run it with very high compatibilty on any old early Pentium, just use some soft to slow it down a bit.

The Banshee is roughly on par with a Voodoo 2 which is slightly faster than a TNT so that puts the Banshee pretty much on equal footing as a TNT, at 16-bit rendering. What the Banshee lacks in multi-texturing it makes up for it in clockspeed brute force, and for single texturing games it leapfrogs the Voodoo 2 while trailing in games that have extensive multi-texturing (Quake 2 etc.). It's a good card, particularly if you can't afford a PCI Voodoo accelerator. It also has better image quality than Voodoo 1 and 2. It has (mostly) the same Glide compatibility issues as the Voodoo 3 though.

[Etze]

Originally Posted by dreadnought

Wasn't Banshee a bit of a turd? I seem to recall it had a bad rep when we had it in stock in our shop back in the day.

You must not confuse the Banshee with the Voodoo Rush (which wasn't very good at all).

[dreadnought]

Nah, it was about Banshee. It was the beginning of the new 3D era in gaming and Quake 2 was the golden standard back then, so a hybrid like Bansheee which struggled with it wouldn't count . I'd still rather save up (if it actually still matters these days, not sure how the prices compare) for a decent ATI (2D)+Voodoo 2 (3D) combo than go for that solution.

[Etze]

I never had a Banshee or any other Voodoo after the Voodoo-1. I switched to RivaTNT back then. So I can't really compare Banshee and V-2.

[appiah4]

Originally Posted by Etze

I never had a Banshee or any other Voodoo after the Voodoo-1. I switched to RivaTNT back then. So I can't really compare Banshee and V-2.

I have all voodoo cards up to and including the Voodoo 3 (no 4 or 5 though). I can tell you that the real world performance difference is not great at 800x600 and below resolutions, and the Voodoo 2 can't do higher resolutions anyway. The Banshee also has objectively higher quality image output.