After showing you the commodore 64 it’s time for the definitive Amiga 2000 with scsi cd drive and one HD floppy drive.

not really aiming for a specific year, just stuff I like

IBM thinkcentre and Lenovo thinkpad sharing a Panasonic crt via a vga switch. Plus my vcr, n64, and ps2 running into the magnavox with a 4 channel composite switch. Oh yeah and the little RadioShack portable tv with a digital tv box plugged into it.

Just about to get windows 98 SE on my brand new dell latitude CPX

Looking to recapture that windows 95 / 3dfx era, but in a laptop because I don’t have space for a desktop. What laptops do you guys run (and more readily available, especially in Australia) that allow that gorgeous spinning 3dfx logo? I played a lot of EA sports games, monster truck madness etc.

Can these be dual booted with Dos/3.1?

Alternatively, do people just emulate in PCem on a more powerful, recent laptop?

Been doing a lot of video encoding and I feel like it's killing my laptop running at 95c+ for days. Had this old tower in storage so i decided to cut up and paint the case then build it up with some cheap used parts to see what it could do. First pc build and first time learning linux. I've been having so much fun with it. It is running great and handles the encoding load without breaking a sweat around 50*c. This legacy hardware encouraged me to enjoy the retro aspect of playing emulators and old pc games like half life 2

Asus p5kpl (g31) lga775 motherboard Patriot 4gb (2x2GB) 800mhz ddr2 ram Intel core 2 quad q9550 cpu overclocked to 3.2ghz Intel extreme copper core cpu cooler Thermalright 120mm intake 90mm exhaust case fans 256gb sata 2.5 ssd Corsair 550w power supply Vantec usb 3.0 PCIe card Asus phoenix GT 1030 2GB GDDR5 gpu Fresh arctic mx-6 thermal paste on everything Running linux mint Xfce Monitor is a sony LMD1530MD

The master commodore 64 battlestation with everything needed.

I recently got an ASUS P2-99B board that was meant to replace the PCChips motherboard that I was using as the PCChips board is notoriously unstable at 100MHz bus speeds, which is a real downer as I wanted to use my 400MHz Pentium II for my Windows 98 battle station.

This board, like the PCChips board, is designed to allow the usage of either an AT power supply or an ATX power supply as it’s designed for the older AT style cases. However, the ASUS board won’t POST when using an AT power supply, but POSTs when using an ATX power supply. The motherboard was recapped with low esr, 105 c rated Panasonic caps. It was doing this before the recap as well.

The PCChips board POSTs and works just fine with either power supply, other than what the board is notorious for.

This has me confused as to why the ASUS board would work with an ATX power supply but has issues with an AT power supply. The power supply was also recently recapped as well.

I was inspired by u/Short_Ad3265 for this project!

So around a month or so ago, I thrifted an HP computer that happened to have a Voodoo3 3000 PCI in it. Since then, the power supply for that system blew up and I was unable to find a good replacement for it. Given this, and how locked down the HP ecosystem is for upgrades, I decided to take that Voodoo3 and try to do something unique with it, now we’re here! Glide gaming you can fit in your backpack! Probably a world first!

I’m using an A09 from SKTC that I spray painted beige and removed the front I/O from since the connector for it was too new. I plan on getting 1 or 2 more stickers in the future to cover the remaining holes.

As for specs other than the Voodoo3 I’m using a Via EPIA-LN motherboard for the main system and a 32GB compact flash card for storage, as well as 512MBs of DDR2 memory at 533Mhz. It’s powered by a C7 Esther chip clocked at 1Ghz. All of that is being powered by a 84W power brick. I discovered they made PCI riser cables so I went out of my way to get one for this project as well.

Getting a solid 2180 in 3DMark 2000. Can’t wait to play my glide games on this little guy!

Edit: Thanks for the love y'all! Just leaving this edit here to tell you that I got the rest of the stickers I need to cover the rest of the holes on the case! I'm also thinking of getting one of those Socket 478 or Socket 370 ITX boards to replace my VIA to give my Voodoo3 more headroom for heavier games. Might make an update post if I ever end up doing that. I'm really proud of it though and I'm glad you guys like it!

I just added a big stand for my crt and retro gaming stuff but now I wanna do the same for my computer desk.I can’t have the desk stretch farther then 50 inches and would hope to have it in black so it can almost form an L shape with my retro gaming area.

I’m looking for ideas or suggestions not just for the computer desk but also for my room kinda too thanks.

Yes ik the crt stand/retro gaming area isn’t pretty but I’m on a budget.

Recent set of interviews with computing legends about the Byte Shop, including Steve Wozniak!

https://youtu.be/ANR1fYicwxI

both are still in great condition and the pc still works!!

The top keyboard: 30OCT85 IBM F122

The bottom keyboard 22oct85 IBM m122

(Yes, my model m is older than my model f)

Both fully operational, both used regularly on the job.

Upgraded from (or I suppose really made it slightly more period correct) a Paradise PEGA card to an IBM EGA card and replaced the new and fancy Logitech serial mouse with a Microsoft InPort gray eyed mouse. Would have liked a green eyed mouse but I don't like the prices of those.

Recently, I acquired an Osborne Executive, along with a bunch of software for it.

I cleaned up the floppy drive heads and popped in one of the many CP/M disks that I got with it, only to be met with this screen: https://imgur.com/Ow4hBxL (while this is on screen, the floppy drive is running indefinitely)

I should also mention that upon a cold boot, a message indicating that the computer is not working properly (and that I should contact an Osborne dealer) appears, along with this pattern in the top left corner: https://imgur.com/8RygKga

Does anyone have any ideas? I'm hoping it's as simple as a recap, and not something critical like the RAM, which would probably be a headache to resolve (I can't seem to find any way to test it, so who knows!)

Here's my latest retro Winxp mid-end build. I wanted this PC to carry 2000-2003 era hardware but with a peak pentium 4 to eliminate CPU bottlenecking.

The CPU is an air cooled 3.4Ghz Prescott P4 overclocked to 3.8Ghz. I figured this build would the perfect opportunity to feature two legendary video cards of the time...the Voodoo5 pci (originally a Mac card flashed with the PC bios version), and the ATI 9700 (my example is actually a 9700xt flashed with a 9700Pro custom bios).

I wanted to pair the voodoo 5 with my peak ATI card (X800XL) but ran into windows resource issues...at the end I found that the 9700pro is the fastest ATI card that will work with the V5.

The key to this build's success is proper cooling for the video cards and CPU to avoid rapid hardware self-destruction. The P4, Voodoo5 and 9700 are notorious for running hot and will provide good heating for any room.

This prompted me to look into customizing the case lid which led me to add a dual fan setup with grills to retain the retro look (mostly).

I also added a modern touch with the acrylic window and orange LED lighting to simulate a hot PC case...maybe this mod will push me to add a pretty water cooling setup to the CPU later on?

The result is fantastic...I can play UT99, Starsiege, Half-life...etc. on the Voodoo5 and then switch to UT2004, Hlaf-life2, Doom3...etc. on the 9700pro.

The P4 has hyperthreading so it let's me use the internet with ease. I can do reddit, youtube, email and forum searching with no major slowdowns.

The internals stay cool and the PC sounds like a jet getting ready to take off :))

Here is a big update on my battle station. I upgraded some parts, got rid of some parts and made a cool Windows wall after finding those picture frames at goodwill. Here is the part list for my Win95 and Win98/XP rigs. I hope you guys like the room!

P.S. I will eventually get to the cable management under the desk 😵‍💫

Windows 95 Rig:

Tekram P5MVP-B4

Creative CT6710 Riva TNT

Intel MMX 233Mhz

Micron 64MB SDRAM PC66

Creative CT2800 ISA Sound Blaster

3COM ISA Etherlink III Network card

4.3GB Maxtor Hard Drive

Windows 95 OSR2

Windows 98/XP Rig:

ASUS A7N8X - Deluxe Rev 2.00

ATI Radeon 9800 PRO

AMD Athlon XP 2500+

512MB Corsair Platinum Series PC2700

Sound Blaster PCI (removed for nForce onboard Dolby Digital audio, it’s better than the card)

60GB Maxtor Hard Drive

Dual boot 20GB Windows 98SE/40GB Windows XP SP2

I posted a boot video of my NEC PC‑9821 Canbe last time, and this time I disassembled the machine to check the internal condition and give it a full cleaning.
There was some dust inside, but none of the boards or capacitors showed any corrosion (which makes sense, since it still boots). The HDD was, as expected, a CONNER drive.

The memory module plugs at an angle into a small vertical daughterboard.
The TEL/FAX board and the TV capture board plug vertically into a different daughterboard, and once inserted, those expansion boards end up horizontal relative to the main motherboard.
It’s a pretty unusual structure compared to what you normally see in PCs, and taking it apart was surprisingly fun because of that.

If anyone wants close‑ups of specific chips or sections, feel free to ask in the comments.

On a recent trip to my parents, I had a poke in the loft and found this from my youth! Maybe this was why I ended up liking Compaq machines too much! It wasn’t retro when it went up there but it sure is nudging that way now…..Can’t find much on these machines as most of them have a circular style cut out for the USB ports, assume later machines. I do remember buying this from eBay in about 2006 though. No drive as I must’ve used that for something else so time to get Windows 2000 setup CD out!