Retro / Vintage PC computers

[Clockwork Cupcake]

White-Noise said:

Back in the day I lusted after a full tower. I never had one but I may do one day for the hell of it. Unless I get on board with truenas in a big way.

TrueNAS server, you say?

[White-Noise]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

White-Noise said:

Back in the day I lusted after a full tower. I never had one but I may do one day for the hell of it. Unless I get on board with truenas in a big way.

TrueNAS server, you say?

I had a feeling you would be in on this! Hit me with some specs.

I've a crude truenas machine at my gf place I'm in the process of configuring to be an offside for my synology. I love the homelab stuff. Cloud etc doesn't hit me the same way.

[Clockwork Cupcake]

White-Noise said:

I had a feeling you would be in on this! Hit me with some specs.

It's a second-hand Supermicro 1U server, transplanted into a nice Antec case, with a desktop-type tower cooler, and a crapload of HDDs.

There is a very, very, excessively long two part blog post on it if you want to really get into all the nerdy details.
WARNING: It is really long and goes into way too much detail.

https://datahamster.com/2017/10/08/building-a-free...

It's a really cost-effective way of building a NAS as old server kit is very cheap, and TrueNAS works great with old kit.

Edited by Clockwork Cupcake on Tuesday 12th November 16:28

[AlexC1981]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

Not expensive to get, if you don't have one.

Sometimes those PS/2 to USB adaptors can suffice to let you use a USB keyboard with a PS/2 port. although I've never really had a lot of success with them myself.

Edited by Clockwork Cupcake on Monday 11th November 21:22

They do seem fussy with what they work with. I have a feeling they are pretty much limited to first gen USB cabled stuff.

Clockwork Cupcake said:

loudlashadjuster said:

W11 will work just fine on that, you just need to jump though a couple of (minor) hoops to do it.

Exactly - both more than capable. Thus confirming that these requirements are bullst.

Thank goodness for Rufus! My current PC does not have a TPM at all, but it has a socket. I have considered buying one, but MS has not made much effort to actually explain what the benefits are and why we should upgrade.

[Clockwork Cupcake]

AlexC1981 said:

Thank goodness for Rufus! My current PC does not have a TPM at all, but it has a socket. I have considered buying one, but MS has not made much effort to actually explain what the benefits are and why we should upgrade.

Bit off-topic but basically a TPM is a cryptographic processor. As in, it is a security device and is used in security-related stuff.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_Platform_Mod...

The reason Microsoft want you to have one is it allegedly makes Windows 11 more secure. Same reason they want you to have a modern CPU, as they are only whitelisting ones that don't have known security flaws.

However, I am still calling bullst.

[AlexC1981]

It's only £8 for a TPM 2.0 chip like this, which I think will fit my motherboard. I suppose I could just get one.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394002790977

I have a little ZyXEL NSA320 NAS that I bought ages ago. It's so slow that it struggles to stream HD films now so I mainly use it for documents and photos.

I considered converting my old PC (Dell T7500) into a server, but it seemed like a lot to learn and it's a power hungry old beast.

Edited by AlexC1981 on Tuesday 12th November 18:39

[Clockwork Cupcake]

AlexC1981 said:

I considered converting my old PC (Dell T7500) into a server, but it seemed like a lot to learn and it's a power hungry old beast.

There is a learning curve, for sure. And, yes, a desktop PSU will be power hungry. And also it won't have ECC RAM either, which could lead to data loss under some circumstances especially if using ZFS. That's why I built mine out of an actual server rather than a desktop.

I found it fun to build, but then I think you are starting to know what I find fun so this won't come as a huge surprise.

[White-Noise]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

AlexC1981 said:

I considered converting my old PC (Dell T7500) into a server, but it seemed like a lot to learn and it's a power hungry old beast.

There is a learning curve, for sure. And, yes, a desktop PSU will be power hungry. And also it won't have ECC RAM either, which could lead to data loss under some circumstances especially if using ZFS. That's why I built mine out of an actual server rather than a desktop.

I found it fun to build, but then I think you are starting to know what I find fun so this won't come as a huge surprise.

Yeah this ecc thing would play on my mind.

I note on your image your machine is only using on cpu, I hadn't imagined that was possible. That's handy to know. When I do it I'll want something low (idle at least) power which seems a tricky thing with ecc.

I saw your blog I will make my way through it with interest.

[Clockwork Cupcake]

White-Noise said:

I note on your image your machine is only using on cpu, I hadn't imagined that was possible. That's handy to know. When I do it I'll want something low (idle at least) power which seems a tricky thing with ecc.

Yes, I chose to populate with only 1 Xeon and deliberately chose an E56xx as the E is low power. I figured I would see how I go and if I was getting CPU-bound then I could add the 2nd CPU but why spend the extra electricity on the TDP of a 2nd CPU unless you need it? And it turns out that 1 CPU has been sufficient, even running Emby Media Server. It's nice to have the option though.

The 5600-series Xeon range is pretty old now so this is almost on-topic.

[White-Noise]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

White-Noise said:

I note on your image your machine is only using on cpu, I hadn't imagined that was possible. That's handy to know. When I do it I'll want something low (idle at least) power which seems a tricky thing with ecc.

Yes, I chose to populate with only 1 Xeon and deliberately chose an E56xx as the E is low power. I figured I would see how I go and if I was getting CPU-bound then I could add the 2nd CPU but why spend the extra electricity on the TDP of a 2nd CPU unless you need it? And it turns out that 1 CPU has been sufficient, even running Emby Media Server. It's nice to have the option though.

The 5600-series Xeon range is pretty old now so this is almost on-topic.

Hehe I did wonder if we need a new homelab thread.

[White-Noise]

Back on topic though. Does anyone use their machines for gaming and if so which games? I've some original copies of the below, some of them not from official outlets with those cds that went round school... but I still enjoy to this day..

Grand Prix 2
Toca 1 and 2
Half life (my absolute favourite is regular deathmatch)
Unreal tournament
Quake 1 2 3
Gta 1 2
Doom (most)
Simcity 2000
Aces of the deep
Command and conquer, Tiberian dawn, redalert and tiberian sun
Destruction derby 2 (but it's better on the PlayStation!)

[Clockwork Cupcake]

White-Noise said:

Command and conquer, Tiberian dawn, redalert and tiberian sun

I was really into this series back in the day. I'm pretty sure that I own every one of the games in this series, including DLCs, all Big Box editions, all bought full price when they first came out.

Also own Generals and also Emperor: Battle for Dune.

That could be a full set.

[AlexC1981]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

There is a learning curve, for sure. And, yes, a desktop PSU will be power hungry. And also it won't have ECC RAM either, which could lead to data loss under some circumstances especially if using ZFS. That's why I built mine out of an actual server rather than a desktop.

I found it fun to build, but then I think you are starting to know what I find fun so this won't come as a huge surprise.

This one is a workstation, so we do have ECC. A bit of an daft choice admittedly for a gaming PC, but it was a cheap second hand upgrade from the Core 2 Quad PC I had at the time. It ran well with a GTX 970.

I bought the T5500 in Jan 2015 and bought the riser card and second chip for it also used (I'm such a tight arse lol).

Jan 2018 I bought the T7500, upgraded it with some used AliExpress X5690 chips and gave my nephew the dual X5660 equipped T5500 to upgrade the Core 2 Quad PC he inherited from me.

In retrospect, I wish I had splashed out and build a new PC from scratch in 2018 as the RTX 2080 I bought later that year was severely bottlenecked.

I suppose being from 2011-ish makes them just about old enough to picture on this thread.

Little Boy and Fat Man:

[AlexC1981]

White-Noise said:

Back on topic though. Does anyone use their machines for gaming and if so which games? I've some original copies of the below, some of them not from official outlets with those cds that went round school... but I still enjoy to this day..

Grand Prix 2
Toca 1 and 2
Half life (my absolute favourite is regular deathmatch)
Unreal tournament
Quake 1 2 3
Gta 1 2
Doom (most)
Simcity 2000
Aces of the deep
Command and conquer, Tiberian dawn, redalert and tiberian sun
Destruction derby 2 (but it's better on the PlayStation!)

I'm going to replay the Wing Commander series. Back in the day I had WC1 on the Amiga, skipped WC2, then had the rest on PC.

I'm also planning on replaying Dungeon Keeper 1 and 2 (they are actually on Steam for modern PCs), however WC1 is much harder than I remember, so it's taking me a while!

My favourite early 3dfx game was Battlezone, released in 1998. Absolutely brilliant 1st person hover tank game that played like a real time strategy with you being part of it, rather than looking from above.

To this day, I have never seen another game in this format. I thought this type of game was going to be the next big thing! Fantastic 1v1 multiplayer too. It's been re-released on Steam with updated graphics.

[Clockwork Cupcake]

AlexC1981 said:

I'm going to replay the Wing Commander series. Back in the day I had WC1 on the Amiga, skipped WC2, then had the rest on PC.

I recently watched an interesting YouTube video on this, and how the original WC used pre-rendered graphics to make the graphics look better than they were. It really was ground-breaking at the time and really justified the "wow factor" that it got. I played many an hour on it, but for some reason can't find my original Big Box copy of it anywhere.

Here's a link to the vid
https://youtu.be/LuFNFd8I0WU?si=uG44dbtay8RT8ZKI

[Clockwork Cupcake]

Caught myself getting sentimental today. I had my K7SOM+ integrated board up for sale (integrated CPU, integrated graphics), but pulled it today and I thought "I should keep it. I activated WinXP on it and everything" and ordered a retro slimline case for it, at a cost of £40-odd.

Few hours later I came to my senses and thought "what am I doing? What a waste of money!" so am now trying to cancel the order for the case and have put the board back up for sale again.

[White-Noise]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

Caught myself getting sentimental today. I had my K7SOM+ integrated board up for sale (integrated CPU, integrated graphics), but pulled it today and I thought "I should keep it. I activated WinXP on it and everything" and ordered a retro slimline case for it, at a cost of £40-odd.

Few hours later I came to my senses and thought "what am I doing? What a waste of money!" so am now trying to cancel the order for the case and have put the board back up for sale again.

Sure you don't want to keep it and go all wood vinyl wrap??

[Clockwork Cupcake]

White-Noise said:

Sure you don't want to keep it and go all wood vinyl wrap??

LOL. Nice LGR ref.

No, I think one K7-type system is enough. I have my 'new' A7V8X-X and Athlon 2600+ "Barton" for my K7 needs.

Edited by Clockwork Cupcake on Wednesday 13th November 21:11

[AlexC1981]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

I recently watched an interesting YouTube video on this, and how the original WC used pre-rendered graphics to make the graphics look better than they were. It really was ground-breaking at the time and really justified the "wow factor" that it got. I played many an hour on it, but for some reason can't find my original Big Box copy of it anywhere.

Here's a link to the vid
https://youtu.be/LuFNFd8I0WU?si=uG44dbtay8RT8ZKI

Enjoyed that, thanks. I was never all that impressed with the graphics. I think the simpler style of Elite worked better because they weren't so pixelated.

Clockwork Cupcake said:

Caught myself getting sentimental today. I had my K7SOM+ integrated board up for sale (integrated CPU, integrated graphics), but pulled it today and I thought "I should keep it. I activated WinXP on it and everything" and ordered a retro slimline case for it, at a cost of £40-odd.

Few hours later I came to my senses and thought "what am I doing? What a waste of money!" so am now trying to cancel the order for the case and have put the board back up for sale again.

That's the sort of thing I would do! I bought an old bicycle because I wanted a cheap one I could leave at the station. I enjoyed refurbishing it and learning how change brake cables and wheel bearings so much, I ended up buying a 1979 professional racing bicycle to do up.

This week I bought three more vintage joysticks I'll sell the ones I'm not so keen on and keep one or two for the retro computer/console display cabinet I have in my study/mancave.

When's your big box arriving?

[onomatopoeia]

Not PC, but I still have my BBC Model B and Archimedes A310 (bought at launch) in the loft. No idea if either work, if the A310 will boot I could read my dissertation for the first time in 33 years.

I am very tempted by the PiDP-10. The original was way, way before my time so I'd have to learn everything from scratch, but it seems an awesome project, Who wouldn't want a modern recreation of a 1960s mainframe sat on their desk?