It's so weird looking at old CPU's on ebay

[Turbonium]

I recently sold a 3.2 GHz Pentium 4 complete with original packaging and unused sticker and such on eBay for like 40 bucks.

 

[ElFenix]

Yeah i toyed with the idea of setting up a pentium PRO box but gave up on that for similar reasons. It probably dosent boot from USB, needs IDE stuff, likely picky about memory too, freakin EDO RAM?! power supply probably wont be ATX with the 20 pin connector and thats just the stuff off the top of my head, nah bollocks to it lol.

eh? ATX was well established by the time the pro came out. i decided to whip mine out last year some time, plugged an old drive in, and fired it right up. if you can't find an IDE drive that works, a CF card works fine. it wouldn't work with an SSD plugged into a drive converter, though.

 

[Maximilian]

eh? ATX was well established by the time the pro came out. i decided to whip mine out last year some time, plugged an old drive in, and fired it right up. if you can't find an IDE drive that works, a CF card works fine. it wouldn't work with an SSD plugged into a drive converter, though.

Yeah im probably misusing terminology but i remember my computer from that time was a pentium II and it didn't have a 20 pin mobo power connector, it had something else that looked pretty different. This thing:

Also the PSU powered the monitor and was hardwired to the case on/off button. I dunno maybe the comp i had sucked but that's what i recall.

 

[jaqie]

That is a standard AT power connector. some of my earlier computers in my collection have that. PPRO was available in AT and ATX form factors.

 

[Cerb]

nothing died on that build.

Maybe so. I've still some fully functional ECS K7S5As with CPUs, too. But, by and large, consumer mobos die after 5-10 years (sometimes just by power surges, lightning, etc., rather than any aging failure of components on it), some way, some how, but the CPUs survive. Once you add in RAM and peripherals, it usually ends up being as cheap or cheaper to buy a whole used computer, or get something like a small Atom or Zacate box, instead of trying to revive old stuff.

 

[Shephard]

Maybe so. I've still some fully functional ECS K7S5As with CPUs, too. But, by and large, consumer mobos die after 5-10 years (sometimes just by power surges, lightning, etc., rather than any aging failure of components on it), some way, some how, but the CPUs survive. Once you add in RAM and peripherals, it usually ends up being as cheap or cheaper to buy a whole used computer, or get something like a small Atom or Zacate box, instead of trying to revive old stuff.

I don't disagree with you.

I was just responding to him when he said AMD X2 was junk. Still a very capable CPU today and that generation is one of the best ever made by AMD.

 

[jimbob200521]

I remember my second computer was an old Compaq 386 and had a memory riser exactly like this:

I think it was only 4mb of memory? at 80NS running on a 33mhz FSB, wooaahh!!

 

[Matt1970]

I recently sold a 3.2 GHz Pentium 4 complete with original packaging and unused sticker and such on eBay for like 40 bucks.

Almost a year ago I sold my Pentium 4 Processor Extreme Edition SL7CH 3.4GHz Hyper-Threading Socket 478 chip on ebay for $99 and sold my Albatron board for it for $50. That's the same as paid for them from Newegg in 2007. That paid for my e8400, Gigabyte board and 4GB od ram. I upgraded for free.

 

[Homeles]

Almost a year ago I sold my Pentium 4 Processor Extreme Edition SL7CH 3.4GHz Hyper-Threading Socket 478 chip on ebay for $99 and sold my Albatron board for it for $50. That's the same as paid for them from Newegg in 2007. That paid for my e8400, Gigabyte board and 4GB od ram. I upgraded for free.

Almost makes me wonder if it was for a computer repair customer... as a guy who fixes computers for a living, there are really, really stubborn customers that refuse to move to a new computer, even if it makes more economic sense to upgrade.

I don't disagree with you.

I was just responding to him when he said AMD X2 was junk. Still a very capable CPU today and that generation is one of the best ever made by AMD.

Yes... they're very capable for web browsing.

 

[Matt1970]

Almost makes me wonder if it was for a computer repair customer... as a guy who fixes computers for a living, there are really, really stubborn customers that refuse to move to a new computer, even if it makes more economic sense to upgrade.

Yes... they're very capable for web browsing.

I have plenty of customers like that as well but even them wouldn't pay $100 for just a P4 chip. I just looked on ebay and they are actually fetching more than that right now. Only thing I can fathom is someone doesn't want to a do a board/chip/ram and then backup and reload.

 

[Maximilian]

I have plenty of customers like that as well but even them wouldn't pay $100 for just a P4 chip. I just looked on ebay and they are actually fetching more than that right now. Only thing I can fathom is someone doesn't want to a do a board/chip/ram and then backup and reload.

My bet would be on a CPU collector buying it, they're always after rare stuff like extreme editions or engineering samples.

 

[Homeles]

My bet would be on a CPU collector buying it, they're always after rare stuff like extreme editions or engineering samples.

But they bought the board too...

 

[jaqie]

I build systems from all eras and actually use them. Chances are it was someone that does the same thing as me.

Ive spent like $300 on my 386 to get just the parts I wanted for it.

 

[Shephard]

Almost makes me wonder if it was for a computer repair customer... as a guy who fixes computers for a living, there are really, really stubborn customers that refuse to move to a new computer, even if it makes more economic sense to upgrade.

Yes... they're very capable for web browsing.

nope I was gaming on it.

 

[Homeles]

And you'd be getting much, much higher frame rates on any modern processor.

 

[SPBHM]

I build systems from all eras and actually use them. Chances are it was someone that does the same thing as me.

Ive spent like $300 on my 386 to get just the parts I wanted for it.

yes...

I bought a soundblaster AWE64 isa and a 4MB pci video card recently for one of my old PCs

and I'm in the process of buying 768MB of PC100 ram :biggrin:

 

[Shephard]

And you'd be getting much, much higher frame rates on any modern processor.

and I don't disagree?

 

[desura]

I have thought about building an old machine just to get some really retro games and hardware to work.

Like, I have joysticks which only work in Windows XP, really nice joysticks.

Can't think of any games off the top of my head that are XP or below only, but there probably are some.

 

[ghost03]

Ooh I like this thread. I have a couple of "retro-builds" in my basement, much cheaper to build a high-end system after it's obsolete. Someone commented about boards being higher-priced--I've noticed this too and suspect it has to do with people buying boards to repair old systems. Buying CPU/Mobo combos is a good way to reduce cost on the retro-builds.

fwiw
1.) P3-450 Katmai/Voodoo 3 2000
2.) P4-1.3 Willamette/GF2 GTS
3.) Athlon XP 2500+ Barton/9800 Pro
4.) Athlon X2 3800+ Toledo/7800GT SLI

 

[Torn Mind]

Eventually, the newer generations will be wholly ignorant of these early days in computing and what these and other archaic parts meant to the computing world. Hell, I didn't even know about ISA cards and slots until very recently.

 

[Cerb]

Eventually, the newer generations will be wholly ignorant of these early days in computing and what these and other archaic parts meant to the computing world. Hell, I didn't even know about ISA cards and slots until very recently.

You missed out! There was nothing like needing an ISA SCSI controller, of a different type and model, for almost every peripheral, and some internal, devices! Then, the occasional IDE controller, too, which might require its own on-disk structures, and only work with version versions of DOS, and not always be usable by applications (FI, you might have to use your program with a floppy, then copy the floppy's data afterwards). Serial and parallel controllers, too, but they shared peripherals nicely, so mostly amounted to just adding to the cable mess. Oh, and then you had to always fuss with IRQ settings, and later DMA channels, which was never straight-forward, because you usually had to share some of them, and some devices didn't want to share with others, so it could take awhile to find the right combo. By the time motherboard chipsets got that stuff taken care of, we only bothered using bus-master PCI slots, anyhoo, so it didn't help out when really wanted it to. Thems was teh days! :biggrin:

 

[Torn Mind]

You missed out! There was nothing like needing an ISA SCSI controller, of a different type and model, for almost every peripheral, and some internal, devices! Then, the occasional IDE controller, too, which might require its own on-disk structures, and only work with version versions of DOS, and not always be usable by applications (FI, you might have to use your program with a floppy, then copy the floppy's data afterwards). Serial and parallel controllers, too, but they shared peripherals nicely, so mostly amounted to just adding to the cable mess. Oh, and then you had to always fuss with IRQ settings, and later DMA channels, which was never straight-forward, because you usually had to share some of them, and some devices didn't want to share with others, so it could take awhile to find the right combo. By the time motherboard chipsets got that stuff taken care of, we only bothered using bus-master PCI slots, anyhoo, so it didn't help out when really wanted it to. Thems was teh days! :biggrin:

Well, this was indeed a fascinating read.:biggrin:

 

[VirtualLarry]

You missed out! There was nothing like needing an ISA SCSI controller, of a different type and model, for almost every peripheral, and some internal, devices!

I think that you are referring to the various proprietary ISA cards required by certain brands and types of CD-ROM and possibly DVD drives in the early days.

They weren't actually SCSI, per se, generally they were 34- or 40-pin cables, while SCSI internal was a 50-pin cable.

Thankfully, real SCSI was just SCSI, and any SCSI device would work with nearly any SCSI controller.

Edit: Although, there were SCSI scanners, who's software required the use of a proprietary SCSI controller card to interface with the scanner.

There were also a variety of network controller cards, many of which claimed to be "NE2000 compatible", but really, they still all required card-specific drivers. ("NE2000" was a often-used Novell network card of that era.)

 

[Cerb]

I think that you are referring to the various proprietary ISA cards required by certain brands and types of CD-ROM and possibly DVD drives in the early days.

Those were really easy, though, because they almost always came with the SoundBlaster. You got a SoundBlaster, an IDE cable, the drive, and Grolier's encyclopedia for Windows on CD. Kids today can't imagine how cool it was to see a video of the big MLK speech, at a quality level that their webcams put to shame.

Edit: Although, there were SCSI scanners, who's software required the use of a proprietary SCSI controller card to interface with the scanner.

Also, printers, and a few tape drives. A 50- or 68-pin connector, but just when you thought you could swap them to another computer...

I think half of it was the controller cards having compatibility issues, because I also had problems with early HP CD burners (mine and a neighbor's), which should have worked with just about any controllers. And to think, today I get 2nd-thoughts about paying $25 for a DVD drive! That specific HP burner was over $1000, by itself.

There were also a variety of network controller cards, many of which claimed to be "NE2000 compatible", but really, they still all required card-specific drivers. ("NE2000" was a often-used Novell network card of that era.)

I had blocked those memories! AAAAHHHH!!!

 

[jaqie]

DE200TP was a really decent actual NE2000 compatible card, back then it's all I used. My 386 in my sig is fully SCSI, the pics in the log are out of date. 3.5" IBM half height (not 1/3 height, same height as cd drives), zip100 scsi (very rare) first gen, and apple cd300i 2x scsi drive. I miss the cartridge loading 1x scsi drives, I still wanna find one for it.

No card in the 386 is pnp, the real problems were not IRQ or DMA config, but if you had two cards that had conflicting memory addresses. AAAGH! :twisted: