Test and try: What's inside this dusty old PC?

[@AceStrife]

Videos like this are always so cozy to watch. No pressure to complete a task, no brain melting troubleshooting.. just sitting down with dinner, a cup of tea and exploring a piece of more recent history.

[@necro_ware]

As an ISA sound card collector I can confirm, that this is a very good sound card. It has original integrated Yamaha OPL3 FM and proper SB Pro 2.0 support. This card is also not too noisy and super easy to configure. A great choice if you want to build an uncomplicated but highly compatible retro PC. UPD: Windows Sound System works fine in DOS as well. You don't need to run Windows for that.

[@szyszka8303]

Syndicate and multiple other games may complain on thes Yamaha/SP Pro chips.

[@jandjrandr]

This is definitely one of the better SB compatible cards, but when it comes down to it there will always be some programs that fail to work with it. It's just one of the failings of these older DOS games and the lack of a common sound API that would have made that better. That is the reason the multitasking OSs with the drivers that offered a common API for devs made it easier for game developers to focus on the game instead of having to support every kind of hardware under the sun.

[@brostenen]

Yup.... Real OPL core in that chip.

[@brostenen]

​@@szyszka8303I do not have issue like that. Those I had, were down to defect software. Same issues on Creative cards. But dynablaster had issues with SB16 cards though.

[@orangeActiondotcom]

@@jandjrandr This is generally untrue; sound libraries was quickly developed and adopted so compatibility is very good. The majority of issues are when a program is hardcoded to address the pre-Pro Sound Blaster at IRQ 7; most people don't realize you can seamlessly workaround that by re-initializing the card. With old Sound Blasters you'd have to power down, crack the case, pull the card and fiddle around with the jumpers (and then back again when you were done). There's very little reason to run a 'genuine' Sound Blaster these days unless you're nostalgic for -60dB SNR and hearing the hard disk interference being picked up in the line output for some reason.

[@WW-jt2sq]

I know you aren't fond of these mid to late 90's PCs but I always love when you do a video on them.

[@7828191]

That AT case model is from the early 90's like 1991 up to about 1997.

[@AltimaNEO]

Yeah thats an early/mid 90s. Late 90s and youre talking Pentium II.

[@RetronautTech]

I have a Pentium MMX 233, sold in 1998. So maybe PII was right at the end of the 90s?@@AltimaNEO

[@Mani-aX]

@@RetronautTech Pentium II introduced on May 7, 1997

[@RetronautTech]

So I guess for the first year or so, PII would have been used for more high end machines?@@Mani-aX

[@AntonyTCurtis]

Those Pioneer CDROM drives were excellent.

[@johngangemi1361]

Good burners too.

[@nekosarantango865]

My most memorable "seruliosly" moment waszan amd am2 system where cooler has been crammed into the socket with the shipping plastic still on the cooler Also then cases usually have space behind the full length card support for another 80mm intake fan😊

[@Taisen_Des]

Several decades ago, some of my PC wholesale suppliers usually served me computers without thermal paste and with paper stickers on the CPU (11:24) ... I had to check all the processors that passed through my hands one by one. Ironically, the supplier himself warned in the small print that 'the absence of thermal paste would invalidate the warranty', ... but they themselves were the first to forget it! 🤦🤦‍♀

[@raymondtwiner1283]

Doesn't that bring back memories. That looks so much like the first Windows PC that I can remember my family having. I can't remember exactly what was in that PC, but I remember that it had a HDD of unknown capacity, a 3.5" 1.44Mb floppy drive, a CD-ROM drive, an S3 Trio64 VGA graphics card, a Sound Blaster 16 sound card, all the RAM slots populated and an Intel Pentium powerful enough to run Doom 1 and 2, Tyrian and Magic Carpet 2 (in mode 13H) at maximum (or near maximum) framerate. It initially had Windows 95 when we got it home when we had asked for Windows 3.11, briefly taken back to have the correct OS installed, before eventually being upgraded to Windows 95 an unknown time later.

[@schonja9]

My first PC (486 SX 33 MHz) had exactly the same case. Like it a lot!

[@der.Schtefan]

That's the case we all had. I forgot how impractical it was.

[@artur...cordeiro]

I fully agree

[@MarianoLu]

Yeah, we all had that case. Will be interesting to know how many of these were built worldwide. Everyone had this case 😂

[@poon64]

I had an optical CD reader slot in with space for 4 CD's at the same time and it was the same physical size as the standard CD reader. You could load 6 discs and change between them with a button. Finally found which one it was, TEAC CD-C68E

[@MeneGR]

I loved those slot loading Pioneer drives, I had 2 DVD-ROM drives over the years.. I also loved the mini tower cases, so much better than today!

[@GrizzLeeAdams]

An important thing about the cdrom driver instance names (and other dos device names): they will conflict with any files you try to access by the same name. One of the publicly available boot floppies set the cdrom device name to "banana" and it would cause file read errors while installing versions of windows that came with the animated mouse cursor "banana.ani". Typically MSCD001 was used, as it was unlikely to conflict with files you might have on your PC.

[@Zarcondeegrissom]

3:46 that white-ish plastic in front of the expansion slots is something I miss in newer computers. That was to keep long cards from sagging, something that modern graphics cards have major issues with, lol.

[@Thales_WH]

2:38 PS/2 ports were also seen on newer 486 PCI boards. Sometimes in the form of a header, other times it was noticeable on the board that a classic DIN5 connector or PS/2 had been installed in the same place. I also saw a variant where the DIN5 connector on the keyboard was fitted, but next to it there was an empty, unfitted place for the PS/2 mouse connector. Some cases even had a preparation for this and right next to the connector on the keyboard there was a small, break-out plate just for this. In several cases, I used this preparation, soldered the connector and broke away the case plate. It is possible that I have a piece like this somewhere in my archive. 4:19 boards in AT format with an AGP slot were commonly sold. For Soctet7/Slot1/Socket370 platforms. Examples Gigabyte 5AA/Pine TL-SI21/Tomato ZX98-CU etc.

[@heatherbrown2761]

Best part of that modem is the transformer. You can do a little work with 2 of those transformers and make a ground loop isolator to solve issues such as the aux jack in a vehicle getting alternator whine. You would build a cable using 2 of those transformers and plugging in your device to that cable and then to the car would remove the whine. =)

[@pjcnet]

I worked in computer support in the days when PCs like this were new, I remember upgrading a load of office PCs that were running short of disk space from 85MB or 120MB drives to huge 500MB drives (now MiB), they had more room than they knew what to do with, now less than a 1TB SSD is considered small and many have much more, it's incredible how far we've come.

[@MattRiding]

If you hold down the reset switch while the computer is running, you can change the numbers displayed on the panel LED digit readout. I had one of those cases back in 1996 😊

[@charlesdorval394]

Oh! The first computer I used had this exact case! Okay wow, ours was a 386DX-40, it feels so strange seeing PCI slots! 233 feels so weird on that display lol Funny Fact, in 6th grade we visited the local university radio station (Bishops'), there was one of these cases, running w/e, with the front panel power button missing, and a post it note saying "Do not insert finger or other appendages in this hole"

[@LabCat]

I remember building a Pentium-era NLX machine for a teacher at the high school I was volunteering at back in the '90s. I got distracted and plugged the AT-style power supply backwards onto the motherboard. When I hit the power button, I heard a *VOOM* sound and all of the capacitors on the motherboard went "VOLTA!" and let out their factory installed magic smoke. Then there was fire. Then the fire alarm went off. Then the school had to be evacuated. I decided that I liked ATX power supplies a lot better after that.

[@brostenen]

Red against red, and you are dead. Is what we the nerds said, back in the 1980's and up untill ATX became widely used.

[@louistournas120]

The first PC I bought was ordered from a computer shop. You went in, selected the parts you want on paper and gave a deposit. They assemble for you. Of course, I opened it, had a look. For the power connector, I took note of the colors of the cable to make sure I connected it correctly. Before buying it, I took a full year, reading various magazines, learning what VGA is, how a hard disk works, what the internals looked like. Somehow, I figured out how to reinstall Win 95. That was in 1997.

[@erie910]

Computers run on smoke. When it escapes, the computer no longer runs.

[@IcySon55]

That sound card also goes by another name, the Yamaha Audician 32 Plus and it's very good. The MIDI MPU401 also doesn't have any hanging note bugs on this card. In Windows you can also use the cards MIDI XG mode for a different instrumentation. Phil has a good review video about this card!

[@brostenen]

I have cards like that, same layout same chip, not branded Audician32. That card is just a rebranded one, almost as if they took the referance design from Yamaha, and went by that hardware wise.

[@IcySon55]

@@brostenen Probably clones indeed. I think I have one too. That being said I don't recall seeing the name on the silkscreen of the card in Phil's review.

[@brostenen]

@@IcySon55 Most cards just use reference design. It were widely adopted on Voodoo1 and Voodoo2 cards. As well as GF2 to GF4 cards.

[@Manhattanman52]

I've found so many of these vintage machines in the trash. Love working on this ancient stuff, when we first experienced the web. Thanks for this vid!

[@DefaultFlame]

Hehe, "ancient." It's not ancient for some of us, for us it's just "childhood."

[@worroSfOretsevraH]

Wow in the trash? How? Like literally trash or recycled electronics stuff?

[@Manhattanman52]

@@worroSfOretsevraH Yup. I scavenge NYC trash and building e-waste recycling shelves, 5 days a week. Find more than I have room to keep. True.

[@worroSfOretsevraH]

@@Manhattanman52 best job ever :)

[@jorgelotr3752]

25:12 I would say it's a different (unmarked) revision. I would search for the same part number, but attaching "rev.2", "rev.3" and so on at the end. From my experience, the BIOS tend to be compatible between different revisions of the same board. 29:46 I believe it's the camera software chocking on the pattern of the ribbon cables rather than a bitrate issue.

[@Troppa17]

It's not unmarked. It's just Rev. 2.03 instead of 1.06. It seems that was the point on which Gigabyte decided to mark the Revision in the bottom left corner of the board. You can actual see it in 12:20 Yeah it's probably the software of the iPhone camera. There should've been an update to fix that. Might be a new issue or it's just overheating in the camera mount. Had an Samsung Galaxy S something something mp3 player that would overheat from putting it in an 3rd party leather case. USB 2.0 high speed should be enough for steaming even 4K video I guess.

[@acidhelm]

I built a Celeron PC with that type of case back in the day. I remember very vividly the sound at 3:10 when you took the cover off.

[@BollingHolt]

I always liked that case. I believe it also came in a midtower. I always have loved mid and full towers because when I was a kid looking at computer magazines in 1990, 91, I remember seeing the mighty 486 in a huge tower.

[@marcosborotti9053]

My first computer came with that case. It was a 486DX with 2Mb of RAM. I later put on a Soundblaster AWE32 in it. Good memories.

[@ultrametric9317]

Very nice little beigebox! Pop in a PCI video card like a Diamond Stealth with lots of video RAM. This fine little guy needs permanent job down in ADB!

[@Mosblinker]

I know I'm a day or two late to the party, but funnily enough I've been working all week on cleaning up a very dirty Pentium MMX machine. As of writing this comment the machine is almost up and running again (just need to close up the case, finish reassebling the keyboard, and burning some OS install disks (I have checked to see if it can boot via the original hard drives), amonst a few other small things).

[@Rx7man]

I had a PCI Yamaha XG sound card and loved it.. used it for years and years

[@jonweimer]

That soundcard is actually a audician 32 plus (a few brands made this for Yamaha, like labway and genius) it is sb pro 2.0 and wss compatible and has a third gen opl3 chip. Dosdays has a good write up on it and links to proper drivers and setup under the Yamaha page.

[@davidp4456]

Thanks for that tip. I’ll take a look at Dosdays for the set up. I think I have four now. One of them an Audician32 in the original box. I kept buying more as I thought the first ones were broken when trying to set them up with the original drivers under windows. They’re probably OK and it’s just something I’m getting wrong.😢

[@tspawn35]

In 1998 Baby AT motherboards were common to find with AGP, PCI and ISA slots. They also came with both atx and at power connectors for use in atx or at cases.

[@jhfgjtjutyiuod]

ASUS P5A-B was the quintessential motherboard of the era for tinkerers. Could take you from Pentium through all the K6 series and had ISA/PCI/AGP, worked in AT cases and ATX also

[@Radek__]

0:42 beautiful. My first PC in 1993 (386dx 40MHz 4mb ram) had almost the same look.

[@exidy-yt]

MAN did alot of us have 386DX-40s with 4mb as our first PC-clones! 105mb HDD?

[@Radek__]

@@exidy-yt haha almost- I've choose in that time, 240mb hdd, vga monitor, vga graphics, because I sacrificed rest - no mouse and no soundcard, but I knew what I have to speak loud during Mortal Kombat 1, to simulate soundcard - I've played it first on Arcade coin machine and I've remembered all vocal and fx sounds so I could live only with pc speaker. :-) btw I remember Alone in The Dark 1. I played it on pc speaker so I remember that game in that way. And years later when I've got Gravis Ultrasound card I was so dissapointed when I hear the music in that game. I imagined that music to be whole different genre and color. So I had to turn that music off because I couldn't handle it.

[@brostenen]

I got my first machine that year as well. Mine was a Cyrix 486 SLC2-50. Yes, 25 FSB. The board were named after a big cat. Leopard or something. Anyway. ET-4000 and a Sound Galaxy NX Pro 16. 4mb Ram and 120mb Connor HDD. No CD drive.

[@jjock3239]

I always find your videos interesting, and always learn something. That computer didn't look that dusty. I had one given to me, that belonged to a smoker, and when I pulled the cover off, I expected to find a little guy inside, smoking his lungs out. What was really amazing, was that the computer was still working.

[@michaelsmith4748]

Lots of fond memories of systembuilding in the late 90's at Intrex Computers with cases like this. A few tidbits I'm sure you know but others might not: CPU Temperature Select should have a list of temperatures (probably in C) upon which it triggers the overtemp alarm/warning/throttle. The USB headers on the motherboard were not standardized at that time, I remember some magic smoke issues if didn't get them right - and a lot of USB ports had individual plastic-sleeved connectors on the header cable to allow connections based upon the layout of the motherboard's headers - better hope you have your manual or some good mobo silk screening! The front panel connectors were also not standardized yet. The serial port header cables weren't always standard between motherboard brands either, so you couldn't necessarily grab one from a bunch-of-cables box when throwing something together and have it work with the particular motherboard. The parallel port can run in EPP and probably ECP as well as the standard SPP. But then not a whole lot uses that port anymore...

[@TheDuumiMuumi]

There indeed was an AT motherboard with "all-in" features! Asus P5A-B was one of them, had 1x AGP, 2x ISA and 3xPCI. I had one of them in some random custom build machine in ATX case, had I/O shield for just that single keyboard port. :D It also had connectors for AT and ATX power supplies, mine was running ATX power supply and 300MHz AMD K6.

[@alisharifian535]

Atrend 6310 is another example that serves as mainboard of my retropc.

[@BG101UK]

not sure if this has already been mentioned in the comments but I might still have a copy of Windows 95C which I believe is the last version of '95. The original Win95 (A) also came on floppies (I have a set) ..about 30 of them!

[@brostenen]

The video card and the sound card are one of the best ones for MS Dos compatibility. I use an YMF-718/719 paired with a DreamblasterS1 and a CL-5446 video card, in my Pentium-166. The only advantage my 5446 has over an S3-Trio64 is hardware enabled Vesa. It will not waste mem on UniVBE. You got a solid machine there, for mid-era to late-era Dos stuff.

[@EPICLULZ123]

I picked up a tower exactly the same as this a couple of years ago, searching for a good DOS/95 machine. It's almost identical inside, including the Motherboard/CPU combo. Fun Fact, this case has a 'foot' that screws onto the bottom of the case that's tapered at a 45 degree angle outward, but it's made of plastic so I can only imagine most of them were broken by now.

[@JORGETECHJorge]

I think AGP started to be common in PC motherboards in the Pentium II era, it's rare to see a Pentium I motherboard with AGP except for Super Socket 7 high end motherboards, and if you find one it will probably only be 1x or 2x.

[@horusfalcon]

I haven't seen something like this on my workbench in many, many years. Wow. Thanks for sharing this with us.

[@kencreten7308]

What a great computer.

[@erinwiebe7026]

I just built an early Pentium era PC (AMD K5 PR133) in a mini-tower case much like this. I also worked in a computer shop building these in the 90's and I have a soft spot for them too. It's interesting to see your video of a very similar PC show up much at the same time. The coincidence of the remastered Tomb Raider series release makes it a perfect time to revisit these first gen Pentium class PC's.

[@Zadkiel343]

Adrian, be very careful using compressed air to spin a fan while it's still plugged into the motherboard - a motor running in reverse acts as a dynamo and will generate voltage, and boards of that era didn't necessarily have protection in place to stop that voltage feeding back into the 12v rail, spin it fast enough and it's entirely possible to push 20v back into the 12v rail and blow things.

[@FlamingPhoenix40]

He mentions in the video that the fan was not plugged in to anything when he did that, so all should be good :)

[@Zadkiel343]

@@FlamingPhoenix40 Are you sure? I don't remember him saying anything and the reason I posted the comment was because it looked like the power cable was going into the big bundle of cables

[@oskardzida]

He definitely said "it is not plugged in to anything" 14:49

[@johnhudson7055]

I used to origami fold the ide cables, my boss didn’t get it but the customers loved it.

[@MatthewHill]

It's great to see how super-excited you get about these! Lots of nostalgia wrapped up in there for me too, although most of mine lands in a slightly earlier generation.

[@tocaamerillo431]

I feel the need to point out, that the floppy is labelled as "MemTest 2.0" but it actually loads memtest(86+) v4.00 :D

[@tommeier2299]

just wanted to write the same :) And memtest is not the same as memtest+ ...

[@nopenottalib4366]

I have that exact case you've got there. Mine currently has an AMD 5x86 150MHz CPU in it. The case came to me many, many, many years ago with a 386 in it, then I upgraded it to a 486. When I originally got the 5x86 150MHz, I put it into a different case, and the old case with the 486 still in it went out to my grandpa's workshop, where he never used it. Years later, I wound up with both systems in my possession again, and installed the 5x86 motherboard into the 486 case, and that's what it is today.

[@thefamouseccles1827]

I was building PCs during this era. We continued ATs for our budget builds right up until the Super7 AMD K6 platform (which had AGP and 100Mhz SDRam). The Pentium II platform was natively ATX, and these premium systems drove the migration to ATX

[@jonweimer]

The t string is the sb type. T1 is an original SoundBlaster, T2 is an SoundBlaster 1.5, T3 is an SoundBlaster 2, T4 is an SB Pro, T5 is an SB Pro with an FM Synthesis chip, and T6 is an SoundBlaster 16 or later.

[@raelik777]

Yeah, there's at least 3 revisions of that motherboard (rev 1.00, 1.06, and 2.03). That's the 2.03 board (noted up on the corner of the board by the last ISA slot). Other than the change in cache chips, the only thing I know that is specific to the 2.03 revision is that it supports Windows 95 powering off the board on shutdown (if powered via ATX).

[@Megatog615]

i love socket 7 so much, pentium mmx 233 in particular. this video is such a treat.

[@devil5051000]

I love this slot in DVD-ROMs. Had two of them in the past. :)

[@HansCampbell]

That appears to be a very nice motherboard. 😃

[@johngangemi1361]

Nice PC for DOS gaming!

[@multigameplayer1001]

You can lock the white balance of the iPhone camera by going into settings, camera, record video, lock white balance option at bottom.

[@PXAbstraction]

Guessing the lag is because it's overheating too. Most phones don't handle long periods of constant video recording without running really hot and throttling.

[@ax14pz107]

From what I understand, you cannot turn off dynamic auto mapping on iPhones so there's always going to be an issue with color tones changing in videos until Apple unlocks dynamic auto mapping. Locking white balance won't solve the issue because you can't actually lock the white balance. Edit: eurgh dynamic tone mapping, not dynamic auto mapping.

[@C4103]

​@@PXAbstractionWhen doing this with NDI HX Camera on my LG v30 (an Android phone from 2017) it doesn't lag beyond what you'd expect for NDI and the phone never overheats.

[@sandmanxo]

For some reason I never pictured Adrian as someone that knew much about late DOS machines, I was surprised to hear worked at a shop building them. I don't think I've ever ran across an AT PSU that has failed, which I have around 5 these days and they all work. AGP on Socket 7 was quite common in the 'Super Socket 7' era with 100Mhz and sometimes even faster FSBs. My primary retro PC is the same crappy PCChips M577 motherboard with a K6-2 533 overclocked to 600mhz(just to see if it would run at 600 then left it there.) It's got a Socket 370 cooler that surprising fit but is very tight. I can't remember what video card I put in there though, probably my GeForce 3 Ti200. Only other things of interest is it's got a Gravis ultrasound Ace and an original VooDoo card in it. I love this era of PCs as I was constantly upgrading and helped many Socket 7 boards live on for a few extra years with the K6-2's 6x multiplier when set to 2x. It was perfect for the tired P54 Pentiums to go to 400 or 450Mhz with that 6x multiplier on boards that didn't support above 3.5x.

[@rod370]

Hi, Adrian. You say things like Dead as a Doornail. I thought we only said here in England. Nice one. Stay safe to you and your loved ones.

[@horusfalcon]

Here in the US, "dead as a doornail" is a Southern Thang. The phrase "graveyard dead" was popularized by the late Jerry Clower many years ago, too.

[@Spudz76]

Some Canadian idioms leak across the border in the Pacific Northwest, so Britishisms via Canada is the likely route. Sometimes I forget he's not actually in BC. Similar occurs in Minnesota and other Canadian-bordering states. EDIT: such as "works a treat" or "connected to mains" which are not normal US phrases

[@kevinclarkson5565]

These cases bring back so many memories. In the mid to late 1990s, myself & my Dad would use this style case for our own line of PCs after he stopped selling Amstrad computers - though they had a flush face rather than the ridge in the middle. But all with that smoked panel. Unfortunately, at least the ones we had didn't have a screen there - there wasn't a moulding for it either if I remember - though those were ATX cases. These were typical Windows 95/98 machines - though, as a small UK based boutique company, they were mostly built to order but mostly they had AMD K6-2/3 CPUs - I loved these CPUs. While I did have experience with 386s etc. (my first PC was an Amstrad MegaPC which was a 386 with a Sega MegaDrive or Genesis built in. Actually quite slow at the time but for me, it was amazing! Considering I had moved from an Amstrad CPC 6128 which had a Zilog Z80 CPU and a 3in disk drive). But these '90s machines are what I learned to build computers with. I have fond memories and also many scars - these cases aren't exactly well made with lots of sharp metal... It wasn't unusual for me to shed a little blood while building them... LOL

[@jeromethiel4323]

I still own my first PC clone. I had it built at a computer show, back in the late 80's. And the funny thing is, it had a speed display, but you had to program it, so while the processor is 100Mhz, the display is 33Mhz, because i never bothered to fix it. After that, i just built my own. But back then i was new to the PC scene, was an Amiga guy for years before.

[@ct6502-c7w]

That's pretty impressive that you still have it! There are so many things I wish I had kept, but of course hindsight is 20/20.

[@brostenen]

I was into Amiga as well..... I knew many who had one, so I had no need to buy one my self. I used to game on C64 from around 1985 to 1993. Game on PC and Amiga from 1988 to around 1993. And then got my first PC in 1993. My first computer. Before that I gamed on whatever I so happened to have access to.

[@RetronautTech]

Regarding the White Balance. There are paid Camera apps for the newer iphones, which allow you to have MUCH more control over the cameras settings when recording. Adrian, try Protake, its $19 a year, so maybe another similar App might suite. I use it, and you can lock WB, ISO, Focus, etc etc. It also shows focus highlighting, and or zebra stripes to indicate over exposure. I use it on my channel, and its pretty good. I also have an old 6s Pro, and use it for alternate views and Protake does not work on that. So, at some point I will need to get another camera to replace it.

[@DonVintaggio]

38:18 ahh those turbo vision made tools for D.O.S, beautiful memories from the early 90s.

[@snakefriesia6808]

the two things i always wanted in my DOS days were an OG Yamaha soundcard and a Roland MPU 401 MIDI card with a Roland MT-32 synthesizer attached to it. i never had them...

[@jeremylindemann5117]

This one hits home for me. My first computer, that I could really call my own, was a 486SX33. That was a cool machine but when I compared how the games on it worked to a friends DX266, my computer just looked damn slow and boggy. That computer was something I was able to get for free because someone we knew worked for a place was doing a round of upgrades and just wanted to get rid of them. My first computer which I built from new parts was Pentium 150, similar to the one in this video. It had an S3 Virge card and an ISA (or maybe EISA) AWE64 soundblaster. MAN I wish I kept that soundblaster at least. The jump in performance for games was an absolute joy and I enjoyed a lot of the typical 90's games like this. Played all the build engine games of course.I bought the duke nukem plutonium pack around that time. I don't remember if I put a decent 3D accelerator in that particular machine but we did have the Riva128, then a TNT, then TNT2 Ultra around that time. I originally had 16MB of memory and when I tried to play video files it was really choppy. Upgrading to 32MB fixed that. I kind of want to rebuild the same computer so I have that real 90's computer again but I don't remember the make and model of most of the parts. I remember the motherboard had bright yellow sticker on the control chip.

[@robwebnoid5763]

Nice delving into a mystery PC case. I have pretty much kept all my computer parts since I started into it in the early 1980's, including Commodore 64's, which I still have as well. So good thing I still have my Pentium 233 MMX, which I had bought new in the late 1990's & actually used it in an office computer up until 2020 but which I still have to this day. The best times I have probably used this 233 was in & around the Y2k era, playing games on it such as Quake II, Soldier of Fortune, Battlezone II & Half-Life. Some of those games did start to choke on the 233 MMX so eventually had to get a faster processor. Those were the days.

[@oldschooldude8370]

A 233 was the minimum for most games around 97/98 Awesome you rocked that relic for so long.

[@the_kombinator]

53:08 - I can get them for $20-$30 CAD They are really good too, and the fact that yours can drive a CDROm is a bonus

[@jessiec4128]

There is a place in Fort Worth Texas that has lots of ATX case for sell. I picked up a few to buid a new PC. The cases are strong! When the 486 days were there it was fun building systems!

[@HansCampbell]

Pioneer makes the best CD and DVD drives. The early ones, that were made in Japan, are especially nice. Today, they are very hard to find and usually command high prices on eBay. So, that drive was a lucky find. 😁

[@MissNorington]

Thanks to this video, I managed to overclock my P1 MMX CPU from 200 to 225, which gave enough performance to run my game without dropping frames.

[@stephen.mcguire]

Thanks never thought I could underclock for older dos games...need to keep that in mind, thanks!

[@JeffBreyer]

Our first computer was a 233 MMX. It was great for gaming.

[@MajenkoTechnologies]

I have built so many computers in that exact case back in the day. Brings back memories...

[@exidy-yt]

That's what you call a home-baked mid-90s PC upgraded to later 90s spec. I remember and love mine, it was my 2nd self-assembled PC though I topped my CPU out at a Pentium 166 before jumping into a slot based Celeron 300 OCed to 450 for my 3rd. Best CPU bang for the buck ever. Nice dose of nostalgia, Adrian!

[@7828191]

Very similar AT case to my first PC from back in the mid 90's, that i am also now rebuilding, originally a 486 DX2 66 VLB system. Since missing the content except for the disk drive, power supply, CD-ROM etc, i have had to search for parts for some time, result, a good Socket 7 motherboard, Gravis Ultrasound Max (my original), AMD K5 PR 133 (100 MHZ), 48 MB RAM, Cache module, Sound Blaster CT2910 Sound Blaster 16 with genuine Yamaha chips, 3 digit Turbo display, new old stock? Teac 5.25" -94? (made in Malaysia) dual speed capable drive, etc, also the 3.5 drive is a Teac with Jumpers, perhaps from 91 - 93?, the case is manufactured in March -94.

[@Clavichordist]

I have a similar system sitting on my workbench right now from the same era. It has an A-Open motherboard and is from a local outfit called Microseconds that sold both new and used computers.

[@domramsey]

I really enjoy this kind of video. I'd love to see you do a build from scratch. Maybe your perfect DOS gaming PC where you pick the best parts from your collection and build a machine that you would want to use regularly.

[@RetroTechChris]

I have that case! Running a 486DX4/100 system in it. Thanks for sharing!

[@douro20]

The BIOS ID (2A59IG0G) confirms that this is a GA-586TX2. I believe if you leave the PCI 2.1 compliance off the PCI bus will only run at 33MHz.

[@Wenlocktvdx]

That was a trip down memory lane indeed. I started with a 286 running DOS 4.01 then upgraded to 386, then a 486. Replaced the whole box with a Pentium 3/450mhz. The fan on the P3 box sounded like it was changing gears up and down. When the CPU finally died I looked at the fans and realised the CPU fan had been dead for years despite me blaming it for the noise. Never overheated despite the dead fan

[@7828191]

I have one of those Yamaha cards in my collection.

[@iguanac6466]

I know a lot of people hated those cheap Rockwell modems, but I found if you used the AT command to disable error correction and compression they were EXCELLENT performers. I had people wonder if I was on ISDN because my ping was LOT lower in Quake2 than most modem users (I also picked an ISP that had a low hop connection to my favorite Quake server).

[@fellipec]

This case looks so similar to my first PC. The difference I can tell is that mine had a rocker switch instead of the push button to turn on.

[@IntenseGrid]

A lot of times you can take the sticker off the back of the little fan and drip some oil in the bearings and reseal it with the sticker, or maybe replace it with another. Just be careful to not to get oil outside of the bearing hole.

[@eddiehimself]

I used to have a Slot 1 AT motherboard with AGP, PCI and ISA. It also had an ATX form card (which is the little board that has your PS/2 port and such) but instead of a serial port, it had an IR port and 2 USB 1.1 ports.

[@the_kombinator]

Those pioneer drives are anything but reliable. I went through like 4 of them since 3 years.

[@Phil-Sands]

Back in the X386 days when I was first building PC's the idea of thermal paste on a CPU was unheard of, even when Pentiums arrived thermal paste wasn't normal practice. 😮😮😮😮

[@johnpaulbacon8320]

Aweome video - your excitement is nice to see.

[@boam2943]

I had a case like that (with different plastic front) on my first computer and it always felt solid like a tank compared to almost all it's successors. Once it fell from about 3 meters high and only got a little dent and chipped paint. The ceramic floor, on the other hand, was left with a broken tile. Being able to remove the motherboard tray was great. None of my other cases has that feature including the most recent one. Unfortunately, I had to throw it to the trash because it was getting too rusty. My house has too much moist :(

[@jimka385]

So much nostalgia here!

[@fliplefrog8843]

As an originally electrician i hate this 'birds nest' inside computers ;) I sold custom computers. I've allways asked: Are u an enthusiast user, or a 'pro'? First got a heavily cleaned-up and tight cabled management, bcoz they (almost) never would mess around inside. Shaking the PC wouldnt make any noise at all. 'Pro' users upgrade all the time. Pinning cables would'nt be pleasant for them. But I still avoided a 'Birds nest'! How i build them: 1. (Remove PSU if installed) 2. Install (stands+)CPU+Cooler and RAM on the Mainboard before mounting into the case. 3. Mount Mainboard into the Case. 4. Mount PSU. Do the cablemanagment on the backside(!) of the Mainboard carrier and supply connectors at their needed positions. Cableties will do the job. 5. Install all the drives (fdd, hdd, etc). 6. Plug all the PSU cables in the 'drives' 7. Install ribbon cables. Fold(!) the cables in 90degrees until you reach the connectors. For 'pro' users supply connectors to all bays. (Now adays this means to supply SATA cables to all possible Drive slots.) 8. Fix all cables with ties. Make the installation clean! Don't leave a mess inside the case.

[@paulomonteiro5606]

I got the same case, and the same sound card, but with a socket super 7 with AGP. Seems it was a nice match back in Pentium era.

[@kellyrjohnson7693]

I built a DX4-100 in this case when I was probably 18. Before that I'd had hand me down systems - an AT&T 6300, an 8Mhz PC/AT and eventually a 386SX-16. This was my first build and, as such, kind of ingrained that late 486 and early Pentium time period as my "preferred" generation of PCs.

[@stevesimpson4286]

On the iPhone, you can lock white balance in the camera setting in the settings app. Under the record video settings.

[@scotshabalam2432]

Hey Adrian, another service tech turned me on to these Vampliers Mini 4.75" Precision Nippers(made in Japan) that are like the best you can get and they finally showed up in-stock on Amazon.

[@Skracken]

I had a Pentium MMX 166MHz on a Super Socket 7 board. I modded a Pentium 3 heatsink onto it, and bumped the voltage a little and set the FSB too 100MHz so the CPU ran at 250MHz. With 128MB PC100 RAM and an AGP ATI card, that thing ran Win 2k like a champ! I also had a SCSI controller and drives in it. I ran it as a server for a while on LAN parties that me and some friends hosted. Unfortunately my dad threw it out because it got left behind when I moved away from home.

[@dagglock7615]

You seem so much more relaxed now that you have this channel and not having to work and deal with your channel.

[@Cherijo78]

Just FYI if you didn't know, cdrom lens cleaning discs also exist. I have one. It can help a lot to make the lens focus and read.

[@markae0]

don't fix it unless it is broken

[@borodaevkirill7371]

Hi Adrian! 9:19 I like the flexibility of InWin A500/Q500 🙂 About board layout differences: always check for revision version. Lucent winmodems were decent at least compared to USR/3Com winmodems

[@PrinsessePeach]

Could you use a different camera app to stream the video? If you can blackmagic has a free camera app that I believe can adjust white balance.

[@GeoffSeeley]

Those Pioneer slot CD/DVD drivers really were the best. I think I've got a SCSI version someplace I used on my A3000.

[@DSP107]

Good vid Adrian! But I'd say that, in running old games, beyond the 386 barrier, you may collide with a harder issue than just speed: 286's protected mode instruction set is different and incompatible with 386's & up. That's why I always keep my M209 board up& running.😊 P.S.: a good use of the 2-digit LED display I found is, precisely, the output of the ISA Post-board! It's not quite straightforward, needs some crimping & soldering, but it's magnetic to me...

[@grahamstuart3207]

Yes I loved this era. My first build was a Pentium 166 mmx then upgraded to 200 mmx. After the mmx craze went to a intel dx2 50. The next jump to Pentium 3 is where i noticed a big jump in performance. Next step to P4 was just amazing too. My intel i3 350m was then a little Leap later, LOL. Now running the amd ryzen 5900HX , don't think i could go back now!

[@glenndavis341]

Sewing machine oil works well for fans also.😊

[@jasmijndekkers]

Very nice computer system and it looks great! Thankx for sharing. Greetings from Steven from the Netherlands