PC Building

[BigAl01]

Do you have some old computer parts lying around, even though they probably don’t work anymore?  Can you identify them?  For example, I’m tossing out this broken (bad caps) Abit KA7 Slot-A motherboard.  I need to make room for not so old broken parts!  Do you have some pictures to share?

 

[johnnyenglish]

Oh! The memories. So many parts lying around, most do work while others are just for nostalgia.

This video is all about old parts I had while being a tech hoarder.

WARNING!

This was one of my first videos, its so bad that.. well, I'm still bad at it. At least I warned ya LOL

[BigAl01]

Interesting.  How many videos have you made over the years?

[johnnyenglish]

Maybe 40 long format videos in roughly 2 years. Just a hobby but its growing slow and steady.

[Anonymous]

Slot-A !  (genius idea wrapping a CPU in a plastic brick)

Showing your age, Big Al.

When did Abit go away?

So long ago I cant remember...

[BigAl01]

Not that long ago, around 2009.  Here's the history.

[DanE-50]

 what about this one?  2MB Memory card;   72ea  256 mem chips (8bit + parity).    from one of my older computer builds.

[BigAl01]

Did that plug into an PCI socket on the motherboard, or an AGP socket?

[DanE-50]

if I remember correctly,   this is an  ATD ZEMS-2MB EMS 8088 8086 2MB card 8 bit ISA,  from early 80's

[johnnyenglish]

I actually handled some of those systems out of curiosity but I'm not that old. ISA Daughter Boards if I recall. Not sure.

The ISA standard saw its life extended, with EISA. Common with sound cards back in the 90's.

[BigAl01]

And sound cards were a royal pain to configure, with conflicts due to multiple devices trying to issue interrupt requests to the CPU.  Today is just way easier.  

[johnnyenglish]

Oh, I remember. Setting IRQ and DMA. 

A pain indeed.

[Wally_AMD]

I don't have anything that old on me (as I honestly wouldn't keep any hardware like that around regardless), but from my childhood... I can remember floppy disk drives being the next best thing 😂

[DanE-50]

bringing old machines back to life (Legacy Computing) is a growing hobby.   last year I restored 2 Heathkit H89's, and an IBM PCjr.    Its a lot of fun but a real pain finding parts.

[BigAl01]

I agree.  It's hard to find working replacement parts.  I saved a lot of stuff, but now I'm throwing out a lot of things that I know won't function in the future.

[DanE-50]

yea,   thought I was really high tech with the 8" floppy drives,   so much better than the casette tapes.

[BigAl01]

I remember 5 1/4" floppy drives (I had them on my Osborne Executive).  I think the larger floppy drives were for business level computers and such.

[Axxemann]

3.5" or 5.25" floppy?

[johnnyenglish]

Floppys? These were actually a bit harder than the fives.

 

[Axxemann]

Holy Smokes... I haven't seen a Slot A since... 1998 I think.

[eebiii]

Only way i can remember 1998 is if you show me pictures. lol I do remember late 90's was the middle of the internet boom and I worked all over the country. Cali, Mass, Indiana, Texas. Good times

[Axxemann]

Remember all the Y2K panic for nothing? I remember working as a security guard at the time, they brought me in to work a refinery detail in casse the computers blew the place up or the lights went out or something. I was walking the outer fenceline patrol when the clock hit midnight. -31, no wind, no clouds, no moon. I found a bench on the walking trail adjacent to the outer fenceline (I had to partol on the exterior for that section) and smoked a cigar while watching the fireworks display for the NYE celebrations from downtown across the river valley. Only trouble I had was taking half an hour longer than my normal patrol and getting scolded by the supervisor.