Here's the full test rig schematic for anyone curious how I got the MatchBox talking again: FT232 for the serial link to MBC.EXE, an ESP8266 for direct I2C access to the EEPROM, and a relay to hold reset while probing it - all hanging off the K3 header. Logic analyzer included for good measure.

Currently mid-build of late 90s system...

Growing up in the 80s and now having kids of my own, I wanted my kids to play the same 90s games I did, authentically - with caveats.

Starting system: Presario 5700 w/ agp, zipdisk, dvd-rom, hdd w/ win98, lots of ram, p3-500mhz

Add ons:

Pci usb 2.0 card

P3 800mhz - 100mhz fsb

Velocity 100 3dfx AGP

8gb CF & ide adapter for OS

32gb 2.5" ssd & ide adapter

Pci exhaust fan - for overclocking gpu

BT 1.1/2.1

VGA cable & lcd monitor from local store (cheap!)

PS/2 keyboard and mouse

Future buys:

Audigy sound blaster

5.1 or 4.1 speaker set

Maybe an mx440 if i get tired of the 3dfx games

Anything else??

My computer growing up was nowhere near this... I had a supersocket 7 AMD 450mhz (up from my 233mmx) and a voodoo banshee... and definitely no solid state drives or BT.

Surprises: Difficult finding cheap vga cable and ps/2 keyboard & mouse, remembering drive order on the ide ribbon cable maters.

Games to play: quake series, unreal series, heretic, c&c, need for speed, thief 1&2, xwing series, and others.

I must admit, it's pretty fun! Anyone else doing something similar currently?

I've got an original Elektor "MatchBox BASIC Computer" board from 1995 (8051-based, EEPROM program storage, published as a magazine project series). Finally decided to bring it back to life after years in storage.

The good news: after a lot of hands-on diagnostics (multimeter, then an 8CH logic analyzer + PulseView), I've fully confirmed the board is electrically healthy — serial UART works, I²C bus to the external EEPROM works perfectly, clean address/ACK/data on every transaction. I even erased and rewrote the EEPROM via an ESP8266 test rig to rule out a dead chip.

The blocker: the onboard monitor keeps throwing "IIC ERROR adr:xx" at boot. I'm pretty convinced it's checking for a specific config/signature at the start of the EEPROM that a real compiled MBL program (via the original MBC.EXE compiler) would normally write there — bytes I don't have, since I never owned the companion diskette (Elektor order code 956009-1).

Does anyone have a copy of the original MBC.EXE compiler, or even just one compiled .MBL program I could pull the hex bytes from? Searched archive.org, worldradiohistory.com, vintage computing forums — this seems to be one of the rare Elektor projects whose software never got archived online.

Happy to document/share everything once (if) I get it running. TL;DR: hardware's fine, need 30-year-old DOS software or its byte format.

So I own a IBM M50 8187 P4 machine just like the one in that photo, and I am trying to complete the full setup so that I have what is the complete first computer I ever laid a finger upon back in 2009 in kindergarten class (we had these as school computers back in robertsdale AL elementary)

Figured you guys may be of some help. (also if I can find the speakers commonly paired with these that would be great too!)

The case turned out to be pretty decent at cooling after adding 80 and 92mm arctic fans. The only problem would be the upside-down PSU, so I added a 60mm Thermalright forcing air to the PSU fan, which should keep the temperatures in line. Currently the CPU (Ryzen 9600X) sits at around 46 - 50C at idle and in the mid to high 70s under load, while being reasonably quiet. The GPU (16GB 9060XT) draws air from the side panel holes and runs as cool as in a modern case.

The Keychron C1 Pro 8K is pretty cheap where I live, and it fits perfectly with the retro vibe. I've got the brown switches which I'm very happy with for non-competetive gaming and studying.

The CRT is a Samsung SyncMaster 753DFX connected via the Delock 62656 adapter. It runs at 1024x768@85Hz without any issues on linux.

I'm going to make a crt inspired housing for my monitor in the future but I finally feel that the setup is complete enough to post

I've got some older PC hardware sitting around and would like to put it to good use instead of getting rid of it, especially considering how expensive hardware has gotten.
I've seen people turn old gaming PCs into NAS setups, Plex/Jellyfin servers, game servers, etc. Really curious what you guys have done with yours that turned out to be cool and actually useful long term?
Any ideas and tips appreciated!

Hey folks, I just finished putting together my all original retro battle station and the card im using is a ATi Radeon 9800 that was flashed back in to the day to the Pro, I know it was not a pro to begin with because the back says 9800 and I have the original box and paperwork for it lol. I did double check the memory modules and they 3.0 so they are fast enough to support the pro bios.

I have already cleaned and pasted the GPU with MX4 and it's working great but after reading online people say the cooler is not adequate and it should be upgraded. Getting little heatsinks for ram is easy enough but trying to find a cooler to fit this has not been easy. Zalman ZF400 or whatever it's called thats recommended is almost 100 bucks on eBay!

So can anyone recommend a cooler that will work that I can get off Amazon or something thats not insane. Also open to trying to undervolt it or something as the games I play don't demand its full power. Mostly Ut2004 and Warcraft III. Thanks!

It’s spring of 2008. The economic crash is still months away, the weather is warming up, school is almost out for summer, and dad just came home from Best Buy with HP’s top of the line desktop in a stunning new piano black color way, the M8000n Media Center PC.

You’ve been reading all about Intel’s legendary Core 2 Quad CPU’s and Nvidia’s Tesla GPU’s that both came out at the end of 2006 right in time for the release of Windows Vista and DX10 gaming. Every PC gamer is benchmarking Crysis, playing through the Bioshock campaign, and squadding up on CS:S at the basement LAN party on Friday nights.

You want to experience it all for yourself, too. But mom and dad said their next PC purchase is going to be for the whole family. For watching TV, recording videos, browsing the internet, checking emails, and doing homework. So imagine your surprise when dad sets up the new HP at the old, solid oak living room computer desk in the corner and you realize it’s got a Q9450 and a 9800 GT!

/s Okay enough nostalgia; what’s actually going on here? Well, I scored this mint M8000n PC case recently and decided to move some of my legacy hardware into it, representing what would have been a “maxed out” Media Center PC back in the day. All of the functions are still working. The card reader, the hot swap HDD bay, the front panel A/V connections, the lightscribe DVDRW, the original built-in WiFi and TV tuner card. Even the Windows Media Center IR remote control for video playback.

Full specs including my upgrades below:
Asus P5QL-VM EPU motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 CPU
Zalman CNPS9700 all copper heatsink
4x 2gb Patriot DDR2 800mhz RAM (8gb total)
BFG Nvidia 9800 GT OC 1Gb GDDR3 55nm GPU
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium sound card
Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1650 TV tuner card
Anatel HP B/G PCI WiFi card
HP OEM Lightscribe DVDRW drive
HP OEM BDROM drive
Western Digital Blue 250gb SATA SSD
Western Digital 160gb Velociraptor 10k rpm HDD
Powerman (InWin) 450w OEM PSU
HP OEM wireless peripherals (KB, Mouse, Remote)
HP OEM Personal Media Drive (new 2Tb 3.5” HDD)

System is running Windows Vista Ultimate x64 and using a period-correct monitor and speakers.

Back in the 90s, if your PC had a Sound Blaster (or the legendary Korean 'OKSORI' sound card) and a CD-ROM drive, your PC immediately turned into a living room karaoke machine.

This was Sekwang Karaoke (세광 즐거운 노래방):

• The UI Aesthetic: Chunky wood-grain speaker skins, faux-LED track displays, and volume/tempo sliders built directly into the software interface.
• Visuals: Low-res 256-color dithered video clips playing in a loop while the iconic green/yellow lyrics synced to MIDI tracks.
• Sound: Powered entirely by FM synth / General MIDI via Sound Blaster OPL3, Roland Sound Canvas, or local wavetable cards.

You’d plug a cheap dynamic mic directly into the sound card's mic-in port, gather the family around the heavy CRT monitor, and sing along.

Did any of you have dedicated CD-ROM karaoke/multimedia software like this on your vintage rigs back in the day?

11/08/26 Update found a specific Slot 1 440BX board with AGP and ISA for a Fujitsu Siemens Scenic 500! Will erase almost complete earlier build plans and turn it into a specific DOS machine with PII 266 / 64mb / AGP TNT2 M64 32mb / ESS1868F ISA soundcard.

Reasoning for change is i picked up a PIII for W98se and this was missing an AGP and ISA slot and ran too fast for some DOS games + pci sound is not all too well for DOS.

Just need to assemble all back up and will post pics and updated build when all parts are in.

Picked this up off FB Marketplace and mostly saw a beige case from the early ATX era which I need for another project, which had been upgraded.

That PSU though (a Apevia ATX-AS500W)...straight from 2004. And probably not the best to use in 2026, but so awesome. The 7900 GS is also a treat. Board is a Intel D925XCV (early 775 board).

Small Windows xp pc on the left. I believe Evesham was a British brand.

The Packard Bell is a Windows 98 pc, with a pentium ii, and voodoo 3 inside.

What are some good PSUs for a 2004 build with a Athlon or FX, and a PCIe GeForce 6800?

Enjoying an Atari ST Saturday

Back in the days there was a French website and forum known for PC tuning.
It was known for being sarcastic but also empowering (hence the name that reflects the owner of the PC having a very specific taste...)
But full of genuinely nice people (most of them) and some really good advice (as well as some "homebrew" = HB = "honteux bidouillages" which are awful builds and modifications made to be awful)

here is the gallery of all the PCs : http://jackypc.com/index2.php3?rub=gallerie&gal=pc&page_choisie=1

a real time capsule 💓😍

It was a bit like "hardforum" but specifically for PCtuning.

Do you have other local websites that have such builds and info ? I'd love to see what was live in other countries

I picked up an intel board to have as a spare. I thought the Pentium ii cooler was quirky.

My Atari Mega STE with ATW800/2 Transputer / Graphics card. This Atari can run at up to 1920x1080 resolution with 256 colors, or lower resolutions with even more colors.

Noteable upgrades:

- The "GPU": https://www.geekdot.com/atw800_2/ 2MB card

- Internal ACSI2STM (sidecartridge) "harddrive" storage, GoTek floppy emulation

- Noctua Fan for PSU

- Wifi232Modem Pro (BBS connectivity)

- Internet Connectivity: I am using a SideCartridge Multidevice but also have a NetUSBEE

- Viewsonic Freesync monitor that properly supports 50 hz, 60 hz, and 72 hz standard ST modes without tearing. (via OSSC). Also used for the GPU resolutions (+HDMI switch to go between ST and Video card outputs).

- Mega ST (rather than Mega STE) keyboard as it has the diagonal ST Function keys that I prefer

- TrueMouse

P.S. Yes, that's an Amiga website -- because it doesn't require HTTPS/TLS.. :) - but I plan to set up a special proxy server so I can view more Atari websites in the browser.