Retro computer subforum

[JoeCoke]

1 hour ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

You two have made this into discussion whether this is PC/computer/tech forum or not.

Nope, that's not what the discussion became. The point I was trying to make is that older hardware is discussed plenty on LTT, so it's only fitting that it be talked about on the LTT forum. You guys seem to be okay with a mobile gaming section because they made a single Pokemon Go video, but there's plenty of old hardware discussion on LTT and yet a sub forum is just a no go. I don't see the logic, but if you guys are so set then I won't even bother anymore. I give up, not that my opinion mattered anyway.

Quote

This is about should retro hardware have its own subforum or not

Yes... On the LTT forum. So it is about that.

 

I'm done with all this... On a PC focused forum, you'd think a retro PC section would be a given. But you guys don't think so, and there's no changing your mind, so going on is pointless. Have a good day everyone, peace.

[Mr.Meerkat]

@2Buck

May I just say how LTT forums is a tech forum? Computers are a large part of this forum but its still a tech forum. What linus releases to his channel does not affect the type content on this forum.

In other words, what you're saying is OCUK's forum is for OCUK customers only and is only about the sales of computer parts (as OCUK is a retailer) or how JonnyGuru forums are a PSU only forum as the only content they release is PSU reviews...sounds stupid no?

[ArduinoBen]

I found this old computer PCB in a park last year.  If we had one I'd post a picture of it and ask what it is.

[TacoSenpai]

A retro tech subforum would be good just to see what retro tech people have held onto over the years.  I know there are old systems I wish I kept like my N64 (not that old I know but I still miss it).  Sadly these days the most "retro" thing I have is the original Wii and an old DS lite.

[ProjectBox153]

I made this suggestion a while back. It was declined, but I still feel the need for one. 

[goodtofufriday]

6 hours ago, Jamiec1130 said:

I made this suggestion a while back. It was declined, but I still feel the need for one. 

So far most of the people have voted yes in the poll. Would be nice to have a mod give another answer to this thread. 

[ProjectBox153]

6 minutes ago, goodtofufriday said:

So far most of the people have voted yes in the poll. Would be nice to have a mod give another answer to this thread. 

I know. It wouldn't be the most popular place, but it would definitely have a lot of interested folks. 

[Dabombinable]

On 4/22/2017 at 3:49 AM, Doramius said:

Actually, there are older non-progressive scan interlaced LCDs out there, and they do work with lightguns, and have no input lag.  They also have composite input.  Not easy to find these days, but they are out there.  Were a lot easier to find in the early 2000's.  However, they'd also fall into the "retro" genre. :wink: :wink:

In other words, my rather old 15" 1024x768 85Hz LCD TV/Monitor (which seems to visually fit between an IPS and TN panel screen).

[Doramius]

12 hours ago, Dabombinable said:

In other words, my rather old 15" 1024x768 85Hz LCD TV/Monitor (which seems to visually fit between an IPS and TN panel screen).

It's possible.  Most of them were around 7" to 19".  I've heard of a few people who would buy the aftermarket LCDs, that were made to install in vehicles, and modded them with game consoles.  There probably needs to be a wiki page for stuff like that...if there isn't already one.  That would fall under game consoles and electronics, though.

[Guest]

Why not retro hardware instead of just computers? I.e. Phones, consoles, tv, radio, so on. 

 

Edit: how could I have forgotten the most important.... PDA!!!!! 

[goodtofufriday]

43 minutes ago, fpo said:

Why not retro hardware instead of just computers? I.e. Phones, consoles, tv, radio, so on. 

 

Edit: how could I have forgotten the most important.... PDA!!!!! 

Hey thats cool too. 

I thino retro consoles are back in style enough that those post wouldnt get burried, but the rest yeah totally. 

 

An answer from the mods would be nice one way or another. Weve alrrady got 39 votes yes, 7 votes no as of the 25th of april. 

[LogicalDrm]

2 hours ago, fpo said:

Why not retro hardware instead of just computers? I.e. Phones, consoles, tv, radio, so on. 

 

Edit: how could I have forgotten the most important.... PDA!!!!! 

With those whole thing would fit even better under Hobby electronics.

[Doramius]

13 hours ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

With those whole thing would fit even better under Hobby electronics.

If we're getting that vague, it might as well be a different forum.  Don't forget, this is a computer forum.  Adding a lot of retro electronics deviates from the original intention of the community.

[ProjectBox153]

My most recent purchase was a motherboard from a Dell OptiPlex 780 MT. It is coming with a Core 2 Duo E8500 which is a chip I've never played with. It will be the highest clocked CPU in my house. and will be used for server duties to replace my aging OptiPlex 330. 

[goodtofufriday]

1 hour ago, Jamiec1130 said:

My most recent purchase was a motherboard from a Dell OptiPlex 780 MT. It is coming with a Core 2 Duo E8500 which is a chip I've never played with. It will be the highest clocked CPU in my house. and will be used for server duties to replace my aging OptiPlex 330. 

Mine is a flash disk module. It's like a low teir ide ssd. 

Turns out that win98 cant properly mark files for deletion on these kind of drives. So the drive just gets more full, and formating it with fdisk leaves a bunch of corrupted data the scandisk can see, and thus refuses to reinstall 98 on it. Have to write ones to the drive on win10 to get it going. 

[ProjectBox153]

50 minutes ago, goodtofufriday said:

Mine is a flash disk module. It's like a low teir ide ssd. 

Turns out that win98 cant properly mark files for deletion on these kind of drives. So the drive just gets more full, and formating it with fdisk leaves a bunch of corrupted data the scandisk can see, and thus refuses to reinstall 98 on it. Have to write ones to the drive on win10 to get it going. 

Ha, didn't mean to post my previous post here! But I do think those IDE SSDs are neat. I should look into getting one for my Pentium 4.

[LogicalDrm]

4 hours ago, Doramius said:

If we're getting that vague, it might as well be a different forum.  Don't forget, this is a computer forum.  Adding a lot of retro electronics deviates from the original intention of the community.

No... This is intended to be tech forum. Hobby electronics is still just perfect for this subject. There isn't that much discussion, so no fear of anything getting buried (OP's original main point).

[straight_stewie]

On 4/20/2017 at 2:15 PM, DeadEyePsycho said:

This has been suggested before and declined. There just isn't enough interest. I see maybe one topic a month about retro computers.

On 4/20/2017 at 2:17 PM, goodtofufriday said:

IMO its because making such a post would just get lost among all the others. Theres plenty of stuff id love to ask/post but dont do it here because it likely wouldnt get answered before it disappears from page 1.

I hate to be that guy that posts about the first two replies in the thread, but it looks like I'm going to be that guy, lol. Here's what I see happening, and its a little different than both of these things:

The age groups on the forum are skewed towards mid 20's aged people. I think that Linus did a video recently where he mentioned this. In the video he also said something like "Our demographics skew older today than they ever have". Let's see if I can dig it up (The video is linked to start at the portion of the video that I am talking about).
 

If we pay close attention to the graphs we can see that by far the largest viewership is mid 25-34 when it used to be the 18-24 crowd. Why would this happen? Is it possible that the 18-24 crowd that used to make up most of LTTs viewership is now aged 25 to 34? I think that's the most likely case. 

But what does this mean in the context of a retro forum. Well, I think that it would mean that it would be the same as Hobby Electronics, but with a twist: The views to posts ratio would be way skewed towards views (relative to other, similar sections of the forum). In shorter words, many people want to see posts about retro computing, but not many people on the forum know much about retro computing. This would put the questions to valid answers ratio way off of what it should be as well. 

I think it's a good idea, I just don't think that, outside of the very few of us who have and would continue to do, research into that area almost solely for curiosity sake or for the sake of answering forum questions, that there would be a very large knowledge base available. Let me reiterate: I think that very many people want such a subforum, but that very few people have the knowledge base required to keep it interesting.

[goodtofufriday]

3 hours ago, Jamiec1130 said:

Ha, didn't mean to post my previous post here! But I do think those IDE SSDs are neat. I should look into getting one for my Pentium 4.

Highly recommend actual ide ssds. The difference in just general use is amazing. With ram maxed out it feels as zippy as a new computer. 

[Doramius]

11 hours ago, goodtofufriday said:

Highly recommend actual ide ssds. The difference in just general use is amazing. With ram maxed out it feels as zippy as a new computer. 

There are adapters that convert SATA to IDE.  The problem is the support for SSDs by the mainboard.  However, there are various websites that say which SSDs seem to be recognized the best with specific adapters.  It is quite possible for SSDs to be used with older systems.  Just need to do your homework for compatibility.

[agent_x007]

Pendrive/microSD memory reader performance level is quite far from actual SSD.
PCI SATA cards should all recognise AHCI based SSD's (why woudn't they ?).
Trim/Garbage collection is done by SSDs internal controller.
Of course, MicroSD readers or Pendrives don't know how to do it.

I use NVMe on my LGA 775 system : LINK, because Overkill is Underrated
It can work on cheap boards as well : LINK.
The key thing is the right software

[colonel_mortis]

We aren't currently looking to add any new subforums, but as this has been requested a few times, next time we are adjusting the forums, we will assess (meaning that there will be an internal discussion that will decide) whether to add it or not. That doesn't mean that it will be added, just that we have heard your feedback.