As I imitate James Hetfield of Metallica... ATi Good. ATi GOOD! (instead of
beer).
All of my ATi cards (save one RageXL based Xpert98 and one Mach64 original
PCI) are still working to this day. Well, ok, sorta - the Radeon VE still
doesn't have real support for direct draw and has to compensate by updated
drivers and firmware updates to get around it, but it works on my system
and I use it for all my games. I'd say since you have all the same EPROMs
with firmware, you're a lucky bastard, it isn't easy to get the older ones
like that. =)
Can't say anything good about the Compaq, I've repaired too many and worked
with too many to go delving into my personal opinion...
-John
At 07:49 PM 7/18/02, you wrote:
Many did not think it was a great hamfest this year,
but if a whole
carload of stuff hauled home is any indication then I say it wasn't bad.
One good item was a Compaq Portable III, good clean condition, fully
working, and had the internal modem installed. $5
This year I stuck around a little longer which means good deals on
stuff they don't want to pack back up. One dealer had two eight foot
tables full of customer returns and other 'as is'. I saw one item
in particular and made an offer. He counter offered with a price for
the entire contents of both tables for less than $10. I said what the
heck. So far everything I have tested seems to work fine. I suspect
a lot of customers try to install it themselves and just don't get it
right and return it.
Then there is the stuff that is pitched as it all winds down. A friend
and I were standing next to a trash barrel when someone brought over some
stuff. We grabbed some items. Among that was two full tower PC cases,
and a old 486DX2/66 desktop. Turns out the 486 is a good machine for
testing various components, so it has found a home on my test bench.
Also a couple ATI video cards that are the same card as in the machine I
am writing this on, the same right down to the firmware numbers on the
EPROMS. It's nice to have some spares.
Mike
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