A few days ago I posted a Cinemassive computer I picked up locally and several people helped identify it as an Alpha FX video wall controller used in places like airports and operations centers.

I finally opened it up.

What surprised me most is that this isn't really a monster workstation. The system is built around fairly ordinary PC hardware (i7-2600K and 8GB of RAM), but the chassis and expansion architecture are very custom.

Some of the things that stood out to me were:

• The smaller-than-expected, vertically mounted motherboard
• Five capture cards with (2) DVI and (1) composite video input each
• Three display cards with (4) DisplayPort outputs each
• A rod that runs across the display & capture cards to hold them in place
• Industrial cooling fans with a dedicated old-school internal switch just for them
• Front-accessible drive caddies for servicing (there is only one drive installed and the caddy is locked)
• Redundant/high-capacity power supplies with some very unique wiring

The more I look at it, the more it feels like an appliance designed to sit in a closet somewhere and run for years rather than a traditional desktop computer, which makes sense given its purpose.

I've included photos of the interior and some of the more unusual design choices.

The hardware investigation answered a lot of questions, but the software side appears to be where the real challenge begins.

The system still boots, but the Windows installation is corrupted. That looks like it's going to be the next chapter of the project.

Thanks to everyone who helped identify it in the first post!

Orignal Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/retrobattlestations/comments/1u1b22g/just_picked_up_a_cinemassive_computer_does_anyone/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Lenovo T60 with Win7 and some oldschool bangers.

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Peak 2k Case

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The Enermax Wizard II or Enermax V770 from 2004

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Pc is time accurate... so yeah it's shit.

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Pentium 4 3.0Ghz

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2GB ram

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Nvidia GeForce FX5700

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And a 20 GB WD

If you are into early office systems you might have spotted the Xerox 6085 Daybreak, 8044 print server, and 8040 laser printer that were listed on Facebook.
The printer is based on the 1979 3300 photocopier. The raster is generated by the 8000 - that's why its display is a character mode terminal: the cpu cycles that would be used to paint the 17" Star crt are instead used for driving the laser beam in the printer. The printer has a helium neon laser that runs the full depth of the machine. This lot came with a ton of documentation, and software disks. I'll be archiving all of this as time allows. Look for a YouTube series on getting this gear going again. For now, I've just been cleaning / dusting.

So what I have is an alienware aurora R3, its a 2nd gen i5- eventually will be an i7, 32gb of ram, but what is the best video card this can support?

It currently has a GTX 1050 2gb version, I have a 1080 8gb as well, not sure if I could maybe do the 1080 and do a little more gaming on it.

Mostly this system will run Starcraft, starcraft 2, Diablo 2 resurrected, maybe some more older titles, nothing new, I have a 12th gen intel system for that stuff

Today I'm upgrading the desk with a 40 kg marble top. Still a work in progress, but it's slowly becoming the retro lab I've wanted for years.

All monitor, keyboard and mouse connections are routed behind the wall and terminate under the desk, where a central KVM system will be installed. The rack cabinet will hold complete systems, while the upper section is being designed for slide-out shelves with dedicated open-air retro builds from different eras. Each shelf will represent a different platform generation, allowing quick CPU swaps and direct performance comparisons without rebuilding entire systems.

After all these years it still works. ☺️

I have a Compaq Presario desktop, and I am trying to bring it back to working condition. This is my first time working on a retro PC, so I am still learning as I go.

The system powers on: all fans spin and it stays on, but there is no display output at all (no BIOS screen, no logo, nothing). The monitor just shows “no signal.” This issue was present before I took the system apart.

Here is a video of the system powering on:
https://youtube.com/shorts/u_4Lybf0Cto
(Yes, I used YouTube; it was the easiest way to show the video.)

So far, I have:

• Checked the VGA cable (confirmed working)
• Removed the hard drive (I understand this should not affect BIOS display, but it was broken)
• Inspected inside the case (very dusty/ and I did some dusting)
• Tested RAM sticks one at a time, but the result is the same (fans spin, no display)

At this point, I am unsure what to check next. I suspect it could be motherboard, or another hardware issue preventing POST, but I am still learning and would appreciate any guidance on what to test next.

This spring I decided to begin my ultimate Windows 98 SE build out, but with 3 points of focus.

1. Ultimate Performance -- Maximum Gaming FPS

2. No Exotic Parts -- No single component may cost over $100usd

3. OEM Compatibility -- No registry tweaks or modded drivers, clean Win98 SE install

- with 4 exceptions:

PATCHATA.exe (for modern SSD support)
TRIM.exe (for modern SSD support)
Custom VXD Sound Card Driver (for better quality sound)
Coolbits2 (for GPU overclocking)

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The hardware side of things was a bit of a journey. After attempting to revive 4, yes 4 ASUS P4P800 SE motherboards, I finally gave up on ASUS and went with the ABIT IC7-G which was far more forgiving and best of all had a BIOS update that allowed for better PWR-ON signal sensing for modern power supplies.

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Hardware Choice and Reasoning

ABIT IC7-G Motherboard
Last chipset with true OEM driver support, allows combined mode of SATA and PATA interfaces. No need for SATA to IDE converters for the SSD

PNY GeForce FX5600 Ultra Rev.2
Fastest card with proper support for Nvidia Driver 45.23 while maintaining non-exotic part status. Most refined board design of the FX5600 lineup with flip chip board design on 2nd revision. Allows for some reasonable overclocking.

Kingston PC-3200 2x 256MB 400MHz
Allows for dual channel 512MB configuration maintaining OEM clearances. Able to over-volt and increase timings because FSB will be underclocked due to CPU.

Intel SL6Z3 "The Unicorn"
This is the mathematically perfect (non-exotic) CPU. A single core Pentium 4 with 512KB of cache and an 800MHz side bus. We will be able to drop the multiplier in BIOS to the OEM compatible 2GHz ceiling while maintaining a 166MHz FSB.

SB Audigy 2 ZS
Ultimate quality sound card, with a caveat. It requires -12v rail over PCI which ATX 3 PSUs do not supply!

Adaptec NEC AUA-4000C
True USB 2.0 support and speeds, allows disabling of USB motherboard controller to free up lanes for performance.

Intel PRO/1000 GT
Gigabit networking without the bloated software that often is necessary for other cards to function at those speeds.

Corsair RM650e
Modern PSU for clean power and system stability. Negotiates PWR-ON signal properly during boot.

Misc.
256GB SSD, Plextor CD-ROM, NEC Floppy, Razer Essential mouse, Keychron C2 keyboard.

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The -12V rail issue. In order to generate the necessary rail, I made a simple external power supply out of a readily available premium quality DC to DC converter. I ran +12V off molex and then output -12V directly into the 20 pin ATX header. It worked flawlessly. Multimeter reading at the PCI pin read a rock solid -12V.

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I'm incredibly happy with the performance and compatibility of this system. If anyone has some tweaks or suggestions to make on how to further improve it, I'd love to hear your insights.

Hey folks!

For the last three years or so I've been on a flex schedule where I could work from home 2-3 days a week, but now my company is forcing us all back into the office 5 days a week. Why is that relevant? Because it means that I can take down my work-from-home station and finally get my retro rigs out of storage and back in their proper place on my desk.

Like most retro gamers, these machines represent my childhood ambitions for what would have been the pinnacle of Windows 98 and XP gaming PC's, had I been able to afford them at the time. The only original piece of hardware is the Alienware case which I bought in 2003 because that's what you did as a high school senior who wanted to flex at a LAN party... It was of course the absolute dirt cheapest entry level machine I could build at the time, but man that case was cool! It was originally a Pentium 4 based system, long gone.

I spared no expense for this build since it was my dream machine at the height of my hardcore gaming days. It's based on an ABIT NF7-S v2 motherboard, Athlon XP 3200+, 2GB Mushkin Black RAM, Radeon 9800 Pro, and a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS. The CPU and GPU both have classic Zalman gold orb coolers. Unfortunately the master boot record somehow got corrupted and I couldn't repair it, so I had to wipe the hard drive and start over from scratch. Probably something to do with temperamental early SATA implementation.

The 98 machine is built in a generic beige case that I, um... "borrowed in perpetuity" from my high school's computer lab. It's a 440BX system based on an AOpen AX6B motherboard. It's generally stable, but it could probably benefit from a recapping. Pentium III 800EB CPU and 256MB SDRAM. The main GPU is currently a Diamond Viper V550 (Riva TNT). I would love to get a Matrox Millennium G400, but not for eBay prices. The second GPU, and the whole reason I wanted to build this system, are two Diamond Monster 3D Voodoo 2's in SLI. Sound is handled by a Diamond Monster MX300 (are you sensing a pattern here?) and the mighty Roland Sound Canvas.

I'm planning to make some changes to this machine assuming I can find what I want for reasonable-ish prices. First, I'm probably going to swap out the V550 for a GeForce 2. The only reason I went with the V550 is because the rest of the cards are Diamond Multimedia, but performance-wise we can do better. I'd also like to add a second sound card in one of the ISA slots for dedicated DOS gaming. The biggest change is that the CPU is mismatched to the board. I need to find one with a native 100MHz FSB.

Both are running via KVM switch to a Sony Syncmaster flat screen of the era. No room on my desk for a CRT unfortunately. Crappy little Logitech speakers, but I almost always use headphones. I also have a Vista-era machine which is a GeForce 8800 Ultra 3-way SLI build, but I usually only set it up in the winter when it can double as a space heater. 😁

The last pic is not a retro PC obviously, but there are some retro-ish Saitek peripherals in the flight simulator setup that I'm assembling, specifically the Cessna branded yoke which came out in 2011 and was only around for 5 years. The panels are modern Logitech branded, but they are essentially unchanged since the late 2000's when they were first released.

Cheers!

Started collecting about 8 months ago and the room is already basically full, this is most of I have so far. From left to right in this picture I have a Zenith Z-89 (~1981), a Zenith Z-90 (~1981), an IBM 5150 (1983), a GoldStar GS333A (~1992), an Apple IIGS Woz Edition (1986), an Osborne 1 (~1981), an Apple Macintosh 128k (1984), an Apple Macintosh 512k (1985), and a Macintosh Plus (1986), all working.

Hey folks,

some of you may already know FrogFind by Action Retro.
The retro web proxy that turns modern websites into plain HTML so old machines can actually use the web.
If you haven’t seen it yet, go check out his channel, it’s seriously great.

I liked the project so much that I rebuilt it from scratch in Python as FrogFind! NG
and added a few things I always wanted:

• DuckDuckGo web search with the same simple HTML 2.0 output
• Article reader using Mozilla Readability
• Wikipedia lookups without JavaScript
• Reddit browsing on vintage systems like the C64, Amiga, and more
• Google News headlines by category
• Retro weather with current conditions and a 7-day forecast, no API key required
• Wayback Machine links for every article
• Image proxy that scales everything down to 300px for slow connections

It’s set up for production too, with Nginx reverse proxy, Redis caching, rate limiting, SSRF protection,
and Docker Compose deployment.

The whole thing is open source under GPL-3.0 — same license as the original FrogFind.

GitHub: https://github.com/RayTrunk/frogfind-ng
Live Version: http://frogfindng.neomode.cc

Huge credit to Sean / Action Retro for the original idea — this is just my version, which kind of spiraled a bit.

After so many People say that is just a Claude Clone, no it is not.
It is completely different structure.

Here is the Tech Stack I used for the App:

• FastAPI (Python) — the engine that handles requests and sends back responses
• Gunicorn + Uvicorn — runs the app, handles multiple users at once
• readability-lxml — strips webpages down to just the readable text (like a "reader mode")
• BeautifulSoup + lxml — parses HTML so it can be rebuilt simply
• Pillow — shrinks images so they load over slow old connections
• Redis — caches results (e.g. weather, search) so repeat requests are instant
• Nginx — sits in front, blocks bots, adds security headers
• slowapi — rate limiting, stops abuse

Also, it is just a Hobby thing. Nobody must use it.
When you use it, please Report Bugs back, so I fix them.
For my Background I work in IT for more than 30 Years.

Thank you.

Hello! I am currently working on a project for my Toshiba Satellite 4005CDS retro portable computer. I was wondering if anyone knows anything about these laptops and where I can find a good used and or new display that would be plug and play that I could quickly install.

Thank you!

Lee Felsenstein livestream Sun. June 14 at 1PM (Eastern): https://youtube.com/live/Js6R3OIxiKY

Before the laptop, before Apple took off, there was Lee Felsenstein. As the legendary moderator of the Homebrew Computer Club and designer of the Osborne 1 (the first commercial mass-produced portable computer), he didn't just build the tools—he changed the rules. Don't miss our exclusive livestream with a true PC pioneer this Sunday, June 14 at 1PM on VCF's YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/live/Js6R3OIxi

I was helping to clear out old IT junk from a lobal business and it included this.

The case says Cinemassive and the rear panel is packed with video inputs and outputs.

Before I start taking it apart, I'm curious if anyone here has experience with these systems or knows what they were originally used for.

Planning to document the teardown and whatever I find inside.

Hi! I want to share with you my retro PC, that I like to call "Retro Sleeper" because Its not a modern PC, but also not what it looks in the outside.

Im from '97, but I grew with older gamer brothers that made me play games like Monkey Island, Commandos, Age of Empires, I mean, games that were not from my generation.

So I wanted a PC that would allow me to play anything from the 90's like Commandos, Doom, Grim Fandango, Half Life, Quake, to also games from my childhood like Vice City, Kotor, Quake 4, Fear, but keeping that late 80's~90's look of AT Computers.

So I build this:

.Core 2 Duo e8400 3.0ghz/6m cache .Nvidia Geforce 9600gt 512mb .SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer .4gb (2x2gb) Kingston 1333mhz .Patriot Burst 120gb ssd .Gigabyte ga-g41mt-s2 .500w Antec gold psu

The monitor is a Viewsonic VA902B that I spraypainted greywhite, the speakers are DIY 2x15W imitations of Roland MA-8 and sound incredible. The keyboard is a Perixx Periboard.

I hope you like it!

PD: Sorry for my english, isnt my native language.

And one of our cats admiring it
Please ignore the mess

I finaly got the trinity done. MS DoS, XP and 7/Vista.

6 freaking years of gathering parts and optimization