Re: Re: Looking for screenshots/a
By: poindexter FORTRAN to Digital Man on Sat Feb 28 2026 08:28 am

Subject: Re: Looking for screenshots/a
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Digital Man wrote to Nightfox <=-

Synchronet supported Digiboards (Steve Deppe added the support for their int14h driver), but I don't think a lot of (Synchronet) sysops used them. Usually, it wasn't too hard to get 3 or 4 IRQs available for COM ports

Says the guy who wrote BBS software! As a meer caller, pre
plug-and-play, I remember trying to get a modem, a serial mouse, an
ethernet card and a parallel printer all working at once. I finally had
to tape a note with the IRQ and port settings to the inside of the
case and start all over when I was given an Apple Laserwriter (which
only had a serial port)

I know what you're saying. I was referring more to a dedicate BBS computer that (at the time) wouldn't need anything but the essential peripherals and thus had more IRQs available. Using a 16-bit I/O card gave you (some) more IRQ options as well.
--
digital man (rob)

This Is Spinal Tap quote #7:
Nigel Tufnel: That's just nitpicking, isn't it?
Norco, CA WX: 74.2øF, 35.0% humidity, 4 mph NW wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs
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Re: Re: Looking for screenshots/a
By: poindexter FORTRAN to DaiTengu on Sat Feb 28 2026 08:28 am

I have 64GB of DDR4 RAM in my desktop box, think I'm sticking with it
(10th gen i7) for a while. I've thought about swapping it with my homelab
server (7th gen i5) but my nicer video card won't fit in its SFF case.

You can buy a PCIe extension ribbon cable and mount your GPU outside of your SFF case. I used one and it worked well.

LW
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þ Synchronet þ Fireside BBS, Home of Lone Wolf Software, AI-WX

Re: Re: Looking for screenshots/a
By: Lonewolf to poindexter FORTRAN on Sat Feb 28 2026 09:11 pm

You can buy a PCIe extension ribbon cable and mount your GPU outside of your SFF case. I used one and it worked well.

You'd also need to get power to the GPU, requiring some extension cables for the power connectors. It would be interseting to set up a GPU externally that way.

I seem to recall seeing some GPUs now that use USB 3.x for a high-speed connection, which would be easier to connect to a PC. And I'm not sure, but I imagine that for power, those probably include a power supply so that you can plug them into a wall power outlet.

Nightfox

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Re: Re: Looking for screenshots/a
By: Nightfox to Lonewolf on Sun Mar 01 2026 12:37 pm

By: Lonewolf to poindexter FORTRAN on Sat Feb 28 2026 09:11 pm

You can buy a PCIe extension ribbon cable and mount your GPU outside of your SFF case. I used one and it worked well.

You'd also need to get power to the GPU, requiring some extension cables for the power connectors. It would be interseting to set up a GPU externally that way.

I seem to recall seeing some GPUs now that use USB 3.x for a high-speed connection, which would be easier to connect to a PC. And I'm not sure, but I imagine that for power, those probably include a power supply so that you can plug them into a wall power outlet.

Nightfox

Yes, I should have mentioned that fact too. I used an external power supply for mine along with a neat little relay that you plugged the external power supply's motherboard connector into and then plugged any power cable from the SFF PC into the relay also. So when you turned on the PC, it also turned on the external power supply and off as well. It was a neat setup.

But then I came across a Dell Workstation 5820 on eBay that has an i9-10900X 3.70 Ghz Zeon 10 core CPU and 4 PCIe slots with two 8 pin PCIe power connectors. The 950 watt PSU has more than enough juice and the case has plenty of room for my two RTX 3060's with 12GB vram each. For $350, I thought it was a great deal. The seller still looks like they have plenty of these units left. I may buy another one.

Lonewolf
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þ Synchronet þ Fireside BBS, Home of Lone Wolf Software, AI-WX

Nightfox wrote to Lonewolf <=-

Re: Re: Looking for screenshots/a
By: Lonewolf to poindexter FORTRAN on Sat Feb 28 2026 09:11 pm

You can buy a PCIe extension ribbon cable and mount your GPU outside of your SFF case. I used one and it worked well.

You'd also need to get power to the GPU, requiring some extension
cables for the power connectors. It would be interseting to set up a
GPU externally that way.

I seem to recall seeing some GPUs now that use USB 3.x for a high-speed connection, which would be easier to connect to a PC. And I'm not
sure, but I imagine that for power, those probably include a power
supply so that you can plug them into a wall power outlet.

Yeah, the reality is that there's only one game that I really want the
my higher-end card for is War Thunder, and I've stopped playing as much
while I've been busy with other things. My SFF system has a GT 1030
that's better than the built-in video that should suffice for most (and
I played WT on an i7-4790 with it and got 35-40 fps on custom settings)

I get around 140 fps on the high setting now.

I have a lot of stuff, and want to avoid buying any more in 2026 by
making the most of what I have.



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Lonewolf wrote to Nightfox <=-

But then I came across a Dell Workstation 5820 on eBay that has an i9-10900X 3.70 Ghz Zeon 10 core CPU and 4 PCIe slots with two 8 pin
PCIe power connectors.

I love Dell workstations - they're built like tanks and most of the
disassembly is screwless. I supported a couple of generations of them
at work and had a T3400 that ran for 10 years or so...




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Re: Re: Looking for screenshots/a
By: poindexter FORTRAN to Lonewolf on Mon Mar 02 2026 10:35 am

I love Dell workstations - they're built like tanks and most of the disassembly is screwless. I supported a couple of generations of them at work and had a T3400 that ran for 10 years or so...

I like them too. A few years ago, I decided to replace my BBS PC with something newer & faster, and rather than build my own like I normally would, I bought a used Dell workstation on eBay. I really like that it's screwless and easy to get into and upgrade - I've upgraded it a few times now (more storage, RAM, & dedicated video card to help with transcoding with my Plex media server), and it has been very easy to upgrade.

Nightfox

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Re: Re: Looking for screenshots/a
By: poindexter FORTRAN to Lonewolf on Mon Mar 02 2026 10:35 am

I love Dell workstations - they're built like tanks and most of the disassembly is screwless. I supported a couple of generations of them at work and had a T3400 that ran for 10 years or so...

I still have and use a Dell Optiplex 7010 full desktop, no screws to open, no screws to replace peripheral either.
I also have a Dell Optiplex 790 in a thin case, same thing, I run my plex server on this one, both have the i5 and 16GB RAM.
I love the old Dell's Bought these Dells from work for $50 each years ago, also bought a Dell laptop for $50 at the same time from work.

Denn

...It said "insert disk #3", but only two will fit...

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Re: Re: Looking for screenshots/a
By: poindexter FORTRAN to Lonewolf on Mon Mar 02 2026 10:35 am

Lonewolf wrote to Nightfox <=-

But then I came across a Dell Workstation 5820 on eBay that has an i9-10900X 3.70 Ghz Zeon 10 core CPU and 4 PCIe slots with two 8 pin PCIe power connectors.

I love Dell workstations - they're built like tanks and most of the
disassembly is screwless. I supported a couple of generations of them
at work and had a T3400 that ran for 10 years or so...

This is my first true Dell workstation, but I gotta say, it is very impressive. It has space for multiple NVMe drives as well as 8 dimm sockets, very expandable. Money well spent for this bargain from eBay.

LW
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þ Synchronet þ Fireside BBS, Home of Lone Wolf Software, AI-WX

Re: Re: Looking for screenshots/a
By: poindexter FORTRAN to Nightfox on Mon Mar 02 2026 10:35 am

I have a lot of stuff, and want to avoid buying any more in 2026 by
making the most of what I have.

I can agree with the point of not wanting to put more e-waste in our lives.
I don't really PC Game aside form FFXIV, so im making do with my amd 5700 ryzen and a 9060 xt 16gb box for the time being.

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