Found this in the trash.

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sabudum@reddit

Original PSU even! That's quite a find.

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Puzzleheaded_Ad9696@reddit

this was my first pentium i believe , I had actually forgot i had a horizontal desktop in the 90s , after this we had a toshiba tower that was so cool and modern -

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siliconsandwich@reddit

I love the power-up sound of those old Caviar drives, it’s what all computers should sound like when you switch them on!

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Global_Network3902@reddit

I slightly prefer the quantum fireballs, tick tick tick tick tick tick tcktcktcktcktcktcktck

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InsaneGuyReggie@reddit

Old Seagates like the ST3144A for me. They sound almost musical

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MWink64@reddit

Having just tested a couple, I can only conclude that you must be deaf. The seeks noises are fine, but dear god do those motors screech.

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InsaneGuyReggie@reddit

Old Seagates have a drone like a far off propeller plane.

I have a WD that squeaks and groans with bad bearings, but it still works well

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gcc-O2@reddit

Don't you also find that because of bearing wear or whatever, they sound worse now than in period correct times with regard to the angle grinder part of the sound?

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Inspiron606002@reddit

I'm very fond of the Seagate ST38421A. Never heard another drive that sounds like that.

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InsaneGuyReggie@reddit

I have the family’s first computer (an NEC 286) that has an ST3144A installed in 8/1992.

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FlyByPC@reddit

ST3144A

https://theretroweb.com/harddrives/68

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MWink64@reddit

I just call it "head-slap." Or did you have one of the unicorn Fireballs that actually worked? The Fireball ST was my arch nemesis.

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FlyByPC@reddit

Some of them sound like a roulette wheel.

'Round and 'round she goes. Whether she'll boot, nobody knows! Quantum Bigfoot, too.

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Aqua_Silvernight@reddit (OP)

It effectivly did a good sound when i turned it on

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That's a nice find! Ooh, a 2.1GB HDD! Western Digital through my experience was the top of the affordable hard drives in both quality and cost. In the 7+ years I worked for CompUSA from 1999-2006 WD HDDs were the least amount of both crashed or returned drives. Plus, the HP Pavilion system you found appears to be in really nice shape!

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InsaneGuyReggie@reddit

WD, Seagate and Quantum are the top 3 in terms of reliability for me

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FlyByPC@reddit

Back in that day, my top three would have been WD, Hitachi, and then maybe Seagate.

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InsaneGuyReggie@reddit

I’ve had two of the infamous DeathStars fail on me. Shame, because IBM hardware was usually really stout

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GreggAlan@reddit

I had one 15 gig Deathstar fail totally and one that would only crap out if it got a tad warm. As long as it had a fan always blowing at it, it was fine.

Without a fan it would pass 100% every test, but boot Windows 9x off it and it would just about make it to the desktop and cause a crash. Put a fan on it and it'd be rock solid all day long. Dunno how I could do a 100% zero fill and verify and full random write and read tests with no fan, no problems, but trying to install or boot windows with no fan = ptttht.

I gave it away with the info about the fan, don't rely on it to store anything you don't want to lose.

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InsaneGuyReggie@reddit

It was 2.5 for me.

The factory HDD in a Dell Celeron (that I still have) was a Hitachi branded 20GB DeathStar die a little over 3 years in.

I self hosted a blog when it was popular to do so and the 10GB unit in the IBM machine I was using quit while I was on vacation. Worked fine when I left and thdn the site was down. It was dojng the click of death on my return. It was sitting there clicking for at least 5 days. Fortunately my web root was on a different drive.

The factory 2.5” 20GB unit in a Dell laptop had a partial failure, but it worked well enough until I replaced it. When it found a bad sector it kept trying to seek and sounded like a rap song

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ComfortableHot6309@reddit

Hmmm seagate. My 500MB drive was massive in my Amiga. Could nit fill her up

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rayhaque@reddit

Western Digital used to RMA drives up to five years for resellers which was crazy. You would send back a bad 800 meg drive and get back a 1.5Gb because it was the lowest they had in stock.

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Tractorface123@reddit

Do image the hard disk if it works, could be some hard to find old internet stuff on there!

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MWink64@reddit

I'd add, if possible, image it immediately. I've been testing old drives recently and found quite a few will initially work fine, then rapidly degrade. Writing to them seems to further accelerate the process. This discovery has been very disheartening. Thus far, none of my silver Caviars (like in the OP, though slightly older) have survived testing.

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gcc-O2@reddit

Wonder if aged components aren't as accurate at positioning the head or controlling the strength of the magnetic field or whatever, making it an accidental SMR drive when it's this old? explaining why writing hurts it worse

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Aqua_Silvernight@reddit (OP)

I'm not really good in all that. But my girlfriend is in IT, next time i see her she will take it and do everything to clean it and restore it

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sneesnoosnake@reddit

here are the specifications for this HP Pavilion 3230: • Processor (CPU): Intel Pentium with MMX Technology running at 233 MHz • Memory (RAM): 32 MB SDRAM • Storage (HDD): 2.1 GB Western Digital Caviar 12100 (IDE) • Optical Drive: 16x CD-ROM • Graphics: 2 MB Video Memory • Audio: 16-bit stereo audio • Operating System: Designed for Microsoft Windows 95

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EsoTechTrix@reddit

You may want to put it back. 🤣

Fun story. I worked for a big box electronics store in the 90's. One day HP sent out two reps to the store They asked to see all of a specific model of computer. I asked if they wanted to go in back, but they said they were fine as they proceeded to cut open every box, crack open the computer, and tape down a component inside. Then close the machine back up and put some official looking tape on the now clearly opened box.

They did this right in the middle of the aisle in the department. Clearly they were contractors. Spoke to the quality of the units.

HP laser printer (well, the older ones) sure, my first choice any time. HP computers? (Especially before they bought Compaq) yeah, no.

I also get a kick out of all the Packard Bell fans out there these days. 🤣

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GreggAlan@reddit

I did OEM warranty service on Packard Bell, and all the other big brands, out of a shop I worked at in the late 90's. We called them Packaged Hell or Puckered Smell. No idea how they could be sold so cheap when they all used proprietary mainboards and bus risers.

One of PB's weirdest was the tower with a wide base that had the mainboard, with a bus riser up from its middle. Then there was the tower with the board on one side, and a bus riser that had the cards hanging upside down in a row across the center.

One of the worst things I ever encountered with Packard Bell was their knockoff of Microsoft Bob. It had a "Kiddo Mode" that completely locked it down. If you forgot the password you were done. A customer accidentally switched their new PB to Kiddo Mode and didn't know what they'd entered for the password. I was on the phone with PB support for over an hour trying every backdoor they could think of but in the end the only fix was to wipe it from the restore disc, then delete their stupid easy interface. Fortunately they hadn't yet put anything on it they wanted to save.

The only good contribution to come from Packard Bell was the concept of different colors for the ports and connectors, but the industry standard didn't exactly copy PB's color choices. Oh, they also had some pretty good monitor mounted speakers, but HP had some that were better.

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EsoTechTrix@reddit

Remember the damn accent color plates? They were a lesson in consumer diligence in buying. "Oh yeah? What if I make it blue?" People loved it.

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Impossible-Hunt9117@reddit

Wow, that story is a little scary.

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EsoTechTrix@reddit

That one is not as fun as when a wall of HP inkjets tried to kill me.

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Der_Unbequeme@reddit

Oh, with a ATI Rage 256MB good for DOS and Windows95 Games.

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3lectronic_Dream5@reddit

256 MB? I don't think so lol 😂

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iamwayycoolerthanyou@reddit

S3 Trio

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3lectronic_Dream5@reddit

This isn’t an S3 — you can clearly see the ATI video chipset on the motherboard. It’s probably an ATI Rage, likely with at most 32 MB of Vram, certainly not 256.

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Aqua_Silvernight@reddit (OP)

I can take some new pics, just point me out where exactly (i don't really know what you speak about)

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GreggAlan@reddit

The four rectangular chips, two in the brown sockets, are the video RAM.

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iamwayycoolerthanyou@reddit

Gotcha, I recall some (perhaps earlier) models of those had either S3 Virge or S3 Trio. Which was an interesting experience because they did have some kind of rudimentary acceleration which I accidentally triggered one time on Descent or Descent II. I believe I was in DOS mode.

I could never verify what happened there. Or how it happened. But all the textures were blurred. It looked a bit N64-ish, in hindsight.

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MWink64@reddit

The 3D acceleration on the S3 ViRGE was so awful that you often got better results with software rendering.

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GreggAlan@reddit

IIRC some of those cards shipped with Virtua Racing and got called 3D Decelerators when reviewers got better performance in the game with CPU/software rendering.

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guigr@reddit

An ATI Rage with 32MB would be high end in 1999. Not mid range in 1996

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TkachukMitts@reddit

This is an ATI Mach64 with 1 or 2Mb. Not a 3D card, but good for 2D games for sure.

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Der_Unbequeme@reddit

ok,

sorry 512 or 1MB, can't see the description of the memory chips

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Aqua_Silvernight@reddit (OP)

I can take some pics if you want

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The_Original_Miser@reddit

Interesting! Are Pavilion desktops (form factor) rare?

Normally all I see is mini towers....

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GreggAlan@reddit

Desktops and pizzaboxes like this got uncommon in the 90's.

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GreggAlan@reddit

Nice that the RAM for the onboard video is upgraded. Those chips in the brown PLCC sockets can be hard to find.

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Accomplished_Can1651@reddit

Well, THAT brought back memories of the late 90s.

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RichB93@reddit

Pentium 200 MMX and 32MB RAM if stock, onboard ATi graphics and Crystal audio. Looks like a later 430TX chipset too. Solid little socket 7 machine, basically good for games up to around '98/'99.Only one PCI slot, but a 3dfx Voodoo would round this machine out nicely. I'd personally also add an Ethernet card, though you'd be limited to a 10mbps ISA affair; still would make an awesome retro rig.

There's an Pavilion 3265 recovery CD on the Internet Archive which is possibly close enough a model to this to work too - https://archive.org/details/hp-pavilion-3265-recovery-cd

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Inspiron606002@reddit

HP Recovery discs are extremely proprietary. It was an absolute nightmare trying to restore a Pavilion last year only to find the disc has to be for the exact system it was meant for.

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magnificentfoxes@reddit

I honestly cannot wait until people figure out how to do the voodoo series in FPGA, because I'd love to see an affordable older performance card suddenly be available to the masses.

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ksp1278@reddit

Nah, 1997 max. I personally wouldn't use it beyond 1996 games. Pentium II and Pentium III are so much better for games beyond 1996. Pentium MMX is great for DOS and early Glide games.

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MoebiusX7@reddit

Pentium MMX (and even Pentium Classic) are just fine for games beyond 1996 if they aren't 3D action games, which is all anyone on these retro computing/gaming fora seems to care about nowadays. Seriously, I'm sick of hearing about whether something will play Quake, I care more whether something will play Curse of Monkey Island or Magic: The Gathering or StarCraft, all of which are post 1996 Win 9X games that will run just fine on a P54/P55. It's not just about action games!

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RemarkableSource7771@reddit

Games, hell. Put Debian 4 with Rhythmbox on it and make a sweet jukebox.

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ksp1278@reddit

Well, yes, that's true. Some genres are much less resource intensive, and there are many such games that it will do very well at. I was referring to 3d games specifically because a 3DFX card was mentioned. Voodoo 1 makes a great upgrade to an MMX system. Though, as mentioned, it does struggle with some of the more popular first person shooters post 1996. At least in my experience.

As you said, some other genres, fare a little better. Like racing games (Colin McRae Rally 1, POD, Need for Speed 2). Forsaken also works much better than I expected. Other genres that the Pentium MMX excels at are space sims like the Wing Commander series, Platformers like Jazz Jackrabbit 2, RPGs like Fallout and Baldurs gate

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meest@reddit

I always ask myself. Would this play Unreal Tournament?

It will play Half-Life, and Starcraft. But it won't play Quake 3 or UT very well.

Don't even think about playing the original Commandos.

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ksp1278@reddit

Even half-life would be hard for it. My Pentium MMX runs at 300Mhz and has a Voodoo 1, and Half-Life runs quite poorly. Unreal runs at around 25fps at lowest settings at 512x384 with the Voodoo 1. Unreal Tournament is slightly lower framerate. Of course, in 1998 there would have been people playing these games on this hardware. But these days I think people expect a smoother experience.

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RichB93@reddit

Agreed, but you can get away with it; anything after 98/99 won’t be playable at all.

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Inspiron606002@reddit

Jealous! I love late 90's Pavilions. Never knew they sold them in a "pizza box" style configuration.

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19chris1996@reddit

I love how they stuffed a little pipsqueak fan back there.

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FlyByPC@reddit

Neat. It would make a decent DOS games box, or you could restomod it into the most beige late-'90s corporate box ever to compile a TPS report.

I've been there. I'd go with the games.

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