VGA Archives - The Silicon Underground

What to look for in a motherboard

Dave Farquhar — Sun, 15 Apr 2018 11:00:39 +0000

I’ve been building PCs for more than 20 years and I tend to keep them a very long time, so it occurred to me that someone might be interested in what I look for in a motherboard to ensure both

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IBM PS/2 vs PC

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 09 Jun 2017 11:00:06 +0000

The IBM PS/2 line was a fairly radical departure from the older IBM PC line. This was deliberate, as IBM wanted to disrupt the clone industry, which it saw as a threat to its business. Here’s a look back at

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An LCD monitor for retro computing

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 11:00:02 +0000

Purists prefer CRT monitors for a more authentic experience, but if you don’t mind an LCD, here’s a good LCD monitor for retro computing. Look for a Dell 2001fp manufactured in June 2005 or before. For bonus points, try to

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What to look for in a monitor

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 11:00:50 +0000

Most buying guides for monitors assume you’re buying a really expensive monitor for gaming. But there’s a lot more to look for than refresh rate and response time. A good monitor can last 10 years and multiple computers, so it

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New computer, old monitor

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 26 May 2016 11:00:25 +0000

New computer, old monitor: I see questions fairly frequently about using a new computer and older monitor together. More often than not, it’s possible to do, but you may need to know where to look for the cables and adapters

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Building DOS gaming PCs

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 11:00:48 +0000

The ultimate DOS gaming PC is a topic that I’ve seen come up in forums frequently, and that I’ve been asked directly a number of times. I guess since I published advice on running DOS games on Windows PCs on

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Connect more than one game system to a TV with one HDMI port

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 11:00:41 +0000

I was reading reviews of televisions and found several televisions had negative reviews because they only had a single HDMI port. The guy who bought it had wanted to connect two game systems to it. But you usually can connect

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Bringing back old HDTVs

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 11:00:16 +0000

Over Thanksgiving weekend I picked up a discarded 23-inch LCD HDTV, a Samsung LN-S2341W. The television’s biggest problem, it turned out, was that it didn’t have an ATSC tuner so it couldn’t pick up over the air broadcasts after analog

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The Post-Dispatch may be giving the wrong idea about the dollar value of vintage computers

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 06 Feb 2014 11:00:01 +0000

Disclaimer: I wrote this article back in 2014. I leave it here as a snapshot of the state of how things were in 2014. The situation at the time you are reading this is likely different. Articles like Top 10

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How the IBM PC became the de facto standard for desktop computers

Dave Farquhar — Sat, 04 May 2013 11:00:31 +0000

I saw a question on a vintage computing forum this week: How did the IBM PC become the de facto standard for PCs, and the only desktop computer architecture from the 1980s to survive until today? It’s a very good

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