Well, in a somewhat embarrassing and slightly comical turn of events, I'm now getting rid of most of my tiny 3Dfx collection.  Yes, this comes only two days after I decided to expand that collection... so sue me.  Things change.

:P ;)

Anyway, I'd like to sell the modded V5 5500 PCI that I was showing off a couple of months ago.

It's a Mac edition card reflashed to the PC BIOS (V1.18, DVI Output Enabled), and works perfectly except that I can't seem to get the supposedly enabled DVI output to work with my LCD monitor (HP L2335).  It may be a configuration problem, or the DVI port simply may not work.  I don't know which.  The standard VGA output is completely functional, though.

The cooling mods:

Zalman blue-anodized aluminum RAMsinks on all of the RAM (attached with Arctic Silver thermal epoxy -- they're permanent)

Vantec Iceberq copper chipset coolers on the VSA-100 chips (Arctic Silver Ceramique at the interface)


There are high-res pictures of the card and the RAMsinks in this thread, but of course the Zalman passive coolers have been replaced by the Vantec Iceberq active coolers.

Unfortunately my digital camera is being RMA'd for a busted focus mechanism, so I can't take new pictures of the card for a few weeks at least...  :-[

I'm selling the card only -- there is no box, no driver CD, etc.

I'd like to get $75 CAD + shipping for this unit (the heatsinkage alone is worth over $50).  Please make all offers or inquiries in this thread so that responses are visible to all and feedback can be given in the event of a sale.

Would anybody take it for $50 CAD + shipping?

Honestly said, I would. But that shipping cost is going to be at least 100$ more for sending the card to Balkans :( The price is OK: if no one buys it from here, try the ebay. Your V5 is PCI and it may hit a much higher price than 50 cad $.

Actually, I can surface ship to Bulgaria for under $15 CAD.  Fully insured, 4 to 6 weeks delivery time.



So far I've only used eBay for buying, so I'd be a zero-feedback seller... without current pictures, I think it would be a hopeless case there.

I'd rather sell it for $50 here than risk listing it for a long time there without selling (except for ridiculously cheap).  $50 is as low as I'll go... if I can't get that, I'll just stuff it in a box somewhere and let it sit.

Why dont you put a reserve price of $50 on the item? or you can list it as a buy it now or list it with a starting price of $50..... ;)

Yeah, but while I do that I have to keep paying listing fees.  If it doesn't sell for a while I'll have done nothing but piss away that money.  Not to mention that by that time I might decide to do something dumb like start collecting again...

;) ;D

wrote on 29.03.06 at 04:07:41:

Actually, I can surface ship to Bulgaria for under $15 CAD.  Fully insured, 4 to 6 weeks delivery time.

That's rather hard to belive. Fedex insurance usually costs over 80 US $ for over seas shipping. I had some bad experience when I tried to buy without insurance... Wouldn't want to try that again, so I'm out. Sorry...

Anyway I still think you should try the ebay; there are still a bunch of us 3dfx geeks around the world. At least someone will want to test the old king with an Athlon 64 X2, or use it as a secondary display ;)

Actually US to Europe Airmail only costs 20$ wich includes 100$ worth of insurance, so it is not that hard to belive that surface mail is so cheap. And it is fast... 1 week tranzit time.

wrote on 28.03.06 at 22:43:01:

Honestly said, I would. But that shipping cost is going to be at least 100$ more for sending the card to Balkans

I've been collecting 3Dfx hardware from some time now and I live in the balkans (very northeren but nvm), and I can guarantee you there is no country that you can't get registered shipping for 1 card below 20US$
Also true is what u said... it could be quite expensive too, upto astronomic prices, but if the seller takes some time and truly evaluates all options it could get quite low, still keeping the quality of the service on an acceptable level.

(in this specific case, the vantecs make that 1 card weight like 3 of them :S but still 80$ is far too exagerated, I'd say worst case scenario 25C$)

http://www.usps.com/global/globalexpressmail.htm
And this would be for example from San Francisco to Slovenia: http://ircalc.usps.gov/intl_speed.asp?CID=10380&MailType=package&Pounds=2&Ounces=0 30usd for 1kg package express air shipped in 3-5 days, or 16.5$ for 4-10 day air shipping. Not that bad, i think.

I can confirm that,shipping a full retail voodoo5 from US to EU was only 15$.just make sure to use normal USPS airmail and you are good to go.

That's strange. I contacted a few companies that were willing to send to Balkans (Serbia and Montenegro) and the shipping cost was really 80$. I guess the things have changed since my last over-seas shopping... But it's still too risky for me.

As I mentioned before, you can pay from some 4$ of an ubercrappy shipping upto 100$+ for some highly overrated & exagerated shipping, its all about how informed (or unimformed) the seller is.
And belive me, companies are the most uninfirmed and the less willing to check for other shipping options. (since they think they don't gain form it, but thats not our problem if we can get the stuff elswhere)

When dealing with private persons even if totally uninformed u can still ask them politely to check for other options, and mostly they will. (unless if they are total a$$es)

Anyway... better checking by urself then inquiring some company. Nowadays more or less all postal companies have good webpages with loads of info easily accessible.
Combine that with babelfish.alatavista.com and u win, no matter what country u dealing with. ;)

wrote on 28.03.06 at 19:26:29:

Would anybody take it for $50 CAD + shipping?

I realy want to buy it, but for the moment I don't have all that cash available...  :(
Is it possible for you to take off the two coolers and to sell the Voodoo card without the coolers and so to adjust the selling price to a fair lower one? If so, then I'm on it!

Well, not really...  I discarded the original coolers (one fan was toast and the other was getting bad, and the heatsinks are junk on their own).

So you'd have to put new coolers on it anyway, and I don't know what you'd find for a better price.

My god I would love to jump on this but I have no extra cash at the moment. Not too long ago I wanted a PCI 5500 but I just ended up having to deal with a 4500 instead.  :(

It's still available, so let me know if or when you are in a position to buy it.

If I can scrap up the extra cash, I'm definately interested. Don't hold it for me though, becuase I can make no promises with the way gas prices are and all  :(

Heh, yeah, filling up the tank is painful these days.

I'm not really holding it for anyone... I just won't sell it for less than $50 CAD + shipping.  It can sit in storage if I can't get that.

Anyway, if anyone else makes an offer I'll notify you before letting it go.

sounds good :)

If the card's still for sale, let's do it... You said earlier that you would send it to Bulgaria, but how can I pay for the card? Is Western Union ok?

If you can't use PayPal, I'll check into Western Union.  I've never used it before, so I just need to find out what the procedure is.

Alternatively I'd also accept a money order by mail, though of course that would take a little longer to complete.

Sorry, I don't have paypal account; I also don't have a credit card.   :-/ What exactly is money order by mail? How does that work?

In Canada and the US, you can go to a bank or the post office and purchase a "money order", which is sort of like a cheque but you pay for it right away.  The person receiving it has to cash it at a bank, with ID, so it's safe to send in the mail (unlike cash).

Money orders are popular for ordering things by mail, from catalogues and so on.  It's just that you have to wait on the postal service both directions (wait for the money order to get to the seller, then wait again for the product to get back to the buyer).

The nice thing is that money orders usually don't cost much compared to Western Union.


If you can't purchase a money order at your location, can you let me know what I need to do to receive a Western Union transfer?  I've never used it before, so I just don't know how it works.

Well, to be honest, I also never used Western union before. I will check it out on monday.

The only thing I used to buy something "from afar" was Geldüberweisung, paying to someone's account in a bank. Do you maybe have an account in an international bank? It would save us the trouble of learning western union-ways  8)

...Or I could just send the envelope with cash per air mail. It does sounds crazy but... I may just work ;)

wrote on 26.05.06 at 06:26:23:

Well, to be honest, I also never used Western union before. I will check it out on monday. The only thing I used to buy something "from afar" was Geldüberweisung, paying to someone's account in a bank. Do you maybe have an account in an international bank? It would save us the trouble of learning western union-ways  8) ...Or I could just send the envelope with cash per air mail. It does sounds crazy but... I may just work ;)

Western Union would probably be easier..

Where can you get Canadian cash to mail?

Those Customs Agents might snake your cash >:(

one thing Western Union has extremely high tax rates rather obscene I must conclude.

Yeah I know, but cash through the mail ???

hmm yeah you got a point Gamma742 :) what about via IBAN aka Internation Banck Account Number, or is that only populair in the European Union?

wrote on 26.05.06 at 19:58:54:

hmm yeah you got a point Gamma742 :) what about via IBAN aka Internation Banck Account Number, or is that only populair in the European Union?

My point exacly. That would be great... Safe, reliable and in case of emergency trackable.

I've never heard of an IBAN... I wonder what it costs to set up something like that?

Let me look into the Western Union thing some more.  There's an office close to where I work, so I'll ask what's required and what the fees would be.

wrote on 27.05.06 at 04:57:26:

I've never heard of an IBAN... I wonder what it costs to set up something like that? Let me look into the Western Union thing some more.  There's an office close to where I work, so I'll ask what's required and what the fees would be.

OK. I will do the same here!  8)

Or... you could tell me how to get a paypal account. It it possible to use paypal in Bulgaria? I could get a VISA Electron I guess...

You have to go to a bank in Bulgaria. You need to open a checking account. You will need your bank acount no. and your routing no. to open a paypal account. Usually people in the bank who open accounts know about the type of account you need if you mention paypal.

OK, I've checked everything. I've got good news and bad news. Good news is that western union doesn't take as much money as I have thought (transfer costs 15eur) and it's possible to send the money in this way.
The bad news is that it seems to be the only way. If we go through the bank it'll cost (much) more and the money would be transfered in 3-4 days (western union is done in 15 min).  The other bad news is that Bulgaria is on the paypal/credit card black list, so it not possible to pay over internet nor credit card.

In the end there could be one more possibility. Is there a Reifeisen Bank, Pro Credit Bank or some other EU-based bank in Canada? If you could open an account in that bank, I could transfer the money to that account in no time (and much cheaper too).

One more thing:
I will need your name/surname/address (or the name of your city, I think it will suffice) to pay for the card over western union, you can send me the PM. I will give you the same info on PM.  ::)