Re: Taking "Pro" out of "Pentium"

Posted on 2018-12-05, 20:23

by

by Revolter

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Maybe it is possible to disable the CPU cache in the BIOS. A Pentium 133 didn't have that fast cache, if it even did have any installed on the motherboard. It sure is possible, and I use this feature all the time, but sadly this takes performance straight to the stone age in Windows :) To make …

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Taking "Pro" out of "Pentium"

Posted on 2018-12-05, 12:27

by

by Revolter

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Help me disable some advanced features of a Pentium 3 CPU, please :) I've owned these two computers during my youth: a Pentium 133 - which was my first love and essentially what got me into IT, and a Coppermine-based Celeron 800 - which can run some 3D-heavy games like Deus Ex and Morrowind, and …

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Re: The ultimate ITX motherboard for Win98? (and an introduction)

Posted on 2018-11-27, 14:24

by

by Revolter

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

What an awesome find, congrats! Now to find the balance between the good compatibility in terms of Windows 98 drivers, and the top-end GPU performance, and this project just might turn out to be the best Win98-per-liter PC out there :) Aragorn , I was having a similar dilemma of going custom AF or …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-11-23, 14:36

by

by Revolter

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've broken my rule of not going over 45 bucks for any piece of retro hardware, and have purchased the only motherboard on the planet (yeah, sounds over-exaggerated, but for some reason it is just the sad truth) with the combination of: FCPGA-capable Socket 370, native 133FSB+AGP4X, AGP connector …

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Re: AT Hardware in ATX Case: Show Me Your Power/Turbo Switch Mods

Posted on 2018-11-21, 11:48

by

by Revolter

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yeah, I went the same route of using the ATX power button for a turbo switch (just replace the momentary switch with a self-locking one inside the button and you're done) and turning the PC on and off with the PSU power switch on the rear. There is also this thing if your model doesn't include the …

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Re: PCI or PCI Express Sound Card for DOS Sound Blaster Sound Effects working on Intel Sandy Bridge Z68 or newer chipsets

Posted on 2018-11-04, 19:53

by

by Revolter

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Most CPU slowdown utilities (such as Mo'Slo) could not reduce the reported clock speed to match the slowdown target, and this can cause issues with some games that have behaviors tied to reported CPU clock speed. In such cases, using Mo'Slo would also slow down aspects that shouldn't be slowed. …

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Re: Picking CPU for Retro System Build

Posted on 2018-10-30, 20:53

by

by Revolter

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Strahssis , I don't think your statement is wrong, that was a good advice actually. In terms of stock megaherz count and performance with caches disabled, Pentium II (especially those first 333 Mhz ones with unlocked multiplier) is a great option. But compatibility at the high-end is also …

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Re: Picking CPU for Retro System Build

Posted on 2018-10-30, 18:27

by

by Revolter

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The BEST "all arounder" system I can think of is a Super Socket 7 board with an AMD K6-III in it, which is very easy to slow down for games as far back as the late 80s. Even better all-rounder in my opinion is a plain regular Pentium 3 450-700 Mhz, which you can slow down using the Throttle.exe …

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Re: Post your Halloween Build

Posted on 2018-10-25, 19:52

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by Revolter

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

@Intel486dx33, Blood literally celebrates the horror genre without taking itself too seriously - much like Halloween itself 😀 I like the idea of having themed builds, but the Halloween tradition is all but non-existent here in Russia. Maybe I'll join on a different occasion.

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Re: I have a philosophical dilemma and need some input

Posted on 2018-10-22, 23:18

by

by Revolter

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Not every part in your car is made by Ford, Chrysler, Mercedes, etc. Its still got the badge on there though. The difference is that the IBM PC compatibles are modular and their parts are interchangeable by design. It's pure marketing, come on... A PC is not an appliance like a microwave oven or a …

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Re: Post your 'current' PC

Posted on 2018-10-11, 12:34

by

by Revolter

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

My current rig is an i7 2600S 45W ES/GTX1050 Ti KalmX/8GB DDR3/Win10 sleeper: 1.jpg The case is from a ~2007 brand name office PC called Depo Neos or some such. I like its conservative dimensions and front panel design (which was clearly ripped off of the Dell Dimension XPS T line), and the …

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Re: Should I get a Yamaha YMF744 PCI Sound Card

Posted on 2018-10-11, 09:47

by

by Revolter

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

For DOS games it makes no sense to use a PCI card I'm using an ESS Solo-1 PCI card in my Pentium DOS machine full-time, and it clearly has advantages of being noiseless (no hissing whatsoever even on high volume) and faster (+2.5 FPS in Quake) than an ESS Audiodrive (ES1868F) ISA card - with the …

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Re: PCI sound cards and Chipsets from various manufacturers...

Posted on 2018-09-09, 13:52

by

by Revolter

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

try hard ones - Turrican II, Ishar trilogy (no Adlib pleas) and Darklands, that would be interesting. ExtremePinball is beside Turrican2 a good test. And... they all worked, except Turrican 2. Pure DOS, standard driver and SB mode. Ishar 3's sound init is apparently speed-sensitive, so I had to …

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Re: PCI sound cards and Chipsets from various manufacturers...

Posted on 2018-09-08, 21:04

by

by Revolter

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

But they sound BAD in adlib Yeah, apparently, the sound engine in the Pinball games was made to output sound through anything that could act as a DAC. I woun't be surprised if there was an option to use the PC speaker for outputting digital sound :) But I think the onboard FM is still better than …

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Re: [WIP] Midget Riot: 486 PC in booksize industrial case.

Posted on 2018-09-03, 19:17

by

by Revolter

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

aleksej, I think the black one looks more appropriate 😀

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Re: PCI sound cards and Chipsets from various manufacturers...

Posted on 2018-09-03, 18:51

by

by Revolter

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Reports are actually mix bag Not at all: Kamerat told us he hadn't tested the WBDMA modes, and dr.zeissler had reported about the games I already listed as not working in DOS even with the WBDMA treatment (the Pinball series works through FM mode, so they are non-problematic in my book) - and I'm …

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Re: PCI sound cards and Chipsets from various manufacturers...

Posted on 2018-09-03, 18:47

by

by Revolter

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

ruthan wrote: Reports are actually mix bag Not at all: Kamerat told us he hadn't tested the WBDMA modes, and dr.zeissler had reported about the games I've already listed as not working in DOS even with WBDMA (the Pinball series works in Adlib mode, so they are non-problematic in my book).

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Re: PCI sound cards and Chipsets from various manufacturers...

Posted on 2018-09-03, 15:58

by

by Revolter

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I didn yet fiddle with WBDMA But that is the whole point: the WBDMA trick makes this already decent card the best PCI solution for DOS games compatibility (in my opinion). Much less games are prone to freezing or crashing on startup like with Aureal cards, no EMM386 requirement and lack of …

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Re: PCI sound cards and Chipsets from various manufacturers...

Posted on 2018-08-20, 18:46

by

by Revolter

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

This batch file with pciset-utility does not solve any of my problematic game-engines. The only thing that helps is using WDM-Drivers within win98se. sorry guys. Which motherboard have you tried this on? Did you check the other values (101, 110)? Are you sure you've changed the right value? Check …

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Re: PCI sound cards and Chipsets from various manufacturers...

Posted on 2018-08-18, 13:27

by

by Revolter

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

So here is the list (note that I haven't tested every idTech 1 and Build game - just several of each to get the impression): idTech 1 games (Windows, WBDMA) /in DOS use DOS/32A Build games (Windows) Aladdin Alien Rampage (Windows, WBDMA) Bioforge (WBDMA) Brutal: Paws of Fury (Windows) Carmageddon ( …

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