Re: Will my 440BX motherboard support Pentium III 600MHz CPU?

Posted on 2021-07-24, 20:28

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I would just keep that 600Mhz Katmai and forget about faster CPU. 600Mhz is enough for many old games. If you have games it can't handle consider getting 2nd rig with Athlon XP/P4/Athlon64. Also resell those CPUs that don't work for you, someone may find those PIII 800 useful.

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Re: Most stable and compatible win9x configuration

Posted on 2021-07-24, 19:05

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It may not be that simple. I have a PIII 700Mhz cB0 stepping that doesn't work and a PIII 733 cC0 stepping that works. Find your CPUs on https://www.cpu-world.com/sspec/Pentium%20III.html and compare. I will find out what's wrong as seller agreed with replacement.

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Re: What's this P3

Posted on 2021-07-24, 16:51

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I recently saw PIII 600 Katmai on sale and thought what a bargain it will be, I well may buy it and keep it as a spare, but it ended up selling for 2.5 times more than Coppermine 600. They are valuable for older boards which can't supply 1.65V.

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Re: VIA AC'97 Sound Blaster drivers for MS-DOS?

Posted on 2021-07-24, 07:22

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I have managed to get my AC 97 sound card working in DOS with instructions in this thread. I'm not sure that BLASTER variable should have "H1" though, if I'm not mistaken it's for High DMA - 16 bit sound which is often not supported on Sound Blaster clones. I do have Sound Blaster settings in BIOS …

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Re: Unstable socket A board - what to do?

Posted on 2021-07-23, 19:39

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You aren't the only one. I have Epox 8K5a2+, a very good motherboard at its release date but now Windows crashes with 2 memory sticks or 166 FSB CPUs. Stable with 1 stick and 133 FSB CPU though. High end Epox boards were overclocking boards which is not a good thing for retro hardware as they were …

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Re: 3dmark99 MegaThread

Posted on 2021-07-22, 20:14

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Even the oldest drivers that work with the FX5600 are too new. Although this is less of a problem with Pentium 3 compared to Socket 7. Anyway, it depends on what you play. Benchmarks are only part of the story. As long as the games you're playing run OK, you've got nothing to worry about. :) …

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Re: 3dmark99 MegaThread

Posted on 2021-07-22, 16:05

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

He would get a higher score with a GeForce 2 / GeForce 3 with period correct drivers. :-) From my benchmarks: a Pentium 3 Katmai 600 (OC @ 672 MHz / FSB 112) with a GeForce 3 Ti 200 I got 6388 points. I think even a Riva TNT2 Pro would get a very high score. I'm using the latest drivers for Windows …

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Re: 3dmark99 MegaThread

Posted on 2021-07-21, 16:12

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

My PIII 600 scores 4800 in 3D Mark 99 in 640x480-1024x768 regardless of bit depth with Geforce FX5600. With Voodoo2 it is 3100 3D Marks in 640x480x16bit. I didn't switch off vsync though.

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Re: Which of these cards do you all recommend for 97-01 gaming?

Posted on 2021-07-18, 21:01

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Currently looking at a similar choice issue - on a P133 Choices being - for a DOS + Win98 setup 1. The built-in S3 Trio 64 (no 3D but good DOS compatibility) 2. Matrox millennium 2 - not sure how far it goes in D3D, but wouldn't run what I wanted in 98 3. S3 Savage 4 - the card I was going to use, …

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Re: A "broad spectrum" 90s build?

Posted on 2021-07-18, 12:18

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

All right, I'mma list a bunch of cheap-ish stuff I found: ... Pretty please pick ~3 of them. I'd prefer ones that do DOS as good as the do W9x, but DOS is primary here, as I can (should I?) get some 5.1 Live! for W9x exclusively. Plus I already have that AV511 CM8738, which as I noticed by Vogons …

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Re: A "broad spectrum" 90s build?

Posted on 2021-07-17, 14:10

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Another option is an Aztech azt2316 or 2320 card, those support WSS and have a genuine OPL3. I get the feeling they're a bit rarer than ESS cards, though. DOS drivers used to be a bit of a pain but UNISOUND works with the 2320. Any card will do CD audio as long as you connect a cable from the cd- …

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Re: A "broad spectrum" 90s build?

Posted on 2021-07-17, 14:00

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

DFi CA61 rev. a, S3 3D/2x, Coppermine PIII 500E, Audio Excel AV511 8738/PCI, 160MB RAM, HDD+ODD+FDD, 500W ModeCom ATX (replace ASAP or keep?), PCI ethernet. Overall seems like an mediocre 98 machine, "2.5/5 stars"? I reckon I could get a 700 or 733 Coppermine (does xxxEB matter?), an ISA soundcard …

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Re: Most stable and compatible win9x configuration

Posted on 2021-07-17, 07:34

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

a 64 - 128mb agp 4x by nvidia is fantastic and blows voodoo away really voodoo's are really really rare and expensive; Ati voltages clamp theirs down to 2x speed on discreet passive cooled cards which is more widely available and 4x is not much better than 2x. (2x does give 4x sideband) and still …

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Re: Unease feelings on other forums visited ?

Posted on 2021-07-15, 15:29

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yes Facebook is good for asking something and getting a quick answer. You'll never be able to go back and find that piece if information again though which is why I love "real" forums like this - absolute treasure trove of information. Same holds for other sites like Reddit. It will never be a …

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Re: Most stable and compatible win9x configuration

Posted on 2021-07-12, 18:54

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'd go for a socket 370 platform. 440bx slot 1 motherboards are more expensive then a late socket 370 boards witch can be had for as little as 10$ second hand or 45$ new . New means stability, and that seems to be what you're most interested in. Here's a link: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail …

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Re: Most stable and compatible win9x configuration

Posted on 2021-07-11, 17:40

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yes, back in 1998 the Pentium II 400mhz was popular in OEM workstation computers running Win98se. Maybe a Pentium III 500mhz would be better. Pentium III 500 Katmai is good for older boards which can't supply ~1.65V required by later models. It runs on 2V just like PII. For newer boards PIII …

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Re: Most stable and compatible win9x configuration

Posted on 2021-07-11, 12:38

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have to agree. Back around 1998 the Intel BX440 motherboard was very popular as a high end workstation motherboard. One stick of 128mb or 256mb of PC-133 SDRAM should be enough for Win98 gaming IDE hard drive should be good enough for Win98 gaming. I use the Sound Blaster Live 5.1 in my Win98se …

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Re: Which of these cards do you all recommend for 97-01 gaming?

Posted on 2021-07-10, 18:25

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Hmm okay. Might be worth going for a 5000 series then. Probably the 5700, the only thing that puts me off it compared to the 5200s is it has a fan but that's not the end of the world. Maybe I'll try both and run some benchmarks as the drivers should work across both so won't take long to swap the …

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Re: Intel test board to test 10 slot 1 CPUs. More like a power board without chipsets.

Posted on 2021-07-10, 09:23

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

All CPUs are PII 350, so not very valuable. There's plenty of slot 1 CPUs but no boards to plug them into. Not worth it in my opinion. If you need PII 350, just buy one. The test board itself is worthless.

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Re: 386SX/40 build

Posted on 2021-07-06, 12:55

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I used to have a 386SX laptop with Windows 3.0 and later 3.1, and it had only 2MB memory. I know I would literally KILL to have 4MB memory on it because running MS Works for Windows with 2MB memory was very painful. So really, I'd say don't generalize. Not everyone was using computers the same. I …

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