Re: Intel 440BX (Asus P3B-F) and universal AGP cards don't get along
Posted on 2023-09-19, 18:15
Reinstall Windows. FX 5600 works fine on my 440BX.
Re: Quad Pentium III computer, what can it do in 2022
Posted on 2023-07-04, 17:09
Retro PCs will rarely have any heavy background tasks running as these are not everyday's computers. When consider an Athlon XP, it makes sense to use a 2Ghz Barton or the fastest P4 Northwood. Moreover PIII is Windows 98 domain. If you want a dual CPU system, get a dual P4 Xeon at least.
Re: GeForce 4 vs. GeForce FX?
Posted on 2023-07-01, 09:06
GeForce FX is still Windows 98 territory, even with a more powerful CPU. My 7600GT is three times as powerful as FX 5600 in Windows XP on Athlon 64 3400+. If you want to take advantage of GeForce FX performance, especially the high end cards, you need an Athlon XP or P4. An Athlon or Tualatin will …
Re: Looking for a DOS computer...
Posted on 2023-06-29, 17:51
I would either use DosBox-x/86box, P200 on Socket 7 or PII Klamath 233-266 on 440LX. As noted by other posters, a 486 is not good enough at anything.
Re: socket 370 i815 pentium 3 1 ghz coppermine or Athlon Xp 1600 for windows 98 gaming system
Posted on 2023-06-26, 20:04
Athlon XP 1600+ with DDR is much faster than PIII 1Ghz. The extra speed isn't really necessary in Windows 98, but it isn't good enough for Windows XP. Since you won't get the benefit of an ISA sound card in DOS, I would go with the Athlon XP. GeForce 4 MX 440 will be sufficient. As for motherboard, …
Re: Biostar M7VKB 133fsb? my first post
Posted on 2023-06-23, 17:19
I have two of these boards. They didn't work with Thoroughbreds and I don't have any Palominos. There is jumper for 133FSB but this frequency doesn't work. I have bought two Thunderbird 1200B specifically for these boards. There is also Thunderbird 1400B, but I wasn't sure if it would run due to …
Re: Athlon XP 3000+ machine - quiet CPU cooler recommendations
Posted on 2023-06-13, 11:20
This is the reason why I went for Athlon 64 754 instead of Athlon XP. Those can have a modern cooler with a large copper heatsink and a fan that is almost inaudible because the heatsink is designed for 4 core CPUs. I use Thermaltake MaxOrb EX CL-P0467. You may be able to buy a quiet fan and replace …
Re: PIII 450MHz + Voodoo 2 12mb seems balanced. But I've just found Geforce 2 MX 400 64MB
Posted on 2023-06-13, 10:33
2000-2002 games require a faster CPU. My PIII 900E can handle them fine, but it isn't fast enough for 2003. You should also get at least GeForce 4 MX440 (128 bit version), not a GeForce 2 MX. FX5600 works too, but it may exhibit font defects in some games. PIII 800-900 are still plentiful. Voodoo 2 …
Re: Weird pentium 3 failure
Posted on 2023-06-07, 20:58
From my experience only boards that have FSB options above 133Mhz are stable at 133 FSB. My ECS P6BXT-A+ is not stable at 112 either. There is some instability with heavy hard drive usage in Windows at that speed. Cheap boards were by design unstable at anything higher than 100Mhz FSB. It isn't a …
Re: Is any of these two slockets P III Coppermine compatible?
Posted on 2023-06-07, 20:25
PcBytes wrote on 2023-06-07, 14:51: If you mean around the middle of the socket backside, that's actually tape residue. Either that or hot glue, as someone (either seller or someone else before @AngryByDefault) dumped a kilo worth of hot glue. I see two severed traces and one damaged to the left of …
Re: Is any of these two slockets P III Coppermine compatible?
Posted on 2023-06-07, 10:39
I see a few badly scratched traces near the middle on the back side, therefore I doubt it will work.
Re: Fast Pentium MMX compared to a Pentium II
Posted on 2023-06-05, 19:34
Thanks for adding more Mendocinos. Your results clearly confirm my findings from long ago that Mendocino 500 at 83Mhz FSB was an excellent CPU for gaming, almost a match for PIII at the same clock. Getting it work at 100Mhz FSB was very rare though. K6-2 was not worth keeping. Mendocinos are an …
Re: Win 98 -1997-1999 3dfx dream machine ultimative specs?
Posted on 2023-06-05, 19:23
You can swap the PIII 800 for 900 or 1Ghz. Don't expect much from 3dfx though, it is totally inferior to my FX5600 in terms of frame rate and resolution. I never use Voodoo 2 for that reason. It is only useful for very early 3d games (1997-1998) that don't support Direct 3D. In those games software …
Re: Fast Pentium MMX compared to a Pentium II
Posted on 2023-06-04, 20:21
It would be great if you could test Mendocino Celeron at 83Mhz FSB. I used that back in the day instead of K6-2 for gaming.
Re: Is any of these two slockets P III Coppermine compatible?
Posted on 2023-05-15, 17:41
I bought it last week or so, and it was good value for hardware of an era which I'm not particularly fond about and not willing to spend too much on. Actually, I got it just to see if I could build something interesting (to me at least) around it and find some love for the age of slot 1, slot A …
Re: Unstable Slot-A build.
Posted on 2023-05-11, 18:00
The board is just too worn out. Unless you have experience with replacing capacitors you may kill it. Learn it on a board you don't care about - e.g buy a worn out Socket A board just for recap practice. I would recommend always having a spare in case recap will not be successful. I have 4 boards …
Re: Trying to build a single DOS + Win98 1993-1999 gaming PC - advice is welcome
Posted on 2023-05-08, 08:47
That guide doesn't list many optimal settings to enable on 693A to get decent memory performance. You can view 693A as a beta version of 694X and it may not be fully stable with all optimizations enabled. I'm only listing those that should be stable: The best known optimization is: 1-0 Bank …
Re: Trying to build a single DOS + Win98 1993-1999 gaming PC - advice is welcome
Posted on 2023-05-06, 07:48
693A always had terrible memory performance and is a poor choice for a retro rig. It was possible to reconfigure chipset via wpcredit to fix it and get performance closer to 694X. 694X at 133FSB ~ 440BX at 100FSB. The wpcredit fix made it viable for Windows but not DOS. I'm surprised you have …
Re: Slot Pentium III - Thermal restoration - confused
Posted on 2023-04-29, 22:58
I still use Arctic MX-4 tube that I bought like 15 years ago. I just repasted my laptop with it and it's working fine. I also used it on my retro rigs. Remainders of the original thermal pad can be removed with finger nails or plastic.
Re: Running DOS games in a real hardware. What issues am I going to encounter?
Posted on 2023-04-25, 18:31
He would slow down PII 333 to 166Mhz (66Mhz x 2.5) to play games that can't handle 333Mhz and have a speed reserve.
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