Re: Pentium 233 MMX build, finishing touches questions

Posted on 2018-02-13, 07:08

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Unless it's written in the BIOS release notes, no one can guess the maximum HDD size this motherboard will recognize. True in most cases, but this is the P55T2P4 we're talking about, the So7 equivalent of the Mercedes 240D. Pretty much the best documented board out there ;) WIth Asus BIOS, the …

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Re: Which dual slot1 PIII motherboard ?

Posted on 2018-02-13, 07:04

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I, too, somehow missed this thread. Here are my comments after reading all postings. Why don't you want dual slot1 from Tyan or SuperMicro? Feature limited BIOSes? I have a dual slot 1 Tyan which I believe does not support the Coppermines. There is a write-up online about how to modify it though. I …

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Re: Are Voodoo graphics card THAT good ?

Posted on 2018-02-12, 23:29

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I just checked Anandtech's review of the Voodoo 3 and at the time it came out, it (the 3000) was the fastest video card in almost all games, so it was the 'top card'. But not unreservedly so - it had no 32b colour, no texture compression (or any AGP texturing for that matter). And of course the TNT2 …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2018-02-12, 21:40

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Received my MVP3 board at last, so spent the evening testing AGP and PCI cards, DIMMs, SIMMs and CPUs. So far everything works, at least to the point of POSTing :) Standout moments were when I discovered my 50ns EDO SIMMs worked at 100MHz, and of course when my K6-3+ (hitherto untested) turned out …

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Re: Unknown Socket3 Board, No POST

Posted on 2018-02-12, 20:57

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Whatever you do, don't throw it away. If it booted the first time you tried, chances are whatever happened is fixable.

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Re: Top or bottom mounted PSU?

Posted on 2018-02-12, 20:00

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You only have component heat issues if you have poor circulation through the case. Pretty much all cases with bottom mounted PSUs have good/great airflow through the case because of extra intake/exhaust fans. With top mounted PSUs, you still get a nice pocket of hot air near the top of the case. …

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Re: Ultima 6 no midi?

Posted on 2018-02-12, 19:04

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Of course this will still only do the MIDI on the SB Pro-clone, not on the Roland No, it will turn your 'dumb' MPU-401 MIDI interface into an 'intelligent' MPU-401 MIDI interface. So you still need to have the Roland piano hooked up to your MIDI port. Yep, SoftMPU did the trick. Thanks for the ( …

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Re: Top or bottom mounted PSU?

Posted on 2018-02-12, 18:54

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A bottom-mounted PSU may be slightly cooler than a top-mounted one, but that means other case components, such as the voltage regulators on the motherboard, get warmer and if they're low quality they'll need recapping sooner. If you don't want to have to recap *something* you need to buy devices …

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Re: Top or bottom mounted PSU?

Posted on 2018-02-12, 16:25

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Tbh, unless you're going for a very late Win98 system with power-hungry P4 / SoA CPU and AGP monster like the 9700Pro, it really won't make too much of a difference. If its the SE440BX system in your sig, the only consideration is that the ATX connector is relatively high on the board - but …

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Re: Need some GPU experts

Posted on 2018-02-12, 10:18

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

"High end" is completely subjective and dependent not just on time but also target market. Just look at the Permedia2 as something that was simultaneously positioned in low-end (pro 3D market), mid range (sold a ton to Compaq) and high-end (it promised to be the best 2D/3D combo gaming card - but …

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Re: Bios chip for Abit ap pt5

Posted on 2018-02-12, 09:03

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The BIOS image here is 128kB (1Mb), so you need a 128kB/1Mb DIP32 EEPROM. Exact type is less relevant, so long as you can flash it.

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Re: Motherboard Recommendations

Posted on 2018-02-12, 07:23

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by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

CUV4X died spontaneously... have you checked the capacitors? Possible fixes aside, your requirements are so wide there are literally hundreds of boards that would easily fit, pretty much anything from the period with 1 ISA slot. If you want games to 2002, I wouldn't recommend anything older than the …

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Re: Windows XP gaming cpu.

Posted on 2018-02-11, 23:15

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

What about overclocking the E8500? If your board can handle 1600MT/s FSB easily, you could win more by cranking up what you already have.

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Re: Windows XP gaming cpu.

Posted on 2018-02-11, 22:57

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

TBH the added value of a quad core in 90% of games under WinXP is zero to negative. Almost no games are multithreaded, so the game just runs on one core. Having a second core for background tasks makes a lot of sense, so dual core is a must but beyond that you're going to have some very bored cores. …

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Re: Unknown Socket3 Board, No POST

Posted on 2018-02-11, 22:36

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

That's not a Socket 3 but a Socket 1 LIF socket. Also the pic is so fuzzy it's almost impossible to make out either identification marks or possible damage... Do you have a POST debugger card? That would possibly tell you more. That aside, maybe the BIOS (E)EPROM is corrupt. Do you have the setup to …

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Re: What is the Shortest Voodoo 1 Card?

Posted on 2018-02-11, 21:17

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It is possible to position the CPU in corner of a baby AT board where it will not block any slots. See for example the A-Trend ATC-5000: https://sep.yimg.com/ay/memx/atc-5000-dimm-9.gif In fact I bought this board for that exact reason... Only problem is that you can't use this board in a minitower …

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Re: Ultima 6 no midi?

Posted on 2018-02-11, 19:26

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Ultima VI only supported the Roland MT-32 for MIDI music, so GM won't work unfortunately. But the FM music in the game is still very good and a huge step up from PC speaker ;) Of course Ultima 6 is pre-General MIDI, but isn't the only major difference between the MT-32 and GM that the instrument …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-02-11, 18:49

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If it is not marked, it is usually a P90. P90 can be smaller or larger heat spreader. Still a nice find, they have been going up in value for at least a couple of years :) They typically go for around $75 on CPU-World forums. Would be even nicer if I knew it worked - but motherboards are of course …

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Ultima 6 no midi?

Posted on 2018-02-11, 18:10

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Ultima 6 is one of my fond childhood memories. Back then my 386DX-16 was easily able to run it, but the only sound hardware I had went *beep* and not much else. So I never heard the legendary soundtrack. Now I've knocked together a retro system and want to listen to what I was missing. AdLib works …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2018-02-11, 15:35

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

- NexGen NX586 CPU P100 (CPC-202 big silver heat spreader) with original glued-on HSF That's quite rare, most that I have seen have been P90. Not 100% certain of the P100 rating, it's not printed on the CPU, but AFAIK all the big silver heat spreader versions were at least P100, and the nearest …

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