Dual Slot-1 PIII / Voodoo 5 5500 build

[Infinity]

Howdy!

Here's a build I've been working on for a while now, still not finished but close enough to show to the public.

Project: Phoenix

• Motherboard: Tyan Tiger 100 Rev. C
• CPU: 2x Intel Pentium III 600MHz Coppermine Slot-1
• RAM: 1GB SDR @ 100MHz (4x 256MB)
• GPU: 3dfx Voodoo-5 5500 AGP Rev. A0 Engineering Sample (NFR)
• Audio: Creative Sound Blaster 16 CT2290 ISA
• HDD: 60GB Intel SSD (SATA to IDE adapter)
• NIC: 3Com PCI
• Case: Antec P182 Gunmetal
• PSU: BeQuiet Pure Power 10 400W
• Fans: Noctua Redux 120mm
• Floppy: Gotek USB emulator drive
• Optical: IDE DVD-RW drive

Even though the case is newer than the rest, I tried to follow an oldschool theme and colour scheme with the build as best as I could. Sleeved a few cables to keep it all tidy. Still need a few rounded IDE and floppy drive cables to finish it off.

[slivercr]

Nice!

I saw this machine posted in reddit and immediately wanted more pictures—I am glad you came here with more!

Welcome, and nice build!

[Infinity]

Thanks!

Will be posting updates and pics here as the final parts roll in.

This build has actually been in the planning for years now, and I was originally thinking about doing an AMD build with a V5 5500 PCI Mac edition to get a DVI port, but after bidding on a dozen Mac cards and the prices always going over my budget, I gave up.

Then a 3dfx collector popped up a month ago, with a pre-production V5 5500 AGP that he wanted to let go. I researched the card to make sure it's final retail specification and he tested it thoroughly to ensure it's stable and working, I decided now is the time for the long-awaited V5 build and I bought the card along with the motherboard and CPU's. It actually ended up costing me more than what a retail PCI/Mac edition would have, but I'm happy to know I have a somewhat rare piece of 3dfx history in my possession now.

That decision also ended up sparking a retro craze in me and I'm now collecting old and rare components on a daily basis.

For this build I still have a trayless 5.25 hot swap HDD bay on its way which I'll plug the SATA/IDE converter to, that way I can quickly change between operating systems simply by swapping disks/SSD's.

[chinny22]

I'm speechless, its just loads of awesome parts.
This is my similar rig https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=43399&start=20#p424463 and I love it but yours....
Tyan Tiger motherboard, Voodoo 5 which is rare enough but engineering sample as well, beautiful!

Think its wise to put in a modern case, airflow is just so much better.
One thing I would do is get a better sound card, SB16 is good for dos but you can do much better for Windows gaming.

That decision also ended up sparking a retro craze in me and I'm now collecting old and rare components on a daily basis.

yeh, Welcome to the support group!

[Ozzuneoj]

That's a really awesome build.

Should be a pretty solid system for that time period and it looks awesome.

I'm with chinny22 though, put a newer sound card in there. If you're going for a uniform look of "huge green boards" look for a Diamond Monster Sound MX300. They are huuuge for a PCI soundcard and are a perfect match for a system like this, since a lot of the games that will run on this likely support A3D sound.

[slivercr]

That's a really awesome build.

Should be a pretty solid system for that time period and it looks awesome.

I'm with chinny22 though, put a newer sound card in there. If you're going for a uniform look of "huge green boards" look for a Diamond Monster Sound MX300. They are huuuge for a PCI soundcard and are a perfect match for a system like this, since a lot of the games that will run on this likely support A3D sound.

The lack of good aureal drivers for Win2k (assuming Win 2k or XP because of SMP) hinders any vortex based card, but it may be an option if OP dual boots.

[Ozzuneoj]

That's a really awesome build.

Should be a pretty solid system for that time period and it looks awesome.

I'm with chinny22 though, put a newer sound card in there. If you're going for a uniform look of "huge green boards" look for a Diamond Monster Sound MX300. They are huuuge for a PCI soundcard and are a perfect match for a system like this, since a lot of the games that will run on this likely support A3D sound.

The lack of good aureal drivers for Win2k (assuming Win 2k or XP because of SMP) hinders any vortex based card, but it may be an option if OP dual boots.

Honestly, I'd use two sound cards and dual boot if I was intending to actually use both processors for something (productivity apps in Win 2k for example). A Vortex is a great match for a system like this, as the PIII 600 wouldn't be ideal for games past 2001 or so. If we're completely honest here, SMP doesn't really do anything for games from this era, regardless of OS. Also, any Voodoo card will have limited drivers for any OS newer than 9x\Me (though I'm sure they're usable).

Its certainly a cool system though. I was just suggesting an Aureal based card to get the most out of Glide games that will run well on a 600Mhz PIII.

[chinny22]

Don't just think 2K for "productivity apps" I do most my Win9x gaming in Win2K
Quake 3, Unreal, all work fine in 2K with the official 3dfx drivers, Its only Need for Speed 3, 4 Porsche where I have to drop back into Win98.
(I've got Voodoo 2, cant comment on 5 as I don't have one but will accept donations?)

Personally I use a Audigy 2 ZS for windows, good driver support in Win98 though to XP.

[slivercr]

Don't just think 2K for "productivity apps" I do most my Win9x gaming in Win2K
Quake 3, Unreal, all work fine in 2K with the official 3dfx drivers, Its only Need for Speed 3, 4 Porsche where I have to drop back into Win98.
(I've got Voodoo 2, cant comment on 5 as I don't have one but will accept donations?)

Personally I use a Audigy 2 ZS for windows, good driver support in Win98 though to XP.

Really? I run an SLI setup and have no problem running NfS3 with Glide on Win2k. Its NfS2SE that gives me trouble

[Bancho]

Really nice build! I loved the fact all the cards are green that match the board

I have a Supermicro P6DBS which i hope to do an "all in green" build one day.

[luckybob]

NICE!

I could never be bothered to got that level of detail for cables. +1

[feipoa]

Nice clean build! Does anyone know which revisions of the Tyan Tiger 100 will and will not work with Coppermine CPUs?

[chinny22]

Don't just think 2K for "productivity apps" I do most my Win9x gaming in Win2K
Quake 3, Unreal, all work fine in 2K with the official 3dfx drivers, Its only Need for Speed 3, 4 Porsche where I have to drop back into Win98.
(I've got Voodoo 2, cant comment on 5 as I don't have one but will accept donations?)

Personally I use a Audigy 2 ZS for windows, good driver support in Win98 though to XP.

Really? I run an SLI setup and have no problem running NfS3 with Glide on Win2k. Its NfS2SE that gives me trouble

I missed "or" 3, 4 OR Porsche, I remember 1 flat out refused, even with me spending time trying to get it working, another ran but had issues, so since then I just run all three in Win98. People have got them running in XP with unofficial patches so it CAN be done, It's just not me trouble now.

I never liked NFS2 so never tired that in 2k

[Infinity]

Cheers guys, glad to see you're liking the build! I finally received the Gotek drive and the 5.25" hot swap bay, both of which will require some modifications to properly fit in to this case with its quick-release sliders, so that's my weekend already planned ahead then.

Yeah the SB16 is a bit on the older side for rest of this build. The thing is, I need it for the native OPL3 support as I don't find the YMF262 emulation to be very accurate at all on the newer cards.
I did run an Audigy side-by-side with the SB16 for Windows gaming for a while, but the motherboard clashed together with both cards and resulted in crackling audio, so the Audigy had to go. Plus it was black, I couldn't have that in the middle of all the green'ness.

Here's a quick sample of the OPL3 sound running on this system:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhxkKu-l5vI
I had the bass cranked up a notch too high in the SB16 DOS Mixer, but the FM synthesis is just as crystal clear as I remember it from 1994!

Quality wise the SB16 isn't really too bad even in Windows, it certainly does its job at 16-bits and 44KHz. A newer A3D card would be nice for acceleration and headphone use, but haven't managed to get my hands on one just yet.

Did find an IO-shield from the hoard of retro parts that fit this motherboard, cleaned up the back of the case nicely.

[DeafPK]

That is amazing, I love the looks of it.

Now travel back to 1999 and go search for Morpheus with this thing.

[anderswk]

Very cool build. I'm also doing a dual slot 1 build and I went with a YMF744 card, since my m/b only has one ISA slot. Haven't had a chance to test it yet, though.

[Nick4]

So clean build! Beautiful! I love Antec Performance cases. Had Antec P180 Mini about 7 years ago.

[Infinity]

Been slow progress with the retro machine, my NAS/server project has been sucking up the funds but I did find a touch panel fan controller that fit the theme of this case.

Most fan controllers that I looked at were far too ostentatious and flashy to even be considered, Bitfenix Recon was quite understated so that's what ended up going in.

And don't worry, I'll apply a red film to the touch panel to make it match the red 7-segment display of the Gotek floppy drive.

Not happy with how much the hot swap bay stands out by being a much darker tone than rest of the case, might need to find a lighter one.

[lordmogul]

Looks nicely industrial.
Wonder how it will run.

[Infinity]

Couple more samples from the SB16 CT2290, recorded directly from the card. I adore the OPL3 clarity of this particular model!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO_iZjvYQpQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBwOojjncMY

Also ended up ditching DOS 7.10 and installing 6.22 which solved all the issues I had with audio in certain games.