It is an ECS board...Matsonic is one of ECS' various subsidiaries. I've had a few and not all of them are as bad as people say.

I'd say that the ECS/Matsonic boards of the late '90s/early '00s were quite akin to the Asrock boards of more recent years. Often available in rather strange configurations, not overly featureful or overclockable but also inexpensive, and quite decent for general use once you figure out their quirks.

Old Thrashbarg wrote:

quite decent for general use once you figure out their quirks.

That's the part that's crucial.

I just got this Dell Optiplex Pentium Pro 200 this afternoon from the scrappers. There were 3 there actually and I could mix parts between them to make one nice machine. Enjoy the pics:

No sign of yellowing- it's like it was stored in a vault for 14 years

Pentium Pro sticker- not common!

Same story out back

Nice under the hood too

I was able to negotiate with the seller to max out the ram by taking modules from another system- 128mb yeah!

Matrox Mystique came with it- bonus!

Can you believe they wanted to bin this mint machine? $50 saved this superb piece of computing history.

stylish (although useless) ram coolers 😀

sgt76 wrote:

I just got this Dell Optiplex Pentium Pro 200 this afternoon from the scrappers. There were 3 there actually and I could mix pa […]
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I just got this Dell Optiplex Pentium Pro 200 this afternoon from the scrappers. There were 3 there actually and I could mix parts between them to make one nice machine. Enjoy the pics:

No sign of yellowing- it's like it was stored in a vault for 14 years

Pentium Pro sticker- not common!

Same story out back

Nice under the hood too

I was able to negotiate with the seller to max out the ram by taking modules from another system- 128mb yeah!

Matrox Mystique came with it- bonus!

Can you believe they wanted to bin this mint machine? $50 saved this superb piece of computing history.

Oh yes! Looks like my GX1 collection. I love those desktop cases.

PPro 200...

Proprietary case, but PPro 200. Oh man that's nice. Matrox graphics too.

And that Acer... I love that case 😁

Nice haul! 😉

Is your PPro the one with the gold top and 256kb cache?

schlang wrote:

stylish (although useless) ram coolers 😀

Looks more like fat RAM to me 😜

SavantStrike wrote:

PPro 200...

Proprietary case, but PPro 200. Oh man that's nice. Matrox graphics too.

And that Acer... I love that case 😁

I'll have to dig out my Intergraph TDZ-410 and take a picture. It has DUAL PPro 200's in it. 😁

Maybe I'll build an ALR Revolution 6x6 one day....

And I hope it is one with the gold top. Any CPU with a high gold content like the PPro are now being priced with the gold content figured into the value so they will be very expensive or they will become very rare as more and more of them get scrapped for their gold. The day may come soon where you'll have no trouble finding a PPro motherboard, but there won't be any PPro's left to put in them. The only other alternative, the Pentium II Overdrive, (which is already rare and expensive) will then skyrocket in value since it will be the only chip that will fit those boards.

Yes it is a gold top 200mhz chip with 256kb cache. The seller actually told me that the price is entirely due to the gold content in the chip and nothing else. Hmm, never knew of such things before this.

And the ram doesn't have any heatspreaders- it's just as Tetrium pointed out- fat EDO ram.

Also, this board is dual PPro capable. The slot in the middle of the board has a cpu terminator card in it- which you can put a 2nd processor slot into as well.

Matrox's reputation for superb 2d is well deserved- it's a million miles ahead of an S3 Virge.

I would be interested to know what I should do with this machine in terms of add on cards, parts and what o/s it should run. What would you do with it? Thanks 😀

I'd get the 2'nd processor in it and find a pair of p-pro overdrives OR the 1mb cache 200mhz chips. The 1mb cache chips are different in that they are NOT gold topped and generally the gold-scrappers dont care about them. Usually they are cheaper than the gold one to be honest.

that and max out the ram, toss a voodoo 1 in it and go nuts.

luckybob wrote:

I'd get the 2'nd processor in it and find a pair of p-pro overdrives OR the 1mb cache 200mhz chips. The 1mb cache chips are different in that they are NOT gold topped and generally the gold-scrappers dont care about them. Usually they are cheaper than the gold one to be honest.

True 😁
The 1MB PPro's are usually black topped.
Just do a search for pentium pro 1mb and you'll see what it looks like.

The Pentium II Overdrives are not easy to find though and will usually cost more then a gold topped PPro.

@sgt76:Did he sell you 1 or 2 PPro chips btw? And do you have that VRM for the 2nd processor?

luckybob wrote:

I'd get the 2'nd processor in it and find a pair of p-pro overdrives OR the 1mb cache 200mhz chips. The 1mb cache chips are different in that they are NOT gold topped and generally the gold-scrappers dont care about them. Usually they are cheaper than the gold one to be honest.

that and max out the ram, toss a voodoo 1 in it and go nuts.

😁 good one! ok, dual cpus and a voodoo1- what o/s should I run then? No point in Win95/98/ME. So that leaves NT 4.0 and Windows 2000. Windows XP seems a bit out there for a machine like this.

Tetrium wrote:

[True :D The 1MB PPro's are usually black topped. Just do a search for pentium pro 1mb and you'll see what it looks like. […]
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[True 😁
The 1MB PPro's are usually black topped.
Just do a search for pentium pro 1mb and you'll see what it looks like.

The Pentium II Overdrives are not easy to find though and will usually cost more then a gold topped PPro.

@sgt76:Did he sell you 1 or 2 PPro chips btw? And do you have that VRM for the 2nd processor?

I've done my homework and looked up the chips yesterday on cpu-world. heheh.

Unfortunately she! only sold me one cpu, two woulda cost me $100.

sgt76 wrote:

Unfortunately she! only sold me one cpu, two woulda cost me $100.

Damn...ladies + computers = tough 😜

Anyway, you just missed a big sale on cpu-world.com where someone was selling like 8 PPro chips. I missed out on those as well (didn't click that refresh button often enough 😜)

Tetrium wrote:

Damn...ladies + computers = tough 😜

🤣

Tetrium wrote:

Anyway, you just missed a big sale on cpu-world.com where someone was selling like 8 PPro chips. I missed out on those as well (didn't click that refresh button often enough 😜)

Umm, I donno man, I just had a quick check on the bay and PPro stuff is expensive 😳 With prices and availibility like that I think I'm firmly relegated to running it in single cpu configuration.

Anyway, I seek more advice and feedback on the following:

What o/s would be best suited for this beast?

And what about hard disks? Would any crusty old drive do, or should I look for a period correct disk, or SCSI or raptors or a 7200rpm ATA100/133?

What about sound cards? Would something like an Ensoniq PCI be nice on it? Or an AWE64? Or a Live!?

I'm thinking of chucking in a Voodoo2 as well. Maybe a Voodoo1 if I can get one.

Many thanks.

sgt76 wrote:

:lol: […]
Show full quote

Tetrium wrote:

Damn...ladies + computers = tough 😜

🤣

Tetrium wrote:

Anyway, you just missed a big sale on cpu-world.com where someone was selling like 8 PPro chips. I missed out on those as well (didn't click that refresh button often enough 😜)

Umm, I donno man, I just had a quick check on the bay and PPro stuff is expensive 😳 With prices and availibility like that I think I'm firmly relegated to running it in single cpu configuration.

Anyway, I seek more advice and feedback on the following:

What o/s would be best suited for this beast?

And what about hard disks? Would any crusty old drive do, or should I look for a period correct disk, or SCSI or raptors or a 7200rpm ATA100/133?

What about sound cards? Would something like an Ensoniq PCI be nice on it? Or an AWE64? Or a Live!?

I'm thinking of chucking in a Voodoo2 as well. Maybe a Voodoo1 if I can get one.

Many thanks.

NT or 2K if you wanted to go multi-processor one day or 98SE for games. 9x/ME won't do anything with multiprocessors, but NT has only very limited DirectX support as it's not meant to be a gaming OS so you'll pretty much be giving up gaming for SMP if you go with NT. Games from that time period didn't care about multiple CPU's anyway. A dual boot of 98SE and 2K would probably be better if your hard drive is big enough. XP would also be possible unofficially but you have to bypass the hardware check because it normally won't install to anything below 233mhz. I'd monitor the CPU activity if you decide to try to use XP, though. On a below spec machine CPU usage is going to be abnormally high and might reduce the life of the CPU. If CPU usage is unacceptably high when idle or it runs too slowly with XP, then I'd uninstall it and go with 2K. A second CPU might help with XP, though.

nice...socket 8 goodness...
always wanted the pentium pro but prices are unfortunatelly rising..

Umm, I donno man, I just had a quick check on the bay and PPro stuff is expensive. With prices and availibility like that I think I'm firmly relegated to running it in single cpu configuration.

I think that's really the least of the concern with that particular machine... if you stick to the common 512K cache versions, you can occasionally come across a decent deal on CPUs. The toughest part I think would be finding the riser card for the second CPU. I don't believe I've ever actually seen one for sale.

Besides, it's much more useful as a gaming machine if you stick with a single CPU anyway. 98SE should run quite happily, or Win95, even DOS/Win31 if you want.

Old Thrashbarg wrote:

Umm, I donno man, I just had a quick check on the bay and PPro stuff is expensive. With prices and availibility like that I think I'm firmly relegated to running it in single cpu configuration.

I think that's really the least of the concern with that particular machine... if you stick to the common 512K cache versions, you can occasionally come across a decent deal on CPUs. The toughest part I think would be finding the riser card for the second CPU. I don't believe I've ever actually seen one for sale.

Besides, it's much more useful as a gaming machine if you stick with a single CPU anyway. 98SE should run quite happily, or Win95, even DOS/Win31 if you want.

The problem with the CPU's is the gold tops and pins which are attractive to scrappers. The models with less than 1mb cache all have the gold tops so you won't be getting any CPU of that time period for less than the price of the gold in it anymore. Most of the Pentium Pro's on ebay right now are being sold in scrap gold lots by weight and the ones that are being sold for actual use are ridiculously priced with most being in the $50-$75 range. If you go out onto the internet and do a Google shopping search, the only ones still in stock are well over $100. The days of finding Pentium Pro's for $10 or less are over. Pentium Pro as a vintage gaming rig is an expensive proposition.

sliderider wrote:

Old Thrashbarg wrote:

Umm, I donno man, I just had a quick check on the bay and PPro stuff is expensive. With prices and availibility like that I think I'm firmly relegated to running it in single cpu configuration.

I think that's really the least of the concern with that particular machine... if you stick to the common 512K cache versions, you can occasionally come across a decent deal on CPUs. The toughest part I think would be finding the riser card for the second CPU. I don't believe I've ever actually seen one for sale.

Besides, it's much more useful as a gaming machine if you stick with a single CPU anyway. 98SE should run quite happily, or Win95, even DOS/Win31 if you want.

The problem with the CPU's is the gold tops and pins which are attractive to scrappers. The models with less than 1mb cache all have the gold tops so you won't be getting any CPU of that time period for less than the price of the gold in it anymore. Most of the Pentium Pro's on ebay right now are being sold in scrap gold lots by weight and the ones that are being sold for actual use are ridiculously priced with most being in the $50-$75 range. If you go out onto the internet and do a Google shopping search, the only ones still in stock are well over $100. The days of finding Pentium Pro's for $10 or less are over. Pentium Pro as a vintage gaming rig is an expensive proposition.

I wish there had been more .35 micrometer chips produced (black ones with the larger cache right), but they were made late into the Ppro's lifecycle, and Intel had already geared up for the PII and PII Xeon. If the PII had just been 6-9 months late, it might still be possible to get affordable Ppro chips.

As they stand though they're kind of in the middle of the road performance wise. I'd want a bit more machine for late dos games, and the chip is overkill for earlier titles. At least, this is the excuse I tell myself as to why I went with S7 instead of S8, but truth be told I think S8 would have been way cooler.

...and the ones that are being sold for actual use are ridiculously priced with most being in the $50-$75 range. If you go out onto the internet and do a Google shopping search, the only ones still in stock are well over $100. The days of finding Pentium Pro's for $10 or less are over.

But that doesn't mean they're actually selling for that much. True, you're not going to get away with $10 anymore, but if you watch the eBay auctions, not the 'Buy It Now' listing but the actual auctions, they seem to usually go in the $30-40 range. The actual gold content in 'em is about 1g, works out to ~$55 with current gold prices. Which means that scrappers aren't going to pay $55 per chip, since there's still the overhead involved in extracting the gold.