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First post, by Pippy P. Poopypants

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More details here:

http://www.calpoly.edu/~mkou/comp.html

OK, so the P4 is not quite retro yet, but it's the oldest thing I still have at home (unfortunately I either sold most of my older hardware or recycled it several years ago).

Mobo: VIA P4XB-S (the page above is a bit out-of-date; I have since replaced my old i845 motherboard with this, and also put the thing into a slightly larger, mid-tower case)
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz Socket 478 Willamette
RAM: 256MB PC2100 DDR
Graphics: 32MB TNT2 Ultra (Diamond Viper V770 Ultra) - works flawlessly in AGP 1.5V mode! (after setting the required jumpers)
HDD: 200 GB Western Digital WD1200BB
Optical Drives: 16x DVD-ROM 24x10x40x CD-RW
Monitor: 19" LCD
OS: Windows 98 SE/Windows for Workgroups 3.11

Yes, it runs Windows 3.11 in highcolor mode without a hitch; boot-up time to it is awfully fast too.

I also originally wanted to put 95 on this thing, but my old mobo didn't have the proper chipset drivers for it.

Interesting note: My mobo uses the VIA P4X266A chipset, which Intel got their panties in a bunch about when it came out. Supposedly VIA didn't have the proper license to produce a P4 chipset (therefore making the P4X266A an "illegal" or "semi-legal" chipset), but most benchmarks show it to have better performance than Intel's competing 845D chipset; guess Intel just didn't want their thunder stolen from them

Reply 2 of 9, by Pippy P. Poopypants

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Underpants#Villains

GUIs and reviews of other random stuff

Вфхуи ZoPиЕ m
СФИР Et. SEPOHЖ
Chebzon фt Ymeztoix © 1959 zem

Reply 4 of 9, by QBiN

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Pippy P. Poopypants wrote:
Mobo: VIA P4XB-S (the page above is a bit out-of-date; I have since replaced my old i845 motherboard with this, and also put the […]
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Mobo: VIA P4XB-S (the page above is a bit out-of-date; I have since replaced my old i845 motherboard with this, and also put the thing into a slightly larger, mid-tower case)
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz Socket 478 Willamette
RAM: 256MB PC2100 DDR
Graphics: 32MB TNT2 Ultra (Diamond Viper V770 Ultra) - works flawlessly in AGP 1.5V mode! (after setting the required jumpers)
HDD: 200 GB Western Digital WD1200BB
Optical Drives: 16x DVD-ROM 24x10x40x CD-RW
Monitor: 19" LCD
OS: Windows 98 SE/Windows for Workgroups 3.11

Nice system. Though, I find it a surprising choice to run a TNT2-Ultra with a P4. I would have thought you'd want to step up to a card that has hardware T&L like a geforce 2 or a later 3Dfx Voodoo... something that could help you get more out of that P4.

Reply 5 of 9, by Pippy P. Poopypants

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The TNT2 Ultra is the oldest card I have, and it also happens to be the only one that has drivers for Windows 3.1x for higher color modes (256 colors and higher) - basically I wanted to assemble something that can also run Win3.1 with its full bells and whistles

Reply 7 of 9, by h-a-l-9000

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> Well you know, if you threw a higher-end card in there, you could still use the generic SVGA drivers under windows 3.11

Unaccellerated Windows just feels ugly.

1+1=10

Reply 8 of 9, by Pippy P. Poopypants

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mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:

Well you know, if you threw a higher-end card in there, you could still use the generic SVGA drivers under windows 3.11

i have actually tried in the past with a couple GeForce cards, but even with patching the SVGA driver it still either didn't work at all or looked like a complete mess. either way i'd rather be able to use my LCD's native resolution so it doesn't look all blurry

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