I really like the look of that case.

Man, IBM always had snappy looking cases. nice job!

great setup and matching too!
and yeah, IBM did make some nice machines

That is one mean looking machine! Half-life would be a good game to test out those Voodoo 2's and the Vortex.

I've read about the SpaceOrb360 but never used one, they sound pretty revolutionary - I'd be interested to hear how it works. Should be good for Descent!

RacoonRider wrote:

Now I need to find a descent keyboard

In Soviet Russia, we descent on keyboards instead of snowboards!

bristlehog wrote:

RacoonRider wrote:

Now I need to find a descent keyboard

In Soviet Russia, we descent on keyboards instead of snowboards!

I'm totally digging how it's not just an IBM desktop, but the whole kit, monitor and all.

Good one! 😀

Thank you, guys! And well spotted, bristlehog.

Except for Half-Life, what are the good games to load up V2SLI or TNT2? I know there's Quake III Arena, but I've played enough of it over the past years. And besides, I'm not really fond of shooters.

Love the style of that IBM case 😎 .

bristlehog wrote:

In Soviet Russia, we descent on keyboards instead of snowboards!

🤣 🤣 🤣

bristlehog wrote:

RacoonRider wrote:

Now I need to find a descent keyboard

In Soviet Russia, we descent on keyboards instead of snowboards!

Very nice system. The onboard Trio3D/2X is not totally useless in case you want to try one of the supported S3D games.
Isn't a PII 450 a bit underpowered for Voodoo2 SLI or a TNT2? Not that slow but I'd probably use a faster CPU.

Regarding games: For the Voodoo2's I would try later Glide games, for example the obvious Unreal (OK, no FPSes, but there are a lot Glide games).
The TNT2 should be fine for anything Direct3D/OpenGL that doesn't require hardware T&L. What game genres do you like?

idspispopd wrote:

Isn't a PII 450 a bit underpowered for Voodoo2 SLI or a TNT2? Not that slow but I'd probably use a faster CPU.

I'd say no,since the p2 450 came out late 98 and the tnt 2 came out early 99.

idspispopd wrote:

Isn't a PII 450 a bit underpowered for Voodoo2 SLI or a TNT2? Not that slow but I'd probably use a faster CPU.

I wouldn't call it underpowered. There is definitely some headroom, but the difference won't be really that big. V2 SLI maxes out at ~600MHz, from then on I'd say the difference is negligible, you're better off with a faster card.
I'd say you ditch both the TNT2 and V2 SLI and replace them with a nice Voodoo 3 3000. Unless of course, you have certain games that will only work on V2 and older.

Considering S3, as far as I know, Virge GX/2 was the last card to support S3D. And S3Trio is not useless at all, it's got 8Mb of memory and works at resolutions up to 1600x1200. It's not bad for a buisness 2D card.

Considering CPU, a 500 or 550 Mhz Katmai core went through my hands not long ago, however, I decided to stick with the original PII-450 Deschutes.The PC was shipped with it and the manual states that it was the most powerful CPU available for IBM PC-300PL at that time. There were also 400, 350 and Celeron versions with different AGP and DIMM slots config. Some extra megahertz are not worth ruining the beasty configuration it originally came in.

Considering AGP card, this desktop case can only accept cards of special form-factor, like this ATi Rage Pro:

Notice the short double metal plane and the empty lower left courner. This means I would have to find a Voodoo 3 card like this, which is a little more complicated than just getting a good V3:

And besides, I was always crazy about V2SLI and I don't think the V3 would add much performance.

Considering games, I have completed Dethkarz... Twice 😁 And I just installed Rollcage. It was released a year later than Dethkarz, but it's nowhere near as impressive. Perhaps, I'll get used to it 😀

I've found some more pictures! I took them long ago and forgot they ever existed. This is what it looked like when I first removed the cover (and Voodoo). Took me an hour to take it apart, I'm not used to dealing with OEM cases 😀

And here's a common and still very cool Voodoo 2. The secon one is exact similar.

I think I remember seeing some tests online and 2 voodoo 2's in sli are faster then a voodoo 3. The voodoo 3 with the tv out and special dvi port was faster though.

Nope. A voodoo3 2000 is around equal (with an older processor) and a little bit faster with a newer, and a v3 3k and 3,5k are faster for sure.
But not so faster that the gamers expected back then. 😉

I saw a few of those weird form factor graphics cards at the thrift store recently. So they're not that hard to find. Nobody wants them, anyway 🤣

I think the V3 2000 with "removable" s-video part is quite common, too. I got one just like that. Didn't know that was meant for these weird desktop cases though.

You certainly won't notice any speed difference between V2SLI and V3 cards on a P2-450. The small performance difference (if it even exists) also does not outweigh the benefit of having a good integrated 2D core + GUI acceleration, IMO.

RacoonRider wrote:

Considering S3, as far as I know, Virge GX/2 was the last card to support S3D. And S3Trio is not useless at all, it's got 8Mb of memory and works at resolutions up to 1600x1200. It's not bad for a buisness 2D card.

Agreed on the business card point, I meant it's not necessarily completely useless for 3D.
About S3D: I haven't tried this personally, but according to this posts it might not be completely hopeless:
Re: S3 VIRGE Tv out in dos.
Re: S3 VIRGE Terminal velocity in dos.

Of course for best compatibility I'd go for a DX or GX, but since you already have the chip on-board this might be an interesting option, even if not actually useful. (If you can switch the video in BIOS, that is. If the S3 chip can't be activated without physically removing the other video card it's not that helpful.)