Very nice system there 😀

Interesting...
a) Is this ASUS 802.11n Wi-Fi module in the "Wi-Fi slot"? If not - what the reason to lose a PCI slot?
b) Again, you have 1 empty space for the 1394/EIDE plank (above GF6800). 1 more PCI slot is free.
c) Why not add Voodoo2 or SLI?
Then again - this is the best Win9x/WinXp combo PC on a Socket 478.

nice system. 😁

MMaximus wrote:

There's not really any software on it as I have no real need for this system, I'm just keeping it for the nostalgic value.

Why not? The P4C800 makes for one of the best Win98 platforms as it is one of the last motherboards before PCI-e based MB's came out.

I am planning a similar system but using a P4P800SE board instead. I have a Gigabyte 8KNXP as well but Im having issues with the bios and I believe it's done for 😢 .

But the P4P800 is not much slower than 875p based boards anyways.

It's a very nice rig you have there. Hope you get to make some use of it.

Thanks

As far as I know there's no onboard wifi on this board so I added a pci wireless g card that I took from a dell machine.
The bracket above the soundcard is a 1394 and eSATA combo. I don't need firewire so i removed the cable, but I thought it might be convenient to have eSATA as I have an hdd dock and spare hard disks.
You're right, there's a space above the video card so I could put it there, although maybe I tried before and the cable wasn't long enough, I'll have to check again.

For SLI, i don't really play any games on this pc so there would be little use I guess. Also, for win98 era stuff I have a pentium II machine with a voodoo 2 that has windows ME installed - my P4C800 pc is my "XP" machine and for some reason it would feel really weird to install win98 on it!

Nice P4 system out there.
Also,P4P800 series motherboards are very good IMO.I have the P4P800-VM as my 2nd system and it works flawlessly under Vista.(I chose Vista as XP support has officially died on 8th April 2014)From the BIOS I could tell it came from a T-Systems MT40 PC.
Anyways,I don't get why you installed a AGP card that has only DVI connectors and no VGA connectors.I always try avoiding these and getting something with VGA.

PcBytes wrote:

P4P800-VM

Too few PCI slots... 🙁

has only DVI connectors and no VGA connectors.

It-s DVI-I, so you just need an adapter. IIRC 2 adapters were in my GF6800 (from Gigabyte) retail box.

Gamecollector wrote:

Too few PCI slots... 🙁

3 PCI slots are enough for me to plug a NIC,a audio card (for the gameport,I lost the original gameport bracket) and something else.Also,an advantage it has is it can be built into a Xbox case.(due to being uATX form factor)

It-s DVI-I, so you just need an adapter. IIRC 2 adapters were in my GF6800 (from Gigabyte) retail box.

Well,at least where I live I couldn't find any adapter.

I used the Geforce 6800 Ultra because I bought it new at the time - I remember it was quite expensive so I'm happy to get extra mileage out of it! Anyway, I don't have a better AGP card available, and I have loads of DVI to VGA adapters - I don't see any loss of quality using these adapters so that's a bonus.

I could play games on this PC but is there any benefit to using it instead of a more recent rig? I mean, do some games only play on Windows XP and not 7? Games I used to play on XP were mainly Prince of Persia the sands of time, Doom 3, Half Life 2, Star Trek Voyager Elite Force, Return to Castle Wolfenstein. I haven't played these in ages but I assume if I wanted to replay them they would all run on my LGA775 / Windows 7 system, am I wrong?

MMaximus wrote:

I used the Geforce 6800 Ultra because I bought it new at the time - I remember it was quite expensive so I'm happy to get extra mileage out of it! Anyway, I don't have a better AGP card available, and I have loads of DVI to VGA adapters - I don't see any loss of quality using these adapters so that's a bonus.

I could play games on this PC but is there any benefit to using it instead of a more recent rig? I mean, do some games only play on Windows XP and not 7? Games I used to play on XP were mainly Prince of Persia the sands of time, Doom 3, Half Life 2, Star Trek Voyager Elite Force, Return to Castle Wolfenstein. I haven't played these in ages but I assume if I wanted to replay them they would all run on my LGA775 / Windows 7 system, am I wrong?

Well, it is period hardware, it's part of the nostalgic experience to play period games on it.

In some instances there can be benefits, but often they are better played on a modern rig with higher resolutions, anti-aliasing etc. Think it's best to go on a case-by-case basis here. Though there is a nostalgia factor too of course.

Out of curiosity, this is a modern PSU you are using here, right? I'm not entirely sure, but if you bought the motherboard in late 2003 that must have been right after the switch to 12V for the CPU. Otherwise with such a setup I could see a modern 380W unit meaning trouble when only the 5V rail is loaded.

Also have to say, I really dig your various setups 😀

Thanks.

The PSU is an Antec Earthwatts 380watts, probably 4 or 5 year old. Bought it at the time because the Antec Sonata PSU I was using suddenly failed one day. I don't remember if the original PSU had -5v but I don't think Pentium IV systems need -5v anyway.

Very nice looking period build - is that a Sony FW900?

Wasn't talking about -5V.

ATX12V 2.x PSUs have power distribution designed for late P4/XP PCs and for Athlon 64 and Core Duo PCs. They can be used with earlier P4/XP PCs, but the power distribution will be significantly suboptimal, so a more powerful ATX12V 2.0 PSU should be used to compensate for that discrepancy. ATX12V 2.x PSUs can also be used with pre-P4/XP systems, but the power distribution will be greatly suboptimal (12 V rails will be mostly unused, while the 3.3 V/5 V rails will be overloaded), so this is not recommended.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATX

@d1stortion
Sorry for the confusion and thanks for the link. I guess the PSU is ok because it is a late P4? Haven't noticed any problem but as I said the PC doesn't get much use.

@obobskivich
thanks. The case is not really period correct as I only got it recently, but I guess it doesn't look too modern so that's a plus. The CRT is actually the FW900 little brother, the 21" 4/3 Sony F520:

Still a gorgeous monitor! "Little brother" doesn't seem fitting, then again, against the FW900... 🤣 Do you have the hood for it? Opinions either way about it?

And yeah it should be no problem at all on a modern PSU - Socket 478 P4s rely on the 12V for power (via the aptly named "P4 connector"); the Wikipedia article quoted/linked-to actually states this as well.

It didn't come with a hood at the time, I'm not even sure it used to be an optional extra because I don't remember ever seeing a Sony CRT with a hood actually...

I really love this CRT, display quality is really sharp and colors are great. I don't use it often because of the size, I keep it in the garage and use a LCD screen for my everyday rig. Still, I don't want to get rid of it because I bought it new (around 2003) and it would be such a waste to sell it for a few euros, seeing it still works perfectly.

MMaximus wrote:

It didn't come with a hood at the time, I'm not even sure it used to be an optional extra because I don't remember ever seeing a Sony CRT with a hood actually...

Agreed that it wouldn't be a good move to get rid of such a nice monitor! 😀