my system specs (3 computers, ppro200, p200, p4 2.53) \ VOGONS

my system specs (3 computers, ppro200, p200, p4 2.53)

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First post, by ElBrunzy

Posted on 2015-12-20, 05:00

ElBrunzy Offline

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Hi, I'm a big fan of VOGONS, I spend alot of time at job reading forum threads just for the fun to remember how fun and easy it was back then ... At the end of the day I go crazy as those old computers are full of bugs and problems.
Anyway, I always feel like I should post more and contribute to this wonderfull web site, so here is my rig showdown :

First thing first, this is a pentium 200 (might be 233 downclocked to 200 to avoid the turbopascal bug). I changed all the fan for new one and put the cpu on 3.3 instead of 5 to make it more silent. As you see, it hold a GUSPNP with 8mb of ram. The OS is FreeDOS as the main drive is a 16gb fat32 compactflash. Can load usb drives from fdconfig.sys to copy files as the network from dos is so-so.

So here we have our big boy running windows 98 on the best video card it can run prior the os was abandoned buy drivers makers. It's a amd 6600 fanless. You can see there is a sblive under it and I found the APS drivers. Under dos7 there is no sb16 emulation (otherwise why not use dosbox) and about the sole program I can use is live amp player that play modules with the emu1000 chipset. On windows, I have a game of Manathan Project going on.

The dual pentium pro (256kb in SMP, I have a 512kb and 1024kb cpu, but only one ... if anyone have the pair?) it hold a gus classic with 1mb and a sb awe32 with 32mb (28really). I'm in the process to swap the hdd to cf, but it dont go really well. That computer host a true dos 6.22 os and ... up to now DamnSmallLinux maybe .. I dont know, I'm in the project of replacing win2000 as it cannot be helpfull on dual 8gb compactflash that cannot be seen as fixed drives.

any comments are welcome, as usual, it's always a pleasure to read you. Bye

Reply 1 of 5, by alexanrs

Posted on 2015-12-20, 10:58

alexanrs Offline

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I'd leave Windows 2000/Linux on an HDD and DOS on the CF card. You can get a PCI SATA2 controller (which should have Windows 2000/XP drivers + Linux support), sidestep any issues with the 137GB barrier and just use a modern and silent HDD.

Reply 2 of 5, by Skyscraper

Posted on 2015-12-23, 10:14

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Nice systems 😀

If you get a second (matching) Pentium Pro CPU I think running Windows NT4 is the best choice but a Pentium Pro build also makes a good fast DOS box with a single CPU.

New PC: i9 12900K @5GHz all cores @1.2v. MSI PRO Z690-A. 32GB DDR4 3600 CL14. 3070Ti.
Old PC: Dual Xeon X5690@4.6GHz, EVGA SR-2, 48GB DDR3R@2000MHz, Intel X25-M. GTX 980ti.
Older PC: K6-3+ 400@600MHz, PC-Chips M577, 256MB SDRAM, AWE64, Voodoo Banshee.

Reply 3 of 5, by BastlerMike

Posted on 2015-12-23, 15:07

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Is it necessary to have a matched pair of Pros? I remember I once had a 256k/512k dual setup running without issues.

Reply 4 of 5, by PCBONEZ

Posted on 2015-12-23, 15:17

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BastlerMike wrote:
Is it necessary to have a matched pair of Pros? I remember I once had a 256k/512k dual setup running without issues.

Back in the day they (mobo mfrs) always recommended matched pairs.
I suspect the undisclosed goal was to have CPUs with the same stepping.
.

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Mann-Made Global Warming. - We should be more concerned about the Intellectual Climate.
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Reply 5 of 5, by ElBrunzy

Posted on 2015-12-31, 05:17

ElBrunzy Offline

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Location: Québec / Canada

I've try every pair possible with 2x256, 1x516 and 1x1024 and always the bios tell me that the cache level 2 was mismatched in size then halted, might be related to the glue system and the back bus so cache data was spreaded across cpu in the SMP, in my understanding, but I fantasize a bit too much about the ppro world. Anyway I dont care really about that system, better replace it with a p3 with two isa slot and the ram wont have to be incredibly rare EDO on 168pins ECC barrette.

made alot of benchmark about how a single ppro 1024kb goes against a SMP of two ppro 256kb, and I was very surprised that msdos622 (navratil NSSI) and puppylinux (who disable SMP and see only one cpu package) a single ppro 256 was performing better that a single ppro 1024... I dont understand why so. On DSL, Debian Jessie and Debian Sarge kernel it seem the SMP was alive and bringing alot of responsiveness into the system. But I have to run benchmark to prove it, and I have a hand full of other things to do.

Why did I switch from HDD to CF? is to eliminate the mechanical noise an old hard disk drive does, two of them in my case!. So I can now listen to the gus classic white noise when a sample is too long for the memory bank and the awe32 click when a note is not cut according to the workaround. Yeah, I often compare myself to those people listening to techno music on vinyl

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