VOGONS


First post, by senrew

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I shall call her...Zhaan

Imgur album as there were too many to practically attach
http://imgur.com/a/9PxZD

This is my "High End" Win98 machine. At the moment, it's built from parts I currently have on hand. As I determine where my needs are not being met, I'll upgrade/replace specific items. Consider this Version 1.

Purpose:
An "Only play games from a specific period of time" category machine, this machine is meant to handle all Windows games released from January 1, 1998 till the practical end of games intended for a Windows 98 release. Other machines will handle games prior to this date, along with another machine for XP era gaming.

Intended Games:
Pretty much anything that doesn't require glide.

Parts:

Gigabyte GA-K8NNXP (Socket 754, nForce3-150)
AMD Athlon64 3000+ (2.0GHZ, Clawhammer, ADA3000AEP4AP (C0))
Some heatsink/fan combo I can't find much info about
Hynix 512MB PC3200 DDR 400MHZ CL3
ASUS V8460ULTRA/128M (GeForce4 Ti 4600 AGP 4x 128MB)
Phillips PSC604 PCI Soundcard (I don't know much about this, but will be testing it as best as I can)
ULTRA ULT-500p PSU
Chieftec Dragon ATX Case (Best I was able to research on the model. Close enough anyway)

I did the build on Thursday night, but haven't had a chance to actually plug it in and get anything installed. Hopefully I should be able to do that.

From what I've found, the chipset on this board is a decent performer for Win98 without being too in the realm of overkill. If I had a P4 setup, I'd have used that instead, but this is what I had in my leftovers parts boxes.

Anyone have any experience with these parts and Win98? Anything I need to look out for?

Halcyon: PC Chips M525, P100, 64MB, Millenium 1, Voodoo1, AWE64, DVD, Win95B

Reply 1 of 14, by Tetrium

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So how's your rig been holding out the past month?

Your rig doesn't really need those high amps for your configuration, so that should be fine. I dunno about the PSU itself though (never heard of the Ultra brand before and the label looks kinda cheap).

I'm kinda interested how your sound card is doing? I tend to see if I can get anything non-creative in a rig, but usually end up with a CT anyway, because those always simply work (lol?) and CT sound cards are typically well documented.

The CPU HSF is of a kind of model I kinda prefer actually. Easy to mount, not fantastic overclocking cooling, but usually silent and more than good enough for non-overclocking duties (and they usually don't make too much noise and they are cheap and easy to install).

What happened to your front panel door? Some of my cases had those already broken off btw, I'd only use such a case if I know I'll probably won't be swapping optical disks a lot.

Otherwise it looks to be a well done rig, no obvious damages I could quickly spot.

Whats missing in your collections?
My retro rigs (old topic)
Interesting Vogons threads (links to Vogonswiki)
Report spammers here!

Reply 2 of 14, by senrew

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Got bored and started looking up these parts to see if I can make a decent 2003-ish machine for my next nostalgia build. Seems this wouldn't have been too bad as the core of the build.

http://techreport.com/review/6147/amd-athlon- … -3000-processor

Any suggestions for a video card to match this build? I'm sure there's gotta be something "better" than the Geforce4 4600 I have in here.

Halcyon: PC Chips M525, P100, 64MB, Millenium 1, Voodoo1, AWE64, DVD, Win95B

Reply 3 of 14, by Tetrium

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senrew wrote:

Got bored and started looking up these parts to see if I can make a decent 2003-ish machine for my next nostalgia build. Seems this wouldn't have been too bad as the core of the build.

http://techreport.com/review/6147/amd-athlon- … -3000-processor

Any suggestions for a video card to match this build? I'm sure there's gotta be something "better" than the Geforce4 4600 I have in here.

I very much liked the Venices, had both a s939 and s754 2.2GHz A64 and performance was virtually identical. The dual channel didn't seem to make any difference, except for me having to pick 2 similar memory modules to make dual channel work, instead of having the freedom to mix and match different memory sizes depending on what I happen to have laying around.

Very solid platforms, both of them still work! 😁

I think I mentioned both of them in my own retro rig thread, link is in my sig 😀.

One used a GF6800 (vanilla) and the other a 7600GS, both of these cards also having very similar performance.

Whats missing in your collections?
My retro rigs (old topic)
Interesting Vogons threads (links to Vogonswiki)
Report spammers here!

Reply 4 of 14, by senrew

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Now that I've got my p100 machine up and running smoothly, it's time to look at this guy again.

Looking at the parts again, and needing to be very conscious of space concerns, I think I'll dedicate this machine to 98/XP dual boot. The 98 side would be for games like Star Trek Armada or Klingon Honor Guard, or Klingon Academy ( I see a pattern here...) that just prefer 98. The XP side would be good for early XP era games, maybe up to 2004ish maybe? Anything newer than that should work fine on my modern rig I think. Not even sure where to start testing that, but most of those games are GOG or Steam based so should just work.

Anyway, back to the old questions. Any suggestions for upgrades on maxing out this machine while keeping 98 compatibility?

Halcyon: PC Chips M525, P100, 64MB, Millenium 1, Voodoo1, AWE64, DVD, Win95B

Reply 5 of 14, by KCompRoom2000

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senrew wrote:

Anyway, back to the old questions. Any suggestions for upgrades on maxing out this machine while keeping 98 compatibility?

I recommend an ATI Radeon 9600-9800 or an nVidia Geforce 6600-6800 if you're looking for a better video card with 98 and XP support, maybe a Geforce 7x00 if you don't mind trying unofficial drivers on the 98 side.

If you're open to replacing 98SE with Millennium Edition: I'd suggest bumping the RAM up to 1GB or so since Windows Me deals with higher RAM better than 98 does and the upgrade is worth it for the XP side, despite the hatred spread on the release date and the parroting on that subject, Windows Me is actually a great OS on newer hardware for those who are just running Windows 9x games.

Reply 6 of 14, by senrew

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Would I be able to max out the RAM to 3GB for the XP side and just use the MaxPhysPage trick to limit to say 512 for 98? Or is there some kind of hard limit for RAM in 98?

Halcyon: PC Chips M525, P100, 64MB, Millenium 1, Voodoo1, AWE64, DVD, Win95B

Reply 7 of 14, by senrew

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I've decided to stick with the Ti4600 on this build. Going to dual-boot WInME and 2000. This machine will be meant to cover Dx7/8 games from about 2000-2003 or so. Just waiting to pick up an Audigy 2ZS and a Case for the machine and I think it'll be ready to go.

Halcyon: PC Chips M525, P100, 64MB, Millenium 1, Voodoo1, AWE64, DVD, Win95B

Reply 8 of 14, by Kamerat

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senrew wrote:

Phillips PSC604 PCI Soundcard (I don't know much about this, but will be testing it as best as I can)

That card uses a rebranded CMI 8738 chip, so nothing special about it.

DOS Sound Blaster compatibility: PCI sound cards vs. PCI chipsets
YouTube channel

Reply 9 of 14, by senrew

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Kamerat wrote:
senrew wrote:

Phillips PSC604 PCI Soundcard (I don't know much about this, but will be testing it as best as I can)

That card uses a rebranded CMI 8738 chip, so nothing special about it.

Yeah, I put this thing together on my "bench" (an old motherboard box) and it was just...meh. It's an alternative to a Live! sure, but it doesn't do anything special. Looking for an Audigy 2ZS on ebay and that'll be that.

Halcyon: PC Chips M525, P100, 64MB, Millenium 1, Voodoo1, AWE64, DVD, Win95B

Reply 10 of 14, by senrew

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After a long while, it's time to build this sucker up. Ended up parting it out and sticking the parts in a box and dumped the case for space needs. Finally ordered another one and it's time to build this back up and see what it's got. Going to go with a Live! card vs the Phillips one, so there's that.

The only real question I have left is...ME/2k/XP?

I tried installing XP in a VM and was hit with the key/activation hell that I wasn't expecting. I've got a few original CDs to install from, and a load of key stickers saved from salvaged PCs. Is there a consensus on how to do a proper install/activation in 2018 for XP?

Halcyon: PC Chips M525, P100, 64MB, Millenium 1, Voodoo1, AWE64, DVD, Win95B

Reply 11 of 14, by KCompRoom2000

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senrew wrote:

The only real question I have left is...ME/2k/XP?

I tried installing XP in a VM and was hit with the key/activation hell that I wasn't expecting. I've got a few original CDs to install from, and a load of key stickers saved from salvaged PCs. Is there a consensus on how to do a proper install/activation in 2018 for XP?

I normally stick with volume licenses for Windows XP, so I have limited experience with activation for that specific Windows version. From what I've heard, phone activation still works, maybe that method is worth a shot?

I'd dual boot Windows ME with either 2000 Professional or XP depending on which one of the two you like the most. If you find yourself owning too many XP rigs and not enough 2000 rigs, I'd dual-boot ME and 2000, if you don't mind having another XP rig in your fleet, dual-boot ME and XP (provided that you can get it activated), just my perspective.

Reply 12 of 14, by senrew

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I must sadly report that this board is now effectively dead. Found a case and built it up and it kept shutting down after 10 minutes or so. Thinking it was thermal, I redid the goop on the CPU, with a PSU swap next on the list. Turned it on after the repasting...and we have magic smoke and cap boogers from a popped cap on the DPS VRM daughterboard.

Halcyon: PC Chips M525, P100, 64MB, Millenium 1, Voodoo1, AWE64, DVD, Win95B

Reply 14 of 14, by senrew

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I'm not currently equipped to do any component level replacements, and my hands aren't what they used to be. At this point, I'm just going to swap out the board/video for my P2B-S, p3/550 and a GF2 GTS and run that for awhile.

This was more of an overpowered build to see what I can do with certain games, but looking at my list, I should be good with the alternative build for now until I can build up an XP machine for anything that needs more power.

Halcyon: PC Chips M525, P100, 64MB, Millenium 1, Voodoo1, AWE64, DVD, Win95B