I wish there was still some manufacturers making beige cases or beige PC stuff in general. If I had the choice between black and beige I'd choose beige most of the time. Wish my modern PC setup was beige. I like the look of the Nanoxia Deep Silence 5, with a coat of paint that could look very nice for a retro setup. The white version especially.

The case has always been this colour, I didn't really do much to clean it besides a wet rag and a littly scrubbing with a magic ereaser to get off some pen marks. It was mostly under my desk when I was young so it didn't get too much UV.

Those are some damn nice boards, wish I had them, would save me from having to use these VIA based boards. No matter what I do they just don't work as well as my 440GX. That board dishes out double the framerates at higher resolutions with less drops than both VIA boards, running the same CPU and graphics card. It's nuts!

I'm glad you like it! Thanks!

Funny how back in the day having a black case was unique, now it's the other way round 😀

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

Funny how back in the day having a black case was unique, now it's the other way round 😀

You should try a silver case 😜.
And congrats on your promotion, soldier! 😁

Hellistor wrote:

Wish my modern PC setup was beige.

My "modern" setup is still all beige. Wouldn't have it any other way.

Hehe yeah, I remember really wanting a black case back then. How our tastes change. It's probably mostly nostalgia now but still.

I'd like to use a beige setup as well but short of painting my entire setup I'd have to give up quite a few modern conveniences. No 144hz widescreen monitor, no backlit mechanical keyboard, no modern mouse precision, no front panel audio and USB, much worse case airflow.

I wish that manufacturers offered their existing products in beige. "1998" - special edition or something. 🤣

This is my Duel P3 SLI machine
Asus P2B-DS Build
Also agree Slot 1 seems more special then socket systems.
This is easily my most used retro box, Dos up through to early XP games.

The 2 FDD's DO look sexy!

That looks very nice. Loving the 5 1/4' audio bay. I'd love to have the version for my SB Live!. Plugging in headphones is a bit of a hassle without it.
Same here, it's my most used retro box.
Those dual floppies are not just for show, they're quite handy. If I have to check the contents of a pile of old floppies I can do it twice as fast. They DO look sexy though.

Tetrium wrote:

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

Funny how back in the day having a black case was unique, now it's the other way round 😀

You should try a silver case 😜.
And congrats on your promotion, soldier! 😁

😊

Silver, true. My current project has to do with a HTPC case and DOS gaming. It actually is a great substitute for a desktop case. Quite surprised, it looks really good.

Hellistor wrote:

I wish there was still some manufacturers making beige cases or beige PC stuff in general. If I had the choice between black and beige I'd choose beige most of the time. Wish my modern PC setup was beige. I like the look of the Nanoxia Deep Silence 5, with a coat of paint that could look very nice for a retro setup. The white version especially.

Fridge-bright-white computers are a great idea. Black computers may look cool and menacing at LANs but they're a pain when you have to change CDs or plug in USB cables in the dark.

There's additional fun if the reset button is right next to the USB ports.

Oh yes, so much fun....

It has happened to me several times, trying to unplug a stubborn USB plug.
Other than that, it's a great case. Enermax Fulmo GT.

Here's an update on the condition of the system.

I got a Soundblaster AWE32 Value CT3910 yesterday and installed it. It was working fine but through some unrelated fuckery on my part I had to wipe the Hard Drive. 😢

Since reinstalling Win 98SE the system hangs at the "Windows is shutting down" screen. I tried several supposed fixes but nothing worked.

I made a post in Marvin. There's some more information there.

If anybody has any ideas on how to fix it, please post there. I'd appreciate any help!

UPDATE: Removing all expansion cards except Video, reinstalling Windows, and putting the cards back in one by one seems to have fixed the problem

Alright, I have now finished the upgrade from the SB16 to the AWE32.

Everythign is now set up again and works. I still got a few games left to install, but other than that it's done.

Here's a few pictures:

Yes those are a 2x4 lego block and two 1x4 lego strips between the Voodoo2s. They're acting as a spacer to keep them parallel.

And yes, that is two 2x2 lego blocks stuck to the case with double sided tape holding up the AWE32

Look at all that glorious hardware!

I had to reposition the fan I use to keep the PCI cards cool. This should work.

Running Descent 2 in pure DOS. This game has a fantastic AWE32 soundtrack.

Here's a recording of the Descent 2 Title Theme. The crackling in the background comes from the line in on my Xonar D2X. Don't know why it's there, onboard works fine but I haven't gotten around to rerecord.

Thanks to all the guys who helped my over in Marvin. I had some pretty stupid problems getting everything to work. You were very helpful!

Hi Hellistor,

First of all, congratulations on this build, it still looks awesome in 2021 😀.

I managed to get my hands on a P6DGS dual slot-1 board which is almost identical to yours. I would like to ask 2 things which surprised me when I looked at the board.

1. What power cable could I attach to PWR_SEC (secondary power)? Did you attach anything to PWR_SEC in your build?
2. Erm, on the overheat led, what does "after washing" actually mean on the seal? 😀 Should I remove the seal? Did you remove it?

Thank you and best regards,
Zoltan

Wilczek_h wrote on 2021-10-28, 07:32:

Hi Hellistor, […]
Show full quote

Hi Hellistor,

First of all, congratulations on this build, it still looks awesome in 2021 😀.

I managed to get my hands on a P6DGS dual slot-1 board which is almost identical to yours. I would like to ask 2 things which surprised me when I looked at the board.
P6DGS.jpg
1. What power cable could I attach to PWR_SEC (secondary power)? Did you attach anything to PWR_SEC in your build?
2. Erm, on the overheat led, what does "after washing" actually mean on the seal? 😀 Should I remove the seal? Did you remove it?

Thank you and best regards,
Zoltan

Hi! I'm not Hellistor but I can answer those questions as well.😉
The sec power pinout is explained in the manual on pg. 2-7: pins 1-3 are ground, 4-5 are +3.3V and 6 is +5V. Pin 1 is the one closest to the PCB edge, 6 is closest to the electrolytic capacitor. It's also labelled on the silkscreen.
The manual states the connector is 'recommended when a heavy load of peripherals have been connected to the motherboard.' In most cases you won't need it.

The silkscreen refers to the pin header for an overheat led you may have on your case somewhere that'll give you a visual alert to overheating hardware. The part with the sticker is a buzzer that'll give an audible alert. (Thanks, Sherlock Doornkaat! 😉)
The sticker is for when you actually wash the board. Water gets into the buzzer and won't come out easily so you remove the sticker and it'll evaporate. Otherwise the sticker is there to prevent stuff (mostly moisture from air humidity probably) from getting into the buzzer.

Hope this helps!👍

Wilczek_h wrote on 2021-10-28, 07:32:

Hi Hellistor,

First of all, congratulations on this build, it still looks awesome in 2021 😀.

Thanks!
It's still going. Sometimes changing small things, but it's pretty much the same as before.

Wilczek_h wrote on 2021-10-28, 07:32:

Hi Hellistor,
1. What power cable could I attach to PWR_SEC (secondary power)? Did you attach anything to PWR_SEC in your build?

It is an optional secondary power connection in case you're running a lot of expansion cards. Something like the 24pin ATX connector on a new Motherboard compared to an older 20 Pin ATX. This type of additional power connector predates that. If you have an old power supply from the era they can have the ATX 20 pin and then what looks like half of an AT power connector. That AT power connector looking thing connects to this secondary power socket on the motherboard.

Personally I have it plugged in simply due to the fact that I have every single expansion slot filled. Even then it would probably work fine with just the 20 Pin. If you have a more "sensible" configuration you don't need to bother with this at all.

Wilczek_h wrote on 2021-10-28, 07:32:

2. Erm, on the overheat led, what does "after washing" actually mean on the seal? 😀 Should I remove the seal? Did you remove it?

Doornkaat answered this better than I can.

If you have any further questions about this motherboard you can actually just google Supermicro P6DGS and the first link should be a PDF Manual on Supermicro's site. They still have it available.

Good luck with your build!

Dear Doornkaat and Hellistor,

Thank you so much for the answers. I have to admit I would have never figured out this "washing" thing without your help 😀.

Regarding the power connector: I have the manual and I checked the pin layout before posting. However, the connector looked odd to me, it looked something like - like @Hellistor also described - an AT connector cut into halves as opposed to a "normal" 2x2 pin connector. Now I know what the name of the cable is. 😀 It is called the "6 pin auxiliary power connector".

I do not have it on my PSU (I always buy a new ATX PSU for retro ATX builds), so if the board becomes unstable or shuts down, I might grab a 20pin -> 20pin + 6 pin AUX converter. I do not plan to fill most of the slots, a Geforce2 GTS and an AWE64 or SB Live! 5.1 will do just fine. The build will run retro NT based servers (NT 4.0 Server, 2000 Server Standard and 2003 Server Standard x86) and for fun either Q4OS or Slax for internet and modern stuff 😉.

So with that, let me thank you again for the answers and best regards,
Zoltan

Great! Have fun with the board.😃
PS: Keep in mind this physical connector on ATX boards will not always adhere to this standard. If you aren't sure always check.👍

About the washing - during PCB production and assembly, often a board is cleaned (washed) for flux residues etc. The sticker should not be removed before this process is done. Removing the sticker will make the volume louder, but it is as protective measure during production ..