A couple pics would help 😜

Even though I really like your setup, I'm not sure it would be optimal for playing DOS games due to the motherboard using a bridge chip and the CPU being locked and on the speedy side, but you could give it a go.

Let us know how it turns out 😀

Tetrium wrote:

A couple pics would help 😜

Even though I really like your setup, I'm not sure it would be optimal for playing DOS games due to the motherboard using a bridge chip and the CPU being locked and on the speedy side, but you could give it a go.

Let us know how it turns out 😀

I was afraid of the bridge ISA (ITE brand bridge chip), but I have not seen any issues with the sound cards, (except an NMI related issue with aweutil with the EM option).

So far I have tried the following DOS games and demos, all successfully with sound :
- Doom with SB Pro and Sound Canvas
- Quake with Gravis Ultrasound PnP
- Duke Nukem 3D with SB Pro ans Sound Canvas
- Gateway (requires SoftMpu and Setmul to disable L1 cache) with MT-32 support
- Second Reality with Gravis Ultrasound
- EMF Verses with Gravis Ultrasound

Under a Killing Moon, the Seventh Guest, Phantasmagoria and some Sierra quests will be tried out once my setup is cleaned up a bit .

I realize the CPU is on the fast side, but I really wanted to cover late Windows 98 stuff with this machine . Hopefully I can slow it down enough by disabling cache and by using a slowdown utility .

The tie wraps around the SB32 are a homemade fix for the broken SIMM sockets . It works surprisingly well .

Good to hear about the ISA bridge chip not being much of a problem for you. I never tried a bridged ISA slot myself, so can't say that much about it.

Your build seems well thought out and looks to be solidly build and with solid parts at first glance. Nice!

And don't worry about the (lack of) cable management, it's mostly not really relevant once the system is working. I mainly tie cables together to prevent cables from jamming any fans and by the looks of it, you have plenty airflow 😀

I'm not sure about your graphics card (might be on the new side for pure DOS), but the main thing is that it works 😁

Tetrium wrote:

Your build seems well thought out and looks to be solidly build and with solid parts at first glance. Nice!

Thank you . A lot of thought and trial and error did go into it .

Tetrium wrote:

And don't worry about the (lack of) cable management, it's mostly not really relevant once the system is working. I mainly tie cables together to prevent cables from jamming any fans and by the looks of it, you have plenty airflow 😀

It seems to stay cool enough, but that passively cooled Voodoo 3 3000 used to get really hot before I tie-wrapped a fan to its side .

Tetrium wrote:

I'm not sure about your graphics card (might be on the new side for pure DOS), but the main thing is that it works 😁

It was not my first choice either . I started with a Quadro FX1100 (FX5700 derivative), but its VESA BIOS did not work with Quake . I then tried a Radeon 9700, but found it defaulted to 75Hz under DOS and crashed with certain video-timing sensitive things, like Second Reality. Finally, I tried a Geforce 6600GT, which defaults at 60Hz over DVI in DOS (added bonus of working with my TV if needed), works with everything I have tested under DOS (though 60Hz slows down Second Reality). For everything else (palettized textures, etc), I can switch to the Voodoo 3 as primary with a quick trip to the BIOS .

Replaced the 6600GT with a locally sourced MSI FX 5900 (the 6600GT had stability issues in certain scrolling scenarios) . I also managed to fix my Quadro FX1100 VESA issues with a newer BIOS . So I now have a spare in case the FX 5900 gives up the ghost . The FX 5900 is the fastest AGP card I have ever seen in VESA under pure DOS (over 60 fps in Quake timedemo at 1024x768), which is a bit faster than the 6600GT .

I was also lucky enough go get a Simmconn Revival for my AWE64 Value, which has replaced the CT3670 .

I think it is complete on the hardware side of things .

"Creative SB32 model CT3670 with 8MB RAM and flashed with AWE64 EEPROM (to disable IDE interface)"

Please elaborate and provide some downloads, Googeling does not give any answers.

Cyberdyne wrote:

Please elaborate and provide some downloads, Googeling does not give any answers.

I used a utility from Dell. This utility is meant to flash an AWE64 whose EEPROM has been corrupted back to working order . I just took a chance to try it on my CT3670, which was/is rumored to be essentially an AWE64 with SIMM slots and an IDE interface added .
See How I turned my CT3670 into an AWE64 and got rid of its pesky IDE interface for details and a download link .