Kamerat wrote:

Finished my first PC from early '98, not all parts are original but the replacements are close to the original ones. […]
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Finished my first PC from early '98, not all parts are original but the replacements are close to the original ones.

Pentium II "Deschutes" 333 @ 375MHz (originally Pentium II "Klamath" 300)
Abit LX6 (originally Asus P2L97)
64 MB PC66 SDRAM, double height/32 chips (original one)
ATI Expert@Work 8MB AGP (originally Expert@Play)
Seagate Medalist Pro 6,4GB (original one)
Philips DVDR1640P (originally the Creative PC-DVD Encore Dxr2 kit)
3Com Fast EtherLink 3C595 (used this in my original rig, but had an EtherLink III Combo PCI at first)
Sound Blaster AWE64 Value (original one)
Enlight midi tower (original one)
Chieftec 250W PSU (originally some piece of junk)

Also added a few upgrades:
3dfx Voodoo2 12MB
Aureal Vortex
IBM 4,3GB HDD
I might also add some more RAM to it.

I didn't use that 64MB stick for very long because it had stability issues with the P2L97 so I changed it with a 32MB stick that my dad had in his PC. In summer of '98 I got a 128MB stick so I no had 160MB of RAM. Fortunately the LX6 has no issues with it, even at 75MHz and 2-2-2 timings.

You might notice from the pictures that the I/O shield is missing. Unfortunately the motherboard is bent so it makes it impossible to install with an I/O shield.

Pics:

IMGP3942.JPG

IMGP3944.JPG

IMGP3947.JPG

I've never seen an optical drive like that at all. You don't see that everyday, and that must be from the early or mid 2000's if I'm correct.

bjwil1991 wrote:

I've never seen an optical drive like that at all. You don't see that everyday, and that must be from the early or mid 2000's if I'm correct.

Your'e right. It's dated December 2004, only thing not period correct in this rig, but I like the appearance and it works very well (can't say that about all optical drives I own). 😀

Even the Megarace installer approves the drive... 🤣

No need of a floppy or GOTEK in your PII system ?

Nice build. Your spec is almost identical to the system I built in mid-98. Same CPU, RAM, sound card and HD capacity. Only differences are that I used a BX board and a Matrox G200. I also used the 2X Creative DVD and it was really unreliable with CDs I seem to recall and vibrated badly. Also played a lot of Megarace 2 back in the day 😀

Those early PIIs >300mhz were great CPUs and I got many years usage out of mine.

Was eventually upgraded with more RAM, a P3 slocket, Yamaha SCSI CDRW and a Matrox G400 before I sold it on. Don't think I have any of the original parts 🙁

I'm currently building what could have been the best gaming PC of 1998 (can't be made before late 1998 due to some parts ^^) however yours looks great !

Should be nice to relive those days, be interesting if you can withstand upgrading it for long though 😉
What's the difference ATI Expert@Work vs Expert@Play?

For comparison in late 98 I got
Gateway P2 400, BX Motherboard, onboard EnsonicPCI 64
64MB Ram
10GB HDD
32x CD-ROM
And the big upgrade at purchase, 16MB TNT AGP
Also got a Realtek 10MB NIC locally as it was cheaper. Mainly for for network games 😀

Nice work! Thanks for sharing pictures. Could use a bit more RAM if you want it to run smoother. Does anyone use those SB16 applications like TTS?

Thanks for the feedback guys!

melbar wrote:

No need of a floppy or GOTEK in your PII system ?

Not at this time, I just install things from CD or over the network. The case also look cleaner without it.

Andy1979 wrote:

Nice build. Your spec is almost identical to the system I built in mid-98. Same CPU, RAM, sound card and HD capacity. Only differences are that I used a BX board and a Matrox G200. I also used the 2X Creative DVD and it was really unreliable with CDs I seem to recall and vibrated badly. Also played a lot of Megarace 2 back in the day 😀

Those early PIIs >300mhz were great CPUs and I got many years usage out of mine.

Was eventually upgraded with more RAM, a P3 slocket, Yamaha SCSI CDRW and a Matrox G400 before I sold it on. Don't think I have any of the original parts 🙁

Then I remember correctly, not a good drive in the Creative kit. I ended up selling the whole kit to a friend of mine in late '99 to finance a new graphic card. Also remember wanting the Matrox G400 and later the ATI Rage Fury Maxx but waited so long that I ended up with a GeForce DDR for Christmas '99 instead.

Deksor wrote:

I'm currently building what could have been the best gaming PC of 1998 (can't be made before late 1998 due to some parts ^^) however yours looks great !

Thanks! Looking forwoard to see that build.

chinny22 wrote:

Should be nice to relive those days, be interesting if you can withstand upgrading it for long though ;) What's the difference A […]
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Should be nice to relive those days, be interesting if you can withstand upgrading it for long though 😉
What's the difference ATI Expert@Work vs Expert@Play?

For comparison in late 98 I got
Gateway P2 400, BX Motherboard, onboard EnsonicPCI 64
64MB Ram
10GB HDD
32x CD-ROM
And the big upgrade at purchase, 16MB TNT AGP
Also got a Realtek 10MB NIC locally as it was cheaper. Mainly for for network games 😀

I already stuffed a Voodoo2 in there (and I'm not the one that ever finish a build) 😀 , back in the days I suffered with the ATI Expert@Play card for well over 1,5 years. The Expert@Work is missing the TV out connectors of the Play. Nice rig you had back the, the TNT generation of cards was a gigant leap for integrated 2D/3D cards.

oeuvre wrote:

Nice work! Thanks for sharing pictures. Could use a bit more RAM if you want it to run smoother. Does anyone use those SB16 applications like TTS?

Thanks! Think I have a 128MB PC100 stick laying around (got a lot of 256MB ones too, but that will somewhat ruin the period correctness. Even not officially supported the LX chipset do take 256MB sticks, I had my Abit LX6 stuffed with four of those just for fun). I haven't installed any Creative software on my rig yet but remember playing with TTS as a kid, one of them sounded like an old hooker, Ursula or something. 😜