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Yet Another P4 Win98/ME Build

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Reply 20 of 31, by mh84

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Reason is simple. My PSU has 2 molex and 1 FDD connector on one cable and 3 SATA connectors on another. I have plan to use both molex connectors and FDD connector. HDD will use SATA connector so I have 2 SATA connectors left and they are near graphics card. That seems like an elegant solution to me.

Reply 21 of 31, by dr_st

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All numbers I could find on the GeForce 5900 suggest that the card's maximum power draw is somewhere between 55 and 60 watts. Considering it is likely to get about half of that from the slot, I don't think it would ever realistically draw anything over the 4.5A that the SATA connectors are rated for. You are probably fine.

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Reply 22 of 31, by mh84

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dr_st wrote:

All numbers I could find on the GeForce 5900 suggest that the card's maximum power draw is somewhere between 55 and 60 watts. Considering it is likely to get about half of that from the slot, I don't think it would ever realistically draw anything over the 4.5A that the SATA connectors are rated for. You are probably fine.

This is very useful. Thank you. I think I will risk it.

Reply 23 of 31, by dr_st

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Furthermore, as far as I could find, 4-pin molex is rated for 5A maximum current anyways (not sure where you got the 11A figure), so for all practical purposes, they are equivalent.

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Reply 24 of 31, by mh84

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I'm not exactly sure, but here it's listed even as 13A:

http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/c … html#peripheral

However he suggests that wire gauge used should not be used for more than 5A.

Reply 25 of 31, by mh84

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Quick update to prove that this project isn't dead. 😀 I have all components ready. Case mentioned earlier arrived. (No photo yet.) And I'm currently in the process of cleaning all components. I'm trying to clean everything in water! So currently I'm doing tests with my old Asus MEL-M 440LX motherboard and few other components. If they survive I will water clean all PCBs in this build. Meanwhile here are some last pieces of the build.

My own period correct CD-RW Asus CRW-5224A and FDD Sony MPF920 together with some cables and a new pack of floppies for $7.

Even if this project is far from ready. I'm already planning my XP build and PII based DOS build!

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Reply 26 of 31, by mh84

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Bulding time!

It seems that board survived water cleaning well (it was fully submerged in water). Everything is shiny and looks (and smells!) brand new. I'm very happy with that cooler, it's really quiet and thermal control works really well. Probably much better than BIOS thermal control which this board lacks. And overall I'm impressed how cool this CPU runs. On the other hand, chipset cooler is very hot.

I'm doing some initial stress testing before moving forward.

Do you have any recommendations for BIOS settings for Windows Me? Choices like PnP OS, APIC etc.?

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Reply 27 of 31, by mh84

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Build is complete from 99%. Meanwhile here is my cleaned FX5900 with a new cooler and custom SATA power connector.

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Reply 28 of 31, by mh84

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The build is finally finished. I was waiting for Audigy front panel adapter. I also made a few changes. I replaced SSD which I'm keeping for an XP build with 2.5 inch 120 GB Fujitsu drive taken from my Xbox 360. It's slow but perfectly quiet. I also replaced Asus CD drive which was unbelievable loud with LG DVD drive which is smaller and much quieter. And finally I went with 98SE instead of ME just because it didn't feel good.

Here are some final pictures. I'm very happy with the result. Now moving on to an XP build!

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Reply 31 of 31, by mh84

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dr_st wrote:

In what way exactly did WinME not feel good? Just curious.

It's hard to explain, but I have mostly subjective reasons. System was acting a little bit strangely, but nothing major. Main reason was simply a lack of nostalgia because my first PC was 98 based and I spent several years with it.

Main reason for thinking about ME was USB support, but since I have connected this PC to my NAS over network, there is no need for USB anymore. I have configured firewall to deny internet access on my router, so don't worry. 😀