One photo so far, The MB and audio card just thrown into a random ATX cabinet. I may still choose another one, will see it later...
That other PCI card is a USB2 controller that I WON'T use in this build.

The image doesn't work, it just shows a stop sign 😢

That's a very nice soundcard to find in a "junk" box!

Damn, will reupload it to public space soon

@Thermalwrong : the image should be visible now!

Discovered that this motherboard is limited to 32GB drives... bad thing I haven't got any this small.
I have a 80 Gig WD that has jumper for 32Gig limit, will have to use this one...

Also, this build is going into a Compaq Evo desktop case (formerly Pentium 4). Some people upgrade their computers, I - downgrade 😁

Aaaaand the photos

A Compaq EVO D301D in standard ATX desktop form factor, born Pentium 4 - 2.4 GHz:

Before its original motherboard was removed:

And now, with the MSI MS6160 installed. Much shorter board, but the same width and number of expansion slots.

Next.

With HDD jumpers set to 32GB limit, it happily boots and detects the drive. For some reason it's showing 550 MHz instead of 533 - no idea why. Will have to live with that 😁

Sadly, my Geforce 2 card didn't want to work, had to install later but less period correct Geforce 4 MX440/64 MB.

I apologize for my messy garage background, my proper maker space is being redone at this moment 😀

Next step is to upgrade the BIOS to newer version that will permit me to unlock the FSB frequency (this Celeron processor will hopefully run at 75 MHz instead of 66 MHz, making it a 666 MHz - a proper Halloween machine, just in time! Edit: no, I cannot do math to save my life, apparently. that was 600, not 666...). The newer BIOS will also permit to disable the onboard audio, allowing me to run my ISA bus Tropez Plus.

One thing I've discovered that the CD drive is a dud - struggling to read the CDRs, and even pressed CDs aren't all read properly. I'll maybe try to open it and attempt a cleanup...

Turned out this CD drive was also scratching CDs! This one goes directly into the rubbish bin...

Badscrew wrote:

Also, this build is going into a Compaq Evo desktop case (formerly Pentium 4). Some people upgrade their computers, I - downgrade 😁

Now thats a reverse sleeper, the Compaq P4 case gives you bonus (or is it minus) points 😀

It's a great modular case by the way, main cover and face plate opens without tools and the drive bay has locks instead of screws.

The only negative I see is the absence of a reset button (not any different from any modern hardware).
It also has the non-standard front panel electrical connectors (on-off, HDD and power LEDs and speaker). Not a big deal and easily modifiable...

Now, the bios
I'll be following this: https://vswitchzero.com/ms6160/
I'll let you know how it all worked out. Did I brick my board or did i not? 😁

I was finally able to flash the new bios, it went well. The board is still running.
I disabled the on-board audio, however wasn't able to overclock the processor: with FSB at 75 MHz it runs but locks up periodically; had to go back to 68 (yes, there is 66 and 68 MHz setting which was a default). I could play more with RAM latency but don't want too. The 550 Mhz it currently runs at, is enough for me!

Now, installing Windows 98!

Hey hey hey!

I think I've actually never seen W98 running on a (relatively) high-res LCD before... and I like it!
This Celeron 533 feels really nippy, truth to be told back then I've never had a windows 98 machine loaded with 256 Megs of RAM or a video card comparable to GeForce 4!

Next steps: making the Tropez Plus card work properly. As of now almost everything was detected by the plug and play, with one exception: the Wavefront synth isn't working 😢 the very thing that motivated me to build this system 🤣.

That BIOS mod is really nice - it looks like it gained a lot of extra features 😀

Regarding the soundcard - is it the soundcard in general that doesn't detect, or just the MIDI?

Just MIDI. The digital audio and the FM synth work fine...

Badscrew wrote:

I was finally able to flash the new bios, it went well. The board is still running.
I disabled the on-board audio, however wasn't able to overclock the processor: with FSB at 75 MHz it runs but locks up periodically; had to go back to 68 (yes, there is 66 and 68 MHz setting which was a default). I could play more with RAM latency but don't want too. The 550 Mhz it currently runs at, is enough for me!

Really glad my custom BIOS came in handy! I only know of one other person who used it, so was happy to see it worked out well for you 😀

I'm also running a 533MHz celeron on it, but never ran it long enough at 600MHz to know if it was stable or not. I could boot into DOS and Windows and run a few benchmarks, but that's about all I tried. It could be your PCI/AGP cards aren't happy at 75MHz perhaps.

Thanks 😀
How did you do that? Did you disassemble the original bios?
At 600 my system was freezing about 15-20 minutes after boot. Anyway, 533 is plenty enough for me. I have faster modern computers if I need that 😁