VOGONS

Search

Common searches

Packard Bell Platinum (Win98/DOS, PII, Voodoo2)

Topic actions

First post, by philmac

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

This is my parents old PC from 20 years back. It was reduced to clear at the time, and complete with a 17" CRT that weight a ton and had huge speakers moulded into the case (that went bang years ago). They gave it to me when I moved out as by this point the motherboard had failed due to capacitor plague.

IMG_3328.JPG
Filename
IMG_3328.JPG
File size
1.3 MiB
Views
552 views
File license
CC-BY-4.0

It's now onto it's third motherboard, I've kept the previous board and I'm going to attempt my hand at replacing the caps (when I've worked up the courage). It's currently running on a reconditioned MSI 6119 I found on eBay (where someone else has replaced the ancient substandard caps with decent modern ones.

IMG_3319.JPG
Filename
IMG_3319.JPG
File size
1.62 MiB
Views
552 views
File license
CC-BY-4.0

Full specs:

Pentium II 400mhz
512Mb RAM
ATI Rage Fury MAXX
3DFx Voodoo2
Aureal Vortex 2 Soundcard
Rockwell v90 Modem
3Com 10/100 PCI NIC
2 x 32Gb HDDs
1 x CD-RW
1 x DVD-ROM
1 x IDE Zip Drive (just to cover up the hole in the front of the case).

IMG_3320.JPG
Filename
IMG_3320.JPG
File size
1.6 MiB
Views
552 views
File license
CC-BY-4.0
IMG_3352.JPG
Filename
IMG_3352.JPG
File size
1.33 MiB
Views
552 views
File license
CC-BY-4.0
IMG_3357.JPG
Filename
IMG_3357.JPG
File size
1.33 MiB
Views
552 views
File license
CC-BY-4.0

Additions to the original spec:

Replaced the original ATI Rage Pro with a RAGE FURY MAXX
Replaced the original DVD-ROM with a faster equivalent (and 8x CD-RW)
Replaced the original HD (which failed)
Added more RAM
Added a PnP 3Com NIC so I can stick it on my home network and copy stuff to/from it easily.

No problems with finding drivers as I've kept the original PB prebuild CDs, which include all of the games it was bundled with, and other productivity/utility apps of the time (Encarta 98, MS Works, Norton Utilities). They also handily include all of the DOS drivers, so this works with DOS games without any special tweaking 😀

Reply 1 of 5, by Tetrium

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

For a second I was thinking "How did you get a 400MHz Pentium 2 running on an LX chipset? 😮" but then I figured out that the MSI board with the LX chipset (and not the BX chipset like yours is) is the MS-6117, which I actually have laying around here. I never got around to use mine as I already had a 440LX rig 😜

How is the Rage Fury Maxx? I never actually seen one in the flesh, so I never got around to actually trying one out 😜

Whats missing in your collections?
My retro rigs (old topic)
Interesting Vogons threads (links to Vogonswiki)
Report spammers here!

Reply 2 of 5, by philmac

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
Tetrium wrote on 2020-05-29, 11:37:

For a second I was thinking "How did you get a 400MHz Pentium 2 running on an LX chipset? 😮" but then I figured out that the MSI board with the LX chipset (and not the BX chipset like yours is) is the MS-6117, which I actually have laying around here. I never got around to use mine as I already had a 440LX rig 😜

How is the Rage Fury Maxx? I never actually seen one in the flesh, so I never got around to actually trying one out 😜

Yeah, it's a 440BX. The Rage Fury is surprisingly quick, it beats the SDRAM-based GeForce cards, but not the DDR-based ones in benchmarks.

Unfortunately it's spat out a fan blade over the last couple of days and is now making a horrible noise, so I'll probably have to swap it for something else, unless it'll run without the fans connected.

Reply 3 of 5, by Tetrium

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
philmac wrote on 2020-05-29, 13:04:
Tetrium wrote on 2020-05-29, 11:37:

For a second I was thinking "How did you get a 400MHz Pentium 2 running on an LX chipset? 😮" but then I figured out that the MSI board with the LX chipset (and not the BX chipset like yours is) is the MS-6117, which I actually have laying around here. I never got around to use mine as I already had a 440LX rig 😜

How is the Rage Fury Maxx? I never actually seen one in the flesh, so I never got around to actually trying one out 😜

Yeah, it's a 440BX. The Rage Fury is surprisingly quick, it beats the SDRAM-based GeForce cards, but not the DDR-based ones in benchmarks.

Unfortunately it's spat out a fan blade over the last couple of days and is now making a horrible noise, so I'll probably have to swap it for something else, unless it'll run without the fans connected.

I wouldn't recommend you running that card without any fans. I also think it would be better to replace that fan, since chances are it might fail in the near future perhaps without you noticing in time.

Whats missing in your collections?
My retro rigs (old topic)
Interesting Vogons threads (links to Vogonswiki)
Report spammers here!

Reply 4 of 5, by philmac

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
Tetrium wrote on 2020-05-29, 13:39:
philmac wrote on 2020-05-29, 13:04:
Tetrium wrote on 2020-05-29, 11:37:

For a second I was thinking "How did you get a 400MHz Pentium 2 running on an LX chipset? 😮" but then I figured out that the MSI board with the LX chipset (and not the BX chipset like yours is) is the MS-6117, which I actually have laying around here. I never got around to use mine as I already had a 440LX rig 😜

How is the Rage Fury Maxx? I never actually seen one in the flesh, so I never got around to actually trying one out 😜

Yeah, it's a 440BX. The Rage Fury is surprisingly quick, it beats the SDRAM-based GeForce cards, but not the DDR-based ones in benchmarks.

Unfortunately it's spat out a fan blade over the last couple of days and is now making a horrible noise, so I'll probably have to swap it for something else, unless it'll run without the fans connected.

I wouldn't recommend you running that card without any fans. I also think it would be better to replace that fan, since chances are it might fail in the near future perhaps without you noticing in time.

Yeah, the problem is trying to find a fan in the right form factor to fit that heatsink, so far I've not had much joy. Suspect it'll be permanently retired to the spares box at this rate 🙁

I will hear it if it stops though, making a hell of a racket 😉

Reply 5 of 5, by Tetrium

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
philmac wrote on 2020-05-29, 14:12:
Tetrium wrote on 2020-05-29, 13:39:
philmac wrote on 2020-05-29, 13:04:

Yeah, it's a 440BX. The Rage Fury is surprisingly quick, it beats the SDRAM-based GeForce cards, but not the DDR-based ones in benchmarks.

Unfortunately it's spat out a fan blade over the last couple of days and is now making a horrible noise, so I'll probably have to swap it for something else, unless it'll run without the fans connected.

I wouldn't recommend you running that card without any fans. I also think it would be better to replace that fan, since chances are it might fail in the near future perhaps without you noticing in time.

Yeah, the problem is trying to find a fan in the right form factor to fit that heatsink, so far I've not had much joy. Suspect it'll be permanently retired to the spares box at this rate 🙁

I will hear it if it stops though, making a hell of a racket 😉

True that 🤣
But perhaps by the time you got back from your coffee machine or your phonecall, the chip might have already overheated 😜
Better safe then sorry and it would be a waste to have such a card killed 😒

Btw, what size fan does fit your card? I've had success using CPU HSF fans as well and those come is quite small sizes/ Might be worth going that route if you really can't find anything that will fit 😀

Whats missing in your collections?
My retro rigs (old topic)
Interesting Vogons threads (links to Vogonswiki)
Report spammers here!

Go to top of page Go to top of page
Back to System Specs
Close window
Close window