VOGONS


First post, by Jackhead

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After a Dos 6.22 and Win98Se mashine i started building an system to run Games on Windows XP.
It is focus to run all the stuff you have problems on modern PCs like Dark Messiah. It should catch also all the games after the 3dfx timeline.
Another focus is running on resolution 1600x1200.

So here my setup :

MB: Asus Maximus II Formula Rev 1.02b Bios 2302 with Xeon microcode flashed
CPU: Xeon X5470 mod for 775 @ Noctua NH-D14 @ 4,25Ghz
RAM: 2x 2GB Kingston Hyper X 1066 CL5
GPU: Evga GTX960 SSC 4GB GDDR5
SSD: Crucial MX500 500GB
PSU: be quiet! System Power 9 600W
SPU: Soundblaster X-Fi Elite Pro
OS: Windows XP Pro 32bit

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Last edited by Jackhead on 2022-04-16, 15:56. Edited 2 times in total.

Dos 6.22: Asus VL/I-486SV2GX4 Rev 2.0 1Mb L2 - AMD A5x86 X5 ADZ 133MHz @160MHz - 64MB RAM - CT2230 - GUS ACE - MPU-401 AT - ET4000W32P
Win98SE: Asus P5K-WS - E8600 @ 4,5GHz - Strange God Voodoo 5 6000 PCI @ 66MHz PCI-X - 2GB DDR2 1066 - Audigy 2 ZS

Reply 1 of 27, by Jackhead

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CPU installed and working:

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Dos 6.22: Asus VL/I-486SV2GX4 Rev 2.0 1Mb L2 - AMD A5x86 X5 ADZ 133MHz @160MHz - 64MB RAM - CT2230 - GUS ACE - MPU-401 AT - ET4000W32P
Win98SE: Asus P5K-WS - E8600 @ 4,5GHz - Strange God Voodoo 5 6000 PCI @ 66MHz PCI-X - 2GB DDR2 1066 - Audigy 2 ZS

Reply 2 of 27, by mastergamma12

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Very nice, my 980x Lanparty rig has the same usage but I also got 7 on it for DX10 and early DX11 stuff.

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The Tuala-Bus (My 9x/Dos Rig) (Pentium III-S 1.4ghz, AWE64G+Audigy 2 ZS, Voodoo5 5500, Chieftec Dragon Rambus)

The Final Lan Party (My Windows Xp/7 rig) (Core i7 980x, GTX 480,DFI Lanparty UT X58-T3eH8,)
Re: Post your 'current' PC

Reply 3 of 27, by Donovan V.

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Pretty neat stuff. I used to have a HP Workstation with a couple of those Xeons. Pretty good for the time although XP was kind of an issue due to it being only 32 bits and I had like 12gigs of ram. Sadly the power supply died and took the motherboard with it. I still hold the Xeons in hopes of getting a motherboard such as yours. Looks nice. 😁

Reply 4 of 27, by Jackhead

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Still waiting for the cooler but i tryed to run the xeon @4.0 Ghz.
I read that 775 its not a good idea to go OC with Auto option in bios because it auto voltage anything. Anyone experience with it? What voltages should i set manualy?
Anyway i tryed 10x400 and system starts without problems. Did not bench jet because cooler but hwinfo show cpu voltage 1.30V.
Also see some vids where people have problems with the northbridge cooling. But the maximus2 runs AUX 35C° idle on 4GHz Auto.

Dos 6.22: Asus VL/I-486SV2GX4 Rev 2.0 1Mb L2 - AMD A5x86 X5 ADZ 133MHz @160MHz - 64MB RAM - CT2230 - GUS ACE - MPU-401 AT - ET4000W32P
Win98SE: Asus P5K-WS - E8600 @ 4,5GHz - Strange God Voodoo 5 6000 PCI @ 66MHz PCI-X - 2GB DDR2 1066 - Audigy 2 ZS

Reply 5 of 27, by Jackhead

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Ok the Noctua NH-D14 need special mounting modification to fit on the socket 775. But i used some nice backplate and screws and now it fits!
First test with oc 10x400MHz FSB1600 shows the cpu run really nice. I run prime with around 50C on load. The only problem i see is finding good RAM. I tryed some 800MHz from Geil that runs ok. With 1066 from corsair i got frezzes. Also ordered some Kingston 1066 from the asus board list. Will see..

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Dos 6.22: Asus VL/I-486SV2GX4 Rev 2.0 1Mb L2 - AMD A5x86 X5 ADZ 133MHz @160MHz - 64MB RAM - CT2230 - GUS ACE - MPU-401 AT - ET4000W32P
Win98SE: Asus P5K-WS - E8600 @ 4,5GHz - Strange God Voodoo 5 6000 PCI @ 66MHz PCI-X - 2GB DDR2 1066 - Audigy 2 ZS

Reply 6 of 27, by bofh.fromhell

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I spot a buddy system!
Heres mine =)

zDeOJCIl.jpeg

x5460 at 4.27GHz and 1.35v, really had to go water to keep it cool.
Quadro FX5800 at 750MHz core and 1000MHz memory, maxed out sliders in afterburner 🤣.
Temp limited.
Gave me 2 rank 1 on hwbot!, which would have been a lot more impressive it there was some competition 🤣

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750/1000 on a GTX285 equivalent card is impressive imo.
But my Quadro 4800 (~GTX260) manages 800 core and 1100 mem !

Reply 8 of 27, by Jackhead

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bofh.fromhell wrote on 2022-04-06, 20:41:
I spot a buddy system! Heres mine =) […]
Show full quote

I spot a buddy system!
Heres mine =)

zDeOJCIl.jpeg

x5460 at 4.27GHz and 1.35v, really had to go water to keep it cool.
Quadro FX5800 at 750MHz core and 1000MHz memory, maxed out sliders in afterburner 🤣.
Temp limited.
Gave me 2 rank 1 on hwbot!, which would have been a lot more impressive it there was some competition 🤣

NmMUjkfl.jpeg

750/1000 on a GTX285 equivalent card is impressive imo.
But my Quadro 4800 (~GTX260) manages 800 core and 1100 mem !

What RAMs do you use? Can you share your Bios settings? Very nice!
On Auto Settings my CPU used 1.32V Core @4Ghz. For now i set it manualy on 1.35V.
I think the RAM is most importend part for stable system. The NH-D14 has air to go higher.
The Xeon itself runs oc really nice..

A quadro is a nice option! I wonder how a Titan Black will score, well on win7 better with 8gig as on my XP 4gig system i think.

I will switch the Soundcard, i found a SB X-Fi Elite Pro with breakout box

Dos 6.22: Asus VL/I-486SV2GX4 Rev 2.0 1Mb L2 - AMD A5x86 X5 ADZ 133MHz @160MHz - 64MB RAM - CT2230 - GUS ACE - MPU-401 AT - ET4000W32P
Win98SE: Asus P5K-WS - E8600 @ 4,5GHz - Strange God Voodoo 5 6000 PCI @ 66MHz PCI-X - 2GB DDR2 1066 - Audigy 2 ZS

Reply 9 of 27, by TrashPanda

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That 5470 you have there is the best Xeon for overclocking on 775, no other Xeon can match it.

With a bit of tweaking and research you could get it to 4.5ghz on air since the board you went with is a damn fine bit of kit and has a rock solid VRM on it.

How far above 4ghz you get that chip will depend on how good it is with voltages. but it’s not an expensive cpu so if that one doesn’t do well you could get another.

Reply 10 of 27, by Jackhead

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I did some more testing and will leave the cpu now on 4,25Ghz for 24/7.

Now im on the gtx285, what afterburner version should i use? I tryed 4.5.0 final and 4.6.4 beta but both version im not able to adjust the voltage.
My card is a Asus and i did the tweaks for the voltage settings but no success so far..

Dos 6.22: Asus VL/I-486SV2GX4 Rev 2.0 1Mb L2 - AMD A5x86 X5 ADZ 133MHz @160MHz - 64MB RAM - CT2230 - GUS ACE - MPU-401 AT - ET4000W32P
Win98SE: Asus P5K-WS - E8600 @ 4,5GHz - Strange God Voodoo 5 6000 PCI @ 66MHz PCI-X - 2GB DDR2 1066 - Audigy 2 ZS

Reply 11 of 27, by TrashPanda

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That's a nice solid speed, as for the GPU you will likely have to sped sometime hunting down different versions till you find one that works, that said the GTX 285 runs pretty hot as is so its not likely to OC very well with the blower setup they come with, you can find aftermarket air coolers that will let you OC the GPU without hitting thermal limits.

Repasting the GPU will also be a good alternative if you dont want to throw a better air cooler on it.

Reply 12 of 27, by Jackhead

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Im not able to run 3dmark 06 the GPU clocks down to 400MHz on the last tests. Not sure a repaste will fix this.
Maybe i should go on a GTX 960..

Dos 6.22: Asus VL/I-486SV2GX4 Rev 2.0 1Mb L2 - AMD A5x86 X5 ADZ 133MHz @160MHz - 64MB RAM - CT2230 - GUS ACE - MPU-401 AT - ET4000W32P
Win98SE: Asus P5K-WS - E8600 @ 4,5GHz - Strange God Voodoo 5 6000 PCI @ 66MHz PCI-X - 2GB DDR2 1066 - Audigy 2 ZS

Reply 13 of 27, by TrashPanda

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Jackhead wrote on 2022-04-10, 12:13:

Im not able to run 3dmark 06 the GPU clocks down to 400MHz on the last tests. Not sure a repaste will fix this.
Maybe i should go on a GTX 960..

Sounds like it needs cleaning honestly, its likely clogged with dust and hair to the point that even idling is causing heat issues, its quite common on old GPUs, I have 5 GTX 285s and all of them needed to be torn down and cleaned and repasted, the 2gb models also needed their Vram thermal pads replaced. (3 1gb models from my Tri SLI rig and two 2gb models which are in my SLI Quadzilla box, yup I really like the 285 !)

But if you have a 960 laying around then I see no reason you couldn't use that and try the 285 later after its been cleaned.

Reply 14 of 27, by RandomStranger

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Overclocking is unnecessary imho. The Q6600 was a decent CPU up until about 2014 on base clocks and your Xeon is already 3.3GHz, that's almost 1GHz higher. It should be already in good balance with the GTX285 so you'd gain nothing from the OC beyond more fan noise and heat production.

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Reply 15 of 27, by TrashPanda

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RandomStranger wrote on 2022-04-10, 13:01:

Overclocking is unnecessary imho. The Q6600 was a decent CPU up until about 2014 on base clocks and your Xeon is already 3.3GHz, that's almost 1GHz higher. It should be already in good balance with the GTX285 so you'd gain nothing from the OC beyond more fan noise and heat production.

I agree with OCing the 285, its already a great GPU and the blower versions dont get much more from OCing other than a case full of heat, the X5470 honestly was released with lower clocks than its capable of, its the only Xeon of the 775/771 CPUs that has a metric ton of OCing room to work with without hitting stupid thermals, even the QX9770 doesnt have this much extra room to work with.

If I could get a stable modded BIOS for my Striker II extreme I would be running a X5470 over the QX9770 its got right now, I could get the same speed as the QX with lower thermals and lower voltages, its a great bit of silicon.

Reply 16 of 27, by Jackhead

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I think i will skip the 285 for a 960. Another big + for the 960 is display port, because i use 1600x1200@75Hz. Where i have problems with hdmi/DVI (works only with VGA on my setup).
Seen some videos that the X5470 with OC can handle the 960 pretty good!

Dos 6.22: Asus VL/I-486SV2GX4 Rev 2.0 1Mb L2 - AMD A5x86 X5 ADZ 133MHz @160MHz - 64MB RAM - CT2230 - GUS ACE - MPU-401 AT - ET4000W32P
Win98SE: Asus P5K-WS - E8600 @ 4,5GHz - Strange God Voodoo 5 6000 PCI @ 66MHz PCI-X - 2GB DDR2 1066 - Audigy 2 ZS

Reply 17 of 27, by RandomStranger

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TrashPanda wrote on 2022-04-10, 13:07:

I agree with OCing the 285, its already a great GPU and the blower versions dont get much more from OCing other than a case full of heat, the X5470 honestly was released with lower clocks than its capable of, its the only Xeon of the 775/771 CPUs that has a metric ton of OCing room to work with without hitting stupid thermals, even the QX9770 doesnt have this much extra room to work with.

My point wasn't whether it can be reasonably done, rather if OCing itself in case of this CPU itself is reasonable. It's not short on computational performance on it's base clocks either for the XP era, especially for XP era software that is problematic on more modern versions of Windows. This rig will already do triple digit frame rates in everything from the noughties and where it won't the graphics card will be the bottleneck.

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Reply 18 of 27, by TrashPanda

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RandomStranger wrote on 2022-04-10, 17:28:
TrashPanda wrote on 2022-04-10, 13:07:

I agree with OCing the 285, its already a great GPU and the blower versions dont get much more from OCing other than a case full of heat, the X5470 honestly was released with lower clocks than its capable of, its the only Xeon of the 775/771 CPUs that has a metric ton of OCing room to work with without hitting stupid thermals, even the QX9770 doesnt have this much extra room to work with.

My point wasn't whether it can be reasonably done, rather if OCing itself in case of this CPU itself is reasonable. It's not short on computational performance on it's base clocks either for the XP era, especially for XP era software that is problematic on more modern versions of Windows. This rig will already do triple digit frame rates in everything from the noughties and where it won't the graphics card will be the bottleneck.

The only reason to even buy that model of Xeon is to OC it, there really isn't much point in going through the modding required to get it working on a 775 board to just run it at stock, A cheap E8400/E8500 or Q9550 would do just as well performance wise and be less hassle to get working since they are drop in CPUs, they are both likely to be cheaper too.

I understand the point you are making and agree if you have no intention of OCing but its clear here the OP had always intended to OC that CPU.

Reply 19 of 27, by Jackhead

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now with gtx960 and 2x 2gb kingston hyper x 1066 Ram. System runs awesome with the 960 , i love it..

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Dos 6.22: Asus VL/I-486SV2GX4 Rev 2.0 1Mb L2 - AMD A5x86 X5 ADZ 133MHz @160MHz - 64MB RAM - CT2230 - GUS ACE - MPU-401 AT - ET4000W32P
Win98SE: Asus P5K-WS - E8600 @ 4,5GHz - Strange God Voodoo 5 6000 PCI @ 66MHz PCI-X - 2GB DDR2 1066 - Audigy 2 ZS