VOGONS

Possible for all-in-one machine with ISA slot? (re: Orpheus 2 + Voodoo 3 + GeForce Ti 4200)

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First post, by sofakng

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Is it possible to build an "all-in-one" retro machine with at least one ISA slot (for Orpheus 2) with a fast enough CPU for a GeForce Ti 4200? (or even an ATi 9800 Pro?)

I've been searching and it looks like the Pentium 4 chipsets do not support ISA (except for strange industrial boards or bridge chipsets, etc), so I'm wondering if a fast Pentium 3 or AMD equivalent might work?

I'm pretty sure the answer is 'no' (unless I want to severely [?] CPU limit the GPU) but I thought I'd ask.

My dream retro computer would work with all of the following:

* Orpheus 2 [ISA]
* SB Live! [PCI] (needed for EAX support?)
* Voodoo 1 [PCI]
* Voodoo 3 [PCI]
* GeForce Ti 4200 [AGP]

I'd like to play mostly 90s to early 2000s games with the occasional DOS game (ie. Sierra stuff). I think the newest games I would like to play are Half-Life, Unreal, American McGee Alice, Deus Ex, etc.

Thanks for any information or advice! 😀

Reply 1 of 2, by waterbeesje

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In fact, my P3B-f does benefit from the Ti4200 over the MX440. It runs its P3-933 at a highly overclocked fsb (140MHz--> 980MHz) which makes the agp2 port overclock nicely to around 90MHz ("agp 3x " like speed, if such existed) while keeping PCI and ISA in spec. Along with 512MB pc150 ram this is a winner for me.
Still has ISA at it's full compatibility.
(Yes, the system is like a Frankenstein beast, but in a more beautiful way and definitely not period correct)

Stuck at 10MHz...

Reply 2 of 2, by Shponglefan

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Based on the games you've listed, a Pentium III + Voodoo 3 or GeForce Ti 4200 would be fine. I don't really see the need for have dual video cards in this instance, since they cover a lot of the same ground. GeForce Ti 4200 would yield higher performance headroom.

No need for a Voodoo 1 unless there are very specific games you're looking to play that only support the original Voodoo.

For sound, if your main focus is Windows gaming then I'd just use an Aureal Vortex 2 card (e.g. Diamond MX300 or equivalent). It also supports DOS (natively) and has a wavetable header for General MIDI support. I had one in my Athlon XP 2000+ setup and used it to play games going back to the early 90s.

Orpheus II is a fantastic card, but if you're only occasionally playing DOS games, it's not the best suited for this build.

Pentium 4 Multi-OS Build
486 DX4-100 with 6 sound cards
486 DX-33 with 5 sound cards

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