VOGONS


First post, by Smack2k

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Looking to make sure I can play / access most games from the 1992/3 - 1999 era of games. I have the following setups right now:

386DX33
486DX2-66
Pentium 2 - 233 - Slot 1
Pentium 3 - 500 - Slot 1

Reading that is hard / unable to disable L2 cache in a Slot 1 Processor, so slowing down the 233 or 500 isnt possible (unless I disable L1 cache, which will really slow it down too far), I was thinking of searching out a Super Socket 7 board and replacing the PII 233 with a Pentium 233MMX I have. But before I go through the expense of a SS7 board (which arent chearp from what I've searched) I was curious if what I have currently is suitable for most games of the era I mentioned? I never know what I want to play or may find a game that looks interesting I'd like to try, so I want to have my setup able to be as compatible as possible...

Appreciate your input.

Reply 1 of 4, by konc

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For me you're more than OK to play anything. The P2 can handle all the late DOS games that are not speed-sensitive to the point where even the 486 might be redundant. There's nothing that needs a P1 @233MHz but won't run on a P2.
Also, no matter which path you eventually take, you don't need an expensive SS7 to run a P1 MMX, a normal S7 (supporting it of course) is enough. Unless you're going the bestest possible components for your builds just for the fun of it.

Reply 2 of 4, by Smack2k

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Yeah, the idea would be to make it the best i could as I'd like to keep the AGP card with the Voodoo1 in that setup....but as long as I am OK with things currently, I probably wont go down that road...

Reply 3 of 4, by Revolter

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Smack2k wrote:

Reading that is hard / unable to disable L2 cache in a Slot 1 Processor, so slowing down the 233 or 500 isnt possible (unless I disable L1 cache, which will really slow it down too far)

Smack2k, there is an easy way of slowing down the Slot 1/370 processors using the chipset throttling capability - check my reply from another thread for a quick guide:

Need advice b4 purchasing Socket370 on Ebay!

This concerns mostly the Intel chipsets, as VIAs seem to have problems with it (at least on my 6VIA5t where it is twice as fast at each slowdown stage).

Celeron 800@1066, 512MB, GeForce2 MX AGP/GeForce 8400GS PCI, ES1938S/Dreamblaster S2, DOS 6.22/Windows 3.11/Windows ME/Windows 2000

Reply 4 of 4, by gerwin

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Smack2k wrote:

Pentium 2 - 233 - Slot 1

Depending on you motherboard options, you can run it at a lower speed like maybe 2.0x66=133MHz instead of the default 3.5x66=233MHz. keyword: Multiplier.

Smack2k wrote:

Reading that is hard / unable to disable L2 cache in a Slot 1 Processor, so slowing down the 233 or 500 isnt possible (unless I disable L1 cache, which will really slow it down too far)

Who says so? SetMul can Disable L2 on Slot 1. Just that it is not a popular slowdown method. It cuts the CPU speed to maybe 80% (wild guess), and not very consistently.

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