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OS and Hardware picks for a Socket 8 System: Tell me about yours?

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First post, by appiah4

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I've always wanted to build a Socket 8 system. I've been holding off for a Dual Socket build with my matching 200MHz 512K CPUs, but a motherboard for that has not crossed my path in the last five years and I am starting to lose hope that it ever will. As a result, I decided to YOLO the build and go for a single socket 200MHz 256K one.

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The problem is, I have no idea what to do with it. Part of me wants to install Warp 4.5 and be done. Part of me wants to go NT4.0 instead. Part of me wants to go 2000 Pro (which was my initial goal with a dual socket system) but I'm not sure it's really that good a fit with just one core.

I'm also not sure about what hardware to stick in it. I suppose a Socket 8 system would be pretty half assed without some kind of SCSI hard drive setup, so there's that. I'm not sure how much RAM I want to stick in there. It will be a PCI/ISA system, so there is also the video/sound card choices to make.

I guess ultimately all these depend on what I want to do with the system, but honestly I don't know. None of the OSs above are great for gaming, and to be fair neither is Socket 8. I suppose I could set it up as a workstation to install some old engineering software I used to work on back in the late 90s, like I-DEAS.. I'm open to suggestions on that regard as well.

TLDR; I don't know what to do with my Socket 8 build and what to put in/on it, so let me know what your Socket 8 systems are like 😀

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 1 of 3, by Shponglefan

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I built my Socket 8 system to (mostly) recreate Computer Gaming World's "ultimate gaming rig" from their Jan 1997 issue. They used a Pentium Pro 200 for that build.

Parts I used included:

  • Pentium Pro 200 (512kb cache)
  • Supermicro P6SNE (Intel 440FX)
  • Matrox Mystique 4MB
  • Diamond Monster 3D - Voodoo 1
  • Synergy Vipermax (GUS Extreme)
  • Creative Labs AWE64 Gold
  • Roland SCC-1
  • 64MB RAM
  • 12x CD-ROM

I also built a comparison Pentium 200 system using the same graphics cards, sound cards, RAM, and 12x CD-ROM. More details are here: Re: Ultimate Annual Gaming Builds: 1994 (P90), 1995 (P133), 1996 (P200 and PPro 200 builds in progress)

My main goal was to see how a Pentium Pro 200 would perform against a Pentium 200 for 1996-era gaming. I posted a bunch of DOS benchmarks in this thread: Pentium 200 vs Pentium MMX 200 vs Pentium Pro 200 (256kb & 512kb) DOS Benchmarks

While building this system ultimately satisfied my curiosity, my overall impressions is that's a serviceable system, but nothing fancy. At least not when it comes to gaming.

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

Reply 2 of 3, by appiah4

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Shponglefan wrote on 2024-04-26, 12:43:
I built my Socket 8 system to (mostly) recreate Computer Gaming World's "ultimate gaming rig" from their Jan 1997 issue. They us […]
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I built my Socket 8 system to (mostly) recreate Computer Gaming World's "ultimate gaming rig" from their Jan 1997 issue. They used a Pentium Pro 200 for that build.

Parts I used included:

  • Pentium Pro 200 (512kb cache)
  • Supermicro P6SNE (Intel 440FX)
  • Matrox Mystique 4MB
  • Diamond Monster 3D - Voodoo 1
  • Synergy Vipermax (GUS Extreme)
  • Creative Labs AWE64 Gold
  • Roland SCC-1
  • 64MB RAM
  • 12x CD-ROM

I also built a comparison Pentium 200 system using the same graphics cards, sound cards, RAM, and 12x CD-ROM. More details are here: Re: Ultimate Annual Gaming Builds: 1994 (P90), 1995 (P133), 1996 (P200 and PPro 200 builds in progress)

My main goal was to see how a Pentium Pro 200 would perform against a Pentium 200 for 1996-era gaming. I posted a bunch of DOS benchmarks in this thread: Pentium 200 vs Pentium MMX 200 vs Pentium Pro 200 (256kb & 512kb) DOS Benchmarks

While building this system ultimately satisfied my curiosity, my overall impressions is that's a serviceable system, but nothing fancy. At least not when it comes to gaming.

I see. This is an interesting experiment, and I'll read your findings once I finish typing this. On the other hand, this cookie cutter gaming PC build is probably the least appealing to me simply because it ticks no boxes that my 1995 Socket 7 build (Pentium 166MMX, Trio64V+/MPEG-2 Decoder, Voodoo1, AWE32/32MB, Windows 95) already doesn't .

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 3 of 3, by Shponglefan

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appiah4 wrote on 2024-04-26, 12:51:

I see. This is an interesting experiment, and I'll read your findings once I finish typing this. On the other hand, this cookie cutter gaming PC build is probably the least appealing to me simply because it ticks no boxes that my 1995 Socket 7 build (Pentium 166MMX, Trio64V+/MPEG-2 Decoder, Voodoo1, AWE32/32MB, Windows 95) already doesn't .

I agree, as a gaming rig there isn't much point. A Pentium MMX or Pentium II makes a lot more sense for gaming in that era.

I was just always fascinated by the fact that CGW used and recommended a Pentium Pro at the time, when no other system builders were using them for gaming rigs.

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

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