psychz wrote:

Finally got my hands on one of the later 3dfx cards, the Voodoo4 4500 AGP. Had to clean the heatsink and oil the fan a bit. It replaced a Voodoo3 3000, which had replaced a Creative RIVA TNT/Voodoo 2 combination earlier 🤣 Apparently works nicely with Glide and is a bit better on D3D games than the V3 3000 (+AA). It's in a 440BX/P2@350MHz Slot 1 box. I believe that, while the 350MHz Pentium II was fine for the original gfx card combo, it might bottleneck the V4 4500. What CPU do you feel would be more appropriate for this card?

I think a P2-350 is underpowered even for a V3-3000. To put it in perspective, a V3-3000 operates at 166/166 core/mem. The V4-4500 operates at the same 166/166. Of course it adds a bunch of new performance oriented features, but the fill rate/memory bandwidth limitation is inescapable. Regardless, a V4-4500 is perhaps even rarer than a Voodoo5 5500.

Vogons Voodoo comparison (wish it was done on win98se):
http://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/3dfx_Benchmarks

AT did CPU scaling (Looks like it takes about a 1GHz P3/K7 to max it at lower res).
http://www.anandtech.com/show/641/10

TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:

Maybe it had memory issues and someone flashed the bios down to only use the first 64MB of RAM?

Wait what...

You can flash a video card to use less memory? I have several video cards that install drivers and works fine in 2D operation. But crash in 3D (although the dxdiag spinning cube works). So if there was some way to NOT use additional memory, that'd be worth a try.

I just received a PNY GF4 Ti4200 this weekend that has that issue.

yeah,just flash a 64mb bios on a 128mb card

Not bought but exchanged this time:

A Sapphire Radeon HD 2900 XT 512mb gddr3
It's powerful,neat,fancy and.... it's dead
Not a big deal cuz i traded it for 120mm fan,anyway still possible for repairs or donorship

dexvx wrote:

I think a P2-350 is underpowered even for a V3-3000. To put it in perspective, a V3-3000 operates at 166/166 core/mem. The V4-4500 operates at the same 166/166. Of course it adds a bunch of new performance oriented features, but the fill rate/memory bandwidth limitation is inescapable.

Yeah, even my pentium III 450 kinda bottlenecks my Voodoo 2 SLI which is as you know a tiny bit slower than the Voodoo 3 2000 or equal

Deksor wrote:

dexvx wrote:

I think a P2-350 is underpowered even for a V3-3000. To put it in perspective, a V3-3000 operates at 166/166 core/mem. The V4-4500 operates at the same 166/166. Of course it adds a bunch of new performance oriented features, but the fill rate/memory bandwidth limitation is inescapable.

Yeah, even my pentium III 450 kinda bottlenecks my Voodoo 2 SLI which is as you know a tiny bit slower than the Voodoo 3 2000 or equal

Sad to hear as I'll be using my V3-3000 with a P3-450 as well.. Probably not as big a bottleneck as my P166MMX with the V2 12MB..

I was thinking, that i will never buy a system before the pentium era...
Well, i was wrong when i've seen this bundle. Was not really cheap (25 bucks) but considering that it's >20years old and it won't getting cheaper... it's ok.

Have already cut off the barrel battery. Boot test was fine. Does anybody know a link to manual?

Bought a Soundblaster Live! to replace my unbranded and generally awful CMI 8738 card. Joke's on me though, as it transpires I bought a crappy OEM Dell version SB0200 and no drivers so far recognise the card (Windows does fine). And then I read this...

Sound Blaster Live! Dell OEM
This card, marketed as a Sound Blaster Live!, did not have the full capabilities of the retail versions of Live! It used a different audio chip, not EMU10K1 but EMU10K1X, that is noticeably smaller with fewer pins. The chip does not accelerate DirectSound in hardware, nor EAX. The sale of this board by Dell created some controversy because it was not obviously marketed as an inferior or cheaper product. The card can be identified by its part number (SB0200/0203).

*sigh*

Almoststew1990 wrote:

Bought a Soundblaster Live! to replace my unbranded and generally awful CMI 8738 card. Joke's on me though, as it transpires I bought a crappy OEM Dell version SB0200 and no drivers so far recognise the card (Windows does fine). And then I read this...

Sound Blaster Live! Dell OEM
This card, marketed as a Sound Blaster Live!, did not have the full capabilities of the retail versions of Live! It used a different audio chip, not EMU10K1 but EMU10K1X, that is noticeably smaller with fewer pins. The chip does not accelerate DirectSound in hardware, nor EAX. The sale of this board by Dell created some controversy because it was not obviously marketed as an inferior or cheaper product. The card can be identified by its part number (SB0200/0203).

Yea, that created quite the controversy back in the day. Fortunately, "real" SB Live!'s are quite cheap on eBay (< $10 shipped to US).

appiah4 wrote:

Deksor wrote:

dexvx wrote:

I think a P2-350 is underpowered even for a V3-3000. To put it in perspective, a V3-3000 operates at 166/166 core/mem. The V4-4500 operates at the same 166/166. Of course it adds a bunch of new performance oriented features, but the fill rate/memory bandwidth limitation is inescapable.

Yeah, even my pentium III 450 kinda bottlenecks my Voodoo 2 SLI which is as you know a tiny bit slower than the Voodoo 3 2000 or equal

Sad to hear as I'll be using my V3-3000 with a P3-450 as well.. Probably not as big a bottleneck as my P166MMX with the V2 12MB..

Well it still run very nice ! but the framerate is not as smooth as it could be with a faster CPU

melbar wrote:

I was thinking, that i will never buy a system before the pentium era... Well, i was wrong when i've seen this bundle. Was not […]
Show full quote

I was thinking, that i will never buy a system before the pentium era...
Well, i was wrong when i've seen this bundle. Was not really cheap (25 bucks) but considering that it's >20years old and it won't getting cheaper... it's ok.

Have already cut off the barrel battery. Boot test was fine. Does anybody know a link to manual?

Oh I've got the same board ! ... except that mine is dead due to it's battery 🙁

Batyra wrote:

Finally got my GUS ACE 1.1 - looks like new, absolutely no scratches on ISA paths, shiny PCB...
Thats gonna be an important part of my MMX build together with 2760 AWE32 with Roland SCB-55

I remember as a teenager wishing I could sell a kidney to buy an ACE. Never managed it in the end and coped with Aztech budget wavetable instead for my early computing life!

Round two for trying to find a working socket 7 motherboard for my K6-III+ system. I had bought a Gigabyte GA-5SMM but a bunch of traces on the underside are scratched and I can't get it to boot. I kept looking to see if the usual recommended motherboards ever went on sale for a decent price - they didn't. So I started branching out into more eclectic motherboard models. Enter the Asus P599VM:

I also have a BIOSTAR M5SIB on the way. Not sure which of the two I'll use. Didn't realize both systems don't have AGP but I think I can manage. This Asus board looks like it was never used. Super clean and even has the case sticker in the manual still. Next I need to get a video card for the DOS side of things and if it is the gods will - a V2 or V3 gpu.

melbar wrote:

I was thinking, that i will never buy a system before the pentium era... Well, i was wrong when i've seen this bundle. Was not […]
Show full quote

I was thinking, that i will never buy a system before the pentium era...
Well, i was wrong when i've seen this bundle. Was not really cheap (25 bucks) but considering that it's >20years old and it won't getting cheaper... it's ok.

Have already cut off the barrel battery. Boot test was fine. Does anybody know a link to manual?

It's from Soyo. It seems all the necessary settings are already marked on the board.

melbar wrote:

Have already cut off the barrel battery. Boot test was fine. Does anybody know a link to manual?

Nice board, plus a bonus that you got controller and VGA as they can be hard to find / expensive when you do.

Looks like this is the one you're looking for.

Almoststew1990 wrote:

http://i.imgur.com/Gz8LnQah.jpg […]
Show full quote

Bought a Soundblaster Live! to replace my unbranded and generally awful CMI 8738 card. Joke's on me though, as it transpires I bought a crappy OEM Dell version SB0200 and no drivers so far recognise the card (Windows does fine). And then I read this...

Sound Blaster Live! Dell OEM
This card, marketed as a Sound Blaster Live!, did not have the full capabilities of the retail versions of Live! It used a different audio chip, not EMU10K1 but EMU10K1X, that is noticeably smaller with fewer pins. The chip does not accelerate DirectSound in hardware, nor EAX. The sale of this board by Dell created some controversy because it was not obviously marketed as an inferior or cheaper product. The card can be identified by its part number (SB0200/0203).

*sigh*

You need the Dell OEM drivers for it. There not hard to find and if your search the forum the link should be here somewhere. I have one in use right now, aslong as you use software mode in games it sounds quite nice. Not perfect, but not like an ass either.

Did someone from here bought this lot:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/122424028729

kixs wrote:

Did someone from here bought this lot:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/122424028729

So, are my eyes deceiving me, or do I spy not only one but two IBM Blue Lightning motherboards in that lot?
(Edit: umm, make that three...)

stoof wrote:

kixs wrote:

Did someone from here bought this lot:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/122424028729

So, are my eyes deceiving me, or do I spy not only one but two IBM Blue Lightning motherboards in that lot?

No idea, but that particular seller has some amazing retro PC items for sale.

PcBytes wrote:

I just got some stuff today:
350W LC-B350ATX PSU (incredibily dusty)

Ditch these. You can get some nice second hand Delta or FSP PSUs pretty cheap in Romania (about 7-10 euros+shipping), if you want the source PM me.

Thanks but I usually like to get these because I find it's fun to add the components. The end result is a decent 250W PSU. (maybe more for those with real ERL-35 transformers - I cherry-pick these so I know these exist)