It's impossible to play everything on one machine. With your P3 you can cover a slow 386 by disabling both caches, but that's about it. Also I'd forget about 2003 games with a P3. Games like UT2003 just crushed both CPUs and GPUs of that time and won't be much fun on such a system.

Also, the TNT2 is not that useful. 32 bit is dirt slow on that card. I'm not entirely sure which AGP cards would work in such a system but you could go with something like a Ti4600+Voodoo2 for Glide. Preferably with two monitor inputs as the passthrough design can limit image quality when you are running high resolutions on your "main" card. V3+ is a better option in that respect and faster but not that compatible with DOS Glide games.

Refer to this list for games that are known to make problems on fast CPUs: http://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/List_of_C … sensitive_games

AWE64 Value is a good card overall and cheap to get.

I'd max out the build and see how far you can push the newer game envelope first. When satisfied, if you are, start installing and testing games in reverse chronology. At some point you will encounter games that balk at the excess cpu/ram and other limitations. At that point you can try underclocking, or to really slow the cpu down disable cache as d1s suggests, and see how far you get. Then take stock of the situation.

You mention the old Janes stuff and glide support so *definitely* roll with the dual V2's and puff out your chest - the dawn of SLI. If you have the TNT2 it's not a horrible agp solution for a system with perhaps lower top end than you may be hoping for as d1s points out.

Paramount is to build the damn thing and see what she does! Maybe a nicely tricked out P3-933/TNT2/Voodoo2sli will cover enough ground for the time being. Then you can follow everyone down the well-trod path of multiple retro builds to "cover the loose ends"...

that's precisely what i needed to hear. - i have over 170 jewel cases with games burning for me to install as well as disks etc. always tell my wife i'm going to "get around to it" but finally i have thrown it together.

Is there a place for old school style cases? the one I have is pretty beat up, and my other "old systems" i.e. packard bell all have riser slots so are not designed for ATX motherboards.

blaker1983:

I agree with d1stortion: Get an AWE64 Value. They're really great cards, are dirt cheap, and readily available. You can find them for about $10USD on eBay. If you have extra bucks and a whole lot of patience, watch eBay for an AWE64 Gold. If you're curious about the difference between the two, see this site for a comparison:

http://www.infocellar.com/sound/midi/best-card.htm

As far as the rest of your system goes, I think you have the makings of a really nice circa 2000-2001 system. Why underclock it though?

With your system I would recommend a Voodoo 3 3000. You can find them cheap on eBay for about $10-$15USD too. If you have extra bucks, get the Voodoo 3 3500 for $25 here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/310320932421
http://www.ebay.com/itm/170463347182

I've been told that the 3500 is about 8% faster than the 3000. It also uses the same drivers as the 3000, available at falconfly.de.

However, if you want to play games like EF2000, Mechwarrior II 3DFX, Archimedean Dynasty, etc, you'll want to stick with your Voodoo 2 SLI setup. There's a few old games out there that won't play nice with a Voodoo 3/4/5.

As far as cases go, I've always liked these, but thought they were somewhat expensive:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?It … N82E16811121010
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?It … N82E16811121011
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?It … N82E16811147010

My all-around favorite general-purpose case is probably the Antec 300 Illusion, which you can find on sale for $40-$45USD if you're patient and watch carefully:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?It … N82E16811129066

Well I heard about the supposedly better DAC on the Gold but that recording comparison surprised me considering the card has the same 1 MB ROM as the Value. Unless he is running some soundfont and not mentioning it...

KT7AGuy wrote:

I agree with d1stortion: Get an AWE64 Value. They're really great cards, are dirt cheap, and readily available. You can find them for about $10USD on eBay. If you have extra bucks and a whole lot of patience, watch eBay for an AWE64 Gold. If you're curious about the difference between the two, see this site for a comparison:

http://www.infocellar.com/sound/midi/best-card.htm

That comparison really only seems valid if you want to listen to MIDI music for the sake of listening to MIDI music – and who does that, really?

Generally, I would think that one would want to listen to MIDI music with whatever instruments the original composer was using when he wrote the MIDI.

If you want to also play games from 2001 to 2003, would not a GeForce 2 be the better choice? You'll have hardware T&L which will let you play a lot more games. For the older games, you could add two Voodoo 2's.

In UT2003 I had a low framerate (around 25fps) at a low resolution (800x600, max 1024x768) with minimum to medium details on my Pentium 4 2.26GHz and Voodoo5 5500. So I don't see a Voodoo3 or TNT2 performing any better.

As far as I know, the best videocard setup to go with would be a 64MiB GeForce 2, 3 or 4, or ATi equivalent plus two Voodoo 2's in SLI.

OP specifically mentioned Jane's simulations/Glide so the twin V2's are in the picture from the start regardless of the base video card. GeForce is a good idea of course but just going with the TNT2/V3 agp he already has, just to get started, would be fine..

tincup wrote:

OP specifically mentioned Jane's simulations/Glide so the twin V2's are in the picture from the start regardless of the base video card. GeForce is a good idea of course but just going with the TNT2/V3 agp he already has, just to get started, would be fine..

I agree. I think his best/optimal setup would be a GF3 Ti500 with dual V2s in SLI. However, that setup is waayyyyyy more uncommon and expensive than a single V3 3000.

GF3 Ti500 $20
Dual V2s $80 (prices are nuts on eBay nowadays)
Total $100

Single V3 3000 AGP $10-$15
And you can still play any Janes sim ever made at a good framerate.

For a money-is-no-concern system, I agree with you and think he should get something like a Ti500 and dual V2s. But if you want a retro rig on a budget, get the V3 3000.

(Disclaimer: I am biased. I chose a V3 3000 for my own coppermine system because it was cheap, used only 1 slot, and consumed a whole lot less power.)

Did I misread the original post? -I thought he *had* the SLI gear in hand... Oops. Well if not the V3 is a cost effective way to go for Glide and a decent all around card. Though I think you need to patient on eBay to get prices you quote.

Otherwise I'd go V5 rather than V2-SLI If I was starting from scratch.. about the same or less for the V5, but I'm not starting from scratch;)

tincup wrote:

Did I misread the original post? -I thought he *had* the SLI gear in hand... Oops. Well if not the V3 is a cost effective way to go for Glide and a decent all around card. Buy I think you need to patient on eBay to get prices you quote though.

Otherwise I'd go V5 rather than V2-SLI If I was starting from scratch.. about the same or less for the V5, but I'm not starting from scratch;)

Indeed, with the cost of V2s nowadays, a V5 5500 is definitely the cheaper and more powerful option for a focus on GLIDE games. It presents a nice price/performance middle-ground. I'd really like to hear what the OP decides upon, and hope he will write back to let us all know how his build goes.

Sorry, I really know very deep PCCHIPS boards, which one is it? I'd recomend you a full preventive recap and change the cmos 3.3v power transistor, they ALWAYS fail

piportill4 wrote:

I'd recomend you a full preventive recap and change the cmos 3.3v power transistor, they ALWAYS fail

I've had all my boards recapped by Chris over at badcaps.net. If you're like me and lack the skills/dexterity to do it yourself, I strongly recommend him. He does a fantastic job. Including shipping, it costs about $100 per board. Yep, I know that's expensive, but at least I won't have to worry about the components on my boards anymore.