You can sell the 1GHz E chip and buy 3x 1GHz EB chips for the money! 😀

The Tualatin probably wont work in the Dell Optiplex 200, someone else will probably know for sure.

You might want to dual boot Win98. It would fly with that P3

IMHO P3's make the perfect late dos/Win9x PC's. Not so great for WinXP.
TNT2 is a great DOS video card with its strong VESA support, pair it with a Voodoo 1 or 2 and it'll also make a good Windows Glide PC. The TNT may hold back it's D3D performance but early games will be ok (Homeworld or TA should be fine)

Lack of ISA means sound in DOS is limited, but a lot of soundcards support DOS sound from within windows and a P3 800 will have plenty of horsepower to spare to run DOS games from within Windows.

Don't really see the point of going back to a 100MHz FSB cpu. Like Skyscraper said its worth more then the 133 variant (its the last CPU supported on 100FSB motherboards) so if you want 1Ghz just get a 133 FSB verson

The integrated TNT2 should be a TNT2-M64. Somewhat lower performance than full TNT2, similar to TNT. Even a full TNT2 would be holding the CPU back.
XP should run fine, though 98 is probably more interesting. You have to think what to do about the RAM, more than 512MB gets difficult for 98.
The difference between the CPU's shouldn't be too big. The GPU will hold the system back anyway for 3D games. (Total Annihilation is 2D IIRC, and for the original Doom the system is overkill anyway.)

Great responses so far! I am looking into acquiring a 133MHz bus P3. Anyone here want a 1GHz/100MHz P3 when I find a suitable 133MHz bus CPU? I probably have some other 100MHz bus P3s in derelict computers here, too, if anyone is interested 😀

And the video card in this is integrated, running at AGP4x apparently. So I am not sure how it'd compare to an actual TNT2 running via an actual AGP slot. Haven't gotten that far into this to figure out what GPU to look for, or what interface. It does have the 'ghosting' issue apparent with a lot of these older computers with integrated video; lack of cooling, even with little actual work for it to do can still damage the silicon.

And I've run both Total Annhiliation and Homeworld on a Pentium MMX 233MHz with 64 or 128MB RAM with an 8MB video card pretty well back in the Win98 days 😎

Okay, so bit of an update. This thing only has one fan, with a custom (green) shroud on the back. It was dirty, so I took it out, cleaned it, let it dry. Put it all back together and the sounds of Banshees (not the video cards) was all that happened. 😒

I mean, the fan works it's just super noisy about it. So I bought some 80mm Noctuas, maybe get some extra intake airflow, y'know?

Well, turns out, that exhaust doesn't have any normal mounting holes for screws, just for the stupid plastic assembly on the old fan. I am having a bit of a time getting the thing off, without fear of breaking the actual assembly. Don't care about the fan itself at this point, I just want the plastic assembly it's stuck in. Dell assy 98685 p/n 93216, in case anyone knows how to get it off. Still Googlin' around to see if there is an easy way to take this off and put it on another fan.

EDIT: Okay, figured it out. Had those teeth like zip ties, just had to work at them. Thought there might be an easier, quicker way, but hey, I've got plenty of time most days!

EDIT 2: Okay, so it looks like 3-pin stuff has several variations. And the Noctua I bought is the wrong one >_> Well, wrong for turn-of-the-century computers; I'm sure it was 'standard' at the time for OEM machines <_<

The three-pin connector on retail motherboards was ALWAYS standard - I've got SS7 boards with those. I suggest you to simply match the pinout, cut the connector of both fans and join the correct wires, insulating them with black isolating tape afterwards.

I have a soft spot for those P2/P3-era Dell builds. They were everywhere and have a stereotypical late 90's PC look. A real high point in Dell's history. The stock went from $56/share at its peak to $13/share before going private.

alexanrs wrote:

The three-pin connector on retail motherboards was ALWAYS standard - I've got SS7 boards with those. I suggest you to simply match the pinout, cut the connector of both fans and join the correct wires, insulating them with black isolating tape afterwards.

Y'know, that's what I thought too, but I did qualify it as 'standard' for OEMs; so builders like Dell would be considered. For motherboard manufacturers that sell to private individuals (ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, etc) I'm sure they used the actual standard 3-pin.

Anyone have a pinout handy for both standard 3-pin and Dell's 3-pin? Or could I just hook up the power wires to a molex connector without much fuss? I am not sure if the 3-pin allows voltage control, or if it's just the third wire is ground.

JTD121 wrote:

Y'know, that's what I thought too, but I did qualify it as 'standard' for OEMs; so builders like Dell would be considered. For motherboard manufacturers that sell to private individuals (ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, etc) I'm sure they used the actual standard 3-pin.

Anyone have a pinout handy for both standard 3-pin and Dell's 3-pin? Or could I just hook up the power wires to a molex connector without much fuss? I am not sure if the 3-pin allows voltage control, or if it's just the third wire is ground.

What is the plug like on the motherboard? is it the same style as the standard 3 pin connectors that just slide on and off or does it have a little clip you have to depress to unplug the fan.

stuvize wrote:

JTD121 wrote:

Y'know, that's what I thought too, but I did qualify it as 'standard' for OEMs; so builders like Dell would be considered. For motherboard manufacturers that sell to private individuals (ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, etc) I'm sure they used the actual standard 3-pin.

Anyone have a pinout handy for both standard 3-pin and Dell's 3-pin? Or could I just hook up the power wires to a molex connector without much fuss? I am not sure if the 3-pin allows voltage control, or if it's just the third wire is ground.

What is the plug like on the motherboard? is it the same style as the standard 3 pin connectors that just slide on and off or does it have a little clip you have to depress to unplug the fan.

The Noctua I bought to replace the banshee fan in the Dell has the standard 3-pin without a retaining clip. The Dell motherboard expects that smaller 3-pin with the retaining clip.

I should probably mention that I have ordered a couple of these things, just to move things along. Bought two in case one is terrible; according to reviews it might be better to just fashion the plug myself but....

That should work if the wires on the original fan where red, black, and yellow like the adapter you purchased if the third wire was white the tachometer sensors will most likely get damaged on the motherboard/fan I have had this happen before on a newer motherboard that requires the CPU fan to be operating and with the damaged sensor it thought no fan was there and would not boot. The main problem I think you will have is that most older motherboards like that cannot control the fan speed and the Noctuna fan you bought is probably going to be running at max speed all the time, I am betting the fan that was in the Dell has a thermal sensor on it and controls its speed from that.

I had no idea those adapters existed that you posted the link too there is a few times those would have been handy but I found you can pull the plastic part of the Dell style plug off the motherboard and pull a standard style plug of another motherboard and slip it over the pins could potentially damage the board though, also if you take a something thin like a utility knife blade you can depress the metal clips on the plug that is attached to fan and remove or swap the wires around

Yeah, that's what I am afraid of. I'll have to see if Noctua supplies a....wiring diagram, I guess it's be called?...for their fans. And then I need to find out what the wiring of the old Dell's fan is.

And indeed, is looks like it has a temp sensor within the fan housing. I can get a model number from it if that would help; I know it's a JMC Datech fan.

EDIT: Success! Noctua provides a wire diagram for their 3-pin and 4-pin fans!
Now I need to hunt down how the Dell is expecting the wires to line up.....

I'm curious about the built-in tnt2, is it a model64 running with half the memory bus (32bit) when the slot is not used?

SPBHM wrote:

I'm curious about the built-in tnt2, is it a model64 running with half the memory bus (32bit) when the slot is not used?

There is nothing plugged into a slot. It has a riser with 4 PCI slots (which is not listed as an option in the GX200 Service Manual, weirdly enough). The TNT is built-in to the motherboard, and reports as running at AGP4x, with 8MB soldered onto the motherboard, with expansion via an SDR SO-DIMM; according to a short search, this is it. PC166, 8MB, 144-pin, single-sided; SO-SIMM?

As for the original fan it's a JMC Datech 0825-12HBTL, and the wires are white, red, black in that order on the connector. Can supply pictures if necessary. It'll just go into my neat little album on Imgur 🤣

Hi JTD121, thanks for linking me to your thread.

You can probably get a Tualatin Pentium III to work in your Dell Optiplex GX200 but not without some modding or extra hardware. I remember some people soldering resistors around the socket but it was easier to use an adapter.

There are adapters that will step down the voltages of a standard 370 socket to a Tualatin socket. Look up "Tualatin adapter" on eBay and you will find a few, albeit overpriced.

Here's an example:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Socket-370-Tualatin-A … kIAAOxyLiJR2zrw

I used to have one back in the early 2000's. I think it was made by a company called Lin-Lin or something to that effect. They were a cheap way to get extra life out of old motherboards. I think the adapters only cost around $11 - $14 at the time. Some people would use a Slot 1 -> Socket 370 Slotket -> Tualatin Based Celeron on their old 440BX based chipset Slot 1 boards. Some chose the P3 Tualatin and OC'ed their FSB which pretty much any 440BX motherboard was capable.

If I remember correctly it would work with most motherboards but some might complain that it was running an unsupported chip at boot due to not having the correct microcode. You could usually bypass it and run the computer normally. The Tualatin 1.4GHz would trade blows and even beat early Pentium 4's at the time.

brinstar, thanks for the advice. I am not really interested in finding out if I can get a Tualatin P3 working in this Dell box at present. I can't find any information on how fast a P3 this will even take. Nevermind the non-standard 4-PCI riser board.

Off-hand, I don't know what chipset it's running, but I know it's got the latest BIOS Dell offers for this model, which might include microcode for the Tualatin cores for all we know. I'll boot it up and get some CPU-Z screenies for you all to inspect 😀

EDIT: So I added my small album to the top. Also, I found that fanless, even a P3 thermally throttles rather quickly. It took me far more time to get the screenshots in the OP than I thought it should have.....

I'm pretty sure your motherboard is running an Intel 820 chipset. Possibly 840. Those were the only two that had RDRAM support for Pentium III's if my memory serves.

The PCI riser was part of the NLX form factor standard, but Dell made its own version which was common for Dell at the time. NLX never really caught on though.

@brinstar117, you can look at the CPU-Z screens in my top post, it doesn't jump out and say 'Intel 820' to me, but I am not as well-versed in chipset nuances as I once was 😊

Anyway, the Dell 3-pin to normal 3-pin adapter works, yay! Even works with a 3-pin 2-way splitter! The Noctua fan is pretty quiet, though I am not sure it's pulling enough air to be particularly useful to the CPU given the sort-of terrible shroud covering half the heatsink.

I now have a very small 1U server fan running and pointing at what I believe is the nVidia GPU (only thing on the board that has a heatsink, besides the CPU). Not really sure how to make the fan more useful, maybe some sort of ducting? I could probably get a couple of those fans running off a molex 4-pin connector through a tunnel duct thing?

I'm also sure the CPU and heatsink need a new splash of thermal paste, but until I find myself a 1GHz+/133MHz bus P3, I don't think I want to go that far yet.