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New Pentium Pro system!

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First post, by Ampera

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I'm looking over a possible Pentium Pro system, and I am wondering, for an earlier P6 system, would a 4MB Voodoo 1 be a good choice?

EDIT: New system! Formerly "Is a 4MB Voodoo 1 good for a Pentium Pro?

So I've gone and bought the parts for a brand new Pentium Pro machine! It fills a bit of a gap between my rather OP Pentium 3 450, and my weak 486-DX4-100 120Mhz.

Here are the raw specs

Gateway 2000 Socket 8 Motherboard with 200Mhz Pentium Pro

128MB EDO Non Parity RAM over 4x72 Pin SIMMs

3dfx Voodoo 1 4MB PCI (Some sort of generic or reference card, it's still a Voodoo, and it's also my first thing from 3dfx

ATI Mach 64 PCI 2MB (Literally a classic combo here, Mach 64 and Voodoo 1 is awesome af)

Creative Sound Blaster AWE 32 CT3670 (I already have one on my 486, they are GREAT cards. It's I think the AWE64 chip on an AWE32 card, which means I can expand the memory using easily found 30 Pin SIMMs instead of hard to impossible to find proprietary expansions.

Here's where it gets a bit hairy, but I think I'm gonna make it.

I couldn't find a Socket 8 cooler at a reasonable price, so I am using the next best thing. A Socket 370 heatsink. This is a bit stupid of me, and it's the first time I have gone for a heatsink that doesn't fit it's socket, but I will make it work somehow. Zip ties, Tape, My own metal working, something's gonna secure that to the board.

This is one of my happiest builds ever. I love this thing and I haven't even done it yet. The case is some cheap as chips one from Newegg, but it matches closely with my other cheap as chip cases.

Ideas for an OS range from PC-DOS 2000/DR-DOS to Windows 95 to Windows NT of some sort. Might dual boot, might use a larger than kosher drive. Also for anybody who has a Gateway 2000 board, am I going to need to transpose any pins, or am I safe to go?

I also intend to shoot a video (Like I have tried to do before), but this time actually do it. So I'll come back when I've got that.

Comments are appreciated, as long as they aren't among the lines of "That is a terrible config, those parts shouldn't go together"

And if you have suggestions for a better CPU cooler, I don't want to hear that either, I probably already know it, but the Socket 370 option was cheap and hopefully easy.

Last edited by Ampera on 2017-05-24, 18:37. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 2 of 12, by Deksor

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I don't own a pentium pro machine (I just have one CPU) but I heared that for 16 bit applications, a ppro 200 performs like a p133 IIRC. So for most games it should be okay but maybe a bit on the slow side

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Reply 3 of 12, by konc

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This could be an unpopular opinion since most people tend to max out their computers, but I believe if you're aiming at a DOS-only system it's the best option. It'll give you less trouble getting the games to run and it's enough to run them well. For Windows games I'd go for a Voodoo2, but still a Voodoo1 is not at all wrong or inadequate if you plan to run period correct games.

Reply 4 of 12, by Ampera

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Not sure what OS I plan to run. I plan to pair it with a Mach 64 PCI 2MB card. I was thinking of Windows 98 with an AWE32 as it will run pretty much everything. It's a 200Mhz P6, which is a fairly beefy CPU for DOS

Reply 5 of 12, by Ampera

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Also a quick question, can the AWE 32 (Specifically the CT3670) handle two 16MiB SIMMs? I know it can only do up to 28MiB, but can I just use 16MiB SIMMs and have the 4MiB difference go unused?

Reply 8 of 12, by Ampera

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Eh, Socket 370 and Socket 8's mounting system are so similar, I may even be able to just extend the clip. Also Socket 370 heatsinks tend to be beefier than Socket 8 ones, so it should run cooler.

Reply 10 of 12, by chinny22

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Mach64 isn't the fastest of DOS cards, most people would go with something like early nvidia, S3, etc. I'm not one of them though as its what I gamed on all those years ago just fine!
NT4 is where the CPU will really shine, but for gaming? I'd stick with your favourite Win9x flavour.

Like you said fits quite nice between handle just about any dos game P3 and slow but authentic? 486. i'm all for your parts list

Reply 11 of 12, by Ampera

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While the Mach64 may not be the fastest of DOS cards, it is by far the most classic in my opinion. When I think DOS card I think either S3 Trio, or an ATI Mach. This machine also isn't really intended to be a DOS machine for intensive 2D gaming. I am sure this config will tear apart Doom and Duke 3D which are probably the most intensive non Glide DOS games I will be running.

For OS I am going to go for Windows 95 as it's an OS I don't have on any machine yet, it fits the age of the machine (Around 1996) and NTVDM sucks.

And NVidia never made strictly 2D cards. Their first chip was the NV1 a quad based 3D chip. Their cards aren't really for DOS. I will however agree Tseng Labs, Cirrus Logic, and S3 are probably the big three when it comes to DOS cards, with ATI being a good classic that I think everybody likes.

Reply 12 of 12, by Ampera

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UPDATE: So, it was a BIT stupid of me to order a Socket 370 cooler for a Pentium Pro. I ended up ordering a proper Socket 8 cooler.

The Mach64 came in, broken. The seller was nice, and refunded the money, and let me keep it. With the help of my father I was able to fix the broken trace and get the card working (On my Pentium 3)

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