The question is what you want to do exactly. The P5A is generally considered the single best performing So7 board, and one of the few that can overclock past 100MHz FSB effectively. However its Aladdin V chipset is something of a finnicky thoroughbred - as you already mention it's far less flexible in terms of clock and cache settings, and it can have AGP compatibility issues (although not with your Voodoo3). That said, mid '80s is a long way back for any SS7 system.

I'm not personally familiar with the Azza board, but it looks almost identical to my Tekram MVP3 ATX board. I like the voltage settings, with everything from 1.6V to 3.5V available. The FSB can officially be set to 60-66-75-75 (other AGP divider)-83-95-100MHz, but with 3 jumpers there's at least one more undocumented setting to play with. All in all it's a flexible and refreshingly well documented late SS7 board- but not that different to the P5A.

TBH I don't think that you'll notice a huge difference in performance-crippling ability between the boards, but given you are definitely looking backwards, not forwards, I'd say it's a total waste to use the P5A for this purpose. Use the Azza and either make the P5A shine with a K6plus CPU in it, or give/swap/sell it to someone else who will.

dionb wrote:

The question is what you want to do exactly. The P5A is generally considered the single best performing So7 board, and one of the few that can overclock past 100MHz FSB effectively. However its Aladdin V chipset is something of a finnicky thoroughbred - as you already mention it's far less flexible in terms of clock and cache settings, and it can have AGP compatibility issues (although not with your Voodoo3). That said, mid '80s is a long way back for any SS7 system.

I'm not personally familiar with the Azza board, but it looks almost identical to my Tekram MVP3 ATX board. I like the voltage settings, with everything from 1.6V to 3.5V available. The FSB can officially be set to 60-66-75-75 (other AGP divider)-83-95-100MHz, but with 3 jumpers there's at least one more undocumented setting to play with. All in all it's a flexible and refreshingly well documented late SS7 board- but not that different to the P5A.

TBH I don't think that you'll notice a huge difference in performance-crippling ability between the boards, but given you are definitely looking backwards, not forwards, I'd say it's a total waste to use the P5A for this purpose. Use the Azza and either make the P5A shine with a K6plus CPU in it, or give/swap/sell it to someone else who will.

Basically I´m looking for the most versatile DOS/Windows 98 gaming platform covering until year 2000. I can´t afford more than one rig due lack of space, unfortunately, so I need to stick to only one. For example, I´m now using a PII 350MHz with similar components and it works really fine with pre-2000 games. Dealing with caches can slowdown the CPU to 386DX25/33 level, yes, but I would like going even slower if it´s possible.

On the contrary, I´m not into OC or performance.

In that case, I'll stick with my conclusion: don't waste the P5A on this, just use the Azza and let someone else use the P5A for what it was meant for.

Re lack of space, these are large full-ATX boards. It might be worth looking into half baby-AT size boards with one SS7 and another 286/386. Two of those in a custom case (basically a box with two chopped-down AT backplates) would take less space than one ATX system. Add a KVM switch to run it with a single monitor/keyboard and you're good to go.

I mean this kind of board:

They're getting hard to come by, but given that you've got a P5A as potential exchange, you might not find it too difficult to get one 😉

Cache inside CPU socket? Crispy.

The Serpent Rider wrote:

Cache inside CPU socket? Crispy.

Not as bad as having one of the mounting holes inside the CPU socket 🤣 *ASUS*

Tetrium wrote:

The Serpent Rider wrote:

Cache inside CPU socket? Crispy.

Not as bad as having one of the mounting holes inside the CPU socket 🤣 *ASUS*

Come on now, that's a brilliant ''anti motherboard-theft'' feature! 🤣

meljor wrote:

Tetrium wrote:

The Serpent Rider wrote:

Cache inside CPU socket? Crispy.

Not as bad as having one of the mounting holes inside the CPU socket 🤣 *ASUS*

Come on now, that's a brilliant ''anti motherboard-theft'' feature! 🤣

Well, one could often simply take out the entire motherboard tray from an AT tower without unscrewing the motherboard first 😜

dionb wrote on 2018-03-25, 13:17:

I mean this kind of board: https://www.njuskalo.hr/image-w920x690/maticne-ploce/maticna-ploca-super-socket-7-s7-procesore-358878 […]
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I mean this kind of board:

What board is this? I bought it but there is no model name on it, just "Super" 🤣 😀

EDIT: Nevermind, found the information, it is PCPartner MVP3BS7