VOGONS


First post, by pentiumspeed

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Got it from ebay,

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Motherboard-Pentium-M … 872.m2749.l2649

HX chipset, and solder pads for second tag cache IC. Do anyone have board like this with dual tag cache IC board, if so, do you have clear photos of SMD components to set up this correctly?

This comes as a bundle: Pentium 200 with heatsink, 32MB EDO in ATX factor. Is there no issues with vibra 16 IC desoldered from motherboard's and use proper sound card?

I don't know who have manual for this so I know more about this motherboard? So I see if can use pentium mmx 233 on this? (I do have the 233mmx CPU in storage).

I already ordered a decent FX 5200 256MB PCI. I made sure this is 8 chip vram which is 128 bit version. Is there good choices of PCI cards even TNT2 M64? I could not find any decent PCI cards in geforce2 models. (to avoid slow down with newer chips).

Intended use: older DOS games, even not period correct hardware-wise.

Will post more on other topics about PIII 1GHz coppermine 370 socket 815PE board.

Cheers, pentiumspeed

Great Northern aka Canada.

Reply 1 of 10, by zyga64

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pentiumspeed wrote:
So I see if can use pentium mmx 233 on this? (I do have the 233mmx CPU in storage). […]
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So I see if can use pentium mmx 233 on this? (I do have the 233mmx CPU in storage).

I already ordered a decent FX 5200 256MB PCI. I made sure this is 8 chip vram which is 128 bit version. Is there good choices of PCI cards even TNT2 M64? I could not find any decent PCI cards in geforce2 models. (to avoid slow down with newer chips).

Intended use: older DOS games, even not period correct hardware-wise.

Will post more on other topics about PIII 1GHz coppermine 370 socket 815PE board.

Cheers, pentiumspeed

Looks like this motherboard has empty VRM socket, so probably pentium MMX is no go until you'll buy pentium VRM module.
If this is intended for DOS then just put the S3 Virge or someting similiar on this. FX5200 will be overkill, I'm not sure about compatibility though...

1) VLSI SCAMP /286@20 /4M /CL-GD5422 /CMI8330
2) i420EX /486DX33 /16M /TGUI9440 /GUS+ALS100+MT32PI
3) i430FX /K6-2@400 /64M /Rage Pro PCI /ES1370+YMF718
4) i440BX /P!!!750 /256M /MX440 /SBLive!
5) iB75 /3470s /4G /HD7750 /HDA

Reply 2 of 10, by The Serpent Rider

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This board resembles Intel 430HX OEM, so it's possible it can switch between 3.3v and 2.8v without VRM add-on. There's a room for a second TAG chip, but you'll have to solder it.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 3 of 10, by pentiumspeed

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I do repair electronics for a living so this SMD and capacitors repair is not a problem.

What I do not know is resistor positions to set it up as dual tag cache on this board. Do anyone have this board with dual tag configuration take pictures of this?

The VRM is 30 pins and I'm unable to obtain pinout for that, do anyone have this information? When I have that, I can source compatible VRM and adapt it in. I had done that once to rebuild a board's dead linear VRM using cut section of complete PWM controlled chopper VRM from a junk motherboard and number of jumpers, works well. That was years ago.

Cheers, pentiumspeed

Great Northern aka Canada.

Reply 4 of 10, by Thermalwrong

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The pinout can be found on page 35/36 of this document: 😀
http://datasheets.chipdb.org/Intel/x86/Pentium/24318702.PDF

This is the only once I've seen attached to a motherboard:
https://www.ebay.fr/itm/PCCHIPS-M520-v1-0-soc … yr4:rk:194:pf:0

Someone else on Vogons mentioned this VRM model is the same thing: https://www.tradera.com/item/301822/317210409 … tra-vl-ve-xm-xa

Reply 5 of 10, by realoldguy23

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pentiumspeed wrote:

Got it from ebay,
Intended use: older DOS games, even not period correct hardware-wise.

Considering this you might want to stay with the P200 non-MMX. It is already too fast for older DOS games. A 233-MMX will only worsen the situation.

You might want to go the under-clock route. The P200 can be clocked down to 75MHz at 1.5 x 50MHz FSB. The MMX Pentiums only support 2x as their lowest multiplier, so you would reach 100MHz only.

Disabling cache on such an under-clocked system will give you the performance of a fast 286/slow 386.

Reply 6 of 10, by Thermalwrong

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I agree, I hadn't noticed it comes with the 200Mhz non-MMX CPU, which is a bit rare on its own these days.

realoldguy23 wrote:

You might want to go the under-clock route. The P200 can be clocked down to 75MHz at 1.5 x 50MHz FSB. The MMX Pentiums only support 2x as their lowest multiplier, so you would reach 100MHz only.

Disabling cache on such an under-clocked system will give you the performance of a fast 286/slow 386.

I didn't know about that multiplier limitation, but that makes sense since the 1.5x multiplier links to the 233MHz / 3.5x multiplier instead on my 233MHz capable MMX board.

Reply 7 of 10, by pentiumspeed

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Yes, Pentium classic. 200MHz, no mmx. I knew that is is not easy to find from what had seen on ebay for years. And with black plastic package with metal top.

I had Pentium 100 on a really good Asus P/I-........... based on HX baby AT board w/ pair of 16MB total BEDO purchased on my own money, once trialed a K6-2 500 once, not noticeable performance, few years later on, then Pentium 100 computer was given to other dad's relative long ago when I got PII 350 with P2B board in a HX05 Aceropen case, machine back then. Only thing I still have is case years later re-used many times and serving as parents' computer. This is early ATX tower case that still has whole cover lifted off as one piece, not side panels like later ATX case commonly done.

Thanks to part number, I was able to locate the HP VRM module and placed on watch list. 😀

I prefer to purchase any boards that is ATX standard for ease of building into standard cases.

Finding a good PCI video card is tougher than I thought and for reasonable price. What I have is Rage II+ DVD, Mystique 220 both are PCI cards for years and now purchased a 128bit FX 5200 PCI 256MB (8 memory chips, not 4).

How is the TNT2 M64 PCI if overclocked? I could not find a geforce2 PCI yet.

PS: thanks for the datasheet on VRM, I can construct one when I find components to make one if cheaper.

Cheers, pentiumspeed

Great Northern aka Canada.

Reply 8 of 10, by ODwilly

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For a P1 200mhz the fx 5200 is really out of place. Even the oldest compatible driver is going to be from 2003-4ish? More suitable for a Pentium 3/P4.

I know the Riva128 has been favored by a couple people around here, and the TNT2 M64 is an advanced impovement on the Riva. With around the same 2D compatibility iirc. Try out the Rage and Matrox, they are both decent chips for a P1 system.

Main pc: Asus ROG 17. R9 5900HX, RTX 3070m, 16gb ddr4 3200, 1tb NVME.
Retro PC: Soyo P4S Dragon, 3gb ddr 266, 120gb Maxtor, Geforce Fx 5950 Ultra, SB Live! 5.1

Reply 9 of 10, by FFXIhealer

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I believe I have this same motherboard. It looks identical and even had the same 200MHz P54c non-MMX Pentium processor (with that same exact heatsink tower looking thing!).

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I had a small aluminum+fan cooler to use that had a 2-wire power connector perfect for this board, so I used some thermal paste and replaced that ugly blue passive heatsink. This little monster is quiet and keeps the Pentium way cool.

For the graphics card, I just stuck with the ATI Rage IIc 2MB PCI card. It's got more than enough power available for DOS gamed and if I want to run 3D applications for mid-90s, then honestly I'd rather get a Voodoo1 card and a passthrough cable and be done.

For Memory, mine came with 40 MB of memory. It turns out it had 2x 16MB SIMMs and 2x 4MB SIMMs. I replaced the 4MB SIMMs with another pair of 16MB SIMMs I got for cheap online and now I have a full whopping 64MB of memory. As anyone who's played games and stuff back in 1995 can attest, this is severely overkill, even for gaming. My only concern is that this board only uses FPM or EDO memory, which means only 16.7MHz memory speed tops. Between the 512KB L2 Cache on the motherboard running at FSB speed (66MHz) and the Processor running a 3x multiplier, that's a 12-fold decrease in the speed and throughput. Yes, performance suffers compared to my newer P2/3 systems and 100MHz SDRAM, but hey, beggars can't be choosers. I got the board free. I got the ATI Rage IIc card from a fellow VOGONS member here. Good guy.

I installed Windows 95 OSR2 on this system with a 20.4GB hard drive, even though the BIOS only recognizes up to 8GB hard drive sizes. I used the Maxtor drive overlay software they used for these kinds of issues back in the day and it works perfectly, aside from slowing down my boot times by around 15 seconds.

By the way, I noticed something about that listing. How does that guy have the nerve to advertise this MB as a "SUPER" Socket 7? The board is NOT capable of 100MHz FSB speeds at all, the very definition of Super-Socket-7. There's also no AGP port. I hope you didn't overpay.

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Reply 10 of 10, by pentiumspeed

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I knew what I am going into this, since I had HX motherboard and know these features are. I had a baby AT Asus P/I---- with HX chipset and Pentium 100 in 1995 or so, came with 16MB of BEDO memory (pair of 8MB which used to cost 700, more than board and CPU combined!).

Preferred ATX form factor motherboards now so I can use any case and build this way.

100 is reasonable for CPU, HX based quality motherboard and pair of 16MB for 32MB total. Rather good. I have seen other boards combos cost more than that, and they were FX, VX and TX chipsets as well.

Regarding PCI video cards, it is hard to find a good choice like PCI TNT2 not M64, Geforce2 PCI not yet found one, and I did not know if it is real situation with Geforce4 is slower for DOS and early 98SE games with this pentium 200 even at 64MB? I ordered another 32MB of sticks, still EDO.
I know ATI cards are a problem with old games than geforce series but how is choice of a Rage 128 series?

Also I recently ordered a Intel-manufactured Dell slot 1 440BX board ATX will this work better with easier to find AGP cards for early DOS, middle and late stuff? What is the years periods for those early, middle and late eras of dos games?

Cheers, pentiumspeed.

Great Northern aka Canada.