VOGONS


First post, by Xray1281

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Hey everyone. I have a question about classic motherboards. I’m trying to build a 90’s exclusive pc. (Mostly 99) Would anyone know which motherboard from that time would work best with a Pentium 3, GeForce 256 ddr, soundblaster live platinum, a 5 1/4 inch floppy drive, 3 1/2 floppy drive, and a disc drive, with at least two ram slots both 256mb of ram with 133MHz. I’d like to have two or three hard drives if possible. (Max would be 4) The pc will be running windows 98 second edition. Also if you have a tower recommendation I’d gladly hear it. Sorry if this doesn’t explain much. I’m new to pc building but I am very interested in creating the strongest 90’s pc I can. Thanks for your time. 😀

Reply 1 of 17, by cyclone3d

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Skip the HDDs and use an SSD via a PCI Promise SATA I - 150 raid controller.

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Reply 2 of 17, by Katmai500

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It really depends if you want slot 1 or socket 370. I'm partial to slot 1 for a 1999 build.

For slot 1: ASUS P3B-F and Intel SE440BX-2 are two great choices. If you don't mind skipping the intel 440BX chipset, an ASUS P3V4X with the VIA Apollo Pro 133A is a good option and fully supports the 133 MHz FSB.

For socket 370: ASUS CUSL2 and Intel D815EAA/D815EAA2 are great choices with the intel I815E chipset and full 133 MHz FSB support. This is really 2000-era hardware as opposed to 1999, and you lose ISA ports. The ASUS CUV4X is a good Apollo Pro 133A option for socket 370.

You'll need to check the revisions on the slot 1 boards if you plan to use a coppermine Pentium III.

Reply 3 of 17, by dionb

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1999 is very borderline 1990s - most of the 1990s was an era of BabyAT minitowers and ever increasing socket pin density.

That aside, highest performance as of December 1999 puts you into interesting territory...

In the Intel camp, you had the rare, overpriced i840 dual-channel Rambus chipset taking the overall performance crown, then under that on the one hand i440BX still unbeatable at 100MHz FSB, on the other Via 693A (ApolloPro133 non-A) offering 133MHz FSB, but lagging in terms of latencies. Ignoring vapourware December 20th 1999 announcements, the fastest P3s you could get were the 700E and 733EB, where the 700E with 100MHz FSB on an i440BX actually beat the 733EB with 133MHz FSB on ApolloPro133 - and if you were lucky you could overclock both CPU and motherboard significantly.

In the AMD camp, things were starting to ramp up. The fastest Athlon at the time was the Orion-core 750MHz, which pretty much equalled the two Intel offerings in gaming, at least when paired with a Via KX133-based motherboard.

So your chosen moment in time is one of those rare instances where multiple options offer almost exact parity. For trouble-free fun, go with the tried&tested BX+700E combo, but a Slot A Athlon build would be more interesting if potentially more challenging.

Reply 4 of 17, by Katmai500

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dionb wrote:
1999 is very borderline 1990s - most of the 1990s was an era of BabyAT minitowers and ever increasing socket pin density. […]
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1999 is very borderline 1990s - most of the 1990s was an era of BabyAT minitowers and ever increasing socket pin density.

That aside, highest performance as of December 1999 puts you into interesting territory...

In the Intel camp, you had the rare, overpriced i840 dual-channel Rambus chipset taking the overall performance crown, then under that on the one hand i440BX still unbeatable at 100MHz FSB, on the other Via 693A (ApolloPro133 non-A) offering 133MHz FSB, but lagging in terms of latencies. Ignoring vapourware December 20th 1999 announcements, the fastest P3s you could get were the 700E and 733EB, where the 700E with 100MHz FSB on an i440BX actually beat the 733EB with 133MHz FSB on ApolloPro133 - and if you were lucky you could overclock both CPU and motherboard significantly.

In the AMD camp, things were starting to ramp up. The fastest Athlon at the time was the Orion-core 750MHz, which pretty much equalled the two Intel offerings in gaming, at least when paired with a Via KX133-based motherboard.

So your chosen moment in time is one of those rare instances where multiple options offer almost exact parity. For trouble-free fun, go with the tried&tested BX+700E combo, but a Slot A Athlon build would be more interesting if potentially more challenging.

The 750 MHz Athlon is actually the Pluto core. The Orion designation is for the 900-1000 MHz parts only.

And while the Apollo Pro 133 launched in July 1999, the improved Apollo Pro 133A was available in October 1999. So the 133A would be a better choice for a late '99 build than the regular 133.

There's no debating that the 440BX is the quintessential '99 Intel build though. A P3B-F (rev 1.04 or higher - some 1.03 will work) with a Pentium III 700E would be a very solid late 99 build with a GeForce 256.

Reply 5 of 17, by HanJammer

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IMHO What you are asking for is not really a 90s PC...
'99 well into 2004 were pretty dark times for both - PC hardware and games. On one hand - motherboard and graphics chipsets were still plentiful (some may find interesting how things were handled by early ATI/Matrox/S3 and other 3D graphics solutions), but on the other hand - all hardware was mostly not nteresting, not very reliable, drivers were unstable, and most games were low quality and uninteresting, most of them still technologicaly held back bacause of backwards win9x compatiblity…
So unless you are really into UT'99, Q3A, DeusEx, GTA 3, GTA VC (which of course were excellent, but still - can be run without trouble on modern PCs) - then it's better just to forget this era and skip it ;]

Personally I think that pre-99 Socket 7 / Super Socket 7 together with Voodoo 1 or 2 and/or TNT / TNT2 for DOS and Win9x gaming is a way to go, and later games - for the most part can be played without issues on modern PCs so why bother with such build?

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Reply 6 of 17, by brostenen

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Xray1281 wrote:

Hey everyone. I have a question about classic motherboards. I’m trying to build a 90’s exclusive pc. (Mostly 99) Would anyone know which motherboard from that time would work best with a Pentium 3, GeForce 256 ddr, soundblaster live platinum, a 5 1/4 inch floppy drive, 3 1/2 floppy drive, and a disc drive, with at least two ram slots both 256mb of ram with 133MHz. I’d like to have two or three hard drives if possible. (Max would be 4) The pc will be running windows 98 second edition. Also if you have a tower recommendation I’d gladly hear it. Sorry if this doesn’t explain much. I’m new to pc building but I am very interested in creating the strongest 90’s pc I can. Thanks for your time. 😀

Back in 2015, I did a late 90's era Pentium3 machine. It was aimed at being a 1999 build, yet as it is with lots of builds, then it was not a pure 1999 machine. Yet it was what I were able to build at that time, with the resources, money and parts collection that I had. The pictures are all gone, as I lost them on my dropbox account. Yet the description of the machine are still up here on Vogons.

My new 99 build. (picture heavy)

I had lots of fun with that motherboard. It was stable and I kind of liked it wery much. The machine were since rebuild and taken apart and parts were used in other project's, as my collection grew fast at that time. And other parts were sold off in order to be able to raise money for other hardware pieces.

Don't eat stuff off a 15 year old never cleaned cpu cooler.
Those cakes make you sick....

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Reply 7 of 17, by brostenen

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HanJammer wrote:
IMHO What you are asking for is not really a 90s PC... '99 well into 2004 were pretty dark times for both - PC hardware and game […]
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IMHO What you are asking for is not really a 90s PC...
'99 well into 2004 were pretty dark times for both - PC hardware and games. On one hand - motherboard and graphics chipsets were still plentiful (some may find interesting how things were handled by early ATI/Matrox/S3 and other 3D graphics solutions), but on the other hand - all hardware was mostly not nteresting, not very reliable, drivers were unstable, and most games were low quality and uninteresting, most of them still technologicaly held back bacause of backwards win9x compatiblity…
So unless you are really into UT'99, Q3A, DeusEx, GTA 3, GTA VC (which of course were excellent, but still - can be run without trouble on modern PCs) - then it's better just to forget this era and skip it ;]

Personally I think that pre-99 Socket 7 / Super Socket 7 together with Voodoo 1 or 2 and/or TNT / TNT2 for DOS and Win9x gaming is a way to go, and later games - for the most part can be played without issues on modern PCs so why bother with such build?

That's funny.... I remember 2003/2008 as dark times in PC gaming. All games were more or less a ripoff of each other, and were they did not rip each other off, they just took and re-issued old ideas from the mid-90's. The FPS shooter genre died during that period, and the last ones that were games in were you were free to do whatever (within the games limitations) were UT99 and Q3. And you can not just play DX7 games on modern machines. NFS Porche 2000 will not run on Win10, unless you patch it heavy, and even after that you still have major annoying issues. Like the arms of the driver will fly around in spasms, when you set the viewangle to dashboard. I like 1999 builds. I like nearly all era builds, up to around 2001/02. Then yes. Then hardware became boring and unreliable. Just not on most 1997/99 time periode hardware. Most were really stable, like A-Bit and Intel motherboards. I might be coloured by the fact, that in 1999, I was in my mid-20's and that was the time periode in wich I had tons of fun with gaming at small local 4-to-8-persons network gaming weekends.

Just remember. Each of us, have our own period or time frame, that we indevidually remember as being an exciting and awesomme time in our lives. For me, I remember the time frame of 1984/85 to 2001/02 as the periode in wich I had the most fun with computers in my entire life. Not like modern machines, that have absolutely no soul. And those few players that are in the field, have forgotten how to make quality, that are released without any serious issues. Today, everything is too sterile and have no soul. That was lost when competition went away.

Don't eat stuff off a 15 year old never cleaned cpu cooler.
Those cakes make you sick....

My blog: http://to9xct.blogspot.dk
My YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/brostenen

001100 010010 011110 100001 101101 110011

Reply 8 of 17, by HanJammer

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brostenen wrote:
HanJammer wrote:
IMHO What you are asking for is not really a 90s PC... '99 well into 2004 were pretty dark times for both - PC hardware and game […]
Show full quote

IMHO What you are asking for is not really a 90s PC...
'99 well into 2004 were pretty dark times for both - PC hardware and games. On one hand - motherboard and graphics chipsets were still plentiful (some may find interesting how things were handled by early ATI/Matrox/S3 and other 3D graphics solutions), but on the other hand - all hardware was mostly not nteresting, not very reliable, drivers were unstable, and most games were low quality and uninteresting, most of them still technologicaly held back bacause of backwards win9x compatiblity…
So unless you are really into UT'99, Q3A, DeusEx, GTA 3, GTA VC (which of course were excellent, but still - can be run without trouble on modern PCs) - then it's better just to forget this era and skip it ;]

Personally I think that pre-99 Socket 7 / Super Socket 7 together with Voodoo 1 or 2 and/or TNT / TNT2 for DOS and Win9x gaming is a way to go, and later games - for the most part can be played without issues on modern PCs so why bother with such build?

That's funny.... I remember 2003/2008 as dark times in PC gaming. All games were more or less a ripoff of each other, and were they did not rip each other off, they just took and re-issued old ideas from the mid-90's. The FPS shooter genre died during that period, and the last ones that were games in were you were free to do whatever (within the games limitations) were UT99 and Q3. And you can not just play DX7 games on modern machines. NFS Porche 2000 will not run on Win10, unless you patch it heavy, and even after that you still have major annoying issues. Like the arms of the driver will fly around in spasms, when you set the viewangle to dashboard. I like 1999 builds. I like nearly all era builds, up to around 2001/02. Then yes. Then hardware became boring and unreliable. Just not on most 1997/99 time periode hardware. Most were really stable, like A-Bit and Intel motherboards. I might be coloured by the fact, that in 1999, I was in my mid-20's and that was the time periode in wich I had tons of fun with gaming at small local 4-to-8-persons network gaming weekends.

Just remember. Each of us, have our own period or time frame, that we indevidually remember as being an exciting and awesomme time in our lives. For me, I remember the time frame of 1984/85 to 2001/02 as the periode in wich I had the most fun with computers in my entire life. Not like modern machines, that have absolutely no soul. And those few players that are in the field, have forgotten how to make quality, that are released without any serious issues. Today, everything is too sterile and have no soul. That was lost when competition went away.

Yeah, being at certain age or at certain moment in life may surely colour things a bit... 97-99 was interesting era both for games and for hardware (transition from AT to ATX, Pentium 2 and Athlon introduction, other interesting CPUs from AMD and so on). in 2004 (or even earlier in 2003 some solid titles started appearing - Half-Life 2 (and following episodes), Freelancer, NFS Most Wanted, Freedom Fighters to name a few… 2004 and on were dark times in my life on the other hand (my mother died) and I played alot as an escape - I think that it was 2004 when the industry started (again) caring about PCs, but prior to that I played alot too - but UT'99 and Q3A mostly as I couldn't really find good single player titles (Max Payne and Payne 2 maybe… but those were a bit too psychodelic for me, also Mafia and GTA VC obviously provided alot of fun)…

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Reply 9 of 17, by rasz_pl

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brostenen wrote:

That's funny.... I remember 2003/2008 as dark times in PC gaming. All games were more or less a ripoff of each other, and were they did not rip each other off, they just took and re-issued old ideas from the mid-90's. The FPS shooter genre died during that period

Far Cry
F.E.A.R.
BioShock
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Team Fortress 2
Half-Life 2
Portal
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory

I dont even..

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Reply 10 of 17, by HanJammer

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rasz_pl wrote:
Far Cry F.E.A.R. BioShock S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Team Fortress 2 Half-Life 2 Portal […]
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brostenen wrote:

That's funny.... I remember 2003/2008 as dark times in PC gaming. All games were more or less a ripoff of each other, and were they did not rip each other off, they just took and re-issued old ideas from the mid-90's. The FPS shooter genre died during that period

Far Cry
F.E.A.R.
BioShock
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Team Fortress 2
Half-Life 2
Portal
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory

I dont even..

Crysis…

Yeah I believe that Far Cry released somewhere in mid 2004 and later HL2 changed the PC games - especially FPS for better after some time of stagnation...

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Reply 11 of 17, by Katmai500

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'99 to '04 definitely had great games and was still interesting from a computer hardware and software perspective. As was mentioned, ATX was just completing its takeover in '99. The slot processor era is interesting with Intel and AMD both temporarily transitioning to it and then back to sockets. You also have the Super7 platform still breathing life into older AT systems in 1999. There was the RDRAM debacle and the rise of AMD with the Athlon, Athlon XP, and Athlon 64. The ever-evolving Pentium 4 platform and its many chipsets (Socket 423 -> Socket 478 and from RDRAM to DDR-SDRAM to Dual Channel DDR-SDRAM). From 1999 to 2004 we went from 500 MHz Pentium III's and AMD barely able to compete using their aging K6 to AMD unleashing the first x86-64 CPU's and toppling intel for the performance crown several times, and CPU speeds over 3 GHz.

Though as others have said, a lot of it has to do with your personal nostalgia and experiences. I'm 31, so the first computer I used was a 486-DX2 66 with Windows 3.11. I played all the Maxis Sim games on Pentium and Pentium III Win 9x machines in my younger years, experienced the Athlon XP/64 vs Pentium 4 battle in high school, and had Core 2/i7 systems through college. For me, ~1989 though ~2011 or so is the interesting period.

Reply 12 of 17, by Intel486dx33

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Intel P3 ( Slot-1 or socket 370 )
AMD Duron or Athlon XP with Via Chipset motherboard.

20gb or larger boot Hard drive or Compact flash card with IDE adapter ?
Voodoo-3 AGP or Voodoo-2 with Nvidia GeForce Fx5500
Lian Li Aluminum case.
17 or 21-inch Sony CRT monitor
Sound Blaster Audigy 2zs with live drive.
265 or 512mb ram
Intel 100/1000 Ethernet card.
Skip the Zip drive
USB flash drives and USB hard-drives.
3tb Western Digital MyCloud NAS to store all you files on your home network. Store as much as possible on the NAS.
Floppy drives 1.44 and 5.25 and a Gotech USB adapter.
Klipsch Pro media 2,1 speakers.
DVD drive.

Or save some money and just get a DELL GX270. Dell still sells NEW and refurbished motherboards for these computers.

Reply 13 of 17, by Gahhhrrrlic

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rasz_pl wrote:
brostenen wrote:

That's funny.... I remember 2003/2008 as dark times in PC gaming.

Indeed and 1999 was the "golden age". This is my own personal nomenclature, as all sorts of epic shit came out in '99 +/- 1 yr.

https://hubpages.com/technology/How-to-Maximi … -Retro-Computer

Reply 14 of 17, by pico1180

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I wanted to put my $0.02 in for the 440BX board. Everyone offered very good suggestions, but only a few were true legit solutions for 1999.

In my personal opinion, the 1999 era was defined by the Super Socket 7 and the 440BX chipset/slot 1 boards. You can for sure get Socket A options that came out in late 99, but to me those platforms and competing ones like it were ushering in the 2000's. 2000 and 2001 saw the death of Voodoo and the rise of DIrectX.

In 98 I built a Super Socket 7 system around the FIC VA-503+ motherboard. It was supposed to be the best of the best for that platform. I had nothing but instability trouble with it. I replaced it with a Tyan S1846 and a Pentium II 350 and loved it.

To me, the 440BX is the platform that defined 99.

A 440BX with a GeForce 256, Monster II/Aria 3D, and a couple off Voodoo II's in SLI would be the most kick ass system ever. It would be a "high end" build for that time and all of the components would come from 98 or 99.

Reply 15 of 17, by RandomStranger

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brostenen wrote:

That's funny.... I remember 2003/2008 as dark times in PC gaming.

Maybe I'm biassed, because most of my favorites are from that period (I just picked up a dozen boxed first releases last week, since Steam stopped supporting XP this January). But it's true, from the hardware standpoint that's the time when it got boring. The dedicated PhysX card didn't turn out to be the next Voodoo everyone wanted and other expansions like sound cards became unnecessary.

If there ever were a truly dark time for PC gaming, we are living it right now.

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Reply 16 of 17, by Intel486dx33

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Okay, back in the 1999 I had an HP Vectra VL400 like this one with a Pentium-3 @ 733mhz.
These run really quiet and performance is really good.
I really liked it back in the day.
Supports Win98 and Win2000 and WinME.
The case is really easy to work in.
It’s a bit BIG tower but nice.

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Reply 17 of 17, by dionb

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Intel486dx33 wrote:
Okay, back in the 1999 I had an HP Vectra VL400 like this one with a Pentium-3 @ 733mhz. These run really quiet and performance […]
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Okay, back in the 1999 I had an HP Vectra VL400 like this one with a Pentium-3 @ 733mhz.
These run really quiet and performance is really good.
I really liked it back in the day.
Supports Win98 and Win2000 and WinME.
The case is really easy to work in.
It’s a bit BIG tower but nice.

I sort of doubt you had a system like that in 1999. The i815 chipset it uses wasn't released until June 2000...