VOGONS


New old build

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First post, by Lamuse

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Hello, been looking at the forums for a while trying to decide how I want to proceed with a new/old build.

I have two Pentium III 600 EB slot 1 processors in my possession, I was originally going to build a 300a system up with a P2B board so I could still use my original to me AWE64 gold sound card, and my ATI Rage Fury video card. I also have two Diamond Voodoo 2 cards that I could also run if I wanted to.

What motherboard would be the best that I could use one of the 600 EB processors I have that would have one PCI slot on it, and could still run Windows 98 (I could run ME, I have an OEM copy that had no issues with on an old AMD 450).

Thanks in advance.

Reply 2 of 19, by Lamuse

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I don't have a board yet, I was going to build one using a P2B that I was going to buy, but after I remembered I had the 600EBs I decided to go that route instead, but was wondering which board would be best for them. I didn't do much system building after the P3s came out, so not as familiar with the hardware as I am with the P4 and above, or P2 and below.

Thanks for the welcome 😀

Reply 3 of 19, by Lamuse

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I had been reading that the BH6 would be good, but going to the 133 FSB would up the AGP speed to something that the video card would not like. I also have a Radeon 9800 Pro that I could use as well as it is AGP 8x where if I remember correctly, the Rage Fury Pro is just 2x/4x.

Reply 4 of 19, by darry

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Lamuse wrote on 2021-02-07, 22:34:

I had been reading that the BH6 would be good, but going to the 133 FSB would up the AGP speed to something that the video card would not like. I also have a Radeon 9800 Pro that I could use as well as it is AGP 8x where if I remember correctly, the Rage Fury Pro is just 2x/4x.

AGP base clock at 89MHz instead of 66MHz with FSB at 133MHz is one consideration, but you have options . See 440BX 133Mhz FSB 89Mhz AGP Video Card Compatibility?

But, IMHO, 44MHz PCI clock instead of 33MHz with a 133MHz is potentially a more serious issue if your board revision does not have a /4 divider for PCI . See
Re: Abit BH6 CPU upgrade advice.

Reply 5 of 19, by Lamuse

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darry wrote on 2021-02-07, 23:04:
AGP base clock at 89MHz instead of 66MHz with FSB at 133MHz is one consideration, but you have options . See 440BX 133Mhz FSB 8 […]
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Lamuse wrote on 2021-02-07, 22:34:

I had been reading that the BH6 would be good, but going to the 133 FSB would up the AGP speed to something that the video card would not like. I also have a Radeon 9800 Pro that I could use as well as it is AGP 8x where if I remember correctly, the Rage Fury Pro is just 2x/4x.

AGP base clock at 89MHz instead of 66MHz with FSB at 133MHz is one consideration, but you have options . See 440BX 133Mhz FSB 89Mhz AGP Video Card Compatibility?

But, IMHO, 44MHz PCI clock instead of 33MHz with a 133MHz is potentially a more serious issue if your board revision does not have a /4 divider for PCI . See
Re: Abit BH6 CPU upgrade advice.

Awesome, thanks for that link. Looks like the Rage Fury Pro, and the All-in-Wonder 128 Pro I have would both work. Since that article on Anandtech came out before the 9800 Pro, I wonder if it would work as well. AMD has 98/ME drivers for that card, and it is an 8x card.

Main reason is I need an ISA slot for the AWE64 Gold that I would be using. I do have two other Creative PCI sound cards, just not sure if they would work in a 98/ME environment. One is an Audigy Platinum, the other is an SB Live! card. I just love the MIDI that the AWE64 does.

Reply 6 of 19, by texterted

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I always find it best to build the system to suit the games I'd like to play. Not to suit the hardware that I could wedge in there.

Cheers

Ted

98se/W2K :- Asus A8v Dlx. A-64 3500+, 512 mb ddr, Radeon 9800 Pro, SB Live.
XP Pro:- Asus P5 Q SE Plus, C2D E8400, 4 Gig DDR2, Radeon HD4870, SB Audigy 2ZS.

Reply 7 of 19, by Lamuse

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Oh I agree. Most of my games were played on the Rage Fury Pro, AWE64 Gold but on an AMD K6/2-400. I still have the K6 board and processor but the AWE has some compatibility issues with the AMD processors and was wanting to build an Intel setup. I would say 3/4 of the games I have were DOS based that I ran with DOS 6.2.2 and Windows 3.1 on an Intel 486/33 with a VLB video card. Some of the later games were for 95/98 and would still run the dos based games in MS-DOS mode on either a Cyrix or AMD processor.

Reply 8 of 19, by texterted

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I'd grab a BX chipset board then, but that P3 600 maybe a bit too fast for some dos stuff.

Another alternative, if you'd like to use that 9800 Pro, is to build a really high end system. You can then use dosbox for the early stuff.

That's what I do, the 98 machine in my signature currently sports a 9700 Pro. But sometimes runs a GF4 Ti or a 9800 Pro or whatever takes my mood this week! 😁

It's a compromise, but one that works for me, given my space constraints etc.

Cheers

Ted

98se/W2K :- Asus A8v Dlx. A-64 3500+, 512 mb ddr, Radeon 9800 Pro, SB Live.
XP Pro:- Asus P5 Q SE Plus, C2D E8400, 4 Gig DDR2, Radeon HD4870, SB Audigy 2ZS.

Reply 9 of 19, by dionb

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P3-600EB is a Coppermine CPU with 133MHz FSB. BX boards can usually manage that, but no guarantees.

In terms of your requirements, pretty much any Slot 1 board will give you a single PCI slot, most also offer AGP. The challenge is combining 133MHz FSB and Coppermine voltage support ('late' features) with at least one ISA slot for that AWE64 ('early' features).

Two main options:
1) go for BX (best performance per MHz, and most have ISA slots, even if they support CuMine voltage) and hope you can reach 133MHz. If not you may have to run the CPU at 450MHz (its 4.5x multiplier is fixed).
2) go for safe and take a 133MHz-supporting chipset, with ISA slot(s), and accept the marginally lower performance and need for chipset drivers.

If going for the former, watch out for Coppermine voltage support (hence the question on exact revision of P2B - it matters!) and make sure the board allows a 1/4 PCI divider (most boards with CuMine voltage will have that, but not all. Without it you'll also be overclocking PCI, which will frequently be the bottleneck).

If going for the latter, avoid the ubiqitous Via ApolloPro133 (non-A)/693A (yes, A on the chipset model number for the non-A chipset is confusing), as performance is really bad. The Via ApolloPro133A/694X is much better and a very viable option. You can easily tell the difference by the AGP slot: 693A has AGP2x and a divider in the slot, 694X has a universal AGP4x slot with no divider. There are some other options. A real unicorn would be an i815 board with ISA bridge, but that's not realistic. One thing you do occasionally see is i820 chipset boards with Rambus memory. The Asus P3C-E pairs that with an ISA slot. Rambus had terrible press back in the day due to huge price, nasty corporate practices, very buggy early implementations and no compelling performance advantage to compensate. However price&politics are hardly an issue now (RDRAM is as cheap as SDRAM) and performance may not be better than i440BX, but with PC800 it's pretty much on par, and beats the Via 694X easily. And then there's Serverworks HE-SL. If you can find a Tyan Thunder 2500, you can stick both P3-600EB into it, add insane amounts of RAM and actually outperform BX on some benchmarks. But one of these is unlikely to come cheap. Realistically, I'd aim for ApolloPro133A with ISA, something like the Asus P3V4X, or any number of similar boards.

Reply 10 of 19, by Doornkaat

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dionb wrote on 2021-02-08, 11:41:

In terms of your requirements, pretty much any Slot 1 board will give you a single PCI slot, most also offer AGP. The challenge is combining 133MHz FSB and Coppermine voltage support ('late' features) with at least one ISA slot for that AWE64 ('early' features).

I think he wanted to request one ISA slot but typed PCI by accident.

Reply 11 of 19, by dionb

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Doornkaat wrote on 2021-02-08, 12:55:
dionb wrote on 2021-02-08, 11:41:

In terms of your requirements, pretty much any Slot 1 board will give you a single PCI slot, most also offer AGP. The challenge is combining 133MHz FSB and Coppermine voltage support ('late' features) with at least one ISA slot for that AWE64 ('early' features).

I think he wanted to request one ISA slot but typed PCI by accident.

Sort of makes more sense. I'm having trouble thinking up any (non-PC104 or similar) board that didn't have PCI 😉

In any event 1 ISA was implied by the AWE64 and makes sense for a build that's going to be doing DOS some of the time anyway.

Reply 12 of 19, by Lamuse

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Well, I still have this setup I could use, but it goes back to the problems with the AMD K6/2 and the AWE wave synth issues. I could put this in my ATX case I have, but I honestly do not have an AT keyboard anymore haha.

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Reply 13 of 19, by Lamuse

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Well, I think I have come up with a different route. Just so happens I found (didn't realize I had) an old FIC FA13 that has a P3-800 (non EB) that has the VIA Apollo 133A (I believe) chipset. There is a heatsink on the Northbridge, but the southbridge is VT82C596B which shows to only be used with the 133A. Have no idea if it is any good, but guess I'll try and fire it up and see.

Reply 16 of 19, by ODwilly

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That looks fic 13 looks great. Do note that it may support up to 4gb of ram. Or possibly 2 id imagine. Stupid overkill for a 800mhz p3 and windows 98 but so good.

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 17 of 19, by Lamuse

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ODwilly wrote on 2021-02-09, 11:44:

That looks fic 13 looks great. Do note that it may support up to 4gb of ram. Or possibly 2 id imagine. Stupid overkill for a 800mhz p3 and windows 98 but so good.

True, but then again I went overkill with my current rig.

Ran into a problem I’m hoping is just some bios settings with the AGP slot. Neither of my cards will work in it but worked in the old K6 board I posted in the picture. I have to find a PS2 keyboard (all I have are USB) so I can get into the bios and see what is going on.

Reply 18 of 19, by Lamuse

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Well, it’s going together good. I’m torn on using a more current power supply (OCZ Modstream 700w) or a mustard and ketchup 250w that is period correct. Anyway, here are some pictures, my helper seems to approve so far. Ugh, it reordered my pictures. Go bottom to top for order

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Reply 19 of 19, by Lamuse

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Well, I have come to a screeching halt as the only IDE CD drive I have is bad. Just bought another one off of eBay and won't be here until next week. I do have an IDE to SATA adapter I could try and use one of my BD-ROM drives, but I have this sweet Plextor slot feed DVD-R on it's way.