_StIwY_ wrote on 2022-12-07, 17:02:

Just for the record, i was forced to stay with a P1 100mhz - a Cirrus Logic 5446 PCI 1Mb , 8Mb RAM, a cheapOPTi ISA audio card....until 1999 x( when i finally convinced my parents to buy the 2nd PC.

Heh, I was in the same boat, but with a slightly faster Pentium 133 and a Vibra16 sound card. Barely convinced my folks that I needed a new PC, and they couldn't really understand why. "We bought it 3 years ago and it's already too old?" 😁 Yeah, tech was moving rapidly back in the day.

Anyway, that's very nice system you built! I would only suggest using Nusb 3.3 instead of 3.6 since the latter contains some files from WinME which might turn your OS into a sort of Frankenstein hybrid.

I love the wooden open case. Fantastic idea. Were the slot brackets and power button scavenged from a defunct case?

I loved the wooden "case" you built! Congratulations!
I tend to think 1997-2002 is the best era when it comes to PC games, nostalgia aside.

I also assembled a Pentium II 450mhz but paired with a TNT 1 (to stay period correct) and Voodoo2, SB Live, all on a Soyo 440BX board.
Still deciding if that TNT1 would stay there or replacing it with (a still period correct) Ati Rage128 or a Savage 4 (to also enjoy Metal and S3TC), though the latter is from 1999.

As a sidenote, I´ve read in this forum people have better experience (compatibility) when installing nothing above DX8.1, when W98 is used.

+1 for the "case".
Thanks for sharing.

I also agree, really like the idea of making the "case" part of the shelf, makes it more tidy somehow?

Your years of suffering were not alone. Our DX2/66 lasted till early '99 when we got a PC close to this spec, A PII 400, 16MB TNT1
You did well not to go crazy on the upgrades, these days I find it hard not to say swap the CPU for something faster.

I also own a 3Dfx Banshee 16Mb APG, but damn.......the heatsink becomes hot already under idle mode! Reading over internet, it's a common "problem" because the factory heatsink is way too undersized, yet the card works fine, but i'm afraid of a premature death. I would like to replace the heatsink, but i guess it's easier to put some kind of horizontal bracket with a fan which blows on the chip......any tips is appreciated

It seems like the metal backplate that cards get fixed to is left unfixed to anything but the cards themselves? If that is the case I'd say it's a bad idea. There is heavy strain coming from the cards' weight along with cables connected to them (esp. VGA). The strain will be concentrated on the motherboard's cards slots. Eventually the cards may crack at their connection with the motherboard. Ideally all the strain should go to the case's frame.

For cooling the Banshee I've a fan blowing air direct over the card.
Sadly the Zalman BR123 linked below are disconnected, I've a few for when appearance mattered but maybe you could find something like it or 2nd hand?
https://www.quietpc.com/br123ff1

The cheap version is to get a I/O back plate, bend it 90 degrees and mount a fan to that

_StIwY_ wrote on 2022-12-07, 17:02:

[...]

Just for the record, i was forced to stay with a P1 100mhz - a Cirrus Logic 5446 PCI 1Mb , 8Mb RAM, a cheap OPTi ISA audio card....until 1999 x( when i finally convinced my parents to buy the 2nd PC.

I was given a one-off big 18th birthday present. I could choose between a driving license and a PC. No surprises: I chose the latter. That was in January 1995, netting me a P60 with 8MB RAM and a no-name S3-868 VGA with piss-poor quality I never noticed because the monitor was even worse. The only nice thing in the system was a GUS Max. No "2nd PC" gifts from my parents either. A year later I upgraded it to 16MB RAM, but apart from that I was stuck with it until I could afford to buy myself a newer PC. That didn't happen until 1999.

My short-lived 1999 system (thank you AOpen for using really crappy caps a few years before I learnt how to fix them 🙁 ) was similar to yours, just cheaper:
- Celeron 366
- 64MB RAM
- AOpen AX6BC (i440BX-based, with plagued capacitors)
- Pine TNT2-M64 32MB
- SB64 PCI sound card
- 13GB Maxtor HDD
- no idea which PSU and case I had, the former cheap, the latter 2nd hand early beige ATX
- IBM G50 15" hand-me-down
- 'Trust' relabled crappy speakers
- Logitech MouseMan Optical Wheel mouse
- 'Trust' transparent 'iMac' style keyboards. Rubber dome and died quickly, but I could type decently enough on them, so when through mulitple colours

Within 18 months I was able to upgrade bits and pieces until I had a P3-700 with 192MB RAM on a CUBX, Matrox G450 and an SBLive5.1 and a WD400 40GB HDD - and a Sun GDM-20E20 monitor. That was the first config I was pretty happy with.

chinny22 wrote on 2022-12-12, 11:26:

For cooling the Banshee I've a fan blowing air direct over the card. Sadly the Zalman BR123 linked below are disconnected, I've […]
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For cooling the Banshee I've a fan blowing air direct over the card.
Sadly the Zalman BR123 linked below are disconnected, I've a few for when appearance mattered but maybe you could find something like it or 2nd hand?
https://www.quietpc.com/br123ff1

The cheap version is to get a I/O back plate, bend it 90 degrees and mount a fan to that

The tough part is definitely keeping it looking like it's from the '90s, but this is a nice modern solution that uses standard 92mm fans.
https://www.amazon.com/Wathai-Brushless-Cooli … r/dp/B07TYMJSKC

Or without the cheap fans:
(80\90mm)
https://www.amazon.com/DS-Bracket-Support-Com … r/dp/B09V1C13FR
(90\120mm)
https://www.amazon.com/Maxmoral-Bracket-Suppo … r/dp/B07N3T1GJP

My nostalgia is great, but does NOT extend to the sound of period correct cooling systems. I do however have a pile of Zalman CNPS3000 and 6000 fan-shaped heatsinks (a shop going out of business sold off old stock a year or two ago - I was in heaven) which I use combined with a big fan for anything that needs active cooling. They were originally shipped with 12" fans, so that's not too period incorrect - just the fact that they were released past the turn of the millennium.

Haven't found anything perfect yet for GPUs, or rather, for hot video chips that lack mounting holes. Basically light ones don't do enough without the ubiquitous 4" screamer fans, and heavy ones tend to fall off with double-sided thermal sticky tape.