VOGONS


Gateway G6-350

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First post, by enb2002

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Specs:

  • Pentium II @ 350 mhz
  • 128MB SDRAM
  • 10.2GB Quantum Hard Drive
  • DVD-ROM drive, unsure of the speed, probably 2x
  • 3.5 inch floppy drive
  • STB Velocity 128 8MB (Nvidia RIVA 128)
  • 3com 3c905 ethernet card (upgrade I added)
  • Sound Blaster Audigy (upgrade I added)
  • US Robotics modem (disabled in Windows, I don't know why I haven't removed it yet)

Why did I buy it?

I have a soft spot in my heart for slot 1 systems. Growing up, these were my sandboxes I had to play with to learn about computers. One of the computers I have is an HP Vectra, but it doesn't have an AGP slot, and it's been falling apart and it's only getting worse. The other system I had was a Dell Dimension XPS T450, and that had all the bells & whistles on it: Pentium III slot 1, Nvidia RIVA TNT, Aureal Vortex 2 sound card.... but the system died one day, and it could no longer complete its power on self-test. So, I got this system to have a high-end slot 1 retro gaming PC to be a "spiritual successor" to the Dimension XPS T450 that I lost. I know it's a different system from what I've had, but I've wanted a gateway with this case style for a while now. Plus, I like to focus on collecting the top-of-the-line hardware from yesteryear, and this system with its 440BX based motherboard, Pentium II 350 at a 100mhz FSB, and a DVD-ROM drive, fit that bill perfectly.

Conclusion

What do you guys think? Also, I have been messing around with this hardware for the better part of 15 years now, but I have always been more interested in the hardware, and once I have built up a machine like this, I usually set it aside and move on to the next thing. I would like to start sitting down and using my vintage PCs more to play some vintage games, which is not something I have done very much. I would like to change that, so if anyone has any suggestions for any period correct games for me to try out on this machine, please let me know about those as well. I plan to start out with Quake, probably GLQuake, to see what the 3D acceleration on the RIVA 128 is capable of.

Reply 1 of 13, by Unknown_K

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I have one with a slightly faster CPU and dual Voodoo 2's in it. They used to be found all over the place when I visited recyclers but that was ages ago.

Collector of old computers, hardware, and software

Reply 2 of 13, by chinny22

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Me again 😀
I can see you're a man of taste, I also have a soft spot for slot 1. While our family's first PC may of been a 486 it was a Gateway almost the same as this that was my first PC.
Mine started out with a P2 400 and 16MB TNT although graphics was later upgraded to a GF2 MX. Mine even came with Quantum 10GB HDD.

You may already know but the Gateway and Dell have quite lot in common, both using motherboards made by intel themselves.
I now own a Dell XPS T500 and both cases have good and bad points.
The Dell is made of plastic vs all metal of the Gateway but some optical drives won't fit in the bottom bay as the corner of the motherboard is in the way.

I still have the Gateway but it's in rough shape. 20 odd years in my parents garage has taken it's toll.
But the Dell now has
CPU: 1Ghz Slot 1
RAM: 768 MB
GPU: GF4 Ti4600
PCI: Audio: Audigy 2 ZS
ISA: Audio: SB AWE 32
NIC: Intel Pro 10/100

Which is pretty close to as good as you can get, but was also built about 10 years ago before prices went crazy.

Game wise I really like RTS's which also aren't too demanding. Command and Conquer 1/2 or Red Alert 1/2, Warcraft 2, 3 Starcraft.
Also Diablo 1 or 2
When I got the PII above I played Need for Speed 3 for hours on end. later titles may struggle with the RIVA 128 though.

Just about any dos game will work and you have the CRT to really enjoy them.

Although I also spend more time tinkering then playing games. I ordered my Gateway with NT4 and Win2k is also a good fit if you want to keep playing with the PC itself.

Reply 3 of 13, by Dwaco

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Interesting machine. In great condition as well!

Even though there were holes for rear exhaust fan, they used flow guide to use PSU fan for exhaust!

PC: HP Kayak XU800 [2x PIII 1Ghz, 512 Mb RAM, Voodoo3 3000, SB Audigy Platinum EX]
Sparc: Blade 1000 [2x US-III, 3Gb RAM, 2x 73Gb FC-AL 10k, XVR-1000], Blade 100
PA-RISC: HP C3750 [FX10Pro]
Sony F1XDJ, A1200, C128

Reply 4 of 13, by enb2002

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chinny22 wrote on 2024-06-20, 06:47:

You may already know but the Gateway and Dell have quite lot in common, both using motherboards made by intel themselves.
I now own a Dell XPS T500 and both cases have good and bad points.
The Dell is made of plastic vs all metal of the Gateway but some optical drives won't fit in the bottom bay as the corner of the motherboard is in the way.

The motherboard in my old Dell, while it may have been an Intel motherboard, I don't think it used standard ATX power connectors. I still have the power supply from the Dell, and it has an extra connector that I believe makes it incompatible with a standard ATX power supply. Meanwhile, the Gateway just has a 20 pin power connector, and I can in theory just swap out the power supply with a standard ATX model if it ever goes bad.

Also that is a nice system! And yeah it's crazy how high prices are nowadays for some of this stuff haha.

Reply 5 of 13, by enb2002

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Unknown_K wrote on 2024-06-20, 04:07:

I have one with a slightly faster CPU and dual Voodoo 2's in it. They used to be found all over the place when I visited recyclers but that was ages ago.

Man, that's nice! I don't think I'll ever have a system with dual Voodoo 2s 🤣.

Reply 7 of 13, by Unknown_K

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enb2002 wrote on 2024-06-22, 20:43:
Unknown_K wrote on 2024-06-20, 04:07:

I have one with a slightly faster CPU and dual Voodoo 2's in it. They used to be found all over the place when I visited recyclers but that was ages ago.

Man, that's nice! I don't think I'll ever have a system with dual Voodoo 2s 🤣.

I put it together a long time ago when Voodoo 2's were not hunted after.

Collector of old computers, hardware, and software

Reply 8 of 13, by Shadzilla

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Lovely machine! I love Gateways of that era. I recently sold a veyr similar G6-450 minter I'd restored, it even came in its original box with the manuals and discs, keyboard and mouse, real time capsule. The cow branding is the best bit 😀

Reply 9 of 13, by enb2002

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Shadzilla wrote on 2024-06-25, 09:05:

Lovely machine! I love Gateways of that era. I recently sold a veyr similar G6-450 minter I'd restored, it even came in its original box with the manuals and discs, keyboard and mouse, real time capsule. The cow branding is the best bit 😀

I wish I had some of the original cow-pattern packaging with my machine! I consider myself to be lucky in that my machine has pretty much all of the original components when I got it, and it certainly looks like a time capsule, except for the Sound Blaster Audigy and the network card. However, it's pretty easy for me to restore it to its original configuration if I so choose.

Reply 10 of 13, by Bruno128

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Audigy doesn’t belong here should be AWE64, playing EAX titles on this would be really pushing it.
Go for P2-450 they cost nothing you will get a nice boost.
As for games Quake 2 is about as high as you can go, maybe Unreal at modest settings. Strategy and adventure games would be much less demanding, Caesar 3 or Grim Fandango for example.

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Reply 11 of 13, by chinny22

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Don't see any problems with the Audigy, much better off using what you already have then buying new hardware IMHO.
I agree much better spending the money on a CPU upgrade though, anything up to a P3 600 Katmai is guaranteed to work

Reply 12 of 13, by enb2002

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Bruno128 wrote on 2024-06-26, 05:39:

Audigy doesn’t belong here should be AWE64, playing EAX titles on this would be really pushing it.
Go for P2-450 they cost nothing you will get a nice boost.
As for games Quake 2 is about as high as you can go, maybe Unreal at modest settings. Strategy and adventure games would be much less demanding, Caesar 3 or Grim Fandango for example.

To be perfectly honest, I kind of agree with you on the sound card when it comes to games. However, I also wanted to try doing some DV video capture over firewire at some point, and this card provided the best mix in my opinion for firewire, Windows and MS-DOS sound with the ability to load some decent soundfonts as well.