Crinale0 wrote on 2024-08-19, 14:13:

So, first surprise was it's actually a Pentium 166Mhz so a little higher clock than expected.

Nice! A Pentium 166 will give you more performance headroom over a P100, especially if you dip into 3D gaming or early Windows usage.

Noticed this machine actually has a ATI 3D Rage II + DVD card in it! I wasn't expecting a 3D accelerator. I presume this card will be fine with DOS? and give me a little head room for 3D if i ever needed it?

ATI cards aren't the most renowned for DOS compatibility. Most games should be fine, but there are some incompatibilities as noted in this list: https://gona.mactar.hu/DOS_TESTS/

There are may be a handful of games that natively support it (outside of Windows & Direct3D). I think Mechwarrior 2 had a version with ATI support?

Though if you wanted to go more down the 3D route, I'd pair it with a 3Dfx Voodoo card.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-08-19, 20:55:

There are may be a handful of games that natively support it (outside of Windows & Direct3D). I think Mechwarrior 2 had a version with ATI support?

Yes - Proprietary 3D API's

Crinale0 wrote on 2024-08-19, 18:45:

Did all of that started it up and its completely dead. No POST, no beep codes, nothing. What is with this!? I'm so disappointed i am trying so hard to get into this hobby but the hardware just seems to die on me if i even so much as fart in the wrong direction.

Do you have an ATX power supply tester? If the PSU is AT then test with a multimeter.

For an old but working system it's better to use the combination of air can, soft brush, and vacuum cleaner while remain components seated. A single grain of sand could drop between contacts and acts as an insulator.

When is fast too fast? (CPU/MS-DOS)

It really depends, I think.

Modern DOS ports or DOS-based emulators can be very demanding.
I'm thinking of Super Mario 64 for MS-DOS, ZSNES or the recent Sonic ports using Allegro library (S1, S2, CD; 128MB RAM minimum)..

Or let's take old Sonic Robo Blast (Sonic Robo Blast 2 Demo 4.32, from 2002)..
It has both Win32 and DOS binary.

Minimum System Requirements (for 320x200 operation):
Intel Pentium 200
24mb RAM
20mb Hard Disk Space
VGA or better graphics (DirectDraw compliant card for Win32)

Reccommended System Requirements (for 640x400 operation):
Intel 700mhz or AMD Athlon/Duron 650mhz or better CPU
64mb RAM
20mb Hard Disk Space
AGP/PCI graphics accelerator

Another demanding DOS game was Sonic: Project Mettrix, I believe.
Back then when I had my Pentium 75 or Pentium 166 MMX, still, I was shocked by the high memory consumption.
I mean, I had 64MB installed and it ran, but I still felt my PC was under-powered to run it.

Generally speaking, I'd draw the line beyond Pentium III.
That's when ISA slots were around last time.

dormcat wrote on 2024-08-20, 02:48:

Crinale0 wrote on 2024-08-19, 18:45:

Did all of that started it up and its completely dead. No POST, no beep codes, nothing. What is with this!? I'm so disappointed i am trying so hard to get into this hobby but the hardware just seems to die on me if i even so much as fart in the wrong direction.

Do you have an ATX power supply tester? If the PSU is AT then test with a multimeter.

For an old but working system it's better to use the combination of air can, soft brush, and vacuum cleaner while remain components seated. A single grain of sand could drop between contacts and acts as an insulator.

I have an AT power supply, all the voltages are checking out it's the first thing i checked. That said though, is there a way to get new AT PSU's or cable to convert it? As I'd rather use a new one.

PC is all up and running now, the sound blaster AWE64 sounds awesome! I have Duke3D running on it currently on the intro as a kind of stress test. My CRT arrives today so that will be nice as long as its not smashed in the mail like the other one i got.

Duke3D in 800x600 actually pushes that Rage 3D card haha!

Crinale0 wrote on 2024-08-20, 13:09:

I have an AT power supply, all the voltages are checking out it's the first thing i checked. That said though, is there a way to get new AT PSU's or cable to convert it? As I'd rather use a new one.

While there are brand new AT supplies for sale, in my experience they are cheaply made junk. I have a bought a couple in the past, but after opening them up, I would not trust using them with a PC.

Your best bet is either a vintage AT supply built by a reputable vendor. Those can be refurbished with new capacitors as needed.

Another option is getting an ATX-to-AT wiring harness to enable using an ATX power supply.

The latter i will do for sure as i have a good FSB ATX PSU here doing nothing.

Thanks for the help from you all, I'm currently enjoying Duke 3D all afternoon 😁