gamefan_851 wrote on 2025-05-05, 16:51:

[...]

Thanks for the clarfication. Good to know that the v2 is quite good with scaling moving to Tualatin would be possible. i am not sure if trying to work with sloket adapters is something I would feel confident enough to work with.

Having a system in the p3 800mhz to 1 ghz coppermine range on the other hand would be interesting.

In that case you need a board with VRM 8.4. Now, that sounds like a simple specification, but some vendors made it harder than you'd expect. Take the Asus P3B-F - some have it, some don't. It depends on the revision. Up to revision 1.03, it can't supply less than 1.8V, from rev 1.04 it can go down to 1.3V. Same with the P2B: from rev 1.12 onwards will give you Coppermine (and Tualatin) voltages. Personally I'd have though it a lot more sensible to use a new model name after so relevant a change...

Bottom line: if you see an interesting board, you need to research if Coppermine is supported, both by BIOS (which can generally be updated) and VRM (which can't unless you fancy some SMD soldering...), and from which revision.

Slockets really aren't risky, you just need to be sure to get the right one - as I mentioned, there are three kinds of So370 pinouts, you need the right one for your CPU (PPGA for Celeron Mendocino only, FC-PGA for Coppermine (or Mendocino), FC-PGA2 for Tualatin or Coppermine, but not Mendocino). If you get that, you just insert the CPU as you would in a motherboard So370, clip on a heatstink and slide it into the slot. If the board supports the CPU, it's as simple as that.

Slockets do let you do all kinds of other fun stuff too, like running Coppermine CPUs at 1.8V (which they tolerate, being specced up to 1.75V and allowing static tolerance up to 0.1V higher) on boards that don't have the VRM to give them their proper voltage - if they have voltage jumpers, that is. Also you can mod the socket (usually: to convert it from PPGA to FC-PGA or from FC-PGA to FC-PGA2). But it doesn't sound like you are into that sort of stuff at this time.

Would a SLI Voodoo2's work with an X800 XL?

ElectroSoldier wrote on 2025-05-05, 21:45:

Would a SLI Voodoo2's work with an X800 XL?

Voodoo's will work with any vga card, all it does is pass the video signal from the 2D card to the video out of the Voodoo card.
However pairing a voodoo with a card that supports Direct X makes sense to cover a wider range of games no matter what 3D api is being used.

chinny22 wrote on 2025-05-06, 02:16:

ElectroSoldier wrote on 2025-05-05, 21:45:

Would a SLI Voodoo2's work with an X800 XL?

Voodoo's will work with any vga card, all it does is pass the video signal from the 2D card to the video out of the Voodoo card.
However pairing a voodoo with a card that supports Direct X makes sense to cover a wider range of games no matter what 3D api is being used.

interesting, and so as not to derail the topic does the CPU matter?
I mean from what I can tell there arent many games that can use the Glide API in the Voodoo2 cards (few that I remember playing) and none of them are CPU speed locked like many DOS games are.
So the choice of CPU being a slot 1 or flip chip Pentium 3 is just a personal choice. Right?
I mean I could if I wanted to match up a pair of Voodoo2s with an X800 XL and an E6700?

Well you need a CPU fast enough to run the game obviously but once you reach that level then CPU isn't going to matter as much.
In fact people like to put Voodoo 1 cards in underpowered computers as the Glide API will take load OFF the cpu squeezing a few more fps out of a game.

In theory a Tualatin should be slightly faster then a Coppermine which could then mean a game performs slightly faster, but for Voodoo 2 era gaming, I don't think it'll matter much.

People report Voodoo 2's overheat with P4 and faster but I've never seen solid proof of this.
When I got my first V2 I installed it in a P4 and it's onboard Intel GPU, installed Win98 and played Need for Speed 4 perfectly fine.
That was always a short term setup and now have a pair of V2's in a slot 1 build, which runs NFS4 just as well.

I see, so there is merit in running a Pentium 3 system in this instance then?

Im only thinking X800 XL and an E6700 because that system has 2 free PCI slots, but a Pentium 3 system would be a nice "new build" for me.

Why would they over heat in a P4 or higher system?

dionb wrote on 2025-05-05, 20:57:

In that case you need a board with VRM 8.4. Now, that sounds like a simple specification, but some vendors made it harder than y […]
Show full quote

gamefan_851 wrote on 2025-05-05, 16:51:

[...]

Thanks for the clarfication. Good to know that the v2 is quite good with scaling moving to Tualatin would be possible. i am not sure if trying to work with sloket adapters is something I would feel confident enough to work with.

Having a system in the p3 800mhz to 1 ghz coppermine range on the other hand would be interesting.

In that case you need a board with VRM 8.4. Now, that sounds like a simple specification, but some vendors made it harder than you'd expect. Take the Asus P3B-F - some have it, some don't. It depends on the revision. Up to revision 1.03, it can't supply less than 1.8V, from rev 1.04 it can go down to 1.3V. Same with the P2B: from rev 1.12 onwards will give you Coppermine (and Tualatin) voltages. Personally I'd have though it a lot more sensible to use a new model name after so relevant a change...

Bottom line: if you see an interesting board, you need to research if Coppermine is supported, both by BIOS (which can generally be updated) and VRM (which can't unless you fancy some SMD soldering...), and from which revision.

Slockets really aren't risky, you just need to be sure to get the right one - as I mentioned, there are three kinds of So370 pinouts, you need the right one for your CPU (PPGA for Celeron Mendocino only, FC-PGA for Coppermine (or Mendocino), FC-PGA2 for Tualatin or Coppermine, but not Mendocino). If you get that, you just insert the CPU as you would in a motherboard So370, clip on a heatstink and slide it into the slot. If the board supports the CPU, it's as simple as that.

Slockets do let you do all kinds of other fun stuff too, like running Coppermine CPUs at 1.8V (which they tolerate, being specced up to 1.75V and allowing static tolerance up to 0.1V higher) on boards that don't have the VRM to give them their proper voltage - if they have voltage jumpers, that is. Also you can mod the socket (usually: to convert it from PPGA to FC-PGA or from FC-PGA to FC-PGA2). But it doesn't sound like you are into that sort of stuff at this time.

Thanks for the info. I have not made my final decision if I really go the Tualatin path but if I do will follow your gudinace and look for board swith VRM 8.4. I will also start reseaching about the avaibility of the slocket adapters too.

Modding the socket is something that would be neat to know in the long run but like you said I am not into that stuff yet. For the first atempt with the Voodoo 2 I just a rather simple approach without some mods.

gamefan_851 wrote on 2025-05-06, 08:25:

Thanks for the info. I have not made my final decision if I really go the Tualatin path but if I do will follow your gudinace and look for board swith VRM 8.4. I will also start reseaching about the avaibility of the slocket adapters too.
Modding the socket is something that would be neat to know in the long run but like you said I am not into that stuff yet. For the first atempt with the Voodoo 2 I just a rather simple approach without some mods.

One simple approach would be to get for example an ASUS TUSL2-C (815EP) motherboard. It is only a fraction slower than the fastest 440BX motherboards. It has a VRM 8.5 and it supports all Coppermine cpu's from 500MHz up to 1.133MHz and all Tualatin cpu's from 1GHZ up to 1.4GHz.
Re scalabilty of the Voodoo 2 - in my limited experience they run out of gas with cpu's that go faster than approximately 800MHz so for them to run optimally you do not need to go much or any faster. Maybe there is software that profits from the combination of Voodoo 2 + faster cpu's but I do not know of any.

PARKE wrote on 2025-05-06, 10:49:

gamefan_851 wrote on 2025-05-06, 08:25:

Thanks for the info. I have not made my final decision if I really go the Tualatin path but if I do will follow your gudinace and look for board swith VRM 8.4. I will also start reseaching about the avaibility of the slocket adapters too.
Modding the socket is something that would be neat to know in the long run but like you said I am not into that stuff yet. For the first atempt with the Voodoo 2 I just a rather simple approach without some mods.

One simple approach would be to get for example an ASUS TUSL2-C (815EP) motherboard. It is only a fraction slower than the fastest 440BX motherboards. It has a VRM 8.5 and it supports all Coppermine cpu's from 500MHz up to 1.133MHz and all Tualatin cpu's from 1GHZ up to 1.4GHz.
Re scalabilty of the Voodoo 2 - in my limited experience they run out of gas with cpu's that go faster than approximately 800MHz so for them to run optimally you do not need to go much or any faster. Maybe there is software that profits from the combination of Voodoo 2 + faster cpu's but I do not know of any.

Thanks for the recommendation. I will check the Asus TSL2 out for sure. And usinga Pentium III between 500 and 800Mhz sounds like good sweet spot for the v2.

gamefan_851 wrote on 2025-05-06, 08:25:

[...]

Thanks for the info. I have not made my final decision if I really go the Tualatin path but if I do will follow your gudinace and look for board swith VRM 8.4.

You'll need that for a Coppermine too (unless you want to go down the slocket-with-volatge-jumpers + 1.8V route) Older VRM 8.3 goes down to 1.8V min, Coppermine uses 1.65-1.75V.

I will also start reseaching about the avaibility of the slocket adapters too.

Modding the socket is something that would be neat to know in the long run but like you said I am not into that stuff yet. For the first atempt with the Voodoo 2 I just a rather simple approach without some mods.

Agreed, I'd keep it simple to start with. You can always dive down rabbit holes later.

Get a Good Case with allot of Ventilation and Fans.
The Socket 370 CPU runs HOT
Also the Voodoo card Chip runs HOT

You want a Good CPU heat sink and Cooler
You also want to put a good fan on your Voodoo card.

I see the BX133-RAID motherboard mentioned a couple of times in this thread.

I have one with a 1Ghz Coppermine PIII and I'm on the lookout for the modified BIOS for it. Does anyone know where I might be able to find it?

Links on Google are dead as they're from 20 years ago. My only chance is finding someone who still has a copy of it.

@dionb I see. Thanks for valuable info.

@Intel486dx33 A big thank for your information as well. I will be picky with the case to have plenty of room to provide a good venilation. I have also read few times already that Voodoo cards an run very hot. Modding the voodoo card with a fan to provide better cooling sounds a good idea.

gamefan_851 wrote on 2025-05-07, 11:43:

@dionb I see. Thanks for valuable info.

@Intel486dx33 A big thank for your information as well. I will be picky with the case to have plenty of room to provide a good venilation. I have also read few times already that Voodoo cards an run very hot. Modding the voodoo card with a fan to provide better cooling sounds a good idea.

I'm afraid Intel486dx33 is mixing it up a bit again - he's posting about a Voodoo3 (probably a -3000 looking at the pic), you have a Voodoo2. They run hot-ish, but there's a reason no manufacturers shipped them with heatsinks on the chips, let alone fans: they can dissipate enough heat as-is without them. You only need to consider more cooling hardware if you intend to overclock.

dionb wrote on 2025-05-07, 12:36:

gamefan_851 wrote on 2025-05-07, 11:43:

@dionb I see. Thanks for valuable info.

@Intel486dx33 A big thank for your information as well. I will be picky with the case to have plenty of room to provide a good venilation. I have also read few times already that Voodoo cards an run very hot. Modding the voodoo card with a fan to provide better cooling sounds a good idea.

I'm afraid Intel486dx33 is mixing it up a bit again - he's posting about a Voodoo3 (probably a -3000 looking at the pic), you have a Voodoo2. They run hot-ish, but there's a reason no manufacturers shipped them with heatsinks on the chips, let alone fans: they can dissipate enough heat as-is without them. You only need to consider more cooling hardware if you intend to overclock.

Sorry the late reply. I have not find anything about over heating problems with the voodoo 2 only for problems with the v3. so I should be fine with normal voodoo 2 without any extra modifications.

Correct, no need to modify your Voodoo's although admit I like to have a bit extra just for peace of mind.

In my currant setup I'm using a modern cards with a side panel fan that more or less lines up with the cards.
Previously I just hung a small fan similar to this

chinny22 wrote on 2025-05-15, 04:52:

Correct, no need to modify your Voodoo's although admit I like to have a bit extra just for peace of mind. […]
Show full quote

Correct, no need to modify your Voodoo's although admit I like to have a bit extra just for peace of mind.

In my currant setup I'm using a modern cards with a side panel fan that more or less lines up with the cards.
Previously I just hung a small fan similar to this

just want to ask what ISA card needs a such brutal cooling?

chinny22 wrote on 2025-05-15, 04:52:

Correct, no need to modify your Voodoo's although admit I like to have a bit extra just for peace of mind. […]
Show full quote

Correct, no need to modify your Voodoo's although admit I like to have a bit extra just for peace of mind.

In my currant setup I'm using a modern cards with a side panel fan that more or less lines up with the cards.
Previously I just hung a small fan similar to this

Thanks for the info. I agree that extra cooling might be useful for the piece of mind but i will try to go the full classic route without extra cooling.

The project is making progress. I have 2 mainsboard to purchase.

Either a classic slot 1 intel 440bx Seatle chipset or

The socket 370 is a a MSI MS-6318.

I am more inclined towards the intel chipset because I have read that it might be hard to work with a via chipset.

In case the seatle 440bx chipset can support a p3 800mhz with a 100 mhz front side bus or even 1 ghz coppermine cpu with the same fsb I would purchase it asap.

I am aware that 800 or even 1 ghz migh ultra powerful for a vodoo 2 card but i want it that way to be honest.

gamefan_851 wrote on 2025-05-18, 14:58:

Thanks for the info. I agree that extra cooling might be useful for the piece of mind but i will try to go the full classic rout […]
Show full quote

chinny22 wrote on 2025-05-15, 04:52:

Correct, no need to modify your Voodoo's although admit I like to have a bit extra just for peace of mind. […]
Show full quote

Correct, no need to modify your Voodoo's although admit I like to have a bit extra just for peace of mind.

In my currant setup I'm using a modern cards with a side panel fan that more or less lines up with the cards.
Previously I just hung a small fan similar to this

Thanks for the info. I agree that extra cooling might be useful for the piece of mind but i will try to go the full classic route without extra cooling.

The project is making progress. I have 2 mainsboard to purchase.

Either a classic slot 1 intel 440bx Seatle chipset or

The socket 370 is a a MSI MS-6318.

I am more inclined towards the intel chipset because I have read that it might be hard to work with a via chipset.

In case the seatle 440bx chipset can support a p3 800mhz with a 100 mhz front side bus or even 1 ghz coppermine cpu with the same fsb I would purchase it asap.

I am aware that 800 or even 1 ghz migh ultra powerful for a vodoo 2 card but i want it that way to be honest.

These are pretty different chipsets aimed at different purposes. Firstly, all the Via FUD is overblown. The Via 686B southbridge has a known compatibility issue with the SBLive series of sound cards. So long as you don't want to use one of those, you'll be fine so long as you remember to install motherboard chipset (Via 4-in-1 or later Hyperion) drivers before installing drivers for any AGP card. All non-Via chipsets need drivers just as much, including Intel ones, only Intel got Microsoft to include the drivers in Windows so you don't need to worry about them.

i440BX can officially support any P3 with 100MHz FSB up to the fastest P3-1100E. Unofficially most boards with BX chipsets are able to run at 133MHz too, although that overclocks the AGP port (usually not a problem) and depending on the board (whether it has a 1/4 PCI divider) might overclock the PCI bus too (usually significant problems, particularly with hard disk controllers). Note that specific boards with i440BX chipset may have lower limitations due to the quality of (power supply) components or due to lack of BIOS support for faster CPUs (only really an issue on brand-name boards - Intel! - that have CPU whitelists and refuse to run with unknown CPUs).

I think you'd want a late s370 board (not necessarily tualatin capable). It leaves more possibilities for the "ultimate" v2 with native support of 133mhz ram and proper AGP divider (which may be relevant to whatever companion video card you choose), and if you ever want to go SLI it will be easier/cheaper to get a fast CPU to tag along (slot 1 stuff around 900+ mhz is expensive/rare)

Don't get me wrong, I've been a huge slot1 440bx fan....forever. HOWEVER after using a s370 Via based board the last few years I feel like I've lost some affinity to the 440