observer wrote on 2025-06-27, 19:30:

I setup a really nice Intel 1.7Ghz willamette system recently (Intel D850GB, I850-based). I bought it maybe 3-4 years ago but it […]
Show full quote

I setup a really nice Intel 1.7Ghz willamette system recently (Intel D850GB, I850-based). I bought it maybe 3-4 years ago but it’s case was so nice, not yellowed, with a slot-load DVD that I kept it together.

I hadn’t held a positive opinion about the willamette CPUs and their RDRAM… but it’s actually a decent system. For games of it’s era and even using Windows XP it’s fast. It was my only retro system that was fully working at the time and I used it to burn CDs, which it did a great job of.

What wasn’t so great was other tasks which would often max out the one CPU. It was performing as fast as it could per SiSoft Sandra, but I’d grown so used to multiple cores, even older core2duo/athlon 64 x2 that this felt overly antiquated.

I really liked how fast RDRAM was, and it’s cool factor being so exotic.

There were many, many options to make a dual-core let alone quad-core system with AGP, PCI slots and IDE.

However, I wanted a RDRAM based dual-CPU system after playing with the willamette. There were the dual-P3 Tualatins on modified Slokets. I actually had a couple sockets laying around, one even has an SMP jumper. But then finding an RDRAM dual-slot 1 motherboard was very hard. There's on OR840 board on ebay right now... for $900!

On the server side, there was no shortage of RDRAM Socket 603 systems (aka Colusa). Unfortunately most were over $400 and from China. They came with no components, and some even needed VRMs that are always impossible to find. Typically modular-VRM boards usually have complex BIOSs that take forever to start, or weird power supply requirements (WTX anyone?). The best bet here would be a fully loaded HP/Compaq W8000 but yeah, none of those on ebay or local sources either.

I lucked in and found a Supermicro P4DCE+ on eBay for only $100 and in country! $107 all in, with a pair of xeon CPUs and no need for a VRM! sadly it doesn’t have the onboard SCSI… but I have lots of SCSI cards if needed, and not waiting for SCSI to start every boot may actually be a bonus.

Power connectors were standard. It needed some heatsinks. I took a chance with a pair of Socket 423 heatsinks. They should work with Socket 603. I’ll find out soon and confirm.

I’ll update this thread over time with the build and as parts come in. Some great reading in the mean time:

https://www.os2museum.com/wp/the-i860-conspiracy/

https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/superm … p4dc6-plus#docs

Socket 603 and 604 heatsinks are interchangeable with Socket 423. I have a 603 heatsink mounting bracket in my GX400 that's been raised up with 4 fabric washers against the motherboard and a stack of washers on long bolts to get the necessary pressure to install a heatsink onto it for a Socket 478 adapter and 2.8GHz Northwood, as the 3GHz 400FSB chips are rarer than hen's teeth these days. You should have no problem getting sinks, but do understand that socket 603 Xeons run a bit hotter than the P4 counterparts. There was a seller offloading a whole pile of new-old-stock Indigo Orb heatsinks a year and a half ago... dunno how many remain.

If you start craving better sound than onboard, I've found that due to how that specific generation of chipsets manage things, the tried-and-true Audigy 2 ZS that would fix that problem may encounter issues depending on certain conditions. The X-Fi seems to be the better issue if you crave something better, but any ci8878-based card will also do you wonders.

Map out the IRQs being used by each slot and the other components... This will also prevent issues once you know what can and can't play nicely for stability's sake. The APIC on these is *very* rudimentary in practice in that it exists, but devices on slots that would have shared a lower IRQ will still share upper IRQs with each other, and this will in fact cause problems in NT-based operating systems contrary to normally-accepted beliefs.

Thanks Sudos - the motherboard I ordered turned out to be DOA so this is the end of my build log 🙁
It was confirmed to be previously tested and they offered a 30 day return so I'll be doing that.

Maybe on day I'll work on a Colusa