First post, by archsan
- Rank
- Oldbie
First and foremost, peaceful greetings to every soul stuck in the body of Marvin.
I'm new to this forum and this is my first post in VOGONS. 😀
A Diamond Monster 3D card has just arrived today, packed inside an unassuming box. It wasn't even "box"-shaped when it came, but apparently the card's still intact. The Monster looks clean and smells... alcoholic. Still I had no choice but to test it immediately. [pic attached below]
On a faulty (for legacy/retro purpose) WinXP OS with Anthony's XP/Win2K Voodoo1 driver, i couldn't start Turok, but NFSIII ran beautifully so i can happily confirm that the Monster is working. Had to switch VGA cable though, since i don't have a pass-thru VGA cable at hand.
So, now that the Monster is here, the quest to build a full-fledged 'preservation' system goes on. I'll begin with a LEGACY/DOS machine:
target configuration:
- unlocked Deschutes P2 _________________ just won a 350MHz FPO# 9814.. S$5 on ebay
ABIT BH6/BE6/SOYO SY-6BA+IV (SoftBIOS)_still looking for one local
AGP 3dfx Voodoo 3 ____________________ got it
PCI S3 Virge (esp. Diamond S3D 2000)_____still looking for a cheap one local
PCI Diamond Monster 3D _______________ got it (20090629)
PCI Diamond Monster Sound MX300 ______ shipping
ISA Creative SB 16 CT2800______________ looking for one, as suggested by Gerwin
ISA Creative SB AWE64 Gold_____________lots on ebay, save for later
Roland SCD-15________________________still looking for one
Roland MT-32/CM-32L _________________ looking for 220V version while saving for it
add: SoundBlaster Pro 1.0 CT1330 (to replace AWE64 or to put in another system😕)
That's it. I'll save some other soundcards for later (target: GUS ACE, Ensoniq Soundscape, Terratec Maestro)
What i have now is this oldcshool box i picked up for ~$35
- Pentium III 450
ASUS P2B rev 1.10
320MB RAM
IDE 20GB HDD, CD-RW, and 3.5" FDD
AGP 3dfx Voodoo 3 2000
ISA CT4170 SB16 Vibra
ISA modem and PCI NIC (pulled them off)
and now with a Monster 3D 😁
Questions so far:
1. Just to confirm--when i have this setup completed, i'd get all of these, right?
- Roland LA, GM, GS
AdLib/SoundBlaster
SB Pro 8-bit stereo (with MX300)
FM/OPL-3
SB-16
SB-AWE
WSS & DirectSound
A3D
2. How good/bad is the SB Pro emulation on MX300/Vortex2?
3. Is MX300 (or any Vortex2) + Roland SCD-15 + Roland MT-32/CM-32L a good idea?
4. Which SB16 CT model number should i get? One with the least noise and most acceptable sound quality. Won't be using it for MIDI--just OPL3 and SB16 sound. CT17xx? CT12xx? CT2xxx? CT4xxx?
5. I've read this thread (Slowing a 440BX based PC). Is there a better option for a flexible platform than an unlocked P2 with SoftBIOS (386/486 range up to ~300MHz)? Any hardware + software-slowing down combination?
Thank you for your responses!
😉