I said I made something else out of my old Pentium MMX build, and now, it's time to show it off.

The case is the same as the Pentium MMX build before I moved it over to the Prosys case:

This has now become an AMD K5 build. These are the computer's specs:

-AMD K5 PR166 117MHz
-16MB of RAM on two 8MB 72-pin SIMMs(will upgrade this to 32MB using two more 8MB 72-pin SIMMs later)
-40GB hard drive(it's overkill, but that's all I had)
-Matrox Millenium II PCI graphics card
-SoundBlaster 16 CT2840 sound card(I will replace this with either a SoundBlaster 16 CT2230 or Labway XWave 128(Yamaha YMF719) if I get a Yamaha DB50XG, DB60XG or the NEC XR385)
-QDI P51430VX/250DM Explorer II motherboard with Intel 430VX chipset
-Creative 52X CD-ROM drive throttled down to 4x
-OS is MS-DOS v6.22

Here's what the computer looks like inside:

A closer look at some of the components of the computer:

(This image came out blurry)

And of course, since this case has a 7-segment display, the computer is not complete without:

Displaying the speed of the AMD K5.

Are you sure its running at 117? If memory serves me the k5-166 ran at 133. It should be worth looking into imho. Other than that, its a very pretty setup! Very clean! What are you going to do with it?

That is one fine looking case! I've always had a thing for 486/Pentium cases with the LED speed indicator.

What is that extra external port on the Matrox card for?

Wiki lists the AMD K6-166 as running at 116.6 MHz, so I think the 117 LED is well justified.

The BIOS reports the CPU is running at 117MHz as well, so it's safe to say the proper speed of the K5 PR166 is 117MHz. The PR200, on the other hand, runs at 133MHz. When I tried to run my K5 at 133MHz, the computer worked once, then stopped POSTing until I either reset the CMOS or put in a different CPU.

As for the Matrox card, I have no damn clue what the extra port is for. I've been trying to figure out its purpose, but I can never seem to find any information on it. Is it a TV out of some sort, perhaps?

EDIT: FINALLY, I found some information on it. It's a TV out for use with the Rainbow Runner add-on card for the Millennium II. Outputs both Composite and S-Video if you have a Rainbow Runner card attached to the Millennium II.

I have always wanted to find the DVD decoder module add-on for these cards, but have had no luck.

Awesome, I used to have the minitower version of that case (had only two 5.25" bays). At some point I (coincidentally) ended up putting a K5 PR166 in there, which I can also confirm ran at 117MHz.

Thats a really nice case! I’m of the opinion simple is best, not stylish bulges & recesses on the front and hate when the cases front covers the floppy faceplate to try make it more pretty
And the speed indicator! Is there anything better then digital numbers to make something look l33t

In this photo is a 15" Dell LCD I paid $15 for at a thrift shop and a Dell Dimension 4500 which I paid $15 for at same thrift shop just two days later. Back during my sophomore year of high school, this setup would have been something else. To think, once next year hits, it'll be a decade old.

Unlike many of the other computers I've had and posted photos of, this will probably remain on my bedroom desk for some time to come. It's powerful enough for my needs and unlike the Dell XPS I keep at my desk in the home office, it runs quiet and cool enough that I'm willing to keep it in my bedroom. BTW, the Dimension tower is notable for being the ONLY computer I've bought from a thrift shop that didn't require a thorough cleaning when I got home with it. Also, I had just walked into the thrift store on a whim while out on a jog and didn't think about the logistics of getting it home at the time. That means I wound up walking just over two miles carrying the damn thing. Boy were my arms sore!

I've always insisted on having white coloured LCD monitors, keyboards, mice, speakers, and cases for retro computers. No mater what you've got under the hood of a black case, it just feels modern.

Finding high quality white LCD's with a DVI port is somewhat difficult these days. I hope my declaration above doesn't make them harder (for me) to find.

I'd say that just having an LCD at all makes a rig feel modern, regardless of what colour that LCD is... but that's just me.

Agreed, you really can't go past a CRT, not only for retro feel, but because the old game's graphics look a million times better.

Nice setup regardless

Hi guys, new member here, I've been using this site to help me out with my new project the past couple of weeks and figured I'd introduce myself. I'm working on building a few retro gaming PCs at the moment. I'm 19, and back when these systems were hot stuff I was pretty young, so I've gone through several different setup ideas while trying to figure out what hardware would work best. I'm trying to keep them more or less period-accurate, plus or minus a couple of years. Let me know what you think about my plans! This just my temporary setup as I build these by the way; I'm not normally this messy.

The first machine, named Galactica, is a dual Pentium III server that I got the board, ram, and CPUs for super cheap a year or 2 ago and got a cheap (and awesome) server case to go with. This system will be for higher-end Glide games, and it's very possible it will serve some sort of server duties down the road, maybe some Source servers for when my friends LAN at my place. By the way, that Banshee has a fan on it now. Not sure if it was missing or never had one (the heatsink has a circle in the middle?) but I screwed a tiny case fan onto the heatsink in any case. The current specs, as well as what my plans are:

2x1GHz Pentium III Coppermine
768MB ECC RAM
SuperMicro E-ATX server board (don't have the model number here with me atm)
*12MB PCI Diamond Monster 3D Fusion - I'm looking for a PCI Voodoo 3 or 5 to put in instead. 3 is cheaper, 5 is more powerful... I'm gonna try for a cheap Voodoo 3 first and see how that runs.
*Creative Audigy SE - Gonna swap this out for an Audigy 2 ZS that's wasting space in another box.
*20GB Seagate Barracuda - Gonna swap this out for a 120GB IDE drive I have laying around.
Generic DVD-ROM drive and 3.5" floppy drive
Rosewill RV350 and ARK SR20502 server case
Windows 2000 Pro

The next machine is Edgar, and the goal for him is to be Windows 98 machine for running 95 and 98 games and most Glide games. This is the PC I used the most while growing up, and until now he's been occupied by a PCI Radeon 7000 and a Sound Blaster PCI128. My dad actually upgraded to this motherboard and CPU because I couldn't play Lego Stunt Rally on the previous hardware, and I believe the Radeon and Sound Blaster were purchased so I could play realMYST. Lot of nostalgia with this machine for me, and I'm actually kind of sad to separate him from the Radeon 7000 and that crappy PCI128. I actually set this up with DOS 6.22 and Win3.1 even though it's overpowered because I really wanted to mess with them until I find a 486/Pentium machine, but now it will just have 98. Specs and plans:

600MHz Pentium III Coppermine
384MB SDRAM
MSI Slot 1 ATX board (again I don't recall the model at the moment)
*4MB PCI Matrox Mystique 220 - I intend to get 2 12MB Voodoo 2 cards to go along with this.
Creative Sound Blaster Vibra 16 CT2940 ISA
*6GB Seagate Barracuda - Going to swap the 20GB drive out of the dually machine in, and set this drive aside for when I find a 486 or Pentium machine
*Acer CD Re-Writer - God this thing is old, probably going to change it since it doesn't read CD-R's and it's quite slow
Generic 3.5" Floppy Drive
Rosewill RV3500 and generic old beige ATX mid-tower - I saw someone else was building a dual Pentium 3 setup in this case 😀
Windows 98 SE

I also want to find a 486 or Pentium machine to run later DOS games and Windows 3.1 games, but since I'll need the CPU, mobo, ram, AT case, and power supply in addition to a VGA card and another Sound Blaster 16, I'm just waiting until I find the right system for a reasonable price. Also hope to eventually get a 2- or 386 for those early DOS games. So that's what I'm working on right now, hope you liked reading it. Lots of awesome machines in this thread, I have some catching up to do as far as collecting hardware goes 😁

My modified Compaq Deskpro EP 6400/10:

Pentium II Klamath 266 @166mhz
32mb
Matrox Mystique 220 4mb
Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold
Not sure about NIC (I think it's a Linksys that uses the ADMtek AN985 chip though)

I'll post pictures of my Packard Bell Platinum 2030 when I get a chance.

EDIT: had to copy and replace the second image because it stopped displaying for some reason. No idea what happened or why.

EDIT2: Now the original is displaying again. What the hell is going on!? 😕

Nice picks of the Deskpro! I remember having one of those things as my desktop at work!

AdamP wrote:

My modified Compaq Deskpro EP 6400/10: […]
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My modified Compaq Deskpro EP 6400/10:

Is it a speaker beside the fan?
I've never seen such a big speaker inside a case.
Is it used as POST speaker (PC beep) or as a regular speaker outputting the same output as the soundcard lineout?

can you not see the wire running from it to the sound card?

It's a valid question as that connector on the AWE64 is a INPUT for the PC speaker signal. So that you can hear the PC speaker sound coming out from your soundcard.

Connecting the actual PC speaker doesn't make sense. There should be two pins on the mainboard that carry the PC speaker signal. Just connect these to the AWE64 GOLD.

As far as I know, it's a speaker (the computer used to have an ESS Audiodrive and I'm pretty sure the cable was connected to the speaker IN port of that as well). But unfortunately I have no idea if it's the POST speaker or some other speaker.

um... no. the original of those had a monoural speaker out which was hooked to a special out on the sound card which would only produce output when there was nothing plugged into the output on the rear of the sound card. In my first post I had not yet realized the original sound card was replaced/removed.