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I'm building a Socket 7 PC

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Reply 24 of 45, by mwdmeyer

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It's alive!

Current Specs:

Pentium 133
ATC-5030 Socket 7 motherboard with 512k Cache (430TX)
4mb SiS 6326 PCI Video Card
20GB Seagate IDE HDD
256MB PC133 SD-RAM
DVD/RW IDE (pretty new)
ATX Case (pretty new too)

There is nothing else in it just yet.

Windows 98se is currently installing! I've also just found my boxed copies of Half Life 1 (going to need to upgrade the CPU and video card to really play this) and Starcraft 1.

I was also able to purchase a Pentium 233MMX off ebay from the US for a good price, that might take awhile to get here though.

Once everything is running I will do some benchmarks with some different video cards and CPUs.

The hardest part was finding non-80pin IDE cables without a blanking pin.

Reply 25 of 45, by mwdmeyer

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It looks like one of my Voodoo 2s might be dead 🙁 Windows 98 crashes straight after boot with it installed. I have tested my other one and it looks okay.

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Reply 26 of 45, by SquallStrife

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mwdmeyer wrote:

The hardest part was finding non-80pin IDE cables without a blanking pin.

I gave up on that.

Now I just use new cables, with small drill bit (~1mm) and a steady hand!

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Reply 27 of 45, by mwdmeyer

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Good idea SquallStrife, I might try this. My HDD is running in PIO mode, so I suspect I need to replace the cable anyway.

It looks like my other Voodoo 2 is having issues now 🙁 I'm getting graphical artifacting in 3d games. Going to hook up and fan and see if it is a heat problem, but the Voodoo isn't hot to touch.

Admittedly I've never used this cards since purchasing them, Voodoo 2s aren't cheap on ebay either.

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Reply 28 of 45, by mwdmeyer

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Oh and here are some benchmarks before the Voodoo started to die.

Quake 3 Demo

Timedemo DEMO001 - 640x480 Default Settings for Voodoo

Pentium 133MHz: ~9fps
Pentium 166MMX: ~10.5fps

3DMark 2000

Pentium 133MHz: N/A
Pentium 166MMX: 378 3D marks

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Reply 30 of 45, by mwdmeyer

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Probably but I've only got 2000.

I put a GeForce MX 4000 card in it and got 15fps! The HW t&l seems to help somewhat.

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Reply 31 of 45, by ux-3

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How much did you pay for that 233MMX w/o shipment?

The MX4000 is a very weak card, BUT all these benches will be mainly cpu-benchmarks in your setup.

I would cross check the voodoos in another board. Maybe it is the mobo that is dying, or the PSU can't handle the drain from the voodoos?

Retro PC warning: The things you own end up owning you.

Reply 32 of 45, by mwdmeyer

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The Pentium 233MMX was $US12. The one I was bidding on in Australia went for $50!

The ATC motherboard doesn't seem to like anything faster than 166MHz though. I suspect a bios update would help, but i haven't done that yet.

Yes the MX4000 is a pretty crappy card by todays standards but it is faster than a Geforce 2 MX (just!) which is serious overkill for a Pentium 1. The reason for the MX4000 was because it was the only easy Geforce PCI video card I could get! I full Geforce 4 MX 440 or something would be nicer, but the MX4000 seems to work well and should be at least 2-3 times faster than a Voodoo 2.

In fact at 1024x768 it still gets 15fps on the Pentium 1! I doubt a faster video card would make any difference. Even the Voodoo 2 is limited, but I wanted to see how much Hardware T&L helped in Quake 3. Unfortunately I cannot get 3dmark 2000 to run, it just crashes to the desktop, might need to reinstall windows as it is full of Voodoo drivers etc.

The MX4000 in a fast PC gets about 50fps in 1024x768 in Quake 3.

With a Pentium 233MMX I suspect the MX4000 would get around 18fps.

I will test the Voodoo's in another PC. Even if they were dead I wouldn't through them out.

Reply 33 of 45, by feipoa

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Nice build. I did a similar build recently using a 430TX board (found here: Cyrix MII-433GP Build), although I used only a single PC100 64 MB DIMM since the cacheable limit of the 430TX board is only up to 64 MB. So if you are booting into Windows 9X w/256 MB RAM, you need to use up the first 192 MB of your RAM (this 192 MB is not being cached) before you can cache the remaining 64 MB. You'd get the most benefit by dropping your total RAM down to 64 MB. A single stick of 64 MB is sufficient for memory interleaving since it should have at least 4 banks on the stick, so you don't need to worry about finding 2x32 MB sticks.

Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.

Reply 34 of 45, by mwdmeyer

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Funny you say that. I just picked up an SiS 5598 based board and a Cyrix MII-333 just installing that now. Looks like the 5598 has 128mb max for caching ram.

I'm going to try 64mb in the 430TX to see if that makes any difference. I never knew about this cache ram limit until this year!

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Reply 35 of 45, by feipoa

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CPUMark99 is great for showing performance changes in Windows when all RAM is cached. The score almost doubles when all RAM is cacheable.

Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.

Reply 36 of 45, by mwdmeyer

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This is interesting. I haven't been able to find a 64mb stick of ram yet, but I dropped the Pentium 166MMX down to 128mb from 256mb and I was able to get about 18.5FPS in Quake 3. So that is a surprising increase!

I'll need to track down 64mb!

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Reply 37 of 45, by mwdmeyer

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Alright. I found a 64mb stick!

Quake 3 demo001 now gets 20.5FPS!

Pentium 166MMX
64mb SDRAM
Geforce MX 4000 PCI

Wow dropping the ram really increased the Quake speed. I wasn't expecting such a difference.

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Reply 39 of 45, by mwdmeyer

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Alright I'll do that benchmark later today. Is there anything special to turn 8bit off or is it just an option?

I'm just trying out my new Cyrix system. 3D performance is pretty awful! Wasn't able to get the Geforce MX 4000 going, I suspect the onboard video was causing issues.

Cyrix MII 333 (3.5x75MHz FSB so about 266MHz)
SiS 5598 Chipset (2-4mb onboard video)
128mb Ram
Voodoo II

Quake 3 640x486 Default Voodoo Settings: 9.5FPS.

EDIT: The Cyrix does feel faster in Windows than the Pentium 166 though.