wow, that is a clean system. it looks brand new. I really want that k6-3+ chip.

Well I have a number of these K6 III+'s

1 X K6 III+ 500ANZ
4 X K6 III+ 450ACZ
1 X K6 III+ 400ATZ
1 X K6 III+ 400ACR

As well as this I have

4 X K6 2+ 550 ACZ
1 X K6 2+ 533 ACZM
5 X K6 2+ 500 ACZ
1 X K6 2+ 400 ATZ

I also have

1 X K6 III 450 AFX
2 X K6 III 450 AHX
6 X K6 III 400 AHX

Stedman

Very nice!

I have a K6-2+ 550 and a normal K6-2 500 I believe.

Now something I struggled with is finding CPU coolers that fit Socket 7. The ones you can get for S370 are always to broad...

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Very nice!

I have a K6-2+ 550 and a normal K6-2 500 I believe.

Now something I struggled with is finding CPU coolers that fit Socket 7. The ones you can get for S370 are always to broad...

I suppose it depends on the motherboard with the locations, usually, of capacitors. I have successfully been able to use some of the socket A coolers with profiles such as the Globalwin CAK38 or even a Volcano 7. Anything that tends to overhang the zif socket by too much generally will not fit. For the normal K6 III' s which tend to run hot the all copper CAK38 or Volcano 7 really manages to keep the temperature down really low when compared to a conventional socket 7 cooler. This does help when overclocking these cpu's when restricted to air cooling.

Stedman.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

... Now something I struggled with is finding CPU coolers that fit Socket 7. The ones you can get for S370 are always to broad...

In this fine website a socket-A Arctic Cooling Copper Silent 3 is succesfully installed in a GA-5AX, whose socket is closely besieged by caps.

(Click to expand)

(Click to expand)

With the standard, taller caps, some small dremel action is required but ultimately it fits OK.

how well does the heat sink work?

Works pretty well, way overkill for a K6-2, even more so for a 180nm K6-2+, but better safe than sorry.

I'm new here and I really have very mediocre stuff compared to what you guys have. Now, after showing her the pics of your rooms and setups, even my wife finally accepted that I'm actually quite normal...😁

My only finished and working retro rig at the moment is the one seen below.

Looks like a mess? Becasue it's a mess.

It all started with the virulent idea of "DOSBox dos not feel right, why not build a real MS-DOS Box, having all these old crap sitting around and collecting dust?" It was ok at the beginning, but I realized quite late that I underestimated my unresistable dislike about any empty slots, sockets and ports. The weirdness above was the result.

Here are the specs:

- Gigabyte GA-6VXE7+ Mainboard
- Intel PIII 733 MHz CPU with stock fan (*)
- Kingston PC133 512MB x2 SDRAM (**)
- 3dfx Voodoo 3 3000 AGP 16MB
- Matrox Millenium II 4MB + 8MB expansion card
- 3dfx Voodoo 2 12MB x2 SLI
- Soundblaster AWE64 Gold + SIMMCONN Gold + 32MB EDO
- Adaptec AHA-29160 SCSI controller
- 3com Etherlink XL PCI 3C900B Combo NIC (***)
- Matrox 40GB x2 ATA HDD
- Samsung 40GB ATA HDD
- Matrox 73GB x3 SCSI HDD
- Seagate 33GB SCSI HDD
- Compaq 18GB SCSI HDD
- LG 4040B ATA DVDRW (acts like a CDRW, due to BIOS)
- Teac 1.2MB 5.25" FDD
- Mitsumi 1.44MB 3.5" FDD
- HP Surestore Dat8 SCSI Backup (does pretty much nothing but looking cool)

* Board can accept up to 1000MHz -and I have it- but after 833MHz, Windows ME goes berserk, so I regretfully fall back to 733MHz
** There is still an empty socket for another 512MB stick, but after understanding that running Windows 9x with more than 1GB physical memory installed is next to impossible, I regretfully stopped at 1GB. The empty slot stills bothers me though... 😊
*** For the sole purpose of easily connecting to all the non-exisiting networks like 10Base2 and 10Base5 with all those cool looking triple connectors.. 😏

All crammed into a cheap, ugly, and crappy (in that order) Asus Vento case with a 300W Aopen power supply (nothing special except -5V line) and beefed up with two maximum flow fans that acts (and sounds) like turpoprops. And as a bonus:

- IBM SCSI DVDRW in an external SCSI enclosure
- Microsoft Sidewinder 3D Pro Plus gameport joystick

No special keyboard, mouse or monitor. It connected to my daily setup by means of an Aten 4-port KVM switch.

And it does not stop here. The list below is the OSes installed on it:

Boot from IDE 0 with masterbooter:
- MS-DOS 6.22 + WFW 3.11
- MS-DOS 6.22 + DESQView
- MS-DOS 7.1 + Windows 98 Mini + Windows 3.11 Mini
- MS-DOS 6.22 + WFW 3.11 + Calmira II
- FreeDOS 1.0
- Windows 95 OSR 2.1
- Windows 98SE
- Windows 98SE + Revolution Pack 9

Boot from IDE 2 with masterbooter:
- Windows ME (not working properly - yet)
- OS/2 Warp 4.0 (no internet connection)
- Windows NT 4.0 Workstation (no internet connection)
- MS-DOS 5.0 + Windows 3.1

Boot from SCSI 0:
- Windows 2000

Boot from SCSI 1
- Windows XP

Boot from FDD
- Beos 5.1 Personal Edition (no internet connection and some other problems)

- IBM SCSI DVDRW in an external SCSI enclosure

Holy shit... where the hell did you get that? And what's the model number on it?

I'd looked for a SCSI DVD burner for quite a long time, but I was never able to find one and eventually decided that they didn't actually exist. (At least not ones which would take standard media... I do have a Pioneer SCSI DVD-R, but it only takes a special type of authoring media, so it's pretty much useless.)

TELVM wrote:

Works pretty well, way overkill for a K6-2, even more so for a 180nm K6-2+, but better safe than sorry. […]
Show full quote

Works pretty well, way overkill for a K6-2, even more so for a 180nm K6-2+, but better safe than sorry.

I was thinking of an Athlon XP, might give it a bit more of a challenge.

tayyare wrote:

HP Surestore Dat8 SCSI Backup (does pretty much nothing but looking cool)

Wow, where you get this tape drive? I am never see vintage user using old tape drive before

Holy shit... where the hell did you get that? And what's the model number on it?

Well, now I'm in doubt. Actually what I was looking for at that time was an 68 pin SCSI DVD drive and from the options available I choosed the one with the recording ability, that's for sure. But now, after your question, I'm not sure anymore if it was a DVD-R or DVDRW.

If I remember correctly, something like "converted from IDE" was in the description. It was a 50-60 USD purchase from an ebay big time seller, by the way. "Converted" thing still makes sense, since I clearly remember you need to make two power connections, one for the drive and one (fdd type connector) for the circuit board on the back.

I never burned anything on it yet actually. Let me check tonight the model number and return back to you. with more pictures if possible.

Wow, where you get this tape drive? I am never see vintage user using old tape drive before

Tape drives was an integral part of my setups in early and mid 90s. That was an era during which CD readers was costing $$$ (the first 2x one I bought was 200 USD) and recorders was only a dream (3.000 - 4.000 USD range). RW media was not avilable yet, and even R meida was 20 USD each (which you can only utilize by going to a "cd recording shop" and pay another 10 bucks just for recording). So, being a freaky but cheapo archivist, tape backup was an impractical but cheaper alternative for me. The devices that I used then was floppy controller based cheap units, of course, not this SCSI beast (of its time).

This one is a left over from a very old custom build small business server, that I upgraded long ago. I was working for that company as a manufacturing supervisor, and I accepted upgrading the servers voluntarily with one condition: Left overs will be mine..😁 It is from 97-98 IIRC.

I have another one, (Colorado Travan) that connects to the floppy controller, which I might decide to use in my upcoming 386 setup.

I'm back with more info.

Yes, it's an IBM drive with model number 97P3694 (or 97P36945), an IBM stickered LG 4082 DVDRW, which is a capable DVD+-R, DVD+-RW and DVD-RAM recorder(*).

And yes, it has an Acard conversion kit (**) at the back side, but it does not look like a "slap it in the socket" kind of job, there is a purpose built black plastic piece hıolding the card in place very firmly. I made some googling around and seen that these drives listed as both IDE and SCSI as IBM spares (***). I don't know if it is even possible, but conversion feels like done by IBM itself.

As a side note, I read these Acard converted DVD writers will not work properly (or at all) if you don't use their own Acard software or their own Acard SCSI controller.

* http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1633515,00.asp

** http://www.acard.com/english/fb0101.jsp?ino=43
http://www.pc-pitstop.com/scsi_ide_adapters/

*** http://www.ibmupgrades.com/97p3694.html
http://www.codemicro.com/store/product/Ibm-97 … 694-Refurbished
http://www.codemicro.com/store/product/Ibm-97 … 695-Refurbished
http://www.rivermain.com/products/IBM/NEW/97P3695.html#
http://parts.rivermain.com/?keycode=rm82165#

Tayyare, check out this thread.
486 DVD burner

I did a whole investigation on which DVD burning programs would work on a 486 using an ACARD SCSI converter.

In short, try Cute DVD for WinNT 4.0 or Express Burn for Win98 and Win2000. I also did not use the ACARD host controller; I used an Adaptec 2940U2W.

Revised my Voodoo 5 system. Found a ATX case I just really liked and went with it. I needed something shorter then the prior case I was using and this Diablotek one ended up being perfect. It was a tight fit for my BFG 650 watt but I made it work. Quite a bit back I went back to using my Slot A Jabil board for my Voodoo 5 again since I did not really need anything faster, so that is carried over into this case. Athlon 900mhz cpu installed with dual fan cooler. 512mb installed. Was using a Turtle Beach Montego II, but was able to obtain a Diamond Monster Sound MX300, so they have been swapped.

Default test scores for 3dmark 99: score is 6741 for grafx, and 13,584 for cpu.
Default test score for 3DMark 2000: score is 4511.

Pics as follows:

feipoa wrote:

Tayyare, check out this thread. 486 DVD burner […]
Show full quote

Tayyare, check out this thread.
486 DVD burner

I did a whole investigation on which DVD burning programs would work on a 486 using an ACARD SCSI converter.

In short, try Cute DVD for WinNT 4.0 or Express Burn for Win98 and Win2000. I also did not use the ACARD host controller; I used an Adaptec 2940U2W.

Wow, it's a very comprehensive test report. Thanks a lot!.. 😀

Unknown case inquiry time. Does anyone know what cases these rigs are in?

http://hardware.majix.org/computers/amalia/

http://hardware.majix.org/computers/bebox/

First one no. Second one, I've owned some time ago- it's some cheap no name from Korea. Can't complain about the weight of the steel or quality of the plastic used but the rivets then to come loose after some time due to chassis flex as there's not enough bracing.

Nice build!