And as for the heat, just add a fan to put on the V3 heatsink (or a Banshee or a fanless Riva TNT2 etc). A big silent one will cover more of the card's other components too.

If the V3 sucked so many wouldn't have recommended it but it is good and is the right card for your build. As for the cooling issues V3 cards are very very easy to deal with and I have gone fully custom on these cards before. Hell you can bolt mount a 40mm fan onto a v3 agp if you know what you are doing and replace the thermal adheasive pad with modern thermal compound.

With a little effort V3 cards can run ice cold for almost nothing if not free if you got some junk on hand like an extra fan ect. With experience one can be bold and do things most would get chicken about while still being non destructive.

If you get chicken you can add a 40mm fan and glue it on to the cooler with a bit of hot snot.

Good to know!

archsan wrote:

And as for the heat, just add a fan to put on the V3 heatsink (or a Banshee or a fanless Riva TNT2 etc). A big silent one will cover more of the card's other components too.

Just like this fan mod that I did on one of my Compaq V3-3500 cards:

Or this mod that I did with a larger fan, on my second Compaq V3-3500 card:

The nice part of using cable ties, are that you can use the holes in the heatsink.
The heatsink have four holes, the V3 pcb have only two.
That way, you can use two thin cable strips for each of the empty holes.
Making a kind of longer cablestrip that will stabelise the mounting.
It is hard to explain. It just works in a really good and easy way.

The zip tie mod is good but I don't like the string, I have even done the bolt method.

nforce4max wrote:

The zip tie mod is good but I don't like the string, I have even done the bolt method.

Not proud of it. It was when I did not have any cablestrips and it was my first V3-mod.
The good part, is that it is a cotton string. And I can just use a scissor when I need to. 🤣

brostenen wrote:

nforce4max wrote:

The zip tie mod is good but I don't like the string, I have even done the bolt method.

Not proud of it. It was when I did not have any cablestrips and it was my first V3-mod.
The good part, is that it is a cotton string. And I can just use a scissor when I need to. 🤣

I used bailing wire once on a card, mounted a pair of 80mm fans side by side 😎
Didn't look nice but it was solid and it worked.

So, motherboard - check. GPU - check. CPU - check.
Now for my favorite part: THE SOUND CARD!
I am considering the Sound Blaster AWE32 with the Dreamblaster X1 wavetable board. I can grab an MT-32 and SC-88 later on.

Don't underestimate the problems with MIDI on the AWE32. What else do you have in inventory?

I would consider a Gravis Ultrasound MAX or perhaps an AWE 64. What are the issues with the AWE32?
If MIDI is too big an issue on the AWE32, I might get the SB 16 and couple it with the Dreamblaster X1 and Gravis Ultrasound ACE.

Hanging note bug. You'll note it with Hexen, Doom, and many other games which combine MIDI and PCM audio out. It's present in the majority of Creative SB16/AWE cards, although AWE64 is not affected.

Is there any way to fix it? Like using the game/midi port on the motherboard?

Yes, using another MIDI port will avoid the problem.

Ok. Good to know. Thanks!

Would I still be able to use the sound from the awe32 and dreamblaster if I assigned midi to a different port or card?
Back to gpus for a second, which would compliment a V2 SLI setup best (using the K6-III+):
ATi Rage Fury Maxx
Nvidia TNT2-Ultra
Nvidia GeForce 256
Matrox G550?

The rage fury maxx is a NEAT card.

Jupiter-18 wrote:

Would I still be able to use the sound from the awe32 and dreamblaster if I assigned midi to a different port or card?

Yes, you can even use a dirt cheap Soundblaster clone card, but it takes some shuffling around of ports/IRQs/DMA.

gdjacobs wrote:

Hanging note bug. You'll note it with Hexen, Doom, and many other games which combine MIDI and PCM audio out. It's present in the majority of Creative SB16/AWE cards, although AWE64 is not affected.

That is not true at all. Define "majority" before making such claims!
Almost ANY AWE32 cards of the models CT3900 and CT3980 with DSP V4.13 have the "type 2" of the hanging notes bug which means IN REALITY you can play hours and hours without any hanging note. These cards are virtually bug free. Also the majority of the CT2760 series are not affected by the bug, the DSP4.11 models seem to be more prone to it. SB32 model CT3760 has DSP 4.16 like the AWE64 series and is free from this bug.

oerk wrote:

Jupiter-18 wrote:

Would I still be able to use the sound from the awe32 and dreamblaster if I assigned midi to a different port or card?

Yes, you can even use a dirt cheap Soundblaster clone card, but it takes some shuffling around of ports/IRQs/DMA.

No, oerk is wrong. One can't have the AWE32 sound with any SoundBlaster clone card.

Jupiter-18 wrote:

Would I still be able to use the sound from the awe32 and dreamblaster if I assigned midi to a different port or card? Back to g […]
Show full quote

Would I still be able to use the sound from the awe32 and dreamblaster if I assigned midi to a different port or card?
Back to gpus for a second, which would compliment a V2 SLI setup best (using the K6-III+):
ATi Rage Fury Maxx
Nvidia TNT2-Ultra
Nvidia GeForce 256
Matrox G550?

No doubt: The TNT2 card! A Geforce2 MX would also be a nice card - as another member said, same performance like the Geforce 256, easier and cheaper to get, and less power draw. Like I said before, the Fury Maxx is useless in your system. A plain Rage128 Pro would do.

Jupiter-18 wrote:

Back to gpus for a second, which would compliment a V2 SLI setup best (using the K6-III+): ATi Rage Fury Maxx Nvidia TNT2-Ultra […]
Show full quote

Back to gpus for a second, which would compliment a V2 SLI setup best (using the K6-III+):
ATi Rage Fury Maxx
Nvidia TNT2-Ultra
Nvidia GeForce 256
Matrox G550?

Personally, I have gone with V2-SLI paired with my TNT2-Ultra. Strange enough, it is a Compaq card too.
(that's a K6-III-400 machine)
They are really good, compared to other manufactors, wich have slightly bad to worse VGA signal strength.

For soundcard choice in you'r build. Hmmmm..... This is really a tough question.
Actually a question, that can not be answered that easy. It depends on a lot of stuff.
First you need to consider what need you have. OPL/non-OPL or period correct.

For a period correct, you can go strickt. Meaning PCI-Only, or you can go for something
that are not correct by the year, though still would have been found in machines of that time.
This basically gives you choices of eighter an AWE64-Value/Gold or something like SB-Live.
I would choose AWE64-Gold if that is easy to get, or just an AWE64-Value.

For a lesser era correct build, with the eyes on compatibillity, I would choose one of these.
- AWE32-CT3900 (hard to come by, possible too expensive).
- YMF-718/719 with an Dreamblaster-S1 or Dremablaster-X1.
- SB16 Vibra that has a real OPL-Chip and one of the Dreamblaster's.

Some people disagree with the Vibra. Looking at the Vibra, you get less line noise and you
loose treble and bass settings in the mixer. All this can be solved with an external amp.
YMF cards are good too, and they can still be found brand new at a decent price on eBay.
They have a really good sound to them, and I am using one such in my 486dx33 machine.
The bad part, is that YMF cards are only SB-Pro and not SB16 compatible, wich I personally
don't care about. In some way, this makes old Dos-games sound more accurate.
It might just be me that have this idea. I do not know. 🤣

For my K6-III+ I went with an AWE64 Value. Its era approiate as well as the Live, but with the Live you loose proper DOS support.