VOGONS


First post, by arncht

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project started: oct 2018
ended: may 2020
budget: ~130 EUR

targeted month: may 1995
period correct: 93%

goals:
* socket 5 pentium
* everything before the socket 7 (jun 1995)

Intel Pentium 120 CPU
Intel Advanced/ZP (Intel 430FX) mainboard
Micron 16M EDO RAM
Diamond Stealth 64 Video VRAM 2M PCI (S3 Vision968) VGA
Creative Sound Blaster AWE32 Value sound card
Gravis Ultrasound 3.74 1M sound card
Western Digital Caviar 31200 HDD
Sony CDU-77E CD-ROM
Panasonic JU-257A605P 3 1⁄2 FDD
Baby AT (blue button) case
FSP SPI-250G PSU

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Last edited by arncht on 2020-05-30, 17:15. Edited 8 times in total.

My little retro computer world
Overdoze of the demoscene

Reply 1 of 27, by arncht

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Intel Advanced/ZP Intel 430FX Socket 5
Matrox Millennium 4M PCI
Creative Sound Blaster AWE32 CT3910 rev 01 ISA DSP4.13, CT1747 OPL3
Gravis Ultrasound 3.74 1M ISA

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My little retro computer world
Overdoze of the demoscene

Reply 2 of 27, by arncht

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Intel Pentium 120 SY033 - the last p54c core, 0.6 micron, officially socket 5
Micron 72 pin EDO 60ns 8M x2 - period correct size

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Diamond Stealth 64 2001 2M PCI ARK Logic ARK2000PV - it would be really great, very good dos performer (~et6000, riva128 in 1995!), and decent output quality, but i did not find anything about it before aug 1995 - out of my strict period

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Diamond Stealth 64 DRAM 2M PCI S3 Trio64 - perfect period match, but the output is too dark, the dos performance is also below the millennium
Fastest video card for DOS, Socket 3 VLB / Socket 5 / Socket 7 / Slot 1 FPS comparison

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My little retro computer world
Overdoze of the demoscene

Reply 3 of 27, by BloodyCactus

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Since that GUS isnt plug and play, you might have problems with IO port clashes with its Adlib and Gameport against the AWE32, I think they are the only two things on both cards whose address you cant change.

--/\-[ Stu : Bloody Cactus :: [ https://bloodycactus.com :: http://kråketær.com ]-/\--

Reply 4 of 27, by rasz_pl

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arncht wrote:

Diamond Stealth 64 2001 2M PCI ARK Logic ARK2000PV - it would be really great, very good dos performer (~et6000, riva128 in 1995!), and decent output quality, but i did not find anything about it before aug 1995 - out of my strict period

date codes on chips are from March 1995, seems passable

Open Source AT&T Globalyst/NCR/FIC 486-GAC-2 proprietary Cache Module reproduction

Reply 5 of 27, by appiah4

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Title says 1995.06 but your signature says 1995.05. You ain't foolin' me OP!

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 6 of 27, by arncht

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BloodyCactus wrote:

Since that GUS isnt plug and play, you might have problems with IO port clashes with its Adlib and Gameport against the AWE32, I think they are the only two things on both cards whose address you cant change.

it is not a problem, in some rigs i use three sound cards, they work perfectly together.

rasz_pl wrote:
arncht wrote:

Diamond Stealth 64 2001 2M PCI ARK Logic ARK2000PV - it would be really great, very good dos performer (~et6000, riva128 in 1995!), and decent output quality, but i did not find anything about it before aug 1995 - out of my strict period

date codes on chips are from March 1995, seems passable

the pcb is from aug 1995, i think the 1995q3 is correct.

appiah4 wrote:

Title says 1995.06 but your signature says 1995.05. You ain't foolin' me OP!

you're right, fixed 😁

My little retro computer world
Overdoze of the demoscene

Reply 9 of 27, by arncht

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auron wrote:

that cpu and ram both have '96 date codes FYI.

if i would follow the manufacturing dates - i never could build anything 😀
the cpu is the closest model (p54c core, not the late 0.35 micron version), and the ram types / release dates are unidentifiable until the early 2000.

My little retro computer world
Overdoze of the demoscene

Reply 10 of 27, by arncht

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i have found an interesing source from feb 1995, with ark2000 info:
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~andrewm/Do … eo-card_faq.txt

yeah, it is the hercules, and not the diamond, but the hercules card design looks very similar to the diamond (reference design?). anyway, it fits to my socket 5 frame.

My little retro computer world
Overdoze of the demoscene

Reply 11 of 27, by arncht

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also socket 5 conform, they released around april in 1995.

Diamond Stealth 64 Video VRAM 2M PCI S3 Vision968

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My little retro computer world
Overdoze of the demoscene

Reply 12 of 27, by amadeus777999

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Some very nice pieces there - I really dig the Matrox. Also had a CT3910 running in a system a few days ago and even though it only has 512K onboard ram Warcraft sounded really nice.

Is the GUS "worth" the price?

Reply 14 of 27, by amadeus777999

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arncht wrote:

Of you want to watch demos. For games - definitely not.

Ok, there's only two games(DoomII and Warcraft) for which, if the GUS were "better", I may have put in the necessary monies. I got curious after seeing a few videos about the GUS.

Reply 15 of 27, by arncht

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From the midi aspect, it depends on the game. Some is better, some not. But the swmix for the voices is weak, the cpu consumption is very high eg in the doom. Another issue the compatibility (as native gus), some games does not like it.

The mod based games with the hwmix are very good (mostly the pinballs).

My little retro computer world
Overdoze of the demoscene

Reply 16 of 27, by arncht

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i got again a case in more pieces 🙁 i used the sodium bicarbonate method to fix the small plastic parts (not visible), anyway it could not work with glue.

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My little retro computer world
Overdoze of the demoscene

Reply 17 of 27, by mpe

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arncht wrote:

Intel Pentium 120 SY033 - the last p54c core, 0.6 micron, officially socket 5

Your CPU seems to be 1996 made if you care about strict dates 😀

Blog|NexGen 586|S4

Reply 18 of 27, by arncht

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i know, but i don't care... with rare stuff you could never build a computer, if you would deal with the manufacturing date.

My little retro computer world
Overdoze of the demoscene

Reply 19 of 27, by Warlord

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I really like this build a lot congratz man.
Dates like that are pretty irrelevant when you are using what is considered Maxed out hardware.
A analogy would be something like 2006 Stereo headphones comparison, and the example that is used is not only the most expensive pair but costs 10 times the average pair in your round off. Then the person is like my stereo headphones are period correct. 🤣

To give it context Linus tech tips reviewed a 35 thousand dollar pair of headphones. In 20 years maybe someone will think owning a pair of those is period correct who knows.