First post, by FrostyTheSnowman
- Rank
- Newbie
Retro Xeon Rig - 38-year-span (PC) and 13-year-span (Mac) software supported *without* use of emulation
Just finished up my newest muti-era hardware-compatible retro rig, this time based on the RUBY-9719VG2AR, Xeon X5470 and Yamaha OPL3-SAx with the addition of Macintosh support (via Hackintosh). 😀
This is essentially a supercharged version of my previous Pentium 4 build, which can be located below (1080p monitor and Sony speakers were re-purposed for this new Xeon build, they were replaced by period-correct units on the Pentium 4 build):
Retro Pentium 4 Rig - 27-year-span (PC) software supported *without* use of emulation
Enjoy!
Core Components:
• Video Cards: EVGA (Nvidia) Geforce GTX 1060 PCI-E, XFX (Nvidia) Geforce FX 5200 PCI (DVI version), Intel GMA X4500 IGP, Diamond (3dfx) Voodoo 2 PCI
• Sound Cards: Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZX PCI (SB0350), Yamaha OPL3-SAx ISA (YMF719E-S w/6.8nf Low-Pass Filter mod and Reversed-Wavetable fix)
• Hard Drives: PNY 120GB SSD (SATA), PNY 120GB SSD (SATA), PNY 240GB SSD (SATA), Intel 500GB SSD (SATA), Seagate 1TB HDD (SATA)
• Hard Drive Controller: Intel ICH7R + VIA VT6421A
• CD/DVD Drives: Sony DVD-RW (PATA)
• CD/DVD Controller: Startech ICUSB2IDE USB 2.0 to IDE
• Floppy Disk(s): Epson SD800/SD700 Combo (3.5”/5.25”)
• Floppy Controller: KryoFlux Personal Edition USB 2.0 to Floppy
• RAM: Edge DDR2-800 (2x4GB)
• Motherboard: Portwell RUBY-9719VG2AR Industrial (G41-based chipset, 775 socket, ISA+PCI+PCI-E, ISA IRQ & DMA redirection possible via Tiido's RUBYISA utility)
• CPU: Intel Xeon X5470 3.33Ghz (Quad-core 771 Server CPU w/775 mod)
• Power Supply: Corsair RM550 (550W) ATX
• Keyboard: Mitsumi PS2
• Mouse: Microsoft Mouse (USB/PS2-based)
• Monitor: ASUS VX238W 23” 1080p HDMI/VGA LCD
• Speakers: Sony SA-SPC5 2.1 Reference (Studio-grade)
• Game Controllers: Gravis 10-button Gamepad, Sony PSOne Dual Shock w/USB adapter, Microsoft SideWinder Precision Pro (USB/Gameport)
Operating Systems:
• Windows 10 (64-bit)
• Windows 7 (32-bit)
• Windows 98 SE
• MS-DOS 7.10 (newer DOS games)
• MS-DOS 7.10 (older DOS games)
• Macintosh OS X 10.13.3 (Hackintosh)
• Windows 10 (64-bit) (dedicated maintenance OS)
Hardware Reasoning/Compromises:
• RUBY-9719VG2AR is the only 775 motherboard I am aware of that has PCI-E and also supports DMA with ISA (normally not possible, but Tiido's RUBYISA utility makes it work!)
• RUBY-9719VG2AR supports IDE/PATA too, however Rloew's SATA Patch for Windows 98 won't work with it enabled... this forced me to adapt my Sony PATA DVD-ROM to USB (not many SATA-based white-face DVD burners on the market)
• RUBY-9719VG2AR *does not* support floppy drives... this forced me to install a Kryoflux floppy controller for the 3.5"/5.25" drives to be usable
• GTX 1060 GPU used for maximum video performance in Windows 10 and 7
• FX 5200 PCI GPU used for 44.x driver compatibility in Windows 98 (best PCI GPU available with 44.x driver compatibility)
• 3dfx Voodoo 2 GPU used for DOS/Windows 98 Glide compatibility
• Intel GMA X4500 (built-in) appears to fully support CGA/EGA/VGA/VESA 1.0/VESA 2.0/VESA 3.0 under DOS (including smooth side-scrolling in Keen games)
• SSDs used for Windows 10/7/98/DOS/Macintosh - HDD used for maintenance OS and backups
• Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZX used for full surround sound in Windows and Macintosh OSes (OEM model used, as it *does not* have a joystick/MIDI port and therefore won’t conflict with the SB16 for joystick/MIDI)
• Yamaha OPL3-SAx ISA (YMF719E-S) used for proper sound support in DOS (also allows for PC speaker pass-through via custom PC speaker -> CD audio cable)
• Corsair RM550 (550W) ATX (personal preference)
• ASUS VX238W 23” LCD used for 1080p HDMI/VGA support and 4:3 ratio support (I don’t like CRTs, despite being raised with them)
• PS/2-based keyboard and USB-based optical mouse provide full DOS compatibility (PS/2 keyboard is fine, USB mouse works via BIOS mouse emulation)
• DOS and Windows 98 OSes are on 120GB drives/partitions to avoid file system corruption issues
Hardware/Software Tricks:
• Intel Xeon X5470 (771) CPU modified to function in 775 socket (CPU dremeled to accept 775 keys + 771->775 pad swap sticker)
• Xeon 775 microcode injected into BIOS via MMTool (to fully support the X5470 CPU and it's instructions)
• VT6421 OPROM injected into BIOS via MMTool (to allow booting from the VIA VT6421A SATA controller)
• Activity LEDs de-soldered from VT6421 and replaced with pin headers (to allow connection to the front panel)
• PCI-E/PCI/IGP GPU switching done via BIOS
• Nvidia 44.x drivers used under Windows 98 for game compatibility
• HIMEMX used to force Windows 98 to only ‘see’ 1GB of RAM (no memory errors in Windows 98)
• RLoew's SATA Patch used for ICH7R support (in IDE mode) in Windows 98
• Windows 98 HDD is the first drive in order physically *and* in the BIOS, contains PLoP bootloader (prevents MBR errors in Windows 98)
• Additional PATA/SATA controllers disabled in Windows 98 (ensures no ‘triangle’ errors in Device Manager, allows full drive performance and no lockups)
• Service Pack 3 (Unofficial) used to update Windows 98 OS core files
• DirectX 7.0 used on Windows 98 (intentionally omitted DirectX 8.1/9.0 support in Windows 98)
• PLoP bootloader used to launch OSes and to ‘hide’ FAT partitions to ensure booted DOS/Win98 OS only ‘sees’ one FAT partition (itself)
• MOSLO used (disabling of hyper-threading and CPU caches and slowing of the CPU) to run 1980’s-based DOS games
• PC speaker routed through Yamaha OPL3-SAx
• Daemon Tools (Windows 10, Windows 7 and Windows 98) used for ISO mounting
• SHSUCD (DOS) used for ISO mounting
• CTMOUSE (DOS) used for smallest possible mouse driver footprint
• ACCESS 4.60 (DOS) used for menus
• JEMMEX (DOS) used for memory management
• RUBYISA (DOS, an awesome tool made by Tiido) used to enable full ISA support on RUBY-9719VG2AR
• SETYMF (DOS, another awesome tool made by Tiido) used to set volume levels and enable PC speaker pass-through on Yamaha OPL3-SAx
• Network adapter disabled under Windows 98 (for obvious reasons)