VOGONS


First post, by ShovelKnight

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No pictures to post at the moment, but I started to gather components for my planned Super Socket 7 build...

Planned configuration:

- AMD K6-2+ 500 MHz CPU
- Shuttle HOT-591P motherboard
- 256 MB PC133 SDRAM
- ESS ISA sound card + DreamBlaster S2 wavetable daughterboard
- Voodoo 3 2000 AGP GPU

I already bought the motherboard, the CPU and the RAM although they haven't arrived yet.

At the moment I don't know which case to get, it seems a waste to put such a small motherboard into a huge ATX case, but it won't fit a mATX case and AT cases are as rare as hen's teeth. When they come up for sale on eBay, shipping tends to be very expensive (I live in Ireland and haven't seen anything retro for sale locally).

Reply 1 of 43, by foil_fresh

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ShovelKnight wrote:
NPlanned configuration: […]
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NPlanned configuration:

- AMD K6-2+ 500 MHz CPU
- Shuttle HOT-591P motherboard
- 256 MB PC133 SDRAM
- ESS ISA sound card + DreamBlaster S2 wavetable daughterboard
- Voodoo 3 2000 AGP GPU

do you plan on using the PS/2 mouse header? Let me know if it works... i'm using a serial laser mouse which only works on it's own mousepad and would prefer my microsoft optical mouse...

I have the same motherboard and got a startech ps/2 bracket, i read a small "review" on one of the seller pages that listed the pin numbers and the matching colors but still had no PS/2 mouse working.

good luck!

Reply 3 of 43, by ShovelKnight

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Big thanks to the member who sent me a private message about Evercase, I didn't know about this company and their range of cases before 😀 Sorry I can't reply, it seems I can't send PMs (yet?).

Reply 4 of 43, by ShovelKnight

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I haven't really given a thought to the storage options.

I'm going to use a Gotek Floppy Emulator instead of the real thing (mostly because I can write images to it on my Mac or on my Linux server). Finding an IDE CD or DVD drive is also not a problem.

However, what should I use instead of a hard drive? A Compact Flash card with an adapter?

Are there any "tried and true" CF cards? It seems some of the high-end options that support UDMA etc. are kinda expensive, it could be cheaper to get an IDE SSD instead of a high-end CF card.

Reply 5 of 43, by mothergoose729

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An SSD will perform much better than a CF cards, especially in windows 98. Make sure to use something like partition magic to realign the partitions later for the best performance.

Note that your motherboard likely limited to disks 32gb in size or smaller without a patched bios. It looks like there is a patch for your board that should allow for 128gb hard drives. This bios is also required to properly support K6 III+ processors.

http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/J.Steunebrink/k6plus.htm#patched

Reply 7 of 43, by mothergoose729

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ShovelKnight wrote:

Thanks! There is also this BIOS from the manufacturer with K6+ and 128GB support: http://vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=6 … &menustate=28,0

Interesting. The custom bios is based on an earlier version than the latest official bios. 591pwiqh instead of 591PS025.

Patch Notes wrote:
Shuttle HOT-591P motherboard BIOS 591PWIQH with patch J.1 for AMD K6-2+ and K6-III+ support. 12/29/2000 by Jan Steun […]
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Shuttle HOT-591P motherboard BIOS 591PWIQH
with patch J.1 for AMD K6-2+ and K6-III+ support.
12/29/2000
by Jan Steunebrink

At this moment, the latest BIOS upgrade from Shuttle for the 591P is the
version 591pwiqh. This BIOS does not support the (mobile) K6-2+/III+ CPUs.
To overcome this problem, I have patched the 591pwiqh BIOS to include proper
recognition and handling of the K6-2+/III+.
I've made the following changes:
- Added detection and correct CPU Type display for K6-2+ and K6-III+
- Expanded the automatic enabling of the K6(-2/III) Write Allocation feature
to work also on the K6-2+ and K6-III+
- Expanded the K5/K6 busspeed/multiplier/CPU speed detection to work for the
K6-2+ and K6-III+ upto 600 MHz CPU speed.
In addition I've changed the Vcore Voltage Auto setting routine to prevent
the 3.2V K6 default from destroying the K6plus if Auto is selected in the
BIOS Setup. Instead, 2.2V is now supplied just as for regular K6-2/III's.
Note that the optimum Vcore Voltage for the K6-2+/III+ is 2.1V, so do not use
the Auto setting but select this voltage manually.

For all other functions, my patched BIOS is identical to the original 591pwiqh,
so you don't have to clear the CMOS if you upgrade from a 591pwiqh BIOS.

The filename of the patched BIOS is 591PJIQH.BIN and you can flash it with
AWDFLASH 7.65, like any other 591P BIOS upgrade.
Please take the usual precautions when flashing your BIOS.
Refer to Shuttle's web-site at
http://www.spacewalker.com/english/download_b … roduct=HOT-591P
for the proper flash procedure and the AWDFLASH 7.65 program.

Note that, although this patched BIOS has been tested on different HOT-591P
systems without any problems, it is provided "as is" and you use it at your
own risk.

I like to thank everybody who participated in testing this BIOS.
Jan.

Homepage: http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/J.Steunebrink/
E-mail : J.Steunebrink@net.HCC.nl

https://www.shuttle.eu/_archive/older/de/down … ios_hot591p.txt

I think both will work, but I would still recommend the custom bios. I trust community patches more than official ones.

Reply 8 of 43, by ShovelKnight

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I did some more research on storage and I think I'm going to use a 64GB HyperDisk DOM in this build. As for the optical drive, I decided to go with HP 12x CD-R/RW drive because this was my first CD burner drive back in the day.

By the way, in the old days, I usually created two partitions on my Windows 9x machines: one for the OS and its associated files and folders (such as Program Files, for example) and another for my stuff (DOS games and tools, documents, etc). In this case it was possible to nuke the Windows partition without losing the data. But I can't really remember what was the recommended partition size for Windows 98. A couple of gigabytes?

Reply 9 of 43, by ShovelKnight

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Got the motherboard today together with a bunch of rather useless "extras" (SiS 6215 video card, Conexant 56k modem...).

I won't even bother plugging it in because there are several damaged traces on the PCB. Looks like the motherboard was attacked with a screwdriver or something.

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It's definitely going back to the seller.

Reply 13 of 43, by oeuvre

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ShovelKnight wrote:

I’m starting to believe this project is cursed, now the CPU was delivered to a wrong address and the courier company doesn’t want to admit responsibility.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07So_lJQyqw

HP Z420 Workstation Intel Xeon E5-1620, 32GB, RADEON HD7850 2GB, SSD + HD, XP/7
ws90Ts2.gif

Reply 14 of 43, by 1541

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ShovelKnight wrote:

I’m starting to believe this project is cursed, now the CPU was delivered to a wrong address and the courier company doesn’t want to admit responsibility.

Maybe that's a hint to get a K6-III+ so you can set the CPU multiplier in DOS/Windows via software 😁

💾 Windows 9x resources (drivers, tools, NUSB,...) 💾

Reply 15 of 43, by ShovelKnight

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1541 wrote:
ShovelKnight wrote:

I’m starting to believe this project is cursed, now the CPU was delivered to a wrong address and the courier company doesn’t want to admit responsibility.

Maybe that's a hint to get a K6-III+ so you can set the CPU multiplier in DOS/Windows via software 😁

Well, the CPU that was delivered to a wrong address was K6-2+ which has the same ability.

Reply 16 of 43, by chinny22

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Like you I always installed OS to one drive and games to another, I've always found 2GB is plenty for Windows plus apps and still have space to spare, and I install alot less now then I did back when Win98 was my daily driver.

Reply 17 of 43, by ShovelKnight

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chinny22 wrote:

Like you I always installed OS to one drive and games to another, I've always found 2GB is plenty for Windows plus apps and still have space to spare, and I install alot less now then I did back when Win98 was my daily driver.

That's great to know, thanks!

Reply 18 of 43, by ShovelKnight

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Found another motherboard — Shuttle HOT-597. I like that it’s ATX and as far as I understand, it was considered one of the fastest SS7 motherboards at the time.

Also bought a K6-3+ CPU to go with it.

Reply 19 of 43, by foil_fresh

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ShovelKnight wrote:

Found another motherboard — Shuttle HOT-597. I like that it’s ATX and as far as I understand, it was considered one of the fastest SS7 motherboards at the time.

Also bought a K6-3+ CPU to go with it.

nice dude. what a mess, dealing with that broken-as-hell 591p. must feel good to have the one that works.

what games you been playing on the new board? managed to get any glide games running in dos?

cheers