bofh.fromhell wrote on 2025-11-24, 23:40:

Sweet! Also have that MB rev 2.1 with box and manual! Now I need to add a socket 8 slotket to the wishlist. Cant wait to run a P […]
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mmx23 wrote on 2025-11-24, 08:17:

I'm proudly present to you one of the first Pentium 2 motherboards, AOpen AX6F, who is using Intel's 440 Fx chipset. When used […]
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I'm proudly present to you one of the first Pentium 2 motherboards, AOpen AX6F, who is using Intel's 440 Fx chipset.
When used with a Pentium Pro processor on a slotket, it will hand right after HDD detection.
@DenizOezmen managed to mod the BIOS regarding L2 cache control. He changed that part of the code to support a Pentium Pro.
Now I can use my board with a Pentium PRO cpu.

The bios can be found on his webpage at Other Patches.
https://oezmen.eu/bios/

Thank you Deniz for all your help!

Sweet!
Also have that MB rev 2.1 with box and manual!
Now I need to add a socket 8 slotket to the wishlist.
Cant wait to run a PPro in an FX chipset MB!.......hey waitaminute!

Glad to hear you have the same MB.
But pay attention to the Bios size.
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/aopen-ax6f
Here you may find all original bios releases and if you look closely only R1.10 and R2.0 are 1 Mbit in size.
All the rest are 2 Mbit bios-es, so not sure if my revision will work properly on your MB. Forgot to mention that my MB is using R2.0 Bios version.

But, you can PM Deniz and he will be glad to help you to mod your specific bios version.
Of course you will need a Slotket 8 to use a Pentium PRO, I've used a slotket from my ALR Revolution 2X server for this.
Is worth to check with @Mentat-vvo if he still has one for sell.

liqmat wrote on 2025-11-24, 17:16:

Just because would be my answer. There is satisfaction to be found in impracticality.

I'd say that hamstringing a 440BX with a CPU that is 3 years older than the chipset just to make the CPU sing is thoroughly impractical, if that's the only goal.

I mean, people are using whole damn computers to just emulate small parts of old ones. (raspberry pi)

This whole hobby is an exercise in impracticality to the Nth degree...

luckybob wrote on 2025-11-25, 19:10:

I mean, people are using whole damn computers to just emulate small parts of old ones. (raspberry pi)

This whole hobby is an exercise in impracticality to the Nth degree...

Preach it brother.

It's kindof like liking cars from the '60s and '70s-- they're not at all practical as daily drivers (heck, when new they often weren't). They're slower, they don't turn as well or ride as smoothly or brake as well, they're deathtraps with only lap belts, no (or very little) dashboard and steering wheel padding, and potentially without a collapsible steering column (those weren't mandated until FMVSS 203 or (maybe 204) required it on cars manufactured on or after 01JAN1968). They may have had crumple zones but nowhere near as good as they are today. Carburetion and lack of any meaningful or effective emission control made them highly polluting.

But, despite the drawbacks and the impracticality, we can't help but *love* them.

So, yeah, I'll daily drive my modern car, but if I had a '65 Dart with the complete GO GO package (and maybe the 340 instead of the 273, for extra GO!) I'd enjoy the hell out of it.

Nostalgia is a powerful thing, and we love what we love. Add things like "what if I cobbled these disparate things together?" for even more discovery and fun. It's (probably not) hurting anyone.

I feel like my point was missed entirely.

I put my slocket 8 into a 440BX motherboard. My position is this is even less "practical" than using a period correct 440FX board. I do this because I love pentium pros. Practicality be damned

Oh, I got it. The 440fx has native ppro support. My major take away was; "look at my ppro chip, and it's original slot 1 adapter".

Plenty of reason to pick this board.

maxtherabbit wrote on 2025-11-25, 15:22:

liqmat wrote on 2025-11-24, 17:16:

Just because would be my answer. There is satisfaction to be found in impracticality.

I'd say that hamstringing a 440BX with a CPU that is 3 years older than the chipset just to make the CPU sing is thoroughly impractical, if that's the only goal.

What you see as impractical, I see as good use of old hardware.

I'm very guilty of pairing more powerful GPU's with less powerful CPU's
My thinking is I want to be sure the bottleneck of this system is the CPU/MB and not graphics.

So by giving a PPro in a much newer board, graphics card, etc OP can sleep well at night knowing he is squeezing every inch out of a somewhat special CPU

BUT
That's not to say perfectly balanced or period builds don't have a place in this hobby either

mmx23 wrote on 2025-11-25, 08:32:

Hello Liqmatrix! No, is not NOS but it was preserved in Very good conditions. Is a recent purchase from e-bay, MB, 266Mhz P2 and 128 MB Edo RAM. To explain my choice, I always wanted a early Pentium 2 motherboard with Fx chipset and this MB is manufactured one week after the original release date of P2 processor. Those MB’s are pretty rare because of their limited time when was produced until LX chipset was released, around 6 months IIRC. So have it, I ‘ve expected to work by default with PPro using a slotket but there is a Pentium 2 instruction which is not present on Pentium Pro cpu to controll the state of L2 cache . This prevented the cpu to pass all Post checks. Therefore I just wanted to have this MB working with Pentium Pro as well , because this is the cpu I’ve like so much. Of course the performance is on pair with any other 440FX socket MB’s, but in the end I’ve chased the history. Not having an AGP slot is not loss for me, because I’m using a 3dfx voodoo card ok it, currently a Rush but maybe I’ll stick with a Voodoo2 in the end, s-o no benefit for AGP using this combination. I’m glad to have another Pentium Pro setup, that’s it and courtesy of Deniz who modded the bios, this is a dream come true!

I still would love to see your planned dual PPro wall art. Have an awesome holiday season sir!

chinny22 wrote on 2025-11-26, 04:29:

So by giving a PPro in a much newer board, graphics card, etc OP can sleep well at night knowing he is squeezing every inch out of a somewhat special CPU

OP is literally not doing that, he is using a 440FX board

I am actually doing that though 😀

Once again no one can comprehend the fact that I am ADVOCATING for the use of a newer slot 1 board here

Once again no one can comprehend the fact that I am ADVOCATING for the use of a newer slot 1 board here

I can. I get it. I'd also pick a 440BX. However I'm also going to on record for saying it doesn't fucking matter. The point is to showcase the CPU and the OG adapter. Just because its not what you would have picked, doesn't make it an invalid choice.

luckybob wrote on 2025-11-26, 19:06:

Once again no one can comprehend the fact that I am ADVOCATING for the use of a newer slot 1 board here

I can. I get it. I'd also pick a 440BX. However I'm also going to on record for saying it doesn't fucking matter. The point is to showcase the CPU and the OG adapter. Just because its not what you would have picked, doesn't make it an invalid choice.

Yeah I get that too. Like I said in my first post about it - ANY slocket 8 build is cool

liqmat wrote on 2025-11-26, 14:15:

mmx23 wrote on 2025-11-25, 08:32:

Hello Liqmatrix! No, is not NOS but it was preserved in Very good conditions. Is a recent purchase from e-bay, MB, 266Mhz P2 and 128 MB Edo RAM. To explain my choice, I always wanted a early Pentium 2 motherboard with Fx chipset and this MB is manufactured one week after the original release date of P2 processor. Those MB’s are pretty rare because of their limited time when was produced until LX chipset was released, around 6 months IIRC. So have it, I ‘ve expected to work by default with PPro using a slotket but there is a Pentium 2 instruction which is not present on Pentium Pro cpu to controll the state of L2 cache . This prevented the cpu to pass all Post checks. Therefore I just wanted to have this MB working with Pentium Pro as well , because this is the cpu I’ve like so much. Of course the performance is on pair with any other 440FX socket MB’s, but in the end I’ve chased the history. Not having an AGP slot is not loss for me, because I’m using a 3dfx voodoo card ok it, currently a Rush but maybe I’ll stick with a Voodoo2 in the end, s-o no benefit for AGP using this combination. I’m glad to have another Pentium Pro setup, that’s it and courtesy of Deniz who modded the bios, this is a dream come true!

I still would love to see your planned dual PPro wall art. Have an awesome holiday season sir!

Once will be ready, you will be first whom I'll send it. Have a lovely holiday season to all !