Re: The best Motherboard for a Pentium II MMX.

Posted on Yesterday, 21:13

by

by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Early Pentium II 400 with the dA1 stepping have downward unlocked multiplier, you can easily run them at 133mhz if needed. Same for the P2-333 with dA0 and dA1 steppings. With L1 cache disabled at 400mhz, it's about the speed of a slow 386, which is also appropriate for some early 90s games. Unless …

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Re: About removing and replacing barrel batteries..

Posted on 2021-06-10, 13:58

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Can you please comment on my solution on using a 18650 lithium ion rechargeable battery. Can these batteries be safely recharged by a 386 motherboard while in use? Here is a 18650 https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/1005002420574151.html charger if a comparison can be made. Or maybe I should put a diode …

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Re: Advice on socket 7 choice?

Posted on 2021-06-09, 17:27

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you're looking at the ATX form factor for Socket 7, then I can recommend the LT430TX boards from Gateway computers. They include many newer conveniences like onboard UDMA33 IDE and floppy ports, PS/2 ports, USB, onboard PLB cache, SDRAM slots, and best of all are relatively inexpensive. Throw in …

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Re: PIII + ATI Radeon 9800 proven ATI driver for Windows 2000 OpenGL? and debugging why its not working for my install..

Posted on 2021-05-31, 15:06

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Did you make sure that your desktop color mode matches the game color mode? If the game runs in 16 bit color, then set your desktop to 16 bit color.

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Re: Fastest CPU for a voodoo 1 while maintaining DOS glide compatibility

Posted on 2021-05-27, 18:55

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I ran a Voodoo on a s478 system with a 3.06ghz Pentium4. Probably something unique to the Sis chipset, because I wasn't able to get the same success on an Intel 845 board with a slower P4. https://pixelworkbench.com/2019/12/15/ ... 1-review/

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Re: Building a good Windows 98 gaming pc

Posted on 2021-05-25, 19:49

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

If you want to keep it inexpensive, then suggestions like Voodoo2, super socket 7, and Athlon XP with ISA slot are going to be hard to find cheap. Unless you have a long list of early 90s DOS games you want to play on the real hardware, I wouldn't worry about all the speed sensitivity issues. You …

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Re: How can I tell between Geforce2 MX and MX400?

Posted on 2021-05-05, 15:10

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

The most important thing to look for in GF2 MX cards is the speed rating of the memory chips, usually printed on the chips as the last digit, and specified in nanoseconds. 6ns is slower than 5.5ns, and 5ns is even faster. The MX is memory bandwidth bottlenecked, especially when using 32-bit color. I …

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Re: Socket A: Nvidia vs Via - battle of the platforms!

Posted on 2021-04-16, 19:31

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Eh, supporting v5 more important than all that stuff. Gimme socket 462 with 3.3v agp and 12v aux atx power and I'll give you my right leg. KT333 is best chipset as it supports the former and ddr400, not sure if ever put on mobo with aux power though. MSI KT3-Ultra says Hi. I thought such boards …

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Re: Socket 7 to SLOT 1 adapter?

Posted on 2021-04-15, 13:28

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

With good case airflow I run the P2-400 with its original gold-colored passive heatsink all day. I don't remember the temps ever going above 60C even under Prime95 stress test.

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Re: Do I Need to Dumb Down My System for Games?

Posted on 2021-04-13, 04:40

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If your Radeon 9550 is passively cooled, then it's possibly overheating, which would explain the problem. Try pointing an extra fan directly at the GPU to see if that fixes the crashes.

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Re: S3 ViRGE deep dive

Posted on 2021-04-12, 17:52

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Interesting writeup. I suspected that the DX with EDO mem is preferrable to the GX with SDRAM, and now I know why. As someone who tested the faster Virge DX in many 1990s 3D games, my impression is that it was OK for 1996 - 1997 simple 3D games, especially if you use a lower resolution like 400 x …

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Re: vintage budget cards instead of 'good' cards

Posted on 2021-04-07, 06:49

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

In some ways newer budget or midrange cards are actually preferrable to older high end, due to lower noise and power consumption. Funny thing is even if the first time I played the game on a crappy card, I still enjoyed the game. We're talking year 2000 - 2001 games like NFS Porsche, NOLF and Max …

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Re: Golden age of computing for personal computers

Posted on 2021-04-05, 19:12

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

For me the golden age was sometime from 1996 - ??? The PC got 3D acceleration, fun PC games like Duke3D and Quake got released, and hardware power grew rapidly every year. Wide adoption of home internet also gave new possibilities of what a PC could do. The good times continued into the 2000's …

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Re: Radeon AGP card for retro gaming. 8500 and later.

Posted on 2021-03-28, 00:51

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I would go for the 9800pro. Haven't had any problems with a shim, I believe that was a 9700pro issue. But with the 9800pro, you can run all Win98 games with AA+AF. For a cheaper and cooler running alternative, try a Radeon 9600pro or xt. Still plenty fast, but less heat.

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Re: Have anyone actually gotten hardware damaged due to using old PSUs?

Posted on 2021-03-17, 18:18

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Interesting thread. I had only one instance of a failed PSU, it was in 2006 shortly after I upgraded my S939 Opteron 165 rig with a Radeon x1900xt. The PSU that failed was an OCZ Powerstream 420W. Luckily there was no fireworks and no other component died, simply one day the PSU just refused to …

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Re: A high end Multi Core (775 or AM3+) Windows XP build

Posted on 2021-03-14, 22:08

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Wouldn't the x5470 bottleneck the 7870? Maybe in some games, depending on settings and resolution. But it was still faster than a 750ti in most of my tests with that processor. Of course I tested mainly newer DX11 and DX12 games. What Windows version do you use for your tests? Windows 10. I didn't …

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Re: A high end Multi Core (775 or AM3+) Windows XP build

Posted on 2021-03-13, 15:30

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Lazar81 wrote on 2021-03-12, 12:00: Wouldn't the x5470 bottleneck the 7870? Maybe in some games, depending on settings and resolution. But it was still faster than a 750ti in most of my tests with that processor. Of course I tested mainly newer DX11 and DX12 games.

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Re: A high end Multi Core (775 or AM3+) Windows XP build

Posted on 2021-03-12, 08:37

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A 7870 would be a good fit for a fast LGA775 build. I tested a R9 270x (rebadged and overclocked 7870) vs a gtx1070 on a 3.4ghz e5450, and the difference in most games was like 10-20%, to no one's surprise.

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Re: Understanding what usefulness of PII 400 or 450 vs PIII 800?

Posted on 2021-03-12, 00:13

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

An unlocked P2 400 is nice for 1997 and earlier games. In 1998 games like Unreal and Half Life, it offers playable performance in the 30fps range, as long as you don't use A3D. Enable A3D in Half Life, and you're solidly in the 20s, with frequent dips below 20. But then again, even a 1.1GHz P3 on a …

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Re: Good value Win98 Graphic Card

Posted on 2021-03-09, 16:56

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

What kind of problems were you seeing with the Quadro FX 1300? I'm wondering if the same problems would be seen with the Geforce PCX cards (official PCIe FX cards) What specific games have issues with the newer drivers? Here are some of my test notes. Quadro FX1300, Asus A8V-XE, A64 4000, Win 98, …

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