Second board looks like a PC Chips M747, detailed in this thread. Manual is here (PDF). It has onboard sound and SiS 6326 graphics with its own VRAM; there is a jumper to disable the sound but I didn't see any jumpers/BIOS settings to disable the video...?

64-bit CPUs are backwards compatible with 32-bit code; you don't need to buy a 32-bit chip to run 32-bit software, or DOS "natively". Assuming I'm understanding this correctly... That aside, have you investigated yet what exactly happened to your VAIO? It may be worth it to try repairing it.

It's mostly nostalgia for me, as some of the first PCs I could call my own had P5x CPUs (66, MMX 233, 133). It's one reason why I keep the Toshiba in my sig running.

Rhuwyn wrote: The PSU came with a Diablotek case from Microcenter. It's just like this one actually. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?It … N82E16817822011 You're right to be worried. Diablotek aren't known for quality PSUs, and that looks like one of their cheaper offerings.

Build looks nice so far! ... First the sound blaster 16 CT 2290. I believe this card has a true OPL chip and listening to some samples I really like the sound. ... Not a "true" discrete OPL, but a licensed core built into the CT1747 ASIC. Which is the next best thing; it's truer to the sound of a …

I once saw a Dell Dimension XPS P75; the CPU had a small fanless heatsink on it, but attached the front panel was a ~60mm fan that blew air across it (and the rest of the motherboard).

CelGen wrote: Here's a rather new but slightly oddball machine I couldn't resist the $30 for. *snip* Interesting system! The screen looks like a DSTN LCD, possibly badly degraded (or just damaged from whatever it was that scratched it...)

Would it be correct to assume that the HDDs you tested were the only drives plugged into the IDE cable at a time? (E.g. only one drive attached to the cable.) If so, perhaps these drives have a "Single Or Master" jumper setting that you could try? (Have you tried this already?)

robocon wrote: http://www.uppic.org/image-53DC_57E683E7.jpg […] Show full quote http://www.uppic.org/image-53DC_57E683E7.jpg http://www.uppic.org/image-AA3F_57E683E7.jpg http://www.uppic.org/image-AE74_57E683E7.jpg http://www.uppic.org/image-97BF_57E683E7.jpg *snip* I dunno if it's just me, but …

Nice build and photos!