Re: Which of these video cards would be best for Win98 and msdos games?

Posted on 2021-09-12, 08:35

by

by frudi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The GF4 MX4000 is pretty much the equivalent of a GF2 MX400. The specs are nearly identical, same GPU configuration (ROPs, TMUs, shaders), same memory interface (64-bit DDR), only GPU and memory frequencies differ slightly and the MX4000 uses a generation newer architecture. Both should perform very …

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Re: Is my motherboard generating -5V for the ISA bus?

Posted on 2021-09-10, 13:12

by

by frudi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's more likely just a phantom reading that coincidentally reads close to -5 V in your case. Try a different PSU or connect different components to the board and you'll likely get a completely different voltage. I've seen motherboards reporting even -60 V and similar senseless results.

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Re: Quick Voodoo 3 2000 question.

Posted on 2021-04-10, 09:17

by

by frudi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hey guys, What size of fan would be the most appropriate to mount to a Voodoo 3 2000 AGP heatsink? 40mm? Thanks. Yes, 40 mm fans are a perfect fit for V3 2000's tiny heatsink. And the fins on the heatsink are perfectly spaced to use standard screws to securely attach the 40 mm fan to it. Trying to …

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Re: Running an Am5x86 at 5v?

Posted on 2021-03-15, 14:11

by

by frudi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Try to use the 5x86, but jumper it for 75 MHz (3 x 25 MHz). See if it boots then at 3.3 or 4.0 V. My suspicion is the VRM is outputting lower voltage then it should, but it might be enough to run the CPU at such a lower frequency. I have an Asus PVI-486SP3 that exhibited very similar behaviour, any …

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Re: Hooking up a Slot 1 motherboard using modern ATX PSU and Case

Posted on 2021-03-08, 13:50

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by frudi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Someone has already suggested checking the clear CMOS jumper, if that is in the clear position, it can prevent the board from starting at all. Some motherboards also have a jumper for powering the system on by keyboard, so check the manual if perhaps this board has one of those. If set to turn on by …

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Re: Good value PC for Win98 - evading the RETRO TAX

Posted on 2021-03-07, 14:50

by

by frudi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Currently I'm using a Dell U2412M, a 24" 1920x1200 IPS display. It has an option of manually setting aspect ratio, either 4:3, 5:4 or default 16:10. 4:3 or 5:4 get displayed with black bars on the sides. Would be ideal if it had an option to always use original aspect ratio without having to …

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Re: Intel 440BX and Pentium III 1.1 Ghz

Posted on 2021-03-06, 21:50

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by frudi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I also consider a celeron 1100 Mhz with 128kb L2 cache. Should i consider that ? What's a difference between Pentium 3 with 256 KB L2 cache vs Celeron with 128 KB L2 cache, will i see a difference in performance ? 1.1 GHz Celeron would at best be about the same performance as your current Pentium 3 …

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Re: Good value PC for Win98 - evading the RETRO TAX

Posted on 2021-03-06, 21:37

by

by frudi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Geforce cards typically had poor output quality period, VGA output was even worse than DVI. That's before taking into account additional distortions and artifacts that come from using VGA input on any LCD screen. I'll take your word about 1440p monitors having good upscaling, since my experience is …

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Re: Good value PC for Win98 - evading the RETRO TAX

Posted on 2021-03-06, 11:50

by

by frudi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Since you're concerned about noise levels, I would recommend avoiding Pentium 4 and going with Athlon64 instead. Not only do Pentium 4s use more power and get hotter, tracking down a decent and quiet cooler for socket 478 these days is going to be a bigger issue than finding any of the other …

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Re: Using AT case turbo switch to change the front side bus speed on motherboard

Posted on 2021-02-26, 11:06

by

by frudi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You say you need to switch two jumpers, yet settings for 66 and 100 differ only in one jumper setting. So I'm assuming you're running 112 MHz FSB? In that case, if you can't find a solution for two jumpers, you could still at least make it switch to 75 MHz FSB, since that only differs from 112 in …

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Re: What parts of my SS7 PC should I upgrade first?

Posted on 2021-02-14, 11:59

by

by frudi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you can get a cheap K6-2+ for $30 or less, that's the simplest way to go. Then if it's not already a 550 MHz model, overclock it to 550 or 600+ MHz, depending on what maximum FSB settings your motherboard supports (since it's an OEM board, I doubt it goes above 100 MHz, but who knows, maybe …

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Re: Geforce 2 MX vs MX200 vs MX400

Posted on 2021-02-14, 11:38

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by frudi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Overclocked GeForce 2 MX 128-bit is very close to GeForce 2 GTS though. And arguably, you can push 1600x1200 in 16-bit color. And an overclocked Geforce 2 GTS will again eat it for breakfast. Doesn't make much sense to compare one card overclocked to the extreme to another running at stock. Besides …

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Re: Geforce 2 MX vs MX200 vs MX400

Posted on 2021-02-13, 21:22

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by frudi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The MX was always a value card, even when it first launched, and the slightly higher clocked MX 400 model didn't change that in any way. Lots of people used to praise it back then and it wasn't bad value compared to the pricey GTS/Pro/Ti/Ultra models, especially if you were willing to stick to 16- …

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Re: Are modern PSU’s good for Retro PC Builds? And what PSU do you recommend for Socket 370 and before?

Posted on 2021-02-13, 18:03

by

by frudi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think all TX-M models from 650 W and up have the same specifications for the 5 and 3.3 V rails, so go for whichever model you can get for cheapest. Just skip the 550 W and lower models, since those supply only 20 A @ 5 V. Also try searching this forum for older threads; I remember the topic coming …

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Re: Recommendation for Modern Power Supplies:

Posted on 2021-02-13, 17:39

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by frudi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You can get SATA to molex converters, molex to floppy converters and 24-to-20 pin ATX converters for a couple $ each off ebay. A new PSU with these legacy connectors is likely going to be either an old design, made by some questionable/unknown brand or overpriced, or even a combination of all those. …

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Re: Are modern PSU’s good for Retro PC Builds? And what PSU do you recommend for Socket 370 and before?

Posted on 2021-02-13, 17:24

by

by frudi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

EVGA's website says the 450 BT can do 18 A on the 5 V rail, with a combined max output of 90 W on 3.3 V and 5 V rails together. With just the pair of 1.4 GHz Tualatins pulling over 60 W at max load by themselves, then adding the consumption of RAM, video cards, sound cards and motherboard components …

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Re: Voodoo 1 vs Voodoo 2 in a Pentium 200 (non mmx), worth it?

Posted on 2021-02-11, 12:21

by

by frudi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you only have a single system or have additional Voodoo 2 cards to spare, and you aren't primarily interested in running DOS glide games, then by all means, use the Voodoo 2 in your P200 system. It will be bottlenecked by the CPU, but it will still perform better than a Voodoo 1. But since it …

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Re: Non working Abit BE6-II

Posted on 2021-02-05, 10:39

by

by frudi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Excellent, I'm glad to read it worked out 😀

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Re: Help with CPU and jumper settings.

Posted on 2021-02-05, 09:16

by

by frudi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The silkscreened fractions are just the inverse of multipliers. I guess it's meant as the fraction of CPU frequency the external bus runs at. I've seen quite a few socket 7 boards use this notation. Just reverse the listed fractions to get the more familiar multipliers (1/2 -> 2/1 = 2x, 2/5 => …

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Re: Non working Abit BE6-II

Posted on 2021-02-05, 08:58

by

by frudi

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I don't remember if I've ever tried programming a chip with an image bigger than the chip, so I don't know if the programmer normally throws an error or just programs until it runs out of space and goes "ok, job done, nothing out of the ordinary to see here!" :) I'm not at home right now, so I can't …

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