Re: Upgrading the VLB on my 486DX2-66: worth it?

Posted on 2021-04-29, 08:21

by

by bloodem

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Short answer, no. The Trident is capable of more than 25 FPS in Doom (when used with a faster CPU), so you would see no tangible benefit from such an upgrade. I think the Trident is a good match for a DX2-66, unless you want something fancier, just for thrills 😀

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Re: My first retro project

Posted on 2021-04-28, 09:56

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by bloodem

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

In my experience, a Pentium 3 Coppermine / 440BX motherboard (with DDMA or even better - SBLink connector) works great with YMF7xx cards. Also, have had very good (almost perfect) experience with KT400/KT600 motherboards + Athlon XP, although the YMF does have some minor glitches in Win98 with these …

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Re: My first retro project

Posted on 2021-04-28, 05:01

by

by bloodem

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I do have a YMF724 and a Solo-1, I'll definitely want to try out both of them. Though, based on previous testings I made, all three sound cards gave me some kind of headache... I guess there is really no "perfect" PCI sound card for DOS :( The YMF724 is as close to perfect as it gets when it comes …

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Re: Need help with 486 board not POSTing

Posted on 2021-04-20, 12:01

by

by bloodem

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Does the POST always stop at the "0D" code? If yes, that's related to the video initialization, so it might be worth to investigate this part, maybe test other video cards in different slots. If you're using a VLB video card, it might be worth to also try an ISA card.

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Re: Voodoo 3 3000 no signal

Posted on 2021-04-20, 11:16

by

by bloodem

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think using it with missing caps might have been a fatal mistake... 🙁

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Re: Best way to renove battery green corrosion?

Posted on 2021-04-20, 05:02

by

by bloodem

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I find that, unless you are doing it for fun, it’s not worth doing it at all. If the corrosion is in an advanced state, the repair process will be very time consuming, and you’ll most likely have to fix some (if not many) damaged traces along the way. Furthermore, unless you are extremely …

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Re: Athlon 1400 opinions?

Posted on 2021-04-19, 10:27

by

by bloodem

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The Thunderbird 1400 is a great CPU (albeit, very power hungry and hot). Having said that, don't think there's any reason to use it in a retro PC other than nostalgia and/or the desire of having an end-of-an-era PC (one of the best eras that AMD has had, if I might add). Under normal conditions, I …

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Re: Keep GeForce 4 to cards from dying

Posted on 2021-04-19, 06:34

by

by bloodem

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Strange... At the beginning of the thread, you mentioned that you had already tried swapping motherboards and PSUs without success.

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Re: Voodoo 3 Humour

Posted on 2021-04-18, 07:56

by

by bloodem

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Any recommendations on specific type and size Of screws I should use? I mean I could go through my "pail" lol but I could go to the store and buy some gucci screws too! ;) I would avoid modding the video card altogeher, and get one of these PCI slot dual fan brackets and mount it below the video …

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Re: Problem with using SDRAM in my Pentium MMX machine

Posted on 2021-04-14, 12:28

by

by bloodem

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

At least in my case, the 5TX52 is a 430TX motherboard (just like the 5TX29), and it still doesn't work properly with any type of SDRAM, no matter the manufacturer or chip density (tried 16 x 8 MB, 16 x 4 MB , 16 x 2 MB, 8 x 2 MB, 8 x 4 MB) --> that's MegaBytes. The motherboard officially supports …

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Re: Problem with using SDRAM in my Pentium MMX machine

Posted on 2021-04-13, 07:36

by

by bloodem

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have a board with the same issue: Acorp 5TX52. Works perfectly fine with EDO RAM, but is unstable with ANY SDRAM module I tried (and, boy, did I try A LOT of them, including various 16/32/64 MB PC100 sticks which are known to work fine on any other board). Funnily enough, I have another similar …

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Re: Voodoo 3 3000 16MB AGP

Posted on 2021-04-12, 12:39

by

by bloodem

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Technically it probably wouldn't be necessary in a case with good airflow, however these cards are so expensive nowadays that adding a fan is just sheer common sense :-) I recommend adding a two-fan case bracket under the video card instead of modding it. The PCI Voodoo 3 on the other hand …

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Re: Which Version of XP for a Tualatin 1.4 Ghz with 512MB RAM? (98 SE/XP Machine)

Posted on 2021-04-09, 20:33

by

by bloodem

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

For earlier Windows XP builds I always go with SP2 and it works great. I also compared SP2 to SP1, to see if it was worth to go with the latter, but... no, I saw no performance difference between the two (at least not with 1GB RAM or more). However, SP2 does feel more polished overall, so it gets my …

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Re: Voodoo3 underperforming?

Posted on 2021-04-09, 06:39

by

by bloodem

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

You're welcome, glad it worked for you 😀

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Re: Pros and cons of sound cards

Posted on 2021-04-08, 13:12

by

by bloodem

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Not gonna judge 😁 Enjoy it! Just be careful, this 'searching for the best sound card' rabbit hole is deep 😀

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Re: Pros and cons of sound cards

Posted on 2021-04-08, 12:43

by

by bloodem

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

So, for my needs, should I get one or two of these? Sound Blaster 16, Sound Blaster Pro, Sound Blaster Pro 2, Aztech SC400, ESS Audiodrive 1868f, Or something else? I'm gonna admit, I'd prefer to pay more for SB Pro 2, because it seems the best. :) I think you should start with ESS Audiodrive 1868f …

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Re: AMD K6-2+ 500 will only run on a 66Mhz FSB

Posted on 2021-04-08, 04:52

by

by bloodem

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It doesn’t make sense that this would be caused by capacitors. The OP said that a standard K6-2 500 OC @ 550MHz worked fine, and that CPU is definitely more power hungry, particularly when overclocked. Furthermore, he already did a MB recap :), and as for the PSU... my previous statement applies. …

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Re: Pros and cons of sound cards

Posted on 2021-04-06, 19:28

by

by bloodem

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

[...]for example MOKTAR, for some reason only PC Speaker plays) or some have issues (like Duke Nukem 2). Moktar (Titus the Fox) is speed sensitive when it comes to sound initialization. It works and runs best with a CPU speed between 386DX-40 and a 486DX-33 (so ~ 20 - 25 FPS in 3DBench 1.0c). Also, …

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Re: DMA Mode check does not stick in Windows 98SE?

Posted on 2021-04-05, 07:40

by

by bloodem

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

that's an interesting statement, but if it such a general issue backwards compatibility issue on IDE existed, wouldn't it be much more widely known as UDMA66 became a thing in 1998/99 and these drives would have been widely used on UDMA33 connectors? or did nobody bother to tick that DMA checkbox? …

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Re: DMA Mode check does not stick in Windows 98SE?

Posted on 2021-04-05, 05:32

by

by bloodem

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

No, that's not the case. Yes, the issue is clearly related to newer storage devices, but this is not the complete story. I've just had 2 days ago an Acorp 5TX29 motherboard that refused to work in DMA mode with the initial 1997 BIOS, but worked just fine (with the same HDD) after updating it to the …

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