VOGONS


First post, by Intel486dx33

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I have been working on this build for about a year slowly gathering up parts in my free time.
It an AMD K6-3+ @ 450mhz over clocked to 500mhz.
Ultimate retro DOS gaming computer build.
Performs well and is very stable.
Running Windows 98se. with updates and USB patches.
Motherboard make date September 23, 1998.

Specs:
Case - Lian Li Aluminum desktop case. ( PC-V800 ).
Motherboard - Baby AT , Soyo SY-5EHM ver 1.1 ( Super Socket 7 ).
http://www.motherboards.org/files/manuals/107/m5eh20.pdf
Chipset - VIA ( A.K.A.-ETEQ82C663 ).
Cache - 512kb.
CPU- AMD K6-3+ @ 450mhz over clocked to 500mhz. ( 5x100mhz. ), ( Using stock 2.0v )
Memory - 256mb. ( PC-133 ).
Graphics - Voodoo-3-3000 AGP.
Audio - Sound Blaster Live
Network - Digital chipset. 10/100mb. ( PCI ).
Hard-drive - Seagate 72,000rpm 80gb.
Fan Controller - Cooler Master drive-4
PSU - ATX 400 watt.
DVD
USB

Motherboard jumper settings:
100mhz x 5
Voltage - 2.2v

Software:
Windows 98se, SP3, USB patch, I.E.5.5 , AMD K6 CPU Patch.

Last edited by Intel486dx33 on 2022-12-20, 01:36. Edited 28 times in total.

Reply 1 of 43, by Intel486dx33

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More photos:

Reply 2 of 43, by Intel486dx33

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Reply 3 of 43, by Intel486dx33

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Reply 4 of 43, by Intel486dx33

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Benchmarks:

3dBench = 365
Speedsys = 2676471 ( twice the speed of a Pentium 200mhz. ).

Last edited by Intel486dx33 on 2022-12-20, 01:20. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 5 of 43, by appiah4

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Very nice PC. I hope I also get lucky and stumble across a cheap K6-2+ or K6-3 some day, the 64MB cacheable RAM barrier on my 430TX/K6-2_400/Win98 PC really bugs me 😒

Reply 6 of 43, by Intel486dx33

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DOOM game test results.

Gametics - 2134 , Realtics - 594

Last edited by Intel486dx33 on 2019-03-22, 14:41. Edited 4 times in total.

Reply 7 of 43, by pshipkov

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Can you comment on your intention to switch to Voodoo ?

I never had good experience with VIA chipsets.
Wonder if you have some observations that you can share ?

In general, what do you think about K5 CPUs compared to their counterparts at the time ?

Good stuff.

retro bits and bytes

Reply 8 of 43, by Intel486dx33

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pshipkov wrote:
Can you comment on your intention to switch to Voodoo ? […]
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Can you comment on your intention to switch to Voodoo ?

I never had good experience with VIA chipsets.
Wonder if you have some observations that you can share ?

In general, what do you think about K5 CPUs compared to their counterparts at the time ?

Good stuff.

I just read that voodoo games can play in win98. And the voodoo card works normal vga in dos.
I never really had any luck with AMD CPU’s back in 1990’s So I always used Intel.
But I must have been doing it wrong because they work fine with the right hardware.
Intel is my CPU of choice however.
I just read that the AMD CPU’s work best with VIA chipset and for gaming in DOS / Win98.
I do think Intel based computers are more stable and reliable from my experience.
However as of today I have not had any problems with these AMD CPU’s.

Reply 9 of 43, by miki90

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Hey. That's a tremendous build you have going on. I have something similar. The CPU is actually a K6-III+ rather than a K6-III. Much better at overclocking and no issues with caching RAM. Keep us posted on this great build!

Reply 10 of 43, by Intel486dx33

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miki90 wrote:

Hey. That's a tremendous build you have going on. I have something similar. The CPU is actually a K6-III+ rather than a K6-III. Much better at overclocking and no issues with caching RAM. Keep us posted on this great build!

Oh, It is a K6-3+ 450.
I only wish I knew how to set the motherboard jumpers for 550mhz.
But 500mhz. will have to do for now.

Reply 11 of 43, by pshipkov

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I don't remember them suffering from low reliability, but they were not great at floating point calculations - 3d rendering, cad/cam, etc.

retro bits and bytes

Reply 12 of 43, by Intel486dx33

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I ordered a 60mm x 20mm cooling fan for the Voodoo-3 that I want to attach before I install the Voodoo-3 card.
These cards run very hot and the heat is a BIG cause of these cards failing. GPU and RAM Solder joints tend to break from over heating.

Philscomputerlab has video about this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivxoCzEl9y8

Reply 13 of 43, by meljor

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Intel486dx33 wrote:
Oh, It is a K6-3+ 450. I only wish I knew how to set the motherboard jumpers for 550mhz. But 500mhz. will have to do for now. […]
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miki90 wrote:

Hey. That's a tremendous build you have going on. I have something similar. The CPU is actually a K6-III+ rather than a K6-III. Much better at overclocking and no issues with caching RAM. Keep us posted on this great build!

Oh, It is a K6-3+ 450.
I only wish I knew how to set the motherboard jumpers for 550mhz.
But 500mhz. will have to do for now.

You can however try 600mhz: the 2x multi is seen as 6x with the amd k6-2/k6-3(+) cpus. Also with software you can change multiplier (only with + cpu) so that way you can still get to 5,5x.

asus tx97-e, 233mmx, voodoo1, s3 virge ,sb16
asus p5a, k6-3+ @ 550mhz, voodoo2 12mb sli, gf2 gts, awe32
asus p3b-f, p3-700, voodoo3 3500TV agp, awe64
asus tusl2-c, p3-S 1,4ghz, voodoo5 5500, live!
asus a7n8x DL, barton cpu, 6800ultra, Voodoo3 pci, audigy1

Reply 15 of 43, by cyclone3d

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Intel486dx33 wrote:
I ordered a 60mm x 20mm cooling fan for the Voodoo-3 that I want to attach before I install the Voodoo-3 card. These cards run v […]
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I ordered a 60mm x 20mm cooling fan for the Voodoo-3 that I want to attach before I install the Voodoo-3 card.
These cards run very hot and the heat is a BIG cause of these cards failing. GPU and RAM Solder joints tend to break from over heating.

Philscomputerlab has video about this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivxoCzEl9y8

Make sure to replace the ancient heatsink compound as well.

Yamaha modified setupds and drivers
Yamaha XG repository
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Reply 16 of 43, by Intel486dx33

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cyclone3d wrote:
Intel486dx33 wrote:
I ordered a 60mm x 20mm cooling fan for the Voodoo-3 that I want to attach before I install the Voodoo-3 card. These cards run v […]
Show full quote

I ordered a 60mm x 20mm cooling fan for the Voodoo-3 that I want to attach before I install the Voodoo-3 card.
These cards run very hot and the heat is a BIG cause of these cards failing. GPU and RAM Solder joints tend to break from over heating.

Philscomputerlab has video about this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivxoCzEl9y8

Make sure to replace the ancient heatsink compound as well.

Actually, The Voodoo-3 card I have has the heatsink glued on and there is no way to remove it unless I try to pry it off and I don't want to attempt that because
I don't want to break the GPU solder ball welds. This is a BIG reason for these GPU's failing is from broken solder ball welds.
So I am just going to attach the fan with plastic ties. Hopefully this should hold well.
The fan is just going to sit on top of the original heatsink. Should provide more than enough cooling.

Something like this photo:

Reply 17 of 43, by melbar

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Intel486dx33 wrote:

These cards run very hot and the heat is a BIG cause of these cards failing. GPU and RAM Solder joints tend to break from over heating.

Do you know how is the difference from your V3 to a TNT2? (in terms of the heat?)

Actually i have installed a Riva128 (has no heatsick) on my super-socket 7, but maybe i will turn back to a Riva TNT2 which is cooled by a heatsink without any fan.
Do you know temperatures?
Would you propose this mod to the Voodoo2's ?

#1 K6-2/500, #2 Athlon1200, #3 Celeron1000A, #4 A64-3700, #5 P4HT-3200, #6 P4-2800, #7 Am486DX2-66

Reply 18 of 43, by Intel486dx33

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melbar wrote:
Do you know how is the difference from your V3 to a TNT2? (in terms of the heat?) […]
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Intel486dx33 wrote:

These cards run very hot and the heat is a BIG cause of these cards failing. GPU and RAM Solder joints tend to break from over heating.

Do you know how is the difference from your V3 to a TNT2? (in terms of the heat?)

Actually i have installed a Riva128 (has no heatsick) on my super-socket 7, but maybe i will turn back to a Riva TNT2 which is cooled by a heatsink without any fan.
Do you know temperatures?
Would you propose this mod to the Voodoo2's ?

Well, i have several V3 cards that have failed because of over heating and bad manufacturing process.
Solder welds have broken because of over heating in the GPU chip and ram chips.
They need complete rebuilds which means reballing the GPU and resoldering the ram chips.
I know it was from over heating because I can see the heat burn marks.

Reply 19 of 43, by Intel486dx33

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I received the 60mm x 60mm x 20mm fans and attached them to the Voodoo-3-3000 with thin wire that I purchased at the dollar store.
I did not want to screw the fan into the heatsink because I did not want to put tension on the heatsink as the heatsink is glued to the GPU
and the GPU is solder ball welded to the PCB.
and solder ball weld breaks are a major part of the failures in these video cards. Screwing the fan into the heatsink would have resulted in more weight
for the solder ball welds to compensate for.
I am going to add it to the computer now.
I also have a fan speed controller.

fan speed controller
https://www.ebay.com/itm/3-Channel-Computer-P … qMAAOSwO~JcrFkb
and
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Small-12V-Motor-3-Pi … e19dbdeb570fa45

60mm x60mm x20mm fan
https://www.ebay.com/itm/12V-60mm-x-20mm-Cool … M4AAOSwD4Rci2VL

Last edited by Intel486dx33 on 2019-05-07, 21:37. Edited 6 times in total.