First post, by CENTRAL
Hello everyone, it’s nice being here – first post!!!
I was recently asked to “clean” an old pc out of some relatives house, as it was only “taking up space”…
This machine was built by me some 20 years ago and then given away, to give space to a new build.
Not even remembering the details, initially my thought was to take it apart and sell anything of value.
Upon opening the case however I realized some things in there were quite special and worth the effort to bring back to life.
The mainboard was an ASUS P3B-F (the one and only) with a Katmai Pentium iii @600MHz occupying the slot 1 socket. The soundcard, memory, and GPU were much less impressive and upgrades are needed.
The case is also a wonderful midi tower ATX case with 3 x 5.25” and another 2 floppy drive bays, very well built and pretty functional for that time period. Since the computer had been neglected, the case is also worn (not damaged though in any way).
My idea as of now is to build a Windows 98 SE machine, keeping the board, processor along with 512Mb of RAM.
Thankfully I do keep some stuff around from my old pc builds and I managed to find the following pieces, so here are my thoughts:
- A Yamaha CD recorder – perfectly matching the original build’s date (1999)
- An LG DVD recorder – later piece (2003) but I think it will get a ticket for this ride
- A Creative Soundblaster Live 1024 (but maybe an 1st Gen Audigy would be better, but I need to source one)
- A Hercules 3D Prophet Geforce 3 200ti (looks beautiful but here again I think I will opt for an Nvidia FX series card)
- A Sony floppy drive (found in this build)
- An 80GB Western Digital HDD from 2007 (found in this build)
I also have some PC-133 C2 256Mb SD-RAM sticks on order.
So, if I am not missing anything here, I still miss a GPU (to be sourced) and a better sound card – music reproduction is high priority for me.
PSU consideration:
I do not intend to power up the old PSU. It has been sleeping for more than 15 years, better leave it like that…
I am quite usure if a new PSU will be a fit at all. The Case is an ATX, the mobo has a 20 pin power socket and of course there is a need to power the old CD/DVD & Floppy devices.
Given the above, would you be kind enough to give me some feedback on this build?
I am certain I will be adding to the considerations further, as there are several issues to be dealt with and my memories from this era are faint…
Thank you for any contribution!