I got a spare PIII 800EB, but I have no money to mail it at the moment (literally totally broke). Gimme a PM if you're interested though.

Nice looking board. Out of curiosity, are you planning to do anything with the AGP Pro capabilities?

obobskivich wrote:

Nice looking board. Out of curiosity, are you planning to do anything with the AGP Pro capabilities?

Hello! I have a Sparkle Nvidia 6800GT Titanium in the drawer... do you think it is too powerful for the configuration? Certainly in terms of energy is more thirsty than other cards. If I'm not mistaken the 6xxx series is the latest supported by Win9x, I have to do some testing with Win2k.

6800GT is probably a little bit overkill for a P3, but if you've already got it, why not use it? I've heard the same about 6800 + Win98; never personally tested it. Would assume it works though (I've never known nVidia drivers to be all that bad). Power wise I don't think it'll likely be too huge a problem as long as you have a big-ish PSU with decent +12V current, which I'm assuming you do/will with an SMP system.

I was going to note about 1.5V AGP compatibility but it seems like your motherboard does provide it.

obobskivich wrote:

6800GT is probably a little bit overkill for a P3, but if you've already got it, why not use it? I've heard the same about 6800 + Win98; never personally tested it. Would assume it works though (I've never known nVidia drivers to be all that bad). Power wise I don't think it'll likely be too huge a problem as long as you have a big-ish PSU with decent +12V current, which I'm assuming you do/will with an SMP system.

I confess that the power supply is not that big thing, it is the one I found inside the case itself - no-brand:

I arrived at the following configuration, after the arrival of a fantastic SCSI subsystem (which at the time I always dreamed of... but that I never could afford to buy):

ASUS CUV4X-D
2x Intel Pentium III 800EB
2x 128MB PC133 ECC RAM
Matrox G400 32MB AGP
3DFX Voodoo II 8MB
SCSI Adaptec AHA-2940UW
Creative SoundBlaster Live! with Drive II
Plextor UltraPleX PX-40TS SCSI CD-ROM
Plextor PlexWriter 8/2/20 SCSI CD-RW
IDE Hard-Disk 300GB

OS: Windows 2000 (for now)

I bet that maybe there is also a version "S" with integrated SCSI, a bit like the version of the P2B-DS by ASUS.

Do you think I can afford to let Win2k stay alone, for my retrogaming needs? Or I would be forced to make too many compromises with many games? I remember that Grand Prix Legends on NTFS gave problems, but I hope there are not many titles of this kind - at this moment I'm installing the drivers for the various devices, I hope to have no problems with Matrox, Voodoo and SoundBlaster. The system however seems reactive, and Win2k is very light and stable as OS, on this type of retrocomputers. Maybe, in the future, other two banks 2x 128 ECC RAM will be installed together with those present.

Nice build, but I wouldn't trust an Allied PSU on that hardware. Or any hardware.

m1919 wrote:

Nice build, but I wouldn't trust an Allied PSU on that hardware. Or any hardware.

For now it seems ok, but I do not want to cry in the future over the poor remains of this pc up in smoke!

What PSU would you advise me? Is 400w enough to give enough power to everything? I'm waiting for 2x Voodoo Dragon II in SLI to mount in the place of the Voodoo II 8MB I have assembled - the power supply you have in your signature would be fine?

A modern (as in brand new) and high-quality, 400-600W unit should be more than enough for anything you'd want to install in this machine (including the 6800GT). I'd look at models from Enermax, Antec, PC Power & Cooling, or Seasonic/Corsair. I've heard good things about some of the XFX and EVGA models as well, but have never tried them out myself.

On the operating system - any reason you can't just create a FAT32 partition for games that don't like being installed on NTFS? Otherwise the only thing I could think of would be games that won't work on NT itself (e.g. they require DOS), but for this era of machine that's probably not a big problem (that is, I wouldn't expect a computer this powerful to be tasked with games from the 1980s).

Looks very neatly built by the way - I dig the old-school Plextor drives and complete Live! setup.

obobskivich wrote:

A modern (as in brand new) and high-quality, 400-600W unit should be more than enough for anything you'd want to install in this machine (including the 6800GT). I'd look at models from Enermax, Antec, PC Power & Cooling, or Seasonic/Corsair. I've heard good things about some of the XFX and EVGA models as well, but have never tried them out myself.

On the operating system - any reason you can't just create a FAT32 partition for games that don't like being installed on NTFS? Otherwise the only thing I could think of would be games that won't work on NT itself (e.g. they require DOS), but for this era of machine that's probably not a big problem (that is, I wouldn't expect a computer this powerful to be tasked with games from the 1980s).

Looks very neatly built by the way - I dig the old-school Plextor drives and complete Live! setup.

You are very kind, and I am glad you like the setup - I discarded the 6800 GT, it is too out parameter for the type of PC that I wanted to assemble. I'll wait for the 2 Voodoo II + 1GB ECC RAM and I will change the power supply - I had not thought of installing W2k on FAT32, I did not want to distort the nature of this system, as NTFS is more stable - for games that do not bear NT, if it is just those related to the DOS, I have another PC specifically designed though perhaps too powerful (PIII 450 + 64MB PC100 + S3 Trio 3D/2X Voodoo + I) with FreeDOS as an OS - for now, not one compatibility problem with this one <3

Arrived today the pair of Dragon Voodoo II 12MB, along with two SLI cables still sealed - they will replace the single Voodoo II 8MB currently mounted:

Finally SLI configuration ready:

Cards look great, bet the performance boost is also nice too! 😎

obobskivich wrote:

Cards look great, bet the performance boost is also nice too! 😎

Thanks, testing in progress 😉

Just arrived 2x 512MB PC133 ECC REG Infineon to upgrade this build:

I'm liking this build the more it comes along. "Server" class components are a different class of sexy, and I've always liked the idea of duel CPU/duel Voodoo 2 card system. matching cards WITH the sli cable, very sexy indeed!

chinny22 wrote:

I'm liking this build the more it comes along. "Server" class components are a different class of sexy, and I've always liked the idea of duel CPU/duel Voodoo 2 card system. matching cards WITH the sli cable, very sexy indeed!

Thanks a lot! 😀

3DMark2001 SE testing:

Matrox G400 @Windows 98:

Matrox G400 @Windows 2000:

Voodoo Dragon II SLI @Windows 98:

3DMark99 MAX testing:

Matrox G400 @Windows 98:

Voodoo Dragon II SLI @Windows 98:

SuperPI testing:

1M @Windows 2000:

Some updates: I've finally chosen and mounted the new power supply: Corsair CX 430 - I moved all the components in to a new modded case that my cousin gave me: I spent the whole evening to arrange and sort everything into the new case! Aside from the plexiglass window and colorful fans, I find useful the integrated mini lcd with temperature sensors (SYS + CPU + HDD but I positioned this last sensor on the second processor) and 3x fan speed sensors:

Looks very nice in the new case!