nothing like a pair of black magic voodoo cards to make a system pretty. ^.^

jaqie wrote:

This is what I want in a DOS PC, not the best parts you can get, and it may not even be entirely period-specific, but if I was able to get this system back in the days of DOS (before 1995) I would have adored it for 5 years nonstop at least.

Those days you refer to is the "Pentium's a waste of money, just insane marketing for something that can't divide right while overheating like a bastard, buy a 486 100 it's good enough for Myst anyway" days. This kind of machine you just dug up would be early 1997 vintage, and without the MMX it'd be 1996 vintage as P200s were starting to take off toward the end of 1996.

Correct. Whoever bought this system dumped a hell of a lot of money into it. Prolly in 1997-early 98.

I also didn't just "dig it up", but got the starter pieces from the dumpster save. Half of these are things I bought or found already.

Also, in these days my own system was a brand new 486/133 AMD with 32MB in two 16MB 72 pin SIMM sticks with a 630MB seagate PIO3 HDD and a S3trio64v2/DX 4MB PCI video card. AT.

Nice looking box as is, but the two Voodoo 2 cards are wasted in there, esp for Dos Glide titles. You'd be better off with a Voodoo 1 since you are using a Pentium 1. If you cant get a Voodoo 1 though, might as well just leave the two V2 in there then though, or knock it down to one card. There is some benefit to using the Ensoniq Audiopci depending on what driver set you are using. Depending on the set, in Dos you can use Soundscape audio on games that let you select it.

Oh yeah, and you need to dust it all out 😜

I actually like the case and how big it is. Nice find!
I'd swap the AudioPCI though with something like an AWE64 which is much better suited for DOS games!

ProfessorProfessorson wrote:

Nice looking box as is, but the two Voodoo 2 cards are wasted in there, esp for Dos Glide titles. You'd be better off with a Voodoo 1 since you are using a Pentium 1.

I knew someone would come up with this.

Wikipedia wrote:

In 1998, 3dfx released Voodoo's successor, the popular Voodoo2. . . . For the price of a second Voodoo2 board, users could easily improve 3D throughout. A welcome result of SLI mode was an increase in the maximum resolution supported, now up to 1024×768. . . . The potential of the Voodoo2's SLI was limited by CPU bottlenecking.

http://www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/quickrefyr.htm#1998
Until I find myself a nice pentium pro single cpu mobo which uses SDRAM or a pentium II 400-450, I am sticking with this, as it is entirely within the realm of possibility that a gamer would have built this system and then a year later out comes the voodoo2, and get them to "game up" their system until they can afford another rather expensive new system to put them in. 1024x768 is also only available with two cards in SLI, so I am not going down to one as you suggest.

There is some benefit to using the Ensoniq Audiopci depending on what driver set you are using. Depending on the set, in Dos you can use Soundscape audio on games that let you select it.

Nah, I want an SB16 ISA jumpered. I just love those cards. I know there were better out there, but I "grew up" using and loving them for DOS. (I was already out of high school once these came out, which is why the quotes)

Oh yeah, and you need to dust it all out 😜

Definitely. I am going to wait until I get all the parts I want, and then clean every piece with rubbing alcohol. 😀

To be honest with you, most any game from 1998 on up that can benefit from the 1024x768 support isn't going to run smooth on the Pentium 1. I know this because I have personally seen similar rigs paired with two Voodoo 2 cards or a Voodoo 3 pci, and the results end up being terrible for any games designed during the Voodoo 2 era, because the Pentium 1 is such a bottle neck for those cards, let alone for those games. There was another member here that posted awhile back that ran into this issue, here is the link to his thread:
My recently pimped and now finished(?) Super7 project (with pics!)

He ended up going with a faster K6 or something. If you are fine with performance under 30 fps, then it isn't a big deal. If you are getting the performance you like, then it doesn't matter. You asked what we thought, so I am just telling you. If the box was mine, I would keep it as it is except for the Voodoo 2 cards, those would go, and I would stick a Voodoo 1 in there. Any Glide game the Pentium 1 was fast enough to handle, the Voodoo 1 was fast enough for also. Support for 1024x768 is moot if the build as a whole cant push decent fps at that res.

As far as the audio, I can understand that. I have a few SB16 ISA cards here stowed away. Actually I have like 40 different ISA soundcards sitting here in boxes 🤣. Anyway, just saying , there is a benefit to using the Ensoniq for later generation Dos titles is all, midi music, Soundscape, etc. The FM music though on that card is pretty weak due to it being emulated.

I don't really know what generation of Dos games you really intend to play with this thing, but if it was mainly games from 1995 on up, then the Ensoniq would be the better card for the job, as it would sound better for those later generation Dos games then a SB 16 would. If you need support for tons of games prior to 95 though, then yeah, I'd sacrifice audio quality on the later titles to have a more compatible card.

I guess I am at a bit of a advantage, because I am using like 7 different computers for the various generations of games, so I can afford to be a bit more picky per build, using what works best or close to per generation. Instead of trying to do one system to handle the bulk of my Dos and Win 95-98 gaming, I have three, with my main Glide box using a Voodoo 5 and Athlon XP 2400+, so things like 1024x768 resolution+fast fps become trivial subjects at that point. GLQuake is mad fast on that box.

If you really like the board you are using a lot, you could check to see if it can take a K6-2 that is faster then the Pentium Pro, or you could hit ebay for a slot-1 board and cpu combo. The combos go for under 20 bucks shipped quite often with BIN prices.

I know I asked, and I appreciate your views. Like I said, if I can find a ppro single cpu board or a p2-450 to my liking, I will def get it.

I have been working on a supermicro p3tde6 with dual tualatin 1.4 and 3gb ram to fuel my v5 5500 agp, that will run the things this one cannot. I also have a p3 1ghz coppermine with intel retail board, but I really don't wanna put the v2 pair in something quite that new. Also, I was hoping the VX's 512KB L2 and 7-1-1-1 timing on PC66 SDram would help performance on the games a good bit.

As for games I want on this... DOS Quake and maybe maybe ut99 would be the hardest on the system I would even try on this machine.

This mobo can take nothing beyond 200MHz without using undocumented settings, which I have been unable to find to date, sadly. I was really hoping to OC it via multi to 233MHz.

I do remember that some k6-2 and k6-3 models had a hidden feature: running them in 1x made them run in 4x or something... that's all I remember offhand though. I might even find an overdrive for this mobo, not sure.

Dos Quake would be ok, but UT 99 is gonna be meh on a Pentium 1. As far as the dual cpu Voodoo 5 config goes, the official Windows 2000 drivers for the Voodoo 5 are not as solid as the Win 9x ones are, but dual cpu is moot for Win 9x. And there is a decent amount of Direct X 6 and prior games that wont run in Win 2k well or at all. This prob wont be a issue for you if you are using a 3rd party driver in XP or something. I don't bother with that stuff though so I cant comment as to how well the 3rd party drivers work.

EDIT: Here is my Voodoo 5 rig:
Professor Professorson's AMD 3DFX Voodoo 5 5500 rig

I will most definitely be running dualboot xp sp3 and 95/98 on the v5 SMP system. Here are the most current pics I have of it:
http://foxtecha.com/pics/comps/phobos/

I played Quake 2 on Pentium MMX 233 with a Voodoo 3 3000 a couple of months ago at 1024x768. It was almost as smooth as it could get, Unreal Tournament would also churn out something like 40 fps at 800x600 which I think is pretty nice. You'll definitely see an improvement by replacing a Voodoo 1 with a Voodoo 2 and then you get 1024x768 with 2 of them. The benefits are even more if you get a faster CPU, but it's ok with a Pentium 1 for the most part (and hey, yours is not just any pentium 1, it's an MMX 200 😉 )
I used to run Voodoo 2 SLI on a Pentium 2 233 and wondering why Soldier of Fortune got a bit laggy at 1024x768. A few months later I got a Pentium 3 500 system and it was lagless 😜

F2bnp wrote:

I played Quake 2 on Pentium MMX 233 with a Voodoo 3 3000 a couple of months ago at 1024x768. It was almost as smooth as it could get, Unreal Tournament would also churn out something like 40 fps at 800x600 which I think is pretty nice.

Dont wanna sound like a dick, but ummm yeah, maybe if you were standing still and nothing was going on, otherwise, no, not really...... UT 99 couldn't break 60 fps with a Voodoo 5 and a Pentium 3 as is @ 800x600, so no, you didn't get a a constant 40 fps. There is a couple youtube vids up showing how bad UT99 runs on a 233, and its pretty bad. Quake 2 doesn't really break past 35 fps easily on a Pentium 233, and it really gets sluggish during the explosions and heavy attack areas, but does run far better then UT does.

UT 99 on Voodoo 5 and Pentium 3:

Quake 2 Voodoo 2 CPU test:

whoa. just browsing ebay since I can't sleep, and I found the motherboard I *WANT* for the pair of v2s.
http://active-hardware.com/english/reviews/ma … oard/ga6bxe.htm

I have a similar board, the GA-6BXC.

Seems that's the 3 dimm slot version. I really like the idea of having 1GB ram in mine, and I love gigabyte motherboards!

Yea these boards are awesome. In general from Super Socket 7 onward documentation and getting all the BIOS files, manuals and drivers is awesome. Gigabyte or Asus still have all the downloads on their websites 😀

ProfessorProfessorson wrote:

F2bnp wrote:

I played Quake 2 on Pentium MMX 233 with a Voodoo 3 3000 a couple of months ago at 1024x768. It was almost as smooth as it could get, Unreal Tournament would also churn out something like 40 fps at 800x600 which I think is pretty nice.

...talk and pics...

You may be right. I never timedemo'ed anything, I consider 30-35 fps to be very playable (especially when it's constant). Quake 2 seemed to run really nice though, definitely thought it was close to 60fps with a Voodoo 3. Might try it again sometime 😀

jaqie wrote:

whoa. just browsing ebay since I can't sleep, and I found the motherboard I *WANT* for the pair of v2s.
http://active-hardware.com/english/reviews/ma … oard/ga6bxe.htm

A challenger appears!!!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/251000014064

The p3b-f is THE QUINTESSENTIAL 440BX motherboard. I owned one "in the day" and it literally is the pillar of stability and features. I ran a p2-450 @ 600 all day long. (4.5x133) it would post and *almost* get to windows before the processor overheated @ 150fsb (675)

BY DEFAULT it runs the ram at 3.5V and has the option for up to 3.9 if memory serves me. It will even let you over-volt the cpu up to 1V by like .1 steps in the bios. according to the website, that gigabyte board doesn't do that.

Not interested in overclocking this system.