NJRoadfan wrote:

That power supply isn't original to that case, which is an Antec KS-288 Valueline.

http://www.antec.com/pdf/manuals/288.pdf

Yes, I know. It actually belongs to the previous ATX case I was using (If you look carefully at the older pics, you will see that it is the same one).

When I got the Antec case, it didn't have a power supply, case fans, slot covers, motherboard standoffs, screws, or spacers. Even the big thumb screw that holds the top and side panels secure was missing, so I told my sister to give me a call if she ever found them. A few months later she called me back; she had found a big Zip Lock bag with the missing items - no power supply though. So I simply removed the power supply from the old case and installed it in the Antec case. I did get a 300-watt Enermax unit that belonged to an old college buddy that didn't want it anymore; I still have to clean and inspect it to make sure it's sound and safe to use.

bjt wrote:

Nice one. Might want to consider a S3 Trio instead of the Matrox if you have any issues with DOS games.

No major issues or problems so far; only Bio Menace had the jittery video issue, solved by using the SVGA Compatibility switch.

I happen to be in the middle of building a system around the TX97-XE myself right now, do you happen to know if the board will accept 20GB harddrives without the need for a BIOS flash?
And will the system really be much slower if more then 64MB of RAM is used? (I'm contemplating of putting 128MB in mine).

Tetrium wrote:

do you happen to know if the board will accept 20GB harddrives without the need for a BIOS flash?

Only if you have BIOS versions 0111 or 0112.001. Earlier versions, probably not (I know version 0107 hangs at the initial boot screen).

Tetrium wrote:

And will the system really be much slower if more then 64MB of RAM is used? (I'm contemplating of putting 128MB in mine)

I really don't know, since I've never installed more than 64MB on mine. However, I've read that overall performance drops between 10 to 30% if you go over. Probably something to consider, unless you really need the extra RAM.

JayCeeBee64 wrote:

Only if you have BIOS versions 0111 or 0112.001. Earlier versions, probably not (I know version 0107 hangs at the initial boot s […]
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Tetrium wrote:

do you happen to know if the board will accept 20GB harddrives without the need for a BIOS flash?

Only if you have BIOS versions 0111 or 0112.001. Earlier versions, probably not (I know version 0107 hangs at the initial boot screen).

Tetrium wrote:

And will the system really be much slower if more then 64MB of RAM is used? (I'm contemplating of putting 128MB in mine)

I really don't know, since I've never installed more than 64MB on mine. However, I've read that overall performance drops between 10 to 30% if you go over. Probably something to consider, unless you really need the extra RAM.

Cheers! 😁
I think I'll just try 128MB out and see how it works.

Time to post some more pics; actually, a lot more!

First, a couple of the new CPU cooler:

Next, the Matrox Millennium II and Voodoo 2 12MB:

Next, the Sound Blaster Pro 2 and Yamaha SW60XG:

Next, the GUS ACE:

Incredibly, I found the GUS ACE retail box with all of the original contents:

Finally, some pics of my second Voodoo 2 12MB (still unused in its original retail box):

Enjoy 😀 !

Finally replaced the 10-year-old plus generic power supply with a new StarTech 300-watt unit (one of the very few that has a -5V line for ISA expansion cards that need it). It's been about a month, and so far everything works just like before.

I also noticed the Fujitsu hard drive getting low in free space available, so I decided to replace it with a larger hard drive (one of my favorite hardware upgrades 😀 ). After disconnecting cables and removing 2 screws, the drive cage came loose; 4 more screws and the hard drives came out of the cage.

The Fujitsu's replacement is a Western Digital Caviar 4.31Gb hard drive.

After mounting both the Fujitsu and WD drives in the cage, placing the cage back inside the case and reconnecting all cables, I began the hard drive cloning process. The software I used is PowerQuest Drive Copy 3.

The cloning process was quick and very painless; it took only about 12 minutes from start to finish. The partitions were also resized to show the new amount of free space available.

After powering off, disconnecting cables and removing screws and the cage again, I began mounting both the WD and Seagate drives in their final positions inside the cage.

Now it's time to mount the drive cage back inside the case, reinsert the 2 screws and reconnect the cables.

Powered the rig back up, and the WD hard drive was recognized instantly; both Windows 95a and DOS 6.2 boot up as if nothing happened 😁 . Now I have about 500Mb more space available in both C and D partitions to do as I see fit 😎 .

I will also update my first post to reflect the changes that I have done so far.

I once remember back when I had only my Pentium 2, I was running out of disk space on my C partition (but then again, who wasn't running out of disk space in that time 🤣 ). So I used Partition Magic I think and enlarged the C partition by 500MB. Took several hours, but in the end it seemed to work fine! 😁

JayCeeBee64 wrote:

Since it's been well over a year by now

Remember when you said the finish line had appeared? 😁

Tetrium wrote:

I once remember back when I had only my Pentium 2, I was running out of disk space on my C partition (but then again, who wasn't running out of disk space in that time 🤣 ). So I used Partition Magic I think and enlarged the C partition by 500MB. Took several hours, but in the end it seemed to work fine! 😁

Oh, I've done that exact same trick with Partition Magic many, many times Tetrium (I've also ruined at least a couple of hard drives that way, but then that's how you learn - from your mistakes 😅 ). I works for a while, but then reality sets in and you have no other recourse but to get a bigger drive (or find a real magician - whichever is cheapest 🤣 ).

Jorpho wrote:

JayCeeBee64 wrote:

Since it's been well over a year by now

Remember when you said the finish line had appeared? 😁

Yup, that's what I said Jorpho; it's just that the darn line keeps moving away from me constantly (especially since I found and unexpected source of old computer goodies - my sister's husband 😁 ). And now that I'm raiding my boxes of old hardware parts (which I left neglected for many years), that finish line is moving farther away from me again. I will get a handle on it someday though - and declare my long-running retro project finished 😈 (I know, I know, famous last words...... 🤣 ).

After 3 months of overall testing and trying out some additional hardware & software, I'm confident to say that my Socket 7 retro-gaming rig is finally done. Works great, and shows no signs of any hidden problems or issues. Of course it's not period-correct or a speed demon, but I didn't built it with that in mind; all I wanted was a workhorse that would simply start, boot up the proper OS environment, and perform the tasks needed over and over again - in short: stability, reliability, and dependability.

Now for some more pics 😁 . Here is some of the PC hardware that didn't make it to the final build (nothing wrong with them, just didn't quite satisfy my needs):

Here is my current memory configuration in DOS 6.2 and a listing of installed DOS games (Windows games are in a separate directory in C):

Here are a few Windows and DOS games running:

Now some VOGONS members may be asking themselves "why use an LED widescreen monitor instead of a proper 4:3 CRT ?". The answers to that question are: 1 - I don't have a CRT monitor anymore (my last one winked out in 2010). 2 - I'm confined to do all of my retro-gaming in my 24 x 24 sq ft bedroom (my relatives will not allow me to do this anywhere else in the house, and moving out to an apartment is out of the question - I just don't have the resources to do it 😐 ). This bedroom is so small it might as well be a large office cubicle (no room available for a bulky, heavy CRT monitor anywhere) - and that means only one computer can be up and running most of the time:

The pic on the left is how my computer desk looks like ordinarily. The pic on the right is how it looks when I'm retro-gaming with my Socket 7 build (I do the same thing when I want to use my Pentium 4 build). The only time this changes is when I want to make audio recordings:

As everyone can see, it's no pretty, it's not ideal, it's not even safe 😲 . But it works, as long as I'm very careful and watch where I move and step into all the time 😅 .

Despite all this, it has been a great experience overall and I have finally reached my goal - and crossed the finish line as well. Now the only thing left is to enjoy my retro-gaming build to the fullest, and (with periodic maintenance and care) hope that it lasts for a very long time 😎 .

Really nice build, great work!

I've got a very similar system, has a Sound Blaster 32 and a Matrox Millennium 1 8mb instead.

Having a motherboard that takes ATX is useful 😀

Just an addendum for some minor changes since my last post.

About a year ago I saw at a local garage sale what the seller claimed was a rare, early TNT AGP video card. Upon closer inspection I determined it was actually a Creative Labs Graphics Blaster Riva TNT 16mb PCI card with original driver CD, manual and 2 bundled games:

After a bit of haggling I got the TNT package for very cheap; the seller also threw in a TNT2 M64 32mb PCI card as a freebie 😁 :

Two months after that I saw a Diamond Monster 3D 4mb (3dfx Voodoo 1) for sale on eBay; since I was planning a Voodoo 2 SLI setup I grabbed it to replace the 3dfx Voodoo 2 1000 12mb that I was going to use for my SLI build:

After a lengthy test period I saw that the Riva TNT 16mb PCI was far more compatible with DOS games than the Matrox Millennium II 4MB PCI it replaced, with minimal losses in overall display quality and performance; in the end I kept the TNT and binned the Matrox Millennium. The Monster 3D worked great and was also a keeper. The TNT2 M64 was about the same as the TNT and is in the parts bin as a spare.

With these changes done, my DOS/early Win95 gaming PC is now truly complete:

I also added an Intel Pentium MMX and 3dfx case badges as a final touch 😊 :

For those who are curious I got 3DMark99 benchmarks for both the TNT and Monster 3D here and here. I did not bench the TNT2 and won't run any other benchmarks on this PC; all I wanted was a video card that was very compatible with DOS games and had desktop image quality and performance close to the Matrox Millennium II - the TNT delivers on both IMO (and please don't bother mentioning S3 video cards, I'm not interested in them at all 😐 ).

Now to continue enjoying all of my favorite retro games with a big smile on my face 😀 😁 😊

P.S.: To all the 3dfx haters - Stick it where the Sun don't shine! And keep it there for as long as you hate 😜 😏

Nice system! Admire your restraint in not going straight for the 233MMX. 166 will be plenty I imagine.
Hearing you on the NVidia card for 2D. Really good VESA support and great image quality. All the S3 cards I tried, with the exception of the terminally buggy Savage 4, had crap image quality.

There are a few games that don't play nice with a non-S3 card, but nothing major. Terminator Future Shock in hi-res is one.

Nice lil box ya got there.
Did you happen to try PC66 Sdram in the memory slots? I saw you tried pc100. Just curious as I didn't see any posts about it.

bjt wrote:

Nice system! Admire your restraint in not going straight for the 233MMX. 166 will be plenty I imagine.

The P166MMX is more than enough for what I had planned from the beginning. I did try a P233MMX at one time; the PC was snappier for sure, but I also encountered issues with some DOS games and software - the well known Borland Runtime Error 200 being the most common. And even though I know how to fix them, I chose to go back with the P166MMX (it's just more compatible IMO ^^).

Hearing you on the NVidia card for 2D. Really good VESA support and great image quality. All the S3 cards I tried, with the exception of the terminally buggy Savage 4, had crap image quality.
There are a few games that don't play nice with a non-S3 card, but nothing major. Terminator Future Shock in hi-res is one.

That's the bottom line for me. My Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 (S3 Virge 325) is a really good DOS video card (I won't deny that), but it had atrocious image quality with CRT monitors - and LCD/LED widescreens only make it worse 😵 . I'll willingly sacrifice some DOS compatibility for greatly improved desktop image quality, it's worth it ^^.

Bullmecha wrote:

Nice lil box ya got there.
Did you happen to try PC66 Sdram in the memory slots? I saw you tried pc100. Just curious as I didn't see any posts about it.

I couldn't track down any PC66 SDRAM DIMMS I could borrow to test them so I haven't tried any; I did borrow some PC100 DIMMS that worked with the TX97-XE (a 64mb and 128mb sticks), but memory performance was about the same (and the 128mb DIMM actually slowed the PC down a bit) so I gave them back. I'll just stay with EDO RAM, it suits the ASUS board perfectly IMO 😎

bjt wrote:

Nice system! Admire your restraint in not going straight for the 233MMX. 166 will be plenty I imagine.
Hearing you on the NVidia card for 2D. Really good VESA support and great image quality. All the S3 cards I tried, with the exception of the terminally buggy Savage 4, had crap image quality.

There are a few games that don't play nice with a non-S3 card, but nothing major. Terminator Future Shock in hi-res is one.

What issue are you seeing with the Savage 4? It's working quite well for me, although I've never even heard of Terminator Future Shock, and it doesn't support the Virge compliant games.

I wanted the S3 as it works well with Commander Keen, but this point is a little moot because I'll also be able to run that on my 486 based retro box, and so far running it in DOSBox I can't tell the difference.

In order to better concentrate on my current Slot 1 build (and continue plans to bring another project back from limbo), I'm closing my Socket 7 project for good. Everything works great and nothing else needs to be done. This has been one of my longest retro PC builds and I'm glad to see that I finally accomplished everything I wanted (and then some); couldn't be happier with the results 😀

As a final touch, here are pics of the motherboard box, manual and support CD:

I also scanned the original sales invoice for the TX97-XE, dated October 12, 2001 (personal info erased, of course 😊 ):

Yes, I did pay that much for it back then - and it's been worth every penny. The fact that the board is still all original makes it even better 8-]

Now to continue pursuing my other projects. Two down, two more to go.....