First post, by sgt76
- Rank
- Oldbie
So this is one of a long line of Pentium III rigs I've built and owned over the years. This ones called "Dark Mistress III" as its had two iterations before and in homage to Dungeon Keeper II, one of the best games of the 90s. This build is very similar to the Pentium II I posted earlier (SGT76's 1998 Pentium II build) - I like to think of them as sister systems. Only a year separates them, that system being from 1998 and this one from 1999. Between the years, there's only a very gradual evolution in terms of parts and performance- still Slot 1, BX, SD-RAM, Voodoos and Sound Blasters. The big jump came in 2000, but that's a story for a different time.
Asus' iconic P3B-F motherboard forms the basis of this build, paired with a Katmai 450mhz SL35D cpu and 256mb of Micron PC133 ram. This setup can run 133mhz stable but this is dependent on the video card used, and this particular Voodoo 3 2000 refuses to let the system go any higher than 124mhz fsb. Still, at 558mhz, it's range topping performance for 1999 and quite sufficient indeed. I'd just like to note that this is a rev 1.03 motherboard with the correct voltage regulator for Coppermine chips and I've tested this board with the 1000EB. However, I'd just like to keep things period correct here, so the slow Katmai stays in.
The case is an Enlight 7237 that was going to get tossed out by a local pc shop. It was in rough shape when I got it, but I think it looks quite nice now with a good clean and some modifications to remove some of the broken trim. A lot of epoxy and hotglue works wonders too! The optical drives are an HP DVD and an Aopen CD-RW with a Sony floppy drive.
Inside, there's the aforementioned 3dfx Voodoo 3 2000, a Sound Blaster Live and an SMC ethernet card. The HDD is a new laptop Toshiba 40gb which is plenty fast for the ATA33 interface. The whole lot is powered by a refurbished Enlight 250w psu.
An Evercool double slot PCI blower is used to suck hot air from the Voodoo 3 for peace of mind. There's also an 80mm fan mounted at the front of the case.
CPU cooled with a Cooler Master slot 1 aluminum heatsink.
This PC runs (what else?) Windows 98SE with the unofficial SP2.1 pack. It is extremely stable and plays everything from the Glide era well. I will try to put up some benchmarks (3dmark 99 and 2000, superpi, quake 2, etc) for this as well as the Pentium II when I have some more time.
Thanks for viewing.
