First post, by jheronimus
- Rank
- Oldbie
Hi, all
A while ago I realised that I just had a bunch of late 90s parts that I can't use in any of my builds: AGP videocards, PCI soundcards, Slot 1 CPUs, etc. Besides, Slot 1 has some special significance for me: my first computer was an 486, but a PC that defined me as a gamer was a PII. So, basically, I could build a Slot 1 system, but I did not have a motherboard. Besides, I already have some AT cases, PSUs and keyboards. Which is why I'd really like to stay within this form factor.
Enter Asus P2B-B
This motherboard is a bit of a mixed bag:
+ it's based on 440BX. A lot of AT Slot 1 motherboards are based on 440LX and VIA chipsets
+ it's extremely well documented
+ it's made by a big-name vendor
- this one is an early 1.01 revision that does not support all Coppermine chips
- as you can see, it's really cramped. Asus also had to cut down on some features: there are only three PCI slots and three DIMM slots
- it's Asus, so it doesn't have standard PS/2 and USB headers. Instead of that it uses an optional MIR connector that combined PS/2, IRDA and USB with a single 18pin connector. And the worst thing is, Asus considered this thing an option. I have another board that uses MIR (Asus TX97E) and I'm yet to see this thing for sale.
The good news is that my vendor also sold me this DIY connector:
Next, the CPUs. I have four Slot 1 processors:
- Pentium II 300;
- Pentium II 400;
- Pentium III 600EB;
- Pentium III 733.
Before we go any further, bear in mind that this is my first Slot 1 system. Many things are different from late Socket 7 builds I'm used to, which is why I got more than my share of surprises with this build.
First, I tried this motherboard with a PIII-733. No POST beeps, nothing. I knew that this motherboard only accepted some later CPUs after a BIOS upgrade, so that was to be expected. I proceeded with a PII-400 which booted just fine.
Next caveat is, this motherboard does not support HDD larger than 32G without a BIOS update. No problem, let's use an HDD with a 32GB limit. I then go on to install Win98SE. An awesome thing is, Asus still has a support page for this motherboard that has a manual, a BIOS, a BIOS flashing utility and the chipset drivers.
After upgrading the BIOS to 1014.003 I get to use bigger HDDs. How about CPUs? Nothing shanges, really. Both my 600EB and 733 are unsupported by this motherboard because it can't supply the voltage that they need. After consulting this page I realise that I have two options:
1. get a Slot 1 Pentium III-500;
2. get a S370 adapter and get an FPGA Coppermine CPU.
As of now, I'm stuck with a Pentium II 400. Also, I can't overclock it with motherboards jumpers, because the multiplier is locked on my P2s. Whenever I try to set the jumpers to P2-450, my P2-400 is still identified as P2-400.
A bit of bummer, but it's OK — my favourite games from this era (including Black & White and Baldur's Gate) should run on P2 just fine. Now comes the time to choose a GPU.
Nvidia Riva TNT2 16MB:
I also some have Vantas and some GF4s. However, I believe that TNT2 should be appropriate for a P2.
3DFX Banshee:
I also have an AGP version of Voodoo 3 with 16MB RAM (V3-3000). Also have two identical STB V2-1000 but no SLI bridge. For the time I'll use TNT2 in AGP and V2 in PCI.
And now for some soundcards:
Creative Sound Blaster Live! CT4380:
An Aureal Vortex 1-based card:
I've never tried A3D, but I think I'll get a Diamond Monster Sound MX300 — always wanted to have one anyway.
YMF-724-based card:
ESS Solo-1
Unidentified:
So, for the time being I'll stick to Sound Blaster. I'm kind of interested to try General MIDI on PCI cards — AFAIK these cards use system RAM for samples, so I can try any soundfonts I like. But I want to try A3D, too.
This is my finished build:
The cool thing is, this is exactly the same I case that my childhood's P2 had, only AT and not ATX.
I think it's pretty cool that I have the CPU LED showing the actual frequency. Here are the final specs:
- P2-400
- 3 x 128MB RAM
- 80GB HDD
- 16MB Nvidia Riva TNT2
- 12MB Voodoo 2
- Sound Blaster Live!
I think I'll try to get a PIII-500 or another compatible Slot 1 CPU for this system. Right now it's only useful because it can use my AGP and PCI cards, but it's not really a "fast" Win98 machine.
