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My first retro build - P3

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First post, by Mitsuke

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Hello dear Vogoners 😀

This is my first post here (despite being a long time lurker. I think I pretty much read every post here 😊 ) so I hope I'm posting in the right forum. English isn't my first language, so please excuse any mistakes.

I never had the guts to post anything. However, this time I wanted to show you my recent project I have been working on: I tried to recreate the computer my dad used to play games with. I remember seeing him playing games in a computer like this one (well, kind of) so I wanted to recreate that, maybe hoping to feel the same I felt at that time.

Some components are not period-correct (like the video card, or the case) but the ones I got do the trick just fine.

Specs:

  • CPU: Pentium III (Katmai) - 550 MHz - It originally came with a Pentium II 233 MHz
    Motherboard: SOYO SY-6VBA133
    RAM: 128 MB (SDRAM)
    HDD: Exelstor Callisto 80GB (limited to 32GB due to BIOS limitation)
    Graphics card: nVIDIA GeForce FX5500 - Soon to be replaced by an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro.
    Sound card: Creative SoundBlaster Live! CT4760
    Case: Bit Fenix Shinobi Window White - I don't like it to be honest but I didn't want to spend a lot of money so this is the cheapest case I could get. It accommodates the motherboard well, anyway.
    PSU: Gigabyte PW400
    Operating system: Windows ME - I like it better than W98SE 😁
    Mice: Microsoft Intellimouse 1.0
    Keyboard: IBM Preferred Pro PS2
    No CD or DVD drive

Now, some pictures:

IMG-20190922-215837-2.jpg
IMG-20190922-220149-2.jpg
IMG-20190922-221554-2.jpg
IMG-20190922-221834-2.jpg

And finally, a game from my childhood that I wanted to play again so bad but couldn't due to graphic issues with modern operating systems..

IMG-20190922-221631-2.jpg

I hope you liked it!

Cheers from the Southern Hemisphere 😊

Reply 1 of 5, by BeginnerGuy

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Nice rig! Not too usual to see somebody stick with ME alone on a P3 rig 😜. I like ME MEself too!

If you ever get into some older DOS games, I'd recommend a Sound Blaster Vibra 16 (one with the YMF262 chip on it) to stick in one of those ISA slots down the bottom.. They're cheap and sound great if you want to travel further back in time.. just personal taste though.

Welcome aboard

Sup. I like computers. Are you a computer?

Reply 2 of 5, by Almoststew1990

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Nice, simple build. I had a very similar build for my first retro PC; P2 450 with a Sound Blaster Live!

One question - how are you going to play Pod Racer without a CD drive :p

Ryzen 3700X | 16GB 3600MHz RAM | AMD 6800XT | 2Tb NVME SSD | Windows 10
AMD DX2-80 | 16MB RAM | STB LIghtspeed 128 | AWE32 CT3910
I have a vacancy for a main Windows 98 PC

Reply 3 of 5, by chinny22

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Not your standard build.
Slot1 100FSB systems almost always use a BX based motherboard, nice to see a VIA for a change.
Case is VERY white isn't it! oh well, it's closer to beige then black and the window means you can check out the cool CPU.
Also wondered how your installing everything without network or CD drive?

Reply 4 of 5, by Mitsuke

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BeginnerGuy wrote:

Nice rig! Not too usual to see somebody stick with ME alone on a P3 rig 😜. I like ME MEself too!

Yay, another ME fan 😁
I like ME very much. For me, it always felt more stable than W98SE. I know this sounds really vague, we are talking about a really old W9x OS but never had any issues with it It, no crashes or software issues.
It also has built-in drivers, including USB mass storage drivers, which is really nice so I can move drivers and apps from a USB stick to the computer

chinny22 wrote:

Also wondered how your installing everything without network or CD drive?

Almoststew1990 wrote:

One question - how are you going to play Pod Racer without a CD drive :p

I used an IDE CD drive to install the OS, drivers, etc but once I got everything up and running I disconnected it. I know this is somewhat inconvenient as I have to connect and disconnect everytime I want to reinstall the OS (hopefully I won't have to do this too often) but a black CD drive with this (very) white case, frankly, looks awful. I shouldn't care because this is a retro build but my obsession won't leave me alone 🤣
For games and software I'll be using a thumbdrive. It's easier, quick and works great in Windows ME.

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