VOGONS


First post, by gn0me

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Well, it's been a hot minute since my last post which covered two iterations of a build that ultimately went nowhere. Every motherboard/cpu combo I tried either didn't work or was incomplete (such as the p4 Intel board supposedly new in box from Russia) was missing the retention brackets for the cooler which was the sole reason for buying it. And the other motherboards I have for P2/P3 CPUs either didn't have the feature sets I wanted, or didn't have a slot arrangement that I was happy with.

Here's to hoping the third time's the charm. I present the Y2K was no 'thang build with a side of GPU, DVD and SCSI upgrade in 2002.

The whole idea behind this build, which mirrors something very similar to what I owned back in the day would have been to enjoy most new titles released in 2000, and extend the usability/enjoyment of the machine in 2002, while also enjoying older DOS/Windows titles utilizing Glide/Midi.

Built today, I made some quality of life changes with modern equipment.

MSRP of the original build would have been in the $2000 USD range not including monitor or peripherals. MSRP of the upgrades in 2002 would have been about $725 USD for a Radeon 8500LE 128mb, Audigy 2 ZS, Toshiba SD-M1401 SCSI-2 16x DVDROM and a P3-1000, all pricing based on back issues of Maximum PC. These prices are based on what I legitimately would have been able to afford after having gotten my first job in 2000 after graduating high school in June of that year, and in 2002 I had moved out and had actual expenses, building a whole new PC would have been untenable at that time.

The build as it sits today:
CPU Intel Pentium III 550 MHz w/ Coolermaster HSF (P3-1000's are stupidly overpriced right now)
Motherboard: Asus P3B-F v1.03 (it has only 1 ISA slot which is weird, because I thought only 1.04+ revisions had dropped the 2nd ISA slot)
Memory: 512MB PC-133 SDRAM (single stick)
GPU: ATI Radeon 8500LE 128MB
GPU: STB Black Magic Voodoo2 12MB
GPU: STB Black Magic Voodoo2 12MB
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster AWE64 Value CT4380 (This is for DOS emulation and MIDI connectivity to my next future project, MT32-Pi. Audio output is sent to the analog input of the Audigy 2 ZS)
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS w/ Audigy Drive (Digital out connects to my Schiit Audio Modi DAC, which in turn feeds my Onkyo Integra A-809 integrated amplifier outputing to a pair of large tower speakers with built in 10" subwoofers)
Storage: Cable-less IDE2CF adapter, 128GB SanDisk Compact Flash card (this will be partitioned to emulate a multi drive setup of the times. Haven't decided on the scheme yet)
Optical: Toshiba SD-M1401 SCSI-2 16x DVDROM
Optical: Nakamichi MJ-5.16SI SCSI-2 16x 5-Disc CDROM changer
Removable: Panasonic 1.44 FDD
Removable: Iomega Zip Drive 250mb IDE
SCSI Card: Adaptec AHA-2930CU
Network: Startech ST1000BT32 10/100/1000 PCI (Supposedly the Realtek chipset has support for Windows 98SE, will see. If not then I'll just chuck a random 10/100 NIC in instead)
OS: Windows 98 SE

This PC would have lasted me for years, as I don't think it was until 2008 that I was really able to afford to build a whole new PC, and much had changed by then. Future plans for this build is to try and find a reasonably priced p3-1000, perhaps I'll look into upgrading the SCSI to Ultra160 and get some faster optical drives. I also have a fairly extensive case mod planned for my Antec Sonata III mid-tower case.

Last edited by gn0me on 2021-11-16, 04:04. Edited 4 times in total.

1990-1997 DOS/W95: micron millennium mme/p200mmx/64mb/matrox millennium II 6mb/orchid righteous 3d 4mb/sb16 & dream blaster s2

Reply 4 of 10, by chinny22

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Nice build
yeh the going ebay price for 1Ghz 100Mhz FSB P3's has been overpriced for a few years now 🙁
Like the soundcard choices, the ZS is my goto for 9x builds and AWE64 is a good match for a P3, not like you'll need that 2nd ISA slot anyway.
and who doesn't love v2 in SLI!
Your just missing pics as that's 1 full case

Reply 5 of 10, by PARKE

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gn0me wrote on 2021-11-16, 03:47:

The build as it sits today:
Motherboard: Asus P3B-F v1.03 (it has only 1 ISA slot which is weird, because I thought only 1.04+ revisions had dropped the 2nd ISA slot)

One, or two, or none, ISA slots were the options for the rev. 103. Nice setup, btw.

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Reply 6 of 10, by gn0me

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chinny22 wrote on 2021-11-16, 11:33:
Nice build yeh the going ebay price for 1Ghz 100Mhz FSB P3's has been overpriced for a few years now :( Like the soundcard choi […]
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Nice build
yeh the going ebay price for 1Ghz 100Mhz FSB P3's has been overpriced for a few years now 🙁
Like the soundcard choices, the ZS is my goto for 9x builds and AWE64 is a good match for a P3, not like you'll need that 2nd ISA slot anyway.
and who doesn't love v2 in SLI!
Your just missing pics as that's 1 full case

Thanks! Pics incoming. Some parts are sitting across the border, just waiting for the courier to pick them up and deliver to my house. I love full cases, new PCs today just look so anemic with basically everything built onto the motherboard these days.

1990-1997 DOS/W95: micron millennium mme/p200mmx/64mb/matrox millennium II 6mb/orchid righteous 3d 4mb/sb16 & dream blaster s2

Reply 7 of 10, by gn0me

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*** Update ***

I wasn't satisfied with using an Sonata 3 case, so I took to the task of scouring the internet again once more for something reasonably priced.

Then I remembered that there are proxy bidding services for Japanese auction sites, which I had used before to find some vintage Alpine car stereo equipment for a reasonable price, and what do you know... I found something! Or rather 3 somethings:

1. Brand new unused ATX mid tower, Beige - 7000 Yen/~ $60 USD https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/b1013955533
2. Used slightly larger ATX mid tower, Beige/Blue - 2000 Yen/~ $20 USD https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/e494500478
3. Excellent condition Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold - 8250 Yen/~ $75 USD https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/n1019708561

I am so stoked to have found the AWE64 Gold card at a not murderous price, unlike what we currently see on eBay (between 175 and 300 USD).

I'm leaning towards using the used case with the front blue accent since I picked up another optical drive (CD-RW drive, also SCSI) so I'll need the 4th drive bay. I'll use the new case for something else. So now at this point I think I'm finally done spending money and can get on with building and enjoying once all the parts arrive.

1990-1997 DOS/W95: micron millennium mme/p200mmx/64mb/matrox millennium II 6mb/orchid righteous 3d 4mb/sb16 & dream blaster s2

Reply 8 of 10, by pentiumspeed

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I like the concept of the Sonata 3 case but what is the issues with this? I'm not fan of front doors.

Second, also liked the metal rails instead of plastic, I have not seen modern case come with this?

Cheers,

Great Northern aka Canada.

Reply 9 of 10, by gn0me

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pentiumspeed wrote on 2021-11-23, 01:05:

I like the concept of the Sonata 3 case but what is the issues with this? I'm not fan of front doors.

Second, also liked the metal rails instead of plastic, I have not seen modern case come with this?

Cheers,

Howdy fellow Canadian!

Like you I was not a fan of the front door, the rails are a nice touch but ultimately I really just wanted some BBC.... er that is to say Big Beige Cases.

I've decided to build out a w95 computer along side this w98 computer, so that build will come later. For this one I plan to go contrasting with black peripherals/front panel devices against the beige of the case. The w95 machine will be all beige components.

Last edited by gn0me on 2021-11-25, 22:50. Edited 1 time in total.

1990-1997 DOS/W95: micron millennium mme/p200mmx/64mb/matrox millennium II 6mb/orchid righteous 3d 4mb/sb16 & dream blaster s2

Reply 10 of 10, by The Serpent Rider

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PARKE wrote:

One, or two, or none, ISA slots were the options for the rev. 103.

I have Asus P3B-F Rev. 1.04 with 2 ISA.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.