Here's where this system fits in to the series of machines I've Blender tested rendering "test.blend":

This machine will be getting this GUS once I receive it: (As I have been able to obtain a Gravis Ultrasound PnP driver for windows NT4)

As far as a SCSI RAID setup for this machine goes, I wouldn't mind installing one of these little monsters:

Mmmmm what is that sexy SCSI card, asking for a friend with a SCSI fetish.

TrashPanda wrote on 2023-02-03, 14:39:

Mmmmm what is that sexy SCSI card, asking for a friend with a SCSI fetish.

SCSI RAID Disk Array Controller ICP GDT6538RD 6x68pin, 4x50pin SCSI Adapter

I've just realised that this motherboard has a serious limitation in that the RAM bank situated below the CPU card limits the number of full-length cards you can have slotted!!!!

One way to get around this is to give the system its full complement of 512MB (as this board only apparently supports 512MB of RAM) by slotting 4 x 128MB SIMM's

Here's my solution to the problem:

NT4's as boring as hell (as nothing seems to run in it) so I tried Windows 2000 professional, but it's not happy with the driver for the Dynamic Pictures Oxygen 202, so I'm unfortunately going to be reverting to NT4!!! 🙁

While I had 2000 installed I managed to get an ATTO disk benchmark in, and the current SCSI drive setup's dismal: (So this will definitely have to be swapped out!!!!)

This is going to be a fun build to watch! Definitely looking forward to seeing your progress.

Irinikus wrote on 2023-02-03, 14:59:

TrashPanda wrote on 2023-02-03, 14:39:

Mmmmm what is that sexy SCSI card, asking for a friend with a SCSI fetish.

SCSI RAID Disk Array Controller ICP GDT6538RD 6x68pin, 4x50pin SCSI Adapter

Oh my ...they are actually priced pretty reasonable from Jerry Land, got so many cool hardware parts from Germany ..must be a retro hardware collectors paradise there !

Wonder if they are accepting Immigrants from Australia ..might need to teach them how to drink though.

TrashPanda wrote on 2023-02-03, 21:32:

Irinikus wrote on 2023-02-03, 14:59:

TrashPanda wrote on 2023-02-03, 14:39:

Mmmmm what is that sexy SCSI card, asking for a friend with a SCSI fetish.

SCSI RAID Disk Array Controller ICP GDT6538RD 6x68pin, 4x50pin SCSI Adapter

Oh my ...they are actually priced pretty reasonable from Jerry Land, got so many cool hardware parts from Germany ..must be a retro hardware collectors paradise there !

Wonder if they are accepting Immigrants from Australia ..might need to teach them how to drink though.

I'm unfortunately also living in the wrong place, as there's basically no interest in retro computing over here in South Africa, hence most retro equipmen was landfilled years ago! 🙁

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2023-02-03, 20:48:

This is going to be a fun build to watch! Definitely looking forward to seeing your progress.

Thanks! 😀 It should hopefully be pretty interesting!

This is the base graphics card that I'm using for this build (The Dynamic Pictures Oxygen 202)

This is the current setup:

I'm going to have to wait until I have a pair of Voodoo2's and the GUS before I can do anything interesting with it!

I want to use one of these Thermaltake Level 20 cases for this build, as it will show off the hardware nicely. (Especially if off-white in-case lighting is used! NO RAINBOW COLOURS - I simply can't stand RGB lighting!!!!!!!!)

It has the right number of card slots to accommodate this mother board. (A mixture of the old with the super modern!!!)

I would have to make up a custom mother board holder to interface this AT board with the ATX mounting points in this case. (A piece of Plexiglas of the appropriate thickness could be used to achieve this.)

The only problem is that it's a bit pricy! So it will be pretty much the final component I purchase for this build!

Irinikus wrote on 2023-02-03, 07:16:

The weapon of choice as far as the motherboard goes is an ASUS P/I-P65UP5 Baseboard with a C-P6ND CPU card! […]
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The weapon of choice as far as the motherboard goes is an ASUS P/I-P65UP5 Baseboard with a C-P6ND CPU card!

It's now powered with one of these fully modular 750W Power Supplies: (It will suit the case that I plan to purchase for this system!)

I currently have it setup on my desk in this fashion, while I acquire the necessary additional parts that I'm going to need: (I've installed XP onto it just to carry out a blender test in order to compare it to the Pentium II Overdrive, as soon as this test is done, it will get Windows NT4 SP6!)

Here's the Blender Test Result:

It did it in 23 minutes and 59 seconds!!! (The Pentium II Overdrive did it in 29 minutes 7 seconds and 51 split seconds!) So it's quite a bit more powerful than the Pentium II Overdrive!

Well, in the ideal world, that's 400 MHz of computing power in the two 200 PPros ... And that board is downright sexy! Will it take ODs as well?

H3nrik V! wrote on 2023-02-04, 20:11:

Well, in the ideal world, that's 400 MHz of computing power in the two 200 PPros ... And that board is downright sexy! Will it take ODs as well?

As far as I know it does accept Overdrives, but in this case I'll stick with the PPros, As I already have a system fitted with an Overdrive.

Here's an example of two revisions of the CPU card fitted with Overdrives:

One strange thing that I've noticed however is that this board simply won't accept the Matrox Millennium G450 card, whereas the Chaintech board that I've used in the Overdrive build does????

The G450 doesn't work at all in this build?
Maybe a PCI compatibility thing?

I think that it's got something to do with the AGP to PCI bridge chip on the G450!

I'm happy to be using the Oxygen 202 though, as it's more quirky and more period specific!

Irinikus wrote on 2023-02-03, 19:50:

NT4's as boring as hell ...

The Holly Inquisition strongly condemns the words of heresy.

Joking aside.
That PC is shaping great.
The Oxygen card gives it a graphics workstation flavor which is neat.

pshipkov wrote on 2023-02-04, 22:50:

The Holly Inquisition strongly condemns the words of heresy. […]
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The Holly Inquisition strongly condemns the words of heresy.

Joking aside.
That PC is shaping great.
The Oxygen card gives it a graphics workstation flavor which is neat.

The nice thing about NT4 it that it's pretty lite! (Runs extremely well!)

I will install 3D studio Max R3 onto the system and the Oxygen driver has special settings for Max as well as quite a few other CAD programs, which is pretty cool! (For this build I do indeed kind of want the "workstation feel", with the ability to do a bit of gaming on the side!)

Put BeOS on it in multiboot, to escape the dreariness of NT4 from time to time.