Here is a nice AT case...it has the Turbo button, keylock, and LED reading.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem … em=390211900047

For cases, go with Enlight or Inwin.

For 486 motherboards, I prefer Supermicro, AMI and Elitegroup in that order.

For Pentium motherboards Asus, Abit or Aopen is probably the way to go.

EscapeVelocity wrote:

Here is a nice AT case...it has the Turbo button, keylock, and LED reading.

That looks like a newer, cheaper version of the one I'm using for my 386... it's not bad, I suppose, but it's not anything special either. And I also wouldn't even want to imagine what the shipping would cost for the OP, being that he's in the Netherlands.

Oh, OK. I didnt see that he was from the Netherlands.

I forget sometimes that this forum has a worldwide congregation.

Thanks for all the replies so far 😀

You're right, maybe I shouldn't be using eBay for cases unless it's local because of how much it costs to mail these things. I'm sure I can find a case though. It's mostly the motherboard that I'm not sure about. I actually didn't mention it but I also don't have the CPU yet, and I want to make sure whatever I buy is compatible.

So let's say I buy this CPU: http://is.gd/QPrAdN would I then simply need to make sure whatever motherboard I buy can take a socket 7 cpu?

If you get that cpu, you have to make sure that the motherboard that you are going to be searching for, will have support for dual voltage cpus (like the mmx pentiums). If your choices aren't limited to AT boards and case, any board in ATX format is certain to support any mmx pentium processor.

edit : Oh, and regarding the price of the cpu you've found, although it's not that expensive, I would recommend trying first to find anything locally. Tell your friends what are you looking for, and sometime something will come up. Most of my stuff is from friends that didn't want their old hardware, and I use ebay only for things that are almost impossible to find here or if I get to buy something in a good price.

I'd just like to point out that it is possible to mount AT style motherboards in ATX style cases with the help of a couple adapters.
There are backplates with just 1 bigger hole in it for the keyboard and adapters for the PSU (seen several several different ones, so have a good look before buying) and many of the older cases (and new perhaps also) actually have the mounting spots for the AT style motherboard.

If you can't find a good AT style case, this 'may' be a better alternative worth investigating 😉

Thanks so much for all your help so far 😀

So I've been doing some searching, but it seems harder than I thought to find an old motherboard. I do think that I could use this case: http://computer-software.marktplaats.nl/behui … -wit-beige.html since it has a PSU and isn't too far away from where I live.

Could this be a good motherboard? http://cgi.ebay.nl/SIS-530-Socket-7-ATX-Mothe … #ht_1789wt_1141 I suppose since it's an ATX board, it'll do fine for the processor I linked to earlier?

If the lone ISA slot is not a problem, it will certainly work!

olivil wrote:

If the lone ISA slot is not a problem, it will certainly work!

I'm pretty sure that's fine, since the only ISA card I have is a Sound Blaster 16 and I doubt I'll be adding any more.

I think that's rather expensive. Also this board is ATX.
About the case, it's PSU looks like one of those El Cheapo PSU's.

If you want a good ATX case with good PSU for a good price, try one of the older AOpen cases. They (should) come with FSP PSU's.
If you're getting a new case with PSU, you should check that, if the PSU has the larger 24p connector, that it will fit on the 20p motherboard connector. Many PSU's allow you to detach the 4 extra pins.

That case on marktplaats looks of flimsy quality and that PSU looks like a crap one.

For Socket 7 boards, I'd suggest you get a Super 7 board. They are perfectly fitting to what you need. You can install a 133Mhz processor in a Super 7 board but could go up to 550Mhz if you wanted to 😉.

Try finding one of the better SS7 boards. Couple examples are: ASUS P5A and Gigabyte GA-5AX.
Try to get a board with the Ali chipset instead of the VIA if you can. VIA performs just as well, but it might be more finicky with it's drivers, requiring more work to get it to work properly.

If you're looking for completely issue free, then the way forward would be a Slot 1 BX board with a Pentium 2.
The hardware of that age is dirt cheap, very easy to set up and very easy on the drivers and the required PSU 😉

Thanks for giving me some specific names, that will help a lot since I know very little about this era as far as hardware is concerned. I'll do some more searching tomorrow. 😀

Alright, so here are some other ideas. I figure that maybe I can just get a new case instead of an old one (although an old beige case would be cool since it's a retro system, I suppose it doesn't really matter all that much). Something like these, maybe:
http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/248908/thermal … n.html#tab:info
http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/275017/antec-o … d.html#tab:info

I also found this older case which has a PSU with 20p connector:
http://computer-software.marktplaats.nl/behui … loppydrive.html

I found this motherboard which looks okay:
http://cgi.ebay.nl/AOPEN-AP53-SOCKET-7-MOTHER … 6#ht_2490wt_907

And also this one:
http://cgi.ebay.nl/ALADDIN5-GA5-AX-SKT-7-MB-5 … e#ht_500wt_1156

Any thoughts? Sorry to keep bothering you guys with this. I never really built a computer before (switched to laptops waaay back) so that's why I'm a little wary of buying things without getting a second opinion.

@dada, I understand that you want a machine to play games circa '91 to '96. Therefore, I'm assuming that you don't need a large amount of RAM, in conjunction with Windows 9x. The reason I say this is because the Gigabyte super socket 7 mobo you linked to earlier is a good one, but Windows 9x can't successfully cache more than 128MB of RAM, because of a bug inside the mobo's ALi chipset.

Given your requirements, I would say that it's a good idea to get this mobo. If you ever need more speed, you can upgrade its CPU to a K6-3 or K6 "+" CPU, and then you'll be able to successfully increase the mobo's RAM, without experiencing any cache bug problems.

This super socket board has a lot going for it, with built in I/O, good voltage options, and of course because it's SS7, you'll get a choice of using either an AGP graphics card or a PCI one. You've also got 2 ISA slots, which can be beneficial, because mobos with just one shared ISA slot can be problematic. Some ISA sound cards I have tested in shared ISA slots can cause resource problems.

Finally, an idea as to what CPU to buy - you could get a Pentium MMX 233 chip. You can then alter the mobo's multiplier jumper, to slow it down to various speeds, depending on what old game you are playing. You can do this in conjunction with disabling the BIOS' cache setting. For example, this P-MMX-233 chip will run at 133 MHz if you set the mobo's multiplier jumper to 2x. It will run at 166 MHz if you set the mobo's multilpier jumper to 2.5x. Etc.

I'd suggest go with ATX and go from there. The GA-5AX is a good starting point!

When you build a retro rig using the ATX format, you're probably more in known territory 😉
When it comes to what parts to use, theres a LOT of info available. Many good parts can be had for very cheap at this time (I specifically didn't mention "these days", prices and availability is a virulent thing).
Just use any old harddrive you can find cheaply. If you can't find one of the 1337 graphics cards (Voodoo comes to mind) then any old GeForce2MX will do just fine as a start (though I'm not so sure about it's compatibility with DOS). Try to get your hands on an S3 Virge (mostly PCI, 2MB or 4MB and used to be VERY common! And turns out to be of great value for retro rigs actually).

For the case, just use any old ATX case that you can mount a full sized motherboard in.
For PSU's (VERY important for stability, even for such old rigs) I'd recommend to get an old 300W FSP unit (but 250W will do perfectly fine also). Try to avoid the El Cheapo brands if you can. It's not critical, but worth it if you don't like silly little troubles stacking up as time goes by.

Brand new PSU's are not so good for ATX boards with filled ISA slots, it has to do with some of the power rails missing.

For a processor, at first I'd suggest to get any Pentium MMX. They are cheap, available and work on every Socket 7 board.
If you want more, then I'd suggest to get a cheap K6-2/-anyspeed- and if you want MAX, then I'd suggest you get one of these:
http://cgi.ebay.nl/SOKET-7-BOARD-OVERCLOCKING … 0-/140433982225

You'll probably need to flash the BIOS though to support it, but no hurting in trying.

One more thing about retro computing.

These come with JUMPERS to set VOLTAGE, FREQUENCY etc.
You can't just plug in a CPU and expect it to work, so reading the manual IN ADVANCE is critical if you want success.

Regarding PSUs. I use a Nexus NX-3500, made in the Netherlands. It is brand new, quiet, 350W, and has juice on the -5V rail. This "ticks all the boxes" when looking for a top quality ATX PSU for an old rig. I even use them for AT mobos, with a simple adapter. Here's the link:

http://www.nexustek.nl/NXS-nx3500realsilentpo … pply350watt.htm

Also regarding the -5V rail issue, and their absence on most ATX PSUs. This is only a concern for a small number of old ISA components. I believe the now fearfully expensive Roland LAPC-i sound card requires juice on the -5V rail, and also an older 8-bit Soundblaster needs it too. Not the CT1600 model, however.

A good video card to get for '91 to '96 era games would be a Voodoo3. It doesn't matter that it's "too fast" for ancient games, because you can mess about with the mobo's cache to reduce the overall speed of the system. The V3 card will be a great all rounder, with very good signal quality, and good VESA support. It's also fanless, and comes in AGP and PCI versions. They're common and cheap too. There's nothing wrong with these cards, for playing old games.

retro games 100 wrote:

@dada, I understand that you want a machine to play games circa '91 to '96. Therefore, I'm assuming that you don't need a large amount of RAM, in conjunction with Windows 9x. The reason I say this is because the Gigabyte super socket 7 mobo you linked to earlier is a good one, but Windows 9x can't successfully cache more than 128MB of RAM, because of a bug inside the mobo's ALi chipset.

That's right, this motherboard might be overkill since I really don't need a very fast computer. Just something that will allow me to play games from the early to mid 90s. So I probably won't be putting in much more RAM than 16MB or 32MB. I originally had a Pentium 60MHz with 16MB RAM, and while I'd like to get something a bit faster than that, I don't necessarily need a fast machine.

retro games 100 wrote:

Finally, an idea as to what CPU to buy - you could get a Pentium MMX 233 chip. You can then alter the mobo's multiplier jumper, to slow it down to various speeds, depending on what old game you are playing. You can do this in conjunction with disabling the BIOS' cache setting. For example, this P-MMX-233 chip will run at 133 MHz if you set the mobo's multiplier jumper to 2x. It will run at 166 MHz if you set the mobo's multilpier jumper to 2.5x. Etc.

That sounds like a good idea. I'll do some searching for that on eBay.

Tetrium wrote:

Try to get your hands on an S3 Virge (mostly PCI, 2MB or 4MB and used to be VERY common! And turns out to be of great value for retro rigs actually).

I already have a Trident 94 TGUI9440 with 1 MB from my old computer, which will probably suit my needs, but you're right that having a better card might be a good idea. Especially since my intention is to use it on my Sony FW900 monitor which is 24" so a slightly higher resolution at a decent refresh rate would be nice to have.

Tetrium wrote:

One more thing about retro computing.

These come with JUMPERS to set VOLTAGE, FREQUENCY etc.
You can't just plug in a CPU and expect it to work, so reading the manual IN ADVANCE is critical if you want success.

That is important information, thanks. 😀

dada wrote:

-snip-

You got a PM 😉

Edit: You won't need to buy a CPU if you buy the GA-5AX you found on Ebay, it already has a processor, and RAM 😉

Edit2:The Rage XL 8MB is alright, but I'm not sure how good at is for gaming without driver issues and other compatibility thingies.

Regarding the Gigabyte GA-5AX mobo, it's slowest supported CPU is the Pentium "classic" 133 MHz CPU. That will be using a 66 MHz bus speed, with the CPU's 2x multiplier. Therefore, 66*2 = 133 MHz CPU clock speed. I think this mobo allows you to select a 1.5x multi, but I don't know for sure if it will work with a P-133 MHz CPU. If it does, then you'll get a CPU clock speed of 90 MHz. That's 1.5 * 66 = 90 MHz.

For RAM, you can start off with as little as 8MB.