Fixing a sick Packard Bell today. It had both(!) PS/2 ports bad. I guess someone tripped over the cables and yanked on them pretty hard or something.

New ports installed and working!

Had picked up a couple NOS Zalman fanless GPU heatsinks awhile back, so I decided to install one on my GeForce 4 Ti 4200. The stock fan was extremely loud, so anything to quiet it down would be a blessing.

This was the last noisy component in my Athlon 2000 / Windows 98 rig. With a combination of modern quiet fans, fanless cooling for the graphics card, and an SSD, this computer is now virtually silent.

I bought this PCI GeForce FX 5200 (256MB, 128-bit bus) for my overkill Windows 95 build last week. While it isn't a great card for DX9, I found it the best (i.e. fastest) PCI video card that I've tried so far still fully compatible with Windows 95 and DirectX 8 (and below). I used the GeForce 45.23 drivers for Windows 9x because they were the last drivers that provided the Nvidia control panel within Windows 95.

I needed a PCI or PCI-E video card because I'm shooting for a fast single-core CPU as the primary driver for this build. Here are the specs:

- Gigabyte GA-P75-D3 (Intel B75)
- Intel Core i7-2600K (3.8GHz Boost Clock on a Single Core)
- 8GB G.Skill DDR3 1600MHz
- PNY GeForce FX 5200 PCI (256MB, 128-bit Bus)
- Sound Blaster Live! Value
- D-Link DFE 500-TX 10/100 Network Adapter
- Startech PCI-E 7-Port USB 1.1/2.0 Adapter
- Rosewill RC-212 SATA Adapter
- Generic 64GB SATA2 SSD
- 2x Generic DVD-RW Drives
- Windows 95 OSR 2.5

Windows 95 OSR 2.5 runs really well on this platform, and I haven't encountered any major compatibility issues with the FX 5200 so far. I can run MDK 2 at 1080p (16-bit color mode) with over 60 FPS, and Unreal Tournament runs well at 1080p in both DirectX and OpenGL modes. Jedi Knight 2 oddly won't run in 16-bit color mode (it crashes if I don't select 32-bit color), but it runs buttery smooth at 1280x1024 (32-bit color). It's also nice to see the fog effects in Thief 2. I got a score of 6422 in 3DMark 2000 with the FX 5200 which is nearly double the score I got with an overclocked Radeon 9000 PCI (64-bit bus).

The passive heatsink on the FX 5200 gets pretty hot, though. I think I need to invest in an active cooling kit for the card.

This has turned into a pretty sweet build, and it brings back a lot of memories from installing and using Windows 95 back in the day. This is the kind of hardware I wish I had back then.

fosterwj03 wrote on 2022-09-06, 02:25:

I bought this PCI GeForce FX 5200 (256MB, 128-bit bus) for my overkill Windows 95 build last week. While it isn't a great card […]
Show full quote

I bought this PCI GeForce FX 5200 (256MB, 128-bit bus) for my overkill Windows 95 build last week. While it isn't a great card for DX9, I found it the best (i.e. fastest) PCI video card that I've tried so far still fully compatible with Windows 95 and DirectX 8 (and below). I used the GeForce 45.23 drivers for Windows 9x because they were the last drivers that provided the Nvidia control panel within Windows 95.

I needed a PCI or PCI-E video card because I'm shooting for a fast single-core CPU as the primary driver for this build. Here are the specs:

- Gigabyte GA-P75-D3 (Intel B75)
- Intel Core i7-2600K (3.8GHz Boost Clock on a Single Core)
- 8GB G.Skill DDR3 1600MHz
- PNY GeForce FX 5200 PCI (256MB, 128-bit Bus)
- Sound Blaster Live! Value
- D-Link DFE 500-TX 10/100 Network Adapter
- Startech PCI-E 7-Port USB 1.1/2.0 Adapter
- Rosewill RC-212 SATA Adapter
- Generic 64GB SATA2 SSD
- 2x Generic DVD-RW Drives
- Windows 95 OSR 2.5

Windows 95 OSR 2.5 runs really well on this platform, and I haven't encountered any major compatibility issues with the FX 5200 so far. I can run MDK 2 at 1080p (16-bit color mode) with over 60 FPS, and Unreal Tournament runs well at 1080p in both DirectX and OpenGL modes. Jedi Knight 2 oddly won't run in 16-bit color mode (it crashes if I don't select 32-bit color), but it runs buttery smooth at 1280x1024 (32-bit color). It's also nice to see the fog effects in Thief 2. I got a score of 6422 in 3DMark 2000 with the FX 5200 which is nearly double the score I got with an overclocked Radeon 9000 PCI (64-bit bus).

The passive heatsink on the FX 5200 gets pretty hot, though. I think I need to invest in an active cooling kit for the card.

This has turned into a pretty sweet build, and it brings back a lot of memories from installing and using Windows 95 back in the day. This is the kind of hardware I wish I had back then.

The FX5200 in PCI is likely the better use case for it as that bus wont be able to push it to the point that its flaws come into play, I think we all know just how painful this card can be on an AGP bus. Its also more compatible than the 6200 PCI !

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-09-06, 02:32:

fosterwj03 wrote on 2022-09-06, 02:25:

I bought this PCI GeForce FX 5200 (256MB, 128-bit bus) for my overkill Windows 95 build last week. While it isn't a great card […]
Show full quote

I bought this PCI GeForce FX 5200 (256MB, 128-bit bus) for my overkill Windows 95 build last week. While it isn't a great card for DX9, I found it the best (i.e. fastest) PCI video card that I've tried so far still fully compatible with Windows 95 and DirectX 8 (and below). I used the GeForce 45.23 drivers for Windows 9x because they were the last drivers that provided the Nvidia control panel within Windows 95.

I needed a PCI or PCI-E video card because I'm shooting for a fast single-core CPU as the primary driver for this build. Here are the specs:

- Gigabyte GA-P75-D3 (Intel B75)
- Intel Core i7-2600K (3.8GHz Boost Clock on a Single Core)
- 8GB G.Skill DDR3 1600MHz
- PNY GeForce FX 5200 PCI (256MB, 128-bit Bus)
- Sound Blaster Live! Value
- D-Link DFE 500-TX 10/100 Network Adapter
- Startech PCI-E 7-Port USB 1.1/2.0 Adapter
- Rosewill RC-212 SATA Adapter
- Generic 64GB SATA2 SSD
- 2x Generic DVD-RW Drives
- Windows 95 OSR 2.5

Windows 95 OSR 2.5 runs really well on this platform, and I haven't encountered any major compatibility issues with the FX 5200 so far. I can run MDK 2 at 1080p (16-bit color mode) with over 60 FPS, and Unreal Tournament runs well at 1080p in both DirectX and OpenGL modes. Jedi Knight 2 oddly won't run in 16-bit color mode (it crashes if I don't select 32-bit color), but it runs buttery smooth at 1280x1024 (32-bit color). It's also nice to see the fog effects in Thief 2. I got a score of 6422 in 3DMark 2000 with the FX 5200 which is nearly double the score I got with an overclocked Radeon 9000 PCI (64-bit bus).

The passive heatsink on the FX 5200 gets pretty hot, though. I think I need to invest in an active cooling kit for the card.

This has turned into a pretty sweet build, and it brings back a lot of memories from installing and using Windows 95 back in the day. This is the kind of hardware I wish I had back then.

The FX5200 in PCI is likely the better use case for it as that bus wont be able to push it to the point that its flaws come into play, I think we all know just how painful this card can be on an AGP bus. Its also more compatible than the 6200 PCI !

Yeah, I wish Nvidia had pushed backwards compatibility just a little farther. I can get my GeForce 6800 GS working with Windows 95, but it acts really weird in 3D applications (and no way to control its behavior).

Oh well, I guess driver development had to move on at some point.

fosterwj03 wrote on 2022-09-06, 02:59:

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-09-06, 02:32:

fosterwj03 wrote on 2022-09-06, 02:25:

I bought this PCI GeForce FX 5200 (256MB, 128-bit bus) for my overkill Windows 95 build last week. While it isn't a great card […]
Show full quote

I bought this PCI GeForce FX 5200 (256MB, 128-bit bus) for my overkill Windows 95 build last week. While it isn't a great card for DX9, I found it the best (i.e. fastest) PCI video card that I've tried so far still fully compatible with Windows 95 and DirectX 8 (and below). I used the GeForce 45.23 drivers for Windows 9x because they were the last drivers that provided the Nvidia control panel within Windows 95.

I needed a PCI or PCI-E video card because I'm shooting for a fast single-core CPU as the primary driver for this build. Here are the specs:

- Gigabyte GA-P75-D3 (Intel B75)
- Intel Core i7-2600K (3.8GHz Boost Clock on a Single Core)
- 8GB G.Skill DDR3 1600MHz
- PNY GeForce FX 5200 PCI (256MB, 128-bit Bus)
- Sound Blaster Live! Value
- D-Link DFE 500-TX 10/100 Network Adapter
- Startech PCI-E 7-Port USB 1.1/2.0 Adapter
- Rosewill RC-212 SATA Adapter
- Generic 64GB SATA2 SSD
- 2x Generic DVD-RW Drives
- Windows 95 OSR 2.5

Windows 95 OSR 2.5 runs really well on this platform, and I haven't encountered any major compatibility issues with the FX 5200 so far. I can run MDK 2 at 1080p (16-bit color mode) with over 60 FPS, and Unreal Tournament runs well at 1080p in both DirectX and OpenGL modes. Jedi Knight 2 oddly won't run in 16-bit color mode (it crashes if I don't select 32-bit color), but it runs buttery smooth at 1280x1024 (32-bit color). It's also nice to see the fog effects in Thief 2. I got a score of 6422 in 3DMark 2000 with the FX 5200 which is nearly double the score I got with an overclocked Radeon 9000 PCI (64-bit bus).

The passive heatsink on the FX 5200 gets pretty hot, though. I think I need to invest in an active cooling kit for the card.

This has turned into a pretty sweet build, and it brings back a lot of memories from installing and using Windows 95 back in the day. This is the kind of hardware I wish I had back then.

The FX5200 in PCI is likely the better use case for it as that bus wont be able to push it to the point that its flaws come into play, I think we all know just how painful this card can be on an AGP bus. Its also more compatible than the 6200 PCI !

Yeah, I wish Nvidia had pushed backwards compatibility just a little farther. I can get my GeForce 6800 GS working with Windows 95, but it acts really weird in 3D applications (and no way to control its behavior).

Of well, I guess driver development had to move on at some point.

Nvidia changed a lot between the 5000FX core and the 6000 series core which didn't help compatibility much, the drivers also changed and later drivers dont work as well as earlier drivers do.

Even with the older GF4 cards it helps to try a few different drivers versions when testing as the newer GF4 drivers can be slower than the older ones.

Shponglefan wrote on 2022-09-06, 00:29:

Had picked up a couple NOS Zalman fanless GPU heatsinks awhile back, so I decided to install one on my GeForce 4 Ti 4200. The stock fan was extremely loud, so anything to quiet it down would be a blessing.

This was the last noisy component in my Athlon 2000 / Windows 98 rig. With a combination of modern quiet fans, fanless cooling for the graphics card, and an SSD, this computer is now virtually silent.

nice, though it looks like you've got sata ports on that MB, i'd opt to use those for sata hdd

getting my 1.4TB of good games that are old ready. then i'm gonna usb3 dock that bad boy into my gtx 960 2gb, i5-3470, intel ssd ahci , lian li, audigy 2 zs (my main pc has the x-fi titanium) windows xp pc for some good old goggery

Been trying to get the pc demo Unreal by Future Crew to play completely and correctly on my 486. Fixed the one issue with a video card switch but the sound stopping mid demo is being a pain. I've tried different sound cards, tried running from different drives. If plays fine if you start at the scene the music stops but if you let it play from the start the music just dies at scene 4.

Shponglefan wrote on 2022-09-06, 00:29:

Had picked up a couple NOS Zalman fanless GPU heatsinks awhile back, so I decided to install one on my GeForce 4 Ti 4200. The stock fan was extremely loud, so anything to quiet it down would be a blessing.

This was the last noisy component in my Athlon 2000 / Windows 98 rig. With a combination of modern quiet fans, fanless cooling for the graphics card, and an SSD, this computer is now virtually silent.

Nice looking system. What is the board? Looks kind of Abitish, but I'm not sure. CPU and cooler?

gmaverick2k wrote on 2022-09-06, 06:32:

nice, though it looks like you've got sata ports on that MB, i'd opt to use those for sata hdd

You're correct, the board has a couple SATA ports. I do have a SATA SSD drive I'm using which I transplanted from another system. It's already hooked up an IDE-to-SATA adapter, I just didn't bother unhooking all that. But I probably should, since I suppose it would clean up the cables in the case.

stef80 wrote on 2022-09-06, 11:34:

Nice looking system. What is the board? Looks kind of Abitish, but I'm not sure. CPU and cooler?

Thank you! The board is an ASUS A7V600 running an Athlon XP 2000+.

For the CPU cooler, it's a combination of a Cooler Master heatsink with a Noctua NF-A6x25 FLX fan (60mm). Does the job and keeps the noise to a minimum.

Shponglefan wrote on 2022-09-06, 11:55:

You're correct, the board has a couple SATA ports. I do have a SATA SSD drive I'm using which I transplanted from another system […]
Show full quote

gmaverick2k wrote on 2022-09-06, 06:32:

nice, though it looks like you've got sata ports on that MB, i'd opt to use those for sata hdd

You're correct, the board has a couple SATA ports. I do have a SATA SSD drive I'm using which I transplanted from another system. It's already hooked up an IDE-to-SATA adapter, I just didn't bother unhooking all that. But I probably should, since I suppose it would clean up the cables in the case.

stef80 wrote on 2022-09-06, 11:34:

Nice looking system. What is the board? Looks kind of Abitish, but I'm not sure. CPU and cooler?

Thank you! The board is an ASUS A7V600 running an Athlon XP 2000+.

For the CPU cooler, it's a combination of a Cooler Master heatsink with a Noctua NF-A6x25 FLX fan (60mm). Does the job and keeps the noise to a minimum.

for win 98, i find that a seagate 500gb platter sata hdd formatted to 137gb is good enough much snappier than ide etc

Watched some videos on YT about IDE alternatives.
There are a lot and some are cheap.

Sure there are Sata or CF ones. But i prefer the original look and feel, so just use on older system IDE. The flat IDE cable is just nice to watch...

Made some dual CR2032 boards for my old motherboards with external battery header. I still feel better having the batteries off-board. (The diodes bring the voltage down to 4.8V. I feel more comfortable with a voltage around ~5V compared to 6V.)

Just start to tune my Asus-mania project!

Asus P3B-F mobo
Asus V3000ZX 3D Eplorer video
Asus Maestro-1 3D Explorer sound
Asus Intel 100mbit ethernet
Asus (!) DIMM module (in Asus original gold pcb color)
Intel PentiumII with free freq and multiplier…

Radical Vision wrote on 2022-09-07, 09:53:

Sure there are Sata or CF ones. But i prefer the original look and feel, so just use on older system IDE. The flat IDE cable is just nice to watch...

It's like a drink, ice or no ice is your choice 😀
Also for scsi, didn't know that but I guess everything, except tapes and other funky stuff (bernouilli and sorts), are going to get a replacement with some solid state memory.

Today costs are down, cpu power is huge, prototyping is cheap.
Yay!!

Today I started setting up my reverse sleeper, at least before I realized I was actually using all of my SATA SSDs. So instead I just have more airflow than 2003 actually needs.

kingcake wrote on 2022-09-07, 13:29:

I still feel better having the batteries off-board.

I second that. I believe that old motherboards have been through enough and there is no need for further stress.

Finished up this board design. Just needs the PAL chip dumps..