VOGONS


First post, by bofh.fromhell

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So with 2020 getting closer I've decided to check out what would be top of the line hardware for that era (or close to it).

Hardware I already have is:
Athlon 1200C "Thunderbird".
GeForce2 Ultra.
A typical, and actually made in, year 2000 case.
Tons of memorysticks, bound to have a few with the correct manufacturing dates.
Most likelly have a typical optical drive too.

At the moment the system is built with an ABIT KT7A (and working perfectly).
The chipset is time correct (KT133A), but the board wasnt released until 2001.

So im guessing the AMD 760 chipset would be the way to go ?
But what motherboard's were considered good ?
I know the ABIT 760 variant didnt come out until 2001, so thats DQ'ed too.

Also what HDD's did we use at the time ?
Was it the IBM "Deathstar" GXP's ?

I guess a P4 423 system would be cool (limited to 1.4 and 1.5GHz in 2000).
But IIRC the Athlon smoked them in most benchmarks.

And what cooler would be approptriate ?
I belive the 1200C needs something above the usual alu extruded "S370/A" variants.
Got an Alpha PAL6035 wich is period correct, but I'm not sure its up to the task.

Reply 1 of 7, by clueless1

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Here's a couple of hardware databases that fellow Vogoners have made on here that could help you out:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Bhlr_ … 44jM/edit#gid=0
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Fqh7a … NwCQ/edit#gid=0

The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.
OPL3 FM vs. Roland MT-32 vs. General MIDI DOS Game Comparison
Let's benchmark our systems with cache disabled
DOS PCI Graphics Card Benchmarks

Reply 2 of 7, by Skyscraper

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The only AMD 760 boards you could get your hands on in year 2000 were AMDs own Corona EVT8 board and Asus A7M266 and the Asus is a maybe.

The legend is something like this.

The issue was that there was a bug in the first shipping B2 AMD760 chipset revision fixable by adding some circuitry to the board. As the first tier manufacturers already had finished their designs and started making boards when the bug was found late summer / early fall 2000 the launch had to be delayed. AMD rushed a new modified referance board with the fix added and this board, the Corona EVT8 shipped to some reviewers late October and to system builders in November, systems using this board started shipping late November.

Asus also managed to get their board design (the A7M266) modified and ready before the New Year and I think the official launch date was in late November only a couple of weeks after AMD started shipping Corona EVT8. One thing is for sure though, supply was VERY limited the first couple of months and I can't find any early A7M266 reviews at all.

The way I see it is that if the chipset was launced year 2000 then all boards using that chipset is period correct for year 2000.

I'm using the ABIT KG7-RAID my self and I have a non raid KG7 as a spare. I also have the Asus A7M266 and it's a nice motherboard.

Last edited by Skyscraper on 2019-03-31, 22:21. Edited 1 time in total.

New PC: i9 12900K @5GHz all cores @1.2v. MSI PRO Z690-A. 32GB DDR4 3600 CL14. 3070Ti.
Old PC: Dual Xeon X5690@4.6GHz, EVGA SR-2, 48GB DDR3R@2000MHz, Intel X25-M. GTX 980ti.
Older PC: K6-3+ 400@600MHz, PC-Chips M577, 256MB SDRAM, AWE64, Voodoo Banshee.

Reply 3 of 7, by bofh.fromhell

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Skyscraper wrote:
The only AMD 760 boards you could get your hands on in year 2000 were AMDs own Corona EVT8 board and Asus A7M266 and the Asus is […]
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The only AMD 760 boards you could get your hands on in year 2000 were AMDs own Corona EVT8 board and Asus A7M266 and the Asus is a maybe.

The legend is something like this.

The issue was that there was a bug in the first shipping B2 AMD760 chipset revision fixable by adding some circuitry to the board but as many manufacturers already had finished their designs and started making boards when the bug was found late summer / early fall 2000 the launch had to be delayed. AMD rushed a new modified referance board with the fix added and this board, the Corona EVT8 shipped to some reviewers late October and to system builders in November, systems started shipping late November.

Asus also managed to get their board the A7M266 ready before the New Year and I think the official lauch date was in late November only a couple of weeks after AMD started shipping Corona EVT8. One thing is for sure though, supply was VERY limited the first couple of months and I can't find any early reviews at all.

The way I see it is that if the chipset was launced year 2000 then all boards using that chipset is period correct for year 2000.

I'm using the ABIT KG7-RAID my self and I have a non raid KG7 as a spare. I also have the Asus A7M266 and it's also a nice motherboard.

So if I want to use my 1200C its looking more and more like I have to be a bit lenient on my own rules.
I guess just a 760 board would be sort of OK to use then.
And of all the 760 boards the Abit one is probably the way to go, since I like Abit (who doesn't ? =).
Time to go KG7 hunting then !

Reply 4 of 7, by Skyscraper

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The KG7 is THE AMD760 board to have.

If I remember right my non RAID K7G is a better overclocker than the RAID one but that is probably a coincidence.

If you can't find a KG7 the Asus A7M266 is not bad either. The A7M266 often have somewhat bulged "yellowjacket" caps. Unlike most other swollen caps these are not always necessary to replace even if the board won't POST at first. If the board powers on but won't POST leave it on and let the caps reform. After a while the board will be able to POST, at first the board will be flaky but it will improve with time.

These yellowjacket caps are some wierd type of polymer capacitors if I remember right but in any case they don't behave like normal electrolytic caps.

New PC: i9 12900K @5GHz all cores @1.2v. MSI PRO Z690-A. 32GB DDR4 3600 CL14. 3070Ti.
Old PC: Dual Xeon X5690@4.6GHz, EVGA SR-2, 48GB DDR3R@2000MHz, Intel X25-M. GTX 980ti.
Older PC: K6-3+ 400@600MHz, PC-Chips M577, 256MB SDRAM, AWE64, Voodoo Banshee.

Reply 5 of 7, by bofh.fromhell

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Skyscraper wrote:
The KG7 is THE AMD760 board to have. […]
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The KG7 is THE AMD760 board to have.

If I remember right my non RAID K7G is a better overclocker than the RAID one but that is probably a coincidence.

If you can't find a KG7 the Asus A7M266 is not bad either. The A7M266 often have somewhat bulged "yellowjacket" caps. Unlike most other swollen caps these are not always necessary to replace even if the board won't POST at first. If the board powers on but won't POST leave it on and let the caps reform. After a while the board will be able to POST, at first the board will be flaky but it will improve with time.

These yellowjacket caps are some wierd type of polymer capacitors (if I remember right) but in any case they don't behave like normal electrolytic caps.

I just noticed your location, wich by happy chance is where I'm at too.
How attached are you to that non raid KG7 ? =)

Reply 6 of 7, by Skyscraper

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I'm not willing to let any of my AMD760 motherboards go, sorry. 😀

My AMD760 boards were all bought through Ebay from outside the EU (all three from Russia I think).

New PC: i9 12900K @5GHz all cores @1.2v. MSI PRO Z690-A. 32GB DDR4 3600 CL14. 3070Ti.
Old PC: Dual Xeon X5690@4.6GHz, EVGA SR-2, 48GB DDR3R@2000MHz, Intel X25-M. GTX 980ti.
Older PC: K6-3+ 400@600MHz, PC-Chips M577, 256MB SDRAM, AWE64, Voodoo Banshee.

Reply 7 of 7, by bofh.fromhell

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Skyscraper wrote:

I'm not willing to let any of my AMD760 motherboards go, sorry. 😀

My AMD760 boards were all bought through Ebay from outside the EU (all three from Russia I think).

Ah, well I certanly can understand that.
They don't seem to be that rare tho fortunately.