Nice choice of parts! I hope you realise that not overclocking this system is not acceptable? 😉

Doornkaat wrote on 2020-08-19, 10:28:

Nice choice of parts! I hope you realise that not overclocking this system is not acceptable? 😉

Thanks!

Love the sentiment - this is something I've wrestled with every time a Celeron 3xx or 4xx comes around - was it simply a need to achieve, compete, and see big numbers? Could one accept the risk to awesome retro parts now? We shall see...

Progress:

Most of the ensemble after nearly a week of rust conversion, sanding, repeat ad nausem, and then clearcoat. The acryllic smells like candy.

For anyone wondering, Australian winter sun only has a UV of about 2-3, so it shouldn't interfere with the curing process.

More detail of side / top panels

Inside front panel connectors. Reset SW was soldered, so this is the first thing that went back in. Also put a couple of washers on the power SW screws.

Nice build! To be honest I never took any case this far apart. This is some serious maintenance! 😁
Gonna follow this thread (probably mostly silently).

alienmannequin wrote on 2020-08-19, 08:30:

10/100 Network card - can anyone tell me what the cable that connects to the board does?

My guess it's for the power on signal from Lan. Quite a few ATX motherboards from the P1/2/3 era support this (bios option). Some of Mt completed have them too, but I never use the function.

waterbeesje wrote on 2020-08-23, 21:05:

Nice build! To be honest I never took any case this far apart. This is some serious maintenance! :D Gonna follow this thread (pr […]
Show full quote

Nice build! To be honest I never took any case this far apart. This is some serious maintenance! 😁
Gonna follow this thread (probably mostly silently).

alienmannequin wrote on 2020-08-19, 08:30:

10/100 Network card - can anyone tell me what the cable that connects to the board does?

My guess it's for the power on signal from Lan. Quite a few ATX motherboards from the P1/2/3 era support this (bios option). Some of Mt completed have them too, but I never use the function.

Appreciate it - it's tough to know how long hardware will last, or whether effort is worth it. It's my hope that at least others can get similar joy out of these things as I do.

Learnt something new today re: power on LAN. I believe there's even an option for that in the BIOS, but will have to check once (if?) it's going again.

Progress:

Case wiring detail. The surfaces that were acryllic-treated have an unnatural sheen & smoothness to them.

Birds-eye of the front panel attached.

It was screwed in via these metal hooks which were insanely rusty, and had a bath for 6-12 hours, then a full day of acryllic coat. Structural integrity!

Motherboard inspection & clean time. It gets vacuumed with a fine brush, and then isopropyl for the "sticky" dust.

Motherboard detail

Underside. Very clean now.

this is very in depth, it will be as new when done! very impressive and interesting to follow

The chassis is looking brand new, congratulations!

I´m just curious, why did you go with a "slotketed" Celeron 433mhz, instead of a PII 400mhz, for instance?

Thanks all, hope you're enjoying the build so far!

Con 2 botones wrote on 2020-08-26, 17:34:

I´m just curious, why did you go with a "slotketed" Celeron 433mhz, instead of a PII 400mhz, for instance?

Great question, made me think.

From a speed / cache perspective, this would fit right in with what would have been purchased back in the day by many users - the twin Voodoo 2s would have been the ultimate upgrade after an overclock, so it "feels" right. As I understand it, it's the fastest Slot1 Celeron, and fastest processor that runs a 66 MHz. Seeing as the Voodoo 2s get hotter the more powerful the processor ( source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ-HKkUOEww ) & I have case / PCI slot limitations, this seemed like a perfect balance. Also much easier to cool than the closed-cart Piiis!

The other part is uniqueness - not many SlotKet builds around, and certainly not many I've seen that actually artifically limit the power of the graphics cards in the system. That's pretty cool IMO.

Update for today:

Inside detail after threading, twisting & taping the cables.

Both original drives have been de-rusted, scubbed with isopropyl, and mostly covered with an acryllic spray, but haven't removed masking tape. Love the "$38.00 Samsung 1.44 Floppy drive" price sticker.

I did however have this pristine ZIP 100 IDE drive. Given that the HDD is planned to be industrial CF, can't think of many reasons why this wouldn't go in, instead. Feel free to discuss!

Not much done to this bay. It's like some sort of rackmount, looks like a 5.25" -> 3.5" bay.

Drives in. Without the supports, the front panel is very top heavy, and wobbles all over the place.

PSU, also post-treatment. Masking tape still (hopefully) protecting those ageing caps. It has 9-10A on the 12V rail. Enough for twin V2s?

That's taking "clean" to the next level!

The fastest 66 celeron based on the "old" core (Mendocino) is 533 Mhz, so there'sstill an upgrade path. The first Celeron on the Coppermine core is also 533 (called 533A and in the same distinguished green as all Coppermines). The Cellies went up to 766 on 66Mhz and up to 1100 (1400 if you include Tualatin) on 100 Mhz.

I like zip drives, a USB 250 zip is still properly useable on Ubuntu 20, and most of my Win98/Win2K systems have zip drives installed. It's practical for a "quick" transfer of files.

flupke11 wrote on 2020-08-28, 11:42:

That's taking "clean" to the next level!

The fastest 66 celeron based on the "old" core (Mendocino) is 533 Mhz, so there'sstill an upgrade path. The first Celeron on the Coppermine core is also 533 (called 533A and in the same distinguished green as all Coppermines). The Cellies went up to 766 on 66Mhz and up to 1100 (1400 if you include Tualatin) on 100 Mhz.

I like zip drives, a USB 250 zip is still properly useable on Ubuntu 20, and most of my Win98/Win2K systems have zip drives installed. It's practical for a "quick" transfer of files.

Thanks!

Well, I stand corrected, and you learn something new every day. Should I stick with the 433? I genuinely like the balance between "close to 300A" and "pushes the Voodoos".

Zip drives are genuinely cool, aren't they. I like the inverted commas around the purported speed rating. Have a recollection of my LPT zip doing like 90 kB/s - although assuming the ATAPI drive should be much quicker?

I find the ATAPI and the USB ZIP drives quite ok speedwise. It's been a while since I've installed the parallell port one, I'll add that to the list of tings to check out 😀.

The Celeron is proper to this '98 build. Your mainboard is based on a BX, so if needed, you can always add a "real" PIII. I'm not sure whether this board can take Coppermines, that will depend on what voltage the mainboard can deliver to the cpu. Lots of people were (and still are) running similar builds. Due to the BX's long life and it's stability, it is cherised by us all, so a must-have in every retro fan's collection.

In any case, for the purposes you've described in your opening post, it will be sufficient. But do not underestimate the itching bug that haunts us all (overclock! add more ram! max it out! burn down the house!).

flupke11 wrote on 2020-08-29, 08:30:

But do not underestimate the itching bug that haunts us all (overclock! add more ram! max it out! burn down the house!).

Buy two more houses and repeat the process on each!😂

The itch that one can never scratch is likely accurate.

Speaking of scratches, here's the latest update! (sans scratches):

Mounted on motherboard tray (it kind of looks like a surprised alien).

I used small washers above the screws & hope it's still grounded safely. They screw in nicely to the standoffs, but feel free to challenge this move.

I also spy tantalum caps. Am I supposed to be replacing these?

Gratuitously destroying floppy cables. For what reason?!

This one has a tongue.

An infuriating process...

2 hours & four floppy cables later. No joke.

Ta-daa! It now pronounces you - Voodoo 2 & Voodoo 2. You may link. (potentially, if it works).

alienmannequin wrote on 2020-08-30, 10:11:

The itch that one can never scratch is likely accurate. […]
Show full quote

The itch that one can never scratch is likely accurate.

Speaking of scratches, here's the latest update! (sans scratches):

Mounted on motherboard tray (it kind of looks like a surprised alien).

I used small washers above the screws & hope it's still grounded safely. They screw in nicely to the standoffs, but feel free to challenge this move.

I also spy tantalum caps. Am I supposed to be replacing these?

Gratuitously destroying floppy cables. For what reason?!

This one has a tongue.

An infuriating process...

2 hours & four floppy cables later. No joke.

Ta-daa! It now pronounces you - Voodoo 2 & Voodoo 2. You may link. (potentially, if it works).

Impressive! Yes I am talking about the Voodoo 2 pair in the photos, but also about the SLI cable you´ve created from those floppy ones.

Thanks all for following along, the advice, & the kind words. Really enjoying this one. Most 3dfx memories of mine come from a single 4mb Orchid Righteous 3d, running in an Acer Aspire Pentium 90, so this should be quite the step up.

Had to re-adjust the board in the tray: the I/O shield was flaking its clearcoat, so I gave it a couple more coats of a different one for the lighter aluminium.

Network card, 2d card, sound card are in.

Both of the cards are in, but it's a really tight fit. I'm planning to actively cool these - have ordered a few 80 mm fans with brackets (which are supposedly more than a single slot, so might potentially need to relocate parts, or remove network / swap to ISA sound card to get some good cooling going - we shall see) as well as loop & hook (velcro) in case I can only cool a single card at a time.

Back of the PC - it's really tight with the CF card (using a 1 GB Sandisk temporarily whilst waiting for the industrial card).

Ready to go in.

Another update:

PSU Is fully rust-treated. Hope it works.

Really appreciate the logic of adding the PSU's fan curve to the side in sticker form.

Tray is in but...

... it opens! super cool. Shortly after this I realised a couple of screws were in the wrong order, so it was dismantled the whole way down to the plastic.

A short while later...

Top is on.

Nearly complete - final parts have arrived. Thanks for stopping by!

Well, the final parts to Mr. Slotket have arrived, and it's been pieced together. Hope everybody enjoys this final update, as much as I have for the last couple of months.

Here's an overview of the assembled PC, before the finishing touches are applied.

I ended up going for the 8 GB innodisk 1ME. It's MLC instead of SLC, but the specs are almost identical, including 80/20 Read/Write, long MBTF, Industrial operating temperatures, and ECC.

This will replace the bottom ISA slot CF, so easy access is out. Planning to use ZIP for easy transfers.

Anyway, here's a detailed sheet for anyone that understands more than I:

https://www.simms.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/20 … ion_Rev_1.8.pdf

Created a clandestine "harness" for it out of anti-static sleeve

Liberally covered with electrical tape, and including obligatory cable holes, I then velcroed it to the bottom of the case. Shouldn't be going anywhere.

Next up, some (gasp) modern 80mm fans. Forgive me, retro enthusiasts, but there was little alternative. Hope they fit, as the fan shrouds are quoted to be slightly larger than a single slot.

Assembled. Bought 1 set with Molex connectors, and 1 set with Motherboard 3-pin connectors.

Everything's in, and now, wow, is it cramped. One of the fan sets can't really fit into the slot, so everything had to be moved to angled. The Soundblaster & Network card have been removed to fit the fan sets, and the ISA SoundBlaster barely fits down there.

It boots and runs just fine, had to set the PIO mode to 3, to get it to boot. Voodoo 2s are icy cold, and everything seems to motor along just fine.

Finished product. Time to enjoy some wonderful classics now - Unreal on 1024 x 768 is first on the list, perhaps followed by some Microsoft Flight Simulator 98.

Feel free to ask any questions about how the software / hardware was refurbished / set up, and for now, thanks for tuning in, and here's to hoping some inspiration has been sparked to take that little extra effort to make something really special.

What a nice clean setup. It looks brand new.

What speakers are those?

That's a very nice setup, I like the result!

About those new fans: you're right, they are not old. But for fans I don't mind, these should be a bit more reliable. Unreliable fans may fail, taking the entire system along.

The same goes for a PSU: I ditch the unreliable lightweight junk and get decent ones instead.

Nice rig!!!

But like Waterbeesje said, I'd replace the PSU.