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HP Vectra VA 6/200MT

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First post, by jasa1063

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I just picked up a HP Vectra VA 6/200MT with the following specs:

Midtower case with four 5.25" plus three 3.5" drive bays. Three exposed 5.25" drive bays and one hidden 3.5" bay available
180W AT power supply with thee free power leads (all 4-pin Molex)
Intel 200 MHz Pentium Pro processor in socket 8 with a clip-on heatsink and a plastic ventilation duct for air drawn in by a rear case fan.
Intel 440FX chipset motherboard
64MB pf EDO RAM in 4 of the 6 72-pin SIMM sockets. Memory is upgradeable to 192MB by using six 32MB SIMMs
4 PCI slots and 4 16-bit ISA slots, staggered so that with the current 3 cards installed 3 slots are still open.
Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 ISA sound card, CT 2970
CNet ISA sound card, 10Mb/sec, with RJ-45 and BNC connectors
Original Matrox Millennium PCI graphics card with 2MB WRAM
Quantum Fireball 2.5GB IDE hard drive, 5400 RPM, ATA-33, 512MB cache
1.44MB 3.5" floppy drive
Hitachi CDR-7930 8X IDE CD ROM drive
2 PS/2 ports, 1 parallel port, 2 DB9 serial ports
Two keys for preventing keyboard input

I am planning some upgrades which will include:

Pentium II Overdrive @333MHz
192MB of EDO memory 6x32MB 72-pin SIMMs
ET6100 4MB PCI video card
3Com 3C905B 10/100 PCI network card
CompactFlash to IDE adapter
8GB CompactFlash Card

I worked on Pentium Pro computers in the past, but never owned one. Any comments or suggestions beyond on what I have planned will be welcome:)

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Reply 1 of 20, by evasive

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Going the Voodoo way maybe?

If your motherboard is matching this layout:
http://www.win3x.org/uh19/motherboard/show/2862

We would like to have pictures of the entire front and back if possible.

Reply 2 of 20, by jasa1063

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evasive wrote on 2021-05-28, 09:36:
Going the Voodoo way maybe? […]
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Going the Voodoo way maybe?

If your motherboard is matching this layout:
http://www.win3x.org/uh19/motherboard/show/2862

We would like to have pictures of the entire front and back if possible.

A couple more pictures

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Reply 4 of 20, by jasa1063

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chrismeyer6 wrote on 2021-05-28, 14:52:

That's a sweet looking case. I also love a good PPro build.

Those pictures of from the seller I got if from. Stupid Fedex dropped the box off with a big thud. If you shook the box it sounded like broken dishes. I was worried the computer was beyond fixing. They only broke the plastic shroud on the inside the covers the CPU. Thankfully there was no other damage to the computer and it is working just fine. I am anxious to get all the upgrades going. This thing is going to be one sweet rig when I am done with it:)

Reply 6 of 20, by jasa1063

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I have the computer finished. I had 2 problems to overcome. The 1st was getting the 8GB CompactFlash drive to boot. The built in BIOS does not like any hard drive approaching 8GB. It will just freeze. It works fine with the smaller 2GB CompactFlash cards I have, but I wanted to be able to use larger CompactFlash cards. To get around the problem I took a Lo-Tech XTIDE adapter and flashed it with the XTIDE BIOS using the IDE_386L.BIN rom. I configured Shadow Ram for the 8-Bit card and now it boots just fine. The biggest advantage is I can use any size CompactFlash card and not have to worry about that anymore. The 2nd problem was with the Sound Blaster 16 CT2970. It kept freezing the system trying play any audio in Windows 98 SE. I finally pulled that card and put in Sound Blaster 16 CT4170 and now the audio is just fine. Here are the specs of the computer:

Pentium II Overdrive @333Mhz (Had to upgrade the BIOS to be able to use this CPU)
196MB of EDO ram 6x72-Pin 32MB SIMMs
ET6000 4MB PCI video card
3Com 3C905B 10/100 PCI network card
8GB CompactFlash card using an IDE to CompactFlash adapter
1.44MB 3.5" floppy drive
8X IDE CD-ROM
Windows 98SE with the Unofficial Service Pack 3

I may still go with 3D video down the road, but for right now I am satisfied with the current setup. I will be posting some pictures later on this week.

Reply 8 of 20, by jasa1063

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I made some final changes to the computer. I ended up installing a 3dfx Voodoo 2 12MB graphics card as I really wanted to do 3D gaming on this computer after all. Finally I installed my Orpheus ISA sound card with PCMIDI and DreamBlaster X2. I wanted to really make this computer special. I am so glad with how this has turned out. Here are a few picks of the final build.

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Reply 10 of 20, by jasa1063

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chrismeyer6 wrote on 2021-06-05, 01:40:

That's a great looking system you made. Have you been able to play anything on it yet?

Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, WinQuake, GLQuake, Quake II, Quake 3, Doom and Doom Legacy all have run perfectly so far:)

Reply 13 of 20, by jasa1063

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I forgot to post a quick bencmark using SpeedSys 4.78:

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Reply 15 of 20, by jasa1063

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chrismeyer6 wrote on 2021-06-05, 02:09:

It looks to be a fantastic performing system.

My previous go to DOS/Win9x computer was my Pentium 233 MMX with an Intel Advanced/ML (MARL) motherboard. This has now replaced that and is where the Voodoo 2 and Orpheus cards were pulled from. Looking forward to many hours of fun with this one:)

Reply 17 of 20, by Intel486dx33

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jasa1063 wrote on 2021-05-27, 18:44:
I just picked up a HP Vectra VA 6/200MT with the following specs: […]
Show full quote

I just picked up a HP Vectra VA 6/200MT with the following specs:

Midtower case with four 5.25" plus three 3.5" drive bays. Three exposed 5.25" drive bays and one hidden 3.5" bay available
180W AT power supply with thee free power leads (all 4-pin Molex)
Intel 200 MHz Pentium Pro processor in socket 8 with a clip-on heatsink and a plastic ventilation duct for air drawn in by a rear case fan.
Intel 440FX chipset motherboard
64MB pf EDO RAM in 4 of the 6 72-pin SIMM sockets. Memory is upgradeable to 192MB by using six 32MB SIMMs
4 PCI slots and 4 16-bit ISA slots, staggered so that with the current 3 cards installed 3 slots are still open.
Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 ISA sound card, CT 2970
CNet ISA sound card, 10Mb/sec, with RJ-45 and BNC connectors
Original Matrox Millennium PCI graphics card with 2MB WRAM
Quantum Fireball 2.5GB IDE hard drive, 5400 RPM, ATA-33, 512MB cache
1.44MB 3.5" floppy drive
Hitachi CDR-7930 8X IDE CD ROM drive
2 PS/2 ports, 1 parallel port, 2 DB9 serial ports
Two keys for preventing keyboard input

I am planning some upgrades which will include:

Pentium II Overdrive @333MHz
192MB of EDO memory 6x32MB 72-pin SIMMs
ET6100 4MB PCI video card
3Com 3C905B 10/100 PCI network card
CompactFlash to IDE adapter
8GB CompactFlash Card

I worked on Pentium Pro computers in the past, but never owned one. Any comments or suggestions beyond on what I have planned will be welcome:)

That’s the same computer I was issued back in 1997 when I was working for a big computer company in Silicon Valley.
That computer already has server specs for 1997.
I think mine only had 32mb ram and was running Win-NT 3.5.1.
But we were running HP Netservers with Win-NT 4.0 server with only Pentium 100 CPU’s and 64mb ram.

I would leave it as original as possible.
64mb of ram is enough.
It all depends on what OS you plan to run.
Maybe Win95 or Win98 for best game play compatibility.
But for originality it would be Win NT 4.0 or Win NT 3.5.1 or DOS/Win-3.11
Office 95 or 97 or Lotus Office suite. Netscape communicator web browser.
I like the sound of mechanical hard drives.
With the Pentium II Overdrive you could run Win2000 Pro and VooDoo card.
But the motherboard BUS speed and ram speed maybe a bottle neck.
I would leave it as a Pentium Pro build and If you want Win2000 then get an HP Kayak XM or Newer HP Vectra
With Pentium III 733mhz or higher CPU. With fast ram and bus speed and AGP slot.
Maybe add an HP SCSI card and SCSI drive to your Pentium Pro computer.

That was a powerful workstation for 1997
I have fond memories of that workstation and am trying to find one myself.

Reply 18 of 20, by jasa1063

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Intel486dx33 wrote on 2021-06-05, 12:30:
That’s the same computer I was issued back in 1997 when I was working for a big computer company in Silicon Valley. That compute […]
Show full quote
jasa1063 wrote on 2021-05-27, 18:44:
I just picked up a HP Vectra VA 6/200MT with the following specs: […]
Show full quote

I just picked up a HP Vectra VA 6/200MT with the following specs:

Midtower case with four 5.25" plus three 3.5" drive bays. Three exposed 5.25" drive bays and one hidden 3.5" bay available
180W AT power supply with thee free power leads (all 4-pin Molex)
Intel 200 MHz Pentium Pro processor in socket 8 with a clip-on heatsink and a plastic ventilation duct for air drawn in by a rear case fan.
Intel 440FX chipset motherboard
64MB pf EDO RAM in 4 of the 6 72-pin SIMM sockets. Memory is upgradeable to 192MB by using six 32MB SIMMs
4 PCI slots and 4 16-bit ISA slots, staggered so that with the current 3 cards installed 3 slots are still open.
Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 ISA sound card, CT 2970
CNet ISA sound card, 10Mb/sec, with RJ-45 and BNC connectors
Original Matrox Millennium PCI graphics card with 2MB WRAM
Quantum Fireball 2.5GB IDE hard drive, 5400 RPM, ATA-33, 512MB cache
1.44MB 3.5" floppy drive
Hitachi CDR-7930 8X IDE CD ROM drive
2 PS/2 ports, 1 parallel port, 2 DB9 serial ports
Two keys for preventing keyboard input

I am planning some upgrades which will include:

Pentium II Overdrive @333MHz
192MB of EDO memory 6x32MB 72-pin SIMMs
ET6100 4MB PCI video card
3Com 3C905B 10/100 PCI network card
CompactFlash to IDE adapter
8GB CompactFlash Card

I worked on Pentium Pro computers in the past, but never owned one. Any comments or suggestions beyond on what I have planned will be welcome:)

That’s the same computer I was issued back in 1997 when I was working for a big computer company in Silicon Valley.
That computer already has server specs for 1997.
I think mine only had 32mb ram and was running Win-NT 3.5.1.
But we were running HP Netservers with Win-NT 4.0 server with only Pentium 100 CPU’s and 64mb ram.

I would leave it as original as possible.
64mb of ram is enough.
It all depends on what OS you plan to run.
Maybe Win95 or Win98 for best game play compatibility.
But for originality it would be Win NT 4.0 or Win NT 3.5.1 or DOS/Win-3.11
Office 95 or 97 or Lotus Office suite. Netscape communicator web browser.
I like the sound of mechanical hard drives.
With the Pentium II Overdrive you could run Win2000 Pro and VooDoo card.
But the motherboard BUS speed and ram speed maybe a bottle neck.
I would leave it as a Pentium Pro build and If you want Win2000 then get an HP Kayak XM or Newer HP Vectra
With Pentium III 733mhz or higher CPU. With fast ram and bus speed and AGP slot.
Maybe add an HP SCSI card and SCSI drive to your Pentium Pro computer.

That was a powerful workstation for 1997
I have fond memories of that workstation and am trying to find one myself.

I just finished a Windows 2000 build with an Abit SL30T Socket 370 motherboard with a PIII 1.4GHz CPU, 512MB PC133 SDRAM, NVidia GeForce 2 MX400 AGP video card, SB PCI 128 sound card, 3COM 3C905C 10/100 network card & 32GB CompactFlash drive. This will be my main Windows 2000 build, but I also have a Slot 1 PIII 850 Windows 2000 build as well. That being the case, I am just going to run this build as an DOS/Windows 98 SE computer. But who knows, I can always change that up in future if I want to 😀

Last edited by Stiletto on 2021-06-08, 00:02. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 19 of 20, by Intel486dx33

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Yeah, that computer and pentium pro was really designed for Win-NT 3.5.1 or Win-NT 4.0.
But for DOS game play install DOS/Win-3.11 or Win95.

For Win2000 or Win98 you really need a faster motherboard with AGP slot so you can use a fast AGP video card and fast ram.