BitWrangler wrote on 2021-08-13, 13:51:

Hmm? Buffered is usually seen as slower in one or two stick systems, are you meaning that for multiple DIMM applications that buffered doesn't need the timings slack to stay stable?

In theory, buffered doesn't really affect BANDWIDTH very much. It does affect LATENCY. As memory chips got faster and faster, the buffer became less and less meaningful. At 66mhz? its more than a little significant. Anecdotal evidence being what it is.

I know there are server systems that have interweaved memory and that has the potential of recouping some of that lost performance with ecc/reg/buffered/etc.

Unfortunately, I won't be doing more testing on this system for the foreseeable future. I didn't realise that this board was 12"x13" (E-ATX), thus it won't fit in the case I was planning on putting it in, which houses my VS440FX. Looks like this case can only do 12"x12" footprints. Anyone have any model numbers for non-giant beige E-ATX towers? I only have one of these and it is occupied.

Oh that's too bad.

Can I send you my address?

luckybob wrote on 2021-08-16, 09:42:

Oh that's too bad.

Can I send you my address?

lol. Don't you have a dozen of these boards already?

I'll eventually find a case solution for it. A dual Intel PPRO that takes 1 GB won't be in the box forever. Were there better/faster dual PPRO boards which take 1 GB and aren't any larger than 12x13?

I would also like to benchmark it against its little sister the VS440FX.

I managed to use this Antec case for the Intel PR440FX build with dual Pentium II 333 MHz Overdrive units. It turns out that many cases, although not full E-ATX, can support these half E-ATX motherboards, like the PR440FX. My Opteron 185 socket 939 system had such a case, so I swapped cases around.

I took some photos to demonstrate what I mean by "half-EATX".

This motherboard uses a very early and peculiar ATX I/O shield. Although the motherboard came with an I/O shield, it doesn't snap into an ATX motherboard's I/O shield form factor. It mostly fits, but there are some gaps around the edges. So I took a regular ATX I/O shield and cut away the centre guts, but left a little flap on the right side to cover the gap. I also had to cut out part of the ATX I/O shield's frame to fit the game port's screw. The whole hack isn't as elegant as I'd like so I'll likely revisit this in the future.

The motherboard has an onboard AIC-7880 SCSI controller.. The manual states that it can burst up to 40 MB/s, however I thought this card could only go up to 20 MB/s ? Unfortunately, the only quiet unused 68/80-pin SCSI HDD I have is a 15K U320 36GB unit. It is way overkill for this controller. I typically use that drive for benchmarking various SCSI controllers.

The motherboard contains a Crystal CS4236 audio chip. Is this sound card any good? I wasn't sure if I should fill the ISA slot with another sound card.

The motherboard contains this wavetable header. Is there a converter cable which lets me connect this to a Dreamblaster S2 or X2?

Lastly, I am faced with the selection of graphics cards for the system. I have already filled two PCI slots with a gigabit ethernet card and a USB 2.0 card. Looking through my bin of unused PCI graphics cards, I have:

FX600 256 GB (currently in an Intel SAI2 dual Tualatin I plan on decomissioning)
FX5500
eVGA GF6200 DDR2 256 MB
eVGA GF6200 DDR2 512 MB (vga port doesn't work. DVI port works)
BFG GF6200 DDR2 256 MB
GF2 MX400 (a slowed down discount POS, my good GF2 is in the Proserva dual P233mmx)
TNT2 M64
Riva128
Matrox Parhelia 512 (probably won't work)
Matrox G450
Matrox Mystique 220
3DLabs Velocity
Permedia2 based on P4020GFN

What do you think best suited for the system, assuming it was your system? I was thinking the 3DLabs Velocity would be fitting as it is a workstation card, but its 3D performance for games it lousy. Same for the Permedia2. The FX600 is tempting for a graphics overkill type of build, plus it is a workstation card. The spare GF2 I have is really a budget piece of junk and would sort of damage the high-end nature of the build. I think the Riva128 is a bit underpowered for a PII-333. Thus I am thinking either the TNT2 M64, G450, or Velocity. Undecided, I put the G450 in the case.

The FX600 gives you DVI out as well if your hooking up to an lcd.

Otherwise a Gerforce 2 mx400 should be decent... Probably the most powerful period correct GPU for this sort of system, 32bit colour over a Voodoo3(IF you had one).

Thanks. G450 also has DVI, but my KVM is VGA only, so…

Dvi makes recording video a breeze.. if you're interested in such things.

This is a sick build

Speaking of the VS440FX, I have one without the USB ports fitted. Does anyone know offhand what additional passives (if any) need to be fitted to add the ports?

There are going to be other missing parts as well, othing too fancy, but not something you can just throw parts at.

Best option would be to compare your board with someone with usb.

I went looking for a square 26mm x 26mm PII overdrive case badge for this system and didn't find any online. Maybe they never existed? I printed up a temporary one.

[attachment=-1]PR440FX_case_with_badge.JPG[/attachment]

luckybob wrote on 2021-09-26, 04:33:

There are going to be other missing parts as well, othing too fancy, but not something you can just throw parts at.

Best option would be to compare your board with someone with usb.

looks like all I need are 4 series termination resistors to be fitted near the south bridge and a resettable fuse for the +5 rail, and the USB connector itself obviously

there are some pads for EMI filtering caps near the connector but meh, probably skip those

Did any of the VS440FX boards come with an onboard USB port? I have two of those boards and both don't have onboard USB. I wish they'd have put at least a USB header like many socket 7 boards did.

I've found photos of those that did have them, but they are a slightly different PCB revision

Cool. When you planning on testing it? Please share your results if you get it working. I'm sure I can pillage the USB ports from some dead motherboards I have.

Will do, I need to order a PTC fuse and the appropriate resistors so might be a couple weeks. I'll report back

Don’t have any dead boards to liberate those components from?

Negative. I dont have many dead boards to pick over

Disregard my previous post, the clock signal is there and working just fine. I must have been probing the wrong pin, long day 🤣

Thats what she said!