Standard Def Steve wrote on 2021-10-07, 16:48:

This is why I shouldn't be reading Vogons on a highish DPI display set to 100% without my glasses. I read your title as Behold the VCR and was totally expecting to find a PIII rig stuffed into an Xbox One inspired black desktop case. 😜

I absolutely love it though. The LiveDrive, Plextor burner, case window and GeForce 3 is totally Cover of Maximum PC, Summer 2001 material. That machine is just begging you to play Max Payne on it.

🤣. Yeah, no VCRs here. And thank you, the aim of this and my other builds is to build the dream PCs I drooled over but could not afford back in the day. Plus, this machine actually gets some real, practical use - for example, it runs the software for my older EEPROM programmer that only works in XP and 2000, but nothing newer. I also run tons of old media tools and use it as a vintage DAW with FL Studio 4 and a hardware synth hooked up via MIDI. 😀

Neat system bro! 😀 I dig it! 😁

leonardo wrote on 2021-10-07, 16:47:

SBLive wrote on 2021-10-07, 12:56:

Here's my main Vintage Gaming Rig - I call it The VGR.

You should have called it Brute Force 😉

🤣. I see your Longbottom bears some similarities, I have a few Plextor PX-W2410TA's in my collection. Nice build. 😀

This build is simply fantastic! Those components were some of the best 20 years ago, and they are still in great shapes, making them even more precious today.

Errius wrote on 2021-10-07, 13:35:

You've got to watch the fans on those old GeForce3 cards. They will burn up in seconds if the fan fails. I had two fans fail on mine. The first time I shut the computer down in time. The second time I didn't and lost the card.

Had a Ti200 died the same way: the system freezed for no apparent reason and after rebooting the screen started showing strange color artifacts at POST messages (should be plain white text on black background); all happened within just a minute and, before I realized there could be some problems with either the video card or the monitor, the system freezed again and the card was fried. 😿

nice build. i really love the extra bits like the superdrive and the removable drive caddy.

and not a single spare slot on the back of the pc. stuffed to the brim!

Yeah, I got one of those... Just kidding. 😁

That's a dream rig, man!
I like how you managed to have all these retro parts in fresh-out-the-box condition.
After completing a beige rig lately I realized how difficult it is to match evenly all parts. Everyone seems to have a different idea of what tone beige was. Some even white-ish or grey. And there's the yellowing and markers or whatever to deal with...matching components like this is getting very difficult. Buying new may be the only way, and that's getting costly as the selection thins.

shawnhell wrote on 2021-10-08, 06:35:

Yeah, I got one of those... Just kidding. 😁 […]
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Yeah, I got one of those... Just kidding. 😁

That's a dream rig, man!
I like how you managed to have all these retro parts in fresh-out-the-box condition.
After completing a beige rig lately I realized how difficult it is to match evenly all parts. Everyone seems to have a different idea of what tone beige was. Some even white-ish or grey. And there's the yellowing and markers or whatever to deal with...matching components like this is getting very difficult. Buying new may be the only way, and that's getting costly as the selection thins.

Thank you! Yeah, you got that right. Even when brand new, every manufacturer used a different shade of beige/gray and those shades also got lighter over the years. My 1995 TEAC 5.25" floppy drive is way more beige than say my Plextor burner which is more light gray than beige. In the picture you can see the Audigy 2 front panel is a bit lighter than the rest of the drives. And both the FDD and SuperDisk drives are a smidge darker than the case. The case itself is almost white.

foil_fresh wrote on 2021-10-08, 06:09:

and not a single spare slot on the back of the pc. stuffed to the brim!

Still room for a bracketless PowerVR card between the SB16 and NIC.

Errius wrote on 2021-10-08, 14:26:

foil_fresh wrote on 2021-10-08, 06:09:

and not a single spare slot on the back of the pc. stuffed to the brim!

Still room for a bracketless PowerVR card between the SB16 and NIC.

Nope. Reasons:

• I don't play any games that specifically need a NEC PowerVR card and work on nothing else, so I don't see the point.
• There's not enough clearance for a card to fit in there, even with no bracket, since that slot space is shared with the ISA slot.
• I still have a free PCI slot below the GPU, I can move the Audigy 2 joystick port out of there if I ever need to use it.
• That 6th slot is a slave slot, meaning it cannot act as the PCI bus master, so stuffing a graphics card is doubly pointless.

A nice upgrade would be a Tualatin 1,4 GHz CPU.
The Tualatin should also run with a pin mod/Adapter on the CUBX: Asus CUBX - Tualatin Modded
Here is a mod bios: Modified BIOSes for ASUS P3B-F, P3V4X, P3V133, CUBX, CUBX-E/L and P3C-E

SBLive wrote on 2021-10-08, 14:38:

There's not enough clearance for a card to fit in there, even with no bracket, since that slot space is shared with the ISA slot.

incorrect

maxtherabbit wrote on 2021-10-08, 16:46:

SBLive wrote on 2021-10-08, 14:38:

There's not enough clearance for a card to fit in there, even with no bracket, since that slot space is shared with the ISA slot.

incorrect

Indeed max is correct. I fitted a Matrox M3D in the shared slot

SBLive wrote on 2021-10-07, 16:38:

I think the case plus the choice of components and their arrangement makes it look properly thought out and designed, which I really like. I'm not really into the gimmicky cases of the era, though my Pentium MMX system is in a pretty cool case with an iMac-style translucent piece on the front panel: https://i.imgur.com/pFZQQFr.jpg. It goes well with the translucent clear/green SuperDisk drive that sits on top of it.

I don't build systems just to stuff them with random parts I have laying around. Rather than have 50 "random junker" machines, I only have three and each is my personal "work of art." 😀 Every component has a purpose and the system is thought-out as a whole so that everything works together.

I was about to ask about the others - yeah they look pretty good too - also very nicely maxed out by the look of it

your approach, to optimise each machine with quality design and parts, is a great way to really get the best from each computer (and space efficient!). I think that's why its drawn some attention here, because it stimulates some thinking on what do with the machines we have

SBLive wrote on 2021-10-07, 18:49:

leonardo wrote on 2021-10-07, 16:47:

SBLive wrote on 2021-10-07, 12:56:

Here's my main Vintage Gaming Rig - I call it The VGR.

You should have called it Brute Force 😉

🤣. I see your Longbottom bears some similarities, I have a few Plextor PX-W2410TA's in my collection. Nice build. 😀

Thank you! There's just something about a GHz-class system isn't there? 😀 I just cannot wrap my head around all those fans you've got! Doesn't it get noisy? Of course, noisy is very period correct in a sense - but I'm curious. Are they voltage adjusted? Sleeve bearing? Or do you keep noise-cancelling headphones on when you sit in front of it? 😁

Bancho wrote on 2021-10-08, 17:08:

https://i.imgur.com/BQStXgil.jpg […]
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Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. That looks mighty cramped and results in extremely poor cooling and possible short-circuits as components from the two cards are so close many of them are very likely touching.

This is especially bad if you're stuffing a graphics card in there. A graphics card generates a good amount of heat, which is not your friend especially with vintage components.

Lastly, that 6th slot on the CUBX is a slave slot, meaning it cannot act as the PCI bus master, so stuffing a graphics card is doubly pointless.

I cannot agree with doing something like this, but you go ahead and have fun!

leonardo wrote on 2021-10-08, 20:30:

Thank you! There's just something about a GHz-class system isn't there? 😀 I just cannot wrap my head around all those fans you've got! Doesn't it get noisy? Of course, noisy is very period correct in a sense - but I'm curious. Are they voltage adjusted? Sleeve bearing? Or do you keep noise-cancelling headphones on when you sit in front of it? 😁

The machine is near-silent, all you hear is just a very, very gentle hum. I'm running Arctic F8 silent fans on 7V instead of 12V so they're running at about 60% of their nominal speeds. The hard drives use fluid-dynamic bearings, so they're silent, too.

maxtherabbit wrote on 2021-10-08, 16:46:

SBLive wrote on 2021-10-08, 14:38:

There's not enough clearance for a card to fit in there, even with no bracket, since that slot space is shared with the ISA slot.

incorrect

Correct, my friend - particularly depeding on the height of the components on the card in question as well as adjacent cards.

The components on the ISA and PCI cards are facing each other, so if you have a PCI card with a GPU with a heatsink on it or tall capacitors, it will not fit. This is assuming there's nothing protruding from the ISA card, and the SB16 has tons of capacitors and jumpers all over.

But thanks for trying to sound smug. 😀

NostalgicAslinger wrote on 2021-10-08, 15:22:

A nice upgrade would be a Tualatin 1,4 GHz CPU.
The Tualatin should also run with a pin mod/Adapter on the CUBX: Asus CUBX - Tualatin Modded
Here is a mod bios: Modified BIOSes for ASUS P3B-F, P3V4X, P3V133, CUBX, CUBX-E/L and P3C-E

I toyed with the idea, and I have a couple of Tualatins 1.4S with the Korean PCB mod, as well as a few stock ones, and my CUBX is already running the modded BIOS for the other fixes that are included in it.

But this machine is plenty fast as-is, honestly. I'd rather stuff a Tualatin into one of my TUSL2-C boards. 😀

SBLive wrote on 2021-10-08, 21:00:

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. That looks mighty cramped and results in extremely poor cooling and possible shor […]
Show full quote

Bancho wrote on 2021-10-08, 17:08:

https://i.imgur.com/BQStXgil.jpg […]
Show full quote

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. That looks mighty cramped and results in extremely poor cooling and possible short-circuits as components from the two cards are so close many of them are very likely touching.

This is especially bad if you're stuffing a graphics card in there. A graphics card generates a good amount of heat, which is not your friend especially with vintage components.

I cannot agree with doing something like this, but you go ahead and have fun!

Its fine, There is a fan blowing at those cards and its not like a Matrox M3D is a hot card. It doesn't even come with a heatsink on the chip. No components touching, Plus its a desktop case so the cards are in a vertical position and not horizontal like your case. Its been fine though so I'll continue to have my fun.

Bancho wrote on 2021-10-08, 21:22:

Its fine, There is a fan blowing at those cards and its not like a Matrox M3D is a hot card. It doesn't even come with a heatsink on the chip. No components touching, Plus its a desktop case so the cards are in a vertical position and not horizontal like your case. Its been fine though so I'll continue to have my fun.

That is wonderful news, my friend. Carry on and enjoy!