VOGONS

My ideal Pentium 233 DOS build - spared the parts bin!

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First post, by britain4

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Just wanted to post some photos of my main DOS build now I’m finally at a point where I’m (almost) happy with it.

It was purchased a few years ago as a full system from eBay in rough shape, cracks in the front, clearly just a cobbled together mix of old parts, would freeze regularly, with onboard audio and video. I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d do with it but was cheap enough to impulse buy. Over the years I’ve kept fixing and improving it and was surprised it’s ended up one of my favourite, most used systems.

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- The case isn’t the best quality or in the best condition however I’ve come to quite like it for its “character” (and the price of replacement AT cases these days). Ended up just reinforcing the several large cracks in the front panel and rolling with it.

- The PCChips M598LMR has actually (surprisingly) turned out to be excellent, as a socket 7 AT board with the convenience of PS/2 mouse support, networking and USB, with competent onboard video from the SIS 530 and CMI8738 audio as a bonus. Now running a Pentium 233 MMX in place of the 200 non-MMX it came with.

There were a few visibly bulging caps around the CPU - since these were replaced, it’s also been 100% stable.

- The onboard audio was decent but couldn’t get it to behave well with external MIDI devices and the built in GM support was comically bad. So added a Terratec Base 1 AD1816 based sound card with a Dreamblaster X2GS. Almost effortless to install in both Windows and DOS and it works perfectly.

- I’ve stuck with the onboard graphics from the SIS 530 and added a Voodoo1 card. The layout of this board is.. interesting and required trimming some fins off the CPU cooler for the card to fit. Anything longer would be out without further modification.

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- It’s running a Quantum Fireball 15gb drive which I’ve left be, as it works fine for now and sounds excellent. Likewise the floppy and CD drive which all just look to be random scavenged parts.

- The 5.25 bay ports were a recent, cheesy period accessory addition. They are excellent from the front but a horrible mess of pass through cables at the back in addition to the VGA one so I’m torn what to do with that one!

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It runs 98SE great, versatile for both DOS and Glide, can be slowed right down with SETMUL and is quite nice and compact too.

- 486DX2-66, SoundBlaster 16, Crystal VLB graphics
- P-MMX 200MHZ, PCChips M598LMR, Voodoo 1, AD1816
- PIII 933MHz, MSI MS6119, Voodoo3 3000, SB Live!
- PIII 1400MHz, ECS P6IPAT, Voodoo5 5500, SB Audigy

Reply 1 of 7, by RetroPCCupboard

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Looks like a fun project. Does that motherboard natively support the MMX, or are you running the CPU at 3.3v?

I think my Pentium MMX will be my favourite too. So versatile.

Reply 2 of 7, by britain4

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Definitely a satisfying project, it’s plug & play on the CPU, supports the MMX voltages out of the box and 100MHz FSB if I ever wanted to try another K6-II or III

- 486DX2-66, SoundBlaster 16, Crystal VLB graphics
- P-MMX 200MHZ, PCChips M598LMR, Voodoo 1, AD1816
- PIII 933MHz, MSI MS6119, Voodoo3 3000, SB Live!
- PIII 1400MHz, ECS P6IPAT, Voodoo5 5500, SB Audigy

Reply 3 of 7, by Ovenchips

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That looks like a wicked build, especially fond of the look of that 5.25 IO box!
What sort of games/apps do you mostly run on that build if you don’t mind me asking?

Dell C521 | A64 x2 4000+ | 2GB DDR2 | 7600GS | X-Fi Titanium | XP SP3 2005 | Hacksaw mod (don't ask)
Shuttle SN85G4 | S754 A64 3200+ | 2GB DDR | 6600GT | Audigy 2 ZS | Win ME
Pentium III 700MHz | 512MB | GF4 Ti 4200 + Voodoo2 12MB | SB Live! | 98SE

Reply 4 of 7, by britain4

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Ovenchips wrote on 2025-01-06, 17:03:

That looks like a wicked build, especially fond of the look of that 5.25 IO box!
What sort of games/apps do you mostly run on that build if you don’t mind me asking?

Cheers! I quite like the 5.25 ports too. I think I need to add a FireWire card now just to get that one missing port.

DOS games including Theme Park, Doom, Jazz Jackrabbit off the top of my head, on the Windows side the Need for Speeds, Age of Empires, GTA, etc. I might have some more time to enjoy it now I’ve “finished” it!

- 486DX2-66, SoundBlaster 16, Crystal VLB graphics
- P-MMX 200MHZ, PCChips M598LMR, Voodoo 1, AD1816
- PIII 933MHz, MSI MS6119, Voodoo3 3000, SB Live!
- PIII 1400MHz, ECS P6IPAT, Voodoo5 5500, SB Audigy

Reply 5 of 7, by chinny22

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My main XP started life as a parts build, only getting upgraded if needed, eg replaced the motherboard when I wanted to play around with SLI but still running the mid level CPU I pulled from a dead server.
Sometimes its just meant to be.

I'd also keep the front bay, makes it more unique, agree makes the back look like a bowl of spaghetti but how often do you see the back of the PC anyway?

Reply 6 of 7, by RetroPCCupboard

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chinny22 wrote on 2025-01-07, 00:56:

My main XP started life as a parts build, only getting upgraded if needed, e.g. replaced the motherboard when I wanted to play around with SLI but still running the mid level CPU I pulled from a dead server.
Sometimes its just meant to be.

I'd also keep the front bay, makes it more unique, agree makes the back look like a bowl of spaghetti but how often do you see the back of the PC anyway?

Similar for me. What I anticipate being my main XP machine started out as my Vista PC back in 2009. Though I am downgrading the machine from Dual 8800 GTS 512mb to Dual 7900 GTX 512 for DirectX 9 compatibility, and swapping the Quad core CPU for a dual core. I haven't decided if I want to use my 10k RPM drives, or if I will use SSD instead....

Reply 7 of 7, by britain4

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Thanks all! I do think the front bay looks great and functionally, it’s fantastic (once I figure out the FireWire!)

Think it makes them more interesting when they just slowly come together over time, especially for one that was once your main PC. When I bought it a few years back I couldn’t envisage doing anything but junk the case and strip the rest for spares.

I’d go for the 10k drives, only my 486 has a CF card as opposed to a HDD as it’s the only one I can’t use a USB thumb drive with…

- 486DX2-66, SoundBlaster 16, Crystal VLB graphics
- P-MMX 200MHZ, PCChips M598LMR, Voodoo 1, AD1816
- PIII 933MHz, MSI MS6119, Voodoo3 3000, SB Live!
- PIII 1400MHz, ECS P6IPAT, Voodoo5 5500, SB Audigy

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