By the way, I have the original install CD of the Voodoo², of the Ati Rage (I guess, the CD label is a bit generic), of the Philips sound card, of the Siemens multimedia keyboard and multiple Fujitsu Siemens driver CD's that may or may not belong to this PC...if that helps to get things up and running.

Now that I think about it, I should boot this PC before doing anything to it. I blindly assumed it runs XP because there is a Siemens XP recovery CD included, but that might be from a newer system (the CD says 2005 so that does not smell like a P3 system). Who knows, it might already be running W98...

One thing to note, those Voodoo2s get REALLY hot with such a fast CPU, especially in SLI so I advice you to add some cooling to them. They really may give up on you prematurely otherwise.

About the OS installation, when I want to make fully fresh install, I first delete all partitions with FDISK, create new partitions how I want them and then proceed with OS installation. About booting the Win98SE install, it depends. Retail versions require the boot disk, because the install CD isn’t bootable in the first place. However, there is a bootable OEM version out there where you don’t need separate boot disk to install the OS. Of course, your system also needs to be able to boot from CD, so you need this option in your MB bios.

One thing i like to do in case when i get full PC with HDD included - image the HDD before erasing it. Or at least take a look at what it contains. Can always find useful stuff, like at the very least some drivers and software which may not be as easy to find as it may seem nowadays.

It may also be worth replacing the HDD with small SSD right away, unless you specifically want period-correct slow as hell experience. It is also a likely failure point - old HDDs are not very reliable at this point. Getting rid of it right away may save a lot of frustration later...

Good points!

Colling: I have 3x Papst 24v 80mm fans, I might put one inwards in front if the case allows for it, one out the back, and one sideways onto the voodoos. Undervolted on 12v from the psu.

Ssd: good idea. Suggestions for something that works in dos/w98?

Nicolas 2000 wrote on 2025-05-15, 17:54:

Ssd: good idea. Suggestions for something that works in dos/w98?

Honestly specific one does not matter all that much. They are all by far more than fast enough. To avoid issues with size - something 120/128GB would be best. And you'll obviously need ide-sata adapter. Also create partition table/partitions in some modern OS to avoid alignment issues...

Other than that you'll need no driver and windows/dos will not be aware of specific storage device used - it'll work exactly the same as HDD.

This is the fun stage surprising yourself re-remembering things you didn't realise you had forgotten
plus getting to know the new system and finding out all it's little quirks, It'll probably take a few installs until you get it right. that's normal.

The system is Win98 compatible, so it's time to find the drivers. Benefit of now over back then is drivers have had most the bugs ironed out or are well documented. Gone are the days of having to update the system.

My first tip is Partition your hard drive! Install Windows on c:\ everything else can live on d:\ This will mean you can keep windows install files and drivers safe and can reinstall direct off the hard drive anytime you need to reinstall.
If you install your games to d:\ many will also still work even if you do a clean install.
If your using a standard Spinning rust hard drive I use Fdisk, that way your guaranteed windows will understand the partition scheme.
If using a SSD then you'll want something newer that understands SSD and alignment (typically I'll use a Win7 CD and diskpart)

As long as you keep below 512MB you can have all your RAM installed from the beginning.

Typically my install's go
1) Windows
2) Chipset driver
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-6VX7- … v-12/support#dl
3) Graphics driver (ATI drivers a bit of a mess but you have many options here)
https://vogonsdrivers.com/index.php?catid=22&menustate=6,1

The order of the rest doesn't really matter IMHO but what I do is
Voodoo 2
https://vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid= … 5&menustate=2,1

Onboard Sound
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-6VX7- … v-12/support#dl

For Direct X 9c is the latest but can be incompatible with some games, better off installing whatever your latest game requires.

Divide by Zero is a common issue and easy to patch.
Fix "Error 200" (Divide by zero) - by Snover and Stiletto (updated!)

Archer57 wrote on 2025-05-15, 15:22:

It may also be worth replacing the HDD with small SSD right away, unless you specifically want period-correct slow as hxxl experience. It is also a likely failure point - old HDDs are not very reliable at this point. Getting rid of it right away may save a lot of frustration later...

Why people believe this myth about digital SSDs being better than physical real HDD disc drives ?
- The fact is if SSDs are not powered for decades (10 years+) it erases itself when unpowered.
When no power is left in SSD to retain it's bits and bytes then it empties itself.
Then all your hard earned data is gone.

Only trustworthy are HDD disc drives.
- I myself even make sure that my modern PCs have large HDD disc drives.
- I have 30-40 years old disc HDDs still working in storage.
- I love my data and want to preserve it. Only HDDs offer this longtime reliability.

user33331 wrote on 2025-05-16, 04:41:

Why people believe this myth about digital SSDs being better than physical real HDD disc drives ? - The fact is if SSDs are not […]
Show full quote

Archer57 wrote on 2025-05-15, 15:22:

It may also be worth replacing the HDD with small SSD right away, unless you specifically want period-correct slow as hxxl experience. It is also a likely failure point - old HDDs are not very reliable at this point. Getting rid of it right away may save a lot of frustration later...

Why people believe this myth about digital SSDs being better than physical real HDD disc drives ?
- The fact is if SSDs are not powered for decades (10 years+) it erases itself when unpowered.
When no power is left in SSD to retain it's bits and bytes then it empties itself.
Then all your hard earned data is gone.

Only trustworthy are HDD disc drives.
- I myself even make sure that my modern PCs have large HDD disc drives.
- I have 30-40 years old disc HDDs still working in storage.
- I love my data and want to preserve it. Only HDDs offer this longtime reliability.

I am not talking about long term storage or preserving data, i am talking about OS drive. And yeah, it is absolutely better in every way including reliability.

I also wonder why you'd call it "digital" and hard drive - "real". Ultimately both store digital data as bits(0/1) on physical media, it is just that the media is different. And both have limited time they can store the data.

SSDs and HDDs have different challenges when it comes to long term data storage/reliability, but i am quite sure once SSDs are around enough you'll see ones which survived the same 30-40 years with data intact. The same as some HDDs survived. You can kind of see it nowadays with other storage using flash, like bios chips or even chips holding firmware on HDDs (yeah, HDDs rely on flash to function too, everything does nowadays).

If you want to preserve data the only way is having multiple copies on different media and regular verification. There is no reliable media in existence and if you have data which survived on a single HDD for 30-40 years this is nothing more than luck. A lot of HDDs that old would not even spin up nowadays.

Archer57 wrote on 2025-05-16, 05:55:

I also wonder why you'd call it "digital" and hard drive - "real". Ultimately both store digital data as bits(0/1) on physical media, it is just that the media is different. And both have limited time they can store the data.

Only HDD uses physical method when writing data: ( SSD is purely electronic = digital )
"HDD records data by magnetizing a thin film of ferromagnetic material on both sides of a disk"

Meanwhile I have powered up the PC and it is win98SE already. That makes life easier. The Philips sound card doesn't seem to be installed correctly, I'm not even sure if it is detexted on the PCI bus (the overview went by realky fast at boot). Something to look into.

My optical mouse works.

I was wondering: the extra fans would be 3x 2.5W at 24V. Could I hook them up between 12V and -12V for full speed or would that overload the -12V rail?

I was mistaken, they're only 1.4W each so 3x 1.4W between 12V and -12V rails. Should the -12V be able to take that? I can't find specs of my supply or typical PSU specs for the -12V rail.

user33331 wrote on 2025-05-16, 06:03:

Archer57 wrote on 2025-05-16, 05:55:

I also wonder why you'd call it "digital" and hard drive - "real". Ultimately both store digital data as bits(0/1) on physical media, it is just that the media is different. And both have limited time they can store the data.

Only HDD uses physical method when writing data: ( SSD is purely electronic = digital )
"HDD records data by magnetizing a thin film of ferromagnetic material on both sides of a disk"

In HDD tiny areas of ferromagnetic material are magnetized, in SSD tiny "capacitors" are charged. Both are physical processes, both are subject to data fading over time and both operate with digital data.

You seem to be assuming "physical == mechanical" and "digital == electronic", which i disagree with but can understand.

And... i do not think derailing the thread by arguing about it here would be a good thing so i'll stop.

Nicolas 2000 wrote on 2025-05-16, 06:14:

Meanwhile I have powered up the PC and it is win98SE already. That makes life easier. The Philips sound card doesn't seem to be installed correctly, I'm not even sure if it is detexted on the PCI bus (the overview went by realky fast at boot). Something to look into.

My optical mouse works.

I was wondering: the extra fans would be 3x 2.5W at 24V. Could I hook them up between 12V and -12V for full speed or would that overload the -12V rail?

Nice, at least it works which is not a given with this old hardware...

As for the fans... i am not sure loading -12v line like this is a good idea. May work, may cause issues - will depend on specific PSU.

Also do you really need it to sound like a jet engine? Honestly i'd probably get modern FDB fans anyway, with ~1500RPM for 80mm, may be around 2000RPM if i wanted a bit more cooling. Above that it is way too noisy. But if the fans you have produce reasonable amount of airflow and noise at 12v - just leave it that way. This hardware will now generate too much heat. If i wanted to cool the voodoo cards i'd probably stick small heatsinks onto the chips, something like those used on motherboard chipsets...

At 12V they turn rather slow but I still can clearly feel the airflow to my face just holding them up in the room from 50cm away. So I'll guess they'll create enough fresh air flow in the casing at 12V to avoid pockets of ever increasingly warm air in the case. After all, I'll have one sucking in from the front, one blowing out the back AND one sideways aimed at the voodoo's to stir things up inside. In this setup, I'm not planning on adding heatsinks onto the Voodoo's. I hear different opinions on this, but apparently with good airflow many people find them perfectly fine as-is. Or is that outdated knowledge?

Nicolas 2000 wrote on 2025-05-16, 07:16:

At 12V they turn rather slow but I still can clearly feel the airflow to my face just holding them up in the room from 50cm away. So I'll guess they'll create enough fresh air flow in the casing at 12V to avoid pockets of ever increasingly warm air in the case. After all, I'll have one sucking in from the front, one blowing out the back AND one sideways aimed at the voodoo's to stir things up inside. In this setup, I'm not planning on adding heatsinks onto the Voodoo's. I hear different opinions on this, but apparently with good airflow many people find them perfectly fine as-is. Or is that outdated knowledge?

They are fine as is. With no overclocking at least. They were designed to be used in systems of that era, which usually did not have a good airflow if any. Your fan setup should be better than most period correct stuff.

But since they are kind of rare and expensive nowadays many people worry about longevity. Lower temperatures should help with this. Airflow will reduce temperatures a bit, heatsinks + airflow will reduce temperatures a lot. But if that conflicts with what you want from the build in some way it is not critical by any means.

IMO.

I just found this nugget in a comment on a Voodoo heat test. This person not only has the exact same combo as I have, he also lives nearby. 😀 And his SLI setup remains nicely cool.

"Just performed this test on my V2 SLi (2x12MB) P3-733 Rig...
Unreal running at 800x600 in HQ texture mode. Later I've ran it on 1024x768 as well, without any change worth mentioning apart from lower fps...
I get an average of about 62 degrees celcius with my fans turned off... And when I turn my (totally differently installed) fans back on, I get an average of 40 degrees celcius...
This, while my room without aircon is a very humid 30 degrees in a currently very tropical Netherlands... a little warmer than Phil's A/c'd 27...
Hence my initial question... 😆"

I hope I'll be as lucky as he is, but in case I'm not, there will be fans blowing everywhere. Initially I don't want to stick heatsinks onto the cards because it's in original condition with original packaging and everything...But if I measure too hot on the IC's, I will look into putting some extra metal on them anyway. Better a working modded card than a molten original one...

I have a DMM with temperature probe so I can keep an eye on it, but only with the case open.

My next steps:
1) redo cooling paste on the CPU (because it's partially removed when previous owner swapped out processors or something).
2) install extra fans now that the case is not as crowded yet. I have the fans, I still need to source bolts.
3) go through everything that is on the hard drive already, remove what I don't need (printer software, games for which I do not have the CD...)
4) install extra RAM
5) try out some old DOS games to see if I'll still need my other old PC.

So far the easy part.

6) look into that triple soundcard mess. Try to disable onboard sound. Try to get the Philips running, or replace with ISA SB16. If the Philips SB or the real SB16 is running, see what's needed to avoid the Live! SB emulation like the plague.

7) Voodoo time!

😎 See what to do with that Ati Rage 128. Yesterday I tried Colin McRae 2, and it seemed quite underpowered even though the system is way above the system requirements of that game. I could run it fine in low res with settings low, but nowhere near high res high settings. So after the Voodoo's are installed, I'll look into just how far this rig will keep up in the non-Voodoo games and if necessary, do something about it. But that's not for now. I haven't even checked the current DirectX version yet.

Archer57 wrote on 2025-05-16, 07:41:

They are fine as is. With no overclocking at least. They were designed to be used in systems of that era, which usually did not […]
Show full quote

Nicolas 2000 wrote on 2025-05-16, 07:16:

At 12V they turn rather slow but I still can clearly feel the airflow to my face just holding them up in the room from 50cm away. So I'll guess they'll create enough fresh air flow in the casing at 12V to avoid pockets of ever increasingly warm air in the case. After all, I'll have one sucking in from the front, one blowing out the back AND one sideways aimed at the voodoo's to stir things up inside. In this setup, I'm not planning on adding heatsinks onto the Voodoo's. I hear different opinions on this, but apparently with good airflow many people find them perfectly fine as-is. Or is that outdated knowledge?

They are fine as is. With no overclocking at least. They were designed to be used in systems of that era, which usually did not have a good airflow if any. Your fan setup should be better than most period correct stuff.

But since they are kind of rare and expensive nowadays many people worry about longevity. Lower temperatures should help with this. Airflow will reduce temperatures a bit, heatsinks + airflow will reduce temperatures a lot. But if that conflicts with what you want from the build in some way it is not critical by any means.

IMO.

The thing with Voodoo2s is that they weren’t designed for CPUs that are as fast as OPs. They heat up the more your CPU can push data to them to process. They heat up more on SLI compared to using a single card and these two combined create more thermal load on the chips than what were the original design parameters.

And as you said, these are getting ridicilously expensive and they are also getting old increasing the possibility of failure and for these reasons improved cooling is adviced. It is relatively easy to deal with straight away rather than wait for them to fail.

I just took another peek into the PC and it turns out my version of the motherboard does not have the ISA slot. It is prepared on the motherboard, but the actual ISA connector is not on it. So that kinda rules out using the SB16 ISA card. In other words: after the previously mentioned fun steps, I must figure out exactly what Philips card I'm dealing with, and try to get it installed. It might have Yamaha goodies onboard so it may be very much worth it. I have read the mobo manual, and disabling the onboard sound can be done with a jumper so that'll be fine.

Voodoo SLI heat: the way it sits now, the Voodoo's will be in adjacent slots, under the graphics card. Would there be any heat advantage in spacing them 1 PCI slot (occupied by the tiniest of network adapters) apart? Or are we looking for truly marginal gains there.

CharlieFoxtrot wrote on 2025-05-16, 07:52:

Archer57 wrote on 2025-05-16, 07:41:

They are fine as is. With no overclocking at least. They were designed to be used in systems of that era, which usually did not […]
Show full quote

Nicolas 2000 wrote on 2025-05-16, 07:16:

At 12V they turn rather slow but I still can clearly feel the airflow to my face just holding them up in the room from 50cm away. So I'll guess they'll create enough fresh air flow in the casing at 12V to avoid pockets of ever increasingly warm air in the case. After all, I'll have one sucking in from the front, one blowing out the back AND one sideways aimed at the voodoo's to stir things up inside. In this setup, I'm not planning on adding heatsinks onto the Voodoo's. I hear different opinions on this, but apparently with good airflow many people find them perfectly fine as-is. Or is that outdated knowledge?

They are fine as is. With no overclocking at least. They were designed to be used in systems of that era, which usually did not have a good airflow if any. Your fan setup should be better than most period correct stuff.

But since they are kind of rare and expensive nowadays many people worry about longevity. Lower temperatures should help with this. Airflow will reduce temperatures a bit, heatsinks + airflow will reduce temperatures a lot. But if that conflicts with what you want from the build in some way it is not critical by any means.

IMO.

The thing with Voodoo2s is that they weren’t designed for CPUs that are as fast as OPs. They heat up the more your CPU can push data to them to process. They heat up more on SLI compared to using a single card and these two combined create more thermal load on the chips than what were the original design parameters.

And as you said, these are getting ridicilously expensive and they are also getting old increasing the possibility of failure and for these reasons improved cooling is adviced. It is relatively easy to deal with straight away rather than wait for them to fail.

I agree. I like to stick heatsinks onto anything that, measured by extremely precise finger thermometer, becomes too hot to hold. Heatsinks do not only reduce maximum temperature, they also increase thermal mass => reduce rate of temperature changes, which is great.

But if OP wants to keep cards original i can definitely understand that and they definitely will work as is. With direct airflow they'll likely still stay cooler than intended, even with the extra load.

Someone needs to produce sticky thermal pads which can be pulled like pull tabs on batteries in modern phones. That'd allow easy removal if needed and remove this concern altogether. Or does something like this already exist?

Nicolas 2000 wrote on 2025-05-16, 08:30:

I just took another peek into the PC and it turns out my version of the motherboard does not have the ISA slot. It is prepared on the motherboard, but the actual ISA connector is not on it. So that kinda rules out using the SB16 ISA card. In other words: after the previously mentioned fun steps, I must figure out exactly what Philips card I'm dealing with, and try to get it installed. It might have Yamaha goodies onboard so it may be very much worth it. I have read the mobo manual, and disabling the onboard sound can be done with a jumper so that'll be fine.

Voodoo SLI heat: the way it sits now, the Voodoo's will be in adjacent slots, under the graphics card. Would there be any heat advantage in spacing them 1 PCI slot (occupied by the tiniest of network adapters) apart? Or are we looking for truly marginal gains there.

If there is airflow the gains from increasing spacing will likely be minimal to non-existent, but also as long as it does not interfere with something there are no downsides - so why not do it anyway?

If I would go the heatsink route, what IC's/RAM need to have a heatsink on a Voodoo2 card? I read everything from just the middle 3DFX IC over all three 3DFX IC's upto all IC's and all RAM.