Depends on whether you have the space for two computers or not and how fond are you of dual booting? I never could get used to dual booting myself so I prefer having single OS machines.

Now that is a nice board and one of the very best that one could desire along with the cpu but I would build it as a second rig without taking anything from the first build. Retro rigs are like potato chips, one isn't enough till one has had the whole bag. I recommend a socket A/370 era cooler and a V3 2k agp are very cheap despite current prices of 3dfx cards. With that K6-3 cachable ram limits don't apply due to the on die L2 cache, the board cache will act as a L3 but ties up a large portion of the limited FSB bandwidth.

Half-Saint wrote:

Depends on whether you have the space for two computers or not and how fond are you of dual booting? I never could get used to dual booting myself so I prefer having single OS machines.

Thanks for your answer!
I have space for 2 PCs, but I don't like dual booting that much... So what do you suggest?

nforce4max wrote:

Now that is a nice board and one of the very best that one could desire along with the cpu but I would build it as a second rig without taking anything from the first build. Retro rigs are like potato chips, one isn't enough till one has had the whole bag. I recommend a socket A/370 era cooler and a V3 2k agp are very cheap despite current prices of 3dfx cards. With that K6-3 cachable ram limits don't apply due to the on die L2 cache, the board cache will act as a L3 but ties up a large portion of the limited FSB bandwidth.

Thanks too! 😊
Heh I know that! I had in the past much hardware of thοse days (ECS P6BAT-A+, BAP-A+, Qdi Advance 5/133E, QDi Advance 10F, with Pentium III 800EB, a ton of Cellys including a Tualatin 1.2GHz), but I sold them all... I still have some s370 processors, but I don't want to buy another motherboard. Instead, I want to stick with the two I have. Unfortunately, I never had anything older. I didn't ever have the chance to sit in front of a 486 or older PC to explore it...

The first rig is built part-by-part anyway, so I don't mind mixing the hardware, as long as it is from the same era (eg. not putting them together with an IDE DVD-RW of 2010 😵 ).
Ι have an ok cooler already, but why a Voodoo 3? Riva is not enough for up to ~2000 3d gaming, along with the Voodoo1?
Unfortunately, 2xVoodoo2 in SLI are faaar out of price range... 😢

Imo keep only 64 ram for the first system,that should be enough for dos gaming,also keep the voodoo 1,for dos 3D accelerated games.
Put all the rest of ram into the second system,oc the k6-3 to 450 mhz,and replace the tnt2 m64 with a vodoo 3 2000,which can pe easily oc to voodoo 3 3000 frecquency,that way you'll have better performance compared with the m64 plus compatibility with glide games.
The m64 was a cheaper,slower version of the tnt2,with 64 memory bus and lower graphic and memory speed,so it has weaker performance compared with the voodoo 3.

Keep both and get a 386 or 486 to round it off.

My dilemma is even worse. I have literally about 15 different systems to choose from. Of course I don't have the space to keep them all nor the time to actually use them...

Half-Saint wrote:

Keep both and get a 386 or 486 to round it off.

My dilemma is even worse. I have literally about 15 different systems to choose from. Of course I don't have the space to keep them all nor the time to actually use them...

I used to horde a lot more than that but time and money was always a problem. The trick to it is how you arrange them and how good the environment is that you are keeping them in. I found it easier later on to just break them down and store the parts in cabinets and boxes then only pulled what I needed or was interested in using that day. For complete rigs closet space made all the difference (thank God that I am not a clothes hound). In the end I wasn't able to save any of it due to a house fire but rebuilding the collection only takes time and money.

Since I won't be able to build the project I'll just give the idea away. Basically just building a custom case from scratch that mounted a single AT style board with psu on the bottom and on the top level a single ATX style board with psu with the whole unit being a traditional desktop instead of a tower case but still possible. The drives were to be mounted in bays next to ATX board while the AT shared space with both power supplies, all the cards for the AT board would have their screw mounts poking through to the outside the case below the top level. The top level (ATX) would have the screws for addon cards mounted normally as with most case designs. Aside for the power connections and ribbon cable the whole thing would be modular with the front being removable and each board try/bay being removable through the front.

I have the same board in my Time-Machine 😀

It is very good. The ONLY downside I could find is being unable to disable ACPI. This means IRQ2/9 is taken and you will get a conflict with a Roland MPU401AT in combination with a PCI Sata controller.

I use a K6-III in my chip with FSB running at 66 MHz. Through software I can change the multiplier and have it run between 133 and 400 MHz. Playing with L1 and L2 cache allows you slowing it down to 386 and 486 speeds. Difference chips (Pentium, MMX, K6) will give you different performances, especially when cache is disabled. K6 is great for slow games, Pentium is also slow, Pentium MMX is quite fast, too fast for games running best on an average 386.

There are other boards that allow you changing the FSB through the BIOS, also very neat.

I have one Time-Machine PC which is the PC I always wanted for the time period I am interested in. I also have a test bench and here I can build whatever I like. Just grab the parts from the shelf and off I go. It is simply too hard / costly / inflexible to build several machines. I always end up pulling things out and testing other parts anyway.

Nahkri wrote:

Imo keep only 64 ram for the first system,that should be enough for dos gaming,also keep the voodoo 1,for dos 3D accelerated games.
Put all the rest of ram into the second system,oc the k6-3 to 450 mhz,and replace the tnt2 m64 with a vodoo 3 2000,which can pe easily oc to voodoo 3 3000 frecquency,that way you'll have better performance compared with the m64 plus compatibility with glide games.
The m64 was a cheaper,slower version of the tnt2,with 64 memory bus and lower graphic and memory speed,so it has weaker performance compared with the voodoo 3.

I know, I know about the M64. I searched a bit and it seems that I can obtain a V3 2k for about 30 euros and the overclocking to 3k levels seems pretty easy as well. Thanks for the idea.

Half-Saint wrote:

Keep both and get a 386 or 486 to round it off.

That's easier said than done! Why don't you sell me some parts? 🤣

nforce4max wrote:

Since I won't be able to build the project I'll just give the idea away. Basically just building a custom case from scratch that mounted a single AT style board with psu on the bottom and on the top level a single ATX style board with psu with the whole unit being a traditional desktop instead of a tower case but still possible. The drives were to be mounted in bays next to ATX board while the AT shared space with both power supplies, all the cards for the AT board would have their screw mounts poking through to the outside the case below the top level. The top level (ATX) would have the screws for addon cards mounted normally as with most case designs. Aside for the power connections and ribbon cable the whole thing would be modular with the front being removable and each board try/bay being removable through the front.

That's interesting, but I recently built my desktop based on an ITX case, hanging down from my fairly large desk which is mounted on the wall, in order to keep things super-minimal. This is how it looks-like:

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

I have the same board in my Time-Machine 😀
I use a K6-III in my chip with FSB running at 66 MHz. Through software I can change the multiplier and have it run between 133 and 400 MHz. Playing with L1 and L2 cache allows you slowing it down to 386 and 486 speeds. Difference chips (Pentium, MMX, K6) will give you different performances, especially when cache is disabled. K6 is great for slow games, Pentium is also slow, Pentium MMX is quite fast, too fast for games running best on an average 386.
I have one Time-Machine PC which is the PC I always wanted for the time period I am interested in. I also have a test bench and here I can build whatever I like. Just grab the parts from the shelf and off I go. It is simply too hard / costly / inflexible to build several machines. I always end up pulling things out and testing other parts anyway.

Heh thanks for the advice. I'll see it in action.
Why to do such a thing (testing parts here and there) and not use them? I had A LOT of old (but not 486-old) stuff but ended up selling them all because I didn't use them.

GeorgeMan wrote:

I know, I know about the M64. I searched a bit and it seems that I can obtain a V3 2k for about 30 euros and the overclocking to 3k levels seems pretty easy as well. Thanks for the idea.

Are you talking about an AGP Voodoo3 2000? 30€ sounds like an awful lot of money..

Half-Saint wrote:

GeorgeMan wrote:

I know, I know about the M64. I searched a bit and it seems that I can obtain a V3 2k for about 30 euros and the overclocking to 3k levels seems pretty easy as well. Thanks for the idea.

Are you talking about an AGP Voodoo3 2000? 30€ sounds like an awful lot of money..

Agreed. AGP Voodoo3 2k cards are common. PCI are less common but for 30 Euros I'd expect to get a 3k card, not a 2k in PCI.

Half-Saint wrote:

GeorgeMan wrote:

I know, I know about the M64. I searched a bit and it seems that I can obtain a V3 2k for about 30 euros and the overclocking to 3k levels seems pretty easy as well. Thanks for the idea.

Are you talking about an AGP Voodoo3 2000? 30€ sounds like an awful lot of money..

So you say not to bid on this? I don't find anything cheaper... 😢 It's agp.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3dfx-Interactive-210- … =item20d6ce791a

It's about 21 euros if he accepts the offer.
Or stick with the M64 till I find a Voodoo at a good price?

I'd say stick with the m64 till u find a cheaper voodoo 3 2000,i bought mine with about 7 euros,altough not from ebay,but some local ebay style website,usualy buying from your own country means cheaper prices and cheaper transport.
Another option,if no cheaper voodoo 3 2000 or 3000 pops up on ebay,is to replace the tnt 2 m64 with a tnt 2 pro or ultra,it wont have glide compatibility,but it will have a lot better performance then the m64.

Nahkri wrote:

I'd say stick with the m64 till u find a cheaper voodoo 3 2000,i bought mine with about 7 euros,altough not from ebay,but some local ebay style website,usualy buying from your own country means cheaper prices and cheaper transport.
Another option,if no cheaper voodoo 3 2000 or 3000 pops up on ebay,is to replace the tnt 2 m64 with a tnt 2 pro or ultra,it wont have glide compatibility,but it will have a lot better performance then the m64.

Thanks. Now it's time to find an old ATX case+PSU for the 2nd build! 🤣

Fun fact: picked up an unidentified Creative gfx card this weekend. Turned out to be a 32MB TNT2 Ultra!

Half-Saint wrote:

Fun fact: picked up an unidentified Creative gfx card this weekend. Turned out to be a 32MB TNT2 Ultra!

Damn u 😜
The second build has received an update, see here: What mobo to choose for retro build & VGA advice!
I got all of them for 5 euros, the QDi/ PIII 800 / 2x128MB SDR for 1 euro, the PIII 1000 / Intel mobo for 3 euros and the GF4 MX4000 for another 1€.

So i'm searching for an appropriate card for it.

Is there any way for the K6-III to function on the Qdi Advance II?
I put it in, the PC works, but in the BIOS the CPU is not recognised, so it feeds it with 3,2 volts!
Unfortunately, it's a jumperless mobo, so I cannot lower it more than ~3v. With the K6, I can provide 2,0-2,4v properly.

For a first gen k6-3 it will work but not certain about the newer 180nm K6-3+, drop one in and you won't have to worry about cachable limits so you can go for the moon ram wise.

Which BIOS version does the MB have? The newest one seems to be v2.7.
(Are you trying to use a K6-III or a K6-III+?

It's a k6-3 400, 250nm, not a k6-3+. The pc starts, but i'm gonna fry it at 3+ volts! Not properly recognised (and the l2 cache not sure if working, because as I said it was gonna get fried! About bios version I'll inform you later.
What is possible to do to supply it with the right voltage? The mobo can surely provide 2,4 volts and has multi adjust, but all soft, complete jumperless design damn it!