moved to marvin

13-20GB is nice, though there was also 40gb available by the end of 1999.

512MB RAM would be overkill yes, remember that 1999 was a year of gouged RAM prices, so a "'99 correct" build would have to stay in the 32-128mb range to be realistic, even if the motherboards do support more than that 😀

A Voodoo3 3000 would also be nice, not only for the period but in any situation that calls to play old games on old PCs in general for its nice compatibility, and that's not factoring in the benchmarks and the glide API fanaticism. Other nice 1999 correct choices are TNT2, TNT2 Ultra and ATI Rage Fury 128. Avoid Savage2000 if you don't want horrible driver headaches. 1999 games with S3TC are more of a novelty, and Ultima IX anyway. so that would leave just the TNT2 for the available card

I personally would choose the Voodoo3 for this even if there are more 'capable' cards of that year also because Unreal engine never had good D3D/GL renderer backends in that decade. and also that 16-bit screen filter 😀

ODwilly wrote:

So the cards are between either a TNT2 (not m64 but not Ultra either) or an s3 savage 2000.

I think it was sometime in 1999 that I upgraded my Pentium II 266MHz with a newer graphics card. It was an Elsa Erazor III (TNT2 Pro 32MB) which cost about 250€, so the option to go with a TNT2 seems correct for a mid-to-high-end system, unless you're going for what would have been a very expensive system back then.

ODwilly wrote:

Would a 10gb drive be about right? Or would 30gb be a good choice?

Although 30GB already existed, it wasn't very common since it would cost about 200€ or more. As with the video card, such a disk could exist in a high-end system, but not in more common systems. 10-15GB seems somewhat more realistic when paired with the TNT2.

ODwilly wrote:

512mb of ram would be a bit overkill for the time, but I dont see why not. 1gb would be just insane IMHO.

When I upgraded the video card I also bought an extra 64MB of RAM to bring my system's total to 128MB which was pretty good at the time, although not impressive. 256MB was already overkill, since it would've cost something like 450€ and it would go to waste because Win98 already ran very well with 128MB and no game that I can remember required that much anyway.

I remember the computer I got when I was about 10 years old in 1999, it had a TNT2, a DVD decoder card, one stick of RAM (128 or 256, no idea now) a DVD drive, a turtle bridge sound card of some kind, the Hard Drive was somewhere between 10 and 20 Gigs. It had a slot one CPU somewhere between 450MHz and 600ish.

Intel VC820
Pentium IIIEB 800
256MB PC800 RDRAM
GeForce 256 DDR (or a Voodoo3)
Vortex 2 or SBLive

😈

Savage2000 isn't awful but you want to essentially restrict yourself to Quake-based games and Unreal Tournament. I had Viper II running Heretic II at 1600x1200x16 very well the other day.

Ok, so I am going to use the TNT2 which is a really strange OEM card that has a huge black heatsink and no fan. Most generic looking card I have ever owned haha. I have a Voodoo3 3000 but the text upon booting into the bios appears to be in an alien language. It is for sure the strangest thing I have ever seen. I think I will go with this 10gb Seagate drive then, it actually came out of a Dimension 4100. 256mb of ram it is then! Although I am pretty low on small capacity sticks of pc133. I have so many pairs of 256's I could build like 8 1gb systems!

Great choices. Should be a good build. Maybe the voodoo just needs a bios flash?

nekurahoka wrote:

Great choices. Should be a good build. Maybe the voodoo just needs a bios flash?

I am not sure, before it was stored in on a shelf in an anti-static bag it worked just fine. I will play around with it and try cleaning the contacts and such. Maybe it is something as simple as that EDIT: Forgot to mention that I meant bios as in motherboard bios, not the video card's bios.

UPDATE: Expect a rather large post with 4-5 finished or at least half finished machines in it by the end of December. Two Pentium 3 machines, a P4, and an Athlon xp. EDIT: I forgot that there will also be a 486.

Well dang, the seller on the Soyo board this was going to be based upon has no prior ebay feedback and is proving to be difficult. Payment was sent on the 28th, the same day the auction ended. He has failed to respond to my messages. Should I go ahead and cancel payment and cancel the transaction? Or should I wait a few more days?

You should try to make contact, explaining that if he does not send and give you proof of it, you are going to cansel and get you'r money back. Just give the guy a final chance to clean up hi's act. 😉

For a 99' build. What is the fastest slot-1 P3 cpu? I have seen 800mhz with 256kb cache, stamped "00" on it.

brostenen wrote:

For a 99' build. What is the fastest slot-1 P3 cpu? I have seen 800mhz with 256kb cache, stamped "00" on it.

The Slot-1 Coppermine 800 MHz was released the 20th December 1999.

brostenen wrote:

For a 99' build. What is the fastest slot-1 P3 cpu? I have seen 800mhz with 256kb cache, stamped "00" on it.

According to Wikipedia, the Pentium III 800EB eeked into 1999 on December 20. If you want to be nitpicky it's "1999 correct" but realistically something in the 500-733MHz range (this includes Katmai chips) would be more "period correct" in terms of what actual customers would've been able to purchase in 1999 (all of those chips were released in October or earlier), versus stuff that reviewers could get their hands on a week before the end of the year. 😊

Now, that's hardware. If we're talking about games from 1999 (and let's fan that out to 1998-2000 just to give ourselves some breathing room), the 1GHz P3 would not be a bad idea as many titles from that period will likely appreciate the extra speed.

brostenen wrote:

You should try to make contact, explaining that if he does not send and give you proof of it, you are going to cansel and get you'r money back. Just give the guy a final chance to clean up hi's act. 😉

alright that is what I was thinking. I will give him until monday or tuesday to make contact and or send it out

Ahhh.... 500 to 800 mhz. Sweet.
Seems like I can do a 99' correct build, when I recieve that 820 board.
I have an TNT2 ultra laying around.
I'll go for 500, because.... Well... People had to save on something.
Just need that aopen case.

I would recommend eighter TNT2 or Voodoo3 depending on what is the cheapest to buy.

There is still that seller selling cheap non-TV Vodooo3 3500s on ebay. Shipping is expensive tho (because of america and PBI), but shipping costs might be pretty ok for people living in america.

joacim wrote:

There are still that seller selling cheap non-TV Vodooo3 3500s on ebay. Shipping is expensive tho (because of america and PBI), but shipping costs might be pretty ok people living in america.

That is a great option. I know for me the quote on ebay is $10 for shipping

This ad is from PC Gamer magazine for December 1999. Hope it helps.