I got the case in today. For an inexpensive Micro-ATX case I really like it. It's hard to tell on Newegg but there is a panel that pops off to install a 3.5" floppy drive.

chinny22 wrote:

Looking forward to this as well, I'm slowly collecting the parts for a similar P4/Win9x box.
The forest section in Dolphin Cove track from Need for Speed 4 seems to bog down when things get busy with police, traffic, etc. I'm not sure if its a game engine limit or CPU based but that was my main focus

Awesome! let me know how yours goes!

pictures?

See my thread here: Win 98, XP & 8.1 fully supported on one dual core PC? Here is my retro approach!

😀

GeorgeMan wrote:

See my thread here: Win 98, XP & 8.1 fully supported on one dual core PC? Here is my retro approach!

😀

Very nice. Hopefully I will more some parts in soon and get some pics.

if you have any questions, just ask. 😀

The six Nvidia Quadro FX 3000's arrived today. I don't have much time but I did a quick check that doesn't mean much other than they are working.

Holding it in your hand, you can really tell the quality of the card and I think I will be much happier than with some of the goofy looking FX 5900's out there. They sure made some ugly video cards during that period and I absolutely hate most of the GPU coolers from that era.

Same Pentium III 450 system for both tests

EDIT: This was on an Intel SE440BX-2 motherboard, so yes... it looks like FX cards have no trouble on Slot-1, BX boards.

Edit #2: Forgot to mention. I used the same Nvidia 45.23 reference drivers for both cards.

Quake 1, 1280x1024, Demo1

GeForce4 MX440 AGP8X: 106fps
Quadro FX 3000: 241fps

Quake 2, 1280x960, Demo1

GeForce4 MX440 AGP8X: 125fps
Quadro FX 3000: 144fps

Looks like I really ran out of CPU power quickly with Quake 2. Will be interesting to test the card when I get the faster CPU and motherboard up and running.

Had a chance to try the Quadro FX 3000 on a P4 2.40/512/533 and it jumped up to 352-frames-per-second. I cannot wait to get the new motherboard and CPU up and going.

Quake 2
1280x960
Demo1

EDIT: Well it is a Quadro, so I decided to try the DVI connector. I dont feel like moving my 1440P monitor right now but I did move a 1080P monitor to test. 1920x1080 desktop, no problem. Quake 2 would only go up to a 1600x1200 mode and forced a window mode since the monitor won't do 1200. Still got 250 frames-per-second. This thing is a beast hehe.

Got up and running with Celeron 450.

Quake 2, 3.20, 1280x960, demo1, software renderer

Asrock 775, Celeron 450 2.2-GHz: 35.1 frames-per-second

Dell 4100, Northwood 2.4-GHz: 24.8 frames-per-second

I will try the Pentium E5800 once it arrives. It should be a large improvement. I will also test the Asrock board with a Pentium 4 630 3.0-GHz

Nice! Good to see everything is working well.

Does the BIOS have any options for disabling cores, lowering the multiplier?

Hey Phil,

I will look tomorrow and report back.

Forgot to report back, too many projects going on.

No options to enable/disable cores
No voltage options
I don't think I saw any multiplier options
There are FSB options

I haven't had time to play with it but I am thinking about using a GeForce 6800 GT, AGP video card. If there in no real difference between the E5800 and Celeron 450 in pushing that video card then I will probably just use the Celeron 450 because of its low TDP. Maybe I can find out for sure in the coming weeks.