I mostly have drawers of parts I throw together..... 😀

That's a nice selection you have there though indeed.

Cool. No strong MIDI.

I intend at some point to dip my feet into the Roland waters. Right now I think a lot of my GPU choices could be better. Still combing through the forums looking for example builds and comparing hardware to what games I actually play on a regular basis. Basically I want all my bases covered from 486 to Direct X 10. I have other modern PCs which I have not listed which cover my current gaming requirements from Direct X 10 and up. My Retro PC love is LucasArts Star Wars games, and the usual Top 10 of every era my Retro PCs cover. And I also have those two boards which would cover a broad field if placed with the correct hardware. I feel it might be time to get out of those OEM machines and into some custom built ones. Thankfully my 2 earliest machines are clones with very nice cases.

125 views an only 2 commentators? Guys...

CPU: Intel Pentium II 333MHz
MB: Gateway G333
RAM: 64MB RAM
GPU: ATI Rage II+
GPU: Voodoo2 (1X0-0649-306)
GPU: Voodoo2 (1X0-0782-006)
AUDIO: AWE64 (CT4520)
OS: Windows 95 OSR 2

This setup needs a faster CPU to make full use of the Voodoo II SLI.

I assume its an Intel LX board so no support for 100 MHz FSB or voltage below 1.8V? If that is the case a Coppermine Celeron 733 or 766 (or 1100@733) + a slotket is the best you could get. The slotket needs to support FCPGA CPUs and voltage adjustment as you need to set it to 1.8V manually. If your board for some reason wont support voltage below 2.0V that is also fine but you need a decent cooler. You could also get a FCPGA P3 1000 with 100 Mhz FSB and run it at 666 MHz, the performance should be the same as the Celeron 733 but the P3 is harder to find. Avoid Slot-1 versions of the Coppermine CPUs if you are not sure whether your board supports voltage below 1.8V or not.

A somewhat less adventurous route would be to get a Mendocino Celeron 533, any slotket should work with one of those but it isnt really fast enough to make full use of the Voodoo II cards.

The fastest native Slot1 CPU with 66MHZ FSB is the Mendocino Celeron 433 but its only ~20% faster than your PII 333. A Katmai PIII 600(100) running at 6*66 MHz is also about 20% faster then your current CPU.

Some boards needs BIOS support to work with Coppermine CPUs, other boards dosnt really care, you need to search the NET to see in what category your boards fits and if there are any BIOS updates.

rodimus80 wrote:

So I finally went through the effort of auditing my equipment. What's in what case, etc... I'm looking for opinions on the bui […]
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So I finally went through the effort of auditing my equipment. What's in what case, etc... I'm looking for opinions on the builds. There is always room for improvement and I would like to get everyone's opinion.

CPU: Intel Pentium MMX 133MHz
MB: Intel 82430VX
RAM: 16MB RAM
GPU: ATI Mach64
GPU: Voodoo2 8MB (120-0782-006)
AUDIO: Sound Blaster Pro 2 (CT1600)
OS: DOS 6.22 / Windows 3.11

Laying Around:
Asus P5A-B Super Socket 7[/size]

Just for the sake of trying it out.... Test the P-1 with the P5A-B.
I have a SS7 (MVP-3) wich are running great with a P1-133 (non MMX)

I swapped out the GeForce 6200 for a BFG 6800 GT AGP. PC was shutting itself down while playing games. Took off side panel and PC is no longer crashing. Time for a fan install in the case I think.

I presently have a somewhat disparate selection of components, none of which make a compete pre-Pentium system. This makes me sad. I need an AT compatible PSU, and an ISA IDE controller, GFX and IO card to get my 1987 Am386SX-40 up and running (for some unknown reason I ditched a bunch of old kit about 10 years ago). I've got a Soundblaster AWE Gold and a Voodoo 1 card raring to go. This would also enable me to get my socket 3 board going (1995 ABit AB-PB4). I miss the days when you could overclock a DX4-100 to 120Mhz with the mere changing of a jumper and no need for a huge heatsink and fan. So my running system is:

CPU: Pentium MMX 233Mhz
Mobo: Asus P5A-B
RAM: 256MB 133Mhz SDRAM
GFX: Voodoo 3
Audio: Soundblaster AWE 64 Gold
OS: Windows 98 SE / DOS 6.22

Great for running all those 3DFX games that you can't emulate properly in DOSBox!

Are you talking about re-configuring the parts you own (i.e. permutations of your parts) or suggestions that include possibly acquiring additional parts? The biggest optimization I see right now for you is getting good CPU / Video pairings. Like wine / food pairings.

blank001 wrote:

Are you talking about re-configuring the parts you own (i.e. permutations of your parts) or suggestions that include possibly acquiring additional parts? The biggest optimization I see right now for you is getting good CPU / Video pairings. Like wine / food pairings.

I'm looking for exactly what you said. The best pairings. The games I play are from about 1995 to present. I like to play my games at Highest Settings for the time of the game. I'm starting to veer away from my OEM PII-PIII systems which is why I have those two boards. I'm going to need basically two more cases. Any recommendation on good cases for those two boards?

blank001 wrote:

Like wine / food pairings.

Could this be the classiest analogy ever used to describe computer hardware?

misterduffy wrote:

I presently have a somewhat disparate selection of components, none of which make a compete pre-Pentium system. This makes me s […]
Show full quote

I presently have a somewhat disparate selection of components, none of which make a compete pre-Pentium system. This makes me sad. I need an AT compatible PSU, and an ISA IDE controller, GFX and IO card to get my 1987 Am386SX-40 up and running (for some unknown reason I ditched a bunch of old kit about 10 years ago). I've got a Soundblaster AWE Gold and a Voodoo 1 card raring to go. This would also enable me to get my socket 3 board going (1995 ABit AB-PB4). I miss the days when you could overclock a DX4-100 to 120Mhz with the mere changing of a jumper and no need for a huge heatsink and fan. So my running system is:

CPU: Pentium MMX 233Mhz
Mobo: Asus P5A-B
RAM: 256MB 133Mhz SDRAM
GFX: Voodoo 3
Audio: Soundblaster AWE 64 Gold
OS: Windows 98 SE / DOS 6.22

Great for running all those 3DFX games that you can't emulate properly in DOSBox!

Which revision of the p5a-b do you have? versions below 1.06 can only cache 128mb ram, should be faster.

rodimus80 wrote:

CPU: Intel Pentium MMX 133MHz MB: Intel 82430VX RAM: 16MB RAM GPU: ATI Mach64 GPU: Voodoo2 8MB (120-0782-006) AUDIO: Sound B […]
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CPU: Intel Pentium MMX 133MHz
MB: Intel 82430VX
RAM: 16MB RAM
GPU: ATI Mach64
GPU: Voodoo2 8MB (120-0782-006)
AUDIO: Sound Blaster Pro 2 (CT1600)
OS: DOS 6.22 / Windows 3.11

Did you clocked it down? As Pentium MMX was only from 166MHz.

On this system you could easily install Windows 95 (or 98 with additional memory).

Unless you have some specific games causing you trouble...grumble, grumble, Hi Octane, grumble grumble P3 I think the below would cover you well.
I've stuck with your currant hardware as much as possible but given recommendations if I think it'll make a real difference

Early Dos PC
CPU: Intel 486 DX2 33MHz
RAM: 8MB RAM
AUDIO: Creative Sound Blaster 2.0
OS: DOS 6.22 / Windows 3.11
Notes: Virgie is the popular choice of video card here but as long as everything works ok whatever is in there is fine, still may be a bit fast for some games.

Late Dos PC
CPU: Intel Pentium II 333MHz
MB: Gateway G333
RAM: 64MB RAM
GPU: NVIDIA TNT2 M64 (Dell)
GPU: Voodoo2 8MB (120-0782-006)
AUDIO: AWE64 (CT4520)
OS: Windows 95 OSR 2
Notes: Even though its the cut down TNT2 it'll be plenty fast for dos with good compatibility. Voodoo2 for any dos games that need it and what a lot of people consider the ultimate card for dos gaming an AWE64, This thing will play any dos game you though at it. It's also roughly period correct for a late Win95 PC hardware wise, but is really an excuse to use it. The next 2 PC's should be your main 9x gaming PC

Win9x DirectX PC
CPU: Intel Pentium III 1000MHz (Coppermine)
MB: Dell Dimension 4100
RAM: 256MB PC133
GPU: ATI Rage II+
GPU: Voodoo2 (1X0-0649-306)
GPU: Voodoo2 (1X0-0782-006)
AUDIO: Creative SB Live! (CT4780)
OS: Windows 98 SE
Notes: Not to sure about ATI cards, I like to use GF4 Ti cards with BX boards. SB Live is good for Win9x but prefer the refined drivers of the Audigy 2 ZS which is easier to find then the Audigy 4.

Voodoo3 PC
CPU: Intel Pentium III 1200MHz (Tualatin)
MB: Dell Optiplex GX150
RAM: 512MB
GPU: Voodoo 3 3000
OS: Windows 98 SE
AUDIO: ? See above
Notes: Your strongest 3DfX PC

Left overs
CPU: Intel Pentium MMX 133MHz
MB: Intel 82430VX
RAM: 16MB RAM
GPU: ATI Mach64
AUDIO: Sound Blaster Pro 2 (CT1600)
OS: DOS 6.22 / Windows 3.11
Notes: Get a Voodoo 1 and you have an excuse to use this but really not much this can do that the P2 300 cant, also upgrade the sound card to a Yamaha for something different.

CPU: AMD AthlonXP 3200+ 2.21GHz (Barton)
MB:
RAM: 1GB
GPU: Nvidia GeForce 6200 (or 6800)
OS: Windows XP SP1
Notes: To new for me 😜
Laying Around:
Tyan S1854 Trinity 400
Asus P5A-B Super Socket 7