VOGONS


First post, by Pilonsi

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Hello,

First of all, I'm new to the forum although I've been reading it for a few weeks. My name is Jorge I'm from Spain and I love to tinker with all kinds of old machines.

So, I've always wanted a dual PIII system, mostly for gaming, and a few days ago I came across a new sealed SCB2 board, and I'm planning to build my system around it. But the problem is it's a rack server board, so it wouldn't fit on a standard case, and only has 2x pci64 ports, so I would need to buy a riser too.

I'm very short on budget and I want to build it slowly with the best parts I can find of that era. The idea i had was 2x PIII-S Tualatin 1,4Ghz, a Voodoo 5, some good sound card (I need to investigate those), a raid controller, 1Gb of ram and a server case such as the Antec 1050b. But now with this board, I'm a little lost. It has integrated raid controller, so that's already done, but it wont fit in any standard case, and only has 2 PCI x slots, which are 64 bits. (And I will need a USB PCI board because it only has 2 USBs, and no PS/2 mouse port)

Do you know any case where this could fit (With a PCI riser)?
Also I'm a bit lost with the PCI connectors. The board has 64 bit 5 volt PCIs, so that won't be compatible with standard peripherals that are 3.3V right? In the mobo manual says:

3.2.2.1 PCI Bus P64-B I/O Subsystem
P64-B supports the following embedded devices and connectors:
• One 184-pin, 5-volt keyed, 64-bit PCI expansion slot connector. The expansion slot can
be used for either a 1-slot or a 3-slot PCI riser card. The riser cards both support 184-
pin, 3.3V keyed, 64-bit PCI expansion slots. The PCI slots on the P64-B PCI bus
support both full-length PCI cards and low-profile PCI cards with the appropriate face
plate.

So this means I have to buy a 5 volt PCI64 to 3 3.3 volt PCI64 riser? Then will I be able to connect standard PCI32 cards there?

Regards, Jorge

Reply 1 of 18, by Tetrium

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Hi, and welcome to Vogons 😀

Tight budget + Voodoo 5 don't mix well though, especially if you want a PCI V5 (unless you already have one laying around).

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Reply 2 of 18, by meljor

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If it is for gaming do yourself a favor and build a single cpu system with an agp slot. The v5 agp is easier to find and much cheaper (and in my tests a bit faster too on a tualatin 1400).

The dual cpu setups are nice but i have a couple of them laying around and never seem to get any use out of the second cpu. For retro gaming i like win9x and that simply doesn't support dual cpu.
For a win2k/win xp system you are better of with a geforce imho and it is easier to use a dual core if you really want to.

I have Compaq dual p2-450mhz, Asus dual s370 1ghz, Tyan dual tualatin 1400, Asus dual athlon xp 2400+ and Intel dual xeon p4 2,4ghz boards and cpu's.

Nice stuff and they all work well but NONE of them are in my builds.....

A v5 is pretty much maxxed out on a tualatin 1400 unless you run it at 640x480. At 1024x768 it is maxxed out on something like a p3-800mhz . Add 4x AA to the mix and it can hardly keep up with a p3-500.

Is a very nice retro card but it does not benefit from a dual cpu system imho.

asus tx97-e, 233mmx, voodoo1, s3 virge ,sb16
asus p5a, k6-3+ @ 550mhz, voodoo2 12mb sli, gf2 gts, awe32
asus p3b-f, p3-700, voodoo3 3500TV agp, awe64
asus tusl2-c, p3-S 1,4ghz, voodoo5 5500, live!
asus a7n8x DL, barton cpu, 6800ultra, Voodoo3 pci, audigy1

Reply 3 of 18, by Pilonsi

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Yes I know voodoos aren't cheap, but my uncle says he has some of them lying around at home, so i keep my fingers crossed. If not, I'm patient so I'll wait for a good deal, and while I wait I have a PCI GeForce Fx5600.

And also I have an Athlon XP 1700+ / Radeon 9000 system to game with. I'm building this because I like it, and it will be a cool machine to play with, so I don't care if it's going to be more or less efficient. I'm building it because it's fun and I want to build a machine with the parts I like the most, and I'm not in a hurry to find parts.

Reply 4 of 18, by meljor

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That's the most important reason to build an old computer: so have FUN!

Just wanted you to know that a lot of people found dual cool (and they are!) but their use is very limited. Above that there always seems to be some sort of compromise.

For example:

Less or no overclock options
Fewer choices for cpu's due to lower fsb options
No agp slot
no isa slot
more picky about ram
more picky about psu
No advantage in old games

Not all in one board ofcourse, just to name a few drawbacks.

But as i said, they are cool. Make sure you tell us about it when it's finished! I hope you uncle comes with with some nice cards.

asus tx97-e, 233mmx, voodoo1, s3 virge ,sb16
asus p5a, k6-3+ @ 550mhz, voodoo2 12mb sli, gf2 gts, awe32
asus p3b-f, p3-700, voodoo3 3500TV agp, awe64
asus tusl2-c, p3-S 1,4ghz, voodoo5 5500, live!
asus a7n8x DL, barton cpu, 6800ultra, Voodoo3 pci, audigy1

Reply 6 of 18, by Pilonsi

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This board i think it has almost all of the drawbacks you said, and it's very different compared with the initial idea of standard atx pc i had. This board needs:

Special (probably custom or modified) casing
PCI riser cards (which makes case compatibility even more difficult)
I'm limited to just pci graphics cards
Probably need a special psu
Special ram

But i think that if i manage to build it, it would be a pretty strange and unique system so i'm going to try 😁

Now i need to find the processors and heatsink (at least one, because the board comes with the placeholder) to test it and see if it works. I will keep you updated!

Alexarns also if you want to have a look to this board's brothers they're called SAI2 and SDS2, also supporting dual tualatins i think.

Reply 7 of 18, by luckybob

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While I love dual cpu builds, only a few are really going to make a decent GAMING setup. The scb2 is just designed to be stuffed into a pizza box. (Any case that is thin and generally rack-mounted) looks a lot like this: http://www.abchost.cz/images/243-3/otevreny-s … pentium-iii.jpg

If you really want a dual tualatin (native), You are going to want the Intel SDS2, the supermicro P3TDE6-G, Tyan Thunder HEsl-T, or the unobtanium Asus TRL-DLS.

AGP tends to be buggy on these systems. They were designed to be servers or CAD workstations, not gaming rigs. I have owned the sds2 and I currently own the tyan. All work WONDERFUL as servers. All sucked when it came to games. At least in my personal experience. In fact I gave up gaming on these kind of systems. I ended up taking my dual tualatin and making a linux router out of it. it replaced my dual p3 xeon setup.

Once you get to the lat agp and XP era, the p4 xeon server boards with agp did quite well. In fact if you want to drop $200+ the ASUS NCCH-DL is an AWESOME gaming board with support for 2x xeon chips. I gamed on one for years.

It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.

Reply 8 of 18, by nforce4max

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This board is Not suitable for a retro build, I see these time to time and turn my nose up at them like Hillary Clinton does a hard days work.

Look for another board that as an AGP slot or different sever board that at least has plenty of pci slots.

On a far away planet reading your posts in the year 10,191.

Reply 9 of 18, by alexanrs

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nforce4max wrote:

This board is Not suitable for a retro build.

Well, there is no such thing as a board not suitable for a retro build. It might not be a good retro GAMING machine, but as long as it works, it will be a retro machine all the same.

OP: If you want a dual-P3 gaming machine, you could also try hunting something like the MSI Pro266TD Master (MS-9105), which isn't only dual-processor but also a DDR board for extra coolness xDD. That being said, the board you have will probably never be a great gaming machine (as far as P3s go), but you'll probably have fun anyway.

Reply 10 of 18, by gdjacobs

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alexanrs wrote:

OP: If you want a dual-P3 gaming machine, you could also try hunting something like the MSI Pro266TD Master (MS-9105), which isn't only dual-processor but also a DDR board for extra coolness xDD. That being said, the board you have will probably never be a great gaming machine (as far as P3s go), but you'll probably have fun anyway.

You'd still be throughput limited by the FSB, no? So, unless there's a proverbial shitload of DMA going on...

All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder

Reply 11 of 18, by Pilonsi

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Hi, thanks for the answers. I know almost all of my other options are easier than this. Also i want a dual tualatin setup, because I've always liked it, I don't know why 😁

I might end up selling the board, as it is brand new, but first I want to do a bit of research to see how hard is going to be to build a system around this. And i know about the cases too. That was one of my main concerns but there are some 3u rack cases with pci riser support which would fit this nicely, it's only it needs very very specific cases. Now im on a hurry but i'll post photos later.

And for gaming, you say this is not going to be suitable because the games are going to be buggy/ not run properly or because it wont be able to play demanding games?

Reply 12 of 18, by Kamerat

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alexanrs wrote:

Looks like I have another Tually board to add to the list in Vogons Wiki xD

http://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/List_of_S … 70_motherboards

Maybe you can add the Asus TUSC too? I have one as a part of the Asus Terminator Tualatin barebone system. 😀
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/Barebone/Ter … or_tualatin.pdf

DOS Sound Blaster compatibility: PCI sound cards vs. PCI chipsets
YouTube channel

Reply 13 of 18, by alexanrs

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gdjacobs wrote:

You'd still be throughput limited by the FSB, no? So, unless there's a proverbial shitload of DMA going on...

Probably, which is why I stated extra "coolness" instead of speed ^^

Kamerat wrote:

Maybe you can add the Asus TUSC too? I have one as a part of the Asus Terminator Tualatin barebone system. 😀
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/Barebone/Ter … or_tualatin.pdf

I'll get to adding boards later today. For now I'm a bit busy with Uni stuff

Reply 14 of 18, by Tetrium

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alexanrs wrote:
Kamerat wrote:

Maybe you can add the Asus TUSC too? I have one as a part of the Asus Terminator Tualatin barebone system. 😀
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/Barebone/Ter … or_tualatin.pdf

I'll get to adding boards later today. For now I'm a bit busy with Uni stuff

I might actually have one of these. The case is basically useless for any other board, but hey, it should indeed support Tualatin, mine came with a 1.2GHz Tualeron iirc.
It was gifted to me in working condition (I saw first hand) though I don't remember if I already taken some parts from it so don't know if it's a complete system at this time.

If the board fits standard ATX cases then it's probably µATX and if not, it should have this bit of info as a sidenote 😀

Whats missing in your collections?
My retro rigs (old topic)
Interesting Vogons threads (links to Vogonswiki)
Report spammers here!

Reply 15 of 18, by Pilonsi

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But why you say this system isn't going to be good for games? Is because I can buy a more powerful system (p4/AGP card for example) or because it is going to be incompatible with games? (Bugs/crashes/etc)?

The games i will play are red baron 3d, diablo, diablo II starcraft, fallout... The most demanding thing I want to play is UT2004 and im aware it will probably not work and if it does, at no more than 640x480.

I have other systems to play more modern games (p4 ht 3,4 / fx5600 and pentium d / 6800xt) so unless games would crash or not run properly i'll probably go ahead

Reply 16 of 18, by Kamerat

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alexanrs wrote:

I'll get to adding boards later today. For now I'm a bit busy with Uni stuff

Thanks! 😀

Tetrium wrote:

I might actually have one of these. The case is basically useless for any other board, but hey, it should indeed support Tualatin, mine came with a 1.2GHz Tualeron iirc.
It was gifted to me in working condition (I saw first hand) though I don't remember if I already taken some parts from it so don't know if it's a complete system at this time.

If the board fits standard ATX cases then it's probably µATX and if not, it should have this bit of info as a sidenote 😀

This system had a Celeron Coppermine 1GHz and it served me as firewall for some years. Now it got a Pentium III 866MHz, but sadly the proprietary PSU is dead.

I don't think the motherboard fits in any standard case as it's PCI slots are about 1 cm deeper into the board.

DOS Sound Blaster compatibility: PCI sound cards vs. PCI chipsets
YouTube channel

Reply 17 of 18, by PCBONEZ

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I think that given you are on a budget the Intel SCB2 is a poor choice.

Unless you get lucky the chassis is going to be expensive.
You need the kind with horizontal slots and in just the right places to accommodate the risers.

Switching to a board that uses the more common add-in slot configuration might mean a more expensive board but the overall cost (board + chassis) would probably be less.
Might be hard to find but there are a few ATX footprint options (vice EATX) that would allow using a standard ATX case.
.

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Reply 18 of 18, by Pilonsi

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Hi, thanks for the advice, but I've decided to go ahead with this 😁

I've been doing some research and so far I've found the risers (the actual ones made for this board), processors, and compatible ram. About the case I will end up using my compatibility tool (dremel 🤣 ). I need to investigate about the power supply and check if I remember correctly and my FX 5600 was PCI. So with patience I want to build some strange machine out of this board, but I dont expect to have it finished in at least a year or more.

(And I'm going to sell a razer ouroboros to pay for the parts 😁)