VOGONS


Retro PC challenge!

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First post, by Paul

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Greetings!

After I've watched some cool and inspiring retro-PC videos on youtube from PhilsComputerLab, WaybackTech, Retro Machines etc (Phils especially), I decided to build my own PC of a kind. I know I've wanted to do so for quiet some time. It's always a great fun for me to delve in this old hardware anyway and I can beat some good old games after as a bonus. Sounds good!
To make it more fun I've decided that this'll be a challenge of sort with a set of rules:
-I wanted a "Glide" machine that can easily play games at maximum graphics settings using no less than 800x600 resolution up to, say year 2001. Yep, I wanted the 3dfx card, not just any 3dfx card but VooDoo3 3x00! And it's not an easy task to find one in Ukraine without using Ebay. Which leads to the next rule.
-No Ebay. Local e-auctions, flea markets, friends, but no Ebay. No time for this anyway! Gotta hurry!
-3 days to build everything!
-Only one gift from one friend can be used in the build (if any).
-No specific sockets or chipsets, only late 90s, early 00s stuff.
-The budget is 200$ (VooDoo's can be expensive).

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Alright let's see what I was able to possess after only 2 days of raiding flea-markets, PC-repair shops, friends and local e-auctions (with prices).

1. Motherboard

Acorp 6A815EP1 v 2.0 (3$) - not bad, it's a pretty decent working horse. Since I do no need that much overclocking and other fancy abilities this is not a bad choice. Tualatin support is alway a good thing. Universal AGP. Also learned that Acorp is still around!

MSI MS-6318 ver. 5 (3$) - not a big fan of MicroATX MBs. But the main problem here is 1.5v AGP, that'll be a problem with some AGP VooDoo cards. Tualatin support is present, which is good.

ASUS TUSL2-C (4.5$) - whoa, what a beast! Shame I do not care about overclocking stuff with this build. It was a pleasant surprise to have been able to find this one, what a great candidate for the build. This one has it all!

ECS P6VXA (3$) - Decent MB with universal AGP slot & up to 1.5GB of ram support. Tualatin support. Good.

Soltek SL-65ME-T (2.7$) - I remember them used to be pretty good and not crazy-expensive motherboards until Soltek simply wanished one day. Universal AGP & Tualatin support. Nice.

Yep, ASUS TUSL2-C is the best choice here. 😀

2. CPU + Coolers

Pentium III 733Mhz Coppermine (1.5$)

Pentium III 1133Mhz Tualatin (3$)

Celeron 1300Mhz Tualatin (3$)

Bought a whole lot of coolers for (10$) Including GlacialTech Igloo 2420.

Aww, I wanted to find Pentium III-S 1400Mhz Tualatin so much, but I failed. Well, I did not want to pay 55$ for the one I actually found.

Alright, Pentium III 1133Mhz Tualatin it is then.

3. RAM

I bought lots of different sdram cheap. Any working 512mb (2x256) pc-133'll do the trick. (20$ total)

4. Sound Card

Sound Blaster Live! (CT4830) (4.4$)

Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 (SB0100) (4.4$)

Sound Blaster Audigy SE (SB0570) (Free from a friend №1)

Yamaha (YMF724) (0.8$)

Hmm I'm not sure if there's a difference in sound quality between the first two. Ah, well. Sound Blaster Live! (CT4830) it is. I'm going to use Yamaha HPH-200 along.

5. HDD and Cables

200GB Samsung SP2014N (11$)

80GB Samsung SP0812N (4.6$)

80GB Samsung SP0812N (4.6$)

40GB Samsung SP0411N (2$)

Surprisingly I had lots of IDE cables.

At first I wanted to use 200GB drive, but it was kind of lound with it's vibrating. Strange.
Anyway 80GB Samsung SP0812N it is. It's more than enough.

6. Optical Disc Drive & FDD

LG CD-R/RW GCE-8525B (2$)

Teac CD-W552E (1.8$)

Toshiba-Samsung DVD-RW SH-S182 (free - has been in my possesion for ages)

Regular no-name FDD (0.8$)

Didn't want to use DVD drive for this old build. Had to go with LG CD-R/RW GCE-8525B here, the most vibration-less CD-drive of the two (with CDSlow).

6. Mouse

My two old mice from the era were: Logitech M-S35 (PS/2) and Primax unknown model COM mouse (FCC ID:KH2MUSGE). Primax is still alive!

It'll be Logitech M-S35.

7. PC Case + PSU

I needed something more or less oldschool, desktop format preferably but not necessarily. Didn't have much luck at first. Everything was either old and in bad shape or just plain ugly. But then I saw this beauty at one of the auctions, and I still had the time to buy it. As you can see at the pictures it is a pretty good looking aluminium Wincor Nixdorf desktop atx case with 150watt SFX PSU (with a scratch here and there, but nothing critical). So I bought it for (9$). And it is possible to put ATX MBs inside, not bad at all. Plus I've installed 12cm Scythe slim fan with double-sided tape right in front of the ventilation holes.

Here's something I was not that happy about, but I had to do it. I had to buy a new, more powerful PSU just in case. Minus whopping (50$) for the 450watt Chietec SFX PSU. Didn't really wanted to risk there.

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8. Monitor

Now that's funny because my friend №2 appeared to have my old and last CRT monitor lying at his home for many years. I just took it back. it is Samsung 959NF. Well, hello there old boy, long time no see! Freebies!

Friend №3 kindly offered to take his old Samsung 4:3 LCD monitor with some good panel. Didn't have time for this, but I'll take it soon anyway!

9. Keyboard

At first I thought I'll buy any modern white keyboard and be done with that. BUT somewhere at the later hours of the 2nd day I've been able to find and buy this legendary k/b - IBM Model M keyboard made in UK in 1995 by Lexmark for (18.5$)! Very happy about that!

10. The Videocard!

Nvidia Riva TNT2 32MB PRO (1.5$) The price made me buy it! And I like it!

Geforce FX 5700 128mb (3.6$) It appeared broken! Scammers!

As I've said it is not an easy task to find VooDoo3 3000 or 3500 (plenty of velocities and 2k though).
I actually know a guy who owns 3 of V3 3k - 2 pci, and an AGP one. But I do not like him very much for a reason, so no buy from him.
At that point It seemed that my Glide-PC idea was falling apart quickly. I was not able to find the videocard.
And then one of my friends called me saying that he's looking at the VooDoo3 3000 lot right now for 18,5$!!! The thing is due to some kind of a glitch I was not able to see this auction lot. Only because he gave me the exact lot's name I was able to find it and buy it finally!
3dfx STB VooDoo3 16MB AGP (18.5$) - YAY! It is mine! I've installed additional Scythe Mini Kaze 50 fan & ram heatsinks (almost forgot about them lying around).

Everything arrived and was ready by the end of the 3rd day. With total money spent no more than ~190$.
It was a fun little thrilling challenge which I managed to successfully complete with some luck and a help of my friends which have always been my biggest treasure.

P.S. Pardon my English, please. 😀
P.P.S. I think I need to install PCI USB2.0 controller.

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Last edited by Paul on 2017-01-11, 09:21. Edited 3 times in total.

P-III-S 1400Mhz, ASUS TUSL2-C, 2x256 Hynix, STB Voodoo3 3000 AGP, Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 (SB0100) / Aureal Vortex 2, 80GB Samsung SP0812N, Teac CD-W552E, Logitech M-S35, IBM Model M, FSP Blue Storm FSP350-60THN-P, USB 2.0 via PCI, Samsung 959NF.

Reply 1 of 10, by jheronimus

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That's a pretty unique approach! Honestly, I'd say you overpaid a bit (I'm using Moscow prices for comparison) — Pentium 3 stuff usually isn't too expensive. However, I think you got an extremely nice case and you were very lucky with prices on Voodoo 3 and IBM keyboard. And you sure saved a lot of time by doing the entire build in three days.

P.P.S. I think I need to install PCI USB2.0 controller.

A network card would also be really useful!

MR BIOS catalog
Unicore catalog

Reply 2 of 10, by firage

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Nice build, congrats. You guys are lucky to have this good stuff available relatively easily.

My big-red-switch 486

Reply 3 of 10, by Paul

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jheronimus wrote:

That's a pretty unique approach!

Yep!

jheronimus wrote:

you sure saved a lot of time by doing the entire build in three days.

I still cannot believe it myself!

jheronimus wrote:

A network card would also be really useful!

Good call!

firage wrote:

Nice build, congrats. You guys are lucky to have this good stuff available relatively easily.

Thank you very much, sir!

P-III-S 1400Mhz, ASUS TUSL2-C, 2x256 Hynix, STB Voodoo3 3000 AGP, Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 (SB0100) / Aureal Vortex 2, 80GB Samsung SP0812N, Teac CD-W552E, Logitech M-S35, IBM Model M, FSP Blue Storm FSP350-60THN-P, USB 2.0 via PCI, Samsung 959NF.

Reply 4 of 10, by deleted_Rc

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Looking good, although imo you overpaid a little on some stuff coming to a 190 end result.
About everything is reasonable period correct except the case colour 😉
There is difference in quality with SB cards and creative own ct cards (SB is usually used by del etc.)
The voodoo 3 is good choice however a 4 or 5 'would' be preferred and this can always be paired wit a voodoo 2 (Sli) for 95-99 Glide games (however this would become more costly)

Reply 5 of 10, by Paul

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Richo wrote:

The voodoo 3 is good choice however a 4 or 5 'would' be preferred and this can always be paired wit a voodoo 2 (Sli) for 95-99 Glide games (however this would become more costly)

No doubts about it, but that would be impossible at least budget-wise.

P-III-S 1400Mhz, ASUS TUSL2-C, 2x256 Hynix, STB Voodoo3 3000 AGP, Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 (SB0100) / Aureal Vortex 2, 80GB Samsung SP0812N, Teac CD-W552E, Logitech M-S35, IBM Model M, FSP Blue Storm FSP350-60THN-P, USB 2.0 via PCI, Samsung 959NF.

Reply 6 of 10, by Paul

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I bought and installed Aureal Vortex 2 (5.5$) zvukovaja_karta_aureal_vortex_2_ba88_dl30_a_01.jpg today instead of SB Live!. Seller didn't even know if it works. It appeared to work just fine. This and Win 98SE gave me fantastic A3D sound in Unreal. I used to own Turtle Beach Montego II back in late 90s, but I did not care much about A3D back then. My god it's good. Hard to believe this technology is 19 years old. Never cared to listen to modern 7.1 Headphones, tho. 😊

P-III-S 1400Mhz, ASUS TUSL2-C, 2x256 Hynix, STB Voodoo3 3000 AGP, Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 (SB0100) / Aureal Vortex 2, 80GB Samsung SP0812N, Teac CD-W552E, Logitech M-S35, IBM Model M, FSP Blue Storm FSP350-60THN-P, USB 2.0 via PCI, Samsung 959NF.

Reply 7 of 10, by jade_angel

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Fantastic build! I love that case especially - has exactly the right blend of retro and modern, and aluminum is never out of style. Very very nice indeed!

Main Box: Macbook Pro M2 Max
Alas, I'm down to emulation.

Reply 8 of 10, by Paul

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jade_angel, thank you very much! 😀

P-III-S 1400Mhz, ASUS TUSL2-C, 2x256 Hynix, STB Voodoo3 3000 AGP, Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 (SB0100) / Aureal Vortex 2, 80GB Samsung SP0812N, Teac CD-W552E, Logitech M-S35, IBM Model M, FSP Blue Storm FSP350-60THN-P, USB 2.0 via PCI, Samsung 959NF.

Reply 9 of 10, by Rhuwyn

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Fantastic build, I am jealous as I would never be able to find all the stuff you did locally in such a short time and if I did I would buy some lottery tickets before my luck streak ran out. As far as I am concerned you got great deals on most things you got comparing to prices in Midwest US.

Reply 10 of 10, by Paul

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Rhuwyn, thanks! I actually moved things around a bit. Changed CPU to Pentium III-S 1400Mhz (finally!). Decided to switch PC case to more, let me say, "domesticated" version plus different PSU. Now it is finished and I'm quite happy about it! The PC turned to be relatively quiet and cool too.
Well, there's one more thing left, need to buy a Pentium III sticker for that white rectangular spot on the case. 🤣

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P-III-S 1400Mhz, ASUS TUSL2-C, 2x256 Hynix, STB Voodoo3 3000 AGP, Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 (SB0100) / Aureal Vortex 2, 80GB Samsung SP0812N, Teac CD-W552E, Logitech M-S35, IBM Model M, FSP Blue Storm FSP350-60THN-P, USB 2.0 via PCI, Samsung 959NF.