Got around to testing the CPU today - works great!

Haven't installed an OS yet because I'm still waiting on housemate to give the SSD back, so I used some boot CD I had laying around to do some hardware testing in the meantime. DBANed the 80GB HDD, even though it was advertised as new, better safe than sorry on eBay. Ran some memory diagnostics, that was all good.

Ghetto setup on the floor near the build desk.

Time to put on a movie 😀

Excellent.

Now I have to format it to FAT32, get that SSD and I can start setting up the OS before installing the loop.

No posts in awhile, been busy with that dreaded "real life".

Got my Samsung 850 EVO back, acrylic solvent and some other very minor things arrived. I'm going to get Win98 set up, installed and hardware stress tested for stability before preparing, and finally completing the final build. 😀

Jade Falcon wrote:

This system is looking cooler with every post!

+1 !

What is DBAN though ? A low level format tool ?

AzzKickr wrote:

Jade Falcon wrote:

This system is looking cooler with every post!

+1 !

What is DBAN though ? A low level format tool ?

just a disk wiper, nothing lowlvl though

Didn't get to do as much as I had hoped on the weekend, but I have some non-interesting photos and some story to tell at least.

A syringe that cost me $4 delivered, to fill the loop.

850 EVO 120GB to install Windows on. Finally got it back. Formatted it to FAT32, aligned everything, should be good to go, right? Wrong!

Off to a good start.

NOPE!

I tried a couple of times, and it always resulted in a BSOD and then that. I moved PCI slots around, I moved SATA ports around - still the same. Changed the CPU back to the old one - same. Changed RAM - same. Changed GPU - same.

I was getting frustrated. Reset the BIOS - same.

It was decidedly a good time to go investigating further. I know it worked fine installing on my IDE hard drive back when I was originally testing the motherboard, so I installed Win98SE again on that. No issues.

I thought the SATA controller just might not like this board, which was worrying. There aren't many affordable PCI SATA controllers with a built in BIOS. I didn't want to have to go through the whole motherboard bios editing to load a SATA Controller BIOS while replacing the logo or something. At this point I thought it was best to take a break and think about options. I loaded up some Quake III and fragged away against bots while pondering the situation. About an hour later, I decided to go and look through all the BIOS settings, one by one to see what may cause an issue.

I gave it a new CMOS battery just in case - even though I replaced it when I got it. Virus Scan was enabled, and I know that can cause issues writing to MBR, so I disabled that. PnP OS was disabled, so I enabled that. I set the date correctly. I tried once more and it seemed to work. I didn't keep my hopes up though.

It copied the files in no time at all - as expected with an SSD. It didn't get this far, so that was nice. I was dreading the restart, but it survived the restart. CD Key entered and details filled in.

I was cautiously optimistic. Another restart.

I still didn't trust it. I restarted the computer a number of times, and it always seemed to work.

At this point I'd been trying to get it installed for six hours, something that should have only taken 20 minutes if I had just checked over BIOS settings in the first place. I didn't feel like doing anything else hardware or software related at this point, so I went back to working on another retro project.

I'll do more later. I just don't want to look at this damn PC again for the rest of the day. 😵

Jade Falcon wrote:

I been there. 98 can be buggy when it comes to installing on such setups. But once you find what works your good.

Hope so 😀 It was a real pain in the arse, and one of the few times I've felt like I'm failing miserably at a project. I was hoping I wouldn't have to go and use the brown ASUS CUSL2 and redo all my cables because of new lengths.

Here's what I did yesterday after work instead of working more on the Windows install (not entirely related to this project, but stuff in similar vein):

Top plates for both GPUs (bottom two items). Since I have access to a laser cutter now, thought I'd do that. They'll be more spaced out than that, they are just squished together to save space. The top two are backing/light diffusing plates for the 3dfx RGB backplate I'm making for my friend. It is on Opal acrylic, so my ones will be painted black.

Top plate for aforementioned friend's backplate. Black acrylic. I may do all my expansion slots on this instead of on the opal and painting it, if I can fit enough onto the sheet I bought.

The holes are there because they'll be screwed together because that's the look he wants. I would have done it to mine too if I didn't already make half of it without holes, and I hate drilling thin acrylic - especially when the green stuff was expensive as hell. Might just chop up some stainless steel button head hex screws and glue them on. Matches the CPU block/fittings anyway. 🤣

That aside -

Been gathering all the drivers and software for installation and testing. If it is stable, it is the installation that'll remain on it. I'll be running the following, based on experience from my other systems. If anyone has any recommended changes I'm open to suggestions though!

• Nvidia Drivers: Version 45.23
• 3dfx Drivers: Latest official 3dfx drivers. I've never dived too far into the modified/custom drivers, but I might do it.
• Audio: Whatever version of the Sound Blaster drivers I've always used. Not sure, it was from Vogonsdrivers.
• Chipset: Probably Hyperion 4in1 ver 4.43. Seems to be the most stable for my chipset/Win98SE from research.

I'll likely be sticking with DirectX 7 since I don't play anything past that and works best from experience. Will use those updated Glide files that I got from Falconfly awhile ago that have served me well.

Will be running 3Dmark99, 00 and 01, plus UT99 and Q3A. If I can do all of that well, and faster than my PIII 1GHz w/ Quadro2 Pro/V5 PCI on an Intel 815E chipset board I'll be happy. I could get that thing running UT99 on the PCI V5 5500 at over 100-120fps in some maps.

Also hoping to take some nice, high res glamour shots of things on the DSLR soon, because I love doing that. Probably when backplates are done. 😜

Decided to put everything on one opal sheet instead, and just paint it. Colour consistency! It'll also be 1mm thinner in total. Also good for testing my friends backplate since I had to use the space on something.

Holes are for the faux-screws. May be real screws if I decide to drill holes in the UV acrylic. I have the 3dfx card, the Canopus card, the sound card there. I don't think I'll do it for the SATA controller or the Network card since they are smaller and hidden, so they can have normal painted UV green backplate.

Cautiously plugged this in. I was scared. This thing is rare and expensive, and I didn't want it to explode.

Thankfully it didn't. I did have to clear the CMOS and redo all my settings for it to work though after having a the GF2 GTS in the AGP slot, otherwise it kept hanging on verifying DMI pool. This chipset is really, really fickle compared to the Intel ones I always use.

Didn't have much free time, but installed some drivers and plugged in both cards at once. 😀

Installed Nvidia drivers, 3dfx drivers, USB storage device drivers and chipset drivers. Next up is DirectX and benchmarking stuff.

------------

Didn't want to make a new post. Run 3DMark99 during my self-imposed lunch break.

DirectX 7.0A and GF2 Ultra. No overclocking done or settings modified yet, just wanted to make sure it worked.

Mm, that 10 year old LCD delay.

Neat.

V5 5500 works fine and as expected in benchmarks too, and can do a stable OC to 183MHz as I've done with this same card in other PCs. Just shy of 7000 points on this setup vs the ~6030 points on my 815E / 1GHz setup. Haven't played with OC on GF2 yet since that takes a lot more time than the 3dfx card (since I already knew where it could go to).

Everything is looking solid on the hardware side now that I've got BIOS and other settings configured. Because I won't have an optical drive in the final PC and almost all my games are on discs still, I'm going to get the HDD set up and most games and software installed on it, except UT99/Q3A which are going on SSD since I play them the most. I've got a lot of games, so it'll probably take an afternoon or two.

Also, an update on top plate:

I'm fairly settled on this design. The 3dfx/nvidia/creative logo will be laser etched into the surface.

The Creative one gives a good representation of the spacing between the two parts. In the middle, the TOXiC and 5mm below facing the case side panel the UV green will be visible.

I've finished installing almost all of the games, getting the above parts made this week, getting my stickers this week.

My plan for finishing the build from here:

• Finish installing games
• Overclock GF2 Ultra to find out a comfortable limit for it.
• Put CPU block on motherboard
• Build backplates
• Paint acrylic
• Place acrylic into the case
• Cable management with fans
• Clean/flush radiator once again to be sure
• Radiator/Res installation
• Cut/Bend tubing
• Build loop
• Test with distilled water for leaks for 24hrs or so
• Fill with actual coolant
• Done!

The part that has had me worried, and stressing me the most since I began this project is DONE.

Over three hours of back and forth modifications over six retention clips to make it not too loose, but also to actually clip on and stay secure has paid off.

May all those heatsinks sacrificed to the cause rest in peace. You will not be forgotten.

It. Looks. Awesome.

Yeah I'm going to look into some ways to secure it further, especially considering it will be transported in the future. I've got a number of ideas but they all revolve modifications or fabrication of some type. The block is 100 grams lighter than the heatsink I've been using on my PIII 1GHz (230g vs 340g) system for the last 5-6yrs, but there'll be liquid in it too, plus the weight of the fittings.

Also just thought I'd post some small updates. Haven't done much after work this week:

• Top plates for backplates have been made and shipped to me, I'll probably receive it on Monday if Australia Post plays nice.
• Cleaned/flushed radiator a second time and mounted reservoir to it.
• Did some more sleeving.
• Realised I completely forgot the RAM heatsinks. I'll just buy some and add them in.

Aside from that there's nothing super exciting. Hoping to start putting hardware in the case this weekend.

x0zm_ wrote:

Yeah I'm going to look into some ways to secure it further, especially considering it will be transported in the future. I've go […]
Show full quote

Yeah I'm going to look into some ways to secure it further, especially considering it will be transported in the future. I've got a number of ideas but they all revolve modifications or fabrication of some type. The block is 100 grams lighter than the heatsink I've been using on my PIII 1GHz (230g vs 340g) system for the last 5-6yrs, but there'll be liquid in it too, plus the weight of the fittings.

Also just thought I'd post some small updates. Haven't done much after work this week:

• Top plates for backplates have been made and shipped to me, I'll probably receive it on Monday if Australia Post plays nice.
• Cleaned/flushed radiator a second time and mounted reservoir to it.
• Did some more sleeving.
• Realised I completely forgot the RAM heatsinks. I'll just buy some and add them in.

Aside from that there's nothing super exciting. Hoping to start putting hardware in the case this weekend.

Did you consider 3d printing a sleeve/bracket for the socket? Otherwise using 2 folded aluminum strips which slide over the socket and the waterblock.

Richo wrote:

Did you consider 3d printing a sleeve/bracket for the socket? Otherwise using 2 folded aluminum strips which slide over the socket and the waterblock.

Yeah I'll look into something like that too. Good idea!

I wanted to paint today, but it's raining so that's not going to happen. 🙁 So in the meantime, here's some more UV photos from last night when I was bored and wanted to see what was reactive on the motherboard.

The edge of the CPU does.

The fiducial markers do.

The back of the GPU I'm not using but I do my testing on because it doesn't require molex glows really nicely.

Eh, maybe the rain will stop later today so I can do some painting. 😀

Some work updates:

Home from work, time to do something. Case backing plate. Need to paint this side entirely black. Have to sand it 😀

Easy.

Painting tape on the edges so UV light can get in.

But then there was a knock on the door and I was interrupted!

The postman is here, and what did he bring?

Ooh. Oooooh. GPU/Sound Card/SATA Card top plates. I want to see these.

Sorry for the blurry pictures, I'm holding phone in one hand and lights in the other.

Looks great IMO. 😎

Guess I'll have to put them together tomorrow, because it's getting dark and I'm not leaving stuff outside for wildlife to crap all over at night.

Damn Winter. 🤣

-------------

Bonus after-dinner pictures:

What they'll look like on the GPUs (no screws in yet)

I was originally going to paint the back of the UV acrylic black, but I sort of like this see-through look where you can slightly see the PCB behind it. It's pretty neat.

I'll take some nice photos once they're assembled properly and installed on their respective cards 😀 😀

Jade Falcon wrote:

This is getting really insane O cool!
Can't wait for it to be done.

Thanks man, really appreciate the kind words.

Again it was raining all day, and weather forecasts say it'll be raining tomorrow. So no painting, but I did some more acrylic solvent application/gluing.

This is the main shroud for the PSU area/radiator. It was two separate pieces, but it's been bonded together now. The little white dot is where the paper it was resting on got stuck, but no issue since it'll come off with the protective film.

I also put the two GPU and Sound Card plates together - haven't done the SATA card yet. I'm not sure if I'll even end up using that plate - more on that at the end.

So here's some pictures of the three cards together. They were setting for about 5-6 hours before I took these pics. They require a full 48 hours to fully cure, so that will happen before I attach them for real. 😎

I'll have to take that giant barcode/FCC sticker off the Sound Blaster, it looks awful under the green 😜 😜

I also found some better looking rivets for those holes. Cost me $1.50 from China but will take awhile to arrive, so I'll have to install them at a later date. No big issue though!

About the SATA card -- unless I can find a full length PCI bracket for the card, I don't think I'll put the plate on it. It came with a half height one. As it stands, it is sitting in the motherboard without any support, and I don't to put any more pressure/weight/stress on it without that security. That said, I might see if I can source an inexpensive acrylic (preferably UV blue or green) rod that I can use as a small support stand for it. If I can get one for less than $2-$3, I'll do it. Otherwise it'll remain bare until I find a bracket or support stand.

Hope the rain stops soon though. 😀 I'm hyped to get this thing finished, but I can't build without painting these backing panels and installing them.

Well, the rain stopped today. Haven't been able to paint because of it, and hoping I can shortly when the ground outside dries up. It was really frustrating.

Meanwhile, here's some photos of the radiator/res and stuff that I did today.

Table is a mess.

Reservoir mounted on radiator.

Outlet drain. Top part is where the loop goes out.

Radiator to reservoir connections. Had to get some extra 90 degree fittings for that because of fan clearance at the top.

I'm sure it's dry by now 😜

AzzKickr wrote:

I'm sure it's dry by now 😜

More updates soon, I promise! I've been busy with work and other real life commitments 😀