VOGONS


My Socket 7 Pentium MMX build - Updated

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First post, by Bancho

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When I was a young teenager i never could afford to upgrade to the Pentium line of CPU's, having to settle with AMD's K6 233.

So I've decided to build one seeing as now i can 😁

I was luckly enough to find a NOS AT mini tower case to house all the parts in.

Specs as follows :-

Intel Pentium 200mmx
Gigabyte GA-586TX3 AT motherboard
64mb PC66 SDRam
Creative 3D Blaster CT6760 16mb Voodoo Banshee PCI GFX Card
Sound Blaster 16 CT2230 Sound Card
Yamaha DB50XG daughter board
Western Digital 2.1gig Hard Disk (Has that old access sound 🤣)
Teac 24x CDRW
Samsung Floppy Drive
200Watt ATX PSU

I would like to eventually upgrade the CPU to a 233mmx, maybe a larger Hard Disk Drive and get a ATX to AT Converter to use the Power button as the reset switch is currently power on. The wiring will also need tidying.

A couple of pics as it currently stands

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Last edited by Bancho on 2018-08-24, 19:40. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1 of 26, by deleted_Rc

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Nice case, the cpu upgrade should be possible around 10-15 locally or 20 max ebay.
You could consider buying a DoM on eBay for 20 from China, they have kingspecs 8 gb which Imo are really good (only plug in directly to mainboard as primary master)

Reply 2 of 26, by Tetrium

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Nice looking rig 😀

The AT case looks really modern for an AT case, especially with the side panels (this was something that only started to really become standard after even ATX cases used to U-shaped panels for a little while), but it looks good.

You may find it possible to overclock that 200MMX chip, these weren't too hard to overclock. Only problem you may run into is the 3.5x multi being disabled on the CPU but 233MMX chips shouldn't be hard to find.

You picked the right parts and the combination you used looks very balanced (nothing over the top) and I like it 😀

I used to have a TEAC CDRW drive. It was fine as a reader (that 40x ordinary CDROM drive in my old Pentium 2 was as loud as a rocket 🤣!) but other than that it was a really great way to make some extra coasters 😁
I didn't even dare touch the mouse while burning at 2x speed 🤣

What OS will you be running?

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Reply 3 of 26, by Bancho

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Well i made some changes to the machine today. Seeing as i've got another build in the pipeline i wanted to use the DB50XG for that build. I had these two sound cards which i planned on fitting. A Terratec EWS64s with 8MB ram and A Yamaha OPL3/4.

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I installed the EWS64 and after a bit of trouble setting the thing up I finally got it working in both Windows and DOS. Using the GSSBK320.94B soundset it sounds awesome in my opinion! The fact you can load the soundsets in DOS is great. I think i will lay off fitting the Yamaha Card and use it for a future build.

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Tetrium wrote:

I used to have a TEAC CDRW drive. It was fine as a reader (that 40x ordinary CDROM drive in my old Pentium 2 was as loud as a rocket 🤣!) but other than that it was a really great way to make some extra coasters 😁
I didn't even dare touch the mouse while burning at 2x speed 🤣

What OS will you be running?

Its great as a reader as it readers CD-R/RW which i require but i don't think i'll be burning any CD's on the machine 🤣 . It is currently running Windows 95 OSR 2.5.

Reply 4 of 26, by manuelink64

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Well balanced rig, try to OC the proc to 233MHz! 😁
your sound setup are overkill 😉

[Unisys CWP] [CPU] AMD-X5-133ADZ [RAM] 64 MB (4x36) FPM [HDD] Seagate 8.4GB [Audio] SB16 SCSI 2 (CT1770) [Video] ATI Mach64VT2 [OS] Windows 95 OSR2.5

Reply 5 of 26, by Bancho

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Well made a few more changes to the machine.

I had a 16mb Module to replace the 8mb currently installed in the Sound Card. Fitted the module and was it detected fine.

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I also replaced the PSU with a 230watt AT model. I can now use the Power Switch which gives that satisfying 'Click' when pressed 😀 I replaced the CDRW with a newer DVD unit which is a lot more quieter and tried my best to tidy up the wiring. Overall i'm really pleased with how this machine turned out. It's a pleasure to use and plays games great. The sound quality from the EWS64s is really great!

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Reply 8 of 26, by Bancho

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Well i've made a change to the system again and its with the sound. It Yamaha loaded this time!

I won a brand new Sealed SW60XG off ebay which i bought for this machine. I wanted to pair it up with my OPL3/OPL4 combo card to make a really great flexible setup in the sound dept.
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So here are the cards laid bare. OPL3, OPL4 & XGMIDI
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The OPL3 sits on the usual 220,5,1 and OPL4 sits on 300 with the SW60XG on 330. Cards fitted in the machine.
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Really really please with this setup. The SW60XG sounds awesome, and the OPL4 has its own charm, i really like the drum samples on the OPL4 they have a real kick to them.

The final Piece of the puzzle will to fit my Music Quest Midi card for a MT-32 and the machine will then be complete!

Thanks for looking 😀

Reply 9 of 26, by badmojo

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I love this thing, so much fun to be had with it. I have a simular 166MMX machine and like you have played around with the sound options a lot - it's turned into my MIDI machine, and to be honest I spend more time listening to MIDI on my various hardware than I do playing games.

What are you planning on doing with yours? I see you have empty ISA slots there, which is a terrible sin 😈 Have you considered the Creative GoldFinch? They're a neat way of adding AWE and another sound font option (Windows 9x) if you're looking for a project.

Thanks for sharing.

Life? Don't talk to me about life.

Reply 10 of 26, by Bancho

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badmojo wrote:

What are you planning on doing with yours? I see you have empty ISA slots there, which is a terrible sin 😈 Have you considered the Creative GoldFinch? They're a neat way of adding AWE and another sound font option (Windows 9x) if you're looking for a project.

Thanks for sharing.

Mainly playing games to be fair. Its a great machine for doing that 🤣

For that spare ISA slot, i want to use this along with a Roland MT-32. Just need to get the MT32 😵

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Reply 11 of 26, by Bancho

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Well i'd thought i'd update this post on how the machine is currently setup sound wise as i've re-added the EWS64s to the machine.

The sound setup now looks like this

Sonata 3D OPL3/4 Combo card - 220/5/1 Midi 300
Terratec EWS64s (32mb Module) Midi 320
Yamaha SW60XG Midi 330

This setup works great and all the cards are linked through line in with the EWS64 being the output. I just need to adjust the Midi Volume on the EWS64s to bring it in-line with the other cards as its a bit louder. The 64s adds the option of loadable soundfonts in DOS.

Here are all the card installed in the machine

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Reply 12 of 26, by jheronimus

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Could you post the photo of the back panel, please? Are the cards daisy-chained? I mean, every card has only one line-in, so you can't really feed two cards' output directly into your Terratec, am I right? I've been thinking to try daisy-chaining three cards for a while, so I'm curious now. 😀

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Reply 13 of 26, by Jade Falcon

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ohh , a EWS64. I have always wanted one, but never had a good system for one when I found one for sale.

Reply 14 of 26, by Bancho

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jheronimus wrote:

Could you post the photo of the back panel, please? Are the cards daisy-chained? I mean, every card has only one line-in, so you can't really feed two cards' output directly into your Terratec, am I right? I've been thinking to try daisy-chaining three cards for a while, so I'm curious now. 😀

I'll try and get a picture later but it goes like this

OPL3/4 Line Out to Line in on SW60XG, Then SW60XG line out goes to the line in on the EWS64s and the speakers go into the output of the EWS 😀

Reply 15 of 26, by jheronimus

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Bancho wrote:

I'll try and get a picture later but it goes like this

OPL3/4 Line Out to Line in on SW60XG, Then SW60XG line out goes to the line in on the EWS64s and the speakers go into the output of the EWS 😀

Thanks, makes sense!

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Reply 16 of 26, by Bancho

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Added what I think is the final touch to this setup now, Some NOS Altec Lansing GCS100 speakers. Sound great and add that finishing touch to the system. I'm using the Iiyama LCD quite a lot lately even though I have a Realsys 17" CRT also.

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Reply 17 of 26, by ElectroMan

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‎‎‎

Last edited by ElectroMan on 2017-12-03, 13:10. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 18 of 26, by FFXIhealer

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Nice. Looks like it's an AT-standard Socket 7 motherboard for your Pentium P55C MMX. Running Windows 95 or 98?

My Windows 95 OSR2 system is a 200MHz Pentium P54CS (not MMX), but my motherboard (Socket 7) is ATX standard, which is quite cool as the board comes with a Sound Blaster 16 chip and ports built in (ATX), but no USB. I filled the 72-pin SIMM slots with 64 MB of 60ns memory. Should be pretty good, but I don't have a Voodoo1 card, so I just make do with a Voodoo2 card, even though the CPU simply can't keep it well fed.

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Reply 19 of 26, by cliffclaven

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That's a sweet case. All it needs is a badge 😀