jforrest1980 wrote:

Need some help picking a "common but good" slot 1 CPU for my Intel SE440BX-2 motherboard. […]
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Need some help picking a "common but good" slot 1 CPU for my Intel SE440BX-2 motherboard.

This will be a windows 98 SE build for late dos, and windows 95/98 gaming. Will be running a Gotek Floppy Drive Emulator, and SD card for the HDD.

Trying to find the sweet spot here for availability, performance, and price. Just something that will get the job done.

I'm thinking Return to Castle Wolfenstein is probably as demanding as I will need for this rig.

Also, I've never installed a slot 1 cpu. Is there anything I need to be aware of when looking at auctions for the CPU and heatsink?

Might need a few good common heat sink suggestions as well.

RTCW is a bit on the demanding side, so I would suggest going with a coppermine (the latest slot 1 pentiums available). It runs well on my Coppermine 800/256/100, which I picked up for under $20 on US ebay a few months back. My best suggestion is to start with what you can find, and keep browsing ebay so you don't overpay.. I picked up a coppermine 650/256/100 with a passive heatsink first for around $10 before I upgraded to the 800 (mine came from an HP oem machine, so it doesn't have the "stock" intel fan, but works great). Above 800 seems to become expensive. You'll easily pay $100 to own a 1ghz 100 bus model.

That said, I would check out this list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_P … microprocessors and subscribe on ebay (or wherever) to all of the 100mhz FSB coppermine models.. I would say anything from $10-20 shipped is fair all the way up to the 800/256/100.

Just be aware that the SE440BX-2 will run 100mhz bus CPUs and is not overclockable via the bios, so a 133 bus pentium iii will run significantly slower than it is rated to. So look for an xxx/256/100 chip (256 being the l2 cache - don't be put off by 512kb versions, the memory is slower ((not that they are bad, I'm just trying to get you enough power to play RTCW)) ).

NOTE: NOT MY AUCTION (I didn't check the seller rating either, just using this to show you) -- 600 mhz, 256k l2 cache, 100 bus with a passive heatsink, looks just like my 650E.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/SL43E-INTEL-PENTIUM- … pcAAOSwhYdZwt-x

--As for the heatsinks, just make sure you buy one with a heatsink already on it if you're looking to pinch pennies. My 650 mhz coppermine runs fine on a passive heatsink, but get one with a fan on anything faster IMO. There are retention brackets that come with most slot 1 boards but they tend to be for earlier models and cause me headaches with coppermines, so I just remove them and run the CPU without the retention brackets.. not a big deal unless you live on a boat, the cpu will just drop in and work this way. So I suggest leaving the retention brackets on your SE440BX-2 in the box.

Show us what you find and we can help further.

Also, do you have your GPU picked out 😀

jforrest1980 wrote:

Need some help picking a "common but good" slot 1 CPU for my Intel SE440BX-2 motherboard. […]
Show full quote

Need some help picking a "common but good" slot 1 CPU for my Intel SE440BX-2 motherboard.

This will be a windows 98 SE build for late dos, and windows 95/98 gaming. Will be running a Gotek Floppy Drive Emulator, and SD card for the HDD.

Trying to find the sweet spot here for availability, performance, and price. Just something that will get the job done.

I'm thinking Return to Castle Wolfenstein is probably as demanding as I will need for this rig.

Also, I've never installed a slot 1 cpu. Is there anything I need to be aware of when looking at auctions for the CPU and heatsink?

Might need a few good common heat sink suggestions as well.

When you get this running please explain how you went about setting up the SD card config and what parts you used. Thinking about going this route also but really foggy on the details.

I would get as fast as your board supports. I'm playing RtCW on a P3-933 with a GF3 Ti200 and it runs well at 1024x768 with max details. A few hiccups here and there which I attribute to not enough CPU. One thing to look out for is some sellers don't make it clear when a slot 1 cpu does not include the fan. I bought one once and the photos were all angled so you couldn't tell for sure if the fan was on there, when it arrived the fan was missing. Seller gave me a partial refund, then went through their listings and added text to the description to clarify "No FAN". 🤣.

BeginnerGuy wrote:

RTCW is a bit on the demanding side, so I would suggest going with a coppermine (the latest slot 1 pentiums available). It runs […]
Show full quote

jforrest1980 wrote:

Need some help picking a "common but good" slot 1 CPU for my Intel SE440BX-2 motherboard. […]
Show full quote

Need some help picking a "common but good" slot 1 CPU for my Intel SE440BX-2 motherboard.

This will be a windows 98 SE build for late dos, and windows 95/98 gaming. Will be running a Gotek Floppy Drive Emulator, and SD card for the HDD.

Trying to find the sweet spot here for availability, performance, and price. Just something that will get the job done.

I'm thinking Return to Castle Wolfenstein is probably as demanding as I will need for this rig.

Also, I've never installed a slot 1 cpu. Is there anything I need to be aware of when looking at auctions for the CPU and heatsink?

Might need a few good common heat sink suggestions as well.

RTCW is a bit on the demanding side, so I would suggest going with a coppermine (the latest slot 1 pentiums available). It runs well on my Coppermine 800/256/100, which I picked up for under $20 on US ebay a few months back. My best suggestion is to start with what you can find, and keep browsing ebay so you don't overpay.. I picked up a coppermine 650/256/100 with a passive heatsink first for around $10 before I upgraded to the 800 (mine came from an HP oem machine, so it doesn't have the "stock" intel fan, but works great). Above 800 seems to become expensive. You'll easily pay $100 to own a 1ghz 100 bus model.

That said, I would check out this list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_P … microprocessors and subscribe on ebay (or wherever) to all of the 100mhz FSB coppermine models.. I would say anything from $10-20 shipped is fair all the way up to the 800/256/100.

Just be aware that the SE440BX-2 will run 100mhz bus CPUs and is not overclockable via the bios, so a 133 bus pentium iii will run significantly slower than it is rated to. So look for an xxx/256/100 chip (256 being the l2 cache - don't be put off by 512kb versions, the memory is slower ((not that they are bad, I'm just trying to get you enough power to play RTCW)) ).

NOTE: NOT MY AUCTION (I didn't check the seller rating either, just using this to show you) -- 600 mhz, 256k l2 cache, 100 bus with a passive heatsink, looks just like my 650E.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/SL43E-INTEL-PENTIUM- … pcAAOSwhYdZwt-x

--As for the heatsinks, just make sure you buy one with a heatsink already on it if you're looking to pinch pennies. My 650 mhz coppermine runs fine on a passive heatsink, but get one with a fan on anything faster IMO. There are retention brackets that come with most slot 1 boards but they tend to be for earlier models and cause me headaches with coppermines, so I just remove them and run the CPU without the retention brackets.. not a big deal unless you live on a boat, the cpu will just drop in and work this way. So I suggest leaving the retention brackets on your SE440BX-2 in the box.

Show us what you find and we can help further.

Also, do you have your GPU picked out 😀

I'll second this recommendation. Up to 800 MHz seems to be the sweet spot price-wise for 100 MHz FSB Pentium III's. Above that prices get prohibitive. Also consider looking for a Socket 370 to Slot 1 slocket adapter. That would allow you to run Socket 370 Pentium III's and higher-clocked Celerons with 100 Mhz FSB. The Celerons can be found pretty cheap, and can make up for their reduced L2 cache size with higher clock speeds. I've seen 900 MHz Celerons for sale in the $5 range.

EDIT: On second thought you might have some issues with the Coppermine Celerons and faster Pentium III's depending on your BIOS version. It might be safer to stick to lower clocked Pentium III like BeginnerGuy suggested if you don't know which BIOS version the board has.

BeginnerGuy wrote:

Also, do you have your GPU picked out 😀

Thanks for all your help. I really appreciate it. Thanks to everyone else as well. I may just go for that processor in the linked auction. Maybe I can talk him down a bit.

As for the GPU. That's a great question. I started this build about a year ago and life happened. I have no idea what I have except I know I need a processor. I could have swore I bought a Voodoo3, but I'm going to have to dig this thing out tonight and see.

GPU suggestions would be great. I know I want to play Shogo and Quake. So GLIDE is a must.

I need to check my audio card as well. I think I have a Soundblaster Live! I ripped from my previous non-GLIDE win 98 build, but that's not going to cut it.

@Buckeye. You in Columbus? If so we could work on it together. I'm still kinda N00bish with legacy builds. This build idea was inspired by Phils Computer Lab on youtube. By far the best legacy PC build channel. I'm pretty sure he's a member here. If you want to learn more subscribe to his channel. He has complete builds like this on there that go into detail about every component.

jforrest1980 wrote:

Thanks for all your help. I really appreciate it. Thanks to everyone else as well. I may just go for that processor in the linke […]
Show full quote

BeginnerGuy wrote:

Also, do you have your GPU picked out 😀

Thanks for all your help. I really appreciate it. Thanks to everyone else as well. I may just go for that processor in the linked auction. Maybe I can talk him down a bit.

As for the GPU. That's a great question. I started this build about a year ago and life happened. I have no idea what I have except I know I need a processor. I could have swore I bought a Voodoo3, but I'm going to have to dig this thing out tonight and see.

GPU suggestions would be great. I know I want to play Shogo and Quake. So GLIDE is a must.

I need to check my audio card as well. I think I have a Soundblaster Live! I ripped from my previous non-GLIDE win 98 build, but that's not going to cut it.

@Buckeye. You in Columbus? If so we could work on it together. I'm still kinda N00bish with legacy builds. This build idea was inspired by Phils Computer Lab on youtube. By far the best legacy PC build channel. I'm pretty sure he's a member here. If you want to learn more subscribe to his channel. He has complete builds like this on there that go into detail about every component.

Nope, in Bama. Originally from Cinti OH but moved down here many moons ago thanks to a "southern belle". Yeah I hit up on Phil's build channel quite often.

CAREFUL WITH THAT BOARD
if you flash bios with a firmware greater than x.xx
the board will boot with a nice screen saying cpu not supported, asking you that the max cpu speed is 600mhz and thAt you need to change the cpu

me don´t like that boARD

OK, got around to digging up this old PC.

Now I have a few more questions.

1. I found what I believe to be a Voodoo3 2000. Link below. Need a little help identifying it so I can decide if this is what I want/need. I looked at many Voodoo3 2000 cards on eBay and only the linked one looks like mine. There are many that are very similar, but are slightly different if you look close.

Here is mine:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/3Dfx-AGP-Voodoo-3-20 … lEAAOSwnw9aNqVa

Here is one that is very similar, that seems to be the vast majority of revisions seen on eBay (see the bottom of the chip just right of the C50 to see the difference):
https://www.ebay.com/itm/3DFX-Interactive-AGP … AQAAOSwn7JYEAcD

2. I need some RAM suggestions. I have no idea what is a good brand back then. I do have a 512MB stick I located, but my motherboard manual says it only supports up to 128mb modules.
168 pin 3.3v DIMM 100mhz or 66MHz 4-clock unbuffered SDRAM non-ECC