Very nice build! I recently got a 2144-937 with a 75 MHz Pentium and I'm considering replacing that with a 133 MHz. I see you are only passively cooling your CPU. Is that sufficient?

Yes, Pentium 133's were passively cooled on the aptiva 2144. I don't think adding a socket 7 active cooler would be a bad idea for tinkering purposes though. I think ill do that next.

Ran into a issue i cant figure out, so video card plans have changed. The issue is that when i use my on-board trident video the motherboard doesn't see the ide raid pci card in any configuration. In the case the pci device was not playing well i decided to try a different pci controller card, so i picked up a VIA card to replace my current sil0680. Same issue persists. Its important to note that using a pci video card that is independent of the on-board i have zero issues. I cant find any relevant jumper settings or anything in cmos. I give up...

Bummer... i have this sweet voodoo 2 12mb pci card just looking at me.

Ive decided to go with a 2d/3d card, the ATI 3d rage pro 8mb pci. since my pentium 133 cant deliver enough data to the voodoo 2 anyways i feel like im not going to be missing to much except for glide performance and increasing color performance with the rage pro. Monitor resolution 800x600.

That being said i am also upgrading to a pentium 166 mmx and lowering my ram to 32mb edo from 128mb edo to match my 256kb l2 cache. Adding a active cooler with a noctua 40mm fan with arctic mx-2 paste.

Would love to use my voodoo 2 if anyone has a solution for this to share.

The new card (ATI 3D Rage Pro Turbo 8mb PCI)

The card i cant use (3DFX Voodoo 2 12mb PCI)

KSHIRZA1 wrote:

Yamaha ATC 6631 isa card. Setup was extremely easy, windows 98se picked it up immediately and via the windwos disc it was able t […]
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Yamaha ATC 6631 isa card. Setup was extremely easy, windows 98se picked it up immediately and via the windwos disc it was able to install everything. The mwave card i have is still in perfect condition and stored away, but the limited support and issues with it makes the yamaha well worth it.

I'm out of expansion slots. I bought a isa ethernet adapter card, but unless i remove my video card i won't be able to use it. For onboard i have a 2mb trident video adapter. Is there a external solution via serial? i wouldn't mind connection sharing to my surface pro with a null cable if anyone has a walk through.

The mwave adapter (modem soundcard combo). I never realized they had a class action lawsuit until now about compatibility issues that IBM had to address. Good thing its gone.

bjwil1991 wrote:

That's an amazing system, man.

i am having alot of fun with it. its a computerized time capsule.running quake on it and realizing how much we were willing to put up with back then is really amazing. the 3drage ii isn't exactly "killing it". i cant even run it at 640x480 on my 800x600 monitor 😲

Beautiful machine, and your computing area looks completely zen - if only I could get my gear in such divine order!

For a network solution, have a look for the Xircom PE3-10BT, parallel to Ethernet. It is only a 10MBps connection, but that should be enough speed. Win95 drivers are available, so hopefully Win98 should be no hassle.

Manual - www.minuszerodegrees.net/manuals/Xircom ... 0NOV95.pdf
mbbrutman's PE3 page - https://www.brutman.com/Dos_Networking/xircom_pe3.html

protip, from the 9x CD. copy the WIN95/WIN98 directory to your C: drive and next time you need to change network settings or install drivers or whatever you can just point to C:\WIN9X

also this is a better way to install 9x from scratch, after formatting the drive copy the directory from CD and run setup from there. Much faster.

JidaiGeki wrote:

Beautiful machine, and your computing area looks completely zen - if only I could get my gear in such divine order! […]
Show full quote

Beautiful machine, and your computing area looks completely zen - if only I could get my gear in such divine order!

For a network solution, have a look for the Xircom PE3-10BT, parallel to Ethernet. It is only a 10MBps connection, but that should be enough speed. Win95 drivers are available, so hopefully Win98 should be no hassle.

Manual - www.minuszerodegrees.net/manuals/Xircom ... 0NOV95.pdf
mbbrutman's PE3 page - https://www.brutman.com/Dos_Networking/xircom_pe3.html

Thank you so much, this is exactly what i need.

oeuvre wrote:

protip, from the 9x CD. copy the WIN95/WIN98 directory to your C: drive and next time you need to change network settings or install drivers or whatever you can just point to C:\WIN9X

also this is a better way to install 9x from scratch, after formatting the drive copy the directory from CD and run setup from there. Much faster.

Ah that makes alot of sense for the disc drivers. Thank you for noticing that and for the folder i need to move.

I am aware of the install method for win from searching and fiddling around with the drive situation, but i've never done it before. Ill be doing exactly that with the next project on this Aptiva...

Swap out the current ide controller for a sata controller card to run the ssd

A awesome turn of events! I was able to find a BIOS update that solved my issue. There was just one update available and took some digging, but i am no longer having ide controller detection issues.

That being said... Voodoo 2 card is going straight in!

Installation pics...

Voodoo 2 12mb PCI

Old video card and new video card along with the other cards im running

Some cleaning and cable management

Cards in

Turn on computer and windows cant see the card...

inspected the Voodoo2 and found that 2 of the legs on the middle chip were touching. I grabbed a very thin razor blade gently seporated them. Changed PCI slots at the same time just in case. Boot up and boom windows find the card!

Drivers installed; up and running. Now powered by the mighty 3DFX card.

Now i have 2 extra cards 1. My original ATI ALL-IN-WONDER 3D Rage ii 4mb PCI card 2. My new ATI 3D Rage Pro Turbo 8MB PCI that i wont need

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Next project... SATA controller card and Pentium 166 MMX with Custom Noctua heatsink

Pentium 166 MMX

Custom cooler... Push style cooling for space constraints.

VIA SATA controller PCI for the SSD

Decided to upgrade the motherboard to a solid capacitor version (later run) of the same motherboard (soon to be upgrading riser card also to solid capacitor version). A extra 256kb IBM module L2 cache totaling 512kb to run 64mb of ram. Upgraded to a non mmx Pentium 166 chip (now I have a extra 166 mmx chip I’m not going to use) to keep it authentic with the fastest chips these were shipped with. Had to also move over the onboard video memory modules. Too cool her down (overkill) custom noctua cooler, and fan is mounted offset to clear the chassis.

Old and busted (j/k works fine)

New hotness

I found a set of in box near mint condition Yamaha YST-M7 Speakers to pair with my Yamaha ATC 6631 ISA Sound Card.

I remember those speakers. Had them for a number of years until 2007 when I upgraded my speakers to a set of speakers that can do 5.1 surround sound.

I had a very similar system, my dad gave it to me to jack around with after he bought a new family computer with an athlon 700. But ours had a Cyrix 6x86 166, and a horrible sound/modem card that never ever worked right 🤣.

bjwil1991 wrote:

I remember those speakers. Had them for a number of years until 2007 when I upgraded my speakers to a set of speakers that can do 5.1 surround sound.

Yeah me too, and i always wanted a set back in the day. I liked the idea of pairing them with the Yamaha sound card on this retro setup.

candle_86 wrote:

I had a very similar system, my dad gave it to me to jack around with after he bought a new family computer with an athlon 700. But ours had a Cyrix 6x86 166, and a horrible sound/modem card that never ever worked right 🤣.

That would be the awful Dolphin Mwave sound/modem card. Horrible support from the start and lead to a class action lawsuit for ibm. I immediately dumped it for a dedicated sound card instead.

yea i ditched my mwave for an AWE64

my dad had that IBM at radio shack almost weekly to fix the sound card issue 🤣, then the warranty ran up and we just went without sound

the drivers were also a royal pain to install

I don’t know why, but there were people fiddling with them. Look at this guide to overclocking, fixing it and explaination of the reason it failed.

http://aptivasupport.com/overclock.html

... oeuvreclocking an MWAVE?! ridiculous

oeuvre wrote:

... oeuvreclocking an MWAVE?! ridiculous

Oeuvreclocking! 🤣

Picked up a Dell Ultrascan P780 in great condition. Not looking to replace my IBM monitor, but its nice to have the option. Plugged her in and the image looks great; running at 1024x768 @ 85Hz.

New riser card in. Same riser card but a later run with solid capacitors to match my motherboard.