VOGONS


First post, by arncht

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project started: mar 2017
ended: may 2019
budget: ~110 EUR
targeted month: 2006.11

goals:
* high end computer before the windows vista
* based on the first quad cpu
* and the first unified shader architecture gpu (big milestones)

Asus P5W DH Deluxe rev 1.04 Intel 975X
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 SL9UL
Zalman CNPS9500 AT
Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800 1G 2x
Asus EN8800GTX 768M PCIe NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty SB0460 PCI
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty SB0250
Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB SATA
Western Digital RE2 WD5000YS 500G SATA
Pioneer DVR-111DBK DVD writer IDE
Antec P180B
Corsair CMPSU-520HX

Last edited by arncht on 2019-05-21, 19:52. Edited 9 times in total.

My little retro computer world
Overdoze of the demoscene

Reply 1 of 20, by Fire Vine

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pretty nice

ive wanted a core 2 extreme for a while now but theyre expensive as shit

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Reply 2 of 20, by arncht

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mar 2017

i have bought a full computer for the project, the reason was the mainboard. i kept:

Asus P5W DH Deluxe
Zalman CNPS9500 AT
Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800 1G 2x
Western Digital RE2 WD5000YS 500G SATA
Pioneer DVR-111DBK DVD writer IDE
Papst 4412F/2GL 120mm
Corsair CMPSU-520HX

My little retro computer world
Overdoze of the demoscene

Reply 4 of 20, by arncht

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sep 2017

the fastest hdd with 10000rpm. the first one, what i have bought, did not start. i use it as a boot drive.
the bearing is amazingly good - very silent and smooth. the actual wd reds are vibrating like the hell.

Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB SATA

My little retro computer world
Overdoze of the demoscene

Reply 5 of 20, by arncht

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oct 2017

i did not have a luck with the 8800gtxs - this is the third one, and still not perfect. 🙁
i cleaned up, did some artifact checking, and realized the dvi screw is broken.

Last edited by arncht on 2018-10-30, 22:09. Edited 1 time in total.

My little retro computer world
Overdoze of the demoscene

Reply 6 of 20, by arncht

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dec 2017

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty SB0460 PCI
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty SB0250

i got with the computer an x-fi music, but the fatality has 64m xram.

My little retro computer world
Overdoze of the demoscene

Reply 7 of 20, by gex85

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Very nice build! Even if most people won't consider a 2006 system "retro" yet 😀
What's appealing about systems from this period is that even the high-end parts are still widely available and usually rather cheap, so building a 2006-2008 high-end rig is quite an easy thing to do.

I have a basic 2008 system myself that I am slowly transforming into a period-correct gaming machine (although my interest in PC gaming was already fading at that time). It already has an Asus P5QL Pro, a Xeon E5450 (=C2 Q9650), 8GB of RAM and a classic black Chieftec CS-601 case (which is not really period correct but does the job). Still lacks a decent GPU (GTX 280), sound card and SSD (aiming for a 1st-Gen X25).

Are you going to use the CA-01 or are you aiming for something more compact?

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Reply 8 of 20, by cyclone3d

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Fire Vine wrote:

pretty nice

ive wanted a core 2 extreme for a while now but theyre expensive as shit

The "lower end" Core 2 Extreme CPUs are really not bad price-wise.

If you just watch on eBay, you should be able to snag one for pretty cheap.

So far I have:
QX6700
QX6800
QX6850
QX6950 (knocked off components that I think I can fix)

I didn't pay more than $30 for any of them. Considering they were $999 to $1199 when they were new, that isn't bad at all.

And really, unless you are planning to use them on a board that doesn't overclock the fsb well, you are better off getting a regular C2Q anyway.
The LGA775 platform really starts to shine once you get around 450fsb and you don't need the unlocked multiplier of the QX series for that.

Last edited by cyclone3d on 2018-09-10, 16:17. Edited 1 time in total.

Yamaha modified setupds and drivers
Yamaha XG repository
YMF7x4 Guide
Aopen AW744L II SB-LINK

Reply 9 of 20, by arncht

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gex85 wrote:

Are you going to use the CA-01 or are you aiming for something more compact?

i use it actually, but i want to change it, it is too big. i wanted a p180, but i did not find in good condition.
maybe i will buy the midi version of this case, it is still available at some shops (since 2004!).

i started to collect the parts for this config, it is possible, 5 years later you could not buy so easily. eg the 8800gtx will be problematic, many cards died or dying (like the 9700pro).
i also started this period at 2008 with a gtx280, but 2006 was the bigger jump (the unified shader, core2), i sold it.

My little retro computer world
Overdoze of the demoscene

Reply 11 of 20, by Intel486dx33

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Cool, All you need is a Zalman Fatal1ity case.
I got lucky and found one and plan on building a Fatal1ity build soon.

Reply 13 of 20, by arncht

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p180 - second round 😀 i could buy another case, also in the original box. unfortunately it is also not perfect, but i disassembled both cases, clean everything one by one, and rebuild one case from the better condition parts. the final result is ok.

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My little retro computer world
Overdoze of the demoscene

Reply 15 of 20, by bofh.fromhell

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arncht wrote:

snipp !

I am a complete sucker for period focused builds !
And you did a nice job on the cable management too, not easy in older cases =)

Reply 18 of 20, by FFXIhealer

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It's so interesting to see LGA775 retro builds because to me, when I think LGA775, I don't think of the last generation of Pentium 4s... I think of the Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad series. I think of multi-core. I think of Windows Vista. I think of 4GB of RAM. I think of the first big expansion of PCI-Express instead of AGP. I think of SATA, not IDE.

What about in 2019? Yeah, it's old, but it can still be relevant. I built my home server out of an LGA775 platform. It doesn't do much, just file server/storage and PLEX media server/storage. But it's got a Xeon E5450 (modded the BIOS microcode myself), 4GB of DDR2-800 RAM, and a couple of big hard drives (one's a 3TB WD-GREEN hard drive).

The only Core 2 Quad I have is a Q9650 that I bought for my mother's PC. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the Q9650 faster, cooler, and more updated version of the QX6700? Like, it's 45nm instead of 65nm, it's 94 watts instead of 130 watts, it has SSE4.2 instead of being limited to SSE3, it runs at 3.0 GHz stock instead of at 2.6GHz, though I've read It's not nearly as overclockable... I can't find ANY documentation on-line about how many PCI-Express lanes these processors support. I know I have 16x on the Q9650, but nothing about the QX6700.

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Reply 19 of 20, by Unknown_K

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I have to admit those Antec P180 cases look pretty nice for a retro build. I have some old full tower EATX server and gamer cases and the cable management is a pain in the rear when you have to route PCIE cables to multiple cards. I also don't like the old Thermaltake cases with half a dozen 80mm fans buzzing. Newer cases where cables go behind cutouts make life so much easier, same with dust filers for the fans and PS.

When I think LGA775 I think of the old P4 and Pentium D setups I avoided back in the day (have AMD in that era). But recently I did snag a few LGA775 boards and use for one as my Age OF Empires Conquerors online machine (Intel DP45SG with a Q9500 CPU and a GTS250 video card). I also have some P4 machines that I use for high end W98/ME era gaming.

Collector of old computers, hardware, and software