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What are builds you want to make someday?

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Reply 20 of 116, by Standard Def Steve

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m1919 wrote:

A 4Ghz Nahalem build would walk all over both the 4Ghz C2Q and the Phenom X6 builds. If you were going to invest in the time to build one, I would probably try and build something using one of those Westmere Xeons instead though, you can get them fairly cheap now. You'd have to do a little research beforehand to get a board that is confirmed able to run the 6-core Westmere procs as not all the X58 boards will run these.

The thing is, in some of the original Nehalem reviews, there were a few benchmarks (usually games!) where Core 2 (Penryn) was a bit faster than Nehalem. IIRC Nehalem's small (256K) L2 and relatively slow 8MB L3 was blamed for the performance regression in some games.

Do I trust the reviews 100%? No, and I never do. Which is why I'd like to build a 1366 rig myself and run a wide range of benchmarks to see how it compares with Penryn and Phenom II at 4GHz.

P6 chip. Triple the speed of the Pentium.
Tualatin: PIII-S @ 1628MHz | QDI Advance 12T | 2GB DDR-310 | 6800GT | X-Fi | 500GB HDD | 3DMark01: 14,059
Dothan: PM @ 2.9GHz | MSI Speedster FA4 | 2GB DDR2-580 | GTX 750Ti | X-Fi | 500GB SSD | 3DMark01: 43,190

Reply 21 of 116, by creepingnet

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I've been doing this so long I'm pretty satisfied with the main 3 vintage computers I have now running old DOS/win3x/win9x games now. All three (Tandy 1000a, GEM 286, homebuilt 486 XT system) are all an accumulation of my preferences, skills, knowledge, and experience of the past 15 years rolled into a ball. Of these three, I still have some work left to do on two of them....the GEM 286 is absolutely PERFECT. It never crashes, it never locks up, it runs whatever is thrown at it. I think the worst it ever did was get stuck in Protected mode from one of the old versions of Windows, nothing the Reset button could not fix.

The other two - they'll be done this year as it's all tiny stuff...

Tandy 1000 - add an 8087, switch the i8088 for an NEC V20, I'm thinking about getting a small, extremely basic amp with a volume knob and putting that inline from the PC Speaker out on the motherboard to the PC speaker, and wire the volume knob into my hard disk caddy + a front headphone jack. Lastly is getting one of the mice that are compatible with it and maybe a pair of joystick controllers for the Tandy 1000. Just to have the full setup.

486 - Install L2 Cache (32Kx8 Tag + 4X 128Kx8 for the actual Cache), upgrade to a Intel 486 DX4-100 CPU (my favorite), and then top out the RAM at 128MB. It has a few tweaks to make in the meantime too like decide on which game port to use (most likely it will be the SoundBlaster's) and disable the other one to get rid of that hardware conflict, and install the Hard Disk controller drivers for the PTI-255W VLB hard disk controller after I remove W3xstart from Windows 3.11 For Workgroups (don't need it anymore, runs on DOS 6.22 again).

~The Creeping Network~
My Youtube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/creepingnet
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Reply 23 of 116, by creepingnet

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Errius wrote:

What is the advantage of a 8087? Are there any games that use it?

More for completeness than anything - but there are a handful of flight sims and I also have an old CAD program I want to mess with designed for XT class machines.

One game, which I do have on the Tandy that supposedly does use it is Sim City.

~The Creeping Network~
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Reply 25 of 116, by ynari

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I have my original 486 with VLB, to be honest it's a fecking awful bus. Limited number of cards, horrible to insert and remove, and almost completely absent on non x86 systems. I'd have no qualms using a PCI 486 system instead, provided the PCI implementation was solid.

I need to swap out the CL5428 in my 486 and replace it with something (probably an ET4000) that supports high colour in OS/2 1.3 whilst retaining DOS games compatibility.

Other builds :

I'm wondering if it's worth running something slower than a 486 (286?) for particularly old DOS games. I suspect not, turbo off is probably good enough.

Considered and rejected the idea of a CGA composite build - it's really neat, but there's only a few games worth playing (thanks for the feedback, everyone, though).

I'm definitely interested in a portable retro box, using a 486 based Thinkpad, and a Thinkpad Dock with a Soundblaster in it.

I'm pretty covered apart from the above. My three retro boxes are a 486 (old adventures/DOS games) which includes a Realmagic (yes, I bought it at the time new! (well, discounted end of line..)). The pentium ii has a Voodoo2, and an AWE64. My modern games box has an X Fi, an Aureal 2, and a Quadro that supports shutter glasses. I also have one of the Music Quest clones.

I am intrigued by early Mac gaming. I've a 733MHz Digital Audio Powermac that multi boots OS 9, OS X, Linux, OpenBSD, and NetBSD. That includes a Ti4600 flashed to support the Mac. If there are particularly old games that don't work in OS 9, it might be worth trying an older Mac (or possibly just using Basilisk).

I've a Roland CM32L, MT32, and Sound Canvas 55, so pretty covered on the sound front.

Sick bunny options :

I might get around to running a Token Ring network at some point, I have at least two ISA and two PCMCIA adapters, plus a (non active) MAU.

Also interested in a Nehalem system. I use virtualisation/vt-d, and want to compare vt-d in a Core2 system (doesn't support Second Level Address Translation), to vt-d in my new Sandy Bridge system, to Nehalem (first Intel CPU to support SLAT/EPT).

I've still got a dual P3 motherboard, and one 1GHz p3 processor, not sure of anything I can use it for. Also a P4 3GHz system, that's previously been used as a box for running BSD Unix. A socket 7 motherboard with a Cyrix MII 300 rounds it all off - I stopped using that because the CPU fan drove me crazy.

I fancy a relatively modern non Intel Unix system, so I'm likely to be grabbing a Mac Mini (slow, but quiet) and a Powermac G5 to run/develop BSD software in a big endian architecture. It'll be slow, but good enough.

Finally, sorely tempted at times by a Sparc system, but they're all really slow, hot, noisy, or all three. An SGI Fuel is tempting, but realistically I wouldn't use it (the O2s rarely get switched on as it is), and it's damned slow. Space is important, and noise is paramount.

Reply 26 of 116, by buckeye

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My "bucket" list:

1. An AMD K6 "time machine" - SS7 board, Voodoo 2's and etc. Pricey stuff for sure!
2. Slot One "Behemoth" - Like to get a 1.1Ghz., 512mb ram, Audigy2 & Geforce 2 setup in modern black case.
3. P4 Win98SE "Juggernaught" - Probably 2GHz. P4 478 socket with Audigy2 & Geforce 5xx also in black case.

Waiting for my share of the "inheritance" courtesy of the "Prince of Omar" to finance all this.

Asus P5N-E Intel Core 2 Duo 3.33ghz. 4GB DDR2 Geforce 470 1GB SB X-Fi Titanium 650W XP SP3
Intel SE440BX P3 450 256MB 80GB SSD Radeon 7200 64mb SB 32pnp 350W 98SE
MSI x570 Gaming Pro Carbon Ryzen 3700x 32GB DDR4 Zotac RTX 3070 8GB WD Black 1TB 850W

Reply 27 of 116, by candle_86

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I want to build a Slot A, as its something I've never owned in working condition, I had one that didn't work and i've always itched for one ever since.

Reply 29 of 116, by meljor

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I don't know, i'm pretty much done. In working condition i have 12 systems. I do not know what to build?

asus tx97-e, 233mmx, voodoo1, s3 virge ,sb16
asus p5a, k6-3+ @ 550mhz, voodoo2 12mb sli, gf2 gts, awe32
asus p3b-f, p3-700, voodoo3 3500TV agp, awe64
asus tusl2-c, p3-S 1,4ghz, voodoo5 5500, live!
asus a7n8x DL, barton cpu, 6800ultra, Voodoo3 pci, audigy1

Reply 30 of 116, by ultimate386

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meljor wrote:

I don't know, i'm pretty much done. In working condition i have 12 systems. I do not know what to build?

I'm in a similar situation as far as pretty much having everything I want (at the moment):
386/387DX40 has been complete for 10+ years. The only thing I need to add is a 5.25" floppy drive. Also recently got an ET4000 that I'll probably benchmark against the ATi Mach64 that I currently have in it.
Compaq Prolinea 4/33 have owned since new. Nothing I really want to add to it unless I find a Logitech Soundman 16.
AMD X5 is 100%.
SS7, aside from a glitchy Voodoo3, is 100%.
Tualatin build is in its finally stages.

I do have i875 socket 478, i850 Northwood/RAMBUS, and i945 socket 775 systems that are in pieces at the moment, so I guess those are my future builds!

AMD386/IIT387DX40, 32MB, ATi Mach64, AWE64
Compaq Prolinea 4/33, 32MB, Tseng ET4000, SB16
AMD X5, 64MB, S3 Virge/Voodoo1, AWE64
AMD K62+550, 256MB, Voodoo3, AWE64 Gold
P3 1.2Ghz, 512MB, Radeon 7500/Voodoo2 SLI, SB Live!

Reply 31 of 116, by Carlos S. M.

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i want to buld some systems i haven't worked yet

like:
Slot A build
socket 8 Pentium Pro build
AM3 system
LGA 1366 system
socket 604 workstation
socket 940 workstation
socket LGA 771 workstation
Slot 2 system
socket 3 486 build
386 build
SS7 build with an AMD K6-III or a non Intel/AMD CPU
Socket 370 VIA
VIA C7 or later

What is your biggest Pentium 4 Collection?
Socket 423/478 Motherboards with Universal AGP Slot
Socket 478 Motherboards with PCI-E Slots
LGA 775 Motherboards with AGP Slots
Experiences and thoughts with Socket 423 systems

Reply 33 of 116, by JidaiGeki

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I have the parts for a 5x86 build mocking me while I try and get some work done ...

Would also like to convert a flip-top desktop 486 back into a 386DX-40, that would be nice.

Reply 34 of 116, by BSA Starfire

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I'd like to build a NexGen 586, either VLB or PCI. Probably never will though as the few motherboards/CPU's that come up are horrendously expensive.
Also wouldn't mind doing a SLOT A Athlon at some point.

286 20MHz,1MB RAM,Trident 8900B 1MB, Conner CFA-170A.SB 1350B
386SX 33MHz,ULSI 387,4MB Ram,OAK OTI077 1MB. Seagate ST1144A, MS WSS audio
Amstrad PC 9486i, DX/2 66, 16 MB RAM, Cirrus SVGA,Win 95,SB 16
Cyrix MII 333,128MB,SiS 6326 H0 rev,ESS 1869,Win ME

Reply 35 of 116, by jesolo

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creepingnet wrote:
Errius wrote:

What is the advantage of a 8087? Are there any games that use it?

More for completeness than anything - but there are a handful of flight sims and I also have an old CAD program I want to mess with designed for XT class machines.

One game, which I do have on the Tandy that supposedly does use it is Sim City.

I recently acquired an XT motherboard with an 8088-2 (8 MHz) CPU with an 8087 math coprocessor, as well a Turbo XT motherboard with a 12 MHz NEC V20.
I want to also build a nice retro XT PC for myself. I got all the parts, except for a nice retro desktop case.
I was thinking of swopping out the 8087 and run it with the V20 but, apparently, these did not run asynchronously, meaning if I insert the 8087 into my V20 motherboard, I'd be overclocking it. Any advice or suggestions are welcome.

Reply 36 of 116, by RetroPC_King

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I was planning to make two socket 754 builds:
One was the Athlon 64 Deluxe King (AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Clawhammer 2GHz on ASUS K8V SE Deluxe) in a Cooler Master Centurion 5 case
One was the El Cheapo Budget Sempron 64 (AMD Sempron 3000+ (E6 stepping with AMD64 and Cool and Quiet) on ASUS K8V-X SE) in a cheapo PC case with handle

Reply 38 of 116, by Matth79

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Non Retro... Agonizing over some circular upgrades on main system plus a couple that I intend selling:
Main as is - i7-3770 on H61
Upgrade path 1: i7-3770 goes to Z68 board for native SATA 3 and full rear audio (plus dolby) for 5.1 and line in, side build on H61 with i5.
Second side build / Upgrade path 2: i7-4790 on H81 - but not such a nice board, may offer jack retasking to get the audio I want.

Semi-retro: finish putting together the Core 2 that got sidetracked some time ago.

Retro, do up the two AGP systems and the VLB 486 (I should urgently pull the barrel battery).

Reply 39 of 116, by Intel486dx33

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Some day I hope to complete these builds.

1) Lian Li snail case ( turn into a audio studio/juke box controlled by my iPad via MS-Remote desktop )
2) Fatal1ty gaming computer with all Fatality components.
3) Build a small mini tower 486dx4-100 VLB computer like my first 486 computer. ( completed )
4) complete upgrading my Macintosh's with larger hard-drives and more ram. ( completed )
5) Intel P3, Solaris 7 x86 workstation. ( completed )
6) Linux x86 computer ( Mandrake, FREE BSD, KDE, Open Windows ) ( completed )
7) Macintosh Apple TV upgrades ( Ram and Hard drives ) ( completed )

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Last edited by Intel486dx33 on 2020-05-23, 12:58. Edited 1 time in total.