Everybody's dream machine is obviously different, I personally want my DOS PC to comfortably run later SVGA games (Quake, DN3D, SS1) in 640x480.

Even Pentium MMX is going to struggle with this. But it will run the same games in 320x200 very well. Coincidentally, it's also the best Pentium for slowing down to 386/486 levels of performance.

ShovelKnight wrote on 2020-05-22, 13:13:

Everybody's dream machine is obviously different, I personally want my DOS PC to comfortably run later SVGA games (Quake, DN3D, SS1) in 640x480.

Even Pentium MMX is going to struggle with this. But it will run the same games in 320x200 very well. Coincidentally, it's also the best Pentium for slowing down to 386/486 levels of performance.

I already have a couple AMD K6-3 builds.
1) AMD K6-III+@550mhz., Voodoo-3 / 3DFX / MMX / 3D Now (tower)
2) AMD K6-lll+@500mhz., Voodoo 3000 (desktop)

I just want a 1st gen Pentium build. Where I could be able to swap out the CPU’s from ( 75mhz thru 233mhz ).
I wanted to be able to eliminate any bottle necks for the CPU, RAM, BUS, and Video cards.
I like the 1st gen Pentium because it is very easy to down clock to a 386 and 486.

It’s NOT entirely period correct but that was NOT my goal. The objective of this build was to be able to play as many DOS games
Both old and new in good quality performance.
My 486dx4-100 computer was struggling so now I am going to experiment with this 1st gen Pentium build.
I wanted to base this computer around 1995.
It’s NOT entirely period correct because it is NOT easy to find a good CDROM drive from 1995 or hard-drive.
As for the motherboard I wanted to find one that would eliminate any bottle necks in performance.
This motherboard has a bios dated 1995 and supports a large range of CPUs.
I do have some other AT motherboards with Intel 430nx, 430fx, 430hx, 430vx, and VIA chipsets but they do NOT support all the CPU’s I want to test.

Anonymous Coward wrote on 2020-05-19, 14:24:

For a '95 build I'd probably go with a 430FX motherboard with a COAST module even though they're less reliable, because it's the "wave of the future". The Trio64 is a good choice, but I think in 1995 everybody wanted a Matrox Millenium. SB16 was popular, but wavetable cards like the AWE32 were the ones that all the big shots had in their systems.

.

I might try the AWE32. I have a few laying around that I have not used yet. But I have to get some ram for them.

PC-Engineer wrote on 2020-05-22, 12:56:

Anonymous Coward wrote on 2020-05-19, 14:24:

For a '95 build I'd probably go with a 430FX motherboard with a COAST module even though they're less reliable, because it's the "wave of the future". The Trio64 is a good choice, but I think in 1995 everybody wanted a Matrox Millenium. SB16 was popular, but wavetable cards like the AWE32 were the ones that all the big shots had in their systems.

.

You are so right ... 😀
In September 1995 i built my first dream PC without compromises: P133 with ASUS P55TP4XE + 256kB PB COAST, 16MB RAM, Matrox Millennium 2MB and an AWE32 CT2760 (Takeover from my 486er, bought in 1994).

Yes, this computer is running fine now. It is a real Cadillac compared to my 486dx4-100.
It’s much faster yet runs fine at 386 and 486 speeds too.
I am using the Sound Blaster AWE32 in DOS 6.22 and it works great.
Audio and game playback is good at all CPU speeds.

This computer is not to loud either. The hard-drive is almost silent and the CPU fan is quiet.
The PSU is Silent so this computer runs pretty quiet.

The 52x CDROM is really fast and the computer appears to have no problems with the data transfers.

So far I am very happy with this build.

Now time to test is out with games and software.

This build is a real Cadillac. A powerful DOS computer.
What are some good demanding DOS games to test with ?

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2020-06-05, 23:29:

This build is a real Cadillac. A powerful DOS computer.
What are some good demanding DOS games to test with ?

No it's not a powerful DOS computer. If you don't believe me run Descent at 640x480 and watch it crawl.

Personally, I would put the hard disk where it is supposed to sit (above the PSU) instead of blocking the second 3.5" bay, do some cable management, put brackets on the unused slots, etc. And add a case badge.

Glad that you're happy with it, but the whole thing seems quite cobbled together to me. Nowhere near an even somehow authentic 1995 build. And the CPU is too weak for the very late DOS games, too. So neither "best possible", nor authentic.

Just a silly question: what's with the 5.25 floppy disk drive? For around 1995 it was already quite obsolete I thought?

Ok, I do have one in my K6-3+ machine as well for backward compatibility with XT systems in case I cannot find my laplink cable... Is this the case with you too?

derSammler wrote on 2020-06-06, 07:52:

Personally, I would put the hard disk where it is supposed to sit (above the PSU) instead of blocking the second 3.5" bay, do some cable management, put brackets on the unused slots, etc. And add a case badge.

Glad that you're happy with it, but the whole thing seems quite cobbled together to me. Nowhere near an even somehow authentic 1995 build. And the CPU is too weak for the very late DOS games, too. So neither "best possible", nor authentic.

Thanks for your feed back. Help me make this better.
I used a modern IDE Sony 52x CDROM drive because it was reliable.
Modern motherboard and ram.
I just wanted to get the most out of the CPU and eliminate any bottle necks.
As I move forward in testing I can swap out parts and make this more authentic if the newer parts to not improve performance.
I just followed the supported hardware for this motherboard and went with that.

Help me find the right case badge(s).

More Badges.

The picture in 1st post is clearly not an asus board, you can see right to the rightmost PCI slot that it says "GA-586ATX2", so its a gigabyte board, not asus.

waterbeesje wrote on 2020-06-06, 13:04:

Just a silly question: what's with the 5.25 floppy disk drive? For around 1995 it was already quite obsolete I thought?

Ok, I do have one in my K6-3+ machine as well for backward compatibility with XT systems in case I cannot find my laplink cable... Is this the case with you too?

That’s the thing with this 1st gen. Pentium build is that you can disable “Cache” in bios to slow it down to a 386sx or 486sx computer.
So you can play speed critical DOS games too.

I have a 486dx4-100 that I was using before and this Pentium build is much more powerful and plays old DOS games in good quality.
With the modern motherboard it performs much better than my 486.
Games play smooth as they should and audio playback is good at all CPU speeds.
You really have to try one of these builds if you are a DOS gamer.

Nezarn wrote on 2020-06-06, 13:09:

The picture in 1st post is clearly not an asus board, you can see right to the rightmost PCI slot that it says "GA-586ATX2", so its a gigabyte board, not asus.

Yes, I could not get the Gigabyte motherboard to post so I had to change it out with an Asus.
I wrote about this in the build comments.
I will try to fix the Gigabyte motherboard later.

I havent read thru the whole thread, but it was kinda confusing that the jpg's name is asus while the board itself is gigabyte 🤣

appiah4 wrote on 2020-06-06, 07:37:

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2020-06-05, 23:29:

This build is a real Cadillac. A powerful DOS computer.
What are some good demanding DOS games to test with ?

No it's not a powerful DOS computer. If you don't believe me run Descent at 640x480 and watch it crawl.

I remember back in 1993 when the 486 computer and 16mb ram ran the world.
From home computers, workstations and servers. Global networks using Win3.11 and Novell servers.

And then in 1995 came Windows-95, WinNT 3.5.1 and WinNT 4.0 that just put Microsoft on another level.
This is when Microsoft really was leading the way.
The 1st gen Pentium put Microsoft on par with UNIX computers and was breaking barriers and concurring new ground.
It was running the world corporate sector and home computers.

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2020-06-06, 13:30:

I remember back in 1993 when the 486 computer and 16mb ram ran the world. From home computers, workstations and servers. Global […]
Show full quote

appiah4 wrote on 2020-06-06, 07:37:

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2020-06-05, 23:29:

This build is a real Cadillac. A powerful DOS computer.
What are some good demanding DOS games to test with ?

No it's not a powerful DOS computer. If you don't believe me run Descent at 640x480 and watch it crawl.

I remember back in 1993 when the 486 computer and 16mb ram ran the world.
From home computers, workstations and servers. Global networks using Win3.11 and Novell servers.

And then in 1995 came Windows-95, WinNT 3.5.1 and WinNT 4.0 that just put Microsoft on another level.
This is when Microsoft really was leading the way.
The 1st gen Pentium put Microsoft on par with UNIX computers and was breaking barriers and concurring new ground.
It was running the world corporate sector and home computers.

Which still means nothing. DOS games were released all the way into 1997 that kicked the shit out of 1995 hardware.

appiah4 wrote on 2020-06-06, 13:55:

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2020-06-06, 13:30:

I remember back in 1993 when the 486 computer and 16mb ram ran the world. From home computers, workstations and servers. Global […]
Show full quote

appiah4 wrote on 2020-06-06, 07:37:

No it's not a powerful DOS computer. If you don't believe me run Descent at 640x480 and watch it crawl.

I remember back in 1993 when the 486 computer and 16mb ram ran the world.
From home computers, workstations and servers. Global networks using Win3.11 and Novell servers.

And then in 1995 came Windows-95, WinNT 3.5.1 and WinNT 4.0 that just put Microsoft on another level.
This is when Microsoft really was leading the way.
The 1st gen Pentium put Microsoft on par with UNIX computers and was breaking barriers and concurring new ground.
It was running the world corporate sector and home computers.

Which still means nothing. DOS games were released all the way into 1997 that kicked the shit out of 1995 hardware.

Well actually, this motherboard with Intel TX chipset is from 1997. This 1st gen. Pentium CPU was from 1994 thru 1997.
I am going to test with Pentium 75 thru 233.

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2020-06-06, 13:11:

That’s the thing with this 1st gen. Pentium build is that you can disable “Cache” in bios to slow it down to a 386sx or 486sx co […]
Show full quote

waterbeesje wrote on 2020-06-06, 13:04:

Just a silly question: what's with the 5,35 floppy disk drive? For around 1995 it was already quite obsolete I thought?

Ok, I do have one in my K6-3+ machine as well for backward compatibility with XT systems in case I cannot find my laplink cable... Is this the case with you too?

That’s the thing with this 1st gen. Pentium build is that you can disable “Cache” in bios to slow it down to a 386sx or 486sx computer.
So you can play speed critical DOS games too.

I have a 486dx4-100 that I was using before and this Pentium build is much more powerful and plays old DOS games in good quality.
With the modern motherboard it performs much better than my 486.
Games play smooth as they should and audio playback is good at all CPU speeds.
You really have to try one of these builds if you are a DOS gamer.

That's where I got spoiled... From every generation I have at least one machine running.

I do have some super 7 boards laying around, so I might some day play with enabled and disabled cache and speed settings... And add the benchmark result to my spreadsheet 😀

derSammler wrote on 2020-06-06, 07:52:

Personally, I would put the hard disk where it is supposed to sit (above the PSU) instead of blocking the second 3.5" bay, do some cable management, put brackets on the unused slots, etc. And add a case badge.

Glad that you're happy with it, but the whole thing seems quite cobbled together to me. Nowhere near an even somehow authentic 1995 build. And the CPU is too weak for the very late DOS games, too. So neither "best possible", nor authentic.

How is this?....I edit it in photoshop on my iPad.

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2020-06-06, 16:48:

How is this?....I edit it in photoshop on my iPad.

I think it needs some more stickers 😉