VOGONS


First post, by Mitchellin

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th_05165_24pic_122_1170lo.jpg

I bought this little fella off ebay, managed to snatch it for 41£ and 11£ delivery (it was very well packaged). Description said it had a 133 mhz Pentium, 40mb RAM and no HDD. I always wanted to buy back my first PC off the kid that I sold it to, but his aunt and my cousin divorced so I can't contact him anymore. Also, he might have destroyed it by now... My first PC was a HP Vectra XM with a Pentium 133 mhz. It was heavy, smelly and loud.

Back to the Olivetti M24 new P133. The system is LPX form factor (Low Profile eXtension), although in the only manuals I found it is actually called a Slim Tin Box (?!?). Whatever. It was sold in 3 versions apparently: with a 75, 100 and 133 mhz Pentium processor. It was a ISA/PCI Socket 5 architecture, although my socket clearly says Socket 7! More on to that later. It has the typical riser bus expansion card in the middle of the damn board, which is a hindrance for airflow and wires and... expansion, really. Back in 1996, stacking things must've been cool or something. The M24 was the original model from the 80's, this is like an homage to it, or just a cheap marketing strategy. It was based on the Olivetti M4 P133/PCS 5140 models. TINSL/II yields quite a range of models if researched.

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I have yet to find out which motherboard I have exactly. The model says BA2306. No info on google whatsoever, I think it might be a Trigem, but I can't say for sure. The BIOS is very cool, it has mouse support. It is version 1.24, although the manual clearly mentions a 1.21 as last revision. The AMI bios string is 51-0200-000000-01111111-071595-TRITON-5. I have no clue which jumpers do what, but I've tried to go 2.5x using other Olivetti mainboards as reference with no success as the processor is very likely to be stuck at 2x (SY022). FSB is also 66mhz max. I did want to OC the processor at 166, but since it's locked, I'll stay like this for now. I can probably use a 233 MMX one as I have a cooler, or a non-mmx at 200mhz. But to be fair, I have a dual P3 at 450mhz with Quadro 1 for more demanding games. I have no clue what that thing is next to the processor socket (VRM kind of thing?).

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As you can see, the motherboard was in quite a state. PC was booting up anyway, it just needed a clean. I had to watch a video on youtube about another similar model from Olivetti to find out how to remove the parts. I had a network card I think inside as well, plus space next to the riser card for an optional Mozart OTI 605 board (MI2074/MI2109). The integrated sound is 3D audio board (MI2112). Memory I think it's 70ns, in modules of 8 mb: first two from the left are Hynx, last ones LG. Apparently the HDD goes underneath the PSU. That's a hot place to be in, err. I removed the thermal sticker from the CPU and used some good ol' Noctua NT-H1 that I had around. So here it is after some serious WD 40 Specialist spray cleaning:

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I looked online for memory chips for the onboard video, although that won't help a lot. No result. I also looked for the Mozart expansion sound board, again no result. All good. I bought a PCI 3D accelerator, the cheapest that I could find: the beefy Radeon 7000 with 64-bit interface 64mb DDR. Overkill as hell and arguably, not exactly the best choice for a Win95C machine... In the meantime, I did manage to score a Voodoo 1 for cheap, I'm still waiting for the delivery. It's a Guillemot Maxi Gamer 3D with 4mb. A bit more appropriate than the Radeon 7000, which will be retired before even using it. I do plan on using it in a thin client. Now, I must look for an audio card. The integrated sound is OK, but not the best. I ordered a 4GB Transcend CF card to use, hopefully the BIOS won't get nasty about the size. Also bought an adapter for the CF card.

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I do need help with the PSU. It works, but it looks dirty inside and I won't bother opening or plan on using it for long. I want a modern one with AT adapters. I got the smallest PSU I could find in my stash, a Seasonic 300ET or something. It's too big. And doesn't have enough MOLEX connectors. I need at least 2-3 (one for hdd, one for CD-Rom and one for the CPU cooler). I think I need to find a TFX or SFX, I need to measure it first.

Last edited by Mitchellin on 2019-08-14, 18:39. Edited 3 times in total.

Main: i3 10100f, rx5600xt, Radeon 7000/SbLive. Dual Win10/Win98 boot.
Retro Win98 PC: Pentium 3 500mhz, Voodoo 2/GF4ti.
MiniPCs: Shuttle XPC SN41G (winXP/98), Iwill ZPC64 (winXP/98), Igel M340C (win7).
And some laptops.

Reply 1 of 11, by SpectriaForce

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Mitchellin wrote:

I have no clue what that thing is next to the processor socket (VRM kind of thing?).

Do you mean the L2 cache module? Your photos are extremely small, I can barely identify anything 😉

Reply 2 of 11, by Mitchellin

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no, the black thingy next to the socket: it's a VRM of some sort. I'm not sure this board will take MMX at 2.8v or overvolted at 3.3. I have no manual to check. Photos are fixed now, sorry.

Main: i3 10100f, rx5600xt, Radeon 7000/SbLive. Dual Win10/Win98 boot.
Retro Win98 PC: Pentium 3 500mhz, Voodoo 2/GF4ti.
MiniPCs: Shuttle XPC SN41G (winXP/98), Iwill ZPC64 (winXP/98), Igel M340C (win7).
And some laptops.

Reply 4 of 11, by Mitchellin

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I wonder if I research the numbers on it, will I find out what exactly it does... I've decided I'm going to use yellow rounded IDE cables, in tone with the logo on the PC. Like these ones:

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I can't use the PCI CF-to-IDE slot on the riser, as that will mean I lose one of the 3 expansion slots that I have. I can either use the slot of the expansion audio board for it, or improvise for the second FDD on the front case. I'm going to test once the adapter is here.

So this lil' fella
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will very like go in here (unless I can't get it to fit, then I'm left with the second FDD slot on the front case which is awk to remove and adapt):
th_09317_backcase_122_152lo.jpg

Main: i3 10100f, rx5600xt, Radeon 7000/SbLive. Dual Win10/Win98 boot.
Retro Win98 PC: Pentium 3 500mhz, Voodoo 2/GF4ti.
MiniPCs: Shuttle XPC SN41G (winXP/98), Iwill ZPC64 (winXP/98), Igel M340C (win7).
And some laptops.

Reply 5 of 11, by Caluser2000

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VRam should be easy just get a socketed S3 video card to and rip the Vram from that.

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 6 of 11, by chinny22

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Nice, always liked the LPX form factor, I knew "Pizza box" was another term but " Slim Tin Box" is a new one! 🤣

What are you using in the 3 isa slots? Nic, Voodoo, I thought the 3rd would be free for the CF card?

Reply 7 of 11, by Mitchellin

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3rd slot will be for an ISA sound card. The integrated sound card (MI2112) is not bad, but since I can't find the add-on Mozart card I won't bother with it. I'll find a cheap ISA sound card that's light on resources.
CF card will go where the Mozart add-on card was supposed to be, it's better that way since I won't have to take the IDE cable all the way around the riser card. LPX cases are cute and light, but absolute nightmare in terms of airflow and cable management. Rounded IDE cables are a must if you care about your parts!

I am having a hard time finding a small modern PSU with enough MOLEX connectors that will actually fit in there. Also, I'd pay a lot more extra for anything that's modular, since the cables are a nightmare to arrange.

Main: i3 10100f, rx5600xt, Radeon 7000/SbLive. Dual Win10/Win98 boot.
Retro Win98 PC: Pentium 3 500mhz, Voodoo 2/GF4ti.
MiniPCs: Shuttle XPC SN41G (winXP/98), Iwill ZPC64 (winXP/98), Igel M340C (win7).
And some laptops.

Reply 9 of 11, by melo

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charliegolf wrote on 2021-01-29, 18:47:

I know that this is an old post but I just got an olivetti p120 with the same mono, did you ever find out anything about the jumper settings?

Hallo,
download this from my mega: https://mega.nz/file/9Z5hiKrY#cv9-D5_8kyMk9-d … 3Xg8r0z4X9uke3w

Are guides for your computer if it has the same motherboard of the new M24. Read "Cap 21" first, you can see that at the end it tells you to read "Cap16". It is inside the .rar file.

Reply 10 of 11, by charliegolf

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melo wrote on 2021-01-29, 20:48:
Hallo, download this from my mega: https://mega.nz/file/9Z5hiKrY#cv9-D5_8kyMk9-d … 3Xg8r0z4X9uke3w […]
Show full quote
charliegolf wrote on 2021-01-29, 18:47:

I know that this is an old post but I just got an olivetti p120 with the same mono, did you ever find out anything about the jumper settings?

Hallo,
download this from my mega: https://mega.nz/file/9Z5hiKrY#cv9-D5_8kyMk9-d … 3Xg8r0z4X9uke3w

Are guides for your computer if it has the same motherboard of the new M24. Read "Cap 21" first, you can see that at the end it tells you to read "Cap16". It is inside the .rar file.

Yes! awesome, thankyou so much 😁

YouTube:
66Mhz Brain

Reply 11 of 11, by melo

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charliegolf wrote on 2021-01-30, 12:49:
melo wrote on 2021-01-29, 20:48:
Hallo, download this from my mega: https://mega.nz/file/9Z5hiKrY#cv9-D5_8kyMk9-d … 3Xg8r0z4X9uke3w […]
Show full quote
charliegolf wrote on 2021-01-29, 18:47:

I know that this is an old post but I just got an olivetti p120 with the same mono, did you ever find out anything about the jumper settings?

Hallo,
download this from my mega: https://mega.nz/file/9Z5hiKrY#cv9-D5_8kyMk9-d … 3Xg8r0z4X9uke3w

Are guides for your computer if it has the same motherboard of the new M24. Read "Cap 21" first, you can see that at the end it tells you to read "Cap16". It is inside the .rar file.

Yes! awesome, thankyou so much 😁

You're welcome 😁