VOGONS


First post, by rcarkk

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The remake of my second PC. It was bought in late October 1999.
Not all the parts are the same, but the motherboard, CPU, graphics card and sound card are identical. Even the case configuration is identical.
This build is supposed to have the same hardware of the original build, so no fancy extra hardware.
The original build had 64MB of ram. In late 1999 128MB was starting to be the norm for decent spec systems. 64MB was to short for Quake3 in 32bit. I choose 256MB for this build, because 128MB is not enough for some 2001 games.

CPU - Intel Pentium III 450MHz
Motherboard - Legend QDI BrillianX 1S
RAM - 256MB 133MHz SDR SDRAM @ 100MHz CL2-2-2
Graphics - Matrox G400 Single Head 16MB SDRAM Rev.A
Sound card - Creative Sound Blaster PCI 128 CT4700
HDD - Seagate 20GB IDE ATA100 5400rpm
CD-ROM - Creative 52x

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Last edited by rcarkk on 2021-12-16, 12:33. Edited 4 times in total.

Baby AT socket7 - Pentium MMX 233MHz + 3Dfx Voodoo
Socket 8 build - Soyo 6FA + Pentium Pro 200MHz + 3Dfx Voodoo 2 12MB
PC Remake - Pentium III 450 + Matrox G400 16MB
The K6-III build

Reply 1 of 22, by rcarkk

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More pics

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Baby AT socket7 - Pentium MMX 233MHz + 3Dfx Voodoo
Socket 8 build - Soyo 6FA + Pentium Pro 200MHz + 3Dfx Voodoo 2 12MB
PC Remake - Pentium III 450 + Matrox G400 16MB
The K6-III build

Reply 3 of 22, by rcarkk

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Thanks mate.
Not really. It´s supposed to operate without side panel and the holes are to small at the front to provide relevant airflow, not to mention the noise. I need to get modern low noise 80mm fans though for future projects

Baby AT socket7 - Pentium MMX 233MHz + 3Dfx Voodoo
Socket 8 build - Soyo 6FA + Pentium Pro 200MHz + 3Dfx Voodoo 2 12MB
PC Remake - Pentium III 450 + Matrox G400 16MB
The K6-III build

Reply 5 of 22, by rcarkk

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Thank you. I really do my best in every new build. I really like this one, for what it represents and the looks of it.

Baby AT socket7 - Pentium MMX 233MHz + 3Dfx Voodoo
Socket 8 build - Soyo 6FA + Pentium Pro 200MHz + 3Dfx Voodoo 2 12MB
PC Remake - Pentium III 450 + Matrox G400 16MB
The K6-III build

Reply 6 of 22, by chinny22

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Congratulations you've managed to stick to your original speck and resist not going down the "I'll just upgrade this" trap just about everyone does.
The use of Matrox and SB PCI128 make it a pretty unique build for this day and age.
Just checking you know about the 8MB waveset file right?
http://vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=1 … menustate=47,38

Reply 7 of 22, by Joseph_Joestar

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That's some beautiful cable management. Kudos!

I question the use of a SB128 PCI as that's a pretty terrible sound card overall. A SBLive would be a much better and still period correct choice. However, if you chose the SB128 for purely nostalgic reasons (i.e. you had it back in the day) then it is understandable.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 8 of 22, by rcarkk

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chinny22 wrote on 2021-07-19, 15:18:
Congratulations you've managed to stick to your original speck and resist not going down the "I'll just upgrade this" trap just […]
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Congratulations you've managed to stick to your original speck and resist not going down the "I'll just upgrade this" trap just about everyone does.
The use of Matrox and SB PCI128 make it a pretty unique build for this day and age.
Just checking you know about the 8MB waveset file right?
http://vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=1 … menustate=47,38

Thank you. It´s easy to go that route. I was focused on the original specs in October 1999. I still have the original zip drive and HDD, but they are faulty. And the CD-ROM was a 20x Aopen that came from my first PC. The case is not the same, but similar with the PSU in front of the motherboard. I don´t think the PCI 128 is a bad card for Windows 98 gaming. This machine wont be used for DOS

Baby AT socket7 - Pentium MMX 233MHz + 3Dfx Voodoo
Socket 8 build - Soyo 6FA + Pentium Pro 200MHz + 3Dfx Voodoo 2 12MB
PC Remake - Pentium III 450 + Matrox G400 16MB
The K6-III build

Reply 9 of 22, by rcarkk

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Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-07-19, 15:43:

That's some beautiful cable management. Kudos!

I question the use of a SB128 PCI as that's a pretty terrible sound card overall. A SBLive would be a much better and still period correct choice. However, if you chose the SB128 for purely nostalgic reasons (i.e. you had it back in the day) then it is understandable.

Thanks man. I wont´use it for DOS gaming, so no problems with the PCI 128. I find it fairly decent for W98 gaming.

Baby AT socket7 - Pentium MMX 233MHz + 3Dfx Voodoo
Socket 8 build - Soyo 6FA + Pentium Pro 200MHz + 3Dfx Voodoo 2 12MB
PC Remake - Pentium III 450 + Matrox G400 16MB
The K6-III build

Reply 10 of 22, by Joseph_Joestar

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rcarkk wrote on 2021-07-20, 10:36:

Thanks man. I wont´use it for DOS gaming, so no problems with the PCI 128. I find it fairly decent for W98 gaming.

Other than the craptastic FM synth emulation and the bland General MIDI, the SB128 also uses software emulated EAX, unlike the SBLive which has proper hardware EAX support.

I used a SB128 PCI for 4 years back in the day. IMO, it doesn't sound nearly as good as a SBLive under Windows. It will also tax your CPU more heavily in EAX capable games, leading to reduced overall performance.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 11 of 22, by rcarkk

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Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-07-20, 10:48:
rcarkk wrote on 2021-07-20, 10:36:

Thanks man. I wont´use it for DOS gaming, so no problems with the PCI 128. I find it fairly decent for W98 gaming.

Other than the craptastic FM synth emulation and the bland General MIDI, the SB128 also uses software emulated EAX, unlike the SBLive which has proper hardware EAX support.

I used a SB128 PCI for 4 years back in the day. IMO, it doesn't sound nearly as good as a SBLive under Windows. It will also tax your CPU more heavily in EAX capable games, leading to reduced overall performance.

Well, it was the card i had in it. But i know the limitations of the card.

Baby AT socket7 - Pentium MMX 233MHz + 3Dfx Voodoo
Socket 8 build - Soyo 6FA + Pentium Pro 200MHz + 3Dfx Voodoo 2 12MB
PC Remake - Pentium III 450 + Matrox G400 16MB
The K6-III build

Reply 12 of 22, by bloodem

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Gorgeous case & cable management! Also... great looking monitor! Wish I had a CRT, but that's the only thing that I can't have (according to my wife 😁 ).

1 x PLCC-68 / 2 x PGA132 / 5 x Skt 3 / 9 x Skt 7 / 12 x SS7 / 1 x Skt 8 / 14 x Slot 1 / 5 x Slot A
5 x Skt 370 / 8 x Skt A / 2 x Skt 478 / 2 x Skt 754 / 3 x Skt 939 / 7 x LGA775 / 1 x LGA1155
Current PC: Ryzen 7 5800X3D
Backup PC: Core i7 7700k

Reply 13 of 22, by chinny22

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I had the PCI64 onboard back in the day and didn't mind it. For Win9x gaming was big improvement over the SB16 I'd been using.
Even did a good job of playing C&C in pure dos against the 486.
It's nowhere in the same league as the Live of course but I'd still rate it higher then onboard AC97 type crap that was also out during the time

Reply 15 of 22, by rcarkk

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bloodem wrote on 2021-07-20, 15:04:

Gorgeous case & cable management! Also... great looking monitor! Wish I had a CRT, but that's the only thing that I can't have (according to my wife 😁 ).

I tried my best and really love this case. My girlfriend knows i love flat apperture grille CRTs, so no problems there 😀

Last edited by rcarkk on 2021-07-20, 16:07. Edited 1 time in total.

Baby AT socket7 - Pentium MMX 233MHz + 3Dfx Voodoo
Socket 8 build - Soyo 6FA + Pentium Pro 200MHz + 3Dfx Voodoo 2 12MB
PC Remake - Pentium III 450 + Matrox G400 16MB
The K6-III build

Reply 16 of 22, by rcarkk

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chinny22 wrote on 2021-07-20, 15:21:

I had the PCI64 onboard back in the day and didn't mind it. For Win9x gaming was big improvement over the SB16 I'd been using.
Even did a good job of playing C&C in pure dos against the 486.
It's nowhere in the same league as the Live of course but I'd still rate it higher then onboard AC97 type crap that was also out during the time

It sounds good to me, even with quality headphones

Baby AT socket7 - Pentium MMX 233MHz + 3Dfx Voodoo
Socket 8 build - Soyo 6FA + Pentium Pro 200MHz + 3Dfx Voodoo 2 12MB
PC Remake - Pentium III 450 + Matrox G400 16MB
The K6-III build

Reply 17 of 22, by rcarkk

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mothergoose729 wrote on 2021-07-20, 15:23:

Those pictures are incredible. It's like a show piece. I have never seen cable management this good on a build from this period. It's a work of art. Well done!

Thanks for the kind words mate. I try my best in every new build. This is my 4th build since September 2020 were i put my effort in the cable management.

Baby AT socket7 - Pentium MMX 233MHz + 3Dfx Voodoo
Socket 8 build - Soyo 6FA + Pentium Pro 200MHz + 3Dfx Voodoo 2 12MB
PC Remake - Pentium III 450 + Matrox G400 16MB
The K6-III build

Reply 18 of 22, by Joseph_Joestar

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rcarkk wrote on 2021-07-20, 14:57:

Well, it was the card i had in it.

Makes sense. Like I said earlier, nostalgia trumps any other reason when it comes to retro gaming.

In my case, despite now having a Roland Sound Canvas, there are still some games where I use OPL3 for music, since I grew up with that and it's what I most fondly remember.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 19 of 22, by rcarkk

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Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-07-20, 16:17:
rcarkk wrote on 2021-07-20, 14:57:

Well, it was the card i had in it.

Makes sense. Like I said earlier, nostalgia trumps any other reason when it comes to retro gaming.

In my case, despite now having a Roland Sound Canvas, there are still some games where I use OPL3 for music, since I grew up with that and it's what I most fondly remember.

Nostalgia is the main reason why we collect and build old PCs 😀

Baby AT socket7 - Pentium MMX 233MHz + 3Dfx Voodoo
Socket 8 build - Soyo 6FA + Pentium Pro 200MHz + 3Dfx Voodoo 2 12MB
PC Remake - Pentium III 450 + Matrox G400 16MB
The K6-III build