FullYes wrote on 2025-11-15, 15:04:

More playing with the Pentium system yesterday. Swapped the USB card from the Athlon system into it as it’s an NEC one, and the orientation of the ports means I can actually plug something into them! It’s works perfectly using the nusb36 driver stack I got off here.

I am sure I read somewhere that having USB eats CPU cycles that can cause lower performance on slower PCs such as this. I haven't measured though. I disabled USB on mine, as I use PS/2 Keyboard and mouse. I transfer files to it on optical disks. When I put new MMX system in this case I will have the HDD in a caddy so can easily attach it to a networked machine to copy files from NAS or Internet.

It wouldn’t surprise me that it consumes some resources. I might do some tests.

My old setup had all of the functions you describe. I had a removable hdd caddy and I still have CD-RW discs for such a purpose. However I never got USB working properly with my 430VX, the 430TX seems to behave much nicer with it

I realise there are a lot of words in this thread. So I thought I would summarise what the specs of the two systems will be

System 1 - Socket 7
Original Opus Technologies case, motherboard and CPU, comprising;
MSI-5158 i430TX socket 7 motherboard
Pentium 233 MMX
64MB SD-RAM
S3 Virge DX 4MB
Sound blaster vibra 16 (for now - I may swap for an ESS audiodrive or stick my AWE64 in here)
I’ve bought a 32Gb CF card to supplement / replace the 4.3Gb Fujitsu HDD should it give up the ghost
Wish list; a voodoo2
Currently running 98SE but mainly assembled for DOS games

System 2 - Athlon XP
Antec NSK4482 silver case with black drive bays. (Not arrived yet)
EzCool 550W PSU (40A on 5V rail 😬)
Soltek SL75-KAV KT133A Motherboard
Athlon XP 2800+ (Barton core, 512k cache, 2083MHz) - achieved clock speed TBC. Apparently multiplier is unlocked
512MB SD-RAM, CL2. Could add more, but should be enough!
FX5900XT which came in the PC I bought for parts. I’ve got an MX440 as a backup
Sound blaster Awe64/Awe64 value CT4500 for dos games
Sound blaster audigy for windows - came with the PC I bought for parts. I might as well use it!
200Gb maxtor IDE HDD capped to 128/137Gb. May replace IDE to SATA adapter SSD at some point. It’s 21 years old and I’ve had it from new!
Will run 98SE to begin with. I may dual boot with XP but hopefully I won’t need to. I have another machine for XP

Looking forward to playing late 90s / early 2000s 3D games on this one! System 2 is currently still in bits. I’m going to wait until the case arrives. In the meantime I’m testing the spare parts from the 2nd Athlon system to prepare it for sale. It’s a Palomino 2000+ in an A7V333. I’m planning to do some benches as I’m curious about DDR vs SDR. I believe there is not much difference, but I’m curious to find out for myself

Barton is not unlocked (unless mobile) and will run at lower speed due to 133Mhz FSB. The best CPU for that board is probably AXDA2800DKV4C at 2133 MHz.

Why do you want KT133A if not for DOS? The only motivation for ISA is DOS. With ISA soundcard it will play the same games as Socket 7.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-11-18, 21:40:

Barton is not unlocked (unless mobile) and will run at lower speed due to 133Mhz FSB. The best CPU for that board is probably AXDA2800DKV4C at 2133 MHz.

Why do you want KT133A if not for DOS? The only motivation for ISA is DOS. With ISA soundcard it will play the same games as Socket 7.

You are correct sir. My main motivation is to retain dos support on the Athlon. Perhaps it’s unnecessary having 2 systems capable of the same thing. Maybe in the long term I will sell one system and keep the other. In the meantime I’m having fun building, testing and playing with both systems 😎

Problems today. The MX440 I bought as a backup GPU is faulty. I think it’s just bad caps. I noticed One is hanging off. Works fine until drivers are installed. Then issues and instability. I was planning on servicing the FX5900XT before putting it into action. But I just fancied a quick test on 3dmark99 and it works fine! But I think vsync is stuck on…7500 3dmarks

Anyway, it works. Time to strip and delid. I’ve found someone on eBay selling an Arctic cooler NV silencer 3 for it. It’s expensive but hopefully will help preserve the card.

Edit -P.S. that’s a bummer about the Barton! I’m waiting for another CPU cooler before i put the Barton in the Soltek board. I shall be having words with the eBay seller if I can’t up the multi!

You should ask sellers to test items before purchasing/sending. Especially GPUs tend to be faulty, motherboards sometimes. CPUs work like 95% of the time, they survive everything else. A GPU that is unstable with drivers installed is either faulty or incompatible with the board. In case of MX440 most likely faulty.

AlexZ wrote on 2025-11-19, 08:10:

You should ask sellers to test items before purchasing/sending. Especially GPUs tend to be faulty, motherboards sometimes. CPUs work like 95% of the time, they survive everything else. A GPU that is unstable with drivers installed is either faulty or incompatible with the board. In case of MX440 most likely faulty.

Yeah I do normally only buy stuff that is tested and working. With the FX5900XT, I did take a risk, but I got lucky. If the guy knew what he had he would have asked a lot more than I paid. There was no description or specs on the listing so I had to work it out from the photos

The MX440 cost me £1 plus postage and it does work, i fancy making it my first retro repair project. I’ve nothing to lose!

Ok. Spent some more time on the MX440 today. I tried resoldering the cap back onto the board. It seemed…better but still unstable. So I think it’s time for a full recap or at least a remove and test of what’s there

It seems to be an XFX card, based on the stickers on the back and it has SGRAM so feels like it’s worth at least trying to save it

I tried another driver version + riva tuner on the FX5900XT and managed to disable vsync. Now getting 175fps in 3dm99 race, but I’m seeing artifacts now. With vsync on it ran perfectly on the older drivers. I turned it off after that. I’ll wait till the NV silencer 3 arrives before I mess with it again. Might need a 3rd agp card as a backup to my backup so I can at least start building my machine when the case arrives next week

I still haven’t had my new case for the Athlon, so I haven’t been able to do much apart from buy more stuff!

I decided I needed another agp card since I have an issue with the MX440 and some concerns over the 5900XT, so i bought an FX5200, but only because I could get one dirt cheap. It’s certainly not a favourite of mine. It’s a 128mb one and looks to be 128bit. So hopefully it won’t be completely awful

I’ve been reading about the possibility of the Barton CPU being unlocked. According to some threads on other forums, Barton CPUs with a date code before week 42 2003 should be unlocked. The one I have is week 26, so potentially it is as described by the seller and should be unlocked!! 🤞

I spent some time with the Pentium system this weekend. I’m still waiting on another 32MB stick of SD-RAM. Hopefully it will be here by the weekend. In the meantime I’ve been playing around with an install of MDOS 6.22 on a CF card and testing out the AWE64 I bought a couple of weeks ago. I have been having IRQ conflicts with the NEC USB card and the AWE64. I get a hard lock of the system when the sound card is first initialised about 2 in every 3 boot attempts. Reassigning irq 5 (and 7) as legacy isa help, but it’s a pnp card so that should mean these aren’t avaiable for the sound card either? In any case, when it doesn’t crash, it appears I have a working card.

I’m really impressed with this Pentium setup. The IRQ issues not withstanding, it’s been super stable

What concerns do you have with the FX 5900XT?

Yeah, I have also read that early bartons are unlocked. Back in the day I ran my 2500+ at 3200+. But that was bus speed change. Not multiplier.

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-11-26, 22:22:

What concerns do you have with the FX 5900XT?

Yeah, I have also read that early bartons are unlocked. Back in the day I ran my 2500+ at 3200+. But that was bus speed change. Not multiplier.

I’d heard about failure of the thermal paste under the IHS being an issue on these. I delided it today and fitted an NV silencer 3. I had to replace the IHS with new paste, as this afternarket cooler seems to need it in order to sit flat.

Now with the cooling solution sorted it was time to run more tests. I’m still getting some artifacts in 3dm99, but 2001 runs fine. I get bsod in 3dm2000 before I get to the menu to select tests. I suspect I may need to use a different driver version

Try different board. If you have the same problems then the card is faulty.

I will be trying another board soon. My new case is arriving tomorrow so I can start assembling it with the Soltek board I have instead of this Asus A7V333 I’m currently messing with

Have had a few other issues with the board with Memory compatibility. I’ve got several sticks of DDR-333 but only one stick works reliably at full speed in the first slot

Then yesterday another issue. So far I’d been using the 2000+ which came with the board, but wanted to try the 2800+ so I could do some benchmark comparisons. But with the 2800+ installed it refuses to post and there are no beep codes. Changed back to the 2000+ and it’s fine again

I’ve read on here that only motherboard rev 2.0 and higher officially supports Barton CPUs and mine is Rev 1.04. It’s running the latest bios, and i believe others on here have gotten a Barton working on such a board

I may try an older bios but I should really just stop messing with this board and build the other one.

One other thing occurred to me, the PSU might not be good enough to power the 2800+ - but the 2000+ and 2800+ are the same TDP I think? I have a 30A 5V PSU and a 40A 5V PSU. I was originally on the 30A one but trying the 40A one didn’t change anything.

So either I have a dead CPU or it’s a board issue. Fingers crossed it’s the latter and not the former!

In other news, the Pentium system now finally has 64MB RAM 😎

30A on 5V should be enough even for the strongest Barton 3200+. CPUs are rarely dead. Even when I received a dead motherboard, the CPU worked. Barton CPU not working is not a big issue. You can run classic Athlon XP at up to 2.2Ghz. Choose any frequency below that with the highest FSB the board supports. The CPU should work without voltage adjustment or get another CPU. For Windows 98 you don't need the top Athlon XP CPU.

CPUs tend not to die unless abused, so I would guess it is fine. I would also assume 30A PSU is enough to boot it. You could try booting without a graphics card to be sure. It should beep then to warn of no Graphics found if it does boot.

Thanks to you both. This is reassuring. I thought I might’ve cracked the die or something when installing the cooler but the cpu looks fine. Not my first rodeo with these athlons, but it’s got to be 15+ years since I sold my last one

I have this palomino 2000+ CPU as a backup. It’ll do for now if the Barton won’t play ball

Just unboxed the Soltek Board. They’ve sent me the wrong board 🙈 a 462 board but wrong chipset. (KT133) so there may be some delay to proceedings while I sort this out

Ah, KT133, the unfortunately named chipset that can't do 133

Indeed! I guess their excuse was it referred to the memory speed it could do?

I contacted the seller, and it’s all being sorted. Sending the QDI board back and should get the Soltek board tomorrow hopefully

Good news and bad today:

Good: Soltek board arrived.
Bad: 2800+ Barton CPU still behaving the same in that

Good: All the other bits seem to be working OK and I’ve built the system up in the antec case. (Pics to follow) with the 2000+ in there.
Bad: Apart from the black NEC floppy drive I bought to match the case. I think someone already messed with it. Heads were clean. I assume it’s out of alignment.

Good: I was able to get Audio out of the front panel from the awe 64 by taking some pins off the ac97 connector and locating some pins on the card I could use. Very satisfying! I could do the mic as well, but I’m unlikely to ever use it.
Bad: I’m still seeing artifacts in 3dm99 - the same artifacts in the same places of the run, very consistently. I’ve run the VCMST in windows and it found no errors. So I’m hoping it’s the drivers I’m using

Artifacts in 3dmark 99 are because the card is faulty. You can try newer drivers but most likely it will not go away. I clean FDD drives using fine screwdriver and wet microfiber dust cloth. I get almost everywhere. I never broke any FDD drive like that.

I'm not surprised that Barton isn't stable in KT133A. Athlon XP 2000+ (Palomino) should be sufficient for what you need. Direct X 8.1 games should work fine.

I do have a few KT133 boards and Athlon 1200B but I don't use them as PIII 900 turned out to be sufficient for all games until 2o02.