NeilKnows wrote on 2026-03-17, 11:35:

dukeofurl wrote on 2026-03-17, 01:33:

Got this unusual Gateway model today. Its a PII 266 manufactured in June 1998. Intel Slot 1 motherboard with 2 isa slots. I'd love to make it a pentium 3 machine as I don't have one of those yet... but I have a suspicion the motherboard is a 440lx that only supprots a 66mhz fsb rather than a 440bx, so between that and the bios referring to 1997, not sure I have ready support for Pentium IIIs on this board.

"The company also announced the E3110-1233 system with a 233-MHz Pentium II, 32MB of memory, a 3.2GB hard disk drive, a 12X CD-ROM, and a 17-inch monitor would be priced at $1,979. The E-series is Gateway's line of business desktop PCs." Quote from 1997.
Looks like it was there attempt to crack the corporate market... Never seen one before. Nice/Niche depending on your point of view 😀

Neat! I was wondering why it had the E3110 label when the chassis says G6-266, which is a label some of their other computers have (generally pii towers). The case actually has a label on it that suggests it was owned by a school, so that tracks that it was a machine marketed to institutional customers.

TechieDude wrote on 2026-03-17, 12:47:

If it has the 440LX chipset, it won't work with any P3 CPU whatsoever.

That's a bummer, wonder if celerons might work.

dukeofurl wrote on 2026-03-17, 13:32:

TechieDude wrote on 2026-03-17, 12:47:

If it has the 440LX chipset, it won't work with any P3 CPU whatsoever.

That's a bummer, wonder if celerons might work.

Yes it should support Mendocino Celerons (66MHz FSB).

TechieDude wrote on 2026-03-17, 12:47:

dukeofurl wrote on 2026-03-17, 01:33:

Got this unusual Gateway model today. Its a PII 266 manufactured in June 1998. Intel Slot 1 motherboard with 2 isa slots. I'd love to make it a pentium 3 machine as I don't have one of those yet... but I have a suspicion the motherboard is a 440lx that only supprots a 66mhz fsb rather than a 440bx, so between that and the bios referring to 1997, not sure I have ready support for Pentium IIIs on this board.

Its a curious case design. It looks like it would be a conventional metal case horizontal desktop, but in reality, only the very top panel is metal (resting on the internal metal chassis) and the sides are plastic held into the metal chassis themselves by 4 brittle looking clips. I'll have to remember not to put much weight on those, I've seen several similar models for sale online missing one or both of these side panels.

The attachment gatewaypii.jpg is no longer available

If it has the 440LX chipset, it won't work with any P3 CPU whatsoever.

Are you sure it "won't work"?

It might be just limited to 66MHz FSB...

I've ran Celeron 766 (11.5 x 66MHz, fastest 66MHz FSB Celeron) on 440EX. Should be basically the same chipset.

I've confirmed the gateway uses this 440lx board btw. https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/intel-al440lx-atlanta

I don't see any dip switches on the motherboard that might adjust fsb or multipliers, but there is a jumper to enable a cpu config mode in the bios. That menu also has no direct control over multipliers, fsb or voltage, and simply has a pre determined list of CPU speeds ranging from 200mhz at the low end to 333mhz at the top end.

dukeofurl wrote on 2026-03-17, 16:24:

I've confirmed the gateway uses this 440lx board btw. https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/intel-al440lx-atlanta

I don't see any dip switches on the motherboard that might adjust fsb or multipliers, but there is a jumper to enable a cpu config mode in the bios. That menu also has no direct control over multipliers, fsb or voltage, and simply has a pre determined list of CPU speeds ranging from 200mhz at the low end to 333mhz at the top end.

If you use a CPU with a locked multiplier the 333 (5x) limit in the BIOS shouldn't be a problem.
Assuming Intel didn't do things with the BIOS I see no reason why a Mendocino wouldn't work (I'd say 433 or 466, the 500 and 533 are way too expensive for what they are). Worst comes to worst you can flash the retail Intel BIOS.

GigAHerZ wrote on 2026-03-17, 15:41:

Are you sure it "won't work"?

It might be just limited to 66MHz FSB...

I've ran Celeron 766 (11.5 x 66MHz, fastest 66MHz FSB Celeron) on 440EX. Should be basically the same chipset.

Anything with SSE will not run on LX period.
And yet, despite EX being a cut down LX, EX will run Coppermine Celerons with no problems at all.

Every day you learn. Thanks @andrea!

The FM2+ board I bough came with a Amd A8-6600K.
Just sitting there it hit 70°C in BIOS, with the lousy cooler included.

No shyt people bought something else to cool these little guys.

dukeofurl wrote on 2026-03-17, 13:30:

Neat! I was wondering why it had the E3110 label when the chassis says G6-266, which is a label some of their other computers have (generally pii towers). The case actually has a label on it that suggests it was owned by a school, so that tracks that it was a machine marketed to institutional customers.

I see you already confirmed it - the E-3110 should have an Intel Atlanta motherboard with the 440LX chipset.

Yes, the Gateway E-series were basically the same cases from other retail models. I worked part-time for the IT department of my college from 2000 thru 2002. Everything was Gateway 2000. They typically had an upgrade cycle of 3 years. I was allowed to salvage parts during decommissioning, as long as the case itself with the school asset tag and serial number was sent to be removed from the accounting books and recycled. That's how I have a lot of working Intel motherboards from that era. These OEM boards aren't glamorous, but they are very reliable.

dukeofurl wrote on 2026-03-17, 13:32:

That's a bummer, wonder if celerons might work.

I'm not sure - most of the ones I came across had 233 and 266 PII Klamath CPUs installed.

andrea wrote on 2026-03-17, 16:58:

If you use a CPU with a locked multiplier the 333 (5x) limit in the BIOS shouldn't be a problem. Assuming Intel didn't do things […]
Show full quote

dukeofurl wrote on 2026-03-17, 16:24:

I've confirmed the gateway uses this 440lx board btw. https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/intel-al440lx-atlanta

I don't see any dip switches on the motherboard that might adjust fsb or multipliers, but there is a jumper to enable a cpu config mode in the bios. That menu also has no direct control over multipliers, fsb or voltage, and simply has a pre determined list of CPU speeds ranging from 200mhz at the low end to 333mhz at the top end.

If you use a CPU with a locked multiplier the 333 (5x) limit in the BIOS shouldn't be a problem.
Assuming Intel didn't do things with the BIOS I see no reason why a Mendocino wouldn't work (I'd say 433 or 466, the 500 and 533 are way too expensive for what they are). Worst comes to worst you can flash the retail Intel BIOS.

GigAHerZ wrote on 2026-03-17, 15:41:

Are you sure it "won't work"?

It might be just limited to 66MHz FSB...

I've ran Celeron 766 (11.5 x 66MHz, fastest 66MHz FSB Celeron) on 440EX. Should be basically the same chipset.

Anything with SSE will not run on LX period.
And yet, despite EX being a cut down LX, EX will run Coppermine Celerons with no problems at all.

Yep, this is basically it. Should have been more specific from the start.

Bj0rn83 wrote on 2025-03-23, 16:09:

I bought this Dell XPS P166s from my local thrift store for 65 euro, kinda expensive if you ask me but it came with a AT101W keyboard and a creative ct1920 goldfinch expansion card so I'm happy.

Aye! Thumbs up for that, have one here as well =) Exact same model, didnt expect that here.

Have you opened and checked whether yours have an actual isa card? If I dont misremember, mine's got awe32 onboard.

65 euros sounds good to me, especially with that Crt, prices have accelerated a bit 🫢 Also with that sound card if isa, should cover quite a bit =)

WNot really today - 2 weeks ago now. Havent been online in a while, but my last purchases anyway. Sorry about crappy pics 😅

From local retro guy:

- Compaq Deskpro 4000/5166, AWE64 ISA, $40
- Dell Dimension XPS T500, GF2MX, $50
Both missing HDDs and sat 20 years.

Just got inside after carrying those 1km from the train, a workout that could still be felt 2 days after. Prepared with coffee when this randomly popped:

Ad in foreign language, didnt understand a thing. Believing it was a broken X21, off I went, knowing people pay an arm and a leg for anything IBM.

Turned out to be an X23 with X2 advanced dock and good battery for $35! 128MB RAM, shortly upgraded to 256 after noticing the stick was slid out halfways.
She's now a dualbooter after replacing a bad HDD.

Deskpro after some cleaning, prepared with upgrades

And this one!
$10 FX5200, for that first pc glorification rebuild - an AGP-less P3 OptiPlex.

That Deskpro looks great now. Nice job!

Ahrle wrote on Yesterday, 03:08:

Turned out to be an X23 with X2 advanced dock and good battery for $35! 128MB RAM, shortly upgraded to 256 after noticing the stick was slid out halfways.

I do love those X series ThinkPads 😀

Ahrle wrote on Yesterday, 03:27:

And this one!
$10 FX5200, for that first pc glorification rebuild - an AGP-less P3 OptiPlex.

That's cool! I don't think I've ever seen a Gainward FX 5200 PCI. It is also pretty unusual to find any FX 5200 with only 64MB, let alone a fancier looking full height model. I believe it is 64bit, so the performance won't be so great, but it is a very interesting card nonetheless. 😀

I found an old NewEgg page for it too:
https://www.newegg.com/gainward-card-expert-f … 8g-Cj0ANN6zGmJQ

Ahrle wrote on Yesterday, 03:27:

And this one!
$10 FX5200, for that first pc glorification rebuild - an AGP-less P3 OptiPlex.

Gosh nice find

I can never find those cool PCI graphics cards 🙁

Nexxen wrote on 2026-03-17, 21:34:

The FM2+ board I bough came with a Amd A8-6600K.
Just sitting there it hit 70°C in BIOS, with the lousy cooler included.

No shyt people bought something else to cool these little guys.

the stock coolers sold with the CPU's and OEM supplied were sufficient in keeping temps under 55 °C
They heat up in BIOS menu too a bug in many motherboards for some reason but not that high.
Thermal grease replacement might help your situation if you haven't already.
Another bug is many motherboards will refuse to boot if you attach a exfat formatted 8tb disk has to be attached after post instead (internal or external) they try to map a fat32 disk maybe this happens to smaller capacities .
I recommend DDR3 frequency of not exceeding 1200 as higher speed may give good results but fries the CPU memory controller in as little as 2 years depending on loads.
I have owned several fm2+ motherboards and CPU's most brand new and I was so disappointed in the gear I went back to Intel stuff ever since.

zapbuzz wrote on Yesterday, 11:34:

the stock coolers sold with the CPU's and OEM supplied were sufficient in keeping temps under 55 °C They heat up in BIOS menu to […]
Show full quote

Nexxen wrote on 2026-03-17, 21:34:

The FM2+ board I bough came with a Amd A8-6600K.
Just sitting there it hit 70°C in BIOS, with the lousy cooler included.

No shyt people bought something else to cool these little guys.

the stock coolers sold with the CPU's and OEM supplied were sufficient in keeping temps under 55 °C
They heat up in BIOS menu too a bug in many motherboards for some reason but not that high.
Thermal grease replacement might help your situation if you haven't already.
Another bug is many motherboards will refuse to boot if you attach a exfat formatted 8tb disk has to be attached after post instead (internal or external) they try to map a fat32 disk maybe this happens to smaller capacities .
I recommend DDR3 frequency of not exceeding 1200 as higher speed may give good results but fries the CPU memory controller in as little as 2 years depending on loads.
I have owned several fm2+ motherboards and CPU's most brand new and I was so disappointed in the gear I went back to Intel stuff ever since.

This is helpful.
I'll update the bios to last available.

I didn't put any thermal paste, usually this makes temps go higher but not to 70°C.
I'll retry with some but I'm not expecting any real super result. The cooler came with some silverish looking paste but wasn't silver based as it came off pretty easily.
EDIT:
added paste and temps are 55°-60° at idle. Went to fans menu and allowed 100% speed at target 50°C max.
Stays at 42°C idle. I'll use a better cooler anyway.

Below 8tb is safe. I never owned a 8TB HDD, I'm pretty safe on that side 😉
I got this board mainly to test cpus, DDR3 is my last concern but I'd like to test 2133MHz to see what happens.
You got me curious on these issues.
EDIT: nothing happens, I have to OC to 2133 and temps don't change. OCCT this would be the thing but too much time for no purpose.

The board looks cheap, VRM have no heatsinks and considered that cpus go as high as 100W+... not looking good.
For testing it's good enough.

zapbuzz wrote on Yesterday, 11:34:

Another bug is many motherboards will refuse to boot if you attach a exfat formatted 8tb disk has to be attached after post instead (internal or external) they try to map a fat32 disk maybe this happens to smaller capacities .

Oh that's good to know, thanks. I have an FM2 board that I had assumed "needs work" but maybe I tried it with an older HDD it didn't like.