Pretty sure I scored 2 of those cases from work also with P2's many many years ago. Nice look and plenty of space, sadly long gone now though.

Very similar to my first PC I got in Jan 99 after upgrading from the family 486, although it was a Gateway.

Motherboard: Intel SE440BX
CPU: Pentium II 400
Memory: 64MB, later upgraded to 128 then 256
Graphic card: TNT 16MB, later upgraded to 32MB GF2 MX
Sound card 1: Onboard SB64, later Upgraded to Live! Value
Sound card 2: Vibra 16 for dos games as C&C would hang using the SB64
Network Card: some Realtek 10MB card
HDD1: WD? 10GB
Optical 1: 32x CD-Rom
Optical 2: Zip 650 CD-RW
Optical 3: Pioneer Slot load DVD-Rom (which I almost never used)

That PC lasted right upto 2006 and GTA VC which did struggle. Need for Speed 3, 4, Porsche and the C&C games were what I mostly played as well as dropping back to dos for network games of C&C, Warcraft, Doom against my brother on the 486. Good times!

I love it! I have a very similar system with very similar parts (even the desk setup!) and similar backstory, which I enjoyed building and using. I hope your retro computer brings you much joy.

Thanks for sharing - and welcome, fellow Canadian 😀

Is your SDRAM from before 2000 too?

cansting wrote on 2025-03-12, 19:17:

So this is my current project: building something using only technology released before 2000. […]
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So this is my current project: building something using only technology released before 2000.

Current config:
Case: InWin A500
Motherboard: Asus P2B v1.10
CPU: Pentium II 450
Memory: 2x256MB
Graphic card: Diamond Viper V770 (TNT2, 32MB)
Sound card:
Sound Blaster 16 ViBRA ISA CT4170 (for DOS)
Sound Blaster Live! CT4780 For Windows
Network Card: D-Link DFE-530TX
HDD1: WD205ba
HDD2: WD 10GB
Belkin F5U220 PCI USB controller
Monitor: AOC FT700
Keyboard: Chicony KB-5911
Mouse: Perixx M-868

Planned changes:
1. 3Dfx VooDoo 1 on its way, keeping my eyes open for VooDoo2 (reasonably priced)
2. Considering replacing TNT2 graphic card with GeForce 256, but they are hard to find and not sure about DOS compatibility
3. Getting a working DVD drive
4. Getting multimedia speakers from the 90's, something Juster Active style

Storyline:

It started with me accidentally seeing the same case as my first PC in 1996 on FB market. It turned out after that it's pretty liked inwin a500 case. It came with tyan 1854 board and celeron 800 cpu, SB Vibra, basic WD udma33 disk and even more basic ATI rage2 AGP graphic card. I was mostly after the case, rest was extra, so pretty good deal for 50CAD. Had it all dismantled, cleaned piece by piece and set aside to wait for the rest.

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Next step was to decide what specs I'm gonna go after - my first PC was P120 and Win95 which seemed little bit off, especially in term of USB support and being able to play games released closer to the end of the century. With that, and slot1 being kinda cool decided to go Pentium 2. For OS - Windows 98SE as it was the last windows OS with full dos. There was the outline of what I was aiming for: Pentium II, 440bx motherboard as that was what cool kids used to have, Win98SE, graphic card TNT2, 3dfx voodoo (preferably voodoo2, but for now secured voodoo1), ISA soundcard

Next step was getting another old PC, this time it was aopen hx45 case with asus P2B v1.10 motherboard and P2 350, graphic card was even worse - ati rage xl PCI, no soundcard, vintage Matsushita drive - all this came with half a pound of dust 🤣. Also got Riva TNT2 16MB as extra so another box checked

Got it home, dismantled and cleaned all this mess. After having it cleaned i installed P2B+P2 combo in the initial inwin case and the leftovers ended up in aopen case. As this stage also installed the OS (Win98 SE) on both machines.

Next step was ebay and fulfilling 2 additional steps:
1. Getting the highest Slot1 Pentium 2 ever made - PII 450 Deschutes
2. Getting some decent amount of RAM
Those steps were done by ordering CPU from Quebec (spend couple extra bucks to get P3 833 for the spare machine, cause well, celeron sounds cheap) and 2x256MB from China

While waiting for the stuff to be delivered I kept on browsing FB market to find some good, unidentified stuff for cheap. Was able to get a box of different cards for 20CAD - among different options of ati and geforce mx cards as well as bunch of dial-up modems I found Diamond Viper V770 card and since Diamond is more fancy than generic nvidia (and also has double the memory) initial TNT2 was replaced with this one. In this stash also found SB Live card and decided to have 2 sound card: SB16 ViBRA for DOS and SB Live for windows.

In the meantime ebay parts arrived and everything is coming along, also got a second disk - 20GB WD.

That covers the main unit, but not the peripherals like keyboard, mouse and crt screen.

For CRT I was kinda lucky, cause after monitoring FB market I was able to get basically new AOC FT770.

Keyboard story was more complicated: first got Alps KFRF-1 series that was pretty nasty to clean and turned out the main keys (enter, space) dont work. Took it apart, noticed 4 of the rubber domes are dead, so moved them to least used keys, since I couldn't find replacements anywhere.
After that was able to find new in box Chicony KB-5911. After a very long day traveling using TTC i picked it up and it turned out to be din not ps2... But it's new and had this classy feel, I decided to keep it and got ps2/din adapter which caused another issues, but thats further down

As for mouse, was able to get ball PS2 logitech for $2, also got new optical ps2 mouse from amazon cause sometimes using legacy technology just hurts

In the meantime I have won bidding for 3dfx voodoo1 in Europe, it's currently in transit

Going back to ps2/din keyboard adapter - it's bulky, kinda heavy and placement of the usb and ps2 ports in the back pane is not the best - plugging usb flashdrive was pushing against the adapter resulting in OS freezing and pc speaker going ballisitic on beeping. After doing some research on which PCI USB card will work on Win98SE and got Belkin F5U220 with NEC chipset to stop touching USB ports on the MB.

Cherry on top picked up yesterday - original, new P2 case sticker

Comments, suggestions, roasts welcome

Hey,
That’s the case i had in 1990’s
I had a Pentium-II@400mhz
Abit motherboard BX6 I think.
Riva TNT and Voodoo Banshee
Matrox Millennium
Sound Blaster PCI Value
64mb or 128mb SDRAM
CDROM

I still have one of these cases in my Garage.
I want to build a dual Pentium-III@500mhz computer in it but I have misplaced my box of CPU’s and Motherboards.
They are somewhere in my garage which is a Mess of cardboard Boxes.

Thanks guys, looks like my concept was (and is) pretty popular for builds now and then

Disruptor wrote on 2025-03-13, 04:14:

Is your SDRAM from before 2000 too?

It's more about the technology release date, not manufacturing date, for example case was made in 2001 but not 2001 model. Also, thats why I'm considering Geforce 256 (released in late 1999) but not Radeon 7500 that I actually have, cause it's 2001 launch

SDRAM was introduced before 2000 for sure, as for specific launch date of 256MB dimms I was not able to find it