And then you burn out the PSU by upgrading it with a nice video card (like a ViRGE). Not so surprisingly good anymore now is it? 😜

Nice build! If the PSU is ATX and doesn't have some proprietary pinout then you could also swap that out.

BX440 machines are indeed very stable and a joy to work with. Wondering if you can get that Yamaha chip working under MS-DOS mode.

Audigy 2 ZS kicks *rears*. One of the best cards I ever had (still have it). The front panel is the best they ever made. I think this is also the most versatile sound cards ever made. It runs everything. It only overheated a few times on newer games, but stopped when I attached a heatsink into the main unit.

yeh it’s a proprietary pinout but I'll get a converter cable in the near future, They aren’t expensive and I can then get a nice modern quiet PSU once back in Oz.
I downloaded the real dos mode drivers the same time as I got the Win98 drivers, just haven’t checked them out yet. I’ll let you know!

I always make a point to set a machine up to play from dos, even my P4 with another Audigy 2 ZS can join in a pure dos game of Doom or C&C.

I did a bit of research and settled on the 2 ZS, can’t remember why I didn’t go for the Audigy 4 in the end, maybe just because it didn’t really offer much more and they are harder to get.

What’s this about them overheating though?

That Dell is one of the old Dimensions. Everything from that line is high quality and they cost quite a bit back then. I've owned a few old Dells that just screamed quality- an Optiplex GX Pro 200mhz, a 4100 1ghz P3 and an Optiplex rambus P4 workstation. After that they just went to the dogs....

I partly agree, I have two Dells a XPS D266 and a GX Pro 200Mhz both from late 1997. Both scream quality well built systemd. However I think anything from late 2000 and on was nothing but crap. My 4100 had more problems then you could shake a stick at. The OP's system looks like it might be made before late 2000 so maybe a good one.

sgt76 wrote:

That Dell is one of the old Dimensions. Everything from that line is high quality and they cost quite a bit back then. I've owned a few old Dells that just screamed quality- an Optiplex GX Pro 200mhz, a 4100 1ghz P3 and an Optiplex rambus P4 workstation. After that they just went to the dogs....

chinny22 wrote:

yeh it’s a proprietary pinout but I'll get a converter cable in the near future, They aren’t expensive and I can then get a nice […]
Show full quote

yeh it’s a proprietary pinout but I'll get a converter cable in the near future, They aren’t expensive and I can then get a nice modern quiet PSU once back in Oz.
I downloaded the real dos mode drivers the same time as I got the Win98 drivers, just haven’t checked them out yet. I’ll let you know!

I always make a point to set a machine up to play from dos, even my P4 with another Audigy 2 ZS can join in a pure dos game of Doom or C&C.

I did a bit of research and settled on the 2 ZS, can’t remember why I didn’t go for the Audigy 4 in the end, maybe just because it didn’t really offer much more and they are harder to get.

What’s this about them overheating though?

It happened most of the times using DirectSound 3D and related. It stopped happening after I attached a heatsink. Maybe it won't happen with you because of the fan near it.

Never been a big fan of Dell myself.
The proprietary stuff and non standard hardware leaves a sour taste.

Get quality parts from good manufacturers, know how to make them work together and you got yourself a solid quality machine without the BS.

I have an Optiplex GX200 Mobo here with a pIII on it. I also have the PSU and the riser card and the Front control panel (garbage find). Does not seem to work, but i suspect maybe PSU? Cant test with other psu because of proprietary connections, even then, needs a special case for it. I put it in my trash pile.

I have that same Dell case. The 1998-1999 era Dell cases have always looked good to me. I had a Celeron 400 in that case, which I've since replaced the motherboard with a s370 and turned it into my VIA C3-1200 Nehemiah box. The only thing I didn't really care for is how the hard drive is normally mounted verticle, but I see you've mounted them in the 3.5" floppy bays.

You have what looks to be the original CD-ROM drive, at least that is what my Dell came with in 1998. They really did a good job back then of matching the CD-ROM drives to the cases.

Here's an image of my case and how the HD is normally mounted. This is back when it still had a 1 GHz slot 1. I only have 2 DVD-ROM drives installed because I don't have the original 5.25" slot cover. I rescued this case sometime within the past 2 years - I did not buy it new. Do you still have the original 5.25" slot covers?

I've always been partial to the Dell GX cases. Too bad they're proprietary.

Proprietary or not I am partial to dells too, I like the older ribbed style case's. I am also a fan of the optiplex case's.

On proprietary systems just id the parts and keep spares around, there is plenty floating around at e waste drives

sliderider wrote:

I've always been partial to the Dell GX cases. Too bad they're proprietary.]

coppercitymt wrote:

Proprietary or not I am partial to dells too, I like the older ribbed style case's.

I remember that case. In my opinion, it is the best looking Dell mid-sized tower for home use. My favourite workstation case is by far the Dell Precision Workstation 410.

Anybody who has used the 410 case will understand - push the button shown on the bottom left of th image and the side L-panel flips off off, push a button under the L- and the front panel comes off, the 4/5-bay HDD bay slides right out with a handle, the power supply can be rotated 120 degrees out of the way on a hinge (while still being connected), and the 5.25" bays are simple slide-in-to-connects. It was pretty revolutionary for 1998 and it was clear to me when I bought it that Dell spent a lot of money on ID.

While I've already posted this photo in another thread, it really belongs here. I'm using an internet sourced photo because my photos just don't do it justice.

One comment on proprietary cases; they can be modified. That Dell Dimension shown earlier was altered to accept a non-Dell motherboard and PSU.

I got the fans to cool the v2 when it was in a P4, Only put them in this as they had nowhere else to go. The fan mounted on the side sits pretty close to the cover when it’s on so don’t think it really does much, its more just to encourage air movement round the V2’s but if its helping the Audigy then great, although I’ve been playing with the Yamaha more for the time being.

Didn’t get any 5.25 covers, It came with 2 CD-ROMS This one works most the time but the other which was pretty similar to feipoa’s DVD was completely dead. I stripped the insides including the tray and was going to mount a IDE CF reader in it, rekon it’s a good idea but doubt I’ll actually ever do it.

Ahh now I get how the HDD thing works! The pdf I found online wasn’t very clear, I thought I was missing bits. But yeh that’s crap I’ll leave the drives where they are I think. Not sure how the floppy bay works either? I don’t have the original drive but just ran a strip of tape from the side of the FDD onto the plastic bit, seems to work 😒

Not the biggest fan of the case, The ribbed Dell looks nice but 3 3.5 bays!?
I rekon the Gateway GP6 I had back in the day looks better, inside it was useless though. This case is well thought out I’ll give them that.

[/url]http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?hl=en&safe=off … ,r:13,s:0,i:113 Those GX desktops always made me thin ... lp myself!

Bugger double post!

I've had good success with these older slot-1 Dells, but I do have a couple in parts storage that are dead for one reason or another.

chinny22 wrote:

What vidio card did you have in that feipoa? I've just gone and brought a Ti4600 which i admit is never going to reach its potential in a P3 1Ghz but i just couldnt help myself!

On the Dell board, which is a dual PIII-850, I went with a $10 (shipped) GeForce 6200 AGP.

I have a huge rackmount Dell Poweredge server with dual P3 Xeons, 550MHz I think.

Works an absolute treat, and it has this delicious PCI-X Dell PERC SCSI card, but it's too noisy and power hungry, so it doesn't get used. 🙁

I have a nice beige DELL Dimension XPS T500 tower for many years. But recently, I went into the common dilemma of vintage PC collectors as I was asked for a good reason to continue keeping it in the room. One dreaming idea was to get it marry with a relatively rare Tualatin C3 CPU, so that it can be considered "useful" for having a GHz label. My dream came true last weekend as I discovered that the motherboard is indeed capable of delivering the low voltage for Tualatin CPU, eliminating the need of an expensive PowerLeap adapter. So I managed to modify a cheaper 370-Slot1 as well as a Celeron 1100/256/100/1.475v Tualatin CPU, so that the whole assembly can be safely inserted into the slot 1 motherboard and playing HD movies. Sweet!

I love my "Dino" Dell! I have the Audigy 2 ZS in my Windows XP/AMD system, but my Optiplex has an AWE32 for its main sound card. Also Gravis Ultrasound. The beige case just adds to the 90's flair.