VOGONS

Search

Common searches

The Super Socket 5 Gateway 2000

Topic actions

First post, by Dragon Caesar

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

The “Super” Socket 5 Build

Spoiler

Yes, I know this doesn’t exist but I am having fun.

IMG-7892.JPG
Filename
IMG-7892.JPG
File size
939.25 KiB
Views
1384 views
File license
CC-BY-4.0

I have a very special place in my heart for this style of Gateway. I had a similar system a very long time ago and always wanted to get another one. With my newfound time indoors thanks to the great quarantine of 2020, I found this one at a reasonable price online.

It arrived to me with the following configuration:
~Original Specs~
Gateway 2000 P100
Pentium 100mhz @ 66mhz FSB
32 MB of RAM
430FX “Zappa” Motherboard
5x CDROM
3.5 Floppy
Tape Drive
1gb WD Caviar IDE Drive with Windows 95b installed
ATI Mach64 PCI Graphics
3COM 3C905CX-TX-M
Sound Blaster Vibra16 with genuine OPL

I’d have been perfectly content with it as is, but opportunity also provided me with something powerful...

Enter S.P.E.C.T.R.A

SPECTRE_Logo.png
Filename
SPECTRE_Logo.png
File size
15.92 KiB
Views
1384 views
File license
CC-BY-4.0

~Upgrades Part 1~
64 MB of RAM
Spectra

superduper.jpg
Filename
superduper.jpg
File size
1001.22 KiB
Views
1384 views
File license
CC-BY-4.0

The installation process is interesting with the Spectra kit. It comes with a floppy and a cd. You must first boot the floppy where it analyzes your system and it will notify you if a BIOS upgrade is available. It will also advise you if any configuration changes are needed. This was where I ran into my first snag. The floppy disk was beginning to go. It would begin to boot but end up prompting for the location of COMMAND.COM. Thankfully a backup image is available on Vogons Drivers . With a fresh floppy, I was all set.

IMG-7701.JPG
Filename
IMG-7701.JPG
File size
1.94 MiB
Views
1384 views
File license
CC-BY-4.0

To help sell you on the upgrade, it also spits out some numbers.

IMG-7704.JPG
Filename
IMG-7704.JPG
File size
1.35 MiB
Views
1384 views
File license
CC-BY-4.0

I checked out the recommended settings and I was prompted that I had to change the FSB speed from 66mhz to 60mhz. To do this, I adjusted jumpers 6 and 7 to off. After making the change, I booted off the floppy again and was notified that a BIOS update was available. To proceed with updating the BIOS, a reboot into Windows is required and then you run the executable provided on the cd. The cd will prompt for the floppy and then copy the appropriate update image to disk. Once that finished, I booted off the floppy and went through the prompts to update the BIOS.

With everything all updated (now powered by MR BIOS), I powered the system off and installed the K6-2 upgrade. The jumpers on the upgrade kit were already configured for the proper voltage and 6x multiplier. All that I had to do was plug it in. I started the computer and got instant gratification with K6-2 358mhz displaying on the screen.

TO BE CONTINUED

Reply 1 of 8, by Dragon Caesar

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Part 2 - Living Life In the Fast Lane

It was time to check out some benchmarks

So I tried out the boot floppy and it gave me updated numbers

IMG-7714.JPG
Filename
IMG-7714.JPG
File size
1.95 MiB
Views
1381 views
File license
CC-BY-4.0

In Quake I was seeing 43.2 FPS at 640x480

I also started playing around with the option to disable and enable cache with ctrl+alt and -/+. At this point I also started thinking about possibly wiring the jumper 3 pins on the upgrade socket to the keylock of the Gateway, this way I could switch between 2x and 6x without opening the case. I ended up going in a different direction which further adds to the ridiculousness of this system.

~More Upgrades~
K6-3+ CPU
The Spectra upgrade socket also has a jumper to configure CPU voltage. I very carefully removed the K6-2 processor from the socket and installed the K6-3+. Then I configured the voltage jumper so that 2.0V instead of 2.2V (the default) would be supplied.

k63.jpg
Filename
k63.jpg
File size
788.21 KiB
Views
1381 views
File license
CC-BY-4.0

Naturally the BIOS has no idea what this is and just tells me I have a K5. I decided to go for broke here. I powered off the system and configured the motherboard for 66mhz FSB. Powered it back on and I am in business.

k6366fsb.jpg
Filename
k6366fsb.jpg
File size
1.17 MiB
Views
1381 views
File license
CC-BY-4.0

With the K6-3+, I can use setmul to change the multiplier on the fly. I'll definitely be making use of this in the future.

So where do I go from here? Guess it is time to glide

3dfx.png
Filename
3dfx.png
File size
11.26 KiB
Views
1381 views
File license
CC-BY-4.0

I already had the Voodoo 2 thankfully as prices continue to go bonkers. Actually I have a pair of VooDoo 2 cards but due to the extra height the Spectra upgrade adds, I can only use one. Not much to write about the install process, I installed the card, hit cancel when Windows started up with the hardware wizard, and then ran the driver executable from philscomputerlab.

However now that I have the VooDoo power, I fired up glquake and was immediately greeted with the 3dfx logo splash screen. Always invokes a great feeling when I see it. I ran glquake and doing a timedemo demo2 nets me 39.9 FPS. Not too shabby.

Reply 2 of 8, by Dragon Caesar

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Bonus Fun:
Networking

unnamed.gif
Filename
unnamed.gif
File size
1.47 KiB
Views
1380 views
File license
CC-BY-4.0

One other thing I wanted to play around with was networking. One reason was I wanted an easy way to transfer files to and from the Super Socket 5. A raspberry pi running samba solves this problem without much fuss. Another reason I wanted to play around with networking was web browsing. Obviously modern sites aren’t going to work, but what if we connected my time machine of a computer to the wayback machine?

I stumbled upon this project that allows you to run a proxy server to the wayback machine. It is very simple to setup and allows you to request a point in time so for example you could configure it to try to pull web pages archived on 9/9/1999. If no snapshot is available, it’ll try the next available point in time.

It isn't perfect but still fun:

microsoft.jpg
Filename
microsoft.jpg
File size
116.34 KiB
Views
1380 views
File license
CC-BY-4.0
pokemon.jpg
Filename
pokemon.jpg
File size
94.18 KiB
Views
1380 views
File license
CC-BY-4.0

This has been a fun project for me during these extremely stressful times. I took a lot of inspiration from philscomputerlab, specifically the 4-in-1 build. This is obviously not a practical build, but that was never my goal. I may add/remove things in the future but for now this is just the bee’s knees for me.

Extra Bonus (shot of the inside)

IMG-7891.JPG
Filename
IMG-7891.JPG
File size
1.82 MiB
Views
1380 views
File license
CC-BY-4.0

Reply 3 of 8, by BeginnerGuy

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Love the new PC Mr. Dragon

That time travel proxy sure adds to the charm.

Curious to know how it runs half-life 😉

Sup. I like computers. Are you a computer?

Reply 5 of 8, by Dragon Caesar

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie
BeginnerGuy wrote on 2020-06-08, 00:43:

Love the new PC Mr. Dragon

That time travel proxy sure adds to the charm.

Curious to know how it runs half-life 😉

Thank you Mr. BeginnerGuy! I will definitely give it a shot, but question for you - if I wanted to get an idea of the FPS would I use net_graph 3 in the console?

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2020-06-08, 02:48:

Great system. I have that same evergreen upgrade cpu in my Compaq Presario 4402 it's a great part I've owned it since new.

Thank you very much!

Reply 6 of 8, by BeginnerGuy

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Dragon Caesar wrote on 2020-06-09, 23:48:
Thank you Mr. BeginnerGuy! I will definitely give it a shot, but question for you - if I wanted to get an idea of the FPS would […]
Show full quote
BeginnerGuy wrote on 2020-06-08, 00:43:

Love the new PC Mr. Dragon

That time travel proxy sure adds to the charm.

Curious to know how it runs half-life 😉

Thank you Mr. BeginnerGuy! I will definitely give it a shot, but question for you - if I wanted to get an idea of the FPS would I use net_graph 3 in the console?

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2020-06-08, 02:48:

Great system. I have that same evergreen upgrade cpu in my Compaq Presario 4402 it's a great part I've owned it since new.

Thank you very much!

hmmm I used to just use net_graph 1. I think net_graph 3 will show you a lot of networking information that as more relevant to networked games like CS. Do you have an actual original copy of HL? I only have the current version that exists on steam. IIRC the original had some kind of timedemo, will get back to you on that.

Sup. I like computers. Are you a computer?

Reply 8 of 8, by chinny22

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

First off I thought thats one big ugly case, Closer look its just the perspective and fact teh monitor is on the table behind the PC that makes it look so big 🤣.

S.P.E.C.T.R.A, Zappa and now connected to the internet. Next upgrade will be world Domination 😉

Go to top of page Go to top of page
Back to System Specs
Close window
Close window