Rise from your grave! The 3dfx re-build

[n0tiert]

Guys, any info on a CT-6VTA2 board? Apparently it's a Chaintech board with a VIA chipset (seems to be Apollo Pro) but I can't find any specs online and chaintech.com.tw never loads. A manual would be ok too.

here you go m8,

http://download.edvwegener.de/CHAINTEC/6VTA3/Manual/

 

[Luciel]

here you go m8,

http://download.edvwegener.de/CHAINTEC/6VTA3/Manual/

Epic Find

 

[TRWOV]

Nice. I think I've found my board. And comes with 128MB already.

Only things left: CPU, case, sound card

 

[driver66]

The most fun I have ever had overclocking was with an Asus P2-b deluxe and a Asus S370-133 Slocket MAJOR fun in the slot 1 days

http://www.baber.com/baber/411/asusp2b.htm
http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=175

 

[TRWOV]

Ok, guy is out of town at the moment but the board and RAM have my name on them. I have an old P2 that I can use to test the board in the mean time.

Now, I'll look for the CPU, another 128MB stick and the sound card. I've ordered the CM Elite 360 from a dealer in Guadalajara and should arrive in about 2-3 weeks (they don't have it in stock ATM). Comes with a 350w PSU so that's taken care of too.


What would be a good drive size for this? 40GB? 80?


Board pic from the interwebz:

 

[Luciel]

40 more than enough, shame it´s not sdram, I must have like 15 sticks of several sizes and no boards to use them on, I guess they´ll just rot away : (

I also have an hdd you could have, but postage far outcosts it´s worth.

 

[Neuromancer]

Yhpm.

Forgot to mention I also have an soudblaster PCI card
playing with kids right now shoot you another PM later

EDIT: Creative CT5803 sound card and the 512MB/256MB PC133 sticks I mentioned earlier

 

[Goodman]

40 more than enough, shame it´s not sdram, I must have like 15 sticks of several sizes and no boards to use them on, I guess they´ll just rot away : (

I also have an hdd you could have, but postage far outcosts it´s worth.

Agree no more than 40GB even a 20GB will do just fine , Win98se will take between 125-200MB of space & that is with drivers + updates which you can't not do anymore but you can still can get it on this link -->http://exuberant.ms11.net/98sesp.html

Anyhow like i said 20GB is enough if you are only using for older games most Dos games will be between 5-10MB each , some up to ~100MB a few will go between ~300-700MB but that would most likely be older windows games then add to that another 200MB for win98se & you'll see why 20GB would be plenty for older games

EDIT: Found out a link for Win98se updates anyways you can still PM if you need something or help setting all this up
Done many retro gaming PC's with win98se & still got all i need to built some more...

 

[TRWOV]

Got me an SB 16 (I think?)

Model number is CT2970:

Chip is CT2502, is this a good one or are there any known issues?

 

[Goodman]

Looks good to me
Shouldn't be any problem with this card (if still function?)

You may not even need a driver since win98se comes with some Sound Blasters drivers built in (not all models but a few)
Anyhow if you need drivers , Creative still go them....
http://support.creative.com/Products/product_list.aspx?catID=1&CatName=Sound+Blaster#

Click on Other & choose SB16 or 16PCI
EDIT: Just realize that your SB16 is an ISA anyhow the driver for the PCI meant still work if you can't find the right one for the card

 

[BazookaJoe]

I've been waiting for a reason to use this

Heh - there's an old memory - Although I only ever remember it being called "Altered Beast" - on all platforms from Arcade, to Sega, to PC, to Wii.

Even the wiki doesn't seem to know where the name "Necromancy" comes from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_Beast

 

[Neuromancer]

Heh - there's an old memory - Although I only ever remember it being called "Altered Beast" - on all platforms from Arcade, to Sega, to PC, to Wii.

Even the wiki doesn't seem to know where the name "Necromancy" comes from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_Beast

Yup altered Beast, I was thinking and thinking and then read your comment, thats it. Exactly. (I am US based) Was in arcades with that name, and maybe necromancy is more apropo, but probably was a lamer game at the time with it.

 

[BazookaJoe]

A little off topic but just rounding up the nostalgia trip, and hey - this thread is all about old games hardware & nostalgia

 

[qubit]

A little off topic but just rounding up the nostalgia trip, and hey - this thread is all about old games hardware & nostalgia

http://www.gamebox64.com/gamebox64Scans/AlteredBeastActivisionTapeTape01.jpg

Oh boy that brings back memories. And btw, that's a TDK cassette. You can tell by the carved rectangles.

 

[Red_Machine]

VIA Apollo PRO-based boards would likely be your best bet. I know for a fact that they were true universal AGP.

 

[TRWOV]

VIA Apollo PRO-based boards would likely be your best bet. I know for a fact that they were true universal AGP.

I went with a Chaintech CT-6VTA2 that a guy from hardwaremx had. He's on a trip but I'll go and pick-up the board when he gets back.

n0tiert found the manual for the 6VTA3 which I suppose it's an updated model with an Apollo Pro+ chipset, so I'm hoping that the 6VTA2 has at least a regular Pro chipset.

http://download.edvwegener.de/CHAINTEC/6VTA3/Manual/

I hope it works. I don't have the PIII yet but I have an old PII I could use for testing. It's a good thing that he's close-by (about 25 miles), I wouldn't want to pay for shipping on an un-tested board.

I wanted to go for an Asus P3V4X (Apollo Pro 133A) but beggars can't be choosers. Anyway, the manual indicates that the board has jumper settings for 133Mhz bus.

 

[Red_Machine]

Mine didn't use jumpers, it had dip switches. It was a Gigabyte board.

 

[mATrIxLord]

very interesting thread... subed to see how this goes..

 

[Chicken Patty]

^ x2

 

[TRWOV]

Got another 128MB PC133 stick for $2:

I didn't buy the Blade 3D; the guy had doubled the price since the last time I asked. I guess that since I came back he figured out that he could charge more.

I examined the rest of his cards and found a Rage II and Rage Pro. I'll wait a couple of weeks and try again. I'll be interesting to see how do they stack against the 5500.


Also digged out my old PII 350 Deschutes. It'll come in handy in order to test the motherboard.

 

[Sir B. Fannybottom]

Got another 128MB PC133 stick for $2:

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/2193/img0467b.jpg

I didn't buy the Blade 3D; the guy had doubled the price since the last time I asked. I guess that since I came back he figured out that he could charge more.

I examined the rest of his cards and found a Rage II and Rage Pro. I'll wait a couple of weeks and try again. I'll be interesting to see how do they stack against the 5500.


Also digged out my old PII 350 Deschutes. It'll come in handy in order to test the motherboard.

http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/7236/img0465am.jpg
http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/6158/img0466dj.jpg

I have a ton of old hardware that I don't want to throw away, I'll check if I have some 133 ram I could send you. I have another PII 350 if you need it too!

 

[t_ski]

I think I have some 256MB sticks of ram and 2 or 3 slot CPU's if you wanted to pay shipping.

 

[TRWOV]

Thanks for the offers but it seems that it won't be necessary. At first I thought that getting some parts, especially the motherboard, would be difficult but it seems that lots of old hardware are just out there for the grabbing

Now that the pieces are coming, except for the CPU, I'm thinking about the bling.



For the Voodoo 5500 I'm thinking about putting colored heatsinks on the RAM

and maybe changing the GPU's HSF, like this guy did:

For the RAM, black RAM heatspreaders and putting a 3dfx badge over them

For the case exterior I'm thinking a 3dfx logo in vinyl and colored slot covers.

For the board, colored heatsinks for the north and south bridges. Maybe some colored dust covers for the PCI slots. I don't know if there's something like that for ISA slots... maybe I'll just get an ISA ethernet card to avoid that problem

 

[MN12BIRD]

LOL I remember those 3DFX cards. Back then it was surprising to see a video card that required external power! I had a Voodoo 1, 2 and 3. But then switched to NVidia TNT2 or something as D3D started to become more popular.

But man I tell ya Unreal Tournament always looked better on the Voodoo cards in Glide. I think it gave you like an "extra high" type setting you couldn't get in Direct X/D3D did it not?

LOL, I just realised I have an ORIGINAL Ad-Lib sound card... I think it was the first PC sound card made.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cd/Adlib.jpg/744px-Adlib.jpg

Anyway, I might have a Slot1 CPU kicking around, I'll have a look-see.

NICE! I don't think they were the first sound card by any means but they where the first "affordable" ones geared towards gaming. They came well before the original Sound Blaster or even the Creative Music System or Game Blaster that's for sure. I think previous sound cards were compatible with some games but they were so expensive that usually only professional music producers would have had them. I think those original Adlibs are pretty hard to find these days. Probably worth a few bucks!

 

[TRWOV]

I think that a color theme will be difficult to achieve because the board and card's colors don't match. Still, I'm going to stick with a black/blue theme for the add-ons.

For the RAM sticks I'll use el-cheapo black RAM heatspreaders with 3dfx badges glued to them, as I mentioned.

For the 5500 I have two options for the HSF replacement:
- Zalman ZMNB47J Motherboard Northbridge Chipset Heatsink

It's the same one used in the pic in my previous post.



Or
- Akasa Cool Blue Anodized Univeral Chipset Cooler - 40mm Blue LED Fan (AK-210)

A third possibility could be Zalman ZM-NBF47 North Bridge Chipset Heatsink although I don't know if they would fit

I think the card would look cool with these, though