TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

[Trekkie4]

Decided not to build another Pentium II rig, after all... As much as I hate to say this, 6th would be one too many


Still, I'm keeping the board (obviously!) With so many Slot-1 systems in my collection (at least 15 in total) it's only a matter of time before something goes wrong, so it'll be nice to have a fully working spare!

 

[Splinterdog]

I'm pretty sure I once had a Legend QDI, but I must have sold it, probably as a working system a few years ago.
Anyway, I'm still without a case on my Pentium II 350 project with XP installed to SP3. I even managed to activate it over the Net, which surprised me and I've since learnt that you can only do this if SP3 is installed.
Then I forgot the LAN cable was still connected, went out to do a few jobs and came back to find 130 Windows updates, which took forever to install. Updates have been switched off now as more of a nuisance and I don't intend to use the Net with the one.
I also found my old Gainward Geforce 3 64Mb which I remember buying at Overclockers UK (Stafford) back in 2000. Anyway, Half Life runs a treat, so does DX Diag, so the card is still in good working order.
Except that TR2 will only play in pixelated mode for some reason.
This really is a lot of fun and I haven't done it for ages, what with writing the book and everything.

 

[hat]

That's great, but would you mind if I ask you - why XP?! That Pentium II (not to mention the Voodoo card) would be SO much happier with Windows 98, Second Edition! (the one from the pic)

Ain't that the truth. I once installed XP on a 300MHz Pentium 2 machine. Then I tried to browse eBay on it. Frustratingly slow...

 

[Trekkie4]

I'm pretty sure I once had a Legend QDI, but I must have sold it, probably as a working system a few years ago.
Anyway, I'm still without a case on my Pentium II 350 project with XP installed to SP3. I even managed to activate it over the Net, which surprised me and I've since learnt that you can only do this if SP3 is installed.
Then I forgot the LAN cable was still connected, went out to do a few jobs and came back to find 130 Windows updates, which took forever to install. Updates have been switched off now as more of a nuisance and I don't intend to use the Net with the one.
I also found my old Gainward Geforce 3 64Mb which I remember buying at Overclockers UK (Stafford) back in 2000. Anyway, Half Life runs a treat, so does DX Diag, so the card is still in good working order.
Except that TR2 will only play in pixelated mode for some reason.
This really is a lot of fun and I haven't done it for ages, what with writing the book and everything.
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Hmm... I would highly recommend that you keep the XP stock & off the internet. Poor thing just doesn't have what it takes to handle SP3, it barely even runs SP2 to be completely honest. In fact, I just booted up XP Professional on an old Athlon 1000 last night, but it kept on stalling at 100% CPU usage all the time & couldn't handle anything else. And that was a 1GHz, yours is 350. Again, I know you're doing so for fun, but I hope you understand, Pentium II was not designed to handle XP, especially not the latest SP3.

And pixelated mode is known as "Software Rendering" mode, due to the fact that TR2 couldn't detect appropriate 3D accelerator. See, this is exactly what I was telling you about, these things happen when you mix together older & newer software/hardware. I'm assuming this problem wouldn't exist under Win98/ME, but then again it could have been due to your choice of graphics - TR2 was designed to run on older PCI cards & 3dfx Voodoo! Maybe you could try with unofficial patch or an update, to compensate for this issue?

Ain't that the truth. I once installed XP on a 300MHz Pentium 2 machine. Then I tried to browse eBay on it. Frustratingly slow...

I don't mean to brag, but I have tons of experience with Slot 1 systems, ESPECIALLY PII 350. In fact, my very first "modern" computer, after upgrading from 4x86 DX2 was a Pentium II, 350. I still have have that machine here in my room, except it is now unfortunately housed inside generic (and modern) ATX case ... the original one is long gone, and I was never able to find another, identical one

Then, as I got into older computers, I've started making these for fun. So I've made another PII system, which is pretty much the clone of my own system from back in a day. Then I wanted to raise the stakes, so I made a Voodoo2 SLI system, powered by PII 350. I even made a Voodoo3 2000, also powered by the same processor. Overall I tried just about every single combination I could think of! Which is why I'm familiar with these things & know what (and how much) to expect from them. I also had a WinXP on my system back in early 2000s, it was a temporary solution before I upgraded to S423 Pentium 4. Come to think of it, I still used my Pentium 2 for a while longer after that, and it had XP Home edition, SP2 but as MS was pushing out the updates every once in a while, things got slower & slower, to the point where it was taken out of service. In fact, I believe that was around 2005, 2006, when I decided to revert the Pentium II back to its original form & use it for retro gaming. Because it was either that, or to scrap the entire thing & throw it into the dumpster (which is exactly what everyone told me to do, back then). It was too modern to be a classic, yet it was too old & outdated to be anything else. Which is why hundreds (thousands) of these ended up being recycled or simply abandoned & sold for scrap/recycling.

 

[Splinterdog]

You're right about XP @Trekkie4 , so I'll be installing Win 98 instead during the weekend.

 

[Mr.Scott]

You're right about XP @Trekkie4 , so I'll be installing Win 98 instead during the weekend.

Depends on what you're doing.
The PII's run just fine on XP sp3.....just slow. It's the preferred OS if you're benching these........with a few exceptions in the 3D benches.

 

[Trekkie4]

Depends on what you're doing.
The PII's run just fine on XP sp3.....just slow. It's the preferred OS if you're benching these........with a few exceptions in the 3D benches.

Which is what I said... Yes, it will work, but it has a huge impact on the performance & will slow PII down to a crawl. Especially if you want to play the game(s) such as Half-Life...

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Got the 4850 x2 today. Gave it a clean and a repaste. It sure is a big card. Will post some pics later.

 

[Trekkie4]

Have any luck finding out what you've got on hand?

No, not yet. I know where it is (I think), I just need to take some time to actually do it. Been having crapload of problems ever since 2019 started, so I just need to wait for that right moment ... hopefully!

OK, so let's take this from the top... ECS board. I was too lazy to remove it from the static bag, but it seems to be "N2U400 - A, REV: 1.0A" Last time I checked, fully operational. As I already explained in one of my previous posts, it was going to be another AMD build, which never happened. Sooo, there it is


Moving on...

QDI board had been disassembled, CPU mounting rails removed, so that I could fit the entire thing inside the box. This board seems to be in mint condition from what I can tell, so I really don't want to keep this outside, where it can easily get bumped, scratched and/or damaged in any way.


So, as I was digging through my spares, I found this Soyo SY-6BA+. Another Slot-1 board, except this one seems to have Pentium III support. Not sure how fast it can go, as I was given this long time ago & promised that it works, despite few blown capacitors, near the PSU connector. And since I happened to have a spare PSU nearby, including the AGP card, memory stick & power cord, I figured this would be a perfect opportunity to give it a try. Because why not?!


And yes, as you can see, the board DOES appear to boot up. Please ignore the weird-looking colors, this is due to my GF2 AGP card, which seems to have a solder connection issue. I'll most likely remove the heatsink & scrap the card, but it comes in handy for testing purposes, such as this one here


Actually, speaking of Slot-1 & Pentium II, I also have yet another 350 in here. I believe this one came with Soyo board, but I'm not 100% sure. Either way, I'm guessing that it works OK. It was never tested, but I have no reasons to believe otherwise *shrug*. The board underneath is "Matsonic", Socket 370. Nothing special, just a regular Mendocino & Coppermine board which was once removed from the case & was placed in here for safekeeping.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Some will say yes some gonna say hell no
me i say let me get my wallet

I say yes, easily.

 

[Apocalypsee]

I've been thinking whether to fix the artifacts GPU or not, here's the GPU and the problem

But after watching Louis videos about reballing I have my doubts whether I should go for it or just buy another card. These cards are old to begin with.

 

[lexluthermiester]

But after watching Louis videos about reballing I have my doubts whether I should go for it or just buy another card. These cards are old to begin with.

I've actually done reballing successfully. It has to be done right, but does work.

 

[emissary42]

 

[Mr.Scott]

IX-48 Max is pretty rare. Nice.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

getting this today for £20 to go with the 4850 x2
Core2Quad Q9400 Processor
Foxconn G31MX Motherboard
2GB Adata Ram
Akasa Cooler

 

[havli]

HD 4850 X2 is huge card indeed, especially when compared to the mATX board.

Btw - I decided to make GPU Duels with older HW as well, here is the first one - Radeon X1300 Pro vs S3 Chrome S25.

 

[Trekkie4]

I'm not really that much into urban exploration & documenting the abandoned buildings, although I /did/ watch couple of vids last year because of the abandoned elevators & old electromechanic relays, something which I always found fascinating & entertaining to watch. Anyhow, for some reason YouTube thought this video would be relevant to me & my interests, and so it ended up being on my "recommended" list. If you're not willing to watch the whole thing, just skip to 15:55 mark. This is where things get interesting, to say at least

So apparently, this thing ran non-stop for 10, 15yrs?! Although I sincerely doubt that, my personal estimation would be much less because I doubt that ANY power supply (or cooling fan, for that matter) would keep up working for that long without breaking down. But then again, who knows...? One thing's for certain though, it looks awfully clean & dust-free for something that hasn't been touched in 15yrs.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Will the q9400 run the 4850 x2 ok? is it a good match. It'll be a nice old retro rig.

I'll put this here as i am not sure where else to put it.
The really interesting computer history museum, got donated a lot of Sinclair stuff, including a prototype spectrum. Very nice.
prototype spectrum

 

[MaxiPro800]

Not sure if that much retro, but I managed to fix a LGA1156. Mind you, this was before UEFI was a thing on Core i3/5/7 CPUs

The only thing I can't figure out is a problem with the reset signal - trying to reset the PC results in a hang. 4seconds OFF does work however.

Board boots and works fine in Windows 8.1 Pro. PSU is a CWT ISO disguised in a 450W Frontier LC-8460BTX made by L&C/Deer

 

[Apocalypsee]

I've actually done reballing successfully. It has to be done right, but does work.

You convinced me. I send it for repairs today, cross my fingers this will fix it. I want this card to work, its my dream card back in 2004, the best year for gaming IMO.

On unrelated note, I don't know if HD 6950 flashed to 6970 is considered 'nostalgic', the card was released 9 years ago. I put it in my main system just to give it some workout.

It worked beautifully with all shaders unlocked. Undervolted to 970mV from 1100mV reducing heat and noise. Overclocking old card like these are trivial, since there are no more driver optimisation for it.

And run some Crysis with it. There was a time where 30fps was considered a 'bare minimum' for gaming.

 

[Jetster]

Big score Free

ASUS 939 Board
Pretty sure its a Athlon 64 x2 4800+

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Big score Free

ASUS 939 Board
Pretty sure its a Athlon 64 x2 4800+

Nice Patriot memory

 

[lexluthermiester]

Big score Free

ASUS 939 Board
Pretty sure its a Athlon 64 x2 4800+

This has the potential to be a very solid Classic Windows XP system. Score indeed! Especially that 7900GT if it's the 512MB model. IIRC that mobo supports the X4 quad core CPU.

 

[DR4G00N]

This has the potential to be a very solid Classic Windows XP system. Score indeed! Especially that 7900GT if it's the 512MB model. IIRC that mobo supports the X4 quad core CPU.

The mobo is 939 not AM2.

 

[lexluthermiester]

The mobo is 939 not AM2.

Oh, right. My bad!