PCI USB Card in this old PC? - *Warning* Hi-End Rig picture inside.

Luxor

Luxor

Luxor

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Joined
22 Jul 2007
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473
Location
Cheshire
Hi,

I've just been searching through the loft trying to have a clearout and found this old gem under a pile of boxes. It's an old Pentium II 333 MMX "Deschutes" with 128mb of SDRAM, 14.2gb hard drive on an AOpen AX6LC mobo. It also has the classic PCI version of the 3dfx Voodoo Banshee running Windows 98SE. The bios dates it back to 98! Works like a charm though, quiet and Windows 98 flies. Playing Monkey Island again made me chuckle. :p

pent2.jpg


What I'm looking to do is add some USB connectivity to the machine. Does anyone know whether this beast would handle a PCI usb card so I can connect up some modern equipment to it?

Any help appreciated. :)
 
I'd guess it can, but you may have to look for an old one, in particular with win98 support. Drivers could be a problem.
 
Cheers, I'll give it a go ensuring the card is Win98 supported. Yeah that's a worry about the drivers but I'll also look for the latest Bios update for the mobo. It's a PC from the time that USB was just about starting to appear so hopefully I can get a card running.

That's a good idea installing Linux too, I hadn't considered that OS before but it could be an opportunity to learn how it runs.
 
Yes it will handle a PCI card to run usb fine
the hard bit will be getting the win 98 usb drivers
but most pci usb cards usually ship with drivers for win98/me
 
slowrunner said:
If it's 98SE it should be fine, that came with usb drivers.
Click to expand...

What this guy said, it will be much easier finding drivers if it is SE, if all else fails, Windows 2000 might be the answer, that or ME, but Id rather attach my man parts to a CPU fan than run ME.
 
Chimerical said:
Congrats on the computer. Thats one awesome PC. The frames must fly in Crysis.

:D
Click to expand...

Crysis I've got to be honest, it's struggling a bit. Perhaps it needs updated drivers on the banshee to unleash its full potential.

It's taking GTA4 apart though. ;) Maybe Rockstar did optimise it for a Pentium 2 rather than the quads... Just for a laugh.

I'm picking up a USB card tomorrow so hopefully everything will work out. For now it's running Populous the Beginnning on a 22" widescreen lcd, which is an interesting experience... :)

Thanks for the tips everyone.

Pop.jpg
 
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