Gateway 550T Windows 98 SE machine

[Guest2]

I was going to post this in 'What retro things have you done today' but think it warrants it's own thread.

Lockdown project is a Gateway 550T desktop, Gateway 2000 Vivitron 15 monitor and some vintage peripherals finish it off. So far just the computer has arrived but all working well. It even smells like the 90s!
Will post more pics when the monitor and other parts arrive. 3dfx still pumping out the frames in Unreal and Need for Speed 2 SE

Specs

Intel motherboard of some sort, actually unsure what board it is
Pentium 3 550MHz
384MB SD RAM
20GB WD Hard Drive
3DFX Voodoo3 3000 16MB
Creative/Ensoniq AudioPCI Audio Card
DVD-RW Drive
CD Drive
Floppy Drive
Zip 100 Drive
Ethernet Card
Modem Card
Firewire Card
SCSI Card

Pics below

Spoiler

Ultimate Race Pro

 

[almoststew1990]

Call me a blasphemous Hufflepuff but I'd be ditching most of those cards and having a simple Voodoo + ISA soundcard + CD or DVD, IDE HDD and maybe a 1.44mb floppy drive. The case looks quite old fashioned, like it's an updated AT case or something. Is it (the PSU mainly) loud?

 

[Guest2]

Call me a blasphemous Hufflepuff but I'd be ditching most of those cards and having a simple Voodoo + ISA soundcard + CD or DVD, IDE HDD and maybe a 1.44mb floppy drive. The case looks quite old fashioned, like it's an updated AT case or something. Is it (the PSU mainly) loud?

It certainly is loud! Just how i remember old machines. Loud and grindy. I am probably going to do just that and ditch (just take out) all the cards that are not required. Contemplating finding an AWE32 soundcard but they are like rocking horse poo

 

[kar]

Nice - I have a Gateway 486DX2V that really 'smells' vintage (not in a bad way).

It's funny how the tactile / sensory parts of vintage computing are as much a part of the appeal.

 

[Guest2]

Nice - I have a Gateway 486DX2V that really 'smells' vintage (not in a bad way).

It's funny how the tactile / sensory parts of vintage computing are as much a part of the appeal.

What is that / the smell? Thinking electrical parts (psu mainly) that have been unused for years.

@almoststew1990 I removed the modem card, scanner scsi card, network card, firewire card and unplugged the zip and floppy drives. Boot time is down from almost a minute to about 15 seconds.

Also ordered a 120GB hdd, floppy disk ( ) to make a win98 boot disk and pci back plate covers. SB live also ordered as the ensoniq is rubbish.

I’ll have a go at installing Windows 98 SE fresh when the new hdd arrives. Back to using hard drive jumpers again. Fun times!

 

[paradigm]

What is that / the smell? Thinking electrical parts (psu mainly) that have been unused for years.

@almoststew1990 I removed the modem card, scanner scsi card, network card, firewire card and unplugged the zip and floppy drives. Boot time is down from almost a minute to about 15 seconds.

Also ordered a 120GB hdd, floppy disk ( ) to make a win98 boot disk and pci back plate covers. SB live also ordered as the ensoniq is rubbish.

I’ll have a go at installing Windows 98 SE fresh when the new hdd arrives. Back to using hard drive jumpers again. Fun times!

I think the SB Live! is a mistake tbh. You really want a good ISA sound card with a wavetable header and a DreamBlaster S2/X2.

 

[Guest2]

I think the SB Live! is a mistake tbh. You really want a good ISA sound card with a wavetable header and a DreamBlaster S2/X2.

Going to get an ISA card too.
The majority of games i play are windows 9x from mid - late 90s so an ISA card wouldnt have enough bandwidth for Direct X

 

[Digital X]

If you were still wondering about the Motherboard, it's a Gateway 4000532 Tabor 3 BX.

 

[SoundsGood]

Would like something like this if I had the space. Where did you get the parts?

 

[Guest2]

If you were still wondering about the Motherboard, it's a Gateway 4000532 Tabor 3 BX.

Perfect, thanks

Would like something like this if I had the space. Where did you get the parts?

Facebook. I think I got quite a good deal considering the parts. The machine was £89 inc delivery from a nice guy who owns his own small IT company.
I also purchased the montior from him after although it was a sad day today because although it was packed very well, UPS must have thrown it about because its damaged and sounds like it has broken tubes inside with a medium sized crack on an outside corner. It powers up but has orange blinking light so internal power/damage. If I tilt it back a bit it does sound like glass or something it rattling around inside.
Luckily it was insured and i've been refunded but its lasted 26 years and some delivery plebs break it It had huge writing on too saying Fragile and ths way up

Other parts on order
Soundblaster live. The good one (CT4760) - £13
Western Digital WD1200 120GB - £13
1 floppy disk ( ) - £1.59
StarTech.com Low Profile PCI Slot Cover (5 Pack) - £3

I've got a 17" LCD Iiyama ordered too until I find a good 15" CRT locally

 

[almoststew1990]

Also ordered a 120GB hdd, floppy disk ( ) to make a win98 boot disk and pci back plate covers. SB live also ordered as the ensoniq is rubbish.

The Windows 98 CD that you can get from Winworld (that I'm sure we all use!) is bootable so you don't need the floppy disk, but it still has fdisk on it for all that business. I haven't booted from a floppy in years for a windows 98 PC and I'm quite happy to avoid that faff!

 

[LewisRaz]

The Windows 98 CD that you can get from Winworld (that I'm sure we all use!) is bootable so you don't need the floppy disk, but it still has fdisk on it for all that business. I haven't booted from a floppy in years for a windows 98 PC and I'm quite happy to avoid that faff!

not guilty!
But I do collect the OSes and have a few variants of 98, The one in my CD wallet is bootable.

 

[Guest2]

The Windows 98 CD that you can get from Winworld (that I'm sure we all use!) is bootable so you don't need the floppy disk, but it still has fdisk on it for all that business. I haven't booted from a floppy in years for a windows 98 PC and I'm quite happy to avoid that faff!

Isnt the OEM version the only bootable one? I seem to remember this being the case (going back many years) so it was either buy a floppy disk and boot off that with the CD I have, or buy a CD and burn the bootable OEM version... Or mess around going the bootable USB route which I never did with Win98

edit - the version I have is bootable anyway Oh well. But good to use a floppy disk, not done so for some time

 

[Guest2]

Well, that floppy disk ended up coming in very handy today as my Win 98 SE OS on a new (old) 120GB HDD. It was lacking the USB drivers and the only way to copy the driver that was luckily 900kb was on the floppy disk. Failing that i would have needed to mess around getting a spare CD or connecting both drives and copying files from one to another. For now im keeping the 20GB drive powered off in case things break

 

[Bubo]

It certainly is loud! Just how i remember old machines. Loud and grindy. I am probably going to do just that and ditch (just take out) all the cards that are not required. Contemplating finding an AWE32 soundcard but they are like rocking horse poo

Got all excited for a minute there when I remembered I still have an AWE32 ISA card in my pile of bits and so must be sitting on a gold mine. Turns out it is just the AWE32 Value version that is worth about £30. The one with no simm slots and an empty ASP chip socket on it. Back into the pile it goes for now

 

[Guest2]

Got all excited for a minute there when I remembered I still have an AWE32 ISA card in my pile of bits and so must be sitting on a gold mine. Turns out it is just the AWE32 Value version that is worth about £30. The one with no simm slots and an empty ASP chip socket on it. Back into the pile it goes for now

10 - 15 years ago people would have binned these machines as thought ISA cards were dead in the water and no one wants or needs them now. Ever £30 for a 25 year old sound card is a lot of money. I'm sure my now 'vintage' 1996 machine with an ISA Soundblaster 16 went to the tip in maybe ~2005

 

[Retro6]

10 - 15 years ago people would have binned these machines as thought ISA cards were dead in the water and no one wants or needs them now. Ever £30 for a 25 year old sound card is a lot of money. I'm sure my now 'vintage' 1996 machine with an ISA Soundblaster 16 went to the tip in maybe ~2005

We have all done it. I used to work for a computer place back in the early to mid 2000s and I use to get all sorts of hardware and computers mainly 486 computers as they were no longer wanted. I remember the warehouse being stacked from floor to ceiling with old Pentium computers and CRT monitors and boxes upon boxes of old video cards of all sorts and sound blaster cards. I got quite a bit from there but as time went on I got rid of the old computer stuff I had thinking that it will never be needed again. I'm glad I kept all my old software. The place is no longer about today.

I did pay a visit back in 2015 to see if they had any old computer bits going but they were only taking in Pentium 4 and over this time and anything older would be stripped and scraped plus there policy had changed where nobody was allowed to take anything. I did have a chat with one of the admin staff about retro gamers and the demand for old hardware and that they could be selling it rather than scrapping it but they wasn't interested. I know they would have still have some old stuff out the back that would be marked up for scrap.

 

[Guest2]

We have all done it. I used to work for a computer place back in the early to mid 2000s and I use to get all sorts of hardware and computers mainly 486 computers as they were no longer wanted. I remember the warehouse being stacked from floor to ceiling with old Pentium computers and CRT monitors and boxes upon boxes of old video cards of all sorts and sound blaster cards. I got quite a bit from there but as time went on I got rid of the old computer stuff I had thinking that it will never be needed again. I'm glad I kept all my old software. The place is no longer about today.

I did pay a visit back in 2015 to see if they had any old computer bits going but they were only taking in Pentium 4 and over this time and anything older would be stripped and scraped plus there policy had changed where nobody was allowed to take anything. I did have a chat with one of the admin staff about retro gamers and the demand for old hardware and that they could be selling it rather than scrapping it but they wasn't interested. I know they would have still have some old stuff out the back that would be marked up for scrap.

Interesting. I’m seeing more and more stuff on eBay in central europe where it looks like cards pulled from scrap / old machines and sold for high prices.
Good on them, at least they are not going in the bin

 

[!bluetonic!]

Thanks for sharing. This is great.

Back in the old days, it was my mate Paul that had the Gateway P120 which was a helluva machine with the Ensoniq soundcard and Altec Lansing subwoofer speakers. Everything about it oozed class. It sounded great.

Don't knock the Awe32 value. The RAM slots were there to load sound fonts. If you don't do that, you had a high quality, compliant card that did Wavetable, sound blaster and MT32 emulation.

This was just before 3D cards, but it came with Win 95.