New Builds - Looking For Advice

JDinUK

JDinUK

JDinUK

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Joined
7 Nov 2020
Posts
22
Hi People, I'm building two retro PCs this week - unfortunately I threw out a lot of my useful stuff a couple of years back (SWMBO pressure!) and my best two motherboards died last week, so I bought an old Asus A7V333 with CPU and RAM from ebay for Windows 95B or 98SE (haven't yet decided) and have managed to get XP to work reasonably well on my Asus P5K/E WiFi AP and the games even work with my GT610.

I'm just building the 7V333 and am unsure about my graphics options. I had intended to use a Voodoo 3 3000 AGP card, but it turns out it's 3.3V and my slot on this board is strictly 1.5V only.

I do have a couple of nice GeForce cards - an FX5500 and a GeForce 2 MX MAX which I kept from way back when. The 5500 is AGPx8 but the MX MAX is the sort of card made to fit this board at 4x, so I'm unsure.
The bigger issue is that I want to run my old 3Dfx games on this pooter - and as well as that Voodoo 3 I also have a couple of Righteous Voodoo cards - a 1 that was deffo working when I last used it around 20 years ago - and a Voodoo 2 which I was gifted and may or may not be iffy.

I looked through the manual for the mobo and it doesn't state anywhere whether a graphics card can be fitted to a PCI slot - and my memory is complete pants these days (I'm 56 and on a large daily dose of morphine).

So my queries are:

1) Would it be possible to fit the GF2 MX MAX and passthrough to the Voodoo 1 card in a PCI slot? I have tried to find if these will work okay together, but found nowt.

2) If not, do you think I'm better off using the GF2 with Win95B or 98SE, due to compatibility and the fact it's the right speed for the AGP slot and the games or run the FX5500 which was way ahead of the other hardware but might give me top performance in those games?

Thanx!

I'm really like a kid in a sweet shop, doing this stuff - I still have all my Amigas and Spectrum etc and all the relevant gear, but I did that all last time - now it's the old PCs turn! :D

PS - the games I'm talking of are things like MechWarrior 2 3Dfx version, Quake/2 (the 3DFx ones), Armored Fist 2 and others I haven't yet dug out of the attic.
 
1) Certainly possible (you can happily use any PCI slot), but Voodoo 1 cards are far slower than you likely remember them being. A Glide wrapper for your FX5500 is going to wipe the floor with it.

2) 98SE all the way.

Personally I’d get an older motherboard and CPU combo to work with the Voodoo 3, something Super Socket 7 or Slot 1 based will be cheap and powerful enough for all glide games.
 
I've got stacks of older CPUs and RAM to go with it . I bought a Jetway 830CH in about 1999 and it was great - lasted me up to a couple of years ago when I accidentally threw it away thinking it was a friends defective one. Yes, I kicked myself very hard.

I've got several Socket A/462 processors, a couple of 486 DX and SX plus some Celerons and a P166MMX, P200, PII 350 etc etc.

I tried using nglide a few years ago for 3Dfx MechWarrior 2 but just couldn't get it to work. It put me off those because I invested a lot of time in it but ultimately failed. Also had a go with dgvoodoo2, but same result. It was all the more frustrating because others were saying how easy it was!
 
From memory there was never a retail 3dfx version of MechWarrior 2, no patches either. I believe there was only ever 3dfx OEM version bundled with GPUs. Or do you have the OEM disks already?
I remember a friend had a copy with his orchid righteous 3dfx card but that was it
 
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I have the disk and manual etc for the 3Dfx version - I do think it came with the Orchid Righteous Voodoo 1 card I bought in the late '90's. I remember how disappointed I was when I bought the Ghost Bear's Legacy add-on and found it wasn't 3D and it very underwhelming.

Edit - I just found a nice NF2 board for under £20 on ebay - in fact a much later upgraded version of the one I had to throw away a couple of weeks ago, so I'm very pleased.

I'll post how I get on with the 3Dfx cards.
 
JDinUK said:
I have the disk and manual etc for the 3Dfx version - I do think it came with the Orchid Righteous Voodoo 1 card I bought in the late '90's. I remember how disappointed I was when I bought the Ghost Bear's Legacy add-on and found it wasn't 3D and it very underwhelming.
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I watched a lengthy youtube video about the many different mechwarrior 2 versions. In short the 3dfx version isnt great and the best is the original. Better colours and 1024 x 768 as an option.
Would still be interssted in trying the 3dfx version but the are much better 3dfx games to play - Need for speed 2 se, moto racer, unreal to name a few
 
I have an old ISA card as it happens - can't remember what it is, exactly, it's in my other hobby room, waiting for a purpose!

As for MW2 and 3Dfx - I played both 3D and 'pancake' and I much preferred the 3D version, in combination with my Sidewinder Precision Pro joystick (which I also still have after 22 years and it still works great - even when I tried it with DCS World helicopters!). I played a lot of the 3Dfx versions of FPS such as Quake and Unreal, but didn't know there was one for MotoRacer. I enjoyed that back in the day, but when I recently got the box out I wasn't that impressed anymore. I guess you go off some games but others always keep their shine.
 
This is the MW2 3Dfx version - of course, it was originally in a jewel case (I scanned the images and printed them for DVD boxes, but kept all the originals in storage).





 
JDinUK said:
This is the MW2 3Dfx version - of course, it was originally in a jewel case (I scanned the images and printed them for DVD boxes, but kept all the originals in storage).





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Wow, not seen that for years :)
Yes, same version my friend had for his GPU. Not sure how well it will work with differing 3dfx cards
 
I think some higher power is against me building a Win 98 PC! First, my two period motherboards die - then a board I buy from ebay dies on the way, now a seller from whom I bought another board has sent the wrong one!

So now I've ordered an Asus A7N8X and if that gets messed up somehow, I'm giving up. :rolleyes:
 
JDinUK said:
I think some higher power is against me building a Win 98 PC! First, my two period motherboards die - then a board I buy from ebay dies on the way, now a seller from whom I bought another board has sent the wrong one!

So now I've ordered an Asus A7N8X and if that gets messed up somehow, I'm giving up. :rolleyes:
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All the fun of building vintage PCs!

Over the past 2 weeks i've ordered low profile back plates by mistake, order 2 sets of RAM which doesnt work had to re-format once, ran into numerous BSOD and IRQ conflicts and had a CRT from 1995 get damaged in the post
 
Sounds about right! :)

Yeah, I've had plenty of misadventures over the years, part and parcel I suppose. It's such a shame that all the local PC shops and enthusiasts are long gone - I don't even have anyone I can chat to about this stuff. Well, there is one guy who I advise, but he's very busy with his car & bike workshop so I rarely get to chat these days. Something I really miss. We used to have a deal whereby I would sort all his silicon issues and he would look after my bike. Now he doesn't have time for PCs, though he still has a ton of retro stuff.

btw if anyone needs or wants any hardware just give a shout - I've got boxes of all sorts - especially RAM of all types and many processors. Just send a pm and I'll see if I have what you want.
 
Another kick in the virtual nuts - the nice Gigabyte GA-7VM400AM motherboard I bought on ebay has turned out to actually be the 7VM400M version. What's the difference? Well, the main one - and what attracted me to the board in the first place - is that the AM has two SATA ports and the plain old M version doesn't. Not happy, but nought I can do about it.

Today the A7N8X arrived and yet another disappointment - it's the LA version. However, all that means is it's a mATX instead of ATX - so just missing a couple of PCI slots, which I can live with. They put a rubbish CPU in it, though.

This is the ISA board I mentioned - it seems to be an AST VGA Plus - and has dip switches on the plate! I've not had an ISA mobo for a couple of years, so I can't test if it's still working. Could do with a clean-up, as well.


AST-VGA-Plus.jpg


IMG-0537.jpg


edit - lots of info on these about - eg: https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/graphi...CH-INC-VGA-AST-VGA-PLUS-202262-001-002-0.html
 
Well, the Asus A7N8X-LA was also DOA - so that's it, I've had it.

Might try again in a couple of years, but don't hold your breath - last time I ever try and buy a retro PC part from ebay and I can't use other such places cos I have no comebacks if the stuff is duff.

Bye.
 
JDinUK said:
Well, the Asus A7N8X-LA was also DOA - so that's it, I've had it.

Might try again in a couple of years, but don't hold your breath - last time I ever try and buy a retro PC part from ebay and I can't use other such places cos I have no comebacks if the stuff is duff.

Bye.
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That seems a little defeatist. Most of my retro kit is from eBay and it’s been fine. Yes I’ve had a few bits that were DoA but that’s par for the course with this stuff.

When you then look at the DoA stuff over received, only one or two pieces out of 15 or so have been something I can’t repair.

The boards likely need recapping, they are old! I’m going to be replacing a MOSFET on a board as soon as the part arrives.
 
Defeatist? Two duff mobo's one wrong sent in error, one wrong description and I've not yet got a single penny back from the sellers.

I'm not rockerfeller and as it happens I am far too busy with many things to spend time repeatedlytesting duff motherboards that were sold to me as working. It's not too much to ask to receive what I am paying for - especially when the sellers are businesses and claim to check mobo's before sending them - I get them the next day and they don't have a shred of life in them.

You may be willing to just keep on with that until you actually get something that works, even if it's not what you really wanted - I'm not.

Defeatist my jaxi.You have no idea. Take a look in my cupboards where there is an A1200T, a 1200 floppy, tons of working kit for both along with my working ZX Spectrum 128+ with cassette drive - do you think that all sorted itself out? Do you think it's a good idea to poke me when I'm obviously really peed off?

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