Thats interesting I had both the voodoo 3000 and the mx440 .. I really used to like the voodoo as I got in on the tail end of its production and overclocking it was really easy... for a while i ran it at 50% over clock with no additional cooling but dialled back to about 25-30% becoause of heat.. doom quake unreal tournament amongst others
Retro Gaming Builds
- Thread starter MichaelAwkward
- Start date
Voodoo 3 cooling solved...
In doing some extra reading it appears there were several different revisions of the Voodoo cards, some with properly mounted heatsinks with screws, or in the case like mine, just relying on the thermal pad for adhesion. I daren't try and reapply new thermal paste in case I can't get it stay on, or break the card trying to remove it.
In doing some extra reading it appears there were several different revisions of the Voodoo cards, some with properly mounted heatsinks with screws, or in the case like mine, just relying on the thermal pad for adhesion. I daren't try and reapply new thermal paste in case I can't get it stay on, or break the card trying to remove it.
Turns out the VIA drivers I was using during my testing yesterday were fixing the AGP rate at 1x... Fixed that with better drivers and rerun the tests at default settings, not 16bit like yesterday:
GeForce 4 MX440 64MB 128Bit - 4038
GeForce FX5200 128MB 64Bit - 4108
Which is still surprising.
Got my eye on an GeForce 3 Ti 200 which apparently will overclock nicely to Ti 500 speeds to replace both though.
GeForce 4 MX440 64MB 128Bit - 4038
GeForce FX5200 128MB 64Bit - 4108
Which is still surprising.
Got my eye on an GeForce 3 Ti 200 which apparently will overclock nicely to Ti 500 speeds to replace both though.
Really enjoy reading this thread.
I run a GF3 Ti 200 in my Pentium III 1.4 S and it runs great. I'd also look at the GF4 Ti4200 as the are pretty cheap to find and perform really well.
What sound cards do You have in mind for your systems? In my P3 i run a Aureal Vortex 2 with a Yamaha DB50XG wavetable board. The Vortex 2 is a great Win98 card, but has Dos support too with a working wavetable header which is rare for a PCI card.
When looking for an ISA card, if your not going to use a wavetable board or some kind of midi add on i'd try and source a card with a Yamaha OPL3 chip on for good compatibility.
I have a thing for ISA cards and have quite a few now (over 10 :-/)
I run a GF3 Ti 200 in my Pentium III 1.4 S and it runs great. I'd also look at the GF4 Ti4200 as the are pretty cheap to find and perform really well.
What sound cards do You have in mind for your systems? In my P3 i run a Aureal Vortex 2 with a Yamaha DB50XG wavetable board. The Vortex 2 is a great Win98 card, but has Dos support too with a working wavetable header which is rare for a PCI card.
When looking for an ISA card, if your not going to use a wavetable board or some kind of midi add on i'd try and source a card with a Yamaha OPL3 chip on for good compatibility.
I have a thing for ISA cards and have quite a few now (over 10 :-/)
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Wish you had started this before I binned a shedload of gfx cards, cdrom/dvd drives, cases etc. Just a few weeks ago it all went to the skip 
I was bidding on a Leadtek GeForce 3 Ti 200 new in box yesterday but somebody was willing to pay more than I am. Shame because they were excellent overclockers by all accounts and could easily beat the Ti 500.
Sadly all the GeForce 4 Tis I can find for sale are from the continent and a bit more than I'd like to pay - I also consider them more of a Pentium 4/Athlon XP era card. Currently looking at grabbing a Radeon 9100 which is a rebadged 8500LE which was roughly comparable to the GeForce 3.
At the moment I've only got onboard sound, but the Gateway machine uses the ES1373 chip which was a popular Ensoniq PCI sound card of the time and broadly similar to their older Soundscape Elite ISA card. The other machine has some VIA AC97 chip. I've been looking at the Yamaha Audician 32 Plus ISA card to replace that as you can still get them new in box for not much. I think for my uses the onboard will suffice with the Gateway.
Ha, I can completely understand, it's hard to know when to stop collecting these old pieces of hardware once you start.
Wish you had started this before I binned a shedload of gfx cards, cdrom/dvd drives, cases etc. Just a few weeks ago it all went to the skip
That's a shame - why didn't you list them on eBay? There's plenty of people like me looking to buy these old components.
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They had been on ebay a few times with no luck
Tell me about it, My ISA sound card collection consists of
SB16 CT2230
SB32 CT3600
SB AWE 64 CT3480
SB AWE 64 GOLD CT4390
SB Vibra 16S CT2940 (With Genuine Yamaha OPL3)
Terratec EWS64S
Terratec EWD64XL
Sonnata 3D Yamaha OPL3 & OPL4 Chips
Miro Connect IBM MWave
Yamaha SW60XG
Media Vision Jazz 16
ESS 1689F With ESS Wavetable
And i'm always on the look out for cards. I would like to add one of the Gravis cards and a Ensoniq SoundScape Elite.
I swear I'm developing an addiction... just bought a whole load of parts to fix up the third machine I bought, in the desktop case, into something interesting. Motherboard, CPU, RAM (but will need to buy more), two GPUs, replacement HDD, optical and floppy drives.
Pictures to come.
Also ordered two sound cards,
Creative AWE64 CT4520 for the QDI machine, and Soundblaster Live CT4760 for the new machine. I need to stop, haha.
So I'll end up with Glide/Dx6, Dx7 and Dx8 machines. Windows 98SE, Windows ME and Windows 2000 possibly?
Pictures to come.
Also ordered two sound cards,
Creative AWE64 CT4520 for the QDI machine, and Soundblaster Live CT4760 for the new machine. I need to stop, haha.
So I'll end up with Glide/Dx6, Dx7 and Dx8 machines. Windows 98SE, Windows ME and Windows 2000 possibly?
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When I was 12 I had the following beast of a rig from HP:
Intel Pentium 4 2.4ghz
1GB DDR ram
40GB IDE Hard Drive
2x (!) DVD readers/CD Writers
Floppy Drive
A Geforce 420MX
15 inch CRT with speakers built in
And a copy of Lego Racers (Best game ever)
That PC lasted me longer than I'd like to admit.
Intel Pentium 4 2.4ghz
1GB DDR ram
40GB IDE Hard Drive
2x (!) DVD readers/CD Writers
Floppy Drive
A Geforce 420MX
15 inch CRT with speakers built in
And a copy of Lego Racers (Best game ever)
That PC lasted me longer than I'd like to admit.
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Great thread. Makes you realise just how much case design has progressed in recent years, because I had a bland cream metal box PC for quite a few years.
Thanks.
I don't know why but I kinda prefer these old cases to all the new ones. New cases are almost entirely black, and usually tasteless. At least these beige boxes were a blank canvas of sorts or completely inoffensive.
I don't know why but I kinda prefer these old cases to all the new ones. New cases are almost entirely black, and usually tasteless. At least these beige boxes were a blank canvas of sorts or completely inoffensive.
A few arrivals today:
Two new Socket 370 coolers, a replacement 92mm fan for the non-ATX PSU, and a Leadtek WinFast A170 Pro 64MB which I think may be one of the rare GeForce 4 MX 460s.
Two new Socket 370 coolers, a replacement 92mm fan for the non-ATX PSU, and a Leadtek WinFast A170 Pro 64MB which I think may be one of the rare GeForce 4 MX 460s.
Bit of a faffy day today.
A number of things turned up in the post including a Radeon 9100:
An Abit KD-7 RAID with an Athlon XP 2000+ CPU, and 256MB DDR333:
Including a broken off CMOS battery and a bulging capacitor
Thankfully the seller has already refunded me. So now I'm on the lookout for a good Socket A motherboard again.
On a plus point, I moved the Pentium III & GeForce 4 MX460 over to the desktop case:
Fitted new heatsinks and fans, redid the thermal paste on the MX 460 (and will do the same on the Radeon), and a replacement CD-ROM/DVD drive and floppy turned up as well but it looks like the floppy drive doesn't read anything. I wish eBay sellers would actually test things properly. Just because a drive lights up doesn't mean it's "tested and working".
A number of things turned up in the post including a Radeon 9100:
An Abit KD-7 RAID with an Athlon XP 2000+ CPU, and 256MB DDR333:
Including a broken off CMOS battery and a bulging capacitor
Thankfully the seller has already refunded me. So now I'm on the lookout for a good Socket A motherboard again.
On a plus point, I moved the Pentium III & GeForce 4 MX460 over to the desktop case:
Fitted new heatsinks and fans, redid the thermal paste on the MX 460 (and will do the same on the Radeon), and a replacement CD-ROM/DVD drive and floppy turned up as well but it looks like the floppy drive doesn't read anything. I wish eBay sellers would actually test things properly. Just because a drive lights up doesn't mean it's "tested and working".
Abit boards were notorious for poor quality caps. The caps popped on my Abit VP6 mother board. I'm awaiting a Abit KT7A-Raid mother board to arrive and no doubt i'll eventually have to recap the board.
Whats are your plans with the KD7? You going to re-cap it?
Whats are your plans with the KD7? You going to re-cap it?
Nah, I tried to see if it would boot and there was no signs of life. Not worth the effort. Got a SiS745 motherboard on the way with another CPU and RAM included for £14.
So I've got all four machines up and running now - just can't decide which to keep...
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, 2GB DDR2, GeForce 8800GTS, Windows XP SP3
- AMD Athlon XP 2000+, 768MB DDR, Radeon 9100, Windows 2000
- Intel Pentium III 1GHz, 512MB SDRAM, GeForce 4 MX460, Windows Me
- Intel Pentium III 500MHz, 256MB SDRAM, Voodoo 3 3000 PCI, Windows 98SE
So in the end I got rid of the first and the third machine, leaving me with the following:
I'm currently contemplating renewing one or both of the cases (and the PSU of the Gateway) with either of these:
Waiting to hear if the seller will do me a discount for buying one of each.
Hopefully I'll have some time over the summer to actually play some games on them. Working full time and studying is ruining my free time.
- AMD Athlon XP 2000+, 512MB SDRAM, Radeon 9100, Windows XP, 40GB IDE
- Intel Pentium III 500MHz, 256MB SDRAM, Voodoo 3, Windows 98SE, 20GB IDE
I'm currently contemplating renewing one or both of the cases (and the PSU of the Gateway) with either of these:
Waiting to hear if the seller will do me a discount for buying one of each.
Hopefully I'll have some time over the summer to actually play some games on them. Working full time and studying is ruining my free time.
I have this case and its really well built. Nice and solid. Mine houses a KT7A-Raid, XP 2600+ and Radeon 9700 Pro currently.
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I think I binned most of my old "junk" when we moved. I will have a look and see what there is to give away.
If I find anything then I will stick a list up here.
IDE drives I can get loads of 30/40 GB ones if anyone needs them.
If I find anything then I will stick a list up here.
IDE drives I can get loads of 30/40 GB ones if anyone needs them.