What retro things have you done today?

Finally finished my DOS / Windows 98 system. Overall I'm very happy with it as it covers quite a large range of games especially by disabling the L1 & L2 Caches.

CPU - Intel Pentium III 1000MHz Coppermine 256K 133fsb
Motherboard - ABIT VH6-II Socket 370
RAM - 512Mb SDRAM PC133 CAS 2
GPU - Voodoo 3 3000 AGP with Noctua 60mm Fan Mod
Soundcard - Creative AWE64 CT4500 - ISA
HDD's - 120GB Crucial SSD (Windows 98) / 16GB SD Card (DOS 6.22)
Case - Lian Li Aluminium Midi Tower ATX PC-6083A
PSU - Antec EA-380W
OS - Win 98 SE (Unofficial Service Pack 3) / DOS 6.22

Extra's
Roland SC-88VL
OPL3LPT
Simulant OpenFlops Floppy Emulator (JC & MO jumped)

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Chris
 
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randal said:
Oh no :( Hmm, should be easy enough to design and print some brackets to suspend a 5 1/4 drive or something like that in there?

I did yep, just rummaged around on Thingiverse for a couple of 120mm sleds and then double sided tape to hold them in place. Not sure how effective it'll be at full tilt, but some long as here's fresh air moving over the drives I'll be happy for the moment.

For the front panel connectors I de-pinned the block connector and used single/dual DuPont connectors on the original loom. Used this reference as a guide: http://mroach.com/2020/08/sun-ultra-24-reborn/#front-panel :)
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Thanks mate much appreciated I will have a read...
 
@Chris that's a awesome build. I'm on the hunt for a SC55/88 currently to replace my SC155. I prefer the form factor of the half 1u units. I have that board but it needs a cap replacement. Do you know if the caps have been replaced on yours? ABIT boards of this period are notorious for bad caps!

How you finding compatibility with the OPL3LPT? Do you have to patch the games to for it to work?
 
Thanks guys,

cee-S-dee, funny you should say that but when I got the board I noticed some of the caps looked pretty bad so I have replaced them (9 x 1500uF 6.3V) all the others looked fine though.

I've been looking for a SC55 / SC88 for ages but this was the first I'd seen in the UK at a reasonable price

Regarding the OPL3LPT, it took a bit of getting used too but it seems to work well in the games I have tested, I haven't patched any games yet but may do in the future
 
What’s the best/most authentic (era wise) platform for SLI GTX 260 and 285’s? They are both at the cut off point between LGA775 and 1366. I’m torn how to do this build...
 
rare said:
What’s the best/most authentic (era wise) platform for SLI GTX 260 and 285’s? They are both at the cut off point between LGA775 and 1366. I’m torn how to do this build...
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Personally, out of those two, a high-end 775 build. As soon as you start down the road of Core i3/i5/i7, you might as well just use a current-gen rig.

Ideally you'd go for something a little different, maybe a dual Socket 771 build, or a dual/quad socket Opteron build.
 
Yeah interesting, I think you are right. As nice as it is having newer features it does start to lose its retro feel. It’s still era OK to run GTX 285’s with a high end 775 CPU from what I can tell, even if there is a slight cpu bottleneck (probably!).

Would love to do a dual 771 setup, only trouble is no boards seem to support SLI as far as I can tell.
 
rare said:
What’s the best/most authentic (era wise) platform for SLI GTX 260 and 285’s? They are both at the cut off point between LGA775 and 1366. I’m torn how to do this build...
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I would have said something like a Wolfdale Core2Duo imo on a P35 Motherboard (something like an Asus P5K), however a quick look back suggests that Intel chipset boards of that Era didn't support SLI, so would need to be an NForce based board (Something like a P5N-E SLI)
 
Managed to finally pick up a Mixer for the the Sound Cards I run in the retro rig!

Its a Maker Hart Just Mixer 5. 5 Stereo inputs, 2 outputs and a headphone output. It had bluetooth and EQ adjustment. Another great thing is it's nice and small and was something I really wanted as I don't have much space for a massive mixer. It also has a nice retro look to it imho.

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rare said:
What’s the best/most authentic (era wise) platform for SLI GTX 260 and 285’s? They are both at the cut off point between LGA775 and 1366. I’m torn how to do this build...
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There's always Socket 1156! But I would be tempted to go with whatever platform or board that offered best compatibility with that generation of SLI. Some Socket 775 needs that card thing in the board to be flipped around and additional power or something, and for xfire at least, some boards only support some cards in xfire.
 
Made a few changes to the box today. Sound and Video changes. I fitted the £15 Voodoo 3 3500TV I picked up a while ago. On the sound config I fitted the Turtle Beach Malibu to work alongside the Awe32 and MPU 401 card. The PC is now in a really good configuration and covers a wide spectrum of Games. With the new mixer I picked up I'm now able to mix all the different sound sources at will which is soooooo much better than messing with software mixers and line in passthrough. Interestingly and a really good feature is the MPU 401 card can host a Wavetable board. I have my Dreamblaster X2 connected to it. I also have the Korg NX5R connected to the same card externally and the card can drive them both simultaneously. With the mixer I can mix in the two synths together for some awesome sounding midi playback!

Specs of the machine as it stands

Via C3 Nehemiah 1.2 (Max 1.4 stable)
MSI Master Slocket Rev 2.0
Gigabyte GA-6BXC Rev2
3DFX Voodoo 3 3500TV AGP
Matrox M3D Power VR PCI card
USB 2.0 Card
Keropi Music Quest MPU-40 Clone (Dreamblaster X2 & External Midi Module Connected)
Turtle Beach Malibu 64 Sound Card (Kurzweil GM Synth)
Sound Blaster Awe32 CT3900 (8MB Ram and Korg Trust Sound Module)

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