Retro PC

[robbiec]

Well this has escalated ��

Psu now = Seasonic Focus Gold GX550 after the CWT shorted while plugging in a USB mouse.. Thought I had blown the board but through a process of elimination narrowed it down to the PSU.

Motherboard is now an ATX Epox Ep51 MVP3E-M (side affect of the above PSU failure) but this has also allowed use of a ATX case, namely an Antec VSK4000 - one of the few new cases with external 3.5" and 5.25" drive bays.

Floppy drive replaced by a Gotek usb floppy emulator.
Ive added a 5 port usb pci card (Nec chipset)
I've added an Intel Pro/1000GT

Storage is still an open question, I picked up an 8GB DOM card which is nice and tidy but it is incompatible with my cdrom. Tried a sata to ide convertor but the bios would not play. I have a set of cables (ATA33) on the way and I found a Promise ATA/100 controller with a full set of cables NOS so that will also be an option. The ide to sd card convertor works beautifully but I need to figure out a way of mounting it permanently.

2 other little changes.. Soundblaster 16 will be upgraded with a brand new MK8330 / X2GS-SE wavetable for the full Roland midi sound effects -

2nd - found a full Slot A Athlon 600 kit for a steal - AMD 751/756 chipset but with the ISA slots I want for the old skool sound cards / game ports.

 

[robbiec]

So lets walk you through some of the iterations:

ATX Case and ATX Power Supply:

Antec VSK3000 - one of the few cases about with a 3.5" external drive bay. Instead of the floppy i've installed a Gotek floppy emulator which reads a usb stick but through the floppy cable, works pretty well. DVD drive is a SATA (newish <7yrs old)
Antec VSK3000 by Robbie Corrigan, on Flickr

After I blew up the CWT, I stopped fking about like Jimmy and got myself a Seasonic (GX550 Gold)
Seasonic Focus GX by Robbie Corrigan, on Flickr

DFI AT to EPOX ATX - The DFI whilst not unstable, was really expecting an AT PSU and the layout was a PITA so I got an EPOX - here running the K6iii under a nice copper cooler, with a quietish Noctua.

AMD K6iii 400 by Robbie Corrigan, on Flickr

Graphics via an Nvidia FDX5200 because it has a DVI port, an Intel NIC and I toyed with a no name NEC Chipset USB PCI card.

Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 by Robbie Corrigan, on Flickr

USB card is bold, very bold - it blew up the CWT and buzzed the Seasonic for a while. All I did was attempt to plug in a USB mouse

Bold b by Robbie Corrigan, on Flickr

Bold a by Robbie Corrigan, on Flickr

Binned after its one and only photoshoot.

Sound had been handled by a Creative Labs SB16 Value (CT2770)
SB CT2770 by Robbie Corrigan, on Flickr

That setup allowed the following to create a bit of a stir on retro FB group I had been following

The way it's meant to be played by Robbie Corrigan, on Flickr

1993 X-Wing on DOS running on a big screen tv

 

[robbiec]

But I wanted more

Soooooo

I always felt that I had missed out on the Athlon launch and the original chipsets so I found myself an original Athlon 600 (Slot A) on an original AMD750 platform

NV GF FX 5200 by Robbie Corrigan, on Flickr

AMD Athlon 600 by Robbie Corrigan, on Flickr

Intel Pro/1000 GT by Robbie Corrigan, on Flickr

So i now have a Athlon 600 based retro pc, atx, fx5200, intel pro/1000gt and a new soundcard...

As in brand spanking new, freshly designed in 2020s, manufactured in late Nov - I give you the MK8330

MK8330 by Robbie Corrigan, on Flickr

With a genuinely Roland licensed Wavetable for added goodness

X2SE WaveTable by Robbie Corrigan, on Flickr

No static, and for games that had some added sound effects, a genuine ear / eye opener.

 

[robbiec]

Couple of tweaks coming to this. Athlon 600 is getting a Noctua fan. I am replacing the SD card setup with a Compact Flash adapter as more compatible with IDE so allowing me to setup Master, Slave, Cable select. I have found a CH Products Gamecard and lastly the GPU is glitching in DOS mode so a Nvidia 4200TI is on the way.

Back to back comparisons with the Soundblaster and MK8330 show better game compatibility with the SB16 but markedly better sound with the MK.

 

[robbiec]

Noctua fitted to the Athlon and it is behaving itself nicely. I don't remember the AGP Gpu changes as being massively problematical back in the day but I've have had a couple of Nvidia cards in (Geforce 256 and a 4200Ti) and both habe gone phut in short order. The Dell 5200 passive works nicely but it too started giving out with artifacts and I cant get the heatsink off. With the K6/3 400 it is fine, with the Athlon 600 it will run a 2-3 hour session but put it in a Skt463 with a Duron 700 or a Athlon 2000+ and it start giving gyp after 10 mins. I've since found a newer / cleaner version and a Radeon 7500LE which was NOS.

 

[AlienALX]

Man that brings back memories. We were explicitly told by Intel not to sell those Athlons. Because they really were THAT good. Was the beginning of worrying years for them (Intel).

TBH I reckon they only got through it by bullying and threats. They paid for it in the end though.