Modding a P3

[DragonMaster]

As a first case mod, I decided to mod an old Pentium 3 I built from parts lying in my room. (Well... it's been 2 weeks that it's not my main computer anymore :roll:) It's going to be a Windows 98 box for DOS progs and games that don't run XP.

Original specs:
Very cheap case with whining ATX PSU
Pentium III 800MHz with stock cooler
128MB generic PC133 CAS2.5 SDRAM
Asus CUV4X motherboard
DiamondMM TNT2 M64 32MB
Creative/Ensoniq ES1371 sound card
Cheapo Lucent WinModem
20GB Maxtor HDD
50x broken Asus CD-ROM
3¼" floppy

Current specs:
Not-so-cheap standard case with Fortron ATX PSU
Pentium III 800MHz with Thermaltake Volcano III cooler
384 MB PC133 RAM 2x Kingston KVR CAS3 128MB + 1x Generic CAS2.5 128MB
Asus CUV4X motherboard
DiamondMM TNT2 M64 32MB
Creative/Ensoniq ES1371 sound card
3Com 3C905B NIC
20GB Maxtor HDD
Mitsumi 48x CD-ROM
3¼" floppy
5¼" floppy
MusicQuest MQX-32M MIDI Interface MPU-401 compatible Not PnP

[markkleb]

I like the size of the picts. I havent seen a big floppy in a long time.lol

For all that stuff its pretty clean on the inside.

[DragonMaster]

Pics are OK? Great!

I have more 5¼" floppies than CD-Rs or 3¼" floppies here :lol:
I should have took a pic of when that drive was in my father's Sonata II :wink:

I clean my case, cards and cables every 2 months with a vacuum, toothbrush and paintbrush, so dust isn't really a problem. The real mess is with the IDE cables and power cables. I need to wait after the battery charger tho.

[Gray]

And to think I threw out my 5 1/4 drive so long ago after it sat in my closet for 4 years or more with no use.

I would love to fish out the Original Test Drive which I still have the disks for.
It's been a long time.

But I suppose it would take less time for me to find an emulator now a days.

[DragonMaster]

Almost forgot, I took some new pics! (The batteries seem to have charged in less than 2½ hours. I love my "computing charger")

Just have to install Wine and IrfanView!

[DragonMaster]

I would love to fish out the Original Test Drive which I still have the disks for.
It's been a long time.

http://www.abandonia.com/games/385/TestDrive-TriplePack
If it doesn't work on XP with VDMSound you could try DOSbox.

Finally it seems that IrfanView doesn't run very well on Wine using a x86_64 OS. When I start it I just get garbage...

Oh, my brother isn't on the Win2k computer!

This time I took 2048x1536 pics and resized them, much better!

[Xero (1)ne]

i have a couple of tape drives and a hard drive that wieghs about the same as a push mower engine:lol::lol::lol:
i found it out in a shed we have for old jusnk, i even found a texas instruments computer, its the biggest thing ive ever seen!:shock:(my dad said it never worked)

[DragonMaster]

Now I don't know exactly what mods to do : I don't want to waste time with an acrylic window if the thing is going to be on the floor... (I'll have to mod my room first :lol: )

[PP Mguire]

First things first what you could do since it IS a 98 machine (i have one too YAY lol) you can smack a Voodoo card in there for old skool Glide games. I loved that graphics render. Secondly ummmm MARKKK!!!! Need your advice lol. Get some round cables, a Sound Blaster 5.1 Live! (Old SB16 emu chip) and you can be playing DOS games in no time.
Is it one of those old skool cases where the whole thing comes open? If so then making a window would be pointless. You could put an 80mm fan where those extra connector holes are and you can possible put a cathode where the extra holes in the back of the case is (cept on the inside). Get soem round IDE cables and floppy cables and manage the cables better.
If you get UV cathodes you can use a highlighter and mark the ends of your ram and cards ect for a nice glow effect like its a DFI board or something. I did that to mine as well. Looks nice (pics on request). And i ran out of ideas for now. Ill get back at ya later with more.

[markkleb]

Mark? what do you need me for? P.P all ur ideas were really good.

If you need cables here is a cool place,
http://www.coolerguys.com/cables.html

[PP Mguire]

Idk i thought maybe you could have figured something better out.

[GIBSON]

Post those pics PP! :)

[DragonMaster]

Get some round cables, a Sound Blaster 5.1 Live! (Old SB16 emu chip) and you can be playing DOS games in no time.

Rounded cables are for air flow I suppose?

As for the SB 5.1, the ES1371 card has Adlib, SB16, MPU401, etc. emulation. (The only time I've been able to play Doom with wavetable sounds!)


Is it one of those old skool cases where the whole thing comes open? If so then making a window would be pointless.
Yup, so UV, etc. would be pointless too. Not much to mod...

I don't know if a rounded floppy cable with slot-type connectors exists tho.

Just thought about it, I could do a little job on the PSU wiring : Making some cables shorter, removing plugs, etc.

[PP Mguire]

Lol i knew about all the emu onboard thats i suggested it ;) I play Descent1 and 2 on it and some other old skool games. Plays nicely. Rounded cables look nicer and also give great airflow and they do make round floppy cables. Idk bout the 51/4 though. And you can make a custom window like mark did. Take and drill holes on the outline of the case and put mobo spacers in and then take some plexi glass and drill holes for screws and WHAMMO insta win. <<<< i made that up lol. You can do it for both sides.
As for the request ill get them up as soon as i get back from the LAN party. (Tomorrow morning)

[DragonMaster]

Mmmm, a plexiglass cover seems like a pretty good idea. The top will be a little hard to work with I think.

I never looked for plexiglass before.
Is there any plexi that is tinted? I could only see things that light up this way.

Now that there's an interesting window idea, I could come up with lots of things: LEDs in Molex, some paint job, etc.

[markkleb]

I dont know about Canada, but here is a place I go for plastics. You can tell them and they will cut the window the perfect size for you.
http://www.tapplastics.com/

[PP Mguire]

Ok well this camera dosent take the picture very well with the flash off but i tried. Plus the highlighter was week from my gf using it at school (damn letters). But heres a go, my older Voodoo2 SLI. (will work on the mess)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v701/pp_mguire/V2SLI.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v701/pp_mguire/Highlighter.jpg

[GIBSON]

lol, it looks like your camera is on dope :-D

[DragonMaster]

Hehehe, that's the problem with non-flash mode, you can't move at all if you want a clean picture.

Voodoo2 SLI
We can find that kind of thing? Looks like it's two dual GPU cards from the picture!

You seem to have 3 graphic cards??

The Hi-Liter didn't came up much... Only the Molex lights up, but it gives an idea!

[GIBSON]

Hehehe, that's the problem with non-flash mode, you can't move at all if you want a clean picture.


We can find that kind of thing? Looks like it's two dual GPU cards from the picture!

You seem to have 3 graphic cards??

The Hi-Liter didn't came up much... Only the Molex lights up, but it gives an idea!
LOL, dragonmaster, those things are ages old. So of course they're not dual GPU. The company who made them 3dfx if i'm not mistaken was the company that actually came up with SLI. nVidia bought them later on and nVidia "re-invented" SLI a year or 2 ago.

[DragonMaster]

LOL, dragonmaster, those things are ages old. So of course they're not dual GPU. The company who made them 3dfx if i'm not mistaken was the company that actually came up with SLI. nVidia bought them later on and nVidia "re-invented" SLI a year or 2 ago.

What are those two large chips next to the RAM chips then??

[PP Mguire]

Each Voodoo2 had 3 chips on it. One got GL/OpenGL, one for DirectX, and one for 2D rendering. The link cable is the same as the link from SLI except you had to have a slave card. Like here for instance i have on the bottom my SB Live! then i have a Riva128 which outputs the video from a cable in the back to the Voodoo card then my monitor hooks up to the Voodoo card. The other card is used exactly like SLI through the cable. The Voodoo 1 and 2 where like dedicated 3D graphics cards each with 12mb on them (except they made 8mb versions too). Also like i said the highlighter was kind of a dud. The molex connector i did first so it came out the best. Ill do it better later but the pictures where just for example.

[Gray]

Dragon I just clicked the link! For the test drive pack I might be back with an update thanks!!!!!

You know I remember the first corner of the first one you don't even have to turn? lmao. Easy to beat all my friends that way. lmao.

[Gray]

[QUOTE=PP Mguire;49298]The Voodoo 1 and 2 where like dedicated 3D graphics cards each with 12mb on them (except they made 8mb versions too). QUOTE]

Sorry mate. Voodoo 1 made it's debut with 4 MB of memory, Voodoo2 came as you said in 8 and 12MB versions.

Both were not standalone cards you had to have a basic vid card of limited specs to use it.

:Blast from the past.......

SLI used to mean Scan Line Interlieve when 3dFX was Alive.... (long live 3dfx)
SLI is now the "normal" Scalable Link Interface.

[DragonMaster]

Found all infos about Voodoo2 on wikipedia a few days ago. :mrgreen:

Dragon I just clicked the link! For the test drive pack I might be back with an update thanks!!!!!

BTW, don't enter any codes when it asks you to, it still works.

You know I remember the first corner of the first one you don't even have to turn?
:roll: Sometimes our brain keeps kinda unuseful things in memory for years...

[PP Mguire]

Gray, i was talking about the dedicated 3d graphics in general and the 12 and 8mb for the Voodoo2. Sorry my post i guess was confusing. I have all Voodoo cards cept the V5 6000.