Nice rig. Freelancer won't run well on it - the 1.4GHz tualatin doesn't have enough muscle for the more action intensive parts of the game. Same for far cry and mafia - that barely runs smoothly on a 2000+, and Mafia will want a fast LGA775 P4 or a 939 CPU. Don't know about the rest. The games will run, but they will be far from enjoyable. Upgrading the graphics card won't help, so don't bother. My tualatin rig (P3 1400 + Abit ST6 + Asus GF4 Ti4600) barely runs DK2 @ 1600x1200, and that's a 1999 game.

Its Interesting what you say about Mafia, I have memories of playing it on a Athlon 1.2ghz and a Geforce 2 MX bitd, I never cleared it so you must be referrying to some later stages that are more demanding on the CPU.
As for Farcry I didn't had high hopes since I had troubles running it on a Athlon XP 2.4ghz + Radeon 6600

copados33 wrote:

After almost a year of preparation I finally decided to assemble my W98 Pentium 3 system, first of here is a pair of pics: […]
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After almost a year of preparation I finally decided to assemble my W98 Pentium 3 system, first of here is a pair of pics:

specs:
Motherboard: Aopen Ax34II
CPU:Pentium 3 Tualatin 1.4ghz FSB133 512k
RAM:x2 Crucial 256mb PC133
Main GPU: Gainward Geforce 4ti 4600 128mb
3D accelerator: Diamond Voodoo 2 12mb SLI
HDD: WD 80gb
Soundcard: No ISA slot so will have to do with the onboard sound system, can't remember the model (VIA chipset), the soundblaster live was giving me problems with the system resource allocation so I opted to just remove it and be done with it.. even if that means loosing 3D effects /EAX support.
Network: generic Realtek NIC card can't remember the model.
case: unknown Chieftec case
monitor: 17" Viewsonic CRT
OS: Windows 98 SE with the unnoficial service pack.

Nice no-frills rig 😀
I've never given it much doubt if I for whatever reason decided to not use onboard sound. I often would only use an addon sound card if the onboard one was giving me trouble (usually with either the drivers or with weird stability issues), as long as it works 😁
I don't use any real fancy speaker system (got only like 2.1 or something 🤣), so I don't think I'll miss it.

What PSU are you using?
And your cooling seems adequate with your 12cm exhaust fan 😀

The front bezel looks kinda interesting, could you perhaps provide us with a pic of the front of your PSU? It somewhat reminds me of the 2 server cases I have (which are different cases though, but also P3 era cases).

Is your memory run @ cl3 or cl2? Cl2 might help speed up things a little bit, but personally I wouldn't bother if the memory can't run it (I prefer stability over a little extra speed any day of the week).

ISA sound is for Dos and you haven't mentioned any. besides if you get the itch a P3 has plenty of horsepower to run a dos game from within windows and most soundcards support dos sound from within windows.

But what you have is a fast 9x gaming rig. Just because later games released after WinXP can run on Win98 docent mean they should. But turn of the century games on a 1.4Ghz system with a GF4 4600 will fly!

Tetrium wrote:

Nice no-frills rig :) I've never given it much doubt if I for whatever reason decided to not use onboard sound. I often would on […]
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Nice no-frills rig 😀
I've never given it much doubt if I for whatever reason decided to not use onboard sound. I often would only use an addon sound card if the onboard one was giving me trouble (usually with either the drivers or with weird stability issues), as long as it works 😁
I don't use any real fancy speaker system (got only like 2.1 or something 🤣), so I don't think I'll miss it.

What PSU are you using?
And your cooling seems adequate with your 12cm exhaust fan 😀

The front bezel looks kinda interesting, could you perhaps provide us with a pic of the front of your PSU? It somewhat reminds me of the 2 server cases I have (which are different cases though, but also P3 era cases).

Is your memory run @ cl3 or cl2? Cl2 might help speed up things a little bit, but personally I wouldn't bother if the memory can't run it (I prefer stability over a little extra speed any day of the week).

I have long time trying to get me a Monster Sound Aureal Vortex PCi card without luck, I lost the one I had when I left it installed on someone else computer 😢 ..

PSU is an old Thermal Take, "true power" 350 Watt, it has a 30A on the 12v rail (tested it) so I guess this psu should be fine for any socket up to 370/462.

Cpu cooler was taken from a Compaq P3 1ghz Coppermine system which I ditched since it requires a PSU with its proprietary pinout, its a shame because it had a Intel i815 chipset.

For bezel are referrying to the plastic front of the case?

Ram, haven't checked which one I have but If I had to guess I would say CL3 since they are the more common one in my collection, last time I checked I couldn't complete 512mb with the modules I have on storage, and I'm running 512mb here.

chinny22 wrote:

ISA sound is for Dos and you haven't mentioned any. besides if you get the itch a P3 has plenty of horsepower to run a dos game from within windows and most soundcards support dos sound from within windows.

But what you have is a fast 9x gaming rig. Just because later games released after WinXP can run on Win98 docent mean they should. But turn of the century games on a 1.4Ghz system with a GF4 4600 will fly!

Sorry but I forgot to mention that the sB live I have is a PCi one, for DOS stuff I preffer to use my S.Socket 7 setup which does have ISA. To reach the limits of this hardware is my goal here, Squeezing the limits of Windows 98 using top of the line parts on a powerful (but outdated platform for the time) to see what I missed bitd when I foolishly decided to sell a similar setup just to fall duped by an update that didn't turn out to be the breakthrough I thought it would be when I decided to "upgrade", I sold my P3 PC and bought a Pentium 4 1.8ghz, I think I got dazzled by that 400mhz FSB 😢

copados33 wrote:

Cpu cooler was taken from a Compaq P3 1ghz Coppermine system which I ditched since it requires a PSU with its proprietary pinout, its a shame because it had a Intel i815 chipset.

I'm in a bit of a rush atm, but did your Compaq i815 board happen to have a black CPU socket?
Because I had some Compaq 181 µATX board and didn't know if it actually needed a proprietary PSU or not....so at some point I simply yoloed a PSU to that thing and powered the thing up 🤣, no fireworks 😁
But anyway, that board worked with a standard PSU.

edit: typo fixed

Tetrium wrote:

I'm in a bit of a rush atm, but did your Compaq i815 board happen to have a black CPU socket?
Because I had some Compaq 181 µATX board and didn't know if it actually needed a proprietary PSU or not....so at some point I simply yoloed a PSU to that thing and powered the thing up 🤣, so fireworks 😁
But anyway, that board worked with a standard PSU.

Yes, black socket, same as this one here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Compaq-187498-001-D … d-/231737174274 I can confirm 100% that it does requires a proprietary Compaq PSU, so yeah ... I'm a kamikaze I tried a standard PSU and it didn't turn on, no fireworks, the board works just fine with its original 200 Watt Compaq psu which unofrtunately doesn't have the neccesary juice required for my needs.

copados33 wrote:

Tetrium wrote:

I'm in a bit of a rush atm, but did your Compaq i815 board happen to have a black CPU socket?
Because I had some Compaq 181 µATX board and didn't know if it actually needed a proprietary PSU or not....so at some point I simply yoloed a PSU to that thing and powered the thing up 🤣, no fireworks 😁
But anyway, that board worked with a standard PSU.

Yes, black socket, same as this one here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Compaq-187498-001-D … d-/231737174274 I can confirm 100% that it does requires a proprietary Compaq PSU, so yeah ... I'm a kamikaze I tried a standard PSU and it didn't turn on, no fireworks, the board works just fine with its original 200 Watt Compaq psu which unofrtunately doesn't have the neccesary juice required for my needs.

Yes, mine looked very similar to that one (I think even including the green thingy around the AGP slot), but iirc it did turn on using a standard PSU? Maybe it was some weird goof-up or something? It's been a long while, but I can definitely remember having done this as I was very nervous due to the potential risks involved!
Do you happen to remember the model number of that board?
I vaguely remember it was mostly the ATX i810 Compaq boards that used proprietary PSUs and the ATX i815 Compaq boards using mostly standard PSUs, but that I do not remember well enough to call it a reliable thingy.

Looks good, could you post a picture of the front?
Also I suggest leaving a slot open between the 2 voodoo if possible for cooling, they get hot 😲

Tetrium wrote:

Yes, mine looked very similar to that one (I think even including the green thingy around the AGP slot), but iirc it did turn on using a standard PSU? Maybe it was some weird goof-up or something? It's been a long while, but I can definitely remember having done this as I was very nervous due to the potential risks involved!
Do you happen to remember the model number of that board?
I vaguely remember it was mostly the ATX i810 Compaq boards that used proprietary PSUs and the ATX i815 Compaq boards using mostly standard PSUs, but that I do not remember well enough to call it a reliable thingy.

Believe me, standard PSU's don't work with those Compaq boards, I have tested 4 or 5 PSU's from different brands and capacity, be it Antec, Chieftec, Thermal Take, Cooler Master EVGA, and a Silver Power?... none worked, to put things worse, if by any chance someone wanted to just fit the original PSU on a Standard ATX case, I've got bad news, that thing would not fit!! yes the og. PSU, power cable is barely 100mm long, mounting screwholes are in different positions and it also seems to be wider than the ATX standard..
I have checked and all I could see on the board is "Compaq Proccesor Board" 😵 how f****d up is that? its like this people wnated us retro hardware geeks to avoid their stuff like the plague 🤣

Richo wrote:

Looks good, could you post a picture of the front?
Also I suggest leaving a slot open between the 2 voodoo if possible for cooling, they get hot 😲

Its just a generic case made by Chieftec, I think Antec also made this same case but in black, I got it a few months ago I paid pennies for x4 of them in not so so condition, here:

And here's the PSU, can someone confirm is this is a good choice for this system?