Hey guys, How has everyone been here at the EVGA forums?

it's been a while I posted anything new, or well life changing, even so most know me from my 3dfx graphics crd collection or the GPU repaste maintenance guides, all far in the past though, after have sold all my retro parts, mainly the graphics card collection, I kind of had regrets from doing that, so after my 54th diecast scale 1:200 B747, which was a KLM B747-406ERF/SCD the PH-CKC named Oranje, Dutch for orange.

Boeing 747-406ERF/SCD
KLM Cargo Operated by Martinair "Wave Livery 2014-Pressent"
PH-CKC "Oranje"
Scale 1:200
Gemini Jets 200 Interactive Series
Line Number: 1341
Age 18.4 years
Status: Active


After this I started to think on what to do next and then some memories came through to me and yea  lets build a date correct Intel Pentium3 system, a worthy challenge this was for sure.

Thus I decided to get back to it again, to do an intel build this time, Pentium3's were very nice CPU';s even though the AMD K7's had stronger Floating Point Unit performance, Intel's SSE instruction set surely added great value and the overclock potential was also very good with the Pentiunm3's from 1999 to mid 2000.

So here the name & specs of this cool build I am working on:

Gradinko 2000

Intel Pentium !!!/E 850Mhz Coppermine CPU with 256KB L2 Cache for SECCII / Slot 1
2x 256MB PC-133 @ PC-100 CL2 from Kingston **
Olidata OLI-BX3 Rev.A 1.04 Intel i440 BX Seattle Chipset with ASUS P3B-F Bos 1.008 Beta 004
Matrox Millennium G400 MAX AGP 32MB 128Bit SGR Rev.A 4399
1x Gainward Dragon 3000 Voodoo2 PCI-12MB Rev.A 9846 (seeking a second identical card)
Creative Labs AWE64 Gold CT4390 + CT1950 Pro 28MB Sound Font Memory Module by Anthony Zxclxiv from x-3dfx
1x Western Digital WD400BB 40GB 7200 rpm HDD + 8MB Cache (Main Drive)
1x Western Digital WD1200BB 120GB 7200 rpm HDD + 2MB Cache (Game drive)
1x Mitsumi Electric 3.5" FD Drive
Addtrronics 7896A Server Tower
Enermax EG351P-V 330Watt PSU.

Windows 98SE Plus! or Windows 2000 Professional+ SP4 & RU01 for SP4
Latest drivers for the G400 MAX & the Gainward V2.

**= With this I will also see how 4x 128MB PC-100 CL2 performs over that of 2x 256MB PC-100 CL2

Here all the parts I have currently incl an intel Pentium !!!/E Coppermine Slot1 CPU @ 850Mhz with an original Thermaltake Golden Orb for S.E.C.C. II Slot1 CPU's

Intel Pentium !!!/E 850Mhz Coppermine Slot1 CPU
Thermaltake Golden Orb for Slot1 S.E.C.C. II CPU's
2x 256MB PC-100 Kingston
4x 128MB PC-100 Kingston


Intel Pentium !!!/E 850Mhz Coppermine Slot 1 /SECC II CPU with 100Mhz FSB & 256KB L2 Cache:



Here the Golden Orb mounted on the P3/E 850Mhz Slot1 CPU:


Olidata OLI-BX3 Rev 1.004 with ASUS P3B-F Bios 1.008 Beta 004:



Matrox Millennium G400 MAX DH AGP 32MB 128Bit SGRAM Rev.A 4399:



Gainward Voodoo Dragon 3000 PCI 12MB 192Bit EDO 25ns by OKI @ cores/mem 110Mhz



Enermax EG351P-V PSU:


Creative Labs Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold CT4390 4MB Rev.A 3197 with Gold Nichicon FG Audio grade Recap done by Backfire from Voodoo Alert.




Western Digital WD400BB 40GB 7200 rpm HDD + 8MB Cache (the fastest 40GB HDD of 1999) for boot drive
Western Digital WD1200BB 120GB 7200 rpm HDD + 2MB Cache from 2000 for games drive
Mitsumi Electric 3.5" FD Drive
Original Intel Pentium !!! Aluminum Decal


But yea now I wait till the 25th of June them my friend Stephan Kleemann aka Backfire from Voodoo Alert is back from vacation, then I can send the Mainboard, Gainward Voodoo2, Terratec EWS64 XL + IO drive bay and the PSU to him for full Nichicon recaps & the needed maintenance & reworks,.
Everything takes time especially with retro project likes this one all havig date correct parts, the main graphcis card is the Matrox Millennium Dual G400 MAX DH AGP 32MB 128Bit SGRAM Rev.A 399.
In the end this date correct system will look and feel fantastic, OS will be Win95 SE Plus, if that doesn't do well for me I will most likely move to Windows 2000 Professional + Service pack4 & Rollup 01 for Service Pack 4.

And here two nice wallpapers I made of an Aer Lingus B747-130 the EI-BED  named Saint Kieran with the G400 MAX and the Gainward Voodoo2 alongside it.

Boeing 747-130 (ex-Lufthansa D-ABYC - Bayern)
Air Lingus "Classic Shamrock Livery 1974-1996"
EI-BED "St. Kieran / Ciarán"
Inflight 200
Scale 1:200
Age: 27. 4 Years
Status: Broken up at Marana Pinal Airpark (MZJ / KMZJ) USA, October, 1997
--------------------------
Matrox Millennium G400 MAX AGP 32MB
Soltek Orb Livery 2001
Rev.A 4399
Scale 1:1
Matrox Graphics Canada
--------------------------
3Dfx Interactive Voodoo2 PCI 12MB
Gainward Dragon 3000 Livery 1998
Rev.A 9846
Scale 1:1
Palit Gainward


Anyways  that is it for now I will make a topic in the EVGA forums of this builds once all these parts have been neatly recapped and by then the building process will begin as well, the case I am going to use is my 1999  Addtronics 7896A Server Tower, can't go wrong with that I was think'n, 2nd pic is the Addtronics 7896A and 6896A  side by side plus the original manual which I also still have:
 
Also I added these Ingen Crystal Dome decals for my two Addtronics cases the 6896A & 7896A, as if they were Server /Workstations from Ingen in that sense:
Ingen is a reference from Jurassic Park 1993 & Jurassic park: The Lost World 1997.



This relic of a sound card I bought for my AMD K7 Athlon 700Mhz Slot A  Thunderbird system
This was one of the best finds I ever made on ebay, being that this card was made during week 33 of year 1997, and so well preserved being mint in box, yea all worth it tbh.

Terratec Promedia Audio System EWS64 XL mint in box from Week 33 year 1997 + 64MB 60pins 64Bit Edo Sound Font Memory







And there ya have it so far, more posts will be made once the Olidata Mainboard, Gainward Voodoo2, PSU, Terratec EWS64 XL + IO bay are fully recapped, and then the build log can finally take place.

tattude69
its really cool to see an old build being brought back to life. Really great build

hey many thanks, yea it's just waiting until I can send the needed parts to my friend in Germany for full recap, once those parts return, I can then start building the system

Cool GTX
nice retro build.
 
Setting IRQ & DMA with jumpers & switches, that brings back some memories
 
Parts look very clean, any special process that you like to use to get old parts that clean?

Hey manty thanks I used a soft paint brush to brush them clean , the io plates I dismantled and cleaned them in hot water with dish washer soap then dried them off with a tea towel making them all nice and shiny

The PCB's themself are cleaned & recapped at my friend's place in Germany, I can't perform recaps but he can, he has been an Electro Engineer for the past 47 years, he also cleans the PCB's and makes everything like new again the sound cards get Gold recaps the other parts don't. they get normal recaps yet all capacitors are from Panasonic & Nichicon Japan, which he orders from Japan via his work which is at TUI Airways there he is Chief Engineer for their APU's & CF56 Jet engines for their B737 fleet.
Here his sit he repaired well over 200 Voodo5 boards where of 20 were Voodoo5 6000's, he also does VSA-100 chip replacements as well as VRAM renewals and Inner PCB layer repairs.
He does this for mainboards PSU's & Sound cards as well, just handy to have such people around.
https://3dfx-alive.de/

it's all in German but I use Firefox with an Auto translator from German to English, that helps a ton

Hell yea man, well I wanna try Win98SE PLuS  on this build the terratec also works fine in Win2K Pro so I also wanna see if I can get it working in my AMD K7 Athlon Thunderbird 700Mhz Slot A build for that part.
With that I can always swap around the ISA cards from the P3 to the K7 in that sense anyway, makes it more of an luxury situation as test systems of choice go, which is never a bad thing to have around.

These are builds that just take time though, sorry if things take longer than expected, today I will send the needed to be recapped parts to my friend Backfire from VodoooAlert in Germany and after that I'll see what chapter is next, it's just like good old times.
EVGA may not make graphics cards anymore, but that won't stop me from posting retro projects here, just to give you people here at EVGA something cool and different to read about

And I of course I will always miss my old graphics card collection, but I did find my old gallery of all the photo's I took of my best cards, you can check that out here, guys!
https://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/index.php/3dfx_collectors/collector_goldleader/prevgas
Nothing lasts forever which is sad but true, but at least the photo's act like multiple windows to those golden memories, so I am glad I did make that gallery back then.

rjohnson11
I have to admit that I have a weakness for retro builds. This retro build is going to rock. 

Firstly many thanks for your kind comment, I find it cool to see you're still around here rjohnson11, always nice to see people I know that still take care of these classic forums, also many thanks for that Blue Ribbon

Oh yes it sure will, today is the day I will ship the needed to recap parts to my friend Stephan Kleemann in Germany the mainboard, PSU, Terratec EWS64 XL Sound card + it's IO bay and the Gainward Voodoo2.
So that will take some time but once these parts return I will do a photo shoot of them and post them here before building the system.

So for now it's just the waiting game again really
Always fun doing such build logs, I missed doing these tbh.