What did you do today?

[Revenant]

Today I was reminded of all the reasons I hate Creative soundcard drivers while building my retro rig. I hope who ever designed the drivers gets ticks in their pants.



It’s not small, just smaller.

 

[GuilleAcoustic]

Today I was reminded of all the reasons I hate Creative soundcard drivers while building my retro rig. I hope who ever designed the drivers gets ticks in their pants.

View attachment 1287

It’s not small, just smaller.

Nice rig, what's inside of it ? I can spot 2x Voodoo² already .

About the sound card, do yourself a favor and get a nice M-Audio 2496 (unless you really need EAX). It's cheap, great quality, but only stereo . Yamaha had some dope cards too, and if you want 3D audio please consider an Aureal based one (like the DIAMOND MonsterSound MX300)

 

[BaK]

Today I was reminded of all the reasons I hate Creative soundcard drivers while building my retro rig.

Souvenirs, souvenirs...

 

[GuilleAcoustic]

Souvenirs, souvenirs...

I can't unhear that, now I have the song stuck in my head

 

[BaK]

I can't unhear that, now I have the song stuck in my head

Johnny?! Lol I wasn't even refering to him when I wrote that!
It's also in my head now!

 

[Revenant]

Nice rig, what's inside of it ? I can spot 2x Voodoo² already .

About the sound card, do yourself a favor and get a nice M-Audio 2496 (unless you really need EAX). It's cheap, great quality, but only stereo . Yamaha had some dope cards too, and if you want 3D audio please consider an Aureal based one (like the DIAMOND MonsterSound MX300)

Thanks!

I originally wanted to use the Audigy so I can load up some of the larger RAM based sound fonts. However, I had forgotten how much of a nightmare the driver installs are for that time period of Creative cards. Actually, I use a Creative X7 right now for my main rig and the drivers are still a pain.

It's funny you mention the Aureal based cards because that's my other card. I have an Aureal Vortex 2 SQ2500 that was in my Athlon 750/GeForce256 rig I owned in 2001. Come to think of it, the Voodoo2's are from that rig as well. I'll be attaching a DreamBlaster X2GS to the wavetable header. It's got the officially license Roland sound fonts so it's good enough for me. I've got an Orpheus OPL3 with the same X2GS coming for a P233MMX rig for anything this is too fast to run.

As for the specs, I'm setting up multiple configurations using CF cards so I can swap hardware. The baseline includes a spinner hard drive though.

• Silverstone case for high airflow.
• Enermax 430 Watt PSU (need that 5V rail)
• Intel Tualatin Pentium 3 1.4 GHz
• Coolermaster cooler that I'm putting a Noctua fan on. Good lord those things were loud.
• Intel D815EPFV MATX motherboard. It's basic but small and it just works.
• 512MB PC133 SDRAM
• 300GB WD Raptor HD that I'm only using 30GB of.
• GeForce4 4800SE 64MB. (Anything I can't run on that I can probably run on modern-ish rigs)
• 2x Voodoo2 in SLI 12MB that I'm the original owner of.
• Vortex SQ2500 with Dreamblaster X2GS (Roland Sound Canvass sound fonts)
• A DVD drive because...I had one and why not?

I have some other parts I can swap in and out like a Kyro 2 PowerVR based GPU, Voodoo3 3500 TV, etc etc. Win98SE will be my primary OS on it, though I also plan to have a 2000 and XP CF card as well.

Now...for the most important part: I will be using a big, bulky, Ultrascan Trinitron CRT, because THAT is how it was meant to be.

 

[GuilleAcoustic]

It's funny you mention the Aureal based cards because that's my other card. I have an Aureal Vortex 2 SQ2500 that was in my Athlon 750/GeForce256 rig I owned in 2001. Come to think of it, the Voodoo2's are from that rig as well. I'll be attaching a DreamBlaster X2GS to the wavetable header. It's got the officially license Roland sound fonts so it's good enough for me. I've got an Orpheus OPL3 with the same X2GS coming for a P233MMX rig for anything this is too fast to run.

Aureal's A3D was so much better than the buggy Creative's EAX. It's really a pita that Creative pushed them to Bankruptcy and killed A3D when they acquired them afterwards: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aureal_Semiconductor

Speaking of Roland, I'm still dreaming of gathering a bunch of their MIDI modules (JD-990, SC-88, etc.)

Now...for the most important part: I will be using a big, bulky, Ultrascan Trinitron CRT, because THAT is how it was meant to be.

Exactly ! I had a lovely Iiyama A702HT back then, also called Vision Master PRO 410.

 

[Revenant]

Today I figured out that my retro machine will not use CF cards. They’re $40 for good 64GB one! But you know what’s only $25?

Adata 128GB SSDs! With DRAM cache!

I bought a hot swap reader for the case and can now swap SSDs like Nintendo carts. Since it’s a Pentium 3 1.4GHz I’m going to have 98SE, 2000, Xp, and Linux on SSDs, and swap them out as needed.

I basically turned my retro PC into an N64.

 

[GuilleAcoustic]

I’m going to have 98SE, 2000, Xp, and Linux on SSDs

But, but, but .... You forgot Windows Millenium !

 

[Valantar]

But, but, but .... You forgot Windows Millenium !

Isn't that exactly what we all want to do?

 

[Revenant]

But, but, but .... You forgot Windows Millenium !

 

[Valantar]

View attachment 1299

View attachment 1300

I'm offended that W2K isn't in that chart. No, it technically wasn't a consumer-facing OS and was more a development of NT, but it was essentially XP without the terrible color scheme and UI.

 

[Skripka]

I'm offended that W2K isn't in that chart. No, it technically wasn't a consumer-facing OS and was more a development of NT, but it was essentially XP without the terrible color scheme and UI.

Funny thing everyone who looks back fondly on WinXP seems to forget...everyone hated it until about SP3,not just the Fischer Price UI but everything about it. Win2K 'just worked' better as any of the Win OSes in that era ...WinXP didn't, until late-SP2 or early SP3.

 

[Revenant]

Funny thing everyone who looks back fondly on WinXP seems to forget...everyone hated it until about SP3,not just the Fischer Price UI but everything about it. Win2K 'just worked' better as any of the Win OSes in that era ...WinXP didn't, until late-SP2 or early SP3.

You aren't wrong...

The big thing you forogt though was that they hated it because it was the first OS that had to call home to Microsoft to get authorized, and there were A LOT of people who had problems being de-authorized for just minor upgrades...

 

[Phuncz]

I also disliked XP mostly, I was a fan of Vista 64-bit though but it also depended on having correct drivers and compatible software.

 

[CC Ricers]

One of my friends stuck with Windows 2000 up until 8 came out lol. XP was very buggy at launch but with SP2 it was a whole lot better.

Today I realized my Ryzen 2200G probably crapped out. I tried replacing both the motherboard and ram with new parts, knowing they're already compatible. and it would still not POST anything at all. The chip had a good run anyways and I'm due for an upgrade.

 

[Revenant]

One of my friends stuck with Windows 2000 up until 8 came out lol. XP was very buggy at launch but with SP2 it was a whole lot better.

Today I realized my Ryzen 2200G probably crapped out. I tried replacing both the motherboard and ram with new parts, knowing they're already compatible. and it would still not POST anything at all. The chip had a good run anyways and I'm due for an upgrade.

Where you overclocking it?

 

[Revenant]

Today I got my third CRT in a week that had been destroyed by the shipper...The third one in a week.

For CRTs that have been destroyed by shippers we have

2 by UPS
1 by Fed Ex
1 by USPS

 

[CC Ricers]

Where you overclocking it?

The Ryzen, no. But I overclocked the RAM for the APU performance and didn't have any problems, gotten it stable at 3000 mhz.

I'm not sure if I will go for a full build with a dedicated GPU for my next desktop or a Asrock Jupiter barebones PC. I like those a lot more than the Desk Minis.

 

[Valantar]

The Ryzen, no. But I overclocked the RAM for the APU performance and didn't have any problems, gotten it stable at 3000 mhz.

I'm not sure if I will go for a full build with a dedicated GPU for my next desktop or a Asrock Jupiter barebones PC. I like those a lot more than the Desk Minis.

What SoC voltage were you running? Might have cooked the IMC.