Arcterra, a 1999 gaming build

[Tr3vor]

So I got a computer from a thrift store for $5, and it just so happened to be a "Mendocino" Celeron 500MHz. It also had an awesome case, so I was like why not, buy it for parts. I had nothing to do today so I spent it combining various P3 era parts into the best computer I could get. I'm going to name it Arcterra because Metroid and I think its going to be a pretty cool computer. http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/Arcterra

This is all done with parts I have on hand, so don't expect no fancy VooDoos, Sound Blaster Lives and other stuff like that.   Also don't expect super high image quality, I don't got one of them fancy DSLRs and stuff.

 

Specs: 

Pentium III Coppermine 500MHz

Soyo SY-6BA+

512MB SDRAM

Nvidia GeForce 2 MX400

Creative Ensoniq AudioPCI

3Com ISA EtherLink III 10mbs NIC

 

Say hello to the computer I'm making this build out of, I gotta tear it all the way apart to clean it up more, I'm suprised how clean it was when I got it though:

 

Its got a Celeron 500MHz

352MB of various SDRAM modules (yeah, a 32, 64 and 256 module 0.o who built this?)

Soyo SY-6BA+

ATi Rage IIC AGP, cheap out much?

Ensoniq AudioPCI

56k modem

 

The case is really cool, both sides have easy to remove side panels with latches, and they can double as a sort of handle for haling it around:

 

This is my other P3 era parts that I intend to mix into this PC.

 

So these are the parts I will use in the end, minus that NIC, it didn't POST correctly with that in there for some reason...

 

Oh yeah, does anyone remember Slotkets?

 

This is the RAM I will use. Its not matching, but its what I got, and its a much better configuration than 32+64+256... lol

Two 128mb modules and one 256mb module

 

The motherboard I'm using comes right out of the thrift store PC. the clock multipliers and bus speed is controlled in the BIOS, compared to others back then that were all jumpered. Very nice.

 

The Creative branded Ensoniq AudioPCI isn't a high end card by any means, but it gets the job done for an average gaming PC of the time. It has decent MIDI support, but nothing to boast about.

 

Also not a high end component, this is the GeForce 2 MX400 64MB. The GeForce 2 MX series of cards were the ones to get for budget gaming back then. The MX400 was a slightly higher clocked version with 64mb of vram compared to 32, although this wasn't much of a difference because it was bottlenecked by memory bandwidth.

 

I'm going with these Seagate drives pretty much because they almost match, and a lot of P3s had HDDs around the 8-20GB range, so this is  just right around the mid range gaming PC idea.

 

And this is a Pentium 3 Coppermine 500MHz. The reason you would want to go with a Pentium 3 over a Cleron at the same clocks is because the faster bus speed. Celerons were stuck at a 66MHz bus speed, while this Pentium 3 has a bus speed of 100MHz. Later P3s had higher bus speeds such as 133MHz. Also it has 2x the L2 cache of the Celeron. The Celerons were pretty good though, they could actually hold a candle to the high end Pentium 3s. Lets see a Celeron nowdays even attempt to compare to an i7...

 

The power supply is pretty much a no name brand, but it works. This one came out of a P4 system actually, so it should be more than enough for a P3. It was a donor of a couple molex cables though, but it doesn't really matter.

 

So I finally got most of the stuff in the case:

 

 

As you can expect, cable management is almost nonexistent with IDE traveling around, but I did my best for around 20 minutes, and it doesn't look too bad for what it is. This stuff doens't run as hot as moden computers, so there isn't much need for cable management for airflow purposes, its mostly aesthetic. I had to also replace the original FDD cable, since it appeared to be dead.

 

So its pretty much all back together. I'm going to still use the 44x CD ROM and floppy disk drive that came with it, since the minimal yellowing of the plastics match pretty well.

 

And we have a somewhat POST. It didn't boot for a long while until I figured out the NIC was causing problems, so I swapped it out for a ISA NIC, its the only other one I have. With this motherboard, all the overclocking options are right in the BIOS, which is handy, although this CPU is multiplier locked, so there isn't much I can do with it unless I wanted to get a Pentium II in this system at some point, which would be cool.

  

 

Since these two drives were right out of my old P3 build with the crappy eMachines board and all that, It still had Windows 98SE and all my games on it. Of course, it wasn't happy when it realized it had been transplanted, but after a few driver installs and option changes, it is enjoying its new home.

 

 

And now its playing games that were made for this kind of hardware <3

 

 

I have a ton of games for P3 and P4 era computers, so this should be a well used computer in my collection of PCs.

 

Here's the imgur album if you want to see the bigger images for all that's worth, since my camera isn't the best: http://imgur.com/a/yWViX#0

Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed a bit of retro-ness, although its not quite what I'd call "retro". Maybe if I do a full teardown/upgrade of one of my older computers, I'll make a sort of "Rebuild" log of it too.

[Ryan Leech]

GIT DAT P3 O'ERCLOCKED

[SAV1OUR]

GIT DAT P3 O'ERCLOCKED

there isnt even anything to cool it unless that black thing is cooling 

[Tr3vor]

there isnt even anything to cool it unless that black thing is cooling 

 

The black thing with the fan on it is the cooler, It doesn't get that hot actually.

The thing is that for some reason the BIOS is telling me that the clock multiplier is locked, so its stuck at 500MHz. I might try altering the BUS speed to make it go faster later, but I'm not sure if I can.

[flibberdipper]

don't expect no fancy VooDoos, Sound Blaster Lives

I feel like this was directed towards me... Even though I'm dropping the Live! for a SoundBlaster 16 (MIDI files) and an AudioPCI 128 (everything else)

 

• 3dfx VooDoo 3 3000 16MB AGP 2x
• Soundblaster Live! 5.1 Digital

We should get Arcterra and HELIOS together for a playdate. I like it (not as much as HELIOS).

 

EDIT: Did I see a Rayman game near the end???

[Lord Pantaloons]

Cool, I bought a thrift store pc awhile ago, had an Aopen board, 1.6Ghz p4, 512mb of RAM and an MX200 32MB but after awhile the board finally quit on me so I used the case to build "Twofold" which is a dual ITX system. You can see the build log in my signature.

[nickpc]

roller coaster tycoon is one of my best game of all time

[Tr3vor]

I feel like this was directed towards me... Even though I'm dropping the Live! for a SoundBlaster 16 (MIDI files) and an AudioPCI 128 (everything else)

 

• 3dfx VooDoo 3 3000 16MB AGP 2x
• Soundblaster Live! 5.1 Digital

We should get Arcterra and HELIOS together for a playdate. I like it (not as much as HELIOS).

 

EDIT: Did I see a Rayman game near the end???

 

It wasn't specifically directed towards you, VooDoos and SBLs are very common fare for higher end P3 machines and some P2 machines. I go to a forum called Vogons and look at people's P3 builds and they are bursting with voodoos and sound blaster lives.

 

That was Rayman 2. It runs extremely smooth, I guess it doesn't take much to max that game out at 1024x768

[Tr3vor]

Even though I'm dropping the Live! for a SoundBlaster 16 (MIDI files) and an AudioPCI 128 (everything else)

 

Oh yeah, if you do that you might like the AWE64, that would be a better choice, its SB16 or OPL compatable, so you get the FM synth and also it has MIDI capability, so you get the best of both worlds with one card I have two of those, both of which are in my two Pentium MMX machines.

[flibberdipper]

Oh yeah, if you do that you might like the AWE64, that would be a better choice, its SB16 or OPL compatable, so you get the FM synth and also it has MIDI capability, so you get the best of both worlds with one card I have two of those, both of which are in my two Pentium MMX machines.

I don't have my AWE64 anymore (my stepdad scrapped the computer it was in, even though I told him not to.

 

I guess I'll have to stick with the SB16 for MIDI's and the AudioPCI for everything else.

[Tr3vor]

I don't have my AWE64 anymore (my stepdad scrapped the computer it was in, even though I told him not to.

 

I guess I'll have to stick with the SB16 for MIDI's and the AudioPCI for everything else.

 

Couldn't you put the SB16 and the SBL in at the same time? why  downgrade to an AudioPCI?

[d33g33]

haha so awesome! I'm giddy all over!

 

If this was sleeved and LED'd and watercooled or something I would lose my mind, completely...

[flibberdipper]

Couldn't you put the SB16 and the SBL in at the same time? why  downgrade to an AudioPCI?

Couldn't find SBL drivers that would work. I could also put my badass Riptide card in there, but I can't seem to find drivers for it either.

[Tr3vor]

haha so awesome! I'm giddy all over!

 

If this was sleeved and LED'd and watercooled or something I would lose my mind, completely...

 

If I had the money I might try something like that in the future. Me and my cousin had a project a while back of putting a side window in a Pentium 133:

 

 

 

Couldn't find SBL drivers that would work. I could also put my badass Riptide card in there, but I can't seem to find drivers for it either.

 

To be honest, I've never got a SBL to work, ever. I think Creative's drivers are dumb. Maybe there is something else out there on the internet that would work.

[deguzi]

awesome. i really enjoyed reading this log

[Tr3vor]

GIT DAT P3 O'ERCLOCKED

 

Done.

I actually could overclock on the bus, and it was stable up to 556MHz. The next step up, 620MHz was highly unstable, It wouldn't even POST properly. 

 

To show the performance difference, i got the idea from @tmcclelland455 's build log to use 3DMARK 99 MAX to benchmark the CPU.

 

@500MHz:

 

@515MHz:

 

@556MHz:

 

 

Not bad, That's cool considering that the next step up CPU is the 550MHz.

[flibberdipper]

 

 

Done.

I actually could overclock on the bus, and it was stable up to 556MHz. The next step up, 620MHz was highly unstable, It wouldn't even POST properly. 

 

To show the performance difference, i got the idea from @tmcclelland455 's build log to use 3DMARK 99 MAX to benchmark the CPU.

 

@500MHz:

 

 

@515MHz:

 

 

@556MHz:

 

 

Not bad, That's cool considering that the next step up CPU is the 550MHz.

 

Not bad, I agree, but you should get a nicer GPU in there... My VooDoo did better with a crippled Windows install. Didn't they make some kind of GeForce 2 Ti branded card?

[Tr3vor]

Not bad, I agree, but you should get a nicer GPU in there... My VooDoo did better with a crippled Windows install. Didn't they make some kind of GeForce 2 Ti branded card?

 

 Yeah, they make faster cards, the MX is a lower end card. It would be nice to get some nicer AGP cards, but that costs money

[One Who Craves Souls]

Wolfenstein  :wub:

[seiny]

Plus windows 98