So I decided to put the motherboard in the case today. Mostly just to protect it, and because the parts will take up less room if installed in the case. It's kind of temporary until I decided on final parts, but at least I can further test the system in the meantime.
On the inside of the left panel are some stickers. I imagine from what's there that this must have been a custom built PC that someone ordered. Looks like the former system in this case was a 2.4 Ghz Pentium 4 with DDR memory on a pretty sweet looking Gigabyte motherboard (that explains the Gigabyte case badge). I would have been totally envious of whoever had this PC. I like that sticker that shows the layout of the motherboard, I never got anything like that with any (new) motherboards I've bought in the past. Hmm, I have a thermal printer and 4x6" labels. I could easily get that from a motherboard's manual and make my own sticker like that one. I might do that for other computers, I think it's pretty handy. This one though, I'll keep those stickers as-is.
So I finally pulled out that FDD to see what it is. NEC, good. I was hoping for a good brand name instead of a no-name brand cheap drive. I feel like late model no-name FDD are more likely to have a catestrophic failure than name brand or older drives.
I pulled out my old CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive that I was planning on using for this. Yuck! What the hell is all over it? I was able to clean that gunk off, and now it looks fine. This was the first CD burner I ever purchased for my own computer (a clunky old Compaq Deskpro - a Pentium II machine that I ran XP on LOL). At the time, that was all the rage, being able to burn your own music CDs. I made a shit ton of mixed CDs in high school, this drive definitely saw some use! So I wanted to use it in this system partially for that reason, because I have history with it. But looking at it now, it has a sort of weird curve to it. I can't believe I never noticed that before (or maybe I did and just forgot). Also, the drive is slow to eject and close and sounds awful. To be honest, it might have always been like that. It has no brand name as far as I can tell. Even on the PC it's only listed a Combo drive LOL. I was having a little trouble with it, sometimes after putting a disc in it wouldn't detect it. But then after ejecting it and closing the drive again it would detect the disc. I don't know if this is the drive or OS, I'll have to fiddle more with it. So I'm not sure if I wanna keep this drive in here or not.
I do currently have another spare beige drive, but it's a DVD-RW drive. That seems kind of weird for this era of PC, so I don't think I want to use it. Also, it's yellowed a bit so I'd have to Retro Brite it.
I think I definitely want to have two optical drives in here. One because the case is missing two 5.25" bay covers, so I sorta need two drives anyway. But two, having two optical drives during this era always seemed awesome. The Compaq Deskpro I mentioned above, I kept the standard CD-ROM drive in there along with the CD-RW drive. It's useful having two drives sometimes. Some games require you to have the disc in the drive in order to play them, so you can dedicate one drive to a game while having one drive free for other stuff. Like maybe audio CDs.
I definitely want to have a CD-RW drive in there, but I also want a standard CD-ROM drive. As if, the computer came with a CD-ROM drive in the top slot then I later added a burner in the second slot. That seems like the natural progression many people took in this day. For the standard CD-ROM drive, I want something pretty particular. I want it to have a stop/eject button all the way to the right, with a track skip button to the left of it. Then I want it to have a headphones jack with a volume wheel on the left side. And it might sound stupid, but the shape of the buttons and the shape and location of the status LED matter as well. There's just a specific look that really reminds me of mid to late 90's computers, and that's what I want.
So I totally forgot I had this Enermax PSU that's kind of perfect for this build. I purchased this new, maybe in the mid to late 00's. IIRC, this was for a PC that I built for my parents. Since they just do web/email, it saw light use. And I'm pretty sure that PC wasn't in service for too many years (it was a sort of bridge PC from old parts to get them by). All modern PSUs seem to be black, and I really wanted an unpainted PSU for this build. This Enermax PSU has a 20+4 main ATX connector, and the 4--pin CPU connector of course. But it only has one branch with SATA connectors, and it has plenty of 4-pin Molex and Berg connectors. It was right before SATA really took off. So it's pretty much perfect for this build! It's 300w, which I think should be plenty for this. Also, I have a soft spot for Enermax PSUs. After learning the hard way the cheap PSUs are not worth bothering with, Enermax was the first really good PSU I got for my first custom PC. And when I built my i7 PC in 2009, I went with an Enermax that powered that computer daily until 2019!
Pop quiz, hot shot: What is this connector for? You only saw these on PSU from this time, in fact I'm surprised it was on a PSU this late. It's a 3-pin fan connector, but it's missing the 12v line. So it has ground and the sense line. It's meant to plug into a fan header on your motherboard, so you can read the PSU fan like you would a case fan.
If you look at the top edge of the mobo in the above pic, you can see where it says DIP WAY. Just to the left of that is a fan header that's labeled PS FAN (and you can see down to the right CPU FAN). So right now I have the PSU plugged into that, but I don't have any software to read it. I do have a program I used to use back in the day on XP with my first custom build, I think it was called SensorView. I liked it enough that I actually purchased it, and I still have the key and install exe for it. I wonder if it works on Win98. It very neatly displays fan speeds, temps and voltages. Yes, I know I can get an older version of SpeedFan that works on 98. But SensorView (or whatever it was called) looks a lot nicer. Hopefully I still have it, I'll post screenshots of it if I can.
Here's just a shot getting the motherboard laid in there. I had already installed the drives. You can see the FDD cable I'm using. I have no clue where I got it from, probably one of those things you got with a mess of other crap. In fact, I might have got it from dsh. IIRC, he donated a random assortment of junk to the Charity Auction one year. Anyway, I thought it looks appropriate for this build. You use to see funky PATA and FDD cables around that time.
This Pentium III has a weird heatsink that came with it. It's a lot taller than the card itself, and it doesn't have a fan. When I had the motherboard running outside of a case, while gaming I touched the heatsink and it felt pretty hot at one point. But that was out of a case with no airflow. Even though it's now closed inside a case, the airflow from the fan(s) will help keep it cool. I'll check it again to be sure. I didn't purchase this CPU new, so you can never rule out the possibility of some bonehead swapping HSF not knowing that they're designed for the specific model they come with.
I have two new old stock 80 conductor PATA cables lying around. Actually, I think these came with motherboard that I purchased but never used. I love being able to use NOS stuff on a vintage build like this.
Here's the PC mostly assembled. You can see that I folded and zip tied the PATA cables. I never use to do that back in the day, I just had a rats nest of cables like everyone else did. And I know you can purchase PATA cables that are like the FDD cable I have in there. But folding always works. Aside from zip tying the SATA connectors from the PSU, I didn't really do anything with cable management. That's only because I'm not done in there, I'll still be swapping parts until I decide on a few things, so I didn't wanna waste the time with cable management now. I plan to get everything as neat as possible though, once the parts are final.
These are the Dupont connectors for the two front USB ports. USB 2.0 has a standard connector now, a 9-pin keyed connector. But back then it was common to see each signal on it's own individual connector like that. I guess so it could support older PCs that might have pins for USB 1.1, but no USB 2.0 header? The case for the PC I built in high school was like this, so I wasn't surprised. This mobo has two rear USB 1.1 ports, and no internal headers on board. But I have a plan for this, I'll post about it when I get around to enacting it.
Ahhhh! Too many project going on at once.
Just a shot of the computer as it looks right now. The front bezel is slightly yellowed, but not very noticeable depending on the light. When compared to the side panels, it looks darker but not distinctly yellow. In the above picture, you can tell it's yellowed. But in person, it's not too bad.
I absolutely love this case. I really did find my perfect case for this build. I got lucky that I found that auction not long after it was posted. Otherwise I bet it would have been snatched up quickly!
One thing I have to look into is the HDD activity light. It's on solid. Even when the computer is idle. Not sure what that's all about.
Anapan wrote:I actually have a bunch of RAM too - I would've hot-shot what you needed, tho I understand the need for instant gratification. My friend (who probably a lot of those cards came from) has a giant 8 pound tacklebox full of ram.
I think my PIII computer is running 320MB. I remember some mobo chipsets have trouble with larger sizes, but you can run any amount your mother board can handle in Windows 98.
I appreciate it, but no worries! The PC100 seems to be working fine for the time being. The manual was full of shit LOL. I Googled it and read a few forum threads regarding how much RAM you want in a Win98 gaming PC. Some people say 256 MB, some say 512, some say split the difference and go 384 MB. From watching Phils Computer Lab, he's shown that some games perform better with 512 installed, so I'm going with 512 for now.
Anapan wrote:That is a sweet motherboard! I haven't seen one with indicator LEDS before.
Yes! This really seems like a nice system builder's motherboard. Whoever purchased this back in the day must have been thrilled with it. I know I would have been. That's why it really seems like motherboards have taken a step back in this department. When I build a PC with a Ryzen CPU in 2019, I was kind of disappointed by the lack of style motherboards seem to have now. They're all black with RGB lights, all of them. Back in the late 90's though, or even 2000-2010, motherboards all had their own style. It wasn't enough to pick a board based on features, you also chose one on its looks. Like the color of the PCB. Or something like LED status codes. I miss spunk like this.
Anapan wrote:Case badges - This Guy on ebay is famous for making the best replicas. The last line on his ebay about page is "Doom." I think he does custom ones if you request.
That's the guy that has the InGen and Cyberdyne badges I mentioned! Well, I purchased those two badges, I just couldn't resist. Not sure if I'll put either of them on this case, but I'll find something for them if I don't.
Anapan wrote:Rule-of-thumb! If you can't keep your thumb there for 5 seconds, you have a heat dissipation problem, unless you won't use it for long periods of time..
I ended up taking it out. I put a GeForce FX 5200 in there for now. Released in 2003, it could have been an upgrade for this system if it was built in 99/00. But I was reading up that with a 5200 or 5500, that runs DirectX 9, I can use nglide for glide games. So since I had the 5200 on hand, I was thinking about seeing what that's all about.
That chip definitely gets way too hot though. What's weird is that the PCB has the two mounting holes for a heatsink, so I'm not sure why one wasn't installed. I'm gonna leave it be for now, but if I ever use this card again I'm definitely going to get something for it. I know I can get cheap little heatsinks with adhesive thermal pads. But I wonder if those mounting holes in the PCB are a standard size, it would be neat if I could get a heatsink that fits them that mounting pattern.
Anapan wrote:I have some drive-bay covers, and I think I have some other 5.25 things. Can't say more until I dig deeper into the relic cupboard.
The cat can crawl in there now, and wants to see the end.
I'll dig out the drives and bay covers when I get back from work. I probably have some millennium-era things that would better suit your case.
Thanks, but no rush!
