Remember 3DFX?

[roguetrip]

I recall people complaining about Savage's performance with games like GTA3. Nvidia got the drivers bit right for the past decade or so, but their MX cards were rubbish. The first mid-range Nvidia that truly impressed me was the GeForce 6600 (GT), which lasted me a really long time.

I remember buying a Geforce 4 MX back in the day at best buy. It couldn't even run 3DMark 2001 without crashing! I promptly returned for a Geforce 3 Ti 200 card and was a bit happier. Then later screwed up and got a Geforce FX 5700 Ultra that couldn't play Doom 3 or Quake 4 for crap, I remember really needing the Pentium 4 3.0E HT to even get 800x600 playable framerates. With Half-life 2 I think I had to stick with DX8 to make it playable. What a series of failed purchases!


Ok.... So I ghosted my 10GB to my 120GB and got that up and running. Stupid board only runs ATA-66 and is limiting my 120GB (ATA-100) just a bit but not too bad at 50MB/s vs. usual 58MB/s, lol. My Soundblaster 64AWE Gold seems to be working good after going through the setup. So i'll be waiting for my new case and Voodoo 5 5500, w00t!

Does anybody know if 2D image quality of the V5 5.5k was better than a TNT2? I remember my old Diamond Banshee board had really blurry 2D/Desktop output.

[roguetrip]

I got my case yesterday, for the price it looks great! I'm still waiting on my V5 5500 unfortunately so no pics of it in yet.

Since I just got it together yesterday night I have some serious wire management and want to paint the CD-ROMs and FDD. I might try to Rit dye the plastic bits.

Heres a couple shots so far....



EDIT: I took a quick pic while stressing the CPU, with such a tiny cooler thats some awesome temps! Its only a 60mm fan on the HS sitting next to a 120mm fan

[Rusty Venture]

I guess I should trade my Voodoo3 PCI for an AGP, as the board I'm using now *has* AGP, but I don't wanna scour ebay for another card.

Plus I already have at least 2-3 AGP cards I'm not using now plus an ATI PCI card that didn't work out well with the first iteration of this computer.

[roguetrip]

I guess I should trade my Voodoo3 PCI for an AGP, as the board I'm using now *has* AGP, but I don't wanna scour ebay for another card.

Plus I already have at least 2-3 AGP cards I'm not using now plus an ATI PCI card that didn't work out well with the first iteration of this computer.

If it ain't broke don't fix it?! I remember seeing something about the Voodoo 5 5500 only really uses AGP 2. I always though the PCI was very close to AGP perfromance for 3dFX.

[Rusty Venture]

I know, but I'm wasting a slot because the AGP is disabled and I've got a fan on my Voodoo3. Why a fan? Because I can!

When I get my shit sorted then I can snap a pic of the PC in progress. The original PC was a dumpster find, and things were pieced out to three other PC's. But the case looks like this:



Except it is rust color and in the process of being painted black. Not crazy about the front shield, but the inside has features more modern cases have and the price was perfect (free).

[chinitosoccer]

I got my case yesterday, for the price it looks great! I'm still waiting on my V5 5500 unfortunately so no pics of it in yet.

Since I just got it together yesterday night I have some serious wire management and want to paint the CD-ROMs and FDD. I might try to Rit dye the plastic bits.

Heres a couple shots so far....

lol, you have the same mobo as I do, a Soyo SY-VBA 2AA1, I want to change mine for a slot1 since I have been told that slot1 gives better performance than the 370 socketed version of the same mainboard.

[roguetrip]

lol, you have the same mobo as I do, a Soyo SY-VBA 2AA1, I want to change mine for a slot1 since I have been told that slot1 gives better performance than the 370 socketed version of the same mainboard.

That doesn't seem to be complete, I assume it could be a SY-7VBA?

I wonder how much faster it would really be. I was actually looking for some Powerleap adapters to install a Tualatin 1.4GHz into my board. I remember having one but can't find it now. Either way my 1GHz seems plenty fast for dos and glide games. I don't want to use my ASUS TUS2L-C or whatever it is that support Tualatin because it doesn't have a ISA slot and only supports 512MB ram (how lame!)

Right now I've been microwaving some RIT dye and my front floppy and dvd-rom cover, I microwaved it a little too long and warped the floppy front, still have the DVD-Rom cover in the there sitting at it looks more chocolate at the moment.

While I was digging another FDD out I found another K6-2 cpu, lol
Found I now have a K6-2 500AFX and a K6-2 550AGR. Neither a K6-2+ that has L2 cache though

[chinitosoccer]

yes you're right, Soyo SY-7VBA, I use that rig to run win95/98 games, for DOS I have an P200MMX and a 486DX4...
Why are you microwaving the front plastics of your drives??

[roguetrip]

yes you're right, Soyo SY-7VBA, I use that rig to run win95/98 games, for DOS I have an P200MMX and a 486DX4...
Why are you microwaving the front plastics of your drives??

I have seen others dye plastics different colors with Rit dye, I'd figure I would give it a try, I didn't have all the "right" stuff to do it so I was improvising with a microwave to boil the water. I didn't know the plastic on the floppy drive cover was so weak and would deform. I got the DVD-Rom cover near black (was white like most things where back then) now but more like a dark chocolate color. I might try to put it in a couple more times to get it fully black

When I bought my second SNES for $5 off ebay I thought It would be cool to dye it black with the purple switches. I had spoken with my gf's lil brother when I first thought of the idea and he always is asking if I have done it yet. So I think I made a better sacrifice with the FDD and DVD-Rom covers

In the future I think Vinyl paint is a better solution.

On to other news, looks like my Voodoo 5 should be here tomorrow, yay!

[Yfrid]

this is my "collection" of 3Dfx cards saved from a certain death in the dumpster, as i said some pages back:

the one on top right is the only card with AGP interface, all the others are PCI, some are diamonds and one is an Hercules (the one with the missing metal plate)

and this is one of my oldest, beloved gaming machine

i loved its design back in the day, all people i knew has those boring boxy cases, this one had those round shapes and even a cool sunglass-like front lid for USBs and Game Port!

[Guntz]

Daaaamn, I'd love to have a case with room for a game port on the front. I'm stuck with having to use one of the panels in the back of the case.

[Yfrid]

do it by yourself!

that's what i did on my secondary PC (100% made of stuff rescued from the dumpster), look:

i've cutted some holes on the secondary floppy port, 2 USBs and 1 GamePort, replicating the dear old Compaq5060

to make the front gameport functional, i've wired it from the PCI audio card (SB Live!) using an old IDE cord:


remember to do not plug 2 devices in both gameports simultaneously, sure it won't work and i bet it wouldn't be safe at all...

[Guntz]

Eh, I'm not very handy with drilling. Also, I use a stand alone game port, not one that comes with a Sound Blaster card (mine has a FireWire port instead).

[Rusty Venture]

I took the easy way out and just got a Live Drive!



Still gotta hook up the USB cables to the back of the MB, but they are attached to the side ports of the case.

[Guntz]

Anybody know why my Voodoo Banshee isn't outputting any video? I tried it in a few different configurations (i.e. making it the primary card, trying it in win98 and win2k etc), but I don't think I got all the right drivers. Still, a graphics card should be able to output some video even though the drivers aren't installed.