The story of my Pentium 4 3.06 GHz to 3.4 GHz Mobile Computer

[scharfshutze009]

Long before I could join Hard Forum and about 5 years after I built my Pentium III Computer in the other thread I needed a new computer that would run Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 better, so I set out to build a Pentium 4 Computer based on the Pentium 4 3.06 GHz Northwood and might have been to ambitious to do at the time considering the cost of all the parts I wanted to build it with. It started with the Gigabyte 8KNXP, but for a while it used the Gigabyte 8IGP-1000 or whatever the model number was because the 8KNXP was dead on arrival and GIgabye was kind enough to replace it with the 8IGP-1000 or whatever it was called:

It originally used or was supposed to follow these specs and prices with the exception of the motherboard, which had to be reconsidered because the 8KNXP was DOA.

P4 Computer Specs 2



-CPU: P4 3.06Ghz $179



-Heatsink: Swiftech MCX478-V $45



-Heatsink Fan - Vantec $15



-Motherboard: Gigabye 8KNXP $162.45, 8KNXP Ultra $639, or 8KNXP Ultra 64 N/A



-Memory: Corsair XMS PC3200 $179



-Video: Power Color 9800SE $155



-Sound: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 $34/Platinum $158



-Network: On Board/Dlink DGE 530T $35.95



-DVD Decoder: Realmagic Xcard $81



-TV Card: Hauppage



-Hardrive: Seagate ST3120026A $100



-Case: Kingwinn K-11-S-WM $71.84



-Power Supply: Kingwin 450WAS $47.75



-Keyboard: Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard $15



-Mouse: Microsoft Optical Mouse Blue $19



-Controller: Logitech Dual Action $20



-Moniter: Viewsonic G810 $216/G220f $316



-DVD Drive: NEC 16X $21



-DVD-RW: Plextor PX-716A $107



-Speakers: Creative Labs Cambridge Soundworks

 

[scharfshutze009]

For a while I believe it used this case the Cooler Master Elite 330 that replaced the HP Proliant ML110 server chassis, but was replaced by the Lian-LI A71-F and was temporarily the Lian-LI B10-B before changing the case back to the Lian-Li A71-F. Here is the system now:

and here are the almost current specs as well as prices paid for each part:


My Pentium 4 (P4SCT+II) Computer Specs

-Motherboard: SUPERMICRO MBD-P4SCT+II-O ATX Server Motherboard 478 Intel 875P $280

-Memory: CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model

TWINX2048-3200C2PT x2 $228

-processor: Intel Pentium 4 Mobile 3.4 GHz 533 FSB 1 MB L2 cache $200

-Heatsink: Cooler Master Vortex TX - RR-UMR-P9U1 $60

-Heatsink Fan: Vantec Tornado 92mm Double Ball Bearing High Air Flow Case Fan - Model TD9238H $15.99

-Northbridge Heatsink: Thermalright NB-1C (with Fan) Copper Heatsinks only $17.99

-Norrhbridge Heatsink Fan: Not sure at the moment $20

-Sound: Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum $199

-RAID controller: LSI Logic SATA 150-6 RAID Card $325.00

-Video: HIS H385Q512ANP Radeon HD 3850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X HDCP Ready IceQ 3 Turbo Video Card $257.58

-TV Card: Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600 ATSC/ClearQAM/NTSC TV Tuner MC-Kit 1183 PCI Interface $99.99

-Optical Reader: LG Black 6X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 40X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM & 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Model GGC-H20L $114.99

-Optical Writer: LG Black 6X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 6X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA Super Multi Blu-ray Disc Burner & HD DVD-ROM Drive GGW-H20L LightScribe Support $229.99

-Floppy Drive: SAMSUNG Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive Model SFD321B/LFBL1 - OEM $7.49

-Case: Lian-Li Silent Series PC-B10B / Advanced Mid Tower Case / Black $229.99


It's now using a Lian-Li A71-F and a highend Nvidia Quadro graphics AGP card.

 

[scharfshutze009]

I later acquired the Gigabyte 8KNXP motherboard again shown again below years later after choosing the better Supermicro P4SCT+II, but sold it because the P4SCT+II is better and I don't really care about overclocking anymore:

 

[scharfshutze009]

This computer can still run some pretty modern games and I've had the computer in some form for about 12 years now. The system originally had 512 MB of RAM, but now it has 4 GB RAM. It's still using the same Seagate 120 GB IDE HD though. Also, it's not for sale at the moment and I'm not price checking either.

 

[scharfshutze009]

One thing I'd like to mention is that prior to getting the Supermicro P4SCT+II I really wanted a Gigabyte 8KNXP-Ultra 64, which only had to PCIX 64-bit slots instead of three like the P4SCT+II or 2 64-bit and a 32-bit PCIX or whatever. Overall though I'm glad I was able to get the P4SCT+II instead later, but it still might have been interesting to see a side by side comparison of two separate systems using each of the two different manufacturers boards.

 

[SamirD]

Very neat to see older hardware still alive and working. What OS does it run?

 

[scharfshutze009]

Very neat to see older hardware still alive and working. What OS does it run?

It was running Windows 7 Ultimate, but now it's not running anything because I can't find drivers for the RAID card and not even Ubuntu Linux Desktop 32-bit or Linuxmint Debian 32-bit will install to it, since both Linux Distro say unable to boot find live boot file and I don't know if enabling AHCI will help. However, the board does have AHCI because it has SATA I support, so maybe enabling AHCI will help if it's not enabled. I know that if I was using IDE though that I wouldn't be able to use SATA though for the optical or the other way around I wouldn't be able to use IDE with the SATA optical HD-DVD/Blu-ray combo drives I have in it.

 

[SamirD]

Oh wow. I've always either left a legacy system running what it was built for or even something older as they generally run older OSes quicker and aren't connected to the Internet.

I'm actually surprised it would run w7 at any reasonable speed.

 

[MrSneis]

Please tell me you did not pay those prices in 2017/18.

 

[scharfshutze009]

This system refuses to boot to Ubuntu Live CD by going to try OS first, which it should because it worked before and This computer meets the minimum system requirements as follows:


Ubuntu Desktop Edition

• 2 GHz dual core processor.
• 2 GiB RAM (system memory)
• 25 GB of hard-drive space (or USB stick, memory card or external drive but see LiveCD for an alternative approach)
• VGA capable of 1024x768 screen resolution.
• Either a CD/DVD drive or a USB port for the installer media.
• Internet access is helpful.

and minimal server as follows:


Ubuntu Server (CLI) Installation

• 300 MHz x86 processor
• 256 MiB of system memory (RAM)
• 1.5 GB of disk space
• Graphics card and monitor capable of 640x480
• CD drive

I always wanted to see this system at it's full potential much like a lot of my other builds, but with LSI no longer making RAID card drivers for this computers RAID card and now this that leaves me with no choice, but to either make the driver myself or sell this machine or repurpose it.

Installing the RAID card driver with Windows would be easy and I found out how to install the RAID card drivers for an ARECA Raid card, but doing it the way Areca recommends might not be how to do it for an LSI.

Alternatively, I could search for any place that makes a driver for this RAID card, but then I run the risk of not being able to trust the code of the driver.

 

[scharfshutze009]

Oh wow. I've always either left a legacy system running what it was built for or even something older as they generally run older OSes quicker and aren't connected to the Internet.

I'm actually surprised it would run w7 at any reasonable speed.

I understand your surprise with this, but Windows 7 was supposed to be more, secure, had newer features, and supported blu-ray as well as more. I was surprised Linuxmint or Ubuntu didn't work on it any more considering this is a pretty beefy Pentium 4 system. Overall though Windows 7 is better for multi-media if you want all the latest features as you only have to pay for the Operating System to get the basics at least. With Linux you might have to pay for proprietary programs just to get the support for these features or at least in Older versions especially movie playback if not burning and the same for Mac if not more so. Things may have changed a little now if not completely and things may be more Universal too, but there will always be this fundamental problem with the older stuff.

 

[scharfshutze009]

Please tell me you did not pay those prices in 2017/18.

No I paid these prices in many years prior. This system is pretty much maxed out and can't be pushed to any higher limits in terms of computing processing power for this hardware. Now the problem is that it no longer is supported and needs hardware drivers especially for the RAID card.

 

[SamirD]

I understand your surprise with this, but Windows 7 was supposed to be more, secure, had newer features, and supported blu-ray as well as more. I was surprised Linuxmint or Ubuntu didn't work on it any more considering this is a pretty beefy Pentium 4 system. Overall though Windows 7 is better for multi-media if you want all the latest features as you only have to pay for the Operating System to get the basics at least. With Linux you might have to pay for proprietary programs just to get the support for these features or at least in Older versions especially movie playback if not burning and the same for Mac if not more so. Things may have changed a little now if not completely and things may be more Universal too, but there will always be this fundamental problem with the older stuff.

I'm actually surprised mint or ubuntu had problems either, if it was an old enough build with support for the hardware.

 

[SamirD]

You could try to replace the lsi raid card with a different version that is/was still supported. The other thing would be to ditch lsi as the card and move to either adaptec or other brands that have the support you need for the build.

 

[Stugots]

Much love for the old i875 systems.

That was the last generation of hardware that I really went all-in on as an enthusiast.

I had a ABit IC7-Max3 with a Pentium 4C [email protected] with watercooling. The thing ran like a champ for years then the CPU started to fail. Started to slowly be unstable at overclocked speeds. Had to back it down ~100mhz every month, then it started being unstable at stock speeds. That's the first and only CPU I ever killed with overclocking. I ended up replacing it with a Celeron D 320 (2.4ghz) at 4ghz then one of my waterblocks leaked and killed the motherboard. I was running a watercooled Radeon 9800Pro 256MB at well above XT speeds.