The Post Your Old/Retro Builds Thread

[Mr. Bluntman]

Okay, the guidelines are simple. Anything Nehalem/Phenom or older goes. Post the specs of the build, and post at least one decent photo of the hardware. This is one of my latest "old" builds,

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 @ 2.66GHz
2x2GB DDR2-1066 CL5 @ 800 4-4-4-12
Intel DP35DP motherboard
nVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 1GB
2x1GB 7.2K RPM Hard drives in RAID0
Windows 7 Ultimate x64

I know it's a 1/10 on cable management, but it isn't meant to be permanent. I have another board that will reguarily occupy this case.

 

[pendragon1]

if its ddr or newer, its not retro, its just old...

 

[slavie]

if its ddr or newer, its not retro, its just old...

That's harsh. I was hoping to squeeze in with my 4x1GB DDR400/P4/Radeon X1950Pro/WinXP behemoth. Do I get extra credit for a floppy drive and IDE HDD?

 

[pendragon1]

That's harsh. I was hoping to squeeze in with my 4x1GB DDR400/P4/Radeon X1950Pro/WinXP behemoth. Do I get extra credit for a floppy drive and IDE HDD?
View attachment 338068

lol no. isnt that a sata cable?
edit: oh, the old one jammed above the floppy. if it has sata, its not retro.

 

[slavie]

lol no. isnt that a sata cable?
edit: oh, the old one jammed above the floppy. if it has sata, its not retro.

HDD is IDE. I use the rig to wipe decommissioned HDDs, hence have SATA cables plugged in ready to go.
Above floppy is 2x IDE disk drives. One is CD-R, another is CD/DVD. I mean, IDE CD-R drive is unquestionably a relic of the last century.

 

[Starfalcon]

lol no. isnt that a sata cable?
edit: oh, the old one jammed above the floppy. if it has sata, its not retro.

It can be retro with SATA, I used SATA on my Abit NF7-S back in 2003.

 

[pendragon1]

It can be retro with SATA, I used SATA on my Abit NF7-S back in 2003.

thats not retro either, just old. get back into the 90s and earlier for retro.

 

[Starfalcon]

You can use SATA PCI cards in all sorts of old systems.

 

[slavie]

You can use SATA PCI cards in all sorts of old systems.

I remember when first SATA HDDs started popping up, some were sold with a SATA PCI card included. I think I still have one of those cards somewhere.
But, doesn't using newer hardware in an old rig defeat the purpose of a "retro" rig? Sure, you could install a PCI SATA adapter and stick an SSD in there, but you're shortchanging yourself if you forgo a loud, clicky HDD IMHO.

 

[Mr. Bluntman]

That's harsh. I was hoping to squeeze in with my 4x1GB DDR400/P4/Radeon X1950Pro/WinXP behemoth. Do I get extra credit for a floppy drive and IDE HDD?
View attachment 338068

I think you get a little extra credit. The Intel Q9450 system (typing on it right now actually) has pads for a floppy drive cable, but no port is attached, so I couldn't even go floppy on this system if I wanted to.

 

[Mr. Bluntman]

if its ddr or newer, its not retro, its just old...

EDIT: Looks like I missed a screw! ^^ I'll have to fix that before next power-on.

My primary Windows 9x gaming system. The only reason it's so dusty is that it hasn't been used in a couple months and this house is really dusty, so...
ABit KT7A (sadly not the RAID version)
AMD Athlon 1.33GHz @ 1.4
3dfx Voodoo5 5500 AGP 64MB
256MB PC133 SDRAM
1x40GB, 1x80GB IDE HDD
Sound Blaster 32 w/4MB soundfont RAM
Windows 98SE

Let me guess, if it's not ISA it's not retro. Just let people post their systems, dude.

 

[TheSlySyl]

Oldest pic I can find, This was definitely not the original hardware that I had in this case. However this was the case and computer I used all the way up till 2017 when I finally upgraded to Ryzen.
So most hardware is probably 2009 or 2010 in this picture.

Phenom II X4 940BE
Some Foxconn branded socket AM2+ motherboard.
8GB DDR2
I think the videocard was a sapphire 7850 at this point.
Antec 900 case, obviously.
Also an Antec power supply, non modular.

I think this pic had to be before I got an SSD for an OS.

I really hope I have a pic of my my Athlon 3000~ Super Lanboy build hiding somewhere, but It's probably lost to time.

Edit: Found my motherboard that was in this thing! Although mine was revision 1:
https://www.newegg.com/foxconn-a7da-s-3-0/p/N82E16813186168

 

[stinger608]

Oh jeez, I guess I better get some pictures of at least one of my "retro" builds in here.

Awesome nostalgic systems guys!!!!

 

[Mr. Bluntman]

Oh jeez, I guess I better get some pictures of at least one of my "retro" builds in here.

Awesome nostalgic systems guys!!!!

Please do!

Another build...

ASUS P5N-D
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 @ 3.0GHz
2x2GB DDR2-800
2x nVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT 512MB
2x1TB 7.2K RPM hard drives
Windows 7 Ultimate x64

 

[Starfalcon]

Once my ankle heals enough, Ill have to post a few of my retro rigs up here.

 

[stinger608]

Well, here is a quick tease on the last build:

MSI Mstr 2 FAR

This board is sporting dual Operon 285's and 3 gigs of ram. Once I get the OS loaded it will be running Windows 2000 Pro.

 

[Susquehannock]

About time somebody started one of these. Been thinking about it for some time. The retro thread over at TPU seems quite popular.

Anyway ... here is the voodoo4/Win98 rig that I have been playing older games on for last few months. Mostly hardware bought or otherwise acquired back in the day.

mobo - Abit kr7a
gpu - voodoo4
cpu - Palomino 1900+
hdd - IBM deskstar 40gb
ram - 1x512mb DDR TwinMOS pc3200 w/bh5
os - Win98se unofficial sp3
psu - Fortron fsp 300w
optical - Plextor px-w4824ta
sound - Creative sound blaster live CT4830
speakers - Creative Inspire 2.1 2500
monitor - Dell 1905fp
cooler - CoolerMaster X Dream 2
cables - messy
fun - yes

Currently running in a skelotonized "Panther" case from way back. Bought three at time actually. Something like $22 each delivered. Those were the days. One was still in box and other has been diassembled and painted for another retro UV lighting build. Surprised there is still a review up. Tall with removable mobo tray. Between a mid-tower and server. Lots or room above PSU and remember some placing a radiator there.

 

[Starfalcon]

About time somebody started one of these. Been thinking about it for some time. The retro thread over at TPU seems quite popular.

Anyway ... here is the voodoo4/Win98 rig that I have been playing older games on for last few months. Mostly hardware bought or otherwise acquired back in the day.

mobo - Abit kr7a
gpu - voodoo4
cpu - Palomino 1900+
hdd - IBM deskstar 40gb
ram - 1x512mb DDR TwinMOS pc3200 w/bh5
os - Win98se unofficial sp3
psu - Fortron fsp 300w
optical - Plextor px-w4824ta
sound - Creative sound blaster live CT4830
speakers - Creative Inspire 2.1 2500
monitor - Dell 1905fp
cooler - CoolerMaster X Dream 2
cables - messy
fun - yes

Currently running in a skelotonized "Panther" case from way back. Bought three at time actually. Something like $22 each delivered. Those were the days. One was still in box and other has been diassembled and painted for another retro UV lighting build. Surprised there is still a review up. Tall with removable mobo tray. Between a mid-tower and server. Lots or room above PSU and remember some placing a radiator there.

Wow that is funny, I bought 5 of those same cases back then for same reason. Hard to get any case even back then for that cheap, and the steel is still way thicker than what you would get in a cheap case nowdays. Got 2 in use, and 3 still in storage. Pretty sure I have one of my BP6 boards in one of these, not sure what I have in the other one right now.

 

[Mr. Bluntman]

My newest acquisition...

...in my affinity for all things reference, an nVIDIA nForce 790i Ultra SLI. My current favorite toy by far. I'll pull everything apart again once to give the case a good cleaning and repair some housing damage to the right angle SATA port. Once I have a dedicated PSU I'll do some cable management for this machine. This also uses the same QX9650 and 9800 GTs as the ASUS 750i SLI board, but they work much better here. Just waiting on a trio of GTS 250s for some tri-SLI fun. It's very stable, unlike the ASUS P5N-D I have.

EDIT: If you're wondering why the PSU, case, drives, and heatsink stay the same, it's because I only have one of each (two in the case of drives) to go around for all of my post-2000 builds. In time...

 

[LightningCrash]

I have a handful I'm building on. I'll start posting photos as I have them all fixed up.

PIII 1GHz w/ GF2 GTS 64MB, Tyan Trinity S1854 mobo
PIII 500 w/ TNT2 Pro 32MB
C2Q 6600 on EVGA 780i, Radeon HD 4870, amazingly gaudy silver case
C2E QX6700 on D975XBX2, 2x 7900GTX, Stacker STC-01
Pentium D 950 on D975XBX2, 1x 7800GTX, Stacker 810
Athlon XP 2000 on KT7A-RAID, GF3 Ti200, Enlight 7237
Sun Blade 1000
Sun Blade 2000 (needs... everything replaced :/ It seems like it was dropped.)

I have a handful of slot 1 boards, a slot 1 PIII 1000/133, and some video cards like the 8500 DV 64MB etc.

 

[CompuG##K]

Here's a smidge of what I'm tinkering with currently.

Dual Xeon 5080's (Pentium EE 965 x2)

That's right. Netburst with 4 cores and 8 threads. 3.73ghz.

With a Fury X installed it handles itself quite well in Doom 2016

 

[stinger608]

Well crap, I went to fire the system up that has that MSI K8T Master2-FAR up and found that one of the CPU cooler brackets is broke!!!!!!

Been trying to find one for 2 days and have come up with nothing!!!!! Dang it!!!

I'll have to just order a couple of 4 screw AM2/940 cooler mounts and put different coolers on it.

I've got a pair of Rosewill Z1 coolers that should work. Hopefully they will fit okay since the sockets are so close together.


If anyone has any idea where to get an original mount, I'd very much appreciate it!!!!

 

[CompuG##K]

Looks like the retention brackets on that MSI K8T Master2-FAR are not of the standard AMD type. In fact they look a lot more like an Intel socket 478 or 604 type.

This forum thread seems to support that theory.
https://icrontic.com/discussion/6614/cooling-the-msi-master2-far



So I've been to tinkering around with another interesting build. AMD's QuadFX platform. That's right, AMD's short lived answer to the Core 2 Quad.

 

[stinger608]

Looks like the retention brackets on that MSI K8T Master2-FAR are not of the standard AMD type. In fact they look a lot more like an Intel socket 478 or 604 type.

This forum thread seems to support that theory.
https://icrontic.com/discussion/6614/cooling-the-msi-master2-far

Yep, that is correct. It has a 4 screw mounting vs the standard 939/940 2 screw configuration. I found some mounts that should work. I won't, however, be able to use the stock MSI heatsinks as they mount completely different. As you said, much like the socket 478 type. I've read that socket 478 mounts are the same, however, the screw distance seems wider than the Master2-FAR.

 

[CompuG##K]

I noticed that the screw holes appeared to be narrower on the MSI board. It's 478 like, but proprietary it seems. Without fabrication it would seem very unlikely you'd find a replacement unless you found another identical motherboard (for parts) or had the mount 3d printed.

I'm gearing up for a massive project. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

 

[zpackrat]

Per unofficial retro guidelines, here's a proper retro rig.
Abit BE6-II v2, P3 800, 80GB HDD, 384MB PC133, TNT2 Pro, VooDoo II SLI, SB AWE64 and a 3COM NIC.

 

[Starfalcon]

I have that exact same case, except mine is a little less yellow. Think I have my Tyan trinity board in it. Cool board also, you can use either a slot 1 or socket 370 P3 in it.

 

[slavie]

Yep, that is correct. It has a 4 screw mounting vs the standard 939/940 2 screw configuration. I found some mounts that should work. I won't, however, be able to use the stock MSI heatsinks as they mount completely different. As you said, much like the socket 478 type. I've read that socket 478 mounts are the same, however, the screw distance seems wider than the Master2-FAR.

It's Socket A/Socket 462 mounting holes. Rare option, but some mobos had it. Chances of finding the original one are slim.
Zalman had aftermarket cooler that utilized those holes. Here's the manual for one such sooler, look at the depiction of 462 mounting:
https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1715876/Zalman-Cnps7000b-Series.html
I have that cooler, but not the 462 brackets
EDIT: here's a listing of the item where the blue/silver brackets are pictured:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-ZALMAN...-939-940-INTEL-478-CNPS-7000B-Cu/114652399913
And another brand new one that says bracket is included but there's no picture of the contents of the box:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-ZALMAN...-939-940-INTEL-478-CNPS-7000B-Cu/293972382687
Maybe replace both with aftermarket solutions? A bit pricey, but what the heck. Make sure they will fit though, those coolers are quite wide.

 

[Mr. Bluntman]

Well crap, I went to fire the system up that has that MSI K8T Master2-FAR up and found that one of the CPU cooler brackets is broke!!!!!!

Been trying to find one for 2 days and have come up with nothing!!!!! Dang it!!!

If anyone has any idea where to get an original mount, I'd very much appreciate it!!!!

Can't you have a couple cut at a metal working shop? If they're plastic you could have something 3D resin printed that should work. There has to be a shop around willing to do a one-off to help a guy out. It might not be cheap, but it will help you keep it stock.

 

[Starfalcon]

My Alpha PAL8045 also used those holes on my NF7-S board, it used 4 standoffs that screwed in and then the HS screwed into the standoffs.

 

[stinger608]

I think the distance between the holes is a proprietary frigging mount. I got two 4 screw 940 mounts and naturally the screw holes are way to wide. Not only that, but the length of the mount is too long as well.

Probably going to need to find someone with a dang 3D printer and have one made.

If anyone here has a 3D printer, I'd certainly be more than willing to pay to have one made. I can send one of the good ones to a person to use as a copy.

 

[w1retap]

Too many to list. I'll share a few. If you want to see something specific, let me know. I have quite a variety.





Turbo XT 10MHz with Adlib replica and ATI VGA Wonder


DEC HiNote Ultra CT475 -- the ultimate 486 laptop


Greaseweazle F7 Plus that I just built for reading/writing vintage floppies on a modern PC. (Amiga, Mac, and pretty much all PC standards back to 360k) Optical drive is temporary and on a separate IDE-->USB controller.


Dual Pentium III 1GHz with Quadro2


Amiga 500 w/ HC508 II accelerator


Amiga 2000 w/ 68030 accelerator, LAN, etc.


A bunch of C64's I picked up not that long ago for free.


Via 1GHz ITX with Voodoo 2 SLI



Fragbox


iPaq w/ WLAN, keyboard, etc.


Upgradeware Slot-T's


486 DX2-66 with Gravis Ultrasound, SB Pro 2, ATI Mach64 VLB -- my favorite 486 desktop


Athlon XP 3200, Abit NF7S v2, 5950 Ultra, super awesome bubble light case


Brand new in box Mac G4 dual 500MHz w/ studio CRT.. that I unboxed


Dual Pentium Pro 200MHz, Shuttle HOT-613 which I modded to support dual CPU's from a single CPU board. (thread on Vogons if you search, it is the first thing on google)



MSI MEGA-651, original condition


Two mini industrial PC's.. the small one is empty but I have a 486 SBC I'm putting in, and the bigger one has a Pentium MMX with Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold in it.



Voodoo 5 5500 Shuttle Build (Athlon XP)


Some other mini's/handhelds



Dual Opteron Shuttle (Iwill ZMAXDP)


Asus A7VT400, all brand new stuff in it (6600gt, sound blaster audigy platinum)


Random Cryix 486 build I picked up for dirt cheap on some online marketplace -- mainly wanted it for the case


Dash OPS-1000 with amber CRT built in (486)

 

[D-EJ915]

I had one of those Sony C1XS models with the 400MHz PII it was quite a furnace there in the front left, fun machine though! I still have one of the 2nd to last models with the atom processor as well as my U3 which still has the broken latch to shut off the display on it lol.

 

[w1retap]

The one I have is the PCG-C1VP - Crusoe TM5600 667MHz CPU. Pretty interesting CPU since it is 128-bit but basically emulating a 32-bit CPU. I guess it is supposed to learn what microcode gets frequently executed so it can decrease application launch time. It is pretty close to the speed of a 500MHz Pentium III.

 

[mnewxcv]

I remember when first SATA HDDs started popping up, some were sold with a SATA PCI card included. I think I still have one of those cards somewhere.
But, doesn't using newer hardware in an old rig defeat the purpose of a "retro" rig? Sure, you could install a PCI SATA adapter and stick an SSD in there, but you're shortchanging yourself if you forgo a loud, clicky HDD IMHO.

Think my Maxtor came with a sata card.

 

[w1retap]

Nah, a hard drive is a pretty insignificant component in a retro rig. (same goes for power supplies) I still use a fair share of spinners, but actual old noisy HDD's die pretty quick these days. In my XT I use a CF adapter (as well as some other rigs) - it also makes transferring files 10x easier if you can just pop it in a modern machine. However on my Amiga I tried to use a SCSI2SD adapter and it wouldn't reliably work on my GVP HC+8 card. It doesn't have the right initialization timing and no delay setting I used would get it to boot outside of doing a warm reboot every time.

 

[magnetik]

Cooler Master ATCS case
Leadtek Geforce III
P4 I forget which.
IDE's

still have the pc intact in storage and need to dig it out.

 

[AthlonXP]

HAHA I noticed one of those old school White Compaq Presario Towers. Man I had one before I started getting into building my own machine. I think it was the Compaq Presario 5900z came with a Slot A Athlon.

 

[w1retap]

I just recently cloned an old school AMD gold finger overclocking device for Slot A CPU's if anyone is interested. It sits on top of the CPU attached to the debug header and provides FSB/voltage changes via the DIP switches.

Build your own.. Schematic, Gerber Files, Mouser Cart / BOM: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?p=942299#p942299
Or if you want to purchase one directly from a Vogons member who is selling some pre-assembled (I'm making $0 off these): https://ebay.us/9IA8z1

 

[nealx01]

I noticed that the screw holes appeared to be narrower on the MSI board. It's 478 like, but proprietary it seems. Without fabrication it would seem very unlikely you'd find a replacement unless you found another identical motherboard (for parts) or had the mount 3d printed.

I'm gearing up for a massive project. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

View attachment 340218View attachment 340219View attachment 340220View attachment 340221

have the same board, and i snagged it for 100$ untested last year and to my surprise its flawless. probably my best deal ever. i was over the moon after i got it to post the 1st time