Just a guy with a love for tech

Dominator

Adam L January 01, 1999

Specifications

ItemValue
Era1999
Built2022-07-22
ConditionWorking
CaseCIT Hero
MotherboardAopen AX3S Pro
ChipsetIntel i815E
Socket370
ProcessorIntel Pentium 3 Coppermine
Speed600 MHz
RAM384 MB SDRAM
StorageSeagate ST318452LC 18.2GB 15K SCSI drive
CD-ROM DriveLG CRD-8484B
GPUMSI GeForce 2 TI AGP
Expansion SlotSound Blaster Live! (SB0100)
Expansion SlotAdaptec SCSI Controller ASC-19160
Expansion SlotRealTek 8139D PCI Fast Ethernet
CPU-Z Score (1.03)CPU: 969, FPU: 4206

Note: I also have a 1 GHz (Coppermine Celeron) for this machine but that is not faithful to the era.

The year is 1999, Unreal Tournament has just hit the shelves, the GPU market was a warzone and CPU clocks were ramping up fast.

This build is a top-spec machine that would've been very expensive in the late '90s

Just one year after MoreVoodoo the CPU clocks are more than double what we previously had available, that is, if you had the cash.

Update: 2022-11-21

I have a new case coming for this machine, it should be here in a few days, and then I can get it fully built out.

Not only that, I have sourced an Ultra3 (U160) 18GB hard drive, two 9.1GB drives, a controller card and appropriate cabling. At present, I'm currently negotiating with the owner for a fair price.

Update: 2022-12-17

GeForce 2 Ti has suffered a VRAM failure, I'm now attempting to locate a new one.

Update: 2023-01-02

I removed Windows 98 and did a fresh install of Windows 2000 instead.

A new Inno3D branded GeForce 2 Ti was installed, I replaced the stock fan and heatsink due to bearing failure.

I applied new thermal paste as well for good measure.

I'm also considering removing 128MB of the RAM to make it 256MB which would be far more realistic for the time when even top-end machines had 128MB.

With regards to hard drives, I haven't given up on a 15K RPM drive, I've taken delivery of 2 drives both of which are not working, one of them was brand new but both still refused to spin up properly.

Update: 2023-01-22

Brand new Seagate ST318452LC installed, cloned the OS from the other drive, which now only has 3 hours runtime total, to save room within the case I've removed the two 9.1GB drivers as it was making cabling within the case (which isn't very big) a nightmare since they use wide 80-cable ribbons.

Whilst I had the side panel off, I also installed a Sound Blaster Live!, a RealTek 8139D PCI Fast Ethernet card and a Lite-On LTN-486S CD-ROM which is black to match the case and closer to the period than the temporary drive I used.

Update: 2023-12-28

After doing some more tests, it seems that there was nothing wrong with the other hard drives that wouldn't spin up properly, it was simply a case that the PSU didn't appreciate the amount of current being drawn, the moral of the story is: Don't use SATA to LP4 adapters, there is a high chance that the PSU simply is not designed to power the older Molex style devices and connecting them to the SATA power will just cause the PSU detect an over-current event and reset/shut off the power. Modern PSUs are only designed to deliver a much lower amount of current for low power SATA devices like SSDs, some HDDs and CD drives but these 15K RPM drives can pull upto 3.5 Amps on the 12V rail and 2 Amps on the 5V rail during spin up.

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