8 Reasons For Building Slot 1 Retro PC

The Slot 1 system is extremely popular with the Retro PC community. I give 8 reasons why this is the case and also share 4 pro-tips to help you work with this platform.
💙 Patreon 💙
Consider supporting me on Patreon. Get exclusive early access, behind the scenes, pickups, extended gameplay, first impressions and more: / philscomputerlab
💙 Support Me 💙
Disclosure: Some links in this description are affiliate links. I receive a small commission when you make a purchase. There are no additional costs to you.
◼️ PayPal donation: www.paypal.me/...
◼️ Shopping links
Amazon.com: amzn.to/3fvz8sg
GOG: track.adtracti...
AliExpress: s.click.aliexpr...
eBay US: ebay.us/bKzLAW
ebay UK: ebay.us/Bs9Z0u
eBay Germany: ebay.us/k3bPol
eBay Canada: ebay.us/CD6KZz
eBay Australia: ebay.us/eon4Ys

[@-ratoa-]

Reason 9 : With certain PII CPU’s you can down clock all the way to P 133mhz for those pesky games that hate 200 mhz or more.

[@Ciffer-1998]

Didnt he say that in one of the first few reasons

[@logipilot]

how and which ones? 😊

[@Ciffer-1998]

@@logipilot my bad he talked about socket 7

[@-ratoa-]

@@logipilot @philscomputerlabs have done it in the past, here is one video that show how it’s done! Keep in mind that your Need certain Klamath PII CPU’s and a Slot 1 motherboard that let you go down with the multiplier settings kzbin.info/www/bejne/mmXXYYCYjsZ6jMksi=vpcXgFpAb4uONNos @ 5:30 There are several threads@ Vogons forums as well

[@RetroTinkerer]

Do you mean the ones with date code prior to week 30 of 1998? (X830 being X the country)

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

I don't need 8 reasons to watch Phil's Computer Lab. I only need one. His great vids.

[@dallesamllhals9161]

OK! Does that make you a blind SoMe "Slot" - More into sockets here ;-)

[@thudtheace]

Only need a slot one reason to watch his videos! ...okay i'm bad... but could not resist. Cheers!

[@ClubRocker24]

The slot 1 PC was mine starter to retro. I remember around 10 years ago when my father which works in house renovation company seen an Old, dusty and forgotten computer in one of his client house and he decided to bring up for me for no reason. After deep cleaning it turns out that was the slot 1 machine with P2 350 MHz and Voodoo Banshee GPU. Now I still use it to this day as mine Daily retro machine even if mine collection grown

[@Nordlicht05]

Great our first real family pc was a P3 550 . But it died 😢 was an upgrade from an 386 dx40 😂

[@MOS6582]

Nice! I’ve also been lucky enough to find a 3DFX Banshee in a random old beige box and it’s a pretty sweet feeling 👍

[@habibal-faraj8586]

Another reason for building Slot 1 PC is how easy you can change the CPU. You have a wide variety of options (233Mhz-1Ghz+). And you can replace CPU in seconds without needing any tools or reapplying thermal paste every time. It's an easy procedure that doesn't require any special skills, and the CPU is well-protected within the cartridge form factor.

[@terbog]

Got a 450 Mhz P-III here, Voodoo3 + AWE64 Gold. Very compatible machine.

[@little_fluffy_clouds]

Rocking a legendary dual slot 1 Asus P2B-DS 440BX PC with 2x800 MHz P-III CPUs and a GeForce 4 Ti GPU as my vintage desktop. Flawless stability and excellent performance for all the retro operating systems, apps and games that I love. Installed a GoTek Floppy emulator and an IDE to Compact Flash card adapter to be able to easily boot into my various different operating systems (BeOS, Win2K Pro, OPENSTEP 4.2 for Mach, Win98SE, MS-DOS 6.22, Puppy Linux and Haiku). A SoundBlaster AWE 64 ISA, 3Dfx Vooodoo2 SLI cards, Intel PCI Ethernet, an internal SCSI Jaz drive and a DVD-RW drive complete the setup, all installed in a beige 'modern retro' case with a solid Seasonic ATX PSU.

[@bdhale34]

Abit bp6 > all other pIII era mainbaords. I'll die on this hill and be correct.

[@ronny332]

Without viewing the video, just by reading the headline: Because they are cool. Nothing else 😀

[@crashputer]

I have two slot 1 440BX machines in my retro collection. They are true workhorses. I remember building these systems for customers when new. I would sell a K6-2 as a less expensive option, and a P3 as a power option.

[@thudtheace]

I think I have 3 440BX boards (1 is an Iwill dual slot 1 board), and 1 via chipset one (a dual slot 1 tyan board), and I have a lot of slot 1 processors too (2x 900Mhz, 2x 933Mhz, 2x 1000Mhz, 2x 800Mhz, 2x 600Mhz, and 2x 550Mhz(with 512k cache) all PIII), plus a PII 266mhz. Kind of went crazy on the collection of these things about 10 years ago.. Cheers!

[@Yabe_uke]

Two years ago, I found an old computer thrown in the trash. Dual CD drives, slot 1, BX440, P3@800, S3, Voodoo 2. I put a spare power supply and a hard drive and it's the most reliable Win 98SE machine I've ever owned. I got a second Voodoo 2 and it's awesome 😁

[@wayland7150]

The Coppermine PIII were really good CPUs. next came the P4 which was only good because they forced to to be faster. The replacement to the P4 the Core range of CPUs were based on PIII, that's how good they were.

[@alaricjeard269]

First pc my parents bought was a Pentium II 350 with 440BX Chipset, so this for ever in my heart!

[@jimscarlett]

I still have a soft spot for Slot 1 systems. My original Pentium II (family computer in 1998 when I was 12) was a PII 350 with an STB Velocity 128, and my first Pentium 3 system, one of the first machines I built myself back as a young teen, was a slot 1 550 made from hand-me-down parts right after Windows XP launched. Sadly I don't have either anymore (they were both 440BX too!), but my current Win98 machine is almost what I would have wanted to build back then if I had the money. It's a socket 370 P3 800, but part of me wishes it was Slot 1!

[@Dukefazon]

I regularly go to my local flea market and I just can't resist when I see a Slot1 motherboard or a Slot1 CPU, I like both Pentiums and Celerons and I just can't leave them there. As I mentioned in previous video's comment section, my first family PC was a Slot1 Celeron 300A and that's why I'm so attached to that form factor, feels so futuristic and looks cool I think :)

[@ZanderHorn]

Just the fact that it is a slot is one of my favourite bits of it. Such a different way of connecting the CPU in the history of computing. I'm lucky enough to have built a dual Slot 1 1GHz P3 system.

[@D3M3NT3Dstrang3r]

Unfortunately I never could get hold of a dual slot 1 mb, I did however end up with a matched pair of PIII 1000's Out of one. I have a socket 370 with a PIII 800 I think but I really wish it was a slot 1.

[@penguin5384]

I kinda like Slot 1 so : 1st rig running dual P3 850s and Win 2k . 2nd running dual P3 600s (still playing with this, SCSI is hard work!) . 3rd running a P2 450 and SLI Voodoo 2s . 4th awaiting my attention and a decision on what to put in it, Celery maybe and clock the bejesus out of it , Abit VA6 board. The reason to have a VIA chipset, 150mhz FSB. Ran a P3 550 @ 825Mhz for years on its stock cooler back in the day , hardy little beasts.

[@retrogear]

My absolute favourite platform! My high school had a dual PII 450 as its Windows NT 4.0 Server in 1999. I remembers being in awe. Running a PII 450 with SLI Voodoo 2s now and love it! Thanks Phil for another great video. Cheers

[@bdhale34]

I still have my disc and CoA for Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Mips/Alpha/x86 1-2 Processor. Fun stuff.

[@woronesch]

What is your "2D" card which is installed with voodoos?

[@retrogear]

@@woronesch TNT2 M64. I probably should do better, but I don’t use it very much given the V2s.

[@honkhonkler7732]

I have the same setup for my Windows 98 box. It's an IBM with an integrated S3 Trio 3D chipset for 2D and a SoundBlaster AWE 64. The PII 450 definitely bottlenecks the SLI setup sometimes but it's a period accurate mid 1998 top notch rig.

[@mesterak]

“It’s better than getting punched in the face” 😂

[@aaron96244]

About modern PSUs. If you have stability issues, add load to 12v by adding a mechanical HDD. I had a problem a couple years ago with a Socket 7 and a 750W Corsair TX PSU. Once I connected a mechanical HDD and a couple 12v fans. It was stable whereas before I couldn't even log into Windows.

[@philscomputerlab]

Wow good to know!

[@rodhester2166]

Slot one is my favorite time. I have some I bought new that still run today. Great machine to set up period correct hardware. still have the build sheet from one.. expensive back in 98.. ati aiw pro, awe 64gold, 440bx, 128m ram, 8.4 gig bigfoot hard drive and a cd burner. sportster modem, lived in an apartment and used it for my T.V. / game machine . played tombraider, warcraft, starcraft, so many games.. it was so fun trying to tweak it to get the best internet speeds.. such a great time.

[@JohnSmith-xq1pz]

Dang APG, PCI, AND ISA so many options with that motherboard. Man I'd love to have a hybrid system like that. I love my DosBox but having real hareware to enjoy would be nice

[@PyroX792]

You bring up a great point about nostalgia! I sought out a Slot 1 Pentium II system only because I had one as a kid that was one of my most memorable computers from that time. I think that was the time I started learning how computers worked and started to understand what different components did, learned about upgrading, etc.

[@T3hBeowulf]

10:04 - Such a true statement. The Intel 440BX chipset is legendary and the follow-up comment made me laugh out loud. 😂

[@SuperFx89]

yeah, the good ol' days when i used to listen to music on my bookshelf speakers while playing games on my desktop speakers, all from the same computer. Though I think that was Windows XP, but still on slot 1, on a P2@300Mhz.

[@Idleshot]

my first computer ever, 300 Mhz Celeron Slot 1 CPU Motherboard from Compaq 64 MB of Ram, CD player. 8 GB Drive. I still remember old faithful. I still remember AOL and Messenger. Hanging out on the AOL message boards and downloading countless 15 MB Files, Wink* if you know what I mean. Leaving the PC on all night.

[@ArkhamKnyght]

First "new" computer I ever built from scratch was. PII 300mmx, slot one. I LOVED that machine, never put it in a tower, but I loved it. Circa, 2000.

[@TekTherapy]

Hey Phil, been watching a ton of your vids the last days. Since i am finally starting to get into Retro-stuff again. Honestly didn´t know you where originally from Austria, thought you are german. My mistake.. Servus aus den Burgenland!

[@philscomputerlab]

Servus 🤗

[@danielberrett2179]

My slot 1 currently lives with a 500mhz P3, and voodoo banshee. Fun to toy around with.

[@50shadesofbeige88]

Slot 1 is the sweet spot.

[@philscomputerlab]

Indeed 😊

[@livefreeprintguns]

The first computer I ever built was a Socket 7 but my fondest build was the Slot 1 because of the Celeron 300A's overclockability.

[@livefreeprintguns]

I actually had that Celeron 300A system running on top of the motherboard box because I had spent all my money and didn't have any left over for a new case... that was when I first learned how to power on an ATX system with a flathead screwdriver lol.

[@NiGhtPiSH]

I still have my old MSI BX Master system from back in the day. It was a really great machine and brings really nice memories.

[@ShrineOfLife]

ty phil, reason no 8 is right down my alley, it was a special time to experiance!

[@bdhale34]

Had a 733MHz PIII coppermine core in a slotket adapter s370->Slot 1 with a GeForce 256 DDR, Q3A and UT days were amazing.

[@jeckjeck6943]

Sure nostalgia is strong. My first pc was a slot one and i love building retros pcs around this socket. i have multiple motherboards and a shitload of processors to play with.

[@alextirrellRI]

I have a 733mhz slot 1 system. It was an Acer Aspire, but the board has been transplanted to a newer case, as the old one was incomplete when I got it sometime in the mid 2000's. I don't know a ton about it, and the BIOS is a bit limited, due to it being an OEM, but so far it does what I need.

[@WouterVerbruggen]

I already just like how they are different than 'ordinary' socketed platforms. Got a dual slot system from a e-waste bin once, complete with two top end 1 GHz P3's and reg memory. They are 133 MHz bus ones though, but since it's a workstation platform there's no OC'ing it anyway XD

[@GameplayandTalk]

One of these years I'd love to build another Slot 1 rig and pair it with a Voodoo3/4/5. That era was my first experience with 3D acceleration and it would be cool to revisit it in a similar way to how I first experienced it in '99 or 2000.

[@philscomputerlab]

Go for it!

[@g.zs.keresztes7405]

This brings back old memories. My first PC as a kid was a PII 233 with a QDI Legend motherboard using the Intel 440LX chipset and had 4 DIMM slots. It came with a single stick of 64mb of PC100 SDRAM (running at 66MHz) which was later upgraded to 256mb. Sound card was a Creative Labs Sound Blaster AWE64. HDD was a 3.2gb Quantum Fireball SE super noisy drive with a weird orange ribbon cable in the front. The graphics card was a Creative Labs Graphics Blaster EXXTREME with 4mb of SGRAM which was later upgraded to a TNT2 M64 32mb, and finally with a GeForce 2 MX 200 32mb. I wish I'd still have that awesome machine. My favorite retro computer parts are from that era, from 1998 onwards. Over the years I managed to collect parts to build a similar spec machine (QDI Legend, but with a 440BX chipset), with an additional 3dfx voodoo2 12mb variant next to the Graphics Blaster EXXTREME.

[@SaccoBelmonte]

I can't believe I went through all that. I remember having a slot 1 Pentium II in my hand and being super impatient / frustrated because I found out I needed new MOBO and RAM.

[@mayw6571]

My main retro PC is built around my grandpa's old Slot A board and 800mhz Athlon. AMD aside, everything still applies! I think Slot 1/A is probably the sweet spot for late 90s builds.

[@SevenCompleted]

athlons blow the pentiums out of the water imo. AMD really brought the heat during that time.

[@zhongyangli]

Slot 1 is my favorite, super stable and versatile. The earlier pentium II CPUs with klamath cores have unlocked multiplier. So they are perfect for downclocking.

[@LorisPeretto]

Wow slot1 is a platform that I love! Yes! Recently I repaired a great Asus p2b soldering a transistor, and I found a P3 Coppermine 700mhz/100fsb. I decided to do hard things, and after modified the slot1 with two little cables and masked some pins to the contact on the Coppermine I made it ask the correct voltage the mainboard can provide! And it works, now the Coppermine is running 933mhz (by elevating the fsb to 133mhz) and with 2,05v. Great job and big satisfactions!

[@not1but2and37]

Phil motivates me to get started with my retro PC project. 🥰

[@philscomputerlab]

Good luck!

[@Vanessaira-Retro]

I love Slot 1 motherboards! Have quite a few of them too, both in 440LX and BX forms. Some of the 440LX boards I have, have integrated Yamaha OPL3 and 4 chips on board, while some of the 440BXs have either Yamaha XG or CRYSTAL.

[@philscomputerlab]

That's amazing, everything ready to go for a minimalistic machine.

[@mattpierce5009]

I just finished a Slot 1 hybrid build with an upgraded AWE32 and Geforce FX 5600. The board only recognizes Katmai CPUs so I'm stuck at 500mhz for now, but it's fast enough for Half-Life and anything older so I'm happy

[@PhilipPetev]

Regarding the audio options under DOS, there is one more: most of those Slot 1 motherboards come with the SBLink connector that allows a SBLink-equipped PCI sound card (like Yamaha YMF724/744) to be recognized and work under DOS.

[@RetroTinkerer]

I really need to try that feature, do the sound card appear different in games when that cable is connected between the sound card and motherboard?

[@PhilipPetev]

@@RetroTinkerer The SBLink connection makes the PCI sound card to appear (and act) in DOS like an ISA sound card. There is a difference in how the PCI and ISA sound cards handle the DMA signals and through the SBLink connection, the PCI card handled those signals the ISA way. When you install the init software, all you need is to select "Sound Blaster or 100% compatible" in most games and you're good to go. Haven't made much tests, only several games, so it's quite possible games that won't work with such card to exist.

[@philscomputerlab]

Yes! I really need to do a video on that.

[@bruno-vicious]

I am soo glad I held on tight to my Blaster PC which was an Intel 440bx slot 1 mobo with integrated Sound Blaster Live sound card. It was unique for it's time and it's a rare find if you are trying to look for one. I had many people in my life trying to encourage me to get rid of it saying it was junk. I am soo glad I refused to listen to them because now with the retro revival and now with the Orpheus II that I purchased I can turn my childhood machine into a nostalgic retro gaming system for old school gaming with a modern twist.

[@jonesy3000]

I still own a Gigabyte GA-BX2000 Which i Bought in 2001. These old 440bx Boards would probably survive a Nuke! My old board was not treated well by me in my youth it saw many diffrent CPUs & GPUs over the years was Overclocked most of the time And it's has been in more cases than a seasoned detective. And it still boots up 22 years later without a problem .

[@philscomputerlab]

Yes built very well ..

[@Prellium]

I had a slot 1 600E back in the day that overclocked to 800mhz with no bother at all, was very useful when I started playing Half Life 2 on it!

[@el_yemo]

Very nice and detailed video. Kudos Phil

[@RetroGamingNook]

Looks just like my old board from the late ‘90s. I miss it, it started flaking out after about 15 years.😢 Had a SB 16 pro, Voodoo2, and a few different (overclocked) processors and graphics cards during that time. Nice to see this video.

[@lemagreengreen]

Slot A had those neat flip up support brackets too, I think it was because the first Athlon's came with pretty heavy heatsinks and of course AMD used a heat spreader plate on their Slot A CPU's too.

[@XDymeStarX]

I have an old Pentium II 350Mhz, which i had from new. This board and cpu have been through a lot of different rigs and setups from me over time. It currently just finished a job scanning/fixing old hard disks and now it has a job where it has installed a Microtouch controller card for an oldschool touch crt display with an ess1688 soundcard that has I/O ports too ! This machine had the first ever 1x DVD drive and mpeg card (huge beast) from Creative before their encore kits. I love this thing to the death but it really needs a new case. Thanks for your great content as usual. byeeeee

[@philscomputerlab]

Thank you 😊

[@sfcomputerroomhe5239]

Slot 1 is such a good platform. May main PIII machine is a delidded PIII-S 1.4GHz on an asus P3B-F with a Voodoo5 5500. I sometimes swap the CPU to a Pentium Pro 200MHz 256K using a different slotket just for the fun of it

[@atmashkin]

Slot 1 is looking very different to all other sockets. It was very friendly and safe to PC builders.

[@D3M3NT3Dstrang3r]

Only thing that wasn't as friendly as you are used to today is the fsb is usually set by dip switches or jumpers. Other than that it was probably the most friendly Socket for consumers along with AMD Socket A which was AMDs slot 1 design used for the first Athlons

[@ABRetroCollections]

@@D3M3NT3Dstrang3r ABIT and QDI were both using BIOS options to change FSB on their 440BX boards. ASUS was lacking in that regard until they came out with the CUSL2.

[@D3M3NT3Dstrang3r]

@@ABRetroCollections I knew there were a few, and there may have been others on later revision boards but lots did have jumpers or dips.

[@bdhale34]

Also the absolute worst CPU for shipping a PC, these things fell out of the slot in transit far more often than people realize.

[@D3M3NT3Dstrang3r]

@@bdhale34 I believe you but It is hard for me to see one falling out when latched properly, Then again they were almost never fully seated and latched.

[@112-DavidL]

7:27 "If you ever built a computer" lol my first PC I built WAS a PIII - 733Mhz Coppermine on a Asus BX (P2B iirc) with an Asus socket 370 risercard (slocket) and an Asus Nvidia MX 440 AGPx8 128Mb 😁 I was 16 and brought the board/CPU and GFX brand new (lots and lots of mowing lawns and washing cars in the neighbourhood). the sound card was from Dad's/My Pentium 266MMX it was a AWE32 Gold with a roland MT32 but dad gave me the sound card cause he didn't need it as he was into building Pentium Pro servers at that time.

[@112-DavidL]

actually come to think of it.... it was a P3B-F but I had 2 ISA slots 🤔 cuse I remember the same dip switches in the same location as Phill's board. I never knew they had a single ISA version

[@philscomputerlab]

There are different revisions often with somewhat changed layouts...

[@112-DavidL]

@@philscomputerlab yeah true lol imo the best boards for a retro sloket/socket board would be an Asus p2 or p3 series with the i440BX chipset. I just wish I had the money now adays to get back into playing on an old PIII coppermine. but most of the stuff I find on eBay AU and Gumtree are too exspenisve. I found a PIII-933 on a shuttle MB but they wanted $700 for board, CPU and 512Mb of SDRAM.

[@RuruFIN]

I'm more a Socket A guy, though my first somewhat usable PC was Slot 1 based (Asus P2B, P2-400, 160MB, GF2 MX) so I have some nostalgia to it. :)

[@Bassquake76]

I got a pc with a Gigabyte GA-6BXD dual slot cpu (440BX chipset) board way back in 1998! I got it as I knew multi-processor was going to soon become a thing as I was limited to Windows 98 which didn't support dual cpu. And soon enough Windows XP arrived a few years later and I could then upgrade from a single PII 300 to 2x PIII 550! Nice! Was like a new PC again. Had that pc for about 12 years!

[@xsc1000]

I had this board too, but it was used from beginning with 2x PII 400 and NT 4.0. Btw OpenGl games like Quake II worked fine under NT 4.0.

[@peterilling1627]

Same here never neef 8 reasons to watch Phil. Still got my Celeron 300 a overclocked to 400 mhz and running my old voodoo 3 3000. Hasn't let me down since i left Australia in 2000. Cheers 13:49 from Turkey mate.

[@philscomputerlab]

Cheers from Australia! I don't think I've been to Turkey yet. Now I want to!

[@christopherbaar4498]

I do have a Slot 1 build sitting under my desk with a P3 500 or 550, I don't quite remember which. But I love that I have 3 ISA slots in it, letting me plug in a AWE64, Gravis Ultrasound, and MPU-401 compatible cart all in one motherboard. I'm aware some of those cards should go in slower PCs probably, but this is the slowest one I have built. Now I just need to find a USB 2.0 card for it with a working internal connector so I can connect the front panel on my case. The card I have in there now doesn't seem to recognize anything connected to the internal header.

[@vadnegru]

I don't have any plans to make retro pc. But man, these videos are pleasant to watch. Keep up good work!

[@philscomputerlab]

Much appreciated!

[@406Steven]

Had an old slot 1 P3 500 back in the day, Rollercoaster Tycoon and Mechwarrior 3 ran awesome on it but it liked to run hot.

[@livefreeprintguns]

9:20 The 440BX was the greatest chipset ever created, change my mind (you won't).

[@bjornpaulsen3015]

Slot 1 was my first platform on Wintel-PC coming from an overtuned Amiga 2000 68060-50Mhz, UW-SCSI, CD-Burner, Picasso Gfx. Got a pre-built with MSI OEM Mainboard which was quickly swapped for an ASUS P3B 440BX. Served me well, I upgraded it as well up to 1100Mhz FSB100 P-3 with a Slot-to-Socket Adapter-Card. After that I switched over to Thunderbird-2 CPU and nForce2 Chipset. Good old times... 😥🤤

[@FA-vc3hq]

I bought an Aopen AX6BC recently as it was a frequent one from your channel.😅 It is rock solid.

[@philscomputerlab]

Yes that one should have Sanyo capacitors!

[@georgez8859]

I think these were the Best Motherboards for a retro system. Thanks for the Video.

[@simplyhard]

I agree. I have a 440BX PIII system @ 450MHz and I'd say it's a lot less of a hassle for beginners (fool-proof) to get going than either of my SS7 K6II/K6II+ contemporaries. It's also faster. Great powerhouse as a DOS-focused machine, but there are better alternatives if Windows 98 is the main focus.

[@helldog3105]

I have a Slot 1 Pentium III 1GHz. I came across a Dell Dimension for super cheap, 35USD. Hard drive had been gutted along with the soundcard and video card. Looked up the specs and replaced the missing cards to match the original system specs and the machine still runs great to this day.

[@TuNk1977]

Thank you for another great video :D I still have my slot1 MB, from the year 1999, also have my PIII 500 MHz and the CPU i upgraded to, PIII 1000 MHz. I think i still have my old HW from 1999, except the TNT2 Ultra GPU i traded for an VooDoo3. Thanks again, Phil

[@chassy7072]

Another fantastic informative video looking forward to more

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

Simultaneously watching Phil's Computer Lab and the Tech YES Livestream. Can't decide. Audio's a mess but I will pull through!

[@wertywerrtyson5529]

Now I want a slot 1 motherboard! The first computer I ever used was a 486 but the Slot 1 and Pentium 2 was the first computer we had at home. Mom got it from the Home PC initiative Sweden had at the time to encourage people to put PCs at home by making them tax free. Do you know of any motherboards (not just Slot 1 but in general) that have DOS compatible sound built in? I have seen motherboards with the S3 graphics built in but most sound chips seem to modern when built in.

[@AaronWoodall]

Now let's hear what AMD did with it's SLOT A cpu's. Great video as always!

[@vanderlinde4you]

If i'm correct AMD was the first reaching 1GHz clocks on Slot A. And they usually performed even better then Intel. The GFD device was super populair - plant a little device on top of your CPU and you where able to set multipliers and voltages.

[@shaneseward7139]

Thanks for the content Phil! I recently went down a rabbit hole and am building a 440BX with VIA C3 system. I've been using your videos as a guide. I'd really be interested if you covered the C3. Cheers!

[@philscomputerlab]

Actually I haven't (yet)!

[@TheDeeplyCynical]

Great video Phil. My retro rig is a PII-333 on a 440BX based Atrend ATC-6220. Can't Find much about the board online so sadly no BIOS updates. Got it for Free on Freecycle about 12 years back. Just upgraded my Soundcard from a Soundblaster 16 to an Orpheus II.

[@Choralone422]

Slot 1 is a wonderful platform for games from 1993-1999. Later 90's games will require a higher clocked P3. But there is a TON of flexibility in the platform! I was rocking a Asus P3V4X mainboard as my last slot 1 board (I also had an overclocked Abit BH6 + Celeron 300A based 2nd system) with a slotket adapter and a Celeron "Coppermine-128" 566 MHz CPU overclocked to 875 MHz. I ran that up until October 2001 when I won an Athlon XP 1800+ CPU & MSI mainboard at a pop-up AMD Roadshow event in Chicago, IL. I had to drive about 3 hours in the middle of the night to get to the event by 6AM when registration for it opened up as the event had just been announced via AMD's website the day before. I had planned on upgrading that Asus board with a later P3 CPU but the free Athlon XP shelved those plans!

[@philscomputerlab]

Awesome win 👏

[@ianmcass]

I've still got an Abit BH6 from back in the day that I used with a Pentium 2 300 SL2W8 - the mythical revision that Tom's Hardware said would run at 450. He was right. It would run at 450 all day long just by changing to a 100mhz fsb

[@alaricjeard269]

Absolutely! Have one in one of my retro rig, on a Asus P2B. Crank up fsb to 100 and voila PII 450 :D

[@zotyesz66]

The Malay Sandokan? I have also an Abit BH6, but only with a Celeron 300@450 MHz.

[@fumbulz60]

Great endorsement for the VIA chipset, "It's better than getting punched in the face". I totally agree Phil, love your channel. 🤣 I loved these Slot 1 440BX boards back in the day, I built many Win98 gaming systems using these for my LAN party fiends.

[@philscomputerlab]

😂

[@mdd1963]

The fist few Coppermine PIII models were available in SLot1 or socket370, I built my mother a SLot1 P3/600A, it'd OC'd easily to 800 MHz with a few keystrokes in an Apollo Pro 133 mainboard...

[@DragunBreath]

I wish CPU cards for desktops would have continued. I've said it before, but being able to cool a CPU from both sides with modern cooling solutions would have been very interesting to see.

[@MindsMouth]

I remember working on the cartridge Pentium 2x in computer class when I was young, our teacher used to get free pickings from the electronics recycle in the area.

[@davkdavk]

I've got a drawer full of PIIs :) no boards for them :( . PII and K6-2 will always have a special place in my heart.

[@christopherjackson2157]

Some great motherboards from this era

[@AmstradExin]

I recently got a desktop computer (not a tower) with a Celeron in it. Compatibility with old Voodoo 1&2 is great and Windows 98 SE works out of the box.

[@summerxia9027]

happy phil‘s day ！

[@philscomputerlab]

Thank you!

[@puma0085]

Very nice Video. Even though I already have a neat Win 98 gaming PC. I ended up with Pentium III 800mhz plus Voodoo 3 3000 agp as my first retro rig also very curious about getting slot Pentium II machine for 1996 and 1997 games. The intel 440bx maiboards on the market at the moment are not that expensive. And getting a neat PII cpu ( I will either get a 266 mhz or he 350 mhz) is also possible without losing leg or arm.

[@michaelturner2806]

Another good reason to get into this era of retro computing instead of early Pentium, 486, or prior: coin CMOS batteries rarely leaked and damaged the board, and are easier to replace! An old barrel battery on a 386 usually means a lot of cleanup at best, surface level repair with bodge wires at worst. I have heard one danger with this era is in capacitors bulging or leaking. I still haven't used a soldering iron and don't really know what exactly to look for in a suspected capacitor or how to source a replacement.

[@philscomputerlab]

Yes excellent point! Late era 486 boards sometimes also have such batteries but so many many boards died from leaking batteries....

[@thudtheace]

I have a number of old slot-1 mainboards, including a couple dual slot-1 boards (Iwill DBD100). Cheers!

[@AladimBR]

I agree it is the sweet spot... for DOS and Windows 98 with Voodoo3 glory. I put together a Pentium 3 667 (@133) slot 1 with an Asus P2-99, Voodoo 3 and a Morpheus LT for sound. That's my gold retro machine.... when I want to run DOS, I change the FSB to 66Mhz, the CPU will run at 333MHZ and disabling cache will get me to the 386DX33 levels, which can handle Wing Commander nicely. For later Win98 games that are very demanding, I use an Athlon64 motherboard with VIA chipset, with an ATI X800/X850 or Nvidia 7900/7950GT (there are Athlon 64 boards with PCI-e) and Yamaha 7x4 for sound, with the bonus that it works great also for DOS, as Athlon64s have multiplier and throttle controls via CPUSPD that can bring it down also to a 386DX33-40 level. Very good article, thanks for sharing!

[@NightMotorcyclist]

My old HP Pavilion shipped with an Asus Slot 1 ATX board with AGP 2x speed and the Pentium III is the 800E and now has 512 MB of PC133 SDRAM. I'm surprise the system still works after all these years considering all the use it has seen. I also inherited a Dell Dimension XPS-T with an 833 MHz Pentium III and AGP 4X but the parts are very proprietary.

[@registrazioniduemillaotton6030]

Abit BX6 with i440BX is the best motherboard for Slot 1 system 🙂

[@Linkintime1]

This is my next project. I'm hoping to stay under 200 USD and I'm hoping to dual boot Dos 6.22 and Windows 98. This slocket idea has me excited. I was originally looking at a slot A AMD but they seem to be more expensive. I need a cheap case, gotek, motherboard, processor, and SB 16. I might have the rest of the parts.

[@varrol5031]

My favourite platform :) Most of my retro motherboards are Intel 440BX - with the favourite AOpen Ax6b (also got pro version) and 1GB of ECC Reg memory. I also have Asus Cusl2-c which is Socket370 Intel440BX machine having an ISA slot. For me it was the best era for PCs - the progress in GPUs was tremendous while games were still focused on being enjoyable and fun. I went from Celeron 400MHz, 64MB of RAM and Riva TNT2 to P3-933, Geforce 9300 (I don't remember precisely) and 512MB or RAM on one motherboard.

[@JCMtheRACER]

The big chunk of a cartridge that the processors come in make them satisfying to hold or have in display.

[@SharkoonBln]

Don´t forget that holographic sticker 😉

[@paulrippcord506]

Slot one just looks so damn cool. It’s an argument for putting a clear side panel on a beige PC case. It’s that perfect late 90s motherboard aesthetic. All the sockets and slots filled big chunky cards, RAM and daughterboads.

[@philscomputerlab]

Yes I've seen a few such builds. Mixing modern with old, adding some lights. Beautiful 😍

[@dallesamllhals9161]

All in the eye of the beholder...ITs BAD here...sry' 😕 "a clear side panel" OH DEAR! BE Gone RGB-child 😲

[@filipetmarcal]

Nice review

[@argoneum]

Great timing, right after I de-dusted my old Slot-1 Mendocino CPUs 😸 Back in the day I had K6-II 300 (overclocked to 350 ofc.), after upgrading from 486-DX2-66. Got Celerons later, when people started throwing them away. "Offspring" of the Pentium PRO, why wouldn't I take them? Also got DELL Latitude C810 with a Pentium-3M (Tualatin) at 1133MHz and a 16MB GeForce 2 GO. Not overly powerful, but Worms Armageddon work smoothly at 1600x1200 (that's the screen it got!) in 256 colors. Even the original battery still works, for 15 minutes, but it does. Matsushita cells.

[@kenabi]

even most of the boards with the 440zx chipset can get a 1ghz coppermine in them via slotkets with ease, rock stable. i'm got a few from asus, don't even need the fancy slotket i have to get there, since asus was sticking a coppermine capable voltage regulator on the zx equipped boards as well. they might have been slightly more 'budget', but they still manage just fine.

[@kristophertadlock779]

Hey Phil, I think you would have a lot of fun with an Via C3 hybrid machine! There are lot of interesting things you can with Ezra T and Nehemiah. The rev 2 gigabyte board you showed can set the multiplier and the FSB in software (and in DOS) meaning with the right setup you can hit a lot of speed reference points without even having to reset your computer or even enter the bios!

[@GalaxyCat001]

With a socket370 adapter on slot 1 I ran 1.4ghz Tualatin cpus on them, still have a few too

[@alisharifian535]

The Pentium III motherboards which have capabilities of both new and old world are the best. They cover most of the 1990s, both Windows and DOS. Hey usually have USB 1.1, ISA bus, PC, PCI, AGP, some of them accept both AT and ATX power supply, support both APM and ACPI etc... very convenient.