DOWNGRADING My Retro PC?!

[@cs8712]

downgrading this PC until it does not compute

[@starbase218]

It's not what you think. ;)

[@nhansgoofyvideos7581]

To get rid of the OEM logo on boot up, I usually just flash the original bios that's directly from the motherboard manufacture.

[@John-jc3ty]

maybe reflashing the non working installation bios would fix it too

[@idahofur]

Could also just fine the intel utility to customize it to.

[@Rabbit_AF]

I did this to a Foxconn Dell board, and it permanently disabled my onboard LAN.

[@nhansgoofyvideos7581]

@@Rabbit_AF well, it's not risk free.. i only do it if I could be sure it's identical to retail boards.

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

There is an Intel utility on the "Intel Support archives" mirrors to flash your own logo. Or yeah, reflashing with the original Intel BIOS. That board is a D815EEA, just like the one that wouldn't install 98. (Just missing onboard Ethernet and audio - which is also why it has the strange brown "CNR" slot at the end, so you could install a CNR Ethernet and/or audio card. Which you shouldn't do, all the CNR cards are terrible.)

[@yunsui3491]

I bought the exact same hard drive in 2001, and it died suddenly in 2003 without any signs of failure just after my graduation ceremony. I lost lots of precious photos. I learned the importance of backup the hard way. Years later, I went to study computer science and gained enough knowledge to successfully recover all my photos from that dead drive. What a relief.

[@alextirrellRI]

You got so lucky. I was working for my college IT dept between 2005-2010. We had a number of these drives in service on campus, and we were to replace them whenever we would encounter one. I recall one time when one of the full time staff opened one up and it had literally scraped the metal off the platters. The user's data had literally turned to dust.

[@JohnSmith-is8nq]

What's missing is the late 90's. They're gone, mate. I miss em too, so, so much.

[@paulrippcord506]

That hits way too hard dude. The Machines in the Matrix were right to keep us in 1999.

[@Nukle0n]

Only because I was a child. But I don't miss the shitty computers of the time, Windows 98 never worked

[@JohnSmith-is8nq]

@@Nukle0n I was in my 20's. I miss that time because your average person didn't even own or need a computer or a cell phone. 9/11 had not happened. It was a socially healthier time. People did more with the ones around them. Their minds were freer.

[@Nukle0n]

@@JohnSmith-is8nq also you could never reach anyone or find anything, you didn't know where your kids were, you would be more ignorant and prejudiced, and most importantly electronics were hideously expensive, you'd pay like a thousand dollars for a computer that couldn't start windows without stuttering playing the log in chime.

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

Possibly the best time in the US ever. Until the powers that be got jealous.

[@leonkiriliuk]

I believe you replaced the CPU power soothing polymer caps with electrolytic caps which can cause CPU issues as the ESR of the electrolytic ones is much higher.

[@thomasandrews9355]

He used Panasonic FR, at least. I don't think that was capacitor leakage

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

Yeah, you need to match the types.

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

That would explain the weird issues with installing Windows.

[@cs8712]

10:36 The retro PC "memory" I'm always trying to replicate is curiously sneaking into my older brother's room in 1999-2000 to see what mp3s are on display on his FF8-Squall-skinned winamp playlist, or custom screensaver he might have on, or what he was last browsing for on eBay. He had acquired the old family PC for his room, a Gateway 2000.

[@masterphoenixpraha]

i liked how the big splash screen picture showed if there is Celeron or PIII inside... even such small details used to be fun those days

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

I love the translucent teal on the main case, with the translucent dark blue items in the drive bays, such a great look!

[@tarstarkusz]

These kinds of random errors were EXTREMELY common in the bad cap era. This MB is definitely from the bad cap era.

[@vitor900000]

You mean bad SMD caps? Because he already replaced the TH caps. (At least some of them).

[@tehmaddragon1940]

It definitely needs a custom Crystalfontz LCD front panel and a blue cold cathode lamp for maximum " turn of the millennium" nostalgia. Also, the front bezel light is soooo cool. Kudos.

[@volvo09]

Ah Crystalfontz , I built a 40 character display for my desk back in the day. Still have it stashed away.

[@DotArve]

@7:33 The IBM DeskStar, commonly known as the IBM DeathStar

[@godzzwrath]

i cant even say deskstar it auto corrects to deathstar as im speaking LOL

[@Thefutureisweird2000]

Always enjoy your videos, I think the reason why it isn’t hitting is because the amount of choice and control you have, back in the day we just did the best with what we could get or what was given to us, I think that’s where the magic actually was.

[@wolfemanxd]

Intel Celeron processor with 333 mhz was my childhood. My dad got me a pc from a pawnshop that was a Gateway and I used to play Starcraft and a ton of pc gamer demo disc's that pc got me for many year of classic gaming.

[@mattm7220]

Please, I beg of you, do a video troubleshooting the motherboard - it would be fascinating to find out what is actually wrong with it, and your style of videos make the process itself incredibly enjoyable and relaxing.

[@steveking4878]

I love this! I'm in the middle of a retro PC build myself (for several months now, it's a long-term project as I have time), based on a P3-1GHz underclocked to 500MHz and with 256MB RAM, the smallest stick I had lying around. I'm going custom on the case, parts of it at least, with a very beige 3D printed front panel and fully custom display panel, mechanical rocker power switch, big clicky buttons for reset and turbo, and those yellow-green LEDs and 8-segment display.. What was missing for me was the sound of the hard drive. So.. I'm redesigning the panel to include a piezo buzzer, which isn't perfect but it still clicks in sync with the HDD light.. between that and the seek sounds of 2 3.5" floppy drives at POST, it's definitely getting there for the nostalgic feels.

[@ModernClassic]

Nostalgia's weird. My first PC was a 486 so I went out one day and bought another 486 thinking I'd relive all those memories, and it didn't feel right either. I upgraded that to a Pentium 100, something I'd also done a few years after getting my first 486, and suddenly the nostalgia hit. I realized that I'd *always* felt like my 486 was underpowered back in the day, and it wasn't until I got my original Pentium that I really enjoyed DOS gaming, or even PC computing in general. I'd forgotten that, but instantly remembered it after doing that same upgrade a second time. There's probably something unique to your experience in the 90's that you've forgotten too. You'll figure it out by chance one day. Maybe there's a sound or graphics card that you forgot you had; you haven't done much with those in these videos. But it really could be anything; when it comes to nostalgia, it's always unique to the individual person, though.

[@volvo09]

I have to keep hard drives in my PC's for that nostalgia hit. I loved hearing them click as my PC was "working".

[@explodinglemur]

Hi from Nick in Seattle :) Glad it worked out!

[@parastie]

I worked for Gateway Technical support back in the early 2000s and supported that board. Change the caps! They're notorious for exploding!

[@kingnoize4667]

Did you forget to watch the videa? It's literally the first thing he does..

[@PhillyMotoXTS]

@@kingnoize4667 he did that on the first board. the second one was the Gateway branded board.

[@justfadingaway]

@@kingnoize4667 Did you forget to watch the whole video? He replaced the caps on the first board, not the fan replacement one.

[@parastie]

@@kingnoize4667 He replaced the caps of the first motherboard, but not the Gateway motherboard he used towards the end.

[@michvod]

Never had issues with caps on Socket 370 Intel Motherboards

[@Pasi123]

0:35 Intel 815 definitely wasn't common in 1999 since it wasn't released until June 2000. Intel 810 chipset was the one that was released in 1999

[@paulrippcord506]

For me, it’s that 2001-2003 sweet spot. Our first computer was a Gateway Bro Essential SFF 733c Celeron running Windows ME. Thar AOL chime, downloading Netscape and playing The Sims, Roller Coaster Tycoon, and a Sonic the Hedgehog compilation CD.

[@devikwolf]

I have that exact same fan controller in one of my old PCs. I'm pretty sure I bought it right around 2001. Toggle switches and knobs!

[@RetroTinkerer]

Didn't these used PWM to throttle down the fan speed of standard 3PIN fans? I read somewhere that new 4PIN PWM fans don't work OK in these controllers.

[@devikwolf]

@@RetroTinkerer I believe that's the case, yes. I've never tried newer fans with it myself though - I have 20-25 year old fans in that case which (somehow) still spin just fine!

[@annihilatorg]

Oh that Shuttle tease. That was always one of my regrets of that time. I looked at those little boxes all the time but never built one.

[@rayproductionsbackupchanne3862]

what you might be missing is the "scrunch" vibe old pc's have. you know. the hard drives scratching about. the specific fan whine old 90's fan's had.

[@DrewDvorak]

Great video. I really liked the troubleshooting... I mean I also hated it because we've all been there - but glad you showed it all. I appreciate you.

[@Aeduo]

Sometimes chasing nostalgia is just a lost cause. The hardware is neat to have around and mess with for sure but if you just can't recreate the context it might just never happen that one recreates the same feeling. It might just require being at the time and place. Knowing your PC you built can now play that newish game you've been looking forward to. Being excited for what's to come out and not knowing what the next thing will be is but reading about things in the magazines. The aesthetics of the time being a common thing you can customize to your preference and share with people with similar interests. That sort of stuff.

[@negirno]

I feel similarly when browsing old websites. For me, the nostalgia just isn't there.

[@Aeduo]

@@negirno i can still appreciate seeing the aesthetic of the time. The modern day doesn't diminish that but it's anachronistic so not really a nostalgic feeling. I still like it though. Still a vibe and a breath of fresh air from modern minimalist design.

[@Biaanca5036]

I think a lot of the times people build these things just to run old old games. But with an entire PC sitting there, gaming and only gaming can get boring. When it's the ONLY thing you think of doing on an old computer the other potentials start getting lost on it. 😅 I ended up bringing a 20 year old XP laptop out of retirement by finding other things to do on it like use c compilers and run old 3dsmax versions. Now it's actually fun to use because it got me back into 3d modeling which I haven't done in a while(did almost 20 years of lowpoly haloPC HEKstuffs and only quit just recently. Now I'm doing it again). Now it even gets pulled out for parties to burn CDs and DVDs. Another fun thing that makes it so much more useful is that: While windows XP CAN'T provide 3D over Remote Desktop Connections, it CAN LOOK AT 3D programs OVER remote desktop from a newer machine. So when I need to do more 'ummph'y things, I can split the work and keep using the old laptop :D It's not uncommon for me to make the 3D stuff on the XP machine while painting textures on my modern pen-laptop and then just dragging&dropping files from one to the other

[@Aeduo]

@@Biaanca5036 it's difficult to go back to using a PC like you would in the past. Even 20 years ago the internet would've been pretty involved and the Internet is just not usable in the same way today. Otherwise trying to get real work done on an old PC is often just a pain. Messing with old creativity software isn't a bad idea though, and much of it's not subscription based so it's kinda more useful than modern stuff if you're not needing very high resolution. Maybe find a way to send it off to a more modern PC for final rendering..

[@johnmurcott1273]

As a younger guy, I just remember the last dying breaths of vista, And goddamn does that os give me all the nostalgia. But i think it helps I dont remember clearly any specifics, mainly just the aesthetic which was notably different for 8 and 10

[@buda3d2007]

that early mac clone refresh look from 2007 looks amazing, some companies straight up got sued but other got away with it, that pc look really good.

[@WhiteG60]

What you're looking for is an Abit BP-6 and two Celeron 300a's @ 450mhz. Or an Abit BH6 (v1.1 or 1.2) and a coppermine slot P3 600 and an Alpha heatsink/Delta fans that you run on the 133mhz bus for 800mhz. But in all seriousness, I think what's 'missing' is that this stuff looks like a certain thing in our memories, but when confronted with it now in reality, it just isn't good. For instance, I remember playing Project IGI on my P3 after it came out in 2000. And MAN, I loved that game. I loaded that up recently and .... it looks and plays bad by today's standards. Retro gaming is really the only thing you can do on an era correct PC now because the web browsers don't work anymore and even if they did, they're not powerful enough to render a lot of modern web pages. The games are clunky and bad outside of some shining examples like Half Life. The transition to early 3d gaming hasn't aged well. 2D stuff holds up, but the 3D? It's better just to be nostalgic about it than it is to relive it. Descent was awesome in 1997. It's not so awesome now.

[@gingered]

Scratching the nostalgia brain itch is tough. The era youre building for is when i started building my own PCs, but i went for used parts. Where i should have been a P4 or P3, i was rocking a 233Mhz P2. The other part is what was I *doing* with it? Drawing in Photoshop with my Wacom Graphire 2 (small), making music compilation CDs for school, and playing StarCraft or Final Fantasy VII. Anything else is just wishful "what what would i have wanted if time and money were no object then."

[@ShrineOfLife]

mate, cheers from bavaria in southern germany and thank you for your videos! one word to the celeron in genereal, the early ones are really favorites of mine - its great to build systems around an 2. or 3. celeron (never had a tualatin one, so), they do all the tasks I enjoy from having an retro win98 or ME computer and I love to clock them, these chips are very OC and DC friendly. all these old cpus have a dear place in my heart, I also love the standard p3s, but they are really common :D so some of my retro builds have this particular INTEL INSIDE CELERON sticker, I am really fond of :) cheers mate! keep up the good work!

[@joshpayne4015]

Yay! An upcoming episode on the Shuttle xPC! I loved those little boxes!!!

[@chompers5568]

Why do I never get your video in my feed. I always watch them, you don't push out massives of filler. I can't be the only one who forgets and then realises they have 5 videos they haven't been recommended

[@ora2j251]

For the logo, you can just flash the retail bios.

[@shirley-h2o]

i bought a dell dimension xps computer t500 slot 1 500mhz off of ebay ,, i had the same problem would not turn on , so took out the cmos battery put it back in and the computer turned on ,, great video i plane to watch more

[@sideburn]

I bought an ultrasonic cleaner, wasn’t impressed, and returned it. Too much hassle and space required for the outcome. Some white vinegar, Isopropyl, and a toothbrush works just as well or better from my experience.

[@iamperplexed4695]

That's probably based on the limitations of your experience.

[@askjeevescosby2928]

For the pentium 4 system you should get one of those big dell precision work stations. I love the design of them and they are super nostalgic.

[@fffforever]

11:01 G5m, what a beauty!

[@mrmaestrom]

A few years ago I built an AMD Athlon Win98 system and got the 1.4 GHz model, the fastest Thunderbird AMD released. But, I decided it was too fast! My memories growing up and playing computer games were oftenfiddling with the graphics to optimise quality vs frame rate but the 1.4 paired with a GeForce 2 GTS let me max-out everything from that era. I replaced it with an 850 MHz Thunderbird, which besides the clock speed also has a slower FSB, and then I had to get a bit more nuanced with the graphics sliders in games. It’s all part of the nostalgia.

[@insanedruid3143]

Nice! I use the same setup with just a tub filled with iso, but i use an old ultrasonic toothbrush which really works well.

[@jdmcs]

I don't think leaking capacitors alone explains that corrosion. I think moisture was also involved. Maybe that caused some hidden damage that surfaced when you tried to install Windows 98? (You might see if there was a BIOS update for the board, too. I think I have seen Windows 98 compatibility on a BIOS release note or two.) As for getting rid of the Gateway board, maybe someone has archived a non-Gateway BIOS on The Retro Web. It looks like Gateway used the same Intel board used by other OEMs, so maybe there's a better BIOS that isn't branded by a particular OEM.

[@Rabbit_AF]

Good catch on removing the Cmos battery to get the board to post again. I recently got a Lenovo VIA Nano x2 board that is an engineering sample of AliExpress. I turned CSM off and the board refused to post. Luckily, a random KZbin video of a different Lenovo having the same problem helped me to get it posting again. I was always taught not to power the board with the clear CMOS jumper in the on position, but that's what I needed to do to get the Lenovo board working again. Anyways, I hope you find what you are looking for. I had acquired some Super Lanboy cases and a Lanboy Air, chasing the same nostalgic feeling, but ended up hating them and falling in love with the Corsair C70.

[@nickcpv]

I had that exact same case. Built my own PC knowing nothing about back in 2000

[@XeonProductions]

Attempt to find an updated revision BIOS, try deoxit on the memory slots. Did you try running memtest86 on it? Maybe there's a single bad trace to the IDE connector. As for that cherished nostalgia feeling, I've been chasing that for a decade and it doesn't seem to matter how period correct my hardware is, it's like trying to capture lightning in a bottle. I think what's missing is the novelty of it all, the magic of that era is gone.

[@Cyberbasty]

It's alway a pleasure to watch your videos after a hard day of school, Thanks !

[@mausmalone]

nice - I love the Shuttle XPC line. I still have my Athlon XP in the basement.

[@PotatoboyPlays]

For me, the one thing that case is really, really missing is a DIY cut vent fan in the side or top. I remember having cases that just were not designed for what we were doing. It was far less expensive to cut a hole in the side and buy a fan and fan grille than it was to buy one of the "fancy" cases that had ventilation built in.

[@mattb9664]

It would be cool for someone to do some controlled benchmarks to show how increasing the CPU speed and series, the bus speed, and the memory actually improved the performance in the older, high specification games.

[@mattelder1971]

I think Phil's Computer Lab has done some videos like that.

[@incyphe]

Back when just tinkering with computer was fun.

[@Constantin314]

very nice build! i have the msi MS-6309 2.x which does the same thing yours did. i'm no electronics expert, but a mosfet (i think) had very strange voltages while working compared to the ones next to him. also, the voltages shown in BIOS were also off. as i said, no electronics expert here :) i think it's repairable, if you feel like it

[@dabombinablemi6188]

I had similar corrosion in the Duron 1000 PC my uncle gave me, and it was just a result of him living seaside. Residue over everything as if the capacitors had badly leaked (they were swollen and dead but hadn't leaked), and the CPU mounting clip has rust (as does the case). With the corrosion/salt cleaning off easily. With your board, I'd have just cleaned it and used it as is. And then recapped if it had problems. No easy way of knowing exactly what's faulty now. Though I would try capacitors that are designed to be low ESR with the diameter and length being identical to the original. I'd recommend getting the matching Intel Pro/100VE CNR adapter for it as well - the chipsets integrated ethernet controller actually offloads more from a CPU than a Realtek RTL8139.

[@AlexTheRoach827]

A Slot 1 440bx motherboard is the answer

[@RetroTinkerer]

Well a S370 440BX would be even better, like the Asus CUBX-E Necroware recovered this weekend.

[@gentuxable]

I happen to have an Intel SE440BX-2 which I am planning to sell because I have two other Slot 1 440BX boards that have Award BIOS which is better than Phoenix.

[@vitor900000]

There is a good chance the the issue with the motherboard is in the chipset. As it starts to heat up it fails. You can try putting a fan over it and see if the installation finishes. Another thing you can try is put physical pressure on it since could just be a cracked solder joint. And finally you can try a PCI IDE/Sata expansion card since the problem could be with IDE I/O controller. If none of those things work tracking the source of this kind of issue might not be easy. Could just be a single bad SMD cap/resistor among the hundreds on the board.

[@LuminalSpoon]

Good to hear that intro music again 😄

[@maddmatty]

Love the build! Keeps making me wanna look for an old AT Super Socket 7 board and rebuild my K6-2 system from high school days (ah, the memories on that one). I am curious if a small load resistor in a short extension on that case fan would solve the flashing fan light issue you're having.

[@vanhoteen]

To be more nostalgic, you need the Hewlett Packard C4505A 8230e.

[@mlthmp]

Wish I could find a decent eMachine like the one i had as a teen. Was the first PC I ever worked and paid for. T1100 and I loved it

[@NiPPonD3nZ0]

Being that you have a Gateway motherboard, you can use a Gateway restore disk and make that a faux-Gateway... Maybe that can give you the nostalgia high you are looking for...

[@Couchflyer-NY]

I’m satisfied with my retro builds. That’s because I had a good selection of parts to choose from. Retro PC meet-ups are the places to be for the good stuff. And, sometimes that cable you are looking for is in the free pile.

[@LangleyNA]

I enjoy your kick-hat clean guitar music during the 98 setup issue.

[@dadsnotfunny]

i use to run a pc store in the late 90s, early 2000s - all those problems you experience hits the peak nostalgia point. i always referred to those as 'phantom pains' or 'theres a hidden ghost in this damn pc' LOL - most of the times the memory would simply just fail - sometimes it could be the cd rom drives. pc making has come a long way, but the fundamentals for trouble shooting still remains - process of elimination! remove, test, add, test etc - thanks for the walk down memory lane. now you need to install Encarta and Diablo I + II

[@timblake5844]

at least the second board has the correct color cable plugs.... No vintage computer can ever have the idiot-proof multi color plugs... Just my opinion. Thanks Colin! Great video again!

[@ZeroHourProductions407]

For me, I had nostalgia for the _games_ of the era, that i knew wouldn't run nicely on a modern environment. Not so much for the environment of the era. Back then, i didnt really have a home pc, let alone one to myself, until i was already almost out of high school. I was a console gamer up to that point. So if i was going to be spending money to source parts to create an environment for these games? I was all about trying to make the most powerful thing that would support the operating system in question. I wanted to be able to install the games of the day, go into the settings menu and just say "yes" to the options provided, and get the best experience humanly possible. That said, even after in a way moving _on_ from socket a for my primary 98se gamer box, i still tried to keep a socket a platform working, for sentimental reasons. Namely, how long that platform served me on those formative years of the pc experience. It was also the platform i was on, when i met the person who would become my beloved. Can't really hate on that.

[@super0sonic]

I found with my Pentium 2 build that getting the computer to match my memories of how I thought it ran was more important then how it actually ran. I am using a ide to SD so the whole system runs snappy and I stuck it into a modern case with a modern modular PSU because I like how they look and id they existed back then it’s what I would have used just like I use these things in builds today. It has a P2 450, voodoo 3 3000 and a fairly generic but functional sound card and a 4:3 LCD. And while it doesn’t feel or look like a Pentium II from back in the day it feels right and I adore it. Personally I think the all retro builds and the mixed retro and modern builds are both valid and you should do what makes you happy. But if you are not feeling the all retro build then maybe try mixing in some modern parts. Same is true for people with mixed systems who are not feeling it maybe try to get that spinning disk and old cases a try.

[@goclunker]

Colin, use a paint brush after the toothbrush. It will get into the nooks and crannies

[@ericlee5581]

I worked for TDK when they sold CD-ROM drives... that drive brought back some memories.... heh. My go to windows 98 desktop is a p3-550 with a voodoo 3 graphics card and a DVD drive and a CD-R.

[@Squonk06]

Nostalgia is tough. I often find the process of rediscovering, tracking down and assembling the elements I need to recreate a past experience to be more enjoyable than actually interacting with the finished result. I suspect this is because working in the present toward a goal in the future is usually more rewarding, IMO, than thinking about or imitating the past. I usually just complete a nostalgia project and then move on to something else, since by then it's usually exhausted its major appeal. After that, it's usually good for a brief nostalgia hit again if brought out occasionally, but never any more than that. Aside from all this, if you're looking for a specific suggestion, you could try ditching the red and blue LEDs on the fan controller in favor of green and/or amber ones. Red wasn't unheard of on PCs of the time but was less common than the alternatives, and blue was more of a 2003 and beyond thing. It's a small detail, but it's the sort of thing that would constantly stick out to me as out of place.

[@Aviancorporation]

OMG I used to have so many of these boards at my old place before I moved up to Minnesota. I wish I still had them so I could offer you one but I think my parent's just sent them to the recyclers.

[@adventureoflinkmk2]

Can't say i blame ya for getting out of a pentium 4 retro pc Colin. I did the same but with a p4ht and my current one is a AMD K6

[@RobertGoad-s1k]

You can put the Gateway board into recovery mode to flash the intel bios to it. I had found the instructions to do it on vogons awhile back.

[@m.junaidmahmood4209]

Ah.. Nostalgia. I still have this same case with me in which I had a 800MHz Pentium3 with D815 Motherboard and 60GB of HD. RAM was I think 128MB.

[@markerichannelly]

A Cyrix with some odd S3 ViRGE is peak 90s oddity 😉

[@Lukeno52]

I strongly recommend that, when removing 5.25" blanking plates, you use the screwdriver slots with said screwdrivers to twist them out - I still have the scar from learning that lesson the hard way!

[@zachariah74]

didn't even realise thats why they were there, thanks!

[@volvo09]

I always ended up bleeding at some point when building in old cases.

[@NewLifeFromTheWayofTruth]

BTW pentium 4 is badace, i loved building these into huge towers and then server racks XD i pushed it to the absolute limits and it exceeded :D

[@eCoLL77]

I remember that especially the Windows installation was sensitive to overclocking. I don't see evidence of it in the boot screen though but it might be worth to do a full bios reset to factory / default settings. If that doesn't work check if there are any jumpers that change the voltage or bus speed. Otherwise a full memory test? If none of this applies it's likely a motherboard defect.

[@NotAbitail]

Shuttle? I've got a old SK43G. That thing is one of my favorite computers.

[@KainiaKaria]

Specs of my Ultimate 1999 Gaming PC that I just recently got up and running of which most if not all of the parts are from 1999. I even have not just a LITE ON 52x CD-RW Drive installed but also a Creative PC-DVD ROM Dxr2 installed. I even have a HP CD Writer Plus 8200e External USB CD-RW Drive plugged into the system. Looks simillar to the HP CD Writter 9200 Plus that was on my dad’s AMD K6-2 build which was clocked at 450 Mhz with a ATI 3D Rage 128. Motherboard: Abit BE6-II Revision 1.0 Processor: Intel Pentium III clocked at 650 Mhz (Originally I wanted to either go with a Pentium 3 clocked at 550 Mhz in order to have something that was close to what I had with a Dell Optiplex GX1 or a Pentium 2 clocked at 266 Mhz so that I could slow the system down significantly) RAM: 256 MB Hard Drive (had): 60 GB QUANTUM FIREBALL PLUS AS (Extremely loud) Video Card: 3Dfx Voodoo 3 3000 (AGP Varient) Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster AWE64 Value CT4520 (Used this in a Gateway Essential ESS 450 SE from 2015 to 2017 that I used to have and even though I have Yamaha OPL3-SA as well as ESS AudioDrive this card being the only Sound Blaster 16 compliant card around makes it a really good choice), Creative Sound Blaster LIVE! Network Interface Card (NIC): Linksys EtherFast 10/100 LAN Card Version 2.0 (I use this primarily for playing online video games) Re-enabled the HighPoint (LowPoint) HPT 366 Ultra DMA 66 controller that is onboard and hooked up a 2 TB Western Digital hard drive as the replacement for the Quantum drive. I am using a StarTech IDE to SATA Hard Drive or Optical Drive Adapter Converter that was not playing nice with the Intel i440BX chipset. I recommend at least a minimum of Ultra66 in order for this adapter to work properly. I used the Highpoint drivers on the Abit BX-1.67M Motherboard CD. Instead of using the Highpoint UDMA66 controller instead best thing to do is install a UDMA100 IDE controller such as the Promise FastTrack TX2000 or even a SCSI controller card like this Adaptec AHA-2940UW. This particular SCSI card does 50-Pin as well as 68-Pin SCSI. Just remember to not use that fourth PCI slot.

[@othertonywi1son]

This is the same case I had growing up, my dad built many friends and family members in that same case. I'd like to build a sleeper PC in one if I can get my hands on one.

[@Markimark151]

Downgrading a retro PC is only reasonable for older software to run at the correct speed, also I would include more backwards compatibility for DOS games.

[@ThePuuFa]

You should definitely update the firmware on your ibm "deathstar" ASAP if you haven't already. Back in the day they released an update that fixed the bug that killed most of those drives. I still have one in mint condition because I did the update soon enough :)

[@Xsses]

5:24 I am running that Zalman Fan Controller in my daily driver rn, lol. I built it in a ~2010 case with fans from the era, but it works fine with a lot of modern fans.

[@joegee2815]

I got an ultra-sonic thing that you put in a tub or sink full of water. I'm sure you could use it with IPA as well. Got it from Amazon as I recall.

[@danielktdoranie]

That Celeron can be overclocked and be faster than the PIII

[@mndx89]

No way, it has only 128k of L2 cache and 66Mhz FSB. For socket 370 you can easily buy for little money a full fledged pentium 3. Maybe you are getting confused with mendocino celerons. They were beasts in overclocking and could perform much better than theirs parent, pentium 2, due to a better cache, but still belong to an older architecture.

[@ehabgassem]

Bro you brought some old memories 😅. I started to miss the old me😂

[@MSThalamus-gj9oi]

Old hardware sometimes just becomes unreliable. There's always a determinant answer, to be sure, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily findable or fixable by the average person with a soldering iron and multimeter. I have an old socket 5 motherboard with a flaky secondary IDE controller. I never did find the problem, so it's likely internal to an integrated circuit somewhere. I just popped a new controller card in and disabled the built-in one in the BIOS. That might be a good approach for your flaky motherboard, assuming the rest of it seems like it's running fine.

[@swahkennison7116]

Thermaltake made a similar model to that antec cooler called the golden orb II if I remember correctly.

[@thejeffchen]

That sort of installation error usually points to an overclocked IDE controller, which means the PCI bus is set to a higher clock.

[@Synthematix]

I love your channel, QDI Legend made the best pentium III boards

[@GoWstingray]

My god just watched Epictronics video on the Chieftek Dragon cases which was my second PC i built, now this case, i guess my first pc build in a way. Back in the late 90s my Dad bought a PC from a company called Tiny, it came with a micro atx form factor case, a 19 inch monitor and printer etc. When Aliens vs Preditor came out, i quickly found my dads pc didnt have the graphical power to play it and i ended up buying a Geforce 2 MX 400 64mb. Dropping this in the Tiny PC caused me many headaches, as Tiny and MSI had removed the bios setting for setting primary display and it was pot luck if it booted to the internal card or the geforce. P.S. I remember my heart racing looking in the Bios, as i felt at that time one false move i could screw the PC up lol, anyway I used to just power cycle the PC until it picked up the Geforce. When my perents were on holiday, my luck ran out when all i got was a black screen, it was a dead motherboard and PSU probably from me switching it on and off all the time. I decided rather than face the wrath of my dad after killing his 2k PC, id repair it, but for some reason the case would only take the oem msi mobo or something, cant remember why, but had to buy a ATX motherboard which meant needing a new case. The case that mostly looked like th Tiny PC one was the one you have, so i bought it, a Gigabyte motherboard and a new PSU. I got it together before his return, then paniced to see what he would say. He didnt seem bothered after all that but i now had a PC i could game on! Love to find that case here in the UK to rebuild it, as i still have with the pentium 750, motherboard, and ram. Anyway double nostalgia hit today! Thanks

[@JamieBainbridge]

Haha yep, those I/O shields go in smoothly first time. Definitely no struggling or cut fingers 😅

[@gentuxable]

Especially with Lian-Li cases. I/O shield always wins against them unfortunately.

[@BRBTechTalk]

5:01 It is always a bonus if you struggle to put the IO shield in then manage to cut yourself on the sharp edges, blood letting improves performance, so they say.

[@gentuxable]

If you ate enough iron it could explain better conductivity for sure.

[@BenWillock]

My NZXT Phantom from circa 2011 came with a fan controller built in, these were still a thing right up until tempered glass boxes became the norm

[@Pasi123]

I recently got a Phanteks P400S for free, it was released in 2016 and has a built in 3-speed fan controller. It does also have a tempered glass side panel and RGB lighting

[@swahkennison7116]

You could try modding the Gateway bios or contact someone who does to remove the gateway watermark and then using a dos command line bios flashing tool and using the /ignoreoem switch command you could flash the modded bios onto the motherboard.

[@zzco]

I need another of those cases, omg!

[@marksmith9566]

Time for an HP 486 Office beast [ the kind with the flip out door on the bottom front]

[@RobsonWilliam82]

The Intel one was my first PC motherboard, for the first PC I built. Good times. 😍

[@Club_Michas]

It depends on what you're looking for. When I think about Retro PCs I Personally would go with a Pentium 3 at 900Mhz, 128 MB Ram, 40GB HDD, GeForce 2 MX. These were the Specs of the PC we had as a Family PC back in 2000 which came with the Brand New Windows ME. I'm sure you'll find the Perfect Retro PC Setup for You one Day.

[@tokyogentleman]

replace the caps with the same spec. check the jumper on the sd card make sure it is set to master. check traces nearby the bad caps board. i liked the era from win2k & xp

[@thumbtak123]

Looking at it, I know what is missing. Retro speakers, like the ones you can attach to a monitor or similar odd looking ones from the time period.

[@adey88splace]

Those deskstar drives were indeed awful. At the computer shop I worked at way back we called them 'death star' drives.

[@KevinSills]

Yeah, easy fix for your nostalgia build, add a 3dfx Voodoo 1 (Monster 3D) card, and a 3dfx case badge form Geekenspiel to the front of the case, and problem solved, you finally have a truly retro PC. :)

[@burts06]

Nice one! Can't wait for that P4 video :)