Exploring my Custom Pentium 200 MMX System and a Minor Repair!

Let's review my NOS Barebone Custom Pentium 200 MMX System and perform a slight repair! Heck - let's add a 5 1/4 drive as well :) Quake, Doom, Motocross Madness and some Monster Truck Madness may be present.... This system is what inspired me to start this channel - I hope you enjoy!! #pentium #retropc #nostalgia
Case Badges (credit referenced from ‪@LGR‬ 's Channel)
geekenspiel.com/
Referenced HP 4C Scanner Video (credit referenced from ‪@TechTangents‬ 's Channel)
• A Years Long Quest for...

[@RenanSpolon]

Your Pentium 200 MMX is very nice, I really liked the case and the stickers. 👑

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thank you!!

[@mariobrito427]

Great video! Just discovered your channel and I'm really enjoying your work so far, looking forward to seeing more

[@TheRetroRecall]

Awesome, great to hear and welcome!!! Just finishing up a new video to be released this weekend... Stay tuned!!

[@3dfxvoodoocards6]

With this system most 3D games from 1996-1999 will work very well.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Awesome, thanks again and thanks for watching!

[@3dfxvoodoocards6]

Nice retro system. In Quake 2 you can select 1024x768 or 1280x1024, it will have the same frame rate as in 640x480 because the Voodoo 3 3000 is totally bottleneked by the P200 MMX.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks for this info! What CPU do you recommend to work best for the Vodoo3 3000? Would be cool to try it out in other builds that unleash its 'power' from that time period.

[@3dfxvoodoocards6]

@@TheRetroRecall if you want to play games released up until the end of 1999, then any Pentium 3 is enough. If you want to also play games from 2000-2001 (Max Payne, Deus Ex, Serious Sam, Undying, etc) than a Pentium 3 1000 mhz to 1500 mhz would be preferable. With the Voodoo 3 in 1024x768, in the CPU dependent games from 2000-2001 I get 50-80% more FPS with an Athlon Xp 1500+ compared to a P3 or Duron 800 mhz.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Awesome, thanks for this info. I have a few P3 and Athlon XP's around that I could test / experiment with.

[@arthurmann578]

I have the exact same Voodoo 3 3000 PCI GPU and they were notorious for running hot and burning out! I actually mounted a small cooling fan on it many years ago after learning about this. The first one I had bought from CompUSA only lasted about 2 weeks before it burned out and they replaced it for me. That is when I decided to mount the fan on the new ones heat sink. Simple and quite effective as I used it for a long time before upgrading to a system with an AGP graphics slot and a faster card with more built in memory. Maybe think about mounting a small fan with at least two screws on yours to extend its life as they are now considered expensive collectable retro items as you probably already know. Very nice video and really cool and sleek looking case by the way! It was also brave of you to do a BIOS flash on the system as I, myself, am very reluctant to do so after I bricked one of my favorite retro systems years ago by attempting to update its BIOS. It is still often VERY tempting to do so once in a while just to see what benefits you get. 👍👍 I watch Shelby at TechTangents as well by the way and man does he own a LOT of retro software! I thought I had a lot, but his collection is just MASSIVE and makes mine seem "teeny weeny!!!" 😵

[@TheRetroRecall]

Hi Arthur, thanks for this, this is great! I was unaware that they were notorious for burning out - however it does not surprise me given the temperature that card was getting to. I kept other cards away from it and also added the passive cooling across the card, however I love your idea of putting a fan right on that heatsink - it definitely wouldn't hurt. For the BIOS flash, I took the risk, however in hindsight I should have taken a snapshot of the programming prior to going all Rambo on it!! :) It was successful but I get that it may not always be like that - I was lucky. Shelby is amazing over at Tech Tangents - so many great videos and so much retro hardware! Yes - he has quite a bit of boxed games / software. He actually did a Twitch stream over a couple of days cataloging his collection. Thanks again for watching and for the amazing comments!

[@arthurmann578]

@@TheRetroRecall Thanks and keep up the great videos! 👍👍

[@spooksy1982]

Don’t remember 5 1/4 drives being widely used on high end systems in 1997. My mid range computer came only with a standard floppy in 1996. Cool build and trip down memory lane though

[@TheRetroRecall]

Totally! You are correct, they weren't. I just have some 5 1/4 media I need to read haha. Figured this was a good candidate to use :)

[@spooksy1982]

@@TheRetroRecall yep. Makes sense! Good work

[@KevinSills]

I would move the Voodoo card up a slot, and install a PCI slot exhaust fan below the card to draw hot air away from the card, and exhaust it out the back, that is what I did.

[@TheRetroRecall]

That's actually very smart - this card gives off a lot of heat.

[@stevencamp6824]

Monster truck madness 2 is one of my go to games, among many lol...came back to watch this again, I have one of those Creative infra drives. Now I know why mine does not work...was connecting it to the standard IDE header on the board lol

[@TheRetroRecall]

Love that game and yes some of these drives were picky. I think this one was plugged into the creative card? I'd have to go back and look myself lol.

[@stevencamp6824]

@@TheRetroRecall yeh pretty sure it was connected to the sound card

[@Cooper3312000]

I wanted one of those Creative CD-ROM's with the little remotes back in the day.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I've never been able to locate a remote for it. Always keeping my eye open! Such a neat concept at the time.

[@maxtornogood]

A very capable 200Mhz MMX machine! Even has the right sound card for Duke Nukem 3D, so I reckon anyway 👍

[@TheRetroRecall]

100%!

[@DKTD23]

I had the same CPU. I was excited to move the jumper and get it to clock at 233mhz. Had a Voodoo 2 in it. Those were amazing times!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Absolutely! I have not tried to OC this chip, however - protective of my older components. My reference in the video (and confusion at the start) is because I did have a P233 chip in their but exchanged it for some testing. Thanks for sharing and thanks for watching!!

[@DKTD23]

@TheRetroRecall if you ever decide to it's super easy, just move a jumper and you're done! Lol

[@greenmandroid]

@@DKTD23 kids today has it easy. No worrying about jumpers, hahahah

[@TheRetroRecall]

LOL! So true - I think this ALL of the time when working on older hardware.

[@TheRetroRecall]

Let the testing begin haha!

[@matthewday7565]

I had my 5 1/4" between the two opticals, to help with their heat dissipation, as the 5 1/4" is somewhat open as well as being a hefty cast aluminium chassis. This was my notorious "7 bays in a desktop" setup, not sure if I still have that lurking somewhere... Front right, the 3x 5 1'4" stack, to the left a 2x vertical 3 1/2" carrying floppy and Iomega Ditto tape (had to saw part of the case metal as the tape drive had out of form factor bumps in the top plate), and then 2x HDD in the PSU side bay hanger (drives staggered with one in a more forward position to aid cooling). If I recall, it was also a P200MMX, with a viciously hot linear regulator aided by a front fan wafting toward it. Slots were also STUFFED, with an ISA 56k modem, sound card (SB16, what else?), Ditto dash controller for the tape and additional LPT dedicated to parallel port scanner. Maybe I'll dig out the beast if I do still have it somewhere

[@TheRetroRecall]

Heat dissipation - I wasn't aware that the optical drives required that to be honest, or at least in my experience (outside of very early CD burners) didn't require any cooling...Interesting. Love the sound of this build - would love to see it! Ah the SB16.... should have come standard with all systems :) I will leave it right there :)

[@supermario8416]

Interesting system, like!

[@TheRetroRecall]

I'm happy you are enjoying! Thanks for watching!

[@greenmandroid]

Awesome video. Always wanted a voodoo card at the time. I Kept the amd route due to it being cheaper for the GPU for awhile. Related to this pc, I was rocking a 133mhz, 96 mb of ram, 40gb hd, creative lab cdrom, plextor cdrw ,don't remember GPU one of those rage amd ones or so. Had soo much fun with doom, quake, 1, 2, unreal tournament,half life, counter strike and many more. Thanks

[@TheRetroRecall]

Love hearing these stories of everyone's setups back in the day. I used AMD quite a bit (although they didn't have the best reputation). So many good games out there at the time. I found it so fun (and difficult at the same time) saving up for hardware and always trying to 'upgrade' the machine! Are you running any retro machines today? Thanks again for watching!!

[@PiercedJedi]

I wish I could remember exactly what motherboard and other configuration I had on my old Pentium 233MMX system. I only remember that I had upgraded from a Cyrix 150Mhz "PR200" CPU back when everything was compared to Pentium CPUs with a PR rating :)

[@TheRetroRecall]

Nice!! Yeah, I had a few Socket 7 boards back in the day. I no doubt tossed them, however I do have fond memories of the Asus and Aopen lines.

[@PiercedJedi]

same, I was also a big fan or A-bit motherboards@@TheRetroRecall

[@TheRetroRecall]

Ah yes, I do remember those as well.

[@schnitzelsamy]

Nice

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks for watching!

[@phillycheesetake]

From the position of the thermal paste, I think you had the copper heatsink installed backwards. The relief cut for the ZIF mechanism was towards the cpu power circuitry. Hope you could replace the fan, those copper coolers are nice.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I will take a look and confirm.

[@kennethsuttie4023]

Fun video but one thing confuses me as I have a pair of those creative speakers, but you seem to have them in reverse stereo mode. My speakers are set up with the unit with the controls on the right. Is your sound card a mono only?

[@TheRetroRecall]

It's stereo.. I think I just have them reversed on the table!! Haha. Great catch. :)

[@vasileios6301]

A voodoo Banshee would fit better here.

[@TheRetroRecall]

I have recently discovered that. I have one and I could use the Voodoo3 in a p3 build.

[@IstvanMolnar-if9eo]

👍👍

[@TheRetroRecall]

Thanks!

[@dim0n1]

quake 2 on keyboard, so sadistic, and for all my life i didnt know, that you play quake 2 from dos command prompt 🤣🤣🤣

[@TheRetroRecall]

Hahah! We learn something new everyday lol

[@01mggt]

Holy optical media! 🤣🤣

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha yes! So many options and nostalgic choices!!

[@airfixer9461]

Nice build...a small piece of advise : watch your in tower temperature as I see that cooling isn't that well taken care off. How does the hot are leave the cage...only by the power supply fan (?)....watch out for HD crashed!

[@TheRetroRecall]

Awesome advice. I have since cleared the cabling behind the power supply to allow for more airflow. Also, the secondary fan I installed pointing to the rear of the case, is moving air out of 2 of the back slots (I removed the brackets). I also have the system imaged from the mechanical HDD, so we are good there! Thanks for watching!

[@airfixer9461]

@@TheRetroRecall Great..keep up the good work :-)

[@stevencamp6824]

I have that issue with my banshee card and duke3d colors look kinda washed out

[@TheRetroRecall]

I'll also admit, my camera isn't playing nice either. Working on getting something a bit more adaptable :)

[@doombladero]

LCD monitor ..! Blasphemy! 😲😅

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha! Much easier to work with and film, but trust me, I love CRT!

[@doombladero]

@@TheRetroRecall alright then , you going to the vintage heaven ,with the rest of us !

[@TheRetroRecall]

Haha deal!

[@zoeyzhang9866]

Hi pal, nice content! Wondering if any custom PCBs are required for any upcoming work? If so, would love to sponsor freely, and if possible, will be nice to achieve any cooperation together. 🤗(PCBWay zoey)

[@TheRetroRecall]

That would be cool! Send along a message to [e-mail] and we can go from there. Thanks!

[@zoeyzhang9866]

@@TheRetroRecall Nice! Talk to you there!👍

[@declanjamesbateson]

Try Windows 7

[@TheRetroRecall]

I like to keep the older hardware more period specific, but its hard to believe Windows 7 is becoming 'retro'! I plan on doing a video on some machines from that era in the future! Stay tuned! :)