Let's Build a Pentium 3 Retro Gaming PC

Let's build a Pentium 3 Retro Gaming PC to relive the golden time of the late 90s.

[@pvtpeppers6176]

I love the 80s background music too.

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Thanks I definitely have a spot for synthwave which is probably apparent haha.

[@MentalParadox]

Modern synthwave =/= '80s music.

[@SUCRA]

Finally settled down to watch the video that started it all! This was a great start to the channel and a hell of a lot better than the first video I put out! Also, nice to see some of those parts are still in use today.

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Haha oh boy well first off thanks for watching. I have a hard time watching this first one still even though it brings in traffic! But yes probably not hard to see my video style showing through even in the very first video for me.

[@jimerick1]

This was my cpu in my first computer. Ahhh the memories

[@djarsh1]

I also started learning computer on my first p3 in early 2000s

[@joselemusjr6451]

unique case well done. only negative of that board is the main power connector location thats gotta suck.

[@marcelocorpucci1742]

Glad to find this channel! You got a new subscriber. Cheers from Argentina!

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Thanks for the sub! Really appreciate it hopefully you keep enjoying my videos as random as they might be hah.

[@lordterra1377]

Great board! Has all the right amount of slots. Having those two ISA are really key for the best Dos sound.

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Yes! The board really is that perfect middle ground of features to support many things and it's still in service today as a streaming machine.

[@seimeianri]

this case is amazing, a sleeper pc jackpot

[@mobilesettinguh4102]

Beautiful speaker

[@ScarletPanda280]

That case is beautiful

[@RiksRandomRetro]

It really is I love it so much I snagged a spare I came across recently. In much worse shape but may make a good restoration project!

[@DerekLoseke]

Pure awesome.

[@Bige4u]

I built something similar to this not too long ago.... Pentium3 500mhz slot 1, Abit BE6-II, Crucial 1x256mb pc133, Seagate 6.4gb ata33, 3dfx voodoo3 2000 agp2x and WIN98se, makes for a great retro gaming system for the mid to late 90s windows games.

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Awesome sounds like a very nice machine.

[@elektron2kim666]

I have a similar machine apart from 400 MB ram, a P3 at 400 MHz and 128 MB Nvidia graphics. It exists to run Windows XP and museum reasons. I'm doing a bit of restoration on it today because I decided to paint some of the yellow plastic during some other painting. Mine is mostly from free parts / garbage. I got here for the names on things as I was into pocket computers back then and skipped a lot of models.

[@freebeergaming6082]

Awesome build. I think I'll do an early 2000's P4 build into a classic Antec case.

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Thanks! The machine is still in service to this day with the only exception being a Radeon 8500 video card instead of the Voodoo that's in this video. I love the early 2000 builds too as you can play so many games in XP. You miss out of that pure DOS support but as far as the range you get it's pretty impressive.

[@ErnestPWorrell1984]

As impressive as modern PC cases are I've always liked the old beige cases and think they have a kind of charm about them.

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Yes for sure I do like modern cases with glass and whatnot (and ease of working on them) but something about the beige ones being back so many good memories.

[@ThisOLmaan]

i missed all this, when growing up couldnt afford it, thee old ketchup & mustard cable management.

[@Toxic2T]

true same here

[@mobilesettinguh4102]

I am love this

[@ermonski]

Ahhh I remember my first PC. Good times.

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Innocence and a whole lot to learn all wrapped up into one. Boy it was a fun time though hah.

[@8KilgoreTrout4]

Lovely specs!

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Indeed is! This machine (with the exception of the video card now being a Radeon 8500) has been one of my most used machines. Regularly used for streaming or my own gaming it hasn't skipped a beat yet!

[@dopebackdrops7056]

First time seeing an oldddd computer being assembled.. seeing how the CPU was installed into a separate card and THEN installed into the motherboard is crazy to me

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Hah yeah this was new for me as well I didn't use any of these adapters back in the day but it's a neat solution to an interesting problem!

[@hubzcaps]

I had a Riva TNT 2 VANTA. And a Rage 128 PRO good memories on my k7s5a606 ECS board duron boiz.... back when setfsb and fanspeed was life!!!!!!!!!

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Haha I had forgotten about setfsb and fanspeed honestly. Sure enough I would try and eek out the last drop of performance of what I had but not sure if made much of a difference in the end.. it felt like it though!

[@christopherjames9843]

Slot 1. Blast from the past. Remember the "Slotket" upgrades? The Voodoo cards even had Mac drivers. Too bad Nvidia killed them off.

[@user-tf4ho2uo1e]

I remember going to CompUSA with my dad and looking at those from outside of locked glass cases

[@Elios0000]

Nv didnt kill them as much as 3Dfx made a lot bad business moves biggest was trying to be there own board vendor and no longer selling chips to 3rd party vendors

[@7zosterop771]

ye, I get back memory. socket 370 old compuer I love

[@Outware0]

4:44 is when build starts

[@BigJoshGaming]

Good job. Just my kind of stuff.

[@DVRC]

Awesome build. Also the SPI (Sparkle Power, which is a company related to FSP and Fortron/Source) PSU is good for retro builds and among the reliable ones

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Thanks! Hoping to build another P3 project here soon but it hit a few snags so may be a while yet. I still use the machine in the video though after some minor changes. Running great!

[@pupenka]

Very good !

[@PixelPipes]

Nice channel! You've got another sub!

[@Simonisntreal]

Hi

[@watchthis90]

That computer case is the best. What is it?

[@IronicTonic8]

I had a similar setup back in the day with a PCI Voodoo3. Unfortunately it would stutter occasionally in some games, especially networked games because the network card, sound card, and graphics card were all fighting over the limited 133Mb/s that all PCI cards must share. I switched to an agp Voodoo3 to resolve this and never had any further issues.

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Very interesting! Never heard of it maxing out like that but definitely makes sense. I know performance wise there isn't much difference on the Voodoo between PCI and AGP but sure enough bus bandwidth would have come into play sooner or later.

[@IronicTonic8]

@@RiksRandomRetro Yeah, generally speaking the PCI variant performed identically, but there were a few networked games where issues would arise. One of the games that had issues was X-Wing Alliance. I was playing that game online and at LAN parties and the studder was ruining the experience.

[@RETROMachines]

My life is complete. I can die happy now.

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Hey I'm glad the video was that good haha.

[@RETROMachines]

@@RiksRandomRetro yes, true

[@SOU6900]

I'd like to have an internal ZIP drive or 3 for my various old school systems. Same with a tape drive. And cable management is hard when dealing with ribbon cables.

[@RiksRandomRetro]

The ZIP drive has proven to be quite useful as a stop gap measure to transfer files before I get a machine networked. It's handy mostly because I accumulated enough ZIP drives more than anything!

[@SOU6900]

@@RiksRandomRetro First time I ever saw one was in middle school, though that's when floppy and zip drives were on their way out.

[@ivyflow3r]

i learned how to insert cooler now xD, no seriously, i got randomly cooler off of celeron 700/128, then i looked at this video and i learned how to insert it back

[@izools]

Awh nice to find a Voodoo 3 card but a pity you couldn't find AGP. They really are demanding collector pricetags these days. I haven't seen anyone cover the ATi Rage 128 Pro in huge detail though, and they're available quite cheap. Maybe a future video?

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Good idea! It's hard to find the parts to review as most of them I sort of fall on versus hunting them down. This machine now has a Radeon 8500 in it which isn't exactly period correct but at least what I use it for it's working quite well. Miss out on that Voodoo goodness but that card might be suited better in a less powerful machine so we'll see. More to come!

[@mrmcguru163]

"Wow, Ethan great job"

[@nicacioedu]

Nice work! You got another subscriber. :-)

[@elmehdisaniss2731]

It's all about Tomb Raider !

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Indeed I should really play it more as I barely have touched it for years and years besides some quick testing!

[@elmehdisaniss2731]

@@RiksRandomRetro I've done a couples months now but the system crashed and I losed the save !!

[@rhysholdaway]

What's benefit of a P3 over a P4? I recently picked up a Ti4600. Was thinking of using it with a dual CPU 1ghz P3 I picked up but been told even this setup will be CPU bottlenecked. Should I use on the P3 or make a P4 rig? The OS will be Win'98.

[@uk4890]

I want more Megaman X in the retromachine 😄😄😄

[@Elios0000]

this thing is VERY close to what i had in 98 and 99 only i was running a Athlon 700 Slot A on a FIC SD-11 (yeah i know) and had LS120 drive in place of the Zip

[@Dave_mitchz]

I found a pentium 3 on my grandparents 2nd floor

[@SaudAhmedShaikh]

Cool! Can it run grand theft auto 3?

[@m9078jk3]

Good choice of components though I prefer the Aureal Vortex 2 sound cards like the Diamond Monster MX300. There were still a lot of PC games that supported Glide and this is a reason why I too would stick with a Voodoo 3 card (I have the Voodoo 3 3500 TV AGP in my 500 Mhz Pentium 3 system). OpenGL games just seem too dark for me on other branded graphic cards I subscribed to your wonderful channel.

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Thanks for the sub! Much appreciated. And agreed it's hard to argue with what the Voodoo 3 provides across the board. As for the sound card I'd love to check out some of the Aureal cards for sure. I've always had Soundblaster cards honestly for no real reason besides that's what I heard about most when I was younger. These days I'll have to go a lot with what I can get hold of or what I've collected but I really should branch out!

[@m9078jk3]

@@RiksRandomRetro Basically Aureal sound cards are to 3D Positional Sound what 3Dfx was to 3D Graphics. By coincidence they both came from the same earlier bankrupt company Mediavision. Aureal and Creative Labs were involved in a lawsuit and Aureal won.However Aureal couldn't afford the legal costs and Creative Labs gobbled them up.Still there were a good collection of PC Games (Jedi Knight 2,Half Life,Unreal,Quake 3 and many more) in the late 1990's and 2000 year that had A3D 1.0 or the more advanced A3D 2.0 support. Creative Labs had the competing EAX

[@RiksRandomRetro]

@@m9078jk3 Huh that is a very interesting story I had no idea. Certainly I remember the cards but hadn't thought too much where they went. I really do want to get a card now. Also sounds like that's an LGR tech tales waiting to happen!

[@m9078jk3]

@@RiksRandomRetro Here is a simple Wikipedia article about Aureal en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aureal_Semiconductor You could look up a supported games list or find more about them on the Vogons (vintage computer forum) website Using a headset rather than speakers is best with such a card unless you want to use 4 speakers around you in game play

[@georgez8859]

Nice Build

[@uk4890]

Is there any kind of high performance memory DIMMS?

[@BroniranEnotBG]

2019 е и някой трябва да раздвижи темата вече с ретро поглед върху подобен тип система. Лично аз имам hp vectra vl400. Направил съм някой сериозни промени за да мога да използвал компютъра за игри от 2000 *Смених дъното с Абит с 815 интел чипсет *Дъното има три слота за рам, но разчита само 512 МБ тотал заради горния чипсет *Овърклокнах пентиум 3 сокет 370 0т 933 на 1050 Мгз с увеличаване на шината в биоса *Сложих видео карта Ати Радеон 9550 256МБ- при това положение процесора спъва картата и в почти всяка игра проца работи на 100% *На дъното инсталирах Pcie Sata adapter и съм закачил 1 ТБ хард диск от лаптоп, защото старите дискове ИДЕ са бавни и греят като котлон *Смених захранването на 230 вата и го моднах за да влиза в кутията, защото оригиналното захранване не е съвместимо с друга дънна платка, освен оригиналната на НР./ вместо 20 пина има 19 налични/ *Инсталирах мрежова карта за по-бърз интернет *Инталирах звукова карта за по-добро аудио Така, при това положение неед фор спеед ундерграунд ми върви с 30 фпс, ГТА вайс сити с 30 фпс, контер стрике 1,6 ботс с 40 фпс. Скоро ще инсталирам нови игри и ще допълня инфото.

[@henson2k]

When everything was BIG

[@henson2k]

@Blue Koala true but pixels were UGE!

[@3DfxAslinger]

Subscribed!

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Thanks! I have a follow up video to this one finishing the build up as well :)

[@foxbat4127]

Actually there is 1ghz 100fsp slot.1 coppermine cpu which is a good bit faster than733mhz

[@arphaksad01]

My first builds were Abit based. Miss Abit

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Solid products! Not that I ever had every single Abit board but at least in my experience they have been really good for me.

[@amindlost]

Came up randomly in my feed, nice build. Love that case. I too have a BH-6 P3 700 retro system, save that mine is a slot 2 processor rather than a 370. I also went with an Awe64 Gold for some pure-DOS goodness.

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Thanks! And very nice that system should set you for some good DOS and Win 95/98 gaming!

[@hubzcaps]

Brugh. Flood of nostLigia seeing my old slot a built. Who had a socket 370 adapter !!! Lol. Of course u have one. Rofl

[@rodhester2166]

getting harder to find cd rom drives with the headphone jack.. I think people forget about being able to listen to music cd's and some game sound tracks via the cd player provided in win98..

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Very true! I don't think I used it a ton but when I did it was really cool. Options!

[@lerton]

what the music is in the background when he builds the pc?

[@RiksRandomRetro]

I hadn't gotten into the habit of putting in the song credits in the description since it was my first video! I pulled up the old file and a couple of songs are used during the build process. First is Absolute Terror by Nihilore freemusicarchive.org/music/Nihilore/A_Human_Work/Nihilore__-A_Human_Work-__01_Absolute_Terror then Wild Pogo by Francis Preve kzbin.info/www/bejne/fp6yfqGabpZlrqc&ab_channel=AudioLibrary-FreeMusic. After that is IDCIDK which sadly I can't find where I got it may have been from the free KZbin library. Then is Operatic 3 by Vibe Mountain kzbin.info/www/bejne/omXEl6aEmpWCncU&ab_channel=NoCopyrightMusic and I think that covers it!

[@lerton]

@@RiksRandomRetro THAAAAAANKS!

[@Scotybalboa]

I've had to start a Blog to slowly put all my Retro Builds on! www.retropcbuilder.com

[@LewisR09]

Slightly triggered by you stretching the cable instead of just moving the soundcard up 1 or 2 slots :D

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Haha oops. Early video so my uh.. planning wasn't as forward looking! :)

[@mobilesettinguh4102]

Now this computer new available or not

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Sadly no I don't think you can get this new at this point. The case I sort of managed to get by accident and I think it's fairly generic but other than coming across it from recyclers or online marketplaces I'm not sure where else to get hold of it. The parts themselves can be bought online from places like eBay but prices are going up.

[@FeelingShred]

M I D I M U S I C F E T I S H \m/ \m/ Midi is metal

[@RiksRandomRetro]

The metalest!

[@Erot78]

Snyggt!

[@harryshuman9637]

128 Mb memory? That's low even for a Windows 98 system.

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Yep I don't disagree it's been a while since I made this video hah. Building one today I'd opt for a bit more memory as it does the job but doesn't exactly match the power of the CPU. The machine has more memory in it at this point.

[@FOIL_FRESH]

you've built my computer except yours is 33mhz faster :D and your case is so tasteful compared to my weird beige/light blue ugliness :)

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Very nice! And yeah I felt really lucky to have found a case that is so clean and screams 90s the way this one does. I have another one that is in worse condition I may give a once over and build something even faster ;)

[@Morpheus776]

can you tell me what speakers that are?

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Sure thing! They are Juster Multimedia AC-691Ns... apparently. Trust me they are mostly for the aesthetic which of course lines up with this machine great. They sound about what you'd expect for this sort of set from 97 (sticker on the back shows production date)!

[@Megatog615]

oh man, the ATX power connector is in like, the worst possible location. whoever put it there on the board aught to be... uh, pwned in quakeworld

[@ambrosiastricker7930]

Pentium 3 800mhz 1999

[@Sarthak2073]

Power supply?

[@RiksRandomRetro]

Let me check honestly I think it's just one I had on the pile even though I know a good quality power supply can make a big difference!

[@corneliusantonius3108]

PSU ?

[@martinpavlik1051]

What???? Pentium III is retro processor ? In my notebook is pentium III inside in 2020 working on 100% on windows 7

[@insertx2k_dev]

Nice one brother , But I'd like to suggest for you this idea to use it as your next upload idea Let's build a Socket LGA 775 Intel Pentium D , With 4GB of RAMs and 1GB of GPU RAM and test in GTA V

[@vhrod1681]

I dont get the fetish of testing new games in a 15 years old machine people have nowadays

[@agunga3507]

I need motherboard

[@grantourismo0109]

Pentium3 is eaely 2000s

[@Xtcent]

I think the one he is using is late 99. Not sure though.

[@joshua7426]

Pentium 3 released in 1999

[@warrax111]

Pentium 3 released in 2 stages. First was named Katmai. It was released in early 1999. Second was Coppermine. It was still released in 1999, but at the end. Then, in 2001, they made lowend variant to Pentium 4. Named Tualatin.

[@한창한-h8n]

8

[@HansCampbell]

It is better to install a Pentium III 600 MHz or less processor in this build, for better software compatibility. If you need more speed, go with a Pentium 4 build. Also, the Voodoo 3 graphics card sucks. Install an AGP 2X or 4X graphics card. If you install a Diamond Viper v770, with 32 megs of ram, or an ATI Rage 128 Pro, with 32 megs of ram, you do not need to install the Voodoo crap. Remember: build your pc for the software that you will be running on it, not for your ego.

[@hwn2831]

Kinda agree. Very unbalanced system.700 MHz screams i need 256M RAM, GeForce 2 or even 4 and Audigy(2). VooDoo 3 is a K6-2 or PII-300 territory and it's better be saved for non-Intel chipsets due to their famous AGP issues. It have palletized textures and table fog support for early W95 games which most other cards lack, but GeForces have it too. Live! is a bit old for later EAX games.

[@ThisOLmaan]

Let the man Build and sit back and watch, or else make your own video.

[@hwn2831]

Intresting, how man can improve his knowledge and skills if people only applaud to him. Maybe he just stay a child?

[@ThisOLmaan]

theres a kid in all of us, ur just grumpy

[@joshua7426]

Voodoo 4 and 5 were much better and more power that the ati 128 maxx during these times and the voodoo 3 was literally one of the best and not crap and due to 3dfx jt surpased the 128 in alot of games back then