Not Even BCN's Russia Connections Can Top This One - Supermicro S2DGU Build

[Topcat]

hmmmm....

[Topcat]

Re: Not Even BCN's Russia Connections Can Top This One - Supermicro S2DGU Build

...and will the mystery board sign in please: Supermicro S2DGU

Recap time!!

It's loaded with those phony NRSY caps. None were visibly failing....but I did check them upon removal, none of them were in spec.





Another 'made in the USA' gem from the golden era of the PC!


Some fresh caps.





Testing....and passed.



For you young pups that have never seen one of these CPU's and dont realize how big they are.....



XP installed, firefox 24


CPU-Z




Of course this was posted from it...more later after it's hotwashed. I need to find the right case for this little treasure! It's a standard ATX, but not just any case is worthy of being occupied by this marvel!

[Topcat]

Re: Not Even BCN's Russia Connections Can Top This One - Supermicro S2DGU Build

I tinkered with this one a little today....

As if these boards aren't rare enough, getting all the CPU mounting hardware is even more rare!





CPU 2 required a little modification to the heatsink, attaching a fan....since it was originally intended to be in a case-specific wind tunnel in a rackmount case.



GPU change.....



All the brackets assembled, CPU's installed.






...and away we go!



2x 73gb 10k Fujitsu HDD's in a raid0


Pretty old school blue install screen!


A bit more gooey...or should I say GUI...


Now for an interesting strangeness for Supermicro.... There's a mystery setting in the BIOS called "Manufacture Setting", which isn't documented in the manual....come to find out, it allows for minor increases in the FSB above the default....It doesn't give specific 'speeds', but I've read of 103, 112, 120, and 133. The "mode 2" setting (103FSB), runs the CPU's up to 927. The 112 setting, the board would not POST, which would have the CPU clock @ around 1GHz....apparently the CPU's can't handle that....so I didn't go any higher....but all the same, a very unusual hidden feature for Supermicro, especially for the era and SM's reputation about not being overclocking-friendly!



Massive L2 caches for the time....when the consumer-grade coppermine P3's were a whopping 256k.


That's all for now...

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Not Even BCN's Russia Connections Can Top This One - Supermicro S2DGU Build

There's a good chance that the chipset is holding it back, just like the "regular" Via KT133! (I heard that the Via KT133A fixes that and actually supports 133 Mhz)

The "regular" Via KT133 would do shit like that on my early socket-462 motherboards. (can't even go to 110 Mhz or next to that) (would be lucky to do 102 Mhz with stability!)

[Topcat]

Re: Not Even BCN's Russia Connections Can Top This One - Supermicro S2DGU Build

^
That's kind of a no-brainer. The GX chipset (like its little brother, the BX chipset), never officially had 133FSB support because of the AGP & PCI dividers. Anything above 100FSB would force overclocked AGP & PCI buses, and the AGP was usually the deal breaker.....the big thing about the GX is Xeon support and more memory support.

[TechGeek]

Re: Not Even BCN's Russia Connections Can Top This One - Supermicro S2DGU Build

A) Born in the USA, revived in the USA!

B) I wonder how well that will run something 7 or a modern Linux distro.

[Topcat]

Re: Not Even BCN's Russia Connections Can Top This One - Supermicro S2DGU Build

B) I wonder how well that will run something 7 or a modern Linux distro.

The oldest/slowest I've ran W7 on was a dual Tualatin-S @ 1.4 with 4gb RAM (3.5gb usable). It wasn't a speed demon by any stretch, but it was very usable even by standards for Win7. I dont know how well a dual P3 Xeon @ 900 would fare in comparison..... I'd have to find an IDE DVD ROM drive....USB booting wasn't even a twinkle in anyone's eyes back when this was made.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Not Even BCN's Russia Connections Can Top This One - Supermicro S2DGU Build

I dont know how well a dual P3 Xeon @ 900 would fare in comparison.....

900 Mhz is good for old school game emulation, including most Nintendo 64 titles.

[Topcat]

Re: Not Even BCN's Russia Connections Can Top This One - Supermicro S2DGU Build

Nintendo ended for me with Super Mario Bros 3.....my fav NES classic game..... I got into PC gaming shortly after, never looked at a console again.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Not Even BCN's Russia Connections Can Top This One - Supermicro S2DGU Build

Nintendo ended for me with Super Mario Bros 3.....my fav NES classic game..... I got into PC gaming shortly after, never looked at a console again.

UK-based Rare, had very good games for the Nintendo 64 platform!

I missed Goldeneye! (That game came out in 1997 and I first played Goldeneye on a rented real-deal Nintendo 64, IIRC.)
(That was in December, 1997, when we also had people doing multiplayer with Goldeneye, IIRC.)

Then I played that one a ton in single-player-mission-mode on a real-deal Nintendo 64 in 1999! (IIRC)

For me, it wasn't until around the time where I regularly played on a Super Nintendo, the games Super Mario World, Street Fighter 2 (Street Fighter for SNES) and Donkey Kong Country (1994 and possibly 1995, IIRC), when I suddenly became an IBM-clone/compatible computer addict! (mainly starting in 1996 and likely 1995) (even though I first got to hop on the internet in 1994, and that was when I got lost!) (IIRC)

Donkey Kong Country just came out in 1994 for the Super Nintendo and was made by UK-based Rare!

(I have a hard time remembering, but I think I got punished in 1995, for being very new to computers!) (deleted support files by accident!)

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Not Even BCN's Russia Connections Can Top This One - Supermicro S2DGU Build

Nintendo ended for me with Super Mario Bros 3.....my fav NES classic game.....

I played that one a ton in 1991! (IIRC) When I was 10! (IIRC) And probably afterwards as well!

[Topcat]

Re: Not Even BCN's Russia Connections Can Top This One - Supermicro S2DGU Build

I finally put this one together.....in the hunt for just the right case, I found some brand new in box Chenbro SR209 beige cases. Quality is good, no sharp edges, comes with all the fans....and did I mention its brand new? A new in box beige case isn't the easiest thing to find these days!!

Test fitting things....






Case fascia:


Box shot....


Card fan.


HDD Cage:






Freshly recapped Enlight PSU.


Coming together...






Just about done....








It's alive!!


This post of course created from it:


Final specs are:
Supermicro S2DGU Motherboard
2x P3 Xeon 'Cascades' core (SL4XY) 900's @ 927/103
2gb ECC PC133
3DFX Voodoo 3500 Graphics (my last one)
Sound Blaster Audigy
ARO-1130C RAIDport upgrade mated to the onboard AIC-7895 U2 SCSI controller
2x 73gb 10k RPM SCSI HDD's in a raid1
Plextor wide scsi 32x cdrom
Adaptec ANA-6922 dual port NIC

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Not Even BCN's Russia Connections Can Top This One - Supermicro S2DGU Build

Bit of a shocker that you need an adapter for VGA! Reminds me of 2010s' video cards, LOL.

[Topcat]

Re: Not Even BCN's Russia Connections Can Top This One - Supermicro S2DGU Build

Bit of a shocker that you need an adapter for VGA! Reminds me of 2010s' video cards, LOL.

It's not DVI, it's an EVC interface. It's the breakout box for the TV tuner & capture functions. This card is circa 1999.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Not Even BCN's Russia Connections Can Top This One - Supermicro S2DGU Build

It's not DVI, it's an EVC interface. It's the breakout box for the TV tuner & capture functions. This card is circa 1999.

So I suspect an adapter like the Voodoo 2? I don't remember ATM. I know that the Voodoo 2 needed the included adapters to connect between the primary and secondary card, which was what pre-Voodoo 3 was.

Yeah, I know that the Voodoo 3 is from 1999, I had a Voodoo 3 3000 AGP back in the Bush Jr. era. I bought NOS in April, 2001! And then in 2005 or around there, I had to look for another one, as it acted like it had a shit solder joint, much of the time, my first one, caused the BIOS to give a bleep code for video init failure! (other times, usually just sits there at a black screen)

The intermittent behavior (only works randomly) means I likely fractured a solder joint!

[Topcat]

Re: Not Even BCN's Russia Connections Can Top This One - Supermicro S2DGU Build

So I suspect an adapter like the Voodoo 2? I don't remember ATM. I know that the Voodoo 2 needed the included adapters to connect between the primary and secondary card, which was what pre-Voodoo 3 was.

The voodoo2 needed no adapters, just the passthrough cable from your 2D GPU. The Voodoo3500 connector is something proprietary, the card is useless without the dongle....although there is a HP graphics adapter that will convert that output to a 15-pin sub-d....but they're very hard to find and expensive....so you just don't lose the dongle/breakout box....

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: Not Even BCN's Russia Connections Can Top This One - Supermicro S2DGU Build

The voodoo2 needed no adapters, just the passthrough cable from your 2D GPU. The Voodoo3500 connector is something proprietary, the card is useless without the dongle....although there is a HP graphics adapter that will convert that output to a 15-pin sub-d....but they're very hard to find and expensive....so you just don't lose the dongle/breakout box....

The Voodoo 2, does have an extension cable, where you join two cards in parallel, so that 3D with Glide will go through the same VGA cable.

[Topcat]

Re: Not Even BCN's Russia Connections Can Top This One - Supermicro S2DGU Build

The Voodoo 2, does have an extension cable, where you join two cards in parallel, so that 3D with Glide will go through the same VGA cable.

That's the passthrough cable....if they're SLI, there's an internal ribbon that connects the two.

[Topcat]

Re: Not Even BCN's Russia Connections Can Top This One - Supermicro S2DGU Build

Nearly the anniversary of this build.....and a slow day at the shop, so what the hell!!

Some GL Quake1 in 1024x768! The bliss of 3DFX cards and really old games. I couldn't make this work with XP, I suppose XP was far too new for any of this....so I reloaded the system with Win2k. It ran fine in 1600x1200, but the numbers were so small I couldn't see them. I remember playing this on my Pentium classic with no acceleration in 320x200 back in the 90's.

[TechGeek]

Re: Not Even BCN's Russia Connections Can Top This One - Supermicro S2DGU Build

Tried increasing the DPI?