Topcat's Ultimate Pentium 4 Retro Gamer!

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's Ultimate Pentium 4 Retro Gamer!

Though it originally came with a voodoo 3 2000 agp. Maybe I could...run my 5500, it was released in 2000, about the same time as the computer I had.

It would be close enough. If the hardware is ~a year or so apart, it works. The voodoo3 is the best all-around 3dfx GPU; and is my favorite. It would play all the glide games smoothly at resolutions appropriate for them at the time. The V5500 would too, at higher resolutions....but most of those old games weren't intended to be ran that high, and had other issues that went along with it; such as text being way too small....but they would run none the less.... I have one V5 system here, just for nostalgic reasons I suppose.....but the crazy money people think these are worth is getting absurd.....but supply & demand I suppose; they don't make 'em anymore!!

If you're running your V5 instead of it sitting in a stinky storage unit, my soul is happy for it.

[Uranium-235]

Re: Topcat's Ultimate Pentium 4 Retro Gamer!

A retro gaming system for me would be like a pentium 3 with a geforce 3. That is what I had in high school. 667/gf3 ti 200

though I would want to up it to a socket 370 vs the original slot 1.

Though it originally came with a voodoo 3 2000 agp. Maybe I could...run my 5500, it was released in 2000, about the same time as the computer I had.

too bad I can't put my geforce 4 4600 in it, it was in 2002, too late for the computer I had

would also have to put windows 98 on it lol

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's Ultimate Pentium 4 Retro Gamer!

I was scouting some parts last night for a customer build when I stumbled upon something very peculiar that would work on this build; which will take this build in a very different but neat direction!!

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's Ultimate Pentium 4 Retro Gamer!

I've been reading your original post - your monster of a 8PENXP seems to have had Nichicons gone bad all around.

None were bloated, but all I checked were severely out of tolerance.

i just went ahead and yeet'd the hell out of every HM I could lay my eyes on, and put some 2007/08 OST RLX in their place. I figure those being 1000uF, they're usually okay for the most part (never had any go bad from these. None at all.).

I polymodded mine where it counted....the rest done in Rubycon ZLH.

Tip: For the VRM fan (and any sleeve bearing fan for that matter), use some bicycle oil. I had to use such oil on my 8IG1000's fan and it quickly sprung back to life.

I use grease in them. This fan seems to have some electrical issues.

I found a P4 Prescott 3.2GHz 1M L2! That should do it! I found a couple 3.4's, but priced more than I was willing to spend; cheapest was $100!! I got the 3.2GHz for $22. 200MHz from a netburst CPU will yield very little (if any) improvement, the 3.2 will be plenty!

[Dan81]

Re: Topcat's Ultimate Pentium 4 Retro Gamer!

I've been reading your original post - your monster of a 8PENXP seems to have had Nichicons gone bad all around.

My 8IG1000 Pro surprisingly had only one HM go bad over the first DIMM slot. The rest of the board had OST RLS and RLX all round the CPU and AGP sections, and more OG HM caps inbetween PCI, ATX plug and right on the corner of the board, near the USB headers.

i just went ahead and yeet'd the hell out of every HM I could lay my eyes on, and put some 2007/08 OST RLX in their place. I figure those being 1000uF, they're usually okay for the most part (never had any go bad from these. None at all.).

Oh, and while doing a whole Texas Chainsaw Massacre out of those HMs, I also added some KZGs to the pile, installing some Ruby MBZ in their place on the mobo. Up next would probably be replacing the low VRM side with MBZs as well, though it seems whoever recapped it with OSTs didn't have any issues with it, and it's been an almost 24/7 running machine.

Tip: For the VRM fan (and any sleeve bearing fan for that matter), use some bicycle oil. I had to use such oil on my 8IG1000's fan and it quickly sprung back to life.

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's Ultimate Pentium 4 Retro Gamer!

I had to take this off the bench to work on other things....but before I did, I did some experimenting. The 2 extra RAM slots don't come without a little kryptonite. Even Gigabyte's site warns of this; slowdown in memory speed if the additional channel is used on each bank....so I wanted to see how much..... It drops from 200 to 160 per channel according to memtest....that's pretty significant. I also tested it with 4gb RAM, 2 1gb modules in each bank. POST screen sees 3.3gb. I found 4x 512mb OCZ PC3200 DIMMs in the pile, that has it at 2gb running @ full speed; 400MHz interleaved between both channels per bank....I'm fine with that. A gaming rig of this era running XP Pro and age-specific games will rip on this. More as this develops further.

[Dan81]

Re: Topcat's Ultimate Pentium 4 Retro Gamer!

Welp, guess my 8IG1000 Pro + Prophet 3D 9700 Pro are no match for this monster

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's Ultimate Pentium 4 Retro Gamer!

And this works on a house floor fan the same way?

That I couldn't say...but I'd render a guess that if you can get this stuff into the bearings or sleeves, it would do fine.

[keeney123]

Re: Topcat's Ultimate Pentium 4 Retro Gamer!

No problem. Zep2k is wonderful stuff! Pricey, but a little goes a long way. It's probably out of stock for the same reason a lot of other things are.... I've been reviving fans with it for over a decade, I've never had to redo one again later on.

And this works on a house floor fan the same way?

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's Ultimate Pentium 4 Retro Gamer!

Zep 2000 is very popular. Even the manufacturer is out of stock. Interesting article. Thank you.

No problem. Zep2k is wonderful stuff! Pricey, but a little goes a long way. It's probably out of stock for the same reason a lot of other things are.... I've been reviving fans with it for over a decade, I've never had to redo one again later on.

[keeney123]

Re: Topcat's Ultimate Pentium 4 Retro Gamer!

Third paragraph in this post:

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...8&postcount=13

Zep 2000 is very popular. Even the manufacturer is out of stock. Interesting article. Thank you.
The anti-seize I was told by a Korean War Veteran Marine that anti-seize can be put underwater indefinitely and when one goes to undue it there is no problem even in salt water. I used SeaFoam penetrating oil to spray all the crude off.

[Topcat]

Re: Topcat's Ultimate Pentium 4 Retro Gamer!

What type of grease did you use to repack the GPU fan bearing? I ask because I had a similar problem with a House fan running slow. I am sure they are different bearings. With the house fan it has an oil impregnated sleeve they called a bearing and ended up being worn out by about 5 1/2 years. I then use Permatex anti-seize lubrication 80078 on the sleeve and the shaft. And the fan is still going 3/4 a year later. This lubricate holds up to 1600F but around 400F it starts to turn to a paste.

Third paragraph in this post:

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpo...8&postcount=13

[keeney123]

Re: Topcat's Ultimate Pentium 4 Retro Gamer!

What type of grease did you use to repack the GPU fan bearing? I ask because I had a similar problem with a House fan running slow. I am sure they are different bearings. With the house fan it has an oil impregnated sleeve they called a bearing and ended up being worn out by about 5 1/2 years. I then use Permatex anti-seize lubrication 80078 on the sleeve and the shaft. And the fan is still going 3/4 a year later. This lubricate holds up to 1600F but around 400F it starts to turn to a paste.

[Topcat]

I'll open this build with the comment that the Pentium 4 processor was probably my least-favorite CPU; even in Xeons. Netburst processors were hot-running and quite unimpressive performers considering the high clock speeds....but they were capable to a certain extent.....and are now entering the peculiar era of 'retro-ness'.

With that said; I was given THIS LITTLE JEWEL last Friday....a gaming rig built on the very CPU I liked the least....but there were some interesting things in it to say the least....and I really don't have a really good P4 retro gamer in my fleet....so....hmmm...yea...lets have a little fun with this! If I trash it, I probably wouldn't get upset at all....So why did I make a new thread rather than just add it to the 'weird build' thread since it seemingly an insignificant build?! I dunno...but some mods were done; so it's not 'stock' anymore. Maybe that and the fact it has such a killer GPU will be enough to set it apart and qualify it for a thread of its own!

Just a quick recap of the important stuff in it:
Gigabyte GA-8PENXP v2.0
P4 Northwood @ 2.6GHz
2GB RAM
eVGA GeForce 6800 Ultra 256mb
Bunch of unknown size IDE HDD's
Chieftec case, not sure what model it is.

...and here we go!

It's time to start taking this thing apart. I don't know if I'll be reusing this case....my OCD is already going ballistic over the missing door; but the case is otherwise in pretty decent shape. I do not have any good quality beige cases of that era to put this in....so the case may be a problem at some point.....but I'm a long way from case selection, I have time to ponder that one.



The best part of this build is the eVGA GeForce 6800 Ultra 256mb GPU....and an Audigy2 sound card.



As I was pulling it apart, I found a dial-up modem....yawn yawn, not uncommon for a system from 2003...but there was also a PCI NIC.....which raised concerns the onboard was bad....another thing common to find around this area due to surges & lightning strikes.



It has 2gb RAM, not a single stick matched and they're the wrong speed (PC2100 & PC2700)....not a single stick of PC3200, which is what it needed....



I test fired it on the bench, I wanted to test the onboard NIC; which is 100% in working condition....not sure what the second one was all about....maybe it was some weird network config they had going.....don't know and don't care....the one that counts works! Also peeked at the CPU.... A Northwood @ 2.6GHz.... Boggles my mind why they put such a lame CPU and a bunch of slow mis-matched memory in this thing, but such a kick ass GPU....

While I had it set up for testing, I also flashed the BIOS with the last release. It still had the first release on it.



Now comes the fun. It needs some recapping!!



This thing is filled with Nichicon HM series from their 'rotten years'... None of them were bloated or vented.....but get a load of this!!



None of them were even close to their tolerances. The one above actually started off around 7300uF and trickled down a little. The 1000uF caps I checked as I pulled ranged from ~1300uF to ~1600uF. ESR was also reading out of spec (high). It's a wonder it worked at all....but I didn't have any real loads on it when I checked it. FWIW, the Sanyo WG's were in spec, it was only the Nichicons (majority) that were out.

Anyway, here's where the fun starts.....lets polymod this thing!

The secondary VRM module first....



...and of course the motherboard...



Now time to refurb the fans....







The motherboard was disgustingly filthy. I did hotwash it, blast the water out with the air hose, and then let it sit under a heat register for an hour or so while I finished the fans.



Fans & VRM done.





Now for the GPU, which is just as crudded as the motherboard was..... I didn't hotwash it, as it's easier to clean with small brushes & compressed air; far less crevices for shit to live...I really didn't want to wet this if I didn't have to.



Heatsinks removed to reveal the trash thermal paste they used has comletely dried out.



Disassembling the fan.





The remaining dried out crud cleaned off.



Back side of the PCB cleaned off.



Sinks washed off & dried.



Washed the fan & housing out. I also stripped & repacked the GPU fan bearings.


GPU going back together.





...and done!!



Now time to test fire it and see if the magic smoke wants to be released!!



Nope, it POST'd and ran!! ...and I was very happy to see that; considering all that had just been done (especially the GPU)! The only glitch I noticed, the VRM fan is temperamental. Even after servicing, it doesn't always start on it own. It's spinning free, but sometimes it needs a little nudge, then it takes off....



That's all for today....I'll tackle that power supply next..... I also want to get a better CPU and the correct speed RAM for it in larger modules. I have plenty of PC3200, but only in small denominations..... Stay tuned!