I've seen videos of people reviving Matrox video cards by booting with a secondary vga card and reflashing the vbios with a known working bios - apparently it's a known issue of eeprom chips birotting, random bits of eeprom get corrupted over time. Of course, ideally you'd replace the eeprom chip, but reflashing should give it a few years of working life
A few people have suggested this, so thank you for reinforcing it! I've never had this issue before, so I'll definitely be looking into this and getting this card going again! Thank you!
@@lucasrem There were no reason to use dual system for office machine, there were no office app support for dual CPU. But for Autocad, rendering or small servers it was ideal.
Lots of good memories. Briefly owned a dual slot P2. But only ever had one CPU for it. That machine was a turning point for me as MP3s had just become a thing and I found the P2 struggled to play them. That single problem pushed me to upgrade to much more modern platforms. Socket 939 I believe, and a whole slew of processor upgrades for that. Had my P2 been better, I would likely have stayed put. But I did love that cartridge form factor.
Awesome, good memories for sure! I never really experienced the dual PSU era. At this time I was using Celeron CPUs as I didn't have the money for fancier systems. That said I overclocked the heck out of that Celeron 300!
I built a dual P3 733MHz box in the early 2000's, ran Windows 2000 and eventually XP Pro. Was a decent workhorse for video game development work I was doing.
I would like to see Linux on the dual CPU machines. For the dual P2 something with 2.4 Kernel (e.g. SuSE Linux 7.3 to 8.2) and for the dual P3 something with 2.6 Kernel (e.g. SuSE Linux 9.1 to 10.4).
good to see these rare machines being saved. have a dual P3 'katmai' slot 1 rig myself with matched 600's running @ 650 with golden orb coolers and custom made ramsinks on the cache chips. Dual boot of windows ME and Debian Linux (ME for retro games, Linux to properly make use of both cpu's) and its always been rock solid stable. (I also have Rloew's ram patch for windows ME, and a zip disk I use to boot pure dos when needed). Originally I had a Voodoo 5 in it, but now I run a geforce 6800. Its a real powerhouse for classic games, and runs linux surprisingly well for basic websurfing too. (I dont go online with ME except to play Mechwarrior 3, so no issues there).
That sounds like a a amazing build! It's great to hear others doing similar things and restoring old hardware. Especially bringing back classic games on real hardware VS emulation. Great work!
All Windows NT versions except XP Home will be able to utilize the second CPU. Best choice for older systems like this would be 2K. They will make great late early 00's gaming systems considering they both have AGP. I've always wanted to try that out dual CPU gaming on an old system like this. None of the games would be optimized for it, but the CPU scheduler should be smart enough to run the OS and game on a separate CPU.
Dual slot systems... not practical at all today, but still a fun think to have and tinker with! I wouldn't mind having a dual PIII system just to look at it once in a while and smile!
Haha for sure! I don't think a lot of the retro hardware is meant to be used today. It think its about reliving some of the great times we had (and maybe not so great times) while having fun!
My God... Many years ago I had the same Dell Precision 420 with two PIII 1Ghz processors and a Radeon 9800Pro card. It was a great machine with Rambus memories. Where did you get it from ?
The 4x 5.25" bay/3x 3.5" beige 90s ATX case (with the PSU in the correct location at the top) of system #1 were the absolute best. Enough room for many optical/hard drives, a big motherboard if you wanted it, space for extra fans and all the room you could ever need to stuff with a tangled mess of ribbon cables. The 90s were great.
Honestly, I miss the dual slot ones now let me explain. Apple did their own dual slot one. It was a older workstation machine that ran Mac OS8. If I remember correct and it was dual slots, it would take 2CP. U's And you could max out the Ram to a 128 megs and out of nowhere. This machine would go from barely running to running through a brick wall and keep going. It was absolutely wild with just a Ram grade and another processor you could literally have Mac os 8. smoking on this machine. And same for a lot of the Dell computers at the time. They were Beast when it came for running windows 98 95 and 2000 at the time with dual cpus Then we got the CPU adapter cards. And when we got those holy cow, could you speed up this machine? Dells machines were literally being overclocked without overclocking by just changing out the slot one to a socketed adapter
I've always found the Dual CPU systems quite interesting. More so as back in the day I couldn't afford it haha. I can only imagine the performance difference back then as a result of having the dual CPU setup. Now that I have these two working - I'm going to be having lots of fun.
@Karataus indeed you will want to see windows xp go nuts on dual cpus find a Mac pro 1,1 replace the hard drive with a SSD and watch the loading time go from ok to holy hell in 1 install
@@johnDingoFoxVelocityhave XP on an SSD on a Mac Pro and it is pretty darn fast. Upgraded the video card to an ATI Radeon 5770 and CPUs to Xeon X5355 with Windows 10 and it's surprisingly decent to use with the 32gbs of ram.
@23:48 It says on the label on the back just above the FCC symbol 'G4 + MMDHA32' thats a Matrox G400 Max. A very nice card imho one of the best Matrox cards.
@@TheRetroRecall Your welcome, I have two Matrox G400 Max cards. One Matrox retail and one Dell version, I double checked my Dell version G400 Max and it has the same markings and looks the exactly the same as yours.
@@TheRetroRecall Mostly picked them up to add to my collection and for games like Descent 3, Expendable and Sub Command that support Matrox's EMBM. (There are other games but havent tried many of them)
Nice finds. I recommend to always test de PSU before turning ON the PCs. You can connect the PSUs to some damaged HDDs and measure the voltages to make sure they are within spec. There is the risk of damaging the motherboard or other stuff just because it was connected to a faulty PSU.
Many P4 era cases had some side ventilation for the CPU. I remember having one Antec case with an air duct which the CPU cooler could use to get some fresh air.
Funny enough, here in the slum jungle, in the repair shop I work sometimes we get people bringing their pcs that are still being used for repair and they are around that age, lots from the 775 era that we stick an ssd and people still uses them today, a paint store still uses an 478 pentium 4 with XP to run some old software
I did spring for PATA SSD drives recently, as my quantum HDDS were starting to have issues, but I still use real floppies, and a zip250 paired with a PATA DVD/rw drive.
Two nice Dual Slot One Systems. Great for Windows 2000. I have the Same Case as System One, Strange that they make you pull the front bezel i guess they just wanted to be different mine has a Pentium III . Thanks for the Video
Dual Slot 1 PII's and PIII's----wow! I never even knew those existed until now. The people that bought these machines were obviously power users---I wonder what programs they ran that were so CPU-intensive? I agree that the first system has bad motherboard caps---I've never heard of a dead Pentium 4
Yeah for sure! Dual CPUs were probably used for cad or gaming related activities. I'm going to see what I can do to fix that board. Once I get it removed from the case I'll have a better chance to test everything.
@@TheRetroRecall At that time they were quite useless for gaming, because games were written for Win9X that didnt support more CPUs. They were used as small servers or workstations for CAD, videoediting or graphics rendering running on NT4 and W2k lately.
@@TheRetroRecall such (famous) customizing ASUS boards had been for MS Windows NT 4 Server for Small Business or NT 4 based CAD Workstations. Got the P2B with SCSI single CPU and a Dual CPU without onboard SCSI in a big server tower with dual PS on rolls and front loader scsi bays. Well, my focus had been on CAD (since i368-40 NEAT AT) and MS DC Server and since 2000 and ORACLE DB on Linux... Sun SPARC Solaris and PA-RISC HP-UX. I never had been focused on Gaming and for me it's funny to see many retro pc TH-camrs are pretty much uninformed about real retro computing and it's real history. Yes, SOHO for Home Usage... well actually porn and gaming ONLY.😅
I have come across Asus boards of that era (first board) where the small legs of the FETs that make up the VRM get broken solder joints which causes the CPU core voltage to not come up.
Those dual cpu systems are pretty neat, the Asus P2B-D motherboard should support the early pentium III cpus like the 600 mhz & also via slocket adapters socket 370 processors, the board version 1.06 does support more processors up too the 900 mhz pentium III. Ofc there is a modified bios that allows much more processors then whats officially supported via vogons in " Modified BIOSes for ASUS P3B-F, P3V4X, P3V133, CUBX, CUBX-E/L and P3C-E "
Did you try using the knoppix boot option to set a custom resolution at boot? This is something I had to do a lot back in knoppix 3 and 4 days. I cant find the wording in my head right now but it may help if its still supported in knoppix 9.
Another fine Video Sir, System 1 at: 1:20 It’s a reasonable Case and having 4 x Bays for Optical Drives etc is always a bonus, I’ve had or have 1 or 2 Cases where you have to pop the front bezel off in order to remove the side panels, It looks like the Rear Fan would’ve been completely useless in that Case with the inclusion of the Air ducting which was built into the side panel, Did you check to make sure that the Jumper was not set to “Clear CMOS”, It’s just a thought & not sure if that was the issue? I couldn’t see them very clearly but the Capacitors near the CPU looked fine to me but I could be wrong of course, The only reason I mention it is because I’ve never had a problem with ASUS Motherboards with leaky Caps, System 2 at: 16:57, That Dell looks a little bit like my Intel Server Computer with Dual Slot 1 Processors although the bottom half of my Intel has a Door and behind it there’s provision for 6 x Hot-Swap SCSI Hard Drives & I think I have 3 in mine, It needs some TLC actually as the last time I attempted to power it up it refused to Boot, I’ve got quite a few of those Dell Slot 1 CPUs with the chunky Heatsinks that are riveted to the CPU itself, I haven’t actually got or seen a Dual Processor Motherboard that uses Rimbus or RD-Ram Modules! The 2 x Motherboards that I have here both have 4 x RD-Ram Slots & I believe all Motherboards that use RD-Ram have 4 x Slots, I have a few of the Blanking/Spacer or Dummy Cards whatever you want to call them along with a few sticks of RD-Ram itself as well! System 3 at: 31:55, Not sure if you spotted it but the PSU installed in System 3 at: 34:04 is set to 230v, I did have an issue once in my early days with Computers when a PSU was set to 110v here in the UK and it made a spectacular bang along with some Fireworks, I’ve made sure that I have never had that issue happen again since, Not sure what would happen the other way round, Would it just not do anything being set to 230v when you plug in a Power Cable and only give it 110v and it’s not something I plan on trying anytime soon either, Some nice components in it but it’s just a shame about the Case, The Motherboard looks a bit like my Gigabyte 430 Dual Slot 1 Motherboard which has both SCSI & IDE interfaces on the Motherboard itself, It’s back in its box but I do plan on using it for one project or another at some point! Anthony - Birmingham/UK 🇬🇧
System 1 - I agree - the more optical bays the better!! I will have to go back and check, good point on the clear CMOS call out. System 2 - I really liked the SLOT1 form factor / interface, especially how they were short lived and harder to get today. I never had a lot of experience with RDRAM until I started this channel. I am going to do some more tests as I have gotten much more memory since this video! System 3- I do not think where it is 115 here that 230v would make a difference. Again, I am recalling this from memory. Great call out / catch though so thank you for that!
Good PC's you have there, especially that Dual slot server pc also the second dual slot. First PC might have also a corrupted bios, you should try to re-flash new bios to the chip or if you have re-programmer tool, like i have one i ordered from ebay a year ago, it is very easy on good tool. Thanks for the video.
Thanks for the recommendation! There are a few things I am going to try when I'm able to get this system taken apart and get better access to the board :).
After you do dual or single Slot a, you'll want single or dual Socket 370 then the 478 Amd Atholon / durnos :). My favorite board was the asus K7V-133 with dual ATA133 :) OHHHH memories ! @@TheRetroRecall
the case on the first computer is Enlight 72500SZ, I have the non usb version, it takes drive rails sadly. but a very good case non the less. I built a AMD Duron system in it when I went over to ATX back in the day.
Thanks, others have mentioned that as well and I'll stand corrected :) Thanks for letting me know about the drive rails. I may have some compatible ones or possibly have someone 3d print them for me.
On the first pc, check the clear CMOS jumper. Generally near the battery. Some techs will leave the jumper in the clear CMOS position when they decommission a system. Tends to discourage dumpster divers. As for PC #3 In that era Win 2000 and Red Hat were all that could run duel CPU's. Knoppix should run on that system. However K9 is too new to run live. Try Knoppix 6, if I remember right should go like mad. Another thought, are those slot 1's Xeon? If not there may be issues with resource allocation in Linux.
That Dell did not use two power supplies at once, and I wouldn't recommend trying it. The lower end model, the Precision 220, used a more conventionally shaped power supply at the top of the case. The 420 like yours and the 620 use the bottom mounted power supply, which was designed for ease of replacement and had more wattage. More workstation-oriented.
Appreciate the info. Are you saying that Dell designed the case and board to use it but dont use it? I just find it odd that they had the provisions for it including the ATX header on the MB without it being able to be used. Just looking for clarity :)
@@TheRetroRecall The reason the 420 motherboard has both PSU headers is because the desktop chassis variant uses the 220 style PSU (no room for the more powerful PSU), and said PSU's placement is on the other end of the board. Both the 220 and 420 came in both tower and desktop form factors, but only the tower variant of the 420 (and the tower-only 620) used the more advanced PSU.
Love that 2nd PC, the dual P3 system. Not surprising it's well looked after. Just imagine if it was dual P4s, the same CPU as detailed in the 1st system, not only will you have a home server, you'll have a room heater built-in as standard.
@TheRetroRecall Can system number 1 have a stuck reset button and show the symptoms described in the video? Also it would be very interesting if you can install the CPUs from system number 1 into system number 3 and compare their performance with different RAM standard, RAMBUS vs SDRAM.
I'll take a look at the button as others have suggested this. As for the benchmarking, it may make an interesting video based on the different configs, thanks for the recommendation!
Matrox Millennium G400 Max Dualhead 32mb SGRAM i had one of them back in 1999 payed £$190 for it wish i still had it ,,, loved playing Expendable.....on about the one in the dual p3,different type of video card you MAD that was just as good as a voodoo 3 and the g400 max is rare ebay $190 for 1
Perhaps whoever had the Dual Pentium II system actually had multiple systems, and something caused them to swap motherboards? (Maybe the power supply died in their Dual Pentium II system and they did a motherboard swap instead of a power supply swap? Maybe they did a cheap upgrade to stretch the life of their system after upgrading to Windows NT or 2000?)
I had a couple of dual slot 1 PC's back in the day. 1 was based on the QDI Legend 4 motherboard with an LX chipset and onboard ultra 2 SCSI. the other was the gigabyte GA6BXDS which i ran dual PIII again with SCSI drives. Damn good machines and if i recall a dodgy PSU took out all the SCSI drives on gigabyte system.
That Dell machine Looks very much like mine Precision 410 i have. In my case the power supply is at the top of the case and the ports on the back are shuffled arround a bit. Nothing at the bottom to even accept a PSU in that place. Yours has a different chipset as well. And lucky you! You got 2 matching and OEM processors. Mine have swapped for 2 others that don't even hold on the shroud. (by yours truly of course). Tip: To use dual processors a Windows NT is needed(NT4, 2K or XP) as Windows 9x does not support multiple processors. Or use a Linux ;). Someone also mentioned the Matrox card. Those have very excellent VGA signal quality.
@@TheRetroRecall Watching further. System #3 has an intel 440BX chipset. These are know to be very stable and compatible. That board should also be able to support P3's coppermine CPU's as well. Just keep in mind the 100MHz FSB speed.
Good finds you got, I love Slot1 systems. and about the first system this is things you can check: Cmos battery, change it and also cycle and control the Cmos reset jumper, check if you have a open case switch that reset the system, also check if your actual reset button is not stuck in a pressed in or shorted position. I don´t really think the caps gonna make this issue is very likely unless they are completely shorted out or if the VRM are shot somehow. my recommendation is to make that system as bare bone as possible to exclude as much as possible and if nothing works you could try a different CPU as well. good luck
I've been testing many motherboards from e-waste last month and have encountered two dual Slot 1 boards: an Epox KP6-BS with two P3-450, and a Gigabyte GA-6BXD with two P3-700 on Slockets. Unfortunately both were heavily corroded and had too many bulging capacitors; fortunately their CPUs were fine.
Windows 2000 should be able to run on your third system, but NT 4.0 is probably more "age appropriate" ;-) But I mean, either way, the big question on systems that age is usually the inding of the right drivers to get things running. And I think the Dual-CPU system drivers are generally not the drivers that made it into the standard-repertoire of the later OS versions, giving how rare and expensive they tended to be.
I think system number 3 case looks quite cool when the besel is in the correct position and it should clean up well u should probably be able to find a bay cover that could fit there + you have that nice sleep button
@@TheRetroRecallmy grandma's PII Compaq had a dedicated sleep button on the front that was a greyish-blue colour. I thought it was such a cool feature as a kid.
@@TheRetroRecall all the time because she kept it under her desk and my short 8 year old legs would dangle at just the height to kick it while playing a Freddy the Fish game 😂
I didn't think much of it as it came part of the ewaste lot that I received. It's only when I decided to look at it on a video that it really stood out - then to see the dual CPUs in it.... It was a nice surprise.
@@TheRetroRecall Suprisingly, older precisions are quite rare, i snagged a pair of the M40 and M50 and they barely exist on the internet, i plan to make a video on them just to have proof that they did exist to some extent
Hello. Brings back memories. i have many pc parts from 1995 & forward. While planning on moving I'd like to send you all my old pc parts. How can I do this? Does TH-cam show you my email address? Thank you. Glenn.
i have this p2b-d based pc as well . found it on the street 4 years ago , it came with 2 P2 cpu's . took them out and installed 1 P3 cpu 500mhz . i run windows 98 and xp on it for nostalgia but the thing is so damn slow , single digit transfer speed in MBPS of the disk . i also tried ssd drive with adapter , no luck . tried playing with bios (same as yours , 12-8-2000 date) , nothing . i have another P3 board , it has the same slow speed . dont know why it is , i had a P3 pc also 20 years ago and i remember it was much faster than these two . maybe hardware gets old too..
It could be a number of things. You should run a benchmark on it and get a similar single socket p3 going and run a benchmark on that and see if it makes a difference. Could have one or two bad components on the P2B board.
@@TheRetroRecall unfortunately not, the lightning in a thunderstorm destroyed the motherboards and other parts around 2015, but I plan to build an new similar workstation
@@TheRetroRecall it was way back in 2002. That pc used in construction area office. The dust was really thick inside. It has autocad and few engineering softwares. That was also my first encounter of dual physical p2 on single board.
TWO dual slot 1 boards, one of which uses Rambus memory?! My dude - you struck gold there! Also, wouldn't two Pentium IIs make that last system a... Pentium 4. Eh? _Eh_ ? Ah, that wasn't funny; guess I'll just leave before it gets awkward.
System 3 should be rebuilt into a RGB case. Just for the fun of it. Maybe one of the cheaper Sharkoon ones, VG7, that still have a 5.25 inch drive bay. Or a Fractal Focus G. The hardware looks to be ATX, could work.
@@TheRetroRecall maybe with cable extensions. That would add some degree of cable management that wasn't quite there back in the day. But that might be overspending on the matter.
Not using it just yet :). Still learning it. I'm off work over the hokidays so I plan on learning it and using it for the videos in the new year :). Also investing in some new audio equipment.
Never thought about that! That will naturally happen when I remove the viard from the case. I'll be doing that to see if we can get the board working again.
23:50 The AGP card is a Matrox G400 Max - a card I've been looking for. Actually that entire 2nd system would be a golden find for me! Slot 1 is my favorite retro platform, and a Dual Slot 1 server with AGP... awesome!!! Can you turn it into a Windows 2000 retro gaming system?
Wow I had a dual Celeron absolutely blistering booty biscuit box with a humongous 4MB RAM, 80GB HD…. I was poopin in high cotton, for abut six months, till it was outdated and almost obsolete. Amazing how fast tech changed and speeds where doubling about twice a year in those days.
100%! Man, having a dual Celeron at the time, especially if you had the 300a and could oc them?? Those were the days. But you are right, you wouldn't remain king of the castle in tech for very long as there was always something better coming out just around the corner.
@@TheRetroRecall Just finished watching the video! 1. Pentium 4 & cold definitely shouldn't go together in a sentence, hopefully you can get that out of reset! 2. Pentium III 866 Mhz was our Windows 98 configuration growing up, you get it in a Dual Slot 1!! 3. I may actually have a board with Dual Slot 1 connectors but it only had 1 Pentium II processor installed. I'll have to go dig that up! Some pretty nice configs you have on hand!
@@TheRetroRecall I know it was working when I last touched it, it's able to support a max of 1GB of RAM through the Intel 440BX chipset. It's a Tyan Tiger 100 Motherboard S1833D, a Gateway OEM version 🙂
I’m so jealous of the Pentium 4, dude if you want 5 Pentium 4 full systems for it I’ll trade you lol I have a bunch of dell e310 e510 e520 btx systems I’m kidding I got one massive Pentium 4 built up
i have a few 2nd and 8th gen intel systems i keep as backups but they are not really worth anything as in resale 5th gen ryzen and 10th gen intel are VERY cheap new these vids hold alot of nostalgia... but who is buying this ? ??
There are quite a few retro enthusiasts that buy these systems to be able to run period correct games, software etc. For myself, I do this to bring this old tech up, keep it out of the landfill and trigger nostalgia along the way. :)
I only restored the DELL and HP models, Packard Bell. What you have, people build at home themselves, why restore that, they did a bad job in 2000 making them ! Why restore that ? If you need help, let me know. Sony invented the floppy 3.5 drives, NEC produced them too, some did Sony branding on it.
Why not restore them haha! So much nostalgic memories lol. I knew Sony made the drives (amongst other manufacturers) however I've never seen one with the branding right on the drive.
Just to add to this - the 7237 in its late 2001 form was not... well-suited... for P4s and cooling. If they continued making this design until 2006, it doesn't surprise me that they added additional cooling.
Lol.. The ugly PC! Poor Pc... So chalk full of cool things! Yes, it would be awesome to see if we can get the P4 running again. I don't plan on giving up just yet :)
The Post Analyzer card shows the 5v 12v and 3.3 v rails all working. I also made mention in the video that when I found the 4 pin connector, I tested the PSU at that time, no issues found.
System 2 and 3 are really something special. You can hardly find it like this anymore and if you do, it is often very overpriced. Just getting a board with Rambus memory has become difficult. You were really lucky there. I once had a server with 8 Xeon slot CPUs, but the device weighed 60 kg and was loud as a turbine and therefore not suitable for everyday use. At the moment I still have a dual slot Pentium 3 system with 2x 700 MHz and GeForce FX 5900, with which I am currently playing Half Life. You can be really lucky to find something like that. But it has to be said that special games of the era hardly benefit from the dual processors, as these were mostly still developed for single-core processors and Windows 9x. There were only a few like Quake 3.
For sure, I was really excited when I opened up system number 2, but then to find another dual CPU setup in system 3... I was floored! Your setup sounds pretty great. I'm looking forward to restoring these and having some fun with them!
@@TheRetroRecall It was really overwhelming to see two computers like that, right. By the way, I have a Dell Precision T3500 here, these computers are really like a tank. Very robust and everything is screwless.
Like your vids and legacy systems are kewl but explaining and showing each little item and every component on the system is a tad bit tedious. Been mucking about with computers since 1989 and it's kind of funny to think that a vast majority of your audience has no idea what 'autoexec.bat' or 'config.sys' files are nor have they ever seen one.
Appreciate the feedback. I have a lot of viewers that appreciate the walk through. When making content it's important to think of all viewers and all levels of knowledge, otherwise.. How else do we learn? Thank goodness for the fast forward button :)
I have a question, I have an old emonster 600 with a pentium 3 in it with a slight problem. It posts but I can't get into the bios. The keyboard is not fully recognized. The system beeps when I press the print screen button, but when I hit f1 to get into the bios nothing happens like it's not registering the key. I have tested the keyboard so I know that is not the problem, it was previously in a data center so I'm not sure if it has some setting enabled. Does anyone have any ideas on what the problem is, ant help appreciated.
You could try a BIOS reset by using the jumper on the MB to see if that clears any of the settings. It sounds like something funky is going on with the BIOS and it may even require a flash to a later version.
Sounds good. For now I've been keeping the equipment for future videos / projects so I haven't decided if I will be parting with anything at this moment. I'll keep you in mind.
That looks like a Matrox G400 or G450. I would use Snappy Driver Installer for all the drivers for Windows 2000. It is more for Workstation Settings or Animation
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I've seen videos of people reviving Matrox video cards by booting with a secondary vga card and reflashing the vbios with a known working bios - apparently it's a known issue of eeprom chips birotting, random bits of eeprom get corrupted over time. Of course, ideally you'd replace the eeprom chip, but reflashing should give it a few years of working life
A few people have suggested this, so thank you for reinforcing it! I've never had this issue before, so I'll definitely be looking into this and getting this card going again! Thank you!
It seems to be some issue specific to Matrox G200 cards. 🤷♂️
I think you are right as I have another G200 card that did the exact same thing.
That dual PII is such a great find. What an interesting video card too plus you got a SB16. So lucky!
I was shocked!! What a surprise with that not so good looking machine!
The DELL is more likely used as an Engineer workstation for Autocad or Wonderware. It's very rare to use additional video card for a server.
Good to know!
I came here to say the same thing. I don’t know anybody that would use a matrox dual display video card in a server.
Thanks for the info.
jbgaud
Autocat on Windows ? DELL ? Who did that ?
Just an Office machine it is.
@@lucasrem There were no reason to use dual system for office machine, there were no office app support for dual CPU. But for Autocad, rendering or small servers it was ideal.
Lots of good memories. Briefly owned a dual slot P2. But only ever had one CPU for it. That machine was a turning point for me as MP3s had just become a thing and I found the P2 struggled to play them. That single problem pushed me to upgrade to much more modern platforms. Socket 939 I believe, and a whole slew of processor upgrades for that. Had my P2 been better, I would likely have stayed put. But I did love that cartridge form factor.
Awesome, good memories for sure! I never really experienced the dual PSU era. At this time I was using Celeron CPUs as I didn't have the money for fancier systems. That said I overclocked the heck out of that Celeron 300!
With adequate cooling, the 300A celery's pushed 450mhz if I recall. The lackluster l2 cache was their bane however.
Wow! Those are some amazing finds! Thanks for sharing!
Anytime!! Thanks for watching :)
The video card in that Dell is either a Matrox G400 DH (dual head) or G400 Max. That can on the chip suggests that it's the Max.
Yes I think someone had noted that. Thank you!!
I owned several dual CPU systems back in the 90's. Windows NT 4 and Windows 2000 supported dual CPU just fine.
I am going to try both for some fun. Haven't played around with Windows NT much!
Glad to see those machines saved!
Agreed! Now time to restore them :)
I built a dual P3 733MHz box in the early 2000's, ran Windows 2000 and eventually XP Pro. Was a decent workhorse for video game development work I was doing.
That's awesome! I never got to experience the Dual CPU era - wasn't lucky enough. It's fun to play around with them a bit now! :)
I would like to see Linux on the dual CPU machines. For the dual P2 something with 2.4 Kernel (e.g. SuSE Linux 7.3 to 8.2) and for the dual P3 something with 2.6 Kernel (e.g. SuSE Linux 9.1 to 10.4).
Thanks! A few people have mentioned that. Love the recommendation.
afair that times, you had to turn on linux dual cpu support, by default it was ogg
good to see these rare machines being saved. have a dual P3 'katmai' slot 1 rig myself with matched 600's running @ 650 with golden orb coolers and custom made ramsinks on the cache chips. Dual boot of windows ME and Debian Linux (ME for retro games, Linux to properly make use of both cpu's) and its always been rock solid stable. (I also have Rloew's ram patch for windows ME, and a zip disk I use to boot pure dos when needed). Originally I had a Voodoo 5 in it, but now I run a geforce 6800. Its a real powerhouse for classic games, and runs linux surprisingly well for basic websurfing too. (I dont go online with ME except to play Mechwarrior 3, so no issues there).
That sounds like a a amazing build! It's great to hear others doing similar things and restoring old hardware. Especially bringing back classic games on real hardware VS emulation. Great work!
All Windows NT versions except XP Home will be able to utilize the second CPU. Best choice for older systems like this would be 2K.
They will make great late early 00's gaming systems considering they both have AGP. I've always wanted to try that out dual CPU gaming on an old system like this. None of the games would be optimized for it, but the CPU scheduler should be smart enough to run the OS and game on a separate CPU.
Thank's and agreed!
Dual slot systems... not practical at all today, but still a fun think to have and tinker with! I wouldn't mind having a dual PIII system just to look at it once in a while and smile!
Haha for sure! I don't think a lot of the retro hardware is meant to be used today. It think its about reliving some of the great times we had (and maybe not so great times) while having fun!
My God... Many years ago I had the same Dell Precision 420 with two PIII 1Ghz processors and a Radeon 9800Pro card. It was a great machine with Rambus memories. Where did you get it from ?
Haha it came as part of the big ewaste haul we got a few months back. I didn't even notice it there until it was time to do this video!
@@TheRetroRecall
If you would like to sell then get in touch :)
The 4x 5.25" bay/3x 3.5" beige 90s ATX case (with the PSU in the correct location at the top) of system #1 were the absolute best. Enough room for many optical/hard drives, a big motherboard if you wanted it, space for extra fans and all the room you could ever need to stuff with a tangled mess of ribbon cables.
The 90s were great.
100% agreed!
Honestly, I miss the dual slot ones now let me explain. Apple did their own dual slot one. It was a older workstation machine that ran Mac OS8. If I remember correct and it was dual slots, it would take 2CP. U's And you could max out the Ram to a 128 megs and out of nowhere. This machine would go from barely running to running through a brick wall and keep going. It was absolutely wild with just a Ram grade and another processor you could literally have Mac os 8. smoking on this machine. And same for a lot of the Dell computers at the time. They were Beast when it came for running windows 98 95 and 2000 at the time with dual cpus
Then we got the CPU adapter cards. And when we got those holy cow, could you speed up this machine? Dells machines were literally being overclocked without overclocking by just changing out the slot one to a socketed adapter
I've always found the Dual CPU systems quite interesting. More so as back in the day I couldn't afford it haha. I can only imagine the performance difference back then as a result of having the dual CPU setup. Now that I have these two working - I'm going to be having lots of fun.
@Karataus indeed you will want to see windows xp go nuts on dual cpus find a Mac pro 1,1 replace the hard drive with a SSD and watch the loading time go from ok to holy hell in 1 install
Haha that sounds like a good time lol. As a side note, I'm hunting down some macs for the channel. I just find them much harder to get.
@@johnDingoFoxVelocityhave XP on an SSD on a Mac Pro and it is pretty darn fast. Upgraded the video card to an ATI Radeon 5770 and CPUs to Xeon X5355 with Windows 10 and it's surprisingly decent to use with the 32gbs of ram.
@23:48 It says on the label on the back just above the FCC symbol 'G4 + MMDHA32' thats a Matrox G400 Max. A very nice card imho one of the best Matrox cards.
Great catch, thank you!!
@@TheRetroRecall Your welcome, I have two Matrox G400 Max cards. One Matrox retail and one Dell version, I double checked my Dell version G400 Max and it has the same markings and looks the exactly the same as yours.
Nice. What games are you playing with that card?
@@TheRetroRecall Mostly picked them up to add to my collection and for games like Descent 3, Expendable and Sub Command that support Matrox's EMBM. (There are other games but havent tried many of them)
Nice finds.
I recommend to always test de PSU before turning ON the PCs. You can connect the PSUs to some damaged HDDs and measure the voltages to make sure they are within spec.
There is the risk of damaging the motherboard or other stuff just because it was connected to a faulty PSU.
Thanks!
Many P4 era cases had some side ventilation for the CPU. I remember having one Antec case with an air duct which the CPU cooler could use to get some fresh air.
I do recall some Acer oem systems having that duct as well now that you mention it.
Funny enough, here in the slum jungle, in the repair shop I work sometimes we get people bringing their pcs that are still being used for repair and they are around that age, lots from the 775 era that we stick an ssd and people still uses them today, a paint store still uses an 478 pentium 4 with XP to run some old software
Love hearing that! I find it much more fun to revive an old system then to use new ones. I just find the new tech today is boring haha!
I did spring for PATA SSD drives recently, as my quantum HDDS were starting to have issues, but I still use real floppies, and a zip250 paired with a PATA DVD/rw drive.
Nice! I'm fortunate to have a boat load full of HDDs so I will continue to use them for the foreseeable future :)
Dual Pentium 3 866mhz love to see that system restored and put through its paces.
Definitely on the to do list! :)
Two nice Dual Slot One Systems. Great for Windows 2000. I have the Same Case as System One, Strange that they make you pull the front bezel i guess they just wanted to be different mine has a Pentium III . Thanks for the Video
You're welcome!
MMDHA32, Matrox Millennium Dual Head Agp 32MB (DELL Matrox Millennium G400 Max)
Thank you!!!! It's an interesting card.
Dual Slot 1 PII's and PIII's----wow! I never even knew those existed until now. The people that bought these machines were obviously power users---I wonder what programs they ran that were so CPU-intensive? I agree that the first system has bad motherboard caps---I've never heard of a dead Pentium 4
Yeah for sure! Dual CPUs were probably used for cad or gaming related activities. I'm going to see what I can do to fix that board. Once I get it removed from the case I'll have a better chance to test everything.
@@TheRetroRecall At that time they were quite useless for gaming, because games were written for Win9X that didnt support more CPUs. They were used as small servers or workstations for CAD, videoediting or graphics rendering running on NT4 and W2k lately.
Makes sense.
@@TheRetroRecall such (famous) customizing ASUS boards had been for MS Windows NT 4 Server for Small Business or NT 4 based CAD Workstations.
Got the P2B with SCSI single CPU and a Dual CPU without onboard SCSI in a big server tower with dual PS on rolls and front loader scsi bays.
Well, my focus had been on CAD (since i368-40 NEAT AT) and MS DC Server and since 2000 and ORACLE DB on Linux... Sun SPARC Solaris and PA-RISC HP-UX.
I never had been focused on Gaming and for me it's funny to see many retro pc TH-camrs are pretty much uninformed about real retro computing and it's real history. Yes, SOHO for Home Usage... well actually porn and gaming ONLY.😅
Always different groups of people using all sorts of retro machines for different use cases. :)
Nice computers. Work enough. Greetings from Steven from the Netherlands
Thanks Steven!
Love that yellow!
Hahaha the good ol UV rays!
I have come across Asus boards of that era (first board) where the small legs of the FETs that make up the VRM get broken solder joints which causes the CPU core voltage to not come up.
Excellent call out. I'll be adding this to the list of troubleshooting steps when I go to remove the board from the case. Thank you!
Those dual cpu systems are pretty neat, the Asus P2B-D motherboard should support the early pentium III cpus like the 600 mhz & also via slocket adapters socket 370 processors, the board version 1.06 does support more processors up too the 900 mhz pentium III.
Ofc there is a modified bios that allows much more processors then whats officially supported via vogons in " Modified BIOSes for ASUS P3B-F, P3V4X, P3V133, CUBX, CUBX-E/L and P3C-E "
Thanks for this info, I will check it out! There's something to be said for this era of computing. So many options and fun while you are doing it!
Did you try using the knoppix boot option to set a custom resolution at boot? This is something I had to do a lot back in knoppix 3 and 4 days. I cant find the wording in my head right now but it may help if its still supported in knoppix 9.
I'll look into that for future systems. 2 of these 3 have been repurposed in a future vid :)
Another fine Video Sir,
System 1 at: 1:20 It’s a reasonable Case and having 4 x Bays for Optical Drives etc is always a bonus, I’ve had or have 1 or 2 Cases where you have to pop the front bezel off in order to remove the side panels, It looks like the Rear Fan would’ve been completely useless in that Case with the inclusion of the Air ducting which was built into the side panel, Did you check to make sure that the Jumper was not set to “Clear CMOS”, It’s just a thought & not sure if that was the issue? I couldn’t see them very clearly but the Capacitors near the CPU looked fine to me but I could be wrong of course, The only reason I mention it is because I’ve never had a problem with ASUS Motherboards with leaky Caps,
System 2 at: 16:57, That Dell looks a little bit like my Intel Server Computer with Dual Slot 1 Processors although the bottom half of my Intel has a Door and behind it there’s provision for 6 x Hot-Swap SCSI Hard Drives & I think I have 3 in mine, It needs some TLC actually as the last time I attempted to power it up it refused to Boot, I’ve got quite a few of those Dell Slot 1 CPUs with the chunky Heatsinks that are riveted to the CPU itself, I haven’t actually got or seen a Dual Processor Motherboard that uses Rimbus or RD-Ram Modules! The 2 x Motherboards that I have here both have 4 x RD-Ram Slots & I believe all Motherboards that use RD-Ram have 4 x Slots, I have a few of the Blanking/Spacer or Dummy Cards whatever you want to call them along with a few sticks of RD-Ram itself as well!
System 3 at: 31:55, Not sure if you spotted it but the PSU installed in System 3 at: 34:04 is set to 230v, I did have an issue once in my early days with Computers when a PSU was set to 110v here in the UK and it made a spectacular bang along with some Fireworks, I’ve made sure that I have never had that issue happen again since, Not sure what would happen the other way round, Would it just not do anything being set to 230v when you plug in a Power Cable and only give it 110v and it’s not something I plan on trying anytime soon either, Some nice components in it but it’s just a shame about the Case, The Motherboard looks a bit like my Gigabyte 430 Dual Slot 1 Motherboard which has both SCSI & IDE interfaces on the Motherboard itself, It’s back in its box but I do plan on using it for one project or another at some point!
Anthony - Birmingham/UK 🇬🇧
I do prefer the Award Bios myself but some of the others are not too bad & then you have some that are a complete waste of space! 😂
System 1 - I agree - the more optical bays the better!! I will have to go back and check, good point on the clear CMOS call out.
System 2 - I really liked the SLOT1 form factor / interface, especially how they were short lived and harder to get today. I never had a lot of experience with RDRAM until I started this channel. I am going to do some more tests as I have gotten much more memory since this video!
System 3- I do not think where it is 115 here that 230v would make a difference. Again, I am recalling this from memory. Great call out / catch though so thank you for that!
100%
Just a spectacular video
Thank you for this!!! Glad you enjoyed :)
Good PC's you have there, especially that Dual slot server pc also the second dual slot.
First PC might have also a corrupted bios, you should try to re-flash new bios to the chip or if you have re-programmer tool, like i have one i ordered from ebay a year ago, it is very easy on good tool.
Thanks for the video.
Thanks for the recommendation! There are a few things I am going to try when I'm able to get this system taken apart and get better access to the board :).
Wicked video, brings back the days of fixing and building these beasts !! Now you need the Slot a machine ( AMD versions )
Thabks! Glad you enjoyed it. I'll be on the hunt now for a Slot A setup after discovering 2 dual CPU systems haha.
After you do dual or single Slot a, you'll want single or dual Socket 370 then the 478 Amd Atholon / durnos :). My favorite board was the asus K7V-133 with dual ATA133 :) OHHHH memories ! @@TheRetroRecall
Hahaha that's awesome. I'll keep my eyes open for sure and I'm also glad I was able to spark some good memories for you!
the case on the first computer is Enlight 72500SZ, I have the non usb version, it takes drive rails sadly. but a very good case non the less. I built a AMD Duron system in it when I went over to ATX back in the day.
Thanks, others have mentioned that as well and I'll stand corrected :) Thanks for letting me know about the drive rails. I may have some compatible ones or possibly have someone 3d print them for me.
one of the boards I had back in the day was the Legendary Abit BP6, it be interesting to see what you think of it, if you can get one...
I've heard of that board! Time to go on the hunt :)
On the first pc, check the clear CMOS jumper. Generally near the battery. Some techs will leave the jumper in the clear CMOS position when they decommission a system. Tends to discourage dumpster divers.
As for PC #3 In that era Win 2000 and Red Hat were all that could run duel CPU's. Knoppix should run on that system. However K9 is too new to run live. Try Knoppix 6, if I remember right should go like mad. Another thought, are those slot 1's Xeon? If not there may be issues with resource allocation in Linux.
Will do and thanks!
The dual p2 450 with a tnt16 & sli v2 12s would be a montrous 98 build & artifact. The absolute best at the time.
Agreed!
That Dell did not use two power supplies at once, and I wouldn't recommend trying it. The lower end model, the Precision 220, used a more conventionally shaped power supply at the top of the case. The 420 like yours and the 620 use the bottom mounted power supply, which was designed for ease of replacement and had more wattage. More workstation-oriented.
Appreciate the info. Are you saying that Dell designed the case and board to use it but dont use it? I just find it odd that they had the provisions for it including the ATX header on the MB without it being able to be used. Just looking for clarity :)
@@TheRetroRecall The reason the 420 motherboard has both PSU headers is because the desktop chassis variant uses the 220 style PSU (no room for the more powerful PSU), and said PSU's placement is on the other end of the board. Both the 220 and 420 came in both tower and desktop form factors, but only the tower variant of the 420 (and the tower-only 620) used the more advanced PSU.
Love that 2nd PC, the dual P3 system. Not surprising it's well looked after. Just imagine if it was dual P4s, the same CPU as detailed in the 1st system, not only will you have a home server, you'll have a room heater built-in as standard.
Haha so true!
That made me laugh out loud! Cheers!
@TheRetroRecall Can system number 1 have a stuck reset button and show the symptoms described in the video? Also it would be very interesting if you can install the CPUs from system number 1 into system number 3 and compare their performance with different RAM standard, RAMBUS vs SDRAM.
I'll take a look at the button as others have suggested this. As for the benchmarking, it may make an interesting video based on the different configs, thanks for the recommendation!
Matrox Millennium G400 Max Dualhead 32mb SGRAM i had one of them back in 1999 payed £$190 for it wish i still had it ,,, loved playing Expendable.....on about the one in the dual p3,different type of video card you MAD that was just as good as a voodoo 3 and the g400 max is rare ebay $190 for 1
It will be fun to test this card out with dual monitors. Maybe when I go to restore this system!
A decade ago I ordered a dual Slot 2 xeon 700 Mhz (board + cpus) on ebay for around 20 euros. never got the chance to test it, though.
Dig it out, get it going :) So much fun.
I had one of these running Windows 2000 Server, great solid machine! 'Dell Precision"
Awesome!!
Perhaps whoever had the Dual Pentium II system actually had multiple systems, and something caused them to swap motherboards? (Maybe the power supply died in their Dual Pentium II system and they did a motherboard swap instead of a power supply swap? Maybe they did a cheap upgrade to stretch the life of their system after upgrading to Windows NT or 2000?)
Definitely a possibility. I totally expected the P2 450.. But I'll take the dual P2 350s!
I had a couple of dual slot 1 PC's back in the day. 1 was based on the QDI Legend 4 motherboard with an LX chipset and onboard ultra 2 SCSI. the other was the gigabyte GA6BXDS which i ran dual PIII again with SCSI drives. Damn good machines and if i recall a dodgy PSU took out all the SCSI drives on gigabyte system.
Nice systems, minus the bad PSU. I've had to be mindful of testing the PSUs and giving them a good cleaning to try to avoid damage to components.
That Dell machine Looks very much like mine Precision 410 i have. In my case the power supply is at the top of the case and the ports on the back are shuffled arround a bit. Nothing at the bottom to even accept a PSU in that place.
Yours has a different chipset as well. And lucky you! You got 2 matching and OEM processors. Mine have swapped for 2 others that don't even hold on the shroud. (by yours truly of course).
Tip: To use dual processors a Windows NT is needed(NT4, 2K or XP) as Windows 9x does not support multiple processors. Or use a Linux ;).
Someone also mentioned the Matrox card. Those have very excellent VGA signal quality.
Thanks for this!! Yes I was pretty pumped when I discovered the original dual CPUs! Then to discover them again in the next system... So awesome.
@@TheRetroRecall Watching further. System #3 has an intel 440BX chipset. These are know to be very stable and compatible. That board should also be able to support P3's coppermine CPU's as well. Just keep in mind the 100MHz FSB speed.
Great info, I've heard a lot of great things about the 440bx chipset.
Good finds you got, I love Slot1 systems. and about the first system this is things you can check: Cmos battery, change it and also cycle and control the Cmos reset jumper, check if you have a open case switch that reset the system, also check if your actual reset button is not stuck in a pressed in or shorted position. I don´t really think the caps gonna make this issue is very likely unless they are completely shorted out or if the VRM are shot somehow. my recommendation is to make that system as bare bone as possible to exclude as much as possible and if nothing works you could try a different CPU as well. good luck
Love these suggestions, will do and thank you as always!!
@@TheRetroRecall good luck :)
I just ordered a post diagnostic card, can't wait to find another PC in the trash 😀
Haha that's awesome, and those POST analyzer cards are worth their weight in gold!
Put the system 3 motherboard in the system 1 case. That would make an awesome system,
It seems that a couple of people feel the same way you do! It may be an option for sure.
I've been testing many motherboards from e-waste last month and have encountered two dual Slot 1 boards: an Epox KP6-BS with two P3-450, and a Gigabyte GA-6BXD with two P3-700 on Slockets. Unfortunately both were heavily corroded and had too many bulging capacitors; fortunately their CPUs were fine.
Are you able to repair the damage to get them going again? Glad to hear the CPUs are good to go.
Unfortunately their conditions were too poor to repair. There were many more serviceable ones, including a few new old stocks.
Nice. Hopefully you can put those CPUs to use!
Windows 2000 should be able to run on your third system, but NT 4.0 is probably more "age appropriate" ;-)
But I mean, either way, the big question on systems that age is usually the inding of the right drivers to get things running. And I think the Dual-CPU system drivers are generally not the drivers that made it into the standard-repertoire of the later OS versions, giving how rare and expensive they tended to be.
I ended up doing a transplant on two of these two systems in one of my later videos. It was quite the adventure with the DUAL CPUs and Win 2k.
Cable management is easier said than done in systems that use those IDE ribbon cables.
So true.
I believe the reason Knoppix wouldn't boot on the last system is simply because version 9.1 is too new for it.
I figured that was the case as well.
I think system number 3 case looks quite cool when the besel is in the correct position and it should clean up well
u should probably be able to find a bay cover that could fit there
+ you have that nice sleep button
True, I think I found a couple of covers. It's an interesting system for sure. I can't remember having a dedicated sleep button back in the day.
@@TheRetroRecallmy grandma's PII Compaq had a dedicated sleep button on the front that was a greyish-blue colour. I thought it was such a cool feature as a kid.
How many times did you accidentally push it haha!
@@TheRetroRecall all the time because she kept it under her desk and my short 8 year old legs would dangle at just the height to kick it while playing a Freddy the Fish game 😂
wow NICE score!!
Yes! I was floored when I opened up the Dell, but to find another dual system right after??
@@TheRetroRecall buy a lotto ticket!
Hahaha deal!
Great Dell system. Don't think my dual slot pIII has dual psus.
Yeah, it was a surprise for sure. Actually there were lots of surprises to me in this video - I wasn't expecting them that's for sure.
for the most part, it windows, for dual cpu you'll need an NT based system (nt4.0, win2000, XP Pro). Always wanted to play with those.
Thanks and for sure, I'm the same. Growing up I never had the chance to as they were not in my price range. Having these to experience is so cool now.
@@TheRetroRecall We had dual PII/400 CPUs on similar motherboard from Gigabyte. It was running as small server on Windows NT4.
Neat!! That's something I want to try out.. NT 4.0
@@TheRetroRecall I liked NT4 and W2k. I even had NT3.51, that system looked like Win3.11 but worked much better :-)
Awesome. More to add to my 'let's try it out' list!
God, ive been looking for that model of precision, but they are so hard to find in good condition!
I didn't think much of it as it came part of the ewaste lot that I received. It's only when I decided to look at it on a video that it really stood out - then to see the dual CPUs in it.... It was a nice surprise.
@@TheRetroRecall Suprisingly, older precisions are quite rare, i snagged a pair of the M40 and M50 and they barely exist on the internet, i plan to make a video on them just to have proof that they did exist to some extent
That would be awesome!!
Hello. Brings back memories. i have many pc parts from 1995 & forward. While planning on moving I'd like to send you all my old pc parts. How can I do this? Does TH-cam show you my email address? Thank you. Glenn.
Hey Glenn, happy you enjoyed! Send me an email to youtube@bravtech.ca and we can chat. Thanks!
i have this p2b-d based pc as well . found it on the street 4 years ago , it came with 2 P2 cpu's . took them out and installed 1 P3 cpu 500mhz . i run windows 98 and xp on it for nostalgia but the thing is so damn slow , single digit transfer speed in MBPS of the disk . i also tried ssd drive with adapter , no luck . tried playing with bios (same as yours , 12-8-2000 date) , nothing . i have another P3 board , it has the same slow speed . dont know why it is , i had a P3 pc also 20 years ago and i remember it was much faster than these two . maybe hardware gets old too..
It could be a number of things. You should run a benchmark on it and get a similar single socket p3 going and run a benchmark on that and see if it makes a difference. Could have one or two bad components on the P2B board.
I build an P3 dual cpu slot 1 back in the days, epox motherboard in an Aopen HQ08 case, it was a monster on that time
Nice!!! Do you still have this system today?
@@TheRetroRecall unfortunately not, the lightning in a thunderstorm destroyed the motherboards and other parts around 2015, but I plan to build an new similar workstation
Sorry to hear, but glad that you are planning on building another!
First case is an Enlight 7250 case.
Yes. I have been corrected earlier. Thank you!
I serviced a dual p2 workstation in 2002. But the owner installed Win98. What a waste, because the os just use one cpu. NT based os will use both cpu
Looking forward to this system restored for sure.
@@TheRetroRecall it was way back in 2002. That pc used in construction area office. The dust was really thick inside. It has autocad and few engineering softwares. That was also my first encounter of dual physical p2 on single board.
Nice! I'm fortunate as it seems this system was kept in a relatively clean environment as there was very little dust inside.
Linux will take advantage of dual cpus. Try installing Knoppix to a HDD as don't think you have tried that yet.
I have not, I've only used Knoppix for a live environment to test the ability for the system to not only post, but show it can boot.
@@TheRetroRecall so good experience for yourself and would make a good video for your subscribers. ;)
Are you familiar with any other distros? Linux Mint? Kubuntu? I've been leaning towards installing the latter to test out.
@@TheRetroRecall I use Debian, but probably not the best distrib for a new user. ;)
Understood :)
Interesting finds!👍👍 Have you obtained any Apple Mac computers yet?
Unfortunately not. I'm on the hunt and have a lead on a couple :)
HAVE you come a cross a agp and pcie graphics slots yet that are on the same board i have 1 mother board with that on its a asrock
I think I have one board like that and yes, I think it is the ASRock brand!
there is a bios update for the last asus but its just a newer beta bios with no fix listed. But anyway update any pc. And show how you do it please.
Sounds good!
TWO dual slot 1 boards, one of which uses Rambus memory?! My dude - you struck gold there! Also, wouldn't two Pentium IIs make that last system a... Pentium 4. Eh? _Eh_ ?
Ah, that wasn't funny; guess I'll just leave before it gets awkward.
Lmao hahahahaha I needed the laugh and bam, I read this comment lol.
System 3 should be rebuilt into a RGB case. Just for the fun of it. Maybe one of the cheaper Sharkoon ones, VG7, that still have a 5.25 inch drive bay. Or a Fractal Focus G. The hardware looks to be ATX, could work.
I never did a build with an RGB case before. Could be interesting. It would being some new elements to retro hardware for sure.
@@TheRetroRecall maybe with cable extensions. That would add some degree of cable management that wasn't quite there back in the day. But that might be overspending on the matter.
good vid as always
Thank you, much appreciated!
wow the p2b-d is a nice find, i own a p2b-ds which has an onboard scsi controler. i want to build a windows nt 4 server with it
I saw the DS version on The Retro Web and wondered the difference. So cool you have one. Let me know how the build goes!
How's the new camera ..
Not using it just yet :). Still learning it. I'm off work over the hokidays so I plan on learning it and using it for the videos in the new year :). Also investing in some new audio equipment.
The videocard is a Matrox G400
Thanks!
It looks like a matrox card i had, a g400 dual head, the one in the dell.
And you are right! Others have commented as well confirming it is that! Thank you!! :)
Don't make em like that any-more do they!
That's for sure!
Try disconnectimg reset switch on first system.
Never thought about that! That will naturally happen when I remove the viard from the case. I'll be doing that to see if we can get the board working again.
23:50 The AGP card is a Matrox G400 Max - a card I've been looking for. Actually that entire 2nd system would be a golden find for me! Slot 1 is my favorite retro platform, and a Dual Slot 1 server with AGP... awesome!!! Can you turn it into a Windows 2000 retro gaming system?
Thanks and this system definitely warrants that type of build! Stay tuned!
wow that dual PIII must have been expensive in 1999
VERY expensive.
Wow I had a dual Celeron absolutely blistering booty biscuit box with a humongous 4MB RAM, 80GB HD….
I was poopin in high cotton, for abut six months, till it was outdated and almost obsolete. Amazing how fast tech changed and speeds where doubling about twice a year in those days.
100%! Man, having a dual Celeron at the time, especially if you had the 300a and could oc them?? Those were the days. But you are right, you wouldn't remain king of the castle in tech for very long as there was always something better coming out just around the corner.
PSU's "power good" signal will keep the motherboard in reset if the signal is not asserted.
I'll check that out, thanks!
Sorry to be nitpicky but the first case you featured isn't an InWin case -- it's an Enlight EN-72500SZ. Love your work!
No problem at all, I stand corrected! :). Thank you!
Here I am with the first comment. Super early to your clip today TRR!
Whooohooo!!!!!
@@TheRetroRecall Just finished watching the video!
1. Pentium 4 & cold definitely shouldn't go together in a sentence, hopefully you can get that out of reset!
2. Pentium III 866 Mhz was our Windows 98 configuration growing up, you get it in a Dual Slot 1!!
3. I may actually have a board with Dual Slot 1 connectors but it only had 1 Pentium II processor installed. I'll have to go dig that up!
Some pretty nice configs you have on hand!
So happy you enjoyed! Haha yes a P4 should give me 1st degree burns lol! Hopefully you are able to find that board and get it going!
@@TheRetroRecall I know it was working when I last touched it, it's able to support a max of 1GB of RAM through the Intel 440BX chipset. It's a Tyan Tiger 100 Motherboard S1833D, a Gateway OEM version 🙂
Nice!!
I’m so jealous of the Pentium 4, dude if you want 5 Pentium 4 full systems for it I’ll trade you lol
I have a bunch of dell e310 e510 e520 btx systems
I’m kidding
I got one massive Pentium 4 built up
Hahaha as do I :) For the P4 system, I have to get it working again.
i have a few 2nd and 8th gen intel systems i keep as backups
but they are not really worth anything as in resale
5th gen ryzen and 10th gen intel are VERY cheap new
these vids hold alot of nostalgia... but who is buying this ? ??
There are quite a few retro enthusiasts that buy these systems to be able to run period correct games, software etc. For myself, I do this to bring this old tech up, keep it out of the landfill and trigger nostalgia along the way. :)
I only restored the DELL and HP models, Packard Bell.
What you have, people build at home themselves, why restore that, they did a bad job in 2000 making them ! Why restore that ?
If you need help, let me know.
Sony invented the floppy 3.5 drives, NEC produced them too, some did Sony branding on it.
Why not restore them haha! So much nostalgic memories lol. I knew Sony made the drives (amongst other manufacturers) however I've never seen one with the branding right on the drive.
For me the first case is an Enlight not an InWin, but maybe they are the same company, I don't know.
I may be incorrect, however I was pretty sure it was InWin. Either way, I'll stand corrected :)
@@TheRetroRecall It looks like Enlight to me too. 7237 with an extra front USB port...
Just to add to this - the 7237 in its late 2001 form was not... well-suited... for P4s and cooling. If they continued making this design until 2006, it doesn't surprise me that they added additional cooling.
Good to know. Sorry all :)
I think it would be a great case for a sleeper pc build.
That late Pentium 4 would make a great XP gaming machine, pretty sad it's not booting. Great components on the ugly PC though!
Lol.. The ugly PC! Poor Pc... So chalk full of cool things! Yes, it would be awesome to see if we can get the P4 running again. I don't plan on giving up just yet :)
MB and cards in sys 3 in case 1 wood be sweet pc
Haha a lot of people are recommending that. It seems that there may be a future transplant video! Stay tuned!
You Didn't Check The PSU Or first System
The Post Analyzer card shows the 5v 12v and 3.3 v rails all working. I also made mention in the video that when I found the 4 pin connector, I tested the PSU at that time, no issues found.
The 4 pin Psu are 2 yellow And black Wire?
is Cpu Power Cable@@TheRetroRecall
And Check The CPU
Too bad the Pentium 4 board does not accept Cedar Mill CPUs
I have others that may. I have quite a few different systems from the years, not to mention different board and various components.
System 2 and 3 are really something special. You can hardly find it like this anymore and if you do, it is often very overpriced. Just getting a board with Rambus memory has become difficult. You were really lucky there. I once had a server with 8 Xeon slot CPUs, but the device weighed 60 kg and was loud as a turbine and therefore not suitable for everyday use. At the moment I still have a dual slot Pentium 3 system with 2x 700 MHz and GeForce FX 5900, with which I am currently playing Half Life. You can be really lucky to find something like that. But it has to be said that special games of the era hardly benefit from the dual processors, as these were mostly still developed for single-core processors and Windows 9x. There were only a few like Quake 3.
For sure, I was really excited when I opened up system number 2, but then to find another dual CPU setup in system 3... I was floored! Your setup sounds pretty great. I'm looking forward to restoring these and having some fun with them!
@@TheRetroRecall It was really overwhelming to see two computers like that, right. By the way, I have a Dell Precision T3500 here, these computers are really like a tank. Very robust and everything is screwless.
That's awesome!! I love the too less design (as long as it works lol)
It's always Dell 420 somewhere.
Haha!
Like your vids and legacy systems are kewl but explaining and showing each little item and every component on the system is a tad bit tedious. Been mucking about with computers since 1989 and it's kind of funny to think that a vast majority of your audience has no idea what 'autoexec.bat' or 'config.sys' files are nor have they ever seen one.
Appreciate the feedback. I have a lot of viewers that appreciate the walk through. When making content it's important to think of all viewers and all levels of knowledge, otherwise.. How else do we learn? Thank goodness for the fast forward button :)
Dual PII very rear
Yes it is, having dual CPU was a nice surprise!
I have a question, I have an old emonster 600 with a pentium 3 in it with a slight problem. It posts but I can't get into the bios. The keyboard is not fully recognized. The system beeps when I press the print screen button, but when I hit f1 to get into the bios nothing happens like it's not registering the key. I have tested the keyboard so I know that is not the problem, it was previously in a data center so I'm not sure if it has some setting enabled. Does anyone have any ideas on what the problem is, ant help appreciated.
You could try a BIOS reset by using the jumper on the MB to see if that clears any of the settings. It sounds like something funky is going on with the BIOS and it may even require a flash to a later version.
@@TheRetroRecall Thank you, I’ll give it a try! Need to look up where that jumper is. I will update you if it works.
Is it USB or PS/2 keyboard? For older systems PS/2 is much better.
@@xsc1000 I’m using a ps/2 keyboard.
@@TheRetroRecall I was able to find the jumpers and I was able to clear the CMOS and password. That did the trick, thank you!
ive been looking for a dual slot pc let me know if you want to sell it
Sounds good. For now I've been keeping the equipment for future videos / projects so I haven't decided if I will be parting with anything at this moment. I'll keep you in mind.
That looks like a Matrox G400 or G450. I would use Snappy Driver Installer for all the drivers for Windows 2000. It is more for Workstation Settings or Animation
Thanks!
for the duel CPU system, probably Windows 2000 or XP Pro.
those would be the only two choices or a older copy of a Linux distro that can use 2 CPU's
Thanks!
👍👍😎😎😎😎😎😎
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed.