Building a Retro PC From New Old Parts!
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ก.พ. 2022
- The folks over at Free Geek Twin Cities have accumulated some new-in-box retro PC parts over the years. There's finally enough to build a system with...so let's do exactly that!
Free Geek Twin Cities: www.freegeektwincities.org
Sources:
Audigy 2 LiveDrive photo: www.worthpoint.com/worthopedi...
Asus V8170SE video card specs: www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs...
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I get the retro "new-old-stock" appeal, but you should really consider using a modern, decent PSU. It's a shame to risk these old parts with some "whatever" branded power supply from a decade ago.
I mean, it has "Devil" RIGHT IN THE NAME.
I agree
Should at least take the psu apart to visually inspect the caps and leaks, technically you can recap the psu to keep the old look if you must but yea ideally just get a new psu with a good 5V line
Yes and no depending on the build as modern units don't have a strong +5v rail so some builds are immediately out of the question then there is the -5v issue if one wants to run ISA audio as that is often an requirement.
yeah Diablotek wasn't exactly known for quality
That "random piece of trash" in the case is in fact corrosion inhibiting paper. Very common in the packaging of metal parts, esp raw unpainted items and automotive parts.
VCI paper.
I was surprised he didn't know what that was lol
Huh! TIL.
Are you sure he told the paper "random ... piece of ... trash"? OR the content inside it?
*He calls old computers, "retro." I'm not expecting much research to go into these videos.*
Miss going into computer stores and seeing all the parts on display. Went to college at the time (2000-2004) and remember most of this stuff
imagine LED case lighting and video cards drawing as much power as a marijuana grow light in the 1980s.
Depending on where you live, there may be a Micro Center near you. If so, check them out.
@@scoobert69 my parents bought my compaq at radio shack in 1993, still remember it, i really wish you couldve lived it, its an experience you can never live again, like the time i got my playstation 1 at chrismas, it was different in the 90's
Same!
Id go to Circuit City and Best Buy just for fun. No plan at all to buy anything, I just really enjoyed looking at all the parts and PCs.
Bring back memories of going to these “computer show” swapmeets at convention centers and buying all kinds of parts. Back when it was cool and new to see computers able to play dvd videos
I use to go to FutureShop often and Staples to see the computers. There was a large section of PC games and a smaller section of PC software. This was in Canada. I think BestBuy bought FutureShop or they merged.
Radio Shack was still around. Now, they are called Circuit City.
Eaton, Sears closed.
Miracle Mart, Steinberg, Wise, Woolworth, Distribution au Consomateur, Pascal closed before them, I think around 1990.
Things change a lot.
back when it was cool? shit only became cool in the last few years bro who u foolin
As a former long time Micro Center employee, seeing that CompUSA power supply tester at 4:29 with the Micro Center price tag on it gave me a good laugh since it came from the location I worked at. I know they absorbed a lot of merchandise when CompUSA went under so its not too surprising, but fun to see none the less.
@D aWN MArC Joanona what is wrong with you?
I wonder if the MicroCenter in Overland Park, Kansas also absorbed CompUSA's merchandise. CompUSA in Overland Park was also located just few miles south of MicroCenter. Ironically, CompUSA was located just west of Sprint's campus!
The random hot glue on the top inside of the case is to prevent rattling when in operation. I have bought cases on sale for low prices and they rattle like crazy. A little bit of hot glue puts an end to that nuisance.
why you need that crap?
weirdo people!
Never unboxed board?
I love the feeling I get while watching this video, it's like I just went with my buddy to the mall to check out some tech , stop by the food court, go back home to build it with all your friends around thinking of all the memories you'll make together through LAN parties and late night gaming. Ahhh nostalgia 😌
Thanks a lot for the trip down memory lane. My dad passed away back in 2013, and some of my favorites memories with him are him waking me up early on a Saturday morning, just to go pick up some parts for our family PC, and then spending the rest of the day cleaning, installing and testing the PC. This all just hit me in the right place, thanks a lot for that! And keep it up with these great vids, man!
Gigabyte is good about keeping all of their old drivers, software, and manuals on their website - I've had to work on several 15+ year old systems with Gigabyte boards and drivers have never been a problem.
Bio star has everything on their site.. except for the download themselves
Gigabyte also like using solid state caps, I really rate them
@@virtualtools_3021 it's said that there was old biostar ftp files
@@bitelaserkhalif idk the ftp for the ud something grand mobo i had is down, i ended up using snappy driver installer origin to get em
I love how you edited out the thermal paste part! You're absolutely right, you would of started a war in the comments regardless of how much/little you used and it you spread it or just left it!
It's funny because GamersNexus did a bunch of testing and came to the conclusion that can't have too much thermal paste (besides mess), it doesn't really affect thermal performance and overall thermal paste application is very tolerant to however you put it on.
knew someone that put so much paste on, the pc didn't boot because it spilled over into the socket once he put the heatsink on, also knew someone that just used super glue...
@@seshpenguin that the problem. Cult of gn.... It's religion for them
I know right? I can't even remember when that all started or why? lol
Probably a "PC master race" forum where one piece of advice became gospel and gets ingrained into the community. The reality is, As long as there's enough to cover the CPU lid and doesn't suffocate the contact area with the CPU cooler, It doesn't matter how you apply it.
I wonder how many would have died when I removed the stick on thermal pads on a dell I had and upgraded it to paste because I never liked the pads.
Growing up in the 90s around all sorts of tech just like this? Makes this video that much more nostalgic and wonderful. Thanks for taking us along for the project! Really wish there were PC cases that still had this aesthetic today.
Great retro video but after watching this I am going to go home and hug my PC. Man tech has came so far.
The Front Panel Audio (AC97/HDA) connector goes into "AD_EXT" (works on Live 5.1, Audigy1, Audigy 2, X-Fi, and probably later cards etc.), you don't need to rewire anything :)
the AD_EXT connector on that sound card is for the big ribbon cable to connect the 5.25 inch I/O drive bay to the soundcard. I had the Audigy Platinum soundcard kit back then and that's what was connected to that AD_EXT connector. A custom rewired cable needs to be made to connect the front audio connector to that white connector on the Audigy2 ZS.
@@cheezst8ke On some of the cards, I remember that being an option, but this one looks like it's not keyed correctly for that. I think on my Audigy 2 Plat, it was the smaller header for the ribbon that supported AC97 output. These cards are before the HDA format came out. There were many times I was trying to get a pinout for that white SIP connector... but couldn't find anything online.
On the LS120 diskette drive:
That piece of card you mentioned when you opened the box was not for shipping, but to be placed between metal casing and the bottom of the drive. When you stuck the disk halfway in, the drive moved slightly and shorted out.
Pulled the exact same move in 2001, had to wait three months for a replacement under warranty and the replacement came with two pieces of card to shield the top and bottom of the unit.
That was my initial instinct of the failure when he said that the drive stopped working after half inserting the disk, then the system only booted again after the drive was unplugged.
I'm glad that you shared your experience with the same issue, and now I won't be forever wondering if that was actually the problem or not
Definetely my favourite era in computing is represented here, P2s, P3s, P4s, Athlon XPs, really up to the early Core 2 Duos were a special time where we saw rapid advancement, with the race to 1 GHz, and then later with the P4s chasing clock speeds while the Athlons went to x64 and then dual-core all within a span of about 5 years. Nowadays my current PC is about 5 years old with a Ryzen 1700X, and while I love what we have now, the fact it's been 5 years and I have felt no need to upgrade says something about the slowdown of progress. It's been like that for about a decade now as I could easily still use a 2600k today if I had to.
This era of hardware is what I learned to build PCs on, the first PC I put together was my Dad's old 733 MHz P3 system I think he originally built in 2000. The deal was that I wanted a PC to replace my old 433 MHz Celeron Compaq tower I had as a kid, so my Dad said I could have his old system if I could put it back together, since it was sitting in parts. With his help with some of it I managed to do it and have been into PC hardware ever since. This was nearly 20 years ago and now I work as one of the main ICT technicians for a non-profit organisation in one of the best cities in the world (Melbourne, Australia), and will definetely stick with this career path for the rest of my life. While I had the interest beforehand, building that old PC for the first time really got me into tech and has given me a soft spot for this era of PCs, especially the Pentium III.
I agree with what you said about processors not really advancing much for the last like decade, feels like every new computer I get isnt much faster the only real progress has been with storage and graphics cards in my opinion. But I dont really need the speed of a pcie 4 ssd over a pcie 3 ssd so it kinda feels like a meh update.
@@pilsplease7561 I'll tell you man, get an NVME and you'll feel a massive difference to a regular SSD.
@@TRAMP-oline Thats exactly what im talking about, no noticeable difference in any of the tasks ive done with a pcie 3 NVME drive vs a pcie 4 NVME drive, whether its a standard ssd or a nvme drive i have noticed that I dont care any form of ssd is fast enough for whatever I want to do, this laptop im typing on has 2 pcie 4 nvme drives
I kind of disagree a bit about processors development halting the last decade.
Sure after the 2600k (Which I also owned) came, which was in 2012, the CPU improvements seemed to halt completely for many years, but around 2018, Intel upped their game with the new CPU:s. The 8700k I bought in 2018 was in many cases double the speed of my old 2600k (both overclocked as much as possible. Both good overclocking CPU:s in good overclockable mobo:s9. Especially noticeable for music production (DAW) where real-time vst-instruments (softsynts) take up most of the CPU power and where the extra cores of the new 8700k also made a big difference.
The the improved later Ryzens finally catched up to Intel and now it has been a cat and mouse game of AMD and Intel chasing each others.
From what I get, the latest CPU:s from both of them are again vastly superior to the 2018 8700k.
And the upoming new CPU:s this fall is yet again a big leap in power.
If you need it. I actually am at a point where it isn't a problem anymore, even for DAWs. Forget about games, that has almost always been about the GPU, if you are not playing at really low res...
So, yes, there was a "standstill" between 2012 and 2018, but then it took off again.
But this actually wasn't the first time of a "stand still" for CPU:s.
The same thing kind of happened for Intel when they "maxed out" with their Pentium 4 in late 2002/early 2003. Their later Prescot were even slower than their Northwood parts and it took them about 3 years to later release the improved Conroe in 2006.
In the meantime AMD "kind of" closed the gap with their X2:s which still was as late as 2005 or so.
@@Magnus_Loov I do agree that now since about 2018-ish that we're getting faster parts again, My Ryzen 1700X does feel a little slow at times even when compared to the i7-9700 in my PC at work, and even more so compared to the new i7-11700 PCs we've just bought for our current fleet, so an upgrade to a Ryzen 5900X is in the works and should hold me for another 5-6 years. My main point was that the rate of innovation seems to have slowed down (until recently) since PCs from a decade ago are still very usable. My home file server still runs on a 1st gen i7-870, something which I could still use for basic tasks just fine and is still great as a server. However when the 870 was new in 2010, you could maybe try using a Pentium III from 1999/2000 but it would be very difficult. I remember having do so so at the time when my main Core 2 Duo laptop died and having to use an 800 MHz P3 for a few weeks, it was hardly tolerable.
Hitting that 1ghz clock speed was no small feat. And was a real game changer for everyone in the industry. That was a huge mile marker in pc history. Before then just running the os alone could be a struggle for the hardware to keep up with, after that the os became much easier to run overall.
Intel P4 1 GHz at launch was an utter flop, because Intel bet and lost its money on RD RAM. AMD had the only stable 1 GHZ chip at the time, while AMD stayed with SD-RAM 133 and eventually DDR.
I had a NeXTstation back in 1993 with a 33 MHz 68040 processor, running a full multiuser UNIX operating sytem with a high resolution GUI in 16-bit colour, CD quality sound, Ethernet networking and even full window dragging where you move the window around along with its contents, not just an outline (which PCs and Macs of that day couldn't manage) and it ran smooth as butter.
OS performance is all about software optimisation, hand-tuned assembler was key for getting good performance on most critical kernel and frequently-used OS routines. NeXT's OPENSTEP for Mach OS also ran buttery-smooth on my Pentium 133 MHz PC later on, around 1996.
@@leobuildsit i had an ahtlon tbird back in the day, and still have another one today, its everything but stable, i had to switch for a lower powered p3 and oc it to the same spec, its quicker and way more reliable, i only replaced the cpu and mb, got better fps on 3dmark 2002 with the p3
That was a fun and nostalgic vid
Love watching your channel and ADV China! You and Cmilk are awesome to watch! So cool to see other people I watch enjoying these channels too!
You know that most of these old parts are made in China right?
Dang 1.2 Million Subs and only 18 likes.
@@hamobu dont blame the chinese, blame the companies making profit from cheap labour
@@abrahamalviarez5870Let's blame both, as both are to blame.
Isn’t Diablotek known for making the least reliable power supplies known to man?
I think they were just fireworks in a metal box.
I had one ... Best Buy special as a quick replacement. It lasted a few years before exploding.
I’m actually surprised i had to scroll down this much to find someone saying this. They’re bombs ffs.
Apparently they're slightly more reliable than Echo Star...
Very fun project. Being an IT person I've been through all those times since my first IBM PC-XT and later home-built evolutions and "new" systems this video remembered old days. Still have my IBM in working conditions (640 Kb RAM, 20 Mb HDD, monochrome green monitor and it's "heavy" keyboard and DOS 3.0. Useless but fun. Greetings from Paraguay.
if its fun it not useless :)
Whoa, I just stumbled across this as a suggested vid. You hit all my nostalgia feels with this one. Built my first rig in 99 to play CS when I was 16. New subscriber and cant wait to go through your catalog! Keep it up!
“Not a bad power supply” 😂 great build so far can’t wait to watch the rest!
Quality control 💀💀💀
Power Supplies are about the only computer part that make me nervous I've had many blue smoke on me in the past.
DIABLOTEK 💣💥☠️
That power supply was yet another item on this build that clearly was not new, infact if you look closely at the supply there are multiple indications that it has been not olny used before but also opened up, for example the mark on the case where a security sticker has been cleaned off, probably after some one opened it and damage the sitcker.
That solid (heavy gauge) case is how cases used to be made. I liked Antecs.
I remember building pc's with those heavy steel cases. I used an Antec 1200 case in one of the builds and damn that thing was heavy.
Truth. I recently built a Dual P-III Celeron in an Antec Performance case. Contrasted with modern cases, where the side panels could be used for 1960s Sci-Fi movie sound effects by wobbling them around, that old Antec is built like a tank.
Antec still make awesome PC cases!
Oh man this video is pure nostalgic. I fell in love for computers when this type of pc were the standard back then. Thanks you so much for reviving me this feeling.
idk why but watching this is nostalgic and interesting like i never got to mess with computer stuff until like i was 14 but just seeing all this and what computer hardware has evolved into is just amazing like the first pc i ever had was a old OptiPlex with windows xp on it its crazy what they have become to day and what they can do
That "piece of trash" in the case is actually a specially treated type of paper meant to prevent corrosion... (not joking)
My AK came wrapped in that
Gotta love how ignorant people are to think companies just "leave trash" inside computer parts because they have no knowledge of what they are doing.
^ That's true. I was born knowing about anti-corrosion paper. Can't believe someone fell out of the womb without knowing that.
@@nickwallette6201 Has nothing to do with whether you know about it or not. It's called not being ignorant and low IQ. When you see there is some "random piece of trash" inside a part, you can either be ignorant and stupid and throw it out and say "oh who left trash in here" or you can be smart and educated by saying "oh there is a piece of paper in here, I wonder why that is? Let me find out what this is for..." and then you learn what it is, why it is there, and you remember that for next time you see it. Your reply to my comment proves further your mental capacity. So thank you for that display.
$25 for a sealed video card box without card. What a deal. 😁 An excellent video that brings back memories.
“Look, I know what I’ve got.”
This is actually so fire. I was born in 2000 and distinctly remember how fast computers and consoles progressed. I remember surfing the web on my grandfathers old old computer taking like 2 minutes just to load the webpage. 😂 I love the throw back and getting to see some familiar and unfamiliar brand names. What a time to grow up.
I know this video is older at this point, but just wanted to mention in case someone miraculously sees this; these older systems, rely on the +5v rail of the psu a lot more, so you want to have a fairly high amperage on there. The psu you ended up using has only 15 amps so that may have contributed to some of your issues. In any case, to avoid any future issues, def think about replacing that psu, you can find new power supplies today that still have 20+ amps on the +5v rail.
Speaking of nostalgia around the late 90's, anyone remember those 300Mhz Celeron chips that were overclockable to 450Mhz by only setting a jumper? That was one of the first complete systems I ever built from the ground-up, not counting the system I swapped my motherboard and Pentium II out for an AMD K6-2.
Yes, you set the FSB of the BX to 100 Mhz instead of 66 Mhz. My Pentium II 450 would run rings around my K6-2 550 Mhz.
@@LionWithTheLamb here in Brazil almost all K6-2 was sold using Pcchips motherboards, this ruined AMD image for years.
@@foca2002 Lol, I feel sorry for those K6 owners cause PC Chips made some garbage motherboards.
I ran dual overclocked Celeron 300's in an Abit BP6 motherboard that allowed dual Celeron CPUs. Windows 2000 and eventually XP had no problem seeing and using those dual CPUs. Admittedly, not the most useful thing in the world but definitely a cool piece of technology. Those were fun times.
@@bdwilcox YES!! I couldn't remember the motherboard but I 100% remember now it was an Abit!
That "low" fidelity Windows 98 startup sound through desktop speakers, gave me some nice feels. Brought me back to afternoons playing The Neverhood and Sim City 2000.
I remember once getting one of those 'fancy' Compaq laptops with the surround sound stereo speakers by JBL and being quite amazed at the quality of the Windows 98 startup sound in comparison with standard desktop speakers.
Every time I hear The Neverhood referenced it's always online. I've never met someone in person that has also played the game. It's so weird.
@@xDownSetx We're a rare and fanatical bunch! Video games were still kind of nerdy back then, PC games more so, point and click adventure games on PC even more so, quirky claymation point and click adventure games on PC EVEN more so. So it was niche, but an amazing adventure for a kid back then. It left a big impression.
Love the video. The 90's sure were something special. We witnessed the PC transitioning from being a glorified typewriter to becoming the multimedia machine it still is today.
Finiding those infamous Driver software and pirated OS Keygen cracks were a speciality back in the day!
52:24 The Mouse Keys feature was a lifesaver for me on multiple occasions, when I was setting up Windows 95, and had yet to install the Mouse drivers. I had to be able to navigate using just the number pad.. it wasn't easy, but it got the job done quite well.
I caught that, too. It was a primitive sort of touchscreen control. It was awkward but those 486 and early pentium boards often suffered “mouse driver failure” which was a big pain in the a$$. We enabled the Mouse Keys to allow us to reset the interrupt codes which meant another component was hogging resources. There were some awkward keystroke commands leftover from Windows 3.1 but nobody used them.
@@user-ht8vl5vh4e those did come in handy too..Alt+Space is always usefull, Especially when a window opens off screen, or on a out of sync monitor.. Alt+Space, M, Arrow key... get that window back on the screen.
Possibly my favorite video of yours. Your personality and humor came out and it was awesome. Thanks for another great video sir.
this is nostalgic as hell,i got my first pc around 2001 and built my first around 05/06 and used a sound blaster audigy 2 in it,amazing sound card,seeing that thing brings back some good memories🙂
This was really fun for me to watch as well! Strange how it doesn't seem all that long ago yet it still feels nostalgic. Thanks for putting together this video.
I worked for a local computer shop from 2000 - 2006, so this takes me back. I built machines and did onsite work for customers (network, security, servers). Used so many of these exact parts. Don't know how many of those TNT2 cards I installed, I do remember the heatsinks would get really hot when would benchmark them. 3COM 905C, I still have a tote of them. Favorite card of the time, installed hundreds of them.
In Europe the warranty on electronics is always 2 years standard, and spare part availability is now a minimum of 6 years since this year.. (Right to repair is a thing in europe)
Wow, that KDS monitor really triggered some memories of my family's computer back then. Idk if it actually was the same brand or not, but seeing that label across the top and the arrows in that shape at the bottom just made me think of it.
It triggers lot of memories... very satisfying watching such thing after couple of decades, thanks man !!!! Only I can feel how much excited are you..???
Wonderful machine! :) Definitely would've gone to a very loving home. Really really enjoyed the PSU dissection. Wish there was more on that. So much nostalgia. Great video.
Don't forget to enable DMA within hard drive properties of Device Manager. If I remember, Windows 95/98 doesn't have it enable by default, Windows Me has it enabled. I would like to see more videos like this one. Another PC builds or Mac rebuilds.
Entirely depends on if the IDE controller supports it AND you have the correct chipset drivers installed. Not having the chipset drivers installed on a Windows 9x system is one of the big causes of poor performance.
What a nostalgia trip. Really reminded me of the first two PC's I built for myself in the late 90's early 00's. I wish I had never sold them.
Thank you for building this. Brought back memories. This was very similar to my first custom build. I seem to remember eyeing an Nvidia Riva TNT2 M64 32 MB. I didn't have enough for it so I settled for an S3 ViRGE (only to play Command & Conquer lol). However, I splurged on storage and had both the internal and external LS-120. Came in handy bringing code (and kernels) around to recompile overnight.
Wow, how things have changed through the years. I had a couple of those really popular Antec cases for my systems back in the early 2000s. Good times.
51:57 Mouse Systems made some of the first PC serial mice in the early '80s, competing with Genius. I wasn't aware they were still around in the late '90s.
It's interesting those ergonomic split keyboards never really took off. I'm vaguely tempted to hunt down a cheap used one just to see what they were like.
I'm using a split mechanical keyboard to type this. They didn't quite take off, but they absolutely still exist for people that have issues with wrist and shoulder pain from prolonged computer use.
I have that exact keyboard from the video. I bought it in 1996. I really enjoyed it. Played a lot of Command and Conquer and Duke Nukem 3D on that keyboard. I never did use the extra mouse functionality though.
Logitech makes a great ergo split keyboard. My partner uses one for her work and it's very comfortable.
They are on ebay
I was so glad when optical mice came around.
Love that setup. Very nostalgic for me too! The monitor is tops --I used to have a 19" KDS that I actively used as my daily driver up until about 2006. It was still working when I got rid of it when moving in 2016. Funny enough, I regret that I tossed it and now wish I still had it!
Interesting! It is great to learn such many stories behind these retro components! Thank you for the wonderful video!
How rapid parts became available cheap enough and easy enough to build a pc. Awesome time to be around.
A backup plan for a backup plan. That is exactly why I love this channel :D Very nice machine in the end! I just like the fact that all I/O shields of the era were the same - include/exclude few connectors. On a side note - I must say I miss the point of using new wrapped item if there is a market for it as is. If I were to mount it in anyway I'd go for used (if available). The effect is the same plus one saves some bucks for other stuff and leaves the wrapped for collectors (which is also a thing even if those parts were meant for use). But that's just me. I enjoyed the video no matter what. Thanks :D
Love it when a plan comes together! *cues theme music*
@@OfficialiGamer dammit
I think so so, too. Well, this video was about using as many new parts as possible, so maybe ok in that regard? But in general, for any hobbyists, if you have a boxed sealed CPU like this is best to keep it in the box, as you can get some money out of it, and buy a cheap used part. There's plenty of such CPUs still around so you should have no trouble finding one for cheap (though not as cheap as a few years ago, when a got a bunch of them for about a buck apiece).
It belongs in a museum!
I don't get new old stock on items that are not prone to failing. IE Mobo, Cpu, Sound cards, Video Cards. However, I totally get it when I bought blank 5.25" disks and some times you are looking for an obscure item like a cf to parallel adapter. I will take new old stock for that since there weren't a lot of options.
I can't tell you how crucial rebates were when I was building new systems for me and my friends during 2000-2012. The system may have come to $850 to spec out, but if you shopped right you could easily get that number down to $700.
It’s a good thing rebates are mostly a thing of the past now I’d say though.
The pace of change in the late 90s was incredible. You had to see it to believe it. In 1995 I spent £2,000 on a Pentium 100, took it to university in '96 and by 2000 it was completely obsolete and I replaced it after graduating with a Pentium 3 866. These days a 5 year old PC purchased for £2K can still play AAA games at high settings. Back then in 5 years I went from "this PC runs Duke Nukem pretty damn fast" to "I need a brand new PC to play Half Life: Counterstrike on dial up"
What an exciting era! Grew up with this era of tech. We came a long way.
this brings back memories. CompUSA was my go-to place for parts. love the backup plan for the backup plan. used a lot of those 3C905 cards also.
3C905's were like mushrooms in corporate. I still have a few and they're still trucking along. Things are darn near bulletproof (Their predecessors, the 3C509 ISA NICs, were just as robust as well).
1:08:40 when you said it doesn't weight much, I immediately knew the quality. A good PSU must weight at least more than 500g.
A comment like that just shows how little you know about electronics and computers from this era.
@@cbullar4205eh? A light ATX psu has usually always meant crap quality, and heavy one, a good quality unit.
(Unless the PSU maker was enough of a scam to stick a heavy piece of metal in the case to trick you)
Great build! Love these old Pentiums and this era of computer evolution!
I bet putting together a retro computer like this with old new parts is like going back in time.
The launch of the Pentium 233MHz mmX was a unifying time where it was clearly the best processor on the market, 3rd party accessory makers were supporting the custom market en-masse, and games were making the transition to 3D. Regarding the power key on the keyboard: in '97 having a dedicated key to put the PC to sleep was all the rage, usually they were on the case though. We referred to them as the "coma key" since there was very little chance a PC would actually wake up. Sleep states are still unreliable today in the PC world.
Try using the power cable from the floppy drive on the LS120 to rule out the adapter cable being the problem.
"Retro PCs were just kind of loud..." You can say that again! I built all my retro PCs with modern equivalents for anything that moves, other than the optical drives anyway. (There are alternatives, but they're not cheap or easy to work with.) To me, the authenticity matters at the cosmetic level and then again once the software is running. I'm perfectly happy with faster, cooler, quieter alternatives for anything in between that exists just to get the software into memory. I know a lot of people are purists and that's fine by me-- to each their own-- but I like to hear the game I'm playing over the sound of the machine without having to wear earphones! :)
Quantum BIGFOOT loud
@@rockapartie You're right, they are so cheap and it's a wonder they are still being sold, and at such fair prices too, given how little use most people make of them these days. Maybe it's a good idea to buy a couple of them before they get completely phased out and you can only buy expensive new old stock units, or unreliable used ones.
Exactly. Authenticity just isn't worth it if there's much better modern alternatives.
I'm a purist, but I also have a few tricks up my sleeves. :-)
I rebuild all my old PSUs with new fans, and use high-quality low-RPM (1800 or so) fans with good bearings. (I like San Ace 80 and Qualtek fans.) You don't need huge amounts of CFM, you just need to pay attention to airflow, put fans where they need to be, and not where they don't.
Old CPU fans are often terrible - there are plenty of 40mm, 50mm, and 60mm options available now that are far quieter than Cooler Master or Sunon stock fans. You don't usually need a TON of airflow on the heatsink either, you just need to keep it moving so the case fans can take heat away.
The reality, though, is that a lot of PC cases just had terrible thermal design. Fans butted up against grilles with lots of material in the air path, poor placement options, etc. Once the chipsets started getting hot, it was important to have fresh air coming in low, and have it pulled across the passive heatsinks, to the CPU fan, and then out of the case. So many cases handled this by pointing high-speed fans every which way, and hoped to win by brute force. You can do way better with thoughtful layout.
Also, a lot of graphics cards back then got REALLY hot, and there wasn't much air moving around them. I'm working on my own adjacent slot cooler design (3D-printing and some OTS blowers from Digikey) to at least pull a _little_ air past them and out the slot bracket. Another project: Small offset extenders for 80mm case fans to bring them out away from the grille by a couple mm, to reduce air buffeting and decouple motor noise. This really helps with fans that have poor static pressure -- they tend to speed up when suffocated, making them way louder. This is really important for intake fans, which typically compromise airflow for aesthetics.
Old hard drives are essential to the experience, for me, so I just carefully pick models that were quieter from the get-go, and make sure to find some that haven't worn out their bearings too badly. I'm looking into isolation options as well. You would be surprised how much of the HDD whine is propagated through the metal in the case. That's tricky, though, because there isn't always much room for insulating materials at the mounting points.
The results vary. When all goes well, though -- like my 486DX2/66 -- you can barely hear it when it's on. My Northwood P4 2.0GHz is a work in progress... ;-)
Please mention this to Gigabyte because my 2070s sounds like a frighin harrier jet from the second I turn my PC on. The fans on my card are either off, or all the way on and I seriously regret spending extra on a noctua cpu cooler when I can hear those gpu fans from two rooms over...
These retro builds are so awesome, very inspiring. Subscribed to your channel to watch more of your content!
Old computer parts especially ones that are new and sealed are meant to be installed and used. I agree. There are people out there that can benefit for a retro computer. Older people who never learned computing but are retired now and want to learn as a hobby.
My first computer in 1999 was like this.
8.4 Gb WD HDD, Creative 52X CD-ROM, Intel Celeron 300 MHz, 128 Mb Ram, Mitsumi mouse, Viewsonic 14" Display, S3 Trio 3D AGP MB Videocard.
Love early 2000's period because that's when most of pc hardware started to get standards unlike being loose like in the 80's and early to mid 90's... like for example how USB replaced all the bulky and not needed ports - printer port, game port, mouse port, keyboard port, etc. - all of them under a single port standard...
Wow ...memories! I too worked at a computer store building and repairing PC's before expanding into IT. I rember all those parts. Matter of fact, I still have some old PC parts that I can use to rebuild say a media box, virtual box or even load an old version of windows...some many options with an older pc build!
This is so nice. Thanks a lot, I got one or two times a tear coming from nostalgia. The sound blaster, OMG, I had the one with the front rack, it is the best for Midi music.
5:15. That red switch is a voltage input switch. It can set the psu to take either 110 volts or 220 volts. You might have forgotten to set it to what voltage comes from your main outlet which is why it probably "popped."
That only happens in countries where the supply is 240v and it's set to 110v.
It could also be that it was the cheapest, jankiest power supply ever made with mostly empty space and what little it does have is not even assembled properly.
No, I've switched PSUs in the US around and it still worked.
@@gp3328 Because US mains voltage is 110v, meaning that the higher voltage setting doesn't damage anything because the stuff already rated for 240v can trivially survive 110v. However, in a 240v country like Australia, getting that switch wrong has far more dramatic consequences as components rated for 110v don't particularly appreciate having over twice the rated voltage to deal with.
Nowadays, there is automatic detection so the switch is not needed. The power supply starts on 240v mode and if it sees the wall voltage is 110v, it switches over to that, but if the wall voltage is 240v then it's happy.
Theory about the LS120: Something failed inside so that when a disk is put in, the metal on it or whatever shorts 5V and ground. Same behavior as when I plugged in a busted USB hub.
I remember that we had to spend quite a few afternoons and weekends keeping our old LS-120 drives working over the years we had them... just maintaining them and keeping them clean-room-level-immaculate on a monthly was key in keeping them working properly, quickly, and without read/write errors.
Still, there were MANY things we did back then that really benefitted from the LS-120 drives... Sneakernet was a lot more efficient, for starters :)
@@spacepirateivynova Bit of a shame they seemed so delicate...I could see that drive having been WAAAAAAAAAAY more practical were it less susceptible to lack-of-maintenance failure.
doesn't the LS120 drive need 5volt and 12 volt ? you only used an adaptor for the 5 volt. perhaps it went wrong somehow there?
that was an awesome video, brought back so many memories of building my first pc around that same time period
Love this, gave me such nostalgia for the time when I worked building PCs in the early 2000s.
Re: Unwrapping new old stock parts - these things were made to be used, not kept sealed and mint and then speculated on like a commodity. As long as we have a small number of units for museums and other preservation cases, we should use the rest. IMO, obviously.
That's a cool build. I love building rigs like this now, knowing how expensive it was to build a good system in the late 90s early 2000s, it's nice to build them now without having to sell a kidney to afford it.
I had an old PC of mine back from my sister the other day, with IDE drives. It's around 15 years old. Checked all the caps which look fine, and the coin cell still works. DVD drawer is a bit sticky. It booted XP once and then the drive died lol. I've since installed other drives into it and then put 98 and 2000 on it to dual boot and it works like a charm. Got a list of things I want to add like IDE to msata adapters and an AGP card with HDMI, or maybe an adapter instead. It's nice having a platform for all my old games and whatnot 🙂👍🏽
Don't you still need an SATA driver, or does the system see a PATA IDE drive?
... They make AGP cards with HDMI? I thought S video was odd...
@@Caseytify the O/Ses I'm using recognise IDE drives just fine. As for the AGP/HDMI thing I've still not looked into that yet. Got a graphics card in it which has DVI and VGA, but still want to use a TV as a monitor at some point
Only AGP card that has HDMI afaik is a Radeon HD 4670 or around those model numbers, and they typically go for more money than they’re typically worth these days.
@@thegeforce6625 ended up getting a HD3650 for a decent price which has HDMI, and got some IDE to SATA adapters for the hard drives and the DVD drive, so all the connections on the motherboard are IDE, but the hard drives are SSD and both those and the DVD drive are brand new SATA devices, and the motherboard sees them just fine
great build, certainly brings up memories from times gone by.
Stuff dreams were made of... In late 90s.
Gawd I'm getting overwhelmed with nostalgia.
That KDS monitor matches that computer well, so it worked out for the best. Shame about the LS-120 drive. I would have replaced it with a 5.25" floppy drive. As for the power supply, I'd get with a modern one for good measure.
Otherwise, nice PC! I wouldn't mind having something like this.
Modern PSU's aren't suitable for Pre- Athlon 65/P4 Northwood systems.
According to Linus that videocard does not exist (or does not compute), Nvidia's first gpu was a Geforce 256.
I may be missing the joke here (if so please ignore this!) but “gpu” =/= “videocard”. It’s true that the GeForce 256 was the first chip that Nvidia’s marketing team called a GPU (iirc because it was the first to include hardware transform and lighting). I bought one like 2 days before they launched the much faster DDR version. Sigh. But that was far from the first Nvidia videocard. Not even the first Nvidia videocard that I bought. My first Nvidia videocard was a Riva TNT2 that replaced my Voodoo2 SLIs a couple of years before the GeForce 256. Now, get off my bloody lawn!
a glimpse of the kind of videos we’d see had TH-cam been around back in the late 90’s / early 00’s. My word! This brings back memories of some of the old towers my dad used to custom build. Also triggers memories of the old house that we moved out of in 2001 that I had not thought about in YEARS!!
Such a neat video.
Guarantee that my wife would scroll through TH-cam, see this video thumbnail and not even think to watch it.
Me??? Yea!! Hour and 10 minutes - I’ll watch the whole thing.
Cool video. I still have my 1998 and 2001 computers that I build back then. Ahh, the memories. Thank you.
This was easily the best hour and 10 minutes all week, and wow, what a fantastic trip down memory lane!
I had no idea that KDS stuck Trinitron tubes in some of their monitors. Apple, Dell...sure. But _KDS_?
Right? I was like, who else snuck Trinitrons in their budget CRTs? Komodo? LOL
I loved this video and seeing all the NOS hardware! Even if the build process itself was a bit cack-handed lol
Lots of memories there. I was doing a lot of custom builds in the 90s and early 2000s. That case was better than a lot of them out there
Talk about a throwback. I remember always wanting an e machine pc, too bad the monitor didn’t work. Plus starting it up, that sound, nostalgia. Really the game to be played on this, even though its slightly older, space quest 6 or monkey island. Cool video
very realistic depiction of how building old pcs actually is for everyone , a lot went right and a lot went wrong lol great video
TH-cam recommended this channel and glad it did! Awesome content, I really enjoyed taking a walk down memory lane. I saw the CompUSA products and got giddy because I spent days upon days there in my youth.
I truly like retro stuff. Thanks for the nostalgia!
Yes, the late 1990s and early 2000s were the golden era of the PC. Even the peripherals were exciting.
Having grown up with the likes of the ZX Spectrum and C64, my first real computing experience was on Macs when I was in desktop publishing. I never touched a PC until 1999 when I joined the local town councils IT department where the tech services guys showed me how to build a PC from scratch so this video was VERY nostalgic for me! Good work! 22 years later I'm still a desktop support engineer and love my job! The more things change, the more they stay the same!
I chuckled a little bit when you mentioned ViewSonic right after KDS, for reasons only I would find funny; the computer monitor that we first had with my first childhood computer was made by KDS (re-branded as Compudyne), and when it died in spectacular fashion, we replaced it with a ViewSonic monitor.
Currently reading this on a ViewSonic 32 inch 1440p monitor. No complaints. It was one of the cheapest ones in that size at 1440p available used locally.
This takes me baaack man.... I used to work as a kid in 90's in a PC repair shop
I think the SKU got cut out because when a store has unsold stock, they send the UPC back to the manufacture for credit...
Another possibility is that around that time period, CompUSA worked with various manufacturers to be a central rebate processing point. Instead of making 5 or 10 or 20 copies of receipts, cutting out as many UPC codes, and sending the manufacturer forms to each individual place, CompUSA customers could fill out a single rebate form available at the store (by checking the boxes for each individual rebate), send all the UPCs with a single copy of the receipt and the form, and get one big combined check back.
Those 20gb Maxtor hdds were absolutely the worst drive made in that era. They dropped the warranty because none of them would likely last more than a year. The 3 I purchased brand new all died within 30 days.
I wish ads and product design stayed this raw, there is a certain magic about late 90’s early 2000’s product design and ad placement.
Just loved watching this, took me down the memory lane when there used to be just one computer in the whole house. I had Intel pentium 1 back in 1999. How simple was life back then.
Second hand prices aren"t much better. It took me two years to find a sensibly priced socket 370 motherboard, prices are just insane. P.S. Couldn't you have just used some Dupont style male-female jumper cables to bridge the front audio cable to the sound card header? Done that sort of thing many times, just apply a drop of 'hot snot' onto the black cable ends to keep them in the right orientation for added security.
48:00 - Not entirely true. There was a brief transition period when you had to make sure your video card and motherboard used the same AGP voltage spec.
Oh, and there was also that period when hard drives came packaged with Promise UltraATA controller cards to get around HDD size limitations. I had so many of those dang things, as well as a few of their IDE RAID cards. It was the cheapest way to get transfer speeds fast enough for video capture without shelling out for SCSI3 gear.
The first Zip drive I had was an external model that connected via parallel. Imagine transferring 100MB of files at 150 kB/s...
Wow! I absolutely needed this video! Well done.
I had a 486, Pentium 2, 3, 4. All worked great at the time. I always had power supply issues of some kind. One thing I can say, they ran really fast. Once again, I just put together a brand new b550 board, with a Ryzen 7 5700g apu. in 10-15yrs from now, this computer will be a relic as well. We are still in the golden age. I will be honest, I still like the old look of the cases. I dont care about the flashing lights, and the bling, I just want a case that is solid, easy to put my parts in and forget about it. Those old cases were easy to work with and many were build like a safe. This vid brought back so old memories, thanks for the vid.
Nice build, but I have a few reservations about the longevity of that DiamondMax drive, those weren't known to be very reliable, a CF to IDE solution, or any recent 80GB drive connected via a SATA to IDE converter would be more reliable longterm.
Diamondmax were notorious for write/read head failure.
Just use quantum BIGFOOT
@@virtualtools_3021 Weren't Bigfoot drives some of the worst drives of their time for reliability though? I'm suggesting stuff that has a chance of working in the longterm here, Bigfoot drives aren't exactly that.
Damn I completely forgot how god was that Intel OEM heatsink design when working with exposed dies CPUs, at least compared to the nerve breaking that AMD came up with!
Also LOL on your edit choice about the amount of thermal paste!
I'll never forget the day I killed a customer's BIOSTAR AMD mobo after fighting and taking a hell of a beating to that heatsink spring.
What a cursed thing.
That used to happen ALL THE TIME when I worked at a local computer store back then. So many board manufacturers had this moronic tendency to route traces RIGHT UNDER the silkscreen outline for the HSF retention clip. One slip from a flat-bladed screwdriver, against a high-resistance spring mount (!), and the board was done.
It's not often I watch a TH-cam video and think to myself "Dang I am loving this video!". This video was very informative, nostalgic, and charming. Really awesome content and you are fun to listen to!
Maxtor was bought by Seagate in 2006. Anyway, this is a really comforting video. Reminds me of the builds we used to do when I was much younger.
The early 2000s were the time where there was a shift towards "pretty" PC cases... and omg that was the pinacle of some of the most ugly abominations ever. Like towers tbat looked like a nokia 6110 front or with HUGE clocks... shudder.
Btw, I love your view on using sealed items. They were meant to be used, so do it.
I had so many terrible cases until the early 2000s. haha. Around 2002 I bought a Lian Li rolled aluminum case that was amazing quality. (I kept it and still have it!) After that case I could never go back to the crap ones I had always used before that.
@@BuddhaPhi Oh yes, I remember these lianli silver cases :)