I was born in 2004 and the first computer I could use was a Samsung laptop with Ivy Bridge on Windows 8. I've never used a computer older than a Pentium 3, but I'd really like to use one now. I love watching retro PC videos. I liked your video. I'm from Russia and my English is pretty bad, so I used an online translator to get the point across. I hope that the essence of what was said is not distorted.
Clarification. I more or less understand everything that is said in English, but I cannot say anything in English myself, even the most trivial things. Unfortunately. I would really like to improve my English skills, but I can't find the time.
We had Commodore 64s at school.. probably when I was around 7 or 8. One of my good friends had one too. Then around 1994 we got our own 486. I was around 12 years old.
@@alwaysobsolete Thanks for the answer! Sorry, I thought for a long time about what else to write because it sounds kind of bad and impolite, but no way I could, since it's very late in the day. I don't mean to offend you or anything like that.
There's a useful tool called "SetMul" that can disable some features of the processor, such as the L1 cache. Disabling the L1 cache can cut the speed in half, which may make Descent playable on your other machine.
Nice video and a nice computer. About transfering files, I can advice a way of doing that - at least I transfer files using LPT null modem cable and good old Norton Commander 4.0 on both sides - and a notebook with win 98se and usb on the other sides. It works with all my retro-systems, from 286 to P1... I have been collecting vintage computers since 2006 )
@@alwaysobsolete maybe it's not the fastest way, but if LPT ports work fine its ok - I put to old computers not only games that way, but also distributive od MS-Dos, Win31,95,98,Photoshop,ACDsee,Word,Etc - as I also like to make posters in old Photoshop, like 3 or 5.0LE)
@@yakovkhalip9714 I prefer using a network. There's an investment cost to buy NICs and cables, and to setup a file server, but in the end it is so much faster and more convenient.
@@alwaysobsolete If it was like the Aptiva we had in the mid 90s, it probably had a Trident VGA controller. Definitely, VLB is "theoretically" faster, or could be, as it's tied to the FSB clock directly, but with some CPUs that type of timing could result in poor performance in certain video modes. One of the fastest PCI-based chips that's era appropriate is the S3 Trio 864 fwiw
What kind of problems did you have installing Windows 3.x applications on the TI CPU? The Cyrix 486 generation generally didn't have compatibility issues; that was only for the Cx5x86 which was a scaled down 6x86, and even then the issues typically only surfaced when enabled the advanced features that were disabled because they caused stability issues.
Windows takes a good..5 mins to load. "Bad Huffman Code" error and pop up system freeze errors that require reboot. Tried half a dozen different types of software, Loderunner, midisoft studio, MS Office, AOL 2.5 etc. Ironically...Epic Megagames games can run under win3.1 fine...Jazz Jackrabbit, Epic pinball etc
@@alwaysobsolete "Bad Huffman Code" generally refers to compression algorithms or errors processing them. Do these errors happen when trying to decompress setup files? To be safe, I'd also check the RAM with MemTest86 or something similar. Windows 3.1 also has some diagnostic startup options. Use WIN /? and try some of the options to see if any of them improve startup performance. Also, just to rule out odd behavior, have you tried down clocking the board to 33MHz from 40MHz to see if it performs more stably?
Yes absolutely on the decompress setup file issue (CRC errors). I solved this in DOS by swapping out sticks and re-arranging the stick placements physically. Win 3.1 seems to be more sensitive to this? I've tried the various startup options as well. Sometimes it gets me a little bit further before crashing. I've yet to try downclocking. No matter what I do, the long load time is always there.
@alwaysobsolete you should definitely try the down clock. While VLB should be fine at 40 and 50MHz, as I understand it those speeds are technically out of spec. You can also check to see if your motherboard supports adding wait states for speeds above 33MHz. Otherwise I think AMD had a DX/2 80MHz chip. If you have access to one, you can try swapping out the CPU to see if the issue persists while keeping all other factors the same just to rule out the TI CPU as the culprit.
![Tee Grizzley - Robbery 8 [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/34_vkNV6wrU/mqdefault.jpg)
Cool. I had a similar computer in the late 90s. My first PC. Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Super!
Very nicely put together pc and video! :D
I was born in 2004 and the first computer I could use was a Samsung laptop with Ivy Bridge on Windows 8. I've never used a computer older than a Pentium 3, but I'd really like to use one now. I love watching retro PC videos. I liked your video. I'm from Russia and my English is pretty bad, so I used an online translator to get the point across. I hope that the essence of what was said is not distorted.
All the best to you!
I'm curious, when was the first time you were able to use a computer?
Clarification. I more or less understand everything that is said in English, but I cannot say anything in English myself, even the most trivial things. Unfortunately. I would really like to improve my English skills, but I can't find the time.
We had Commodore 64s at school.. probably when I was around 7 or 8. One of my good friends had one too. Then around 1994 we got our own 486. I was around 12 years old.
@@alwaysobsolete Thanks for the answer! Sorry, I thought for a long time about what else to write because it sounds kind of bad and impolite, but no way I could, since it's very late in the day. I don't mean to offend you or anything like that.
Beautiful PC, I had a very similar case but it was shorter.
I also really like the Heretic music that plays in the first level :)
There's a useful tool called "SetMul" that can disable some features of the processor, such as the L1 cache. Disabling the L1 cache can cut the speed in half, which may make Descent playable on your other machine.
Nice video and a nice computer. About transfering files, I can advice a way of doing that - at least I transfer files using LPT null modem cable and good old Norton Commander 4.0 on both sides - and a notebook with win 98se and usb on the other sides. It works with all my retro-systems, from 286 to P1... I have been collecting vintage computers since 2006 )
Thanks for the tips!
@@alwaysobsolete maybe it's not the fastest way, but if LPT ports work fine its ok - I put to old computers not only games that way, but also distributive od MS-Dos, Win31,95,98,Photoshop,ACDsee,Word,Etc - as I also like to make posters in old Photoshop, like 3 or 5.0LE)
@@yakovkhalip9714 I prefer using a network. There's an investment cost to buy NICs and cables, and to setup a file server, but in the end it is so much faster and more convenient.
HDD activity light hooked up backwards?
EDIT: Only in the beginning of the video, apparently.
I can't remember what happened there. I must have had something connected backwards at some point during the recording.
What 80Mhz cpu did you using?
TI DX2
The slowdowns with HeXen are not your CPU, rather you should be using a proper PCI video adapter. The Aptiva had one.
Only VLB and ISA on this board. Not sure what the 486 Aptiva had. Good point though, it prob had something a better 1mb option
@@alwaysobsolete If it was like the Aptiva we had in the mid 90s, it probably had a Trident VGA controller. Definitely, VLB is "theoretically" faster, or could be, as it's tied to the FSB clock directly, but with some CPUs that type of timing could result in poor performance in certain video modes. One of the fastest PCI-based chips that's era appropriate is the S3 Trio 864 fwiw
What kind of problems did you have installing Windows 3.x applications on the TI CPU? The Cyrix 486 generation generally didn't have compatibility issues; that was only for the Cx5x86 which was a scaled down 6x86, and even then the issues typically only surfaced when enabled the advanced features that were disabled because they caused stability issues.
Windows takes a good..5 mins to load. "Bad Huffman Code" error and pop up system freeze errors that require reboot. Tried half a dozen different types of software, Loderunner, midisoft studio, MS Office, AOL 2.5 etc. Ironically...Epic Megagames games can run under win3.1 fine...Jazz Jackrabbit, Epic pinball etc
@@alwaysobsolete "Bad Huffman Code" generally refers to compression algorithms or errors processing them. Do these errors happen when trying to decompress setup files? To be safe, I'd also check the RAM with MemTest86 or something similar.
Windows 3.1 also has some diagnostic startup options. Use WIN /? and try some of the options to see if any of them improve startup performance.
Also, just to rule out odd behavior, have you tried down clocking the board to 33MHz from 40MHz to see if it performs more stably?
Yes absolutely on the decompress setup file issue (CRC errors). I solved this in DOS by swapping out sticks and re-arranging the stick placements physically. Win 3.1 seems to be more sensitive to this? I've tried the various startup options as well. Sometimes it gets me a little bit further before crashing. I've yet to try downclocking.
No matter what I do, the long load time is always there.
@alwaysobsolete you should definitely try the down clock. While VLB should be fine at 40 and 50MHz, as I understand it those speeds are technically out of spec. You can also check to see if your motherboard supports adding wait states for speeds above 33MHz.
Otherwise I think AMD had a DX/2 80MHz chip. If you have access to one, you can try swapping out the CPU to see if the issue persists while keeping all other factors the same just to rule out the TI CPU as the culprit.