[Toshiba P100 Graphics Driver
Virginie Fayad
There is definitely other link method which doesn't need to verify graphics card first, but I'm just curious, is there a way to keep both driver together? I don't need they work at same time, just want to easily switch from one to another with simple clicking enable and disable rather than reinstalling the driver.
I've begun to look into what I could get from outside my home country, but only some days ago, did I start to look into the local stuff that people have around.
To build everything by each part, It would get extremely expensive to what I want to spend. So I've been looking at what people have for sale, whole computers.
What I have in mind was either a Pentium 3 or Athlon system.
The Athlon parts are practically non existent, only saw a couple of Athlon XP 2800+, but were HP ones.
Now the P3's are some around and after emailing sellers, etc. I have a shortlist of the systems i'm interested in.
This one left me wondering since it already supports the Tualatin P3's but still unsure of the rest of the components (need to go there and check it myself). If everything works out, I can prolly get my hands on a tualatin 1.4 and make it "fly". The lack of drivers online and the owner not having them as well is a huge potential problem for me. Not sure how to sort it in case this is where I want to head.
The motherboard appears to have an universal agp slot, which is good to get a 9800XT or pro running and it also has an ISA slot! In case I wish to run some older dos games, I can get my hands on ISA soundcard and use it.
My idea to change where possible the CPU for a 1.4 Tualatin P3, maybe the Celeron is more than enough? And the Graphic Card for 9800XT at the most, least an Nvidia fx5700.
Regarding the first one, does anyone have the drivers for the Soltek SL-65KV2-CT? If I end up going to see that one live and everything works I might bet on that one.
My P3 system is more than powerfull enough to play NFS Porche 2000 when I use an Radeon9600 128mb.
Normally I run it with an TNT2 ultra, because it is build as an pure 1999 machine. (no hardware newer than 99).
This is to give you an idea of what hardware to look for.
With the radeon, NFS can run smooth in 1024x768 and even higher.
If I try it with an GF-5200, NFS just gets all sort of issues.
Go for the radeon on this. If gaming past 2003/04 is needed.
Running late 90s to 2003/4 games is a pretty wide swath. If you can get at system the supports tualatin, you should be fine, but personally I wouldn't give up on your Northwood. If the temperatures are its only problem, just buy a stock Intel cooler for it. You can usually find them for less than $10 and they're rated up to the 3.4 Prescotts. It should stay right where it needs to be. If the board has other issues going on, then I'd probably go with the Celeron 1.3 system.
@nekurahoka:
Indeed late 90's until 2003/4 is a bit spread... I wanted to avoid getting multiple systems to avoid more material spread at home (especially since I already have a computer in the living room, at least 3 laptops and nowadays using my socket 1150 Xeon E3. I know the ideal would be to get as close to "that era" hardware as possible, but at the same time and to avoid having to go through multitudes of hardware, thought that getting a 9600pro or if possible a 9800XT or even Pro, would have me served on that level.
The temperature of the Northwood is indeed strange, I took out my stock intel cooler from the box, cleaned everything up as best as I could with the Arctic termo material remover, and then the purifier. Applied new ceramique. And there it goes, stupid temperatures. I would only replace this stock cooler I already have, with an aftermarket one from Zalman or Arctic, but the prices are a bit high, and very close to a full system (as described on my post).
@brostenen:
Thanks for that feedback, it really shows that the cpu should be enough to cover most of what I want to do. I really wanted to avoid the FX line of Nvidia, that was a dark period for them... The 9xxx series from ATI were pretty solid at that time, I owned a 9600pro with my 3700+ San Diego at the time and it was very solid.
@ODwilly:
Capacitors will be the first thing I will look at when I get the chance to go and see the systems myself.
Thanks for the tip on the drivers. That's great that being VIA it can work that way.
It left me wondering a bit, since I've been able to run Jedi Knight Dark Forces 2 and Drakan Order of the Flame. Even though slow as hell...
What I'm wondering about is, if I really need to go Windows98 after all, and probably building a 939 system, or replacing parts of my 478 one should be enough for me. More doubts than ever now ? ?
If you decide to keep it an XP machine I suggest at least a 3.0ghz Northwood p4 with Hyper Threading ( I just bought a 3.2 for $8, they are cheap) swap in 2gb of DDR400 and ditch the onboard crapics for ANY agp card past 2002 or so.
If you're going to use a P3, get a motherboard with an Intel chipset; i440BX, i815, and i815E are all good choices. VIA and NForce chipsets and drivers can sometimes be flaky. With an Athlon, you're pretty much stuck with one of those so there isn't much choice. One of the biggest advantages of the P3 CPUs is the ability to use an Intel chipset on your motherboard. They are just far better than VIA or NForce. They also run much cooler and use less power.
I think you should try to keep your Asrock P4VM8 system going. If it turns out to be good, then upgrade the CPU and get a better HSF. If the board turns out to be bad, then keep an eye out for a complete P3 system with an Intel chipset. Be patient; I'm sure you'll find one that is right for you eventually.
This time with an old Asus A6V (if not mistaken) laptop. It has a Pentium M cpu, dedicated X800 ATI mobile gpu and only 512mb ram with Windows XP installed.
The thing flies, compared to my Celeron. Unfortunatelly, my wife still uses this laptop from time to time and it has a lot of her stuff there, so I can't "steal" it. Dark Forces 2 works perfectly with 3d acceleration!
Now I have another laptop, a Toshiba P100, with a Core 2 Duo, 7900GS Mobile GPU and 2Gb of RAM. It has Windows 7 Installed, but it's very possible to install Windows XP on it. I'm going to give it a go and see how it works. It even has an SSD I installed there some time ago, so this should be a great candidate.
So the above just reinforces what you stated ODWilly, the P4VM8 system, needs more ram and the igpu to go away totally. The Celeron might handle it for some time.
I would like to go the AMD route, I loved my 939 system with the San Diego 3700+... It was such a great experience and so smooth and stable. I used it at the time with an Asrock 939Dual-Sata2 and later on on an Asus A8N-E. But It's really difficult to find parts for the 939 socket...
So altough a bit more sure of what route to follow, there's still a long way for me to make a decision.
Another low point of the old P3 systems I'm looking at is that there are no sata ports. I know I can get a sata controller, or one of those IDE/SATA converters from ebay. But it adds up complexity and probable hassles.
In 2003, I was running an Athlon 1200 T-Bird with a GF3 Ti500. It wasn't until TRON 2.0 came out that it started having some trouble keeping up with modern games. Even then, TRON 2.0 still ran well enough to play. It just got a bit sluggish with max graphics at 1024x768.
It wasn't until late 2006 that I finally upgraded to a 754 Athlon 64 3400 and a Radeon 9800XT. At the time, I was quite impressed with this system as well. (Although, I recommend sticking with NVIDIA GPUs. ATI/AMD has driver issues).
Sadly, I never got to own a 939 system. Nowadays, due to silly prices and a lack of interest, I probably never will. I may someday upgrade the 754 A64 3400 to a 3700, but prices there are ridiculous too.
The 754 and 939 are great in that they run Win98SE, WinME, Win2K, and WinXP all equally well. You have alot of flexibility there if you go that route. Go with 1GB RAM and a GF6 6800GT and you're all set!
The Asus a6v after testing further, has a locked bios (no idea on the password), cd drive not working, keyboard with some of the keys not working... So I just backed up everything from there and this thing is going to be put for sale. I recon the Pentium M and the dedicated GPU X800 mobile bit be worth something for people repairing this stuff.
The Toshiba P100 will have to be worked and everything backed up before I try the XP build there, I got my hopes high on that machine. I remember playing Doom3 on it several years ago and even played World of Warcraft at the time with it, using my Samsung 2233RZ monitor and 3d glasses ? So it should be more than enough for the challenge.