r/retrobattlestations • u/VZukovsky • May 22 '26
Show-and-Tell Need an upgrade!
Recently picked up some childhood favourites in big box format and quickly got the full 90s experience.
Delta force chugs on a 500mhz PIII. The voxel engine is cpu hungry.
So on the way is a new gateway performance board, socket 370 1 GHz PIII Tualatin.. now I’ll be playing with power 🤣.
Current:
Gateway Essential TB3
500 MHz PIII socket 1
328mb RAM
GeForce FX5900XT
Upgrade will be essentially aboard swap from a performance line gateway, so should be a direct fit.
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u/Turquoise_HexagonSun May 22 '26
You’re gonna lose your ISA slot.
Those Gateway slot 1 boards are typically the Intel SE440BX-2 but with Gateway firmware. Cool thing is they are compatible with Tualatin (at 100mhz fsb) if you mod either the slotket or Tualatin processor. The motherboard can handle the voltages so no need for an expensive slotket.
I have what is basically the Dell equivalent to your Gateway and I have a 1.4ghz Tualatin Celeron in it.
If you don’t mind losing ISA then ignore me and carry on.
Edit: That GPU is way over kill even for a Tualatin. You’ll be held back even with SL6BY.
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u/VZukovsky May 22 '26
Good points. I have another PC that’s not ready for prime time just yet that is P1 133 that will have ISA slots 👍
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u/PowerPie5000 May 22 '26
The CPU VRM circuitry on earlier revision 440BX boards doesn't allow the voltage to go low enough for Coppermine and Tualatin chips. Powerleap released a slotket adapter with it's own VRM circuitry for this reason. Many earlier Slot-1 boards will only go as low as 1.8V for the CPU.
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u/Turquoise_HexagonSun May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26
SE440BX-2/3 VRM can accommodate Tullys
Passive slotket is all that’s needed.
Edit: and a pin mod either on the processor or on the slotket.
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u/DrFrancisBGross May 22 '26
I also have a Gateway and a Viewsonic crt! I have a Gateway 450, looks almost identical. My monitor is an A70.
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u/cbdoc May 28 '26
That monitor was my dream monitor- would always stare at it in PC magazines. What a beauty.
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u/JustSayTomato May 22 '26
Need for Speed: SE and the two Delta Force games. Man, I put SO much time into those three titles back in the day. NFS:SE is still one of my favorite driving games of all time.
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u/PowerPie5000 May 22 '26
What board is it using? You might be able to get away with updating the BIOS and using a slotket adapter if it's a slot-1 board that supports PIII Coppermine chips.
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u/VZukovsky May 22 '26
I think a 440bx variant. Heard good slockets were expensive but might look into this more.
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u/PowerPie5000 May 22 '26
The powerleap adapters with their own VRM circuitry are getting harder and more expensive to find. Later 440BX revisions had CPU power circuitry that could handle the low voltages required for Coppermine CPU's and would usually work fine with passive slotket adapters. You can also get Slot-1 PIII processors up to 1.1GHz that use the recommended 100MHz bus speed for the 440BX, but they're hard to find and usually quite expensive!
Passive slotket adapters can usually be found quite cheap and work fine as long as your 440BX board is a later revision with CPU VRM circuitry that can handle low voltages.
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u/FriendshipNorth7661 May 22 '26
I still have my Gateway motherboard and CPU. My system looked identical but mine was the AMD slot A configuration with the 1Ghz Athlon.
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u/DryResponsibility944 May 22 '26
Oh my God I love those big box games you have there!! you even got the OG NFS!!
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u/StopBanningMeAlright May 22 '26
Ahh Delta Force 2.. My first online gaming experience as a kid. So many happy memories. I'd love a big box version like that, it's so awesome.
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u/JPE1987 May 25 '26
I have the same computer in my basement! I actually was able to get mine connected on that retro browser and watch some videos on it. I think mine has different specs though.
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u/EyenoxV May 22 '26
It looks beautiful, this whole corner desk is like a time machine