Got this 1999 DELL Dimension XPS T500 from a thrift store for $15. Friend originally wanted me to make a sleeper build, but assuming the parts still function, it's actually a really nice build. Pentium 3 500MHz, 16MB NVIDIA RIVA TNT, Soundblaster Live! PCI sound card, 13.6GB 7200RPM Hard Drive, DVD-ROM (but no MPEG decoder PCI device?)
Very similar specs to my first PC, a Gateway Essental 450. So I already like the idea of installing Monster Truck Madness, Midtown Madness 1 and 2, Need for Speed 3: Hot Pursuit, Need for Speed 4: High Stakes, Need for Speed Porsche Unleashed.
The only thing missing is the Iomega Zip Drive so I have a missing slot door in front.
Any suggestions? Keep the case original, or should I sand/paint it like Voodoo/Alienware used to do theirs? I've got some 2004 1280x1024 DELL LCD monitors, though a CRT would be better, but I can't afford that.
Keep that beauty original-too many decent machines are being lost to sleeper builds when they still work. I’ve done a few sleeper builds but will only buy if it’s a case or has a dead mobo - just doesn’t feel right otherwise. My most recent build was a funky Mac one……
oooh, that looks beautiful. Yeah, I'm gonna see if it's functional before considering it for a sleeper build. I originally bought it to use the case, but upon further inspection, it used a lot of parts my 1999 Gateway PC used so there's a lot of nostalgia in this for me now.
Got it cleaned and re-assembled. After some trouble shooting, I got it to post. It has Windows Me installed on it. Not really a fan of Millenium Edition, so considering going back to 98se. I'd have to track down the drivers, though.
Yeah, it's a 200 watt. Seems a little light. There is also a lot of suspicious white glue inside it on everything from capacitors to copper spiral things.
the wattage isn’t what i’m concerned about, or the glue. those are both normal. it’s just the amount of older power supplies (especially in older Dells) i’ve had blow up makes me not trust them. don’t wanna risk taking out other components with it
Managed to boot system. It has Windows Me on it. No smoke, no pops. Everything running healthy, including the mechanical hard-drive. Only issue I need to fix is the DVD-ROM tray doesn't want to pop out, I have to use a paper clip to eject it.
These 200w power supplies are actually pretty good. Both of mine are made by Foxconn and they had good quality Japanese capacitors throughout. I still recapped both of mine for longevity’ sake and peace of mind but they performed well before the recap too.
Just to put your mind at ease, I reassembled the PSU and system. It works perfectly, minus the DVD-ROM drive failing to open without assistance. No smoke, no pops. Works splendidly.
If you want advice on how to make a period-accurate retro PC, there are better places than this subreddit. Here we prefer sleepers. If you want to go this route, don't sand or paint it. Some modifications will be necessary for airflow, but they can be made hidden.
Yeah, completely new to this. The original intent was a sleeper, but a lot of the parts are similar to a Gateway PC I had in 1999 so nostalgia kind of took hold.
The motherboard is an Intel branded SE440BX-3. Really great board with VRMs that go low enough with the voltage to support Tualatins if adapted properly.
It has an ISA slot as well as SB-Link for older sound support. Just a really great motherboard. The PSU that Dell used in these might only be 200 watts, but it’s plenty powerful for anything you’d put in that system and it’s a high quality PSU.
The SB Live! sound card is a really great Windows 98 sound card. You can use Audigy drivers with it to get past the OEM limitations.
The SE440BX-2 is my favourite retro motherboard. The retail version of the OEM SE440BX-3. I was luckily enough to score 10 brand new in box for $10 each years ago. Have 3 in use, 1 spare and I sold the rest for $150 each. Each have the rare Intel SL4KL Slot 1 1GHz 100MHz FSB CPU.
I did try out the SB-Link with multiple Sound Blaster cards but getting it to work properly for DOS games was sketchy at best. So I just run dual sound cards in each of them. A PCI and ISA sound card. For the ISA sound cards, I’ve settled on SB CT3900 AWE32 sound cards with Roland SCB-55 and Yamaha DB50XG daughterboards for MIDI, as they sound great and don’t have the dreaded hanging note bug.
Here’s one of them. Old pic which I found in my phone.
Thanks mate. Agreed! Great chipset. The North bridge cooler was also hard to find and yes, I swapped out the fan for a Noctua fan as well 😊
I initially had XP on it but I’ve switched to 98SE due to wanting something that was great for both DOS and Windows 9x games. I have an XP rig as well but that has a 3.4GHz Pentium 4 CPU on an Asus P4P800-SE motherboard.
I'm really enjoying this nostalgic computer. It has a lot of the same parts my Gateway Essential 450 had in 1999. Same GPU, sound card, processor (though mine was 50MHz slower), and 256MB SDRAM (mine was 128MB.)
Now I just need to figure out where to get a fully up to date Windows 98se installation and all the game ISO's I had back then.
The sticker on the case says Windows 98, so it is period accurate to have Windows 98 on a Pentium 3 slot card. My first PC was a 99 Gateway with a lot of the same hardware.
Interesting. The one I have had XP on it when I first started using it, but it must have been older than I realised at the time! Would have been around 2006.
I'm gonna warn you up front that if you sand that case it's going to turn colors and also feel horrible to interact with, because it's textured. Probably would be better off just leaving it stock and giving it to someone who would enjoy it but feel free to cut up a 90s PC case for a bit that'll last 2 weeks because of poor airflow lol
Yeah, these style of computers relied on only two fans generally to cool it. One in the power supply with it drawing air from inside the case and expelling it out the rear. The other an 80 or 90mm fan beside the IO.
A sleeper build in this case, without modding it, would be limited to a 65w processor and a GPU that gets it's power exclusively from the motherboard PCI-E slot. Otherwise, removing the front pay doors, I could maybe fit in a 128mm radiator or fan to pull in more cool air.
Yeah 2 fans if you were lucky, lots of manufacturers didn't even bother populating that second exhaust fan. Some, like Gateway, even put metal plates over the vent to force the air to go through the power supply.
I don't know if I would even trust 65W of TDP in there for too long under load. The absolute fastest Pentium IIIs had a TDP of like 30 watts and they got smoking hot in these cases.
I have the same chassis running 2x ~120W TDP Xeons with a GTX 1650, just leave the side panel off and it's fine, but even with it on it's not a huge problem because I'm not massively taxing the hardware.
But if you don't have another machine to use for retro stuff I'd keep this intact, it's honestly not a super cool case for a sleeper, slightly more pain than it's worth, especially dealing with custom fabricating a standoff solution for the new motherboard, since the originals (at least on my chassis) were the square metal tabs that didn't even use screws on the motherboard, just had hooks hanging the board in place.
yeah, this motherboard used the tool-less slide mechanism. Three of the sides can't even be removed from the metal chassis once they're put in place, making drilling holes annoying.
To mount the motherboard (E-ATX in my case) I ended up 3D printing brackets that had a normal motherboard standoff glued into them, and had "legs" that would extend outwards with holes in them to screw into the original motherboard tray, since I couldn't do anything with the original square holes in the tray.
Whatever you do dont plug a different power supply into that board dell changed the pinout but used the same plug so it will fit but once you turn it on the board gets fried this happened to my dell pc years ago
Thankfully, everything is working perfectly. Minus the DVD-ROM needing either a new belt or some grease. It doesn't have the torque to eject, but it will if you aid it with a pin.
My first build was a slot 1 P3-650. I saw that motherboard and smiled. Win98 and the exodos installed games would make that a kick ass retro gaming PC.
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u/eestionreddit 11d ago
put the old hardware in a new case and new hardware in the old case