Time for an Athlon-XP Build - Project Middlesex (Now with pretty pictures!)

[Kai Robinson]

Almost 20 years ago (jesus, that hurts to say now), I was nearly ready to begin my computing course at Middlesex University in North London.

Disappointment of the course and ineptitude of the University aside, I had put together a damn good rig to handle almost everything that you could throw at it (in a purely gaming context, of course).

Naturally, over time i upgraded to an Athlon 64 (by the end of my 1st year), but I wanted to try and rebuild the machine I have the most fond memories of.

To that end, I have acquired the following.

CPU: Athlon XP-2500+ (AXDA2500DKV4D, 333MHz FSB)

CPU Cooler: AMD Branded AVC AV-112C86 - Copper Core Heatsink & Fan (Originally bundled with the Athlon XP-3200+)

Memory: 1GB GeIL (2x512MB, PC3200, 2.5-6-6-3 timing)

Motherboard: MSI K7N2 Delta-ILSR

Graphics Card: ATi Radeon X800 XT (made by Sapphire)

Rather than risk it all, i'll be using a modern 400w PSU and i'm going to use a small 128GB SATA SSD because i'm not going to mess with trying to find working, small capacity SATA hard disks.

Now I just need an era-specific case, i'd love to find the Jeantech Butterfly case, which opens up much like a Powermac G4. I'm nearly there, as i have a few leads on one of those cases, most recently in lithuania (shipping will be a *****), with a bit of luck, I can finally throw all of it together and then I can get it loaded up with Windows XP SP3 and sling Doom 3, Unreal Tournament 2004 and Far Cry on it

 

[retr01]

Like this one @Kai Robinson?

Butterfly V.01

 

[Kai Robinson]

After having a look at the board, this is definitely not in bad shape, it's clean, not a spot of dust and looks to have seen very little usage. However, as it's 20 years old, the caps WILL need to be replaced.

The caps on the board currently are Rubycon caps which are...meh, i guess?

At least one has blown, and is sitting at an acute angle, poised to take off into orbit at the first sign of powering on as if to say 'i must go, my people need me'.

To rectify this, i've been and measured the caps. I'm able to replace the MOSFET caps with good quality polymer caps - @JDW take note

The rest however, aren't available, so i've gone with Panasonic/Nichicon electrolytics instead, all 105*c rated like the originals, and all low or ultra low ESR, so this board should be more than stable feeding that XP-2500+. Not too expensive either - £25.85 including shipping from mouser.

 

[Kai Robinson]

Like this one @Kai Robinson?

View attachment 12497

Yes, thats the exact one - both sides hinged, so you could mount the motherboard on a swivel down tray - it was a really nice design.

 

[JDW]

I'm able to replace the MOSFET caps with good quality polymer caps - @JDW take note

"MOSFET caps," Kai?

 

[Kai Robinson]

"MOSFET caps," Kai?

Ah yes, I should be more specific - the capacitors that are part of the output of the 6-phase power distribution to the CPU

 

[RetroTheory]

Sold a lot of pcs with this case back in the day, I knew I had at least 1 hanging around , I think I have the bones of a second.
Yours for postage if you want. It would go though normal post as none of the couriers I use will send to uk.
These pictures were taken today.

 

[Kai Robinson]

Sold a lot of pcs with this case back in the day, I knew I had at least 1 hanging around , I think I have the bones of a second.
Yours for postage if you want. It would go though normal post as none of the couriers I use will send to uk.
These pictures were taken today.


View attachment 12523

Oh, wow! Yes! Dm me and let's get this thing built!!

 

[retr01]

Looking forward to your PC build, @Kai Robinson!

 

[RetroTheory]

Oh, wow! Yes! Dm me and let's get this thing built!!

DM sent

 

[Kai Robinson]

Thanks to @RetroTheory , the case has arrived! I've not unpacked it yet, i've had 0 time to deal with any projects lately, I'll need to recap the Motherboard before I go ahead with the build, just to make sure the board I want to put in there actually works!

 

[QuicksilverAUS]

Hi Kai mate ive got a spare shappire x1600 pro agp (128bit ddr3 512mb) floating around here doing nothing happy to send to you'r way , nice upgrade from that x800xt , pm me with some contact details ill slide it your way mate

 

[Kai Robinson]

One more addition to the project:

A Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS! Period correct addition and what's even better?

Yep, a fully working and intact front panel in black!

 

[croissantking]

Not sure if interesting but this summer I restored my PC built around an Athlon XP-M 2500+ CPU. It's actually the same PC I built back in 2003 and I've kept it all this time - although it has evolved from original spec. The Asus A7N8X Deluxe 2.0 I've now got in there is the fourth board that's gone through the build, all the others failed (Asus A7V8X, Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe, Asus A7N8X-X).

 

[Kai Robinson]

Thanks to @max1zzz I now have a period correct 2004 Sony MFP920 - I think i'm now nearly complete, just got to get a cheap ATX power supply and actually re-cap the motherboard now!

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

Coming along nicely. Can't wait to see it in action. I Hope you get to play some Q3A or UT on the TD server with it.

 

[Stinkerton18]

Mmmm nForce2 goodness. They were great for their time. I'm sure you've already checked it in the motherboard manual but make sure you have your RAM in the right slots so you get the dual channel speeds.

You planning to do dual monitor with the chipset video?

 

[Kai Robinson]

Wasn't planning on doing dual monitor - Kinda want to pair it with the Dell Trinitron display i pulled out of the skip all those years ago, but finding CRT's in the 2020's is like searching for gold dust.

I remember the nForce 2 RAM bank shenanigans - i literally just need a PSU and to actually recap the board - i just lack the space for it right now.

 

[Kai Robinson]

Oh... Well now I have a dilemma - as in my second semester of my first year of Uni, I upgraded to an Athlon 64...and later, an Opteron 146...then an Opteron 170.

I came across this Asus A8N board (nForce 4) with PCIe support. I also happen to still have my XFX 7600GT from way back then, too.

The only issue with the board was the cpu heatsink bracket was snapped.

No worries - 3D printing to the rescue!

Now, which version of Project Middlesex should I build?

 

[Stinkerton18]

It's odd that the nforce4 board has a PCIe 4x lane but with a clip for a 16x card. Why not just use a 16x slot? #WeirdOEMDecisons

My med-clouded humble opinion is go with the Opteron 170 for dual core and better IPC than the original Athlon 64s.