- FloppyZyn, Aug 1st, 2025

Intro...

I have been playing with the idea of making pages for all of my computers, this is sort of the prototype for that project. I'm just going to have fun with it and keep the tone informal and more like a personal journal.

I will be posting current specs and plan (dream) of possible upgrades to each machine, as well as my history with it.

This page my look strange because I made it ON the Deskpro using my copy of Microsoft Publisher97, I'll add photos later.

Specs...

History...

This computer is BRAND NEW to me, UPS just dropped it off yesterday (as of writing). For full disclosure I did pay $140 in total for it from an ebay listing. I am very happy with it so far, it can be a gamble buying computers from ebay but this one smashed my expectations. It is seemingly had all the options from the factory and has been repaired and upgraded by compaq while it was in service.

The Hard drive has been replaced with or repaired with a maxtor unit with compaq service stickers on it, (I lean torwards it being replaced). All the online documentation I read only mentioned the standard 2MB Matrox Millenium VGA cards, In this machine the Matrox has 2MB on board AND an additonal 2MB expansion board bringing it up, to 4MB total. I'm not sure if the expansion board is stock or an upgrade offered by compaq, it does have a compaq parts label on it. Either way I am happy to have it. And witha supposedly great yet basically 2D-only card installed it only makes sense to go after a great 3D-only card for my next upgrade...

Upgrades...

My current plan for this computer is to keep it to stuff that only came out 1996, the year the Deskpro was manufactured. The most urgently needed upgrade is definetly a sound card. Currently I can listen to audio CDs and games that have CD audio by plugging my headphones into the front of the CD Drives. Which IS fairly novel these days but is not ideal. Right now I keep watching eBay looking at Sound Blaster AWE64 cards.

After that I'm really thinking about pulling the trigger on a 3dfx Voodoo 1 card but they are quite expensive. I would be lucky to get one cheaper than what I paid for this whole computer, but it would be the ultimate Video Card for this computer and I've been waiting for a good reason to try one out. Also, the later Voodoos are even more expensive (and not necessarily the ultimate card for their generations either).

Believe it or not this motherboard does have a 10/100 ethernet port on it, though in the Windows 98 installation that came on the harddrive it isn't connecting to the internet (I like to browse internet archives and try to find new sites with old PC's). If I can't figure it out I will get a 3com etherlink ISA card, I've had really good luck with their PCI cards in Windows 98 and drivers for them are included with Windows.

I don't really see a need to upgrade the CPU, I could go up to 200Mhz and/or one with MMX but I don't have a major need for it yet. 128MB of RAM is overkill for sure and I don't think I will ever add more, though I expect web browsing will be a chore.

Performance...  ???

I don't really have much to report so far. I guess I can say that just navigating around an old Windows 98 installation is responsive enough. And It's currently handling Publisher 97 like a champ, though I am listening to CD's through the CD player. It's my understanding that having the CD drives play CD's on their own doesn't take much from the system's resources.

Quake is pretty playable in software mode, getting 34.1 FPS on average though it does slow down in large areas or when lots of effects are on screen but nothing that stopped me from playing a few levels.
The Matrox really cannot attempt to play this game, the game was so unresponsive I couldnt even get into the console to start the benchmark. It did render a few frames butit was basically a slide show.

Best experienced with

Click here to start.

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