Hacksaurus is a retro gaming PC build. The original idea was to hack together a machine with spare parts that is able to natively run many DOS and Win9x era games. But it went so well that I also treated it to some (at the time) modern parts in order to make it more enjoyable & reliable.
Components as of August 2018
| Type | Component |
|---|---|
| Mainboard | Gigabyte GA-6BXC rev. 1.9 |
| CPU | Pentium II 400 MHz |
| RAM | 256 MB SDRAM |
| Graphics card | 3Dfx Voodoo 3 3500 TV with BIOS 3.15.12 (previously: 3Dfx Voodoo 3 3000) |
| Storage | 32 GB Trancend SSD via P-ATA to S-ATA adapter |
| Optical drive | NEC CD/DVD drive |
| Floppy drive 1 | 5.25" TEAC FD-55GFR |
| Sound card | Creative Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold (previously: Creative Sound Blaster SB32 ISA PnP with 8 MB 30-pin SIMM) |
| External MIDI | Roland SC-88 Pro and midipi |
| Keyboard | Cherry G84-4100 |
| Mouse | Lenovo Scrollpoint Mouse (31P7405) |
| Gameport | Gravis Gamepad Pro and Gravis Xterminator Gamepad |
| USB gamepad | PS3/XBox360 controllers or Mad Catz Fightstick Pro |
| Display | Extron HDMI-RGB_300_A or VGA to HD TV |
| Case | Midi tower Cooler Master Elite RC-330K and Akasa FC06 V2 fan controller |
| PSU | Artic Cooling Arctic Fusion 550R |
BIOS
Settings
BIOS V.F4c bold are changed from PERFORMANCE DEFAULTS.
- STANDARD CMOS SETUP
- Date (mm:dd:yy): Mon, Dec 20 2021
- Time (hh:mm:ss): 21 : 55 :23
- Primary Master: Auto 0M 0 0 0 0 0 AUTO
- Primary Slave: None 0M 0 0 0 0 0 ------
- Secondary Master: Auto 0M 0 0 0 0 0 AUTO
- Secondary Slave: None 0M 0 0 0 0 0 ------
- Drive A: 1.2M , 5.25 in.
- Drive B: None
- Floppy 3 Mode Support: Disabled
- Video: EGA/VGA
- Halt On: No Errors
- BIOS FEATURES SETUP
- Virus Warning: Disabled
- CPU Internal Cache: Enabled
- External Cache: Enabled
- CPU L2 Cache ECC Checking: Disabled
- Quick Power On Self Test: Enabled
- CPU Update Data: Enabled
- Boot From LAN First: Disabled (default enabled)
- Boot Sequence: C only (default C,A,SCSI)
- Swap Floppy Drive: Disabled
- VGA Boot From: AGP
- Boot Up Floppy Seek: Disabled
- Boot Up NumLock Status: Off
- Gate A20 Option: Fast
- Typematic Rate Setting: Enabled
- Typematic Rate (Chars/Sec): 30
- Typematic Delay (Msec): 250
- Security Option: Setup
- PCI/VGA Palette Snoop: Disabled
- Assign IRQ For VGA: Enabled
- OS Select For DRAM > 64MB: Non-OS2
- HDD S.M.A.R.T. capability: Disabled
- Report No FDD For WIN 95: Yes
- Video BIOS Shadow: Enabled
- CHIPSET FEATURES SETUP
- EDO CASx# MA Wait State: 1
- EDO RASx# Wait State: 1
- SDRAM CAS latency Time: Auto
- DRAM Data Integrity Mode: None-ECC
- System BIOS Cacheable: Enabled
- Video BIOS Cacheable: Enabled
- Video RAM Cacheable: Disabled
- 16 Bit I/O Recovery Time: 1
- AGP Aperture Size (MB): 64
- Memory Hole At 15M-16M: Disabled
- Delayed Transaction: Disabled
- Spread Spectrum: Disabled
- POWER MANAGEMENT SETUP
- Power Management: Enable
- PM Control by APM: Yes
- Video Off Method: DPMS
- Suspend Mode: Disable
- HDD Power Down: Disable
- VGA Active Monitor: Disabled
- Soft-Off by PWR-BTTN: Instant-Off
- System After AC Back: Soft-Off
- CPUFAN Off in Suspend: Enabled
- PME Event Wakeup: Disabled
- ModemRingOn/WakeOnLan: Disabled (default Enabled)
- Resume by Alarm: Disabled
- IRQ[3-7,9-15],NMI: Disabled (default Enabled)
- Primary IDE 0: Disabled
- Primary IDE 1: Disabled
- Secondary IDE 0: Disabled
- Secondary IDE 1: Disabled
- Floppy Disk: Disabled (default Enabled)
- Serial Port: Disabled (default Enabled)
- Parallel Port: Disabled
- PNP/PCI CONFIGURATION
- PNP OS Installed: Yes
- Resources Controlled By: Manual
- Reset Configuration Data: Disabled
- IRQ-3 assigned to: PCI/ISA PnP
- IRQ-4 assigned to: PCI/ISA PnP
- IRQ-5 assigned to: PCI/ISA PnP
- IRQ-7 assigned to: Legacy ISA
- IRQ-9 assigned to: PCI/ISA PnP
- IRQ-10 assigned to: PCI/ISA PnP
- IRQ-11 assigned to: PCI/ISA PnP
- IRQ-12 assigned to: PCI/ISA PnP (default Legacy ISA)
- IRQ-14 assigned to: PCI/ISA PnP (default Legacy ISA)
- IRQ-15 assigned to: PCI/ISA PnP (default Legacy ISA)
- DMA-0 assigned to: PCI/ISA PnP
- DMA-1 assigned to: Legacy ISA (default PCI/ISA PnP)
- DMA-3 assigned to: PCI/ISA PnP
- DMA-5 assigned to: Legacy ISA (default PCI/ISA PnP)
- DMA-6 assigned to: PCI/ISA PnP
- DMA-7 assigned to: PCI/ISA PnP
- Used MEM base addr: N/A
- Assign IRQ For USB: Enabled
- INTEGRATED PERIPHERALS
- IDE HDD Block Mode: Enabled
- IDE Primary Master PIO: Auto
- IDE Primary Slave PIO: Auto
- IDE Secondary Master PIO: Auto
- IDE Secondary Slave PIO: Auto
- IDE Primary Master UDMA: Auto
- IDE Primary Slave UDMA: Auto
- IDE Secondary Master UDMA: Auto
- IDE Secondary Slave UDMA: Auto
- On-Chip Primary PCI IDE: Enabled
- On-Chip Secondary PCI IDE: Enabled
- USB Keyboard Support: Disabled
- Onboard FDC Controller: Enabled
- Onboard Serial Port 1: Disabled (default 3F8/IRQ4)
- Onboard Serial Port 2: Disabled (default 2F8/IRQ3)
- Onboard Parallel Port: Disabled (default 378/IRQ7)
- PS/2 Mouse Power On: Disabled
- Keyboard Power On: Disabled
OS PnP settings
anything not listed is set to auto/default
| Component | Settings |
|---|---|
| Creative Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold PCM | based on basic config 0001: IRQ 7; DMA 1,5; IO 220-22F, 330-331, 388-38B (seems to give good compatibility with older SB games) |
| Creative Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold MIDI | based on basic config 0000: IO 620-623, A20-A23, E20-E23 |
| Creative Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold Gameport | auto/default (based on basic config 0000: IO 200-207) |