VERY strange mobo- can anyone ID it?

Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
edited August 2005 in Hardware
I picked this up at a surplus store the other day. It has no manufacturer/model designation, and it won't POST (not sure if it doesn't like my CPU or if it's dead) so all I can go on is these pics...

I have never, ever seen a board with integrated voodoo graphics. Well, I take that back- the only board I've ever seen with an on-board Voodoo GPU is a concept board Voodoo made before they went under.

The board I bought looks almost like a prototype board of some kind, for the reasons circled in the second picture. It's got these jumper wires and jumpers soldered/hot glued on in a way that you wouldn't see in a production board. Also circled in that picture is a connector labeled "Flat Panel". Now what the hell is a desktop board doing with a LCD connector?

The board has an i440ZX chipset and is for Socket 370 CPUs of some kind. Anyone recognize it?
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Comments

  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited June 2004
    It looks.....bare.
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited June 2004
    That is a cool board! But I've got no idea what it is.

    It's too bad it doesn't post. That'd be a sweet nerdy novelty item to have running.
  • SimGuySimGuy Ottawa, Canada
    edited June 2004
    Looks like a Packard Bell Engineering Sample Mobo.

    PB shipped the MSI-6168 Bora mobo in their P2/P3 slot systems. Same layout almost. Features wise, it's identical.

    I think your mobo is one of the Engineering Samples/Prototypes that MSI was working on to transition their Packard Bell customers to Socket 370. Hence why there would need to be a board-rework to incorporate the quirks of the Socket 370 system -vs- the old Slot 1 SC242 system.

    http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/pb/mb/bora.htm

    Is there by chance an FCC ID # on that thing anywhere?
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited June 2004
    Nope, no FCCID. All it has are two stickers that read "RwkL v1 (l?) 5" and one that reads "07556"
  • MediaManMediaMan Powered by loose parts.
    edited June 2004
    Could be a mobo from an old DELL system.

    http://www.ciao.co.uk/Intel_Desktop_Board_BI440ZX__5409535
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited June 2004
    It's not an MSI-6168 board, though that was the closest match I could recover in 90 minutes on google.

    However I discovered that both beta and release revisions of the MSI-6168 had 1 ISA slot, this has none. So it can't be an MSI.

    The packard bell 6168 release candidate board had 1 ISA also (As shown).
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited June 2004
    Could have been purpose-built for a kiosk or some kind of display device like a billboard or something.....
  • maxanonmaxanon Montreal
    edited June 2004
    can we get a higher res picture of it?
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited June 2004
    Well, I got it booting. Just as I suspected, it needed a PPGA Celeron. It is indeed an engineering sample (well, the BIOS calls it a "Evaluation Sample" and says it's "Not For Resale" :p)

    It's a Gateway prototype board.

    Here's the higher res pic someone asked for :D
  • qparadoxqparadox Vancouver, BC
    edited June 2004
    funky
  • TheBaronTheBaron Austin, TX
    edited June 2004
    so you managed to find an engineering sample ppga celeron board with integrated voodoo video... thats the coolest **** ever. that thing is 1 of a kind

    whats that creative chip on the board for?? i dont see integrated audio
  • gibbonslgibbonsl Grand Forks AFB
    edited June 2004
    i want one:)

    how does it perform, now that you got it working?
  • gibbonslgibbonsl Grand Forks AFB
    edited June 2004
    BTW what chip is the creative one? sound chip?
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited June 2004
    TheBaron, it's at a bad angle to see the back ports in those shots- it does have integrated audio. :)

    I haven't been able to test it, because I don't have the CPU I need to run it. I borrowed a PPGA Celeron to see if it'd boot, but I don't have a PPGA Celeron of my own to use in the board. Until I get one, I won't know how it performs.
  • rykoryko new york
    edited June 2004
    Could be one of the early gateway "profile" pc's....hence the wierd integrated flat panel connector.

    Anyway, I have a 500mhz/66fsb s370 celeron if you are interested.....I just have to dig through my spare parts to find it...
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited June 2004
    I have a PPGA celeron too, if you're interested. Of course Ryko gets first offer :)

    It's either 733 or 900, i forget.
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited June 2004
    I've got a 400 Cely if the others fall though and you still need one. You know, that board might fetch a decent price on eBay. If I didn't already have too many novelty computers lying around I'd be trying to buy it off you :)
  • TheBaronTheBaron Austin, TX
    edited June 2004
    couldn't you just get a socket adapter and a 1.4 coppermine?
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited June 2004
    No. The Coppermines only went up to 1GHz (Tualatins are 1GHz+) and there are no PPGA --> FCPGA adapters that I'm aware of.
  • maxanonmaxanon Montreal
    edited June 2004
    Nice find. What do you plan on doing with it?
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited June 2004
    What he does with all his other motherboards, let them sit there. Its a toy.
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited June 2004
    Geeky1 wrote:
    No. The Coppermines only went up to 1GHz (Tualatins are 1GHz+) and there are no PPGA --> FCPGA adapters that I'm aware of.

    Ebay: FC-PGA2 Tualatin Adapter for Socket 370 FC-PGA
    # Adapts Socket 370 motherboards made for
    FC-PGA processors for use with FC-PGA2 (Tualatin) processors
    # Also adapts Socket 370 motherboards made for
    PPGA processors for use with FC-PGA (Coppermine) processors
    # Adds approximately 3/8 inch to the height of the
    processor/cooler combination
  • madmatmadmat
    edited June 2004
    I'm willing to bet that it's one of the boards that 3DFX sent out to vendors as evaluation samples back when they bought that mobo outfit and decided to change the mobo they were designing from TNT to Voodoo integrated graphics.
    They made several working prototypes and sent them to various OEM's such as Gateway, Dell and Alienware among others and the one I saw pictures of was from Alienware and looked identical to the one you got although it didn't work.
    It seems you've got a piece of working history, very nice find...how much did it set you back?
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited June 2004
    Once you track down its real history, Geeky, you should run it and benchmark it and write up an article for the frontpage about it.
  • JimboraeJimborae Newbury, Berks, UK New
    edited June 2004
    GHoosdum wrote:
    Once you track down its real history, Geeky, you should run it and benchmark it and write up an article for the frontpage about it.


    And then get it folding :smokin: lol :)

    Ps. if all other offers for donated cpus fall through I have 2 x 550 celeys sat in a broken BP6, I'm sure one of them wont mind going back to work.
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited July 2004
    Very cool mobo..

    Nice find!
  • Geeky1Geeky1
    bumps long dead thread

    I finally procured a CPU for it a few months back, and got around to getting a case and stuff a few weeks ago. Threw one of my spare 160GB/7200RPM/8MB Maxtors in it and stuck 2k on it. Current specs are:
      University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
      edited December 2004
      bumps long dead thread

      I finally procured a CPU for it a few months back, and got around to getting a case and stuff a few weeks ago. Threw one of my spare 160GB/7200RPM/8MB Maxtors in it and stuck 2k on it. Current specs are:
        Athenatech mATX desktop case
        [*]Gateway board
        [*]466MHz PPGA Celeron w/AMD Athlon XP OEM HSF
        [*]256MB of PC133 SDRAM (2x128MB; this is the most the board will take)
        [*]Onboard 16MB (NOT SHARED) Voodoo3 GPU
        [*]Onboard Creative audio
        [*]Maxtor/Promise ATA-133 PCI card
        [*]Netgear FA311 PCI 10/100 NIC
        [*]LiteOn 52/32/52 CD-RW
        [*]160GB Maxtor DiamondMax 9 ATA-133/7200RPM/8MB HDD (only temporary)
        [*]2 60mm exhaust fans, 1 80mm intake fan, Zalman chipset heatsink on V3, s7/370 heatsink on northbridge
        [*]Win2k


        The only performance spec I've got so far is 3dmark2k1se, which it got 410 in- at 640x480 in 16 bit. I think there's something wrong tho, because with 16mb of vram, it ought to run just fine at 1024x768 in 32-bit. *shrugs* maybe it's the 3rd party drivers I'm using.
      • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
        edited December 2004
        Oh, and to answer Madmat's months-old question... it cost me a whopping $5 ;) God I love surplus stores... :D
      • muddocktormuddocktor
        edited December 2004
        Uh Geeky, that old Voodoo crap couldn't run 32 bit at all, just 16 bit graphics(physical limitation of the gpu). That's why you couldn't get it to bench at 32 bit. :D
      • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
        edited December 2004
        Actually, it said it ran out of vram... o_O
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