YouTuber TrashBench recreates his 1996 family PC with Pentium MMX and Sound Blaster 16
The build pairs an Intel Pentium MMX 200 MHz with an Epox Pronix EP-P55-BT motherboard and a Sound Blaster 16, as shown in a new video.
YouTuber TrashBench has published a video in which he builds a recreation of the first PC his parents bought him, using period hardware from an Intel Pentium MMX 200 MHz processor to a Sound Blaster 16 sound card, according to tomshardware.com.
The machine runs on an Epox Pronix EP-P55-BT motherboard with 32 MB of RAM across two SIMM and two DIMM slots. Because automatic CPU speed and voltage detection was only becoming common at the time, the board's jumpers had to be set by hand. Cooling comes from a single 40-mm fan, and the build has no case cooling.
Graphics started with an S3 Trio32 card that has no 3D rendering capability, later replaced by a Matrox Mystique 3D. Storage is a Western Digital Caviar 22100 hard drive with 2 GB capacity, which was later swapped for an 80 GB unit; a jumper had to be set to limit the larger drive to either 8.4 GB or 33.4 GB because of BIOS and disk controller addressing limits.
The build also includes an original Sound Blaster 16 and a CD-ROM drive. TrashBench tested it with The Need for Speed: Special Edition and Microsoft Flight Simulator 98, using a Quickshot QS-123 joystick for the flight simulator.
Background
In 1996, TrashBench's parents bought him his first PC, which he used to play The Need for Speed: Special Edition and which started his love of computers.
Quick answers
What CPU does TrashBench's 1996 PC recreation use?
It uses an Intel Pentium MMX 200 MHz on an Epox Pronix EP-P55-BT motherboard.
Which games did TrashBench test the build with?
He tested it with The Need for Speed: Special Edition and Microsoft Flight Simulator 98, using a Quickshot QS-123 joystick for the flight simulator.
What storage does the retro build use?
It started with a 2 GB Western Digital Caviar 22100 hard drive, later swapped for an 80 GB unit limited by a jumper to either 8.4 GB or 33.4 GB.