Custom PC - Project Lo Wang

Yoooooouuuuuuuu no mess with Lo Wang! Click for more photos!

What's something you just didn't see in the 90s? Dual CPU Pentium MMX systems, that's what you didn't see.

I have no idea of the provenance of the hardware in this thing, it's a collection of weird exotica that was lying around my shed and needed rehomed. The case is an old Macase ATX tower that was essentially outdoor furniture for the last few decades and has needed extensive rust repairs and subsequent painting to keep the rust from reforming... hence its new greyish hue. It was remarked that it looked like shadow... Shadow Warrior... Lo Wang.

Specifications

Dual Intel Pentium MMX 200MHz CPUs

192MB EDO RAM

TMC Intel 430HX motherboard

6GB ATA hard disk (Windows)

Iomega Zip250 ATAPI

Liteon 24x10x40x DVD reader CD writer

Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 4MB (S3 ViRGE/325)

Skywell Magic3D II 12MB x2 (3dfx Voodoo2 SLI)

Creative SoundBlaster AWE32 sound card

Adaptec AHA-2940UW SCSI card

Netgear 10/100 ethernet card

Windows NT 4.0 Workstation and Windows 95 OSR2.5

Unique features

The TMC mainboard fits a unique niche - dual Pentium MMXs is a bizarre combination, best guess is that this system originated as a graphics workstation at one time... 192MB RAM... in 1997?! WHAT?!

It runs Windows NT like an absolute dream while dualbooting Windows 95 for compatibility. We have experimented with other operating systems over the years too - it has successfully run SMP builds of OS/2 Warp 4 as well as OPENSTEP and an attempt at BeOS, although that didn't work out due to drive controller shenanigans.

It's been equipped with some tasty upgrades from the era, including but not limited to the Diamond 3D Stealth 2000 (an excellent super compatible S3 ViRGE card) and two Skywell Magic3D II 12MBs (Voodoo2, real 3D acceleration!) with an Adaptec SCSI card for good measure.

Personal history

The motherboard was an acquisition from a local auction site as-found for the princely sum of... $10. Turns out a good friend was keen too but was away doing a job when the auction was closing!

The case belonged to a friend's father, who after he retired the machine left it outside for easily 15 years. When I got the case it'd had something dropped on top damaging the outside sheet metal and due to missing covers was full of leaves which had destroyed the metalwork in the bottom of the case. Plentiful treatments with EvapoRust, a zinc treatment, some PlastiDip and paint later... it's not the tidiest thing ever but it's presentable and gave me something to do with my summer 2023/24 holiday.

Lo Wang has seen many an operating system but it's high time we get a bit more serious about that - it's the prime target for running some of those more esoteric operating systems but it's currently dedicated to Windows (though it's pretty funny running Unreal in Windows NT4 with SLI GLIDE working and both CPUs up!)

Future plans

Lo Wang is one of those wonderful systems that's forever in a state of flux, at this stage there's a few proposed upgrades lined up:

Populate the hotswap drive cage for alternative operating systems
CPUs. Need to research this but it'd be nice to fit a pair of 233MMXs