Quantum3D V5-6000 system

What if Quantum3D sold systems equipped with a V5-6000? Not to far fetched a notion since Quantum3D did purchase the rights to sell VSA-100 based systems in SLI configuration and purchased a number of V5-6000 boards right before 3dfx closed their doors as well.

So, since I was planning on building a system with the fastest possible CPU that you could run with a V6K I thought I'd give it a distinct Quantum3D flair =)

The case is off Ebay and the front of the motherboard tray didn't have a support for long cards so I had to modify one quite a bit from another junk case. It came out better then I thought it would, at least it doesn't come out looking like a hack job. The power supply is a Thermaltake 420 watt unit which while providing more then adequate power has way to many leads for my taste! The rest of the system is as follows:

Motherboard:   Epox 8K3A+ (KT333, last modern chipset to support AGP 3.3 voltage required.)
Processor:       AMD Barton 3000+
Ram:                Corsair 400DDR 512 MB.
Video:             V5-6000 3700-A with PCI rework & prototype fan assembly.
Sound:            On board 6 channel audio.
CD-ROM:        2000 vintage Sony (same as used in Quantum3D systems)
Floppy:           2000 vintage Sony (same as used in Quantum3D systems)
HD:                10 gig Western Digital ATA-66 with active cooling & heatsink.
NIC:               Linksys 10/100 530TX (Same as used in Quantum3D systems)
OS:                Win98SE & Win200Pro dual boot, 3dfx reference drivers for Win98, Amigiamerlin 3.0 for Win2000

Notes: The motherboard from Epox is superb as it has full hardware monitoring that reports all critical voltages on boot up including AGP volts and can also be accessed from Windows. 

Notes: A huge thanks goes out to Daniel Borca for his work generating an OpenGL driver for Doom3 & 3dfx cards!

Front view, ready for installation in a nice rack!

(Click on image above for larger version in new window!)

Here is an overhead shot of the completed system- The removable bar over the top is a common fixture for most Quantum3D systems and ensures that the video & other add on boards don't become loose while in transit. Even the cradle for the drives is secured with a plate over the top and uses thumbscrews for quick access. 

From this angle you can check out the retaining bar & the V6K with prototype cooler. 
Yes that chunk of foam *is* Quantum3D spec.

Rear shot showing V6K, Q3D spec backplates, Linksys NIC & USB header.

From here you can see my handy-work in regards to the support bracket, can't have the video board waving around in the breeze! The unused red IDE ports at the top right are the two extra IDE channels linked to the onboard High Point RAID controller. I have no plans on adding a RAID array to the computer at this time.

A view of some of the wiring & cables, I tried to be as neat as possible & run everything as Quantum3D would.

A friend of mine was kind enough to whip up some AAlchemy decals for me based off some images noted in a few 2000 vintage Quantum3D brochures and PDF files. I think it came out rather good. Yup, that's a Gigapixel key chain for the door lock, Gigapixel was a tile based rendering graphics company that 3dfx purchased in March of 2000.

Opening the front hatch shows the CD-ROM, inlet grill for the fan cooled hard drive with heatsink and the floppy, all in correct black configuration of course. 

The switch on the very bottom is for power, next one up is the system reset. 

The third switch I added for fan control: When it's to the left the fans up front receive 5 volts, when flipped to the right 12 volts. The fans move massive amounts of air and make considerable amounts of noise at full speed. However, when at the 5 volt setting they become whisper quite and is perfect for when the machine is idling.

The hole in the middle is where the drive door lock engages the case.

For a final touch, a custom themed desktop based off V6K ad artwork.

Yes, you can play Doom3 on a V6K with decent framerates!

In timedemo one the card scores 20 FPS, the funny thing is the limiting factor isn't the V6K but the Barton 3000+ CPU! There is no change in FPS score when shifting from 640 x 480, 800 x 600 & 1024 x 768. The 2.2 ghz CPU just can't feed the video card fast enough while running this complex game at those resolutions.

Rocking on-line deathmatching with the V6K, click for larger image.