TINY Computers 810LS1
- Mark Henderson
- May 16
- 10 min read
A simple, unassuming low-end, beige Windows 98 multimedia machine from the late 90s created by a virtually forgotten brand - Tiny. Released cira 1999, ~£1,200
Preface
This is a nostalgia trip for me and might be for others, this was in the homes at the first pr perhaps second family PC for many thousands and are now exceedingly rare and hard to find for sale, especially working.
Think big about your pc – think Tiny
Tiny closed its doors in 2003, when it went into administration on January 29, 2002. The company had been struggling with insolvency since late November 2000, amassing £45.5 million in debt, and its assets were subsequently bought by Time Group, a rival PC company.
If we consider production timelines, chipset integration, and Tiny’s market strategy, the 810LS1 was likely released between mid-1999 and early 2000. Tiny, like everyone else at the time were targeting households eager to get online. They often piled computer offers high with monitors, scanners, speakers and other peripherals to entice customers trying to save cash.
The 810LS1 sported a Pentium III 450MHz Slot 1 processor, Intel’s newly released ‘Katmai’ core. It was notable at the time as it introduced SSE, a set of 70 new instructions for enhanced multimedia and 3D processing. Hitting shelves as much as £500, it targeted mid-to-high-end desktops and budget workstations, a segment Tiny served well, it was a good choice for the 810LS1 but its high cost presumably contributing to cost savings being made else where!.
Aside the point, market reception to the Pentium III was positive but mixed. Tech reviews at the time praised SSEs improvement to 3d and multimedia but AMD’s new Athlon 500 MHz, launched June 1999 and priced at just £290, outperformed it by 15-20% in benchmarks like Quake III Arena. Intel’s brand loyalty and OEM ties, like with Tiny Computers, maintained its market share in pre-built systems.
Chipsets, features and configuration
It’s a safe presumption that the ‘810’ refers to the Intel 810 ‘Whitney’ chipset (a.k.a. SL3P6), launched in early 1999. The chipset targeted budget desktops and replaced the Intel 440BX chipset (legendary today). It focused on integrated graphics to reduce costs for OEMs and accompanied many entry-level processors (specifically those up to 533 MHz initially, with a 66/100 MHz FSB). Key to it was the 82810 GMCH with integrated Intel 752 graphics (4 MB display cache) and USB1.1 hub.
North & Southbridge
Feature | Specification |
Chipset Components | 82810 GMCH (Graphics and Memory Controller Hub), ICH0/ICH1 (I/O Controller Hub) |
CPU Support | Slot 1 and Socket 370; Pentium III (e.g., 450 MHz), Celeron (up to 533 MHz) |
Front Side Bus (FSB) | 66 MHz or 100 MHz |
Memory Support | SDRAM (PC66/PC100), 2 DIMM slots, max 512 MB (non-ECC) |
Integrated Graphics | Intel 752 GPU (Portola), 4 MB display cache (shared system memory) |
Graphics Features | DirectX 6.0, OpenGL 1.1, max resolution 1280x1024 at 85 Hz, no hardware T&L |
Fill Rate | ~66 Mpixels/s (limited 3D performance) |
Expansion Slots | No AGP slot; typically 3 PCI slots (as seen in your 810LS1 motherboard diagram) |
Storage | 2 IDE channels (via ICH1), supports Ultra DMA/33 or Ultra DMA/66, up to 4 drives |
USB | 2 USB 1.1 ports (12 Mbps max), via ICH1 |
Audio | AC’97 2.0/2.1, often paired with codecs like AD1881A (as in your 810LS1) |
Southbridge | ICH0 (early 810) or ICH1 (810E/810-DC100), handles I/O functions |
Power Management | ACPI 1.0, supports basic sleep states (S1, S3) |
Networking | No integrated LAN; often paired with a modem (e.g., 56K) in budget OEM builds |
Typical TDP | ~5-7W for the chipset (low power draw for budget systems) |
Target Market | Entry-level desktops, OEM budget systems (e.g., Tiny Computers 810LS1) |
It competed with VIA’s Apollo Pro 133 (also found later in the Tiny T440BMX), which offered AGP support and better performance for enthusiasts. The 810’s integrated graphics and lack of AGP slot limited its appeal for gamers, but its low cost and reliability made it popular for OEMs like Tiny Computers targeting budget consumers in 1999-2000.
Super I/O chip
The Winbond W83627F-AW is a Super I/O chip commonly used in late 1990s and early 2000s budget PCs. It’s part of Winbond’s W83627 series, designed to handle legacy I/O functions and system monitoring in a single 128-pin PQFP package, making it a cost-effective choice for OEMs.
Configuration
Many 810LS1s shipped configured with a Pentium III 450Mhz out of the box and typically paired with 256mb of RAM (occasionally original configurations appear up on eBay with 64mb!). a 17GB Fujitsu 5400RPM hard drive, a CD-ROM/DVD-ROM combi drive and a 1.44MB floppy drive. It used the MSI MS-6183 motherboard which had 1x PTI/AMR slow, 3x PCI slots, 2x IDE channels, a Floppy Drive controller and could support 512mb of SDR UDIMM RAM (PC-100) and accepted a standard ATX 20-pin power connection.
Graphics Performance
The Intel 752 GPU was a budget solution aimed at basic 2D and light 3D tasks, not gaming. Its lack of hardware T&L meant 3D rendering relied heavily on the CPU, which the Pentium III 450 MHz could only partially mitigate. The GPU’s 4 MB display cache and shared memory architecture (using system RAM) led to bandwidth bottlenecks, especially with 256 MB SDRAM typical in your 810LS1.
DirectX Compatibility: The 810 supported DirectX 6.0 out of the box (1999), with drivers later updated for DirectX 7.0 (late 1999) and 8.0 (2000). However, features like hardware T&L in DirectX 7.0 were unsupported, forcing games to use software rendering, which increased CPU load and reduced frame rates.
2D Performance: For 2D tasks, the 752 GPU excelled, handling Windows 98 SE’s GUI, web browsing, and 2D games at 800x600 or 1024x768 smoothly, with minimal lag in applications like Microsoft Office or Paint.
3D Performance: 3D gaming was a weak point. Benchmarks from Tom’s Hardware (1999) showed the 810 averaging 15-20 FPS in Quake II (1997) at 640x480 with low settings, compared to 60+ FPS on an NVIDIA TNT2 (a popular discrete GPU). The fill rate and lack of T&L made it struggle with complex textures and lighting effects in newer titles.
CPU Contribution
The Pentium III 450 MHz, provided a slight edge in games optimised for floating-point calculations, like 3D rendering in Tomb Raider (1996), thanks to SSE. However, its 100 MHz FSB and half-speed L2 cache limited performance in CPU-bound scenarios, especially with the 810’s graphics offloading 3D tasks to the CPU. Overclocking to 133 MHz FSB (598.5 MHz), as the AMI BIOS allows, could theoretically boost performance by ~30%, but stability issues and the chipset’s memory controller limits (designed for PC100 SDRAM) often made this impractical for sustained gaming.
Gaming Performance (1999-2001)
Here’s how the 810 chipset with the Pentium III 450 MHz performed based on reviews at the time, with notable games from 1999-2001 under Windows 98 SE:
2D and Light 3D Games:
SimCity 3000 (1999): Ran smoothly at 800x600, averaging 30 FPS. Its 2D sprite-based rendering didn’t tax the 752 GPU, and the Pentium III handled simulation logic well.
RollerCoaster Tycoon (1999): Achieved 25-30 FPS at 640x480. The game’s 2D engine with isometric 3D elements was well within the 810’s capabilities.
Commander Keen series (1990-1991): Played flawlessly at 320x200, as expected for 2D DOS games, though DOS audio issues with the AD1881A codec could cause stuttering.
Early 3D Games:
Tomb Raider III (1998): Managed 15-20 FPS at 640x480 with low settings using software rendering (DirectX 6.0). The 752 GPU struggled with texture mapping, and the CPU bore the rendering load, leading to occasional frame drops during complex scenes.
Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit (1998): Averaged 20-25 FPS at 640x480. The game’s simpler 3D models and limited effects were manageable, but reflections and transparency effects caused slowdowns.
FIFA 99 (1998): Ran at 25-30 FPS at 640x480. Its low-poly models and basic lighting worked decently, though crowd animations could dip frames to 20 FPS.
Demanding 3D Games:
Quake III Arena (1999): Struggled at 10-15 FPS at 640x480 with lowest settings (DirectX 7.0). The game’s high polygon counts, dynamic lighting, and texture demands overwhelmed the 752 GPU, and the CPU couldn’t compensate for the lack of T&L.
Unreal Tournament (1999): Similar performance, 12-15 FPS at 640x480 with minimal detail. The 810’s fill rate and shared memory bandwidth couldn’t handle the game’s detailed environments, even with the CPU’s SSE optimizations.
Half-Life (1998): Managed 15-20 FPS at 640x480 with low settings. The game’s reliance on OpenGL 1.1 was a slight advantage, but complex levels with multiple enemies caused stuttering.
Sound Performance
The AD1881A SoundMAX sound chip, developed by Analog Devices, was an AC’97 audio codec commonly integrated into late 1990s and early 2000s budget PCs. It featured a relatively high-quality analog mixer, two channels of ΣΔ ADC and DAC conversion for audio input/output and supported the AC’97 2.0/2.1 spec with a 48 kHz sample rate, 16-bit stereo audio, and built-in PHAT Stereo 3D enhancement for spatial audio effects.
For games and multimedia it delivered reliable but basic performance. It handled 2D audio well, supporting stereo sound for games like Duke Nukem 3D or multimedia apps of the era, with low distortion and noise, as noted in Analog Devices’ specs. The PHAT Stereo effect added some depth to audio, enhancing immersion in games and music, though it wasn’t true surround sound. However, its lack of hardware acceleration for 3D audio (like EAX) meant it leaned on the CPU for positional audio processing, which strains the modest 450MHz of the P3. This results in occasional lag or stuttering in 3D-heavy games, especially compared to dedicated cards.
Driver support was a mixed bag. Under Windows 98 SE, the AD1881A works fine with SoundMAX drivers for basic audio, but DOS compatibility is poor, often causing distorted or stuttering. For XP systems, the chip performed better with updated drivers, supporting multimedia tasks like MP3 playback or video smoothly. Overall, the AD1881A was a budget-friendly choice for its time, decent for casual gaming and multimedia, but outclassed by dedicated sound cards in performance and features.
BIOS
The BIOS is by AMI. Latest version is A6183MS V1.7 032400 and produces the POST string 63-10B1-001169-00101111-071595-WHITNEY. The original BIOS was A6183MS V1.0 090399 but we’ve only encountered boards that originally shipped with A6183MS V1.4 110899.
An interesting note, the 810 chipset’s 82810 GMCH and ICH1 were engineered for a 100 MHz FSB max, as per Intel’s specs, but the BIOS included a 133 MHz FSB unofficial overclock option. The P3 450, has a locked multiplier (4.5x), so increasing the FSB to 133 MHz would overclock it to 4.5 x 133 = 598.5 MHz, a 33% boost. This does make the one we have volatile and often fails to boot requiring a CMOS clear.
Hard Drive
The Fujitsu MPD3173AT, a 3.5-inch IDE/ATA HDD from 1999, was a budget-friendly drive. It offered 17.3GB unformatted capacity (around 16GB formatted with FAT32), fitting the era’s needs for OEM desktops. Spinning at 5400 RPM, it had a 512 KB cache, an ATA-66 interface (Ultra DMA/66), an average seek time of 9.5ms, and a max internal transfer rate of about 20 MB/s, though limited by the Intel 810 chipset’s controller to around 15 MB/s in practice.
It used a single platter with two heads, keeping power draw low at 5-6W during operation, ideal for the 810LS1’s 83W SFF PSU. The drive supported basic S.M.A.R.T. for diagnostics and was reliable for light workloads—storing Windows 98 SE, apps, and games, delivering consistent performance for the time. However, its 5400 RPM speed and small cache meant slower load times compared to 7200 RPM drives, and you feel every bit of it!
Optical Drive
A rebranded Mitsubishi CR-584-B drive comes stock. Fairly quiet and designed for basic multimedia tasks, offering a 12x read speed for CDs (1.8 MB/s max transfer rate) and supporting standard 650 MB discs. The Tiny variant included 2x DVD-ROM capability (2.7 MB/s), hardware decoding relied on the CPU. They also featured a tasteful “DVD” logo printed on the tray cover.
The drive features a 128 KB buffer, an average access time of 110 ms, and uses an ATA-33 interface, compatible with the 810 chipset’s ICH1 controller (Ultra DMA/33 or 66). The OEM variant Tiny chose deleted play/skip button and headphone jack, typical for the custom chassis designs.
These drives tend to fail around this age, ours did. Poor disc recognition/ejection are common symptoms that can be rectified with a good re-oil, clean / new belt and reader head clean, this did nothing to fix ours. The problem lurks on the chipset somewhere – beyond out skillset to trace!
Power
OEMs were notoriously cheap with PSUs in this era and this is no exception – a measly 83 watt SFF by Sparkle Power was all you had. Consider the processor has a TDP of about 25W, and the Intel 810 chipset drew minimal power (around 5-7W), the supplied PCI modem (1-2W), CD/DVD combo drive (10-15W peak), floppy drive (5W peak), and a single HDD (5-10W) kept total system power draw low, typically under 60W even at peak usage, on paper leaving headroom within the 83W PSU capacity. However, as these machines aged and capacitors ballooned, this headroom would have disappeared entirely.
Driver Support
Drivers are readily available for Windows 9x.
· MSI drivers and utilities - 2in1om02f - 2in1om02f.zip
· Intel Chipse Driver - 6.3.0.1007 - infinst-autol.zip
· Intel Graphics Driver - 4.13.01.3196 - win9xm67.zip
Upgrade ability
First out of the gate is replacement capacitors – 3x PCI slots is somewhat limiting. Our recommendation would be an ethernet card, a Sound Blaster live! And a USB 2.0 card to boost transfer speeds. According to the bios notes Coppermine CPUs are supported, but we didn’t have one to test at the time.
Tired World’s Take
TL;DR: The Tiny Computers 810LS1 feels and operates every bit as entry-level as it is. Games we loved like SimCity 3000, Age of Empires II and C&C Red Alert 2 will obviously run very well, games like G-Police handle well, too. You could install a PCI graphics card but you’d hit a bottleneck with the stock CPU. However we’d absolutely recommend a SoundBlaster Live! Value card (or similar) to overcome the poor performance of the SoundMax chip and consider filling that last slot with a USB 2.0 hub for improved connectivity.
We also encountered repeated issues with SATA-to-IDE adapters and SSDs enabling DMA mode, this is likely due to that intel chipset. We’d recommend Windows 2000 over stock Windows 98 SE for better stability and driver support.
Why Windows 2000? Released in February 2000, it offers superior stability with its NT kernel, reducing crashes compared to Windows 98 SE’s 9x architecture—crucial for the 810LS1’s aging hardware and given that tinkering with PCI devices and drivers will often demand a rebuild (Check out 98 Quick Install!) . It also provides better driver support for components like the AD1881A audio chip, improving multimedia performance, and has enhanced memory management for the 256 MB RAM, making it more reliable for retro tasks than stock Windows 98 SE, though mods like Windows 98SE Unofficial SP4 help with the performance tweak. Remember, KernelEx is a must for those sticking with 98!
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