Re: Why DOS4GW games lead to higher system requirements + slower performance on 386sx

Posted on Today, 15:04

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

386SX was crippled so it was sort of like a 286 with 386 instructions but not capable of executing 32bit code very fast. It was meant to be used for mostly 16bit software with the option of executing 32bit code in theory. As far as I remember it didn't even have a cache. As described above it …

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Re: HELP! - GeForce FX5600 in win98se

Posted on 2022-08-14, 16:47

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2022-08-14, 15:53: However, the black screen issue with Thief 2 is unacceptable to me since it's one of my favorite games. Therefore, I will stick to the slightly slower but known good 45.23 driver. Same here. No driver newer than 45.23 should be used in Windows 98.

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Re: Windows 9x/ME with WPA2 router compatibility

Posted on 2022-08-11, 21:29

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

https://cloakedthargoid.wordpress.com/win9x-wpa2/ is incomplete. When I install driver for Edimax EW-7128g (RT2561ST) just after installation of Windows 98, then the Ralink utility offers WPA-PSK in Profile "Authentication type". It is vital that "IEEE 802.1X Protocol" gets added to Windows "Network …

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Re: Biostar M6TZA and PIII-800MHz

Posted on 2022-08-09, 18:46

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by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Get a Katmai 600Mhz for a 20% speed upgrade. That's the least you can do without risking anything. My PIII 900Mhz is mostly useful for late games like Return to castle wolfenstein, Fifa 2003, Nhl 2003.

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Re: K8T800 chipset motherboard.

Posted on 2022-08-01, 20:42

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's great for Windows 98 and early Windows XP games in dual boot. Pair it with Athlon 3400+, NVidia GeForce 4 or FX (due to Windows 98) and Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS.

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Re: 440LX and Coppermine

Posted on 2022-07-31, 18:07

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's great to see you got Coppermine Celeron working. In that case I would get a PIII 900E (9x100) and run it at 750Mhz (9x83.3). PIII is much faster than Coppermine Celeron in games, although not so much in synthetic benchmarks.

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Re: 440LX and Coppermine

Posted on 2022-07-31, 13:21

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I would just get a Mendocino Celeron 433 and run it at 6.5 x 83 = 540Mhz.

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Re: Abit BH6: Upgrade CPU or put a faster GPU?

Posted on 2022-07-30, 08:10

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

How is it different from the Abit BH-6 you already have? It makes little sense to have PIII-800E and PIII-550.

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Re: AMD Slot A 1999 Build

Posted on 2022-07-27, 17:07

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by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Lack of SSE on Athlon shouldn't be a big issue as long as software supports 3DNow!. I would say it became indispensable later in Windows XP era. I regard Athlon as a superior CPU to PIII. I also happen to have a few spare Athlon 1200 cpus with KT133 boards (3x). Since PIII 900 is sufficient for all …

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Re: AMD Slot A 1999 Build

Posted on 2022-07-26, 19:41

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by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I would focus on faster CPU as in my case I ended up playing late Windows 98 games and uninstalling early ones. Fifa 2001 is so much better than 98/99. With Athlon 900 you should be able to play Fifa 2003, Nhl 2003, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Thief 2 as well as older titles.

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Re: old AT / ATX power supplies. Are they worth saving?

Posted on 2022-07-26, 19:33

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If they are hissing then I give them away for free. There are people willing to pick them up in person. If nothing else at least they get a free fan.

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Re: Which of three FX 5xxx cards to choose from?

Posted on 2022-07-24, 12:30

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by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I would not recommend newer than 45.23 drivers with Windows 98. For me it is the last driver with good Windows 98 game compatibility. I would also agree with socket 754 being a very good choice for Windows 98 rig, much better than Socket A. Get stocked on them while they are still ridiculously cheap …

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Re: Help! PC won't power on with Slotket

Posted on 2022-07-08, 17:54

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Celeron 766 is not very useful for overclocking as the chance of it running at 1150Mhz is very slim. Celeron 600-633 is the best.

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Re: Help! PC won't power on with Slotket

Posted on 2022-07-04, 22:49

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by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I don't think it will be a BIOS problem. More likely a damaged trace on board or a damaged socket.

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Re: How much is worth?

Posted on 2022-07-02, 14:54

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by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I refurbish my machines to the best of my abilities. This takes a lot of time + resources. I love it when I get super-low balled with the explanation that "this rig is worth $200 to me" - great! I'm 1) not in any hurry to sell it 2) have sold machines internationally for industrial uses (the most …

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Re: How much is worth?

Posted on 2022-07-02, 14:50

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If you want cheap parts you have to browse local ebay clones in EU countries. They don't come in English version though. Another alternative to allegro.pl is https://aukro.cz/historicke-pocitace?sort=endingTime:ASC&endingBeforeRel=120h Sometimes sellers refuse to ship the item abroad. You may be …

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Re: CRT “crack” sound + picture flicker

Posted on 2022-07-01, 16:39

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My old Goldstar monitor did this when I had 386 back in the day. I just opened it and cleaned all parts from dust. It seemed to be temperature related in my case. It never caused any permanent damage.

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Re: How much is worth?

Posted on 2022-06-30, 12:51

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Do not confuse part list price and the price customer is willing to pay. People put up parts for sale for crazy price, but unless there is a buyer it isn't the real price. This can be very misleading when there are very few sellers as they can just keep pushing the price up. Ultimately it is the …

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Re: [Slot1 Mobo] Repair or Trash ?

Posted on 2022-06-25, 08:26

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's got onboard Creative sound card. I would verify if there is a DOS driver for it. TNT2 M64 has dedicated memory so it won't be that bad. Good enough for PIII 550 Katmai. Fix the caps, then sell it.

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Re: Help! PC won't power on with Slotket

Posted on 2022-06-24, 10:11

by

by AlexZ

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

This is a case when Coppermine Celerons come in handy. They cost like $2 each. Whenever I need to test a board, I use those. My first suspicion would be the motherboard doesn't support Coppermine PIII. Try setting jumpers for 1.8V, that is the lowest Katmai 440BX boards can go.

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