Logging the annoying progress on a fast Win98SE build based on the ASRock 775i65G.

Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5800 3.2 GHz
2 GB Corsair TwinX2048-3500LLPRO (v1.3, Infineon CE-5)
ASRock 775i65G R3.0
Gainward GeForce FX 5950 Ultra 256 MB (w/ Arctic Cooling NV Silencer 4)
Aureal SQ2500 Vortex 2 + Yamaha DB50XG daughter board
Kingston SSDNow UV400 120 GB
Corsair RM750i
Noctua NH-U9S chromax.black
Chieftec CT-01B

The DVD drive I had for this turned out faulty and I'll have to replace it. Switching to a USB based approach, I wasted a lot of time with Rufus. Couldn't get Windows XP setup to boot on this board until I tried YUMI multiboot, which worked perfectly. XP is better than 98SE for hardware stability testing and such.

GeForce FX 5950 Ultra:
Powering up for the firs time, the Arctic Cooling fan shorted and blew its capacitor with a bang! There was a bit of smoke and a brief flash at the fan header as well as the card's auxiliary power connector. The "NV Silencer" caused no apparent damage to the card or wiring after a quick test, aside from probably taking out one of the two fan headers. I'll have to replace the cooling solution again, though.

2 GB Corsair TwinX2048-3500LLPRO:
There's a problem with the memory. TestMem5 gives errors at DDR400 at the board's maximum 2.7 VDIMM, no matter how loose the timings. I'll need new memory. 2 x 512 MB will be more than enough for a 98SE build; even 256 MB sticks would do for capacity, but it's typically a single row configuration in DDR400 and two rows per channel should be optimum for performance.