breakz wrote on 2023-12-12, 22:08:

DFI G7S620-N

I get it you desire to have ISA sound and AGP 8x in one system but do you really need them? It’s a difficult path, there is no benefit from Core2Duo to be gained in “DOS games” scenario and finally when you think everything is set you’ll stumble into some incompatibility because of the bridge. So go the tested 440BX route maybe?
What specific games do you have in mind?

Thanks for replying Bruno!
About your super good question , i can reply that i am on the old DOS games (RPG Rules ) but also adventures and also the Baldur's gate series ( i am not talking about the 3rd episode 😀 ) and for that i was thinking to have a powerful but "elastic" system at same time. i do not think that i 440bx can arrive to baldur's 2. let's also say that i would like to play some other 3d videogames too so..but hey i am opened to any advice.😀

I agree with the above, Win9x on newer hardware often is more hassle than it's worth. For example Baldur's Gate 2 System requirements are:
PII 233Mhz, 32MB Ram, 4MB Video card.

I find PIII 600Mhz is more than enough for any Win9x games. Anything that struggles works fine in XP anyway.
Also hardware from this era benefits from drivers written and optimised for win9x, later drivers can be bit more buggy as was more of an afterthought.

Most later dos games also work and even a PII 233 is crazy fast for dos

Win9x you have 2 main choices for sound card
Aureal Vortex 2 with A3D 2.0
Creative SBlive, Audigy, Audigy 2 with EAX.

While not amazing both of these also support sound in DOS so if you do end up with a PCI only system I'd go with one of those.

What's about a Tualatin based system with ISA slot?

Thanks chinny22!...about pentium 3 600 Mhz..you mean socket 370 or slot1? because by that which kind of mobo do you recommend?
i read something about Intel 44oBX...maybe a mobo with slot isa could be good?

440BX (or cut down ZX) is a proven chipset in terms of stability, and most of the BX/ZX boards have one or more ISA slot(s).

I think there are more Slot1 BX boards than Socket370, you pick. 😜

chinny22 wrote on 2023-12-14, 03:08:

For example Baldur's Gate 2 System requirements are:
PII 233Mhz, 32MB Ram, 4MB Video card.

Technically yes, but really no. Back in the day, developers would understate the system requirements of their games by a fair bit. Probably because technology advanced so rapidly at the time, that many people were left behind on (relatively) slow systems. From personal experience, Baldur's Gate 2 needs at least a P3 700 with 256 MB RAM to run comfortably at max in-game settings. A bit more if you add the Throne of Bhaal expansion, since it features larger battles.

To the OPs question, the recommendation would depend on the games that you want to play, at which resolution you want to run them, and what level of performance you expect. If you just want to relive Win9x era games as you have played them back in the day, then the 440BX platform with a reasonably fast Pentium 3 is a great choice. Pair it with something like a GeForce 2 GTS and a SBLive, and you're all set. On the other hand, if you want to fully max out the games from that era and play them at the 1600x1200 resolution with AA and AF, while still expecting 60+ FPS, you'll need a more powerful system.

It also depends on how interested you are in DOS gaming. Some older DOS titles are speed sensitive and have problems running on faster machines. There are some workarounds and slowdown utilities, but their effectiveness on P3 systems and above may vary. For best DOS game compatibility, you also need an ISA sound card. Newer, more powerful systems (Pentium 4, AthlonXP etc.) usually don't have ISA slots.

Again thanks guys!

About BG2...infact i seemed to remember that minimum requirements to play in a 17 inch crt were a little bit higher than tose wrote above..😀 ...obviously i would like to have a system powerful and flexible at the same time.that is why my idea wasd the industrial DFI on this thread post.obviously i would like to play also DOS games with good old great isa soundcards. and obviously i do not refuse to use pci soundcards too.If the agp give some problem with DOS that could be a problem then. with windows 98-95 for what i remember with my first pc (pentium 2 266 slot 1 and agp card : a matrox 200) i did not have any sort of problem. then about DOS games can be another talk.i was also thinking if it could be posible using a PCI Vga in a mobo with an AGP bus.about the cpu speed and screen resolution: i can play them or on a 24 inch lcd or an 4K lcdboth by a scaler obviously)...so i think that the only limit are the workarounds and the availability of soundcards and vga and cpu..(also the mem probably). i saw around quite a bit of socket 370 mobo.where with a good pentium not slot 1 the BG problem could be solved.if i can also try some 3d stuff with some vga and still mantain a good compatibility with dos games..why not!)

I was just using the PII 233 in BG's system requirements as a ball park example, even my PIII 600.
At these speeds doesn't make sense to go slower (anything speed sensitive is already broken) so get the fastest CPU the motherboard supports/you can afford.

Likewise Slot or Socket, Tualatin, Coppermine, etc. faster is better as long as the motherboard has support. Slot 1 motherboards typically have an ISA slot, S370 it's a bit less common but if you find one then perfect as long as its got an Intel chipset. Other chipsets can be good such as Apollo Pro but worth double checking.

For GeForce 4 or FX are great cards for Win98 and great dos compatibility as well, you may not need to video cards.

However if your talking about glide, or the the really early 3D API's you may need more then 1 card but you definitely can have both PCI and AGP card installed at the same time, depending on the final setup it'll probably require you to set the primary in BIOS or disable one in device manager to force games onto the correct card.

thanks again chinny and tahnks Disruptor too (sorry for being late!) and...mmm
searching around i am also thinking of having a more flexible and powerful system...that means or just going for something with no ISA bus but still permit windows 98 and finding a good compatible soundcard and cpu...have any ideas about this?

breakz wrote on 2023-12-17, 07:36:

going for something with no ISA bus but still permit windows 98

Since you have fantastic items like Roland sound canvas, that asks for a good ISA audio setup for DOS games.
But if are ready to exclude this from the equation, there are hundreds of ISA-less platforms with Win98 drivers, some of the faster ones are: Intel 875, VIA K8T800, PT880 Ultra, etc. With those you can run processors from 2004 and even newer. The question is what games you want.

even a basic P4 motherboard based on the Intel 845 chipset is overkill for Win98 and includes AGP and IDE (good for optical drives & CD audio)
Socket 478 runs hotter but more common, LGA775 finding AGP and/or IDE started been dropped so just needs quick double check.

Hi Guys! first always thanks about all the advices.after long thoughts i am thinking about

- a system that allow me to play xo and 98 games without any sort of "power problem"!
- a mobo possiblywith isa bus (for the sound card),but for the most powerful games for example :3d games ,can i have enough power by the limitation of pci vga or first gen agp vga? (p3BF? cub-x?...other models?)
- OR a mobo with no Isa : nforce 4 ultra? Intel x48/x38/x58? 875/865? Nforce 2 ?

- should it be possible to have a dual boot (1 with 98,1 with xp) right?

again if you have any particular mobo models in my mind (also about ram and why not vga outside of the models already listed above in the thread) please let me know!

Play XP games without problem = Core2Duo on Intel chipset with GeForce 7 / 8 / 9.
Play 98 games without problem = Pentium 3 on 440BX with GeForce 3 / 4Ti / FX.
A board with ISA bus but powerful enough for 3D games from 2001 (meaning it supports AGP 4x) = Abit KT7A (Athlon), Gigabyte GA-6VTX (Tualatin).
A board with no ISA but powerful enough for 3D games from 2001: literally every office PC up to Sandy Bridge.
nForce 4 ultra = don't bother.
X38/X48/X58 = fancy but no more practical than a typical cheap P35.
nForce2 = the chipset/sound is good but the board quality/stability varies wildly.
Dual booting 98/XP would work good on Intel 875/865.

At this point when you don't know what exactly you want it's smart not to chase particular models but get what's directly available. It's better to start somewhere and see how it goes from there.