You'd probably want an S3 video card.

The best choices if you could manage to get them working is a Voodoo 3 pci (expensive) or a TNT/2 but going with S3 or Tseng is your best bet.

Do you mean like an S3 ViRGE?

What is the chance something like this would work? http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-ATI-Rage-XL-8MB-8 … =item460f13c31b

smeezekitty wrote:

Do you mean like an S3 ViRGE?

What is the chance something like this would work? http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-ATI-Rage-XL-8MB-8 … =item460f13c31b

Maybe and even if the card is DOS friendly it might not play nice with the board. Those late 486 have very early implementation of pci that is loaded with bugs so it is worth a shot but be prepared to accept that it might not work. S3 Virge is 486 friendly.

You might want to try some pawn shops, you never know.

You might want to try some pawn shops, you never know.

🤣 I am in the middle of nowhere. I don't even know where the newest pawn shop is.

But there is a computer recycler about 20 miles away. Last time I went I got 30 pin simms for $1 so never know

Board pic: http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcforum/attac … 86&d=1395361625

I've got a 486 build going. Oddly enough, the thing I'm having the hardest time finding is a suitable period AT case. I will probably end up putting it in a modern ATX case and use a converter to get the power supply to work with it.

I'm using a Matrox card for 2d as most games that are going to run on even a dx100-133 level system are not going to be heavily 3d. I know for a fact that Diablo will run on a system of that vintage, and I think I had either a DIamond Stealth Pro or Viper way back then. 3d games that you might run on that vintage system would more likely be software-only (like Quake with the software renderer, maybe Tomb Raider) You could probably run most games that used a software 3d renderer that would run on a Pentium 60 or 75.

You could try to find a Voodoo 3, I haven't seen any on Ebay. The only reason I have one is I never sold mine (thankfully). Probably the S3 Virge is your best bet, as others have mentioned. You'll have a hard time finding a Tseng 4000, all the ones I've seen are crazy expensive. You could check pawn shops or the recycling place, but most of what you find is going to be Trident, Oak, or Cirrus Logic based cards, since that was what was sold to the masses back in the day. Other than the Voodoo, TNT and Millenium, I'm not up on what the good PCI-based cards were.

You're going to want to have a CD-ROM drive, if only for convenience of transferring files from modern systems and installing software. You won't be able to boot off it, though.

As far as the PCI USB, I don't think that will be a problem, but you'll need Win 95 OSr2 or Win 98 in order to have USB. I would recommend trying it, if only so you can have access to jump drives and USB peripherals.

I think your board is very similar to mine, I've only got 3 PCI slots and I think I recognize the name on the manual, may even be the same board.
I was going to go with PCI graphics, PCI SCSI and a PCI USB card. If I had another PCI slot I'd hang a NIC off it too. 16 bit ISA NIC should be plenty for at least 10Mbit, though.

I've got a 486 build going. Oddly enough, the thing I'm having the hardest time finding is a suitable period AT case. I will probably end up putting it in a modern ATX case and use a converter to get the power supply to work with it.

AT cases are something that just are not common anymore

I was going to go with PCI graphics, PCI SCSI and a PCI USB card. If I had another PCI slot I'd hang a NIC off it too. 16 bit ISA NIC should be plenty for at least 10Mbit, though.

I don't think I am going to do anything with SCSI. I really don't know anything outside of IDE 😕
But PCI graphics obviously for better performance and PCI USB because there are no ISA USB cards. I am sticking with ISA on the network card
because it is plenty for my purpose. Considering the internet service is only 5MBPS and vintage software is usually small, 10Mbit ethernet is plenty

I'm using a Matrox card for 2d as most games that are going to run on even a dx100-133 level system are not going to be heavily 3d. I know for a fact that Diablo will run on a system of that vintage, and I think I had either a DIamond Stealth Pro or Viper way back then. 3d games that you might run on that vintage system would more likely be software-only (like Quake with the software renderer, maybe Tomb Raider) You could probably run most games that used a software 3d renderer that would run on a Pentium 60 or 75.

I know I am just kind of anal about having a capable card but I want one that works. Tomb raider runs slow on my DX/33 but I think with a 3.5x faster CPU
and faster video it should be playable

You're going to want to have a CD-ROM drive, if only for convenience of transferring files from modern systems and installing software. You won't be able to boot off it, though.

Of course I have some IDE CD drives. Definitely a must have for hard copied software
As far as transferring goes I hope to be able to use USB and network

Probably the S3 Virge is your best bet, as others have mentioned. You'll have a hard time finding a Tseng 4000, all the ones I've seen are crazy expensive. You could check pawn shops or the recycling place, but most of what you find is going to be Trident, Oak, or Cirrus Logic based cards, since that was what was sold to the masses back in the day. Other than the Voodoo, TNT and Millenium, I'm not up on what the good PCI-based cards were.

The virge probably the most likely to work. Other options I have available is the ATI RAGE XL and a TNT M64

As far as the PCI USB, I don't think that will be a problem, but you'll need Win 95 OSr2 or Win 98 in order to have USB. I would recommend trying it, if only so you can have access to jump drives and USB peripherals.

I will experiment with operating systems. 95/98/NT/Linux. I am even going to give Windows 2000 a go 😵

I think you're going to have a hell of a time getting Win 2k to run. It needs a minimum of either 64 or 128MB to even boot, and you probably want more like 256-512MB for "comfy" performance. It may also do a hardware level check for a Pentium processor, not sure. Your best bets for OS for that time period, depending on what you want to run would be the following:
Dos 6/6.22 and WFW 3.11
Win 95
OS/2 Warp or Win 95 dual boot, Win 98 with 128MB RAM. I mention OS/2 for the excellent DOS multi-tasking, if you are only running DOS and win 3.1 software then it is a really great option. If you want to run 95/98 specific games, it is not as good a choice. I never liked the DOS multitasking in Win 95 nearly as much as I did in OS/2.

I think you're going to have a hell of a time getting Win 2k to run. It needs a minimum of either 64 or 128MB to even boot, and you probably want more like 256-512MB for "comfy" performance. It may also do a hardware level check for a Pentium processor, not sure. Your best bets for OS for that time period, depending on what you want to run would be the following:

Actually it needs a minimum of 32 MB to boot and it will run "ok" in 128MB. Of course I would need to bring the cache up to 512KB
I am pretty sure it does NOT have a pentium check. The famous feipoa ran 2000 on his

The fact is a really enjoy tinkering and trying different things more than anything.

Dos 6/6.22 and WFW 3.11
Win 95
OS/2 Warp or Win 95 dual boot, Win 98 with 128MB RAM. I mention OS/2 for the excellent DOS multi-tasking, if you are only running DOS and win 3.1 software then it is a really great option. If you want to run 95/98 specific games, it is not as good a choice. I never liked the DOS multitasking in Win 95 nearly as much as I did in OS/2.

I don't think I will run 3.11 on it because I run that on my DX4/33. With the faster CPU and more RAM a mode advanced operating system is more appropriate
Probably going to run either 95 or 98 as a primary but I will experiment with Linux/2000

I know nothing about OS/2 but I think software support is limited

Hmm maybe 128MB was the recommended config then for 2000, it has been a while since I've seen the minimum system requirements so you're probably right.

2k might be a better choice than 98, even. Would definitely be more robust and less crash prone. I wouldn't put it out on the internet, though, in this day and age. Even with a hardware and software firewall it would be a PITA to keep it safe.

snorg wrote:

Hmm maybe 128MB was the recommended config then for 2000, it has been a while since I've seen the minimum system requirements so you're probably right.

It is pretty heavy for a 486 but its an experiment anyway.

2k might be a better choice than 98, even. Would definitely be more robust and less crash prone. I wouldn't put it out on the internet, though, in this day and age. Even with a hardware and software firewall it would be a PITA to keep it safe.

Whatever.

Not meaning to sound rude but can we please get back to the hardware discussion?

I am still missing quite a few parts so that is my focus right now

Sorry, I didn't mean to get you off track or ramble. As far as your concerns that haven't been addressed:

1. You will have a hell of a time finding a vintage AT case. You might be best off buying a non-working system with proper vintage case and just gutting the parts and reselling what works on ebay. That's what I'm contemplating. Or try flea markets/pawn shops. Early pentium-era (not PII) was still AT form factor so that may be a good source. Someone was selling a black mini-tower with CPU LED a while back, wish I had bought it. While I like retro gear, I abosolutely hate beige. Anyway, I'm rambling again.

2. PCI card: My vote is for Matrox Millenium or maybe a Voodoo 1 or Voodoo 2

3. I'm not sure on the specs on the PCI voltage. It is worth getting a PCI usb card just to try, they are cheap and it will either work or it won't. I don't think you will damage the system by using the wrong voltage card, but you might damage the card.

You probably don't need to go SCSI, one IDE HD and one IDE optical is probably enough. If you wanted to have several drives, though, SCSI will let you do this more easily.

Forgot soundcards. For a soundcard, if you can find one, you may want to consider a Gravis Ultrasound. A Soundblaster AWE 32 is also a good choice. SB AWE 64 will also work. SB 16 or SB Pro will work in a pinch if you can't find anything else. I would stay away from no-name cards as it will be harder to find drivers.

snorg wrote:

1. You will have a hell of a time finding a vintage AT case. You might be best off buying a non-working system with proper vintage case and just gutting the parts and reselling what works on ebay. That's what I'm contemplating. Or try flea markets/pawn shops. Early pentium-era (not PII) was still AT form factor so that may be a good source. Someone was selling a black mini-tower with CPU LED a while back, wish I had bought it. While I like retro gear, I abosolutely hate beige. Anyway, I'm rambling again.

Thanks for your patience with me.
So it looks like my options are either to stumble on an AT case, scrap a broken/non-valuable computer or modify an ATX case.
I don't really care what color it is as long as it works. I actually have a small packard bell case computer upstairs that has a dead motherboard.
But I am not sure if I could adapt the expansion slots. It is sort of proprietary.

2. PCI card: My vote is for Matrox Millenium or maybe a Voodoo 1 or Voodoo 2

Please correct me if I am wrong but didn't the voodoo 1/2 require a separate SVGA card?
I guess I still need to research these before pulling the trigger but I will definitely add those to the list of possibilities

3. I'm not sure on the specs on the PCI voltage. It is worth getting a PCI usb card just to try, they are cheap and it will either work or it won't. I don't think you will damage the system by using the wrong voltage card, but you might damage the card.

Thats what I figured. I put a bid on one on ebay. If I win it I will just give it a try.
If it doesn't work I wonder about the viability of hacking to add 3.3v to the slot or card. Kind of risky I guess

You probably don't need to go SCSI, one IDE HD and one IDE optical is probably enough. If you wanted to have several drives, though, SCSI will let you do this more easily.

I am not totally opposed to SCSI. Its just uncharted territory for me

I'm not a 100 percent sure on the Voodoo 1 and Voodoo 2, I thought they had a 2d chip as well onboard. Maybe only the Voodoo 2 does? Or maybe neither do? I know the Voodoo 3 does for sure. The Monster 3d was a 3d only card that required a 2d card as well to function, but I don't recommend one of those. Since we aren't sure about the early Voodoo cards, a Riva TNT or TNT 2 has both 2d and 3d support, that would probably be a good choice. Maybe one of the early Geforce cards as well.

Voodoo 1 and Voodoo 2 cards are 3D only as such. The Voodoo Rush is a Voodoo 1 + a mediocre 2D chip, the Voodoo Banshee is a "bit crippled" Voodoo 2 with a pretty good, compatible 2D core.