I have an ASUS board very similar to your TX97-E and they are awesome.

Go here for patched BIOS to allow the use of a K6-2/3+ CPU in a future upgrade

http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/J.Steunebrink/k6plus.htm#patched

Best combo for DOS

Wait, you can print...FROM DOS?! I've never, in my life, printed from anything other than Windows. Even way back with Windows 3.1, at least it was Windows. Crazy.

FFXIhealer wrote:

Wait, you can print...FROM DOS?! I've never, in my life, printed from anything other than Windows. Even way back with Windows 3.1, at least it was Windows. Crazy.

Shure... You can even list a harddrives tree and files to a single file..

- cd\ (enter)
- dir *.* /s > content.txt (enter)

Ok, some more info gathered and I see that the K6-III+ cpu's are very nice to under/over clock on the fly. I will go for that.

so some new items are on my way now:

ASUS P5A rev 1.04 motherboard (unsure if working, seller was not able to test it, but pictures looked very promising... I didnt pay a whole lot)
AMD K6-III+ 400 socket 7

I hope with those to make the best possible DOS machine for now, will keep posting here when finished and post pics 😀

Thanks for all the input thus far!

Those should be good choices. Although it's overkill, I'd recommend you use the Voodoo 3 in the AGP slot on that one. DOS compatibility is excellent and you can run most DOS Glide titles with some patching..

Now that you're going SS7 with a K6-3+, you have tremendous versatility with system speed. I imagine that the P5A is like my VA-503+ in that it can change the FSB with jumpers. I used the turbo switch on my case to switch between 66MHz and 100MHz FSB. Then, using SETMUL, which not only allows you to set the multiplier from 2.0x to 5.5x (can go up to 6.0x, but my K6-3+ tops out at 550MHz) but also disable cache, I can run anywhere from 486 speeds all the way through 550MHz. All without opening the case.

Here's a thread I started on it:
K6-3+ Daily Driver Finally (Almost) Complete

You'll be able to reach down to 386DX speeds by rebooting and disabling L2 cache. 😀

gdjacobs wrote:

Those should be good choices. Although it's overkill, I'd recommend you use the Voodoo 3 in the AGP slot on that one. DOS compatibility is excellent and you can run most DOS Glide titles with some patching..

Well, im not sure yet... I like the voodoo3, but mine has a TV tuner. So it needs that blue monstrosaty of a cable to get VGA out. I like the look of voodoo2 SLI better also. I might be going for Geforce2 + V2 sli. Not sure if I will run in to trouble with AGP issues with geforce2. Maybe I should try to make/find a converter to get the multi connector for the V3 to get only VGA out.

boxpressed wrote:

Now that you're going SS7 with a K6-3+, you have tremendous versatility with system speed. I imagine that the P5A is like my VA-503+ in that it can change the FSB with jumpers. I used the turbo switch on my case to switch between 66MHz and 100MHz FSB. Then, using SETMUL, which not only allows you to set the multiplier from 2.0x to 5.5x (can go up to 6.0x, but my K6-3+ tops out at 550MHz) but also disable cache, I can run anywhere from 486 speeds all the way through 550MHz. All without opening the case.

Here's a thread I started on it:
K6-3+ Daily Driver Finally (Almost) Complete

Thanks for the link! I like the turbo button idea allot. Dont have a case for it though, might need to mod a bay panel with a button or something.

gdjacobs wrote:

You'll be able to reach down to 386DX speeds by rebooting and disabling L2 cache. 😀

Thats the idea 😁 I stole it from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcAqRbFFQPU

mmmark84 wrote:

So the windows 98 machine is pretty conclusive, I guess: […]
Show full quote

So the windows 98 machine is pretty conclusive, I guess:

Motherboard: Asus P4C800-E Deluxe (i875, socket 478)
CPU: P4 3,2Ghz, Socket 478 Prescott
RAM: 2x256MB
Videocard: Geforce 2 or 800GT (i am thinking of putting the 6800GT in, because of the speed differences and SM 3.0)
Soundcards: vortex II and Audigy 2 ZS (how does that even work? line in to lineout? do games switch between AEX and A3d 2.0 automaticly like glide/direct3d?)
Extra: glide support with nglide wrapper? or voodoo 2 SLI none the less?

leaves me with the DOS machine

Motherboard: Asus TX97-E
CPU: Pentium 200 MMX
RAM: 64MB PC100 because of the cachable amount of the mobo
Videocards: virge/DX + voodoo 2 SLI (isnt this too powerfull for the 200MMX? maybe single voodoo2 would fit it better)
Soundcard: Creative CT4500 Soundblaster AWE64 ISA

The Good thing about that 98 machine is you can still get dos drivers for everything and the GF2 gives good dos compatibility, the other 2 may/may not have issues. I'd start with the 6800 and work my way down if I come across problems.

If you don't want to mess round with drivers you still have a powerful enough system to run the game within Win9x Because there will always be that 1 game that doesn't run on the other system.

Some games may allow you to select a Audio device but easiest method is to set whichever card as the primary audio device in Windows. I just have audio cable extensions running up to my desk and plug the speakers into the whichever device I want.

Does mean you slightly sacrifice Glide performance but with the V2 SLI you get a PC that can do D3D and Glide. If you had a PCI V3 all the better but they are hard to get these days for a good price

For the Dos PC you said you had you had a few Voodoo 2 cards, may as well use them! Unless you notice any problems its not going to hurt anything having them both in

Thanks for your info, chinny22!

I am however throwing the wheel around again. Might seem to get these specs for the final builds:

Windows 98 performance system:

Motherboard: Asrock 775i65G R3.0 (fully windows 98 supported)
CPU: Pentium Dual Core E5800 (very good (best?) single thread performance for windows 98 with this chipset)
RAM: 2x twinMOS m2g9i08a-tt 256MB PC3200 CL2.5 (512 max supported by win98, I dont want to fidle around to get more in the system)
Videocard 1: MSI Geforce 6800GT AGP (last geforce that was officialy supported by nvidia on win98)
Videocard 2: Creative Voodoo 2 SLI (dunno how well it will perform or if it will work, but I cant seem to find a good glide wrapper for win98)
Soundcards: vortex II (No audigy, I cant get any more cards in the system with 6800GT and V2 SLI)

DOS compatibilty system:

Motherboard: Asus P5A rev 1.04
CPU: AMD K6-III+ 400 Mhz (running at 550, down clocking/cache disabling for speed depended games)
RAM: 2x kingston KVR100X64C2/256 256MB PC100 CL2 (512 max supported by win98, I dont want to fidle around to get more in the system)
Videocard 1: Voodoo 3 3500 AGP (modded it with a CPU heatsink, so it stays very cool. Also ordered a EVC vga cable to get ird of the blue IO box)
Videocard 2: 3Dfx Voodoo 1 (have a Diamond one, but its DOA... receiving A-Trend Helios 3D from same guy for free on monday)
Soundcard: Creative CT4500 Soundblaster AWE64 ISA

Also scored 3 Dell Ultrasharp 2007FP monitors with IPS panels. They have 4:3 1600x1200 res

What you guys think? good/bad choices?

nglide isn't officially listed as working for windows 98se but it does work

Hello!

After a while of gathering components, replacing some, finding time to build and take pictures, researching what and how to configure everthing, machine 1 is finaly done!

This machine is built to hopefully support every DOS game I played back in the day and some early windows 98 games. the video from phil (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcAqRbFFQPU) helped me out allot in this regard. I altered his start menu a bit, so that I can also alter the CPU speed when I boot.

Anyways, the final spec of the system is:

Case: Lian-Li PC-60 Black
PSU: Silverstone SST-ST40EF 400 watt
Motherboard: Asus P5A rev 1.04
CPU: AMD K6-III+ 400 Mhz
RAM: 2x kingston KVR100X64C2/256 256MB PC100 CL2
Videocard: Voodoo 3 3500 AGP
Soundcard: Creative CT4500 Soundblaster AWE64 ISA
HDD: Seagate 7200.11 500GB SATA drive
DVDRW drive: Sony NEC AD-7203A black
Floppy drive: Alps 3,5" black
Monitor: Dell Ultrasharp 2007FP

WARNING! The following image is not for the faint of hearted! You have been warned!

Ofcourse I kept the original cooler 🤣 Also bought a EVC to VGA cable, so I dont have to mess with that blue bohemoth.

Building steps

Altered DOS mode menu

HDD bench to see if IDE to SATA adapter works with DMA:

Win98 game (quake 3 arena)

Late DOS game (duke nukem 3D)

DOS game (Crystal caves)

Hope you like it! Now to find time to get my next system setup... Sneak preview:

Nice DOS/early 9x machine. Only concern is if the big heavy heat sink will warp the Voodoo over time?
One trick I've done in the past is get a bit of string and run it though the hole in the cards corner and then hang it off something, say the PSU cable above it, just to take off some of the weight. bonus of string is it doesn't vibrate so no extra noise either.

Had the urge to play Crystal Caves few months ago, finally finished Episode 1 for the 1st time and got about 1/2 way thought Episode 2, Only taken 20 odd years to get this far!

Thanks!

Good point about the heat sink. however it is resting against the PCI slots (I drilled the holes that way) so I was hoping this wont be a problem, because its stuck in a corner that way. then again, its not that heavy at all.

CC is a nice game, played it allot when I was a kid. damn those air generators!

mmmark84 wrote:

Hello!

After a while of gathering components, replacing some, finding time to build and take pictures, researching what and how to configure everthing, machine 1 is finaly done!

This machine is built to hopefully support every DOS game I played back in the day and some early windows 98 games. the video from phil (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcAqRbFFQPU) helped me out allot in this regard. I altered his start menu a bit, so that I can also alter the CPU speed when I boot.

What a lovely machine 😊

I love how to took the idea and made it your own with some nice adjustments. Your machine is super flexible, you can play a ton of games from 386 to late 1990s which is why this Socket 7 stuff is so awesome.

Thanks Phil!

Its pretty much a copy paste of your machine 🤣 But that setmul program kinda made it mandatory to buy the K6-III+ platform.

The menu for the memory options in DOS mode was such a relief for me.
I remember back in the day the amount of problems I had with those damn memory hogging games that I just couldnt get to running...
If only there was youtube then 😀

I am a big fan of your videos and your information sharing is an awesome source for build ideas and optimizations. I love it!
The series about the best video card for SS7 also was very informative. I gathered loads of different cards now, but I agree in the end its all about the developer support of those old games.

Keep up the very good work!

I like your choice of motherboards, they are exactly what i use. I prefer the Asus boards over the others.

Some of my retro systems you can see in my sig. The P5A with k6-3+ is maybe my favorite but the other ones are pretty awesome too and i like em all.
For the k6-3+ i went with the geforce2 gts and v2 sli to be a bit more versatile.

I could not choose for one or two systems so i've build the whole range 🤣

I also have the p4c800 but i went with socket A and nforce2 , but also one based on the Asus a7v333 so i could use voodoo5 agp if i wanted (you can't use 3,3v agp on most p4! and also not on nforce)

Nice collection meljor, I like asus allot too. Got a p8p67 pro as my daily driver.

I also have a An8x-e somewhere, but not realy a good athlon processor. 2x 2400+ and a 1200.
I would love to have a Slot A setup too, I had a slot A 800 back in the day.
But I think I will keep 3 systems assembled for now, the one I completed, a windows 98 SE ultimate build and a XP build.
Dont have the room for more assembled stuff 🤣