retrogamerguy1997 wrote on 2020-10-19, 11:17:
If it was a cirrus chip, then why wouldn't it show up in device manager as such?
In a word, branding
From Cirrus Logic's own web page
For more than three decades, Cirrus Logic has built its reputation as an expert in audio IC innovation. In the early 1990s, through the acquisition of Crystal Semiconductor, the company pioneered the creation of audio converters that helped to spark the digital audio revolution in professional audio and consumer home theater.
As the PC has sentimental value then yes it's worth upgrading. I keep going back to PC's I owned growing up even though I have much better machines sitting right next to it. I simply get more joy using the same PC I used 20 years ago.
CPU: The C600 should be ok for majority of games, one's that wont work in XP or later OS's anyway. Maybe not at full detail but its a fine entry point into retro computing.
Going from my link above doesn't look like you can upgrade anyway
RAM: 64MB is ok, See you you go before spending money, You don't want more then 512MB in Win9x
Graphics: This is your main bottleneck at the moment. The PCI GF4 MX is a good choice and would be my 1st upgrade
Audio: That AC97 chip will play sound but that's it and mostly software based. Fine while getting into the hobby. Something like a SBLive is cheap and will give enable EAX in games that support. Aureal Vortex 2 is another option for A3D titles but not as cheap or available.
HDD: I'd keep the 10GB for now just while you try out the hobby and work out how much disk space you really need. Spinning rust is fine, it's what I use on all my 9x PC's and have free supplies. SSD would be nice though and the faster performance may squeeze another game or 2 into the playable list.
But don't think you should spend any money yet. Give it a clean install of Windows, play a few games and see how you like it then you can decide how much money you really want to spend on this.