Lawro wrote:Thanks! These boards could definitely be an option. So this is one of the crucial points of my build: Which scenario would I need more than 1 ISA slot? What is normally used in them for, say, DOS compatibility beyond a single sound card?
When you want more than a single card can deliver. 95% of games can be handled well with anything that is SBPro2 compatible with a real OPL3. But the icing on the cake is the more specific stuff:
- SB16 compatibility (requires a later Soundblaster or one of very few compatible chipsets such as C-Media CMI8330). Note that the SB16 is *NOT* SBPro2 compatible, so is unsuitable for a single-card build.
- Gravis Ultrasound
- Intelligent mode MIDI (for very old Roland MT-32 titles, requires an MT-32 as well).
- Any other obscure stuff you might want (Pro Audio Spectrum, etc etc)
I'm currently considering a 4 ISA card build for that reason (with an Aztech gen 1 card for SBPro2 and Covox, an SB32 for SB16, a Gravis Ultrasound and a MusicQuest intelligent mode MPU-401 clone) - but that's very much "because I can". For a first build this is idiotic overkill. Moreover, a lot of that stuff (intelligent mode MIDI, Covox) will only be relevant for very old games (~1990), so not the sort of things you want in a P2/P3 system anyway. However having at least a second ISA slot available is very nice to have. Once again, all you are sacrificing is another PCI slot, and it's rare indeed that those become the bottleneck.
I've realised you're totally right. I think I'd really be going for two options: an old DOS/3.11 machine that can run speed-sensitive games, and a Slot 1/A system to run 98/2k (as those are actually the two types of systems I had back in the day).
Sensible, makes it much easier to choose suitable components for both systems. For the DOS system I'd recommend an early Pentium or late 486 (with the former being much cheaper and easier to find). You can easily play anything from 386 to some of the very last DOS titles on that - and you will have multiple ISA slots. For the Slot1/A (the latter is difficult to find, pricey and not always stable - consider Socket A instead), the ISA requirement becomes much more relaxed. I'd still recommend a single ISA slot if possible, but with Win2k & later really all the sound goes through DirectSound anyway and hardware is no longer anywhere near as relevant as under DOS.
This is the board I'd probably want most, but they are pretty pricey. In fact I can only find one on eBay with a revision that'll work (in this case 1.12) at 133, going for about £160 just for the board 😲
The problem with the P2B is that it's incredibly well documented so easy to refer to like this - but that makes it disproportionately sought-after too. There are enough other boards out there with similar specs, but they require a bit more digging to figure out. If you're going for two separate systems, you don't want this anyway: better to go for a nice early So7 board and a decent late Sl1/SoA board. Particularly the latter can be picked up very cheap by comparison.
Also: if you're on a budget and not that self-reliant, ignore eBay. The clearly labeled parts will be overpriced, always. Take a look on Amibay instead. Sought-after bits will be pricey, but you can get more run-of-the-mill stuff for very low prices. Plus most sellers are in the EU, so shipping isn't as awful as for stuff in the US.
Another nice board option it seems...looks like no SB-Link though? Could you please check?
Nope, but you only need that if you're running DOS on a system with a PCI sound card. If you want to go for two systems, and the faster one will only do Win98 and later, you can drop the requirement for the PC/PCI (SB-Link). Under Windown 9x and later it doesn't add anything. Conversely, on the DOS system you just want ISA sound cards anyway.
Nice, so all that speed was overkill! What sort of games were you running? I've found one of these boards, "new", without the YMF7...I think I'd still want to run a card, just for the hell of it 🤣 Those 1000MHz P3s with 100FSB are SO expensive and rare now 😢 Only two on eBay, $300+ and $900+. The 133FSB ones are cheap as chips 😠
Again, forget eBay for this sort of stuff. P3 1000E will always be more sought-after than P3-1000EB, as they were far less widely produced and there is more (BX-based) demand. But do you really need the fastest one made? There's an 800E on Amibay at the moment for EUR 5. Chances are you won't notice the difference in speed, but a price difference of at least 60x would be noticeable, even after adding shipping (EUR 2.50 😜 )
That is the old board I used to have! A couple going on eBay, so I'll pick one of those up for nostalgia, and may even just use it anyway for the build 🤣
Be careful that the GA-7IXE4 doesn't have a KT133A chipset, but an AMD 750 'Irongate', which only supports up to 100MHz FSB, so you have a similar limit with Athlon CPUs - most of the Athlon 1200 CPUs are 1200C (133MHz) not 1200B (100MHz).
So that's another one for the SE440BX-2. If the price is right for the board I've found, I'll buy it anyway!
Be careful that Coppermine support depends on exact board revision (as with the P2B and many other early BX boards). Also, if you're going for separate DOS and Win98/2k systems, this is just as illogical as the P2B.