Pentium 166 is a nice upgrade. Anyway, my suggestion for a 2D graphics card is S3 Trio64+/V2 or Cirrus Logic like CL-GD5434.

dominusprog wrote on 2024-04-24, 12:23:

Pentium 166 is a nice upgrade. Anyway, my suggestion for a 2D graphics card is S3 Trio64+/V2 or Cirrus Logic like CL-GD5434.

Why? If I may. What is wrong with Millenium II? I do have S3 Trio in my drawer, lol

drone16 wrote on 2024-04-24, 12:33:

dominusprog wrote on 2024-04-24, 12:23:

Pentium 166 is a nice upgrade. Anyway, my suggestion for a 2D graphics card is S3 Trio64+/V2 or Cirrus Logic like CL-GD5434.

Why? If I may. What is wrong with Millenium II? I do have S3 Trio in my drawer, 🤣

I suppose the poster above mentioned those two cards due to being more compatible with early DOS games. I personally don't think it is a big consideration for a Socket 7 system. The Millennium is a much better Windows/GUI accelerator, has a better DAC, has sharper VGA output and is AFACI compatible enough. I mean, you have a Voodoo 2 in the system I doubt it will be used for DOS 1980s DOS games..

I mean, you'd already be out of your period because of the Voodoo card, so I'd pick at least a P166-MMX. It has more L1 cache, so just a bit faster, but more importantly — you might want to use setmul (SetMul - Multiplier control for VIA C3 / AMD K6+7+8 Mobile / Cyrix 5x86) to slow down the CPU for some speed-sensitive games. In other words, all benefits without any drawbacks.

Otherwise — I think this is more or less a standard Socket 7 build, you shouldn't have any problems with it.

I'd also recommend FTP for network transfers, should be easier to do. Maybe your router can share a USB disk over network, that would be enough.

jheronimus wrote on 2024-04-24, 13:11:

I mean, you'd already be out of your period because of the Voodoo card, so I'd pick at least a P166-MMX.

I ordered Intel Pentium MMX 200MHz an hour before posting this 😀
With FTP, what FTP client I use on win95?
And should I use Win98 with P200 MMX or still Win95?

I have a probably less rigorously "correct" 1997 build. Went with a Pentium 233 MMX, as those were fairly common, especially towards the end of 1997 when the early Pentium II's were coming out and MMX chips were sliding into the "budget" category. For the video card I chose a Riva 128.

1997 is just a kind of shitty year for graphics cards. You get pretty rudimentary, low powered 3d accelerators with 4 MB of VRAM that really struggle to be playable on games that came out by even 1998 like Unreal or Half-Life. Even Quake 2 which was a 1997 game runs about 15-30 FPS on a Riva 128 or a Voodoo, unless aggressively tuned to remove a lot of the features that give Quake 2 it's distinctive look. They were really a backward looking batch of cards that strove to make 1996's titles like Quake more playable.

Namrok wrote on 2024-04-24, 13:34:

For the video card I chose a Riva 128.

It has to be 3dfx, simply because I did not get it when I was young, 🤣

drone16 wrote on 2024-04-24, 13:39:

Namrok wrote on 2024-04-24, 13:34:

For the video card I chose a Riva 128.

It has to be 3dfx, simply because I did not get it when I was young, 🤣

You could technically do both. The Riva 128 is a 2D/3D card. It would take the place of the Millennium II.

Although the Millennium II is a fine choice for a build of that era.

Namrok wrote on 2024-04-24, 13:34:

1997 is just a kind of shitty year for graphics cards. You get pretty rudimentary, low powered 3d accelerators with 4 MB of VRAM that really struggle to be playable on games that came out by even 1998 like Unreal or Half-Life. Even Quake 2 which was a 1997 game runs about 15-30 FPS on a Riva 128 or a Voodoo, unless aggressively tuned to remove a lot of the features that give Quake 2 it's distinctive look. They were really a backward looking batch of cards that strove to make 1996's titles like Quake more playable.

AFAIK, the highest end 3D cards for 1997 would either be the 6MB Canopus Pure3D Voodoo 1 or Quantum's dual Voodoo 1 SLI card.

Though the latter is basically unobtainable these days.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-04-24, 13:42:

You could technically do both. The Riva 128 is a 2D/3D card.

I tried to look for Riva 128 in PCI flavour (AFAIK there was no AGP on 1997 MBs). It was scarce and too expensive. I already invested in Voodoo2 anyways. $210 AUD damn :)

drone16 wrote on 2024-04-24, 13:16:

I ordered Intel Pentium MMX 200MHz an hour before posting this 😀
With FTP, what FTP client I use on win95?
And should I use Win98 with P200 MMX or still Win95?

Total Commander still supports Win9x, even the latest versions

IMO Win95 might be better as long as you use something like OSR2.1 — just needs less RAM, works faster because it doesn't have IE integration like OSR2.5 or Win98.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-04-24, 13:42:

Although the Millennium II is a fine choice for a build of that era.

Thank you kind Sir :)

Namrok wrote on 2024-04-24, 13:34:

low powered 3d accelerators with 4 MB of VRAM that really struggle to be playable on games that came out by even 1998 like Unreal or Half-Life. Even Quake 2 which was a 1997 game runs about 15-30 FPS on a Riva 128 or a Voodoo,

Descent and Descent II are my target games. Left hand on keypad, right on the mouse. All keypad keys are mapped. Burn the reflexes into your spine, so you don't think when pulling off a crazy 3D curve, your fingers just did it for you 😀
Are there still multiplayer servers around?

drone16 wrote on 2024-04-24, 13:48:

I tried to look for Riva 128 in PCI flavour (AFAIK there was no AGP on 1997 MBs). It was scarce and too expensive. I already invested in Voodoo2 anyways. $210 AUD damn 😀

The AGP spec was released mid-1997 and there were AGP options (motherboards + graphic cards) available later that year.

Voodoo2 is a 1998 card anyway... 😉

drone16 wrote on 2024-04-24, 12:33:

dominusprog wrote on 2024-04-24, 12:23:

Pentium 166 is a nice upgrade. Anyway, my suggestion for a 2D graphics card is S3 Trio64+/V2 or Cirrus Logic like CL-GD5434.

Why? If I may. What is wrong with Millenium II? I do have S3 Trio in my drawer, 🤣

Well, Trio64 is a better choice for DOS, especially with S3 VBE installed.

drone16 wrote on 2024-04-24, 13:16:

And should I use Win98 with P200 MMX or still Win95?

I'd stick with Win95 for period correctness.

drone16 wrote on 2024-04-24, 13:16:

With FTP, what FTP client I use on win95?

I find Filezilla still works well and can do SFTP. https://download.filezilla-project.org/client/

drone16 wrote on 2024-04-24, 13:48:

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-04-24, 13:42:

You could technically do both. The Riva 128 is a 2D/3D card.

I tried to look for Riva 128 in PCI flavour (AFAIK there was no AGP on 1997 MBs). It was scarce and too expensive. I already invested in Voodoo2 anyways. $210 AUD damn 😀

Wait, what? Are these the prices now? (Edit: ah, AUD, then it's fine!)
Ok I have 2 Voodoo 3 for sale then.

But yes, voodoo 2 is a nice choice.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-04-24, 15:31:

Voodoo2 is a 1998 card anyway... 😉

Most of them were manufactured in 1998 or later, sure... but V2 was anounced in November 1997, so for me it would be good fit for 1997 PC, along with PII 300.