#4 Would probably be better suited to Windows 2000 than 98SE.

jackazz wrote:

Thanks again for your help. Here's the last configuration I found! We'll call it... […]
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Thanks again for your help. Here's the last configuration I found! We'll call it...

#4
MB MSI MS-6566
PSU 400W (with selector between 230V and 115V)
Intel Pentium 4 2.40 GHz
Geforce MX 400 sdr 32mb
512mb RAM DDR (split in two 256 blocks)
40gb Hard Drive

Seems a bit too powerful for a windows 98SE configuration. What do you think about this?

Apart from that, I think I'll pick up #2 and change the geforce mx 200 with a 3dfx Voodoo 5550. Does the Geforce MX 200 suck at all?

I think the GF2MX is very underpowered compared to the rest of #4.

W98SE should run perfectly fine on your rig 😉

Chewhacca wrote:

#4 Would probably be better suited to Windows 2000 than 98SE.

Personally I wouldn't bother with 2k in any condition. Theres very little 2k can do that 9x and/or XP can't

More important than anything else is what mobos do all of these systems come with? What's the condition of the caps like? I would suggest a full lenght ATX system so you can plop in all those yummy expansion cards later on.

I would suggest you check that out first- cpus, ram and video cards can be easily and cheaply swapped out but a good mobo means all the world of difference between a shitty pc and a superb one.

The P4 will run Win98SE, ME, Win2000, XP, Win7 or any flavour of Linux for that matter (with enough ram). You could dual boot it with Win98 and XP etc so you have a useful rig for browsing and all plus some retro gaming. Some of us here just like to tinker with older hardware for a "pure" nostalgic trip or to max out old machines and see what they're capable of...

Question is what do you want it to do and what do you want to do with it? 😁

Tetrium wrote:

Personally I wouldn't bother with 2k in any condition. Theres very little 2k can do that 9x and/or XP can't

Useful though if you have a licence lying about and wanna save a few bucks plus avoid all that activation crap. I had a situation like that once, and installed 2k on a Pentium Dual Core build- ran very nicely for a few months- excepting the eye candy, can't say it didn't do anything I asked of it. Was stable as a rock and fast too!

Hmm, maybe it's time to install 2k on one of my P4s- just for laughs....

sgt76 wrote:

The P4 will run Win98SE, ME, Win2000, XP, Win7 or any flavour of Linux for that matter (with enough ram). You could dual boot it with Win98 and XP etc so you have a useful rig for browsing and all plus some retro gaming. Some of us here just like to tinker with older hardware for a "pure" nostalgic trip or to max out old machines and see what they're capable of...

Question is what do you want it to do and what do you want to do with it? 😁

I can easily answer this question 😀

What I'm looking for is retro machine that permits me to play with older Directx games, ranging more or less between Dx 5 and Dx 7. The nostalgic aim of this effort is to recreate my old PC of that time (Athlon 733, Geforce 256) and make it the most possibile compatible (as I wouldn't regret playing older DOS games on it). I don't need xp or other OSs as I own two other PCs and this retro rig would be only for nostalgic gaming purpose.

Mainly I'm looking for a W98 machine that supports games from 1996-2001 (approx.)

#2 seems good to achieve such compatibility, even with DOS games, as I understood. I'm a bit worried about the MX 200 but I think I'll change it quickly (maybe for a Voodoo 5500).

#4 would maybe be too powerful for what I need... or am I wrong and it would run DOS games as well as #2?

I have to make my choice tonight 😀

Tetrium wrote:

I think the GF2MX is very underpowered compared to the rest of #4. […]
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jackazz wrote:

Thanks again for your help. Here's the last configuration I found! We'll call it... […]
Show full quote

Thanks again for your help. Here's the last configuration I found! We'll call it...

#4
MB MSI MS-6566
PSU 400W (with selector between 230V and 115V)
Intel Pentium 4 2.40 GHz
Geforce MX 400 sdr 32mb
512mb RAM DDR (split in two 256 blocks)
40gb Hard Drive

Seems a bit too powerful for a windows 98SE configuration. What do you think about this?

Apart from that, I think I'll pick up #2 and change the geforce mx 200 with a 3dfx Voodoo 5550. Does the Geforce MX 200 suck at all?

I think the GF2MX is very underpowered compared to the rest of #4.

W98SE should run perfectly fine on your rig 😉

Chewhacca wrote:

#4 Would probably be better suited to Windows 2000 than 98SE.

Personally I wouldn't bother with 2k in any condition. Theres very little 2k can do that 9x and/or XP can't

I had used windows 2k between 2000-2003 an account of the fact that I never saw a BSOD, not even once. Windows XP always seemed like little more of a GUI modification to me than anything else, because it couldn't do anything for me that windows 2k couldn't. Also, in the 3 years that I used XP, it blue screened on 2 occasions. 😁

Chewhacca wrote:

Tetrium wrote:

I think the GF2MX is very underpowered compared to the rest of #4. […]
Show full quote

jackazz wrote:

Thanks again for your help. Here's the last configuration I found! We'll call it... […]
Show full quote

Thanks again for your help. Here's the last configuration I found! We'll call it...

#4
MB MSI MS-6566
PSU 400W (with selector between 230V and 115V)
Intel Pentium 4 2.40 GHz
Geforce MX 400 sdr 32mb
512mb RAM DDR (split in two 256 blocks)
40gb Hard Drive

Seems a bit too powerful for a windows 98SE configuration. What do you think about this?

Apart from that, I think I'll pick up #2 and change the geforce mx 200 with a 3dfx Voodoo 5550. Does the Geforce MX 200 suck at all?

I think the GF2MX is very underpowered compared to the rest of #4.

W98SE should run perfectly fine on your rig 😉

Chewhacca wrote:

#4 Would probably be better suited to Windows 2000 than 98SE.

Personally I wouldn't bother with 2k in any condition. Theres very little 2k can do that 9x and/or XP can't

I had used windows 2k between 2000-2003 an account of the fact that I never saw a BSOD, not even once. Windows XP always seemed like little more of a GUI modification to me than anything else, because it couldn't do anything for me that windows 2k couldn't. Also, in the 3 years that I used XP, it blue screened on 2 occasions. 😁

Yes, but that was over 8 years ago. Today, things are different.

jackazz wrote:

I can easily answer this question :happy: […]
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I can easily answer this question 😀

What I'm looking for is retro machine that permits me to play with older Directx games, ranging more or less between Dx 5 and Dx 7. The nostalgic aim of this effort is to recreate my old PC of that time (Athlon 733, Geforce 256) and make it the most possibile compatible (as I wouldn't regret playing older DOS games on it). I don't need xp or other OSs as I own two other PCs and this retro rig would be only for nostalgic gaming purpose.

Mainly I'm looking for a W98 machine that supports games from 1996-2001 (approx.)

#2 seems good to achieve such compatibility, even with DOS games, as I understood. I'm a bit worried about the MX 200 but I think I'll change it quickly (maybe for a Voodoo 5500).

#4 would maybe be too powerful for what I need... or am I wrong and it would run DOS games as well as #2?

I have to make my choice tonight 😀

Tonight huh? Win98, only for retro games- I'd pick #2, and forget about #4. MX200 is a good card, somewhere around GF256 performance, maybe a little slower but it will play everything up to 2001 just fine. The V5500 is just the icing on the cake- I wouldn't worry about it if I were you.

Edit: Just looked up the MSI 6566- nice board... I'm a P4 junkie so I'd place this and #2 on equal footing now 😕. A V5500 pci on the P4 would fly though.

Thank you Sgt76. But wouldn't #4 be actually too much for DOS games?

Would a Pentium 4 2.4 GHz be suitable for early Directx games and even DOS games or it will cause problems?

Actually, when it comes to DOS games theres always one for which your DOS computer is too fast.

jackazz wrote:

Thanks again for your help. Here's the last configuration I found! We'll call it... […]
Show full quote

Thanks again for your help. Here's the last configuration I found! We'll call it...

#4
MB MSI MS-6566
PSU 400W (with selector between 230V and 115V)
Intel Pentium 4 2.40 GHz
Geforce MX 400 sdr 32mb
512mb RAM DDR (split in two 256 blocks)
40gb Hard Drive

Seems a bit too powerful for a windows 98SE configuration. What do you think about this?

Apart from that, I think I'll pick up #2 and change the geforce mx 200 with a 3dfx Voodoo 5550. Does the Geforce MX 200 suck at all?

I think there's no such thing as too much, but there is such a thing as not enough.

For the most part, titles that run too quickly on a 1ghz PIII or Athlon will still run too quickly on a 500mhz PIII. I say go for the fastest box you can get and use that for late era DOS titles and early 3d accelerated stuff. Use a cpu slowdown program for the rest, and anything that you can't get to work with the slowdown program will probably need something considerably slower than you can use for late dos early 3d titles (like a crippled Pentium 1 box or a 486, and then going farther back a 386 or 286).

But, if you're going for an all in one box, go faster not slower, and anything that just won't cooperate with a slowdown utility can be run in Dosbox.

Hello again! I finally made my choice and the PC has arrived! I can't test it right now because I'm not home, but the final rig is actually this:

#2
Pentium III 833 MHz
640mb RAM (256+256+128)
40gb Hard Drive
Geforce MX 220 AGP
3DFX Voodoo 5500 PCI
CD-ROM drive

I have a question for you: would it be possibile to keep both video cards on the PC, since one is AGP and the other PCI?

My guess would be that, with these 2, it should.

But don't quote me on it, I don't know for a fact this is the case...but still they should

Theres a legend on the 3dfx sites- Obi Wan Kenobi, who has a V5500 pci along with a Radeon 3850 AGP in the same system .

Well, I hope it works. I'm going to find out as soon as I get home.

One last question. What 3DFX drivers should I start with? Amigamerlin 2.9 or the last officail 3dfx drivers? I've bought rig #2 mainly for Windows 98 games and I assume I won't need Directx 8 support that much. Is the Amigamerlin 2.9 release (the last for W98) both compatible and fast?

jackazz wrote:

Hello again! I finally made my choice and the PC has arrived! I can't test it right now because I'm not home, but the final rig […]
Show full quote

Hello again! I finally made my choice and the PC has arrived! I can't test it right now because I'm not home, but the final rig is actually this:

#2
Pentium III 833 MHz
640mb RAM (256+256+128)
40gb Hard Drive
Geforce MX 220 AGP
3DFX Voodoo 5500 PCI
CD-ROM drive

I have a question for you: would it be possibile to keep both video cards on the PC, since one is AGP and the other PCI?

You weren't kidding when you said they were available.

Where did you find someone with all of those parts literally in the same box?

As for enthusiast drivers for 3dfx cards, I can't speak to their validity for V5 cards, but I can speak to them for V2 cards, and they are nice.

It actually was a bit of luck! I found the P3 + Geforce MX from one seller an got the V5 from another. It seems Like I looked up for the right stuff at the right moment.

I've got to thank you all for the help you gave me choosing the best configuration. 😀

plus you'd get the S3 2D compatibility with it for DOS games

Can you tell me more about this? Are there DOS games that require S3 hardware?

Hello everybody!
I'm glad to tell you that my rig has arrived! These are the final system specs:

Mobo VIA APOLLO PRO133 chipset
Pentium 3 866mhz
256mb RAM
3dfx voodoo 5500 PCI
Geforce MX 200 AGP (disabled, at the moment)
40gb HD

Now, I've installed W98 and the latest 3dfx reference drivers. And I'm having big problems with games. Many games don't even start or the card is not recognized.

So far I've tried:
Trickstyle (3dfx version)
Powerslide (patched to 1.04.. Game doesnt even start)
Redline: gang warfare 2066 (no 3d accelerator found)
Star wars shadows of the empire (no 3d accelerator found)

The only game that seem to be working is Quake 3 and it runs good. What's the problem with those games? Am I missing something? Is this V5 incompatible with most of direct-x based game?

Please help me! I really would like to know if I have to install different drivers. I've also tried amigamerlin 2.9 but the situation is the same. Almost every game sees a "primary video driver" but doesn't recognize it properly.

Thanks in advance!

Are you having any other problems regarding stability? Did your Windows setup complete flawlessly?

I recall many VIA owners having certain problems with their setups.