The dos games you are talking about, those could also be played on you pentium system. So i think why should you play them on a PIII system. If i was you i only would make that system windows 98 se.

And dont concern about that dos thingy. Is it true that you already having an pentium III machine? Maybe you could make one slower like a 500 / 600 mhz and a faster 1000Mhz one.

In my case iam using an Pentium III 550 mhz system for the slower part of windows 98.. And using an Athlon XP 2600+ 266FSB for the faster part of windows 98se.. (why athlon xp?) Because it was more available to get.
For the pentium III tualatin you need a special motherboard for it, or modified it what i dont like.

My exisiting Pentium III machine (described in my sig) is for a completely different purpose. It's an "experimental" kind of thing with fully loaded to the top with components just for the fun of it. It is not intended for any practical usage like gaming and such. It has 8 HDDs, two floppies, a SCSI backup device, two external SCSI enclosures with a SCSI DVD-RW and a SCSI card reader, and multibooting into about 13 different operating systems. In short its something "I play with", not something "I play games with".. 🤣 Besides, all my non Celeron PIII CPUs are between 733 and 1000 MHz. 😎

The thing is, I have a nice Aten KVM switch with 4 ports. Three of them already filled with my main Windows 7 computer (Core2 quad), my XP box (AMD Atlon64 3200+ totally Windows 9x incompatible), and my "experimental crap" that I mentioned above. At the moment, 4th is occupied by the MMX build, which is good for pure DOS, but feels a bit on the low side for pre 2000 Windows 9x games.

So, instead of having a fifth machine sitting beside with no KVM practicallity, I just try to come up with a midway solution, My list of original games are already limited to the ones I listed, so I wanted to believe a solution can be reached. My intention is retiring the MMX one to the "fun builds without a purpose" shelf, after having this PIII up and running (There are already an 386DX40, an 386SX16, an AT MMX and an AT PIII on those shelves.. 😈 ).

P.S. AT machines are not practical for a PS2/USB KVM switch. 😐

I agree with the FX 5200 over the 6200 - although why are you installing yet another card just to do 2D for the Voodoo2? You could just hook those up to the FX 5200's output as passthrough and go from there (as far as I'm aware the FX should have no problems filling this role).

On the RAM it really doesn't matter - 256MB is going to be overkill for your gaming wants, so unless you intended (for whatever reason) to load XP up to SP3 with all patches, anti-virus, etc so it can go online (blech) I'd probably only do 512MB if you don't need the RAM elsewhere.

I'd go with the board that supports ATA-100 as far as motherboards go.

Thanks a lot for the comments. 😀

I'm going for a secondary 2D graphics card for (supposed/imagined) better DOS compatibility option. I have no idea if FX5200 will be ok for all the DOS games that I listed. And I was thinking, with a Millenium or S3 already installed, a potentially more compatible card would be only a reboot away (i.e. changing boot priority from AGP to PCI in BIOS). I also know that pass thru cable will degrade the output of main card a bit, so my idea was using 2D/V2 combo only when required, and independently of my real card.

Do you think FX5200 will be ok for all the games that I have there?

I preferred 512MB since it is a Kingston. All the others I have are noname sticks.

The "name" on the RAM doesn't much matter (if at all). If it works, it works.

On the FX - I don't see why it wouldn't - I've read one or two potential claims of problems with vert specific configurations bit IMO I'd just go with the FX and if you ever have an issue then fuss with a second card. Quality "degredation" on V2 is greatly exaggerated imho - especially if you aren't trying to run very high resolution through it.

obobskivich wrote:

The "name" on the RAM doesn't much matter (if at all). If it works, it works.

On the FX - I don't see why it wouldn't - I've read one or two potential claims of problems with vert specific configurations bit IMO I'd just go with the FX and if you ever have an issue then fuss with a second card. Quality "degredation" on V2 is greatly exaggerated imho - especially if you aren't trying to run very high resolution through it.

1024x768 probably would be the largest resolution I'll ever use in that machine. So it seems my worries are mostly without bases. I'll probably put that second card into it in any case, just because I have it sitting around doing nothing and my setup is a two display setup. But I'll try FX/V2 first.

And for the RAM, I will go for 512, if I ever have any problem, will go back to 256. (if it is a Kingston, it is a Kingston 🤣 )

The big mystery at the moment, whether the V2 SLI will work or not (not the same cards, I have 4 Voodoo 2s, all 12MB, but none the same: Creative, STB, 3Dfx and one another)

The FX can drive a second monitor - no need for a PCI card to accomplish that.

As far as the V2 - supposedly it can work with modded drivers. There was a thread not to long ago where someone had an 8MB and 12MB working together - I don't see why two identical (but not same brand) cards shouldn't work if that's possible...

the fastvoodoo drivers available here are generally considered the best driver for voodoo cards. These allow for mismatched cards to be used in SLI as well.
http://www.3dfxzone.it/dir/3dfx/voodoo2/drivers

obobskivich wrote:

The FX can drive a second monitor - no need for a PCI card to accomplish that.

As far as the V2 - supposedly it can work with modded drivers. There was a thread not to long ago where someone had an 8MB and 12MB working together - I don't see why two identical (but not same brand) cards shouldn't work if that's possible...

You are seriously decided to make me eliminate that nice Matrox, it seems. 🤣

So, what about another idea (to fill in that nice but needlessly empty PCI slot) ...

Is it possible to put a SB Live 5.1 besides the AWE64?
Are they both will behave nicely under W9x?
Is there any advantage to do this?

chinny22 wrote:

the fastvoodoo drivers available here are generally considered the best driver for voodoo cards. These allow for mismatched cards to be used in SLI as well.
http://www.3dfxzone.it/dir/3dfx/voodoo2/drivers

Thanks a lot for the heads up!.. 😀

I'll utilize them if the standard ones not working.

tayyare wrote:

You are seriously decided to make me eliminate that nice Matrox, it seems. :lol: […]
Show full quote

You are seriously decided to make me eliminate that nice Matrox, it seems. 🤣

So, what about another idea (to fill in that nice but needlessly empty PCI slot) ...

Is it possible to put a SB Live 5.1 besides the AWE64?
Are they both will behave nicely under W9x?
Is there any advantage to do this?

I'm not against multi-card for video, I'm against needless complexity. Having that second card just for a second monitor will be more drivers, software, etc to deal with versus using the FX's secondary output. If you were going to hook up 3+ monitors then yes, add in another card by all means. Personally I'd start with another nVidia card that'll run under the same driver though. 😊

As far as the multi soundcard thing - I know with more professionally oriented adapters it will work (e.g. stacking M-Audio or RME or what-have-you cards), but I've never had good luck with multiple Sound Blasters, especially of different generations/drivers. I can't say I've tried it with an AWE64 though. Any reason why you want to fill up every PCI slot? Personally I'd rather leave some space, especially with V2 SLI, for some airflow through the card-region of the case.

You could connect the V2 to a separate monitor without an additional 2D card. It will just display black until the V2 gets used. Or you could use a primary monitor with two inputs which can be switched by a button press. That way the V2 won't degrade the image quality when not in use. It is not strictly necessary to use the pass-through cable, it is (or was) merely extremely convenient.

idspispopd wrote:

You could connect the V2 to a separate monitor without an additional 2D card. It will just display black until the V2 gets used. Or you could use a primary monitor with two inputs which can be switched by a button press. That way the V2 won't degrade the image quality when not in use. It is not strictly necessary to use the pass-through cable, it is (or was) merely extremely convenient.

Good idea, but utilizing it will force me to change all my physical KVM setup (4 PC, 2 monitors) and I think it is easier to go with an "imagined" quality degradation. 😊

^I'd agree with that, I usually do that anyway, VGA from Voodoo1/2 and DVI from main graphics card. But of course everyone has different setups. 😀

obobskivich wrote:

tayyare wrote:

.........

... Any reason why you want to fill up every PCI slot? Personally I'd rather leave some space, especially with V2 SLI, for some airflow through the card-region of the case.

Actually no practical or sane reason, but as I might uttered elsewhere, I like my parts inside the cases, as a result, I like my slots and bays filled. 🤣 To say the truth, all my previous builds are (unnecessarily) hardware heavy (SCSI, multiple HDDs, double display cards, extra controllers, even modems and backup units.. 😊).

Actually your question above reminds me why I decided to this build and the last MMX before that: To finally obtain a lean and stable machine to practically play games on, not to play with innards of it.

You might consider my SB live question has not been asked.. 🤣

Project is going well... 😀

Barebones testing and data transfer:

Putting it together:

Finished (except for floppy bay adapter and 3.5 bay CF to IDE adapter):

Installing Windows 98:

Sidewinder is OK:

And SLI is working (I guess...):

It took me a couple of trials, but by luck, 2 of my 4 V2s (original 3Dfx and Creative ones) obviously liked each other. No other combination worked, though.

A question: Should I leave AWE64 with native drivers, or should I better load something else? If it is better to install something else, which "something else"?

The one original CD that I have is a bit old, and only contains Windows 95 drivers. If I remember correctly, one needed to be install all the original content to have the applications and such, then upgrade the drivers by some driver only packages from Creative.