I'm working on one of two retro rigs right now. This one is going to be a Win 95/98 rig. Specs are -
Motherboard: Asus P2B-F (1014.3 BIOS)
CPU: PowerLeap PL-iP3/T (with 1.4 GHz Tualatin)
RAM: 1GB (256MBx4) PC-133 SDRAM
Video: Diamond Viper v770 AGP with 32MB for Primary Video
2x STB Black Magic Voodoo 2's in SLI for 3dfx
Audio: AWE32 model CT3980 with real OPL3 and 32MB RAM installed (28MB for user and 4MB reserved for EMU8000)
Network: 3COM PCI NIC model 3C905
Floppy Drive: Canon Md5511 Dual Floppy Drive with a 1.44MB 3 1/2" and a 1.2MB 5 1/4" in one half height drive.

As far as HDD's go, I'm currently using a number of different HDD's, but I'm going to switch to IDE to compact flash and go straight off the motherboard. I might consider a PCI UDMA66 card and toss the 3COM NIC out since I have no plans to ever go online with this rig. I also have lots of other audio and video cards to swap out, but I think this will make a pretty decent 95/98 rig. For those that know about PowerLeap CPU upgrades, I of course have the BIOS reporting an incorrect speed of 933MHz on POST. PowerLeap used to have a piece of software called InSPECS that would check on the actual speed of the CPU. Problem is I can't find it. I was wondering if anybody had a copy or a link so I could pull it down?

Also, its been so long since I've used PIII era hardware and Win98 that I've forgotten many things that may help in avoiding any pitfalls. Any advice would be welcomed on this build. I do remember that I have to tweak the mem settings in the correct ini file (gotta remember which one, 🤣) to have Win95/98 work correctly with more than 512MB ram, but that's about all that I can remember. I also plan to use my Roland SC-55 MkII via generic USB to MIDI and line in on the AWE32 mixer for real time mixing. Anything to look for when doing that?

My second rig will be a straight up DOS rig. Asus SP98AGP-X (early model Super Socket 7), several K6-2's of varying speeds to pick from, Diamond Stealth III S540 PCI primary video card, Diamond Monster 3D Voodoo1 for 3dfx, SoundBlaster 16 model CT2230 with pointless ASP installed (not by me, but the original owner), MusicQuest ISA MP401 MIDI card for my MT-32, and CM-32L modules. I've yet to decide on how I will do mixing with this rig and it may be another couple of months before I even start building it. My Original SC-55, Yamaha FB-01, and MU2000EX will stay attached to modern game rig, and my CM-64 will go on X68000 as a project for next year. Also considering a IDE to CF setup for this rig so I can have different configs and OS's (I've always loved PC-DOS 7 and PC-DOS 2000, but every now and then a game or app doesn't like them and its back to MS-DOS, and I miss playing with old DR-DOS variants as well).

All the hardware I've listed above has been tested and works fine, so I expect no problems there. Again, I have lots of different soundcards and video cards to swap out for both rigs, but I think the Windows rig is gonna stay pretty stable as far as the hardware I listed for it. Its mainly the DOS rig that will get lots of swap outs. Everything from adlib clones to AWE64 Gold with 32MB installed (I just hate the sound of the CQM when it comes to Sound Blaster cards which is why I don't plan to use the AWE64 that often). Again any pointers or things to look out for would be very appreciated. 😄