VOGONS


First post, by cabezonnor

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Hi guys!

First of all, sorry for my crappy english, I'm from Chile. Second i've been reading a lot of material here and you have a really awesome community here, congrats!

Now i have a little question. I'm a retro tech and retro game enthusiast, but in my country i don't have so many options to buy hardware, so I dig a lot to build a system to run primarily
old games like: Carmageddon 2, AoE2, Doom, Doom2, Need for speed II, Commandos, Duke 3d, Red Alert, etc.

And i wonder if this PC can handle those games in a Win98 SE enviroment well. These are the specs.

CPU: AMD Athlon Xp 1600+ (1.4 ghz)
MB: MSI KT4V Agp
RAM: 256 MB
GPU: Riva TNT2 M64 or Geforce 2 MX400 32 MB
HDD: 40 GB IDE
SCREEN: Sony Vaio LCD 17" VGA 4:3

Please guys, if you have some advices or anything i will be very happy.

Thanks a lot!

AMD Athlon XP 1600+ 1400mhz / MSI KT2 VIA VT8366A / 256 MB PC2100 DDR SDRAM / Nvidia Geforce 3 / Soundblaster Live! / SB Audigy front panel / SONY SDM-S71 17" LCD / Win 98 SE

Reply 1 of 14, by Baoran

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Generally you want to play dos games in ms-dos mode in win98se too and they work as well as in normal dos. Old windows games are also going to work fine in that system.

Reply 3 of 14, by Tetrium

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I'd pick the GF2MX over the TNT2 M64. The TNT2 M64 is more suited for something like a Pentium 2.
The hardware seems like a good balance 😀

I've build a couple systems in the past that were roughly similar.
The GF2MX seems a bit underpowered compared to the rest of your hardware, but it should work fine for your intentions.

And welcome to Vogons, enjoy your stay and don't forget to take pics! 😁

Whats missing in your collections?
My retro rigs (old topic)
Interesting Vogons threads (links to Vogonswiki)
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Reply 4 of 14, by nforce4max

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TNT2 M64 is on the weak side though it is a good choice when everything gets to be too expensive or hard to get but the GF2 might be the better choice for dos as it uses DDR.

On a far away planet reading your posts in the year 10,191.

Reply 5 of 14, by cabezonnor

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Thanks a lot guys!
At the weekend i will ensemble the rig and i will post photos.

AMD Athlon XP 1600+ 1400mhz / MSI KT2 VIA VT8366A / 256 MB PC2100 DDR SDRAM / Nvidia Geforce 3 / Soundblaster Live! / SB Audigy front panel / SONY SDM-S71 17" LCD / Win 98 SE

Reply 6 of 14, by gdjacobs

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You'll want to keep an eye open for a PCI sound card with excellent DOS compatibility. For the system you're running, an ESS Solo 1 (ES1938) based card might be the ticket.

All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder

Reply 7 of 14, by RobertJ

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gdjacobs wrote:

You'll want to keep an eye open for a PCI sound card with excellent DOS compatibility. For the system you're running, an ESS Solo 1 (ES1938) based card might be the ticket.

The ISA Sound Blaster cards have gotten really expensive, but some of the PCI cards can be gotten at a bargain. I've had good luck with the Sound Blaster CT4520 and other AWE64 cards in DOS.

8-bit Collection: 4 64Cs, 6 1541-IIs, 1 C128, 2 1571s, 1 C128DCR
Vintage DOS: Dell Optiplex G1, ATI Rage IIC, Sound Blaster CT4520, Thrustmaster FCS Mark II, Gravis PC GamePad
Monitor: Dell 20" 2007FPb

Reply 8 of 14, by gdjacobs

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RobertJ wrote:
gdjacobs wrote:

You'll want to keep an eye open for a PCI sound card with excellent DOS compatibility. For the system you're running, an ESS Solo 1 (ES1938) based card might be the ticket.

The ISA Sound Blaster cards have gotten really expensive, but some of the PCI cards can be gotten at a bargain. I've had good luck with the Sound Blaster CT4520 and other AWE64 cards in DOS.

Excellent idea, as soon as he finds an MSI KT4V board with ISA slots.

All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder

Reply 9 of 14, by derSammler

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nforce4max wrote:

TNT2 M64 is on the weak side though it is a good choice when everything gets to be too expensive or hard to get but the GF2 might be the better choice for dos as it uses DDR.

Actually, the GF2 MX can have either 128-bit SDRAM or 64-bit DDR RAM. Speed is identical (obviously, since bandwidth is the same).

The Riva TNT2 M64 does 240 MT/s, the GF2 MX 400 does 800 MT/s - so it's more than three times faster. Time-wise, the TNT2 fits better (1999 vs. 2001), but the GF2 MX 400 is better suited for the CPU. So take the GF2.

ps: you need Forceware 81.98 for the MX 400 under Win9x.

Reply 10 of 14, by Weebob

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derSammler wrote:
Actually, the GF2 MX can have either 128-bit SDRAM or 64-bit DDR RAM. Speed is identical (obviously, since bandwidth is the same […]
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nforce4max wrote:

TNT2 M64 is on the weak side though it is a good choice when everything gets to be too expensive or hard to get but the GF2 might be the better choice for dos as it uses DDR.

Actually, the GF2 MX can have either 128-bit SDRAM or 64-bit DDR RAM. Speed is identical (obviously, since bandwidth is the same).

The Riva TNT2 M64 does 240 MT/s, the GF2 MX 400 does 800 MT/s - so it's more than three times faster. Time-wise, the TNT2 fits better (1999 vs. 2001), but the GF2 MX 400 is better suited for the CPU. So take the GF2.

ps: you need Forceware 81.98 for the MX 400 under Win9x.

Got to be careful as there is also the Geforce MX SDR with a 64bit memory bus, normally named the MX200 but sometimes just a MX

bjxhae-6.png

Reply 12 of 14, by Weebob

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derSammler wrote:

Yes, the 64-bit SDR one is the MX 200. That one is pure crap. 😁

Looking at http://www.nvidia.co.uk/page/geforce2mx.html does say that the MX could be any combo, what ever was available in the parts bin, will make ebay a crap-shoot.

bjxhae-6.png

Reply 13 of 14, by Tetrium

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derSammler wrote:

Yes, the 64-bit SDR one is the MX 200. That one is pure crap. 😁

I'm pretty sure it has its uses, but performance is obviously not going to be impressive, for an MX graphics card. It's performance is probably better then a TNT2 M64 though.

Whats missing in your collections?
My retro rigs (old topic)
Interesting Vogons threads (links to Vogonswiki)
Report spammers here!

Reply 14 of 14, by RobertJ

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gdjacobs wrote:
RobertJ wrote:
gdjacobs wrote:

You'll want to keep an eye open for a PCI sound card with excellent DOS compatibility. For the system you're running, an ESS Solo 1 (ES1938) based card might be the ticket.

The ISA Sound Blaster cards have gotten really expensive, but some of the PCI cards can be gotten at a bargain. I've had good luck with the Sound Blaster CT4520 and other AWE64 cards in DOS.

Excellent idea, as soon as he finds an MSI KT4V board with ISA slots.

My bad. 😀

8-bit Collection: 4 64Cs, 6 1541-IIs, 1 C128, 2 1571s, 1 C128DCR
Vintage DOS: Dell Optiplex G1, ATI Rage IIC, Sound Blaster CT4520, Thrustmaster FCS Mark II, Gravis PC GamePad
Monitor: Dell 20" 2007FPb