Improvements for the next build... \ VOGONS

Improvements for the next build...

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First post, by rob8086

Posted on 2018-03-02, 20:37

rob8086 Offline

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Rank: Newbie
Posts: 39
Joined: 2018-03-02, 20:24
Location: Jundland Wastes, Tatooine

Hi All,

First, let me say how awesome it is that this place exists. I had no idea you all were here, caring about this sort of thing when I thought I was alone in the universe.

Second... I wish I had known you were here two years ago! I built my own Win98 box specced as follows:

CPU: Tautalin PIII (SL6BY) @ 1.4GHz
MOBO: ASUS TUV4X (VIA Apollo Pro133T)
RAM: 1GB PC133 (2x 512MB)
GPU: Radeon 9800XT
Soundcard: SoundBlaster SB0350 (even though the mobo has onboard SB)

I've also got an 80GB 7200k IDE HDD, a DVD optical drive, a 500W PSU, yada yada.

I thought, when I built it, that I really had the research down pat. And I still think some of the choices I made are good ones (looking at you, Tautalin and VIA chipset). The biggest thing I'm concerned with right now is the GPU. I see on here, over and over again, that ATI cards should be avoided... yet I've had no problems with mine. The cards I see suggested on here seem like they wouldn't quite be powerful enough to max the games I want to max. I'm looking at basically anything that came out prior to the release of Windows XP as being fair game here. I use Return to Castle Wolfenstein as my kind of "bonus bench" since it came out a month after XP.

So I'm really curious here (and a little excited, honestly) to see what you lot might change about this build. I know there is a preference for the Intel i815E chipset, but that caps out at 512MB RAM. With Win98SE SP3, I've seen no reason not to push that to 1GB or higher (though really, I can't imagine any of these games using even the full gig I have already).

Anyway. Thanks for reading, looking forward to seeing your ideas!

Corruptor : ASUS TUV4X - Intel SL6BY @ 1.4GHz - 2x 256MB PC133 - ATI Radeon 8500 - Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS SB0350
Aggressor : ASUS TUSL2 - Intel SL6BY @ 1.4GHz - 2x 256MB PC133 - NVIDIA GeForce 4 Ti 4600 - Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS SB0350

Reply 1 of 6, by slivercr

Posted on 2018-03-02, 21:06

slivercr Offline

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Posts: 418
Joined: 2017-02-16, 18:00
Location: Costa Rica

Honestly, it looks pretty solid.

rob8086 wrote:
The biggest thing I'm concerned with right now is the GPU. I see on here, over and over again, that ATI cards should be avoided... yet I've had no problems with mine.

People recommend Geforce FX downwards because of support for fog table and 8-bit palettized textures, Radeons have no support for these (I think maybe fog tables through a registry hack? Not sure.). If you've had no problems, I'd just leave it as is. Well, I'd switch to an SSD, maybe overclock the Tualatin a bit too, but that's just me 😜

Welcome!

Outrigger: an ongoing adventure with the OR840
QuForce FX 5800: turn your Quadro into a GeForce

Reply 2 of 6, by rob8086

Posted on 2018-03-02, 21:13

rob8086 Offline

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Rank: Newbie
Posts: 39
Joined: 2018-03-02, 20:24
Location: Jundland Wastes, Tatooine

Thanks for the info! I think what I might end up doing is building a second machine. This one with an ASUS TUSL2 or an Intel D815EEA2/U just to try the Intel chipset. Kind of curious how much of a difference that 512MB less is going to make, if any.

I'm completely hung up on GPUs now, though. I think I'd love to get ahold of a Ti 4800 but they are completely impossible to find.

Reply 3 of 6, by KCompRoom2000

Posted on 2018-03-03, 23:15

KCompRoom2000 Offline

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Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 728
Joined: 2017-05-24, 22:38
Location: Seattle, WA, USA

As far as the RAM limit on the i815E goes, it shouldn't be a problem on 9x systems, the need for more than 512MB of RAM starts with XP SP3+ as far as I'm concerned. I can't even think of a reason to need more than 256MB of RAM for a 9x system, so there should be little to no difference between 512MB and 1GB. 98SE has problems with more than ~512MB unless you use some patches from what I've heard.

slivercr wrote:
(I think maybe fog tables through a registry hack? Not sure.)

Correct, you can re-enable fog table on ATI Radeon cards through the means of a registry hack as proven on this post here.

Reply 4 of 6, by Weebob

Posted on 2018-03-03, 23:55

Weebob Offline

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Posts: 108
Joined: 2018-01-11, 12:29

I had no end of problems on my 815eea2 on win98se with anything above 512mb ram. Random lockups mainly and general instability. Even after the various patches.

Reply 5 of 6, by nforce4max

Posted on 2018-03-04, 00:00

nforce4max Offline

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Rank: l33t
Posts: 2451
Joined: 2012-05-05, 22:55

I never liked the ram limitation of the 815 as the older BX handled 1GB just fine, 512 is generally accepted as the max limit of 98/me because having to spend $20 for a patch doesn't appeal very well to anyone.

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

Reply 6 of 6, by rob8086

Posted on 2018-03-04, 00:26

rob8086 Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 39
Joined: 2018-03-02, 20:24
Location: Jundland Wastes, Tatooine

I have had some stability issues with my current build, the one with 1GB in it. Thinking I might swap those 512's for 256's and see if anything changes. The next build is only going to be 2x 512MB for sure since it's the Intel chipset.

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