mawendir wrote:

Hello everyone. I'm trying to build a gaming PC for Windows 98 and I found it very difficult to do so, as it's quite hard to find the specific hardwares. I found some, but not sure if they're compatible.

GPU: Nvidia FX5500 256MB 128Bit DDR (DirectX 9.0) AGP 8x

https://www.geforce.co.uk/drivers

mawendir wrote:

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3700+ (Toledo) ADA3700DKA5CF

OK

mawendir wrote:

RAM: 2x 512 Mb DDR400 RAM

512MB total is better for compatibility, work around exist for more then this if you really want.

mawendir wrote:

Motherboard: Asus A8V-MX

Asus A8V deluxe and win98.

mawendir wrote:

PSU: 250W

Ok

mawendir wrote:

HDD: 80 GB 7200 RPM

OK

Intel socket 478 motherboards based on either the 865 or 875 chipset also have native Win98 support and would are still common enough to be had cheap anywhere in the world.

For dos games, everything will work fine accept sound. If you stick any sound blaster up till the Audigy, they all had dos legacy drivers and also should be pretty common.

What about Pentium IV processors? Up to which family I can use (Willamette, Northwood, Prescott etc.)? And wonder if CPU and GPU is powerful enough to run games smoothly, even if they're compatible. I'll stick with 512 Mb RAM and find a sound card. It's also really hard to find a good Motherboard.

Are these good together?

ASUS P4P800-X Motherboard and Pentium 4 HT SL7PM (3.0 GHz ) CPU

Motherboard is fine, actually the P4P800 series were considered one of the best socket 478 motherboards back when they were new.
https://www.asus.com/supportonly/P4P800-X/HelpDesk_Download

CPU (or any P4) is fine however disable Hyper threading in BIOS or windows may crash. This is because Windows 98 doesn't support more then 1 CPU and sees the HT as a 2nd cpu and gets confused.
Even with HT disabled a P4 can more then have enough power for anything in windows 98

Wrong forum. This is the PC emulation forum. for actual hardware ask in Marvin. Marvin, the Paranoid Android

Sorry for opening the topic in the wrong forum, as I'm newbie, didn't exactly know where to open it. And, thanks for the help, I'll surely disable HT in BIOS. What I'm actually trinyg to achieve is, that I can play games smoothly, without having any trouble. So, I hope I can manage to do so. Lastly, if HT cannot be benefited from Windows 98, wouldn't it be better to pick a processor that has not HT feature? Also, is there an OS limit (min/max) for frequency, cache, fsb? And, what are the differences between P4P800 motherboards? I know there are S, X, E, MX, VM series but don't know exactly which one to choose.

Moved to Marvin.

Thank you Stiletto. I think, my final decision will be like this;

Motherboard: ASUS P4P800-X
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz (SL7PN)
GPU: FX5500 256 Mb 128 Bit AGP
RAM: (2x) DDR400 512 Mb RAM
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Value
HDD: 80 Gb 7200 RPM
PSU: 250W
3.5'' Floppy Disk Drive and CD/DVD ROM

I'll disable HT in BIOS and I'll only use 1 slot of 512 Mb RAM. Please let me know if I can make this build any better and if there's anything to replace.

Looks good, Win98 will fly on that.

Motherboard:
Differences between the s, x, etc, are not really important, mostly small differences like on board LAN, RAID, etc. All make good Win98 PC's

CPU:
Technically your better off with a P4 Northwood. Older software performed marginally better with its shorter pipeline.
In the real world you will only notice this in benchmark results and the difference will only be 1 or 2, for gaming any P4 is so over powered other components will be the bottleneck.
For my "Ultimate Win98 P4" I just disabled HT as well, just get whatever is selling for a good price.

GPU: While officially Win98 can go up to a 6800 Ultra, your FX5500 has better backwards compatibility so would stick with that as you already have it

RAM: perfect

Sound: I prefer the Audigy 2 ZS which is the final card with Win98 support, but if you already have the Audigy Value I wouldn't waste money on upgrading

HDD: If you put BIOS into legacy mode you can use a SATA drive no problem at all if you wish, I didn't realise it worked so well when I built my P4

This is my build by the way, It's a pretty similar build but I wasn't worried about backwards compatibility so have stupid things like 4GB ram which I don't recommend.
P4P800 End of Win98 Support Build

So thanks a lot for helping me 2 years ago and sorry to bump this old thread, didn't want to start new one as I still have the similiar problems and needs (sorry if it's against the forum rules). Long story short, I wasn't able to build this computer back then but I'm determined to do so right now. So I just found this P4 2.4B SL6CP very cheap and I wonder if it's "enoug" to achieve my goals. My goal is to play games all the time. From some games like Prince of Persia, DOOM to mostly SimCity 4, SimCity 3000, The Sims 1 and 2, Zoo Tycoon 1 and 2, pretty much all the old tycoon and simulation games, Diablo II, Warcraft, Elder Scrolls etc. etc. etc. and some new stuff like NFSU:U2, Rome Total War etc. Generally pretty much most of the games from 1985 to 2005, if not all, if it's possible. Should I look for any other P4 or P3's are better? Also really wonder which GPU should I look for if I can't find any Voodoo's? Need to know if this processor is a good start and which GPU to look for, I'd appreciate some help, thanks in advance!

mawendir wrote on 2020-10-08, 22:20:

My goal is to play games all the time. From some games like Prince of Persia, DOOM to mostly SimCity 4, SimCity 3000, The Sims 1 and 2, Zoo Tycoon 1 and 2, pretty much all the old tycoon and simulation games, Diablo II, Warcraft, Elder Scrolls etc. etc. etc. and some new stuff like NFSU:U2, Rome Total War etc.

You mentioned those games in your earlier post, but you don't need Windows 98 to play those and they would run just as well on a much newer PC. Is there anything you've actually had trouble running?

Generally pretty much most of the games from 1985 to 2005, if not all, if it's possible.

It's not. You will spend the rest of your life collecting PCs that will collect dust and you will most certainly not succeed in your goal "to play games all the time".

Need to know if this processor is a good start and which GPU to look for, I'd appreciate some help, thanks in advance!

It's fine. Enjoy it, and worry later if you find yourself wanting to play something that you cannot run for some reason.

yeah that 5500 paired with the P4 will be super strong for anything up to 2001. Maybe it's too fast for some games, that might be the only caveat.

nice PC 😀

mawendir wrote on 2018-08-29, 12:50:

Are these good together?

ASUS P4P800-X Motherboard and Pentium 4 HT SL7PM (3.0 GHz ) CPU

Wouldn't run it on a 250W PSU though.

Jorpho wrote on 2020-10-09, 01:17:

You mentioned those games in your earlier post, but you don't need Windows 98 to play those and they would run just as well on a […]
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mawendir wrote on 2020-10-08, 22:20:

My goal is to play games all the time. From some games like Prince of Persia, DOOM to mostly SimCity 4, SimCity 3000, The Sims 1 and 2, Zoo Tycoon 1 and 2, pretty much all the old tycoon and simulation games, Diablo II, Warcraft, Elder Scrolls etc. etc. etc. and some new stuff like NFSU:U2, Rome Total War etc.

You mentioned those games in your earlier post, but you don't need Windows 98 to play those and they would run just as well on a much newer PC. Is there anything you've actually had trouble running?

Generally pretty much most of the games from 1985 to 2005, if not all, if it's possible.

It's not. You will spend the rest of your life collecting PCs that will collect dust and you will most certainly not succeed in your goal "to play games all the time".

Need to know if this processor is a good start and which GPU to look for, I'd appreciate some help, thanks in advance!

It's fine. Enjoy it, and worry later if you find yourself wanting to play something that you cannot run for some reason.

Thank you for your reply. I just wanted to mention the games again as a reminder because it was an old thread. Of course I'm aware that I can play most of the games with my new PC and surely I know that there'll be problems and maybe there'll be some games I cannot play how much I try. It's not a big deal. I even got some games I can't run on my modern PC. It's not a big deal, I can live with that. It's just the good feeling of notalgia. I want to build a Windows 98 machine to play at least some of the games between 85 to 05, if not all, that's all. When I said I want to play games all the time, all I wanted to say was that it'll be a gaming rig to me, that I'm gonna play games with it, not that I'm going to play all the games that came out in 20 years one by one 24/7 . It's just a hobby. I love it and I know I'll be collecting PCs and games for the rest of my life and it's good, just like any other hobby. I just doubt that they'll collect dust at all. Thanks again, I'll go with P4 then probably, it's really cheap.

foil_fresh wrote on 2020-10-09, 01:48:

yeah that 5500 paired with the P4 will be super strong for anything up to 2001. Maybe it's too fast for some games, that might be the only caveat.

nice PC 😀

Thank you, I just can't be sure if I should go with FX 5500 though. I also don't want other components to bottleneck because of the super fast P4, that's the reason why I wanted to ask if I should go with another, slower CPU.

Wouldn't run it on a 250W PSU though.

Thanks a lot, I'll upgrade it!

Is the P4 going to be held back by the graphics card? probably, Does it matter? No.
It'll speed up load times if nothing else. and its always good to have some extra power and not need it rather then not enough power and need it.

chinny22 wrote on 2020-10-09, 09:12:

Is the P4 going to be held back by the graphics card? probably, Does it matter? No.
It'll speed up load times if nothing else. and its always good to have some extra power and not need it rather then not enough power and need it.

Thank you for your post after 2 years, again! I'll go with P4 probably, since it's too cheap but should I bother looking for any slower or faster ones or P3 at all? Also, I know people recommend GPUs like GeForce 4, Voodoo 3 etc. but I can't seem to find them. I don't hear good reviews about FX GPUs and I feel lost about what to look for. Any idea?

it really depends on how far into the 3d gaming era you want to go. if the latest thing you're gonna run is quake 3 from 1999 then i think the 5500 is great. someone correct me if the driver issues are going to be an issue but going from specs alone ( https://technical.city/en/video/GeForce-FX-55 … -GeForce3-Ti200 ) it's got nearly the same amount of processing power, the same amount of memory, nearly the same amount of memory bandwidth of a really good card from 2001 (GF3ti200).

With a FX5500 and a P4 2.8 I don't think 250W PSU will be a problem. I remember I had 350W for my P4 3.2ghz and 9800XT back in the days with several harddrives and it had plenty of power left.

I think it's a great starting point. Very little reason to go for a P3 when you already have a P4 and you can always upgrade the GPU to something faster later on.

foil_fresh wrote on 2020-10-09, 10:42:

it really depends on how far into the 3d gaming era you want to go. if the latest thing you're gonna run is quake 3 from 1999 then i think the 5500 is great. someone correct me if the driver issues are going to be an issue but going from specs alone ( https://technical.city/en/video/GeForce-FX-55 … -GeForce3-Ti200 ) it's got nearly the same amount of processing power, the same amount of memory, nearly the same amount of memory bandwidth of a really good card from 2001 (GF3ti200).

Newest games I would really like to play are GTA 3 and Vice City, Rome Total War, NFS, The Sims 2 etc. and some others that I can't think off right now. It'd be awesome if I get to play mid 2000's games without any issue.

vetz wrote on 2020-10-09, 10:46:

With a FX5500 and a P4 2.8 I don't think 250W PSU will be a problem. I remember I had 350W for my P4 3.2ghz and 9800XT back in the days with several harddrives and it had plenty of power left.

I think it's a great starting point. Very little reason to go for a P3 when you already have a P4 and you can always upgrade the GPU to something faster later on.

Good to hear! I still can't find a decent GPU though.

Like the P4, FX series are really XP era cards. For XP/DX9 gaming its true the FX series are pretty bad which is what the reviews were focusing on.
However because they were based on old technology they are actually really powerful in the Win9x/DX8 world, it's just no one cared at the time.

GeForce 4Ti are also great cards and can keep up or even beat the higher FX series cards, but they were always a high end card so not as common or cheap as the FX's

Wiki goes into more details about the different variants.
https://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/NVIDIA#N … _.7C_GeForce_FX

Voodoo is for game's with Glide, very nice to have but wouldn't call it a necessity. Unreal is a game in your list that would use it.
But they are also less common and expensive. Glide games will work with a Geforce just fine so would stick with that for now and you can keep a lookout of a Voodoo for a fair price which does happen from time to time.

GTA3, VC, will work fine, however that PC I linked previously with a 6800 Ultra still struggles with details, AA, AF, etc maxed out. While games of that era will run on 98 they are better off on an even faster XP build.