I generally do not patch the OS just for gaming unless there are specific issues a patch will cure that I am having. That is one of the things I find out after I install the OS and all of the drivers I try get some games going and if everything is stable I leave it alone. If there is stability issues I attempt to patch specific problems. Your computer is fast enough though that you can probably run those unoffical service packs for windows 98, on slower hardware i try to avoid them and I only patch certain things like I will maybe manually instal several patches to address issues that I know I have by hand. As opposed to 100 patches that those packs have.

From my experience it's generally not until you start pushing 98se way past its hardware requirements, or start trying to run software on it that it isn't supposed to run that u really need to install one of those packs. For XP you might want to just install SP2 or SP3 and then Direct x or whatever simple if you don't intend to be doing much else but trying to play some games.

Fastest GPU 9800 is as strong of a ATI card you can run on 98se. Nvidia I am told a GeForce 7950 GT AGP will run on 98se with the unofficial drivers.

I can only address two of the questions now:

Dual booting is fine with 98 and XP, I had such a machine back in the day. It was Athlon XP based, at that. The problem won't be 98's DOS base. It won't get in the way at all, the problem is the way 98 uses memory. Having more than 512MiB is a problem for stock 98, you need to either prevent it from seeing more than that (by using something like HimemX from freeDOS) or patch it to stay stable with that 1GiB. But I have no experience with it, I just don't have 98 rigs over 512MiB.

GUS compatibility and cheap...? Well, unfortunately it's DOSBox territory which kind of defeats the purpose of a retro machine. Once I tried a GUS emulator (purely software, hopefully freeware) for 98 dos sessions and it was very far from perfect.

@dualboot A lot of people dualboot Win98/XP. I have yet to try it but this tool is on my watchlist, appears to be maintained even in 2019 https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-bare-metal.htm

@gpu If you want to run games from 2003 with max AA, AF, using Nvidia Inspector and maintain really high FPS then you need something like Geforce 960 (but your board does not support PCI-E). Just throwing it out there as a reference point. If you want to keep the current config as-is then I would go with:

- Geforce FX 5xxx, they support Win98, table fog and palletized textures. Games out-of-the-box circa 2001-2003 will be "playable", probably 20-80FPS, depending on the game/resolution/settings/etc. They should be good upto (including) DirectX 7, anything later you will make you feel like you are probably "missing out" (2004: Doom 3, Far Cry,..). You can search any game on http://mobygames.com/ and view its "Specs" tab for minimum DirectX/OS version requirements.

- 3dfx Voodoo 1-2-3-4-5 card, something fun for Glide games and should cover compatibility of some older games where FX 5xxx is too new

That would be a middle path I would say. If you want more power but less compatibility with older games then Geforce 6/7 + Voodoo 5500. If you want more compatibility with older games but less power then Geforce 4 + Voodoo 1-2-3.

There is no point in sinking too much money into a semi-custom build like this unless you really want a specific card for your collection/future builds. So just getting whatever is cheapest at the moment would work as well.

You can also skip the Voodoos because they are quite expensive compared to the Geforce offerings. You could then use nGlide software wrapper.

So the best cheapest option in my opinion would be a single Geforce FX 5xxx (with nGlide for Glide games).

Socket A and 478 machines make great win98 gaming PCs. You can run any win9x games as well as late dos games (under windows or dos mode) perfectly well. As for windows XP, I don't really see the point in installing it alongside 98 - any game that will run well on this configuration will run better on 98.

Dual booting XP also makes running pure dos on your machine a bit more complicated, so I'd personally use 98 alone. Besides, most games that require XP to run will need a faster computer to be playable.

I only have one PC that dual boots XP and 98 - an Athlon XP 3200+ with a Geforce FX 5900 Ultra - but the only reason XP is on there is because of nostalgia - I used to dual boot XP and 98 back in the day on my old 2500+. The only use XP has on this machine is going online to download patches or levels for the games I play on it - even so, the machine is rarely used. My main win98 PC right now is a Dell GX400 socket 423 workstation (2GHz p4, 384MB RDRAM, Radeon 9700), and it runs 98 alone.

The 520 pci does not have any win98 drivers, so you won't be able to use it under '98. It's not very good for dos games either (weird tearing issues in some games).

Cooler - wise - for a XP 2000+, anything will do really. I generally go for larger copper core coolers with 80mm fans, and replace the noisy high rpm fans they come with with better, modern quiet fans from thermalright or noctua.

The CPU should be enough for Halo, but the video card is not. The 520 is a very low end video card, and it's drivers are not optimed for the old games you want to play. Couple that with the (slow) PCI interface, and you can see why you're getting poor performace. You need an older AGP video card to comfortably play 2001-2002 games like halo - I recommend at least a geforce FX 5700 / radeon 9600. If you don't have an AGP slot, consider replacing the motherboard. Any PCI card you get will be too slow for most games realeased in 2000 and up due to the slow PCI bus. Socket A motherboards with AGP are pretty cheap and easy to find.

As for the GUS - I'd say keep that for a DOS machine. I see no benefit from using it in a win9x rig. Games that take advantage of a GUS are 90's games made for dos.

Socket3 wrote:

noctua

+1, when looks dont matter, I always get noctuas, they are very quiet at lower RPM and reliable over long term, well worth their cost. Does not matter if you are getting a CPU/GPU/AIO cooler, the "stock" fans almost always suck.

If you insist on dual-booting XP and 98, my advice is to get a faster socket 754 or 939 setup. I built my sister a dedicated retro gaming rig out of a single core Athlon XP 3800+, 1GB of ram and a VIA K8T800 mainboard, along with a Radeon X800XT. THe K8T800 chipset has excelent win9x support - much better then nforce chipset for the same socket, and the X800XT is fast enough for newer games like Doom 3 and Black and White 2. The sound card is a Creative Audigy witch has drivers for both XP and 98, and a single voodoo 2 sits on a PCI slot for glide compatible late dos and win98 games (she likes to play descent 2 and carmageddon from time to time).

You can build an equivalent intel system as well, but you will need a intel 865 lga 775 board witch are harder to find an pricier then 939 setups. Via P4T800 boards also work well - and some even support core 2 duo chips - but I found they're not as stable under win98. Couple that with a fast P4 chip (say a 3.4GHz Pentium 4 650) and you have yourself a decent 98/XP combo machine.

If you look on ebay or similar sites you should be able to find OEM PCs (HP, Dell etc) with this setup (p4 640/650 + intel i865) and some of these machines have an AGP slot. It's a quick and cheap way to build a dual boot retro gaming rig.

The problem of 98/XP dual-boot system is, that even the fastest 98 compatible GPU isn't suitable for late XP gaming, since XP had such a long life span. In that case, you can't avoid swaping at least GPU. Then there's a problem of AGP. If you're limited to AGP, then you can only go as high as HD3850/4670. Those can be pretty powerful, but it depends on chosen resolution. You can solve this issue by getting those crazy Dual boards, which have both AGP and PCIe slots, but those can be really picky about HW choices, if you want run 98 on them (as you can read in my topic in System Specs).

So yeah, running 98/XP dual-boot is possible, but it always be a compromise, one way or the other...

512mb of memory is fine for a low spec XP machine IMO. XP only starts to feel paninful at 256mb of memory or less. I would focus on building the best 98 machine you can, and look at XP gaming as a bonus.

Faster than what I had in 2001. :p

Here's the thing...there's very little that 98 can do that XP can't. DOS, yeah. You might as well have a DOS partition and skip 98. Not that I don't love 98, but you are going to go though a lot of struggle on principle. And as far as the memory thing and so forth, people did do dual booting for reasons just like yours back in the day, but it was rare to have more than 512MB of memory in the first place.

As far as "is this system viable" for "gaming," you just decide what you want to run. Looks like a very capable system to me, just add that video card and there's not much you can't do.

The PSU has strong 5v? Anyway just check the caps, espcially if your PSU is unknow brand.

I'd say, just keep it as a deticated WIN98/DOS machine with 512mb max and a GF3 video card... much like one of my current systems(sig).

I cant stress enough on the power supply to be used on these retro systems... a name brand unit that provides considerable amperage on the +5v rail of at least 30a or more just to be on the safe side and a 20pin motherboard power connector. You can use todays power supplys with the 20+4, just unattach the extra 4pin on the end, but they are idealy more suited for systems that use more current on the +12v since they deticate more amperage on that rail compared to the others.

Best example i can give - https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Enermax-EG365P-V … ukAAOSwTkFcmUCA

on the +5v rail of at least 30a

Unless you're trying to overclock or use high-end Barton, 30A is not required.

The Serpent Rider wrote:

Unless you're trying to overclock or use high-end Barton, 30A is not required.

Maybe... but I'd rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it. /boyscout

Dragonslayer182... after giving it some thought after my 1st post, perhaps you are better off with a straight up XP build, you will have up to 2gb/ddr memory on tap, which is better and faster than if you went with WIN98 using up to 512mb pc133, and you can play most mid 90s to 2000 games with ease and more OS programs available to use.

Bige4u wrote:

Dragonslayer182... after giving it some thought after my 1st post, perhaps you are better off with a straight up XP build, you will have up to 2gb/ddr memory on tap, which is better and faster than if you went with WIN98 using up to 512mb pc133, and you can play most mid 90s to 2000 games with ease and more OS programs available to use.

Honestly, I think I'll stick with Windows 98. I have an old gateway system w/ 4gb DDR2 and a non-C2D/C2Q compatible LGA775 chipset. I'd just need to give it a good case, it's in a pretty bad gateway low profile case. I am wondering what GPU I should get that's powerful but won't have too many compatibility issues (Corrupted colors, etc.) for this athlon xp machine. I'll focus on older games for it, though I'd still ideally like it to be able to run GTA III and VC fairly well.

Athlon XP is great for Windows XP, why even bog it down with Windows 98?

Half-Saint wrote:

Athlon XP is great for Windows XP, why even bog it down with Windows 98?

I have a better machine for Windows XP. This is just my "Win 98 for as cheap as I can" type build.

Reasons to install windows 98 over XP (feel free to add to this list):

1. Native DOS 7.1
2. Official drivers for A3D and A3D 2.0
3. Native glide support
4. Better compatibility with early windows games and software
5. Better comparability/support for things like MIDI and sound blaster pro emulation

Reasons to install XP 32bit over Windows 98

1. Much more stable
2. Supports more modern hardware and software
3. Can have better performance
4. Lots of early windows games will work in XP, in addition to all the more modern stuff that won't run in 98

The most compatible graphics card for windows 98 is the voodoo 3, but it's expensive, and it under performs compared to later geforce cards.

The cheapest and most compatible AGP card would probably be the Gerforce 4 MX440 or 460. It is a budget card, even for the time, but you can readily find them for around 20$ shipped. They support table fog and 8 bit textures, which are features you only get on certain nvidia GPUs and Voodoo cards. A more ideal GPU would be a Geforce ti 4200, 4400, 4600 or a FX 5600 ultra or better. Other models to look for are the FX Quadro 2000 and 3000, which are basically equivalent to an FX 5800. The cheapest of those is usually the ti 4200 or Quadro FX 2000.

For sound, an Audigy 2 is a great card.

An athlon XP has plenty of CPU power for windows 98.

Again... figure it would be in your best intrest going with XP to take full advantage of the 2gb(ddr) max since the Biostar M7VIG motherboard supprts it, WIN98 tends to max out at 512mb, its like system castration, stick with earlier pentium3 systems for running WIN98 where those motherboards tends to peak the memory out at 512mb max.

Suggestion - Athlon XP 2000+(1.67ghz) / 2x1gb ddr / fx5900

I second the use of a good PSU with 30A on the 12v line or very close to it.
These old sA VIA chipsetted boards could become finnicky when were were not using a very beefy PSU for these boards.

Personally I found roughly 1.4GHz to be somewhat of a boundary area of where I'd debate the use of either 9x or XP. For my own 2000+ builds I ended up using slimmed down versions of XP (using nlite) as I could make full use of the larger amount of memory. I never had the 98 patch that increased the amount of memory it could work with without it getting stability issues.
If I were to build a rig with your specs OP, I might even consider using ME as 98SE runs basically fine on much slower rigs.