How about an Nvidia Riva 128 PCI? Still pretty inexpensive.

Nice card but apparently they are £100 in my country haha! vintage graphics cards on eBay in the UK seem to be such stupid money i don't know why.

there is one for £30 including shipping too... not really cheap, but better than 100 ^^

it's the same with people always saying TNT2 M64 PCI can be found cheap, and yet in europe they're all expensive unless you get lucky ^^

Really? Do you have a link please as I can't seem to find it.

The AGP versions are dirt cheap but PCI... much more. I guess these cards are just getting far more rare over here these days.

I'm guessing the ATI Xpert XL or Matrox Mystique GPU's are rubbish right? as that's the models which come in the later models of the Pulsar which i am assuming mine is as its got 32MB RAM and the faster 233Mhz CPU.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223888014272

neither of them are rubbish imo, they're just fine for what they are, they might have some minor problems with certain older games.

Thank you for the link. Doing a bit of research on the Xpert XL, it looks like it's just an onboard ATI 3D Rage variant of some kind. Am i right in thinking this?

If this is the case and it has around 4MB ram this might actually already be what i would have upgrade to at the time back in the day I had the Pulsar 19 which had the 2D only S3 64. Is the Xpert XL just a 2D card or is it 3D capable? Sorry for all the questions I'm just really trying to do this the right way.

Something inside me is telling me to grab a Voodoo 1 4MB, I'm not sure why but owning a 3DFX card for the first time is really appealing it would be fun to play around with one.

yes, the Xpert XL should be a Rage Pro, it is OK in 3D, nothing fancy though: http://vintage3d.org/rage3.php

just wait with the voodoo until you got your PC already, maybe it is in there indeed :p

Ahhh well then i think i should be ok. the voodoo definitely isn't in there he had a previous listing up with it in showing the pass through cables and everything and mentioned it in the listing but removed it and relisted it using the same picture haha. So sadly not the case but a Rage Pro should be fine actually.

It arrives tomorrow so i will see what's what and go from there. Is the sound card going to be an issue with DOS games?

If it doesn't have the Voodoo 1 when you get it, why not look at the USA eBay site. Even with shipping, prices for something like a TNT2 is going to be much cheaper. (Shipping from the USA should be about $24 USD)

I wouldn't worry about the P1 bottlenecking a newer card. Think of it this way... no matter what your configuration, some component is going to be bottlenecking some other component.

Who cares if the video card would deliver faster fps if you had a faster CPU? No use in spending crazy money just to get something that is more period correct.

You needing PCI is what is also going to drive the price up a bit.

Here are a few on the UK eBay site:
TNT 16MB - 15
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Creative-Labs-CT67 … ge/264603964865

Geforce FX 5500 from China (remarked FX 5200 if it is the same as the one I bought) - 27.64
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-NVIDIA-FX5500- … 3D/131874757771

Geforce 4 MX440 - 16.99
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/64MB-Sparkle-SP730 … rd/274226829892

Radeon 7000 - 24.99
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sapphire-ATi-Radeo … NE/174155655823

The sound card should be fine for DOS.

cyclone3d wrote on 2020-02-03, 15:28:

If it doesn't have the Voodoo 1 when you get it, why not look at the USA eBay site. Even with shipping, prices for something like a TNT2 is going to be much cheaper. (Shipping from the USA should be about $24 USD)

don't underestimate the customs/import and postal fees... UK is no longer in the EU 😦 but for now I think ordering from within the EU should still be fine?

but ordering something from the US in that price range easily doubles in price once you apply VAT and postal fees unless it is below €22 in value (for now, they want to scrap that too)

also yeah, the soundcard should be fine.

Oh yeah.. I tend to forget about stupid things like import fees and VAT since we don't have either of those in the USA. I only end up paying the local sales tax which is about 8% when buying from eBay or other online places.

darkomen wrote on 2020-02-03, 12:42:

Hello everyone […]
Show full quote

Hello everyone

I'm looking into the best options for my Packard Bell Pulsar desktop. I plan to run Windows 95 and MS DOS on this machine. Looking at the specs for these models mine is a Pulsar 23 model onwards.

Will the Aztech 16C / 2320 sound card work well in DOS? It's definitely ISA but will i run into issues? Is it work getting another card? I'm not worried about actual sound quality or MIDI quality i just want it to work.

I also want to put a PCI graphics card into this machine because when i was a kid and had this machine (the PB Pulsar 19 model to be exact) I wanted one so badly. Now it's irrelevant obviously but I'm just really curious how it would have performed if i actually managed to get one back then. I know it's useless for DOS which is mainly what this will be used for but to cure my curiosity would be nice. I did notice the later models which my new one is has a ATI Xpert XL or Matrox Mystique GPU onboard instead of the S3 Trio my original had but I'm sure this is just as useless as mine back then??

I would love a 4MB 3DFX card or something but they are stupid money over here so any other ideas welcome as I'm really not sure what would be period correct and work well in this system without the 233Mhz P1 bottle necking the card.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

I'm not sure why you think the S3 and Matrox are useless. They are quite good options and there's really no need to upgrade either, other than for fun and curiosity. Especially considering the emphasis you're placing on DOS gaming. Both are considered very good at DOS gaming, though the Mystique may have a few compatibility issues that the S3 does not.

The Voodoo will be a great compliment to the S3. Also, if you only have one PCI slot, you'll have no choice but to use the integrated S3 if you get a Voodoo.

edit: regarding the Aztech, it should work fine in DOS. My Packard Bell Multimedia C110 came with an Aztech sound card with a Yamaha chipset and it sounded great. Finding DOS drivers and getting them set up was a little tricky, but here's my thread from 2015 where gdjacobs sent me drivers and helped me get it going. Keep in mind this sound card does have some limitations (no MIDI header for one) so it may get you going now, but at some point you may decide you need to upgrade it.

darkomen wrote on 2020-02-03, 12:42:

[...]

Will the Aztech 16C / 2320 sound card work well in DOS? It's definitely ISA but will i run into issues? Is it work getting another card? I'm not worried about actual sound quality or MIDI quality i just want it to work.

Er, didn't you read the various comments in your first topic about this system? Some pretty extensive answers there - I even linked to the drivers 😮

cyclone3d, thanks for the feedback I purchased the Riva TNT 16MB in the end I think it will compliment the machine well. Somewhat period correct as well...?

dionb, you know i completely forgot about that I'm sorry! I have so much going on right now I'm being pretty forgetful. Thanks for the drivers they will come in very helpful.

darkomen wrote on 2020-02-04, 08:55:

Somewhat period correct as well...?

If you strech "somewhat" quite a bit, then yes. To me, a 16 MB video card in a Pentium 1 system doesn't feel period correct.

it might be easier if you try to condense your questions about this particular system in a single thread instead of scattering them over multiple threads and getting repeat answers ^^