1) i440BX supports max 128Mb chips, so max per DIMM is 256MB. if using 16 128Mb chips. DIMMs with 8 256Mb chips will only be used at half their nominal capacity. Note that some motherboards haven't wired up all slots, so the last DIMM might only be detected at half capacity, but usually that only happened on 4-DIMM boards, with 3 DIMMs I'd expect 3x 256MB = 768MB to work fine. Note that Windows 98 does NOT like >512MB RAM, so if you intend to use that you need to patch the OS. Not sure if that is possible with Win98FE. It is with SE.
2) neither IMHO. I'd go with a DOM (Disk-On-Module) with a system like this. In any event I'd prefer CF-to-IDE over SD, as CF is native IDE, where SD isn't so requires protocol translation which adds latency and space for things to go wrong.
3) i440BX supports max PCI 2.1, not PCI 2.2. In theory PCI 2.2 cards should be backwards compatible but in practice some require 3.3V that the older boards can't deliver. A lot of USB 2.0 cards fall into that category. Note that it's the card, not the chip, that determines this, so which controller chip it has doesn't guarantee anything. I've had good experiences with unbranded NEC and ALi-based cards, others have noBut...

But...

That just gets you USB 2.0. Exactly what sort of USB WiFi adapter were you considering that would work under Win98FE? Even Win98SE (with WDM drivers) has very limited number of adapters that will work with it, FE, I'd say not a hope in hell. If you want WiFi I'd suggest trying some PCI 802.11g cards. With a bit of luck one might work in a BX board. Chances are that it won't support WPA2 though, so would require you to run at reduced speed and security on your network.

Tbh, I'd rather recommend using an old router or AP as wireless bridge to connect the BX system via Ethernet.

dionb wrote on 2021-05-01, 15:12:

1) i440BX supports max 128Mb chips, so max per DIMM is 256MB. if using 16 128Mb chips. DIMMs with 8 256Mb chips will only be us […]
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1) i440BX supports max 128Mb chips, so max per DIMM is 256MB. if using 16 128Mb chips. DIMMs with 8 256Mb chips will only be used at half their nominal capacity. Note that some motherboards haven't wired up all slots, so the last DIMM might only be detected at half capacity, but usually that only happened on 4-DIMM boards, with 3 DIMMs I'd expect 2x 256MB = 768MB to work fine. Note that Windows 98 does NOT like >512MB RAM, so if you intend to use that you need to patch the OS. Not sure if that is possible with Win98FE. It is with SE.
2) neither IMHO. I'd go with a DOM (Disk-On-Module) with a system like this. In any event I'd prefer CF-to-IDE over SD, as CF is native IDE, where SD isn't so requires protocol translation which adds latency and space for things to go wrong.
3) i440BX supports max PCI 2.1, not PCI 2.2. In theory PCI 2.2 cards should be backwards compatible but in practice some require 3.3V that the older boards can't deliver. A lot of USB 2.0 cards fall into that category. Note that it's the card, not the chip, that determines this, so which controller chip it has doesn't guarantee anything. I've had good experiences with unbranded NEC and ALi-based cards, others have noBut...

But...

That just gets you USB 2.0. Exactly what sort of USB WiFi adapter were you considering that would work under Win98FE? Even Win98SE (with WDM drivers) has very limited number of adapters that will work with it, FE, I'd say not a hope in hell. If you want WiFi I'd suggest trying some PCI 802.11g cards. With a bit of luck one might work in a BX board. Chances are that it won't support WPA2 though, so would require you to run at reduced speed and security on your network.

Tbh, I'd rather recommend using an old router or AP as wireless bridge to connect the BX system via Ethernet.

Hello @dionb, thank you for your answer and your opinions on this upgrading PC. As for your reply on using CF card over SD adapter, I'll look into it. On the maxing out memory, you have puzzled me. The i440BX mobo max out RAM at 3 x 256MB DIMMs =768 MB. You said "with 3 DIMMs I'd expect 2x 256MB = 768MB". What type of RAM module per DIMM slot should I use, to max out RAM, 3x 16 128Mb chips or 3x 8 256Mb chips?
According to the PCI USB 2.0 cards issue, do you happen to know any NEC chipped card to buy as new?
About the WiFi adapter, you are mistaken on the used OS. The PC now runs Win98FE, after upgrading NO MORE Windows! ONLY LINUX distros, so I believe there won't be any problem to have WiFi adapter on USB card 2.0, do i?

CodeBugging wrote on 2021-05-01, 16:36:

[...]

Hello @dionb, thank you for your answer and your opinions on this upgrading PC. As for your reply on using CF card over SD adapter, I'll look into it. On the maxing out memory, you have puzzled me. The i440BX mobo max out RAM at 3 x 256MB DIMMs =768 MB. You said "with 3 DIMMs I'd expect 2x 256MB = 768MB"

Sorry for the typo, 3x 256MB.

What type of RAM module per DIMM slot should I use, to max out RAM, 3x 16 128Mb chips or 3x 8 256Mb chips?

3 DIMMs with 16 128Mb chips. But again, >512MB is a pain in Win98 and there's literally no software out there that would remotely come close to using this much.

According to the PCI USB 2.0 cards issue, do you happen to know any NEC chipped card to buy as new?
About the WiFi adapter, you are mistaken on the used OS. The PC now runs Win98FE, after upgrading NO MORE Windows! ONLY LINUX distros, so I believe there won't be any problem to have WiFi adapter on USB card 2.0, do i?

Ah, that changes matters. Hadn't gotten the memo on Linux, just on in running Win98FE now. With Linux: yes, you need every last MB, so definitely max it out at 768MB.

In that case I can recommend dongles using Realtek chipsets, at least if you're using a recent (>5) kernel. In NL the cheapest half-decent WiFi NIC is the TP-Link Archer T3U with rtl8822bu chip/driver. It needs a custom module compiled for it, but it's very doable and gives you WiFi-ac and monitor mode if you need it too (I use on on my Kali Linux laptop).

Just to temper expectations: you can get a very usable system for a lot of stuff with a low-overhead Linux system, but don't even dream about doing any 'normal' web browsing on a system like this, with a single slow CPU and <1GB of RAM. Web browsing is by far the most demanding low-end application.

No Windows, interesting...

Ram -yeh max it out

CPU?
As you say not much info on that board but I'd think you could safely upgrade the CPU to a P3 600Mhz Katmai if you wanted.
Later CPU's will depend if the motherboard can supply the correct voltage or you can use a slocket adapter.

HDD
BX chipset can go as big as 120GB. BIOS may need updating though?
Personally I like SATA to IDE adapters because its invisible to the OS so as far as its concerned your just using a standard IDE drive off the motherboard.
NT variants of Widows can get a but funny about CF/SD cards if it detects the removable media flag. I doubt this is a issue for Linux but thought worth mentioning. Does make swapping between different installs really easy though.
If it was me I'd try both and see what works best.