Hi, there are some around here who know all that in detail, but generally speaking:

- The privilege of an ISA sound card is that so many DOS games expect one and have their way of communicating with them, which is incompatible with PCI.
- A PCI card will always remain a PCI card, no matter the name
- Workarounds are plenty but they remain workarounds. So once you go there, you might as well use DosBox

In your case: SB Live! with legacy drivers is supposed to be pretty good. SB16 PCI would be a step backwards, afaik. I'd try to optimize on that, there's bound to be a howto around here or elsewhere.

But on your hardware, specifically: Your mobo is just one click to modern to have ISA. There are plenty others who have it:
https://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/List_of_ … 70_motherboards

Yeah, the mobo is the "issue" there, well, I guess I'll postpone this to the next build.
Thanks for the answer 😀

No need to postpone - afaik, SB live should work fine in any DOS mode if you get the drivers right.
Just didn't try that myself but I expected someone here to give advice. Or search for it, there are bound to be threads about it.
Have a look here:
https://www.philscomputerlab.com/sound-blaster-live.html

Biggest issue with DOS games with this kind of card is that the TSR driver eats conventional memory. For very late DOS stuff that's less of a problem as DOS games used DOS4GW extenders and so weren't as conventional-memory-critical as earlier 1st half 1990s DOS games. If your games are post ~1994, it will probably be OK. If you're hitting specific compatibility issues, it could help to look for ESS Solo-1 or Fortemedia 801 based cards, as they tended to have best DOS compatibility among PCI cards.

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-03-26, 09:58:

<snip>
- A PCI card will always remain a PCI card, no matter the name
- Workarounds are plenty but they remain workarounds. So once you go there, you might as well use DosBox

This is a common misconception.

...but even ISA isn't "real" ISA on most late 90s platforms... BX for example uses an ISA to PCI bridge.

Now, following that logic, SB-Link is no different than an ISA to PCI bridge, and you basically have an ISA sound card when employing SB-Link with a PCI sound card (the same level of compatibility).

mockingbird wrote on 2022-03-27, 14:33:

This is a common misconception. […]
Show full quote

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-03-26, 09:58:

<snip>
- A PCI card will always remain a PCI card, no matter the name
- Workarounds are plenty but they remain workarounds. So once you go there, you might as well use DosBox

This is a common misconception.

...but even ISA isn't "real" ISA on most late 90s platforms... BX for example uses an ISA to PCI bridge.

Now, following that logic, SB-Link is no different than an ISA to PCI bridge, and you basically have an ISA sound card when employing SB-Link with a PCI sound card (the same level of compatibility).

My point was merely that a PCI SB16 will not be more "ISA" because it's an SB16.
Neither will the usual later "bridged" ISA slot make an ISA card less ISA.

AFAIK, the whole SB-link idea is rather academic because als long as you didn't specifically need that PCI sound card, any board with SB-link still had ISA slots anyway 😉

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-03-27, 15:21:

<snip>
AFAIK, the whole SB-link idea is rather academic because als long as you didn't specifically need that PCI sound card, any board with SB-link still had ISA slots anyway 😉

😉 not as such my good man.

My QDI Platinix2 has all PCI and no ISA and has SB-Link (and a YMF724 in her)... Rare, yes, that is true.

mockingbird wrote on 2022-03-28, 12:47:

My QDI Platinix2 has all PCI and no ISA and has SB-Link (and a YMF724 in her)... Rare, yes, that is true.

GREAT SCOTT !
I stand corrected. Thank you.
I could have known - a fine vessel, and she actually is on the list.

Still seems to me that in the wild, 99% of sb_link headers come with a 440BX. But, as I already suggested there, we need a "real" list like this one, but including the SB_Link: "List of Socket 370 motherboards". Guess I'll have to do that myself one fine day.

Cuttoon wrote on 2022-03-26, 18:22:

No need to postpone - afaik, SB live should work fine in any DOS mode if you get the drivers right. Just didn't try that myself […]
Show full quote

No need to postpone - afaik, SB live should work fine in any DOS mode if you get the drivers right.
Just didn't try that myself but I expected someone here to give advice. Or search for it, there are bound to be threads about it.
Have a look here:
https://www.philscomputerlab.com/sound-blaster-live.html

Thanks man, I'm giving this a try, so far s good in Windows, and I'm trying to make it work in DOS (restart in DOS mode), as expected I got some EMM386 issue and CTSYN.INI not found, well, that's part of the fun.
I'll give it another shot as soon as I'll have some time, in the meantime if anyone configured the DOS drivers already I'd be happy to know what troubleshooting steps you did 😉

EDIT: Well, apparently it's some config.sys issue, I have modified the file settings and just tried SAM and MAX in DOS mode, so far it's working fine.