Is possible...depends on if and what games you decide to run in DOS. Have a soc 775 that runs DOS (MS 7 from W98) and XP and works well but only do DOS apps on it.

It's possible, but IMO it wouldn't be a computer I would actually want to use.

If the goal is to make it mostly work just for its own sake then there are lots of interesting configurations you can try.

It is possible but it has tradeoffs regarding DOS compatibility, especially with PCI sound cards. Not something that I would be actually using either.

Kaisersoze wrote on 2023-12-19, 20:39:

using a second GPU ( like a voodoo 3 3000 agp )

That card won't physically fit in an ASRock 939Dual-SATA2. Voodoo4 4500 does, but they are a bit rarer.

As others have said, it's doable but it will most likely be inclined too far in one direction or the other.

I have a K6-2 system that is multi-booting between DOS/WfW 3.11, Windows 95, Windows NT4, Windows 98SE, Windows 2000, Windows ME, and Windows XP. I did it as a bit of a challenge using 3 hard drives. It's a great DOS system and that and Win98 are mostly what I use it for. Although it can run XP, realistically it's not that useful. I would expect similar if I built a more modern system that while it probably can run DOS, may not be that useful in doing so.

I once got Windows XP running on a PODP83, it worked fine with DOS (although limiting RAM from the 256MB installed was a pain). Couldn't get a PCIe GPU connected to it though 😜

Seriously: I second mothergoose729. What you want is doable as a challenge, but the compromises involved will make the experience less than optimal.

If you really want to do this, I'd suggest keeping the primary display AGP (so Win98 is happy); HD3850 or HD4760 is good enough to run Crysis in a period correct way (i.e. far too slow -but it was a total outlier and that was your experience on any remotely affordable PC when it came out). I'd also suggest going for an industrial motherboard with PCI-ISA bridge that supports DMA. That will make DOS sound be reasonably doable. You'll still have speed issues to contend with. RAM will be another challenge, but basically installing patches on Win98 and using a HIMEM alternative (like HIMEMX) to limit RAM to something DOS programs can use will solve that mostly.

As others have said, this is doable, but you will get a suboptimal experience on all fronts.

That CPU is too slow to comfortably WinXP games from 2006 and onward (Oblivion, Neverwinter Nights 2, BioShock...) and probably too fast for speed sensitive DOS titles, even with the use of slowdown utilities and BIOS downclocking. There are some very good PCI sound cards like the ESS Solo-1 and Yamaha YMF744, but their compatibility won't be quite as good as a native ISA card, unless you're connecting them via SB-Link. For Win98, a Voodoo 3 is not powerful enough to run some of the more demanding games at higher resolutions, and it won't work with static linked Glide games (DOS titles and some early Win9x stuff).

I've dabbled with similar ideas in the past, but for my taste, too many compromises have to be made when using such a system.

Im currently in the process of building a Windows 98 machine based on an MSI P4M890M with an E6700.

That would run DOS because it needs so little, and while the E6700 isnt as fast as you can get for XP it wont be a slouch for the earlier games if you dont mind swapping out the video card between operating systems.

I think the video card will do your enemy on this build, because I think Windows 98 goes up to an ATi X850XT or 6800 Ultra. Thats a bit on the under powered side for XP.

Thank you for your replies.
Indeed i already use another three machines mostly era-dedicated ( 486dx2 for dos stuff, a PII 300 for fast dos and early Win98 stuff and an athlon Xp ( a Barton 2800+ ) for dos/late Win98 stuff/ early Winxp which works very well ).
So this one would have been at once the most experimental and final project.

I think i'll give it a chance anyway, then i simply will enjoy seeing how "far" i can go in both directions.

These are the specs i've selected so far:
ASRock 939Dual-SATA2
Athlon 64 4000+ ( San Diego )
1 Gb of Ram 400Mhz ( using Himemx for Win98 )
Voodoo 3 AGP for the Dos/Win 98 stuff ( for the games till '99-2000 )
a Geforce 8800GT 512MB
Ess-Solo 1 Terratec
a solid PSU ( 650W at least )

Lastly...
i've an alternative in mind, taken from a video at Philscomputerlab channel ( using the Asus A8V Deluxe which has the VIAK8T800 chipset ):
Asus A8V Deluxe ( Socket 939 )
Athlon 64 4000+
1 Gb of Ram 400Mhz
Voodoo 3 ( PCI this time ) for the Dos/Win 98 stuff
Ati Radeon X1950 Pro Agp 256meg ( this one AGP ) or the famous HD3850
Ess-Solo 1 plus another PCI sound card for WinXp stuff

Keep in mind that i won't a WinXp late machine ( i'd have set a totally different rig for that purpose ) at any cost ( Crysis? Even post-2010 hardware had bad luck with that one ).
Really, it's just a pure tuning field test matter of.

I built one dual boot with FX-60 cpu and motherboard that has win98 drivers for everything on board, but in the end I ended up using it as mostly booting into winXP and another system for older stuff. It can do win98 and dos games in a pinch but definitely not optimal.

The way DOS and windows 9x interact with chipsets can be pretty mysterious. I would try the Asrock board first since high performance PCIE cards a much cheaper and easier to find than high performance AGP cards. If y0u already own a high performance AGP card, you can try a variety of socket 478/775 or 754/939 boards.

If the 8800gt is strictly for XP I think you could easily go faster. The GTS 250 is also a G92 core but just better in every way. I would suggest something like a gtx 760 or 660 as a good balance between dramatic overkill while still being cheap and low power. There is really no reason to use "period correct" gpus in XP. Even if you are CPU limited you can enable more filtering and graphics options.

For speed sensitive DOS games, there are things you can try, but I wouldn't expect much. I am not sure how much support setmul has with that chipset/CPU. You can downclock in the motherboard bios and reduce the multiplier. After that you can try a combination of moslo (software interrupts) and throttle (ACPI clock skipping). These slow down methods often have interesting side effect. Getting slow won't be that hard, but getting the software to still behave might be. A good number of games should still work ok.

I have the same motherboard and I'm going to build the following config (Win98+XP) during New Year holidays:
CPU: AMD FX-60
RAM: 2 or 3 GB (CL2)
PCI-E: GeForce GTX 760 (WinXP DX9)*
AGP: GeForce 4 Ti 4600 or FX 5950 Ultra (DX8 + some old games which use Table Fog and 8-bit paletted textures)**
PCI: 3dfx Voodoo5 6000 PCI (zx-c64 replica) or 3dfx Banshee PCI (DOS+Win98)***
PCI: Aureal Vortex 2 + Yamaha DB50XG (DOS+Win98)****
PCI: X-Fi Elite Pro (WinXP)*****
*- I've already checked GTX 970 and found some bugs in old games, so it prevents for me using 900-series. I will go down step by step to find better solution.
**- These cards don't have bugs and save situation in some cases.
***- Be aware that Voodoo3 and Voodoo4-5 cards use Glide v3, which is not compatible with some earlier games and sometimes Banshee or Voodoo2 cards are better solution.
****- Supports SB Pro, A3D 2.0, EAX and good enough MIDI (should be good solution for DOS and Win98)
*****- Supports EAX 5.0 (only WinXP)

It's just an experiment. Let's try together and see...

UPD: Forget about Voodoo 3 AGP, because this motherboard doesn't support any AGP 1.0 (3.3V) graphics cards (!!!). Use PCI version instead.

1001 wrote on 2023-12-20, 21:14:

I have the same motherboard and I'm going to build the following config (Win98+XP) during New Year holidays: CPU: AMD FX-60 RAM: […]
Show full quote

I have the same motherboard and I'm going to build the following config (Win98+XP) during New Year holidays:
CPU: AMD FX-60
RAM: 2 or 3 GB (CL2)
PCI-E: GeForce GTX 760 (WinXP DX9)*
AGP: GeForce 4 Ti 4600 or FX 5950 Ultra (DX8 + some old games which use Table Fog and 8-bit paletted textures)**
PCI: 3dfx Voodoo5 6000 PCI (zx-c64 replica) or 3dfx Banshee PCI (DOS+Win98)***
PCI: Aureal Vortex 2 + Yamaha DB50XG (DOS+Win98)****
PCI: X-Fi Elite Pro (WinXP)*****
*- I've already checked GTX 970 and found some bugs in old games, so it prevents for me using 900-series. I will go down step by step to find better solution.
**- These cards don't have bugs and save situation in some cases.
***- Be aware that Voodoo3 and Voodoo4-5 cards use Glide v3, which is not compatible with some earlier games and sometimes Banshee or Voodoo2 cards are better solution.
****- Supports SB Pro, A3D 2.0, EAX and good enough MIDI (should be good solution for DOS and Win98)
*****- Supports EAX 5.0 (only WinXP)

It's just an experiment. Let's try together and see...

UPD: Forget about Voodoo 3 AGP, because this motherboard doesn't support any AGP 1.0 (3.3V) graphics cards (!!!). Use PCI version instead.

Thank you so much. In fact i already have a PCI version of voodoo 3 😉

I've a P4, GF6800 Ultra AGP, Audigy 2 dos/9x/XP system.
P4P800 End of Win98 Support Build

I don't use it much as everyone is saying too slow for XP, doesn't really benefit dos/9x.
BUT
It is fun to simply just have and can be used as a 2nd PC for LAN games and would think the PCI voodoo covers both dos/9x, get a strong PCI-e card for XP and you don't need to worry about AGP at all.