Here are my specs:
Geforce 4 ti 4800se 45.23
Asrock 775i65G r3.0
512 gb ddr pc3200
Yamaha ymf 744 WDM driver
120gb ssd

So I tried to make the most compatible build possible while not having to deal with older hardware that commands higher prices. Of course higher performance with an ssd and newer graphics card is nice to have. Unfortunately the experience has not been great. A good example would be the half life uplink demo:

OpenGL: Seems to work ok but there's a very weird scrolling artifact that crawls down the entire screen at regular intervals
Direct3d: Also seems to work but it isn't able to vsync, even when forcing it in the control panel
3dfix minigl w/dgvoodoo: This is the best experience so far, although I had to change to 60hz in order to smooth out the vsync.

I also had this experience with unreal, where I had to use dgvoodoo to get a locked 60 fps vsync without weird stuff going on.

I mainly wanted to use this build with older console ports to try them out but that proved problematic as well:
Sonic R just crashes outright.
Super Bubsy as well.
Mortal Kombat Trilogy uses some autodetecting video software that crashes upon startup. The DOS version has color artifacts in windows.
Sonic CD works but there is a constant stuttering that is annoying. Crashed when trying to exit fullscreen.
Sonic & Knuckles works but only at a higher refresh rate which makes the game run way too fast. I can force 60hz but then there is a constant stutter.
Manx TT superbike has no audio when using daemon tools with the Yamaha WDM driver.
Fury 3 crashes when going to fullscreen and then crashes when trying to adjust the joystick.
Need for Speed 1 se has audio crackling which I'm guessing might be because of the wdm driver + daemon tools.
Last Bronx runs way too fast
Sonic 3d Blast cannot access the titlebar menu in game so I cannot enable smooth motion, seems locked at 30fps
Forsaken stutters horribly when daemon tools tries to play cd audio, have to disable it

So basically, a lot of the early or even later 3d stuff still seems to require dgvoodoo (which kind of defeats the purpose) and any of the earlier 2d stuff has issues. Now I wouldn't mind using work arounds trying to get this working on Windows 10, but I thought I would be able to bypass a lot of the headache by going with the original OS + compatible hardware. The funny thing is it might actually be easier trying to get this stuff working in XP which is when a lot of the fan patches started coming out. It's hard to search for old work arounds meant for windows 98 instead of modern ones.

I guess I was under the impression that while my build is totally out of spec with what someone would have had, it still at least would have decent compatibility. I have a PCEm windows 95 install that is able to run most of these pretty well but I was never able to get it to vsync without stuttering and the input lag is pretty bad, so I thought using real hardware would help solve that.