Don't think it'll be much cheaper but might be a nice challenge.
I have a Media GX thin client that has a single free PCI slot shared with ISA. That one is way to slow, though.

But if you have a PCI V3 - well, then you can afford a normal PII/PIII or Athlon desktop for sure.
There still are 440BX mobos around for 15 Euro or so, I'd say. Same for basic Athlon Systems. As long as you don't need it to be "period correct" or anything?

Obviously, the V3 tends to get hot AF so expect a rather noisy thin client, if any 😉

also, this:
https://www.philscomputerlab.com/hp-t5720.html

Thanks for the reply can you recommend a certain model of tower desktop need something small to put a voodoo 3 in

Thanks

Compaq Deskpro EN series is pretty small, has PIII CPUs and 2 PCI slots free, should fit a V3 PCI.

Guardshell wrote on 2022-03-23, 19:19:

Thanks for the reply can you recommend a certain model of tower desktop need something small to put a voodoo 3 in

Thanks

Pretty much any machine with AGP slot should be fine, so try what you can get, maybe locally.
Historically correct would be something late 90s, well under 1000 MHz but many people claim a faster system will make much better use of the Voodoo card.
So, early 2000s - Pentium III, P4, AMD Athlon XP? If you want it to run DOS as well, a ISA slot soundcard might help.

Maybe some simple OEM machine, DELL or Compaq, that comes with a µATX (micro ATX) motherboard - those have only four expansion slots instead of 7.
That will keep the tower height at about 40 cm as compared to full ATX which will be closer to 50 cm.
Even smaller, you might find a used "HTPC" case in the µATX form factor, but it needs to be "not low profile" and have an AGP slot, of course. And keep in mind that it needs a bit of ventilation around the card.

Sorry, no point in anything more specific here - depends on what games you wanna play, your budget, location and how long you'd be willing to wait for it to come around. All up to you, you'll figure it out.

Guardshell wrote on 2022-03-23, 17:40:

Hi […]
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Hi

All does anyone know if there’s a thin client pc out there that can fit a voodoo 3 in it?

Looks like older windows 98 pc’s are starting to get expensive to build now so thought maybe a 800mhz / 1 ghz thin client and a voodoo 3 could be a bit cheaper?

Thanks

You won't find a thinclient with an AGP slot. But you could install a thinOS on a workstation with one.

Also, you can't pass the AGP slot from the thinclient into the VM itself. The hardware runs on the host. (or maybe you can? Never used a tower as a thin client before).

However, you could potentially get a Mobo with a PCI slot, and find a PCI Voodoo card and pass it through in ESXi or another Type I hypervisor.
You can also find a riser or adapter to connect PCI to PCIe, they are pretty common. You can even convert PCIe to PCI, if you have a 2.0 slot.
But you would have to connect the monitor to the Voodoo card.

ESXi also lacks drivers for Windows 98SE, but the 2000 bundle has a few in there.

Moved to Marvin -> General Old Hardware.