So many great advices and thought, appreciated a lot guys! Also glad to hear that it's worth the trouble. I'll be selling my uncompatible MoBo, CPU, broken GPU and RAMs and go for new hardwares that are compatible with my X850XT PE. I find P4 CPUs easily but when it comes to W98 compatible MoBo with PCI-E x16, it gets a bit hard. To be fair, if I ever get my build working, I'll consider making it dual boot too. @bloodem, could you please share your dual boot rig so I can be enlightened more, to show me the way? Thanks in advance!

mawendir wrote on 2022-05-30, 18:17:

@bloodem, could you please share your dual boot rig so I can be enlightened more, to show me the way? Thanks in advance!

I have multiple dual boot rigs 😁
But I know what you mean. My current fastest Win98 + WinXP rigs are:

PC1:
MB: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R
CPU: Core 2 Duo E8600, OC @ 4 GHz
RAM: 2 GB DDR2 800 (using Rudolph R. Loew's patch)
VGA: POWER COLOR ATI RADEON X850XT PCI Express (520MHz core / 1080MHz memory)
DIRECTX 8.1
120 GB Kingston SSD
SOUND: Audigy 2 ZS

PC2:
MB: ASUS P5KPL-AM SE
CPU: Core 2 Duo E8600 OC @ 4 GHz
VGA: SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON X850XT PCI Express (520MHz core / 1080MHz memory)
RAM: 2 GB DDR2 800 (using Rudolph R. Loew's patch)
DIRECTX 8.1
120 GB Kingston SSD
SOUND: Audigy 2 ZS

BENCHMARK RESULTS WITH "PC2" in Win98 (although both systems perform basically the same):

13DMark99 Max: 50253 / 106479
23DMark2000:   50901 3DMarks / 1810 CPU Marks
33DMark2001:   41520 3DMarks
4
5GLQuake  640 x  480 x 16: 1459.3 FPS
6GLQuake  640 x  480 x 32:  829.1 FPS
7GLQuake 1024 x  768 x 16:  504.3 FPS
8GLQuake 1024 x  768 x 32:  408.0 FPS
9GLQuake 1600 x 1200 x 16:  399.6 FPS
10GLQuake 1600 x 1200 x 32:  381.4 FPS
11
12Quake 2  640 x  480 x 16: 994.2 FPS
13Quake 2  640 x  480 x 32: 994.2 FPS
14Quake 2 1024 x  768 x 16: 991.4 FPS
15Quake 2 1024 x  768 x 32: 971.8 FPS
16Quake 2 1600 x 1200 x 16: 672.2 FPS
17Quake 2 1600 x 1200 x 32: 601.2 FPS
18
19Quake 3  640 x  480 x 16: 979.0 FPS
20Quake 3  640 x  480 x 32: 976.0 FPS
21Quake 3 1024 x  768 x 16: 795.5 FPS
22Quake 3 1024 x  768 x 32: 675.6 FPS
23Quake 3 1600 x 1200 x 16: 531.0 FPS
24Quake 3 1600 x 1200 x 32: 456.5 FPS
25Quake 3 1600 x 1200 x 32: 382.3 FPS (MAX TEXTURE DETAIL + TRILINEAR TEXTURE FILTER)
26
27MDK2  640 x  480 x 16: 1091.77 FPS
28MDK2  640 x  480 x 32: 1085.72 FPS
29MDK2 1024 x  768 x 16:  833.13 FPS
30MDK2 1024 x  768 x 32:  659.69 FPS
31MDK2 1600 x 1200 x 16:  431.21 FPS
32MDK2 1600 x 1200 x 32:  392.11 FPS
33MDK2 1920 x 1440 x 16:  370.81 FPS
34MDK2 1920 x 1440 x 32:  324.62 FPS
35
36Unreal  640 x  480 x 16: AVG 693.48 FPS / HIGH 1318.09 FPS / LOW 340.76 FPS
37Unreal  640 x  480 x 32: AVG 670.17 FPS / HIGH 1248.49 FPS / LOW 325.66 FPS
38Unreal 1024 x  768 x 16: AVG 633.59 FPS / HIGH 1173.88 FPS / LOW 332.65 FPS
39Unreal 1024 x  768 x 32: AVG 591.08 FPS / HIGH 1044.44 FPS / LOW 310.30 FPS
40Unreal 1600 x 1200 x 16: AVG 464.26 FPS / HIGH  667.95 FPS / LOW 277.77 FPS
41Unreal 1600 x 1200 x 32: AVG 377.42 FPS / HIGH  574.50 FPS / LOW 226.90 FPS
42Unreal 1920 x 1440 x 16: AVG 339.86 FPS / HIGH  493.96 FPS / LOW 208.85 FPS
43Unreal 1920 x 1440 x 32: AVG 283.37 FPS / HIGH  442.44 FPS / LOW 165.73 FPS
44
45Expendable  640 x  480 x 16: AVG 756.78 FPS / HIGH 909 FPS / LOW 611 FPS
46Expendable  640 x  480 x 32: AVG 755.57 FPS / HIGH 909 FPS / LOW 611 FPS
47Expendable 1024 x  768 x 16: AVG 736.35 FPS / HIGH 876 FPS / LOW 617 FPS
48Expendable 1024 x  768 x 32: AVG 735.71 FPS / HIGH 874 FPS / LOW 616 FPS
49Expendable 1600 x 1200 x 16: AVG 544.47 FPS / HIGH 653 FPS / LOW 489 FPS
50Expendable 1600 x 1200 x 32: AVG 525.28 FPS / HIGH 629 FPS / LOW 458 FPS
51Expendable 1920 x 1440 x 16: AVG 424.15 FPS / HIGH 493 FPS / LOW 356 FPS
52Expendable 1920 x 1440 x 32: AVG 385.51 FPS / HIGH 456 FPS / LOW 325 FPS

Some of the games that I tested in Win98 (and they all work without a hitch):

1- GLQuake
2- Quake 2
3- Quake 3
4- MDK2
5- Unreal
6- Unreal Tournament
7- Expendable
8- Need for Speed 3 Hot Pursuit
9- Need for Speed High Stakes
10- Need for Speed Porsche
11- Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2
12- Nocturne
13- GTA 3
14- GTA Vice City
15- Final Fantasy 7 (with 1.02 Riva 128 patch, because Radeon cards DON'T have 8-bit paletted textures support in Win98)
16- Prince of Persia 3D
17- Return to Castle Wolfenstein
18- Re-Volt
19- Tomb Raider 3
20- Tomb Raider The Last Revelation
21- Tomb Raide Chronicles

bloodem wrote on 2022-05-30, 19:12:

But I know what you mean. My current fastest Win98 + WinXP rigs are:

Those are some seriously awesome numbers!

Running games at 1600x1200 and having your minimums be in the 200 FPS range is nothing short of amazing. 😀

cyclone3d wrote on 2022-05-29, 20:21:

You can go all the way up to at least the x79 chipset for 98SE. Pretty sure x99 should work as well.

As long as the motherboard supports legacy (BIOS) boot an not only UEFI boot it should work.

Wouldn't this be roughly making it at around the same vintage of hardware where WinXP stops being supported?

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2022-05-30, 19:24:

Those are some seriously awesome numbers!

Running games at 1600x1200 and having your minimums be in the 200 FPS range is nothing short of amazing. 😀

Yeah, it’s pretty wild. I especially enjoy playing with these systems after doing extensive benchmarks on very slow hardware. I get a real kick out of the performance jump every time. 😁

Awesome rig with awesome results! I just found GIGABYTE GA-8VT880P COMBO rev 2.0. You guys think it'd be compatible with W98?

It doesn't support Core 2 based chips.

You'll be stuck with Pentium 4 and some of the slower-ish Pentium D chips.

PCIe is also only x4.

Windows 9x runs fine on Core 2 and Core i processors. Unfortunately, Win 9x will only use one core. On the plus side, the Core i processors will turbo on one core. My best clock speed with Win 9x to date is 3.8GHz on a Core i5-3570 stock. Core i7 K-models could go a bit faster.

I use an x800 XL with my overkill Win 98 system, and I love it. I run the resolution at 1080p, including in games (when possible).

I have an LGA775 Win98SE/AntiX dual-boot box with a C2D E4600, Radeon X800XT PE PCIe and 2GB RAM. It is blissfully fast, I love it. Do it.

For what it's worth my advice would be to go with a VIA P4M890 motherboard. That makes it really easy to set up Win98 and you can also have DOS Sound through a PCI card such as YMF7x4 (or FM801, etc.).

appiah4 wrote on 2022-05-31, 11:03:

I have an LGA775 Win98SE/AntiX dual-boot box with a C2D E4600, Radeon X800XT PE PCIe and 2GB RAM. It is blissfully fast, I love it. Do it.

For what it's worth my advice would be to go with a VIA P4M890 motherboard. That makes it really easy to set up Win98 and you can also have DOS Sound through a PCI card such as YMF7x4 (or FM801, etc.).

Thank you for your precious advice. I've just found BIOSTAR P4M890-M7 SE (ver. 7.1) with VIA P4M890 / VT8237A chipset but it says that it supports Windows 2000 and XP. No mention about 98 SE. Would it be compatible with it anyway?

Edit: It turns out that MoBo doesn't support E8500 (which I'll be buying soon), so will look up for something else. What about Foxconn P4M8907MA-RS2H? I'm unable to find any useful or official information about it, yet.

mawendir wrote on 2022-05-31, 14:34:

appiah4 wrote on 2022-05-31, 11:03:

I have an LGA775 Win98SE/AntiX dual-boot box with a C2D E4600, Radeon X800XT PE PCIe and 2GB RAM. It is blissfully fast, I love it. Do it.

For what it's worth my advice would be to go with a VIA P4M890 motherboard. That makes it really easy to set up Win98 and you can also have DOS Sound through a PCI card such as YMF7x4 (or FM801, etc.).

Thank you for your precious advice. I've just found BIOSTAR P4M890-M7 SE (ver. 7.1) with VIA P4M890 / VT8237A chipset but it says that it supports Windows 2000 and XP. No mention about 98 SE. Would it be compatible with it anyway?

Edit: It turns out that MoBo doesn't support E8500 (which I'll be buying soon), so will look up for something else. What about Foxconn P4M8907MA-RS2H? I'm unable to find any useful or official information about it, yet.

Exact same board as the one I use. The fastest you can go is an E6600 with it, and it should be more than enough. Yes, 98SE works like a charm on it.

You think it should be enough for some of early-mid XP games, which won't be much demanding? I don't think that it'll be a problem to be honest but I'm doing this only once, I'm confused if I should try to find a W98 compatible MoBo with E8500 support? Or should I just go with E6600?

E8500 should be about 40% faster. That said I think E6600 would be enough.

What about Asus P5KPL-AM SE? I know Phil's using it in his video but haven't found anything more specific about Windows 98 with this board. Should I buy it and E8500?

mawendir wrote on 2022-06-01, 16:59:

What about Asus P5KPL-AM SE? I know Phil's using it in his video but haven't found anything more specific about Windows 98 with this board. Should I buy it and E8500?

Uhm... Are you sure you haven't found anything specific? 😀
I mean... all the Win98 benchmarks that I listed in a previous post (on this very same page) were done on the P5KPL-AM SE + E8600.

Again:
- Yes, this board, the P5KPL-AM SE (and many others like it) works fine with Win98 and you don't need to install any chipset drivers.
- Will it be an easy and straightforward process? Depending on your particular X850XT model (and your skills), it might. But there's also a possibility that further tweaking might be required (maybe even modifying & reflashing the video card's BIOS, as it was pointed out in some previous posts).

Oh, sorry, I've been googling this board for almost a day and haven't found anything and totally forgot about your post. I hope it won't be a huge pain but I believe it'll definetely worth it. Again, it's my bad and thanks a lot for all of your time and information! Helpmed me a lot.

So here is my latest build;

MoBo: Asus P5KPL-AM SE
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8500
GPU: ATI RADEON X850 XT Platinum Edition
RAM: 2x 1GB 800MHz CL5 DDR2
SSD: 128 GB SATA SSD
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS

My question is, how many watts do I need for this machine, I need a PSU. Would 300W be enough?

300 might be ok if not a bit tight I'd personally go with a good quality 500 watt or higher unit.

mawendir wrote on 2022-06-08, 15:31:

So here is my latest build; […]
Show full quote

So here is my latest build;

MoBo: Asus P5KPL-AM SE
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8500
GPU: ATI RADEON X850 XT Platinum Edition
RAM: 2x 1GB 800MHz CL5 DDR2
SSD: 128 GB SATA SSD
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS

My question is, how many watts do I need for this machine, I need a PSU. Would 300W be enough?

Nice build, very similar to mine. 😀
As far as I remember, the max power consumption (as measured at the power outlet) is about 150 Watts.
So any modern PSU will do, but, as always, I recommend one of decent quality.

bloodem wrote on 2022-06-08, 16:14:

Nice build, very similar to mine. :-) As far as I remember, the max power consumption (as measured at the power outlet) is about […]
Show full quote

mawendir wrote on 2022-06-08, 15:31:

So here is my latest build; […]
Show full quote

So here is my latest build;

MoBo: Asus P5KPL-AM SE
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8500
GPU: ATI RADEON X850 XT Platinum Edition
RAM: 2x 1GB 800MHz CL5 DDR2
SSD: 128 GB SATA SSD
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS

My question is, how many watts do I need for this machine, I need a PSU. Would 300W be enough?

Nice build, very similar to mine. 😀
As far as I remember, the max power consumption (as measured at the power outlet) is about 150 Watts.
So any modern PSU will do, but, as always, I recommend one of decent quality.

Thanks a lot, I got a 250W PSU already, gonna try it out first and see. Just two more questions. Is there a guide to install SATA SSD to W98 machine? And is it enough just put the sound card to PCI slot and will it work just fine, or do I need to plug a cable in to make the sound work?