Reply 80 of 88, by retep_110
CharlieFoxtrot wrote on 2023-09-18, 15:49:retep_110 wrote on 2023-09-18, 07:11:In the meantime my The Gigabyte 586HX arrived and I am going to resume building the dos rig and I will finalise the parts I a […]
In the meantime my The Gigabyte 586HX arrived and I am going to resume building the dos rig and I will finalise the parts I am going to use.
CPU wise I will either get a pentium 166 mmx or the Pentium 233mx like recommended.
At the moment I am more inclined towards the 166mhz mhx due to the easier avaiability and the better price. But it would also be tempting to max out my system.
a Pentium 200mhz could also be a alternative.
Which cpu would you pick if the main goal would be to have the a very high powered Dos System? And which one would you pick for the best comapability?
Campability wise I think the 166 mmx would be the best choice because you can also run some speed senstives on it if I am not mistaken?
I will also keep my eyes open for a Voodoo 1 card and a decent partner card for it.
I am not sure about the ram yet. How much ram is the sweet spot for a great DOS system?
I have Tulip P166MMX system with 64MB, Orpheus II sound card, Voodoo 1 and 98lite and I think similar systems are pretty damn good for most 90s DOS gaming up till late DOS era, as well as many win95 era games, of course. I personally didn’t actually build it specifically DOS in mind, I have other systems doing that job, but sort of as a system that plays games that are typical for Pentium era. And I’m one of those people who tend to take these systems for what they are and if they perform well for the period they are from, I am completely fine for it. I don’t need or want some fast Athlon system to play games from the mid 90s ”optimally”, I use such system to play games from late 98 or early XP era. However, IMO p166MMX has enough oomph for pretty much everything for the period, unless you want to play action games without 3D acceleration in SVGA resolutions. But to do that, PII or P3 is required in any case and even the fastest P1 just doesn’t cut it.
I think you will be just fine if you get P166. You can always upgrade faster CPU later if you find an affordable one etc.
Thanks for the reply. If the 166mmx has enough power to play pretty much everything from that peroid the 166mmx sounds like the p cpu for me.
If I need more power I can always use my first rig.
A pentium 3 800 MHZ system.
But like
Gmlb256 wrote on 2023-09-18, 13:38:Between the Pentium 200 and 166MMX, I would pick the latter because it has a larger L1 cache (16KB vs 32KB) and more chance that the SetMul utility will work with the TR12 registers.
Regarding amount of RAM, 16-32MB are the sweet spot for a DOS-only system.
Any S3 PCI video card starting from the Trio64 are the ideal choice in overall DOS compatibility, make sure that the card manufacturer isn't a noname one to ensure a decent image quality.
the 200mhz version of the mmx might also be a viable option.
if I can find one at a good price.
The 200 mhz version seems to be much more expensive than the 200mhz version.
Also a big thanks for your card and ram recommendations @ gmbl256