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Another (but my first) 98 / XP / 7 build

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First post, by KoRni

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Hello to all VOGONS members 😀

My nick is KoRni, I'm from Poland and I've been fiddling with PCs since around 1993. I've been a reader of vogons for a long time - maybe too long - and I finally decided to join to be more active and maybe even contributing. Love reading this oldschool forum about oldschool computers 😀

I finally decided to move from my 16 years old Win7 / X58 platform to a new machine, but I just couldn't let it go and I want it to become my retro build. The idea is to play late DOS, Win98, WinXP and early Win7 games on it, and what I'd like to experience the most is the sound: A3D I have never really heard and EAX I can't recall. Regarding hardware, this is my planned BOM:
Foxconn Bloodrage + Xeon X5690 - X58 platform, 6 core CPU overclocked to 4,4 GHz
GF980 Ti - for XP and early W7 games
Quadro FX 1300 - substitute for FX 5950, for W98 games
X-Fi Titanium - for EAX games
Diamond MX 300 + Dreamblaster 16 GS - for A3D and DOS games

Currently it has 24 GB of DDR3 2400 MHz RAM - I will possibly downgrade it to 12 or maybe even 6 GB, but I need to keep it triple channel for performance.
Storage will be mostly SATA SSD drives, but I also have Kingston Predator 960 GB drive in M.2 to PCIE adapter, booting happily as SCSI drive as it has OP ROM.

Do you see any obvious flaws in this build? I expect most issues with W98 to be handled by R. Loew patches (RIP, you were a genius).
XP and W7 should be an easy way on this platform.

BTW, is nForce 7 a no go for W98? Is the nForce 3 really the last one for W98? Asking this because I also have EVGA 790i motherboard with even better distribution of slots (e.g. two PCI slots), allowing for example ESS Solo1 installation - but I'm not sure I will need it.

Happy to be here, I hope I will not only learn but also share some valuable stuff 😀
KoRni

Reply 1 of 5, by EduBat

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Welcome, very interesting build. Please keep posting updates sharing your experiences as you go along.

Reply 2 of 5, by RetroPCCupboard

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For me, win98 game compatibility was rather poor with the Quadro FX 1300. In my case I think I tried it on an Intel 915 Chipset. Worth trying though, as you have it.

Reply 4 of 5, by KoRni

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Thank you all for the supporting words 😀 I don't have everything already, this is just a plan, will take some time to obtain these items - that's why I'm asking if you see any no-nos.

RetroPCCupboard wrote on Yesterday, 21:58:

For me, win98 game compatibility was rather poor with the Quadro FX 1300. In my case I think I tried it on an Intel 915 Chipset. Worth trying though, as you have it.

Do you remember any details? E. g. specific games that didn't work or worked with obvious, instant artifacts? Drivers used maybe? Asking because it would allow me to quickly test this part.
I wanted this video card, because it's the last one to support some features (table fog, 8-bit paletted textures) and at the same time the first to support PCIE (yeah, I heard about PCX 43000... no.). And the proper PCX 5950 / 5900 are super rare and expensive.
I can obtain another rare card - PCX 5300, but that's just FX 5200 with HSI bridge, I think it would be too slow - but has advantage of being passively cooled.

BTW. My Bloodrage is being repaired, so had to buy another X58 as I need working PC.
Asus Rampage II Extreme was bad, couldn't get my 16X-sized-but-using-only-8X PCIE GPU to work on 16X slot - had to use 8X one on the bottom - but then couldn't add my Kingston PCIE-to-M2 adapter because the PC won't start.
Also, already learned the hard way that mixing video cards with HSI bridge and motherboards with NF200 chip (Asus P6X58-E WS in my case) is asking for trouble. Mine didn't even fully post, can't enter BIOS, can't boot the OS.
Currently have Asus Rampage III Extreme and will use it if my Bloodrage can't be revived.

Reply 5 of 5, by RetroPCCupboard

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KoRni wrote on Today, 05:24:

Do you remember any details? E. g. specific games that didn't work or worked with obvious, instant artifacts? Drivers used maybe? Asking because it would allow me to quickly test this part.
I wanted this video card, because it's the last one to support some features (table fog, 8-bit paletted textures) and at the same time the first to support PCIE (yeah, I heard about PCX 43000... no.). And the proper PCX 5950 / 5900 are super rare and expensive.

Yeah, I got the FX 1300 for similar reasons. That, and the fact it was really cheap!

I am sorry, but I dont recall what games I tried. It was one of my first attempts at a retro build when I had very little hardware and even less experience. So it may be that I used bad drivers or installed things in a bad sequence. I suspect I also installed Windows 98 unofficial SP3, which I now know can cause issues.

I do recall though that I had better luck with ATI X600 than I did with Quadro FX1300, FX1400 and FX3450. All were quite cheap cards. I think table fog didnt work on the Radeon though.

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