If your motherboard has an SB-LINK header, your best option would be a PCI card with SB-LINK, that would basically have native DOS compatibility and not take the ISA slot. If you had to go with a single PCI card and wanted 'good' compatibility, a YMF-722/724 or ESS SOLO-1 would be your next best option. If you have no SB-LINK header and you wanted maximum DOS compatibility but also hardware accelerated directsound for best performance, you would need two sound cards - a PCI and ISA card.

The PicoGUS is great for DOS, but is pretty basic in windows. You could have it as a second sound card in a PCI/ISA combo but I wouldn't want to rely on it as the primary 98SE sound device.

Just looked through mb doc its a se440bx-3 no reference to any sb link jumpers

So a ymf 724 pci will give me the best 98 and dos compatibility?

rwGast wrote on 2026-08-02, 02:18:

Just looked through mb doc its a se440bx-3 no reference to any sb link jumpers

You are in luck, it does have an SB-LINK header, it's labelled as PC/PCI just at the end of the first PCI slot. So I think a YMF-724 PCI and a 6-pin socket/socket IDC cable to connect the SB-LINK(PC/PCI) headers would be a good solution for you. If you do go down this route, make sure the sound card you buy has the 6-pin header already soldered on the board. Some have it unpopulated.

If you have the Dell version of the SE440BX-3 it may already have a YMF724 chip installed for onboard sound! Look for a large square chip with the Yamaha XG logo near the PCI slots.

Oh awesome, I just opened the case and physically confirmed the header was there. Howd you know is was a SB header?

Is yahmaha my only option, if it is I will pick one up, but they are a bit more pricey than other cards. Do creative cards have this port? What exactly is sb link?

I do have the dell, but my board does not have the yahmaha chip or any audio ports. If i could get the chips i need for a decent price i would just populate it.

rwGast wrote on 2026-08-02, 03:40:

Oh awesome, I just opened the case and physically confirmed the header was there. Howd you know is was a SB header?

Is yahmaha my only option, if it is I will pick one up, but they are a bit more pricey than other cards. Do creative cards have this port? What exactly is sb link?

I do have the dell, but my board does not have the yahmaha chip or any audio ports. If i could get the chips i need for a decent price i would just populate it.

As far as I know the options are Yamaha YMF 724/744/754, ESS Solo-1/Maestro-1 and the AWE64D PCI. The later the model the less chance the header is populated on the card.

I ended up getting a ymf 724 card with the sblink header for about $50. The 744 and 754 cards were at ~$300+. What gives with the price on these relatively mid range spund cards? Back in the 90s I dont remmber anyone drooling over yahmaha sound cards!

Oh man i just thought of something, I was looking around for a joystick to play ms flight sim 98 and X wing. For dos games I going to have to use a gameport joystick.. is the fact that my gameport is on a pci card going to be an issue now? If so does the sb-link help out?

rwGast wrote on 2026-08-02, 19:46:

I ended up getting a ymf 724 card with the sblink header for about $50. The 744 and 754 cards were at ~$300+. What gives with the price on these relatively mid range spund cards? Back in the 90s I dont remmber anyone drooling over yahmaha sound cards!

Among PCI sound cards with an SB-Link interface, the YMF724 may not be the best, but considering that you also need to use DOS, the YMF724 is the best choice because of FM music.

rwGast wrote on 2026-08-02, 22:48:

Oh man i just thought of something, I was looking around for a joystick to play ms flight sim 98 and X wing. For dos games I going to have to use a gameport joystick.. is the fact that my gameport is on a pci card going to be an issue now? If so does the sb-link help out?

The card can respond on port 201 for the joystick like a native ISA card, you'll be fine in both DOS and Win98

rwGast wrote on 2026-08-02, 03:40:

Oh awesome, I just opened the case and physically confirmed the header was there. Howd you know is was a SB header?

I just happened to look at theretroweb page for the board and it mentioned "1x SB-LINK" under ports

rwGast wrote on 2026-08-02, 19:46:

I ended up getting a ymf 724 card with the sblink header for about $50. The 744 and 754 cards were at ~$300+. What gives with the price on these relatively mid range spund cards? Back in the 90s I dont remmber anyone drooling over yahmaha sound cards!

You are impatient 😉

The prices you see on eBay are precisely the prices no one else wanted to pay for the hardware, stuff that doesn't get sold so the ads stay up for longer. Stuff is continuously offered for lower prices - and quickly sold. So if you just take a quick look, you only see the overpriced options. And if you want something *now*, you pay that excessive price (and thereby encourage sellers to keep upping the price). I still regularly see cards like this go for less. Given you're talking in $ without qualifying which $ you're probably in the US. One sold there yesterday for USD 31.45. To get a good deal, you need to invest time - and use saved searches with alerts so you get a heads-up as soon as something suitable pops up.

Looking at local classified ads can often find you much better deals than that. I see these cards come by here for < EUR 15 regularly. But there again, you need to invest time to get good deals, I don't see any at the moment at any price.

That said, the Yamaha-based cards do command a premium over the more common C-Media (CMI8738) cards, partly because of the SBLink support (although given how rare motherboard support is I feel this gets overemphasized - you're very lucky to have one), partly because of perceived better compatibility and sound, but mainly because people pay more for brand names they know and associate with quality. Just look how much people pay for even the crappiest Creative SB16 Vibra cards...

By the way, quick double-check: Intel SE440BX-3 boards could optionally come with a Yamaha YMF-7xx chip onboard. That would function identically to a separate card hooked up with SBLink (PC/PCI). Sure you don't have one already?

Ya my model does not have built in audio, the yahmaha chip is unpopulated and there is no audio jacks around back.

Does the same logic apply for cpus? I would like to get a slot1 100mhz fsb 750-1ghz, all the slot1s over 550mhz seem to sell for stupid money! Idk where to look local except fb market place (craigs list went downhill) and most of the stuff on there is full on towers with no specs half the time!

rwGast wrote on Today, 00:10:

Ya my model does not have built in audio, the yahmaha chip is unpopulated and there is no audio jacks around back.

Does the same logic apply for cpus? I would like to get a slot1 100mhz fsb 750-1ghz, all the slot1s over 550mhz seem to sell for stupid money! Idk where to look local except fb market place (craigs list went downhill) and most of the stuff on there is full on towers with no specs half the time!

The same logic applies to almost everything in the 1985-1999 time range (nostalgia wave peak), ebay is full of people on a fishing expedition. Specifically 100mhz FSB P3s. 133 FSB P3s are cheap because they don't run on the motherboards people are interested in, except for the 1.4ghz tualatin because it's a thing. I ended up getting a cheap 133 FSB 1Ghz (7.5x multi) P3 and modifing a slot1-socket370 adapter to run it on a 100mhz board at 750Mhz.

Do you have a link to the mod instructions? Ive even seen people trying to get $100 for slocket boards!

rwGast wrote on Today, 07:12:

Do you have a link to the mod instructions? Ive even seen people trying to get $100 for slocket boards!

This is the mod information
https://web.archive.org/web/20070502224954/ht … der.com/370mod/

And in this thread I learned it's easier to put tape in the socket hole to prevent the ground pin from connecting instead of removing the spring contact or the pin on the CPU.
Re: 370 to Slot1 adapter with jumper, how to set

There are two common types of slotket, the Medocino/PGA370 version which needs the modification to work with 133FSB coppermine, and Coppermine/FCPGA adapter which run the CPUs without mods. You also need to check that the VID (Voltage ID) of the CPU is in range of the mainboard, or if not that the slotket can override the VID to a compatible but safe value (like 2.1v instead of 2.0v).

rwGast wrote on 2026-08-02, 00:55:

So it sounds like a sb16 should fit the bill right? Well the thing is I only have one ISA slot, and i would like to keep it open for DIY Hardware experiments. Ive also seen that there may be some kind of speed issues with ISA sound and w98? So is there a PCI card out there that does good sb16 emulation for dos games? I was looking at an sb live/audigy, but apparently the sb emulation is pretty bad?

How about using an entirely different motherboard/system for DIY hardware experiments? It should be pretty easy/cheap to find just some board with an ISA slot, and you could even use it outside of a case for easier debugging access.