Maybe a PCI SATA card? ... Just in case replacement IDE HDDs and/or optical drives eventually get too rare or expensive.

There's also nothing wrong with leaving it empty, in case you ever have a need for it later.

USB / SATA combo card with NEC USB controller (for DOS compatibility).

USB/SATA combo with DOS compatibility? What is this witchcraft? Now I`m interested in one of those.

Ooooh, SATA with DOS 6.22? Can I use a Blue-Ray drive through one of those?

As for leaving the slot empty, that is definitely an option. However, the entire purpose of this exercise was to build a machine that is as fast & packed as possible while still retaining full DOS compatibility. Pentium 4 systems, while sometimes including ISA slots for my sound blaster card, have a bad reputation for ISA issues. While the board can have up to 768Mb, Windows 98 has issues with anything over 512Mb (yes, there are ways around that, but nothing official.) The only issue with the build is that Blood, which is supposed to work, refuses to run at all. Still working on that bit 🙁. I would put my Voodoo 1 back in there if it wasn't for that (why put it in, when the only game I have that needs it doesn't work anyways.) Blood will work with a Voodoo 3 anyways (once I get it running, that is.) As will Dreams to Reality. That leaves 2 games that absolutely require a Voodoo 1. Tie Break Tennis 98, which doesn't have an English version and I don't like tennis games anyways. And Prost Grand Prix 1998, which I currently don't have, and may never have.

So, if I do gain access to Prost Grand Prix 1998, I might consider installing a VGA switch box and my Voodoo 1 card. But that assumes I could get the game running in the first place. So far, Blood has proven practically impossible to get going (except in software mode.) That leaves the slot open. It turns out I don't need the Thrustmaster ACM card, so that's out. The Voodoo 1 requires an external switch as it's pass through refuses to play nice with my Voodoo 2's pass through. At this point, I'm out of ideas, but the machine isn't maxed out yet 🙁 So for now, I'm going to look at SATA / USB cards, though I'm not going to make a final decision at this time. Who knows, I may actually be able to find a PCI or ISA card that would allow fancy drive access (such as the Deluxe Option Board does.) Though only if it also won't block full and normal use of the drives. From what I've been reading, while the Option Board (even the Deluxe) will allow access to HD drives, they won't allow writing HD drives. Which would sort of defeat the purpose of them in my eyes.

How about a mpeg decoder card?

Personally I'd go with USB. But DOS support is spotty

Stojke: What is so special about NEC USB cards (for DOS compatibility)?

I had a few different NEC USB controllers that I tried in MS DOS, and unlike some other manufacturer ones, all of them worked perfectly.
I have one combo PCI card with 3 different controllers onboard for which i can not find an all in one package. It is an red PCB card with VIA Fire Wire (2+1 ports), NEC USB (3+1 ports) and Silcion image SATA (2 ports). If i install separate different drivers (each for their own chip) everything works flawlessly (Where silicon image does not need drivers).

Perhaps an GUS Card for that ISA slot?

What about an ATA133 card? That mobo only has ATA33 on it, so you could bump up your hard drive performance quite a bit. A card like the Promise Ultra133 TX2 has a BIOS that supports DOS without software drivers.

Sorry, have been working on something else for the moment. Finally got Blood working 😀 But have been trying different methods to keep it working without breaking my other games (or building a boot menu.)

The problem with any HDD controller is that I would either need to replace my drives or end up wasting the controller. I have 3 40 Gb HDDs, but they are all ATA/33 interface drives. So, installing an ATA/66 or ATA/133 (or SATA,) interface wouldn't do any good.

Now that I have Blood working, the Voodoo 1 card is "sort" of back on the table. But I don't really want a VGA switch box, and I'm teetering on rather I really want to install a card and a switch box just for a single game that I don't actually have. There are only 4 games that were designed for the Voodoo 1 but don't work on the Voodoo 2 card, (Blood, Dreams to Reality, Tie Break Tennis '98, and Prost Grand Prix 1998.) Of those, Blood and Dreams to Reality work fine with the Voodoo 3 AGP I have. Tie Break Tennis '98 doesn't have an English version and I don't like tennis games anyways. So, Prost Grand Prix 1998 is the only game, that I am likely to ever play, that absolutely requires a Voodoo 1. As I said, do I really want to do this "just" for a single game?

I've also been toying with putting the Thrustmaster ACM back in, for the second game port. But, is it really worth it? Sure, I can adjust the timing a bit, but don't really need to (the AWE32 does a good job there, really.) I don't know of many DOS games that really need another port. It would allow me to actually get a driving kit in addition to my pilot's kit and have them both attached at the same time. But that sort of depends on being able to select which port to use in my games. The pilot games I've been loading don't allow that, so I sort of doubt if the driving games of the era would allow it.

A modem would just sit there and never do anything. So, from my research, that leaves only a floppy option board of some sort (Catweasel, Deluxe Option Board, etc...) or a USB board. I just don't know of any other options. The thing is, I don't have any USB devices I want to attach, and the MB has 2 USB ports already (probably USB 1.0 or 1.1 though.) The Catweasel is $125+, and the Deluxe Option board isn't available and would probably cost considerably more if it was.

So, unless something comes up in the near future, I'm probably just going to put the ACM in to fill out the system and call it quits. It isn't an ideal solution, but it would complete the build, and I can start looking for my next project. Everything else I would want for the system are externals (CM-32P, Driving Rig, etc...) Nothing is stopping me from opening it up and swapping the ACM card out in the future after all 😀

Just leave the slot empty then. You certainly don't absolutely have to fill every slot

I missed the GUS post... Now giving that some though (though I'm not sure I want to put a second sound card in the system.)

Yes, again, leaving it empty is definitely an option, and one I might take. But that would mean admitting defeat on the final phase of the project 😀 I've maxed everything on this build out for the era it is targeting (sort of.) The requirements: 100% compatible ISA, Voodoo 3dfx (really wanted the Voodoo 2 SLI, for personal reason,) most up-to-date AGP graphics that is Windows 3.1 capable, as much ram as Windows 98 can take (512Mb), DVD, HDD's etc.. With everything possible in use. The board can handle 768 Mb, but Windows 98 can't so that isn't going to be maxed. Blue-Ray requires SATA, so that's out. I was trying to build a unit with every thing internal as good as it could get for the target use, absolutely nothing to open up the case to upgrade. That was the target of the project. But, if there's nothing left to put inside, then the slot is just going to go empty.

Right now, researching GUS cards........

You could always add a SATA board and use BluRay... But I'm not sure VIDE-CDD or other CD device drivers would recognize it... If I were home I'd use a bootable flash drive on my main PC and test it.

but Windows 98 can't so that isn't going to be maxed

It can with mods

smeezekitty wrote:

but Windows 98 can't so that isn't going to be maxed

It can with mods

I'm not moding anything. The closest I've come, so far, is using QEMM 8.0 to get Blood up and running without a boot disk, multi-booting, or breaking my other games. I've also done the best I can in tracking down the "official" updates for Windows 98 only. Though I followed the directions to fix the folder lock issue when deleting files (have to replace 2 updated IE files with older versions.) That's as close as I come to modding things.

I don`t think you even have to mod Windows 98 to get it working properly with more than 512mb... just change a setting in SYSTEM.INI to limit the cache

There is nothing wrong with modding to get more functionality. In fact that is part of the purpose of this forum.

I am running modded Windows 7 video drivers on Vista for example

smeezekitty wrote:

There is nothing wrong with modding to get more functionality. In fact that is part of the purpose of this forum.

I am running modded Windows 7 video drivers on Vista for example

Yes, but that's part of the challenge. I've set a goal to meet, I'm going to meet it. Then I'm going to install every game I have (well, everything I have access too.) Then I'm going to sit back and admire it. Then, maybe, I'll start doing other things with it. All that being said, I also don't see a need for more than 512Mb with Windows 98. As far as I know, there isn't anything to really take advantage of it. If the box was going to be a straight DOS 6.22 machine, I would probably have slapped 64 Mb in it instead.

When my old vintage board went out on me, I started looking for a replacement. At first, all I was looking for was a single ISA slot, but after a bit of searching, I decided to set myself a challenge. I took my old machine apart and took stock of what I had. Then I mapped out and planned what I would need, what I might need, and what I wanted. That was almost 2 years ago now. I'm in the home stretch 😀