jarreboum wrote:Now I'm considering getting one of those modern Zotac graphics cards (the GT610 is their current offering in PCI) and just install a glide wrapper in Win98. ?
That is an incredibly bad idea. First of all, the GT610 has no Win98 drivers - so no 3d acceleration in win98 and no glide wrapper. Second, modern video cards don't get along well with retro PCs at a hardware level - not to mention the possible compatibility issues that may arise from the PCI-E to PCI bridge.
Here's the thing - I found out the hard way that these "quick and cheap" fixes are way more trouble then they're worth. So - ditch the GT610 idea and go for a voodoo 3 AGP or a Voodoo 2 SLi kit. If your board does not have an AGP slot look for a super 7 VIA MVP3 or ALi Aladdin chipset motherboard - that or look for a set of matching Voodoo 2 cards for SLi, but that solution is quite a bit more expensive then a voodoo 3 (40-50$ for the V2 cards + 10$ for the pass trough cable and SLi cable)
If you plan on building an AMD K6-2+ / K6-3 machine, the first thing you need is a super 7 board. Using a regular socket 7 board might cause stability issues - that's presuming the board will post with the K6-3 in the first place, and supports 2 or 2.2 volts (most regular socket 7 boards do 2.8-3.5 witch is way to high).
Super 7 boards are not that rare or expensive - particularly AT form factor boards. These also come with dual AT and ATX connectors and can be installed in an ATX case as well as AT. They're usually a lot cheaper then ATX only versions witch don't really offer and advantage. On good example of such boards is the Lucky Tech P5MVP3.
Video card-wise, the Voodoo 3 is not that hard to find, or that expensive. AGP versions can be had for 15-20$ locally - PCI versions are considerably more expensive and not really worth the investment. The V5 5500 really needs at least a fast Pentium III CPU to run at full potential. On a K6 it will probably behave just like a voodoo 3.
Regarding glide wrappers:
- They usually don't do DOS games - the required glide2x.olv file is not provided with the wrapper. Some dos 3dfx games can be played under DOSBOX using a glide emulator on a modern machine - but then why bother building a 3dfx retro-rig? If you want to build a retro 3dfx machine forget wrappers and go for real hardware.
- Not all games will run on a wrapper - it's usually hit and miss. Uprising and Pandemonium won't run on the wrappers I tried so far - they want real hardware. Uprising crashes to desktop after loading a mission and Pandemonium hangs randomly.
If you want a proper wide-coverage retro rig you have to be prepared to spend some money:
AMD K6-2+ or K6-3 -> 15-20$
Super socket 7 board - 15-40$
Voodoo 3 - 20-50$ / Voodoo 2 SLi kit - 55-75$
Optional: MIDI synth for older DOS games - 100$
Or there's an alternative - you could go for a VIA C3 / Cyrix M3 socket 370 CPUs. These offer the same slow-down possibilities as a K6-3, but run on a more common socket 370 platform, but be warned newer C3 processors will require a compatible motherboard (fc-pga2 socket 370) and sorting out witch CPU runs on what board can be a pain in the ass.
P.S. - ebay prices are insane. Look for parts on local ad sites (some people give them away for free) or on other sites like amibay