Hmm its hard looking at your other PC's in your signature

You already have V1 and 2 rigs, likewise D3D is covered by your 2001 build....
Mayby Matrox card for the few EMBM games? It wont get much use but at least a SFF doesn't take up much space.

Sound wise doesn't look like you have a WIn9x gaming rig with EAX, so you could go with the ZS again (don't see the point of using the live if you have a better card doing nothing)
I'll admit that is a bit boring though, if it was me I'd probably go with which ever of the non creative cards your most interested in or best suited to the games.

appiah4 wrote:

... The motherboard is Tualatin capable so upgrading to a P3-1200 is a possibility (but is it worth it or wise in such a cramped case?). ...

According to CPU World, the maximum power dissipation of the Tualatin 1200 is actually 3~5w less than that of the Coppermine 1000/133. Seems like a no-brainer when the board can do it and if you have the chip on hand.

chinny22 wrote:

Hmm its hard looking at your other PC's in your signature […]
Show full quote

Hmm its hard looking at your other PC's in your signature

You already have V1 and 2 rigs, likewise D3D is covered by your 2001 build....
Mayby Matrox card for the few EMBM games? It wont get much use but at least a SFF doesn't take up much space.

Sound wise doesn't look like you have a WIn9x gaming rig with EAX, so you could go with the ZS again (don't see the point of using the live if you have a better card doing nothing)
I'll admit that is a bit boring though, if it was me I'd probably go with which ever of the non creative cards your most interested in or best suited to the games.

Thanks. I do have quite a few PCs, but they are all in storage as retirement projects, but this EN-SFF will be something I will keep at hand as a daily driver since it's such a small case and a pleasant one that my wife won't object to. As a result, building something that can span as large a time period without being concerned with overlapping the other PCs is my priority.

The Audigy 2 ZS is actually a typo, it IS in my Athlon64 PC, I will remove it from the list. As you said, I am trying to go with something interesting but has something of everything, and the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz seems to be just that? Sound Blaster Pro and WSS compatible, CrystalFM OPL3 (some people diss it but I think it sounds good and has a charm of its own), EAX 2.0 and A3D 1.0 - I don't know a card that covers more than this off the top of my head. I have GM daughterboards and external modules as well as several software synths for GM..

SW-SSG wrote:

appiah4 wrote:

... The motherboard is Tualatin capable so upgrading to a P3-1200 is a possibility (but is it worth it or wise in such a cramped case?). ...

According to CPU World, the maximum power dissipation of the Tualatin 1200 is actually 3~5w less than that of the Coppermine 1000/133. Seems like a no-brainer when the board can do it and if you have the chip on hand.

Interesting, I just might do this then!

That Turtle Beach Montego is based on Aureal Vortex isn't it? If so, then I'd probably go with that.
The Terratec cards are very non-remarkable. Their best products are their Via Envy based semi-pro cards, but those are much more for music production than gaming. For gaming, I'd stay away from them.
SB Live! would be a safe bet for gaming, but perhaps a bit obvious?

As for graphics, that Radeon 7500 shouldn't be too bad of a choice, I imagine.