First post, by dumpsterac1d
- Rank
- Newbie
Note: I will edit to include pics once I get home.
Hey folks! Detailing this system I built recently, pretty much everything is working as it should, and I have a few extraneous questions toward the end.
GOAL:
To get the widest breadth of playability from a desktop PC, from as far back to as far forward as possible. Have yet to test compatibility with a lot of older titles, more on that later.
Motherboard:
Supermicro P4SCA
This is the one component of this build I have been most excited about. This motherboard is an ATX PGA 478 socket motherboard with ISA, IDE, and SATA connections on-board. I spent far too much on this, but it allows me to do several things, like choose a classic ISA sound cards while booting from a SATA SSD. Downsides? Expensive, no AGP for graphics, and some compatibility issues with DMA and IRQ (I essentially had to disable the parallel port to enable the sound card I chose to work properly. Not a huge loss and I'm sure if I moved the card around to a different slot or re-routed some IRQs in settings it would have worked, but I want the sound card to be default for compatibility's sake.)
CPU:
Intel Pentium 4 HT 3.06Ghz 533FSB 512MB L2
This was a bit annoying. The mobo supports 800mhz FSB, but doesn't support Pentium 4 processors using .09 dye size, and I can't find a P4 that is .13 dye that goes to 800mhz FSB. Maybe I didn't look hard enough? Another interesting note, the motherboard was shipped with an incompatible processor partially installed 😉
RAM:
Kingston HyperX DDR400 512MB x2
Since I am dual-booting with XP and 98 I wanted to try installing 1GB of RAM. My last build had 512MB because I read in several places this was a) more than enough and b) the most you could install without 98SE experiencing issues... Both turned out to be false, as later games with Win98 installers chug pretty terribly, regardless of the amt of VRAM your graphics card has... And 98 is handling the new RAM swimmingly, it sees the full amount and I haven't experienced any lockups thus far.
GPU:
EVGA Geforce 6200 PCI
This is technically in flux. I have been experiencing the same issues as other Nvidia cards from that era, where many games will not "see" the card, and will resort to software rendering. If I do select higher resolutions in the game's menu, sometimes this results in a complete system lockup, which will reset win98's desktop size and screen refresh rate back to 800x600 @ 60hz. Coming to the realization that Nvidia cards are no good for Win95/98 games that need GPU support.
Due to this, I'm going to have to install 2 ATI graphics cards, one for 98 and another for XP. This way I'll have full compatibility with DX9 games in XP, and DX8 and lower games in Win98. I have an ATI Radeon 9250 PCI 256 that has performed extremely well in my other 98 machine, so I will grab another for this PC. I have just ordered a Radeon X1300 PCI that will be for XP. Hoping to get an auto-switcher for the VGA outs as well.
Audio:
Soundblaster CT4380 AWE64 Value
So this was a measured decision... The AWE64 Gold is a great card, but this card is essentially the good bits of 64 Gold minus soundfont RAM. I, for one, don't particularly geek out on soundfonts so spending 33 USD on a card Vs. 100+ was a good choice. XP already had drivers that worked great for the card, and 98 also found drivers that work decently well. I haven't found a need to update them, change settings, anything; it just works. And it sounds great. Still have to set up DOS to use it, but I feel the AWE64 line has enough modern features that make early 2000s games sound good while allowing older stuff to sound good as well. Added bonus, it has a PC speaker input header 😀
PSU:
SeaSonic M12II 520
I went with this supply mainly due to the fact that it's modular and the number of connectors it has available. it shipped with 2 cables which had molex connectors, unlike many other modular power supplies. It's super quiet.
Drives:
TEAC FD-55GFR 5.25 floppy drive with black front plate 😎 . This is one of the most reliable and robust 5.25 drives I've had the joy of installing. Very cool.
This abomination. I don't know why I did it. It's going to eat one of my disks. Why. It's loud. I hate it. I love it. I will probably replace it.
ATADA SU800 SSD 128gb x3. More than enough storage for 98SE, XP, and DOS, as well as an extra disk to share files between all of the systems.
Icy Dock Hot-Swap 5.25 drive bay. I like this thing. It allows me to keep OSes physically separate, while still allowing me to pick and choose which files are shared. I personally dislike multi-boot systems, so this lets me get a clean removal after every reboot. And it lets me move my system to a case that might not have external 3.5in bays and still have space for a floppy drive.
A 48x Samsung CD-ROM drive.
Case:
Thermaltake Soprano. I love this case. That's all.
Info and Questions:
This has been a fun project, but I know that I'm definitely going to need to regularly utilize MoSlo to roll the CPU back to 386/486 levels to play things. A few questions about Moslo-
I have my 98SE drive set to Bootgui=0 so that it loads to DOS 7 by default. I plan on adding a few .bat files to the c:\ drive that will allow me to set moslo to a few pre-defined settings, and keep it resident. One thing I've noticed is that the "official" parameters for emulating a 386/486 are far too slow to run my test program which is "Hostage" from 1989. Will I need to try numerous settings until I find the right one, or is there a reason anyone can think of that MoSlo would be configuring itself slower on a P4 machine? Also: after setting up a .bat file that will load moslo into resident memory, is there a way to unload it when I type "win", or will I need to program another windows loader script that unloads it?
Another Q regarding RAM... has anyone tried to load more than 1 GB of ram into a 98SE machine and just set the system to ignore the other GB? Does this work?
Something else I might attempt if I do experience issues, is installing a few different cards into the same motherboard, and disabling them somehow depending on the OS I am running. For example; if the Geforce 6200 won't run X-Wing OK, I might install another card alongside it, and connect the VGA outputs to an autoswitching VGA box. Anyone done this?
Thanks all, like I said, pics to come.
