VOGONS


First post, by aeeaan

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While working on a period appropriate Windows 98SE setup, I started researching how far forward I could go. I wanted to stay within official windows 98SE inf/driver territory, and I eventually settled on 865/875. I was supposed to wait until I was done with my first build, but I found this Fujitsu MATX board on ebay that I really wanted, so I decided to go ahead with some of the core parts of the build.

Motherboard: Fujitsu D1683 - I expect this was pulled from one of their desktop systems, but it's a regular old matx board in the end. As I have, in theory, sworn off full ATX system builds for future computers, I wanted to keep this build as compact as possible. When I randomly found what seemed to be the only 875 matx board currently on ebay, I had to pick it up ASAP. There are no overclocking features in the bios or anything like that but I'm OK with that.
Here's a link to the board's page via the wayback machine.

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 Processor HT 3.2E SL8K2 - a Prescott with G1 stepping was the most interesting cheap CPU I could find for this system. Perhaps I should have stuck with Northwood, but I'm not terribly concerned about it. I'll likely just disable HT since it's not useful.

RAM: 512MB - Micron DDR 400, ECC - I always go ECC when I can, I'm never too concerned about the performance hit.

Heatsink: Noctua NH-U9 heatsink. Believe it or not one of the best socket 472 deals I could find on ebay. Almost everything was overpriced. I stuck a Noctua 92mm redux fan on it for now (it didn't come with a fan) but I'll likely put their mainstream 92mm fan on it as it has a higher static pressure rating.

I think that makes a pretty solid core, the rest of the system is in flux. I need to raise some more funds to complete this.
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Graphics: Undecided. I do have a 6200 but I think I want to pick up a ti4200 for this build. 3dfx cards are out, just too overpriced. I also have a savage 4 card in case I want to focus more on DOS than win98SE.

Sound: Undecided. I have 2 of the yamaha 744 aopen cards. However, I had already earmarked them for a 440BX build or two. I got the parts to solder on the sb-link header/resistors and everything. I was looking at perhaps an audigy or vortex 2 (expensive!)

Case: I'm fairly certain I'm going to get a Fractal Design POP mini. They hide 2 5.25 bays in those POP cases. You have to give up 3.5 inch drive spots to use them, but as this is a period inappropriate build, I was planning on going 2.5" SSD anyway.

Fans: Probably just the ones that come with the version of the case I pick out

Optical Drive: not chosen

Floppy: I bought a GoTek emulator but I'm not sure if I'm going to install it or not yet

Power Supply: A seasonic focus, hopefully.

Input Devices: are important to be but I haven't begun to look yet.

I think that covers it? Updates will be made as I finish the build.

Reply 1 of 5, by sydres

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Occasionally I see mismarked geforce4 4200 for super cheap on the bay got mine for 30 dollars shipped a year ago would be a solid choice for such a system!

Reply 3 of 5, by aeeaan

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I don't actually have specific games in mind at the moment. I'm just having fun with the build. But yeah, I should probably pick out my games before choosing the video card. Then again, if I can get one for $30, why not get it regardless. I'm doing several builds anyway. I have almost enough parts for 2 slot 1 BX builds. I'm waffling on whether or not I'm going to attempt to recap those though. And all my retro projects are likely on hold for another couple of weeks due to time constraints.

Reply 4 of 5, by chinny22

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If you already have the 6200 makes sense to try it out and see which games if any don't work.
You may get lucky and everything works fine, or maybe the few games that don't are better off on your BX build anyway.
Sound I would go with a Live!, Audigy 1, Audigy 2. Whichever suits your budget more. As a late 98 build I would think EAX is more important than DOS compatibility.
Vortex 2 is also good choice but as you say aren't cheap

Reply 5 of 5, by GemCookie

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Vortex 2 cards are expensive now? It's crazy to imagine that the expensive hardware few people owned (Pentium II/III) is now readily available, while common hardware from the time period (3dfx, Super Socket 7) has seen sharp price increases.

Asus Maximus Extreme X38 | C2Q Q9550 | GTX 750Ti | 8GiB DDR3 | 120GB SSD+640GB HDD | WinXP/7/11
MSI MS-5169 | K6-2 350 | TNT2 M64 | 384MiB PC100 | 120GB HDD | WinNT4.0/XP
Dell Precision M6400 | C2D T9600 | FX2700M | 16GiB | 128GB SSD | Win2k/XP/Vista