Looks good! Can't go wrong with Intel gear IMO.

Your CPU is what I would choose, and as long as the mobo supports your CPU, it is ok, I think.

For retro gaming, two of the most important parts are video and sound cards. These are the subject of most intense discussions, as far as I can see. My suggestions would be a Geforce2 (GTS, Ultra) or Geforce4 MX or even Geforce4 TI idisplay card (and maybe one or two Voodoo2 boards in addition to that, if you think you need glide support) and an SB AWE64 sound card, but since this is based on personal choice more than anything else, there will be more diverse suggestions, I'm sure.

In my similar retro PC final choice, I decided that I wanted at least some nostalgia level. That includes SLOT cpu and ISA sound. The principle was to play most of middle 90s games, till 2000, just before XP kicked-in.

ASUS P2B slot1 mobo, with Intel chipset for stability reasons.
Intel Celeron 1100MHz Tualatin with active slocket (with voltage regulator to provide correct voltage). Why Celeron? To retain the in-spec 100MHz FSB.
256-384MB SDRAM
Geforce 2 GTS
2x VoodooII in SLI
and a SoundBlaster in ISA slot.

If you use no ISA and no Slot, I don't see a reason to choose Pentium III. Just pick a fast Pentium 4 (if you need compatibility with Win 98SE) or an Ivy quadcore i5 for XP.

GeorgeMan wrote:

In my similar retro PC final choice, I decided that I wanted at least some nostalgia level. That includes SLOT cpu and ISA sound […]
Show full quote

In my similar retro PC final choice, I decided that I wanted at least some nostalgia level. That includes SLOT cpu and ISA sound. The principle was to play most of middle 90s games, till 2000, just before XP kicked-in.

ASUS P2B slot1 mobo, with Intel chipset for stability reasons.
Intel Celeron 1100MHz Tualatin with active slocket (with voltage regulator to provide correct voltage). Why Celeron? To retain the in-spec 100MHz FSB.
256-384MB SDRAM
Geforce 2 GTS
2x VoodooII in SLI
and a SoundBlaster in ISA slot.

If you use no ISA and no Slot, I don't see a reason to choose Pentium III. Just pick a fast Pentium 4 (if you need compatibility with Win 98SE) or an Ivy quadcore i5 for XP.

My main PC has a 4670K and GTX 970, so I'm good on the XP-and-up side of things, I just wanted to build, what I would consider, a beastly Windows 98SE PC from that era. Like I mentioned, I don't really have nostalgia for that era in computing, so my needs aren't the same as you, but I appreciate your feedback. Your system sounds good though!

tayyare wrote:

Your CPU is what I would choose, and as long as the mobo supports your CPU, it is ok, I think.

For retro gaming, two of the most important parts are video and sound cards. These are the subject of most intense discussions, as far as I can see. My suggestions would be a Geforce2 (GTS, Ultra) or Geforce4 MX or even Geforce4 TI idisplay card (and maybe one or two Voodoo2 boards in addition to that, if you think you need glide support) and an SB AWE64 sound card, but since this is based on personal choice more than anything else, there will be more diverse suggestions, I'm sure.

I've been thinking of getting a few GPUs to play around with, and those sound like solid recommendations! I might pick up a 6800 Ultra and see how that plays in 98SE.

RavenholmDX wrote:

GeorgeMan wrote:

In my similar retro PC final choice, I decided that I wanted at least some nostalgia level. That includes SLOT cpu and ISA sound […]
Show full quote

In my similar retro PC final choice, I decided that I wanted at least some nostalgia level. That includes SLOT cpu and ISA sound. The principle was to play most of middle 90s games, till 2000, just before XP kicked-in.

ASUS P2B slot1 mobo, with Intel chipset for stability reasons.
Intel Celeron 1100MHz Tualatin with active slocket (with voltage regulator to provide correct voltage). Why Celeron? To retain the in-spec 100MHz FSB.
256-384MB SDRAM
Geforce 2 GTS
2x VoodooII in SLI
and a SoundBlaster in ISA slot.

If you use no ISA and no Slot, I don't see a reason to choose Pentium III. Just pick a fast Pentium 4 (if you need compatibility with Win 98SE) or an Ivy quadcore i5 for XP.

My main PC has a 4670K and GTX 970, so I'm good on the XP-and-up side of things, I just wanted to build, what I would consider, a beastly Windows 98SE PC from that era. Like I mentioned, I don't really have nostalgia for that era in computing, so my needs aren't the same as you, but I appreciate your feedback. Your system sounds good though!

A beastly yet officially supported Win 98 build is something I've also done.
A PIII-S is nothing compared to (one of the two) cores of an unlocked E6500K combined with dual channel DDR RAM and Geforce 6800Ultra etc etc. 😁
Win 98, XP & 8.1 fully supported on one dual core PC? Here is my retro approach!

So, you have to specify what you want to do with that PC. 😀

Edit: Link fixed

PS: What motherboard do you have for your 4670K? I think XP support was dropped by Intel when socket 1150 was released. 😉

GeorgeMan wrote:

A beastly yet officially supported Win 98 build is something I've also done. A PIII-S is nothing compared to (one of the two) co […]
Show full quote

RavenholmDX wrote:

GeorgeMan wrote:

In my similar retro PC final choice, I decided that I wanted at least some nostalgia level. That includes SLOT cpu and ISA sound […]
Show full quote

In my similar retro PC final choice, I decided that I wanted at least some nostalgia level. That includes SLOT cpu and ISA sound. The principle was to play most of middle 90s games, till 2000, just before XP kicked-in.

ASUS P2B slot1 mobo, with Intel chipset for stability reasons.
Intel Celeron 1100MHz Tualatin with active slocket (with voltage regulator to provide correct voltage). Why Celeron? To retain the in-spec 100MHz FSB.
256-384MB SDRAM
Geforce 2 GTS
2x VoodooII in SLI
and a SoundBlaster in ISA slot.

If you use no ISA and no Slot, I don't see a reason to choose Pentium III. Just pick a fast Pentium 4 (if you need compatibility with Win 98SE) or an Ivy quadcore i5 for XP.

My main PC has a 4670K and GTX 970, so I'm good on the XP-and-up side of things, I just wanted to build, what I would consider, a beastly Windows 98SE PC from that era. Like I mentioned, I don't really have nostalgia for that era in computing, so my needs aren't the same as you, but I appreciate your feedback. Your system sounds good though!

A beastly yet officially supported Win 98 build is something I've also done.
A PIII-S is nothing compared to (one of the two) cores of an unlocked E6500K combined with dual channel DDR RAM and Geforce 6800Ultra etc etc. 😁
Win 98, XP & 8.1 fully supported on one dual core PC? Here is my retro approach!

So, you have to specify what you want to do with that PC. 😀

Edit: Link fixed

PS: What motherboard do you have for your 4670K? I think XP support was dropped by Intel when socket 1150 was released. 😉

I appreciate the feedback, but my main goal here was to build a PC of that 2000/2001 era. It's less about the games, and more about revisiting a socket and CPU architecture that I missed out on. My first real PC was a Pentium 4 when I was about 12 years old, so it's as much as history lesson as it is a gaming platform for me. I will enjoy playing some 98SE classics though. I wasn't aware about the drop in support for XP on Haswell, I'm rocking a Z87MX-D3H motherboard, and looks like it doesn't support XP. I guess I'll need to refurbish that original Pentium 4 rig I still have 😜

I'm also young enough and my 1st computer was a s478 Celeron, so I know exactly that feeling, to explore older and older computers.

It's called the retro bug, and it won't stop until you obtain a slow 386 or until the money dries out. At least, that's what happened with me. 🤣

So, for your PC of choice, I'd recommend a geforce 4 ti, 384-512MB of ram, a 80GB IDE hdd, and an aureal vortex or soundblaster sound card. Oh, and that Tualatin CPU.
Try to perform all file transfers via 100mbps ethernet, because USB 2.0 PCI cards will get you trouble and USB 1.1 is waaaay too slow.
Setting up an FTP server into your main computer will be a perfect match to support file-wise that old one.

RavenholmDX wrote:

tayyare wrote:

Your CPU is what I would choose, and as long as the mobo supports your CPU, it is ok, I think.

For retro gaming, two of the most important parts are video and sound cards. These are the subject of most intense discussions, as far as I can see. My suggestions would be a Geforce2 (GTS, Ultra) or Geforce4 MX or even Geforce4 TI idisplay card (and maybe one or two Voodoo2 boards in addition to that, if you think you need glide support) and an SB AWE64 sound card, but since this is based on personal choice more than anything else, there will be more diverse suggestions, I'm sure.

I've been thinking of getting a few GPUs to play around with, and those sound like solid recommendations! I might pick up a 6800 Ultra and see how that plays in 98SE.

Just a heads up, I first started my PIII W98SE with an FX6200, then downgraded to FX5200, but both produced problems instead of graphics when it comes to playing some of the games I wanted to play (Windows versions of X-Wing and TIE Fighter, and X-Wing Alliance). Then I further downgraded to Geforce2, now everything is working as they are supposed to be. Thus, the machine in my sig.

A GeForce2 (GTS/Ultra) and very similar GeForce4 MX are more than enough for a PIII system as far as I know, and if they are not pleasing enough, a Geforce4 Ti would be even a better overkill, if a bit more pricey at the same time.

What driver version did you end up using with your GeForce 2, that works well with most games?

Could the FX issues be driver related?

I really want to check out Nvidia for W98 gaming, covered the 3dfx stuff pretty well and want to see what they are like. I will use Slot 1, to avoid AGP issues that plague SS7 boards.

I got quite a few of GF4 MX cards. Also TNT2 and I think one GeForce 3. DVI output would be nice.

What would be a decent PCI Soundcard that has at least some compatibility with MS-DOS?

philscomputerlab wrote:

What driver version did you end up using with your GeForce 2, that works well with most games? […]
Show full quote

What driver version did you end up using with your GeForce 2, that works well with most games?

Could the FX issues be driver related?

I really want to check out Nvidia for W98 gaming, covered the 3dfx stuff pretty well and want to see what they are like. I will use Slot 1, to avoid AGP issues that plague SS7 boards.

I got quite a few of GF4 MX cards. Also TNT2 and I think one GeForce 3. DVI output would be nice.

I don't remember really (I will check and return back to you later", but here are some discussions from the past, which might be helpful a bit:

Comments on a PIII build?
Which nVidia driver (FX5200) for windows 95?
TIE Fighter Collectors CD (W95/98) - Which display card to enable Hardware 3D?

Just read your post on "Comments on a PIII build?". You will enjoy my next project. It will feature quite a few games from your list 😀

RavenholmDX wrote:

What would be a decent PCI Soundcard that has at least some compatibility with MS-DOS?

An A3D card like the Diamond MX300 is a solid choice for some dos compatibility plus awesome A3D.

After you're done checking out 2001-2002 gaming you should visit what was glorious about 1998-1999 16-bit color with a P3B-F, coppermine, voodoo^3 and A3D 😉

+1 for an Aureal Vortex 2 PCI card. Works very well under DOS, and even has a wavetable header.

philscomputerlab wrote:

+1 for an Aureal Vortex 2 PCI card. Works very well under DOS, and even has a wavetable header.

I just pulled the trigger on a SB Live CT4760. I looked into the Aureal Vortex2 and it doesn't seem as readily available, or as cheap. I got the SB Live for about 6GBP. Mistake?

Live! is a great card. A lot more common than the Aureal cards. It should get the job done and it has DOS compatibility. I have no personal experience with Live! cards though.

RavenholmDX wrote:

philscomputerlab wrote:

+1 for an Aureal Vortex 2 PCI card. Works very well under DOS, and even has a wavetable header.

I just pulled the trigger on a SB Live CT4760. I looked into the Aureal Vortex2 and it doesn't seem as readily available, or as cheap. I got the SB Live for about 6GBP. Mistake?

No, definitely not. Live Is a good card (most versions anyway, definitely including 4760) and would be also my choice for a PIII based pure Windows 98 setup.

One question is still there: Do you want to play dos games? If the answer is yes, I would definitely suggest AWE64. You will give up EAX, but for the price of much better DOS compatibility, infinitely less hassle, more than very acceptable sound quality (well, IMHO).

EDIT: Forget about AWE64, I just realized that your choice of motherboard does not have any ISA slots. 🤣

Im using the same motherboard in my PIII build, and its a great motherboard, not too many options as far as tweaking, but rock solid.

and the Live is a very nice card. though the Windows2000 drivers could have been better. still better than the Aureals which had very limited Win2K support (although if youre going with Win2K an Audigy is probably better)