A couple of updates to this system.

I replaced the Jetway motherboard with a PcChips M577,and i have to say all those all those talks,about via mvp3 chipset back then are true.
Compared with the Ali Alladin 5,which didn't pose many problems,except not beeing able to activate usb in windows 95,the via wasn't as easy to work with.As soon as i installed chipset drivers,the pc started to lock up when copying files from the cd-rom,so i had to install the drivers without the via ide drivers.
Also i had to remove a stick of 128mb ram and leave just 128 mb in the system,since with 256mb i was getting some error messages also the computer felt slower.
Even now i do get ocassional lock-ups,so prolly there's a bit more tweaking to do.
Since the mb uses a proprietary connector that includes the usb and ps/2 port and i didn't have it,it took me a while to find a corect pinout so i can connect a ps/2 cable,after a while and shorting a ps/2 cable i manged to find a correct pinout so now ps/2 works.
I also replaced the video card with a voodoo 3 3000.

That is the exact motherboard I had back in 1999!!! *I'm still looking for one 😢

My spec at the time...

K6-2 400mhz
160mb of Ram (Later upgraded to 256mb)
16mb Voodoo 3 3000 later replaced with a Riva TNT2 M64 due to system lock-ups in Direct 3D with the Voodoo (No issues in glide)
Sound Blaster 1024 Live!

I had some big problems with AGP graphics cards, Via Drivers & Memory

Via Drivers - Everytime I installed them and enabled DMA, I used to get curruption within windows, icons images e.t.c. I later downloaded on 56k some new 4in1s which worked much better

AGP Graphics Cards
I had a number of problems with AGP Graphics cards when upgrading from the OEM 8mb ATi Rage Pro.
First I bought a Voodoo 3 3000 AGP, I used to get complete system lock ups in games, despite a number of formats and drivers I could not resolve it. I took it back to bought a Creative Riva TNT2 M64, I then got blue screen VXD errors with the Riva TNT2, later turned out to be via 4in1 related.

Memory
I had some issues getting memory to play nicely in the machine. The first upgrade was from 64mb + 32mb which went in perfectly. Problems started when I added another 128mb, I used to receive HTML errors and general illegal operation errors. In the end I swapped memory slots around which seem to solve the issues, i.e. the order.

I managed overclock the processor up to 450mhz, but anything beyond that was unstable. I remember having to drop the FSB using the jumpers. The O/B sound card is pretty dire - It was never detected by any Linux system at the time! I later upgraded to a SB Live.

The VIA AGP chipsets for AMD K6-2 should all be rounded up and killed with fire. My PII-450 + TNT1 machine stomped my brother's K6-2 380 + Banshee machine, and the AGP chipset quality was a major factor..

No, actually that's just the CPU being slow. My K6-III+ 550 is slower than a Pentium II 400 in most cases.

Let's burn all the old stuff because the i7 stomps them all.....

When comparing platforms, compare prices also: The p2 was WAY more expensive as was the 440bx you used. Your brothers system was probably good enough compared to the p2 and was a lot cheaper to build.

The Via MVP3 chipset got a lot of undeserved flack. If you did a fresh Windows installation, and started by installing a non-beta build of the 4-in-1 drivers, there were very few problems with then, in my experience at least.
I had an MVP3 based card back in the days, and I have one now, and they both work fine. There were big differences between different board manufacturers though, and I remember that some specific boards had issues (can't remember which ones unfortunately).
I looks like you've got a nice system going 😀

I have two M577 boards, I never had any issues with either of them but I do not think I use VIAs IDE driver or the AGP driver for that matter.

Performance wise the boards are working good and they should be able to cache 256 MB memory with the onboard 1MB cache.
I have played lots of games using the system listed in my signature 😀

I remember having problems with my AOpen AX59 Pro back in the days, when not having the 4-in-1 pack installed. The problems was related to the PCI drivers and my PCI based soundcards (tried with two different ones, not two at the same time).

Skyscraper wrote:

I have two M577 boards, I never had any issues with either of them but I do not think I use VIAs IDE driver or the AGP driver for that matter.

Performance wise the boards are working good and they should be able to cache 256 MB memory with the onboard 1MB cache.
I have played lots of games using the system listed in my signature 😀

I will have to try,not to install via driver's and see how it goes.

Another fun aspect to VIA Super 7 is the USB controllers tend to be incompatible with devices that aren't a mouse or keyboard. That's the VIA 586B or 596 southbridge. The usual solution was a PCI USB card.

It always fascinates me to see people say Super 7 was stable and reliable! I suppose if you keep them simple with a Voodoo card and minimal extra peripherals, they can work alright.

swaaye wrote:

The other fun thing about VIA Super 7 is the USB controllers tend to be incompatible with devices that aren't a mouse or keyboard. The usual solution to this was installing a PCI USB card.

It always fascinates me to see people say Super 7 was stable and reliable! I suppose if you keep them simple with a Voodoo card and few extra peripherals, they can work alright.

Im pretty sure my M577 boards works with USB storage devices 😀 I only have one USB bracket though so only one of the boards can use USB at any given time.

I think using a single ISA soundcard and a Voodoo 3 or Banshee is the best option if stability is the main goal when using VIA Apollo MVP3.
I have used other video cards without too much trouble even if I find the ALI Alladin 5 chipset more stable with fast cards.

swaaye wrote:

Another fun aspect to VIA Super 7 is the USB controllers tend to be incompatible with devices that aren't a mouse or keyboard. That's the VIA 586B or 596 southbridge. The usual solution was a PCI USB card.

It always fascinates me to see people say Super 7 was stable and reliable! I suppose if you keep them simple with a Voodoo card and minimal extra peripherals, they can work alright.

The pcchips motherboard has the 586B southbridge, usb works fine in windows 98 se with an 8g usb stick with nusv33 drivers, haven't tried any other usb device on it.
The former mb i used Jetway with Alladin 5 also had no problems with the same stick.
So far at least in my experience the Alladin 5 is more stable then the Via, while the second 1 scores a bit more fps in games.

I have also similiar system:

-PC-Partner MVP3BS7-954, Super7, BabyAT, Via Apollo MVP3
-AMD K6-2 350AFR, 100MHz FSB, 3DNow!, MMX
-Nanya 128MB SDRAM PC100 CL2
-3dfx Voodoo Banshee 16MB AGP
-Creative SoundBlaster PCI128 CT4700 EAX2.0
-D-Link DE-530CT 10MBps LAN PCI
-WDC 6GB+20GB HDD 5400rpm
-MSI CDRW+FDD 1.44MB
-Middle ATX + 8CM Fan +Task 200W ATX
-MS Windows 98SE

and no problem, but with 128MB PC running better than with 256MB because processor canot cache more at once..

swaaye wrote:

Another fun aspect to VIA Super 7 is the USB controllers tend to be incompatible with devices that aren't a mouse or keyboard. That's the VIA 586B or 596 southbridge. The usual solution was a PCI USB card.

It always fascinates me to see people say Super 7 was stable and reliable! I suppose if you keep them simple with a Voodoo card and minimal extra peripherals, they can work alright.

I've worked with a bunch of 586B/596 southbridge motherboards (not limited to SS7) and they ALL work GREAT in terms of other usb device support. I had absolutely no problems making 2-3 of my USB storage devices to work with any of them. I'd say that the PCI USB support was problematic due to IRQ issues and the PCI version supported by the chipsets.

With all the Socket 7 and Super Socket 7 boards I tried, USB storage always worked under W98. Just loaded that USB storage driver, nothing else.