Dos 6.22 installed on 2nd HDD. All soundcards connected with 3.5mm cable through line in and out. All work perfectly. In DOS, just had to edit the Soundscape initialization batch file so that it did not set variables for SB emulation. Disabled SB emulation in the soundscape.ini file.

Here is my 3D Mark 2000 result.

That's a very nice system which should be highly compatible with every game you throw at it.

I would possibly suggest replacing that Ensoniq Audio PCI with a Sound Blaster Live! card for a better EAX experience. While the Audio PCI cards do support EAX, they only do so in software, which puts additional stress on the CPU. Proper, hardware accelerated EAX from a SBLive card would also sound slightly better.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-01-22, 11:29:

That's a very nice system which should be highly compatible with every game you throw at it.

I would possibly suggest replacing that Ensoniq Audio PCI with a Sound Blaster Live! card for a better EAX experience. While the Audio PCI cards do support EAX, they only do so in software, which puts additional stress on the CPU. Proper, hardware accelerated EAX from a SBLive card would also sound slightly better.

The audio pci is great for dos compatibility if needed. plus they are cheap. Best budget option for building DOS gaming rig.

Sly_Botts wrote on 2023-01-22, 17:21:

The audio pci is great for dos compatibility if needed. plus they are cheap.

I don't recall the Audio PCI's DOS compatibility being any different than that of the SBLive. But it's been a while since I last used mine, so I could be wrong. In terms of pricing, Audio PCI cards are only marginally cheaper than SBLive cards here in Europe, but this may be different in other parts of the world I suppose.

Best budget option for building DOS gaming rig.

As long as one doesn't care about FM synth music. The emulation that Audio PCI cards use for that sounds absolutely dreadful. But as a SB16 and General MIDI device, it's fairly decent indeed.

It is hard to beat a Slot 1 rig.
Late dos/ and most of Win9x era covered.
The whole cartage style CPU is kind of special.
BX chipset is about as stable as you'll ever get and the P2B is a very nice example of a BX board.
The V3 is always nice.
Having 2 Ensonic cards is kind of cool. I agree the AudioPCI isn't anything special but have it onboard on 2 Win9x PC's and It's not that bad IMHO
I'd guess a 900Mhz cpu will have enough grunt in reserve for EAX requirements.
Even back in the late 90's I had a SB16 for dos games in my P2 400 so it's even period correct!