Awesome build!
I have the exact same motherboard. It is great for win95/98 era gaming. Also using an SD to IDE adapter with it. I was not impressed with the onboard sound though for DOS gaming. First tried an Soundblaster live PCI. That caused blue screen issue no matter what drivers were used(known incompatible with via EPIA boards). Ended up using an ENSONIQ ES1371 PCI (creative soundblaster PCI128) with the pre-creative "Ensoniq drivers" with the 8MB ecw waveset for that great wavetable emulation. Makes the DOS games in Win95 sound so much better and even has MT-32 emulation thats halfway decent. Bonus you gain a gameport.
Link to the drivers I used: http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/dosearch.php?q=audiopci

Nice build, I have a VIA EPIA system with the VIA VT8231 south bridge that I've never got working in DOS. So I've used various PCI soundcards over the years (currently an ALS4000 which is a bit meh). The built in graphics are just enough for a little UT99, Driver, Half Life even if it was better suited to "Windows 95 gaming". The whole thing is passively cooled by one big heatsink.

I had in in a Fractal Core Design 500 ITX case that has space for a CD drive and a large slow 120mm fan. It was actually a pretty decent for early DOS gaming and early 3D gaming.

StriderTR wrote on 2023-05-15, 07:05:

favorite mid 90’s and earlier Windows and DOS based games.

Thanks for sharing your build log, it was a nice read. What are the most demanding games that you run there? Since there is no optical drive, would you please describe your installation procedure? I presume it involves Daemon Tools or something

Aaron707 wrote on 2023-05-16, 15:44:

Awesome build!
I have the exact same motherboard. It is great for win95/98 era gaming. Also using an SD to IDE adapter with it. I was not impressed with the onboard sound though for DOS gaming. First tried an Soundblaster live PCI. That caused blue screen issue no matter what drivers were used(known incompatible with via EPIA boards). Ended up using an ENSONIQ ES1371 PCI (creative soundblaster PCI128) with the pre-creative "Ensoniq drivers" with the 8MB ecw waveset for that great wavetable emulation. Makes the DOS games in Win95 sound so much better and even has MT-32 emulation thats halfway decent. Bonus you gain a gameport.
Link to the drivers I used: http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/dosearch.php?q=audiopci

Almoststew1990 wrote on 2023-05-17, 07:07:

Nice build, I have a VIA EPIA system with the VIA VT8231 south bridge that I've never got working in DOS. So I've used various PCI soundcards over the years (currently an ALS4000 which is a bit meh). The built in graphics are just enough for a little UT99, Driver, Half Life even if it was better suited to "Windows 95 gaming". The whole thing is passively cooled by one big heatsink.

I had in in a Fractal Core Design 500 ITX case that has space for a CD drive and a large slow 120mm fan. It was actually a pretty decent for early DOS gaming and early 3D gaming.

So far, the only real issues I've run into is getting some DOS games to play both music and sound fx at the same time. I haven't had a lot of time to play with it yet though, but when I get to deep dive into it with more games I'll report back what I find.

The PCI slot on that board also seems to be very picky, at least according to what I've read (on Vogons in fact), and the riser seems to be unobtainium at a reasonable price. I would modify the build if I could find one. 😀

Bruno128 wrote on 2023-05-17, 12:44:

Thanks for sharing your build log, it was a nice read. What are the most demanding games that you run there? Since there is no optical drive, would you please describe your installation procedure? I presume it involves Daemon Tools or something

Thanks!

Most demanding... Probably Diablo, Command & Conquer, Blood II: The Chosen, and Half Life ? I haven't had a lot of time to really dive into it but those all play fine so far.

Daemon Tools! Yep, you're right. CD images on a 32GB partition and/or USB flash drive. Rip the image, convert it using "AnyBurn" as necessary to work with DT. So far, so good. 😀

Sometime in the near future, I'll be writing a follow-up on actually using and playing on it.

Its the double pci riser that is hard to find. Any single slot pci riser works fine with these boards.

Aaron707 wrote on 2023-06-15, 16:00:

Its the double pci riser that is hard to find. Any single slot pci riser works fine with these boards.

Yeah, and I have plenty of those around, but I wanted to keep this specific build as small as possible. So no cards.

But...If I had the dual riser, I would do a second build using both a sound and video card since I have a second EPIA-800. Well, 3 actually, but one needs repair.

Sadly, I can only find one...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/233911221774

The $21 price is fine, it's the $70 shipping.... 🙁

Almoststew1990 wrote on 2023-05-17, 07:07:

Nice build, I have a VIA EPIA system with the VIA VT8231 south bridge that I've never got working in DOS. So I've used various PCI soundcards over the years (currently an ALS4000 which is a bit meh). The built in graphics are just enough for a little UT99, Driver, Half Life even if it was better suited to "Windows 95 gaming". The whole thing is passively cooled by one big heatsink.

I had in in a Fractal Core Design 500 ITX case that has space for a CD drive and a large slow 120mm fan. It was actually a pretty decent for early DOS gaming and early 3D gaming.

Update:

I finally had some time to dig into the DOS sound issues, and stumbled across a "fix" that, at least so far, seems to work.

http://www.jaruzel.com/blog/getting-dos-audio … a-5000-mini-itx (Says 5000, but the 800 and 5000 have the same chipset)

Using that driver, found here on Vogons (https://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fil … 670&menustate=0) seems to solve the issues I was having getting sound working in DOS on some games. FM would play, but not sound effects, with this, it all seems to work. Granted, it's not exactly the best sounding option out there, but for keeping this an expansion card free build, it's just fine.

If you want great midi sound from that board without adding a PCI card:
https://www.serdashop.com/S2P
I think that would be the best option. You also gain some mt-32 compatibility with it.

Aaron707 wrote on 2023-06-21, 20:49:

If you want great midi sound from that board without adding a PCI card:
https://www.serdashop.com/S2P
I think that would be the best option. You also gain some mt-32 compatibility with it.

I seriously looked into that, and maybe I'll still get one at some point. For right now though, I'm happy with the results I'm getting from the on-board. I'm also just happy to have it all up and working like I want it. 😀

Can you name some games that had compatibility issues with that build? And how did you resolve those

Bruno128 wrote on 2023-06-24, 15:18:

Can you name some games that had compatibility issues with that build? And how did you resolve those

Mostly DOS games, Duke Nukem 3D was my "benchmark", but most DOS games would only play FM music, nothing else. Some games would just be silent. At first, I tried a mix of games other then DN3d trying to narrow down the problem. I can't recall what ones worked and what ones did not in terms of proper sounds, but a majority did not work.

The fix was simple once I found it, just use the driver I link above in this thread in place of the official VIA DOS sound drivers. For me on my 800 board, all I had to do was use the VIAAUDIO.COM driver in the "fixed" set and that worked. I did not have to use the VIAFMTSR.COM driver at all, but it's there if needed. All of the DOS games I've played and tested all work as they should now.

Hi Octane, Immortal, Rampage, TMNT, WipeOut, Doom, Duke Nukem 1,2, and 3D. Commander Keen, WarCraft, Command & Conquer, Fallout, etc.

Long overdue update!

TLDR: I'm really pleased with it. It plays what I want, without many issues, and tickles the nostalgia bone. What more can one ask?

Over 6 months later and I FINALLY had time write up a post about on how well it works. 😜

If you feel like it, you can check it out below and give me your feedback. Any and all input is welcome!

https://theclassicgeek.blogspot.com/2024/01/t … -build-log.html

I picked up a new old stock classic HP PS/2 keyboard to use with it, fits the overall build nicely.

DOS performance is great for all the games I've played on it so far. Windows 3D performance is what I expected, 25-30 FPS in the many games with some going higher, and I'm fine with that. Everything else I've tried so far runs excellent. I really could not be happier with this little EPIA-800's onboard hardware. Great retro gaming board in this old geeks humble opinion.

Since I have a second working EPIA-800, I'm thinking of doing a build using a dedicated video card... IF I can find one that works with that PCI slot that does not cost as much as a modern GPU. 😜