d1stortion wrote:

The reason is that the 440BX chipset is specified for only 100 MHz FSB, while Tualatin PIIIs run at 133 MHz.

It is not like the CPU will make much of an attempt to increase your previous FSB speed. For example, I run my tualatin PIII-S at 50MHz FSB by default. It is just that the multiplier is fixed inside retail CPU's.

On the other hand there are motherboards by intel and some OEM's that will complain about any CPU not listed as supported, even if there is no practical reason for it, and they can detect the FSB request signal of the CPU assembly (66/100/133) and will not allow one to adjust it manually.

Sure, I simply answered his question what advantages Tualerons have over PIIIs. And besides that, there are not many reasons to go Tualatin for a 98 rig anyway.

d1stortion wrote:

Sure, I simply answered his question what advantages Tualerons have over PIIIs. And besides that, there are not many reasons to go Tualatin for a 98 rig anyway.

You've got a point there: I don't think that a 98 setup would benefit much from the larger cache. I may even retain the original 550 MHz. CPU, as I'm going to use a Creative CT2770 Sound Blaster 16 Value and I've heard that they do funny things with high frequency CPUs.

What amazes me is that I jumped on the W2K wagon the minute it came, as I detested Win9x, but Windows 98SE can be fitted with with DirectX 9.0 and .NET Framework 2.0 support.

There is evidence that installing DX9 on 98 SE may not be without problems.

Choosing the right version of dx9 will prevent problems right?

Filosofia wrote:

Choosing the right version of dx9 will prevent problems right?

Is there, in fact, any game that takes any advantage from DirectX 9 which still runs on 98SE?

There are a few games which are D3D9 and still run on 98, such as NFSU2, but most of the big titles from ~2005 require XP.

gerwin wrote:

Beware: I expect the nForce chipset to not only have no ISA like you said, but also to fail when trying to use Dos/Win9X Soundblaster emulation drivers.

I never ever managed to install W98SE in a nforce chipset machine. Even with the drivers supplied with the mobo.

Having made a simple call for help, I may have received more than I can swallow.

For the K6-III+ I'm going to receive an EpoX EP-MVP4 motherboard apparently in perfect working order. That's a dream. I'd automatically fit a RIVA TNT2 Ultra there coupled with 2 Voodoo2 SLIs or go the Voodoo4/Banshee route.

Also, an Asus P2B-LS with the famed BX chipset and sporting a 550 MHz. Pentium III MHz.

And on top of that, a complete IBM desktop PC with Intel 840 chipset and 512 MB Rambus memory which is readily compatible with an IBM Voodoo Banshee I have but has no ISA slots.

If I can lay my hands on a few older chassis, I may even build more than one PC and give away one to evangelize some old school gaming 😁

Scylla wrote:

If I can lay my hands on a few older chassis, I may even build more than one PC and give away one to evangelize some old school gaming 😁

Believe me, it will definately happen!... 😁

I just started with an idea of building a 386, started looking for AT cases, found not one, but three, now I'm building a Pentium MMX and a 486, too.. 🤣

Well, I have everything, more or less at hand. This is going to be my setup if I don't change my mind... or you make me change it 😜

• Motherboard DFI K6XV3+/66
• CPU AMD K6-III+ 400 MHz.
• 256 MB PC100
• Gainward GeForce3 Ti 200 64 MB (see footnote)
• Diamond Monster 3D II 12MB x2 (Voodoo2 SLI)
• Diamond Monster Sound MX300 + NEC XR385 daughterboard
• ALi M5273 6 USB 2.0 PCI card
• ¿Perfect? ISA OPL3 sound card
• 80 GB Seagate HDD

As you can see, there's a lot of stuff thrown it just for the sake of it. The GeForce3 Ti card is outrageosly powerful for this kind of setup, yet I wanted to have at least some "failsafe" video card so I could hook it to a modern monitor. My original idea was to use either a GeForce256 or a GeForce2 card, but I happen to have only one of each and two GF3 which on top of that is the quietest of the lot, so the GeForce3 stays there for the time being unless I run into compatibility problems.

I had a clear notion that I'd end up with an ISA sound card based on an OPL3 chip for pure DOS games and another one more Windows oriented. Having been a user of SBLive! cards for years, I decided to give a go to the MX300 and test A3D for the first time in my life. I bought the NEC daughterboard off eBay without knowing very well what wavetables expansions do, how do you use them or if it would be better used in the ISA sound card.

The Voodoo2 cards have been a matter of some thought. I have a Voodoo5 5500 AGP that I could use on this rig, but I don't know whether there is any worth considering DX8 game that can't get running on a modern day Windows. Also, I'm afraid to use a Voodoo 5500 card on a regular basis for gaming because I only have that one and I'm sure I'll never see (or buy) another one ver again. I could throw a Voodoo 4500 then, but the one I have is as loud as Satan's birthday party and I foolishly attached the heatsink using thermal epoxy back in the day. Foolish as I was, I have to concede that the heatsink has never ever fallen 😜

I'm doubtful about the USB 2.0 card. I may be moving great amounts of data in and out the PC, mounting ISO images so as not to scratch my collection and so on, but I have dreadful memories of USB 2.0 under Windows 98. I may try to fit a Intel PRO/1000 NIC in there and try to set up an SMB/CIFS share. Only thing, I also have dreadful memories of trying to hook upo Windows 98SE clients to modern networks.

I don't know, however, if this setup will hold together or I'm going to run into random BSODs or weird compatibility issues. The nasty thing with old hardware is that you're not entirely sure when a failure is due to aging, falling hardware components; buggy and poor software implementations or both.

And last, but not least, I don't know if I'd have to prepare another HDD with a pure DOS enviroment installed and manage to dual boot it; seeing that my motherboard is still too old to have some sort of boot menu at startup.

Any thoughs, advices, mockeries on all of this?

Scylla wrote:

...I'm doubtful about the USB 2.0 card. I may be moving great amounts of data in and out the PC, mounting ISO images so as not to scratch my collection and so on, but I have dreadful memories of USB 2.0 under Windows 98....

Finding a USB2 card that worked at all was the biggest challenge for me. I tested 3 or 4 until founding an IOGear unit that installed and initialized correctly in W98se [the winner was #GIC220U 2-port w/ NEC chipset]. Setting up W98 was a trial and error task. This is how I got it working for me:

Disable USB features in BIOS
Apply unofficial W98se SP v2.1a
IE6 core-only part of unofficial W98se SP v3
Apply nUSB33e
IoGear driver #vU2-209 [my notes are unclear at which stage...]

The card initialized, then installed correctly off by navigating to SP2.cab

As you say getting data on/off the rig is SO much faster, and made it it worth it. USB flash drives and externals hardrives all work now. If only I could crack the code with W95 but no luck so far.

Good hunting

I installed W98SE without a hitch and then the Unofficial SP3. Ran into some issues mostly language oriented but to my great surprise the ALi USB controller was recognized as such by the OS and configured completely error-free.

However, there's an annoying issue running on. Every odd time that the system boots, it locks before enumerating attached ATA compatible drives, CD-ROM and hard disks and so on. If I reset the computer it goess past that stage and I can work normally with the PC. I've tried fiddling with the IDE drivers but that doesn't seem to make any improvement. Before I start tearing apart my rig, has anyone got a clear idea of why could this be happening?

Ram? If you have 2 or more sticks installed pull one and see if the problem goes away, or try them in different slots. If you only have one stick try another slot, or another stick if you have it. I've had "flaky but not dead" ram that exhibited similar behavior.

Another idea might be be to clear your motherboard CMOS and hand reset the BIOS, save and restart.

Both suggestions are fast and easy things to try..

And, fully accepted your advice, both things already tested 🙁

Thought I should update this. I discarded the K6-III build because it was giving me weird hang ups at POST. My current setup is:

Asus P2B-LS motherboard
Pentium III 550 MHz. (Katmai, will try to get one with integrated L2 cache)
Noisy as hell, even at a 50% speed, CPU cooler
512 MB (4x128 MB PC100, don't know if it's better to have 2x256)
80 GB Seagate
4 GB CF -> IDE
GeForce3 Ti200
2xDiamond Monster 3D II
Diamond Monster Sound MX300 with NEC XR58 daughterboard
Acer Magic S23 ISA sound card
ALi based USB 2.0 PCI card

So far, with a few of that strange quirks that were so frequente, Windows 98 SE with the UESP3 pack installed is pretty stable. Big problem is that, at the moment, I can only use a Dell U2412M monster 24" TFT monitor. However, to my great surprise, it works perfectly smooth under Windows 98 SE and the vast majority of games I've tried, with only a few getting the monitor to complain about not supported refresh rates.

My setup is:
IWill Tomato Zida BXv98 AT motherboard, VIA 693 chipset, socket 370; Celeron 800 MHz.
2x256 MB PC133
80 GB Seagate, BIOS sees only 64 GB; no problem in Win98SE, though.
Voodoo3 3000
Sb Live!+Sonata S163 (Yamaha OPL3 SAx)+NEC wavetable
NEC USB 2.0 PCI controller
Motherboard has some minor problems, like the hard disk capacity, not working onboard USB and not accepting FSB 133 CPU's. This is why I use a Celeron instead of a P III.

So far it has the best performance/compatibility balance

Scylla wrote:

Pentium III 550 MHz. (Katmai, will try to get one with integrated L2 cache)
Noisy as hell, even at a 50% speed, CPU cooler

I also had a SL3JM 600Mhz Katmai with 'noisy as hell' cooler and solved the problem by purchasing a SL4BT 933Mhz Coppermine with a giant fanless copper heatsink. Now there's silence.