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Motherboard for a socket 7 build advice needed

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First post, by God Of Gaming

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Hello, I'm under way of testing various hardware to use for my main win98se retro gaming pc, I'm trying out a few various graphics cards ranging from a GF4 Ti4600 to a 7900 GT, and some radeons, and also Aureal Vortex 2 and Audigy 2 ZS and Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, using a few late XP-era AGP motherboards, I'm basically checking how the game compatibility is before deciding on the final build to go with, but the aim is to play stuff at 1600x1200 with AA and AF and all bells and whistles.

I'm now planning on doing a secondary socket 7 build to use for, mostly DOS, maybe some very early windows games, up to about 96-97 or so. CPU shall be a Pentium 200, or a MMX 233, which I think should be fast enough, and by lowering multipliers and disabling caches should be compatible enough with most DOS games. I'd like to use a S3 Virge GX2 AGP as the main graphics card because of its good 2D core and added S3D capabilities, and add to it a Voodoo1, and maybe also chain together a Rendition Verite card a PowerVR card, just so I can use all the APIs. For sound I'm thinking of using something like a SB16 or early revision AWE32 with real OPL3 chip, and I want to have additional 2 free ISA slots in case I can acquire a Gravis UltraSound ACE and a MPU401 Intelligent Mode interface card.

I need an advice for the best motherboard for this task, I want it to be an ATX board, not AT, that I can mount in an ATX case and use ATX power supply. Initially I was looking around for Asus TX97-XE, but that has no AGP so I can't use the Virge GX2 and will be limited to a Virge GX. Asus P5A and Gigabyte 5AX have AGP, but have only 2 ISA slots and I'd like to have 3. Besides I'm not sure their chipset would be as good as the 430TX in the TX97. Any suggestions?

1999 Dream PC project | DirectX 8 PC project | 2003 Dream PC project

Reply 1 of 3, by dionb

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If you want AGP, i430TX is no good. ALi Aladdin V is a decent chipset, but MVP3 is more flexible, and there's more choice in boards. Going ATX is making life more difficult in finding 3 ISA slots, I can only think of one - not very common - board, the Octek Rhino MVP3.

Basically, unless you want to go hunting unicorns, you can only have any two of AGP, ATX and 3 ISA slots. Given you only want to go up to 1997, and you probably have good reason to want to stick with ATX (no AT case and PSU probably), I'd recommend dropping AGP. It's not as if an S3 Virge gets a significant boost from AGP anyway, I'd just look out for a Virge/DX or /GX PCI to replace it.

As for motherboard, ATX still limits options here. I'm a great fan of SiS 5582 and ALi Aladdin IV(+) chipsets, but they're rare enough in AT, let alone ATX. That leaves you with i430TX, VX and HX. Personally I really like HX boards, things like the Asus XP55T2P4 or Intel TX430HX, but if you already have a TX board, roll with that.

Reply 3 of 3, by God Of Gaming

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dionb wrote:

If you want AGP, i430TX is no good. ALi Aladdin V is a decent chipset, but MVP3 is more flexible, and there's more choice in boards. Going ATX is making life more difficult in finding 3 ISA slots, I can only think of one - not very common - board, the Octek Rhino MVP3.

Basically, unless you want to go hunting unicorns, you can only have any two of AGP, ATX and 3 ISA slots.

What issues can ALi V have compared to MVP3, and what choices would open up to me if I allow AT form factor mobos, but keep the requirement for ATX PSU connector?

1999 Dream PC project | DirectX 8 PC project | 2003 Dream PC project

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