First post, by Caroozo
Welcome!
Straight to the point - I'd like to build PC to play some retro games, a machine that will last a while. I'm using now Lenovo L440 with i7 4810MQ and PCem emulator. I have also Fujitsu-Siemens laptop based on Sempron Mobile with SiS Chipset, but there's a problem with a soundcard (it stop working after a while - I have temporary solution by using cheap USB audio card).
Above solutions are not enough for me. I bought once thin client HP 5720 which was perfect for simple games from that era (it's 100% compatible with Win98), but the lack of Voodoo card or ability to add more powerful GPU was something I didn't quite liked.
I believe I still have 3 PCs in my parent's house:
1) P 166 MMX, 32MB RAM, 4MB SVGA, ISA soundcard (SB pro? I don't remember), Diamond Monster Voodoo 1 4 MB, 3,2 GB HDD
2) Duron 1800, 512 MB RAM, SB Live! Player, Radeon 9550, 80 GB HDD - UPDATE: the mobo is ASUS A7N8X with integrated GeForce 4 MX)
3) Some old Celeron, can't remember specs
I'm pro-audio user and luckily I have Terratec Phase 26 USB audio interface (USB-based) with Win95/98 support. It has MIDI IN/OUT. Lately, a friend of mine gave me Roland SC-155 (rare version of SC-55). It has MT-32 emulation build-in, so it's a great idea to use it with older games. But I'm afraid it will not work thorugh Terratec's MIDI OUT and for some DOS games I have to use SB16 card and connect Roland SC-155 through Gameport.
Considering above, what is the best thing for me to do? I believe my Voodoo card still works, otherwise I'm stuck, 'cause buying decent 3Dfx nowadays is too much money for what it do, so D3D or OpenGL based games are ok for me (or there's always PCem for Voodoo emulation). I thinked about buying C2D-compatible Intel 865 mobo - in that case, I'd like to build ultimate DOS/Win95/WinXP machine, but getting motherboard with ISA for the sake of 100% DOS sound is more important for me - so something that will cover DOS/9x era will do.
Any tips will do - thanks in advance for response! 😀