if its for old slow dos games, go with the P166n or the cyrix. if its for newer faster DOS games, use the P200.
and DX 5 is plenty for what you`ll do with it. I'd go with an older board but if its all you got then it will work just fine.

The Cyrix it shall be then!
I realy like the fact is has a lower 150MHz clock for older games, but at the same time a higher FSB than a Pentium 166MMX or 200MMX, otoh no MMX and poor FPU 😐

I've chosen this particular motherboard not just because it's in ATX format and is the only one I have with 1MB L2 cache, but also because I know where it came from and that it is in excellent condition.
As it has a newer chipset, maybe it can perform better than an older mboard?

I'm considering a 145W PSU I have here also in very good condition, but from another build circa 2000. Would it be enough for this system?
Here are the complete specs:

Soyo SY-5EMA+ motherboard (VIA MVP3)
Cyrix 6x86 PR200
1x 32MB SDRAM 83MHz
Samsung SpinPoint 10GB 5400RPM
Floppy drive
LG CD-RW 52x 24x 52x
S3 Trio3D/2x 4MB AGP
Righteous 3D Orchid Voodoo 4MB PCI
Aztech MM Pro16V 2320 ISA

The PSU is a Compaq DPS-145PB-101B REV00 , but seems like and ordinary ATX format, it reads: +5V: 14A , +3.3V: 8A and +12V: 3,5A , any advice? Thanks 😉

My machine what I have built for late DOS games currently uses two videocard (Savage 2000 and Rendition Vérité V1000L-P), two 3D addon card (Voodoo1 and PowerVR PCX2) and two audio card (AWE64 Gold CT4390 and Roland SCC-1). This machine consumes gross (bruto) 80W in playing 3D game from CD. So the 145W PSU will be good enough (if the PSU can deliver this value).
I have an old Acorp "300W" PSU from 2002 and it can deliver less then 40W (Acorp PSU-s are avoided at all).

With my machine I have targeted the best compatibility and best DOS gaming performance under Pascal's "runtime error 200" speed limit. The best performer under this limit is K6-III+ on 500MHz (so I underdrive my 550MHz CPU to 500MHz). I think K6-III+ followed by K6-2+ on 500 MHz and the K6-III 450MHz CPU. The K6-2 500 also very fast (faster than all Cyrix CPU or the Intel 233MMX).
I have tested two Slot1/Socket370 CPU (Celeron on 233 and VIA C3 Samuel 650) on two chipsets that just under the runtime error 200 speed but theese configs are far behind the Socket 7 performers.
But maybe you will find a game that is unplayable on these fast CPU-s. And if you want Win95 also on this machine you will got blue screen with all AMD CPU above 300MHz.
A patch for this type runtime error exist for Win95 OSR2 (amdk6upd.exe), for Win95 before OSR2 you can use the ESDI_506.PDR file from the amdk6upd.exe package (I have made this available separately: http://gona.mactar.hu/utils/AMD_K6-2_and_III_ … OSR2x_Win95.zip).
This runtime problem not exist on Win98/ME

I have use a separate machine for Win98 with full different video (GeForce with great D3D and OpenGL performance) and soundcard (Aureal Vortex2 for A3D and DirectSound). If you want a combo DOS/Win95 machine, may the 200MMX an easier choise.

I'm also using VIA MVP3 for my DOS machine because it has great performance. I have a Cyrix MII 433 CPU and the VIA MVP3 have terrible DOS (only DOS, other OS are fast) performance without DOS optimalisation. So with VIA MVP3 you will need "6x86opt" for 6x86 or MII CPU: http://www.helsinki.fi/~mpjohans/6x86opt/

ALI Aladdin V no need 6x86opt for 6x86/MII CPU-s (but have less performance in 640x480 and larger resolution than VIA MVP3).

32MB also the best choise. I have found one game that can't run above 32MB (run on 32MB but not on 34MB) and lot are not run above 64MB.

I think the L2 cache size not count in speed but only the cacheable memory size (according this 512Kb L2 cache more than enough for 32MB memory).

Sound: for FM for DOS games I recommend an SB16 based Creative card (or a good SB16 compatible card with driver that needs small conventional memory). Maybe plus a Gravis GF1 based card.
For MIDI I recommend a General MIDI compatible Roland or Yamaha card (but these are expensive toys, Gravis is cheaper and you get far better MIDI than Creative cards, but with Gravis GF1 you may experience problems with these fast CPUs, I have not tested this yet).
If you want only one soundcard for DOS games I recommend an SB AWE32 or older 43xx AWE64 card (better MIDI than SB16/Vibra16).
With Creative cards and wavtable daughter board (General MIDI daughter board not an ISA one) you will experience problems with some games.

The Voodoo1 is the best choise for DOS 3D gaming (I'm also have Righteous 3D Orchid Voodoo).

For 2D videocard: check my website. 😀

I use a 200W AT PSU in my 233MMX rig with 2 videocards, 2 sound cards, LAN, HDD, CD-ROM. I had to detach the floppy to get the system to run stable. The PSU seems to be made in Japan and has substantial weight, so I guess, it's not bad. Anyway, once it starts to fail, you'll notice that right away.

Gona:

Windows is still in consideration (maybe just 3.11)
It's primarily a MS-DOS only gaming machine, so that tip is gold! Didn't know about 6x86 optimization for dos. Thanks for the link too.

About 2D I already checked your matrix, several times 😉 great work!
The Trio3D I have pick is the last version of the ViRGE, while having 128-bit, it still has the Trio64 2D core and it's 4MB so it can more than handle every DOS game. That, plus a Voodoo and I'm launched.

Also glad to know 32MB is the best choice, always wondered if having too much ram would be harmfull. I tested with a 256MB module and had problems, but was not worried as I have plenty of 64MB ones.
Only have one 32MB module and it is marked 83MHz, it should be fine with the 75MHz FSB.

The ISA card is nice enough, AZTech 2320.

So thanks for your inputs!
About the PSU still researching...

RacoonRider: you are using a heavy and japan-made 200W PSU and your system is not so diferent from mine.
The weight is a good indicator and japan made is also.

The Compaq 145W PSU was default (factory installed) on an AMD K6-2 500MHz, chipset VIA MVP4 with integrated Trident Blade3D, 64MB PC100 SDRAM, DVD-ROM, Floppy Drive, 8GB 5400RPM Seagate.

OK, primarily MS-DOS and secondly Windows. If you want to play Direct3D (DirectX); OpenGL and Windows based Glide games on this machine (with your Voodoo card), you requires Win95 or later. Windows versions before Win95 are 2D only (there is no hardware 3D API). All Win 3.1 based games that I have tested work on Win9x. Because your Voodoo card, I recommend you Win95 OSR2 (with DirectX 5 or later) or Win98, but not upon your MS-DOS rather on separate partition and with a bootloader (like XOSL).

S3 Trio3D is good enough for DOS. It is uses ViRGE core but the ViRGE "S3D API" is no longer supported. S3D API used only by 4 games and 3 of them have Glide patch also (the Terminal Velocity have only ViRGE 3D API: http://www.3drealms.com/downloads.html).

A great Trio3D article (with D3D tests) by Putas:
http://vintage3d.org/trio3d.php

Thanks again! Yes I want to use 3D so I'm going to install windows 98.

I saw the Trio3D in your site was green all the way, but I have also other versions of Trio64 and ViRGE, would you recommend any in particular for coupling with the Voodoo?

The article is very interesting (as is the name of the author for a Portuguese speaker like me ) 😁 but seems to be mainly about the 3D part, wich does not interest me a great deal because I have Voodoo.

You are welcome! With one computer for 2D/3D retro gaming, the DOS/Win98 would be the best choise. Some game have 3D patch for Voodoo in DOS (DOS Glide aka "GLIDOS"), for example Descent II; TombRider; Carmageddon; Grand Theft Auto. But most of Glide games requires Windows 9x/ME.

The early S3 Trio64 cards have VBE 1.2 in it's video bios. With this version you cannot use the resolution 640x400 and larger in some DOS games (like Quake) without universal VBE driver. So in this case you need to use UniVBE. Easier step to use one of your S3 card that is VBE 2.0. If you can select 640x400 and larger resolutions in Quake, your S3 card has VBE 2.0 in its bios. Some S3 chips have problems with Quake in resolution 360x480 (and may with other games in this resolution). I can imegine that this problems is bios version dependent. It is best if you test them. May you have a ViRGE or late Trio64 card with VBE 2.0 and without color, flashing or Quake 360x480 problem. And vica versa, you should test the Trio3D also, maybe we have diffrent bios versions and the results can be different (I have not tested different cards with same video chip yet).

For the Trio64, you don't need UniVBE. There's a specific tool called s3vbe that would work just fine. This thread has it.

Great! Thank you! I'm going to test it sometime.

Here is what I gathered:
a couple of Trio64V2/DX , a ViRGE/GX2 , two Trio64V+, one Trio 3D and one Trio 3D/2X , I hope one of this will be near ideal.

I used to run Quake on my S3 ViRGE with no issues, I still have the original Quake CD in front of me that I used with that card. Mine had a newer BIOS if I can remember correctly, that may be why.

And in my DOS PCs I have Windows 95/DOS combo, then I can run some 3D games that require Win 9x if I want to.

And if you want to use an AMD K6II you have to DL somthing to avoid a BSOD with a K6 over 350 or so MHz.
I still have links from many years ago, they both still work!
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/192841/EN-US
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/234259/EN-US

but the Cyrix will work with no issue. let me know when its done!

Ok it's done 😀 , I had to set one jumper for the CPU BUS clock, one for the AGP BUS clock , one for the SDRAM clock, four jumpers for the correct CPU voltage, one jumper to set dual voltage, and six DIP switches for the multiplier, but it's done! I now have the BIOS posting the Cyrix 6x86L-PR200+GP. Jumper for joy!

Right now it's working with Trio 3D 4MB AGP version, no problems with DUke.
I was not sure the Compaq PSU wouldn't fry everything with some proprietary circuit, so I plugged in an AOPEN 250GT, it is heavy and was feeding a PIII 1.0GHz with TNT2 Ultra... this also leaves me room to add a 8GB Seagate as primary master and leave the 10GB SpinPoint as slave.
Also thinking about adding a DVD-ROM because I have some dos games backups on DVD-RW, would be nice if I could acess them directly on this PC.
And probably a second floppy drive, if I can think of a reason to do it.

Hey I just found a 240MHz Winchip CPU, would it be better than the Cyrix one? Thanks.

hmm... an IDT/ centaur technologies Winchip... hard to find but not exactly rare. I'd give it a go just to see, and whaterver works better keep in it.

I have never had WinChip CPU. It would interesting to test it.
Here is a WinChip C6 benchmark: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/idt-winch … -c6-cpu,37.html

It seems its a very basic chip that gets all its advantage from a large cache, wonder how it would perform with cache disabled?

probably would perform like a mid - high end 486DX.... or worse. they were not as well known as the pentium when it came to speed, 🤣.

I have finished the S3 testings with the S3VBE and the S3REFRSH too. By ability the S3VBE as same as the UNIVBE but S3VBE consumes much less conventional memory, and of course work on only S3 cards (all before the Virge/GX2). I have found that, a display problem on S3 Trio64V2/DX with Quake 640x480, solved by S3VBE (and UNIVBE too). The other display problems are remained. I have updated my page.