most socket370 boards work well in windows98, but if you want an isa soundcard for dos games then there are only two options left: intel 440bx and via 694.

If your current Dell is standard ATX or MATX then you should have no problems switching parts to a new case or even putting a new motherboard in your current case. A model number on the current machine would help 😀 as far a 3DFX a cheaper option would be to get an AGP Voodoo3. I would recommend Asus socket 370 motherboards because they used good capacitors and are still in business to this day so drivers are easy to find.

There are VIA Apollo Pro / Apollo Pro 133 boards with ISA as well.

alexanrs wrote:

There are VIA Apollo Pro / Apollo Pro 133 boards with ISA as well.

noshutdown already mentioned VIA 694. Apollo Pro is 691, Apollo Pro 133 is 693A. I understand that those chipsets kept getting better (ie. less trouble) so it is probably a good idea to stick to the later ones. In my case 694T (GA-6VTXE) with Tualatin support (I don't know if there are other important advantages over 694).

Advantage of a VIA chipset would be proper 133MHz support without overclocking PCI bus or AGP.
There are known problems between VIA chipsets and SBLive! which may or may not be worked around. If you are already sure you want to keep your SBLive! it is probably safest to get a BX board and an FSB100 cpu.
FWIW, I used an SBLive! but now switched to a Vortex2 to be safe.

I agree that most (if not all) S370 boards should work fine with Win98. (I'd probably stay with common chipsets, no dual/server chipsets.)

I will try and get that model up here soon. Most likely Monday since I work all weekend.

I do not care about the SB Live!, I am not partial to it in any way. I just want something that is not going to be a total pain. My main issue is that i have this unknown motherboard, well, I found the model awhile back, but there were no good drivers anywhere. I just want something that didn't come in a pre-built box, and maybe for the windows 98 era was a rocking motherboard for gaming.

So you all are talking about this board...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-CUV4X-E-REV-1-05 … =item20f73a9de4

If so would this be a fair price? And why are all these vintage PC parts in Bulgaria and Greece?

Found the manual...

ftp://ftp.abcdata.com.pl/asus/cuv4x-e/cuv4xe-100.pdf

alexanrs wrote:

There are VIA Apollo Pro / Apollo Pro 133 boards with ISA as well.

Also have a look at the Gigabyte GA-6VXC7-4X. It supports up to 4x AGP and also has one ISA Slot, should you wish to install an ISA sound card.
The latter is also a great option for MS-DOS Mode, if you still have a mid 90's DOS based game that you want to play in pure DOS. You will then just need to install the DOS drivers (CD-ROM, mouse, etc.)

I'm using the above motherboard also for Windows 98 based games and am running a Celeron 900 MHz (100 MHz FSB) on it with a Sound Blaster AWE64 in the one ISA slot.

Good Socket 370 boards? Anything by SuperMicro / Tyan. Very reliable, the former of which made a P4 board with ISA as well - though I never used that and it might just be a PCI-ISA bridge for all I know and I am inclined to think support for Windows 98 went out of the window on that one.

QDI made good ones too, I have a QDI Advance 9 (P6V693) which has ISA slots... No idea if it supports Tualatin's out of the box but as you aim for 800MHz you'll be using coppermine, which mine ran at over 1GHz successfully. I used it for exactly the same thing you plan on doing with yours and swapped it for an Athlon box... I regretted that quickly so it is planned to be put back in soon.

I'd go with the QDI out of these as it's more common and usually cheaper. Still, shop around.

Tyan may make some good boards, not sure I like their socket 370 boards. Had some 1854 (trinity 400) boards with the via chipset - not really thrilled. Had some compatibility issues - could not get AWE64 and voodoo 3 to co-exist no matter what I tried.

I have two Asus cubx boards - in my opinion, much better boards.

On the Asus board there was enough room around the socket to use a Nexus Axp3200 cooler. On the 1854, I had to remove the slot 1 connectors in order to get the cooler on there.

GA-6VXC7-4X sound similar to GA-6VTXE, mainly the chipset is older, no Tualatin support.
Asus CUV4X-E: 6 PCI slots instead 5 PCI + 1 ISA. I don't know if there is a similar Asus model with ISA.
Tyan/SuperMicro: I suppose those should have a great build quality, just check if they use one of the mentioned chipsets.

idspispopd wrote:

GA-6VXC7-4X sound similar to GA-6VTXE, mainly the chipset is older, no Tualatin support.

True, the GA-6VXC7-4x uses the Via Apollo Pro 133A chipset and the last BIOS update was dated 2002/02/26.
GA6VTXE has a later BIOS revision dated 2003/03/12.