I'm currently doing a Voodoo 2 SLI build with a VIA EPIA CN10000EG. I have everything installed, including the SATA driver under Windows 98SE. Fully working, all drivers. (including DOS SB compatibility) Just waiting for my second Voodoo 2 12MB to arrive later this week. So far with just one card, benchmarks are looking good. 😎

wiretap wrote:

I'm currently doing a Voodoo 2 SLI build with a VIA EPIA CN10000EG. I have everything installed, including the SATA driver under […]
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I'm currently doing a Voodoo 2 SLI build with a VIA EPIA CN10000EG. I have everything installed, including the SATA driver under Windows 98SE. Fully working, all drivers. (including DOS SB compatibility) Just waiting for my second Voodoo 2 12MB to arrive later this week. So far with just one card, benchmarks are looking good. 😎

Nice!! I got mine purely because I wanted the rest of the system and wasn't interested in the motherboard, but I looked into it as I had it anyway and it looks like quite a capable board. What does the CPU equal in terms of Intel chips? And where did you get the PCI adapter? Mine supports this too! Finally, how is the SB compatibility?

Not quite sure on the CPU equivalent. Faster than a Pentium II 450, but slower than a Pentium III 1GHz. I haven't OC'd the VIA yet. For the PCI adapter, it is a generic 1 PCI --> 2 PCI riser with arbitration and clock sync. Since the Voodoo 2's hardly use much of the PCI bus in terms of bandwidth and power, it's plenty sufficient. Even though I haven't tested with 2 cards yet, I know someone who has, and it works out great. Hopefully my 2nd card gets here in the next few days, and I'll be able to compare benchmarks with 1 card versus 2, and also try some overclocking. So far just a basic run of 3Dmark2000 in 800x600 produced a score of around 1700. I haven't tweaked any settings, overclocking, or drivers yet. I tried 3DMark99 Max, but it doesn't detect the VIA processor correctly, and scores like 20 marks, reporting 1-2fps, despite it running at 60fps+.

PCI Riser: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?I … =9SIAEGB69T5993

DOS Sound Blaster compatibility seems to work with the popular games I installed so far, like Doom, Doom II, Duke3D, Wolfenstein 3D, etc. I'm sure there will be some limitations or games that don't work right though.

I also picked up another motherboard from Phil's Computer Lab recommendations -- the MSI MS-7199. I haven't tested that board yet, but it also looks promising from his video.

Hey, just curious, where did you pick up that MOBO?

sprcorreia wrote:

Via has ITX boards with Windows 98 support. I know this because I have one.

Yeah, VIA EPIA line, but many of them don't have onboard sound with SB compatbility, so you have to use Win98's default SB Legacy Audio drivers or VDMSound Win9x Alpha.

mrulrich wrote:

Hey, just curious, where did you pick up that MOBO?

Me? Ebay. It was around $25 shipped.

wiretap wrote:

mrulrich wrote:

Hey, just curious, where did you pick up that MOBO?

Me? Ebay. It was around $25 shipped.

Thanks! And have you had any stability issues with it at all? No BSOD?

I'm curious because I'm working on a similar build and have had some significant stability issues, albeit with a different MOBO.

mrulrich wrote:

wiretap wrote:

mrulrich wrote:

Hey, just curious, where did you pick up that MOBO?

Me? Ebay. It was around $25 shipped.

Thanks! And have you had any stability issues with it at all? No BSOD?

I'm curious because I'm working on a similar build and have had some significant stability issues, albeit with a different MOBO.

Zero problems encountered so far.

Although not quite as small as ITX there are Shuttle machines in Athlon XP and Pentium 4 flavours that support 98.

mrulrich wrote:

wiretap wrote:

mrulrich wrote:

Hey, just curious, where did you pick up that MOBO?

Me? Ebay. It was around $25 shipped.

Thanks! And have you had any stability issues with it at all? No BSOD?

I'm curious because I'm working on a similar build and have had some significant stability issues, albeit with a different MOBO.

Did you run into any challenges with that PCI adapter? I've seen elsewhere that only the EPIA dual PCI riser card will work with the MOBO but I also can't seem to find one anywhere. Did you run into any issues? Could you share a bit about the configuration of the adapter you used?

The card needed is called the "EXT-PCI", it's a VIA-specific board and I have seen them going for ~£30 on the bay.
For the SB-Pro compatible audio, you need to go for one of the really early EPIA boards with the VT8231 southbridge (they have Trident instead of S3 graphics - Apollo 1 chipset equiv).
These are the "straight" EPIA (5000 / 800) or EPIA-V (800 / 1000). Others EPIAs have Win9x drivers and compatibility but may not have the MS-DOS support.