A 440BX is a great platform for DOS gaming. Some games are speed sensitive (we have a list here http://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/List_of_C … sensitive_games ) but many are not. Depends what you want to play, you may not need to build a new system at all (though that's not as much fun!)

For DOS games the S3 cards are well regarded. I use an S3 Virge for DOS compatibility and good 2D support in 9x, and a 3DFX Voodoo for my 3D 9x gaming. Check this list for DOS video card compatibility (https://gona.mactar.hu/DOS_TESTS/)

My ISA Yamaha YMF718 sound card is fine for almost all DOS and most 9x gaming. If you're talking later 9x gaming then you'd be looking at an SB Audigy or Aureal Vortex. Most of those games also work on XP, and I have a seperate rig for XP games with an Audigy 2 for those

Personally I have one machine for DOS & 9x gaming, a Slot 1 440BX chipset board with an ISA sound card. Works great for most DOS games, and also great for 9x gaming. I have a Pentium 2 233 Slot 1 CPU that I can slow down to 133mhz with a 2x mulitplier, and a Pentium 3 1.4ghz tualatin on a slot 1 adapter. Makes for a very versatile system, though most of the games I want to play run fine on the 1.4ghz P3, so it's incredibly rare that I get the Pentium 2 CPU out for it

Thank you for your prompt answer!

I think I own a Yamaha sound card like the one you mentioned!

I have the Opl3sax since my 233 MMx! I bought them on June 1998...

I also have a Creative Voodoo 2 12MB (I also owned an STB Blackmagic) but I don't remember if it works.

I have a K6 II 450 Mhz and an Athlon XP 3000+ but I don't have motherboard or ram for them.

Some games for Win9x/Me they 're incompatible with XP even with the compatibility mode enabled. That's why I want to build another PC for Win 9x / Me.

Last days I feel nostalgic for my Win 9x days and I installed them on vmware (95OSR2.5, 98SE and ME). Good old memories. I was using Windows 9x from summer 1996 (Windows 95 on a 386Dx40MHz) to October 2002. Windows 95 Plus! OSR2.5, Windows 98 and 98SE, I also tested Windows XP back on December 2001 but due to hardware issues with not compatible drivers I remained to WIn98SE and on October 2002 after some issues I've experienced with 98SE I decided to upgrade to Windows 2000! Very reliable OS. I've started using XP on March 2004.

1GB RAM for 98SE or ME is overkill?

JSO wrote:

1GB RAM for 98SE or ME is overkill?

It is generally impossible for 98SE to use more than 512 MB of RAM, and having more than that can even cause problems.

But you probably won't find any games that you'll want to run that require even 512 MB of RAM.

I'm running 1GB of ram on my Pentium 3 build, but only because I run Windows 2000 as a dual boot. I installed the 98se unofficial sp3 pack which supposedly fixes the issue with running more RAM, so that it doesn't cause any problems in 98

I'd say your 440BX would make a nice DOS & 9x platform, with that Yamaha soundcard and 3DFX Voodoo 2, if you add an S3 Virge or similar 2D card 😀

Some BX motherboards work well with a slocket and VIA C3 (Ezra-T or Nehemiah) processor. Although they sacrifice top end performance (they're slow, clock for clock) these chips allow for fine grained speed control which is effective even for notoriously difficult titles like Ultima 7, as they can be throttled with chip specific settings the Origin memory manager doesn't try to change back. It's a direction you can perhaps experiment with, if you like.

Thank you everyone!

Tomorrow I'll look to find where I have put an old pc with a Socket 462 Sempron and to check if it's fully working. I remembered today about it's existence.
I also have a PIII full desktop somewhere. Some other time I will try to find it.

It had been used for office work until 2009. If it's fully functional I will install the Audigy ES and I will buy an 9600XT for Windows 98se.

I can't remember which GPU I had installed to it.

Thread news...

MS-DOS build is on perfect working order, even after 12 years since it's last boot. Only issue that the DVD-Rom was not functioning. I replaced with another one. I've ordered a Virge DX with 4 MB Ram and we 're finished. Later I will buy a 20GB HDD to install Windows OSR2.5 and a new DOS HDD for safety.

Considering the Windows 98SE build.

I've found an old pc to the basement from my fathers old office. So plans have changed...

Setup is the following...

GA-7VT600P-RZ
Sempron 3000+
2GB RAM DDR (one stick dead)
Nvidia 5200LE (faulty needs replacement)
WD 320GB HDD SATA!
Floppy 3,5"

I've ordered a Sapphire 9600XT, Audigy 2 ZS (I couldn't find anywhere my Audigy ES) and a friend gave me an old DVD-ROM drive. So, I believe soon it will be ready.

All the hardware supports and have drivers for Windows 98SE. I've already downloaded them...

Soon I will post images...

For the DOS gaming PC, I found the latest bios (DTK PRM-20I-E0)after some hard checking to archived ftp servers and upgraded it.

Now it has some selections to disable the caches. So I will check it with caches disabled.

The motherboard has the ESS 1373 for onboard AC97 audio, but I think I will keep the Sound Blaster PCI 64 (1370) for sound.

Which is the best DOS benchmark to check the system on par with others?

For dos gaming I replaced the system with an Asus P5S-VM and MMX 233 MHz and 32MB RAM and with ESS 1868F ISA, better than the ES1370 PCI.