1) and 2) Not officially.
3) Maybe, but DOS sound is guaranteed to not work.

So which is the last generation of processors to guarantee sound in DOS games?
Maybe you may recommend any models witch maximum 10-11 inch LCD?

Generally it's not the processors that do sound 😉

What you want is hardware SB emulation. That means no HDA or AC'97 (other than Via with legacy support in BIOS). Off the top of my head you're then looking at ESS1371/Soundblaster PCI at latest, so mid P3-era.

If you are looking for something that small, you may want to just go ahead and use DOSBOX on something like a Dell XPS 11 with an i3 or i5.

You can then run DOS games.

You can also install Windows 95 and 98 in DOSBOX:
http://dosbox95.darktraveler.com/index.html

Then grab youself a C64 and/or Amiga emulator and go at it.

I do wish Atom netbooks with kinda decent graphics were not so rare as they are tempting as a neat little toy but the prices are sometimes too high to even bother. For retro gaming my advice is to get looking for something older but not necessarily period correct for 9x. For Dos you will need something much older like a Thinkpad 365 or a 380 ect though there are other options that offer better performance.

I was able to get pretty good framerates running old Nintendo emulators. The hard part was getting the framerates up to acceptable levels, as full-screen mode killed them. If I run it in a window, however, it seems to fly pretty good. I think it has to do with how the Intel GMA3150 works. My Samsung N150 is running Windows 10 64-bit with an installed Crucial MX100 250 GB SSD, though that didn't exactly make the unit zippy in performance. It also has 2GB of DDR3 memory, which maxes out the system. I wish I could have 4GB. I still have the original 256GB hard drive with Windows 7 Starter 32-bit on it. The only thing I couldn't get working is the Windows sliders for brightness, so Windows 10 doesn't automatically change brightness levels when you plug in or unplug the AC adapter, but by manually configuring some registry values, I can use the brightness hotkeys to change it myself.

You might have better luck with the earlier Eee PC models, which were using ~600MHz Celeron M Dothan CPUs and the 910GML (IIRC) chipset. You will still be stuck with legacy-free AC'97 (if not HDA) audio, though, as well as 7" displays limited to 800x480px resolution.

You could also look for the VIA C7-based netbooks, such as the HP 2133. These are using the VIA VN896 northbridge and VT8237S southbridge. Possibly there are Win9X drivers available on the VIA site for those.

Ok, what about resolution if I get laptop with 1024x768, for example IBM X40 http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:X40
Is any simple solution to run DOS or early PC games on full screen?

For HP 2133 I will have also problem with resolution - its the same.

Piecho wrote:

Ok, what about resolution if I get laptop with 1024x768, for example IBM X40 http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:X40
Is any simple solution to run DOS or early PC games on full screen?

Maybe, but you still have the audio issue:

Intel AC'97 Audio with a AD1981B codec

AC'97 = no DOS support.

If you want DOS SB compatibility and an IBM X-series laptop, go for the X20 or X21. Both have a Crystal CS4281 with hardware SB compatibility (next to AC'97 for Windows).

nforce4max wrote:

I do wish Atom netbooks with kinda decent graphics were not so rare as they are tempting as a neat little toy

I benched the eeepc 1000's atom in dos floating point as being only 20% or so faster than a k6-2 300. PATH_BENCH - DOS path tracing CPU benchmark.

Uhmmm....
If we are talking emulation of various hardware, excluding Win9x-Hardware, then I think a RaspberryPI-3 is great.
It can do so much for so little money. Eighter that or the real deal.

Take a standard USB keyboard that are thick enough, and build a PI-3 into it.
Add some heatsinks, ventilation and you have a system-in-keyboard for retro emulation.

i have many issues running DOS on Intel ATOM CPU with GMA Graphics.
its not worth the trouble.

HI all,
Okay, I just been donated a Netbook.

To began, this Atom machine, is super slow, came with Windows 7 Starter (and the original owner, upgraded to Win10 and given to me because Win10 is super slow on this machine)
The machine has passed down to me specs:-

HP Mini 110-3500

Specs are:-
Processor Type
Intel Atom Dual Core N570

Processor Speed
1.5 GHz

RAM
1GB DDR3 RAM

Hard Disk
320 GB SATA HDD

Screen Size
10.1" HD LED Display

Webcam
1.3MP

Card Reader
Multi Card Reader
Battery
6 cell Battery with 5 hours Backup

Product Weight (Kg)
0.99 Kg

Video:-
Intel GMA (I forgot the number)

😢 😢
At first, I wanted to install Win98(for retro gaming), but you guys had decipher it for me about soundcard driver will not be available for Win98, for this machine. 😒

So I went ahead, install Tiny XP Rev 9(MicroXP didn't detect my HDD drive for unknown reason), and dual boot with Tiny7, followed by lastly, Antix(I wanted to go with ArchLinux but not good at command prompt installation) Linux, from https://antixlinux.com/. 🤣

The Truth is, I do not know how to re-purpose/revive this old Laptop at all. So, Hopefully, if you guys can answer my Question below, I can discover what I can use, with this old small machine 😀 :-

Q1. Old Game Server - I can setup this machine, like a "Laptop-On-The-Go" game server, so when there is a LAN party, this machine will be a dedicated LAN server for old games... (like DOSBox IPX server, or Unreal tournament Gold Server.... or Half Life 1 Server... ), is that a good idea? I will also turn on Windows File Sharing, so that when my friends bring their laptop to LAN play, they can just copy the game off from this laptop... Good idea?

Q2. OS Choice - Tiny XP and Tiny 7 and Antix Linux, is this a good choice for this old machine, to be a Game server or desktop?

Q3. Midi player - I do have 2 ancient machines with each have Midi/Joystick port for DOS, so I could Set it up as Midi Emulator.. to emulate Roland-32 and/or other Midi Emulator, so I just have to buy a USB to Midi for this to work. Good idea?

Q4. RAM upgrade - The laptop is running 1GB DDR3 RAM... I did try putting 4GB DDR3 and 8GB DDR3, but it make that netbook, unbootable. I do not have 2GB DDR3, should I spend the money to upgrade the RAM? Does it make any performance for this machine? Or save the money?

Q5. Should I use it as a Picture Frame Laptop, and put on the piano? Let it change the picture every 30 seconds? … 🤣 🤣 🤣

Q6. Old Gaming - PS1 like PSX emulator? DOSBOX?

Q7. Any other suggestion or ideas?

Appreciate your ideas/sharing on this... 😀 😕 😀 🤣

DOSBox performance should be similar to a 486 DX2-66. You could try DOSBox Distro... 😀

BinaryDemon wrote:

DOSBox performance should be similar to a 486 DX2-66. You could try DOSBox Distro... 😀

OMFG.. is there such thing???? WOW.. 😐 😲
I can do that! But it runs on the USB drive.. 😊 😊 😊 😊
How to make it sit into one of the harddrive partition and boot it up? 😈 😈 😈

Panties wrote:

OMFG.. is there such thing???? WOW.. :neutral: :exclamation: I can do that! But it runs on the USB drive.. :blush: :blush: […]
Show full quote

BinaryDemon wrote:

DOSBox performance should be similar to a 486 DX2-66. You could try DOSBox Distro... 😀

OMFG.. is there such thing???? WOW.. 😐 😲
I can do that! But it runs on the USB drive.. 😊 😊 😊 😊
How to make it sit into one of the harddrive partition and boot it up? 😈 😈 😈

Sadly no procedure for that yet. I’ve done it by pulling the internal drive out and connecting it to a ide/Sata->usb adapter then flashing with Rufus but you should really check if it works via usb before going thru all that trouble. Anyway you would get more flexibility just installing dosbox on whatever version of windows your netbook is running.

I have a crapload of netbooks, all asus. From the 701SD/4G untill the late models with geforce graphics.
The earlier ones are usable with older games that don't require much from graphics, the more recent models work alot better with newer games.
Most challanging is to get the interface of the game matching to the strange resolution of the early 800x480 and 1024x600 screens.

There used to be the eee pc forum where alot of info was stored about hardware and software mods to get this working, but Asus pulled the plug along time ago on the forum.
And hardly anything can be found in the waybackmachine..

BinaryDemon wrote:

Panties wrote:

OMFG.. is there such thing???? WOW.. :neutral: :exclamation: I can do that! But it runs on the USB drive.. :blush: :blush: […]
Show full quote

BinaryDemon wrote:

DOSBox performance should be similar to a 486 DX2-66. You could try DOSBox Distro... 😀

OMFG.. is there such thing???? WOW.. 😐 😲
I can do that! But it runs on the USB drive.. 😊 😊 😊 😊
How to make it sit into one of the harddrive partition and boot it up? 😈 😈 😈

Sadly no procedure for that yet. I’ve done it by pulling the internal drive out and connecting it to a ide/Sata->usb adapter then flashing with Rufus but you should really check if it works via usb before going thru all that trouble. Anyway you would get more flexibility just installing dosbox on whatever version of windows your netbook is running.

Yeah, I was Hyped for a while, and did a DosBoxDistro Test. 🤣
It is based on TinyCore, it's really good. 😊 The only problem is, there is no sound. Quake Shareware and Doom Shareware, just dont have sound. 😢

Graphic is very nice for old DOS games, just no sound. Oh well... 😐 thx you for the intro... 😎

Nvm1 wrote:

I have a crapload of netbooks, all asus. From the 701SD/4G untill the late models with geforce graphics. The earlier ones are us […]
Show full quote

I have a crapload of netbooks, all asus. From the 701SD/4G untill the late models with geforce graphics.
The earlier ones are usable with older games that don't require much from graphics, the more recent models work alot better with newer games.
Most challanging is to get the interface of the game matching to the strange resolution of the early 800x480 and 1024x600 screens.

There used to be the eee pc forum where alot of info was stored about hardware and software mods to get this working, but Asus pulled the plug along time ago on the forum.
And hardly anything can be found in the waybackmachine..

Wah.. you have a lot of netbooks? Why not sell them? 😀

Yeah, mine is 1024x600, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150, with IDT High Definition Audio CODEC(SoundCard), with an INTEL(R) NM10 Express Chipset(Storage), with and HP Webcam, bluetooth.
Processor is Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N550 @1.50GHz
and it is a QUAD processors? @@ Because I saw 4 processors in the Device manager?

Surprisingly, the Tiny7 is quite Snappy for this machine. With 1 youtube video on Chrome, it can handle 480p. (no point putting higher than that, as ideo resolution is only 1024x600.)

Yet still, I am finding a purpose for this laptop. any idea to make this laptop "usable" again? Any advice?