Memory - 512mb (more cause problems for W98, can be fixed)
Graphics - Voodoo-3 AGP or (if you can) TNT2 Ultra + V2 SLI.
Audio - Sound Blaster live 5.1 (or AWE 32 + a good midi daughterboard if you'll play older DOS games with midi music)
CDROM should be enough, DVD wouldn't hurt
Operating System - Win98se

Don't go over 512MB, and stick with a Voodoo3. SBLive is fine and I'd personally go with WinME since it has built in USB support and handles the 512MB of RAM better. Everyone seems to think WinME is garbage, and it was 18 years ago, but now after many updates and patches by MS its rock solid and I use it with my 1999 machine. I feel like 98SE is always about to crash, and it seems 'shaky' to me. 😐

How I would personally set up such a machine:

Memory - 256MB (it's really all you need for a system of this era, you can upgrade if you desire but I wouldn't go above 512MB)
Graphics - Voodoo3 AGP (My second choice would be an nVidia RIVA TNT2 with a 3dfx Voodoo2)
Audio - Sound Blaster AWE64 <- should be fine for DOS games depending on your taste of OPL. If you want to play Windows games that use EAX, you can probably use a Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 along with it.
Hard drive - IBM 20GB 7200RPM (160GB would be overkill and not to mention most of these systems don't like going over 128GB due to the lack of support for 48bit LBA)
A CD-ROM drive should be sufficient although you can use a DVD-ROM drive instead if you have some games on DVD-ROMs that you would like to play on there. I'd also put in a 3.5" floppy drive if you plan on using floppies on there.
Operating System - Windows 98SE, you can always dual-boot with either Windows NT 4.0 or 2000 should you decide to have an urge to play with old productivity software. I wouldn't use Windows ME on such an old system unless you don't mind losing DOS, personally I prefer to reserve Windows ME to machines that lack ISA since DOS games work best with an ISA sound card.

Okay,

I can go with:
HD - 72gb. IBM 72,000rpm IDE drive.
RAM - 512mb.
Audio - SB-AWE64 and SB live 51.
Graphics - Voodoo-3 AGP
DVD - I can add later.

Still considering OS ( Win98se or WinME ? ).

Fusion wrote:

Don't go over 512MB, and stick with a Voodoo3. SBLive is fine and I'd personally go with WinME since it has built in USB support and handles the 512MB of RAM better. Everyone seems to think WinME is garbage, and it was 18 years ago, but now after many updates and patches by MS its rock solid and I use it with my 1999 machine. I feel like 98SE is always about to crash, and it seems 'shaky' to me. 😐

What are some of the updates and must have apps for WinME ?

Intel486dx33 wrote:

HD - 72gb. IBM 72,000rpm IDE drive.

I'd go with the 160gig Seagate drive if it is also a 7200rpm. Probably quieter, larger and more reliable.

canthearu wrote:

Intel486dx33 wrote:

HD - 72gb. IBM 72,000rpm IDE drive.

I'd go with the 160gig Seagate drive if it is also a 7200rpm. Probably quieter, larger and more reliable.

Yes, It is a NEW drive and very quiet. 72,000rpm.