This might seem to be a very picky question, and indeed, it is.

I've been running an early 1999 gaming computer project for quite a long time, using the same Gateway Tabor III motherboard that I got in late June.

So far, the motherboard has worked okay, though it took me a long time to source the front panel pin-out- had to use an external PCI IDE card for the longest time just to get the HDD indicator light working.

The thing is, I'm very stingy on time-accuracy; and this is one of the moments in this project that could change everything given what decision I make. I am now able to afford a new kind of motherboard, though I'm still looking for cheap prices, something like >US$70 (I can get other components separately over that budget, that just applies to the motherboard itself. I'm also okay with motherboards that are under US$100, I'd prefer that they be under $70). I've been wanting to get a new Slot 1 motherboard for a while, because the one I have is an OEM board, which a custom builder would not be using.

I could also now manage to slip back in time and do a mid to late '98 build.

I'm not sure what to do here- I've wanted an mid to late '98 project because the lines between y2k and the 90's aren't so unbearably thin. But for that, I'd need to get a new processor with that motherboard, a new GPU, a new sound card- you get my point. The case itself originally held a Pentium 233 system, so I'm not worried about that being too new.

What should I do? Should I regress to a Pentium II system, or should I get a non-OEM motherboard for my Pentium III? Or, should I just not change the motherboard at all?

It would cost a lot less to keep the motherboard I currently have in it, but as I said, it doesn't make sense for a custom build at all, and I have honestly wanted more of a mid to late '98 PC than an early 1999 PC just because the time-accuracy is so much easier to keep true to.

This may seem pointless, but there's so much to go through (I was even thinking of just dropping this project and getting parts for a mid-2000's build, but I've been working on this one for far too long to just drop it) and I don't know what to do.