PCI-SB16?? Run away from that as fast as you can. Get something with ISA slot or get eighter a Vortex2 or Yamaha-YMF724 if you are going the PCI and AGP-Only route. Regarding a motherboard that is good. Then what kind of software do you plan on? Here I am not only talking games and programs. I am thinking about operating system as well.

I'm planning on using Windows 98 SE for the operating system.

RetroLizard wrote:

Greetings, members of Vogons. I'm looking around for a good motherboard that supports a 3dfx Voodoo 3 1000 card, as well as (a) PCI slot(s) for a Soundblaster 16 card, and two sticks of 256 MB DDR memory. Any suggestions are welcome.

(On a related note, is the Antec Truepower 2.0 430W power supply reliable, or should I get something else?)

It may be infected with Fuhjjyu caps.

ISA slot is the easiest way to get working sound with a PC playing old games, otherwise, the Yamaha YMF744 cards are a great way to get working sound in DOS with just PCI.
I recommend not worrying about the DDR RAM and just use some SDRAM instead. Pretty much if it has DDR, it won't have ISA. If it has ISA, it won't have DDR memory support. AGP slot means you'd need something that's a "Super Socket 7", or Intel's 440LX / 440BX chipsets or the early Via chipsets for Socket 370 / Slot 1 / Slot A / Socket A. Or if you can live without ISA, later AGP boards are definitely okay and maybe have DDR support.

Personally, I recommend looking for a Slot 1 motherboard, they're still quite available, have AGP and ISA slots while having the possibility of good speeds. Or a Super Socket 7 board, they're not so easily available right now but are more tunable in terms of speeds, if you search for "MVP3" boards, you might find something.

Thermalwrong wrote:

ISA slot is the easiest way to get working sound with a PC playing old games, otherwise, the Yamaha YMF744 cards are a great way to get working sound in DOS with just PCI.
I recommend not worrying about the DDR RAM and just use some SDRAM instead. Pretty much if it has DDR, it won't have ISA. If it has ISA, it won't have DDR memory support. AGP slot means you'd need something that's a "Super Socket 7", or Intel's 440LX / 440BX chipsets or the early Via chipsets for Socket 370 / Slot 1 / Slot A / Socket A. Or if you can live without ISA, later AGP boards are definitely okay and maybe have DDR support.

Personally, I recommend looking for a Slot 1 motherboard, they're still quite available, have AGP and ISA slots while having the possibility of good speeds. Or a Super Socket 7 board, they're not so easily available right now but are more tunable in terms of speeds, if you search for "MVP3" boards, you might find something.

Would something like this board work?: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gigabyte-GA-586HX-So … &frcectupt=true

RetroLizard wrote:

Would something like this board work?: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gigabyte-GA-586HX-So … &frcectupt=true

It would work, but that is awfully expensive for a bog standard socket 7 board.

There is one board that has DDR and has an ISA slot.. if you don't count industrial type systems.

The Biostar M7MIA. But good luck finding one. Only way I even found out about that specific board is by accidentally getting one in a lot along with a bunch of other parts.

Do you know exactly what games and/or programs you are wanting to use? This would help narrow down what you should get.

Are you only wanting to run programs that will run in Windows or are you wanting to run DOS games/programs as well?

cyclone3d wrote:

It would work, but that is awfully expensive for a bog standard socket 7 board. […]
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RetroLizard wrote:

Would something like this board work?: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gigabyte-GA-586HX-So … &frcectupt=true

It would work, but that is awfully expensive for a bog standard socket 7 board.

There is one board that has DDR and has an ISA slot.. if you don't count industrial type systems.

The Biostar M7MIA. But good luck finding one. Only way I even found out about that specific board is by accidentally getting one in a lot along with a bunch of other parts.

Do you know exactly what games and/or programs you are wanting to use? This would help narrow down what you should get.

Are you only wanting to run programs that will run in Windows or are you wanting to run DOS games/programs as well?

I'm looking to run games in Windows (98SE) and MS-DOS. 😀

You don't specify whether that Voodoo 3 1000 is the PCI or AGP version, and I find it more likely you want to use an ISA SB16 with your setup, not a PCI one. Next thing I'll do is question whether that RAM is actually DDR or not. Please clarify these points.

RetroLizard wrote:

It would work, but that is awfully expensive for a bog standard socket 7 board.

Plus it has a (probably soldered) RTC chip that's probably dead by now. And no AGP for a standard Voodoo3. A PCI V3 can work in it, though.

SW-SSG wrote:

You don't specify whether that Voodoo 3 1000 is the PCI or AGP version, and I find it more likely you want to use an ISA SB16 with your setup, not a PCI one. Next thing I'll do is question whether that RAM is actually DDR or not. Please clarify these points.

Memory is DDR - Says so right on the sticker attached to the stick.

As for the Voodoo 3, it's an AGP.

RetroLizard wrote:

I'm looking to run games in Windows (98SE) and MS-DOS. 😀

How well do you want it to cover games? I am thinking in terms of: Late/early era Dos and late/early era Win98.

brostenen wrote:

RetroLizard wrote:

I'm looking to run games in Windows (98SE) and MS-DOS. 😀

How well do you want it to cover games? I am thinking in terms of: Late/early era Dos and late/early era Win98.

Anywhere from 1985 to late 1999/early 2000. 😀

RetroLizard wrote:

[...]

Memory is DDR - Says so right on the sticker attached to the stick.

It'd be easier if we didn't have to coax info out of you bit by bit - what else does it say on the sticker? What kind of DDR? PC-somethingorother, or DDR-somenumber.

I'd generally agree with Thermalwrong - memory is so easy/cheap to find it's much, much easier to go for a system with AGP and ISA and then get matching RAM, than to look for a unicorn that does those two and supports DDR.

As for the Voodoo 3, it's an AGP.

Right, then you need a AGP 1.0 (2x) or 2.0 (4x) slot. Given your desire to go from 1985 to 2000, you need a ~2000 CPU that can be clocked very, very low. Two fit the bill IMHO:

1) a high-end AMD K6-2(+) or K6-3(+). This requires a (Super) Socket 7 board. Look for Socket 7 and AGP, you find Via MVP3 and ALi Aladdin V chipsets, board like the Asus P5A or AOpen AX59Pro.
2) an So370 Via C3 CPU around 800MHz. This requires a So370 FC-PGA or Slot 1 (with Slocket Slot-to-Socket adapter) board with BIOS support for the CPU. Look for Intel i440BX and Via ApolloPro133(A) chipsets, boards like the Asus P2B and CUV4X.

In both cases you will need CPU and motherboard. You'll also need PC100 or PC133 SDR-SDRAM. Windows 98 doesn't need or indeed like very large amounts of RAM, and DOS really doesn't. To keep compatibility simple, look for 2x 128MB PC133 from a good brand (i.e. from chip makers like Samsung, Infineon, Nanya, Hynix etc). This will almost invariably work- and should be almost free.

RetroLizard wrote:

Greetings, members of Vogons. I'm looking around for a good motherboard that supports a 3dfx Voodoo 3 1000 card, as well as (a) PCI slot(s) for a Soundblaster 16 card, and two sticks of 256 MB DDR memory. Any suggestions are welcome.

(On a related note, is the Antec Truepower 2.0 430W power supply reliable, or should I get something else?)

Some pics will help.

The Antec Truepower will help, provided it is in good working condition. Iirc, didn't Antec Truepower have issues with leaking caps?

I'd also suggest to discard the idea of using those DDR modules for your build if you decide to go ISA. Boards with ISA and DDR are not only rare, but the DDR will also not make for a better rig for your purposes.

If you decide that you really do want to go with a PCI sound card, you could use your DDR modules (provided they work of course) and perhaps build a Socket A with an unlocked Duron which you can underclock. But I'd suggest you go ahead with a Slot 1 build.

Do you have any previous experience with building PCs? If not, you're gonna be in for one heck of a ride 😜

Tetrium wrote:

Some pics will help. […]
Show full quote

RetroLizard wrote:

Greetings, members of Vogons. I'm looking around for a good motherboard that supports a 3dfx Voodoo 3 1000 card, as well as (a) PCI slot(s) for a Soundblaster 16 card, and two sticks of 256 MB DDR memory. Any suggestions are welcome.

(On a related note, is the Antec Truepower 2.0 430W power supply reliable, or should I get something else?)

Some pics will help.

The Antec Truepower will help, provided it is in good working condition. Iirc, didn't Antec Truepower have issues with leaking caps?

I'd also suggest to discard the idea of using those DDR modules for your build if you decide to go ISA. Boards with ISA and DDR are not only rare, but the DDR will also not make for a better rig for your purposes.

If you decide that you really do want to go with a PCI sound card, you could use your DDR modules (provided they work of course) and perhaps build a Socket A with an unlocked Duron which you can underclock. But I'd suggest you go ahead with a Slot 1 build.

Do you have any previous experience with building PCs? If not, you're gonna be in for one heck of a ride 😜

I have some experience with building computers... of the modern variety. 😜

Older computers aren't really that much different, but knowing which compenents and slots you want can be a chore.

RetroLizard wrote:

Greetings, members of Vogons. I'm looking around for a good motherboard that supports a 3dfx Voodoo 3 1000 card, as well as (a) PCI slot(s) for a Soundblaster 16 card, and two sticks of 256 MB DDR memory. Any suggestions are welcome.

(On a related note, is the Antec Truepower 2.0 430W power supply reliable, or should I get something else?)

Can't really go wrong with a trusty old Pentium 2/3 440BX SLOT1 system.
Compatibility is great and anything from DOS to Win XP can run on it without big issues.
The vast majority of BX motherboards come in the ATX formfactor, wich means that finding cases and powersupplys is easy (since modern stuff works).
I really, really recommend a new PSU.

Theres also a huge span in performance depending on what CPU you want to use.
You have a choice from the early P2's at 233MHz all the way up to 1.1 GHz Pentium 3's and even further with (nowadays rare and expensive) adapters.

Memory isn't a problem either, PC100/133 SDRAM is plentiful and very cheap.
BX have limitations on what memory it can use, but if you stay away from 512MB sticks you'll probably be fine.
Plus you already have 2x256Mb of it, wich in truth is a bit to much for Windows 98 but perfect for Windows 2000.

Look for:
Your prefered number of PCI vs ISA slots, you can get anything from 0 to 5 ISA slots.
Most common are 1-2 ISA slots, less on later boards.

On board extra stuff was common, LAN is convenient, SCSI and sound maby less so.
Jumperfree setup is very nice but usually limited to later boards and a few brands.

BAD CAPS !, the BX era is right when this was a big thing.
Pretty much all brands were affected, but some more then others (RIP ABIT..)
Find a recapped board or do it yourself, its not hard with some patience and planning.
Also note that bad caps dont always bulge or leak, they can just dry up and make the system unstable.

Accessories !, you want to get as many of the original accessories as possible.
Original box, manual and media is a huge bonus.
It's not strictly needed since most information is available online.
But its the retro factor =)

bofh.fromhell wrote:

Can't really go wrong with a trusty old Pentium 2/3 440BX SLOT1 system. Compatibility is great and anything from DOS to Win XP c […]
Show full quote

RetroLizard wrote:

Greetings, members of Vogons. I'm looking around for a good motherboard that supports a 3dfx Voodoo 3 1000 card, as well as (a) PCI slot(s) for a Soundblaster 16 card, and two sticks of 256 MB DDR memory. Any suggestions are welcome.

(On a related note, is the Antec Truepower 2.0 430W power supply reliable, or should I get something else?)

Can't really go wrong with a trusty old Pentium 2/3 440BX SLOT1 system.
Compatibility is great and anything from DOS to Win XP can run on it without big issues.
The vast majority of BX motherboards come in the ATX formfactor, wich means that finding cases and powersupplys is easy (since modern stuff works).
I really, really recommend a new PSU.

Theres also a huge span in performance depending on what CPU you want to use.
You have a choice from the early P2's at 233MHz all the way up to 1.1 GHz Pentium 3's and even further with (nowadays rare and expensive) adapters.

Memory isn't a problem either, PC100/133 SDRAM is plentiful and very cheap.
BX have limitations on what memory it can use, but if you stay away from 512MB sticks you'll probably be fine.
Plus you already have 2x256Mb of it, wich in truth is a bit to much for Windows 98 but perfect for Windows 2000.

Look for:
Your prefered number of PCI vs ISA slots, you can get anything from 0 to 5 ISA slots.
Most common are 1-2 ISA slots, less on later boards.

On board extra stuff was common, LAN is convenient, SCSI and sound maby less so.
Jumperfree setup is very nice but usually limited to later boards and a few brands.

BAD CAPS !, the BX era is right when this was a big thing.
Pretty much all brands were affected, but some more then others (RIP ABIT..)
Find a recapped board or do it yourself, its not hard with some patience and planning.
Also note that bad caps dont always bulge or leak, they can just dry up and make the system unstable.

Accessories !, you want to get as many of the original accessories as possible.
Original box, manual and media is a huge bonus.
It's not strictly needed since most information is available online.
But its the retro factor =)

Alright. One question I have, since there doesn't seem to be any reliable answers online:

Do modern power supplies work on older motherboards?

RetroLizard wrote:

Alright. One question I have, since there doesn't seem to be any reliable answers online:

Do modern power supplies work on older motherboards?

Yes they do*.
Some systems require a lot of current on the +5v rail, wich moderns PSU's dont really provide that well.
But thats not an issue with the relativly low power P2's and P3's.

Tho you might wanna pay attention to the ATX connector.
Modern MB's and PSU's have 24 pin connectors and older usually have 20 pin.
The extra 4 pins are just added to the end of the connector and on most PSU's you can detach them and just use 20 pins.
But in some case thats not possible and you will get 4 extra pins hanging over the MB connector.
Wich also would be fine, but theres gotta be room for them on the MB =)

I like to use "Fractal Design Effekt" PSU's for my old stuff.
Cheap and not modular, but they have 3 of the the (nowadays rare) 4 pin molex connectors, and a FDD one.
Not sure if they are available in all regions tho.

*I suspect theres probably some rare exeptions to this.

edit:
FD "EFFEKT" is apparently a vendor specifik variant, sorry.
To bad, its well suited for retro stuff with up to 20 amps on the +5 rail (600 and 700 watt variants).

The * rare exceptions are ISA cards that want -5V or serial applications that want -12V. If you want to do lots of ISA sound cards, you'll hit the -5V issue sooner or later. Fortunately there's a pretty easy solution: an ATX-AT adapter with extra little voltage regulator added to supply -5V.

Note that I'd second bofh.fromhell's recommendation of a Slot 1 BX system for ~second half 1990s stuff, as if you don't have bad caps, it's all pretty bulletproof and straightforward. However your ambition to go back to the late 1980s means that a generic Slot1 motherboard / P2/P3 CPU combo just won't hack it - you simply can't clock it low enough. That's why I recommended a K6-2+/3+ system or a Via C3 system. You can combine the C3 with Slot1 and BX, if you find one with BIOS support for it. Unfortunately there you hit the problem that anything late enough for C3 support probably won't have enough ISA to your liking.