The ESS Allegro was a very cheap AC'97 + modem implementation and far away from the Solo-1 (ES1938) and previous great sound chips from ESS. I would avoid that.

I would choose the ESS Maestro 2E.

However, note that all of these cards can only work in DOS if DDMA/TDMA support is provided by the chipset of the mainboard. So check the chipsets used in these notebooks before making a final decision.

ATI cards better for scaling, but Maestro 2E is not so good:

http://www.baudline.com/solutions/full_duplex … ro2e/index.html

So I recommend to avoid Maestro 2E and to find anything with Yamaha YMF744 or YMF754 chip instead.

Actually nothing here perfect in list.

MAZter wrote on 2020-01-16, 16:03:

So I recommend to avoid Maestro 2E and to find anything with Yamaha YMF744 or YMF754 chip instead.

I don't think that advice is of much help, as he apparently has those three laptops to choose from. So the question was not for which sound chip to look. And if it was, the answer would be: one that is connected to ISA, not PCI, like an ES16xx or ES18xx for example.

None of the three sound chips are good when doing a laboratory test. Good old Sound Blaster cards would do even worse, but still people use them. These are no hi-fi compenents. For DOS, Maestro 2E is best. Higher sound quality is worth nothing if the card has no or only limited DOS support.

btw, that site you linked mainly talks about how bad the card is when recording

@MAZter - I already have some Sony Vaio laptops which have the Yamaha YMF744 chip and are hardwired to PC/PCI for the best DOS support possible - with the Yamaha chips anyway.

The video chips on them are nothing to be exited about though.

Sounds almost as if you have an Asus L8400 series system. They had those sound/videocard combo's. Can't say what system is best, mine is just repaired and is waiting for a cheap Pata SSD to reinstall 98se on it.
So perhaps in 2 weeks that I can help you more 😉

Cyclone3d, ohhh, sorry about it.

So not only Sony makes laptops with YMF-744/754 and ATI cards, some Fujitsu C series too

Fujitsu FMVNE243L3 / Fujitsu LifeBook C-5130, Celeron 433, ATI RAGE Mobility P (4Mb), Yamaha DS-XG, Floppy drive, CD/DVD

Nvm1 wrote on 2020-01-16, 17:58:

Sounds almost as if you have an Asus L8400 series system. They had those sound/videocard combo's. Can't say what system is best, mine is just repaired and is waiting for a cheap Pata SSD to reinstall 98se on it.
So perhaps in 2 weeks that I can help you more 😉

Why bother with a PATA SSD? Just use a PATA to SATA or even better (so it will definitely fit without having to hack the SSD case) is a PATA to M.2 adapter.

If you want to go PATA to SATA, you can as well. You just most likely need to get a SATA SSD that the case can be chopped so everything will fit.
The old Samsung PM810 drives work great for this.

cyclone3d wrote on 2020-01-16, 18:07:

Why bother with a PATA SSD? Just use a PATA to SATA or even better (so it will definitely fit without having to hack the SSD cas […]
Show full quote

Nvm1 wrote on 2020-01-16, 17:58:

Sounds almost as if you have an Asus L8400 series system. They had those sound/videocard combo's. Can't say what system is best, mine is just repaired and is waiting for a cheap Pata SSD to reinstall 98se on it.
So perhaps in 2 weeks that I can help you more 😉

Why bother with a PATA SSD? Just use a PATA to SATA or even better (so it will definitely fit without having to hack the SSD case) is a PATA to M.2 adapter.

If you want to go PATA to SATA, you can as well. You just most likely need to get a SATA SSD that the case can be chopped so everything will fit.
The old Samsung PM810 drives work great for this.
Samsung_PM810.jpg

I do have a few pata to Msata converter, and one pata to M.2 also, but the price of the pata SSD was only €21,- euro so for the time I use them they should outlive me 😉
But since I am getting alot of leftover MSata and M.2 drives out damaged laptops I want to see if they work as hassle free and reliable too.
If you already have any experience (or others) please share them!