With a tight budget I'd look no further then a SLOT1 BX chipset motherboard.
Preferably from a known quality brand.
Combine with a slotket to give access to cheap S370 Coppermine P3's or depending on the motherboard settle for a 400-450 MH'z P'2.
Memory is easy.
128MB is plenty for Windows 9x, more feels better but don't really give any advantages >512MB and you are asking for trouble with W9x.
For storage you can go for an old HDD and have the right noises, or preferably get an SD2IDE/CF2IDE adapter and never look back =).
PSU and chassis are the easy part.
Modern PSU's work just fine with old ATX hardware, the only potential problem is that you need room for the 4 extra powerpins on the MB or get a PSU that allows you to remove them.
Same with cases, any modern ATX case will work just fine, however theres plenty now that don't have either 5.25" or 3.5" slots, which may come in handy.

Where do you live ?

Socket 478/775 can be found dirt cheap these days.
If you choose Pentium IV path I would also choose Intel chipset - there are drivers for Windows 98 for all chipsets until i875 (i845, i845D, i845E, i845PE, i845G, i848, i865, i875).
Best are those based on i865 / i875 - AGPx8, dual channel memory, native SATA.
Good brands are Asus, Abit, Gigabyte, Epox.... And many more.

PSU ? Good brands are Fortron, Seasonic, Delta. FX5200 is not power hungry, so 300W will be sufficient (unless you want to upgrade later).

You may also consider socket A (Athlon, Duron, Athlon XP, Sempron). Especially good suport is from VIA - drivers are available for up to KT880
Moreover even some VIA chipsets for K8 have Windows9x support ( K8T800, K8T800Pro, K8M800, K8M890, K8N800, K8N890, K8T890, K8T890Pro, K8T900)

zyga64 wrote on 2021-01-19, 12:08:

Where do you live ? […]
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Where do you live ?

Socket 478/775 can be found dirt cheap these days.
If you choose Pentium IV path I would also choose Intel chipset - there are drivers for Windows 98 for all chipsets until i875 (i845, i845D, i845E, i845PE, i845G, i848, i865, i875).
Best are those based on i865 / i875 - AGPx8, dual channel memory, native SATA.
Good brands are Asus, Abit, Gigabyte, Epox.... And many more.

PSU ? Good brands are Fortron, Seasonic, Delta. FX5200 is not power hungry, so 300W will be sufficient (unless you want to upgrade later).

You may also consider socket A (Athlon, Duron, Athlon XP, Sempron). Especially good suport is from VIA - drivers are available for up to KT880
Moreover even some VIA chipsets for K8 has Windows9x support ( K8T800, K8T800Pro, K8M800, K8M890, K8N800, K8N890, K8T890, K8T890Pro, K8T900)

I live in central europe, maybe that's why things that would be cheap in america are expensive here. Also, what do you mean by "Intel chipset"? Do you mean RAM chipsets? Or the thing that actually accesses the RAM?

asasnat wrote on 2021-01-19, 12:10:

I live in central europe, maybe that's why things that would be cheap in america are expensive here. Also, what do you mean by "Intel chipset"? Do you mean RAM chipsets?

So I do 😀 For example, on polish auction site allegro.pl you may buy socket 478 motherboard for equivalent of 10 euro, right now.

By Intel chipset I mean chipset designed and produced by Intel for motherboard (of course for Intel CPU).

Also, I forgot to tell that I also want the motherboard to have support for floppy disks.

zyga64 wrote on 2021-01-19, 12:20:

asasnat wrote on 2021-01-19, 12:10:

I live in central europe, maybe that's why things that would be cheap in america are expensive here. Also, what do you mean by "Intel chipset"? Do you mean RAM chipsets?

So I do 😀 For example, on polish auction site allegro.pl you may buy socket 478 motherboard for equivalent of 10 euro, right now.

By Intel chipset I mean chipset designed and produced by Intel for motherboard (of course for Intel CPU).

I'm still confused. What is it supposed to do? Is it supposed to read the RAM? Or is it supposed to do stuff with the CPU? Sorry, I'm not to good with electronics.

Chipset does everything on motherboard. It is just "set of chips".
In traditional way it is divided to "northbridge" (which contains ram controller, PCI controller, CPU to PCI interface) and "southbridge" (IDE controller, USB controller, interface to multi I/O)...

Well, the chipset on the motherboard I found is an 845G, is it going to work with Windows 98?

Yes. Does it have AGP port ?

Yeah. In fact, it also has ports for USB 2.0, though it probably won't be useful since the Win98 flash drive drivers are only for English Win98SE, and the cheapest copy i could find online wasn't in english.

Also, I have a bit of a question regarding the RAM situation. Is it better to buy two 256mb sticks or one 512mb stick?

asasnat wrote on 2021-01-19, 13:10:

Also, I have a bit of a question regarding the RAM situation. Is it better to buy two 256mb sticks or one 512mb stick?

Doesn't matter because i845G doesn't support dual channel.

As far as I remember Intel USB 2.0 is hassle-free in Windows 98 and works just fine. For all flash drive support you may need NUSB installation though.
https://msfn.org/board/topic/43605-maximus-de … ve-usb-drivers/

BTW. Phil prepared few interesting videos about building Windows 98 computer with Pentium IV onboard.
10 Reasons for Pentium 4 Windows 98 DOS Retro Gaming PC
Pentium 4 vs Pentium III for cheap Windows 98 and DOS Retro Gaming PC
Building High Performance Windows 98 Retro Gaming PC with Pentium 4 and GeForce FX

Anyway, now I need help with buying the right PC case, power supply (because there are quite a few parts here) and cables for this thing.
Here are all the parts I'll be putting in, minus the power supply:
Graphics card: GeForce FX5200 128MB AGP8x DVI TV-out
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-8IGX rev 1.1
RAM sticks: Kingston 2x256MB(512MB) DDR 333MHz
CD drive: LG GCR-8485B - IDE - PATA
Hard drive: WD HITACHI SEAGATE 120GB 3,5 FV GW
Floppy drive: A generic 3.5'' IDE floppy drive, the seller didn't include the manufacturer or model name
Keyboard: PS/2 Media-Tech MT122K-US
Mouse: PS/2 A4Tech OP-720
Sound card: Creative Soundblaster Live CT4760
Btw, let me know if any of the parts here aren't compatible with the rest for some reason.

Sorry for bumping, I'm just feeling a bit impatient.

What you have so far seems compatible.
Do you already have CPU ? If not - pay attention to buy Northwood Pentium 4, FSB 533 or 400.
Prescott ones are not compatible, and in addition are much more power hungry and hot.
Do not even think about Celeron, it is waste of money (unless you get it free).

You have to buy any PC case which will fit Full ATX mainboard.
Good brand 350W Power supply will be OK. I suggest Fortron, Chieftec, Seasonic - if in good condition.
Or something new, just stay away from Mustang, TakeMe or another no-name because values on label are just not true.

Case funny enough is actually one of the harder parts to find these days. Just about all lack a floppy drive bay and a lot lack one for the CD drive as well.
Your best bet is limiting your search for cases with at least two 5.25 bays and getting a 3.5 to 5.25 converter for the floppy.

Other then that I've been agreeing with everything zyga64's been saying 😀