Do people use SSD's on Win98 now? I thought the better solution was a CF card with IDE adapter. Or at least a mechanical with SATA/IDE adapter.

_tk wrote on 2021-01-30, 05:56:

Do people use SSD's on Win98 now? I thought the better solution was a CF card with IDE adapter. Or at least a mechanical with SATA/IDE adapter.

Yes, even Windows 98 benefits from the responsiveness of an SSD. CF cards work fine for most things, but larger ones are super hard to find and an SSD will always be cheaper per GB.

Also, if you're using a drive over 64GB, I think you'll want to use the updated fdisk application as mentioned in this post:
Re: Cant Fdisk Hard Drive

Yet another thing that is convenient about SSDs. They are very cheap in the capacities that are suitable to "max out" a Windows 9x system. 120GB or 128GB drives are perfect since they stay within the limits without wasting space. You can buy a brand new drive for around $20, or a pile of used ones with plenty of life left in them for $10-$15 per drive.

For my tester systems I bought a bunch of 16GB msata (I think) drives ripped out of Chromebooks for like $3 each. Lightning fast, and plenty of space for my needs. I bought four of them, plus the adapters I needed (msata to sata, to IDE) for less than the price of a brand new high speed 16GB CF card.

furyanwolf wrote on 2021-01-30, 00:51:

1. Which GPU or what GPU range would be a best fit? So far I've mostly looked at GeForce3 and GeForce4 options. Naturally, I considered VooDoo cards but not only are they like water in the desert, the few that are out there are VERY, VERY expensive for my taste. I've also considered the GeForce2 series which I think would not be good enough performance wise for late 90's - early 00's games, and also considered the much newer GeForce FX 5000 series which I think may be a bit TOO new. I am currently hoping to get my hands on a GeForce4 TI 4200,

Geforce 4200 is a popular choice, its also overpowered. Not a bad thing, but keep in mind you are limited to drivers no older than 45.xx which can be a bad thing. People have said those drivers are great and they are however they are not so great if you want to play a game that doesn't like detonator drivers newer than for example 12.xx and a geforce 4 card cannot run those. A better choice would be a geforce 3 TI 200. which has better compatibility with VESA standards as well as plenty fast enough for windows games.

furyanwolf wrote on 2021-01-30, 00:51:

Hi guys,
I don't have a specific list of games I NEED to be able to play, I'm just trying to build something relatively flexible that can play through the

Only way I can think of figuring out what computer to build I would make sure the games I NEED to play without ever hearing of them before, is search youtube for retro games and see which ones look like I want to play. Otherwise what you are going to get is opinions of a lot of people that might be irrelevant.

You didn't ask anything about sound cards but I assume you need one. Go with 2 sound card solution. Get a ISA card for late Dos game compatibility and a PCI card for windows games.

Warlord wrote on 2021-01-30, 08:54:

Geforce 4200 is a popular choice, its also overpowered. Not a bad thing, but keep in mind you are limited to drivers no older than 45.xx which can be a bad thing.

That's only true for the later AGP 8x models.

An earlier AGP 4x GeForce4 Ti4200 works fine with 30.82 drivers.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-01-30, 09:08:

Warlord wrote on 2021-01-30, 08:54:

Geforce 4200 is a popular choice, its also overpowered. Not a bad thing, but keep in mind you are limited to drivers no older than 45.xx which can be a bad thing.

That's only true for the later AGP 8x models.

An earlier AGP 4x GeForce4 Ti4200 works fine with 30.82 drivers.

fine but it still wont work with 12.xx drivers. which was my point. I think the geforce 3 ti 200 will work with drivers as low as 7.xx

Warlord wrote on 2021-01-30, 09:11:

fine but it still wont work with 12.xx drivers. which was my point.

Indeed, the GeForce3 has an advantage there since you could potentially go as low as 8.05 depending on the model.

BTW, is there a list of older games which don't work properly with newer Nvidia drivers? I have a Ti4200 but I mainly use it to play stuff from '98 onward, so I may not have noticed.

If your BIOS doesn't support >40GB you're going to need to do something to use that 120GB HDD.

I'd recommend a PCI SATA controller (with its own BIOS) as opposed to that SATA PATA adapter that doesn't solve it.

Now, most SATA cards require PCI2.2 and/or don't have Win9x support, but the Promise SATA150-series (SATA150TX2Plus and TX4) do have Win98SE drivers and work in PCI2.1 boards.

Warlord wrote on 2021-01-30, 08:54:

Geforce 4200 is a popular choice, its also overpowered. Not a bad thing, but keep in mind you are limited to drivers no older t […]
Show full quote

furyanwolf wrote on 2021-01-30, 00:51:

1. Which GPU or what GPU range would be a best fit? So far I've mostly looked at GeForce3 and GeForce4 options. Naturally, I considered VooDoo cards but not only are they like water in the desert, the few that are out there are VERY, VERY expensive for my taste. I've also considered the GeForce2 series which I think would not be good enough performance wise for late 90's - early 00's games, and also considered the much newer GeForce FX 5000 series which I think may be a bit TOO new. I am currently hoping to get my hands on a GeForce4 TI 4200,

Geforce 4200 is a popular choice, its also overpowered. Not a bad thing, but keep in mind you are limited to drivers no older than 45.xx which can be a bad thing. People have said those drivers are great and they are however they are not so great if you want to play a game that doesn't like detonator drivers newer than for example 12.xx and a geforce 4 card cannot run those. A better choice would be a geforce 3 TI 200. which has better compatibility with VESA standards as well as plenty fast enough for windows games.

furyanwolf wrote on 2021-01-30, 00:51:

Hi guys,
I don't have a specific list of games I NEED to be able to play, I'm just trying to build something relatively flexible that can play through the

Only way I can think of figuring out what computer to build I would make sure the games I NEED to play without ever hearing of them before, is search youtube for retro games and see which ones look like I want to play. Otherwise what you are going to get is opinions of a lot of people that might be irrelevant.

You didn't ask anything about sound cards but I assume you need one. Go with 2 sound card solution. Get a ISA card for late Dos game compatibility and a PCI card for windows games.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-01-30, 09:19:

Warlord wrote on 2021-01-30, 09:11:

fine but it still wont work with 12.xx drivers. which was my point.

Indeed, the GeForce3 has an advantage there since you could potentially go as low as 8.05 depending on the model.

BTW, is there a list of older games which don't work properly with newer Nvidia drivers? I have a Ti4200 but I mainly use it to play stuff from '98 onward, so I may not have noticed.

Interesting, I was not so well informed on the whole driver situation, I will try and do more of my own research on this today, perhaps will have a look at more games of the era than the 1 or 2 I played and see what I might be interested in there as well. I'll try and keep an eye out for a GeForce3 card too but they seem even rarer than the GeForce4 Ti 4200 in the UK.

As for the sound card, nice catch, forgot to mention that but I already have a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS with all the trimmings, the only part I already had, but I may look at older ISA cards as well and make use of those ISA slots.

Thanks for the input on this 😀

dionb wrote on 2021-01-30, 10:48:

If your BIOS doesn't support >40GB you're going to need to do something to use that 120GB HDD.

I'd recommend a PCI SATA controller (with its own BIOS) as opposed to that SATA PATA adapter that doesn't solve it.

Now, most SATA cards require PCI2.2 and/or don't have Win9x support, but the Promise SATA150-series (SATA150TX2Plus and TX4) do have Win98SE drivers and work in PCI2.1 boards.

Hmm, interesting, did not know about this either, all of the builds I've seen around YouTube with a similar setup seemed to have just done some partitioning magic and that was that. At this point I've already ordered those parts so I'll likely end up giving that a go and see what happens, worst case scenario I am left with an extra 120 SSD that I could use somewhere else. But I'm hoping that I can just do some partitioning magic and call it a day. As far as the adapter goes, I have also seen it in other vids/builds, hence the confidence in it, but we will find I out guess. It is one of these adapters for the record. In any case, thanks for the info 😀

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2021-01-30, 06:08:

Yes, even Windows 98 benefits from the responsiveness of an SSD. CF cards work fine for most things, but larger ones are super h […]
Show full quote

_tk wrote on 2021-01-30, 05:56:

Do people use SSD's on Win98 now? I thought the better solution was a CF card with IDE adapter. Or at least a mechanical with SATA/IDE adapter.

Yes, even Windows 98 benefits from the responsiveness of an SSD. CF cards work fine for most things, but larger ones are super hard to find and an SSD will always be cheaper per GB.

Also, if you're using a drive over 64GB, I think you'll want to use the updated fdisk application as mentioned in this post:
Re: Cant Fdisk Hard Drive

Yet another thing that is convenient about SSDs. They are very cheap in the capacities that are suitable to "max out" a Windows 9x system. 120GB or 128GB drives are perfect since they stay within the limits without wasting space. You can buy a brand new drive for around $20, or a pile of used ones with plenty of life left in them for $10-$15 per drive.

For my tester systems I bought a bunch of 16GB msata (I think) drives ripped out of Chromebooks for like $3 each. Lightning fast, and plenty of space for my needs. I bought four of them, plus the adapters I needed (msata to sata, to IDE) for less than the price of a brand new high speed 16GB CF card.

SSD's are indeed cheap and I'm sure Win98 will run good on them (for a while, at least), but has the trimming stuff been figured out yet? That's why I went CF (and even in the grand scheme of things it really wasn't all that expensive either).

16GB CF card is $23 on amazon right now and the adapters are $6. I don't really look at that as being "expensive", at all. And 16GB was absolutely huge in 1998 in terms of hard drive space.

_tk wrote on 2021-01-30, 20:38:

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2021-01-30, 06:08:

Yes, even Windows 98 benefits from the responsiveness of an SSD. CF cards work fine for most things, but larger ones are super h […]
Show full quote

_tk wrote on 2021-01-30, 05:56:

Do people use SSD's on Win98 now? I thought the better solution was a CF card with IDE adapter. Or at least a mechanical with SATA/IDE adapter.

Yes, even Windows 98 benefits from the responsiveness of an SSD. CF cards work fine for most things, but larger ones are super hard to find and an SSD will always be cheaper per GB.

Also, if you're using a drive over 64GB, I think you'll want to use the updated fdisk application as mentioned in this post:
Re: Cant Fdisk Hard Drive

Yet another thing that is convenient about SSDs. They are very cheap in the capacities that are suitable to "max out" a Windows 9x system. 120GB or 128GB drives are perfect since they stay within the limits without wasting space. You can buy a brand new drive for around $20, or a pile of used ones with plenty of life left in them for $10-$15 per drive.

For my tester systems I bought a bunch of 16GB msata (I think) drives ripped out of Chromebooks for like $3 each. Lightning fast, and plenty of space for my needs. I bought four of them, plus the adapters I needed (msata to sata, to IDE) for less than the price of a brand new high speed 16GB CF card.

SSD's are indeed cheap and I'm sure Win98 will run good on them (for a while, at least), but has the trimming stuff been figured out yet? That's why I went CF (and even in the grand scheme of things it really wasn't all that expensive either).

16GB CF card is $23 on amazon right now and the adapters are $6. I don't really look at that as being "expensive", at all. And 16GB was absolutely huge in 1998 in terms of hard drive space.

Rudolph R. Loew created a DOS TRIM for FAT32 and after he passed away his family made it free to download, not hard to find if you search for it.

_tk wrote on 2021-01-30, 20:38:

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2021-01-30, 06:08:

Yes, even Windows 98 benefits from the responsiveness of an SSD. CF cards work fine for most things, but larger ones are super h […]
Show full quote

_tk wrote on 2021-01-30, 05:56:

Do people use SSD's on Win98 now? I thought the better solution was a CF card with IDE adapter. Or at least a mechanical with SATA/IDE adapter.

Yes, even Windows 98 benefits from the responsiveness of an SSD. CF cards work fine for most things, but larger ones are super hard to find and an SSD will always be cheaper per GB.

Also, if you're using a drive over 64GB, I think you'll want to use the updated fdisk application as mentioned in this post:
Re: Cant Fdisk Hard Drive

Yet another thing that is convenient about SSDs. They are very cheap in the capacities that are suitable to "max out" a Windows 9x system. 120GB or 128GB drives are perfect since they stay within the limits without wasting space. You can buy a brand new drive for around $20, or a pile of used ones with plenty of life left in them for $10-$15 per drive.

For my tester systems I bought a bunch of 16GB msata (I think) drives ripped out of Chromebooks for like $3 each. Lightning fast, and plenty of space for my needs. I bought four of them, plus the adapters I needed (msata to sata, to IDE) for less than the price of a brand new high speed 16GB CF card.

SSD's are indeed cheap and I'm sure Win98 will run good on them (for a while, at least), but has the trimming stuff been figured out yet? That's why I went CF (and even in the grand scheme of things it really wasn't all that expensive either).

16GB CF card is $23 on amazon right now and the adapters are $6. I don't really look at that as being "expensive", at all. And 16GB was absolutely huge in 1998 in terms of hard drive space.

I don't think trim is a big problem when dealing with such small amounts of data. The reduction in speed would have to be pretty severe for it to ever make a difference on a system from the 90s or early 2000s. Especially on a larger SSD since there is just an astronomical amount of extra space available to work with if you're using a 60, 80 or 120GB drive. Also, CF cards are going to suffer the same effects as an SSD. From what I have read, some actually support TRIM because of this. Also, modern SSDs have more efficient garbage collection that will help them to maintain themselves a bit more gracefully without TRIM (though it is no replacement for an OS that actually needs it and uses it to maintain performance). Though I have read that it is recommended to use older SLC drives since they handle write amplification better. I'm not sure how much of a difference it makes.

My 16GB tester SSD has like 20-something copies of the windows folder for different configurations (I just boot to DOS and rename the Windows folder to test pre-configured setups without having to install drivers for common devices), and I do a lot of transferring files, installing programs, installing drivers, copying and deleting. I've been using it that way for a couple years and it's still working great.

The ~$29 cost of one 16GB CF + adapter card isn't that bad if it's all you need for one project, but I have maybe $6 into each SSD+adapter, so if I do four projects that need 16GB drives, I'll have saved about $100. I do still use CF cards for the oldest systems, or for more light-weight testers that aren't getting rewritten constantly. I'm not sure if they would hold up to what I've put that SSD through.

Maybe I should make a thread with some benchmark results? 😀

I would not give SSD in Windows 98 any doubts, just use it, it's totally fine (has been for me). Get the cheapest SSD you can buy in store, in your size, and be done with it. But maybe do not put any critical data on it or backup frequently.

In general, games before 2000 is a compatibility minefield. For retro gaming you are best to build multiple computers really, not just one. If you are picky you can end up with as many as 10 PCs. But the question here is which one to build as your first. In the order of best compatibility I would go with Voodoo3, GF3 or GF4. Left side being slower (and more compatible) than the right side.

Voodoo3 will be barely enough to play Quake III which released in 1999. Should be okay up to 800x600. If that is all you need in terms of horsepower for your first retro rig then I would go with this one as it is most compatible with more older games (I think). Voodoo3 was used a lot back in the day. There are 3 basic variants, the 2000, 3000 and 3500. The first one is not super expensive so I would consider that one if years 99-00 are not super important to run smooth.

Geforce 3 will be smooth for these 99-00 games. But you will lose Glide games support. That is something you can solve by also adding a Voodoo card, probably older than V3 to keep the costs down. Adding second card definitely requires some thinking to make sure the motherboard and the Geforce card will even support that (many threads for this topic around here).

Geforce 4 is good if you want to barely play games like GTA III from 2001. It is possible your PIII CPU will start becoming a bottleneck at this level of GPU horsepower, not sure though.

_tk wrote on 2021-01-30, 20:38:

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2021-01-30, 06:08:

Yes, even Windows 98 benefits from the responsiveness of an SSD. CF cards work fine for most things, but larger ones are super h […]
Show full quote

_tk wrote on 2021-01-30, 05:56:

Do people use SSD's on Win98 now? I thought the better solution was a CF card with IDE adapter. Or at least a mechanical with SATA/IDE adapter.

Yes, even Windows 98 benefits from the responsiveness of an SSD. CF cards work fine for most things, but larger ones are super hard to find and an SSD will always be cheaper per GB.

Also, if you're using a drive over 64GB, I think you'll want to use the updated fdisk application as mentioned in this post:
Re: Cant Fdisk Hard Drive

Yet another thing that is convenient about SSDs. They are very cheap in the capacities that are suitable to "max out" a Windows 9x system. 120GB or 128GB drives are perfect since they stay within the limits without wasting space. You can buy a brand new drive for around $20, or a pile of used ones with plenty of life left in them for $10-$15 per drive.

For my tester systems I bought a bunch of 16GB msata (I think) drives ripped out of Chromebooks for like $3 each. Lightning fast, and plenty of space for my needs. I bought four of them, plus the adapters I needed (msata to sata, to IDE) for less than the price of a brand new high speed 16GB CF card.

SSD's are indeed cheap and I'm sure Win98 will run good on them (for a while, at least), but has the trimming stuff been figured out yet? That's why I went CF (and even in the grand scheme of things it really wasn't all that expensive either).

16GB CF card is $23 on amazon right now and the adapters are $6. I don't really look at that as being "expensive", at all. And 16GB was absolutely huge in 1998 in terms of hard drive space.

I don't think a lack of trim is a big deal. The worst case scenario is you lose half your performance, but even half is more than enough to saturate whatever data bus you are using.

Hey guys, I appreciate all the replies and the brief storage debate there, I'm sure I will be fine with the SSD, I hope, will let you know otherwise.

As for the GPU, I ended up acquiring the GeForce4 TI 4200 in the end, so that will be the card for this build, unless something goes wrong of course.

The last thing to cover now is the power supply, will be doing some extra research on that right now and then making a purchase today since that will be new for sure. Thank you all for your input 😀

furyanwolf wrote on 2021-01-30, 00:51:

1. Which GPU or what GPU range would be a best fit? So far I've mostly looked at GeForce3 and GeForce4 options. Naturally, I considered VooDoo cards but not only are they like water in the desert, the few that are out there are VERY, VERY expensive for my taste. I've also considered the GeForce2 series which I think would not be good enough performance wise for late 90's - early 00's games, and also considered the much newer GeForce FX 5000 series which I think may be a bit TOO new. I am currently hoping to get my hands on a GeForce4 TI 4200, depending on how an auction goes, in which case, this question may be moot, but I would still appreciate some input on my choices thus far 😀

It's not that the FX is too new, it's just that the most common FX5200 and 5500 series cards are trash and slower than the Ti4200. Theoretically they have the advantage of DX9 and nGlide support, but they are just too weak. The ones that are strong enough are the FX5600 Ultra and 5700 that can be found for relatively cheap. The cards above are also very good for W9x, but they are rare, hot and expensive. The Geforce 2 in 90s games are also very fast.

furyanwolf wrote on 2021-01-30, 00:51:

2. This is perhaps a silly one, my experience with CPU coolers lies mostly in the "Giant Radiators that could cool a car engine" area, so naturally, I'm a little paranoid seeing the sort of tiny coolers used in these times, especially since I keep stumbling across other techs complaining about overheating all the time...SO, would something like the subjectively tiny Cooler Master DP5-5F11 be enough to cool my P3 1Ghz chip? Or do I need something bigger? I will NOT be overclocking by the way.

Keeping a Pentium 3 cool is a non-issue. They really didn't produce much heat. It's more of a matter of fan noise you face. Graphics cards on the other hand are different. If you buy something from after the cooling solutions got more or less standardized, you can add some nice big coolers. Best options I've found is buying faulty graphics cards which have Zalman VF700 or Arctic Cooling Accelero L2 coolers. A lot of manufacturers used those on things like 7600, 8600, 9600 and GT240 series cards. You can get them for cheaper than the cooler on its own.

furyanwolf wrote on 2021-01-30, 00:51:

3. Possibly the most important section: Power Supplies. Obviously, as I'm sure most people cheat here, I am looking at buying a brand new power supply but I am not very well versed in this area. All I know is I keep reading/watching videos of people talking about having 5/12V rails that are strong enough, etc. What am I missing here? I was just going to buy a simple ~500 Watt Corsair or similar new PSU with all the required connectors and call it a day. Is there any reason I might want to pay more attention to my power supply purchase? What exactly do I need to understand about 5V or 12V rails that would be super important for this kind of build?

Just about any PSU has enough power to run a Pentium 3 build. You can buy something like a Be Quiet! or FSP 300-350W, they are generally cheap and reliable. The only problem you might run into that new PSUs generally don't have any molex connectors so you'll need SATA-to-molex adaptors.

RandomStranger wrote on 2021-01-31, 17:31:

It's not that the FX is too new, it's just that the most common FX5200 and 5500 series cards are trash and slower than the Ti420 […]
Show full quote

furyanwolf wrote on 2021-01-30, 00:51:

1. Which GPU or what GPU range would be a best fit? So far I've mostly looked at GeForce3 and GeForce4 options. Naturally, I considered VooDoo cards but not only are they like water in the desert, the few that are out there are VERY, VERY expensive for my taste. I've also considered the GeForce2 series which I think would not be good enough performance wise for late 90's - early 00's games, and also considered the much newer GeForce FX 5000 series which I think may be a bit TOO new. I am currently hoping to get my hands on a GeForce4 TI 4200, depending on how an auction goes, in which case, this question may be moot, but I would still appreciate some input on my choices thus far 😀

It's not that the FX is too new, it's just that the most common FX5200 and 5500 series cards are trash and slower than the Ti4200. Theoretically they have the advantage of DX9 and nGlide support, but they are just too weak. The ones that are strong enough are the FX5600 Ultra and 5700 that can be found for relatively cheap. The cards above are also very good for W9x, but they are rare, hot and expensive. The Geforce 2 in 90s games are also very fast.

furyanwolf wrote on 2021-01-30, 00:51:

2. This is perhaps a silly one, my experience with CPU coolers lies mostly in the "Giant Radiators that could cool a car engine" area, so naturally, I'm a little paranoid seeing the sort of tiny coolers used in these times, especially since I keep stumbling across other techs complaining about overheating all the time...SO, would something like the subjectively tiny Cooler Master DP5-5F11 be enough to cool my P3 1Ghz chip? Or do I need something bigger? I will NOT be overclocking by the way.

Keeping a Pentium 3 cool is a non-issue. They really didn't produce much heat. It's more of a matter of fan noise you face. Graphics cards on the other hand are different. If you buy something from after the cooling solutions got more or less standardized, you can add some nice big coolers. Best options I've found is buying faulty graphics cards which have Zalman VF700 or Arctic Cooling Accelero L2 coolers. A lot of manufacturers used those on things like 7600, 8600, 9600 and GT240 series cards. You can get them for cheaper than the cooler on its own.

furyanwolf wrote on 2021-01-30, 00:51:

3. Possibly the most important section: Power Supplies. Obviously, as I'm sure most people cheat here, I am looking at buying a brand new power supply but I am not very well versed in this area. All I know is I keep reading/watching videos of people talking about having 5/12V rails that are strong enough, etc. What am I missing here? I was just going to buy a simple ~500 Watt Corsair or similar new PSU with all the required connectors and call it a day. Is there any reason I might want to pay more attention to my power supply purchase? What exactly do I need to understand about 5V or 12V rails that would be super important for this kind of build?

Just about any PSU has enough power to run a Pentium 3 build. You can buy something like a Be Quiet! or FSP 300-350W, they are generally cheap and reliable. The only problem you might run into that new PSUs generally don't have any molex connectors so you'll need SATA-to-molex adaptors.

Thanks for the input, I did end up landing a GF4 TI 4200 so I'm pretty happy with that 😀. Also grabbed a basic cooler for Socket A/370 off eBay in the meantime and went and got a 500W EVGA PSU. A little overkill perhaps but I can always transfer it to a thirstier build whenever I get around to building an XP PC.

In any case, the parts list is now complete and edited in the initial post. Thank you all for the input once again. The last hurdle now is passing the smoke test and getting Windows 98 SE installed on that SSD. Wish me luck xD

furyanwolf wrote on 2021-01-31, 22:03:

RandomStranger wrote on 2021-01-31, 17:31:

It's not that the FX is too new, it's just that the most common FX5200 and 5500 series cards are trash and slower than the Ti420 […]
Show full quote

furyanwolf wrote on 2021-01-30, 00:51:

1. Which GPU or what GPU range would be a best fit? So far I've mostly looked at GeForce3 and GeForce4 options. Naturally, I considered VooDoo cards but not only are they like water in the desert, the few that are out there are VERY, VERY expensive for my taste. I've also considered the GeForce2 series which I think would not be good enough performance wise for late 90's - early 00's games, and also considered the much newer GeForce FX 5000 series which I think may be a bit TOO new. I am currently hoping to get my hands on a GeForce4 TI 4200, depending on how an auction goes, in which case, this question may be moot, but I would still appreciate some input on my choices thus far 😀

It's not that the FX is too new, it's just that the most common FX5200 and 5500 series cards are trash and slower than the Ti4200. Theoretically they have the advantage of DX9 and nGlide support, but they are just too weak. The ones that are strong enough are the FX5600 Ultra and 5700 that can be found for relatively cheap. The cards above are also very good for W9x, but they are rare, hot and expensive. The Geforce 2 in 90s games are also very fast.

furyanwolf wrote on 2021-01-30, 00:51:

2. This is perhaps a silly one, my experience with CPU coolers lies mostly in the "Giant Radiators that could cool a car engine" area, so naturally, I'm a little paranoid seeing the sort of tiny coolers used in these times, especially since I keep stumbling across other techs complaining about overheating all the time...SO, would something like the subjectively tiny Cooler Master DP5-5F11 be enough to cool my P3 1Ghz chip? Or do I need something bigger? I will NOT be overclocking by the way.

Keeping a Pentium 3 cool is a non-issue. They really didn't produce much heat. It's more of a matter of fan noise you face. Graphics cards on the other hand are different. If you buy something from after the cooling solutions got more or less standardized, you can add some nice big coolers. Best options I've found is buying faulty graphics cards which have Zalman VF700 or Arctic Cooling Accelero L2 coolers. A lot of manufacturers used those on things like 7600, 8600, 9600 and GT240 series cards. You can get them for cheaper than the cooler on its own.

furyanwolf wrote on 2021-01-30, 00:51:

3. Possibly the most important section: Power Supplies. Obviously, as I'm sure most people cheat here, I am looking at buying a brand new power supply but I am not very well versed in this area. All I know is I keep reading/watching videos of people talking about having 5/12V rails that are strong enough, etc. What am I missing here? I was just going to buy a simple ~500 Watt Corsair or similar new PSU with all the required connectors and call it a day. Is there any reason I might want to pay more attention to my power supply purchase? What exactly do I need to understand about 5V or 12V rails that would be super important for this kind of build?

Just about any PSU has enough power to run a Pentium 3 build. You can buy something like a Be Quiet! or FSP 300-350W, they are generally cheap and reliable. The only problem you might run into that new PSUs generally don't have any molex connectors so you'll need SATA-to-molex adaptors.

Thanks for the input, I did end up landing a GF4 TI 4200 so I'm pretty happy with that 😀. Also grabbed a basic cooler for Socket A/370 off eBay in the meantime and went and got a 500W EVGA PSU. A little overkill perhaps but I can always transfer it to a thirstier build whenever I get around to building an XP PC.

In any case, the parts list is now complete and edited in the initial post. Thank you all for the input once again. The last hurdle now is passing the smoke test and getting Windows 98 SE installed on that SSD. Wish me luck xD

So had any luck with it? 😜

Tetrium wrote on 2021-02-11, 13:23:

furyanwolf wrote on 2021-01-31, 22:03:

RandomStranger wrote on 2021-01-31, 17:31:

It's not that the FX is too new, it's just that the most common FX5200 and 5500 series cards are trash and slower than the Ti4200. Theoretically they have the advantage of DX9 and nGlide support, but they are just too weak. The ones that are strong enough are the FX5600 Ultra and 5700 that can be found for relatively cheap. The cards above are also very good for W9x, but they are rare, hot and expensive. The Geforce 2 in 90s games are also very fast.

Keeping a Pentium 3 cool is a non-issue. They really didn't produce much heat. It's more of a matter of fan noise you face. Graphics cards on the other hand are different. If you buy something from after the cooling solutions got more or less standardized, you can add some nice big coolers. Best options I've found is buying faulty graphics cards which have Zalman VF700 or Arctic Cooling Accelero L2 coolers. A lot of manufacturers used those on things like 7600, 8600, 9600 and GT240 series cards. You can get them for cheaper than the cooler on its own.

Just about any PSU has enough power to run a Pentium 3 build. You can buy something like a Be Quiet! or FSP 300-350W, they are generally cheap and reliable. The only problem you might run into that new PSUs generally don't have any molex connectors so you'll need SATA-to-molex adaptors.

Thanks for the input, I did end up landing a GF4 TI 4200 so I'm pretty happy with that 😀. Also grabbed a basic cooler for Socket A/370 off eBay in the meantime and went and got a 500W EVGA PSU. A little overkill perhaps but I can always transfer it to a thirstier build whenever I get around to building an XP PC.

In any case, the parts list is now complete and edited in the initial post. Thank you all for the input once again. The last hurdle now is passing the smoke test and getting Windows 98 SE installed on that SSD. Wish me luck xD

So had any luck with it? 😜

I'm surprised anyone followed up on this haha. Unfortunately, I've been trouble shooting this setup on and off once every few weeks since then. I had recapped the TI 4200, got no image, panicked thinking I wrecked the card, got a "verified working" ATI Radeon R 9000 Pro II for chips, also didn't display an image. Tried a "DEFINITELY supported with any BIOS" Celeron CPU instead, in case the P3 required latest BIOS, still nothing. Changed all RAM, still nothing.

Thing is, the PC boots, all the fans spin, leds blink, etc, it just doesn't post and doesn't display an image, and no its not the display or the cable either. At this point I've assumed, at the very least I have a dead AGP slot or a dead motherboard all together, considering I took a chance on it and it wasn't tested, I suppose I'm not totally surprised.

In any case, I got tired of trouble shooting with zero results so I bit the bullet a spent some money on a (this time) "tested" Gigabyte GA-6OXT, coming from somewhere in Russia sometimes in the next 3-5 weeks. (BTW, it's amazing how many great boards are for sale from Russia). Hopefully this board works, and it's got the benefit of being a great board (if nothing else goes wrong), Intel 815 EP chipset, 512MB RAM supports, AAAAAND Tualatin support, so if all goes well, I may even consider stepping this up to a 1.4 Ghz Tualatin if I find a good deal. For now it's a waiting game though.

I will say this, what a fun adventure it is trying to get old gear to work again 😁

Exactly what RAM has been tried in it? I'm a bit doubtful a 512MB stick is gonna work, 128MB is probably safe, 256MB can be hit or miss. Also is the CMOS battery fresh? There's a good number of boards that play dead with a weak or flat battery, annoying as hell.