VOGONS


First post, by Hamby

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Just dug this motherboard out of my closet...
Gigabyte GA-8I865GME-775
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-8I865 … E-775-rev-1x#ov

I'm curious if it could be used as a retro Win98SE/gaming platform?

as is, it has Intel extreme graphics 2 video, which probably sucks compared to its contemporaries, but that's good.
AC'97 audio which I'm guessing is fairly compatible with early Win 95/98 games and software
it has both IDE and SATA controllers
It has 1gb ram and a 2.8ghz Pentium 4 cpu in it.. actually I think it's a dual-core cpu. Which I guess would be a problem for DOS / Win 95/98SE
My question is; would this be able to run DOS and win 95/98 software/games?
The motherboard says it has AGP 8X graphics... so I should be able to stick my FX-5500 AGP card (the one I can't get to work in my super socket 7 system) and have it work... probably not as well as the built-in Intel, but more compatible.

I know it could run XP (that's what it originally ran.)
In a multiboot config, I think I might want Win98SE / WinXP / earlier version of Linux (maybe BSD... or maybe Rasbian? That'd be interesting). Would that even be possible?
The sad part is... no ISA slots, so no Awe32.
I guess my question is, is this system located well as a bridge between win95 era and late win xp era, or would it be more headache than it's worth?

(I was digging around for the other socket 7 system I knew I had when I came across this... found it... 75mhz cpu (won't take the K6-2, already tried months ago)... no agp slot. )

Reply 1 of 6, by cyclone3d

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Would be good for win98se. The fx5500 will be way better than the garbage onboard graphics. Stick a sound Blaster Live, Audigy or Audigy 2 in there and you will have a decent setup.

DOS sound will not rally be there but that is what other systems are for. You could always get some DOS sound support with a Yamaha card and the DSDMA driver or maybe an ESS Solo-1 card.

Yamaha modified setupds and drivers
Yamaha XG repository
YMF7x4 Guide
Aopen AW744L II SB-LINK

Reply 3 of 6, by mothergoose729

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I am a big fan of the pentium IV for a fast win98 setup. I have used the 865p chipset before and it worked great.

There are, apparently, ways you can still manipulate IRQ assignment and DMA on some chipsets without ISA. It is a rabbit hole that I have never gone down.

Using Yamaha the YMF744 under DOS without legacy/ISA addressing

Reply 4 of 6, by chinny22

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P4 with AGP is begging to be a fast 9x build.
The fact you have a 775 based system over S478 makes it all the more special!

Your GF FX is about as fast as you can get while keeping backwards compatibility. I'd definitely use it.
Earlier OS's will just ignore the 2nd core so that's nothing to worry about.
The onboard sound will probably work but a creative card with EAX would definite worthwhile upgrade. Anything from Live! to Audigy 2 ZS will work.

To dual boot 98 and XP you could use 3rd party tools or what I do is install Win98 on c:\ and XP on a 2nd partition or drive. XP will setup a boot menu for you.
Not sure about the penguin.

You'll want to set the Hard Drive bios option to compatibility mode, you can use either IDE or SATA
Installing Windows 98 with more then 512MB ram will need a bit of tweaking either with the Rlow patch or system.ini hacks.

Reply 5 of 6, by AlexZ

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I would definitely keep it. I'm keeping one 2.4Ghz P4 on 865G myself. If you don't want to mess with boot loaders just install two hard drives, they are very cheap now. And you get SATA for storage if you need it.

Pentium III 900E, ECS P6BXT-A+, 384MB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 128MB, Voodoo 2 12MB, 80GB HDD, Yamaha SM718 ISA, 19" AOC 9GlrA
Athlon 64 3400+, MSI K8T Neo V, 1GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 7600GT 512MB, 250GB HDD, Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS

Reply 6 of 6, by Desomondo

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I've used that exact model motherboard in my Win98 PC for about two years now. It's a pretty damn solid board. One great thing is that the LGA775 CPUs run cool and quiet with just the stock intel cooler. I can't say the same for socket 478 or older! I don't have a load of different parts, but I've run Geforce 2, 3, 4 & FX series cards in it and they all ran just fine. The only FX series card I have is the 5600 Ultra and I found it too slow for late 2002 DX8 games like No One Lives Forever 2, but anything older wasn't an issue. Just use a glide wrapper if you need it for 3dfx games like NFS2SE. I've also used a Sound Blaster Live!, Audigiy 2 ZS , Aureal Vortex 2 and Yamaha YMF744 sound cards and they've all worked okay in DOS with a little bit of tinkering. Depending on which one I've used I've gotten the oldest games in my collection, 1990's Stunts & Prince of Persia, running just fine. Have fun!

Win98: PII 400 | 440BX | Voodoo3 | Live + SB16
WinME: P4 HT 641 | 865G | Geforce4 Ti4400 | Audigy2ZS
WinXP: C2 Q9400 | G41 | Geforce GTX 280 | X-Fi
Win7: i7 2600K | P67 | Geforce GTX 980ti | X-Fi
Win10: R7 5800X | X570 | Radeon RX 6800 | X-Fi Titanium