Hello Community,

After spending the last couple weeks reading posts on this forum I've finally decided to create an account and join in on the fun. My name is Chris and I've recently had the urge to build a retro PC that would allow me to play games from my childhood. I built my first and current computer in 2017 using then modern parts which was simple enough. I've come to understand that building something reminiscent of 20+ years ago will not be as easy. As previously mentioned I've spent the past couple weeks reading posts on this forum. I've also done a lot of watching on Youtube, particularly Philscomputerlab, who I know is a member of this forum. I've gather up some drivers and manuals and even bought a fair bit of the parts. I am looking for some guidance which I will detail later. First, I would like to more thoroughly flesh out my aims and progress so that the community can illuminate if I'm on the right track or where I may have stumbled.

My goal for this project is to build a Win98 gaming PC. Particularly, I'd love to get Mechwarrior 2 + expansions and Mechwarrior 3 running with joystick. Other games I'd like to play include Expendable, Slave Zero, MDK(2), or whatever else the community might recommend. I am not looking to build a PC optimized for dos gaming. I am not looking to overclock this PC. This will be an always offline PC. I have no need for the PC to be optimized for LAN gaming.

So where am I? After browsing through Ebay listings I picked up an ECS P6BAP-A+ https://www.ebay.com/itm/203652790550. The motherboard was new old-stock with I/O shield and ribbon cables but lacked a driver disk or manual. Yes, I understand I probably overpaid for the blasted thing but my hope was that I would avoid troubled capacitors or other ails. While waiting for that to come in I also purchased a Pentium III Socket 370 733/256/133 with heatsink and fan. This is when I realized I may have made a mistake. My knowledge of the motherboard came from this post on Anandtech https://www.anandtech.com/show/532 but after looking over the Ebay listing again I noticed that the description listed only a 100mhz FSB. Moreover, the manual I downloaded corroborated the 100mhz limitation. I soon learned afterward that the motherboard I purchased came in two versions: 1.0 which operates up to 100mhz FSB and 2.2 which operates up to 133mhz.

With processor in hand and still waiting for the motherboard I purchased a lot of 4 sticks of Micron 128mb PC100 SDRAM. I also picked up 2 GPUs: a PNY Verto GeForce2 MX400 64mb AGP dual keyed with manual and disk and a Dell GeForce2 MX 32mb AGP dual keyed without manual or disk

The motherboard came in and I was surprised to see that it was not a Rev 1.0, not a Rev 2.2 but instead a Rev 2.0. So, what the heck is that? Well, I found one webpage which reviewed the board. It describes the board as an engineering board. https://assets.hardwarezone.com/2009/reviews/ … /p6bat-ap20.htm. The board more closely matches the manual for Rev 2.2 including the jumpers to force 133mhz.

Lastly , I visited a friend and scavenged a trio of old PCs netting myself a case, a couple of HDDs cd/floppy drives and 2 sticks of TA or TATA brand 256mb PC133 SDRAM. The hard drives are Maxtor 20gb, Western Digital 40gb and Seagate 120gb. The Seagate seems dead. It wont show up in bios or windows. The Western Digital screams like beaten child and might be on its last legs. Finally the Maxtor seems to be in good condition. It is quiet. I did not use any tools to evaluate HDD health. The optical drives are 2 Hitachi LG CD-R/RW drives and an LG Super Multi DVD Rewriter with Lightscribe. I also nabbed a 3 1/2 floppy drive by Mitsumi which lacks the plastic front panel. I also took 2 motherboards that looked in decent enough shape. An ECS G31T-M9 and an Asus A7V-VM. I also took the CPUs. An Athlon A1300AMS3B, a Pentium Dual Core E5300 and a Pentium 4

The list of parts for the build thus far is:

• ECS P6BAP-A+ Rev 2.0
  Pentium III 733/256//133 with fan and heatsink
  3 Micron 128mb PC100 single-sided 8 chips OR
  2 TA(TA) 256mb PC133 double-sided 4 chips/side
  PNY Verto GeForce2 MX400 64mb AGP dual keyed with manual and disk OR
  Dell GeForce2 MX 32mb AGP dual keyed without manual or disk
  Some combination of CD DVD Floppy drives
  20gb hdd
  PC case
  Dell Flat Screen monitor

So what's the problem? Obviously none of this is useful without a power supply. The motherboard is a 20 pin and will not fit a 24 pin. A 20+4 would be ok though. I need help determining what would be suitable. I know it needs to be strong enough on the 5v and 3.3 volt. Older power supplies would be best, I think, but if I can get away with a modern PSU that would be great. I'm trying to avoid replacing caps. With an older PSU my understanding is that it is all but necessary . Of course, this may not be avoidable anyway. Online wisdom suggests electrolytic capacitors have a shelf life so I might be replacing them on the motherboard anyway. I have those other two to practice on.

My other problem concerns the motherboard BIOS/drivers. If I'm understanding it correctly I'll need to look for those that match the chipsets. But I'd like to know if its possible to backup whatever is on this thing before I go flashing it. I can visually verify that the southbridge is VIA VT82C596B but the northbridge is covered by a heatsink and I'm unsure how to remove it. No spring pins. Just seems stuck on there.

No so much an issue but I haven't decided on a sound card yet. Any suggestions?

I think that about covers the issues at this point. There's still so much to do regarding software but all that is moot until I've got the the thing put together and feel comfortable that it won't burn out.

Thanks for listening.