Hmmm... that's a tricky one:
1) Dell still had machines in that era that were very modular, e.g. the Dimension 8xxx series.
You do NOT want the elcheapo systems with on-chipset graphics, no AGP slots, etc. Be very careful with the business systems - not sure what expansion slots they had back then.
2) P4s are... mediocre and run very hot. Athlons were better but finding a socket A motherboard with healthy caps is not going to be easy. I admit that my first reaction was that you should be looking at a nice high-end PIII system instead, but those are likely to be a lot more expensive.
3) To the extent you are getting a P4, you probably want the 865 chipset with DDR1, etc. Anything before that... is either RDRAM (meh) or deliberately-compromised-not-to-threaten-RDRAM SDRAM stuff. Anything after that is PCI-E.

What software are you actually hoping to run on this? 98SE? If you were wanting to run XP, I'd suggest selling your two AGP cards and getting a newer PCI-E system for way less money... (you can get soooo much GPU in PCI-Eland for the price of a Ti4200)

Yeah I definitely need an AGP slot...

I was looking at something like the Dell Dimension 4600 maybe? It has i865PE chipset and DDR and 1x AGP + 3X PCI, SATA, etc.

I've found one about an hour and half away for $80... (it stinks I don't have anything closer but not much I can do!)

Thing with OEM stuff is that it's not always 100% standards compliant, so if some component dies you need to find the exact FRU replacement for it rather than just some generic thing that does the same. I'm not even talking about Dell's non-ATX pinout on ATX connector (or Compaq doing something similar with what looks like an AT P8+P9 connector but isn't), but simple things like front panel connectors and the like. Also, cooling solutions while elegant tend to be completely unique to a specific machine. Generally the more premium the brand, the bigger the chance of this. So I tend to avoid them. It's a matter of taste though, particularly as the Compaqs and Dells of this world did tend to use above-average quality parts, at least on their workstation lines. The regular desktops were just as cost-cutting monstrosities as other brands complete with underdimensioned MOSFETs and bottom feeder bad caps.

Things to avoid:
Proprietary mb form factors - if you decide to upgrade you are stuck.
Proprietary power supplies - after 20 years may have capacitor problem.
Cases with missing chassis parts (doors, stubs, buttons etc) - difficult to find those separately.

In general a custom-built tower with any atx board solves those.
Also, unless you are talking PCI Voodoo 3 you will have a hard time finding 3volt AGP board for Pentium 4 (you are then looking for SiS 651 and similar chipsets)

Thanks for the advice!

From what I've researched, the Dell Dimension 4600 uses a standard ATX power supply and a standard ATX motherboard. (I've seen posts of others replacing both with standard ATX PSU/mobo and it's worked fine; the front panel connectors are the only issue for the motherboard)

As for the Voodoo 3, I am lucky enough to have the PCI version so I don't have to worry about AGP 3.3v.

Yeah becareful with dells I have the 3100c and 3000 and find something with a floppy drive to install drivers on install

I have some IBM from 8088 to Pentium4, the quality drop constantly from 486 to pentium to pentium II/III and the Pentium4 IBM is the only one i have that have lakead caps... not buy an IBM if you aren't collector like me

Thanks again for the information everybody.

The seller just accepted my offer of $50 so I'm going to give the 4600 a try.

I know it's not period-accurate, but I'd like to use an SSD since the motherboard supports SATA.

Can I use anything modern (even the Samsung EVO 870, etc) or do I need to look for something that supports an older SATA spec?

sofakng wrote on 2024-02-11, 19:56:

Thanks for the advice!

From what I've researched, the Dell Dimension 4600 uses a standard ATX power supply and a standard ATX motherboard. (I've seen posts of others replacing both with standard ATX PSU/mobo and it's worked fine; the front panel connectors are the only issue for the motherboard)

As for the Voodoo 3, I am lucky enough to have the PCI version so I don't have to worry about AGP 3.3v.

The 4600 is standard other than front panel connectors. Standard AGP 4x slot. The stock PSU is not great. It will take literally any ram you throw in it (besides ECC) and has pretty good quality caps. The Dell bios even has some win95 compatibility settings in it iirc.

sofakng wrote on 2024-02-12, 00:21:

Thanks again for the information everybody. […]
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Thanks again for the information everybody.

The seller just accepted my offer of $50 so I'm going to give the 4600 a try.

I know it's not period-accurate, but I'd like to use an SSD since the motherboard supports SATA.

Can I use anything modern (even the Samsung EVO 870, etc) or do I need to look for something that supports an older SATA spec?

What OS are you planning to run?

Assuming 98SE (which has to be the right answer for why you'd be buying a P4 in 2024), then... ouch, SATA and 98SE is ugly. It's much uglier on Via chipsets than on Intel, but I think on Intel you need some BIOS options to remap your SATA controller to traditional IDE memory addresses to have a reasonable amount of luck. And I'm not sure how many rloew patches you might need on top of that.

I... would think... any generic SATA SSD should be fine, I'd probably suggest sticking to the lower end, e.g. the Kingston A400, I forget the one from Crucial, etc. The ones that are explicitly marketed as upgrades for older (though their idea of older isn't exactly... ICH5) systems. Note that 98SE has limits at 137 gigs, so really, just find an elcheapo 120 gig drive. The early Via SATA controllers are known to have forward compatibility issues with anything newer than SATA 1.0 but I don't think that's true of the Intels...

Hopefully you don't end up in the ridiculous situation my AMD-powered 98SE project ended up - with a SATA drive connected via a PATA-SATA adapter to a PATA channel, even though the motherboard has SATA, and waiting for a NOS PATA DVD drive that's currently in shipping... (but at least your Dell should have come with a PATA optical drive) I naively thought I could get 98SE happy enough with SATA and I eventually gave up.

VivienM wrote on 2024-02-12, 00:38:

Assuming 98SE (which has to be the right answer for why you'd be buying a P4 in 2024), then... ouch, SATA and 98SE is ugly. It's much uglier on Via chipsets than on Intel, but I think on Intel you need some BIOS options to remap your SATA controller to traditional IDE memory addresses

As you kind of say this comes down more to motherboard chipset then anything else.
and "IDE/legacy mode" on Intel 865 chipset this PC has works perfect and completely invisible to Win98 for both HDD and optical.
That said IDE optical drive is preferred as SATA typically don't have the CD-Audio cable.
And if for some reason the SDD doesn't want to work you can always try a IDE to SATA converter.

Make sure the Dell 4600 you are buying does have the AGP slot, there are a few variants, on some it is missing (but the solder pads are there).
For chipset that is good. IIRC It is a Pegatron oem micro board (micro-ATX) so the only bios support you have is thru Dell. Overall probably a good system !

VivienM wrote on 2024-02-12, 00:38:

SATA and 98SE is ugly.

That is not true for Intel 865 chipset.
Any store brand 128gb ssd can be used BUT drive size needs capping to 120gb with Seagate Seatools first. After that you are good to go, no patches or anything needed.

P4 era hardware = will need recapping sooner or later