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Advice on part selection for Win98 gaming build

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First post, by CoconutCream

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Hi there, newbie here. Been bitten by the retro bug, and with the modern components market being what it is, I've become enamored with the idea of putting together a classic gaming rig. I've been looking at some parts online and was hoping to get some advice/ feedback before I buy anything. I'm trying to keep my budget to a minimum, so definitely not looking for any holy-grail parts and appreciate budget-friendly advice.

My goal is to create a Win98 machine that approximates my gaming experience circa 2001-2002:
-Doom
-Duke3d/ Shadow Warrior (I've gotta try Blood sometime.)
-Diablo I & II
-Red Alert 2
-Jagged Alliance II
-Baldur's Gate
-Unreal
-Emulators like Snes9x
-Neverwinter Nights (Maybe, this is like the latest end of the spectrum)

I unfortunately am not aware of any cool components shops in my area, so my options are probably scouring thrift stores in general or online. That said, I took to Ebay and managed to find the following parts on offer:

-MSI Microstar MS-6534 Mobo - 1.5v AGP, 3 PCI. No ISA slots, so that's gonna limit my sound compatibility for DOS games pretty strictly, right? It's period appropriate though. On the plus side, I found a copy of the manual online. The more documentation available the better.

-Intel Pentium 4 2.60 GHz SL6WH - Not married to this particular CPU, mostly chose P4 in the first place for budget and availability reasons, so anything that slots 478 and can be had cheaply is fine by me.

-NVIDIA GeForce4 MX440 64MB TV-OUT AGP PC Graphics Card - This hits the recommended specs on NWN and has DirectX 9.0c.

-Spectek 256MB P64M6416YA7-75A PC133 Memory RAM - These are super cheap and the seller has more than one, so the plan was to slot 2 to hit the 512 mb cap on win98.

Most of these parts were chosen based solely on price and availability, and mostly picked around the Mobo (based on reference to the aforementioned manual.)

So, any red flags here so far? Does it seem likely that this thing would be relatively capable for the period I'm chasing? Any recommendations for other parts that would play nicely here? I'm totally open to suggestions here and any feedback is welcome and appreciated!

Reply 1 of 4, by atom1kk

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One note, the GF 4 MX is a DirectX 7 card, while GF4 TIs are 8, GF5 aka FX had DirectX9

You g´have to be aware of the FSB of the P4. It had 3 versions 400, 533 and 800Mhz FSB. So you need to know which FSb does your board support

So in this case the CPU has 800 Mhz FSB but he Board has support only for 400, so it wont match.

THe FSB of the CPU is stamped on the header. there are many figures but you will see clearly in the 2nd or 3rd line if there is a 400,533 or 800

Last edited by atom1kk on 2022-01-31, 16:55. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 2 of 4, by CoconutCream

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Thanks for the reply. Upon googling, I see what you mean about the GF4. Seller listed API as directX 9, which I took at face value. I'll have to have another look after work.

I'll also have another look at the mobo manual and check out the FSB situation. Thanks!

EDIT: I see you've done some of my homework. Thanks again.

Reply 3 of 4, by TrashPanda

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atom1kk wrote on 2022-01-31, 16:44:
One note, the GF 4 MX is a DirectX 7 card, while GF4 TIs are 8, GF5 aka FX had DirectX9 […]
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One note, the GF 4 MX is a DirectX 7 card, while GF4 TIs are 8, GF5 aka FX had DirectX9

You g´have to be aware of the FSB of the P4. It had 3 versions 400, 533 and 800Mhz FSB. So you need to know which FSb does your board support

So in this case the CPU has 800 Mhz FSB but he Board has support only for 400, so it wont match.

THe FSB of the CPU is stamped on the header. there are many figures but you will see clearly in the 2nd or 3rd line if there is a 400,533 or 800

Yes the FX GPUs had DX9 . .not that you would ever use it since it utter garbage and the FX cards choke on DX9, better to get a Radeon if you want dx9 from that era.

Don't get me wrong their DX7/8 performance is excellent and I would happily recommend one for that purpose (FX5800/5900 are good) but dont be expecting them to have good DX9 because they dont and they were well known for that too.

Reply 4 of 4, by atom1kk

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the benefit of the fx card is not for dx9. It is said that nvidia cards have good compatibility on old games, better than ati and with dx9 you can use nglide.

If you want play dx9 you would go generations above, depends which os are you using.

I mean for the same money you could buy a card wich is twice or more times faster than the mx.

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