VOGONS


First post, by ksiumaxx

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Hi
I'm building a computer with Windows 98 from late 90s. Parts I chosed, are:

AMD K6-2 350
32MB Ram ( I will upgrade to 128 later)
S3 Trio 64V+
ESS Audiodrive ES1688f
network card
CD and DVD drive
3.5 Floppy

For some reason CPU is detected as 486DX2 66 MHz. I tried resetting the Bios, removing CMOS battery and putting a new one, but there are no changes. And one question. I connected CD and DVD drives on one cable to ISA controller built in the Sound Card, becose when connected to second IDE on computer won't start. Will Windows 98 detcted them, and I'll be able to install it as normal?

EDIT: I tried, and both CD and DVD are not detected

Reply 1 of 7, by RandomStranger

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Interesting choices for a late 90s Windows 98 machine. ISA sound card more suited to DOS, underpowered CPU for the late 90s, no 3D acceleration.

For late 90s on a budget I'd go Socket 462 (AMD), Socket 370 (Intel/VIA) with 1 ISA slot and SB-Link connector if possible.
Something equivalent to a 733MHz Pentium 3 or faster
Sound Blaster SB0060; SB0100 or SB0220 or Yamaha YMF7x4, or ESS Solo-1 and your ESS1688f
Geforce 2 MX400 or Geforce 4 MX440

sreq.png retrogamer-s.png

Reply 2 of 7, by ksiumaxx

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I made a mistake. It's a more a mid 90s PC than late 90s. I already got a late 90s PC. It has Celeron 1000MHz, SB Live, Geforce 2 MX400 and 256mb RAM.

Reply 3 of 7, by jheronimus

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What is your mobo? It might be okay that your board misidentifies the CPU, as long as the performance doesn't suffer. Also I'd look for a BIOS update.

Same goes for the CD issue — it's just weird to heard about a Socket 7 board that can't identify the CD drive. In any case, it shouldn't matter for DOS/Windows as long as you have the drivers installed. The only issue would be not being able to boot from CD — but with Windows CDs you can use a boot floppy. Again, I'd look for a BIOS update first.

MR BIOS catalog
Unicore catalog

Reply 4 of 7, by leileilol

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ksiumaxx wrote on 2022-02-26, 15:29:

32MB Ram ( I will upgrade to 128 later)

If it's old enough to not know the K6, i'd advise against going beyond 64mb....

ksiumaxx wrote on 2022-02-26, 17:07:

I already got a late 90s PC. It has Celeron 1000MHz, SB Live, Geforce 2 MX400 and 256mb RAM.

That's a midlate-2001 budget PC. 😉

apsosig.png
long live PCem

Reply 5 of 7, by Cuttoon

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The whole "mid or late 90s" question:
It depends very much on whether you look up release dates for hardware or you're building what anyone really used that time.

E.g. I got a Pentium-S 133 with 32 MB in early 1997 and considered that very much adequate until it croaked on me in 1999.
I then bought just that, a MVP3 ATX board with a K6-2 350 with 64 MB. Had a Voodoo banshee, though.
On a student's budget, that felt quite luxurious.

The CD-ROM and DVD issue: Captain Obvious says you should double check the whole master-slave-jumper issue and the cable orientation.

I like jumpers.

Reply 6 of 7, by BinaryDemon

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Honestly it’s not really much of a Win98 machine given the S3 Trio 64v+ doesn’t offer much in the way 3D acceleration. I’d lean move heavily into DOS games with that.

Check out DOSBox Distro:

https://sites.google.com/site/dosboxdistro/ [*]

a lightweight Linux distro (tinycore) which boots off a usb flash drive and goes straight to DOSBox.

Make your dos retrogaming experience portable!

Reply 7 of 7, by Cuttoon

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BinaryDemon wrote on 2022-03-02, 00:53:

Honestly it’s not really much of a Win98 machine given the S3 Trio 64v+ doesn’t offer much in the way 3D acceleration. I’d lean move heavily into DOS games with that.

Well, CnC Red Alert was released in 1996 and Starcraft in 98, so there is legit windows gaming in 2d.

Going by release date, the K6-2 350 is from 1998, so a voodoo2 would be e good addon here, were they not made of unobtainium lately...

Don't worrry, I don't know all those dates by heart.
It's much worse, I enjoy looking them up 😜

I like jumpers.