That should be a very solid Win98 machine.

A Geforce FX 5200 isn't the most powerful, but if you stick with DirectX 8 or lower games on it you should be fine. Depending on prices, the FX 5500 is basically the same card and can be found new for reasonable prices. It retains support for 8-bit palleted textures and fog table so it can run older games correctly.

If you don't already have the Voodoo 2, I recommend getting the Geforce FX first. You can install Direct X 9 and get access to Glide emulators. Try those first and see if you like the performance. The Voodoo and Voodoo 2 were best cards during their reign, but later cards are much more powerful. If you still want a Voodoo 2 after trying emulation, go for it. But they are very expensive now.

From the images for the PSU, I'm only seeing SATA plugs for accessories. There are SATA to MOLEX adapters, but I would recommend finding something that already has MOLEX if possible. You can use whatever PSU you want.

Yes, as long as the case is ATX it should work just fine. It will all be down to the look you want this machine to have. Some people like having a retro look, others like to use modern cases with much better airflow.

i found this image https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/common … _Keying.svg.png

does that mean that if i find a graphics card with both 1.5V and 3.3V keys i can use it? my mobo only has the 1.5v key

Yes, and if you're buying anything TNT2 or newer, it probably is universal AGP and should fit in that slot. It's always best to double check the specs on the card, just in case someone used a universal key but didn't follow the spec.

The A7V600 does not have a four pin P4 connector, so it will need a PSU with a very strong +5 volt rail. My Epox 8KRA2+ is very similar, and I've had issues with power supplies as a result. I'd recommend something with a thirty amp +5 volt as a minimum. See this video by Phil's Computer Lab: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efK7mw8eYiE

I would recommend going with something other than a GeForce FX 5200 (which will be a big bottleneck for that CPU, even at lower resolutions). If you want to play at 1600 x 1200, then, at a minimum, you will need a GeForce 4 Ti 4200 (which can still be found for a reasonable price, and together with the Ti4400/4600 models, is among the fastest cards that you can use for Win98, while also being the most compatible at the same time).
Other (much) more expensive options, that can suffer from certain minor compatibility issues in a few games, but are generally still very good (and ultra-fast) for Win98:
- GeForce FX 5900(XT/Ultra)/5950Ultra
- GeForce FX 5700 Ultra
- GeForce FX 5700 (be careful with LE/VE models, which are much slower - although they are usually very good overclockers).

ATI cards like the Radeon 9800 PRO/XT or 9600XT can also be very good choices, although they also suffer from some (IMO, minor) compatibility issues (like the lack of table fog / 8-bit paletted textures support), but, overall, they also generally work extremely well in Windows 98 (with the right drivers), while also being VERY fast at high resolutions with AA and AF.

And, yes, the Voodoo 2 does work just fine when paired with any nVIDIA/ATI card that I tried, including the GeForce FX series/Radeon 9xxx series.

As a sidenote, the Asus A7V600-X is my favorite socket A motherboard, with excellent compatibility in both Win98 and DOS (when paired with the right sound card - like the Yamaha YMF724 or 744). With the A7V600-X + that Barton 3200+, you should be able to easily hit virtually any speed point between a fast 286/slow 386 and a 486DX2-66.

For Windows 98 installation it's better to start with max 512MB of RAM, otherwise bigger memory will cause issues with boot of Win98. Once system is installed with 512MB memory stick you can apply patch to allow Win98 work with bigger amount of RAM memory.
https://archive.org/details/PATCHMEM

You'll also want to comb your BIOS settings carefully for certain advanced features that were great for Windows XP or Linux, but might cause problems on Windows 98. I think you wanted to use PIC mode instead of APIC, but my memory is getting a little rusty here.

If your system has SATA ports and you want to use disks connected to those, you'll want to make sure the controller mode is set to IDE emulation rather than SATA/AHCI etc.

Stuff like that.

Go with FX 5500 if you can find one if not then even FX 5200. It should be fine for games up to 2001. My FX5600 is only a little bit faster but PIII 900 can't take full advantage of it. You should be getting the same performance as me with that CPU. More than sufficient for Windows 98 games. There is not much point in playing in high resolutions like 1600x1200 as those old games are not designed for them and lack texture details. 800x600 - 1024x768 usually works best.

SATA solid state drives are great, I use them in just about everything, but sadly that chipset does not work with them; to use one you'll need to use a SATA to IDE adapter. I use one of these in my KT6oo motherboard, I like them because of the relative neatness, but I don't know that they are any better than any of the other SATA adapters out there.

after alot of browsing on Ebay it seems that the geforce 4 cards are alot more expensive than the geforce 5 cards, what would i lose in compatibility for going with a geforce fx 5500 instead of a Geforce ti 4600 for example?

MrSteelrose wrote on 2022-10-23, 19:30:

after alot of browsing on Ebay it seems that the geforce 4 cards are alot more expensive than the geforce 5 cards, what would i lose in compatibility for going with a geforce fx 5500 instead of a Geforce ti 4600 for example?

Mostly minor things like this: Text corruption in certain games on a GeForce FX 5900XT

The GeForce 4 cards can also use slightly older drivers than the FX line, which might matter for some games from the Need For Speed series and such.

Driver 45.23 has excellent compatibility with Windows 98 games and given the price of GeForce 4 it is a better idea to get GeForce FX 5500 or even GeForce 4 440MX (128bit, non SE version). People waste a lot of money on graphics cards that aren't really needed for Windows 98 rigs. I have FX 5600 only because I got it for the price of an FX 5500, otherwise I would have used that.

would a geforce 4 ti 4800SE be good enough? its like a 4400 but with 8x agp

MrSteelrose wrote on 2022-10-24, 06:57:

would a geforce 4 ti 4800SE be good enough? its like a 4400 but with 8x agp

Even a Ti4200 is fast enough to play 95% of Win9x games in 1280x1024 at 60+ FPS, as long as you keep Anti Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering to a minimum for later titles. You can crank those up for older games just fine.

However, AGP8x versions of GeForce 4 cards can only use drivers from the 4x.xx range (or newer). As mentioned before, you only need older drivers for a few edge cases. But if you must have that, then stick with the AGP4x version of the cards.

if i stick to using my 17" CRT and play 1024x768. maybe the TI4200 is enough or even a geforce 3 ti500?

MrSteelrose wrote on 2022-10-24, 08:15:

if i stick to using my 17" CRT and play 1024x768. maybe the TI4200 is enough or even a geforce 3 ti500?

Either card is more than a match for that resolution.

If they are similarly priced, I'd personally go for the Ti4200 for a bit more power with regards to AA and AF, but it's up to you.

SScorpio wrote on 2022-10-23, 13:43:

That should be a very solid Win98 machine.

With these specs, we're well into the XP Era (something like a 2003-2004 system). 2GB Memory only became mainstream even later with Vista.
But it's totally fine if you're not looking for period correctness.

With that machine, a 9700Pro would be a perfect period correct match. (but good luck finding a working one, and maybe not the best card regarding compatibility)
Why not an MX440 ? They are really cheap (10-20€), period correct and generally well supported

acl wrote on 2022-10-24, 09:16:

Why not an MX440 ? They are really cheap (10-20€), period correct and generally well supported

Indeed, an MX440 (128-bit) card offers the best price/performance ratio for Win9x gaming. But if you care about AA/AF (and not everyone does) you might need something a bit stronger.

Additionally, MX440 cards don't support pixel shaders and EMBM. The shaders only matter for games made in 2002 and onward (e.g. Morrowind) but I personally wouldn't play those on a Win9x rig. With regards to EMBM, it's not used a whole lot, but if your favorite game has it, you might want a card which supports it.

im going with the geforce 4200, its relatively cheap, the last thing to decide is the power supply. it seems to me that my options are getting a premium expensive new power supply thats able to handle the 5V and 3.3V Rails or getting something refurbished from ebay from alot cheaper but with increase risk of everything getting destroyed from a fauly PSU