First post, by NamelessPlayer
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(It's been a while since I last posted here...hope there's nothing wrong with that.)
Okay, I have two legacy systems for the sole purpose of classic gaming(at least for very late 1980s-early 1990s IBM games, as I'd rather play anything earlier through WinUAE, CaSTaway, or other home computer emulator since PCs sucked as gaming machines back then):
-PCChips M598 mobo (Super Socket 7, 2x ISA, 3x PCI, 3x SDRAM)
-AMD K6-2 350 (366 MHz)
-SiS 530 integrated graphics
(That's a pretty horrible motherboard, by the way. No AGP, and the layout for some of the connectors will give you wiring hell, probably because it's AT! I have to route the serial port cables over the PCI cards, for instance! The fact that the CPU HSF limits the length of two of those three PCI slots is annoying as well, since I can only install one Voodoo 2 card. At least the BIOS isn't too bad, since it lets me OC the CPU and adjust RAM timings)
-some Foxconn mobo (Slot 1, Intel 440LX, 66 MHz FSB, 1x ISA, 1x ISA/PCI, 3x PCI, 1x AGP 2x, 3x SDRAM)
-Intel Pentium II 233 MHz (Klamath)
-Trident 9685 2 MB 2D VGA card (PCI)
(I just picked this system up from a thrift store for 25 US$ a day or two ago. Since it's an ATX form factor, the wiring is much more clean, thank goodness. There's also an AGP slot that I could cram a Radeon 8500 or something else into. Unfortunately, the 440LX chipset doesn't seem to support the 100 MHz FSB, nor the Pentium III line, limiting me to a 333 MHz CPU. Another significant downside is that just moving my PS/2 mouse results in a MASSIVE performance hit. Furthermore, I can't adjust CPU clock speeds in the BIOS, nor can I mess with memory timings.)
Parts I can use between these two systems:
-Creative SB AWE64 Gold ISA
-STB Voodoo 2 12 MB PCI
-128 MB PC-100 SDRAM stick
-2x 32 MB SDRAM sticks
-4 GB 5.25" HDD (Wait, since when did hard drives take up 5.25" bays?)
-10 GB 3.5" HDD
The first question is, which of these two should I keep, or at least primarily use? (My mother is a bit upset about having three PCs in the house already, and I'm about to get a fourth meant for modern PC games that my Athlon XP 1800+ system chokes on.) The P2 system has better graphics card options and a much better wiring job, but the damn thing slows down just by moving the mouse, and CPU options are limited. The K6 system can take a K6-III+ 450 from what I've heard, which can OC to 550 MHz easily. It also doesn't slow down upon mouse movement. Unfortunately, there's no AGP slot, two of the PCI slots can't accept long cards like the Voodoo 2, and it's a spaghetti mess of cables in there.
Second off, I just realized that the AWE64 Gold isn't exactly the best for all games. FM synth is poorer than genuine OPL2/OPL3 cards, for instance, but I'd take MIDI from the AWE portion or a Roland solution over FM synth any day. I'm looking at pairing it with a Roland LAPC-I, if I can ever find one(eBay doesn't have any right now). There's also the Gravis Ultrasound line to look into, which has an interesting design that the demoscene embraced, but it has poor SB support, and only having two ISA slots means it's either the LAPC-I or the GUS(I'm not giving up the AWE64 Gold because of its SB compatibility).
Third, how do I fix that bloody mouse slowdown on the P2 system? Maybe I ought to use a USB mouse and see if that works, or check the drivers for whatever controls the PS/2 port.
Fourth, what AGP card do you recommend for the P2 system? I was thinking of using a Radeon 8500, but that might be overkill. (Nevertheless, I want something with HT&L, as well as great D3D and OGL performance. I'll use the V2 in conjunction for the Glide games like MW2 31stCC.)