CorruptJelly wrote on 2024-01-23, 19:17:I confess that I’ve been a bit hesitant to go down the AMD route, as the research I had done previously brought me to the conclu […]
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VivienM wrote on 2024-01-23, 02:41:There are some interesting things on the AMD side, e.g. I have an AM2 board with AGP and a Via chipset... but I haven't actually […]
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CorruptJelly wrote on 2024-01-22, 20:49:
I haven’t done to much research on the AMD side of things. I’ll look into socket 939 with the chipsets you mentioned. Thanks ☺️
There are some interesting things on the AMD side, e.g. I have an AM2 board with AGP and a Via chipset... but I haven't actually managed to get 98SE running. Suspect I need PATA storage because unlike some Intel setups, it doesn't have the ability to map the SATA controller to the memory addresses that 98SE expects. But if you want to be adventurous like me, the Biostar AM2 K8M800 board can be found with CPUs and RAM affordably on eBay.
Same chipset is available on 754 boards (the K8 chips all use the same HyperTransport interface to the chipset so weird combinations of sockets and chipsets are possible.). Not sure if 754 vs 939 matters for a retro system running a single-core/processor-only OS. Various folks e.g. Phil's Computer Lab on YouTube have done 98SE builds on 754 boards.
The i865 boards that support later LGA775 chips are probably a better option than my AM2, but as you've already determined, they've already been pretty much all snatched up. So then if you want to go older, you're into Hotburst territory... and... ewww, who wants a hotburst?
(I admit, one of the things that drew me to AMD for this project is doing something totally different from what I would have had at the time and subsequently ewasted. And as a huge huge huge Intel fanboy who would never, ever have touched an AMD with a Via chipset, well, that seemed weirdly appealing for a retro build)
I confess that I’ve been a bit hesitant to go down the AMD route, as the research I had done previously brought me to the conclusion that it can be a bit of a minefield getting a decent 98 compatible board.
I wouldn’t risk trying my chances with anything above socket 939, as I’ve just heard too many horror stories about people battling to get AM2/AM3 boards to play nicely with 98.
Assuming I did go team red - is there a socket 939 processor that is on par with the core 2? (When comparing individual cores).
I suppose I can't disagree with that, although it seems like it's purely a BIOS thing. The K8M800 and the Via whatever number southbridge on my AM2 board are the exact same chipset that have been used quite successfully on 754/939 boards, so unless those boards have additional 98SE-friendly BIOS features, you'd think the experience should be similar. (Any newer/non-weird AM2 board would be a newer PCI-E chipset and that's a whole other story) I need to get back to trying but with less RAM (yes, I was trying the rloew patch, but that's additional complication) and a PATA<->SATA adapter and hopefully I will have better luck. But otherwise... high-performance single core Athlon, AGP, DDR2 RAM, affordable price shouldn't be a bad combination... (and indeed, when in a fit of frustration, I installed XP on the thing, it's... quite a passable XP system)
The 939 processors were completely dominant before the Core 2 launch. No one wanted hotbursts in 2004-5. The general approach I would suggest: take your motherboard's supported processor list. Start with the highest performing option, see what's out there on eBay or elsewhere. Assuming it's stupidly expensive (the top processors for any socket tend to be), move on to the second and third-highest performing until you find something reasonable. Don't forget to also think about coolers...
Do look at 754 and the 754 semprons too. Might be some reasonable options there from around the time that 939 really went dual-core.
One other thing, and it bothers me saying that as someone who would never have touched a Via chipset 20 years ago: my understanding is that you want Via and not nForce for a retro AMD system. I'm not quite sure the details, but... presumably others can explain.