No, most of PCI sound cards will make problems with DOS games.
I strongly recommend you to use an ISA soundcard.

Disruptor wrote on 2024-06-05, 15:37:

No, most of PCI sound cards will make problems with DOS games.
I strongly recommend you to use an ISA soundcard.

Thx for comment

Yeah but I heard ISA card very expensive do u have any ISA card suggestions ?

Intel chipset and S3 Virge with 32MB ram is a fine start, but I'd look for an ISA sound card too.

Some ESS 1868 based card or CMI might be a fine choice that fits any budget.

Oh and if your P150 runs at the 60MHz bus, you may set the bus to 66 and run it at 166. It helps the ram speed too. Or maybe at 75x2 if your board and ram are happy with it.

DataDragons wrote on 2024-06-05, 15:34:

play dos games only with sound blaster live
This is the best choice?

No, SBLive!'s DOS drivers require EMM to work (reducing compatibility) and the FM synth emulation sucks. Like Disruptor mentioned, an ISA sound card is recommended. YMF-71x based sound cards are another decent option besides the ESS AudioDrives.

The rest of the hardware specs are fine for DOS gaming.

ISA sound cards are not that expensive if you get a bog standard SB16 or clone (ESS, Crystal).

What about soundblaster awe64 value can I use on this card on my mainboard?

yes. anything but a PCI sound card should be good. I have no comment on the hanging note politics. Also it doesn't have to be the creative brand - there's also aztech, turtle beach and diamond ISA sound hardware out there and WSS cards that provide fair compatibility. To go exotic on ISA sound would probably be a GUS and that's a big compatibility gamble (with the ultimate payoff being good sound for tracker music'd stuff like demoscene prods and many Epic games).

An AWE64 doesn`t have the hanging note bug.
A good choice in my opinion.

A suggestion from me is that if it's just about pure DOS, then also use DOS (6.22) either on its own or in addition to Windows 98.

DataDragons wrote on 2024-06-05, 16:46:

What about soundblaster awe64 value can I use on this card on my mainboard?

Yes, I have the CT4520 variant which is very easy to find. You can apply reverb and chorus to the FM synth in DOS.

Just watch out for versions that looks castrated though.

leileilol wrote on 2024-06-05, 16:50:

yes. anything but a PCI sound card should be good. I have no comment on the hanging note politics. Also it doesn't have to be the creative brand - there's also aztech, turtle beach and diamond ISA sound hardware out there and WSS cards that provide fair compatibility. To go exotic on ISA sound would probably be a GUS and that's a big compatibility gamble (with the ultimate payoff being good sound for tracker music'd stuff like demoscene prods and many Epic games).

to be honest, I've read a lot of reviews. And there are a lot of people always recommending creative brand.
I have feeling that if I choose this brand i cant go wrong plus im pretty newbie
i mean even doom have sound options for soundblaster especially
I think this brand's card should mainly support most dos games.
But thank you very much for your opinion I am very pleased.

Yes AWE64 is fine. It's SB16 compatible and you get a wavetable. Win98 will take care of all the configuration and making sure DOS games have what they need to use the card.

The perk of the AWE64 are the few DOS games that use custom soundbanks for improved music or sound like Hi-Octane, Magic Carpet 2, Eradicator (MC2 and Erad are bundled with the card)

once you have that isa card and sound is good you will find with 98se and 32mb that its also a nice machine for all kinds of win3.1 and earlier win 95-98 games too, like 2d or isometric games. it's going to be a nice system. add a cd and big enough hdd and you can have hundreds of dos, 3.1 and 9x games to play!

DataDragons wrote on 2024-06-05, 17:12:

to be honest, I've read a lot of reviews. And there are a lot of people always recommending creative brand.
I have feeling that if I choose this brand i cant go wrong plus im pretty newbie

You might want to check out this thread: Sound Blaster: From best to worst

There are bugs and audio quality issues with different models of Creative Labs cards. That thread can help sort through which specific Creative Labs cards are worth getting.

There are some models of Creative Labs cards that are worth it, but not all of them are. There are other brands that in some cases are quite superior to Creative Labs cards.

Just don't forget the CD-audio cable.^^

Demolition-Man wrote on 2024-06-05, 20:23:

Just don't forget the CD-audio cable.^^

hey i have some question
do i need to put audio cable to cd-rom drive
what if im not use audio cable the sound of speaker will be bad?
sorry im totally new here

Some games use CD audio tracks as music. Without a cable you have no music. It's just a small thing that is often forgotten, nothing critical.

Just get a VIBRA16. Most people disdain them so they're cheap. They work perfectly fine though. Later you can invest in a better card if you decide to take this hobby seriously.

ETA: And yes, make sure you get a CD audio cable appropriate for your card. Not essential, but you'll be missing out on CD audio music without one.

DataDragons wrote on 2024-06-05, 17:12:

leileilol wrote on 2024-06-05, 16:50:

yes. anything but a PCI sound card should be good. I have no comment on the hanging note politics. Also it doesn't have to be the creative brand - there's also aztech, turtle beach and diamond ISA sound hardware out there and WSS cards that provide fair compatibility. To go exotic on ISA sound would probably be a GUS and that's a big compatibility gamble (with the ultimate payoff being good sound for tracker music'd stuff like demoscene prods and many Epic games).

to be honest, I've read a lot of reviews. And there are a lot of people always recommending creative brand.
I have feeling that if I choose this brand i cant go wrong plus im pretty newbie

Lies, damned lies and marketing.

Creative set a number of highly significant standards but a significant number of their cards were poorly engineered bug-fests. See the link Shponglefan posted.

You pay a premium to get the Creative brand, even on cards that are objectively bad. There are definitely good Creative cards too, but no definitive perfect all-rounder. If you want a trouble-free card that can do almost anything, you probably want something that's not Creative.

i mean even doom have sound options for soundblaster especially

Yes, the Soundblaster *standard*. However the best implementation of that standard need not be a Creative card. In fact Doom has options for Soundblaster, Soundblaster Pro (stereo) and Soundblaster 16 (stereo and higher quality). Almost all non-Creative cards support Soundblaster Pro (2.0) and quite a few support SB16 as well.

I think this brand's card should mainly support most dos games.
But thank you very much for your opinion I am very pleased.

Brand is marketing. If you can find an original Soundblaster Pro 2.0 (CT1600) you will have a trouble-free (albeit noisy) card, but you will pay up to ten times the price of a non-Creative card with support for the same features, as well as many more (eg. a (bug-free) MPU-401 UART MIDI interface) and lower noise levels. SB16 cards are less expensive and have more features (MPU-401 UART, 16b audio) but all have sound artefacts (DMA clicks or Vibra hiss), all have slowdowns when playing MIDI music and high-quality audio, most have various hanging note bugs in MIDI music and many are noisy as well. Also, newer cards don't have a real Yamaha OPL3 synth but a mediocre Creative CQM clone. The best SB16 cards minimize these issues, but there is no perfect card. By contrast, both C-Media CMI8330 and Advance Logic ALS100 offer all of the features of SB16 but with none the bugs. Find a decently made card with one of these chipsets and it will probably cost less than even the worst SB16 and still function better.

Now, DOS audio is a huge rabbit hole to dive down. More likely than not any ISA card you get will be at least fully SBPro compatible and work fine in most games, even the most maligned buggy SB16. But that's not an argument to waste money on Creative cards, it's in fact an argument to get the cheapest ISA sound card you can find and see how you like that. Good enough? Then keep using it. Not good enough? Then you know exactly which features/bugs you find important in the games you like to play.