Like others have suggested: a Pentium 3 system would be the best for your choice of games, with the exception of Wing Commander, the only speed sensitive DOS game in the collection.
Actually, a fast P3 seems quite nice for Wing Commander 1, provided you can turn off the cpu cache. A P3 will fall back to the speeds of a fast 286 or slower 386. WC1 is actually a game I can play on my P3-1000. But this likely requires ISA sound, the SB0060 may not manage.
While a board with an Intel 440BX chipset would be ideal, I wouldn't consider a VIA chipset a deal breaker. Even though VIA chipsets are known to be slightly slower, and have sound dropouts with PCI sound cards. ISA sound cards work just fine though.
Sure, VIA is part of the retro experience and if you want to experience the past as it was, VIA is a must. I myself did experience VIA in the past and don't need to repeat this aspect of retro glory... 😉
Retro PC warning: The things you own end up owning you.
dormcatwrote on 2024-08-09, 23:42:Like others have suggested: a Pentium 3 system would be the best for your choice of games, with the exception of Wing Commander, […] Show full quote
I want to replace the extremely limited motherboard in my Dell Dimension L1000R with one that has pci, isa, and agp slots. It would preferably have either a pentium 2 or 3. Games from the Doom era to the early 2000s 3d games are the target.
Like others have suggested: a Pentium 3 system would be the best for your choice of games, with the exception of Wing Commander, the only speed sensitive DOS game in the collection.
I need plenty of ide. A 3.5 floppy connector is necessary and a 5.25 floppy connector in addition to the 3.5 one would be epic.
Cables with both 34-pin (for 3.5") and edge connector (for 5.25") are readily available. You have to check whether the BIOS supports dual floppy drives. While most retailed Socket 370 MB supported dual floppy drives, some OEM systems supported only one FDD, and your current Cayman-based Dimension L1000R was one of them. Check the BIOS setup section of your candidate before finalizing a purchase.
I would add a Diamond Savage4 pci and an Sb Live! 0060.
Savage4 PCI was great for DOS compatibility but only provided mediocre 3D acceleration performance. If you want an MB with AGP there are many better choices. I'd recommend GF2 (including pseudo-GF4 "MX" models) or GF3. GF4Ti would be overkill and likely be bottlenecked by AGP4x and CPU.
Likewise, SB0060 is excellent for Win9x but just okay for DOS, although you could install another ISA sound card if your MB has a slot available.
Unless your room is highly humid and free of static electricity, putting any PCB on carpet would be a bad idea. A glass surface would be ideal, followed by wooden and thick cardboard.
Cd rom connector is needed and I need to be able to hook up two hard drives.
No need to worry about MB connectors; focus on chassis instead. At very least, your configuration will need at least two external 5.25" bays, one external 3.5" bay, and two internal 3.5" bays.
The Retro Web has 169 motherboards meeting your requirement i.e. Socket 370 with AGP and ISA; 38 of them support Tualatin CPU so your current P3-1GHz is guaranteed to be supported (either as 100x10 or 133x7.5) so if you found a nice MB but without a CPU you could still use your existing P3-1GHz.
DUDE that's is one hell of an awesome post
I have removed my cards from the carpet. 🤪Thank god for no fires
Yall are really helping me out. I think I'll just sell my granny "information super highway reader" and get a better all-rounder according to the info that everyone's provided
That doesn't mean stop posting though cuz I need all the help I can get
I am as smooth as a gravy train with flaming biscuit wheels.
