VOGONS

Windows 98 or Windows Me for this slightly odd PC build?

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First post, by wowbobwow

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Hi all! I recently picked up an interesting PC that has a mix of newer and older stuff:

  • Motherboard: Intel D875PBZ
  • CPU: Pentium 4 @ 3.20GHz
  • RAM: 512MB
  • AGP Slot: Nvidia GeForce FX5950 Ultra
  • PCI graphics: twin Voodoo 2's in SLI mode (hellll yeaaahhh)
  • Storage: two loud, slow, apparently unstable 30GB IDE drives
  • Sound: SoundBlaster card of some variety

The machine came to me with a Windows Me install that seemed to be reasonably complete, and the games that were loaded run beautifully on either / both GPU setups. However, both hard drives are super loud and the primary / boot drive is making a lot of concerning chattering noises and seems to be close to death. I've already ordered a pair of 120GB Western Digital SATA SSD's and the necessary mounting brackets, with the intent to replace both of the 30GB drives at once.

Here's my question: based on the info above, would you suggest reinstalling Windows Me, or would you think that Windows 98SE would be the better OS for this machine?

Co-founder of The Retro Roadshow, the San Francisco Bay Area's premier pop-up museum of vintage technology!

Reply 1 of 7, by giantenemycat

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wowbobwow wrote on 2026-04-17, 17:16:

I've already ordered a pair of 120GB Western Digital SATA SSD's

This is illegal.

But honestly if it was me, I would just image both drives and keep using it as is to preserve this oddity of a PC. If a drives craps out, then replace with a similar HDD and re-image.

Reply 2 of 7, by cyclone3d

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Either OS should be fine.

As giant enemy at said, just image the drives to the new drives.

I, also, use ssds whenever possible.

You will probably want to use a newer machine to image the old drives to the new drives as they will work much better when imaging HDDs to SSDs.

Fun fact about the 5950U, you will be CPU limited at 1280x1024 and possibly higher up until a Core2 at 3.2-3.3Ghz. Also, depending on the cooling on that card, you will probably want to look for a good aftermarket cooler. One of mine has a nice Zalman heatpipe cooler and it runs very cool. The original cooler had bad fans and was a pretty poor cooler to begin with.

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Reply 3 of 7, by PcBytes

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I'd go ME. That HW won't be really worth 98SE and its real mode DOS and ME has more driver support IMO.

"Enter at your own peril, past the bolted door..."
Main PC: i5 3470, GB B75M-D3H, 16GB RAM, 2x1TB
98SE : P3 650, Soyo SY-6BA+IV, 384MB RAM, 80GB

Reply 4 of 7, by AncapDude

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I would always use 98se instead of Me

Reply 5 of 7, by leileilol

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ME ME ME ME ME

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Reply 6 of 7, by AlexZ

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Try Windows ME first as you don't need DOS.

Pentium III 900E,ECS P6BXT-A+,384MB,GeForce FX 5600, Voodoo 2,Yamaha SM718
Turion 64 ML-37@2.4Ghz,Gigabyte GA-K8NE,2GB,GeForce GTX 275,Audigy 2ZS
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Reply 7 of 7, by drosse1meyer

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Have you ran any benchmarks? Voodoo2 SLI is a very nice find.

P1: Packard Bell - 233 MMX, Voodoo1, 64 MB, ALS100+
P2-V2: Dell Dimension - 400 Mhz, Voodoo2, 256 MB
P!!! Custom: 1 Ghz, GeForce2 Pro/64MB, 384 MB

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