Hello all, thank you for your comments.

So... I got the Epox motherboard, it s a very high end one, nforce ultra and probably the only one of it s time with a microcode display... Wow... It also has a 4 pin cpu input so does good on power.

I have also received a 6600gt bfg gpu... And it has led... What the hell... Never seen one with an led, specially in 2003...

Good thing was that because the Asus board was nforce 2 ultra, did jot have to reinstall windows... It pretty much just works...

Must say, that I have never experienced windows 9x so snappy... It s pretty much instant... Specially because me does not have the dos background stuff loading, etc...

Now... I completely understand why you would recommend a sb live or audigy, I actually have both... An audigy în my high end p4 machine (winxp) and a live on the side... I am aware that both are more high end, have wax, etc... I have never had a aureal vortex and I just like it. Specially because is the 2. În my win 98se machine I use a ess solo 1 sound card and will not change it because of best ever card for dos compatibility....

Back to the 3200+ monster... The epox board is more stable, the power led is at full luminousity where as with the Asus board was half intensity, the board was struggling for power... 3200+ sits at 40 to 45 in idle, the chipset (repasted) is at 35.

Ram wise, I have just tried my luck... I had 512mb in dual channel and added another 256 just to try... Works great, not even the slightest issue. And the cool thing is that it still works in dual channel for the first 512mb... So no reason to go down on the ram.

I have also done a bit of cable management around the cpu and I have tried to hide most of the cables away from the cpu cooler fan... I think that is ok... If you have better suggestions, please fell free to let me know...

I have added a few pics for you...

bitzu101 wrote on 2026-06-15, 00:00:

PSU - 500w - CIT with 30A on the 5v rail , specially bought because the cpu requires a lot of 5v amps... i know it s not very fancy , i know it s cheap... but it does have a back mounted fan and that is a MUST because a bottom mounted psu fan would take all the air from the cpu cooler... (in fact... unfortunatelly , there are no more psu's with back fans...)

That's not an issue. I have only bottom mounted fan PSUs even in cheap top mounted PSU cases.
I haven't had any problems even with a toasty Pentium D 820 (allegedly 95W) or slightly less power hungry X3220 (100W).

In this (hehe) case heat from the CPU should be pulled off in two places - thru PSU and rear fan. While it increases power supply temperature (at least in theory), it also helps to cool down the processor. In theory, because power supply takes the air... either way from the inside of the case.

I'd go with full intake rather than just exhaust. Push the air across the case, not pull.
Remember to install stronger fans for intake.

I already said on the first page I am not looking to change psu... I just Don t want a bottom fan psu. Even if incorrect. When I was a kid I only had rear fan ones so I am sticking to it. If it fails, it was on 10 quid on ebay, I ll just buy another one 😀

A little bit of an update...

NEW GPU!!! Probably most high end gpu from nvidia for win 9x.... The 6800 gt 256 gddr3... A 2 slot card that will demolish anything windows 9x...

I have also installed a few games... My monitor is 1600x1200 and the games still work just fine...

I am still waiting for a few games in the post....

The beauty of this system is that it can also run windows xp if needed... But for that I have a different system... One that I have already posted but I taken the 6800gt out of, and that one will get a new gpu shortly... I will update on that topic....

Nice video card. What monitor are you using? CRT or some 4:3 LCD?

Nice. Back in the day I had Athlon XP 3200+ on A7N8X Deluxe with Radeon 9700 Pro. Later updated to nvidia 6800 GT. So basically same as you have here. Never used it with Win98 though. For me, this GPU is firmly XP territory.

nd22 wrote on 2026-06-30, 15:02:

Nice video card. What monitor are you using? CRT or some 4:3 LCD?

it is a dell LCD 1600x1200 true 4:3 monitor 😀

If i could find a 1024x768 LCD with true 4:3 , I would buy that as well...

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2026-06-30, 18:01:

Nice. Back in the day I had Athlon XP 3200+ on A7N8X Deluxe with Radeon 9700 Pro. Later updated to nvidia 6800 GT. So basically same as you have here. Never used it with Win98 though. For me, this GPU is firmly XP territory.

you are correct , the gpu is more for windows XP...

and I also have a A7N8X motherboard , but I like the epox better...

I also have a high end P4 pc , I will repost in that topic... but I took the 6800 of the p4 to put it in here , and ordered a monster AGP card to put in the P4 for the Xp build...

bitzu101 wrote on 2026-07-01, 10:00:

nd22 wrote on 2026-06-30, 15:02:

Nice video card. What monitor are you using? CRT or some 4:3 LCD?

it is a dell LCD 1600x1200 true 4:3 monitor 😀

If i could find a 1024x768 LCD with true 4:3 , I would buy that as well...

Well, a 1600x1200 should scale beautiful to 800x600 too

H3nrik V! wrote on 2026-07-01, 20:46:

bitzu101 wrote on 2026-07-01, 10:00:

nd22 wrote on 2026-06-30, 15:02:

Nice video card. What monitor are you using? CRT or some 4:3 LCD?

it is a dell LCD 1600x1200 true 4:3 monitor 😀

If i could find a 1024x768 LCD with true 4:3 , I would buy that as well...

Well, a 1600x1200 should scale beautiful to 800x600 too

for sure , think i was lucky to get this monitor ... there are not many 4:3 native LCD's

bitzu101 wrote on 2026-07-01, 22:08:

H3nrik V! wrote on 2026-07-01, 20:46:

bitzu101 wrote on 2026-07-01, 10:00:

it is a dell LCD 1600x1200 true 4:3 monitor 😀

If i could find a 1024x768 LCD with true 4:3 , I would buy that as well...

Well, a 1600x1200 should scale beautiful to 800x600 too

for sure , think i was lucky to get this monitor ... there are not many 4:3 native LCD's

We have one in a lab at work. Unfortunately I'm not able to coerce the coworkers into replacing it with one of the numerous 1920x1080 extra monitors we have 🤣

Think I'd even consider selling off my CRT if I got myself a 1600x1200 LCD 🤔

H3nrik V! wrote on 2026-07-01, 22:14:

bitzu101 wrote on 2026-07-01, 22:08:

H3nrik V! wrote on 2026-07-01, 20:46:

Well, a 1600x1200 should scale beautiful to 800x600 too

for sure , think i was lucky to get this monitor ... there are not many 4:3 native LCD's

We have one in a lab at work. Unfortunately I'm not able to coerce the coworkers into replacing it with one of the numerous 1920x1080 extra monitors we have 🤣

Think I'd even consider selling off my CRT if I got myself a 1600x1200 LCD 🤔

ebay it.

i found this one for about 100 pounds... and the real beauty is that has native DVI and all my gpu;s have dvi , so the image is cristal clear...

H3nrik V! wrote on 2026-07-01, 22:14:

bitzu101 wrote on 2026-07-01, 22:08:

H3nrik V! wrote on 2026-07-01, 20:46:

Well, a 1600x1200 should scale beautiful to 800x600 too

for sure , think i was lucky to get this monitor ... there are not many 4:3 native LCD's

We have one in a lab at work. Unfortunately I'm not able to coerce the coworkers into replacing it with one of the numerous 1920x1080 extra monitors we have 🤣

Think I'd even consider selling off my CRT if I got myself a 1600x1200 LCD 🤔

I could not go back to CRT after i started wearing glasses! Back in 2024 we went one Saturday every other month to my best friend and we would game through the night while our wives were chatting in the gardens. He has a CTX PR960F - a trinitron actually - that I would game on. However the first time I went over to his place and put my glasses I was shocked by the distorted image on that monitor - and was using something like 1024*768@100. I tried to no avail to adjust the settings. Since than I always use some 19 inch LCD that he brings from the basement and not the CRT. He does not use anymore that CRT either because of the exact same motive: this year he got his first pair of glasses and went over to a NEC 20 inch LCD.

CRT s are for nostalgia. Unfortunatelly , they are too big , the image is not the best sometimes... most of them do NOT support DVI and the VGA standard is not the best.

CRT s did work for a long time , the technology does have advantages... like little not almost no lag at all...

bitzu101 wrote on Today, 09:29:

CRT s are for nostalgia. Unfortunatelly , they are too big , the image is not the best sometimes... most of them do NOT support DVI and the VGA standard is not the best.

CRT s did work for a long time , the technology does have advantages... like little not almost no lag at all...

Hi,

While various flat panels (LCDs, OLEDs) replaced CRTs for everyday usage for me, I still find the capabilities of CRTs to be unmatched in many ways and not only in regards of lag, for example contrast is still better than most flat panels. And some old games art actually took the curvature of the screen into account and looks better on a non flat-screen CRT.

Also don't let DVI stand in the way of using a CRT, most early DVI cards came with the full 29-pin DVI connector, that can be converted to VGA with a passive adapter, in-fact the adapter is so simple that it can be DIY soldered if it cannot be found(https://allpinouts.org/pinouts/connectors/com … uter_video/dvi/). The DVI connectors that came without analogue parts are a lot harder to convert as it needs a Digital to Analogue conversion, for low resolution and refresh rates it can be still done with DIY methods though, for those Video Cards that doesn't have the analogue part and high resolution and refresh rates are preferred, a commercially built converter is needed unless you are really good with FPGAs and DACs, then it can be still custom built, so I think the useful life of CRTs will outlast that of currently produced flat panels, in fact a CRT tube itself is very hard to damage electronically in comparison of a TFT LCD, for monochromatic tubes that is even more apparent, without a shadow mask or aperture grille and with only a single electron gun even a close lightning strike can be survived by a monochromatic CRT.

nd22 wrote on Today, 09:21:

H3nrik V! wrote on 2026-07-01, 22:14:

bitzu101 wrote on 2026-07-01, 22:08:

for sure , think i was lucky to get this monitor ... there are not many 4:3 native LCD's

We have one in a lab at work. Unfortunately I'm not able to coerce the coworkers into replacing it with one of the numerous 1920x1080 extra monitors we have 🤣

Think I'd even consider selling off my CRT if I got myself a 1600x1200 LCD 🤔

I could not go back to CRT after i started wearing glasses! Back in 2024 we went one Saturday every other month to my best friend and we would game through the night while our wives were chatting in the gardens. He has a CTX PR960F - a trinitron actually - that I would game on. However the first time I went over to his place and put my glasses I was shocked by the distorted image on that monitor - and was using something like 1024*768@100. I tried to no avail to adjust the settings. Since than I always use some 19 inch LCD that he brings from the basement and not the CRT. He does not use anymore that CRT either because of the exact same motive: this year he got his first pair of glasses and went over to a NEC 20 inch LCD.

That's an interesting point. I've been wearing glasses since the mid or late eighties, early in school, so I've never experienced that as I've never watched a monitor without wearing glasses. My sight is myopic, so I see close things very clearly, but can't see things more than like an arm's length away. Maybe that makes a difference as well?

Edit: nearsighted was the common term 🤣

MagefromAntares wrote on Today, 10:04:

Hi, […]
Show full quote

bitzu101 wrote on Today, 09:29:

CRT s are for nostalgia. Unfortunatelly , they are too big , the image is not the best sometimes... most of them do NOT support DVI and the VGA standard is not the best.

CRT s did work for a long time , the technology does have advantages... like little not almost no lag at all...

Hi,

While various flat panels (LCDs, OLEDs) replaced CRTs for everyday usage for me, I still find the capabilities of CRTs to be unmatched in many ways and not only in regards of lag, for example contrast is still better than most flat panels. And some old games art actually took the curvature of the screen into account and looks better on a non flat-screen CRT.

Also don't let DVI stand in the way of using a CRT, most early DVI cards came with the full 29-pin DVI connector, that can be converted to VGA with a passive adapter, in-fact the adapter is so simple that it can be DIY soldered if it cannot be found(https://allpinouts.org/pinouts/connectors/com … uter_video/dvi/). The DVI connectors that came without analogue parts are a lot harder to convert as it needs a Digital to Analogue conversion, for low resolution and refresh rates it can be still done with DIY methods though, for those Video Cards that doesn't have the analogue part and high resolution and refresh rates are preferred, a commercially built converter is needed unless you are really good with FPGAs and DACs, then it can be still custom built, so I think the useful life of CRTs will outlast that of currently produced flat panels, in fact a CRT tube itself is very hard to damage electronically in comparison of a TFT LCD, for monochromatic tubes that is even more apparent, without a shadow mask or aperture grille and with only a single electron gun even a close lightning strike can be survived by a monochromatic CRT.

i see your points , and they are good points.

think the main issues (90% of the issue) with CRT is the size. it is very hard to replace the speed of electrons beaming over on a screen... no monitor or tv can do that even now , but the size.... wow... huge monsters.

and I also think that there never were crt s bigger than 40 or 50 inches... don t think they work , dunno why , they implode or something... but it has a big limitation on the diagonal of the monitor/tv.

looking at my pc desk now... there is no way in hell that i would be able to fit a CRT monitor on it... just does not exist... need doble the depth of the table..

bitzu101 wrote on Today, 14:27:

i see your points , and they are good points. […]
Show full quote

MagefromAntares wrote on Today, 10:04:

Hi, […]
Show full quote

bitzu101 wrote on Today, 09:29:

CRT s are for nostalgia. Unfortunatelly , they are too big , the image is not the best sometimes... most of them do NOT support DVI and the VGA standard is not the best.

CRT s did work for a long time , the technology does have advantages... like little not almost no lag at all...

Hi,

While various flat panels (LCDs, OLEDs) replaced CRTs for everyday usage for me, I still find the capabilities of CRTs to be unmatched in many ways and not only in regards of lag, for example contrast is still better than most flat panels. And some old games art actually took the curvature of the screen into account and looks better on a non flat-screen CRT.

Also don't let DVI stand in the way of using a CRT, most early DVI cards came with the full 29-pin DVI connector, that can be converted to VGA with a passive adapter, in-fact the adapter is so simple that it can be DIY soldered if it cannot be found(https://allpinouts.org/pinouts/connectors/com … uter_video/dvi/). The DVI connectors that came without analogue parts are a lot harder to convert as it needs a Digital to Analogue conversion, for low resolution and refresh rates it can be still done with DIY methods though, for those Video Cards that doesn't have the analogue part and high resolution and refresh rates are preferred, a commercially built converter is needed unless you are really good with FPGAs and DACs, then it can be still custom built, so I think the useful life of CRTs will outlast that of currently produced flat panels, in fact a CRT tube itself is very hard to damage electronically in comparison of a TFT LCD, for monochromatic tubes that is even more apparent, without a shadow mask or aperture grille and with only a single electron gun even a close lightning strike can be survived by a monochromatic CRT.

i see your points , and they are good points.

think the main issues (90% of the issue) with CRT is the size. it is very hard to replace the speed of electrons beaming over on a screen... no monitor or tv can do that even now , but the size.... wow... huge monsters.

and I also think that there never were crt s bigger than 40 or 50 inches... don t think they work , dunno why , they implode or something... but it has a big limitation on the diagonal of the monitor/tv.

looking at my pc desk now... there is no way in hell that i would be able to fit a CRT monitor on it... just does not exist... need doble the depth of the table..

My desk too, my desk too 🤣

But yeah, after reaching a certain size (guess I've never seen bigger than 32 inch widescreen CRTs) it became back protection TVs.

I guess your theory about implosions is right, it would require hugely thick glass to go bigger. I'm guessing that it's an exponential thing? 🤷‍♂️

bitzu101 wrote on Today, 14:27:

i see your points , and they are good points. […]
Show full quote

MagefromAntares wrote on Today, 10:04:

Hi, […]
Show full quote

bitzu101 wrote on Today, 09:29:

CRT s are for nostalgia. Unfortunatelly , they are too big , the image is not the best sometimes... most of them do NOT support DVI and the VGA standard is not the best.

CRT s did work for a long time , the technology does have advantages... like little not almost no lag at all...

Hi,

While various flat panels (LCDs, OLEDs) replaced CRTs for everyday usage for me, I still find the capabilities of CRTs to be unmatched in many ways and not only in regards of lag, for example contrast is still better than most flat panels. And some old games art actually took the curvature of the screen into account and looks better on a non flat-screen CRT.

Also don't let DVI stand in the way of using a CRT, most early DVI cards came with the full 29-pin DVI connector, that can be converted to VGA with a passive adapter, in-fact the adapter is so simple that it can be DIY soldered if it cannot be found(https://allpinouts.org/pinouts/connectors/com … uter_video/dvi/). The DVI connectors that came without analogue parts are a lot harder to convert as it needs a Digital to Analogue conversion, for low resolution and refresh rates it can be still done with DIY methods though, for those Video Cards that doesn't have the analogue part and high resolution and refresh rates are preferred, a commercially built converter is needed unless you are really good with FPGAs and DACs, then it can be still custom built, so I think the useful life of CRTs will outlast that of currently produced flat panels, in fact a CRT tube itself is very hard to damage electronically in comparison of a TFT LCD, for monochromatic tubes that is even more apparent, without a shadow mask or aperture grille and with only a single electron gun even a close lightning strike can be survived by a monochromatic CRT.

i see your points , and they are good points.

think the main issues (90% of the issue) with CRT is the size. it is very hard to replace the speed of electrons beaming over on a screen... no monitor or tv can do that even now , but the size.... wow... huge monsters.

and I also think that there never were crt s bigger than 40 or 50 inches... don t think they work , dunno why , they implode or something... but it has a big limitation on the diagonal of the monitor/tv.

looking at my pc desk now... there is no way in hell that i would be able to fit a CRT monitor on it... just does not exist... need doble the depth of the table..

Actually you are spot on with the size, the largest commercially produced CRT was 43 Inch viewable: https://crtdatabase.com/crts/sony/sony-pvm-4300

Unfortunately only a single known example remains, kinda understandable though, it is not something that you can place on a desk, you have to place it on the floor or on a dedicated stand, so I can imagine people didn't standing in line to get one when the places they were installed got decommissioned.

For me I like CRTs to 17 and 19 inches in size, the 21 inches are on the threshold of what I consider truly useable, anything larger than 21 inch and it starts to get cumbersome to place and to store. So most CRTs in my collection are <=19 Inch.