Well, I have everything, more or less at hand. This is going to be my setup if I don't change my mind... or you make me change it 😜
- Motherboard DFI K6XV3+/66
- CPU AMD K6-III+ 400 MHz.
- 256 MB PC100
- Gainward GeForce3 Ti 200 64 MB (see footnote)
- Diamond Monster 3D II 12MB x2 (Voodoo2 SLI)
- Diamond Monster Sound MX300 + NEC XR385 daughterboard
- ALi M5273 6 USB 2.0 PCI card
- ¿Perfect? ISA OPL3 sound card
- 80 GB Seagate HDD
As you can see, there's a lot of stuff thrown it just for the sake of it. The GeForce3 Ti card is outrageosly powerful for this kind of setup, yet I wanted to have at least some "failsafe" video card so I could hook it to a modern monitor. My original idea was to use either a GeForce256 or a GeForce2 card, but I happen to have only one of each and two GF3 which on top of that is the quietest of the lot, so the GeForce3 stays there for the time being unless I run into compatibility problems.
I had a clear notion that I'd end up with an ISA sound card based on an OPL3 chip for pure DOS games and another one more Windows oriented. Having been a user of SBLive! cards for years, I decided to give a go to the MX300 and test A3D for the first time in my life. I bought the NEC daughterboard off eBay without knowing very well what wavetables expansions do, how do you use them or if it would be better used in the ISA sound card.
The Voodoo2 cards have been a matter of some thought. I have a Voodoo5 5500 AGP that I could use on this rig, but I don't know whether there is any worth considering DX8 game that can't get running on a modern day Windows. Also, I'm afraid to use a Voodoo 5500 card on a regular basis for gaming because I only have that one and I'm sure I'll never see (or buy) another one ver again. I could throw a Voodoo 4500 then, but the one I have is as loud as Satan's birthday party and I foolishly attached the heatsink using thermal epoxy back in the day. Foolish as I was, I have to concede that the heatsink has never ever fallen 😜
I'm doubtful about the USB 2.0 card. I may be moving great amounts of data in and out the PC, mounting ISO images so as not to scratch my collection and so on, but I have dreadful memories of USB 2.0 under Windows 98. I may try to fit a Intel PRO/1000 NIC in there and try to set up an SMB/CIFS share. Only thing, I also have dreadful memories of trying to hook upo Windows 98SE clients to modern networks.
I don't know, however, if this setup will hold together or I'm going to run into random BSODs or weird compatibility issues. The nasty thing with old hardware is that you're not entirely sure when a failure is due to aging, falling hardware components; buggy and poor software implementations or both.
And last, but not least, I don't know if I'd have to prepare another HDD with a pure DOS enviroment installed and manage to dual boot it; seeing that my motherboard is still too old to have some sort of boot menu at startup.
Any thoughs, advices, mockeries on all of this?