Wouldn't mind getting a SE440BX-2, but the cost is not insignificant. I got a few decent Slot 1 boards already. That Asrock S775 board however, I'm mighty tempted.

Should have some results for that board this week as well. I think my maximum target for that project is 2003-2004 to be sure and handle games that were flaky with XP after its release that still didn't work correctly with SP1. I can't think of any examples off hand so I'm just guessing currently.

Ok, I finally decided on the final audio setup.

Vortex2 PCI, of course, with no daughterboard installed.

Audician 32 (Yamaha YMF718-S) ISA with the daughterboard installed. I soldered the internal audio output pins on (comes empty) and plugged it into the internal aux input of the Vortex2. Very happy with no external connections.

I disabled the Vortex2's Sound Blaster Pro emulation, MPU-401 and gameport and let the Audician handle all of that.

I really, really like this setup.

There is a driver (INF driver tweaks) on the Vogons driver archive, with a Vortex 2 driver without SB Pro Emulation 😀 Likely for exactly that reason, when you use an ISA card together with a Vortex card.

BTW, the part number for the Matrix G400 DVI adapter is G4-MOD/PLDVI. This guy on amazon has a bunch of them: http://www.amazon.com/Compaq-Interface-158632 … I/dp/B0045JN860

Thanks Phil

NJRoadfan, That would be pretty nice to have. Thanks for the link, I couldn't find one on ebay. A liitle more than I would like to spend so I will think it over and decide if I really want/need one.

The beige DVD-ROM Drive arrived, it is almost a perfect match! I still have a few things to do before posting pics. I think once I am done I will do a thorough writeup/pics in 'System Specs'

Has anyone ever seen a mysterious Infrared device just show up in Windows 98 SE? I do not have anything installed that has has Infrared, or so I thought. It shows up in networking, under ports (com and parallel), It's strange. I think it happened after I installed the Audician 32 sound card and windows installed a WDM driver for it. I then had to install the VXD drivers off the install CD to get it working in DOS. The device referenced is *PNP0510

Any ideas?

The built-in Windows driver also gave me issues with the Audician. Grab the latest driver from here: http://www.philscomputerlab.com/audician-32-plus.html

But didn't have your issue.

In the BIOS, you could try disabling the serial and parallel ports. I do this for every build, as it frees up precious resources.

Thanks Phil,

I reloaded and mysterious device went away. I had already disabled onboard com ports and printer port.

Thanks for that Yamaha driver, much newer than the CD's and works better!

The weird IRDA device came back after I ran setupsa in pure DOS. Looks like it enabled some virtual things. Hand edited opl3sa.ini, removed devices and rebooted. That took care of it. Trying to get a perfect install before cloning it.

Ok, I'm not done but here are some pics. I need to make a shorter internal audio cable, make custom length IDE cables (probably just ATA-33 cables, I hate folding ATA-66 cables), I have to put in an IDE drive to replace the SATA drive. Sorry Phil, but this build just has to have an IDE drive... It works great but part of me just has to have the real thing. I need to do some more cleaning but might not hehe. She isn't perfect but she looks pretty good to me!

I want to do a more detailed write-up later but want to at least get a few pics out.

EDIT: BIG FILES

Very nice!

We should swap audio cables. Mine is too short 😀

Before you swap out the drive, make sure you enable DMA mode in device manager (on the HDD), and run a ATTO benchmark. Then compare it to the IDE drive you will be using. I'm keen to see the difference.

Will do!

What a great looking system you got together there.
Love it. Clean build and nice parts. Funny that term "custom build'.
Is that just a term which covers no-name/home made in general?

They were sold as kits from Aopen to local computer shops. I know they came with case, power supply, motherboard and I'm not sure about floppy and CPU. The shops would finish them with whatever they wanted for their customers and put their 1"x1" logo on the bottom. They were very good kits and shops would but them by the pallet full.

The Matrox G400 has shown its Achilles Heel... Horrible DOS support. It's is awesome (seriously, it is) at DirectX and OpenGL, with its latest drivers, but DOS Quake made me cry out in pain. I then checked http://gona.mactar.hu/DOS_TESTS/ and discovered my oversight. I never checked DOS compatibility. I guess if I want to play late DOS games on it I should probably swap out for a GeForce4 MX440, GeForce4 Ti4200 or a Voodoo3. The trick is figuring out if I can live with a 100% Windows box instead of having some crossover with DOS and then deciding which card if needed.

GeForce4 Ti4200: Total overkill for this box
GeForce4 MX440: Awesome performance but no Glide
Voodoo3: Good performance but not DirectX 7.0

I just don't need Glide on this box. My DOS box can handle the few games like Tomb Raider Gold that would 'need' it. I think DirectX 7.0a and OpenGL 1.2 support will be just fine. So I might swap out for a GeForce4 MX440 🙁

The other idea would be to toss in a GeForce4 Ti4200 but then replace the P3 550E with a Tualatin, Celeron 1.4 with Slocket adapter or just a faster P3.

I think if I decide to play DOS games on this box I will just install a GeForce4 MX440 and call it done... or perhaps a FX5200 or maybe a ........ It's never ending.

Retro gaming is always a compromise 😀

The (top secret) project I'm currently working on 😊 , started off with me using a G400 max. But I only had problems. Most games wouldn't even start. So I went back to the V3, this card is at least super compatible. You see, back in the day, if you were a game developer / publisher, the Voodoo was one of the main cards that was used to test with. The discs also often contained patches (Tomb Raider, Need for Speed III) specifically for Voodoo cards.

Now If you don't need Glide, I would also go for Nvidia. Not sure which card, my "oldest" is a GF3 Titanium and I have a lot of GF4 MX cards. I've actually never really built a system around a Nvidia card, so that's another project for the future right there 🤣

Does DVI interface appeal to you? In that case Nvidia gives you nice options. They also work well under DOS.

Well, I decided. I want late DOS support. Snagging a few Quadro4 700 XGL's now. Basically a very well constructed GeForce4 Ti 4200. I also stumbled on a P3 800 CPU that I may, or may not, use on this build.

Edit: Here is a pic