alexanrs wrote:

For DOS gaming inside Win9x I'd get an YMF-724 rather than an expensive and bugged AWE32.

We may go further. YMF-724/744 + AWE64: good DAC, OPL3, not bad GM under Win9x. The problem - how this will work on practice with DOS stuff, no thorough data about compatibility. As bonus YMF may give better support for EAX and A3D, what's important as P3 are Win9x machines also.

As long as everyone is using VxD drivers its easy. The AWE64 will be exposed to DOS boxes at the same port/IRQ/DMA channels it really uses, and the YMF7x4's SBPro support should use whatever it is set in its drivers. That way you can still use both in DOS, so for the few games that might have issues with the Yamaha chip you can just set them to use the AWE, and leave the OPL synth muted on the AWE so all OPL games will use the YMF instead.

Tertz wrote:

alexanrs wrote:

For DOS gaming inside Win9x I'd get an YMF-724 rather than an expensive and bugged AWE32.

We may go further. YMF-724/744 + AWE64: good DAC, OPL3, not bad GM under Win9x. The problem - how this will work on practice with DOS stuff, no thorough data about compatibility. As bonus YMF may give better support for EAX and A3D, what's important as P3 are Win9x machines also.

True... You get SB16 and AWE standards on top of GM, OPL3 and SB-Pro.
I would say that this is a good beginners combo, if you are looking into this hobby for the first time.

In my experience it actually is, but I think that's more due to the board (TUSL2). I do not get DOS mode sound unless the board is at 66mhz FSB, which is incredibly slow.
I use a 933 with a CUSL instead.

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the suggestions once again. I will state that I heavily considered a Yamaha YMF-724, based on a video HighTreason did regarding the card. I was actually very impressed with the quality of the WaveTable and FM synth.

That being said, I do not have an SB Link port on the Biostar motherboard that is arriving, and have decided to forego the Yamaha in lieu of an AWE64 Value. I settled with the Value model, since AWE64 Gold cards in any decent condition cost a fortune and aren't worth the bother for the price premium, especially since I will primarily use the card for DOS games in real DOS mode (which, from my understanding, doesn't even support software loadable synths anyway). I don't even intend to really take advantage of the loadable sample banks for the AWE-series cards and will simply stick with what's available stock. The 512KB built in should more than suffice for my needs. Finally, the motherboard is a MicroATX form factor, with slot availability at a rather high premium (I can only have three cards total installed at once) and I opted to shoot for a semi-different configuration than what the typical Vogons enthusaist might otherwise consider.

My final system specs are estimated to be as follows...

Biostar M6VLR MicroATX motherboard
1.4 GHz Pentium Tualatin (might swap out with a VIA C3 Nehemiah at a later date)
256 MB PC133 SDRAM
8 GB flash IDE module
Generic DVD/CD-RW IDE disc drive
Sony MPF920-Z/CU1 floppy drive
Nvidia GeForce4 MX4000 64MB DDR PCI video card
PPA International 2 Port SATA RAID + USB 2.0 + 1394 PCI combo card
Creative AWE64 Value ISA sound card
Rosewill R103A ATX Mid-tower case w/ 350W Rosewill PSU
Windows 98SE with unofficial service pack, KernelEx and other fixes

I think that should do mighty well for my needs. Should this VIA chipset on the motherboard do me any great dis-service, I might consider swapping it out with another Pentium III motherboard I ordered as a backup.

I had a system similar to this configuration once, it served me very well and i only replaced it because I wanted something faster for non-gaming tasks. Mine was on a Coppermine though. The MX4000 never really had any problems anyway and whilst I didn't much like it as a DX8 card, it didn't really do anything wrong and it ran fine in DOS/Win9X at any rate.

I believe for tasks that require more oomph or for games written for Windows XP and beyond, I will typically use my Ivy Bridge PC for those things. DOSBox has done a fine job for most DOS games, but some later DOS titles, and especially Win9x games, pretty much warrant a new system build that avoids any of the quirks of dealing with running a full blown OS inside an emulator not designed to do so in the first place. I also just want to tinker with an older PC and relive my past a bit along an alternate reality, as I never had a powerful Pentium III PC growing up (but I did have a Celeron Covington chip just before my dad starting building exclusively AMD after that).

I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with this new build once it all comes together. Thank you all for your support! I'll be sure to share pictures and possibly a video of the build.