I'd use that FIC motherboard with Voodoo 3/AGP. It's a Super Socket 7 motherboard, so you can use your K6-2@500 for nice performance, or buy a K6-2+ or 3+ and be able to change system speed on the fly, which is useful for speed-sensistive 386-era games.

Voodoo 3 has nice DOS compatibility and is probably the top card you can use on this system. However some SS7 boards don't play nicely with it due to incorrect power distribution. Others might confirm if your system works well with this card as your board is fairly popular around here.

Out of your soundcard options I'd pick AWE64 as it has MIDI support which is nice to have for later DOS games. OPL3 sound won't be nice though, but you can actually use two cards in your system and just route one card's output into another card's line-in.

jheronimus wrote:

I'd use that FIC motherboard with Voodoo 3/AGP. It's a Super Socket 7 motherboard, so you can use your K6-2@500 for nice performance, or buy a K6-2+ or 3+ and be able to change system speed on the fly, which is useful for speed-sensistive 386-era games.

Figure it was a go for broke and sorta max out with a k6-2 or + and a v3 situation almost feels like i no brainer. Sorry i forgot the v3 agp will be used in my twin 440bx build against my viper v770. Gonna run w95 s7/ss7 using 440bx for 98se. Skipping 386 though i have a 486slc2 setup for that. So its. 486 upto 97 for this build. The twin 440bx machines will be for 98-99.

To rule them all from a SS7 build you need a 3DFX card like a voodoo 3 as it has 3D and good 2D dos core, a K6-2+ or K6-3+ for the software adjustable multiplier and the board has to be somewhat halfway decent but since you got a pci V3 2K the board doesn't need an agp slot so that opens up options board wise. There is still some oem SS7 era boards out on eBay for fair to cheap prices unlike the must have to fap models like the Asus P5A that have become expensive.

As for sound cards anything that has OPL3 and can mount a wave table module will do, just don't have to go automatically to the fap model Noise Blaster 64 Gold. Those econo Yamaha cards are not bad at all and they can be had for less than $20 shipped.

greasemonkey90s wrote:

Figure it was a go for broke and sorta max out with a k6-2 or + and a v3 situation almost feels like i no brainer. Sorry i forgot the v3 agp will be used in my twin 440bx build against my viper v770. Gonna run w95 s7/ss7 using 440bx for 98se. Skipping 386 though i have a 486slc2 setup for that. So its. 486 upto 97 for this build. The twin 440bx machines will be for 98-99.

I see. I don't think you need a third machine then. Not a lot of games that can only work with 486 or first Pentium, so your 440BX should be much better suited for this era. Basically, as long as you have an ISA soundcard in your PIII build, there isn't a lot it can't do that a Pentium can.

Of course, some titles have issues with Pentiums faster than 200 MHz, but most of these problems can be fixed.

nforce4max wrote:

To rule them all from a SS7 build you need a 3DFX card like a voodoo 3 as it has 3D and good 2D dos core, a K6-2+ or K6-3+ for the software adjustable multiplier and the board has to be somewhat halfway decent but since you got a pci V3 2K the board doesn't need an agp slot so that opens up options board wise. There is still some oem SS7 era boards out on eBay for fair to cheap prices unlike the must have to fap models like the Asus P5A that have become expensive.

As for sound cards anything that has OPL3 and can mount a wave table module will do, just don't have to go automatically to the fap model Noise Blaster 64 Gold. Those econo Yamaha cards are not bad at all and they can be had for less than $20 shipped.

^^ Years of wisdom in a single post guys!

The parts you have give you lots of options. I'm a big fan of high performance W98 machines for early Win32 gaming. If that's an option for you, one of the Pentium chips may be possible as a CPU. Some models have features which can be disabled in software to throttle the CPU when playing older games. This is also useful for games like Ultima VII which don't work with normal cache tricks.
Re: SetMul - Multiplier control for VIA C3 / AMD K6 Mobile / Cyrix 5x86

If you definitely need an all in one machine, though, go for the K6-2/III+ build.

Just thought I'd emphasize the power distribution problem that some motherboards exhibit on the AGP slot, notably the FIC PA-2013 (unless it's rev 2.1 on this board, where it's fixed). I'm not sure if the 503+ has the same problem. From what I remember, the 2013 is just an ATX version of the 503+, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. You might want to do some research on the motherboard before plugging a Voodoo 3 into it to be on the safe side.

The way I have my SS7 setup is using only PCI cards (or AGP cards that are internally still PCI, just AGP electrical compliant, like Virge GX2). If I want powerful 3D, I can just use some PCI 3D cards, like Vodoo 2s.

I would go for something a bit different than the K6 aproach.

- The Shuttle board.
- Pentium 133.
- Some 32mb of Ram.
- S3 Trio64v+
- Voodoo2.
- A soundcard that are SB-Pro compatible and has a real OPL chip.

The reason for my choice, are that you want a good machine for Dos and Win95 gaming.
You might want to go for a Voodoo1 instead, as this is enough.
Running V1, might even turn out to be easier, to get games going on a V1 compared to V2.
On the other hand, you have V2 and if games will run, then they will run.

brostenen wrote:

I would go for something a bit different than the K6 aproach. […]
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I would go for something a bit different than the K6 aproach.

- The Shuttle board.
- Pentium 133.
- Some 32mb of Ram.
- S3 Trio64v+
- Voodoo2.
- A soundcard that are SB-Pro compatible and has a real OPL chip.

The reason for my choice, are that you want a good machine for Dos and Win95 gaming.
You might want to go for a Voodoo1 instead, as this is enough.
Running V1, might even turn out to be easier, to get games going on a V1 compared to V2.
On the other hand, you have V2 and if games will run, then they will run.

Yea i wish i had a voodoo1 only have a voodoo rush. Yeah the shuttle mobo feel more like a pentium rig. I know i can all in one 1997 down to 486 era with powerful k6-2 and voodoo 3 and call it a day. Just cant have 2 s7/ss7 setups cause my 440bx builds have late 97-99 down.

I'd try the MMX chip with SETMUL and see if it can do some of the test register tricks, then. The 440bx can run any Win32 titles which need more performance. If you have a turbo switch, you can use it to change your FSB. Couple this with the Virge (AGP, hopefully, to save on PCI slots), the V2 (V1 if you can find one cheap), and test the sound cards to see which you like best.