RetroLizard wrote:Greetings, members of Vogons. I'm looking around for a good motherboard that supports a 3dfx Voodoo 3 1000 card, as well as (a) PCI slot(s) for a Soundblaster 16 card, and two sticks of 256 MB DDR memory. Any suggestions are welcome.
(On a related note, is the Antec Truepower 2.0 430W power supply reliable, or should I get something else?)
Can't really go wrong with a trusty old Pentium 2/3 440BX SLOT1 system.
Compatibility is great and anything from DOS to Win XP can run on it without big issues.
The vast majority of BX motherboards come in the ATX formfactor, wich means that finding cases and powersupplys is easy (since modern stuff works).
I really, really recommend a new PSU.
Theres also a huge span in performance depending on what CPU you want to use.
You have a choice from the early P2's at 233MHz all the way up to 1.1 GHz Pentium 3's and even further with (nowadays rare and expensive) adapters.
Memory isn't a problem either, PC100/133 SDRAM is plentiful and very cheap.
BX have limitations on what memory it can use, but if you stay away from 512MB sticks you'll probably be fine.
Plus you already have 2x256Mb of it, wich in truth is a bit to much for Windows 98 but perfect for Windows 2000.
Look for:
Your prefered number of PCI vs ISA slots, you can get anything from 0 to 5 ISA slots.
Most common are 1-2 ISA slots, less on later boards.
On board extra stuff was common, LAN is convenient, SCSI and sound maby less so.
Jumperfree setup is very nice but usually limited to later boards and a few brands.
BAD CAPS !, the BX era is right when this was a big thing.
Pretty much all brands were affected, but some more then others (RIP ABIT..)
Find a recapped board or do it yourself, its not hard with some patience and planning.
Also note that bad caps dont always bulge or leak, they can just dry up and make the system unstable.
Accessories !, you want to get as many of the original accessories as possible.
Original box, manual and media is a huge bonus.
It's not strictly needed since most information is available online.
But its the retro factor =)