Even PCI-E addon Asmedia Sata controller is working fine, im its working with NVME, im boot from one. VIA USB3 Addon card, its not working within setup (at for mouse), but its working for USB installer and after that VIA USB3 is working.. or semiworking as with all other OSes - i never got Xbox 360 controller working with it, in any OS and driver, but mouse and zillion other devices are working fine. I hope that some other PCI-E USB2 (Modchip chipset)/ USB3 card would be better especially with Asmedia i hope high hopest..

I also made deeper look on frakenstein combo PCI-E addon cards:
- there are SATA+USB3 and USB3+LAN cards - to save the slots..

- USB3+LAN are not so great they just can save some messy cabling, but other they are just internal made as USB-LANs add i saw Assix and Realtek Gigabit ones and almost all of them are using VIA USB3, only exception is Startech(=Expensive) PEXUSB3S3G , which are using NEC USB3 - which are from my experience even worse that VIA. So far i dont see some not branded Startech card for same price, which is quite normal, because Startech often, just selling same HW as other for 2x,3x higher price, but have some unique devices..

- Sata + USB3 - seems as better deals.
There Syba SD-PEX50055 - with Etron USB3 + ASM1061 and i dunno which Sata controller and us usual which good price available only in US, because EU shipping is more expressive than card itself. - This could be good Intel used Etron USB3 as its first USB3 implementations.If you will find some with good EU shipping price let me know.
and probably better Asmedia cards ASM1042 (USB), ASM1061 (SATA), ASM1182 (just some pci-e chipset) - which is available form Asia - Free shipping and cheaper - i ordered one.
- There is also VLI VL805 (VIA) & ASMedia 1061(Sata)

I finally started to cover uncovered territory..

I placed second video card to PC.. my primary - top slot is Geforce 1070 (because 2xxx series is not supported by MacOS) and secondary (actually third, bottom PCI-E slot) in was Geforce 730 / because i still failing to get Geforce 750 TI with passive cooling (well i have 3 already, but within other machines) and WinXP (without Nvideo drivers yet.. i will this do at the end with input switching), Win7, Win10, Linux are fine with the, but MacOS is not.. 3D stopped working, im at the start where could be solution, but out box its not working.

Details:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/2-differen … olution.299828/

Solution is probably replace it with AMD card - not tested yet, but it has some flaws. I personally dont like AMD cards from this era, because of worse power/performance ratio.. but mainly they are worse for Linux KVM, i maybe, maybe will make it working for WinXP virtual machine, but not for Win98 (videopass through is just not working for them)- i plan use for it other Nvidia card - Geforce 6xxx. There is chance that MacOS will ignore such one card, but i would not bet on it..

I fixed MacOS 2 gpus problem, solution is in the link above.

I tested videocard acceleration within WinXP its working fine, it even seems that Gigabyte MB is not really needed - i dont need to switch primary gpu slot in bios, i booted normally with 1st not accelerated (no driver) videocard, install driver for second video card, i my case Nvidia - normal install just working.. disable first videocard and reboot. After that its working just like this: Boot and WinXP splash screen is not monitor connected to primary card, but when you reach logon screen, picutre appers on monitor connected to second videocard and you can continue from here as normally. Of course you dont need multiple monitor, but just more monitors inputs. If someone know proven HDMI switch with some input autodetection and port priority let me know - it would be nice to make input switching automated, i have only most cheap chinese HDMi switches.

Made Linux KVM working with Gefore 730, so i have nice WinXp machine with video card passthrough details here:
https://www.win-raid.com/t6017f53-Windows-SE- … .html#msg115829

I also made Inte USB3 + PCI-E USB3 testing sheet, because its lots of hassle for multiboot - primary for WinXP, but even Linux dont play nice with some controllers, or connected devices not working in bios, or controller has not USB3 header variant to use it with devices connected to case frontpanel:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Dmz1e … of=true&sd=true

Ok i won, i now have all OS what i wanted working on Z390 + Geforce 1070 + Geforce 730(XP, KVM videocard passthrough):
- WinXP 32 bit full 4GB available and have rest of memory - 28 GB used for nice Ramdisk - with Primo Ramdisk and its invisible mode (i plan to place pagefile into it to make paging faster and i keep SSD in better shape). I had problem to make working dual monitors setup, i needs older driver (353 is working, 368.81 doesn not.. ) and i still not have working aspect ratio correction for 4:3, detail here: https://msfn.org/board/topic/181628-win-xp-nv … comment-1183415
- Win7
- Win10
- MacOS 10.13.6
- Linuxes:
Mint 19.3 - here i made KVM Geforce 730 pass through working for WinXP and Win7
Majaro newest
Fedora newest
Ubuntu 20.4 newest
Solus - newest

I still have some issues:
- NVME drive not working with my old WinXP install, with one install its working, details:
https://msfn.org/board/topic/181599-winxp-and … comment-1183180
- USB3 controllers.. are not totally realiable, i have to sometimes reboot, or connect not working Razer mouse to intel port - Linux / MacOS / Win10 - i guess that VIA USB3 controller sometimes is not reset, started properly, maybe new firmware can help, but im not able to upgrade it, here are details:
https://www.win-raid.com/t3932f25-VIA-VL-x-US … Code-error.html

Future steps:
- Geforce 6 Win98 KVM videocard passthrough..

ruthan wrote on 2018-11-25, 12:57:

If someone from Europe would be interested in my old proven HP z400 machine its for sale: […]
Show full quote

If someone from Europe would be interested in my old proven HP z400 machine its for sale:

- HP z400 case (silver, black front) with HP PSU 475W
- MB
- CPU Xeon 5660 6 core / 12 threads - 2.8 GHz only 95W TDP so it could be still very quite with big Air cooler
- RAM 8 GB DDR3 ECC 1333 4x 2GB
- some generic Sata DVD-ROM

Not sure whether to start a new thread or if it's ok to ask here.. I have this exact machine as you did a couple of years ago @ruthan. Added a YMF744 and Voodoo3 to it. I installed Win98SE but it's not recognizing the DVD-ROM in Windows. In pure DOS it works fine with UIDE.SYS. BIOS SATA Emulation mode is set to IDE instead of AHCI-RAID. Otherwise not even UIDE.SYS can see the drive.
I'm wondering if you ever managed to fix this during your amazing adventure? Again, this is the HP stock DVD-ROM (standard SATA drive). If you think a regular IDE CDROM would work then I can get one. That would also serve the benefit of supporting CD audio in DOS.

Best!

Sorry, i have bad memory, i did something with DVD for sure.. but im not sure, if i made it working with native Sata or with Sata to IDE convertor, but it worked.. maybe details are in my online sheet or this thread, now i have other X58 MB from Gigabyte.. Its solvable for sure, how it other matter.. but you are not not enough slots problem, you can always use some additional disc controller.
With DVD is main problem to get some which still has analog audio out.. newer Sata one havent it..

In general, when a DVD is connected to SATA port configured in IDE mode it should work in DOS/WIN9X without any extra driver. It's weird that works with UIDE (seems it's on IDE mode port) and not work in W98. I don't have such problem on my P67 MB (one native SATA DVD and second IDE DVD via SATA2IDE adapter, both works fine). Maybe you can try nSP update for Win98 if it helps.

Thanks RayeR. Yes I confirm that I have the BIOS setting SATA to IDE mode. This machine is giving me quite some grief with Windows. This is the best I could reach now, Win98 SE with sound+gfx drivers, but no CD drive yet.

RayeR wrote on 2020-12-14, 01:07:

Maybe you can try nSP update for Win98 if it helps.

I'm not familiar with nSP. Is it "sp21b4cz.exe [17,5MB]" mentioned in this website (http://windows98.xf.cz/)?

Best!

Yes, AFAIK there's newer english version (2.3?), could be foun on MDGX site or MSFN forum.
http://www.mdgx.com/web.htm#SPX

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried the service pack but it didn't make a difference. However, I managed to solve the problem eventually. It's due to how the motherboard is exposing my drives in IDE emulation mode.

The first hint to the solution was that during a clean Win98SE installation, I get an error message that an IDE drive will revert to compatibility mode due to Windows driver not working with it. So it will be set to compatibility mode (exactly as described in knowledge base Q151911 - can be read here: https://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=163774).

The second hint was that UIDE.SYS was identifying my CDROM drive as a Secondary Slave to IDE0.

What I inferred from this, is that Windows is trying to load a 32-bit driver for both an HDD and a CD connected on the same IDE bus. The HDD is failing and thus reverts to MSDOS compatibility mode to operate. In the process, Win98 will also set a regkey to prevent scanning this IDE bus any more. The CD goes to sunset with it.

So I went into Device Manager and disabled all my PCI IDE Dual Controllers, and only enabled the one responsible for the CDROM (as hinted by UIDE.SYS). I even changed the controller's enabled channels setting to only enable the Secondary channel (because the CD is Secondary Slave).
This is of course not enough. You restart Windows and see no difference, until you re-enable IDE detection that was disabled early. You do this via the NoIDE.INF file on the Win98 CD (I have the CD copied on the HDD luckily). Once you install that INF, Windows will redetect the IDE bus again, but this time it won't visit the channels I disabled, so it won't throw the compatibility error. The CDROM gets activated (yay!)

Hopefully any following lost souls find this useful 😀

Cheers!

Did you tried Rloews Sata patch for Windows 98? If my memory serves well, he made also something for CD/DVD drives.

He made AHCI CD/DVD DOS Driver 1.1 but it's usefull only when controller is in AHCI mode (some BIOS/new MB has not IDE emulation anymore), in IDE emulation mode it should behave like real IDE device so existing drivers like UIDE or Win98 built-in drivers should work.

I just made some new discovery.. other brand of MBs, which supports selection of primary videocard slot.. its Supermirco and feature is called - VGA priority. Otherwise supermicro bioses settins, has much more options that other brands, because its more aimed for low level people.. its not only good thing, because there is lots of options, which are really dont know what they are doing.. and these MBs are unusually more expensive (except old ones which are usually quite cheap).. and have poor output ports options - for example only VGA, no HDMI, Display port, few USB, ofter not digital audio etc.. but there are exceptions.

SuperMicro are server-grade boards. They indeed are tweaked for a slightly different feature set than client boards, and server customers often need to retain backwards compatibility for longer; this can indeed be beneficial for the retro scene.

Yesterday, i checked some X299 board options and found some SuperMicro it has play hard label on heatsink, so its has to be somehow aimed for players too.. but yeah most of present product designers mean that gamers only want some rgb leds..

Hi ruthan, really interesting thread!
I have been checking out your spreadsheet over the last few weeks. At the bottom of the OS-Support-Summary tab you mention the KT400 chipset. Did you carry out any tests of this chipset with the ESS-Solo1?

No, but it would be probably same as with VIA 880.

ruthan wrote on 2021-01-11, 09:56:

its Supermirco and feature is called - VGA priority. Otherwise supermicro bioses settins, has much more options that other brands

They are the best of the best. I've built many. VGA priority is usually only on boards with a vga port. Otherwise it is option rom enable/disable per slot to control boot gpu. Most will boot any gpu in any slot. I have 2-4 gpu machines, my 5520(X58) XP box has dual xeons and a floppy port! They do have chipset drivers newer than commonly available, and the bios's do have full options and broad compatibility.

I did know that Supermicro has so long history and even in the past made something for normal users, not server.

Which board exactly you are using, i will check if they are better than my Gigabytes.. last times when i checked new boards (x299), Gigabyte this has more slots and in build HW.. which are for me more important than some low level bios settings.

Dual Xeons - i was thinking about it.. but i see there some complications:
1) Case, are these MB at least EATX to use some normal case?
2) Cooling - coolers in such machines are usually noisy.. there is not place for 2 water coolers in 1 machine and some custom water cooling is complicated. You need also more powerfull PSU with with 2 EPS CPU cables (i dunno is some Y splitter working for that)?
3) Performance - i know that multicore performance would be great in 7zip, videoediting.. but i doubt real performance benefits in games.. older games are not so multicore friendly and even for new 6 cores + HT is still quite good.. and additional cores will give how much more FPS - 10,20%?

I think it really doesn't worth for the power consumption, noise and other complications esp. for a gamer's computer. I always preferred high (over)clocked C2D/i7 over many core xeons with usually lower clock.

CwF - yes, 1st gen. core MBs still had floppy (also some Gigabytes), nice to have...