First post, by furyanwolf
Hi guys,
So, I'm kind of in the process of getting together parts for my first ever Windows 98 (SE) Gaming PC. I am by no means new to PC building, or tech in general (i.e. I'm your average classic nerd/software developer, before it was cool), this is however my first build with parts of this era. For some context, the first PC I ever built in the past was a Core 2 era Vista (later Windows 7) PC. I have however had some brief encounters with Windows 95, 98 and quite a bit of time spent with XP in the past and happened to play 1 or 2 games on those OSes, which is to say, I don't have a specific list of games I NEED to be able to play, I'm just trying to build something relatively flexible that can play through the some DOS games and later Win 9x games up till about the end of the P3 era.
All that said, I've already done some research and have already started getting together parts for my build. I'm trying to mostly stay period correct with the build with parts from around the turn of the millennium, with some exceptions due to availability/cost of certain parts (I'm UK based by the way). I'm also not shooting for The BEST Windows 98 Gaming PC™ and thus I'm trying to keep costs relatively low via eBay auctions. That said, here's what I have so far in terms of core parts list, and then some questions:
UPDATE: Part List Updated as of 24/05/22 as ECS mobo is assumed to be (somewhat) dead 🙁
CPU: Intel Pentium III 1Ghz (Socket 370, SL52R, Coppermine) + (SPARE/Troubleshooting) Intel Celeron 600Mhz - ACQUIRED
GPU: nVidia GeForce4 TI 4200 + (SPARE/Troubleshooting) ATI Radeon R9000 PRO II - ACQUIRED
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS - ONLY PART I ALREADY HAD
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-6OXT - Awaiting Delivery
First & Dead Mobo: ECS/Elitegroup P6BAP-A+ (Rev. 2.2. Limitations: 40Gb HDD & 384 Mb RAM) - ACQUIRED & DEAD
RAM: 3 * 128 Mb PC133 SDRAM 512 MB PC133 non-ECC SDRAM - ACQUIRED
HDD: 120GB Crucial SATA SSD w/SATA to PATA adapter (not period correct but trying to avoid reliability issues with old drives) - ACQUIRED
Other Drives: Asus DVD Writer (2006) + Sony 3.5" Floppy Drive (2007) (another period exception for the sake of reliability) - ACQUIRED
PSU: EVGA 500W - ACQUIRED
With all that listed, you may have guessed some of the questions:
These questions are now answered, but will leave em for future vintage hardware explorers 😀
1. Which GPU or what GPU range would be a best fit? So far I've mostly looked at GeForce3 and GeForce4 options. Naturally, I considered VooDoo cards but not only are they like water in the desert, the few that are out there are VERY, VERY expensive for my taste. I've also considered the GeForce2 series which I think would not be good enough performance wise for late 90's - early 00's games, and also considered the much newer GeForce FX 5000 series which I think may be a bit TOO new. I am currently hoping to get my hands on a GeForce4 TI 4200, depending on how an auction goes, in which case, this question may be moot, but I would still appreciate some input on my choices thus far 😀
2. This is perhaps a silly one, my experience with CPU coolers lies mostly in the "Giant Radiators that could cool a car engine" area, so naturally, I'm a little paranoid seeing the sort of tiny coolers used in these times, especially since I keep stumbling across other techs complaining about overheating all the time...SO, would something like the subjectively tiny Cooler Master DP5-5F11 be enough to cool my P3 1Ghz chip? Or do I need something bigger? I will NOT be overclocking by the way.
3. Possibly the most important section: Power Supplies. Obviously, as I'm sure most people cheat here, I am looking at buying a brand new power supply but I am not very well versed in this area. All I know is I keep reading/watching videos of people talking about having 5/12V rails that are strong enough, etc. What am I missing here? I was just going to buy a simple ~500 Watt Corsair or similar new PSU with all the required connectors and call it a day. Is there any reason I might want to pay more attention to my power supply purchase? What exactly do I need to understand about 5V or 12V rails that would be super important for this kind of build?
That's about it for now. Would REALLY appreciate some input on these questions or just in general if you feel like commenting on the build. ANY sort of tips going into this would be appreciated 😀 Thanks!