VOGONS


First post, by paulo_becas

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Hello,

Since i've been working at home because of the pandemic, i find myself trying to finish a few projects that were in the "closet" for a few years. I have to kill time doing something i like 😀
So i decided to build my windows 98 rig and i have a few questions about the graphics card, i have a few lying around but i don't know what to choose.
Right now i have my MS-Dos computer and what a beast it is, i have all the things you could ever want for a dos machine, also i built a windows 95 machine that also has everything we could dream of in a 95 machine, i've been finishing my monster XP build, also a beast so you probably figure out by now that i want this computers to play games made specifically for those systems.
I'll be showing off my computers when a finished this one.
Right now here's what i'm going to use on this 98 machine.

Motherboard ASRock 775V88 Socket 775
CPU Pentium 4, 3 ghz i have a 3.6 ghz pentium 4 that i could use but i think it's too fast...
Sound card Sound blaster Live 5.1 SB0100
512 Mb DDR 400
250 Gb Western digital Blue IDE
Pioneer DVDRW
Samsung Floppy drive

And for the graphics card here's the problem, i have a nVidia 6200 256Mb AGP, Ati Radeon 9600 Pro 128 Mb AGP, nVidia 5200 FX 128 Mb AGP... Also i have a PCIe card X700 but it looks like windows 98 doesn't like PCIe cards and i couldn't get a AGP one.

So wich one should i use?? Been seing videos and the more i see more confused i get...

Last edited by paulo_becas on 2021-02-13, 17:52. Edited 1 time in total.

AMD Am486/Am5x86-P75 DX5 133 Mhz-64Mb Ram
S3 Trio 64V2DX 2 Mb
Soundblaster AWE64 Gold+Music Quest+MT-32+MU80
LAN-3Com
1.44 3,5 Epson Drive+1.2 5,25 Mitsumi drive+Iomega Zip 256Mb
8gb HDD,4Gb CF HDD
HP CDRW 9200
http://jp-retro.blogspot.com

Reply 2 of 15, by paulo_becas

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Thanks but i never understood why people choose the 5200 over the 6200, is there a special reason for that?

AMD Am486/Am5x86-P75 DX5 133 Mhz-64Mb Ram
S3 Trio 64V2DX 2 Mb
Soundblaster AWE64 Gold+Music Quest+MT-32+MU80
LAN-3Com
1.44 3,5 Epson Drive+1.2 5,25 Mitsumi drive+Iomega Zip 256Mb
8gb HDD,4Gb CF HDD
HP CDRW 9200
http://jp-retro.blogspot.com

Reply 4 of 15, by ODwilly

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The 6200 supports dx9 stuff better than the 5200. Thats really the only upside that I can think of. The 3.6ghz P4 should be fine for 98se. Paired with the 9600 it should work pretty well. If ya run into any compatibility issues you can always switch to the fx 5200.

Main pc: Asus ROG 17. R9 5900HX, RTX 3070m, 16gb ddr4 3200, 1tb NVME.
Retro PC: Soyo P4S Dragon, 3gb ddr 266, 120gb Maxtor, Geforce Fx 5950 Ultra, SB Live! 5.1

Reply 5 of 15, by paulo_becas

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Just one more question, 1 x 512 ddr400 single channel or 2 x 256 ddr400 dual channel?

AMD Am486/Am5x86-P75 DX5 133 Mhz-64Mb Ram
S3 Trio 64V2DX 2 Mb
Soundblaster AWE64 Gold+Music Quest+MT-32+MU80
LAN-3Com
1.44 3,5 Epson Drive+1.2 5,25 Mitsumi drive+Iomega Zip 256Mb
8gb HDD,4Gb CF HDD
HP CDRW 9200
http://jp-retro.blogspot.com

Reply 7 of 15, by paulo_becas

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Final question... Sound blaster live 5.1 sb0100 or Audigy sb0090?
Most people says that the live is better for w98 while audigy for xp. I just hate to have a spare audigy lying around without use 😜

AMD Am486/Am5x86-P75 DX5 133 Mhz-64Mb Ram
S3 Trio 64V2DX 2 Mb
Soundblaster AWE64 Gold+Music Quest+MT-32+MU80
LAN-3Com
1.44 3,5 Epson Drive+1.2 5,25 Mitsumi drive+Iomega Zip 256Mb
8gb HDD,4Gb CF HDD
HP CDRW 9200
http://jp-retro.blogspot.com

Reply 8 of 15, by fosterwj03

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Windows 98 has no problems with PCIe devices as long as you have a Windows 98 driver for it (that's the catch). While ATI did publish a Windows 98 driver for the Radeon x700, your motherboard doesn't look like it has a PCIe x16 slot. You'll lose a bit of performance if you try to use the x700 with a PCIe-to-PCI adapter.

The Radeon 9600 Pro will give you the best raw performance of your AGP options. It is fully compatible with DirectX 7, 8, and 9.0 (but doesn't fully support 9.0b).

I agree with using a pair of matching memory modules. Windows 98 can handle up to 1.5GB of RAM (minus your video card memory) without modification, so you could use the 512MB stick if you can find a mate for it to give you 1GB total.

Reply 9 of 15, by paulo_becas

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I have another ASRock motherboard 775 Dual VSTA, it's one of those motherboards from the transition period between AGP and PCIe, it has both slots. I didn't use it because i was afraid it was to recent for w98 and could cause compatibility issues.
I have tons of memory modules so going 1 gb dua channel (2x512) won't be an issue. I remember a few years ago that if i had over 512mb on a 98 machine it could give me a lot of blue screens.
I guess i have to test it out.
I'll go with the 9600, i always loved ati cards from that era, i had them all, my first radeon was the 7000, then i started to go up the ladder until this 9600 i have from the xp era. Prior to that it was the Rage.
Let's see what happens.
What about sound? Live or audigy?

AMD Am486/Am5x86-P75 DX5 133 Mhz-64Mb Ram
S3 Trio 64V2DX 2 Mb
Soundblaster AWE64 Gold+Music Quest+MT-32+MU80
LAN-3Com
1.44 3,5 Epson Drive+1.2 5,25 Mitsumi drive+Iomega Zip 256Mb
8gb HDD,4Gb CF HDD
HP CDRW 9200
http://jp-retro.blogspot.com

Reply 10 of 15, by Shagittarius

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paulo_becas wrote on 2021-02-12, 20:31:
I have another ASRock motherboard 775 Dual VSTA, it's one of those motherboards from the transition period between AGP and PCIe, […]
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I have another ASRock motherboard 775 Dual VSTA, it's one of those motherboards from the transition period between AGP and PCIe, it has both slots. I didn't use it because i was afraid it was to recent for w98 and could cause compatibility issues.
I have tons of memory modules so going 1 gb dua channel (2x512) won't be an issue. I remember a few years ago that if i had over 512mb on a 98 machine it could give me a lot of blue screens.
I guess i have to test it out.
I'll go with the 9600, i always loved ati cards from that era, i had them all, my first radeon was the 7000, then i started to go up the ladder until this 9600 i have from the xp era. Prior to that it was the Rage.
Let's see what happens.
What about sound? Live or audigy?

I have a 775 Dual Vista its running Win98SE/WinXP for me. Here's a whole thread on that MB:
Asrock 775Dual VSTA & Core4Dual thread

Reply 11 of 15, by paulo_becas

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Shagittarius wrote on 2021-02-12, 20:35:

I have a 775 Dual Vista its running Win98SE/WinXP for me. Here's a whole thread on that MB:
Asrock 775Dual VSTA & Core4Dual thread

Thats great, i'll read it to see the conclusions, thanks. Maybe i'll get that one to work.

AMD Am486/Am5x86-P75 DX5 133 Mhz-64Mb Ram
S3 Trio 64V2DX 2 Mb
Soundblaster AWE64 Gold+Music Quest+MT-32+MU80
LAN-3Com
1.44 3,5 Epson Drive+1.2 5,25 Mitsumi drive+Iomega Zip 256Mb
8gb HDD,4Gb CF HDD
HP CDRW 9200
http://jp-retro.blogspot.com

Reply 13 of 15, by chinny22

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The Audigy will give you EAX 4.0 although this is well into the XP era and not sure if any of these games even run in 98
Main benefit of the Audigy is better snr then the live!

I have the Audigy 2 ZS in most my Win98 builds which should have better snr then the Audigy 1 but honestly I cant hear much difference then the rig that has a SB Live.
I do prefer the Audigy drivers, they feel less bloated where as the Live! ones feel more period correct.
Personally I think the Audigy is better fit for a "modern" S775 build

Reply 14 of 15, by paulo_becas

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I use an Audigy 2 on my XP machine and i'm quite happy with it, I'll try the audigy on my 98 to, let's see how it performs. Live 5.1 is more period correct but then again my build isn't very period correct so i'm going with the best hardware i can find that full supports windows 98.
I don't intend to play DOS games in this machine only games from windows 95/98 era so i guess it's going to be a killer machine for this.

So this is the hardware i'm going to use so far:

Motherboard ASRock 775V88 Socket 775 (maybe i'll use ASRock 775dual-vsta)
CPU Pentium 4, 3 ghz ( maybe i'll use PIV 3.6Ghz)
Sound blaster Audigy SB0090
ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 128Mb
2 x 512 Mb DDR 400
250 Gb Western digital Blue IDE
Pioneer DVDRW
Samsung Floppy drive
500w PSU

AMD Am486/Am5x86-P75 DX5 133 Mhz-64Mb Ram
S3 Trio 64V2DX 2 Mb
Soundblaster AWE64 Gold+Music Quest+MT-32+MU80
LAN-3Com
1.44 3,5 Epson Drive+1.2 5,25 Mitsumi drive+Iomega Zip 256Mb
8gb HDD,4Gb CF HDD
HP CDRW 9200
http://jp-retro.blogspot.com

Reply 15 of 15, by paulo_becas

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Ended up building with this components.

I found lying around another ASRock motherboard, it was the perfect size for the case i wanted to use so i went with it.

Motherboard: ASRock 775i65G
CPU: Pentium 4, 3 ,6ghz
Sound Card: Sound blaster Audigy SB0090
Graphic Card: ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 128Mb
Memory: 2 x 512 Mb DDR 400 (dual channel)
Hard Drive: 120 Gb Seagate IDE
Optical Drive: LG 52x CD-Rom (to be replaced with a dvd rom)
Floppy drive: Samsung
PSU: 550w LC Power

It turned out really good. Thanks all for the help

AMD Am486/Am5x86-P75 DX5 133 Mhz-64Mb Ram
S3 Trio 64V2DX 2 Mb
Soundblaster AWE64 Gold+Music Quest+MT-32+MU80
LAN-3Com
1.44 3,5 Epson Drive+1.2 5,25 Mitsumi drive+Iomega Zip 256Mb
8gb HDD,4Gb CF HDD
HP CDRW 9200
http://jp-retro.blogspot.com