The Intel R440LX is dual slot 1.

I also made the decision about a year ago that I'm only dealing in 2 or more socket systems in an attempt to control my ever growing fleet.
I try to have each system be able to do something different to force me to play it from time to time
eg cover early 3d Acceleration 3D Accelerated Games List (Proprietary APIs - No 3DFX/Direct3D)

So if it was me I'd do something like...

1995
Video: S3 Virge
Audio: Some SoundBlaster or Yamaha as can confirm both compatible with NT3.51
OS: Dos/NT3.51
Notes, all the S3d games that interested me were dos based. The Virge actually released in '96 but will bottleneck later systems.

1996
Video: Matrox Mystique
Audio: Whichever card you didn't use from the above build but add ESS AudioDrive as an option
OS: DOS/NT4/Win95
Notes, Destruction Derby 2 requires Win95

1997
Video: 2D card of choice paired with Voodoo1
Audio: SB AWE
OS: DOS/NT4/Win95
Notes, Went with AWE as you'll be spending time in Dos and Windows. V1 actually dates from late '96 but probably better fit here while keeping things different.

1998
VGA: TNT2 (Voodoo2 SLI is also an option for this year)
Audio: Aureal Vortex2
Notes, TNT actually dates from '99 but if you already have one I'd just pretend its a original TNT.
You could add a 2nd ISA sound card as well if wanted.
PS jealous of your slot 2 rig 😜

1999
Video: Geforce 256
Audio: SBLive
OS: DOS/NT4/Win98SE
Notes, The Live! was released in '98 so swap if you wish. This way 1 PC gives you EAX and the other A3D.

2000
VGA: Has to be the V5
Audio: SBLive!
OS: DOS/WIN2K/WIN98
Notes, You could go for a Ensonic AudioPCI just for something different in one of the 3 builds above, I don't mind it. But Live! cards are cheap, plentiful and defiantly better.

2001
Audio: Audigy1 is released!, not much else to add here

2003
Haha I've one of these, its caps have since died which I'll need to do one day.
Precision 650 Dual Xeon System
If you don't want to use the onboard audio (which isn't anything special ) Audigy2 ZS is released this year

Much appreciated input Chinny! I'll update as soon as I start configuring the systems.

This is a very exciting sounding idea I'll be watching with great interest. I love dual cpu systems

Wish I still had my compaq prosignia dual 486 *sigh*

fyi, I do have two dual opteron boards, though they lack cpu & memory.

I moved to smp with a tyan 1562D! Was then hooked and have built few singles since.

Order may be wrong, but sold the Tyan.

A Supermicro P6DLX was great. sold it

Abit BP6, since my trusty IT5H was good. sold it

Supermicro P6DGE with dual 1 gig slot1's. sold it, kept a cpu for a P6SBM @1.2GHz, still have it.

Supermicro P3TDLE. Built many. sold 'em, think I have one Intel SAI2 cousin left.

Supermicro P3TDe6. Ran it 10 years 24/7/365. The first best thing I've built, still have it.

Supermicro X8D's. built many, held one as the last x86 viable, best example a X8DTi with a floppy!

And so on...

I use to love my HP Kayak XU workstation with dual pentium II 400’s and Windows NT4/2000
It was a great computer that served me well back in 1999 Thur 2003

I also built some Intel motherboard dual Pentium computers but my HP Kayak was my favorite.

I don't feel a "yearly" dual cpu theme is the right way to go here.

I think instead, maybe focus on an OS and design a dual around that OS.

a dual socket 5/7 for a NT3.5
dual ppro for NT4
dual p2 - 2k

as an example. Maybe find a flavor of linux for a dual p3?

luckybob wrote on 2021-04-22, 20:12:

I don't feel a "yearly" dual cpu theme is the right way to go here. […]
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I don't feel a "yearly" dual cpu theme is the right way to go here.

I think instead, maybe focus on an OS and design a dual around that OS.

a dual socket 5/7 for a NT3.5
dual ppro for NT4
dual p2 - 2k

as an example. Maybe find a flavor of linux for a dual p3?

Good idea, it allows me to max out the mainboards I have. I'll ponder on it.

Must admit I also thought the year limit was kind of restrictive but then I'm not into period builds. I respect them but I prefer maxing out systems.
Biggest problem with the above list IMHO is you have 4 NT4 boxes. Don't get me wrong I like messing round with NT4 but gaming side of things it's not much use.
Where as Win2k can do both.

One thing I've been planning for mine is triple boot where a computer has Windows Server installed but also the workstation from the previous generation eg

1996
NT4 Server
NT3.51 Workstation

1997
Windows 2000 Server
NT4 Workstation

and of course a copy of 9x to enable dos gaming and for anything doesn't like NT OS's

I just used those 2 as an example, You may find the actual OS's fit better on later hardware. I mean I'm running NT4 Server on your 2003 build which is stupidly overkill. But I bet you could install 2k Server and it'll still be decent at gaming even with things like Exchange running in the background.

Just another option for you to think about 😉

The ones I listed and still have were current at the time. OS's were a trouble spot. I was a techie not a gamer..

So NT workstation was the choice at the time. It was multimedia capable and could run DOS things well. As I remember NT4 made it to DX5. But to be really period specific about smp in the late 90's, for most hardware enthusiast BeOS and OS2 were certainly in play!. Upon release of W2k, everything changed...