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Bare Minimum Late DOS/Late Win95 Build

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Reply 20 of 41, by rishooty

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If you must know, the ready 9716 predates win98 by a year. So by process of elimination, it was originally meant to run 95. It's label is simply pentium mmx.

Reply 21 of 41, by Caluser2000

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rishooty wrote on 2021-07-03, 05:50:

If you must know, the ready 9716 predates win98 by a year. So by process of elimination, it was originally meant to run 95. It's label is simply pentium mmx.

You can run what ever you want on it mate. As long as you are happy with it that is all that really matters...😉

That's a nice looking system btw. NEC always built nice solid systems.

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 22 of 41, by rishooty

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Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-07-03, 05:58:
rishooty wrote on 2021-07-03, 05:50:

If you must know, the ready 9716 predates win98 by a year. So by process of elimination, it was originally meant to run 95. It's label is simply pentium mmx.

You can run what ever you want on it mate. As long as you are happy with it that is all that really matters...😉

That's a nice looking system btw. NEC always built nice solid systems.

Precisely why I bought it! I saw NEC, that gorgeous case, and Pentium MMX and it was a done deal.

Reply 23 of 41, by Caluser2000

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rishooty wrote on 2021-07-03, 06:19:
Caluser2000 wrote on 2021-07-03, 05:58:
rishooty wrote on 2021-07-03, 05:50:

If you must know, the ready 9716 predates win98 by a year. So by process of elimination, it was originally meant to run 95. It's label is simply pentium mmx.

You can run what ever you want on it mate. As long as you are happy with it that is all that really matters...😉

That's a nice looking system btw. NEC always built nice solid systems.

Precisely why I bought it! I saw NEC, that gorgeous case, and Pentium MMX and it was a done deal.

I've got 256megs in my small HP P200mmx in the previous pics so it is possible that your one can take more ram. I wouldn't be surprised if you could increase the amount of vram as well.

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 24 of 41, by Caluser2000

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Some useful links:

https://kaisernet.neocities.org/library/1997/ … 01/winla131.htm
http://www.ronford.net/ui/circuitcity/answeb/ … r/nec/9716.html

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 25 of 41, by rishooty

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Welp, looking up prices it seems the easiest option for storage is just any refurb 120GB PATA. I never had any issues in the past with them. SSDs can be had for the same price, but I sorta don't feel like dealing with adapters. Yeah, I'll still need a 3.5 to 5.25 adapters, but I'll need one for the gotek anyway.

So I guess ram is the last question.

[This more or less covers it]
How much ram do i need for P2 dos machine ?. Once past 16MB it matters more what your board can cache, and in official specs mine supports 128mb anyway. I need 32MB minimum so that already puts me past the max dos compatibility point.

Reply 26 of 41, by Intel486dx33

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TNT2 M64, a GF2MX, or a GF4MX seem to be my best options.

Which one of these would you choose to be able to play the most games.
With good compatibility in DOS and Win-95 games ?

Reply 27 of 41, by mothergoose729

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Intel486dx33 wrote on 2021-07-05, 18:09:

TNT2 M64, a GF2MX, or a GF4MX seem to be my best options.

Which one of these would you choose to be able to play the most games.
With good compatibility in DOS and Win-95 games ?

He will be CPU limited either way. The GF2MX and GF4MX have hardware T&L, which is probably the biggest difference.

Reply 28 of 41, by Schule04

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I think you're trying to cover too many bases here. You won't have much fun running newer 3D games like Unreal Tournament or games like Age of Empires 2 on a Pentium 1.
An Nvidia or ATI graphics card that is 10 years newer than that mainboard likely won't work because of changed PCI specifications.
My suggestion: also get a Pentium 2 or 3 PC, maybe even early Pentium 4 PC for the newer games, and use the Pentium 1 machine for DOS and Win95.

Reply 29 of 41, by rishooty

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Schule04 wrote on 2021-07-05, 19:54:

I think you're trying to cover too many bases here. You won't have much fun running newer 3D games like Unreal Tournament or games like Age of Empires 2 on a Pentium 1.
An Nvidia or ATI graphics card that is 10 years newer than that mainboard likely won't work because of changed PCI specifications.
My suggestion: also get a Pentium 2 or 3 PC, maybe even early Pentium 4 PC for the newer games, and use the Pentium 1 machine for DOS and Win95.

I'm aware I'm trying to cover too many bases, but I'm 100% ok covering as much as I can. I stated earlier in this thread that I'm perfectly fine with running those games on a modern pc, especially since they have such good releases. Now AOEII I ran on a Pentium/MMX back in the day, so I know for a fact that it works. Just look at its requirements. If it ran well? I don't know, but I remember it running well enough for me as a kid.

Also, don't worry about the PCI standard. My machine is from 97 so it most likely has 2.1. The requirements of the Geforce 4 MX is in fact 2.1. Worst case scenario I lose $20 I guess. My point is, this machine really has a focus on late 2D gaming. Any decent 3D is a bonus.

Reply 30 of 41, by Oetker

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Intel486dx33 wrote on 2021-07-02, 22:45:

Sound Card - AWE64 ( CT4500 ) or ( CT4520 ) will produce good sound close to Ronald GS MIDI standards. ( Next best thing to Roland GS ).

No it won't.

Reply 31 of 41, by rishooty

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Oetker wrote on 2021-07-05, 21:08:
Intel486dx33 wrote on 2021-07-02, 22:45:

Sound Card - AWE64 ( CT4500 ) or ( CT4520 ) will produce good sound close to Ronald GS MIDI standards. ( Next best thing to Roland GS ).

No it won't.

Ehh I used YouTube to compare renditions of at dooms gate. It's honestly good enough, and it supports a wavetable header for when I can splurge on an X2g.

Reply 32 of 41, by darry

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Oetker wrote on 2021-07-05, 21:08:
Intel486dx33 wrote on 2021-07-02, 22:45:

Sound Card - AWE64 ( CT4500 ) or ( CT4520 ) will produce good sound close to Ronald GS MIDI standards. ( Next best thing to Roland GS ).

No it won't.

Admittedly, there is a subjective component to this, but while I prefer an actual Sound Canvas (SC-88 native map is usually my preference), I find that an EMU8000 based card (AWE32/AWE64/SB32) with the Voice Crystal SF2 soundbank (available to buy for about 20$ from here http://www.voicecrystal.com/sfengine.mv?#top) sounds pretty good .

Here are some sample recordings .

Re: How much ram do I really need sb32
Re: Noisy AWE64 recording from any input (line in, EMU8000 MIDI, etc) + upcoming AWE64 comparison

EDIT : Corrected a typo

Last edited by darry on 2021-07-06, 01:25. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 33 of 41, by Intel486dx33

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I am comparing to what sound cards were available back in Win-95 era. Sure a Roland GS device is best but not easy to find unless you use a Wave table DreamBlaster X2 GS.

Reply 34 of 41, by darry

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Intel486dx33 wrote on 2021-07-06, 00:04:

I am comparing to what sound cards were available back in Win-95 era. Sure a Roland GS device is best but not easy to find unless you use a Wave table DreamBlaster X2 GS.

I beg to differ. Roland GS devices are very easy to find, in general . They are, however,

a) relatively expensive to buy
b) most easily found in Japan (expensive to ship to many parts of the world, not to mention duties)

A DreamBlaster X2GS is definitely both more affordable and more flexible (not limited to a GS soundbank). I have an older X2, which is already fantastic, but I find myself wanting an X2GS as well and a McCake too. Unfortunately, I will have to wait a bit before I can purchase those .

Reply 35 of 41, by Joseph_Joestar

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rishooty wrote on 2021-07-05, 23:21:

Ehh I used YouTube to compare renditions of at dooms gate. It's honestly good enough, and it supports a wavetable header for when I can splurge on an X2g.

AWE64 cards don't have a wavetable header. Also, not sure what you've listened to, but if we're talking strictly about the AWE64 Value on-board ROM samples compared to a Roland Sound Canvas, the differences are quite noticeable.

Soundfonts are another matter entirely, but you need an adapter + extra memory to load a decent one on the AWE64 Value, since that card only has 512 KB of on-board RAM. And for that amount of money, you can get a cheap ESS 1868F sound card + Dreamblaster X2GS.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 36 of 41, by mothergoose729

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In terms of bare minimum DOS you don't need more than FM. If you want quality general midi, there are ways to do it without adding too much to the cost. The X2GS is a bit more on the expensive side, but very good. There are some neat rasberry pi projects too. My personal favorite - I made one of my modern PCs into a midi emulator.

Reply 37 of 41, by Intel486dx33

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Yeah, I guess there really is no substitute for the DreamBlaster X2 GS wave table.
Your just fooling yourself otherwise.
Link: https://www.serdashop.com/X2GS

Reply 38 of 41, by Caluser2000

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Intel486dx33 wrote on 2021-07-06, 03:17:

Yeah, I guess there really is no substitute for the DreamBlaster X2 GS wave table.
Your just fooling yourself otherwise.
Link: https://www.serdashop.com/X2GS

Give us some examples please as to why it is superior to anything else.

Other vogons members may have another veiw point.

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 39 of 41, by chinny22

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rishooty wrote on 2021-07-03, 16:28:
Welp, looking up prices it seems the easiest option for storage is just any refurb 120GB PATA. I never had any issues in the pas […]
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Welp, looking up prices it seems the easiest option for storage is just any refurb 120GB PATA. I never had any issues in the past with them. SSDs can be had for the same price, but I sorta don't feel like dealing with adapters. Yeah, I'll still need a 3.5 to 5.25 adapters, but I'll need one for the gotek anyway.

So I guess ram is the last question.

[This more or less covers it]
How much ram do i need for P2 dos machine ?. Once past 16MB it matters more what your board can cache, and in official specs mine supports 128mb anyway. I need 32MB minimum so that already puts me past the max dos compatibility point.

I'd say your just about set.
I'd agree for starters keep it simple with a IDE drive. BIOS may not support something as large as 120GB but only one way to find out! and if it doesn't you can always use something like seatools to reduce the max capacity

RAM 32MB is good starting point. See how that goes within Windows. DOS you can create ramdisks or run programs to ""eatup" excess ram if you do run into compatibility issues, but a lot of games will also run just fine.

Sound:
If you like the AWE get the AWE, Sound is a personal preference and no matter what you pick someone will say you should have gotten something else.
I wouldn't even consider external MIDI devices like Roland, Dreamblaster, etc until the system is up and running. It may be your happy with the way the midi sounds using whichever card you do end up getting.