I believe i found a solution. Cannot disable ACPI in BIOS which would be nice. I got to thinking about the age of the computer and surely someone wanted to run 98 on this thing when it was new and sure enough there was. Basically it's because Windows 98's ACPI implementation sucks balls. What? What's wrong with golf balls? I mean it's not like I said... Anyway I just need to instal Windows 98 SE with this command "setup.exe /p i" which tells setup there is no PnP BIOS. I should have time tomorrow to do this.

EDIT: pewpewpew, I looked at the SP3 but I did not see anything dealing with ACPI

Never had issues with ACPI and W98 SE.

Quick update.

Installing with "setup.exe /p i" (to install in APM instead of ACPI mode) definitely works in avoiding conflicting devices.

Exploring a few other possible options.

I tried goofing with chipset drivers on a regular install but it did not help conflicts. Definitely install with "setup.exe /p i" for this board.

This is with the latest BIOS (A12) installed for the board and there is no options in BIOS for setting resources or disabling ACPI. Probably wouldn't want to anyway since I want to run XP on it too.

I just found the Dell Dimension I resqued a year ago.
Its a model 2400 so I was expecting a socket 478 motherboard with 533 MHz FSB but instead I found a MSI MS-7301 socket 775 board with some VIA chipset.
I bet there is a Celeron D or Pentium 4 5xx in the socket (I will know when I boot it up) but the board is suppsed to support the first generation C2D chips up to at least E6700.

This must be a very late Dell Dimension 2400. I cant find the exact model number because most stickers are ruined.
Everything looks original and untouched when it comes to the board, CPU, cooler and PSU so I do not think it has been upgraded.
When I found the system the disk and memory was missing and the front was a bit broken from beeing torn off.

Skycraper: Nice

I forgot to mention, do not trust the Intel site on chipset drivers. The newest driver is from 2007 and the install will not run on a vanilla Windows 98 SE install.

After much searching I found one from 2004 that works correctly. Version: 6.3.0.1007

I got it setup.

Windows 98 SE (setup /p i)
Intel 865 Chipset Drivers
Intel Ethernet Drivers
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
Nvidia GeForce4 MX440
nusb33e.exe
Direct X 7.0

Windows Installer 2.0 (needed to install Daemon Tools)

7-Zip
QuickPar
Daemon Tools

Played a little Thief 2: The Metal Age and everything looks fine. Next step is to install a SATA hard drive for Windows XP. I have an unidentified GeForce 6 series card (pretty sure it's a 6800GT) with a molex 4-pin power connector on it and will probably use that once I get a molex power extension cable/splitter. Anyone know if the GeForce 6 series has major issues with early Direct X games in Windows 98? I will try to get a Geforce4 TI4600 card for the other computer when I get it built.

HighTreason wrote:

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What would you do with a Dell Dimension 4600?

That's what I did with mine recently. 🤣

squareguy wrote:

Anyone know if the GeForce 6 series has major issues with early Direct X games in Windows 98? I will try to get a Geforce4 TI4600 card for the other computer when I get it built.

From Vogons Wiki:
"GeForce 256 through GeForce FX are fine cards for old games for a number of reasons. Their DOS game compatibility and GUI performance are top notch. Their Direct3D driver supports two critical old features, fog table and 8-bit palettized textures. OpenGL compatibility and performance are second to none, and some games utilize proprietary NVIDIA extensions.
...
Perhaps the finest choices are the GeForce FX series because they offer the most refined quality-enhancing features and the high end models have the performance to use these features at higher resolutions. GeForce 6 drops support for palettized textures, which is a problem with a few games, but otherwise they too are great choices."

Coincidentally, I got a Dell Dimension 4600 a few months ago and it was gathering dust!

So now it's a Linux box running Fedora. With the parts I had on hand, I was able to bump it up to 2.2GB Single Channel DDR, and replace the sound card with a slightly fancier Audigy, and throw in a USB card and D-Link Wireless-N Card. That's about where it stands at the moment - it's been offline for a while since installing Fedora, so I'm actually nursing it through 735 Fedora updates as I write this. Might switch out Fedora for Ubuntu before I'm all said and done...

Still 80GB IDE HDD or something like that. I tried giving the SATA controller my 2.0 TB WDC Black, but it wasn't a fan of it and did not even detect it...

Windows XP SP2 Home installed on SATA hard drive.

Thinking I should install DirectX 8.1 in XP, see if this sounds right.

This Box:

Should handle any/most DOS games that are not speed sensitive (Turtle Beach Santa Cruz provides DOS audio)

Windows 98, DirectX 7.0 - handles all DirectX games up to version 7.0
Windows XP, DirectX 8.1 - handles all DirectX games from 7.0 up to 8.1

Video card will be a GeForce4 or GeForce FX (currently GeForce4 MX440) to keep palettized textures and fog table support. Leaning heavily towards GeForce4 for Splinter Cell.

Another Box: Core2 Duo system perhaps with PCIe video card (obviously not worried about palettized textures and fog table for this card)

Windows XP, DirectX 9.0c - handles DirectX games from 7.0 up to 9.0c
Windows 7, maybe but doubt it.

All of this is with my understanding that DirectX 7.0 provides backwards compatibility to all previous versions and that DirectX 9.0c provides backwards compatibility down to DirectX 7.0.

squareguy wrote:

Windows XP SP2 Home installed on SATA hard drive. […]
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Windows XP SP2 Home installed on SATA hard drive.

Thinking I should install DirectX 8.1 in XP, see if this sounds right.

This Box:

Should handle any/most DOS games that are not speed sensitive (Turtle Beach Santa Cruz provides DOS audio)

Windows 98, DirectX 7.0 - handles all DirectX games up to version 7.0
Windows XP, DirectX 8.1 - handles all DirectX games from 7.0 up to 8.1

Video card will be a GeForce4 or GeForce FX (currently GeForce4 MX440) to keep palettized textures and fog table support. Leaning heavily towards GeForce4 for Splinter Cell.

Another Box: Core2 Duo system perhaps with PCIe video card (obviously not worried about palettized textures and fog table for this card)

Windows XP, DirectX 9.0c - handles DirectX games from 7.0 up to 9.0c
Windows 7, maybe but doubt it.

All of this is with my understanding that DirectX 7.0 provides backwards compatibility to all previous versions and that DirectX 9.0c provides backwards compatibility down to DirectX 7.0.

The Core 2 Duo box could conquer everything from the DirectX 9.0c era on down with a decent video card. I don't think you'll have much issues with compatibility since you're wanting it to run on XP. It'll be blazing fast on XP with a decent video card and HD.

Maybe the Dimension 4600 could be an experimental box? Install Linux and/or other things to play around with.

Well I forgot how fast a lowly P4 2.4-GHz with 512MB RAM can be without all of the bloatware installed.

I never thought of Quake as a speed sensitive game but when running in a straight line it seems to speed up and I run faster in certain parts. Getting like 80fps @ 800x600 in Windows 98 DOS box.

Quake will go too fast if you exceed 72fps in DOS. Windows port lacks these issues

I would give it to some one that doesnt have the money to buy a computer.. Iam not really like OEM brand computers at all.. Because mostly the needed special OEM components that only would work.
I also they would give me some headache when they would let me down.

I do donate computers from time to time but not this one hehe.

I use to feel that way about Dell and the others but I really like this one. It is actually my favorite micro-ATX case ever. 2 5.25" external bays, 1 3.5" floppy bay, 2 3.5" internal hard drive bays, front panel USB, front panel headphone, standard parts and layout, solid steel construction = not flimsy, quick and easy latch for side panel and it is a very compact layout. There is nothing proprietary about it except one thing, the motherboard header connector. Easy enough to re-pin the power/hd leds and the power switch though if you decide to put a non Dell micro-ATX motherboard in it. I have put several systems in this exact same case this way.

Not interested in a Linux box, I grew up (Linux-wise) on Slackware and Debian but there is very little (if anything) I cannot do in Mac OS (thank God for the BSD under carriage). The newer versions of KDE and GNOME were the last straw for me, and how I hate Ubuntu... let me count the ways. If I do put together another Linux box it will be straight up Debian on a Core2 Duo/Quad system. Probably running XFCE.

Sorry, got off-topic.

leileilol,

Which Windows port do you use?

Ok I got winquake from id's ftp site. 1024x768 on a 15" LCD, 60+fps and the original CD in for the ambient audio was just... bliss.

squareguy wrote:

leileilol,

Which Windows port do you use?

Personally? My own 😀 😀 😀

but it's not exactly purist friendly since it has some rare crashes and the CD audio doesn't work. It's a huge Your Mileage May Vary thing, then again so is every other custom source port ever. I wouldn't recommend it if WinQuake works fine. I wouldn't even abuse the term 'flagship' like some do.

HighTreason wrote:

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/9/26/1317039265148/computers-landfill-007.jpg […]
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What would you do with a Dell Dimension 4600?

I'd totally go raiding that place! 😉