# Project Old School



## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Jan 18, 2012)

I have been pondering this build for over a year now. What spurred the interest was much like another members on here's thread. I was digging through some of my stuff I have in the closet and came across this. A Ati Rage Fury Pro.






I said hmm maybe I'll do a win 98se build to play old games and such.

I already had a Abit Kt7a non raid board but the only proc I had close to what I wanted was a xp2100+ which is to fast for what I want. So I put the build on the back burner. Then I remembered I had this. A Aureal Vortex 2 SQ2500 sound card. 




So I figured I would slowly gather parts for the build while looking for the right processor. I my gathering of parts I came up with 2 other old school sound cards. A Sb Live! and a Sb Audigy with the breakout box.





Now I already have several great socket A coolers. 





And plenty of pc133 memory. 3 x 256 mb and 1 x 128mb









The processor still eluded me until now. 

I want to give a special thanks to Norton, a member here that hooked me up with a proc and he also threw in a board and 2 extra 256 mb pc133 mem chips. thats a generation older then my KT7A board. Which is even better. 







Now I have the back up plan in place also. And may do some testing with some fastert hardware under 98se. The backup plan entails 1 Gainward Geforce Fx5700, The Kt7a board and a Athlon Xp 2400+.






Here's a couple more shots of the hardware.










Planing on getting started on the actual build in the coming weeks.




I also need to give to give some thanks to Bot (member on here). He has sent me the hard drives I will use in this build. 



Thank-you so much Norton and Bot


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## Norton (Jan 18, 2012)

Cool Stuff!

What kind of case are you planning to use?


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## Jetster (Jan 18, 2012)

I cant believe you still have the box for the Rage Fury Pro.    Nice


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Jan 19, 2012)

Norton said:


> Cool Stuff!
> 
> What kind of case are you planning to use?


That I am not sure yet. I do have one of these cases click me for pic that I have my socket 939 system in. But I am thinking of moving that system to a better case as airflow doesn't seem that great In this Raidmax case. Not sure though as this may be a little over the top for a old school build


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Jan 19, 2012)

Jetster said:


> I cant believe you still have the box for the Rage Fury Pro.    Nice


I bought that thing new way way back when it first came out. In the box is everything that came with it ( driver disc, games, instruction pamplet)I also had a Original Radeon card. The one that didn't have a number assigned to it like 7500.


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## Norton (Jan 19, 2012)

I have a yellow raidmax Samurai in the garage- it's kinda big and may be impractical to ship though.

The paint is a little faded but most of it is intact

You can it if you need it 




ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> That I am not sure yet. I do have one of these cases click me for pic that I have my socket 939 system in. But I am thinking of moving that system to a better case as airflow doesn't seem that great In this Raidmax case. Not sure though as this may be a little over the top for a old school build


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Jan 19, 2012)

Pm sent there buddy.


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## Norton (Jan 19, 2012)

Replied


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## kciaccio (Jan 20, 2012)

Damn! computer parts were ugly back in the day. lol


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## Norton (Jan 20, 2012)

They had their own charm....

What's wrong with plugging in a PC that looks like a bag of Starburst threw up on a box of crayons 




kciaccio said:


> Damn! computer parts were ugly back in the day. lol


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Jan 20, 2012)

Norton said:


> They had their own charm....
> 
> What's wrong with plugging in a PC that looks like a bag of Starburst threw up on a box of crayons


I agree


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## Wrigleyvillain (Jan 20, 2012)

Ah awesome nostalgia. But, yeah, ugly as hell. Especially mobos.

Just don't get it all put together and then remember you don't actually have a working copy of Win98 SE anymore!


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Jan 20, 2012)

Wrigleyvillain said:


> Ah awesome nostalgia. But, yeah, ugly as hell. Especially mobos.
> 
> Just don't get it all put together and then remember you don't actually have a working copy of Win98 SE anymore!



I actually have 4 or 5 copies of win 98se but that would be funny as hell if I didn't.


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## Red_Machine (Jan 20, 2012)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


>



"Delivers more than 3dfx Voodoo3 3000"

Yeah, it may have 32-bit colour, but the Voodoo still beats it in 16-bit colour games.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Jan 20, 2012)

Red_Machine said:


> "Delivers more than 3dfx Voodoo3 3000"
> 
> Yeah, it may have 32-bit colour, but the Voodoo still beats it in 16-bit colour games.



Thats alright. I have this for backup. 






Geforce FX5700


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## scaminatrix (Jan 20, 2012)

Norton said:


> They had their own charm....
> 
> What's wrong with plugging in a PC that looks like a bag of Starburst threw up on a box of crayons



Surely you mean Opal Fruits 

I like MRCL's take on old hardware (I think it's MRCL anyway) - he has them as ornaments in his room - pinned to the wall and on shelves etc. For some reason, old hardware always looks better on a wall than in a rig, but that's just me 



ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> Thats alright. I have this for backup.
> 
> http://i865.photobucket.com/albums/ab220/gsdewd/Old school build/Picture017Medium.jpg
> 
> Geforce FX5700



The face logo on that card just freaks me out.


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## Red_Machine (Jan 20, 2012)

I always liked Gainward's designs.  My favourite card is still their Blisss 8800GT Golden Sample.


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## Batou1986 (Jan 20, 2012)

If you can get that thing to run Janes USAF max details on win98 I will buy it from you as that's the only OS it works on.
Ive never been able to scrounge up enough working components to do that.


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## happita (Jan 20, 2012)

This is an awesome concept man. I think you just spurred me into considering to make an old school build to play some old games that don't run anymore on windows 7...or XP anymore for that matter 
Duke Nukem 1
Duke Nukem 2
Duke Nukem 3d
Rise of the Triad
Raptor: Call of the Shadows
Heretic
Hexen
Hexen 2
Wolfenstein 3D

I just PM'd you


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## Wrigleyvillain (Jan 20, 2012)

I don't have a lot of practical experience with virtualization so maybe I'm missing something obvious but can't you run these in a Win 98 VM as well? No good enough graphics acceleration perhaps?


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Jan 20, 2012)

Wrigleyvillain said:


> I don't have a lot of practical experience with virtualization so maybe I'm missing something obvious but can't you run these in a Win 98 VM as well? No good enough graphics acceleration perhaps?


Not sure if you can but I do know that some hardware is to advanced for some win 9x games and such. That and I just want to do the build.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Jan 21, 2012)

Batou1986 said:


> If you can get that thing to run Janes USAF max details on win98 I will buy it from you as that's the only OS it works on.
> Ive never been able to scrounge up enough working components to do that.



Challenge accepted. What are the sys. reqs. on that and where can I get a copy? I know for a fact I can run the original Unreal Tournament at max detail under win 98. But this maybe one of those deals where more is not always better. But I do have a few tricks up my sleeve hardware wise. 





Edit I have the system reqs. 

Minimum Pentium 200 MHz or higher 64 mb RAM, 3D graphics accelerator with 4mb Video memory, Direct X compatible sound card, mouse, keyboard, CDROM, Windows 95 or 98

But this maybe one of those deals where more is not always better. But I do have a few tricks up my sleeve hardware wise. May have to drop the system down a few notches and see where I am at. I will see if I can find a copy and go from there.


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## Krazy Owl (Jan 21, 2012)

I might have a Pentium 3 with 1 gig around but I'm far from home for now so I'll take a look at what I have when I'll go back. Might also have one or two spare PC133 non-ecc 512megs.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Jan 21, 2012)

Krazy Owl said:


> I might have a Pentium 3 with 1 gig around but I'm far from home for now so I'll take a look at what I have when I'll go back. Might also have one or two spare PC133 non-ecc 512megs.


Thanks but I think I am covered hardware wise but if something comes up I will let you know.


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## Krazy Owl (Jan 21, 2012)

Np


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## DOM (Jan 21, 2012)

im not that old never had a comp like that


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Jan 21, 2012)

This stuff isn't even from the first computer I built for myself. lol


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## Norton (Jan 21, 2012)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> This stuff isn't even from the first computer I built for myself. lol



My guess would be from the days where Cyrix made CPU's for Super Socket 7 and a 200mhz Pentium Pro CPU was over $500


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Jan 21, 2012)

Norton said:


> My guess would be from the days where Cyrix made CPU's for Super Socket 7 and a 200mhz Pentium Pro CPU was over $500


And you would be correct. My fist complete build was a super socket 7 system with a K6-2 266 proc. And here it is


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## Norton (Jan 21, 2012)

I think I had that same case for my first builds 

Short and wide with sideways PSU?


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Jan 21, 2012)

Yes It's a Inwin case. I still have that system in the closet.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Jan 21, 2012)

And so the build begins 

Using a temporary case while the case for this builds make its way here. This is my Kt7a system which won't be hurt in this build and will be restored back to complete full health within 2 weeks. 











Case almost empty. 







Parts parts and more parts.


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## Wrigleyvillain (Jan 21, 2012)

Looking good so far...

(Well nothing from that era actually looks "good" as we've discussed but you know what I mean!)


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Jan 21, 2012)

Mobo installed (Asus A7pro) will be doing a test boot shortly and if all goes well maybe load win 98se.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Jan 22, 2012)

It's alive


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Jan 22, 2012)

Got win 98se loaded along with the chipset, video, and soundcard drivers. Win 98 is just how I remebered it (a pita). Good thing I have logged plenty of time behind win9x machines. But somewhere between to os load and chipset driver load one of the cd drives in the machine took a dump. It was my good sony cd-rw drive thats like 5 to 10 yrs old. Oh well I have about 15 spare drives laying around. Next up Os customizing MaD ShOt style.


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## TRWOV (Jan 22, 2012)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> *It's alive*
> 
> 
> http://i865.photobucket.com/albums/ab220/gsdewd/Old school build/Picture050Medium.jpg



Honest, I hadn't seen your last post and chose the same line.  I'm having a little problem with mine, I think the HDD or the IDE cable is bad  If I don't figure it out I'll have to wait until tomorrow to get another IDE cable.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Jan 22, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> Honest, I hadn't seen your last post and chose the same line.  I'm having a little problem with mine, I think the HDD or the IDE cable is bad  If I don't figure it out I'll have to wait until tomorrow to get another IDE cable.



Oh it's perfectly fine as it is the truth. Also check the jumper settings on the drive carefully. I had a 40 gig slated for this build and the system wouldn't see it. I ran through the jumpers 6 times until I realized the pic of the jumper block on the drive is backwards and upside down from the actual positions. Also some boards don't like certain drives at all. Swap the hdd cable with the cd rom cable. and see if the bios recognizes the drive. If not it's either the drive itself (jumper setting/bad drive) or the bios doesn't like the drive. What size is the drive? 



On a side note I just picked up this lot of old stuff. Whats in there you ask? 2 Abit boards. One is a BE6 and has a pentIII 450 with it and the other is a KT7A with a Athlon 1.2 ghz proc. Everything shown was included in the lot.


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## TRWOV (Jan 22, 2012)

Did you get the ORB SECC2 cooler?


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Jan 22, 2012)

No it has the factory cooler on it.


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## TRWOV (Jan 22, 2012)




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## xBruce88x (Jan 27, 2012)

damn i really need to finish my build... i think i first posted about it back in 2010 lol


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## Norton (Jan 28, 2012)

How's it going on the project?


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Jan 29, 2012)

I am rethinking the project at the moment. Might do the build a little different. Going through the thought process at the moment. Will update as soon as I figure which way I am going to go now.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 1, 2012)

Okay so well I come to the conclusion that win98 just sucks for speed. Internet wise, no matter how much memory you throw at it it still just crawls. Pos And Ie 6 is just trash. I am using Netscape 9 right now. It's better just slow as shit. Well heres a screen shot thus far. Oh and I am on the system as I type.


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## TRWOV (Feb 1, 2012)

I found out the same. I've decided to omit the ethernet card on mine for the same reason (currently using an USB to ethernet adapter). Besides there isn't any anti-virus that works with 98 and still get updates. At most I'd use the web to post screenshots here so I don't mind.

Have you installed any games on it? I currently have Half Life and Tyrian running. 

I hope you get the case soon. Looking forward to the finished build.


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## Ammonite (Feb 1, 2012)

Awesome project. You better go find some old school games to go with that machine.


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## Yo_Wattup (Feb 1, 2012)

Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeesus hardware was ugly back then.. holy f***ing shit that's hideous... 

But seriously that's awesome stuff Mad shot, takes me back... keep up the good work! Is windows 98 the one where you had to choose 'shut down computer' then wait until it says you can switch off the computer, or was that 95? Man, good times were had on those machines...


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 1, 2012)

TRWOV said:


> I found out the same. I've decided to omit the ethernet card on mine for the same reason (currently using an USB to ethernet adapter). Besides there isn't any anti-virus that works with 98 and still get updates. At most I'd use the web to post screenshots here so I don't mind.
> 
> Have you installed any games on it? I currently have Half Life and Tyrian running.
> 
> I hope you get the case soon. Looking forward to the finished build.



Case is here (thanks to Norton). Ye-haw. Will post pics later. I am using a USB Ethernet adapter for internet. I think the main issue is the web browser. IE 6 just plain sucks nowadays. Most sites just don't support it. 





Yo_Wattup said:


> Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeesus hardware was ugly back then.. holy f***ing shit that's hideous...
> 
> But seriously that's awesome stuff Mad shot, takes me back... keep up the good work! Is windows 98 the one where you had to choose 'shut down computer' then wait until it says you can switch off the computer, or was that 95? Man, good times were had on those machines...



Hell win 95/98/ME and win xp would do that under the right circumstance. It all has to do with what power management or lack of and if your motherboard supports softoff.


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## Norton (Feb 1, 2012)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> Case is here (thanks to Norton). Ye-haw. Will post pics later. I am using a USB Ethernet adapter for internet. I think the main issue is the web browser. IE 6 just plain sucks nowadays. Most sites just don't support it.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



The AT/Baby AT boards were the ones that did that... I think maybe?

I can't remember


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 2, 2012)

Norton said:


> The AT/Baby AT boards were the ones that did that... I think maybe?
> 
> I can't remember


I am pretty sure your right. I think you can make some of the older atx boards do it by disabling  something in the bios.


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## Yo_Wattup (Feb 2, 2012)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> I am pretty sure your right. I think you can make some of the older atx boards do it by disabling  something in the bios.



Do it just for old times sake! 

And then get annoyed after 3-4 shutdowns coz you have to wait and turn it off..


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## xBruce88x (Feb 2, 2012)

i think it was pretty much any motherboard that still used the older power connector that didn't power off. all the ones with the newer 20-24pin power connector turned off on their own i think, unless it had win95 on it lol. Win98SE would turn off automatically. I remember having to download a patch that delayed the turn off point though b/c MS found out that Win98 was turning the computer off while the hard drive was making its last file copy from ram lol.

as for web browsing, yea IE6 just blows. It was slow when it first came out, and it still is. Firefox 2.0 should help, but there's also this... http://sourceforge.net/projects/kernelex/


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 3, 2012)

My next little piece of software. Thanks xBruce88x


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 3, 2012)

Yo_Wattup said:


> Do it just for old times sake!
> 
> And then get annoyed after 3-4 shutdowns coz you have to wait and turn it off..



I think I will just for kicks and giggles.


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## t_ski (Feb 4, 2012)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> My next little piece of software. Thanks xBruce88x





ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> I think I will just for kicks and giggles.



Please use the multiquote instead of double posting


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 4, 2012)

Next up gaming with a rage fury pro. This ought to be good. Unreal is first on the list..


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## Norton (Feb 4, 2012)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> Next up gaming with a rage fury pro. This ought to be good. Unreal is first on the list..



How about some Commander Keen and Star Wars Dark Forces (1&2)


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## t_ski (Feb 4, 2012)

Dark Forces was awesome


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 4, 2012)

Have to see if I can find Dark forces. But I do have XWing vs. Tie Fighter. I also have a force feedback wheel with pedals. So driving games are going on the list. Hmmm Maybe you all can give me some ideals for the best win 98 games.


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## xBruce88x (Feb 5, 2012)

gotta load up need for speed hot pursuit, shogo is a fun fps game along with blood 2 and if you like space sims there's tachyon the fringe and the freespace series. oh, orig. Half-Life with the SD pack (came with blue shift i think) and any blizzard game warcraft III and older should run. and if you wanna be a mayor for a while there's sim city 3000. some flight sims i can think of are F-22 lightning 3, commanche gold.


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## t_ski (Feb 5, 2012)

I think you might need to go back to the original Need for Speed to be "period correct."


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 6, 2012)

Alright back to the build.. Here are some shots of the case I am using for the build. 















Now on with the final build. Mobo in






Optical Drives in






Psu in and wired up. Just need to do minor wire clean up. 








Final specs of build will be as follows.

Case: Raidmax Samurai
PSU: Achieve 400 watt cheapo
Mobo: Asus A7 Pro
Cpu: Athlon 1 ghz Thermalright socket A cooler
Memory: Crucial 256 mb pc133 (have more me if needed)
Gpu: Ati Rage Fury Pro 32 mb
Sound card: Aureal Vortex 2 SQ 2500
Hdd: Maxtor 40 gb Ide
Optical drives: 32x cd burner and a dvdrom drive
Floppy: Standard 1.44
Network: D-link DUB-E100 Usb Ethernet adapter



Got some minor things to do before the real fun begins. Need to make a fan bracket for the back of the case to hold a rear fan or 2. And do some scrubbing on the case. Will work on that this week. Next weekend is slated for some gaming fun with some screenies.


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## Norton (Feb 6, 2012)

I believe I have the missing rear cover and the small door for the front USB- will try to locate by tomorrow and get them to you ASAP 

  Pretty bright case ain't it


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 6, 2012)

When I first open the box I was like woah. But now it has grown on me. I like the way all the wire and such just happen to find there own places to hide in it. It is indeed a pretty cool case. Not what I was running in those days but cool. I will edit this post in a few with a case I was running in those days and still running today. It houses my s939 system.

My old school case I still use heheh


















Oh and I have 2 of them.


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## TRWOV (Feb 6, 2012)

The case reminds me of a Vento. Good to see it finally setup.


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## Norton (Feb 6, 2012)

Found the front and rear covers- the rear fan adapter is MIA- went into my old super flower case. 

  Adapter was a tool-less clip for a 120mm fan... don't know if Raidmax put that style in anything else.

  Will put the pieces in the original ASUS mobo box and drop in tomorrows mail


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 6, 2012)

Norton said:


> Found the front and rear covers- the rear fan adapter is MIA- went into my old super flower case.
> 
> Adapter was a tool-less clip for a 120mm fan... don't know if Raidmax put that style in anything else.
> 
> Will put the pieces in the original ASUS mobo box and drop in tomorrows mail



Cool thanks. Let me know what the shipping cost is so I can send it to you.


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## eidairaman1 (Feb 6, 2012)

you still have the XP-M 2500+ Machine?


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 6, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> you still have the XP-M 2500+ Machine?


I have 2 of them running and 2 athlon xp systems running. But the Blue case system is a s939 system. The green case is a xp3200 system. I have a abit nf7-s and a Epox 8krai pro system running xpm's @ 2.4 ghz. I also have a Kt7a system running a xp2400+ I use as a file server.


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## Norton (Feb 6, 2012)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> Cool thanks. Let me know what the shipping cost is so I can send it to you.



Parts on their way

YGPM


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 6, 2012)

Cool thanks


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 11, 2012)

Okay here's where I am at on the build. I was reading some old mags from the win98 era ( I have all max pc's from late 98 to 05 with disc's) and noticed my mobo maybe a little advanced. Not that it won't work or anything as I have had the system running and win 98 is loaded. Now should I continue the build with this board or should I switch gears and use a Slot A board? And be time period correct. The board I am using right now was introduced at the tail end of 98 and the beginning of Xp. The Slot A's where there for win 98's hayday. I have a line on a slot a board and chip. Which I am getting regardless. So what do you all think? Slot A or Socket A? And upgrade ability doesn't matter as this system is going to have all the best components from that era to begin with.


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## Norton (Feb 11, 2012)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> Okay here's where I am at on the build. I was reading some old mags from the win98 era ( I have all max pc's from late 98 to 05 with disc's) and noticed my mobo maybe a little advanced. Not that it won't work or anything as I have had the system running and win 98 is loaded. Now should I continue the build with this board or should I switch gears and use a Slot A board? And be time period correct. The board I am using right now was introduced at the tail end of 98 and the beginning of Xp. The Slot A's where there for win 98's hayday. I have a line on a slot a board and chip. Which I am getting regardless. So what do you all think? Slot A or Socket A? And upgrade ability doesn't matter as this system is going to have all the best components from that era to begin with.



My Vote would be to stick to the Socket A


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## _JP_ (Feb 11, 2012)

Well, since you stated that you are going to get those parts regardless, I say:
Socket A: Win2k (or XP)
Slot A: Win98


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 11, 2012)

I have enough win xp systems. I also don't have a good win2k disc so 2k is out. I do have a :shadedshu Win me  disc. So that may be an option.


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## Red_Machine (Feb 11, 2012)

Hey, don't knock ME.  It's a good OS provided it's on a fast enough system and you don't screw around with it.  Crashed on me a helluva lot less than 98 ever did.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 11, 2012)

I may give it a whirl then.


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## Red_Machine (Feb 12, 2012)

As with 98, ME can't be updated anymore, so make sure you grab the unofficial service pack to get it up-to-date.  You gotta turn off system restore and system file protection though.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 12, 2012)

Oh yeah I have the links for the down loads for the sp and such.


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## eidairaman1 (Feb 12, 2012)

Red_Machine said:


> Hey, don't knock ME.  It's a good OS provided it's on a fast enough system and you don't screw around with it.  Crashed on me a helluva lot less than 98 ever did.



98SE didnt give me any headaches like ME did.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 12, 2012)

I have read that and back when it was released there where alot of bad reviews for it is why I never actually upgraded to it. I went from 98 to Xp.


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## TRWOV (Feb 12, 2012)

ME drivers are similar to 98's but not entirely so there are fewer drivers for ME although 98 drivers can be ported to ME.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 12, 2012)

Project old school might get a new os for awhile.

Okay so for my polls ( now there will be 2 for this)
You can vote on a  a mobo and a os.


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## Norton (Feb 12, 2012)

:d





the_mad_shot said:


> project old school might get a new os for awhile.
> 
> Okay so for my polls ( now there will be 2 for this)
> 
> ...



98se


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## xBruce88x (Feb 12, 2012)

+1 for the socket A and Win98 SE.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 12, 2012)

Well I have a slot A board on the way, but the poll will dictate what board I use for this build. The socket A is winning so far and win Me has got no love out there.


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## Fitseries3 (Feb 12, 2012)

i have an athlon xp 2400+ if you want it.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Feb 12, 2012)

pm'd


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## t_ski (Feb 15, 2012)

One more vote for Win 98 SE.  I bought ME and thought I was doing the right thing, but had the weirdest networking issue.  I was at a friends house for my first LAN party and realized my NIC was turned off in the BIOS.  I turned it on, then was prompted to install the drivers for it.  I was asked for the OS disc, but did not have it with me.  I went through the setup anyway, skipping files as needed.  Turns out the NIC worked, and was fine.  About a month later I decided to upgrade my hard drive, and did a reinstall of the OS.  I figured I'd install the NIC drivers the right way this time, but that was a huge mistake.  The dang thing never worked at our LAN parties right again.  Always lagged behind the other guys on laps and had issues where my car would disappear or pass through other objects like they were ghosts.


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## Norton (Feb 20, 2012)

I haz want to see project.... can I haz?


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## Norton (Aug 4, 2012)

I'm digging this thread out of the archives for you Buddy 

Gonna blow the dust off and run some classics on it?

Starting to do some planning for my classic alienware hydraulic case project


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Aug 4, 2012)

Actually I was thinking about it today. I think within the next couple weeks I will get it done and play some. I am done with the cruncher builds for a long while so I haz time for a retro build.


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## Iceni (Aug 5, 2012)

If your going with ME try updating Win98 to ME, rather than a direct install of ME. Your ME disc should be capable of doing this.

You retain the 98 registry and loose a lot of the bugs, while gaining ME's utterly awesome network speeds. You also gain generic USB support, something that's hard to live without.

You will loose real mode DOS, so you better have something downloaded if you plan to game on DOS the same as a XP+ system.

ME also sorts out a lot of the problems that 2K has in regard to game compatibility. 2K doesn't have a compatibility mode, so you may find games don't run, ME or XP can both reduce these problems with an older system. ME will have far fewer problem and less overheads on the system so it's probably the better option.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Aug 5, 2012)

The system may take yet another route. I am thinking of either 
A: going with the slot A system
B: using the Slot 1 combo
C: Using my Kt7a with either the Axp 2100+ or the Axp 2400+
I am gathering the drivers for all three right now and will gather all the parts together later today and get thing in order to finally get this build complete. 

I was thinking of using my nf2 based board for it but decided I really don't need that much for win 98. I will put it back up and run win xp with it for some or the other games. 


Both systems are going to be purley gaming systems. First game I will run will be either Myst or Unreal Tournament Creative Gold edition. Leaning toward Unreal because that game did cause me many sleepless night of pure fraggin' fun.



Also what video card should I use?

A: Ati Rage Fury Pro
B: Nvidia Geforce Fx 5700


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## Norton (Aug 5, 2012)

Go with the one with the best supported drivers (the Axp probably has the best support but I really don't know)

My vote is C


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Aug 5, 2012)

I do have drivers for all three combos but like you said the kt7a has the best support. And hell win 98 will just fly on it. I also think I am going to use the Fx5700 with it also. Sound will be either a SB Live! gamer 5.1 or a SB Audigy 1. When I make the final choice of Hardware I will post it up with pics.






Early evening edit. 


Okay I went through a got all the hardware together for the build. I am still on the fence on which combo to use. I have everything for all three combos out now. 

Why I am on the fence is there is one game I want to install and play on the win98 box. It can only be played on a win98 or lower machine. You can't play it in virtual mode under win7  either. It needs 16 bit support. So the system requirements aren't high at all for it. It was made for win 95. Hell all my other old games will probably run under Xp except this one. There is a newer version of the same game that is supposed to run under Xp and possibly Vista, but why pay for another copy when I have the original. I can also get it on Steam and they say it has unofficial win7 support but I am not going down that road. Oh the Game is Myst. 


So the build will go as follow's

Motherboard:

A: Lucky Star 6VA693A Slot 1 
B: Msi MS-6167 Slot A
C: Abit Kt7a V1.3

Processor:

A: Pent iii 600 Eb Stock Intel cooler
B: Athlon 750 mhz Thermaltake Golden Orb
C: I have a few Socket A procs I can use on the Kt7a. I have from a 900 Duron to a Athlon xp 2400+ and about 10 to 15 in between. Thermaltake Volcano 11+ xaser

Memory:

I have 2 x 128 mb pc133 and a 256 mb pc133 I also have 3x 512 pc133 chips if I decide to patch win 98 to use more memory. 

Video card:

A: Ati Rage Fury Pro
B: Gainward Geforce Fx 5700

Sound card:

A: Aureal Vortex 2 SQ2500 
B: Creative Soundblaster Live! Gamer 5.1
C: Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 1 w/ live drive

Drives:

Sony 52x cdrw
Maxtor 40 gb ide hdd
Generic floppy drive


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## Iceni (Aug 5, 2012)

Full retro for me would be the slot A system. It represents a big change in the way CPU's were sold, and the speed gains that those cpu's offered. For me this is the golden age of the modern pc. 

Pre slot A the best thing was pretty much any PII system for games, PII 400mhz were something of a industry standard for a long time. AMD pushed out of the box and after the K6's we got athlon. The first modern cpu. It took intel a while to catch up with the P3 and the P3 never had the impact of the athlon. Added to that Intel then lost the consumer crown for a very long time through the thunderbird, palamino, TB-a, TB-b, barton, S939, Am2. Amd messed up after this point.

With that in mind i would base a retro system from the thing that kicked it all off, The slot A.

Failing that the Next best chip in my eyes would be the athlon XP 1700 TB-b. Those chips represent the first real consumer gains from overclocking. Clocking up to far far greater speeds than the industry liked. Up to then 10% gains was considered overclocking. Once those chips hit the market 20-40% overclocking became a real possibility Even more so when matched to a fast chipset like the nforce2. KT7 was always regarded as been slower, and not having the capability to push those chips as far.


Video card wise i think you have 2 bad choices. The big deal in Gpu's in the slot A era was 3DFX V/S Nvidia, Voodoo 3 4 or 5, or a geforce 2 would be the ideal partners.

For the 1700xp the card of choice is the ATI 9700 pro, It represent the largest gain in performance, and the biggest leap technologically of its time. The Nvidia card of this era for me would be the Geforce 4 ti 4800. The ATI card dominated the benchmarks for a long time and also offers DX9. The GF4 is only DX8.1


With that in mind and the choices you have listed i would make this system for Myst. B, B, A, B.

For an xp based system i would choose C, C, B, C


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Aug 5, 2012)

You know I was leaning towards the ol' slot A for some reason. I think that is the way I am going with the build. Thanks man. 

I have a nf2 board and all I am going to put together and get my win xp rig going again. But that will be another project build.


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## stinger608 (Aug 6, 2012)

Ya might have some issues with the Nvidia FX5700 with Windows 98 Mad. Not sure there would even be any drivers for that man. Riva TNT yes, but a FX5700 may be a bit hard to find..........Of course unless ya found some LOL.

Also in your poll, why don't you include Windows 3.11? 

Can you say "out and back?"


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## Iceni (Aug 6, 2012)

stinger608 said:


> Ya might have some issues with the Nvidia FX5700 with Windows 98 Mad



he'll probably have more issues with the voltage changes between agp revisions. Fortunately when they did the AGP slot they accounted for this, and thus a 1.5V card will not go in a 3.3v slot or vice versa.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Graphics_Port


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Aug 6, 2012)

stinger608 said:


> Ya might have some issues with the Nvidia FX5700 with Windows 98 Mad. Not sure there would even be any drivers for that man. Riva TNT yes, but a FX5700 may be a bit hard to find..........Of course unless ya found some LOL.
> 
> Also in your poll, why don't you include Windows 3.11?
> 
> Can you say "out and back?"



Got me some drivers. And actually if I had some really old hardware windows 3.11 would be a project system. But I need a 386 or 486 system for that. Which I don't have. The oldest I have right now is the slot1 and slot A systems. Hell I am still hunting for the elusive super socket 7 board I have been hunting for about 3 or 4 years now. I want one that is Atx with a agp port and mvp3 chipset.






Iceni said:


> he'll probably have more issues with the voltage changes between agp revisions. Fortunately when they did the AGP slot they accounted for this, and thus a 1.5V card will not go in a 3.3v slot or vice versa.
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Graphics_Port


I am good there as the Geforce card is a 4x agp card and not a 8x card. Now my hd2400pro is a 8x card and doesn't have the 3.3volt notch like the fx5700 has. 

Here is a pic of them. The 2400 8x card is the second card in the top row of gpu's and the fx5700 is the 4th/last card in the top row.


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