Finishing on the RetroMaster build, finally... I was unpleasantly surprised with the amount of problems (and patches), just to get the Aureal card working under XP... Fortunately, I came across the registry patch (along with control panel update), which allows you to resolve quite a number of issues, including random cut-offs, when Vortex would go silent for couple of minutes. Actually I'm still considering to activate the on-board audio & patch it through Aureal card, but now that Aureal card is kinda working OK, it seems unnecessary.
On a more positive note, I'm surprised with the speed & power this thing has... I was able to start up & play HL2 ep2 @ around 30fps, with all settings set to med/high, and screen resolution of 1024x768
I'm still hoping to OC Ti4200 to the point where I might increase the score by several FPS, just to make sure it doesn't lag. This is XP we're talking about (obviously), Win98 is still reserved for Glide & older DirectX8b (and older) games. Speaking of which, there was one another, annoying problem which I wasn't able to resolve... It seems that most of my DOS games hang or crash with random error messages (usually mentioning EMM386 & shutting down, in order to prevent data loss). I had exactly the same Autoexec.bat & Config.sys setup back on the old ASRock board & everything worked OK, so I'm wondering if this is maybe something to do with system resources, IRQs. Oh well, DOS programs are still accessible through Win98, and (now that I have Aureal card in place & working), everything seems to be OK. So it's not a huge loss, although I would prefer to have the real thing
Edit
nVidia Ti4200 is now OCed, running perfectly stable at 285/580MHz (core/memory) and the performance boost is outstanding, with Half-Life 2 ep2 now running smoothly & without any problems, whatsoever. That's pretty impressive for DirectX8 card if you ask me!
And of course, being a software OC - not the hardware one, it's only activated within XP, which means that Win98 and DOS are still running at stock speeds...
Edit2
I completely overhauled Config.SYS & Autoexec.BAT, so they include additional instructions & parameters necessary for normal DOS operation... Well, in the terms of retro gaming, of course. I'll copy it over here, for you guys to see & check out... Just in case I missed something, or done in the wrong order, it's not like I'm DOS expert
Config.SYS...
from (OLD):
Code:
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE
device=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\display.sys con=(ega,,1)
Country=385,852,C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\country.sys
to (NEW):
Code:
DOS=HIGH,UMB,NOAUTO
BUFFERSHIGH=30,0
STACKSHIGH=9,256
Country=385,852,C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\country.sys
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS /V
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE RAM /MIN=0 I=B000-B7FF /V
DEVICEHIGH /L:2 =C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\display.sys con=(ega,,1)
DEVICEHIGH /L:2 =C:\PROGRAMF\CDPRO\vide-cdd.sys /D:MSCD000
DEVICEHIGH /L:2 =C:\WINDOWS\SETVER.EXE
DEVICEHIGH /L:1 =C:\WINDOWS\IFSHLP.SYS
SHELL=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM C:\WINDOWS\ /E:1024 /P
Autoexec.BAT...
From (old):
Code:
SET SOUND=C:\PROGRAMF\WBLAST
SET BLASTER=P330
SET MIDI=SYNTH:2 MAP:E
mode con codepage prepare=((852) C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\ega.cpi)
mode con codepage select=852
keyb yu,,C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\keybrd2.sys
LH C:\WINDOWS\AU30DOS.COM
SET BLASTER = A240 I5 D1 T4
To (new):
Code:
@ECHO OFF
LH /L:2 C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX /D:MSCD000 /M:15 /E /S /L:E /V
LH /L:0;2 /S C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV 2048 16 /V
mode con codepage prepare=((852) C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\ega.cpi)
mode con codepage select=852
keyb yu,,C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\keybrd2.sys
LH /L:2 C:\WINDOWS\AU30DOS.COM
LH /L:2 C:\PROGRAMF\MOUSE\MOUSE
SET TEMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP
SET TMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP
SET SOUND=C:\PROGRAMF\WBLAST
SET BLASTER = A240 I5 D1 T4
SET BLASTER=P330
SET MIDI=SYNTH:2 MAP:E
Edit3
OK, due to occasional system crashes and BSODs upon booting up Win98, I had to remove the SMARTDRV line...
Code:
LH /L:0;2 /S C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV 2048 16 /V
and if I'm having some issues on my system(s), it's muuuuuuuch easier to look for tips because almost always everything's is in English, and settings etc. in a Finnish localized OS are sometimes not-so-clear 
) and fire that 3DMark03 up 
They really do have a nice software collection! Come to think of it, I may have also downloaded a copy of Windows 95, before I got my own OEM CDs... ("B" edition)
Actually, joke aside... I've saved the entire webpage, downloaded it for future reference, even have it on my Driver CD database, kinda like "one size fit all" solution when it comes to booting up drivers & operating systems 
